‘Well it’s because you were pregnant.’
‘What? Really?’
‘Of course. Fielding thought I was being a sentimental fool. He is actually more ruthless than me.’
‘Was,’ said Gerry.
‘He’s dead? You killed him?’
‘You’re not going to believe this, but we were having a conversation a little like this when he had a heart attack. I actually tried to save him you know. I performed CPR for nearly fifteen minutes while I waited for the ambulance to arrive.’ She smiled. ‘I had persuaded him to sign a letter declaring that Richard Cornwall was a loyal servant of the Crown and recommending that he succeed him as Director of Operations.’
‘And do you think that Fielding’s recommendation will carry sufficient weight?’
‘By itself, perhaps not, but you are going to add your support for Cornwall’s promotion.’ She opened a document folder and handed over a letter. ‘Here you are. This is the kind of thing you should write.’
He looked at the letter. ‘Very well. Cornwall’s a good man.’
‘Yes he is, and so is this man.’ She handed him a photo. ‘You have Dan released, you leave us alone and you leave the Hamsin family alone.’
‘That’s all you want?’
‘Yes, but I have another question.’
‘Go on.’
‘When I was talking to Ali Hamsin on the raft, he asked me if it helped a man’s family to know that he died by bomb or bullet before or after his country had been freed from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. reign of terror. Less than three thousand people died in the twin towers of the World Trade Centre but four thousand coalition troops died and perhaps four or five hundred thousand Iraqis died in the invasion and the years after, and yet his country had nothing to do with the atrocity in New York.’
‘Yes I’ll accept those figures. So what’s your question?’
‘Bush and Blair and the others seem strangely unrepentant about the whole ghastly, chaotic mess they left behind. How do you feel about it? Do you think it was worth it?’
‘Of course not. I hoped Gilgamesh would stop it happening.’
Three days later Dan Hall was escorted away from his work detail and into the presence of the prison governor. Without furnishing any explanation, the governor informed him that he was to be released with immediate effect. Dan’s first fear was that there would be someone waiting for him on the outside with evil intent. On asking what arrangements were available to allow him to proceed home, as he put it, he was informed that a tall woman was waiting for him outside the main gate. She had assured the governor that she would give him a lift to wherever he needed to go. With eager anticipation he walked out of the gateway a free man, encumbered only by a rucksack.
‘Dan!’ the woman yelled and he quickly dropped his pack and braced himself as Gerry ran across the street and gave him a huge hug.
‘It’s good to see you, I’m sorry it took longer than I expected, how are you?’ she asked, and he was instantly aware that his eyes were growing moist, which he felt uncomfortable with. ‘I’m fine!’ he said. ‘How come you’re here? How did you manage to get me out?’
‘I found the Gilgamesh document so I could strike a deal with Bruckner. And I’m here because I love you. Now tell me how you really are!’ She backed off a pace and looked at him; saw the tears in his eyes. ‘Well you’ve lost weight, so let’s go to the best restaurant we can find have a good meal and then we’ll buy some beers, go back to my hotel, have great sex, tell each other our stories and I for one will probably have a bloody good cry.’ She reached into a pocket and pulled out a cell phone. ‘Hold on I’m just going to tell Jasper White you’re out.’
‘Jasper! How is he?’ Dan asked.
‘He’s retired. I had a hell of a job persuading him not to go for Bruckner, but he seems fairly happy. He’s met somebody too. He introduced me to him.’
‘Him?’ exclaimed Dan, amazed.
‘Jasper’s gay. Didn’t you realise? Men can be surprisingly un-perceptive.’
‘Oh! Was Dean Furness then too?’
‘No, but Jasper told me all about it. To cut a long story short, Dean Furness was local CIA in Berlin, investigating this character named Dennis Gorley, who Jasper had got friendly with. Jasper was still in the Marines back then. Anyway it turned out Gorley was really an East German named Friedrich Steinbruck. This was just before the wall came down in 1985, so it would have turned out real bad for Jasper. Besides which, Marine officers were not expected to be gay, so his career would have tripped up. Dean went to see Jasper and together they trapped the guy, and Dean kept their personal relationship covered up. He found some incriminating photos which he destroyed.’
‘Oh! Was Dean gay too?’ Dan asked.
‘No, but his elder brother was, and so Dean was sympathetic. Several years later Jasper joined the Agency, and he found himself promoted above Dean. Dean was always a field agent, but Jasper climbed the ranks back in Langley. He and Dean remained close and some years later Dean got into trouble himself. He was taken by an Iranian border patrol, but Jasper found out where they were holding him. He mounted a rescue mission and brought him back.’
‘Good for Jasper.’
‘Did you realise that it was Jasper who told Richard Cornwall how I could find you. He put a tracker on your camper van when he found you in that camp site in West Virginia before you were warned to get away by the owner.’
‘Oh I see, that explains a lot.’
‘Yeah, and remember the old hippy guy at the campsite with the motor bike who stopped Parker from killing me.’
‘Yes of course I remember him… wait! You’re not serious! How could we have not recognised him?’
‘Well he’s the last person we would have expected to be helping us. He wants to see us when we’ve got ourselves sorted out.’
‘Good, I’ll look forward to that.’ He stopped and gazed at her. ‘Gerry, I know we’re going to eat dinner and go to a hotel and all that, but you’re… well you’re a different kind of woman from most. I need to know… are you and me an item from now on then?’
‘We are, absolutely.’
‘There’s a package delivered by UPS,’ said Hilary Morris. ‘It’s heavy, so I left it in the lobby.’ She watched Steven, her new English husband carefully inspect the package before heaving it up and carrying it through to the kitchen where he dumped it down on to the granite island unit. He looked it over and then tugged the delivery note off the outside. He read through it and then said ‘bloody hell it’s from Gerry.’
She thought his expression suddenly turned somewhat wary, or even slightly embarrassed, but they had only known each other for four months and they had only been married for three weeks so she was under no illusion that she could read his every mood or expression yet.
‘Who’s Gerry?’ was her perfectly reasonable question, but he was already tearing through the packaging and after a few moments he pulled out a book which struck her as rather old, entitled “Desolation Island” by Patrick O’Brian, with a picture of a historic ship on the front cover.
‘Gosh, it looks like a first edition!’ he exclaimed. He carefully pulled out another book and held it reverentially. ‘So is this!’ He lifted out another which was titled “The Far Side of the World.”
‘I bet they’re all here,’ he said with some excitement.
Hilary peered into the package and on top of a book titled “HMS Surprise” she saw a card which she deftly removed.
“To Steven, thank you for your help and I hope any future surprises are pleasant. Best wishes Gerry,” she read. ‘Gerry’s another one of your sailing buddies is he?’