The almost eerie emptiness of headquarters at 6am provided him with a sense of relief. Another stroke of fortune concerned the duty sergeant. The raids had drained the place of manpower which left Sergeant Evans putting in a stint of mandatory overtime. After a long night his thoughts were on sleep and his young daughter's birthday party later that afternoon.
He hardly batted an eyelid when Blunt told him to bring Saddiqe up to interview room 1. He explained that he needed to go over a few things with her. He emphasised that he ought to put it in his log that Blunt had ordered him to do so. Evans had nodded his agreement.
In the confines of the interview room the Chief Inspector dispensed with any formalities. He had no time for such niceties.
'Miss Saddiqe. Here is a faxed copy of the document you requested. As you can see it is signed by the Home Secretary. The original is on its way. I trust that it will suffice?'
She grabbed the document and studied it for a moment before placing it on the table.
She nodded.
'Now what do you have to tell me. This document is only of value if what you have to say is of value. If not then quite simply we rip it up and throw it away. So, what have you got?'
She paused for a while and then started
'I don't know all the details. It is only stuff that I overheard. Members of a specially chosen team have been in the USA for quite a while. They are all fluent English speakers. Many of them have studied engineering and suchlike subjects at English and American universities. The plan had always been to organise and execute a spectacular strike against our most hated enemies. This is one that will strike hard at the great Satan and Jews. All I know is that our people have enrolled with flying schools because they are going to carry out something from the air. It's going to take out some of the most important world politicians.'
'Christ' thought Blunt 'are they going to try and strafe the World Trade Centre with jet fighters?'
'Can you be a little more specific, are they going to use jet fighters, helicopter gunships or some suchlike?' he urged incredulously
'I don't know. They kept everything fairly secret. Some of us only got to know because we had overheard snatches of conversations. So I've told you all I know. '
'Ok' disappointment in Blunt's voice. He rang for the custody sergeant to take the girl back to her cell.
Once in his office he dialled Lefkowitz. He felt a tad silly because he did not really have that much to tell.
This time the Israeli answered immediately. He couldn't hide his disappointment at what the Englishman told him.
'My friend. What is this? This is something I am supposed to take back to my people?'
Blunt could imagine the exaggerated shrug of the other's shoulders.
Avram I know it does not sound very much. But did you ever think that they would attack from the air?'
'Please my friend don't humour me. The whole thing is too far fetched. This girl is pulling your foot or leg.
Blunt thought he would give it one more try.
'Avram, your organisation has been so successful because they consider everything. Look at all the possibilities. Look at the Entebbe operation. On a wider level what about the victories in the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars. In the latter you achieved things that people would never have dreamed of....'
'Where is this going my friend? We are running out of time on your schedule' the Israeli interjected
'Avram, keep an open mind. Let's think of what these people have done in the past. One they have hijacked airliners...you know that only too well! Secondly they believe in suicide bombing, again you know that only too well. All that rubbish about ninety two virgins or whatever being their reward in the afterlife'
'My friend, I still do not see where you are going. I know what you are trying to say. BUT and I stress BUT it is all too far fetched' came the sceptical interruption from the Israeli.
Allow me to finish. If a strange aircraft attempts to fly into the airspace around New York then the Americans would down it or shepherd it away immediately. Think how can they get through the air security cordon? What about hijacking an airliner from either Newark or JFK? The security services will not be looking for a commercial aircraft following its correct flightpath. What if the plan is to hijack aircraft with flightpaths over New York? Not only that but they choose internal flights. They have no security checks. They can easily take weapons on such flights.'
'That would take one hell of a lot of planning. Do you really think that these people are capable of that?' the scepticism had slightly reduced
'Avram do not close your mind. Let me give you an example of something with my own team'. Blunt went on to elaborate how they had all thought Gruberowa would have been driven to a point on the coast and taken out in a small boat. However, one of the team got them to look at it in a different way. What if she had been taken out on a ship and been brought in towards the coast. The policeman then went onto say that that the Israeli himself had just said that these terrorists were not Arabs who had just walked out of the desert. They were sophisticated and educated young people from middle class backgrounds. In other words they were probably not much different from young Israeli and English people. Apart from their extremist beliefs of course.
Lefkowitz remained silent for a while.
'Ok, Ok I understand what you're saying Leave it with me'
'Avram you have 48 hours to make headway. After that I must inform my boss. Oh can you tell me anything about a Bondarevski'
'Ok quickly...Bondarevski is an ex KGB Colonel. He is a friend of a deputy mayor in Petersburg, Vlad Potin. He and Potin are directors of a company called SPAG. The name turned up in a probe by Germany's foreign-intelligence service, the BND, of alleged money laundering in Liechtenstein. It would appear that they may be laundering funds for both Russian organized crime and Colombian and Afghan drug traffickers.
Furthermore Potin is reputed to have entered into legally dubious contracts with obscure firms to export raw materials abroad in return for food. The contracts were awarded without tender. These raw materials - oil, timber, rare metals - were duly exported. But the food never turned up. A Jewish city councillor, Salye and another city councillor, Anatoly Sherbitski, discovered conclusive proof that $92m handled by Potin's department had vanished. She had suspicions about another $900m of city money but was unable to prove them. It is reckoned that all this money provided the seed corn for Bondarevski's burgeoning criminal empire. One last thing Salye has gone into hiding and Sherbitski's body has been discovered. I must go if I am to meet your deadline. Shal....' Lefkowitz started to say.
'Hang on. One more question' from an anxious Blunt 'Would our intelligence and security people know any of this?
'I would imagine that they would have. And your asking me about Bondarevski tells me that you got the name from somewhere. May I ask where?'
Blunt declined to provide the information to his Israeli friend. They wished each other Shalom.
He then noticed a piece of paper on his desk. It concerned a phone call from last night regarding the information that Saeed had asked for. He had obviously managed to get something on the local media last night.