Chapter Twenty

‘WHAT HAPPENS NOW? ’ Bradley asked.

He had left my room, returned to his own, uupacked and showered. Looking less haggard and seemingly more relaxed, he was sitting with me in the hotel’s dining area. It was 9 p. m. and we were picking at plates of meze, neither of us with much appetite, the anxiety bearing down. We were alone: the season was dying fast and the hotel’s few other guests had already headed out to beachside bars and restaurants.

‘The next step is that Cumali reads the fake emails. Then we hope she contacts her brother, ’ I replied.

‘How will we know if she does? ’

‘Echelon, ’ I said.

‘What’s Echelon? ’

‘Something that doesn’t exist. But, if it did, it would be listening to cellphones, fixed lines, emails, every communication in this part of Turkey. In particular, it would be monitoring one phone box four miles from here. ’

‘And if Cumali does contact him, when do you think she’ll do it? ’

The same question had been occupying my thoughts. ‘She should have received the stolen information by now, ’ I replied. ‘The way the Albanians took it means she won’t have to spend time trying to unlock it – the passwords are already broken.

‘Assuming she believes everything she reads, it’ll scare her badly. She’ll keep rereading it, trying to find other stuff on the hard drive, wasting time. Finally, the worst of the shock, maybe even a bout of nausea, will have passed.

‘She’ll sit at her computer in her old fisherman’s house and post a message on an Internet forum or dating site.

‘Almost immediately, the Saracen will receive a text message from the same site saying that someone who shares his interests has just posted an entry.

‘He’ll know what it means – he has to contact her urgently, probably at some prearranged time.

‘Meanwhile, Cumali has to record grabs from English-language news programmes and code up a message. The anxiety will slow her down and then she’s got to drive to the phone box and wait for him to call.

‘I figure, by the time she’s done everything, Echelon will hear something by no later than midnight. That’s our drop-dead time. If it doesn’t, I guess she will have seen through it, and we’re finished. ’

‘And say Echelon does hear. McKinley will call you and tell you that the man is probably on his way? ’ asked Bradley.

‘Yeah. McKinley’s message will be short, he’ll just say something like: Buddy, you’re live. ’

‘Midnight, ’ Ben said quietly, and looked at a clock above the fireplace. ‘Three hours to go. ’ He almost laughed. ‘It’s gonna be a long night. ’

‘Yeah, ’ I replied coolly. Over the years I’d had a lot of long nights and I had learned something about patience. ‘Two choices – you wanna play cards or hear a story? ’

‘I don’t know, ’ he responded. ‘Is it a good story? ’

‘Judge for yourself, ’ I said. ‘It’s about a woman called Ingrid Kohl. ’