A Fatal Game

by Nicholas Searle

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘Well, thanks. Perhaps this is the new me. Yes, in answer to the question you can’t bring yourself to ask: yes, I feel the pressure. Yes, I can hack it. Could do without you on my back, though. Or the inquiry. At least I should get shot of that tomorrow, my brief says. Was supposed to be there today but I was stood down. No idea what that’s all about.’

  ‘I heard.’

  ‘Just as well, given where we are. How was London?’

  ‘Still there. Trains were murder.’

  ‘Good meetings?’

  ‘You know. All right, I suppose. It’s a pain having to go down there.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Hope it is all done and dusted tomorrow,’ said George. ‘I need to get ready for the ELG. Be careful, won’t you?’ He was gone, pulling the door to as he took to the corridor.

  Jake raised his eyebrows and Leila did the same in reply. ‘Pillock,’ he said.

  ‘Where were we?’ she said.

  ‘The coverage.’

  ‘Right. The technical corroborates what he said. Or at least it doesn’t contradict it. They returned to their venue for a quick chat and then went about their normal daily business. Nothing out of the ordinary according to the surveillance.’

  ‘I guess they’ll want to up the surveillance now. Double shifts, no time off. Anything from their computer?’

  ‘No. Just stuff from the sites they’ve been visiting. Beheadings, haranguings, masked guys waving guns; haranguings followed by masked guys waving guns followed by beheadings. Highly professional, highly compelling, can’t take your eyes off it.’

  ‘These people know what they’re doing,’ said Jake. ‘Terrifying.’

  ‘Yeah. Anyway, there’s nothing specific to these boys.’

  ‘Messaging?’

  ‘Still can’t get in. Rashid’s still letting us know the messages he’s receiving – so far as we know – but no clue about the others. We can track the volume, and there haven’t been any blips. Just the two or three each month, not sure of where exactly they’re emanating from, but it seems to be overseas. Nothing to suggest any of the others is receiving more or fewer than Rashid. The van …’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘The registration number Rashid gave us leads nowhere.’

  ‘Did he get it wrong?’

  ‘I don’t think so. We’ve tried all the permutations and variations. I think your man must be alive to the risks and have stuck on false plates just before the boys got in.’

  ‘Nothing on number plate recognition?’

  ‘Nothing. Except, that is, six hundred and thirty-seven white vans circulating in the city between five in the morning and nine thirty. They’re still looking but it’s needle-in-the-haystack type stuff.’

  ‘Six hundred and thirty-seven.’

  ‘This is a city of three million. What can I say?’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Not that I can think of. Do we trust him?’

  ‘Don’t you have to get off?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Pick Anoushka up from the childminder?’

  ‘God, yes. Thanks. I’d forgotten what day it was. I thought it was Robbie today.’

  ‘It’s Wednesday. Isn’t he Monday, Thursday and Friday?’

  ‘Cheers. Thanks for reminding me.’

  That was the more normal Jake: considerate yet distant. She pushed the chair back and made to go. As she did so she asked again, ‘Do we trust Rashid?’

  ‘That’s the question, isn’t it? And the answer is, of course not. We listen to what he says and correlate, triangulate. We take what he says seriously and test it. If there’s a pattern of reliability, it gives us a presumption of confidence. A working hypothesis. But that has to be tested continuously, and we need to have things in place in case he’s lying. Source handling 101, if you like.’

  ‘But what do you think?’

  ‘What I think doesn’t matter. We behave as if we don’t think anything. We’re completely neutral. We respond to facts and events.’

  ‘Yes, but what do you think?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I believe him, I think.’

  ‘Yes, well, he is very convincing, isn’t he?’

  8

  THURSDAY

  This time, the meeting was formal, like all the weekly counterterrorist briefings that Stuart Calloway was required to attend as Director Ops, in the Home Secretary’s office and recorded on a steno pad by a civil servant who would convert his shorthand into a minute of the meeting, crafted of gilded prose, to be circulated by midday.

