Red Notice

72

Sarah Garvey still hadn’t returned from the toilet. She was probably fielding ‘advice’ from No. 10 in the wake of Brookdale’s update.

Clements’s mobile began to vibrate. He picked it up, checked the caller ID, then frowned and moved hurriedly away from the table and out of the briefing room. He shot a glance at the gathering of Amandas and Gileses, the advisers and junior officials who used politicians as manure. They mushroomed in number year after year, and all seemed to have a godparent at Central Office. Now they congregated in the anteroom like petitioners at a royal court.

He turned his back on them as he took the call.

‘We have a serious problem…’

Clements paused before replying. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I don’t know who this is. You have the wrong number.’

‘You know exactly who it is. You also understand the nature of the problem, and why you have to solve it quickly.’

Clements’s mind was racing. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but I really don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Then let me spell it out a little more clearly for you — and anyone else who might be listening. I’m talking about Laszlo. Why haven’t you persuaded COBRA to attack? Fuck knows what he has going on in that tunnel. We now have a report of medium machine-gun fire down there. This is not a fucked-up escape.’

Clements took a deep breath. He wouldn’t be talking like this unless his line was secure.

‘If Antonov is killed, all our problems go away. But if he survives…?’

Clements kept his voice low and slow. ‘A very good reason to make sure that he doesn’t.’

‘Correct.’ The caller matched the seriousness of his tone. ‘It’s in your interest to pull COBRA’s finger out of its collective arse and shut Laszlo up for ever. Because if I go down, I’ll make very sure I take you with me. So you’d better crack on.’

The line went dead.

Clements stared at the Sky News screen but his eyes were suddenly glazed. So he didn’t see the presenter walking and talking along a line of parked HGVs as Operation Stack took shape.