Shepherd jerked his thumb at the servants’ quarters. ‘What’s going on up there is the problem. It’s so bloody wrong.’
The Major took a long pull at his juice. ‘We knew that before we started. We knew we’d be crossing the line.’
‘Agreed,’ said Shepherd. ‘But we’re moving further and further away from it. I could just about convince myself that threatening Wafeeq’s brother was acceptable, the ends justifying the means and all that, but we’ve got his wife and kid at gunpoint now and we’re threatening to hurt her.’
‘We’re not going to harm them, Spider.’
‘That’s like an armed robber saying he’s carrying a sawn-off shotgun to scare people. It’s not really the point, is it?’
‘So what is the point?’
‘She’s right,’ said Shepherd. ‘She said we’re not behaving like men and she’s right. We’re behaving like the terrorists that we despise. What we’ve done is every bit as bad as what those bastards are doing to Geordie. I’m not saying that as a policeman, or talking about the legality of what we’re doing. This has nothing to do with breaking the law, and everything to do with the way we’re behaving. There’s no honour in what we’re doing, and I think it’s time to stop.’
The Major drank some more of his juice.
‘I accepted what we were doing in London,’ continued Shepherd. ‘We needed that information and we needed it quickly. I could convince myself that it was acceptable to kidnap Fariq to put pressure on his brother. But we’ve moved beyond that and I can’t justify what we’re doing any more.’
The Major put down his glass. ‘You’re right,’ he said.
‘But?’
‘There’s no “but”, Spider. You’re right.’
‘So, what now?’
The Major folded his arms and leaned against the sink. ‘We either carry on upping the ante, threaten to kill the wife in the hope that her family can influence the kidnappers, or we call it a day.’ He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Like I said, you’re right. My heart isn’t in threatening women and children – but the way things are, with what little time we have left, I don’t see any other way of getting Geordie out alive.’
‘I might have an idea,’ Shepherd said.
‘A good one?’
‘Better than threatening women and kids,’ said Shepherd.
Shepherd sat down next to Fatima. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked. She glared at him with undisguised hatred. ‘Are you okay to talk?’ he asked. ‘If I take that gag off you, will you promise not to start shouting and screaming?’ She nodded, but continued to glare at him. Shepherd reached up slowly, undid the gag and pulled it away from her mouth. ‘Fatima, I want to talk to you without you screaming at me or trying to bite me.’
‘Just say what you have to,’ she said. ‘You bore me.’ They were alone in the sitting room. The Major and Armstrong had taken Fariq and his daughter to join the old couple in the other room. Shortt and Muller were in the hall.
‘Okay. I’m sorry for what’s happened here, and for threatening you and your family. I’m not proud of what we’ve done.’
‘You shouldn’t be! You’re scum, worse than-’
Shepherd put his hand over her mouth and she stopped talking immediately. ‘Please, just let me speak,’ he said, then took away his hand slowly. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed, and her cheeks were flushed. She had been held hostage for two days, had not a trace of makeup on her face, hadn’t combed her hair or showered, but she was still one of the most beautiful women Shepherd had ever seen. He felt sorry for Fariq. He had a stunning wife, but he must spend every waking hour worrying that one day he would lose her.
‘What we did was wrong, and I don’t expect you to understand why we did it, but we truly believed that what we were doing was for the best.’ She opened her mouth to speak but Shepherd held up his hand to pre-empt her. ‘What we have to decide now is where we go from here,’ he said.
‘I want you out of my house,’ she said quietly, ‘and away from my family.’
‘I understand that,’ said Shepherd.
‘You are a father. You know how a parent feels when their child is threatened.’
Shepherd’s mouth fell open. ‘How do you know I’m a father?’ he asked.
She snorted contemptuously. ‘Men change when they become fathers,’ she said. ‘I see that change in you. Just go.’
‘We can’t just go,’ said Shepherd. ‘That’s the problem.’
‘Because you think I will go to the police?’
‘Yes.’
She sneered at him. ‘Of course I will go to the police. What do you think I will do? Forgive and forget?’
‘I don’t expect forgiveness, and I’m sure you won’t forget what we did to you.’
‘We haven’t seen your faces. You’ve worn masks and gloves all the time you have been here. I’m sure you have been careful to leave no DNA. What can I tell the police? That five Westerners kidnapped us? Do you have any idea how many Westerners there are in Dubai? Hundreds of thousands. I can tell them nothing that will help identify you.’
‘Agreed,’ said Shepherd. ‘But we’d feel better if no one was looking for us.’
‘You want me to promise not to call the police?’
Shepherd nodded.
‘And why would I agree to that?’
‘Because if you don’t, you’ll stay tied up here and someone will watch over you with a gun.’
‘For how long?’
‘For as long as it takes. We won’t be threatening you. We’ll just have to keep you out of circulation until we know it’s safe.’
‘But if I tell you we won’t go to the police, you’ll leave?’
‘Yes.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘Why would you believe me? Why wouldn’t I tell you what you want to hear, then call the police as soon as you’ve gone?’
‘Because you’ve got something we haven’t,’ said Shepherd. ‘Honour.’
She looked into his eyes with a slight frown. ‘And if I give my word, you will go?’
‘Yes.’
She continued to stare at him, then nodded. ‘Then I give my word,’ she said.
The Major sat at the head of the table, tapping a pen on the gleaming wood. Muller sat to his right, Armstrong to his left. O’Brien and Shortt stood with their backs to the window. In the distance, a plaintive wail called the faithful to prayer. They had just got back to the Hyatt and they were dog-tired.
Shepherd sat at the far end of the table, opposite the Major. He was hunched forward, head down over his interlinked fingers. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ he said.
‘You don’t have to say anything,’ said the Major. ‘We understand how you feel.’
‘Fariq’s not the enemy,’ said Shepherd. ‘He just happens to be from the same gene pool. If we-’
The Major interrupted him. ‘Spider, it’s done. We’re all in this together. That’s the way it has to be. We all have to agree with what we’re doing, or we’re wasting our time.’
‘With due respect to everyone’s sensibilities, what the hell are we going to do about Geordie?’ asked Muller. ‘Do I have to remind you that the clock is ticking and we’ve blown the only chance we had of getting him out alive?’
‘John, please…’ said the Major.
Muller got up and paced in front of the photographs on the wall. ‘The only plan we had has been blown out of the water – everything we’ve done over the past week has been a total waste of time. If we don’t do something – and fast – they’ll hack his fucking head off. The deadline runs out in four days.’
‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Shepherd.
‘We all go home and forget this happened?’ snapped Muller.
Shepherd lifted his head. ‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ve got an idea that might work, but I’ll have to go back to London first.’
Drugs had got Samuel Brown into Iraq, and drugs meant that his time in the hellhole of Baghdad was at least profitable, if not exactly enjoyable. Brown had been nineteen when he’d been caught by an undercover drugs cop in Philadelphia. He had been working his way up the food chain but he was still just a small-time foot-soldier for one of the city’s minor gangs and when he’d been busted he’d been down to his last few grams of crack cocaine, which meant that they hadn’t been able to charge him with dealing. He’d already had a fistful of juvenile convictions, however, mainly for vandalism and theft, so the possession charge would probably have earned him rather more than a stern word from the judge. It had been his older brother, Luke, who suggested he enlist. He persuaded Samuel that if he signed up the judge would probably let the matter drop. What the brothers hadn’t expected, though, was for the judge to stipulate that if Samuel failed to serve a full five years in the army, he might still face the drugs charge.