  Stuart waited in the outer office until it was time to enter the presence. The Commissioner was not yet here. Must be running late. This was bad form indeed and privately he hoped that the Home Sec would derive a subliminal message from it. It was all very well the boss and Stuart’s underlings chanting the mantra that they and the police were joined at the hip on all matters. He, on the contrary, was alive to the realpolitik of the situation. He had perhaps to be more sly than if it were a matter of open warfare, but there were many ways of skinning the particular cat of sharp elbows with the Met, he thought, furiously mixing the mental metaphors. Faint praise and feigned puzzlement were always useful tools to have in the armoury. However cheery relations were at present, it would always do to be operating at a slight advantage, to be pressed home as necessary should things become more strained. So sod the boss, with his messages of unalloyed sweetness and light. Stuart took it upon himself to paint in the contextual shadows.

  When the young bespectacled Private Secretary opened the door from the office, he had his opening gambit prepared for the few minutes before the Commissioner arrived. The police, he’d say, were extraordinarily adept at their particular business of catching criminals and prosecuting them, as well, of course, as protecting the public. Extraordinarily, that is, notwithstanding recent events. Yet were they quite so highly attuned to political risk and, more to the point, opportunity? Small ‘p’, naturally: those risks that threatened the futures of the agencies involved in these joint enterprises and the careers of their principals. Including Chief Constables, the Commissioner and, of course, himself. Not, in the main, ministers. Should, indeed, the police’s lives be cluttered by such considerations? Nevertheless, someone, somehow, had to take a wider view. It sounded hollow in his head, for ministers would hardly be concerned at the best of times for the welfare of functionaries, and there was clear benefit now to be derived from the spooks taking the sins of all-comers on to their shoulders. The Home Secretary would need to be braced up by something different: existential personal peril.

  He gave his best, most winning smile as he entered, only to find the Commissioner already sitting at the conference table.

  ‘We had other business, Stuart,’ said the Home Secretary, not looking up from the pieces of paper on the table, by way of welcome, introduction and explanation.

  ‘Of course,’ he said, the smile intact, and sat down in the seat the Commissioner slid back for him. They murmured hellos.

  ‘Now,’ said the Home Secretary, ‘I understand you wish to update me on this operation.’

  ‘Thank you, Home Secretary. Though the Commissioner will undoubtedly also be able to add value. After all, when it comes to it, it will be a police matter. In the best possible way, we hope.’ He smiled, and bowed slightly at the Commissioner as if to signal deference.

  ‘Fire away.’

  ‘The intelligence indicates that an attack is imminent. It’s due to take place in six days’ time, next Wednesday.’

  ‘It’s the big Champions League game against Real Madrid that evening,’ explained the Commissioner.

  ‘The plan is to mount the attack at the end of the game, outside the ground, as the crowd is leaving,’ said Stuart.

  ‘I see,’ said the Home Secretary. ‘So you’re making plans to deal with it.’

  ‘That’s right. We have continuing good access to intelligence on the attack
planning, and the police should be well placed as things stand to time their interventions.’

  ‘But?’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘I sense a but, Stuart.’

  ‘No. No buts. You will wish to be aware, however, that this operation does not come without risks.’

  ‘Do they ever?’

  The Commissioner and Stuart both smiled.

  ‘Well then?’ said the Home Secretary.

  ‘You know the basic story?’

  ‘I believe I can retain these things in my mind, yes. And Angus keeps comprehensive notes.’

  ‘You will understand, then, that this scenario has more than a passing resemblance to the events of last December. Not merely that these events are being enacted in the same city.’

  ‘Carry on.’

  The Commissioner said, ‘Down to the fact that a rehearsal is planned before the attack proper.’

  ‘That sounds fairly uncomfortable for you. And you have an asset in the centre of this, Stuart?’

  ‘Indeed. But this situation is rather different.’

