The Rybinsk Deception (7 page)

Winded and disoriented he fought to regain the surface, using all his strength to kick his way upwards until he was able to take in his first desperate breath.

To his right, the freighter was once again being bathed in light from the launches in a frantic and futile attempt to blind the gunmen on the
Pishan
who were redirecting their fire to finish what they’d started.

Coburn didn’t hesitate. With bullets smacking into the water all around him he gulped in another lungful of air then, keeping as close to the freighter’s hull as he could, headed straight back down.

The bullets followed him. He could hear them and see the trails they left behind – lethal spears of light-filled bubbles that with each burst from the halogens were moving ever closer.

But he neither heard nor saw the hand grenades.

Accompanied by a searing pain in his side, the blast from the first one was bad enough.

The shockwave from the second was much worse, slamming his head against the hull so hard that he was glad when the blackness took away the pain and he found he no longer had the need to breathe.

N
OW HEATHER HAD
pulled back the other curtain to let more light into the hut, every time she leaned over him she had the afternoon sunshine in her hair, a distraction that, for the moment, Coburn could have done without.

‘Your Mr Armstrong isn’t going to be very pleased with you,’ she said.

‘Because he won’t know whether the
Pishan
is carrying nuclear stuff, or not?’

‘No.’ She showed him a piece of twisted aluminium that she’d just extracted from his armpit. ‘Because these bits are all that’s left of his nice radiation detector. When are you going to tell the IMB they won’t be getting it back?’

‘It didn’t belong to them. The CIA got it from O’Halloran’s outfit, and they won’t care. No one’s going to care.’

‘You ought to. If you hadn’t been wearing it, you’d be dead.’ She used her tweezers again. ‘I know this hurts, but I’ve nearly finished. You don’t realize how lucky you were.’

He didn’t need reminding. Of the men who had been rescued by the launches, three members of the boarding party were suffering from gunshot wounds, and two of the
Pishan
’s crew were dead, killed in the water after they’d abandoned their ship in a vain attempt to avoid the crossfire on the deck.

That the raid had been a disaster was not in doubt. The reason for the disaster was something Coburn had been struggling to figure out ever since he’d regained consciousness in the bottom of one of the launches.

Because Heather had so far made no mention of the
Selina
, he asked her if it had returned to the village yet.

‘It came in about an hour ago. That’s where I’ve been – patching up the men who got hurt. Why?’

‘Did Hari say when he’d be coming to see me?’

‘When he’s finished talking to their families. He’s impressed with you. He said if you hadn’t realized it was a trap you’d probably all be dead.’

‘And he wants to know how I guessed.’

‘Mm.’ She looked at him. ‘So do I.’

Unlike Hari who, after transferring his injured men to the
Selina
, had chosen to accompany them on a gentler but slower return trip, Coburn had elected to remain on the launch that had picked him up, hoping to arrive back early so he could assemble his thoughts before he was presented with questions for which he had no good answers.

Even now, the few answers he did have made little sense and he was far from being ready to offer anything in the way of an explanation.

Heather had stopped probing his armpit for more fragments of aluminium. ‘Aren’t you going to tell me?’ she said.

‘It wasn’t a trap for Hari: It was a trap for me. The guy who was driving that truck at the beach was on board the
Pishan
. He was standing right in front of me. Whatever the connection is between what happened last night and what happened at Fauzdarhat, it isn’t Hari.’

‘So you’ve decided you’re the connection?’ She looked doubtful.

‘Or you,’ Coburn said. ‘The only three people who have anything in common with last night and a ship-breaking yard thousands of miles away are you, me and that driver.’

‘It doesn’t mean he was on board the
Pishan
to kill you.’

‘It does if that’s the new job he’s been given. Whoever it is who wants me out of the way must have known the
Pishan
was going to be raided and somehow or other they knew I’d be part of the boarding party.’

‘How could they?’ Her cheeks started to go red. ‘You don’t think it was me, do you?’ she said. ‘I didn’t tell anyone.’

‘If it wasn’t you or me, and if it wasn’t Hari, that only leaves two other people.’

‘You mean O’Halloran – or Armstrong at the IMB?’

‘Or both of them,’ Coburn said. ‘Which it can’t be – not when it was the IMB that sent me to find you in Bangladesh, and not when it was the CIA and O’Halloran’s Counter-Proliferation Centre who wanted me to check out the
Pishan
on their behalf. Have you got any more bright ideas like that one?’

‘No. I don’t really trust the Americans though.’

Coburn grinned at her. ‘Because you think they’re paranoid about North Korea?’

