A Line in the Sand (30 page)

if

s irritation there. She had snapped her fingers together

there wa

in

impatience. All the time he had watched her. He had no trust in

her

and yet he was yoked to her.

n."

"Think, pla

"Think about what? Plan what?"

d plan."

"Think an

trust me?"

"Don't you

194

"I have faith only in myself."

Her face was against the white skin of her legs and her hair cascaded over her knees. He thought that she might be crying.

"I'll do whatever you want."

"You cannot think for me and you cannot plan for me."

"Is that because I'm a woman?"

"Because..."

"What is your name?"

"You have no need to know my name. You have no need to know anything of me."

She gazed into his face and the half-light made shadows at her mouth and her eyes, but the eyes held the brightness of anger.

"Then I'll tell you my name and everything about myself, because that shows you my trust. I take the chance, the trust, that you'll not talk."

"You believe that? You believe I would-' She mimicked, ""All men say

they would never talk, and believe it"."

His hand went instinctively to her shoulder, caught it, gripped it to

the bone.

"You play a trick with me, a trick of words." I too had felt her body,

gazed into her uncovered face. He snatched away his hand and looked at

the ground between his damp, muddy boots. He had been wrong: there tears in her eyes.

were no

"I trust you," she said.

I converted, I was Gladys Eva Jones.

"Before

I come from a town in

the

middle of England, not much of a place. My father drives a train.

He's

195

fat, he's ugly, he likes newspapers with pictures of girls without oy. My mother's

swimsuit tops, he dislikes me because I'm not a b

empty, stupid, and she dislikes me because I'm not married and

breeding

the married bit might not even matter to her, it's not

actually,

having

kids to push round in a pram that upsets her. They both, equally, dislike me because I was clever enough to go to university. It was the

most miserable time of my life, and I'd had some. I was nothing on

, no friends, lonely as sin. I met Yusuf and through him I

campus

went

to the mosque of Sheik Amir Muhammad, and I was taken into the true Faith, and became Farida Yasmin and happier than I'd been in my life.

I'd found respect.. . I was asked to drop my Faith, to hide it, to go

to the hairdresser and beautify myself. I was told that was the way I

could best serve the memory of the Imam. I was trusted. I was sent uf to identify this man, Perry, at a hospital in the north

with Yus

of

England when he was visiting. His father was ill and the doctors

thought he might die. His parents didn't know how to call for him because he'd cut all the family links when he changed his name. There was an appeal on the radio for him, using the old name, and it was d

heard by Perry and by the people at the Iranian embassy, and it sai ere the hospital was. We went there, Yusuf and I, but it was I

wh

who

ent into the ward and asked the nurse which patient was

actually w

his

ther.

fa

I saw him by the bed. We waited outside and noted the car

he

g, and it was I who walked past it and took down the name

was drivin

of

e garage that had sold it. We went to the garage and I chatted

th

up

the salespeople, gave them a story I flirted, I did what was

disgusting

for my Faith and I was given the address of the man who'd bought it.

I

of that because I was trusted. Then I was trusted enough

did all

to

here, to Perry's home, to photograph him and his house.

come down

And

I was trusted, when Yusuf crashed, to drive south, collect you and bring you here. How much trust do you need?"

196

zed at his boots, at the crossed laces and the mud.

He ga

e bored on.

Sh

difficult for you now?"

"Is it too

t?"

"Wha

protected, is it too difficult?"

"Because he is

eve..

"You beli

." He had never before been interrogated by a woman

then lectured, not even as a child by his mother.

"Are you giving up, going home?"

"No .. . no .. . no ..

red him.

She had ange

She smiled as if his anger pleased her, as if

e

sh

had finally reached him.

do?"

"What are you going to

"Think and plan."

"It's possible?"

"In God's hands, everything is possible."

"How can I help?"

He said, "I need bread and cheese and bottled water, and I need raw t. Please, bring them for me tomorrow."

minced mea

e tomorrow bread, cheese, water, minced meat yes." He

"Same tim

pushed

mself up.

hi

The damp of the ground had seeped through the material

of

his camouflage trousers, stiffened his hips. He stretched. She

ed up with her hand. He hesitated. She challenged him. He

reach

took

and and she used the strength of his grip to pull herself to

her h

her

feet. The blood flushed in his cheeks. She rubbed the skin at the back of her legs as if to give them warmth. He looked away from her 197

and began to brush the ground on which they had sat with sticks to lift

the flattened grass.

"I don't know your name and you don't trust me," she said softly.

"But you can't do without me, can you?"

Chapter Nine.

~We're stuck with him."

"Don't know how we can shift him."

"Whichever budget it's coming out of will be facing a black hole."

It

was where they found comfort at Thames House: a meeting around a

table,

an agenda, and a stenographer parked in a corner to record

conclusions.

Barnaby Cox, once, had gestured discreetly to the stenographer with the

palm of his hand, an indication to her that a particular area of

discussion was not to be recorded for posterity; no hack trawling

in

future years through the archives in library would learn how

information was extracted from a hospitalized patient.

Fenton was beside him. Next to him was the senior warhorse from B

Branch, former Army with a history going back to Cyprus and Aden.

