‘Very impressive, Millat, hey? Everything we hope for.’
‘Yeah,’ said Millat, despondent. ‘I s’pose. Less talk, more action, though, if you ask me. The infidel are everywhere.’
Mo nodded vigorously. ‘Oh definitely, Brother. We are two birds from the same bush on that matter. I hear there are some others,’ said Mo, lowering his voice and putting his fat, sweaty lips by Millat’s ear, ‘who are very keen on action. Immediate action. Brother Hifan spoke to me. About the 31st of December. And Brother Shiva and Brother Tyrone…’
‘Yes, yes. I know who they are. They are the beating heart of KEVIN.’
‘And they say you know the man himself – this scientist. You in good position. I hear you are his friend.’
‘Was. Was.’
‘Brother Hifan says you have the tickets to get in, that you are organizing-’
‘Shhh,’ said Millat irritably. ‘Not everyone can know. If you want to get near the centre, you’ve got to keep shtoom.’
Millat looked Mo up and down. The kurta-pyjamas that he somehow managed to make look like a late seventies Elvis flared jumpsuit. The huge stomach he rested on his knee like a friend.
Sharply, he asked, ‘You’re a bit old aren’t you?’
‘You rude little bastard. I’m strong as a bloody bull.’
‘Yeah, well, we don’t need strength,’ said Millat tapping his temple, ‘we need a little of the stuff upstairs. We’ve got to get in the place discreetly first, innit? The first evening. It’ll be crawling.’
Mo blew his nose in his hand. ‘I can be discreet.’
‘Yeah, but that means keeping shtoom.’
‘And the third thing,’ said Brother Ibrāhīm ad-Din Shukrallah, interrupting them, suddenly louder and buzzing the PA system, ‘the third thing they will try to do, is to convince you that it is human intellect and not Allah that is omnipotent, unlimited, all-powerful. They will try to convince you that your minds are not to be used to pronounce the greater glory of the Creator but to raise yourselves up equal to or beyond the Creator! And now we approach the most serious business of this evening. The greatest evil of the infidel is here, in this very borough of Brent. I will tell you, and you will not believe it, Brothers, but there is a man in this very community who believes that he can improve upon the creation of Allah. There is a man who presumes to change, adjust, modify what has been decreed. He will take an animal – an animal that Allah has created – and presume to change that creation. To create a new animal that has no name but is simply an abomination. And when he has finished with that small animal, a mouse, Brothers, when he has finished he will move to sheep, and cats and dogs. And who in this lawless society will stop him from one day creating a man? A man born not of woman but from a man’s intellect alone! And he will tell you that it is medicine… but KEVIN makes no complaint against medicine. We are a sophisticated community who count many doctors amongst us, my Brothers. Don’t be misled, deluded, fooled. This is not medicine. And my question to you, Brothers of KEVIN, is who will make the sacrifice and stop this man? Who will stand up alone in the name of the Creator, and show the modernists that the Creator’s laws still exist and are eternal? Because they will try and tell you, the modernists, the cynics, the Orientalists, that there are no more beliefs, that our history, our culture, our world is over. So thinks this scientist. That is why he so confidently presumes. But he will soon understand what is truly meant by last days. So who will show him-’
‘Yes, shtoom, yes, I understand,’ said Mo, speaking to Millat, but looking straight ahead as in a spy movie.
Millat looked around the room and saw that Hifan was giving him the eye, so he gave it to Shiva, who gave it to Abdul-Jimmy and Abdul-Colin, to Tyrone and the rest of the Kilburn crew, who were stationed by the walls as stewards at particular points in the room. Hifan gave Millat the eye once more, then he looked at the back room. Discreet movement began.
‘Something is happening?’ whispered Mo, spotting the men with the green steward sashes, making their way through the crowds.
‘Come into the office,’ said Millat.