‘They are.’ She made him wince by swabbing hydrogen peroxide over his cuts. ‘After you’d left last night a girl called Indiri came to see me. She’s the wife of one of the men who got hurt. I think Hari had asked her to make sure I was all right while you were away. She said that whenever her husband’s out on a raid she stops herself from worrying about him by watching satellite television all night. So I went with her.’

‘And?’ Coburn put his shirt back on.

‘If you’d spent hours watching TV broadcasts instead of getting yourself knocked out in the middle of the Strait, you’d know exactly how paranoid the Americans are. CNN were running a story about Israel intercepting a huge shipment of guns that North Korea had sold to the Palestinians, and FOX TV was going on about how US soldiers had discovered a whole lot of short-range Korean missiles that were being smuggled into Iraq.’

‘I’ve told you.’ Coburn said. ‘That’s how the Americans are since 9/11.’

‘I know. But the media are making things worse. That dreadful Brigadier Shriver from the Free America League was on the news again. It’s crazy putting people like him on TV. All it’s doing is frightening half of America into believing North Korea’s going to launch nuclear missiles at Hawaii or Los Angeles or somewhere.’

‘Plenty of blowhards like Shriver around. Never mind him. How’s Indiri’s husband?’

‘As long as there’s no infection and I keep changing his dressing, he’ll be fine.’ She smiled. ‘And so will you – or you will be when your headache goes.’

‘It’s pretty much gone already.’ It was a lie, but the longer she kept fussing the less time he’d have to figure out what he was going to say to Hari, and the less time he’d have to decide whether, as a consequence of last night, she might be in danger too.

‘I don’t think this is the best place for us to be right now,’ he said. ‘You’ll be safer back in Singapore. I’ll organize a boat for tomorrow.’

‘Not for me you won’t.’ She compressed her lips and put a hand on her hip. ‘You can’t tell me what to do or where to go. I’m not leaving while I’ve got patients here.’

In no mood for an argument he changed the subject, asking if O’Halloran had said anything to her at the beach that hadn’t sounded right.

She shook her head. ‘Not that I can remember. Why?’

‘Armstrong will be expecting to hear from me, but before I call him it’d be handy to know whether he’s involved, or if it’s O’Halloran who’s the problem.’

‘You said you didn’t think either of them were. Anyway, it won’t be Armstrong, will it – not when you’ve known him for so long? Wasn’t it him who got you the job at IMB to start with?’

By a slip of the tongue she’d given herself away. But before Coburn could find out how she’d uncovered the information, Hari appeared in the doorway.

‘Ah. I see you are receiving special attention.’ The Frenchman came into the room. ‘You are feeling better?’

‘Getting there. How about you?’

‘I am more fortunate. On the port side from which I jump only one grenade is dropped into the water. You and I are both lucky, I think.’

‘Luckier than those other three guys of yours,’ Coburn said. ‘Look, I’m really sorry. The whole bloody thing was my fault.’

‘No, no. Your warning saves many lives. You must not blame yourself for what has happened.’

Coburn wasn’t certain whether he was blaming himself or not. Two weeks ago, after he’d returned from Bangladesh, he’d provided Hari with an edited account of what he’d found on board the
Rybinsk
, but had avoided mentioning his new assignment and, at the time, had glossed over the incident of the truck driver and the children, not
believing it to have any relevance. But it sure as hell did now, he thought, although whether that was going to help solve the puzzle of which he seemed to have become a part was a lot more doubtful.

‘So.’ Hari found a chair to sit on and lit up a cigarette. ‘On the
Pishan
before we are fired upon you promise me an explanation,’ he said. ‘I am looking forward to hearing it.’

‘It’s not much of one.’ On this occasion, with Heather’s help, Coburn didn’t leave out anything, starting with his first encounter with the truck on the road to Fauzdarhat before he went on to describe how the IMB had coerced him in to acting as an agent for the US Counter-Proliferation Centre. When he’d finished he let Heather fill in the gaps and summarize his suspicions about Armstrong and O’Halloran, interrupting her only at the end to point out that his distrust was based on nothing more than guesswork.

‘I see.’ Hari had been listening carefully, drawing on his cigarette from time to time, but seemingly more interested than he was disturbed by what he’d heard. ‘Why had you not informed me of this before?’ he said.

‘Because until last night it was none of your business.’ Coburn was careful not to sound too conciliatory. ‘Why would I want to tell you about it? I don’t ask you who your buyers are, or how much money you make from a raid. I get paid to do a job, and you get paid if you do yours.’

