Veil of Civility

Chapter Sixty-Five

"They're okay," Simard said, as he hung up the phone. His voice cracked as he spoke. "They never left London. My youngest boy had an asthma attack during ball practice. My wife's been at the doctor with him and they've been trying to reach me. But they're okay."

Declan, Allardyce, Gordon and Shane were now seated around the dining table and nodded their approval.

"I thought for sure those men had shown up at my house and that my family was dead," Simard said, as he took a seat at the table and handed Shane's phone back to him. "I don't ever want to feel like that again."

"The feeling like you'd do anything to have them back. To undo all the wrong you'd done in your life and suffer the worst fate imaginable just so they could go on living. I know all about it," Declan said.

Simard looked down and nodded, examining his hands which were now folded in front of him on the table. "I uhh… I don't know anything about what's happened to you. I'm sorry."

Declan nodded though the words were of little comfort.

"I don't wish the feelings I was having moments ago on anyone," Simard said, "but I don't understand. I was told that you were a terrorist and that you had set up the entire attack against Kafni using your influence as a member of his security detail. Now you all are telling me that all of it was a lie?"

Everyone at the table nodded. Allardyce was first to speak. "A damned lie, apparently, and I'm sorry for the role I played in allowing it to be perpetuated. Had Mr. McIver not had the courage to come to me and explain the situation, despite the intense danger he faced, I'm afraid he'd be dead by now and our American cousins would never know about the horror that was about to befall them."

"They still don't know," Declan said.

"That's true," Allardyce said, with a grimace.

Simard looked from person to person as if he was expecting someone to elaborate. When no one did, he said, "I'm sorry, but how do you all know any of this is true? I saw the files the Security Service has on this man. He has a list of terrorist offenses as long as my arm!"

"If you'd bothered to read that file," Shane charged, "then you'd know that Declan was never actually convicted or even arrested for anything! Was he involved with the Troubles? Aye, just as me and a significant part of the population in Northern Ireland were. Those were terrible times that you can't even begin to understand unless you lived through it."

"Shane, it's grand, it's grand," Declan said holding up his hands. "He's asking the same question that you or I would have if we'd just met me in this current situation."

Shane ceded the point with a wave of his hand, but finished with, "Declan's never turned his gun on anyone that wasn't a thieving, raping, murdering, madman!"

"And what of this Black Shuck thing?" Simard continued. "An attack on London designed to bring down the city's infrastructure, assassinate and kidnap its leaders and throw the entire British society into disaster?"

"Black Shuck," Shane said, "was a planned operation that never materialized, in large part because Declan McIver had a change of heart and helped to stop it before we all took a nose dive into a very dark abyss that would have plunged Northern Ireland into a cycle of violence that it never would have returned from!"

"Enough!" Allardyce said, pounding his fist on the table. "While Mr. McIver's past certainly holds things that we may all, understandably, take issue with, the point is that it was a very long time ago under extremely dubious circumstances. As part of the British government in Northern Ireland during those days I can honestly say that we weren't always the upstanding men we claimed to be either. Today, right now, is what we are concerned with. My country has been used to obtain information on this man under false pretenses so that this Senator Kemiss could vilify him in the media and frame him for murder. The very fact that Kemiss sent assassins to kill you, Mr. Simard, should be evidence enough for you that what Declan McIver is saying is true. He has been framed for crimes he didn't commit to cover up the real intentions of Kemiss and whoever is working with him. Am I correct?"

Simard nodded slowly.

"Good. Then let's dispense with this argument and get on with what we're going to do about this. Somehow the Americans have to be warned that Kemiss, for whatever reason, is using this Chechen, this Ruslan Baktayev, to accomplish a heinous terror attack that would make September 11th and July 7th look like a dress rehearsal."

"With all due respect, Lord Allardyce," Simard said, "David Kemiss is an experienced and calculating professional politician. I guarantee that he's covered his tracks extremely well. Even with the political clout you have as a member of the House of Lords, no one in the American government is going to believe the word of someone who has been tried and convicted as a terrorist, even if it's only in the court of public opinion, without a lengthy investigation. And from what you're all telling me, there isn't time for that."

"No, there's not," Declan said. "Baktayev could be unleashed at any moment. In fact I suspect the only reason he hasn't already been is because Kemiss has been trying to make sure he has all the loose ends tied up beforehand." He pointed his thumb at himself and then at Simard.

"Then we have to do this ourselves," Shane said, with a nod towards Declan. "Just like Vympel taught us all those years ago, find a weakness and apply pressure. Get him to confess what he's done. Get him to tout on everyone else involved and stop this thing before it happens."

"I don't want to be the naysayer here," Simard said, "but even if you can get to him and force him to confess, it still won't prevent the need for an investigation before anyone in the U.S. will act. A confession made under any kind of duress is not admissible in our courts and will not convince the government to act, especially when it's a seasoned member of their own exclusive club that they'd be acting against."

"Aye," Declan said, "but politicians fear scandal more than anything else."

"Exactly. We'll have to use the court of public opinion, the power of which you just pointed out, Mr. Simard," Allardyce said. "Tape the confession, release it to the media and anyone else that will air it, and hope that it rocks those involved back on their heels enough to cause them to call off the entire thing. If the very thing they are being accused of organizing comes to pass, then it will be all that much harder for them to defend themselves against it. There's no chance they'd go forward if such a confession came to light."

"That may not stop Baktayev," Declan said. "We're making the assumption that these people have him under lock and key, but I doubt that. He's an animal. I'm surprised they've been able to control him this long."

"It's the best we've got," Allardyce said. "And even if, God forbid, the attack does happen then at least those who are actually responsible will be identified, investigated and brought to justice instead of being allowed to accomplish whatever their goals are in committing the attack in the first place. I guarantee that an American senator isn't killing innocent people for the glory of Allah or the freedom of Chechnya."

Everyone around the table nodded their agreement.

"Good," Allardyce continued. "Now, what do we know about David Kemiss?"