Blandford took over as the stunned Hove regarded the documents. ‘It pains me to have to say this, Quentin, but I’m afraid the Security Service need to ask you some questions.’ He nodded to an aide, who opened the door. A pair of large, hard-faced men in dark suits entered and moved to flank Hove. ‘It would be to everyone’s benefit if you would go with them voluntarily, and with dignity.’
Hove was about to protest, but a look up at the looming men dissuaded him. Instead, he made a show of straightening his tie and tugging down his jacket as he stood. ‘Very well. But this isn’t over. I’ll fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if I have to.’
Blandford watched as he was led from the briefing room. ‘Make sure he doesn’t suffer any… “unfortunate accidents”,’ he told the two guards.
Parker stared after Hove as the doors closed behind him. ‘Okay, ah… now what do we do?’ she said, wide-eyed. ‘We don’t have a Prime Minister! Who’s in charge of the government?’
The head of MI5 gave her a look that was somewhere between amusement and pity. ‘Currently? As the senior cabinet member present, that would be you.’
‘What?’ she gasped. ‘But — but I don’t know what to do! I’m a junior minister, I’ve never even run a department!’
‘Fortunately, you’re in the right place to learn,’ he told her. ‘The function of a COBRA meeting is to brief members of the government on matters of critical national import so they can decide how to respond.’ A small smile. ‘So, shall we begin?’
‘Are we done?’ Eddie said with considerable impatience. ‘We’ve told you everything we know three bloody times over.’
Huygens looked up from his laptop, on which he was reviewing a transcript of Nina and Eddie’s statements. ‘Almost. You mentioned copying files on to SD cards before you left Butembo. Do you know if the other members of your expedition will have anything pertinent to the investigation?’
Nina tiredly rubbed her eyes. ‘There’ll be some footage of Brice and Mukobo together when we went through Solomon’s challenges, and Jay probably filmed the Shamir in action. That’ll let the Brits see that what happened at Parliament was caused by the same thing.’ The official nodded, making a note.
‘So what’s going to happen?’ Eddie asked. ‘To Britain, I mean. Having the Prime Minister and the head of MI6 be involved in taking down an American plane won’t be good for the “special relationship”.’
‘That’s up to the President,’ replied Huygens. ‘By the way, Hove isn’t Prime Minister any more. Seems he was removed from office.’ Seeing their shock, he went on: ‘The evidence you brought to us played a large part in it. It hasn’t been announced to the public yet, but there’ll be a statement soon. Looks like the British government wants to do everything possible to make it clear to the President that Hove was the plan’s sole instigator.’
‘Why just Hove?’ said Nina. ‘What about C, Brice’s boss? He’s just as involved.’
‘Didn’t anyone tell you? He’s dead.’
The pair looked at each other in surprise. ‘When did that happen?’ asked the Yorkshireman.
‘A couple of hours ago. Suicide. It seems he shot himself in his office — in front of someone he’d had locked up for helping you.’
‘Peter Alderley?’ said Nina, worried. ‘Is he okay?’
‘I think so, but it’s MI6; they’re not exactly known for their water-cooler gossip.’ He finished typing, then closed the laptop. ‘Okay. We may want to ask you more questions, but for now, we’re done.’
‘Great,’ said Eddie. ‘Then we need a phone to call my dad and make sure our little girl’s okay.’
Huygens indicated one of the phones on his desk. ‘Be my guest. Dial nine for an outside line.’
‘Thanks.’ Eddie called his father’s home, becoming concerned when he only got an answering machine. ‘Dad, it’s Eddie — I’m going to try you on your mobile,’ he said, before dialling another number.
‘They might just be out somewhere,’ said Nina.
‘They might,’ he replied, unconvinced. This time, he got an answer — but the stress in his father’s voice immediately set alarm bells ringing. ‘Dad! It’s Eddie, are you okay? Where’s Macy?’
‘Edward! Oh, my God,’ Larry answered. ‘We’re at the police station, in Southampton. They — they took her, they took Macy!’
‘Who took Macy?’ Nina’s face filled with fright at his words. She leaned closer to listen to the other side of the conversation. ‘The cops?’
‘No, I don’t know who they were, two men. They — they just kicked down the door and came in with guns! They took Macy away. I–I couldn’t stop them, I thought they were going to kill us! Edward, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…’
‘It’s okay, Dad, it’s okay,’ said Eddie, even as his fist clenched so tightly around the handset that the plastic creaked.
‘Are you and Julie both okay?’ Nina asked.
‘Yes, yes. We’re — we’re just shaken up. What the hell’s going on?’
Huygens had meanwhile taken a call on his cellphone; he urgently held up a hand. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but someone’s called the embassy’s main desk asking for you both. They say it’s extremely important.’
‘It could be about Macy,’ Nina suggested hopefully.
‘Hold on, Dad. I’ve got to take another call.’ Eddie put down the handset and took the proffered phone, his wife listening in. ‘Hello, yeah?’
‘Hello, Chase.’ They both froze at the voice. Brice.
‘You bastard,’ Eddie growled. ‘If you’ve hurt Macy, I will fucking kill you.’
‘Spare me the threats, I’m not impressed.’
‘I’m not trying to impress you. I’m stating a fucking fact.’
Nina whispered a frantic request to Huygens: ‘It’s Brice! Can you trace the call?’ He picked up another desk phone and stabbed in an internal number. Knowing that they needed to keep Brice on the line for as long as possible, she turned back to the cellphone. ‘How did you know where we were?’
‘Hello, Nina. Well, when someone drives a double-decker into the lake outside the US embassy in the middle of a gun battle, it still makes the news even when something considerably larger has happened. Also, I’d arranged to be notified automatically if you called your father, Chase. I set it up before you even left the Congo, and since nobody told the computers I’m now persona non grata, they let me know that you rang — and from where.’
‘So you found us,’ Nina snarled. ‘What do you want?’
‘I’m sure you’ll consider this very unprofessional, Chase, but I want revenge. Thanks to your handing over information damaging to the country to the Yanks, everything I’ve worked to achieve is now compromised.’
‘Information damaging to the country?’ Eddie echoed angrily. ‘You mean, you confessing to killing a planeload of innocent people?’
‘I’m going to offer you a straightforward swap,’ Brice went on, ignoring him. ‘Your life, for your daughter’s. I’ll contact you again later via Peter Alderley to tell you where to meet me. Since I know somebody will be trying to trace this call, I’ll save you some time and tell you that you’ll need to head in the direction of Southampton. Now don’t do anything foolish, Nina, and you’ll get your daughter back. See you soon, Chase.’
The call ended. Nina looked at Huygens. ‘We didn’t get an exact trace,’ he said apologetically after listening to someone on his own line. ‘There wasn’t time. It was a mobile number, and he’s most likely on the M3 motorway, somewhere around Farnborough.’