The Becket Approval by Falconer Duncan (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

because they sometimes leave the tea bags in,’ Simons said.

‘Really? I didn’t know that,’ Jervis said. ‘This one’s still pretty fresh.’

He put his cup down and wiped his mouth with a napkin before continuing. ‘We can’t find a connection between Lamardi and your Daesh friend, Saleem. There probably isn’t a direct one. But we believe they both refer to the same attack. Hours before Lamardi was killed, he sent us a message. A good will gesture. A teaser. A snippet he hoped would give us incentive to move our backsides and give him sanctuary. You’re familiar with the Nouvelle Route de la Soie?’

‘Yes,’ Gunnymede said. The New Silk Road. French military intelligence was the first to map it out a few years back. It wasn’t a road exactly. Not all of it. Not like the ancient silk roads. This was primarily a modern drug trade route consisting of planes, trains, boats, mules, tracks and roads linking Afghanistan, China, India, various Stans and Eastern Europe into the West.

Simons brought up a map showing the New Silk Road routes, varied and intertwining across Central Asia.

‘Lamardi gave us a name,’ Jervis said. ‘Taz Yon. An Afghan Silk Road ferrymen. Looks like Taz Yon is bringing something west other than the usual shipment of heroin. And we need to find out what that is. Saleem’s still in Turkey as far as we know, no doubt preparing to move West to the UK.’ He got to his feet. ‘I must fly. Good to see you again, Mr Gunnymede. Stay out of trouble. Enjoy your trip.’

Jervis left the room, the door sealing shut behind him.

Gunnymede looked at Simons who was pouring himself a fresh cup of tea. ‘Enjoy what trip?’

‘Taz Yon left Kabul two days ago,’ Simons said. ‘He’s on the Silk Road with cargo as we speak and heading west. It’s the cargo we’re interested in. Heroin for sure. But what else? We know where he is at present because he’s carrying three cellular phones and we have their MINs. But his MO is to ditch his phones along the route and pick up new ones. If we don’t get the MINs of the new phones we risk losing track of him and therefore his cargo handover which could be anywhere in Russia, the Ukraine, Turkey or even further west.’

‘Don’t you need to be within a few K to get the MIN?’

‘From the air, yes. But on the ground, one must be closer. He’s heading through Kazakhstan, which means he’s going to cross the border into Russia here. It’s the last predictable point of his route west. After that, he could go anywhere. Which is why we need to be in this bottleneck here, just inside Russia.’ He pointed to an area on the map between Volgograd and the Kazakhstan border.

‘We can’t risk putting up a drone. The Russians will detect it. It’s a good location for us because of its remoteness. All we need to do is get within sight of this road, identify Taz’s convoy, record every MIN and get the info to GCHQ who’ll do the rest.’

So this is Jervis’s trip. Gunnymede looked at Simons who was looking back at him with a thin, knowing smile.

‘Easy enough, don’t you think,’ Simons said.

Gunnymede almost said that if Simons had any operational experience he’d know that was a stupid thing to say but he just about managed to hold his tongue. ‘Is the kit already in country?’ he asked.

‘No. We have to take it in.’

‘Which means avoiding a legitimate border crossing or entry port.’

‘Correct.’

‘When are you expecting Taz at the border?’

‘Tomorrow afternoon.’

Gunnymede’s look of surprise was instant and unguarded.

‘Which means we’d like to be in position by early tomorrow morning,’ Simons added.

‘Tomorrow?! That’s ridiculous. The only way to get there by tomorrow is to fly and you can’t fly into that area without being detected.’

‘Correct. An air drop is the only way in at such short notice.’

‘You just agreed nothing can fly in there. So how can you do a drop?’

‘By using a plane that has a legitimate reason to fly over the area.’

‘What plane do we have has a legitimate reason to fly over Russian airspace, other than a commercial flight?’

Simons smiled knowingly, raising an eyebrow.

Gunnymede looked at him as if he was crazy. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. How does that work?’

‘There’s a new technique we’ve been working on,’ Simons explained.

‘A technique?’

‘It’s not entirely new. There was a similar program in the seventies. It wasn’t successful for various reasons. The important thing is the Russians won’t be expecting it.’

‘I’ve got to hear this,’ Gunnymede mumbled.

‘Oh, you’ll do more than just hear it.’

‘You’re talking about me doing this?’

‘Why do you think you and I are discussing it?’

‘And I’m going to use a regular commercial flight to drop into Russia?’

‘Correct.’

‘A parachute drop.’

‘Correct.’

‘So I catch a regular flight and, at the designated time, I get out of my seat, pull on a parachute, open a door, wave farewell to the passengers, who by this time are doing their best not to get sucked out with me, and leave?’

‘Of course not. We’re not idiots. We have thought it through. It’s been tested.’

‘What’s been tested?’

‘You won’t be in the cabin with the passengers. They won’t even know you’re on the plane. You’ll be in the front landing gear compartment. The doors will be opened at the appropriate location and you’ll ... drop out. You’ll be wearing the latest stealth fabric to hide your signature – your size actually. Your chute will pop below radar and you’ll land and get on with the task. It’s a damned good plan.’

‘It’s been done?’

‘Of course.’

‘In Russia?’

‘No. We’ve done simulations here. We’ve only got one pop at this for real. The Russians will figure