‘And what about my duty to my country?’ she countered. ‘Someone committed a crime, a terrorist act, against it. Am I supposed to keep quiet because it’s diplomatically inconvenient for the people responsible?’
‘That’s not what I’m saying,’ Eddie insisted.
‘Then what are you saying?’
‘I don’t know!’ he cried, frustrated. ‘There are two countries involved, and I just don’t want to make everything worse.’
‘Okay,’ Nina said, more quietly, ‘what would you want Macy to do?’
He was surprised. ‘Macy? What’s she got to do with this?’
‘She’s got dual nationality, American and British. So she’s involved with both countries. What choice would you want her to make — not as a former British serviceman, but as a parent?’
‘I…’ Eddie frowned. ‘I’d want her to do what’s right,’ he finally admitted. ‘Whatever that is.’ There was a lengthy silence.
It was eventually broken by Alderley. ‘If you really are thinking about going to the US embassy,’ he said, not remotely enthused at the prospect, ‘there are two things to consider. The first is that Brice will almost certainly have placed watchers there. It’s an obvious place of safety — well, for you, Nina. You’re an American citizen, so once you’re inside, you’re on US soil and we can’t touch you without going through channels. Afraid you’re out in the cold, though, Chase.’
‘Maybe you should have applied for US citizenship,’ Nina told her husband.
‘What, and have to start saying “Mommy” instead of “Mummy”?’ he retorted. ‘What’s the other thing?’
‘The other thing,’ Alderley went on, ‘is that you don’t have any proof you can take to the embassy! Unless you recover the video from that laptop, the only evidence against Brice is hearsay. Since he officially resigned from MI6 two years ago, the government would simply deny any knowledge of his subsequent activities.’
‘You said you could find someone to help us get it, though,’ Nina reminded him. His sheepish lack of an immediate response spoke volumes. ‘Oh, seriously? Now you’re going to back out of that?’
‘You’ve put me in an extraordinarily difficult position, Nina!’ he said. ‘I’m a senior officer of the Secret Intelligence Service; like Chase, I swore an oath to protect my country — and helping you hand over diplomatic dynamite to the Americans would achieve the exact opposite. However,’ he went on, raising both hands to silence her before she could protest, ‘I also have an obligation to uphold the rule of law and ensure that everyone in my organisation behaves with the highest probity. That includes my superiors as well as the people under my command. The intelligence services have a lot of leeway under the law, but it only goes so far. Section 7 immunity for intelligence operatives only applies to acts committed outside the United Kingdom. Not on home soil. And it definitely doesn’t apply to politicians. So if Brice was given an illegal order, the people who issued it are accountable.’
‘How would you prove it, though?’ said Eddie. ‘They’ll be covering their arses so hard you’ll be able to see their fingerprints pressing through on the other side.’
‘I doubt it’d be easy. But the first step, for me at least, would be actually hearing Brice admit to all of this, so… I guess I do need to help you recover that recording.’
‘Peter, that’s great,’ Nina said, with relief. ‘Thank you.’
‘That’s if there’s anything to recover,’ he said, eyeing the bullet hole in the laptop. ‘But I can also make some discreet enquiries at SIS and see if Brice has popped up on anyone’s radar. He certainly wouldn’t be able to arrange an extraction from DR Congo and then come back home to put teams of watchers on people — including me! — without leaving a few blips.’
‘See if you can find out about the people he’s got watching Macy and my dad,’ Eddie reminded him.
‘I won’t be able to poke my nose too far into someone else’s active operation without raising questions, but I’ll do what I can.’
‘What about the Shamir?’ asked Nina. ‘It’s a dangerous artefact, so what would he have done with it?’ But as soon as she had posed the question, another came to her…
Alderley started to explain that SIS had secure research facilities dotted around the country, but she was no longer listening. ‘Wait, wait,’ she cut in. ‘Forget what he’s done with the Shamir. What’s he going to do with it?’
‘What do you mean?’ asked the older man.
‘He didn’t get it out of the Congo just so MI6 could put it in a warehouse like the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He had something in mind for it — he wants to use it.’
‘On what?’
‘I don’t know, but she’s right,’ Eddie said. ‘When he was talking to us in the palace, part of it was so he could buy time for the militia to get inside, but he also wanted to know more about the Shamir — how it worked, what it can do. And he was really excited about using it as a decapitation weapon.’
Alderley was alarmed. ‘You think he’s planning to attack a government?’
‘I think he certainly had it in mind,’ Nina told him. ‘And that would be another reason for him to want us silenced, permanently. We know the Shamir exists, and what it can do. But nobody else does. So—’
‘It would be a weapon nobody could defend against,’ he concluded. ‘All you’d need to do would be get it into the country undetected. But which country?’
‘I’d ask which country Brice has got it in for, but from the way he was ranting on, it sounded like all of ’em,’ said Eddie. ‘He didn’t even sound that keen on Britain. Not from the way things look likely to go after the election, anyway.’
The SIS officer grimaced. ‘Yeah, the intelligence services aren’t looking forward to what’ll happen if the other lot win — which seems likely. Civil liberties are all well and good, but taking away powers that we already have and which every other country uses too, just to win votes from the Edward Snowden crowd, isn’t exactly a bright move.’
Eddie shook his head mockingly. ‘Glad you think that civil liberties are at least sort of worth having, maybe. Puts you above Brice, at least. But that’s pretty much what he said, that MI6 is fucked after the election…’ His voice trailed off as a thought came to him.
Nina could tell from his expression that it was not a good one. ‘What is it?’
‘Hove and his lot are probably going to be kicked out at the election,’ he said. ‘But what if there isn’t an election?’
‘There has to be one,’ Alderley insisted. ‘The date’s been set, and Parliament’s about to be dissolved. They can’t back out of it now.’
‘But they could in extreme circumstances, couldn’t they?’ said Nina, realising what Eddie meant. ‘Like if there was a major terrorist attack?’
‘It would have to be more than “major”. More like absolutely catastrophic — on the level of 9/11, or beyond. The last time a general election was cancelled was in 1940, in the middle of the Blitz.’
‘The Shamir would let him pull off an attack like that, though. Nobody could defend against it, because nobody knows it exists!’
‘He could bring down any bloody building in London,’ Eddie added. ‘All he needs is line of sight, then take the lid off the box. Anything stone or metal goes boom.’
‘I can’t believe Brice would commit a terrorist act just to secure funding for MI6,’ insisted Alderley.
‘It wouldn’t only be about that, though,’ said Nina. ‘That’s just a bonus. He gives the government carte blanche to bring in whatever laws they like in the name of “security”, and nobody would dare challenge them for fear of being accused of going soft on terrorism. You’d have a perpetual state of emergency, and those civil liberties you seem so lackadaisical about? They wouldn’t be a problem any more, because they’d be gone.’