A Line in the Sand (13 page)

fl

He heard the

n

soft groan of many voices before the crowd began to thin, and the

the

corpse was dragged away. Another man carried the head by the hair.

ld have had a confession and it would lie in a file; the

They wou

bastards would play their dignity and not share. Sawdust from a

bag was scattered.

plastic

ary-Ellen that she no longer needed to look at the telephone

He told M

office and instructed the driver to head on back to the embassy.

There was a message on his fax requesting his availability for a

secure

hook-up. He glanced at it, felt nothing. Littelbaum had only old to follow.

footprints

e the quiet.

She brok

She threw back her head, and the auburn of her

hair flashed. She threw a stone, savagely, ahead of her towards the 78

ne.

tide-li

?"

"Who are you

will be, Frank Perry.

"I am,

You never met Gavin Hughes. This time,

I

g."

am not runnin

did they say?"

"What

She stared in front of her. Her eyes were red-rimmed. She allowed him

and.

to take her limp h

"For what I did, the consequence of my actions, the Iranians would kill

Hughes.

Gavin

He disappeared, ceased to exist. A new name, a new

identity, a new home.

had

He would have been hunted, but the trails

dried out, were lost. I am not trusted enough to be told how the

found my new name. What I was told if the Iranians have

Iranians

the

then in probability they've the location where I live.

name

The men

who came yesterday wanted me to move out, offered me a removal van, ote the words "There is evidence of danger."

said I qu

But, I'm not

doing it again, not running. This is my home, where you are, and

our

friends. I don't have the strength for more lies. I am staying...

ike I've drawn a line in the sand."

It's l

y're experts. They're policemen or intelligence people.

"But the

Don't

w what's best?"

they kno

"What's convenient, that's what they know, what's cheapest and simplest

for them."

"And you're right, and all their experience is wrong, is that what you're saying?"

"All they've done is send me a book about being sensible. It's not that bad or they'd have done more. I know these people, you don't.

They look for an easy ride..."

"And me?"

79

't know what it means, saying that I will stay, for you or

"I don

know it's better than running. I've done that."

Stephen. I do

"It hurts that you kept the truth from me."

"For fear of losing you..."

The sea was grey dark in front of them. The gulls hovered over them, ming.

screa

Her grip on his hand tightened, and their fingers locked

together. and I told them what was owed me."

Once before, he had asked for what he said was owed him. Nine months y had cut him off, three months before he had met Meryl,

after the

exhausted by the loneliness of his life, he had taken the train from o central London, and walked along the river to the monolith

Croydon t

ched the gate, been

building at Vauxhall Bridge Cross. He had rea

opped at the glass window of the outer reception building, and he'd st

asked to see Ms Penny Flowers. Did he have an appointment? He did that it was not possible to come off the street

not. Did he know

and

officer? He did not. He'd been told there was no

ask to see an

procedure for such a visit. He'd said, "Do you want me to sit down ll you call Ms Flowers?

here ti

Do you want to call the police and

have

em cart me off, and me tell them what

th

I did and what I want?" The

call had been made from the reception desk, and inside ten minutes she'd been there.

She was slighter than he'd remembered her, and had seemed older than in

the heady days when she'd bought him drinks and meals and made him feel

that he mattered. She'd taken him to an interview room, and sat him down, and brought him a beaker of coffee, and looked at him with

distaste. What did he want? He wanted to belong. Did he want more money? He didn't want money, but to feel that he was a part of

something.

Did he want a job found for him? He didn't want to be found a job, but

'd done. She'd looked at him across

to feel some pride in what he

the

surface of the plastic-topped table and said, "You don't belong with us, Mr. Perry. You are not a part of us and never will be. On any given day there

,

are

on our books, fifty men like you, and when they've

outlived their usefulness, we forget them. You're past history, Mr.

80

Perry." She'd shown him the door and told him that she didn't expect to see him or hear of him again, and he'd walked out into the winter he better for the crisp six-minute exchange.

sunshine t

He'd shrugged his shoulders, straightened his back and strode away.

He

had broken the link and believed his dependence on them was cut. He'd taken the train back to Croydon and reached the library in time to s first trawl through the engineering magazines on the

start hi

shelves.

of advertisements, his mind had raced with

Turning the pages

opportunities and plans for a new life. For what he'd done, they

owed

him that new life, which her rejection had sparked.

Her eyes were closed. His fingers played with the ring he had given her. He did not know what more he could say, and he waited for her to

tell him whether she would go or whether she would stay.

Classification: SECRET Date: 31 March 1998 Subject: Gavin HUGHES (UK

assumed identity of Frank PERRY 2/94.

national)

of telephone conversation (secure) between GM, G Branch,

Transcript

and

Duane Littelbaum, FBI Riyadh.

GM: Hello, can I speak please to Mr. Duane Littelbaum?

DL: This is he.

GM: This is Geoffrey Markham, G Branch of the British Security

Service.

DL: Pleased to talk to you, Mr. Markham. How can I be of help? GM: You produced the name of Frank Perry I'm sure you're a busy man, I won't go off on sidetracks.

DL: Sometimes busy, sometimes not so busy, I've all the time you want.

Correct, I found the name of Frank Perry on a sheet of paper, burned..

. We had a raid down in the Empty Quarter. We got less than I'd hoped for. I sent the burned pieces of paper to our Quantico lab not that anyone's had the courtesy to come back to me in two months... Sorry, I'm griping, it's that sort of day. Is Frank Perry yours?

GM: When your people had drawn blank on the name it was sent to us.

