Page 14 of Never

‘It’s still a great prize, and you’re the hero of the hour.’

Abdul had no interest in being a hero. He was looking ahead. ‘I need to change my tactics,’ he said.

‘Okay…’ she said dubiously.

‘It’s going to become difficult for me to stay out of sight. The route now will be north across the Sahara to Tripoli, and from there over the Mediterranean to the nightclubs of Europe. Between here and the coast it’s pretty much all naked desert, with little traffic.’

Tamara nodded. ‘So the driver is more likely to notice you.’

‘You know what it’s like out here: no smoke, no mist, no pollution – on a clear day you can see for miles. On top of that I’ll have to stop overnight at the same oases as the vehicle with the consignment – there’s never a choice in the desert. And most of those places are small, too small for me to hide. I’m bound to be spotted.’

‘We’ve got a problem,’ Tamara said worriedly.

‘Fortunately, a solution has presented itself. In the last couple of days the consignment has been transferred again, this time to a bus that carries illegal migrants. This is not unusual – the two kinds of smuggling fit together well, and both are lucrative.’

‘It could still be difficult for you to track the vehicle without arousing suspicion.’

‘That’s why I’m going to be on the bus.’

‘You’ll travel as one of the migrants?’

‘That’s my plan.’

Tamara said: ‘It’s clever.’

Abdul was not sure how Phil Doyle and the higher-ups in the CIA would take the news. But there was little they could do about it. The officer in the field had to act as he thought best.

Tamara asked a practical question. ‘What will you do with your car and all those cigarettes?’

‘Sell them,’ he said. ‘Someone will be keen to take over the business. And I won’t be holding out for a high price.’

‘We could sell the stuff for you.’

‘No, thanks, it’s better this way. I should stay in character. The sale will explain how I got the money to pay the people smugglers. It reinforces my cover story.’

‘Good point.’

‘One more thing,’ he said. ‘More or less by accident I came across a useful asset. He’s a disillusioned terrorist in Kousséri, Cameroon, just across the bridge from N’Djamena. He’s in the loop, and he’s willing to pass information to us. You should try him out.’

Tamara said: ‘Disillusioned?’

‘He’s an idealistic young man who has seen too much senseless killing to believe in jihad any longer. You don’t need to know his name, but he’ll call himself Haroun.’

‘How do I contact him?’

‘He’ll get in touch with you. The message will mention a number – eight kilometres, or fifteen dollars – and the number will be the time he wants to meet you by the twenty-four-hour clock, so fifteen dollars would mean three p.m. The place of the first meeting will be La Grande Marché.’ Tamara knew it – everyone did. It was the central market in the capital city. ‘At the first meeting you can agree the location for the second.’

‘The market is huge,’ Tamara said. ‘Hundreds of people of all races. How will we know one another?’

Abdul reached inside his jalabiya and pulled out a blue scarf with a distinctive pattern of orange circles. ‘Wear this,’ he said. ‘He’ll recognize it.’

Tamara took the scarf. ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Abdul’s mind returned to the raid on al-Bustan. ‘I assume the prisoners have been questioned about al-Farabi.’

‘They’ve all heard about him, but only one claimed to have seen him in the flesh. He confirmed the usual description – grey hair, black beard, amputated thumb. The prisoner had been part of a group in Mali that was trained by al-Farabi in how to make roadside bombs.’

Abdul nodded. ‘I’m afraid that’s highly credible. From what little we know, it seems al-Farabi isn’t interested in getting all the African jihadis to work together – he probably thinks they’re more secure as disparate groups, and he would be right about that. But he does want to teach them to kill more people more efficiently. He gained a lot of technical expertise in Afghanistan and now he’s sharing it, hence the training course.’