Stephen Leather - False Friends

‘If it makes it any easier he’s going to be travelling home on the tube so we won’t need vehicles.’

‘Home being the flat we started at last time?’

‘That’s it. But this time there’s no chance of a vehicle; he’ll take the tube to Manor House and walk to the flat.’

‘Easy-peasy,’ said Lesporis. ‘Tell you what, I’ll pitch in myself. It’ll be good to be on the pavements again.’

‘Could do with a check throughout the evening, though. See if there’s anyone hanging around outside the building.’

‘That’s easy enough. I can put a BT technician in the street and run a PCSO by now and again. I’ll have a guy waiting at the Stoke Newington end so one other and me should be enough in the Strand. Do you need pictures?’

‘That would be great, Luke. There’s a snag, though. If Raj is being followed then I’ll need Harvey checked out too.’

‘Where’s he?’

‘He’s at the London Metropolitan University — Holloway Road, Islington. He’s in the business school today and I’ve told him to stay there all day. I know it’s all short notice but if Raj is hot then there’s a chance that Harvey is too.’

Lesporis nodded thoughtfully. ‘Not a problem,’ he said. ‘If Raj is tailed from the Strand I’ll know pretty quickly, so once we’ve identified the tail I can peel off and head up to Islington. I’ll get in place and the others can join me as and when. Do you have any idea who might be after him?’

‘He said Asian so my worry is al-Qaeda.’

‘They have some real pros, but they also have a fair number of amateurs,’ said Lesporis.

‘The guy Raj thinks was following him was almost on top of him, so not a pro. But it’s not the one he saw that I’m worried about; it’s the ones he didn’t see.’

‘Understood,’ said Lesporis, scribbling a note on his pad. He smiled, showing perfect teeth. ‘Consider it done. I’ll give you a call as soon as I know anything.’

‘You’re a star, Luke. Thanks.’

Shepherd’s mobile rang. It was Button. ‘A little bird tells me that you’re in the house,’ she said.

‘I’m in with Luke, fixing up some counter-surveillance on Raj and Harvey.’

‘Problem?’

‘I’m not sure. We’ll know in a few hours.’

‘Can you pop up to my office on your way out?’

‘I’ll be right up. Luke and I are done,’ said Shepherd.

Button was sipping a cup of tea when Shepherd walked into her office. She flashed him a smile and asked if he wanted anything but he shook his head and sat down. ‘I just wanted a chat about what happened on the boat,’ she said.

‘All good,’ he said.

‘You were shot, Spider.’

‘I was wearing a vest.’

‘Thank God.’

‘Actually, God had very little to do with it,’ said Shepherd.

‘You nearly died.’

‘I’ve been shot before, Charlie.’

‘I’m just saying you were in a very violent situation and I wanted to check you were okay.’

‘Physically or mentally?’

She smiled. ‘You know what I’m going to suggest.’

‘A sit-down with Caroline Stockmann?’

‘I think it’s called for. I’ll get her to give you a call and fix it up.’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘It’s a pity that it went the way it did,’ she said.

‘You’re telling me.’

‘I meant in terms of the investigation. We really needed to know what Kettering and Thompson were planning.’

‘Thompson will talk,’ said Shepherd. ‘With Kettering out of the picture he’ll sing like the proverbial.’

‘The problem is that Kettering was the top dog. And the fact that he’s dead means his European contacts will go to ground. We’ll sew up the UK end, that’s a given, but my feeling is that they were part of a bigger plan and that plan is probably going to go ahead no matter what happened here.’

‘I think you’ll find that Thompson knows a lot about what was going on,’ said Shepherd. ‘He was the one always mouthing off about the global conspiracy. He’d be the one pushing for coordinated action with the Europeans, I’m sure of it.’

‘We’ll certainly give it a go,’ said Button. ‘I tell you, it’s hard enough dealing with the Islamic fundamentalists but when we have home-grown right-wingers threatening terrorist outrages as well we’re going to be stretched resource-wise.’

‘I don’t know. Penetrating groups like Kettering’s is a lot easier than trying to get into the Islamic cells.’

‘No argument there,’ said Button. ‘If it wasn’t for Chaudhry and Malik we wouldn’t have achieved a fraction of what we’ve managed so far.’

‘I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite them,’ said Shepherd.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Charlie, they gave up Bin Laden. And by dropping that bloody map the Americans have put their lives on the line.’

‘Is that what the counter-surveillance is about?’

Shepherd shrugged. ‘Raj thinks he’s being followed. He might just be jumping at shadows. We’ll know by tonight.’

‘Keep me in the picture.’

‘Soon as I know, you’ll know,’ said Shepherd.

Malik looked at his watch. It was four o’clock in the afternoon and his last lecture had just finished. He went to the library, which was almost empty, and sat down at a table by the window. He pulled a bottle of water from his backpack and took a sip. He had three essays to write but couldn’t drum up the enthusiasm for starting any of them so he opened up his laptop and started browsing through YouTube, listening through headphones so as not to disturb the other library-users.

He started off looking at music videos but soon got bored with that. He searched for ‘suicide bombers’ and began looking through the videos, mainly news footage of attacks in Iraq, Israel and Pakistan. There were some comedy videos too, though Malik failed to see why anyone thought it was acceptable to make fun of terrorists.

A girl sat down opposite him and he hurriedly closed the YouTube window, even though she couldn’t see the screen.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘You don’t mind if I sit here, do you?’ She was in her twenties with shoulder-length black curly hair and a wide smile.

Her skin wasn’t quite as dark as Malik’s and though she had a definite accent he couldn’t place where she was from.

‘Sure, yeah, no problem,’ he said. He’d been so busy watching videos that he hadn’t noticed how the library had filled up and now most of the tables were occupied. ‘I’m only skiving really.’

She leaned over the table towards him, her voice a low whisper. ‘Yeah, me too,’ she said. ‘I left my key in the flat and my flatmate won’t be back until eight so I thought I’d just hang out here.’

‘Yeah, it’s one of the few places left in London where you can sit for free,’ he said.

She gestured at his laptop. ‘Were you watching a movie?’

‘Just browsing through YouTube,’ he said. ‘Nothing special.’

‘What’s your name?’

‘Harvey. Well, it’s Harveer but everyone calls me Harvey.’

‘Harveer? Is that Indian?’

‘Pakistani,’ said Malik.

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’

‘It’s no big deal. What about you? Where are you from?’

She grinned mischievously. ‘Guess.’

‘Guess?’ He sat back and linked his fingers. He studied her olive skin, her dark-brown eyes and her jet-black curly hair. Not Asian, he was fairly sure of that. Her skin was too light. Her English was good and there was a trace of an American accent, which probably meant that she’d gone to an international school somewhere. She wasn’t oriental and she wasn’t dark enough to be from the Philippines or Indonesia.

Her smile widened. ‘Do you want a clue?’