‘What happens the next time I have a source?’ asked Novak. ‘How safe would anyone feel handing me potentially damaging material after they’ve watched me roll over for the government on this? If you were a source with a story why would you come to me with anything after this?’
Stella couldn’t think of an answer.
Novak lowered his voice, eager for her to understand. ‘This isn’t one of those times you can say whatever is necessary to get away with it, then tell yourself it was OK because your fingers were crossed behind your back.’
‘Did you tell Diane?’ asked Stella.
‘Last night,’ he replied.
‘How did it go?’
‘How do you think? I was given a once-in-a-lifetime source, and I bungled it. I gave the White House the one opening they needed: I lied. I lied about how I got the intel. And even though the intel was real, the source was real, and we spoke repeatedly, what the headline is going to be later on is: Tom Novak lied. Tom Novak writes fake news. Bastion will skewer me for weeks. This is the only way to spare the magazine. To spare you and Diane.’ Novak checked his watch. ‘I should go in. The press will be all over here soon.’
Stella stood up with him.
She said, ‘You know I would have happily sat next to you in there.’
‘I know, Stella. I owe you thanks. It worked.’
‘What worked?’
‘Diane. I know she brought you in to pull me out my slump. I was barely batting one hundred and I–’
‘Tom, please. Don’t with the baseball metaphors. I can’t even...’
‘What I’m saying is: it worked. You brought me back.’ He linked his arm with hers. ‘Come on. You ever seen a guy get up in front of about three hundred people and detonate his reputation?’
‘Can’t say I have.’
‘Then you’re going to love this.’
As they walked in, she hugged his arm a little tighter. ‘Really is cold today.’
Novak had been in his seat beside Kevin Wellington from Bruckner Jackson Prowse well in advance of the beginning of the hearing.
‘Tom Novak, early?’ said Kevin in mock-amazement.
‘Is that your pep-talk this time?’ Novak asked. ‘I was looking forward to a little speech about American justice today.’ He smiled as he noticed the tag still on the bottom of the sleeve of Kevin’s new suit. It amused Novak, the idea of him buying a new suit for the occasion. Like he was going to his high school prom.
‘You don’t need any pep talks today, Mr Novak,’ Kevin replied.
‘Oh yeah? Why’s that?’
‘You’re not an asshole anymore.’
Novak grinned. ‘Let’s not get too carried away.’
The clerk of the court stepped forward and called out, ‘All rise...the Honourable Chief Judge Randolph Wickers presiding.’
Novak stood with his lawyer as the judge read out the charges:
‘Mr Novak, you’ve been charged under the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice, and possession of classified materials.’ Then Judge Wickers asked the question that had so consumed Novak for the past month. ‘Mr Novak, how do you plead?’
Novak said, ‘Not guilty, your honour.’ Then added, ‘I’m not a rat.’
Judge Wickers did a double take at Novak, as many in the public gallery – filled to capacity – laughed among themselves.
Wickers said, ‘Mr Novak, do you see a tightrope walker going across the ceiling?’
Novak said quizzically, ‘Your honour?’
‘Or a man in a top hat introducing trapeze artists?’
‘No, your honour.’
‘Do you know why that is?’
‘This isn’t a circus?’
‘That’s correct. So don’t treat my courtroom like one. That’s the one warning you get, Mr Novak. Mr Wellington, throw a muzzle on your client before I charge him with contempt.’
Kevin spoke up, ballsy. ‘Actually your honour, my client would like to make an amendment to a previous statement.’
‘Previous statement?’ said Wickers, baffled. ‘We haven’t started, counsel.’
‘Your honour, my client wishes to file a defence of recantation. From his Congressional hearing dated December eighth.’
‘A recantation of what?’
‘Of how he came into possession of classified material.’
It felt like the whole room had collectively leaned forward in their seats. Not everyone in the chamber fully understood what a defence of recantation even was.
Wickers said, ‘Counsel, does your client understand that in your allowing this defence, he’s admitting an unlisted charge of perjury? Which he may yet be charged with due to this admission?’
Wellington pursed his lips, restraining his frustration. ‘Unfortunately he does, your honour.’
Wickers said, barely hiding a grin, ‘You must have wished you stayed in bed today, counsel. What’s your defence, Mr Novak?’
Novak did up the single button on his jacket as he rose. ‘Your honour, my testimony on December eighth didn’t accurately portray how I came into possession of classified NSA materials. There was no prior establishing of a relationship with a source online, as I claimed. The truth is, I found the memory stick after a White House press conference.’
The gallery started murmuring, enough for Wickers to reach for his gavel.
‘OK, settle down,’ he said calmly, maintaining control of the chamber.
Novak went on, ‘As I was under oath at the time, I wish to invoke the defence of recantation, which allows a witness to amend a previously unreliable statement.’
Wickers added, ‘Without the inconvenience of being charged with perjury. If I decide to see it that way.’
‘Something like that,’ Novak said.
Wickers took a moment. ‘Very well. You’re lucky we’re not having this conversation in a British court, or I’d be sending you down right now.’
Novak said, ‘That’s why America’s the greatest country there is, your honour.’
Wickers, wishing sarcasm was grounds for contempt of court, said in his deepest, most unimpressed baritone, ‘Uh-huh.’ He held out his hand. ‘Mr Wellington, if you’d like to pass me a copy of your client’s amended statement...’
While Wellington approached the bench, a lone English voice spoke up from the gallery.
