Authors: Stephen Leather
‘Actual y, that’s not what I was going to suggest,’ said Button. ‘Your agent is in place and Dan here is on attachment to COG so if anything we’d be looking for the operation to be brought under the Met’s jurisdiction. But I don’t think that’s necessary either. Basical y we’d like you to continue running your undercover operation but to share any intel igence with us. I’d be happy to do that through Dan, but if you’d rather be the point of contact that would be perfectly acceptable.’
‘And would West Midlands Police be privy to the fact that we’re sharing their intel?’ asked Hargrove.
‘Best not,’ said Button. ‘And frankly whether or not they knew that MI5 had a watching brief is immaterial to the way that they would handle the case.’
Hargrove leaned forward. ‘That’s not strictly speaking true, though, is it? They’re treating it as if it were a straightforward criminal investigation but you believe there are terrorist implications.’
‘If West Midlands Police get a conviction for buying automatic weapons then Kettering, Thompson and the rest wil go down for ten years. I think we’d regard that as a successful outcome. We’l just be monitoring to check that the investigation proceeds smoothly.’
‘And if I’m asked directly whether or not I’m passing intel on to the Security Services? What do I say?’
‘I real y don’t see that happening,’ said Button. ‘But that would be one very good reason for using Dan as the conduit.’
‘Plausible deniability,’ said Hargrove.
‘Exactly.’
‘And I’m assuming Ray Fenby doesn’t get told?’
‘I don’t see any reason why he needs to know,’ said Button. ‘But there is one thing that perhaps we’d like to handle a little differently. West Midlands Police are treating this very much as a local crime issue. We would be very interested to see if there’s any overseas connection. In particular, anything connecting Kettering and Thompson and the other members of this Knights Templar group – the German, the Frenchman, the Dutchman and the rest. We’re running an investigation at this end fol owing phone and email traffic, but if we can get Kettering or Thompson to reveal anything, that would be a bonus.’
‘I’l talk to Ray,’ said Hargrove. ‘But that’s a tough one. Kettering and Thompson aren’t stupid so he won’t be able to push it.’
‘Understood,’ said Button. ‘But if you could perhaps ask him to keep his ears open for any Continental connection it’d be much appreciated.’
Hargrove nodded but he looked uncomfortable.
‘And again, it’s important that Fenby isn’t aware of our interest. I’d rather that stayed between the three of us.’
Shepherd looked over at Hargrove and saw from the look on his face that the same thought had occurred to the chief superintendent. ‘Does that include Inspector Sharpe?’ said Hargrove.
‘I think we have to keep our involvement on a need-to-know basis,’ said Button. ‘And the fewer people that know, the better. The last thing we need is canteen talk leading to a blown operation.’
Hargrove raised his eyebrows. ‘I can’t see him opening his heart to the Birmingham cops over a cup of coffee,’ he said.
Button put up her hands. ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘But I wouldn’t want the Birmingham police to get al territorial and move in precipitously. So I’d rather that Razor wasn’t aware of the new arrangement.’
‘Understood,’ said Hargrove, though Shepherd could tel that the chief superintendent wasn’t happy.
‘Now, regarding any European involvement, the fact that Spider’s going to be suggesting that the arms are being brought in from Serbia might help,’ said Button. ‘Once we’ve planted the idea of weapons from Europe, we could perhaps suggest a test firing over there. Then if they are in contact with other groups it’s not too much of a stretch for them to think of involving them.’
‘I worry that we might start overcomplicating matters,’ said Hargrove.
‘It would be something of a coup if we could nail terrorists across Europe, especial y if they have links with Breivik. Obviously Ray, Dan and Jimmy are the men on the ground and of course they have to play it by ear. It’s just something to think about.’ She closed the file and pushed back her chair. ‘Wel , thank you so much for coming in.’ She stood up. So did Hargrove and Shepherd.
Hargrove shook her hand. ‘Probably best if Dan is the conduit, as you suggest,’ he said.
Button nodded enthusiastical y. ‘I think that’l be best,’ she said. ‘Do you mind if he stays here for a while? I’ve some admin business that I need to run by him.’
‘Not a problem,’ said Hargrove. He picked up his briefcase.