‘And, of course, Miss Cameron is paid to do hers.’ Hari turned to smile at her. ‘Although I am sure not as much as she deserves. My men are grateful for what you do for them. It is good you are here.’

‘I’ve treated gunshot wounds before,’ she said. ‘The ones your men have aren’t life threatening or anything.’

‘For which we have Mr Coburn to thank. Had we been successful, such injuries would have been a small price to pay for two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of zinc ingots, but since we have nothing to show for our trouble it is a pity to have returned with casualties of this kind. I shall see what can be done to rectify the matter.’

‘Cut your losses,’ Coburn said. ‘Leave it alone. It’s not your problem: it’s mine.’

Hari clearly didn’t think it was. ‘For a man who has become a target
and who no longer knows who he may trust, you are either brave or very foolish,’ he said. ‘Will you seek help from the IMB perhaps? Or do you prefer to put your faith in this man O’Halloran whom you have met only once at a hospital in Bangladesh?’

‘Look,’ Coburn said, ‘get yourself more mixed up in this than you already are, and it’s not going to do your local reputation any good, is it?’

‘While you are a guest at my village it is not your place to say what is good or what is bad for my reputation. I will decide. But first, provided the
Pishan
has not yet berthed in Singapore, I shall learn more about this man who sets his trap for you.’

‘He didn’t set it by himself,’ Coburn said. ‘He was only on board to identify me and show those guys in the lighter who they were supposed to be shooting at.’

‘His men are of no consequence. Like those he employs to help him in Bangladesh, they will have been no more than hired guns. From your own experience in Iraq, you know that wherever in the world you go today such people are easy to find. You have only to look around this village to see how easy.’ Hari stubbed out his cigarette and got to his feet. ‘Please to leave everything in my hands. In the meantime you and Miss Cameron must excuse me. I have much to do. There are bullet holes in the launches to repair, and since we use a lot of fuel last night our supplies run low so I must send for more.’ He smiled again at Heather before he went to the door. ‘Life is full of interesting surprises, is it not?’

For Coburn the biggest surprise was the Frenchman’s calm acceptance of the situation. He’d asked few questions and hadn’t even bothered to find out the true reason for Heather being here.

When he’d gone she asked why it was Hari wouldn’t call her by her first name.

‘Hari fancies himself as a gentleman pirate. It’s part of his act.’

‘It’s a better one than yours. I don’t think he’s ever believed I’m your girlfriend. Why would he when you’re always more interested in discussing things with him than you are with me?’ She snapped down the lid of her medical kit. ‘I didn’t know you’d been in Iraq. How long were you there?’

‘Nine months,’ Coburn said. ‘It was a long time ago.’

‘You’re doing it again. If you don’t want to talk to me about it, I’ll go and see to my other patients. If your bruise hurts take some Panadol. I’ll leave a box in the bathroom for you.’

In an attempt to get rid of the cotton wool in his head, as soon as she’d gone he swallowed four of the tablets, hoping they’d help to clear his mind, but over the course of the afternoon discovered that the best remedy was to go and sit out on the jetty where, if he closed his eyes and dangled his feet in the water, he was almost able to forget Iraq and even stop himself from thinking about last night.

By evening he was feeling a good deal better and was pleased when Heather returned to the hut from wherever she’d been or from whatever she’d been doing.

She seemed preoccupied with something, inspecting his bruise before she asked if he’d eaten anything yet.

‘I’m OK,’ Coburn said. ‘I’m not hungry.’

‘I’m not either. Indiri made me dinner. I think it was to thank me for fixing up her husband.’

‘How’s her English?’

‘About the same as the shipyard workers.’ She went to fetch herself a glass of water before coming to sit down facing him across the table. ‘I wasn’t telling the truth,’ she said. ‘I already knew you’d been in Iraq.’

‘Who told you?’

She smiled. ‘I’m a nice girl. I don’t go out with men I don’t know – especially someone who has a job like yours. You don’t really think I’d have got on that plane in Chittagong with you without doing some checking, do you?’

‘Answer the question. How did you find out?’

‘The same way I found out you were nearly court-martialled by the British Army for something you did there.’

It wasn’t hard for him to guess how she’d got hold of the information. With a fairy godfather like hers, obtaining a copy of his IMB file would have been as easy as making another of her phone calls, he thought. One call and she could have had what she wanted by the next day.

‘I wasn’t trying to pry,’ she said, ‘not in the way you think.’

‘You don’t know what I think.’ He tried to make up his mind. ‘You really want to know about Iraq, do you?’