Chris Ryan - Osama

A crack of thunder ripped the sky overhead. Mrs Jones’s house disappeared in the distance. Mr Ashe continued to walk, his shoulders still slightly stooped, his brow furrowed, the lower part of his trousers already sodden, his mind deep in thought.

CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia, USA. 0700 hours EST.

‘I got to hand it to you, Mason. The President’s grinning like a goddamn lunatic – I think he’d do just about anything if you asked him.’

Mason Delaney felt his lips twitching with pleasure as he rested his hands on his neat little paunch. ‘Well, there’s a thought, Jed,’ he replied, his voice as quiet as it always was when he was receiving a compliment and pretending to be modest. His eyes sparkled behind his horn-rimmed glasses. ‘You make me sound like the new Monica Lewinsky!’

Delaney giggled. Jed Wallace, the President’s Chief of Staff, smiled patiently. It was an expression that didn’t suit his hawk-like face. His auburn hair was cropped military fashion and Delaney had no doubt this was a conscious style statement. Wallace ran the show in the West Wing, and he did it with military precision. ‘Seriously, Mason, you made a powerful friend yesterday, and one who expects to be around for a while. His approval ratings are through the roof. You just bought him another four years in office.’

‘I live to serve, Jed. I live to serve.’ Delaney inhaled deeply and, with a pleasant smile, looked around his office. The May sunshine was streaming in through the window, casting its light over his desk and the coffee table in front of the comfortable sofa on which the two men were sitting. He had made this office very much his own, transformed it from the bland, beige box it had once been into a place which, he felt, more accurately represented his character. An antique chaise longue stood along the opposite wall, and on the walls were prints of his favourite Michelangelo sketches. He adored the way the artist caught the male form. Really, he felt he could gaze at them all day.

‘Shall we take a look?’ Wallace interrupted him politely after a full minute of silence.

Delaney snapped out of his reverie. ‘I beg your pardon, Jed?’

‘The images. Shall we… ’

‘Had enough coffee?’ Delaney indicated the china coffee pot and the two full cups on the table.

‘Sure.’

‘Cookies?’

‘No cookies, Mason. Thank you.’

‘I only ask, Jed, because I think you might lose your appetite when you see them. If you’d rather not put yourself through it…’

‘I’ve finished my coffee, Mason.’ Wallace pushed the cup away from him to underline this.

Delaney gave him a bland smile before standing up and shuffling over to his desk, where he picked up a manilla A4 envelope and brought it back to the sofa. He sat down, fixed Wallace with a stare that he knew would make the Chief of Staff uncomfortable, then removed a sheaf of photographs from the envelope.

The photographs were in colour, but they were grainy and occasionally out of focus. The first showed an unmade bed and a large bloodstain on the rug in front of it. The second showed the same thing but from a different angle.

‘Mason, none of these show the—’

‘Always wanting to fast forward,’ interrupted Delaney, ‘to the money shot.’

‘It’s what I’m here to talk about, Mason.’

‘Then let’s talk, Jed.’ Delaney held out a third photo with his arm outstretched so that they could both admire it, much as Delaney had been admiring the Michelangelos a moment before. It was a close-up of a mangled and bloodied man’s face. Even Mason Delaney, who had no use for or knowledge of guns, could clearly identify the entrance wound, just above the right eye: a small dot of dark red, surrounded by an orange sun that had spread across the side of his face, taking out the eye and the upper part of the cheek. The rest of the face, including the grey beard, was spattered with blood. The mouth was open, and the man looked as though he had been gunned down just as he was screaming in terror.

Delaney dropped the photograph onto Wallace’s lap before reclining on the sofa with his hands clasped behind his head. The Chief of Staff looked nauseous. ‘Of course,’ Delaney said, ‘you might be of the opinion that the great American public ought to be shown this. On the other hand’ – he coughed gently – ‘you might decide that publishing such a sight would be a tad inflammatory.’

Jed Wallace appeared unable to take his eyes off the photograph.

Delaney continued to talk, a little quieter again, but his voice still as nasal as ever. ‘What is it that that Sagan doesn’t like about me, Jed? Is it the way I look? The way I sound? Is it that I wear a Turnbull & Asser dicky bow and not a pair of fucking epaulettes? What peg has the little shit got me hung on, huh?’

‘Really, Jed, I don’t know what you’re—’

‘Sagan wants the President to publish, no?’

Wallace looked up from the grim image. ‘How did you know that, Mason?’

Delaney removed his glasses, breathed on them and meticulously cleaned both lenses with his handkerchief. ‘Here’s the deal, Jed,’ he said, and all of a sudden his voice was not quite so shrill as usual. ‘You put that photograph out to the news wires, it’ll be on the front cover of every damn newspaper in the world within twenty-four hours, not to mention the computer screen of everyone with an internet connection in about twenty-four seconds. It’s grotesque, Jed. Every last Islamist on the planet will think the President’s gloating. DEVGRU went to a lot of trouble to drop the bastard’s body in the Indian Ocean to stop his grave becoming a shrine. If you give that picture to the world, you’ll be creating a million shrines.’ Delaney blinked heavily three times. ‘I don’t think you should do it, Jed.’ He stretched out, lifted his coffee and took a long sip, raising his eyebrows at Wallace over the brim of the cup.

The Chief of Staff turned the photographs over on his lap. ‘It’s the President’s decision, Mason,’ he said.

‘But of course it is, Jed. Of course it is. And I hope the President knows I’m here to watch his back.’ He folded his hands over his paunch again.

Wallace stood up. ‘I have to get back to DC. Could I… ’ He pointed at the envelope that was still on Delaney’s lap.

‘Of course.’ Delaney stood up and watched as Wallace stowed the photographs first in the envelope and then in his briefcase. ‘And Jed?’

‘Yes?’

‘Enjoy it.’

A pause.

‘Enjoy what?’

Delaney gave him a surprised look. ‘The victory, Jed. America hasn’t been the good guy for a long time, remember? Maybe the President can be persuaded to flex his muscles a bit more now he’s had a taste of success. Bin Laden’s not our only high-value target, you know? And as my physician never tires of reminding me, prevention is better than cure.’

Wallace looked as though he was in two minds whether to respond. ‘Look, Mason,’ he said finally. ‘I know you think this administration is a bit wet, but times have changed. America can’t afford to boss the world around in the same way any more—’

‘You start taking any flak,’ Delaney interrupted, as though Wallace had said nothing, ‘I’ll give you what you need. We got DNA samples, we got eyewitness accounts… damn, we’ve even got bin Laden’s daughter who was in the same room as him.’

A knock on the door. ‘Come!’ Delaney called.

The door opened and a young man appeared. He was extremely handsome, with lustrous black hair and well-defined cheekbones. Preppy – like he should be wandering the lawns of Princeton. He stood in the doorway without saying anything, but the anxiety on his face was evident as his eyes flickered between the two men in the office.