Bruce’s boss stroked his chin.
‘I agree, and I’m sure the CIA realise that too. But I don’t really understand what their problem is. Tennyson Cottage was shut down when bin Laden was killed; it no longer exists. The fact that we have so-called secret detention facilities is hardly something people are unaware of; in fact, it feels like old news.’
‘So there must be some other component in this case that makes Tennyson Cottage particularly sensitive,’ Bruce said.
His boss hesitated.
‘Or there isn’t, and the situation is even worse.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean there’s a hypothetical chance that the reason no one is prepared to speak openly about the connection between Zakaria Khelifi and Tennyson Cottage could be that no one knows what it is. That it doesn’t exist.’
‘How likely is that?’ Bruce said dubiously.
‘Not very. But it could be an explanation for what we have chosen to interpret as deliberate silence. They don’t know what the link is between the two demands. Which means they don’t know who they’re up against.’
Bruce realised his boss was right. There could be an even worse scenario than the idea that someone knew the truth and was keeping quiet about it. The thought that no one knew the truth.
53 STOCKHOLM, 20:15
Being Prime Minister had never been easy, but Muhammed Haddad, the Minister for Justice, wondered if it had ever been more difficult than right now. The government had gathered for a crisis meeting less than an hour after Muhammed had sounded the alarm by informing the PM that he had received information from Fredrika Bergman suggesting that there could well be grounds for tearing up Zakaria Khelifi’s deportation order. Not everyone could attend at such short notice, but the PM insisted that the meeting should go ahead anyway.
‘We have to undertake a thorough analysis of the situation before we make a decision,’ he said. ‘There are countless factors that complicate matters. It’s important that we reach a decision which is right not only at this moment, but in the long term.’
‘I agree,’ the Foreign Secretary said. ‘And I must express my concern with regard to how a reversal in the case of Zakaria Khelifi would be perceived by the public. This has been a high profile affair right from the start, as we were well aware. None of us was surprised when the fact that he had been taken into custody was leaked to the press, and we knew questions would be asked. But I don’t think any of us could have foreseen what happened next – the hijacking of an entire jumbo jet.’
‘What are you afraid of with regard to our co-operation with other countries?’ Muhammed asked.
He didn’t like the woman; he often found it hard to follow her thought processes, and believed she reached the wrong conclusions in many cases. This didn’t look as if it was going to be any different.
‘I was just coming to that, if you’ll allow me to finish.’ She looked irritated. ‘If we revise our decision in Zakaria’s case, and if we do it against the backdrop of an ongoing hijacking that the whole world knows about, we risk being perceived as either incompetent or weak. Therefore, others will ask themselves whether it takes a critical situation to enable us to see clearly and make sound decisions, or they will wonder whether we’ve changed our minds because we daren’t stand up to terrorists.’
‘We have received new information,’ Muhammed said. ‘We have to make that very clear. The basic situation has changed, and in accordance with democratic principles, we have to review the case.’
The Foreign Secretary was having none of it. She tugged at the scarf around her neck and fiddled with one of her dangling earrings. Muhammed had been surprised when he realised that there were men – quite a lot of men, in fact – who found her attractive. To him she was nothing more than a frigid prima donna.
‘The timing is very bad. It’s very difficult to see how we can change our position in Zakaria’s case without being perceived as unreliable. I have been in touch with the US government, and they have made it very clear that they have no intention of bowing to the demands of the terrorists with regard to the closure of Tennyson Cottage. And they expect us to follow the same line.’
‘The problem is that it does actually look as if we might have reason to revise our decision with regard to Zakaria’s deportation, irrespective of the hijacking,’ the Prime Minister said. ‘And if we are going to reverse our decision, then we ought to do it now. Not tomorrow, not next week, but now. Otherwise it will look as if we sacrificed the lives of four hundred passengers for no reason.’
‘We could actually wait a few days,’ the Foreign Secretary said. ‘Say that we’d only just received the new information. I mean, nobody would know we got it today.’
Muhammed couldn’t stop himself from speaking up.
‘That’s not only immoral, it’s actually dangerous,’ he said.
‘I agree,’ the PM said, looking appalled. ‘We can’t do that.’
‘In that case, the question is whether we ought to revise our decision,’ the Foreign Secretary said. ‘To be honest, I’m not convinced that it’s necessary just because Säpo have carried out a new analysis of certain telephone records. And if I’ve understood correctly, it’s not actually Säpo who have raised the issue with us, but Fredrika Bergman.’
‘That’s right,’ Muhammed said. ‘Fredrika did indeed raise the issue, which is entirely in keeping with her role as liaison officer. She is our ear to the ground within the police, and she passes on whatever we need to know. As far as I’m concerned, there is no problem with the fact that the information has come from her rather than Säpo.’
‘I agree with you on that point,’ the PM said. ‘However, I must admit that I have the same reservations as the Foreign Secretary. Is the information Fredrika Bergman has given us about the phone enough to warrant a review of our decision? After all, we still have the fact that Zakaria Khelifi collected the package, and was named by Ellis as a collaborator. If we change our minds because of such a small point, it feels as if we made the wrong decision in the first place, and in that case I think we need to review our procedures when it comes to security issues.’
‘You could well be right,’ Muhammed said. ‘But that issue is less urgent. Right now, we have to focus on Zakaria and make sure he gets a fair assessment. As far as our American colleagues are concerned, I accept that the situation is complicated, but the same applies: we need to inform them in the clearest possible terms that our decision to release Zakaria is not a question of kow-towing to the terrorists, but a logical consequence of other circumstances.’
The Foreign Secretary let out a brief laugh. ‘Good luck,’ she said. ‘They’ll never accept that explanation.’
‘Be that as it may,’ Muhammed said, ‘Sweden has been loyal in other issues that are important to them. We don’t owe our loyalty to the USA when it comes to the hijacking, but to our own people. Besides which, as I said before, any decision in Zakaria’s case must be seen as independent of the hijacking. Otherwise we will be in the wrong whatever we do.’
‘Which is exactly what makes this so bloody difficult,’ the PM said.
The strain was etched on his face, which in turn affected Muhammed, who addressed the others around the table. ‘What do the rest of you think?’
Several ministers immediately expressed similar concerns.
‘If it comes out at a later date that we put American interests above our own during this crisis, then I agree with Muhammed – we will need to resign with immediate effect and call a new election,’ the Minister for Democracy said.