by James Green
If this information surprised her, she didn’t show it.
‘Didn’t it? Maybe the fuse or whatever it was failed.’
‘Do you want to know why I think it didn’t go off?’
‘If you want to tell me?’
‘Because there was no bomb in the van. What they got at the airport was a case, a packing case marked machine parts but to them it was their bomb. The man who gave it to them had the right identification so they just took delivery. Then they set off for Rome and ran straight into the police who were waiting for them, just like you’d planned.’
‘So you think there was there no bomb?’
‘Oh yes, there had to be a bomb for this farce to have happened. And now you’ve got it.’
‘I assure you that …’
‘Wriggle all you like, piss me about with half-truths and fancy words. You personally haven’t got it but the Vatican has it, or knows where it is.’
McBride let the thing go. If he’d worked it out he’d worked it out. Just listen to what he thought he knew and then find out what he wanted.
‘This only makes sense if you switched the bomb when it was picked up in Italy. After the bomb was safely in your hands you could let things go on because nothing bad could happen. The bombers would get caught and everything would be neatly wrapped up.’
‘Neatly wrapped up?’
‘You had the proof, the proof of who was really behind it. You had the bomb, you had the Chinese who had sold the plutonium, the Pakistani scientist who had put it together, and the Lebanese who was supposed to collect it and pass it on. You even had the men who were supposed to have done it. There was a beautiful trail from Pakistan down to Lebanon and on to Italy where a couple of radicalised, young British Muslims were to have carried out the actual attack. It comes out as a straight Al Qaeda-sponsored attack.’
‘But you think something else?’
‘I know it was. It was set up by to put the Christian world against the Muslim, to make everyone take sides.’
‘And who do you think might want such a thing to happen?’
‘The Americans. This was all a CIA operation so their War on Terror could be fought to a conclusion.’ She was about to speak but Jimmy didn’t give her the chance. ‘If I wanted to radicalise every Muslim you know what I would do? I’d bomb Mecca, preferably during the Hadj. That would hit every Muslim across the globe, moderates, secular, Westernised, the lot. Turn it round, make Rome the target, and you get the same result only with Christians, not Muslims.’ She looked at him with genuine surprise as he went on. ‘You didn’t get anything from the Chinese. Somehow you got wind of it, someone leaked the plan to you so you had to see that it never happened but you couldn’t afford to point the finger at the American government. The only way was for you to let it happen and then step in at the last minute and take the bomb. Then you’d be in a position to say, “We know all about it and we can prove it, so don’t ever try anything like it again, anywhere.” The Chinese choosing the Vatican to help out was just crap, like the target could have been in any European country was crap. The Vatican was the target from day one.’
The surprise had left McBride’s face. Now there was a slight hint of worry. She had been right to find out what he thought he knew. He was indeed a good detective, but he had gone too far, he had overshot. He hadn’t let her point his nose for him, he’d gone where he wanted to go, not where he was supposed to go. Now he posed a real danger.
‘I’m afraid you’re quite wrong, Mr Costello. The American government, I assure you, through their intelligence services or in any other way, would never contemplate using a nuclear device against Rome, against the Holy Father.’
‘No lies, remember. Don’t take to sinning at this stage of the game. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You said you started digging into my past when I resurrected my application. That was when you were looking to recruit. But that had to be wrong, the time-scale didn’t fit did it?’ He paused, he was just about sure. ‘You told the Chinese that an approach would be made to their man to get plutonium. You told them, they didn’t tell you.’
Her reply was quiet.
‘Yes.’
‘And Cheng was acting for you both. He was your secure line of communication?’
She nodded.
Now was the time. Now he could tell her what he knew, what he had worked out.
‘It was the Americans, wasn’t it? Unite the West against Islam. One billion Catholics world-wide baying for blood and the Americans leading the pack.’ Jimmy was trying very hard not to let his anger take over. He wanted to be right more than he wanted to be angry. ‘For Christ’s sake, it’s like,’ he struggled for words, ‘it’s like stealing God. Only the Americans would be so fucking arrogant as to think that they had the right to …’
She didn’t interrupt because of Jimmy’s language. She interrupted because he needed to know the truth, the real truth, and he needed to know it now.
THIRTY-SIX
‘We were told very early in the planning. But it wasn’t as you think.’
‘What is it about you Americans, why is it never your fault? Why can your people never be the bad guys?’
‘I assure you, Mr Costello, it is not some patriotic, blinkered view which makes me say it was not America.’
Jimmy sneered at her. His anger was taking over. He wanted it to.
‘America, always banging on about being leader of the Free World. America doesn’t want to be leader of the Free World, it wants to be the bloody owner of the Free World, to do anything they like with the Free World so long as it suits their interest.’
‘Mr Costello.’ There was a sharpness in her voice that stopped Jimmy. ‘Mr Costello, it was not the Americans.’