‘I’l get someone to show you out,’ said Button. She took him to the door and handed the chief superintendent over to a young man in a blue blazer. As they headed for the lifts, Button went back into the meeting room and smiled apologetical y at Shepherd. ‘For an undercover agent you’re not very good at hiding your emotions,’ she said. ‘I can see from the look on your face that you’re not happy about what just happened.’
‘I can’t believe you did that,’ said Shepherd. ‘It made me look like I’d gone running to you, tel ing tales out of school.’
Button sat down, frowning. ‘What?’
‘Look at it from his point of view. He’s running an undercover operation for the Birmingham cops and I’m brought in to help. A few days later he gets cal ed into Thames House and told that Five is now pul ing the strings. He puts two and two together and thinks that I told you that he’s not up to it.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Button. ‘First of al , you and he have worked together and he knows you wouldn’t pul a trick like that. But, more importantly, we haven’t taken the operation from him.’
‘You just told him that al intel on the case now goes through me to you.’
‘With his ful knowledge. It’s not as if we’re doing it behind his back.’
‘It stil makes it a case of us and them. And tel ing him about the grenades.’ Shepherd gritted his teeth in frustration.
‘What?’
Shepherd sighed. ‘That could only have come from me,’ he said. ‘So in that case I definitely was going behind his back.’ He shrugged. ‘Anyway, what’s done is done. No use crying over spil ed milk.’
‘It had to be done, you know that. This is turning into too big a case.’
‘It sounds like it,’ agreed Shepherd.
‘How did the training go with Chaudhry and Malik? I gather you tied up half our watchers for a day.’
‘They needed bringing up to speed on the basics of counter-surveil ance,’ said Shepherd. ‘Plus, the watchers wanted to do some training themselves so we ended up kil ing two birds with the proverbial stone.’
‘And you think they’re capable of spotting a tail now?’
‘Put it this way, they’re a hel of a lot more prepared than they were. Any chatter on that front?’
‘Nothing significant,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘If there is you’l be the first to hear about it.’ She sat back in her chair and tapped the file on the table. ‘This Birmingham case has given me an idea,’ she said. ‘I know I mentioned it before but I’m even more convinced now that we should be a bit more proactive with Chaudhry and Malik.’
Shepherd frowned. ‘I said it wasn’t a good idea then and I stil think that.’
‘Hear me out,’ said Button. ‘You’re up and running as an arms dealer. Khalid and his people are planning a terrorist attack for which they’l need equipment. If there was any way that we could put you in the mix, it’d make for a much better case and give us the inside track from the get-go.’
‘But Raj and Harvey are students. What reason could they have for knowing me?’
Button wrinkled her nose. ‘That we’d have to work on, but I’m sure there’s a way. And if we have Khalid coming to you for weapons then we can wrap this up with no risk to the public.’
‘But one hel of a risk for Raj and Harvey,’ said Shepherd. ‘This is Khalid’s show. He gives the orders and they do as they’re told. Alarm bel s are going to start ringing if they go from being foot soldiers to players.’
‘I’m not saying it’l be easy, the circumstances would have to be right and it’l take a lot of planning, but in a perfect world it’d make everything a lot easier.’
‘Yeah, wel , the world’s not perfect, not by a long chalk. And I don’t want to put them in harm’s way any more than we have to.’ He folded his arms.
‘These guys are just amateurs. It has to be kid gloves.’
‘Absolutely,’ said Button. ‘I’m not suggesting we do anything to put them at risk.’
‘With the greatest of respect, any form of proactive behaviour is going to do just that. These guys have already done far more than any member of the public can be expected to do. They gave us a top al-Qaeda team, the location of a training camp in Pakistan and they found Bin Laden. And they’ve risked their lives to do it. The least we can do is to watch their backs.’
‘Exactly,’ said Button. ‘It’s precisely because they have taken risks that they’ve achieved so much. They could have just informed us about Khalid and his people and left it at that, but they were prepared to go to Pakistan and undergo al-Qaeda training, and that led directly to MI5’s best-ever intel igence coup. Do you think we would have found Bin Laden if they hadn’t taken risks? Al I’m saying is that we need to keep this investigation moving forward and one way of doing that is to put you in play.’
Shepherd could see that there was no point in arguing with her so he shrugged and said nothing.
‘Look, Spider, no one is saying that we’re going to rush into anything. Just give it some thought.’
