22rd April
It was nine o’clock in the evening before Joan, Etienne, Helen and I sat down for our evening meal.
Helen and Etienne had set off from Thames House much later then Joan and I. They had not arrived at Bovington until several hours after us, even though we had taken a detour to interview Rachel Walker.
‘Any news on that van?’ I asked when we were seated.
‘We were right to be cautious about diplomatic immunity,’ Joan replied. ‘I hadn’t expected, however, that the people in the van would be Americans.’
‘I thought they were on our side,’ said Helen.
‘It’s hard to say who’s on whose side,’ Joan replied. ‘We searched the van when it was impounded, although we can’t admit that or officially act on anything we found.’
‘What did you find?’ I asked.
‘Walt Cooper – that was the man’s name – took his laptop from the van before we impounded it,’ Joan began, ‘so we couldn’t check that. We found a sniper rifle, however, that fires the same type of bullet that killed Hartnell.’
‘So these Americans killed somebody who was already being interrogated by their CIA,’ I said.
‘Why would they do that?’ Helen asked.
‘Wheels within wheels,’ Joan replied. ‘Hartnell may have known something that one part of American covert operations didn’t want another part to find out about. I think that fact, and the photographs we found in the van, mean that we need to have a change of plan.’
‘What photographs?’ I said.
‘There were photographs of the man you spoke to on videolink,’ said Joan.
‘Arkangel!’ I replied.
‘If that’s his true identity,’ continued Joan. ‘He was standing on a beach, talking to someone we know as Vladimir Paulov.’ Joan paused after saying that name as if it brought back memories for her. ‘There were recordings of their conversation too. Arkangel gave Paulov a document containing something he described as “the new code”. Also in the van were photographs of Meadowcote Hall. Finally there were photographs of Hartnell and of you, Swan. Those photographs had black crosses drawn on them. I think it’s possible that Cooper planned to kill you too, which is why he was following us.’
We all sat in silence for several moments.
‘What will happen to Cooper and the woman now?’ I asked.
‘As I suspected, they had American diplomatic passports. We couldn’t arrest them or question them. They now seem to have simply vanished. They never called to collect their van.’
‘Will Swan still be at risk?’ asked Helen.
‘Very possibly,’ replied Joan, ‘which it why I don’t think it’s wise for you both to go to the States as we’d planned. We’ll need to send someone in Swan’s place.’
‘How can you do that?’ I said.
Joan smiled. ‘You’ll see.’
‘Who’s Vladimir Paulov?’ Etienne spoke for the first time.
‘I thought he was dead,’ Joan replied. ‘He used to be an agent for MI6. He worked with Tom Meadowcote and Sam Collins in Turkey. He’s a missile expert.’
My mobile alerted me to having received a message.
‘It’s from Leadbetter,’ I said. ‘He’s sent a list of names that Hunter has confirmed to be the main players in ARK. He says that one of them, Bishop Rycroft, knows the identity of Arkangel and that Leadbetter will be questioning him soon.’
I looked at Joan, ‘Should I tell him to stop doing all this and release Hunter?’ I asked her.
‘Frankly,’ said Joan, ‘he may get information that we can’t, and we don’t have too much time. I think we should let him get on with it. Anyway, Bishop Rycroft is on a visit to America. He’s not due back for a fortnight, so Leadbetter can’t do much until then.’
On Joan’s advice I replied to the text: Very well done! Keep me informed.