Midnight Runner

‘Very good, Rupert! Yes. The Army of Arab Liberation Children’s Trust. That’s rather more serious business. Full paramilitary training, run by mercenaries. Some of them are Irish, you know. There are plenty of them around since this whole peace process thing began.’

‘So what do you want from me?’

‘I want you to oversee Loch Dhu, start keeping an eagle eye out, make sure nobody is snooping around. And I want you to keep close contact with Act of Class Warfare.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’ve got a feeling we’ll be seeing Senator Quinn again, and sooner than we think. Did you know, Rupert, that Act of Class Warfare has branches at most of the major universities now? Filled by the children of the affluent who want to destroy capitalism?’ She chuckled.

‘And what does that have to do with Quinn?’

‘Because, my dear Rupert…Helen Quinn is a member of the Oxford branch.’

In London the following morning, Major Roper appeared at Sean Dillon’s cottage at Stable Mews, a strange young man in a state-of-the-art electric wheelchair. He wore a reefer coat, his hair was down to his shoulders, and his face was a taut mask of the kind of scar tissue that only comes from burns. An important bomb disposal expert with the Royal Engineers, decorated with the George Cross, his extraordinary career had been terminated by what he called ‘a silly little bomb’ in a small family car in Belfast, courtesy of the Provisional IRA.

He’d survived and discovered a whole new career in computers. Now if you wanted to find out anything in cyberspace, no matter how buried, it was Roper you called.

Ferguson and Dillon were there to greet him.

‘Sean, you bastard,’ Roper said cheerfully.

Dillon smiled and helped him over the step. ‘You look well.’

‘Hannah didn’t say much. She sent me a file, though. Are we going to war again?’

‘I’d say it’s a distinct possibility.’

He followed Roper along the corridor and they found Ferguson on the telephone. He replaced it. ‘Major, how goes it?’

‘Fine, General. You’ve got work for me?’

Ferguson nodded. ‘Indeed we have.’

For the next half hour, they went over the whole background of the case, until finally Dillon said, ‘And what we would like you to do first is check out those groups she’s been giving money to. If she’s got an Achilles’ heel, that may be it. I don’t know what we’re looking for, exactly –’ he grinned ‘– but we’ll know when we find it.’

‘You realize,’ Roper said, ‘that if Quinn’s people checked her out a few months ago, she knows it. They’re bound to have left footprints, which means that she’s had time to try to cover her tracks, if she wanted to.’

‘Does that mean you don’t think you’ll find anything?’ Ferguson asked.

Roper’s scar tissue lifted in what passed for a smile. ‘I said she’d try. I didn’t say she’d succeed.’

LONDON (#ulink_f96052f1-f726-595a-8ae0-f70bf074f3f8)

5 (#ulink_3756d52e-a1fb-5913-8c16-f7f68edb1023)

Roper’s apartment in Regency Square was on the ground floor, with its own entrance and a slope to the door to facilitate his wheelchair. The entire place, including the kitchen and bathroom, which had a specialized shower and toilet system, was designed not only for a handicapped person but for one who, as in this case, was determined to fend for himself. In what should have been a sitting room, there was instead a computer laboratory and workbench, and the equipment there was state-of-the-art, some of it classified, obtained not only because he was a major on the Army reserve list but because Ferguson used his muscle whenever he had to.

Three days after Quinn’s meeting with the President, the front doorbell sounded at ten in the morning. Roper pressed a remote control and a moment later, Ferguson, Dillon, and Hannah Bernstein came in.

‘So, what have you got?’ Ferguson asked Roper.

‘Well, as you said, the Rashid Educational Trust pours money into an incredible variety of causes. The list’s as long as your arm. Most of them appear legit, but not all of them. This Children’s Trust in Beirut, for instance, is definitely Hezbollah. And she’s got other trusts scattered around Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, the Oman. I’m still working on them, but I’d bet you anything some of them are terrorist fronts as well.’

‘What on earth’s she playing at?’ Ferguson said.

‘She’s consolidating her power,’ Dillon said. ‘Establishing links with all the major Arab leaders. Gaining influence through either peace or violence, depending on what suits her particular needs.’

Roper nodded. ‘And don’t forget the size of her oil interests in the Middle East. Rashid Investments controls a third of all production there. She could bring down the whole house of cards if she wanted to.’

‘Christ,’ Ferguson groaned. ‘A third of Middle Eastern oil production.’

Dillon turned back to Roper. ‘What about here at home? She hasn’t made grants to the IRA or the Ulster Freedom Fighters or anything like that?’

‘No, but there are a lot of fringe organizations, like the People’s Army, the Socialist Marxist League, the Nationalist Liberation Group, the United Anarchists, and so on – and all the contributions presented as educational grants.’

‘And next time there’s a riot in London, how many of the members will be there?’ Hannah asked.

Roper shrugged. ‘She’s very clever. Everything is done in the open and above board. Many people would applaud what she’s doing.’

‘On the surface, maybe,’ Ferguson said. ‘But she’s clever, all right. What about Act of Class Warfare?’

‘Despite its name, it seems pretty innocuous. Its biggest feature is a kind of outdoor educational programme for kids from twelve to eighteen. School parties, canoeing, trekking, mountain climbing.’

‘I wonder what the older students get?’ Dillon asked.

‘Its headquarters is in western Scotland, in a town called Moidart, at Loch Dhu Castle. Yes, it belongs to the Countess.’

Ferguson was astonished. ‘But I’ve been there. We all have.’

Even Roper was surprised. ‘What do you mean?’

It was Dillon who answered. ‘A few years ago, we had to deal with a very bad article named Carl Morgan who’d rented that castle for a few weeks. The General, Hannah, and I took him on from Ardmurchan Lodge on the other side of the loch.’

Hannah turned to Ferguson. ‘But Lady Katherine owned it.’

‘Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that,’ said Roper. ‘When Sir Paul Dauncey received the title of Earl of Loch Dhu from James the First, it was an old castle even then. It was rebuilt in mid-Victorian style by one of the later Earls, starting in 1850, but the family hardly ever used it – they preferred Dauncey Place. More recently, they leased it to the Campbell family for fifty years. On the death of Lady Katherine Rose five years ago, the lease reverted to the Daunceys.’

‘Or since the marriage of Kate’s mother to the Rashids,’ Dillon said.

‘Carl Jung once said there was a thing called synchronicity,’ Hannah said. ‘An event going beyond mere coincidence that makes you think there’s some deeper meaning involved.’

‘Yes, spooky, isn’t it?’ Dillon said. ‘Kate Rashid’s been waiting for us to turn up all this time.’

‘Don’t talk nonsense.’ It was Ferguson who interjected. ‘But, you know, I think it’s time for us to shake the pot a bit.’

‘What do you mean, sir?’ Hannah asked.

Ferguson turned to Dillon. ‘Sean, I think it’s time for “we know that they know and they know that we know”.’