‘Excuse me...your honour, excuse me...’
Murmurs sparked up around the court, with some getting to their feet to see where the voice had come from.
The man called out, ‘Judge Wickers, may it please the court: I am Mr Novak’s source.’
There were some gasps from the gallery, murmurs turning to a fog of chatter.
Wickers banged his gavel repeatedly, calling for order.
The voice, having come from the very back of the court, meant everyone except the judge had to turn their heads in his direction.
Wickers waited for quiet. ‘What’s your name, sir? Stand up, please.’
The man, who looked around sixty, got to his feet. He was wearing a dark-blue corduroy suit, and appeared very well turned out – holding a Trilby hat in his hands.
‘Mr Novak,’ the man said, ‘I’d like to apologise for putting that virus on your phone and laptop. I was trying to protect you. To keep Artur Korecki’s video from them...’
‘Do not address the defendant, sir,’ Wickers called to him. Seeing a police officer making towards him, Wickers gestured for him to hold off. He called out to the man, ‘You’re in contempt of my court. What’s your name?’
The name would mean nothing to those in the public gallery, or the attendant media. But for Tom Novak and Stella Mitchell, the name meant plenty.
The man turned his hat anxiously in his hands. ‘My name is Stanley Fox. I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.’
THE END
Novak and Mitchell will return very soon...
Enjoy Official Secrets?
This might not seem like much, but reviews are oxygen for writers like
me. In a world of so many books, they tell strangers who don’t know my name that I might be worth their time.
I’ve worked in the publishing industry since I was twenty. I’ve seen the impact that spending thousands of pounds on marketing can make. But I’ve also seen the much bigger impact that comes from word of mouth, from readers who love a book and just have to tell someone else about it. Money can’t buy something like that.
If you enjoyed Official Secrets, and you have a few minutes to leave a review on Amazon (it can be as short as you like), or post a link to the book or my website on social media, you would help bring my work to the attention of many more people, and help me give those big New York and London publishers a run for their money.
Thank you very much,
Andrew
- Glasgow, Scotland
Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated with love to ELD.
Thank you:
To DW, who read an early draft and made some invaluable suggestions.
To Nick Castle for his wonderful cover design and the design elements on my website. I had what I thought was a very clear idea of what I wanted the cover to look like. Nick took that idea and turned it into something much better than I could have ever imagined.
To Chris Ryan, for crucial advice on how the Downing Street attack could happen. Chris is a really generous guy, and told me a host of fascinating snippets. If you get the chance, shake his hand. I guarantee you won’t forget it for a while.
The list of what is fact and what is not in Official Secrets would be much too long. Suffice to say: this is a work of fiction, but you would not believe how much of it is factual.
Official Secrets required a huge amount of research. The following were invaluable, and I highly recommend reading for pleasure as well as insight:
Hack Attack by Nick Davies (the book to read on the U.K. phone hacking scandal)
Blackwater and Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill (both essential reading on what the war on terror has really meant on the ground)
Intercept by Gordon Corera (history of GCHQ)
The History Thieves by Ian Cobain (history of British classified intelligence)
No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald (fascinating book on the Snowden leaks, the major inspiration for Novak’s NSA Papers story)
The Snowden Files by Luke Harding
Legacy of Ashes - A History of the CIA by Tim Weiner
Within Arm’s Length by Dan Emmett (Secret Service agent’s memoir)
The New Spymasters by Stephen Grey
See No Evil by Robert Baer (CIA agent’s memoir; blistering stuff)
The Perfect Kill by Robert Baer (how assassins work)
McMafia by Misha Glenny
The Killing School by Brandon Webb (what it’s like going through the U.S. Army Sniper school)
Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier
10 Downing Street by Anthony Seldon (out of print picture book history)
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowtiz
The Penguin Book of Journalism ed. Stephen Glover
The Universal Journalist 5th Ed. by David Randall
The History of MI5 by Christopher Andrew
There were many, many more books that helped me along the way, but the ones above are some of my favourites. If you liked Official Secrets I think you’d get a kick out of them.
There are a lot of sacrifices required in order to write a book. It might be a gloriously sunny day and all you want is to get on your bike and ride out into the countryside. You also often need to stay up long into the night with work first thing the next morning. Or you have too much to do to finish that damn chapter, so you can’t spend the weekend with your family.
To all the people in my life who are willing to make these sacrifices with me, thank you.
Finally, to anyone reading this: thank you for buying this book. It took a lot of long hours and hard work to complete, but every new reader that discovers it makes it all worth it. I hope you’ll come back and join Novak and Mitchell for the next in the series which is coming very soon.
To stay up to date you can join my mailing list (I only email occasionally with geniune news) at www.andrewraymondbooks.com
You can also contact me via:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/andrewraymondauthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/andrayauthor
Author’s note
There is one particular point of American spelling I wanted to highlight as intentional: the Secretary of “Defense”, rather than the standard English spelling “defence”. In the book, characters (even non-Americans) are referring to the official position of state. As the position is American and for consistency, I decided to retain the American spelling throughout, as otherwise the spelling could change within the same conversation depending on whether it was an American or British character speaking.
COPYRIGHT
An Andrew Raymond ebook. First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Andrew Raymond. Ebook first published in 2018 by Andrew Raymond
© 2018 Andrew Raymond
www.andrewraymondbooks.com
The moral right of Andrew Rayond to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stores in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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