Деон Мейер - Cobra

‘If you go near my sister again, I will destroy the card,’ he said, but he had to concentrate to keep the panic out of his voice.

‘We know which hospital. If you don’t deliver the card, or if there is something wrong with the card, we will go in there and kill her.’

‘The police are protecting her.’

The guy laughed quietly. ‘You think so? You think they will stop us?’

Tyrone’s hand began to shake.

Then the guy said, ‘I will send you the photos tomorrow morning,’ and he rang off.

They sat in the Hawks’ clubroom, the legendary, hidden bar room where only members of the unit were allowed in: Nyathi, Griessel, Mbali, Cupido, and Bones Boshigo. The only door was locked.

Griessel did not come in here often, but sometimes on a Friday afternoon he stood with the guys outside at the braai. Now he thought, it could be the first line of a joke: ‘An alky is locked inside a police bar . . .’

He realised everyone was waiting for him to say something.‘Vaughn, do you want to report first?’ He saw his colleague was burning to share something with them.

‘The CIA, pappie,’ said Cupido. ‘Lillian Alvarez says it is the CIA who abducted Adair.’

After the stunned silence, Zola Nyathi asked, ‘And she knows that how ?’ Very sceptical.

‘It’s a long story, Colonel.’ Cupido gave them the main points of Alvarez’s experiences over the past week. ‘But I’ll let Bones tell you about the bank stuff.’

‘It seems,’ said Bones, ‘that the good professor unleashed a new version of his algorithm about six weeks ago, nè . New, improved, expanded. All in the name of hunting terrorists. Now, the way this algorithm works, is to use SWIFT data to track the source of the money – the country, the bank, and the account – and unique transaction patterns, because terrorists receive and withdraw and use money in a very specific way, aimed at avoiding attention. So the algorithm generates patterns, and Adair’s data-mining software then identifies possible suspects, and looks at the names and nationalities of all the account holders and money movers, and spits out the most likely suspects to the intelligence people, who follow it up. But the terrorists are not complete idiots. They know about the algorithm, and they have started to change their financial behaviour and the paths through which the money fl ows. That’s why Adair wrote the new software: to adapt to the new behaviour. And apparently he is the first one who gets the results every day, ’cause he has to study them to see if the whole system is working properly, nè ?’

The last ‘ nè ’ was a question, and everyone nodded. They were still following.

‘So what happened was, Adair started to identify a new category of suspects that had the right financial profile – or the wrong one, depending on your side of the fence – but did not fit in with any of the software’s parameters for nationality, origins of names, and other stuff that would indicate terrorists. So he started digging, without telling anybody, because he was very worried that the software was screwed up. And then he realised that this new group of suspects were probably spies. Clandestine operatives, working for intelligence agencies. Alvarez says what gave him the big clue was the fact that if you tracked the money all the way to the original source, a hell of a lot of it came from very obscure Chinese and Russian accounts. The kind of stuff governments bury deep in red tape and dummy corporations and funny names. And there were as many payments going the other way – coming from the Americans and the British, going to people and little companies in the Middle East, Russia and China—’

Cupido could not keep it in any longer. ‘So basically he was building a list of all the undercover spies and sleepers and even double agents of the world’s major intelligence agencies. And he was the only one who knew, the only one with all this data.’

‘Why did he tell Alvarez?’ asked Nyathi. ‘She’s a student, isn’t she?’

‘Long story, Colonel. Let’s just say they are having a red-hot affair, and he was very troubled by this spy thing, and she kept asking him what was wrong, why was he so glum, had she done something to upset him, nagging all the time, until he told her. Poor guy must have wanted to share it with someone, all that pressure . . .’

‘How did the CIA find out?’

‘That’s the thing. About three weeks ago, Adair got very crafty. He went to MI6, and told them what he had. They wanted it all, of course, but he said he’ll horse trade. If the British and American governments agreed to take on the banks about their money laundering, to make a real effort to use all the financial data to cripple organised crime, he’d release the spy data to them. But it had to be done with legislation, and real results. And he had some demands about public privacy too, and the limits of government snooping. MI6 was furious, and threatened him with all sorts of legal action, but he didn’t budge, nè . Then they blocked his access to the SWIFT system and his software, brought in their own people, and tried to find the data themselves. But it turns out Adair suspected they might do just that. So before he went to MI6, he deleted his new software, and loaded the old version again. The spy data was just gone.’

‘That’s what’s on the memory card,’ said Griessel.

‘Exactly,’ said Cupido. ‘The girl says she doesn’t think MI6 would kidnap their own citizen. If it all goes wrong, they want deniability. Clean hands. But she says of course MI6 is very good friends with the CIA. And the CIA has no scruples, everyone knows about Guantánamo Bay and drone attacks and all that monkey business. So, if the CIA kidnapped Adair, everything is sweet.’

Mbali shook her head in revulsion.

‘It will explain why our very own SSA is so keen to get hold of Adair,’ said Bones.

‘That’s right, pappie,’ said Cupido. ‘Just think how they could play puppet master with all those spies’ names. Talk about horse trading . . .’

Zola Nyathi clasped his hands together, slowly and formally. Griessel knew it was not a good sign.

‘I think the girl is wrong,’ said the Giraffe. ‘Or she’s lying.’

They waited for him to explain. Nyathi looked down at his hands. ‘When Benny and I spoke to Emma Graber, the woman from MI6 at the British Consulate, the overwhelming impression was that they did not know that Adair was kidnapped, let alone by whom. If it was the CIA and they knew about it, they would not even have bothered to involve us, or the State Security Agency. They would have responded very differently to our passport enquiries.’

They digested the logic in quiet disappointment. Cupido said hopefully, ‘So maybe it’s the Russians. Or the Chinese . . .’

Nyathi shook his head. ‘Sadly, I don’t think so. Unfortunately you’re not the only members of this unit that have had a busy afternoon. But my news is bad, and perhaps less . . . shall we say, about international intrigue. I have to tell you, if we decide to continue to pursue our investigation . . .’ and the colonel looked straight at Mbali ‘. . . it will lead to further disappointment in our government, and it will be a considerably higher risk to our careers. And it will probably lead nowhere else but into deep trouble, because we have nothing to go on. So I’d like to give you all the opportunity to walk away, right now. I will understand, absolutely and completely.’

49

The northwester was up to gale force when Tyrone walked up Somerset Street, and then south, up the hill along Dixon and Loader. He wanted to shelter in the warmth of the guesthouse, take his tired body to bed and sleep, because tomorrow he must have his mind clear and sharp.