Beyond him, was Littelbaum, in his crumpled tweed suit and creased shirt, then the red-haired woman. Opposite Cox was the Branch

superintendent with the maps on which were drawn the lines covered by

the sensor wires and the arcs watched by the cameras and the fields of

defensive fire .. . and Geoff Markham was isolated at the end of the table and watched and said nothing.

The agenda had covered the threat; the guarded prisoner; the evidence of the presence in the United Kingdom of a killer with the coded name of Anvil good laughter at the top end of the table at that; the

ies of putting a name to Anvil; the missing associate

possibilit

thrown

up by Rainbow Gold no laughter there because Rainbow Gold was a sacred 198

Grail, cost an annual

ne

fortu

and was beyond criticism; and the mobile

rveillance and taps on the movements and communications of the lOs su

at

e Iranian embassy.

th

The agenda had reached the transcript provided

by

Markham.

Geoff

call, Geoff's call, wasn't authorized..." Cox fretted.

"The

ff's done, not that we needed it, is provide further

"All Geo

Fenton said

confirmation that Perry's a stubborn fool,"

assuringly.

re

hould have cleared it first," Cox complained.

"He s

bloody trouble is, and Perry knows it, we cannot abandon him.

"The

If

ians drop him in the gutter, with half his head missing,

the Iran

they've won, and that is unacceptable." The Branch man gazed at the table.

d, "Sounds as if he's deranged, all this rubbish about home

Cox huffe

and friends."

Fenton said, "I think we should call him up to London, with his wife, him lunch and the treatment. Plant the doubts in him, scare

give

the

ghts out of her. Soften him up."

dayli

e Branch man relaxed and grinned.

Th

ut in words of one syllable that even an engineer can

"Spell it o

understand."

"A good lunch, a good wine and a good dose of fear should crack him,"

on pressed on.

Fent

st of protection, with no end date, is simply unacceptable."

"The co

Cox

pummelled his hands together.

e what I'm hearing now."

"But I lik

cked back in his chair, smiled broadly.

Fenton ro

"Get some photographs from the Germans, the French, a few of their 199

corpses courtesy of the Iranians for her to look at while she's

eating.

Always best to go through the little woman works every time."

"Right, agreed." Cox rapped his pencil on the table.

"We're not criticizing Geoff for his initiative, he was following the

agreed line. It's just that he didn't have sufficient weight in his andle it, will you, Harry?"

punch. H

tenographer scribbled briskly. At the far end of the table,

The s

rkham felt like a child brought in to the adults' dinner, not

Ma

washed, neat and silent. The

expected to contribute but to be

d-haired woman yawned.

re

The American, who hadn't spoken since his

precis of the hospital-bed interview, coughed.

od, content.

Cox gathered up his papers and sto

get him out.

"Thank you all for your time the main priority,

A good

lunch and lashings of gore to help it down Harry to make the

a more

arrange~nents. Thank you.~ The American coughed again, in

stagy

fashion.

"Sorry, Mr. Littelbaum, have we ignored you?" Cox grimaced.

d still

While they were on the move around him, Littelbaum remaine

and

sitting.

"Just something I'd like to say."

Cox glanced at his watch, then said patronizingly, "Any further contribution you wish to make will be, of course, greatly valued."

lbaum smoothed, unsuccessfully, the tangle of his hair.

Litte

Markham

is hesitation was a good act.

reckoned h

He thought the American was

as

granite.

hard as

racious, much appreciated. It follows on from Mr.

"That's g

Markham's

cript.

trans

Quote, "You think I'll run away because of the say-so

200

of

ose [expletive] bastards?

th

Think again. Get it into your head I

make

own decisions.

my

I am not running away", end quote. That's good,

excellent, that should be encouraged. The best place for him is at home.

at I would urge on you, don't give him lunch and wine and

Wh

show

him photographs, keep him where he is, at home. There are rare

r my liking, when we have the chance to win.

occasions, too few fo

This

is such an occasion.."

ty

and I think you should take the opportuni

as

it presents itself."

Cox was back in his chair. The rest of them listened in silence.

"If you like, I am a surrogate child of Iran. Iran, my parent, feeds me, clothes me, provides my reason for living. Without that

parentage

I have no life. A child watches every move of its parents. So, I watch Iran.. . Iran is at war with the United States, with my

government, and, if you'd care to recognize it, at war with you too.

s they have are stealth, deceit, the probing for weakness.

The weapon

My

, and I believe rightly, calls it state-sponsored

government

terrorism,

and every year puts Iran top of the world list. The war, most

is being fought on Saudi Arabia's territory.

currently,

Iran's war

aim

a destabilization, to bring down the government of the kingdom

is, vi

and replace the administration of an ally that irritates us with that vely hostile to us.

of an enemy acti

The road to destabilization is

astructure

through the bombing of the United States' military infr

now

settled in Saudi Arabia. They are trying to force us out, and if

we go

u the statistics of

the kingdom falls.. . I don't have to give yo

oil

Arabia. That country is a vile place, a police

reserves in Saudi

state, characterized by medieval cruelty, but it is important to us hear me, important. And it is a most challenging environment for

an

enemy to

erate

op

in. To survive there, to continue to kill, the enemy

e.

must be of the highest calibr

Our man rates up there. Each time

he