‘That makes sense, but why didn’t you say so before?’
‘I wasn’t sure if this stash would still be in place. It’s been over six years.’
‘Who’s this guy Reynolds in the passport?’ he asked.
She suddenly looked deeply sad. ‘That’s Philip Barrett. Phil. It was one of his.’
‘Oh… I’m sorry.’
‘It’s ok. I’ve got through it and now I have you with me.’ She managed a smile. ‘Come on, we’re going to take the Eurostar to Paris and tomorrow we’ll fly to Amman. We can get visas on arrival there.’
‘Amman? We’re going to Kuwait!’
‘Our destination’s Amman; that’s where I hope to find Rashid Hamsin. Kuwait’s a piece of misdirection, in case we were tracked.’
‘So that’s why we flew out of Halifax instead of Toronto? You don’t trust Felix?’
‘If Grainger or Maddon talk, they’ll say we’re going to Kuwait, but it’s in Amman I hope to catch up with Rashid Hamsin.’
‘So in case I was captured, I wouldn’t have known either,’ said Dan. She nodded. ‘Well you might have told me before now, it’s like you don’t trust me.’
‘I do trust you; it’s just that I’ve been on my own for so long.’
‘You’re not alone any longer. What’s the Eurostar?’
‘It’s the train through the channel tunnel and on to Paris.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
‘How the hell can you have lost them?’ General Bruckner bellowed into the telephone.
‘They didn’t turn up for the Kuwait flight they were booked on,’ replied Neil Samms.
‘You were meant to follow them when they arrived at Heathrow until they got on that goddam airplane; what happened to that?’
‘Well that was Weitzman’s job, General.’
Gary Weitzman, standing next to Samms, closed his eyes and grimaced while Samms grinned. ‘Would you like to speak to him?’
‘Not really, but put him on anyway.’ Samms held out the handset and Weitzman took hold of it as if it were red hot.
‘Weitzman here, General.’
‘Ok Gary, what’s the story?’
‘Tate and Hall came off the Halifax flight at terminal three, then they went down to the underground railway station there. They suddenly went into a door marked staff only and jammed it behind them. There’s a sort of network of corridors leading to fire exits and by the time we got through the door they had disappeared. She just had good local knowledge General.’
‘So she knew she was being followed?’
‘I don’t know General. I think maybe she was just taking precautions.’
‘Ok Gary, we’ve got all the airports covered and we’ve got their passport details. And our team in Kuwait are ready to pick them up when they arrive?’
‘Oh yes their ready, they’ll not make it through. The Kuwaitis are on side.’
‘And the Brits are cooperating?’
‘Yessir, they’re after them too.’
‘Ok Gary, I’ll be in touch.’
‘Yes General.’
Weitzman replaced the handset and grinned at Samms who looked at him in open mouthed wonder. ‘I don’t believe that! You frigging well lose them and rather than bawling you out he talks to you like an old pal of his! You’ve got a charmed life Weitzman!’
‘Those two are fucking idiots!’ Bruckner complained to Sir Hugh Fielding. ‘I’m gonna have their heads if anything else goes wrong.’
‘I wouldn’t be too hard on them Robert. Yes, they were clumsy to lose Tate and Hall, but Tate is a devious bitch; always has been. We’ll see what Cornwall has to say. What about Felix Grainger? Are you going to have him taken up?’
‘No he can stay out there on a long lead. Annie Maddon is reporting to me on his activities. Now we’ll be landing in twenty five minutes; let’s hope Cornwall hasn’t checked out.’
Richard and Fiona Cornwall had just finished packing their suitcases in preparation for their flight back to London and they were standing on the balcony gazing out towards the setting sun. There was a knock on the door.
‘That’ll be the porter,’ he said.
‘He’s a bit early but we’re ready so we might as well go,’ said Fiona she marched to the door and as her husband had always insisted she peered through the spy hole to identify their caller. ‘Oh!’ she said, ‘it’s not the porter, it’s a couple of policemen.’ She turned to her husband and gave him a look of inquiry.
‘Come into the bathroom! Now!’
Although for the last twenty years she had been a speech therapist, a wife and a mother, for seven years before that Fiona Cornwall had been an employee of MI6. She quickly checked the door bolt was secure and then grabbed a chair from behind the desk and dragged it into the bathroom and placed it behind the locked door while her husband tapped away at his I-Phone. She winced and gritted her teeth as the hotel room door gave way with a splintering crash.’
She heard muffled voices and then there was a knock on the bathroom door. ‘Ok would you come out please?’
‘What’s going on? We’re in the bath together!’ she said and saw her husband give a quick smile.
‘No you’re not, you asked for the luggage porter to come up in five minutes from now and you’re due to check out.’
‘Well we’re still busy in here!’
‘Open the door!’
‘Ok I’m nearly finished,’ Cornwall muttered. He quickly pulled the sim card from the phone and flushed it down the toilet. ‘We’ll open up,’ he called out.
Fiona dragged the chair away and opened the door.
‘What’s the meaning of this intrusion,’ she demanded with as much outrage as she could summon. Then she saw another man walk into the room.
‘Why Sir Hugh, what a nice surprise!’
‘Belt up Fiona,’ Fielding ordered. ‘Richard, you’ve some questions to answer. You’re coming to London with me. Your wife can go with British Airways.’
Robert Bruckner watched Richard Cornwall and Sir Hugh Fielding climb out of the car and then enter the cabin. The suave Englishman was too much of a professional to appear the least bit flustered and settled himself in the Gulfstream’s luxurious seat as if he was a guest rather than a man under arrest.
‘Jasper White has told us what’s been going on,’ Bruckner said without any preamble. ‘You’re up to your fucking neck in it.’
‘Yes but in what exactly?’ Cornwall asked. ‘A conspiracy to conceal the truth about a clandestine operation before the Iraq invasion. One that was too sensitive to be revealed by Philip Barrett or Dean Furness who were both killed, or by Ali Hamsin and Gerry Tate, both of whom were locked up. Then when you thought that you’d have to release Hamsin, you had this idea that he might be prepared to talk to Gerry Tate, and then when that didn’t work you were going to have them both incarcerated in some godforsaken prison cell. Or were you planning to just kick them both out of the plane, mid-Atlantic?
‘The only thing I haven’t worked out is what exactly it is you’re trying to keep covered up, and how high it goes. It obviously includes the two of you, but who else wants it kept hidden I wonder?’
‘You’re a smart man Richard, you always have been,’ said Fielding. ‘But of course what you’re saying is hogwash.’
‘You mean I can’t prove it. So what have you got lined up for me? Is something going to be pinned on me?’
‘We reckon we’ll have you for the murder of Geraldine Tate.’
Cornwall was quiet for a moment. ‘So you’ve managed to catch up with her, have you?’