stay alive, it might become a reality. He would eventually be too old or spent to be of any value and perhaps they might allow him to slip away into the mist. The odds were stacked against him but that was the way of his life for now. He was a double agent and that probably meant it halved his chances of survival. He was playing the most dangerous game there was, working between the East and the West.
The door opened and closed behind him and he turned to look at the white man standing in the room.
‘Salam alaykom,’ Stratton said.
Abed could not see him clearly in the shadows but he appeared to be somewhat scruffy: unshaven, tousled hair, his brown, leather jacket older and more worn than Abed’s.
‘Alaykom salam,’ Abed replied.
‘Ana issmi Stratton. Wa issm hadritak?’ Stratton said in halting Arabic.
‘My name is Abed,’ he replied. ‘Would you prefer to speak in English?’
Abed had learned English in school and although he had forgotten much of it by the time he left Gaza, his masters had encouraged him to take it up once again. English was the most common language of the enemy and if the fight was to be taken to his lands, the warriors had to be able to speak it. Several of those Abed worked with had been educated in England or America and for months he had spoken nothing else. This was the first time he had spoken it to an Englishman.
‘Sure. My Arabic’s a bit rusty anyhow,’ Stratton said.
‘What do you want of me?’ Abed asked, getting to the point.
Stratton did not have an answer to that question just yet. All they had told him about this man was that he had played a part in this operation. The only part Stratton could think of was the beginning.
‘Does the Orion Star mean anything to you?’ Stratton asked.
Abed heard the words as from a prosecutor, and for a moment he considered the possibility the British had set him up and that this man had come to execute him. Abed had accepted the probability of one day paying for his crime and was strangely prepared for it.
‘I led the mission,’ Abed said firmly but without any hint of pride.
Stratton walked across the room and joined Abed at the window as he pondered this information, searching for a use for Abed. One thing immediately struck him. Abed might have seen the engineer; Zhilev was virtually his twin. It was always difficult to identify a person from a photograph unless that person had some highly distinguishing features. Zhilev and his brother were large, powerful men, but someone who had seen them in the flesh, the way they moved, their features from angles other than that in the photograph, would have an advantage when it came to recognition. He was clutching at straws, but he could see no other use for Abed at the moment.
Stratton reached into his pocket and took out the photograph of Zhilev. ‘Do you recognise this man?’
Abed took the picture, studied it, then handed it back to Stratton.
‘He looks like the engineer on the tanker. Is that who it is?’
Stratton stared into Abed’s eyes, looking for something, and he was sure he had found it when Abed could not hold his gaze. A picture flashed into his head of the engineer, draped over the pipes, his neck cut to the bone and almost beheaded. A feeling of disgust grew in him but he could not bring himself to feel hate, which he should have done. It was more than just the guilt in Abed’s eyes that mellowed Stratton. Even though they had exchanged but a few words, Stratton could sense a strength in him. He stood confidently, but not defiantly, and he spoke softly without guarding his words, as if he had nothing to hide. It was an honesty that came only with youth.The Arab did not appear to be a cold-blooded, fanatical killer. But then again, Stratton asked himself, what did he know about these people? He fancied himself a good judge of character in the business of soldiering and terrorism. He had had enough experience. But he had also made mistakes in the past.
It suddenly dawned on Stratton Abed’s true value, and why Sumners’ boss had brought him so hurriedly on to the assignment.Abed had killed Zhilev’s brother and was the reason why the Russian was walking around with a nuclear bomb looking to blow it up somewhere in the Middle East. If the