A Delicate Truth A Novel

bug twenty houses all in one go, I don’t suppose, can you, not even with today’s equipment? Maybe he’s lying up in one house and sneaking into another for his meeting. We don’t know, do we, not yet? It’s wait and see and don’t go down there till you know who you’re taking on, ’specially if you’re looking for an al-Qaeda kingpin.’
    Memories of Elliot’s clotted description of the same elusive figure come sweeping back to him:
    I would basically describe Punter as your jihadist Pimpernel par excellence, Paul, not to say your will-o’-the-wisp. He eschews all means of electronic communication, including cellphones and harmless-seeming emails. It’s word of mouth only for Punter , and one courier at a time, never the same one twice .
    ‘He could come at us from anywhere, Paul,’ Shorty was explaining, perhaps to wind him up. ‘Over the mountains there. Up the Spanish coast by small boat. Or he could walk on the water if he felt like it. Right, Jeb?’
    Cursory nod from Jeb. Jeb and Shorty, the tallest and the shortest men in the team: an attraction of opposites.
    ‘ Or smuggle himself across from Morocco under the noses of the coastguards, right, Jeb? Or put on an Armani suit, and fly in Club on a Swiss passport. Or charter a private Lear, which is what I’d do, frankly. Having first ordered my special menu in advance from the highly attractive hostess in a mini-skirt. Money to burn, Punter ’s got, according to our amazing top-of-the-range source, right, Jeb?’
    From the seaward side, the pitch-dark terrace was forbiddingagainst the night sky, the beach a blackened no-man’s-land of craggy boulders and seething surf.
    ‘How many men in the boat team?’ he asked. ‘Elliot didn’t seem sure.’
    ‘We got him down to eight,’ Shorty replied, over Jeb’s shoulder. ‘Nine when they head back to the mother ship with Punter . They hope,’ he added drily.
    The conspirators will be unarmed, Paul , Elliot was saying. Such is the degree of trust between a pair of total bastards. No guns, no bodyguards. We tiptoe in, we grab our man, we tiptoe out, we were never there. Jeb’s boys push from the land, Ethical pulls from the sea .
    Side by side with Jeb once more, he peered through the arrow-slit at the lighted freighters, then at the middle screen. One freighter lay apart from her companions. A Panamanian flag flapped from her stern. On her deck, shadows flitted among the derricks. An inflatable dinghy dangled over the water, two men aboard. He was still watching them when his encrypted cellphone began cooing its stupid melody. Jeb grabbed it from him, dowsed the sound, handed it back.
    ‘That you, Paul?’
    ‘Paul speaking.’
    ‘This is Nine. All right? Nine. Tell me you hear me.’
    And I shall be Nine, the minister is solemnly intoning, like a Biblical prophecy. I shall not be Alpha, which is reserved for our target building. I shall not be Bravo, which is reserved for our location. I shall be Nine, which is the designated code for your commander, and I shall be communicating with you by specially encrypted cellphone ingeniously linked to your operational team by way of an augmented PRR net, which for your further information stands for Personal Role Radio .
    ‘I hear you loud and clear, Nine, thank you.’
    ‘And you’re in position? Yes? Keep your answers short from now on.’
    ‘I am indeed. Your eyes and ears.’
    ‘All right. Tell me precisely what you can see from where you are.’
    ‘We’re looking straight down the slope to the houses. Couldn’t be better.’
    ‘Who’s there?’
    ‘Jeb, his three men and myself.’
    Pause. Muffled male voice off.
    The minister again:
    ‘Has anyone any idea why Aladdin hasn’t left the Chinese yet?’
    ‘They started eating late. He’s expected to leave any minute. That’s all we’ve heard.’
    ‘And no Punter in sight? You’re absolutely sure of that? Yes?’
    ‘Not in sight as yet. I’m sure. Yes.’
    ‘The slightest visual indication, however remote – the smallest clue – possibility of a sighting –’
    Pause. Is the augmented PRR breaking up, or is Quinn?
    ‘– I expect you to advise me immediately . Understood? We see everything you see, but not so clearly. You have eyes-on . Yes?’ – already sick of the delay – ‘Plain sight, for fuck’s sake!’
    ‘Yes, indeed. Plain sight. Eyes-on. I have eyes-on.’
    Don has struck up his arm for attention.
    In the centre of town a people carrier is nosing its way