Zero Option

'Well,' he went, 'it may have been. But I tend to agree with your commanding officer. All the PIRA heard was“ that you'd gone abroad for a few days. You could have been anywhere in the world.'

'That's right,' said ¥orky. 'They can make what they like out of what the woman said, but I'll lay a hundred pounds to a penny they haven't got a scrap of evidence to back it.'

'These PIRA orders,' said the CO. 'Where are they?'

'Here.' I opened the manila envelope and began to pull out the documents.

'Wait!' Fraser snapped. 'Prints.'

'I've handled the papers already.'

'Never mind. Forensic can try. Give them to Sergeant Alden. He'll photocopy them while we're talking.'

I handed the package over, and the tall duty sergeant took it out of the room. On the way he passed Mac, who came back in shaking his head. 'Nothing known to the Firm on Ostrich. Not the slightest suggestion of a leak. The Libyans are still blaming Mossad, and Egypt's denying all knowledge of the operation. But I've asked Gilbert to call first thing in the morning.'

'All tight,' said the CO. 'We'd better ring round to make sure everybody's ready with their denials — the FO for one.'

'I reckon you're tight about the PI1LA trying to bluff us, Boss,' I said. 'But even if you are, it doesn't make much difference. No matter how much or how little they know about Libya, they still have me over a barrel.

So what I propose is this…'

I launched into my spiel again — and the reception was much the same as in the cottage: a mixture of alarm and incredulity. At first the ruperts couldn't believe I was being serious. Yorky really thought I'd gone round the bend. He walked up and down at one hell of a pace, exclaiming, 'Eh, lad, you're in it now,' throwing up a pencil and, as often as not, missing it when it fell. His movements became so distracting that the CO told him for Christ's sake to sit down.

'As for Chequers,' I went on, 'the PIRA have really done their homework. You remember that fuss a few years back about getting a footpath diverted, so that it wouldn't pass so close to the front of the house? Well, that got done. But still the path is only five or six hundred metres from the terrace, and the PIIA have it all sussed out for a shoot from there. Everything's in those papers — distances, elevations, bearings, routes in and out, prevailing winds, security arrangements…'

As the logic of what I was saying got through to them, they all began to calm down a bit. The CO was the first to crack. 'In purely operational terms it's feasible,' he admitted. 'I can see that. I'd trust you to handle the shoot, Geordie. But we're going to have the devil's own problem selling it to Whitehall.'

'The point is, the situation hasn't changed from when we started,' I said. 'Except that now the person directly threatened is the Prime Minister himself. That makes it all the more important to go straight to the top.

He's the one at risk. It's him who'll benefit if we get these bastards sorted. If we take on the shoot ourselves, it'll increase our chances of busting the ASU.' I started going through the benefits of proceeding, as I had with the lads in the safe house: that we would hijack the PIRA's plan for the shoot, get the weapon, and so on.

'Geordie!' The CO scratched his head. 'I have to give it to you. You make everything sound dead simple.'

Now it was he who got up and went walkabout.

'What you're going to have to do is present an appreciation, in the normal way.'

'No time, Boss. If we're going to pick up the rifle, we've got to do it tomorrow night — tonight, I mean.'

'OK. That leaves the morning. I vote we all get our heads down for a couple of hours. Sleep on the problem, then have another brief. How about that, Commander?'

'Fine by me,' said Fraser. 'Just bear in mind that none of this caper may be necessary. There's a chance that we'll get to the hostages first. That car your fellows bugged has narrowed the field a bit.'

'Oh, great!' I said. 'Where did it go?'

'We followed it to Earl's Court. It's there now, parked in a stack off

Oldbury Road

We've put round- the-clock surveillance on it. Unfortunately we couldn't keep tabs on the occupants, but as soon as they come back we'll get a tail on them.'

'You mean you lost them?' Suddenly I saw red. 'For fuck's sake! How did you manage that?'

'Take it easy, Geordie. It wasn't that simple.'

'Bloody hell, though! After we'd been to all that trouble to get a device on the car…'

'I know. But listen: the guy in the passenger seat got out and jumped straight on to a bus a couple of blocks short of the park. Then, at the barrier on the entrance to the stack, the driver swapped places with someone else, who put the car away.'

'Couldn't your guys keep on him, though?'

'He was gone like a rat down a bloody drain.'

'Ah, hell!'

I saw Fraser giving me a wary look and half getting up from his chair, as if he expected me to throw another track and start smashing the place up again.

'Chill out, Geordie,' Yorky said. 'Everyone's doing their best.'

As I felt the rush of anger draining away, I let out a deep breath and said, 'Sorry I shouted. All this is getting to me.'

'No sweat,' Fraser replied evenly. 'They're cunning bastards, they really are. All the hints we've been picking up from intercepts have suggested an assassination attempt was being planned for July, and in London — when Clinton's due to visit. Now it looks as though all that was cover, a blind.'

'Typical,' I said. 'At least we know what the real plan is. But we've got to budget for the worst. These telephone calls Farrell's making — aren't they leading anywhere?'

'We tried following up the last mobile number, but it's gone off the air. They're using quite a few different phones.'

The sergeant reappeared with a sheaf of photostats, and the ruperts started passing them round. The detail in the papers made them gripe and groan, and had the effect of reinforcing my presentation.

'Curses!' went the CO. 'I see what you mean. You'd better leave the originals with the Commander, for the forensic boys.'

'That's fine. Copies will do for Farrell. He doesn't even know whatthe envelope contained. What about the map, though?'

'We'll get another in the morning.'

The meeting was about to break up when Fraser said, 'This Farrell — what's he like?'

'A pain in the arse. We're keeping him cuffed to one or other of us all the time. It's like having a bloody bear or something in the house.'

'Has he tried to do a runner?'

'No. Physically, he's in fairly poor shape. The bullet wound in his flank hasn't healed properly. He's on antibiotics, and that's dragging him down a bit. The brush-off he got from his pals in Belfast knocked him back a bit too. But we're not taking any chances.'

'Quite right,' said Fraser. 'We picked up some good stuff in an intercept yesterday. The boyos are after him for laundering funds from Colombia. They think he's filtered oht seven or eight million dollars.'

'Ah — so float's what it is.' Suddenly those peculiar reactions made sense. If Farrell had been creaming off cocaine money, and had been rumbled, no wonder he was getting nervous. 'Maybe, in the end, they won't want him back,' I said.

'On the contrary,' said Fraser. 'They'll want him all the more, so they can give him a going-over. Also to stop him spilling any secrets.'

'Perhaps he won't want to go, then… On the other hand, he's arrogant enough to think he.can talk himself out of it.'

'It can't be very comfortable, being cooped up with him,' suggested the CO.

'Could be worse. I'm having as little to do with him as I can. I don't want to get drawn into conversation, in case I give anything away. I tell you one thing, though.'

'What's that?'

'He's into classical music. Beethoven.'