Jimmy shut down his anger. This woman was hard to call. She said she’d told him the truth and in a way she had, in a twisted sort of way. Was she telling the truth now or was she still trying to give him a run-around? No, he was sure. It had to the Americans.
‘Prove it to me. If not the Americans, who? And don’t try to give me terrorists.’
‘Just as a matter of interest, why not?’
‘Because from start to finish no real terrorists were used. Real terrorists would have used their own people. They would have to buy the scientist but they would have used their own to move the bomb from Beirut to Italy, not some freelancers. The two British students were probably why the bomb sat in Beirut for so long, while they were given some sort of training. They were new recruits, stooges, who only needed to collect the crate, drive it to Rome, then sing the right song when they got picked up. And why target the Vatican? If terrorists had a nuclear device and could move it they’d send it to an American port and let it off as soon as the ship docked. They wouldn’t even have needed to unload it. They would have made their point. We can get to you, nowhere is safe now. For terrorists the target would have been America, not the Vatican.’
‘Very well, Mr Costello, not terrorists, at least not what people call terrorists in the current sense.’
‘So if not America then who?’
‘I can’t tell you, Mr Costello.’
‘Can’t or won’t?’
‘Can’t and won’t. I am not allowed to tell you. I have undertaken to keep that information secret. There is no way I will give you a direct or indirect answer to the question. I’m afraid it is something you must work out for yourself.’
The awful part, she thought, is that now I have to make him believe me. He only has my word for it that it is not the Americans, but he has to believe me enough to work it out. And please God he’s good enough to work it out. She waited.
‘OK, I have to ask you a straight question and I have to have a straight answer. Maybe then I’ll know enough to decide what I might do, if I do anything.’
She nodded. She knew what was coming. If she answered his question properly, he might finally accept he had made a mistake. Although whether that was better than how things stood at the m
oment was very much a moot point.
‘Were the Americans involved?’
McBride was ready for it.
‘There are extreme Christian groups in America who believe that the Second Coming of Christ can only take place after Armageddon. They would welcome anything that brings that day closer. They might very well view the prospect of the Middle East conflict going nuclear as one way of bringing about Armageddon, thereby bringing the Second Coming. There are also elements on the American Right who would welcome any action which polarised opinion between the Muslim and non-Muslim world and allowed the War on Terror to be waged without restraint to a conclusion. This is all common knowledge, Mr Costello, you do not have to have spent a lifetime watching the international political scene to know that these realities are at work, but any unholy alliance between military hawks and Christian fundamentalists would not be supported in any way by the government.’
‘Or the intelligence agencies?’
She knew it had to be the truth this time, just the truth.
‘One cannot rule out that within the intelligence community such an option has been discussed.’
‘So?’
‘So, yes, there were almost certainly people in America, important, influential people who would not have been party to planning such an operation but could have known about it and done nothing to stop it. Such people would have been ready and waiting to persuade the American government that, if it had happened, it should be used to the benefit of America, that what was done could not be undone and the best use should be made of the situation on the ground. It would have been a powerful argument but, as it is, we will never know what might have been the ultimate outcome.’
Suddenly something she had said switched a light on in Jimmy’s brain and he could see his mistake. He had become convinced it was the Americans because he wanted it that way. Now he could see who else benefited.
‘This wasn’t about starting Armageddon, was it? It was about stopping it.’ She sat in silence. He was there. ‘It was the bloody Israelis. If the world thought terrorists had nuked the Vatican the Israelis could call it a first strike and reply in kind by hitting Iran. They’re shit scared of the Iranians going nuclear. If they took out an Iranian development facility with a strategic nuclear attack that would send the message from Egypt to Syria and beyond: we will use a nuclear response to any attempt to create nuclear weapons in the region. No western government would object. After what had happened to Rome the Israelis would be the good guys, showing they’d take out any facility in the region they thought was being used to develop a nuclear weapons capacity. They’d be making sure the status quo remained, with Israel as the only nuclear power in the region. The bloody Israelis. Why didn’t I see it?’
‘Because you wanted it to be the Americans, Mr Costello. So many people want the Americans to be the bad guys and you’ve just found you are one of them.’
‘The bloody Israelis.’
‘No, Mr Costello, you’re close, but it wasn’t the Israelis, not the government anyway. It was a combination of a radical splinter group in their military and an extreme religious political group. Between them they dreamed up the plan and set it up. Fortunately for us one of the military involved told his wife. She couldn’t accept that the loss of so many innocent lives justified what they were planning to do. As it happened she had specialised in classical history when she was at university and spent some time in Rome. I’m sure that the loss of so many historical treasures weighed with her just as much as innocent lives. Anyway, whatever her reasons, she didn’t dare go to her own people because that may have placed her husband in danger so she went to a priest friend and asked him what to do. He contacted, well, never mind who he contacted. The matter arrived at the Collegio Principe and we took it from there.’
‘The Collegio Principe, your college?’
‘Yes, my college, not the Vatican. It was a matter of politics, power, and religion, so it came under our remit of action.’
