Chapter Sixteen

I DRIFTED OVER into the slow lane and scanned the traffic behind in the mirror. When I was satisfied that we hadn’t picked up a tail, I walked Ben deeper into the shadow world.

‘The second email claims to be from the deputy director of the CIA. It was dated two days ago and it reports that we have had a breakthrough concerning the abduction of the three foreigners in the Hindu Kush. ’

‘But you haven’t, have you? ’ Ben asked.

‘No. The man and the events are a mystery. He’s a lone wolf, an organization of one. There hasn’t been any gossip and no chance of betrayal. We’ve been looking for a ghost. ’

I swung down an off-ramp, heading for Bodrum. ‘But we have glimpsed him, ’ I continued. ‘We know that he’s been to Afghanistan twice. First as a teenage mujahideen to fight the Soviets and then a few months back to abduct the three foreigners—’

‘Why were those people taken? ’

‘I can’t tell you that. ’ Ben was offended, but I couldn’t help it – there was no need for him to know, and that was the golden rule in the world he had entered.

‘One aspect of the event, however, has been critical to our plan. Dave McKinley realized it – you can’t abduct three people by yourself. Not in Afghanistan, not from different locations, not from fortified compounds. In that regard, our ghost must have had help. It has given us a way in.

‘McKinley has done two tours in the ’Ghan and nobody in the Western world knows more about the country than him. He’s certain it was old muj comrades, probably one of the warlords, who helped our man. Those ties run deep and would explain why, despite a thousand agents on the ground, we have heard nothing.

‘The second email says that, in two days’ time, one of those helpers – in return for a large cash reward and a new identity – will reveal the names of our ghost and all those who assisted him. ’

We had reached the coast, and the setting sun was washing the azure sea with shades of pink. I doubted that Ben had seen anything as beautiful, but he barely registered it.

‘If that were true about the cash reward, what would happen to the men he betrays? ’ he asked.

‘They would be interrogated, then handed over to the Afghan government. ’

‘And executed. ’

‘Yes. The email doesn’t reveal the traitor’s name, but it makes it clear that I know it. ’

‘So, if your target – if the ghost – wants to save himself and his comrades, he has to find out from you the name of the turncoat and pass it on to the warlord fast. ’

‘That’s right, ’ I replied. ‘Our target has to come to the waterhole, he has to come to Bodrum and get me to talk. And he’ll have less than a day to do it. ’

‘Then you grab him. ’

‘No. ’

Bradley reacted. ‘No?! What do you mean “no”? I thought—’

‘Grabbing him won’t help. The man has information we need. Let’s say he has sent a package to America – or is about to – and we have no chance of finding it. We have to get him to tell us the shipping details. ’

‘Torture him. ’

‘No – same problem as with his sister. By the time we discover he has told us a raft of crap, it’s too late. The package has already arrived. No, he has to tell us voluntarily. ’

Bradley laughed. ‘How are you going to get him to do that? ’

‘I’m not, ’ I replied. ‘You are. ’