‘Beaten up you mean? You guys do that?’
‘Nah, mate. Sri – the big one with the white shirt – he reckons it’s scopolamine. Something like that.’
‘That’s what they did to Judith Hannah,’ said Mac.
Paul poured the tea. ‘Thought you might like a chat with her?’
‘Why?’
‘She might open up to you.’
‘Why? She was just playing me.’
‘Never know, mate.’
The fact Paul had even got him down to another outfi t’s cabin was a big fi rst step. The way it worked was Mac was supposed to reciprocate. Show good faith.
Mac jiggled his tea bag. ‘What are we trying to fi nd out?’
Paul shrugged. ‘Usual. Is she one of ours? Is she doubled? What does she know about Garrison and Sabaya’s plans that we should know? Just a reminder that that’s what she was sent out to do.’
‘What do we know so far?’ asked Mac.
‘You’re right about Brani Island and that ship. Something is going on there. She said they called it ‘the stuff’. She doesn’t know what they’ve taken off with. But they did take off with something from Golden Serpent, according to her. They called it the insurance policy.’
‘She’s telling the truth in one regard. The US Army has lost a VX bomb during the hostage drama.’
‘Okay. That’s one tick for her. She says she was a hostage after that.’
‘She didn’t look too scared in that BMW,’ said Mac.
‘Well this is it, mate. She reckons they injected her with the scopolamine and interrogated her on the road to Bogor. The goons wanted her dead. Garrison saved her. Had some theory about how he doesn’t kill his lovers.’
‘Man of integrity.’
‘Real gentleman.’
‘Sounds like you got it all, mate,’ said Mac.
‘It’s not adding up for us. Have a crack?’
‘Can I do it without an audience?’ asked Mac.
‘Sure. We’ll be on the patio.’
Diane curled her legs under herself and turned to Mac on the sofa beside her. ‘So, don’t tell me – you’re the good cop, right?’
Mac looked at her, stony-faced.
‘This is shit. I should be in a hospital, Richard. Not putting up with this sexist crap!’
She yelled it so the blokes on the patio could hear. The one called Sri turned, looked in through the glass and went back to his tea.
Mac realised he still liked her. ‘Sexist?’
‘They train us up, just like the blokes. They assign us, just like the blokes. They even pay us the same. But when it comes down to it, as soon as they ask you to infi ltrate a man’ – she curled her fi ngers over, making inverted commas – ‘then you’re a slut.’
Mac raised his eyebrows.
‘But wait, there’s a catch,’ said Diane. ‘You’re this special breed of slut who’s actually virginal and innocent. So you sleep with a man once and you’re so overcome by the amazingness of the experience that you become a double agent just to be with him forever.’
‘Didn’t know I was that good,’ said Mac.
Diane laughed, shook her head. ‘Not you. Bloody hell! You were a mistake.’
‘A mistake?’
‘I didn’t know you were who you were, okay?’ she said.
‘Until when?’
Diane gave him the look. ‘Don’t get cheeky.’
Mac looked into his tea. ‘You telling these blokes everything?’
‘I’m doing what I can. You ever been doped up?’ she asked.
Mac thought about it. ‘No. Don’t think so.’
‘Well it blots things out, leaves some things clear. That’s why I’ve been telling them I need some medical care, get detoxed from this stuff. But I’ve been up all night going over it. I need rest, not interrogation.’
‘What can’t you remember?’
She rolled her eyes, like duh!
Mac thought about it. ‘Let’s see if I can jog your memory. That souvenir Garrison and Sabaya took off the ship?’
‘Yeah. The comms gear?’ she said.
Mac shook his head. ‘They’ve got a VX bomb. Took it from the container.’
Her hand went to her mouth. ‘Why? Why would they do that?’
‘I need you to tell me.’
‘Shit!’
‘Well, yes. It’s a hundred-pound bomb, so it can be lifted by one strong man. You can drive around with it in the boot of a car, walk it onto a train, hide it in a sports stadium, leave it in a mosque…’
Diane was silent, a blank.
‘So where are they headed?’ asked Mac.
She shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’
‘Diane, you have to think about this. Where are they going?’
She shook her head. ‘North? Maybe? I don’t…’
She was synthesising, trying to please him. In Mac’s experience, when an interrogation got to this point you either went straight to the hard stuff, or you let them rest. He’d try to get something from her, maybe spare her the unpleasantries.
‘Okay, what do they want with the VX bomb?’ he said.
‘I didn’t even know it was a bomb until you told me,’ she complained. ‘Stop trying to trick me, okay? I’ve been up all night with that shit.’
He couldn’t tell if she was lying. She was tired, there was a drugs component and Sabaya and Garrison were not the kind of people to tell their secrets to a fl oozie. There was no reason to tell her they had a VX bomb or where they were taking it. On the other hand, Diane may have been turned by Garrison and been planted back in the British camp to keep an eye on things. It had happened thousands of times before – it was the basic building block of counter-espionage.
He went for the easiest question of the day. ‘Diane, what’s on that ship?’
Her eyes sparked up. ‘Gold!’
‘Gold?’
She nodded. ‘Thousands of tons of the stuff.’
Mac continued on for a while but didn’t get any further. He was a pro, she was a pro. They both knew the game and they weren’t getting anywhere.
He wanted to talk about them, work out the real stuff. The cabin was wired for sound and Mac knew the boys from Six would have a great old laugh about McQueen grovelling to a bird. But he didn’t give a rat’s. ‘I thought you were the one. You know that, don’t you?’
She shrugged, offhand, her beautiful pale eyes suddenly looking cruel.
‘That it?’ asked Mac. ‘A shrug?’
Diane gave him an impassive look. ‘Guess it’s wrong girl, wrong number.’
Mac didn’t get females sometimes.
CHAPTER 45
Mac opened the patio doors. The bloke called Sri looked him up and down, exhaled smoke and fl icked the butt over the edge without looking where it would land. Mac hated that.
‘She needs sleep, guys. Get her down to MMC,’ said Mac.
The blokes glanced at one another. All Poms, but looking like a spectrum of Asia: Paul Filipino-Mex, the other bloke Chinese and Sri with his southern Indian fi zzog.
Sri was obviously in charge and seemed like the guy who looked after the pliers and crocodile clip department. Mac clocked his big wrists and forearms, had a fl ash of what he’d do to Diane.
Mac may have just been played by a beautiful woman, but he also felt disgust at what Sri might be planning to do next. Maybe his lust and love for Diane were still there. Couldn’t work that one out. What he knew was that torture and bashing were the lazy spook’s way of doing his job.
Sri and Mac stared at one another and Paul stood, grabbed Mac by the arm. They walked back into the kitchen.
‘Watch it, mate,’ said Paul.
‘What? That wanker?’
‘Not in the Marines now, tough guy. I’m telling ya, friendly like, don’t fuck with Sri.’
‘Diane’s lost it, mate. Drug-fucked. Detox her and let it come back. Do it natural,’ said Mac.
Paul nodded, smiled.
‘What?’ said Mac.
‘Oh, nothing.’
Mac felt a blush start. ‘You’ve got a fi lthy mind, know that?’
‘Oh, come on, mate.’
‘Me come on? Would Sri be so keen for the wet work if Diane was a bloke?’
They stared at each other.
Paul looked away fi rst. ‘So what did you get?’
Mac thought about it. ‘Well she had no idea they’d taken nerve agent off Golden Serpent.’