Chaudhry laughed harshly. ‘No pressure? Are you serious? If they find out what I’m doing they’ll. .’ He left the sentence unfinished.
‘Raj, it’s going to be okay.’
‘You promise?’
‘I promise,’ said Shepherd. He ended the call with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach because he knew that wasn’t a promise that he could make. He phoned Charlotte Button and told her what had happened.
‘Friday evening?’ she said. ‘Worst possible time. Any idea of potential targets?’
‘Raj had no idea. Unlikely to be a sporting venue, right? If they’re being picked up at five I doubt they’ll be in place by six. More likely seven.’
‘Seven o’clock in London? They could hit Soho, Leicester Square, the theatre district. Or it could be symbolic. Trafalgar Square. Downing Street. The London Eye.’
‘He wasn’t specifically asked to bring ID so I can’t see it’ll be anywhere that would need identification,’ said Shepherd.
‘Well, we can spend all day trying to second-guess them but that’s not going to get us anywhere.’
‘They’re being picked up outside an Indian restaurant on Stoke Newington Church Street. I’ve asked Raj to take his GPS phone with him so we can track him. He’s reluctant, though, because Khalid specifically said no phones. What about Khalid? Are you going to have him tailed too?’
‘Khalid shook his tail yesterday.’
‘How did that happen?’
‘Khalid’s hardcore al-Qaeda, Spider. Single-use SIM cards, disposable phones or callboxes, no computer of his own and only uses computers in Muslim-owned internet cafes, never conducts business at home but almost always face to face in public places.’
‘But he’s under surveillance, right?’
‘Most of the time, yes. But ninety-nine per cent of the time he does nothing. He sleeps, he goes to the mosque, he eats, he socialises. We’ve no idea what he says to the people he meets, which is why Chaudhry and Malik are so valuable. They’re the only assets we have in his circle.’
‘But yesterday he lost his watchers?’
‘It happens now and again. He goes into anti-surveillance mode and he’s clearly been trained by experts. We could have a dozen men on him and he’d still lose them all.’
‘So he knows that he’s being followed?’
‘Our guys are experts too, Spider. I doubt that he knows that he’s being followed; it’s just that every time he goes active he employs all the anti-surveillance techniques at his disposal. Like I said, he’s hardcore. I wish we knew what he was planning. We could be looking at anything, couldn’t we? Guns. Bombs. Chemicals. We just don’t know.’
‘There’s nothing to suggest that it’s a suicide attack,’ said Shepherd. ‘So I don’t think it’ll be bombs.’
‘They could be lying to Chaudhry and Malik,’ said Button. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘What do you need me to do?’ asked Shepherd.
‘Where are you?’
‘Hampstead. Just dropping some stuff off.’
‘Soon as you’ve done that, come to Thames House,’ she said. ‘I’ll get an operation room set up.’
‘I’d rather be closer to them.’
‘No can do,’ said Button. ‘You’re not a professional follower. The last thing we need is you showing out. Soon as you can, okay?’
‘I’m on my way,’ said Shepherd.
Chaudhry unlocked the door to his flat and wheeled in his bike. Malik was sprawled on the sofa eating his way through a bag of crisps and watching a quiz show on television. Chaudhry glared at him. ‘Why the hell is your phone off?’ he said.
‘Battery died,’ said Malik. ‘It’s charging.’
Chaudhry kicked the door shut and leaned his bike against the back of the sofa. ‘Khalid called,’ he said. ‘It’s today.’
‘What?’ Malik sat up, spilling crisps over the carpet. ‘What do you mean?’
‘What do you think I mean?’ said Chaudhry, tossing his helmet on to an armchair. He folded his arms and stood glaring down at Malik.
‘Today? It’s today?’
Chaudhry nodded. ‘It’s today.’
‘What do they want us to do?’ Malik asked.
‘How am I supposed to know?’ Chaudhry said, shrugging.
Malik stood up. Stray crisps fell to the carpet. ‘He didn’t say anything?’
‘Harvey, if he’d told me one word don’t you think I’d have told you? He said be here, now. He said we’d be picked up. That’s all he said.’ Chaudhry walked into the small kitchen and opened the fridge. ‘Why is there never anything to drink?’ he said. ‘I bought three cans of Coke yesterday so where the hell are they?’
‘This is fucked up,’ said Malik, coming up behind him. ‘Why didn’t they tell us what’s going on?’
Chaudhry slammed the fridge door. ‘Because the fewer people who know what we’re doing, the less chance it gets out. Need to know.’
‘It’s treating us like we don’t matter, that’s what’s going on here.’ Malik screwed up his face and grunted. ‘Bastards, bastards, bastards.’
‘Relax,’ said Chaudhry. He switched on the kettle. ‘What happens, happens.’
‘Have you called John?’
‘First thing I did.’
‘What if they. .’ Malik left the sentence unfinished.
‘What?’ said Chaudhry.
‘What if they want us to. . you know. . shahid.’
Chaudhry’s mouth fell open. ‘Are you crazy? Where’s that come from?’