  ‘Your business entirely. But out of curiosity …?’

  ‘We have developed several strands of reporting, all of which are being fed direct to the police. And I have to say that our pivotal source is very firmly established and stable.’

  ‘Where have I heard that before? Your judgement, of course. Go on.’

  ‘There are, as ever, risks and benefits to be weighed and fine judgement calls to be made. There are the obvious concerns about the previous incident and not least the optics should things not go well this time round.’

  ‘The optics?’

  ‘And the reality of course,’ said the Commissioner. ‘The Chief Constable up there is very conscious of the need to protect public safety.’

  ‘I bet he is. How long’s he been in post now?’

  ‘Two months. Bob’s sound. I’ve talked it through with him and for the moment he’s content.’

  ‘For the moment.’

  ‘For the moment he’s prepared to let this run. All we have at present are the alleged conspirators’ reported words. We have little that would constitute compelling evidence. It’s even possible that it’s all empty aspirational rhetoric.’

  ‘But unlikely,’ Stuart said.

  ‘As things develop we’ll be looking to intervene as soon as public safety becomes an issue.’

  Stuart said, ‘I agree with everything the Commissioner has said. The converse is, of course, that if intervention were precipitate and premature we’d have wasted an opportunity and there could be media blowback. The bottom line is that we have the potential for a real success that would place the station incident, with all its tragic consequences, in its correct perspective.’

  The Commissioner looked at him.

  ‘So it’s all under control? Is that what I’m hearing?’ asked the Home Secretary, looking from Stuart to the Commissioner and back again.

  ‘Yes,’ said the Commissioner.

  ‘More or less,’ said Stuart and beamed.

  ‘So? Are you looking to me for a pat on the head? A gold star?’

  ‘No,’ said Stuart.

  ‘Or, more to the point, some endorsement? Are you reinsuring, Stuart? A little bit of an each-way bet, is it?’

  ‘Certainly not.’

  ‘But a problem shared, eh? Let’s be clear. The decisions are for you to make based on your knowledge, expert skills and experience. I don’t know enough of the detail. And anyway, it’d be inappropriate for me to interfere with your operational judgements.’

  Stuart smiled. ‘We felt it prudent to alert you to the political risks.’

  ‘How considerate. There’s no need to be so concerned about me, Stuart. I can look after myself. Things will fall as they fall. As I may have said to you on more than one occasion in the past. Focus on the operational judgements you have to reach, and what will be will be. The division of responsibilities between the three of us is perfectly clear. I have every confidence in you. Well, you evidently both have a lot to think about. You’d better get on with it. By the way – not for the notes, Angus, so you can put your pen down, please – I’m reliably informed that the counsel for the inquiry plans to drop a little hand grenade today.’

  ‘Really?’ said Stuart, with apparent insouciance.

  ‘Something to do with the American dimension.’

  Stuart looked alarmed and glanced at his watch before standing. ‘How on earth do they know about that?’

  ‘I really can’t imagine,’ said the Home Secretary. ‘Still, it might help clear the air a bit, mightn’t it? And I shouldn’t bother rushing, Stuart. I’d imagine the inquiry’s in session by now.’

  ‘Did you really have to, Stuart?’ said the Commissioner as they left the building.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The optics. The correct perspective. Give me strength.’

  ‘Mr Kerr yesterday was pressing you over whether you felt contrition and remorse,’ said Ms Jarvis, the counsel for the inquiry. ‘Did you feel that to be unfair?’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Jake dully. ‘I may have been unable to describe my feelings adequately.’

  ‘These proceedings are not conducted for your benefit, a fact of which I’m sure you’re aware.’

  ‘Yes, I am. Anything I can do to help I will try to do.’

  ‘Good. There were, however, areas you were reluctant to go into.’

  ‘There were things that I’d been advised I wasn’t at liberty to discuss. That was all, not reluctance.’

