‘Including the Seals?’ asked Malik.
‘Maybe. I don’t know.’
‘You know the Yanks paid thirty million dollars to one informant who gave up Hussein’s kids,’ said Chaudhry. ‘Uday and Qusay. Remember? The Yanks went in and blew them away too. And like I said, they handed over thirty million dollars to one man.’
‘How do you know that?’ asked Shepherd.
‘Google,’ said Raj. ‘It ain’t rocket science.’
‘So do we get a piece of the reward, or not?’ asked Malik.
‘I’ll put out some feelers, Harvey.’
‘Yeah, well, make sure you do. I just worry that what me and Raj did is going to get lost in all that Yank back-slapping.’
‘What you did won’t be forgotten, you have my word.’
‘That and a quid’ll get me on a bus,’ said Malik, his voice loaded with sarcasm.
‘You’re not saying you’re doing it for the money, are you?’
‘Fuck you, John!’ spat Malik. ‘Fuck you and fuck MI5. We put our lives on the line, Raj and me. We spent three months in Pakistan and if we’d put a foot wrong they’d have killed us without blinking an eye. But we went into the lion’s den and we walked out and now it’s like we don’t fucking exist.’ He grunted and pounded his fists against the dashboard.
‘Bloody hell, Harvey. Steady, mate, or you’ll set off the airbag,’ said Shepherd.
Malik grunted again but then began to chuckle. He shook his head as he laughed.
‘You okay, brother?’ asked Chaudhry anxiously.
Malik nodded. ‘Aye, brother, I’m fine.’ He looked over his shoulder. ‘I’m fine. It’s been a bit stressful, you know?’
Shepherd patted him on the shoulder. ‘Mate, more than anyone I know what you guys went through and as far as I’m concerned the sun shines out of your arses.’
Chaudhry gestured at the service centre. ‘Can we go and get something to eat? I’m starving.’
‘Not with me,’ said Shepherd. ‘Can’t take the risk.’
‘No one knows us this far out of London,’ said Malik.
‘That’s why we’re here,’ said Shepherd. ‘We need to keep our heads down for the next few days. Everyone’s going to be ultra-sensitive so I don’t want anyone spotting us together in a coffee shop or on the Heath.’
‘So we have to drive out here whenever we want to meet?’ asked Malik.
‘Here or somewhere just as safe,’ said Shepherd. ‘Just for the next week or so until it dies down. Look, it’s Sod’s Law: the time you think you’re safest is the time when you bump into someone who recognises you. So we’ll stay right where we are and you can go and have a coffee when I’ve gone.’
‘Why don’t you get us a safe house?’ asked Malik. ‘You people always use safe houses, don’t you?’
‘Horses for courses,’ said Shepherd. ‘But if you were seen going into a strange address then you’d be screwed. This way is best. Not much can go wrong in a service station car park.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘Touch wood.’
‘You know what? I’d really like to see inside the MI5 building,’ said Chaudhry. ‘What’s it called again? The one by the Thames?’
‘That’s MI6’s HQ,’ said Shepherd. ‘Vauxhall Bridge. MI5 is at Thames House, in Millbank. It’s not as impressive. Why would you want to look round it?’
Chaudhry shrugged. ‘Dunno. Just be interested to see what the place is like, that’s all.’
‘It’s easily arranged,’ said Shepherd. ‘But best to wait until this is over.’
‘And what happens then?’ asked Malik. ‘When we’re done with this?’
‘What do you mean?’
Malik looked at Chaudhry, then back at Shepherd. ‘What happens to us? We get the reward, right? Do we get new identities? Witness protection?’
‘Have you two been discussing this?’ asked Shepherd.
‘We were wondering what you’d got planned,’ said Chaudhry.
‘What do you want to happen, Raj?’
‘Other than the reward, you mean?’ Chaudhry smiled. ‘I’m joking. I just want this to be over, John. I want be a doctor; I want to help people.’
‘You should think about joining MI5,’ said Shepherd. ‘Or the police. Once this is over you could write your own ticket.’
‘Be a professional liar? Because that’s what I’ve been doing for the last twelve months. I’m sick of it. Sick of the lies, sick of playing a part. I want my life back.’ He grinned. ‘And the reward, of course.’
‘You’ll get your life back, I can promise you that,’ said Shepherd. ‘But that’s why we have to keep you both deep undercover at the moment. Once the operation’s over we pull you out, you move on and do whatever you want to do. But no one must ever know.’
‘That’s for sure,’ said Malik. ‘If anyone at the mosque knew about us they’d hack off our heads with a blunt knife.’
‘That’s not going to happen, Harvey,’ said Shepherd. ‘And most of the guys at your mosque would be as appalled as anyone about what’s being planned.’
‘Yeah, but they’d see us as traitors for spying on our own.’
Shepherd didn’t like the way the conversation was going. It was vital that the two men concentrated on what they were doing and not on what the possible repercussions were. The more they considered the downside, the more likely it was that they would become nervous and make mistakes. ‘Guys, you’re doing a great job and we’re on the home stretch. What you’re doing is going to save a lot of people.’
‘But no one can ever know, right?’ said Malik.
‘The people who matter will know,’ said Shepherd. ‘And afterwards, doors are going to be opened for you. Like I said, you’ll be able to write your own ticket. If you want a job within the security services I doubt that’d be a problem. They’d bite your hand off.’
‘I don’t wanna be no spy,’ said Malik.
‘Brother, you’ve already crossed that bridge,’ said Chaudhry. He laughed and squeezed his shoulder. ‘That’s what we’ve been doing for the last year. But go on, tell John what it is you want out of life.’
Malik shook his hand away. ‘Stop taking the piss.’
‘Harvey wants his own restaurant.’
‘Seriously?’ said Shepherd.
Malik nodded enthusiastically. ‘Japanese. I love sushi, the whole raw-fish thing. I was telling Raj that if we get the reward for Bin Laden I’m going to open one up. Fly in the best chefs from Japan, really go upmarket. You like sushi, John?’
‘It’s okay. I prefer my food cooked, though. I like that thing the Japanese do, cooking the stuff in front of you with the flashing knives. Food and theatre combined.’
‘Teppanyaki,’ said Malik. ‘Yeah, I thought I’d do that too, concentrating on seafood. Lobster, prawns.’
‘You’ve given a lot of thought to it,’ said Shepherd.
‘My plan was to get my master’s then try to get a job with one of the big restaurant groups, but now I’m thinking about my own restaurant. That would be something, right?’
‘It’d be great,’ agreed Shepherd. A white Transit van pulled up close by and parked with its engine running. Shepherd sat back and looked over at the driver. He was shaven-headed with a mobile phone pressed to his ear and as Shepherd watched he pulled out a copy of the Sun and spread it across the steering wheel. Shepherd relaxed. ‘So what was the buzz after everyone heard what had happened in Pakistan?’ he asked.
‘In the mosque?’ said Chaudhry. ‘Mostly they thought it was a lie. They don’t believe anything the Americans say these days. I kept hearing that it was all bullshit and that Bin Laden’s been dead for years.’
‘What?’
‘I shit you not. The Americans have been caught out lying too many times. And, to be honest, until I met the man I thought he was a myth too. I figured that he’d died in the caves in Afghanistan years ago. But it’s not like I can tell the brothers in the mosque that, is it? So they reckon that the Americans had been using Bin Laden as an excuse to invade Muslim countries and now that they’re pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan they don’t need the myth any more. So they tell the world that he’s dead and that they buried the body at sea.’