Jimmy sat trying to see it.
‘But, surely, Fr Phan, the monsignor, surely …’
‘The Collegio enjoys excellent relations with many institutions in Rome as it does with many academic institutions, governments, and government agencies. They are always willing to assist if the project in hand seems to justify support.’
She waited and gave him time.
‘So what are you, some sort of Vatican secret service?’
‘I told you, Mr Costello, we study politics, power, and religion. What good would all those centuries of study be if they resulted in nothing but yet more words? Study leads to knowledge and the proper use of knowledge is action, right action. What good would the CIA or any other intelligence service be if all it did was put its knowledge into words and never take any action. We knew the people planning the attack were going to approach the Chinese because she told the priest they had identified a nuclear scientist who was known to have sold bits and pieces. We acted on our knowledge and took the necessary right action. We warned the Chinese. The rest you know.’
‘The rest I found out.’
‘If you prefer it that way. If the attack had gone ahead the political group which sponsored the attack would have pressured the Israeli government to follow it up, to, as you said, make the best use of the situation on the ground.’
‘What’s done is done, let’s make the best of it.’
‘Yes.’
‘And would they have gone ahead?’
‘Oh I think so. It was a very good idea and very well done. It would certainly have been taken as an Islamic terrorist attack and it gave them a way of justifying strikes against any nuclear weapons facility their neighbours in the region tried to build.’
‘Now they’ll all have to go on killing each other with conventional weapons?’
‘Regrettably yes. As far as the Israeli-Palestine conflict is concerned our success changes nothing.’
‘What about the Chinese, won’t they want the plutonium back?’
‘They can have it any time they ask for it, but they have plenty. I think they’ll prefer it to stay where it is and do the job we want.’
‘Why did they want Chinese plutonium? Couldn’t they have got some from inside Israel?’
‘I don’t know, but they couldn’t have used it. If the bomb had gone off it would have left a nuclear footprint. The radiation could be examined and the source of the plutonium identified. If they used their own plutonium the Americans would have recognised the footprint as Israeli because they gave Israel the bomb in the first place. The source had to point to a terrorist bomb which meant it had to come from somewhere like China, India, or Pakistan. It had to be an illegal sale.’ Jimmy sat back and the professor relaxed. Now it really was all over. ‘What will you do now, Mr Costello? You have some dangerous and very powerful information. There are those who would pay well for what you know.’
‘I don’t need any more money.’
‘A sentiment as refreshing as it is rare. So what will you do?’
‘Can I go on studying for the priesthood?’
‘Perhaps, if I do not share what I know about you with the relevant authorities. I’m afraid if they knew the sort of person you really are they would insist on your departure.’
‘Will you tell them?’
‘Does it matter? Can you still see yourself as a priest?’
‘I don’t know. What does a priest look like on the inside?’
‘A good question but not one to which I have any answer.’
‘What about Ricci?’
‘He was satisfied it was all over when the bombers were intercepted.’
‘But when he finds out that the crate doesn’t contain any bomb – what is in it, by the way?’
‘Tractor machine parts, as it said on the manifest.’
‘Well, he’ll find out and he’ll start thinking. He’s not such a bad detective. He might very well get as far as I did.’
‘I doubt it. I doubt anyone will. The two student
s were targeted because they could be radicalised. As you said, they were unsuspecting young men carefully selected and trained well away from any real Islamic group. They’ll admit to everything. They’ll glory in what they tried to do. The police may even give them a real but conventional bomb, with a faulty trigger of course, and let them have their day in court and their years in prison. It would seem to be the best ending all round. They get to be heroes of jihad, the police get to be heroes of democracy, we get our evidence. Only the fanatics lose out.’
‘For the moment.’
‘Sadly, yes, only for the moment. The search for a nuclear capacity in the region by those states determined to remove Israel from the map will continue. Our success, I agree, can be looked on as a mixed blessing.’ Jimmy stood up. ‘Are you going, Mr Costello?’
‘If you’ve told me everything I should know. Have you?’
‘You were not supposed to know anything, Mr Costello, other than what you were told.’
‘No lies, remember; have you told me everything I should know, yes or no?’
She paused before answering. He was asking a direct question and it required a direct answer. God, she hated telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It made things so very difficult. Sometimes you just had to give in to temptation and take the easy way out.
‘Yes, Mr Costello, I have told you everything you should know. But you still haven’t told me what you intend to do.’
‘No, I haven’t, have I?’
And he turned and left the office.
McBride sat for a moment then picked up the phone, dialled a number, and waited for it to be answered.
‘Come to the Duns College rector’s office.’ It was an order. ‘I don’t care who you’re with and what you are talking about. I want you here in no more than half an hour, understand?’ She listened for a second. ‘I don’t care if the minister will think it rude. Tell him anything you like, tell him your wife just had twins, tell him you’ve just been elected pope. Just get here.’
