Henry Porter: Empire State

‘What makes you so damned certain?’ asked Ollins.

‘Because this man lived to outwit people. Once he knew he was beaten there was no point in living. If anything was still going to happen, he surely would have waited until at least the end of tomorrow to see the realisation of his plans.’

Herrick stood up and looked over to Khan. ‘Are there any more surprises for us, Karim?’

‘Yes,’ he said at length. ‘The man called Langer.’

‘Larry Langer?’

‘Yes. Langer is waiting to kill the Secretary General. Jaidi got him a job at Sammi’s request six months ago. He has a pass that allows him anywhere in the building. He is waiting there now for Jaidi to meet the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations for breakfast in his office.’ He stopped and looked up at Herrick. ‘If you bring me that computer, I will show you the other plans.’ His hand flopped out towards the laptop. ‘You see, Sammi told me everything because he trusted me. But you saved me, Isis Herrick, and now I will help you.’

Twenty-one days after that night in the Empire State building, Isis sat down for dinner with her father and Harland – effectively three generations of British Intelligence officers, as Munroe pointed out – at a pub in the Western Highlands. There were still several hours of daylight left, but they’d been forced to abandon fishing on the loch nearby because clouds of midges had risen when the wind dropped, making it impossible for them to concentrate. She glanced at Harland’s face, already covered with tiny red blotches from midge bites, but he still looked jubilant. An hour before, he had caught his first sea trout from the old wooden rowing boat they were using. It was a big specimen, weighing just under five pounds, which had snatched at the fly as he dragged it across a ripple on the water, then fought for its life for a full twenty minutes before being landed.

They had said little to each other during the day and now there was silence between them. Without warning, her father rose to his feet in the empty dining room and held his tumbler of whisky up to her and then to Harland.

‘This is to you two,’ he said. ‘And to the most remarkable intelligence operation of the last two decades.’

Harland smiled and, when Munroe sat down, raised his own glass to Isis. ‘It was your success.’

She couldn’t agree with them. She shook her head and stared down at the table mat.

‘What is it?’ her father asked. ‘Come along, spit it out.’

‘I hurt Khan… real pain… deliberately inflicted to get the information. That’s torture, whichever way you look at it.’

‘Yes, but even Khan understood why you had to do it,’ Harland told her. ‘Without it, those men would have caused havoc with their bombs and poisons and diseases. It was an operational necessity. You took the only course open to you in the circumstances. I know. I heard it all through Eva’s phone.’

‘Yes, but I did it without thinking. That’s how these things happen – you slip into them without realising the threshold you’ve crossed. I’m no different from The Doctor, or Gibbons for that matter.’

‘That’s the world we live in,’ said Munroe gently.

‘But it shouldn’t be,’ she replied, turning to her father. ‘If we are to stand for anything, we have to preserve our standards and morals whatever the price. The only way we can argue for our system and beliefs is if we are utterly rigorous with ourselves as well as other people. We have to make sacrifices not to become like the other side.’

Her father looked at Harland, who spoke. ‘It’s a matter of weighing the lesser of two evils. You were there and you had to make a decision. Besides, Khan went along with it. As a result he will soon be a free man, and can rebuild his life. That’s all you need to take from this.’

‘The question is, would I have done it anyway – without his cooperation?’ She paused and put her hand up to her father who was about to interrupt. ‘And the answer is yes, I would.’

Munroe tapped his daughter on the hand. ‘Enough of this,’ he said. ‘Now, let’s think about what we’re going to order so we can get back on the water as soon as possible. The conditions are perfect and there’s a bit of a breeze coming up.’

Herrick looked out over the slate grey loch but her mind was still in the Empire State.