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

operations room will be on finding Saleem’s target. My approach will be to look at Saleem’s task from his point of view. We need to examine his aims and objectives, identify the obstacles he will want to mitigate and hopefully cross a point where he’s been and find a thread. All we have at the moment is his threat to kill thousands of people. That ambition in itself narrows down his target. It also narrows down the methodology. It’s not vehicles running through pedestrians for instance.’

‘What about his threat to achieve his objective without WMD?’ Gunnymede asked.

‘That would certainly narrow it down further but I don’t think we should take that seriously. I don’t see how he can achieve the death of thousands without chemical or biological weaponry, can you?’

‘Not yet.’

‘We may be able to form an idea of his objective if we can create an accurate profile,’ Bethan said.

‘You’re obviously not the only profiler working on this,’ Neve said. ‘You’ll have access to everything that comes in.’

‘How much time do you think we have?’ Gunnymede asked.

‘I don’t think we have long. Days perhaps.’

‘If we spread our theories too broadly we’ll miss him,’ he said.

‘Meaning?’ Neve asked.

‘I believe he’s using brains over brawn. I think he’s using creativity over WMD.’

‘You think he’s that smart?’

‘No. It’s not his plan.’

‘Keep your theories narrow and you’ll also risk missing him,’ Neve said.

‘I’ve met him. I’ve heard him talk. I’ve looked into his eyes and seen his passion. He’s no genius. There’s something simple about what he wants to do. He has no history of operational command. He’s relatively inexperienced for a job of this importance. He was selected because he’s low profile and can be trusted to execute a simple plan. That’s why we won’t pick up trails of RDX or fertiliser or radioactivity or encrypted messages and complex manpower management. His mission is analogue not digital.’

‘I don’t buy it,’ Neve said. ‘Especially the bit about his selection because of inexperience. That doesn’t make sense to me.’

‘You said you wanted to look at this task from their point of view.’

‘His.’

‘His. Theirs. But you’re not. You’re looking at it from our point of view.’

‘Let me remind you you’re not the ops officer on this,’ Neve said firmly. ‘I am. We’ll look for fertiliser and radioactivity and bombs and guns and encrypted messages because that’s how we’re going to find him.’

Bethan looked between the two, wondering what was going on between them.

‘Fine,’ Gunnymede said stepping back, doing his best to control his irritation. ‘Let’s go for a drive,’ he said to Bethan.

‘Devon?’ Neve said as he started to walk away. ‘Jervis told me something you should know. He doesn’t have much confidence in you.’

Gunnymede stopped before leaving the room. ‘Why’s that?’ he asked.

‘Your only incentive for doing this job is to stay out of jail.’

‘Isn’t that good enough?’

‘Not if you don’t want this job to end.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Gunnymede asked in a sarcastic tone. ‘If I see Saleem I’ll say to him, shh, keep going, I won’t tell anyone.’

‘You know they can’t keep you out of jail forever,’ Neve said. ‘You’re on a temporary pass. Once this operation is over you’re going back to prison.’

Bethan looked at Gunnymede who was staring coldly at Neve. She felt horrified for him.

‘Well, that’s positive incentive, isn’t it,’ he said and walked out the door.

Bethan studied Neve for a second as if trying to figure her out. Neve looked her in the eyes coldly. Bethan didn’t hold her gaze and left the room.

 

 

Chapter 27

Gunnymede and Bethan climbed into her car in the Legoland car park. He slammed the door and stared ahead in silence.

‘I’m going with former girlfriend, acrimonious split but lots of residuals, not all of them bad. Well, until just now.’

‘Just drive, please.’

She started the car and headed out of the car park. ‘Where too?’

He held out the pink post-it Harlow gave him. She read it and carried on.

Twenty-five minutes later they arrived in a residential street in Clapham. Bethan turned off the engine and looked at Gunnymede questioningly. He was staring at a terraced house.

‘Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here?’ she asked.

Gunnymede didn’t respond.

‘Need to know,’ she quipped. ‘Got it.’

Gunnymede climbed out, walked to the front door and pushed the doorbell. It chimed somewhere inside.

The door opened and an Arab woman in her fifties pulling a scarf over her head looked him up and down. ‘Yes,’ she said, smiling politely.

‘I was a friend of Nahim’s,’ he said.

Her smile disappeared.

‘Can I come in? I won’t keep you long.’

She took a moment to decide before stepping back and letting him in.

Bethan watched the front door close behind him and took her phone from a pocket. She hit a memory dial and waited for it to answer.

‘Not working you very hard if you’ve got time to call me,’ Dillon said.

‘I missed you.’

‘Of course you did. What do you need?’

‘Who’s taking over the military homicides case?’

‘No one. I don’t have anyone to spare. Besides, it’s your case. I can’t believe you have so little to do with this current threat you’re thinking of that case.’

‘It’s not that. I just wondered why I’m here.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know what I mean exactly. It’s just that I don’t know why I’ve been attached to MI6. I’m not that wonderful. They don’t need me for anything specific. They have their own profilers. And then they mentioned the assassination case and I wondered...’

‘Wondered what?’

‘It will sound stupid.’

‘Tell me.’

‘I suddenly wondered if I was attached to 6 so that I couldn’t work on the assassination case.’

‘You’re right. That does sound daft. For one,