Close Call

Chapter 35

At eight o’clock the following morning Liz Carlyle, Geoffrey Fane and Andy Bokus were sitting in the basement secure room in the Grosvenor Square Embassy. Each had in front of them a copy of the message that had come in overnight from Miles Brookhaven in Sana’a, describing his meeting with Baakrime in the car park.

‘Well,’ said Bokus, looking at his two British visitors, ‘I’ve been in touch with Langley overnight. We don’t want this Donation guy, so it’s up to you. Are you prepared to have him?’

‘Come now, Andy,’ said Fane in his most patronising tone. ‘I know it’s early in the morning and you may well have been up half the night, but let’s just talk about this for a minute. As I read what Baakrime said to Brookhaven, it’s the US he wants to go to. He made no mention of the UK.’

‘He wants to get out of there before someone tops him, and I don’t suppose for a minute he’s going to turn down a passage to London. It seems to me that it’s you who stand to benefit from whatever he has to say. He’s talking about British jihadis, not American, so it’s your side who should bear the cost. That’s what I’ve advised Langley and they agree.’

There was silence for a moment. Geoffrey Fane was leaning forward on the bench with his elbows on the table and his fingertips together. Liz Carlyle knew that any meeting between these two had to begin with some sort of ritual sparring match, and she was used to biding her time until the first bout was over. It looked as though it was, so she said, ‘I think you’ll agree, Andy, that it’s crucial that we find out what Donation knows about these British jihadis he’s talking about. It seems to me that Miles has asked him all the right questions. What we don’t yet know is whether he can answer them. It’s far too early to consider giving him asylum, let alone accepting him as a defector.’

‘It’s easy for you to say that, sitting here in London,’ replied Bokus testily. ‘The guy wants an answer and he’s expecting Miles to give him one. Can he get out of the country or not? That’s what he wants to know. Miles may not be able to get him to spill his guts if he can’t give him the assurance he wants.’

‘I hear what you say,’ said Fane, ‘but you and Langley seem to have made your mind up that the answer’s No. It’s just as much in your interests as ours to find out what these jihadis are planning to do. They may be British, but how do we know they’re not planning an attack on a US target? Maybe it’s the Embassy here. You won’t look so clever if your colleagues get blown up.’

‘Give it a break, Geoffrey. Our security is better than a bunch of home-grown jihadis can breach, and you know it.’

Round two over, thought Liz as Fane turned to her. And asked, ‘Is your Service prepared to sponsor this character at the Defector subcommittee?’

Liz knew that doing that would mean making a case that Donation was likely to have information, or had already given information so valuable to the UK that he should be accepted as a defector with all the expenditure of cash and resource that that implied.

‘Not as things stand now,’ she replied. ‘They’d never accept it. I’m afraid I think we will have to rely on Miles to extract whatever information Donation has, while making no promises about his future.’

‘He’s going to love that as a brief,’ grunted Bokus.

‘Have you any better idea?’ asked Fane.

‘I’m sure he’ll do it perfectly,’ said Liz with a charming smile. I hope so, she thought to herself. If not, all we’re left with is the Jackson end of this puzzle and whatever we can get out of Antoine Milraud.

‘OK,’ said Bokus with a shrug. ‘I’ll let Miles have the good news.’