  ‘Then to whom should this inquiry go to probe these matters?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘You’ll see our difficulty. The government has promised this inquiry free rein to investigate what it needs to; to go where it needs to.’

  ‘Was there not a reference to aspects that could cause damage to national security?’

  ‘Indeed. Well spotted.’

  ‘Presumably there are agreed methods of pursuing those aspects?’

  ‘There are. Yes,’ the counsel agreed. ‘Where there are matters of genuine security concern …’

  She paused, before looking at Jake again.

  ‘It won’t surprise you to learn that we spent some of yesterday considering this.’

  ‘I had no idea what you were considering.’

  ‘We were considering what might constitute damage to national security. We thought we might consult the counsel for your employers.’

  Jake looked blankly at her.

  ‘But in the end we decided we shouldn’t.’

  ‘I don’t really see –’

  ‘I’m simply trying to explain our thinking processes to you, the interested parties and their representatives.’

  The counsel for the Service stood.

  ‘Now, would you like to tell us all about the Americans?’ asked Ms Jarvis with a smile.

  The Service’s counsel sat down.

  ‘The Americans,’ said Jake. He recalled the conversations in the office.

  Under no circumstances mention the Americans.

  And if I’m asked?

  You won’t be.

  But if I am, I’m not going to lie. I’ll tell it as it was.

  Feel free. But it’s a hypothetical question.

  ‘That’s right. Take your time.’

  ‘I’m not sure I –’

  ‘We’ve taken external legal advice,’ said Ms Jarvis, ‘and reached the judgement that these are legitimate questions.’

  The counsel for the Service stood and said, ‘I wouldn’t wish to interrupt proceedings, but if it would please the Chair …’

  Ms Jarvis sat.

  ‘… I would at this point like to question relevance.’

  The Chair looked at him. ‘Relevance? It’s not a question of damage for you?’

  ‘Not at this stage. We would not wish to convey the impression of being obstructive or to use the concept of national security as a catch-all to prevent areas being explore
d. Nevertheless, we would wish to pose the question whether this is germane to this inquiry’s remits. Whether this will actually assist the process of discovering the reasons for this tragedy and what needs to be put right. Perhaps a brief discussion of the issues between counsel?’

  ‘Thank you,’ said the Chair. ‘I’m grateful for your desire to expedite matters. As the counsel for the inquiry indicates, we’ve considered this question at length. We’d thought it possible you might raise objections for reasons of national security. We had reached the preliminary conclusion that such objections would be valid only if there was the potential for sensitive techniques, sources or relationships to become public in a manner that damaged security. We’d have wished to test your representations, of course. We’d already concluded, for instance, that the intelligence relationship with the United States is so widely known that its mere mention could hardly fall into this category. So your statement clarifies and confirms this helpfully.’

  The counsel nodded. His assistant scrabbled through his papers.

  The Chair continued. ‘So far as relevance is concerned, I rather think the point is that the relevance of this line of questioning will be determined once it is exhausted. I remind you that this is not a court of law and that our primary concern must be for the positions of the families and survivors and the future assurance of public safety. I’m content to allow a certain latitude. It may reassure you that we will not be inviting questions to this witness on this matter from the other interested parties, so as to minimize the risks to national security.’

  Ms Jarvis stood again. ‘The Americans, then.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jake. ‘The Americans. May I say one thing?’

  ‘Yes.’ She looked at him suspiciously.

  ‘I’m glad that this has come up. It’s right. I wasn’t expecting it to, however, so I may not have the full detail in my mind. That’s not being evasive, I simply may not remember.’

  ‘We’ll see about that. Was it the Americans who introduced you to Abu Omar?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘This was when?’

  ‘About ten months ago now. About six months before the attack. I can’t recall the precise date.’

  ‘In what circumstances?’

  ‘Sometime before that, the London representatives of our US counterparts came to see my superiors. I wasn’t present at the meeting. It was written up at the time, though.’