talk about the Middle East, Stratton wondered where the aircraft was heading. The sun was shining in through the starboard window and slightly ahead of the plane. He checked the compass on his watch to confirm they were indeed flying southeast. ‘Where are we going?’ he asked.
‘Tel Aviv. It’s time to bring Mossad into the game,’ Sumners said. ‘We can’t tell them about a nuclear device either, of course. Got to play the Israelis carefully when it comes to threats against Islam. They wouldn’t exactly bend over backwards to prevent a bomb blowing up that lot.’
‘Unless it was made to look like the Israelis did it,’ Stratton said.
‘Horrifying thought,’ Sumners said as he got to his feet. ‘I’m going to grab a nap. Been a long night.’
Sumners stifled a yawn and was about to head towards the seats when he thought of something else. ‘How is he?’ he asked, referring to Gabriel. ‘Fit, you think?’
‘He’s tired.’
‘I expect he wants to see this through though.’
Stratton gave nothing away, looking at the top of Gabriel’s head just visible above his headrest.
‘We’re all believers now, aren’t we, eh, Stratton?’ Sumners said as he walked away.
Stratton watched him step into the row behind Gabriel and plonk himself tiredly into a seat, but his mind was fixed on the most important implication of this entire situation.
‘Stratton?’ a voice called out.
Stratton looked around to see it was Chalmers holding out a pamphlet. ‘The specs on the likely device,’ he said.
How apt, Stratton thought as he reached over, took the pamphlet and flicked through it. He knew a bit about suitcase bombs anyway. It was a requirement for senior operatives to understand at least the basics of them, just in case. It was a crazy world and one could expect to run into anything these days. Explosives were one of Stratton’s fortes anyway.
The implication that remained a painful distraction was Gabriel’s fear that he was going to die by Zhilev’s device. Gabriel did not know it was an atomic bomb. Stratton had never been more than a few hundred yards from Gabriel’s side while on the assignment and was hardly likely to ever be much further since his job was to protect him as well as help in the decoding. The device had a destructive radius of five miles, which did not include the fallout. That clearly meant that if Gabriel was going to be killed by it then so was anyone else with him. Sumners would not tell Gabriel about the weapon in case it affected his will to continue in pursuit of it. The information could only have a negative effect on Gabriel’s performance and so why take the risk? Gabriel was the most important tool in locating Zhilev and his life was entirely expendable in the light of the gravity of the situation. The same went for Stratton. Sumners was unaware of Gabriel’s fears and was clearly optimistic about finding Zhilev and the bomb before it was detonated. Stratton could withhold Gabriel’s fears from Sumners and refuse to continue with the assignment, but that would mean bringing in someone else to take over the operation and Stratton would effectively be sending that person to his death, along with Gabriel.
Stratton tried to tell himself that didn’t matter as long as he lived, but it wouldn’t stick. He couldn’t send someone else to die in his place, nor could he turn his back on Gabriel.They were team-mates now and, like it or not, in this together.
‘Chicken or chicken?’ a voice said, interrupting Stratton’s thoughts.
Stratton looked up to see the loadmaster standing in front of him holding a stack of polystyrene in-flight rations boxes. He was reminded of the standing joke in the SBS about the lack of choice regarding RAF flight meals, which always seemed to be a couple of slightly warmed Kentucky Fried Chicken drumsticks and a serving of soggy chips.
‘I’ll have the chicken,’ Stratton said, and was handed a box.
As the loadmaster moved on to offer the selection to the rest of the cabin, Stratton went back to his thoughts. He had a dilemma to say the least. There were some hard choices to make, and not a lot of time in which to make them.
Chapter 10
Abed’s mother lay on a mattress on the concrete floor, a white veil around her pale, wrinkled face which was bathed in the light from several candles flickering in the drab, airless room. A tattered towel hung across a small window high in the wall to cut out