‘I’ve something to tell you,’ said Chaudhry.
‘Go ahead, I’m all ears,’ said Shepherd, pouring milk into his coffee.
‘Can we meet?’
‘Tonight?’
‘I don’t want to forget anything and I don’t want to write it down,’ said Chaudhry. ‘My memory’s not as good as yours.’
‘You’re a medical student. You have to memorise millions of facts,’ said Shepherd.
‘Which is why there’s no room for anything else,’ said Chaudhry. ‘Look, I just met with Khalid. There’s some stuff you need to know.’
‘I can see you, but I can’t drive,’ said Shepherd.
‘I’ll come to you. I can see you on the Heath.’
‘Two guys on Hampstead Heath at night? Not sure that’s a good idea.’
Chaudhry laughed. ‘Don’t worry, John, you’re not my type. Look, I can cycle over and I’ll be careful. No one’s going to follow me on the bike.’
Shepherd took a sip of his coffee. ‘Okay, come to the east side of the Heath. There’s a petanque pitch there.’
‘A what?’
‘That game where you toss balls. Boules, the French call it. It’s near the bandstand, fairly close to the road. I’ll get there first. If everything’s okay I’ll be wearing a baseball cap. If I’m not wearing a cap don’t come near me. Just go back home and wait for me to contact you.’
‘You think someone might be following you?’
‘No, but it’s always a good idea to have a fallback position.’
Shepherd ended the call. He finished his coffee, picked up his coat and a baseball cap off a hook by the door, and headed out.
He spent fifteen minutes strolling around the Heath making sure that he wasn’t being followed. He did get two very nice smiles, one from a sixty-year-old man in a cashmere coat and a trilby, another from a teenager in a black leather motorcycle jacket.
He did a quick walk round the petanque pitch, then sat down on a bench and put on his cap. Chaudhry was on time, pushing his bicycle. He was wearing his duffel coat with the hood up. He leaned the bike against the bench and sat down.
‘Are you okay, Raj?’ asked Shepherd.
‘I’m fine,’ said Chaudhry. He grinned at the baseball cap. ‘You really don’t suit that,’ he said. He pulled his hood down. ‘You’re about ten years too old for it.’
Shepherd took it off. ‘Yeah, I was going to suggest holding a newspaper but as it’s dark I thought that would just look plain silly. So what’s up?’
Chaudhry folded his arms. ‘Khalid wanted me and Harvey to talk to a couple of young guys who are on their way to Pakistan. We had dinner.’
‘Nice,’ said Shepherd.
‘They’re off to a training camp next week. Not the one that we went to, a new one.’
‘Do you know where it is?’
‘Closer to the border, he said. These guys are from the mosque. Khalid has recruited them the way he recruited me and Harvey. He did the same with us, introduced us to a couple of veterans before we went out to Pakistan. Now we’re the veterans.’
‘That’s how it works,’ said Shepherd. ‘Making you all feel part of the process, you against the world. It binds you together.’
‘They’re both students at South Bank University. Sociology, would you believe? One is Lateef Panhwar. The other is his pal, Faisal. Didn’t get his surname. They’re both from Derby, up north. And they’re flying out next Wednesday on PIA.’
‘That’s terrific, Raj. Thanks.’
‘What will you do?’
‘We’ll see if anything’s known about them. Then we’ll arrange to have them followed in Pakistan, and hopefully nail down the location of the training camp.’
‘They’re nutters, John. Serious nutters. They were talking about shooting down planes at Heathrow.’
‘Now that they’re on our radar we’ll be on their case twenty-four seven,’ said Shepherd.
‘So I did good?’
‘You did great, Raj. Really.’
‘What they’re doing is so wrong,’ said Chaudhry. ‘People like Khalid, they’re evil. They’re twisting the Koran to make it sound like we should be killing non-believers and that our religion has to go into battle against all others. You know what jihad means, right?’
‘Struggle,’ said Shepherd.
‘Exactly. Struggle. Yet most of the younger brothers seem to think that it means a crusade. That we have to somehow destroy all other religions. But that’s not what the Koran says.’
‘I think the majority of Muslims understand, don’t they?’
‘The older generation, maybe. But the young ones?’ Chaudhry shook his head. ‘I’m not so sure. The Americans did themselves no favours when they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. And whoever thought that Guantanamo Bay was a good idea should be taken out and shot. It produced a whole generation of Muslims who really do believe that America is evil.’
‘No argument here,’ said Shepherd. ‘But you’ve got to remember that Afghanistan and Iraq were a reaction to Nine-Eleven.’
‘And Nine-Eleven was a reaction to American support for Israel, everyone forgets that,’ said Chaudhry. He grimaced as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. ‘Bloody hell, now I sound like I’m defending al-Qaeda,’ he said. ‘That’s not what I meant at all.’
‘Understanding someone’s motivation doesn’t mean that you agree with them,’ said Shepherd. ‘But your train of logic is spot on. Al-Qaeda resented what Israel was doing in the Middle East and blamed America for supporting them; al-Qaeda carried out the Nine-Eleven attacks; America retaliated by invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Muslims around the world saw that as an attack on their religion and that initiated all the terrorist attacks we’ve seen since — in Madrid, in London, in Algiers, in Yemen.’
‘And what the Americans did to Bin Laden is going to make it worse, right? It makes him the ultimate martyr.’
‘I would think so,’ said Shepherd. ‘Killing him was never going to stop al-Qaeda. It’s not like a snake that you can kill by chopping off the head. It’s more like a cancer where the more you attack the tumour, the more cancerous cells you release.’
‘So why don’t the people at the top realise that?’ asked Chaudhry. ‘If it’s that obvious to you and me, why did Bush invade Iraq? Iraq, which wasn’t even an al-Qaeda stronghold. In fact Saddam hated al-Qaeda more than the West did.’
Shepherd shook his head. ‘I’m nothing to do with policy,’ he said. ‘I’m an Indian surrounded by chiefs.’ He smiled. ‘No offence.’
Chaudhry wagged a finger at him. ‘You don’t want to be confusing a Pakistani with an Indian,’ he said. ‘Even in jest.’
‘Not good?’
Chaudhry grinned. ‘Let’s just say it could end in tears. Me, I’m a Brit first and a Pakistani second, so it’s water off a duck’s back. But even my dad gets upset if he’s mistaken for an Indian, and he’s as laid back as they come.’
‘I’ll remember that.’
Chaudhry sighed. ‘Anyway, the answer to my question — why did the US invade Iraq? — you know why, right? Bush Senior couldn’t take Saddam down so his son did, the first chance he got. It was nothing to do with al-Qaeda and nothing to do with terrorism. And now look at the state the world’s in.’ He sighed again. ‘We’re screwed, aren’t we? The West? No matter how this works out.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Shepherd.
‘We stop Khalid and we stop Lateef and Faisal. We arrest everyone and they all go to prison. But there’ll be others to take their place, won’t there? They’re already being recruited, right now. Kids and teenagers are being groomed to be the new shahid. Who’s going to stop them?’
‘Hopefully there’ll be someone like you who’ll do the right thing,’ said Shepherd.
Chaudhry sneered. ‘That’s not much of a plan, is it?’
‘Fair point,’ said Shepherd. ‘But that’s the way it is, unfortunately. Back in 1984, before you were born, the IRA almost killed Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister. They blew up the hotel she was staying in, along with half her cabinet. She was pulled from the wreckage and the IRA released a statement saying that she was lucky and that she would have to continue to be lucky. But the IRA had to be lucky only once. That’s the situation we’re in now. We need to be lucky all the time.’