A Hostile State Adrian Magson (reading e books txt) 📖

‘Callahan said he thought you’d be able to source something yourself but this is a just-in-case.’

‘Yeah, Callahan would.’ He’d been a field operative himself so he knew the problems of supply and demand, especially when a situation went hot.

We continued walking while I mulled over the situation and kept one eye on our back trail and the open area of the park to our right. Callahan must need his head seeing to doing this but I couldn’t fault his wanting to provide support.

‘What are you supposed to do after this?’ It was a long way to come just to hand over a gun and provide a friendly face for a nervous asset.

‘I’m to stick around and help. He said it would be good experience for me.’

‘Only if you want to go out in the field, it might. I wouldn’t recommend it.’

She stopped. ‘Why not?’ She was looking at me with a sharp glint in her eyes, which was quite nice to look at but told me I’d taken a step too far. ‘Last time I looked fieldwork wasn’t the exclusive preserve of men any more.’ She said it with a show of heat. ‘Or are you saying you wouldn’t trust a female operative?’

‘Last time I looked,’ I said calmly, scoping the trees around us as a couple of dogs began tearing into each other, ‘there are plenty of women who do the job extremely well. In fact the last one I met was in Lebanon a few days ago.’

‘You mean Isobel Hunt – the MI6 officer.’

‘That’s the one.’

She was smiling now and I realized she’d been pushing my buttons.

‘Are you saying she was a hottie in tights and jump boots … or have I got a skewed take on reality?’

I debated letting it go but Callahan had put her in a difficult situation. Seeing what I normally did through a long-range camera feed from a drone, or hearing what I did on the end of a comms line might have given her a whole wrong impression about what really went on out here. I couldn’t let it lie and said, ‘Her reality is she had to shoot a man dead to save our lives. That’s what I’m saying.’

The smile vanished and her mouth dropped open. She went pale. ‘Oh. God, I’m so sorry—’

I realized I’d been too harsh on her. None of this was her fault. I took her arm and steered her forward. Up close she smelled of something soapy and citrusy, and suddenly I was enjoying the closeness. It was a sensation I wasn’t used to.

‘Doesn’t matter. It worked out fine. I didn’t mean to be rough. Tell me what’s been happening in Langley.’

‘Like what?’

‘Come on. I can read between the lines. Callahan’s acting weird, I can tell. He told you I’m being targeted, right?’

‘Yes.’ She nodded and said, ‘And apparently the State Department isn’t happy with what happened in Lebanon. They’re trying to forge closer relationships with Moscow and their allies, and something like the Lebanon operation blowing up gets in the way. That’s their words, not ours. Callahan didn’t tell me everything but I know he was ordered to drop you and that as a contractor you were on your own.’

‘Just like that?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t know. But Callahan’s hugely upset. I get the feeling he’s close to telling them what they can do with their job.’

‘He shouldn’t,’ I said. ‘There are times when tough decisions have to be made and they don’t always make sense.’ Especially, I thought, when they had a dimension that was driven by outside or political influences and ignored the situation of people on the ground a long way away with potentially no easy way to react quickly enough.

Quite how much of a shit-storm, to use Isobel’s expression, that would kick up among other contractors when they found out remained to be seen. Nobody wants to work for an employer who drops the ball purely because politicians say their agenda trumps anything going on in the field.

Then my phone buzzed. I checked the screen. Surprise, surprise – it was Callahan.

‘You’ve got some nerve,’ I told him. ‘So what now – is this the end of the road?’

‘Not as far as I’m concerned,’ he replied briskly. ‘I take it you’ve met up with Lindsay?’

‘I have. About what she told me, I have to admit to being a little pissed.’ I leaned close to Lindsay so she could hear our conversation. If things turned bad here it was only fair that she knew what the situation was.

‘I figured you should know how things stand, that’s all. It’s political and stupid and will cause a lot of people in your position to jump ship. Maybe even some of our own field staff, too. But there’s nothing I can do about it until someone at the top sees sense.’

‘Is that why you’re calling?’

‘I wish it was. But no. Chesnais got careless before she went to the embassy and blabbed about her situation to a friend. The friend said she wanted to cover her back and put the story out on a news website saying an unnamed French citizen “journalist” was being threatened by right-wing extremists who’ve already killed another journalist. It’s gone viral.’

‘How does that affect us?’ I could think of only one answer to that and it wasn’t long in coming. Trouble rarely travels alone.

‘She won’t be coming. She lost her nerve and bolted to our embassy in Paris where she thought she’d be safe. Luckily for us and her they called me instead of kicking her onto the street. The security guys over there put her on a flight out; she’s probably midway over the Atlantic by now.’

‘But that’s not all?’

‘I’m afraid not. She also told the friend about the plan to meet up with an American representative in your location who was going to help get her out of the country. They don’t have the precise location but I’m guessing Épernon is a