81

We

have a Frank Perry.

DL: You have my attention, Mr. Markham.

GM: Frank Perry is an identity given a man after it was considered his

life was under threat from Iranian hit squads. Perry was formerly a

British engineering salesman, Gavin Hughes. What I need to know...

DL:

Come again, that name.

GM: Gavin Hughes.

DL: [Expletive] GM: What I was saying, we are into threat assessment.

I

need to know where the name was found, in whose possession.

DL: You got him secure of course you have.

GM: Actually, he's at home.

DL: What's his home? Is it Fort Knox? You got his home in a basement at the Tower of London?

GM: We offered to relocate him he refused.

DL: [Expletive] What did you tell him?

GM: He was told that they had his new name, that in probability they would have the location of his present home that they might come after him... DL: [Expletive] Might? [Expletive] GM: Please, explain.

DL: He's coming, he's on his [expletive] way God knows why it's taken him so long. He is a top man, alpha quality. You'd better believe it,

he's coming... What have you done for him, for Perry! Hughes? You got

a unit of Marines round him? GM: We sent him our Blue Book.

DL: Is that a Bible? Is that a joke?

GM: Not a joke, a sort of Bible. The Blue Book is a guide to personal GM: He should look

security, sensible precautions... DL: [Expletive]

under his car, vary his routes... The same as in any FBI manual.

82

top man there was once a code name for him I heard of in

DL: The

Dhahran, it was, literal translation, the Anvil. My dictionary,

that is (open quote) a heavy iron block on which metals are hammered during forging (end quote) it's the entry below Anus it's the same meaning in Saudi Arabic where I've heard it, and has the same meaning n Farsi.

in Persia

The people who go with him, what I've heard, they

regard him as indestructible. To me, he's a hard man. Before you ask,

Mr. Markham, I don't have his name and I don't have his face. What I

have is a pattern of digital calls that we have failed to break into, but from which we get, when the computer is allowed time to work on it,

locations. Before each hit he goes to Alamut. It's spiritual for him.

He was there just over two weeks ago. That's why I say he's coming.

GM: Sorry, what's Alamut?

DL: You know about Vetus de Montania, the Old Man of the Mountain?

GM: Afraid not.

DL: You know about the Fida'is?

GM: No, sorry.

DL: So, you don't know about Raymond the Second of Tripoli, not about Conrad of Montferrat. [Expletivel You don't know what was shown to King Henry of Champagne... It's about Alamut. If you don't know

about

Alamut, then, my friend, you're lexpletive] with your threat

assessment. [Pause] Where are you located, Mr. Markham?

GM: G Branch, Thames House, Millbank, London why? Shorthand is Box 500.

DL: Are you in charge of this guy's safety?

GM: I seem to be getting the donkey's load.

DL: Tell me, if the pressure grows on him, will Perry/ Hughes crumple?

of one syllable, if the crap comes thicker, will he accept

In words

the

relocation offer?

83

GM: I wouldn't have thought so. He talked about home and about

friends. He ran once, says he won't again. Why?

DL: How do I reach you?

[DL given my personal extension number, personal fax number.

GM]

DL: I'll come back to you. Oh, Mr. Markham... GM: Yes, Mr.

m.

Littelbau

DL: Forgive me, and it's not my style to patronize, but you sound

to me

e bottom of the heap. At the top of your heap are the

to be at th

guys

who know to what use was put the information supplied by Gavin Hughes on the project at Bandar Abbas. When you've been told that, I promise you'll be in a position to make a very fair guess at the threat

assessment, and get Alamut into your head. Can I offer advice? My advice, put some hardware adjacent to our friend.. . I'll come back to

you... Fenton read the transcript and his nails worried at his

moustache. His brow was furrowed as if a plough's blade had cut it.

Geoff Markham stood in Fenton's room and looked at the vinyl floor, then at the ceiling, where the cleaners had missed a spider's web, then

at the walls, which were bare except for the leave chart for the

then at the desk and the photograph of Fenton's family.

section,

He

thought the transcript made poor reading: when he had typed it up

from

the tape supplied him by the Grosvenor Square people, he had thought he

a kid in an adult world.

came across as an ill-informed pillock,

Fenton paced with the transcript.

Geoff Markham blurted, "Do you know about Alamut?"

Fenton nodded as if it was basic for anyone working the Islamic road to

know about Alamut.

"And do you know to what use was put the information supplied by Perry/

84

Hughes

n shook his head didn't know, and had no wish to.

Fento

hat do we do now?"

"W

ning the rape of his moustache, Fenton laid down the transcript

Abando

pages and picked up his telephone. He dialled his PA in the outer e, gave the name and extension number for the superintendent

offic

from

ecial Branch, held the telephone loosely against his ear and

Sp

waited.

Markham felt so tired. He wanted to be back in his own space and

clear

of Fenton's room where there was, he thought, all the fun of a mortuary

. He had known bad times in Ireland, when the weight of

chapel

d seemed to crush him, but hadn't known it before

responsibility ha

at

Thames House.

e of Frank Perry.

In his mind was the pichir

Defiant,

bloody-minded, awkward, obstinate, like a vixen with cubs deep in

the

darkness when the hounds and the terriers came to her earth. It would be different at the bank -pray to God that he pulled it off at the ew different and better.

intervi

When he'd stood by the door in that

ving room, looking out of the window towards the rooftops

gloomy li

and

the sea, he hadn't quite believed that the threat was real. He could t conjure the image of a man, of alpha quality, coming.