Matt Hilton - Blood and Ashes

‘You’re beginning to sound like one of them bonehead skins that rally around Hicks,’ Rink growled.

Walter shrugged. It was an odd movement for a man whose neck was lost in his shoulders already, as if his head was slipping directly into his jacket collar. ‘Just telling it like it is, Rink. All these imams are out there preaching that every Muslim should kill an infidel to assure their place in Heaven. And here we are extending the hand of friendship to people whose only desire is to murder us.’

‘Don’t recall reading anything in the Koran where Allah advocates murder,’ Rink said.

‘He doesn’t, but those radical preachers don’t care about that, they’ve twisted the words of the Koran to fit their jihad. Just the thought of seventy-two virgins is a great motivator to some of these nutjobs.’

‘Except we aren’t talking about Muslims here.’ I was annoyed with my mentor’s reluctance to get to the story at hand. ‘Just tell us what the hell’s going on, Walter. You said that Arrowsake were “tasked with conducting a series of incidents”. I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘Me neither,’ Rink said.

Walter closed his eyes. ‘Boys, you know how I love you, right?’ He got scornful grunts from us both, but he was resigned to it now. ‘That’ll never change. But I fear that I just might’ve placed you directly in the centre of something that’ll ensure you’ll hate me for the rest of your lives.’

Maybe he was expecting reassurance, but if Walter was leading to what I suspected then my adopted father would deserve our enmity. Rink had leaned back, allowing his head to loll, his eyes closed and I guessed my friend was thinking the same. ‘This has been engineered by Arrowsake?’

Walter shook his head, and for a moment I did feel sorry for the utter look of devastation that flashed across his features. ‘Not engineered exactly. But they have allowed things to progress further than anyone could have anticipated. They could have taken down Carswell Hicks at any time, but instead they’ve allowed him free rein to organise an attack on a major US city.’ While we absorbed this, he went on quickly, ‘Hicks was never meant to get his hands on the makings of a dirty bomb. They only expected him to plan something along the lines of the bombings he conducted before he was imprisoned.’

‘They didn’t know about Kwon bringing the plutonium into the country?’

‘No.’

‘I find that a little hard to believe,’ I said.

‘Tell me that Kwon wasn’t on Arrowsake’s payroll.’ Now it was Rink who looked the picture of desolation. Walter patted him on the knee, but Rink shoved his hand away. ‘If you sent us to kill one of our own…’

‘He wasn’t one of ours. Believe me. Do you think we’d have allowed anyone to bring radioactive material into our country? Remember, I sent you to extract information from him,’ Walter said.

‘You knew how that would end.’ I flexed my hands, crushed the paper cup. I struggled to contain the urge to grab hold of Walter and shake him to pieces. Turning very slowly, I looked at the old man. ‘Do you realise what Arrowsake has done to us? They’ve twisted and corrupted everything that we ever stood for. We fought against the terrorists of the world…’

‘Only to become terrorists ourselves.’ Walter’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears, something alien to the man in all the years I’d known him. He tried to take hold of my hand, but was pushed away as roughly as before. ‘Please hear me out,’ he pleaded.

Fit to burst I stood up sharply. About to walk away, I stopped, recalling the woman and her children from minutes ago. How could she or her babies ever be safe when she was living amongst men capable of hurting them? I sat down again, roughly.

‘OK, for old times’ sake I’ll listen, Walter. I’ll even stay and do what you want me to do. But not for Arrowsake. I’m doing this because I believe that you disagree with it all. That you want to stop this before it gets even further out of control.’

‘Yes,’ Walter agreed. ‘Yes, that’s it. I hate what has happened, and what we’ve been forced to do. I want to put things right again. Right for you two boys, as well.’

‘Forget about it,’ Rink snorted. ‘You didn’t have to bring us in; you should have left us good and well alone.’

Walter sighed. ‘Rink, I brought you in because you’re the only ones I can trust. Don’t you see? Arrowsake have their people who I am forced to deal with. They aren’t singing from the same hymn sheet as we do. Stephen Vincent? If they’d told him to plant the bomb himself, I believe he’d have done it.’

‘Always thought he was a fucking weasel,’ Rink said.

Impatiently I said, ‘Get back to Hicks. Tell us what the hell happened, what we’re up against.’

‘OK. Hicks was never supposed to meet with Kwon, or do the deal for the plutonium isotope. Arrowsake never anticipated he’d be capable of causing lasting damage to the city. But he’d have been seen as a viable enough threat to the state that it would make people sit up and take notice. Allowing a single bombing would be enough to cause panic, and only immediate and positive action would be enough to quell the public’s feelings of vulnerability.’ Walter stopped to gather himself. He was panting as though he’d just jogged up a hill. ‘The intention was to create so much outrage that the public would demand a tougher stance against our enemies. Arrowsake were poised to take out Hicks and his followers as soon as that happened. And with their victory, the CIA, MI6, all the intelligence agencies, would shake off the constraints of the Judiciary Committees, with the full backing of the public again. Things would have gone to plan, except that Hicks grew more ambitious than anyone could have imagined. You’ve probably heard by now that the bomb at Lincoln Square didn’t contain any radioactive substances, and we can only thank God for that.’

‘Yeah. It’s a goddamn crying shame, isn’t it?’ said Rink.

‘Makes me wonder about all those crazy conspiracy theories,’ I said. ‘They’re maybe not as stupid as they sound.’ Some people argued that the Western governments had engineered the situation to validate a war in the Middle East. Proof was, there were no WMDs found, just plenty of oil. Now, hearing what had gone down here — that Arrowsake might be guilty of state-sponsored terrorism — it didn’t seem that far-fetched. ‘Tell me that Arrowsake aren’t planning to let Hicks use the plutonium.’

‘Of course not…’ There was a slight tremor in the old man’s voice. Maybe Walter wasn’t as sure about Arrowsake’s motives as once he’d been. ‘They want him stopped for real now.’

‘And they want us to do it for them.’

‘Typical,’ Rink said. ‘They fuck up, then they look for a coupla scapegoats to clean up their crap for them.’

‘So what happens now?’ Walter asked. ‘You can walk away with my blessing, but I’d rather you didn’t. Everyone here needs your help.’

I thought back to another conversation I’d had with Walter. Having returned from a particularly violent mission where I’d lost a couple of colleagues, I’d questioned the need for men like us in the modern age. Walter had touched me gently over my heart as he said, ‘George Orwell said something along the lines of, “We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.” ’

‘I think you’ll find that Churchill said it first,’ I’d said.

‘Does it matter? The words hold validity… whatever their origin. Hunter, son, don’t you see? You are our rough men.’

Rough men, I couldn’t deny that. And rougher now than ever before.

Back in the present I glanced at Rink, and got a nod of approval from him.