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘But can we look at a way of getting me into the mix without involving Raj and Harvey? Five must have other al-Qaeda assets we can use as a pipeline.’
Button nodded. ‘I’l ask around, see what’s available.’ She stood up, bringing the meeting to an end. As he left the building Shepherd couldn’t shake off the feeling that she’d lied to him.
He waited until he was outside Thames House before cal ing Hargrove on his mobile. ‘I just wanted to say that I had no idea that was going to happen,’ said Shepherd.
‘Not a problem,’ said Hargrove. ‘Though I do feel as I’ve just been mugged at knifepoint.’
‘If I’d known I would have at least warned you.’
‘Spider, you work for MI5 now and Charlie’s your boss. And I’m a big boy. I know the way things work.’
‘She’s put us in a bastard position, though. If Superintendent Warner up in Birmingham finds out that we’re going behind his back he’s going to hit the roof.’
‘Hopeful y that won’t happen,’ said Hargrove. ‘And frankly she does have a point. If Kettering is planning a terrorist incident then with the best wil in the world the West Midlands cops aren’t geared up for dealing with it. If it was the Met then it would be a different story, but the chances are that if Warner does realise that Kettering is a terrorist rather than a vanil a criminal he’s going to be picking up the phone to Five anyway. This way Charlie can hit the ground running if the cal comes.’
‘Thanks,’ said Shepherd. ‘I was worried you might be annoyed.’
‘I’m not happy, but I’l get over it,’ said Hargrove. ‘My main worry is that Five wil take al the credit for our hard work, but that wouldn’t be the first time.’
Hargrove ended the cal and Shepherd rang Jimmy Sharpe. ‘Can you talk?’ he asked.
‘Til the cows come home,’ said Sharpe.
‘Why can’t anybody just answer that question with a straight yes or no?’ said Shepherd. ‘Fancy a drink?’
‘You read my mind,’ said Sharpe. ‘When and where?’
‘I’l come to you,’ said Shepherd. ‘Just name a pub.’
Chaudhry’s mobile rang. He didn’t recognise the number but he took the cal . It was Khalid. Khalid routinely changed SIM cards and once a month he replaced his phone. The intel igence services now had the capability to track a phone and monitor its cal s no matter what SIM card was being used and wherever possible Khalid would use a public phone instead.
‘Have you been to evening prayers, brother?’ asked Khalid.
‘I have, brother,’ said Chaudhry. He and Malik had gone to the Dynevor Road mosque for the Maghrib prayers, which had to be performed just after sunset. It tended to be the busiest of the prayer sessions as those Muslims that had day jobs could conveniently drop by on their way home.
The fourth of the five daily prayer sessions consisted of two rak’at prayed aloud, and the third in silence.
A teenager who had been praying in front of Chaudhry had neglected to turn off his mobile phone and during Chaudhry’s silent rak’at the boy had received a text message. He had then taken out his phone and begun texting, much to Chaudhry’s consternation. Chaudhry had been just about to say something when the imam had clipped the teenager’s ear and told him to be more respectful. Chaudhry was becoming increasingly frustrated at the mosque; many of the men going there to pray seemed only to be going through the motions and he had smel ed alcohol on the breath of several of the worshippers.
‘Permit me to buy you and Harveer dinner,’ said Khalid. He never referred to Malik by his westernised name. Equal y Raj was always addressed as brother or as Manraj. ‘There are two brothers who I would like you to meet.’
‘Of course,’ said Chaudhry.
‘Half an hour from now, then, brother. At the Aziziye Halal. You know it?’
‘Of course, brother.’
The Aziziye Halal was a traditional Turkish restaurant on the ground floor of the Aziziye Mosque on Stoke Newington Road, next to a halal butcher where Chaudhry bought most of his meat. The mosque had started life as the Apol o Picture House in 1913 and had shown soft-core sex films during the seventies before being converted into a mosque in 1983. It was much larger than the Dynevor Road mosque, with room for two thousand worshippers, and it was far more salubrious, if for no other reason than the Dynevor Road mosque was underground and the Aziziye was on the upper floor with large windows. It was the Turkish community who had pressed for the cinema to be converted into a mosque, and general y it was only Turks who worshipped there. The Turks were as protective about their mosque as they were about the business they control ed in the area.
Malik was lying on the sofa reading a book on Japanese cooking.