Simon Kernick - Ultimatum

‘It all sounds very similar to the Stanhope siege.’

Bolt nodded. ‘It does.’

The Stanhope siege had been a short but brutal terrorist incident just over a year earlier. It had involved a team of white mercenaries, allied with Arab gunmen, who’d set off two bombs in London before taking over the Stanhope Hotel and holding hundreds of guests hostage. When the whole thing had ended six hours later, more than seventy people were dead, and the psyche of the nation had been left badly scarred. Almost all the terrorists had died — one of them at the hands of Tina herself, who’d killed him in self-defence while rescuing the kidnapped children of one of the senior officers involved (an act for which she’d narrowly escaped charges) — but, since that night, there’d been no further arrests, nor any clear sign of who was responsible. Theories had abounded. Some claimed the terrorists were working for al-Qaeda; others for an unnamed Arab government, or the Iranians; and some claimed the real organizers were even closer to home and members of a domestic neo-Nazi organization seeking to foment discontent. But the problem was that only two of those involved had survived. One, a member of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command called John Cheney, who’d been the terrorists’ inside man, had been found hanged in his cell a few weeks afterwards. And the other, a former soldier called William Garrett, who’d gone by the codename Fox, and who was now in prison awaiting trial, had kept his mouth resolutely shut.

Until now, it seemed.

Tina frowned. ‘So Fox has suddenly decided that he wants to cooperate?’

‘Apparently he saw footage of the explosion this morning and told the governor he knew who was behind it, but wouldn’t give any further details.’

‘The suspect I chased this morning was south Asian. Probably Pakistani. Definitely not a white mercenary, and not the kind of guy likely to be working as an Arab government agent.’

‘So it might be nothing to do with Fox or any of his friends. But initial reports are saying the explosives used were PETN, the same as those used at the Stanhope, and that the bomb looked sophisticated. The thing is, there just aren’t that many terrorists with access to that kind of weaponry, particularly homegrown Islamic extremists.’ Bolt paused. ‘There’s something else as well. There was an attempt on Fox’s life three days ago.’

‘I didn’t hear anything about that.’

‘It’s being kept under wraps. Cheney died before he could stand trial. If they lose Fox as well, it’s going to make the government, and this country, look like a bunch of incompetents. He was attacked by another prisoner armed with a homemade blade. He got a slash across the head and defensive cuts on his hands and arms, and ended up with a lot of stitches. But he managed to fight his attacker off and put him in hospital as well.’

‘Do we know why he was attacked?’

‘The other prisoner’s not talking. He’s Category A and violent, so it could be any number of reasons, but the timing, just days before a new bombing campaign, is the kind of coincidence that sets alarm bells ringing.’

Bolt absent-mindedly stroked the biggest and deepest of the three small scars that dotted his right cheek — the result of a car crash many years earlier. Because of his big build and closely cropped hair, they helped to lend him a thuggish appearance that was only partly offset by his incredibly blue eyes, and looking at him now, Tina remembered how attractive she’d once found him.

‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘Fox is a tough bastard, but the word is the attack’s shaken him up, so what he has to say could be useful. It might also be nothing, of course, and if he’s after immunity from prosecution, then he’s pissing in the wind. But I want to give it a shot.’

It struck Tina how little she knew about Mike Bolt these days. The building they were in now was a four-storey Georgian townhouse on a quiet residential Mayfair street, with a brand-new plaque outside the front door identifying the occupants as Lowe Robertson Real Estate. She’d walked through an open-plan office with a handful of men and women working on high-end PCs to get to the room she was in now, but the place was hardly buzzing with activity.

‘So, what is this place and how are you involved?’ she asked. ‘The last I heard you were working for SOCA.’

‘I’m in CTC now, working counter terrorism. I’m running a unit called Special Operations, but you won’t find anything about us in the brochures or on the Met website. We’ve been set up specifically to identify, locate and gather evidence against the people behind the Stanhope siege — the ones who bankrolled it, and provided logistical support to the terrorists.’

‘That sounds a lot more fun than what I’ve been doing these past few months. Fancy seconding me?’

Bolt smiled properly for the first time since Tina had walked into his office. He was, she thought, still a good-looking guy, perhaps even more so since he’d hit his forties. His hair had begun to turn from blonde to silver, and the lines on his narrow, aquiline features had become more pronounced, but the changes actually enhanced his appearance, and she wondered suddenly if he was still single.

‘It sounds a lot more exciting than it actually is,’ he said. ‘We do all the usual no-frills policework: sifting through available intelligence in-house, talking to informants, running taps and surveillance ops. But it’s a long job, and I’ve got to be honest with you, it hasn’t generated many good leads. The people we’re looking for aren’t known to us, and they’ve proved very adept at covering their tracks.’

‘I heard from various sources that the Stanhope siege was bankrolled by an unfriendly Middle Eastern government.’

‘According to sources within MI6, there was financial backing from Arab sources within the Middle East, and at a high, possibly governmental, level, but there was help for the attackers from within the UK as well, and given the fact that half the terrorists were white former soldiers it’s very likely that it came from extreme right-wing elements, and ones with money. That’s why Fox could be so important to us. I need you to find out what he has to say.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ said Tina. ‘But I want to be a part of your team. I’m not cut out for recycling low-level scumbags through the courts system, which is what I’m doing at the moment. Is there any way you can get me on board in a more permanent capacity?’

Bolt sighed. ‘The work we do here’s low-key and secretive, and I don’t want someone who’s going to go on a one-woman crusade for justice, put herself and everyone around her in danger, get her face plastered all over the media, and end up compromising all our work. I’ll be straight with you, Tina. You’re a hothead, and it’s got you in a hell of a lot of trouble in the past. That’s why you’re a DC in a small CID office.’

Tina had heard this all plenty of times before as she’d fought to get herself reinstated, but it still hurt coming from a man she’d once considered a good friend. ‘I’m still a good copper. You know that. And I get results.’ She leaned forward and looked him right in the eye. ‘Give me a chance, and you have my word that I won’t do a thing to compromise any part of your work. I mean it.’

Bolt stood up, looking uncomfortable. ‘I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, you need to get going. Interviewing Fox is top priority, and that comes all the way from the top. There’s a helicopter waiting at New Scotland Yard to take you up to the prison where they’re holding him. I’ll get one of our people to give you a lift over there.’

Tina got to her feet, feeling relieved and disappointed at the same time. She was glad to be in the thick of things again, but sad that her relationship with Bolt had become so distant. Theirs had always been a complicated one, yet he’d always stood by her when things had been tough. She owed him a lot more than he owed her, and it was a debt she knew she’d never be able to repay.