As the Gulfstream lifted into the air, Franks looked across at Hutchings and smiled. ‘Sure as hell beats flying commercial, sir.’
‘Just don’t get too used to it,’ Hutchings growled. ‘I’ve been in the Company for over twenty years, and this is exactly the third time I’ve ever flown private.’
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Tariq Mazen decided to break the rules and visit the British Embassy.
Evans met him in the foyer and escorted him to the ‘Holy of Holies’, where Richter and Jackson sat in the small conference room, studying the initial reports about the bombing. Six people had died in total, five in the road close to the car, and another one in the adjacent building, while about another dozen were seriously injured. The man Richter had tried to help was still alive, following emergency surgery — one small piece of good news.
‘We’ve had some luck,’ Mazen reported, ‘but we aren’t much closer to finding out who planted the device.’ He passed each of them a set of three photographs. ‘The vehicle appeared on the street just before six o’clock on Monday afternoon, and it was parked there by people who either knew exactly what they were doing or were unbelievably lucky.
‘The first of those pictures shows Al-Mutanabi at five-fifty on Monday. The second shows the same scene, but now you can see the bomb vehicle parked by the roadside. It was an American Chevrolet, about ten years old. Now, this surveillance camera sits on a swivel mount and swings through a half-circle once every two minutes, so it only records activity in that section of Al-Mutanabi for half the time.’
‘Brilliant,’ Jackson hissed. ‘What genius thought that one up?’
‘I asked the owner of the building, and he has no idea either. Now, if you look closely at the second picture you’ll see two figures sitting inside the car. Our analysts think they were both wearing gellabbiyas, but they can’t be certain. In the third photograph, the vehicle is still there, but you can see that the occupants have vanished.
‘Now,’ Mazen glanced round the table, ‘it could just be luck that these two bombers managed to get out of the car while the surveillance camera was pointing in the opposite direction, but we really don’t think so. We believe they were using the exterior mirrors to watch the camera, then walked away quickly before it swung back in their direction. We think they crossed over to the building on which the camera is mounted, waited there until it swung back, then continued down to Tujjaar and turned left.’
‘Why left?’ Jackson asked.
‘Because of this.’ Mazen now handed out a fourth photograph. It showed the south-east section of Al-Mutanabi, and at the end of the street two figures in white gellabbiyas were visible — one turning left into Tujjaar, the other immediately behind him but staring down Al-Mutanabi.
‘Now this is somewhat tenuous, but because these two men are so close together we believe they must be the perpetrators. The surveillance camera showed no other pair of men together anywhere in Al-Mutanabi, in either direction. The rest were either in groups of three or more, or individuals.’
‘“Tenuous” is right, Tariq,’ Richter interrupted. ‘There were two men in the car — the photograph makes that clear — but they could have separated as soon as they got out of the vehicle, and headed in different directions.’
‘I would agree with you,’ Mazen replied, extracting another set of photographs from his briefcase, ‘except for this.’
Richter studied the image carefully. In this one, the first of the two men had already disappeared into Tujjaar, but the second was still staring down Al-Mutanabi and, even though the image was too low-resolution to show much detail, he appeared to be smiling and waving his arm.
‘We think the bastard was waving at the camera, knowing he couldn’t be identified at that distance.’
‘You may be right, Tariq,’ Evans said, ‘but it doesn’t get us any further forward. You certainly can’t identify the man from this photograph. In fact, you can barely make out his features.’
‘I agree with Bill,’ Richter remarked. ‘I don’t think we’re going anywhere with this. All it tells us is that the vehicle containing the bomb was delivered to Al-Mutanabi by two men, who then probably walked into Tujjaar and vanished. I’m more interested in why they decided to position the Chevy just there. Have you found out anything significant about the location?’
‘We’ve one possible lead,’ Mazen replied, ‘but first there are some things I need to explain to you. The political situation here is fragile, with numerous pressure groups demanding radical changes. Not including the political parties, we have at least seven active organizations. They all have different agendas, but are united in their opposition to the present system. They’re also opposed to each other, and we suspect that this car bomb may have been an attack by one group upon another. Investigation shows that three rooms in a building about seventy yards from the explosion were occupied by a small but aggressive group called Bahraini Jihad. This building was only slightly damaged.’
‘Perhaps they couldn’t park right outside the target,’ Evans suggested, ‘so they got as close as they could, just to send a message.’
‘A hell of a message,’ Richter said sourly, ‘to kill half a dozen people but leave the target virtually unscathed. If hitting Bahraini Jihad was the objective, Tariq, who do you think was responsible?’
‘It might have been another small militant group here known as Sharaf. That word means honour, Paul, and to an Arab male the most important thing, even more important than his own life, is his honour. But such honour has to be earned through deeds that will bring him praise and renown.’
‘What do you know about them?’
‘Not a great deal,’ Mazen replied, ‘and a lot of the evidence is circumstantial. Two months ago a terrorist plot was discovered, aimed against the American base at Al-Jufayr. The plotters had assembled over fifty kilos of high-yield explosive, automatic weapons and plenty of ammunition. We had no idea at all that an assault was being planned, but then we received an extremely accurate tip-off, purportedly sent by Bahraini Jihad. By working with the local police, and the base’s security force, we succeeded in arresting all those named. Under interrogation, one of the conspirators admitted to being a member of Sharaf, and that was the first time we’d heard of the group. He further claimed that Sharaf was dedicated to the complete removal of all American interests from the Gulf.’
‘I would have thought most local terrorist groups would have that on their agendas,’ Richter observed.
‘Not all of them, actually. One peculiarity of Bahraini Jihad is that its principal objective is the permanent removal of the ruling Hamad family, not the Americans; they even believe that the base could prove a useful bargaining counter in future negotiations with the West.’
‘So,’ Evans interjected, ‘that is presumably why they blew the whistle on Sharaf.’
‘It makes sense,’ Richter admitted.
Carole-Anne Jackson, who’d been sitting silently throughout this discussion, now looked up. ‘There’s something else,’ she said, ‘something we haven’t yet considered, which is Holden’s premonition. Assuming Tariq’s right about the two men wearing gellabbiyas, Holden was correct in every important detail, including the type of car used. So how the hell could he possibly have known?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ Richter said, ‘but I’m going to find out. Look, there’s not a lot more I can do here now the bomb’s gone off. I’ll probably be better employed finding out whatever else Holden has up his sleeve, so I think I’ll go back to Dubai.’
‘Not tonight you won’t,’ Evans said, ‘because the last flight’s already left, but we’ll get you a seat on the first available aircraft tomorrow morning.’