A Most Wanted Man
Page 33
But as Newton drew nearer to Bachmann, and saw his smashed arm and disheveled state, and the wild look of accusation in his eyes, he realized he had mistaken his man, and came sharply to a halt.
“Listen. Sorry about your cab, okay? Those hillbillies from the Farm drive like shit. Now go have that arm fixed. Ian drives you to a hospital. Now. Yes, Ian? He says yes. Go now.”
“Where have you taken him?” Bachmann asked.
“Abdullah? Who gives a shit? Some hole in the desert, for all I know. Justice has been rendered, man. We can all go home.”
He had spoken these last words in English, but Bachmann in his dazed state failed to get his mind round them.
“Rendered?” he repeated stupidly. “What’s rendered? What justice are you talking about?”
“American justice, asshole. Whose do you think? Justice from the fucking hip, man. No-crap justice, that kind of justice! Justice with no fucking lawyers around to pervert the course. Have you never heard of extraordinary rendition No? Time you Krauts had a word for it! Have you given up speaking or what?”
But still nothing came out of Bachmann, so Newton went on:
“Eye for a fucking eye, Günther. Justice as retribution, okay? Abdullah was killing Americans. We call that original sin. You want to play softball spy games? Go find yourself some Euro-pygmies.”
“I was asking you about Issa,” Bachmann said.
“Issa was air, man,” Newton retorted, now seriously angry. “Whose fucking money was it anyway? Issa Karpov bankrolls terror, period. Issa Karpov sends money to very bad guys. He just did. Fuck you, Günther. Okay?” But he seemed to feel he hadn’t quite made his point: “How about those Chechen militants he hung out with? Eh? You’re telling me they’re a bunch of pussycats?”
“He’s innocent.”
“Bullshit. Issa Karpov was one hundred percent complicit, and a couple of weeks from now, if he lasts that long, he’ll admit it. Now get out of my face before I throw you out.”
Hovering in the shadow of the tall American, Lantern seemed to agree.
A crisp night wind was whisking off the lake, bringing a smell of oil from the harbor. Annabel stood at the center of the forecourt, peering down the empty street after the departed minibus. Brue stood next to her. Her scarf had fallen round her neck. Absently, she lifted it over her head and retied it under her throat. Hearing a footstep, Brue turned and saw the driver of the smashed taxi hobbling towards them. Then Annabel turned also, and recognized the driver as Günther Bachmann, the man who made the weather, standing ten meters from her, not daring to come nearer. She scrutinized him, then shook her head and began to shudder. Brue put his arm round her shoulders where he had always wanted to put it, but he doubted whether she knew it was there.
THE AUTHOR WISHES TO THANK:
Yassin Musharbash of Spiegel Online, for his tireless and painstaking researches; Clive Stafford Smith, Saadiya Chaudary and Alexandra Zernova with the U.K. charity Reprieve* and Bernhard Docke† in Bremen for their legal wisdoms; the writer and journalist Michael Jürgs of Hamburg, for his fruitful introductions and close reading of the early drafts; Helmuth Landwehr, former private banker, for initiating me into the ways of his less-scrupulous erstwhile colleagues; Anne Harms and Annette Heise of flucht•punkt,* Hamburg, for allowing me to create in Sanctuary North a fictional sister organization to their own, complete with fictional staff and fictional clients; and the writer and Middle East expert Said Aburish, for his wise promptings. And Carla Hornstein who, by an accident of life, started me on the journey and provided me with invaluable introductions and advice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN LE CARRÉ was born in 1931. After attending the universities of Berne and Oxford, he spent five years in the British Foreign Service. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, his third book, secured him a worldwide reputation. He is the author of twenty-one novels, including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; A Perfect Spy and The Constant Gardener. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages. He lives in England.
*Reprieve uses the law to deliver justice and save lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. flucht•punkt provides legal and other assistance to asylum seekers and stateless persons in the region of Hamburg. Both organizations are registered charities.
† Bernhard Docke is the pro bono legal representative of Murat Kurnaz, the Turkish German Muslim unjustly imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay for four and a half years.
*Reprieve uses the law to deliver justice and save lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. flucht•punkt provides legal and other assistance to asylum seekers and stateless persons in the region of Hamburg. Both organizations are registered charities.