Free Undersea Prison by Duncan Falconer Page B

loud. He looked at the others. ‘The tablet only needs to be destroyed. That reduces the scale of the operation by half as far as I can see.’
    Nevins nodded, feeling encouraged so far.
    ‘I don’t think this can be done without the help of the Americans,’ Van der Seiff said.
    Nevins looked at him quizzically.‘But isn’t the whole point of this to do it without their knowledge?’
    ‘I didn’t say do it with their knowledge . I said with their help .’
    Jervis smiled as if he had an inkling of where Van der Seiff was heading.
    Nevins was none the wiser. But neither did he feel inferior because of it. The two men in front of him were among the finest in the world at this sort of thing but Nevins had his own specialities. ‘You’ll have to explain,’ he said.
    ‘They could help us get into Styx without knowing why we want to get in,’ Van der Seiff said. ‘We would provide them with a reason that satisfied their curiosities. Frankly, I can’t see how we can do it without them . . . Jervis?’
    ‘The loose ends,’ Jervis said. ‘It’s the loose ends that would bugger us. I see where you’re going. Yes. That would be quite sexy.’
    ‘Sexy?’ Nevins asked, feeling even more in the dark.
    ‘There’s a sniff there, and a cheeky one at that,’ Jervis said.
    Nevins shook his head, suggesting it was still unclear to him.
    ‘You can smell a solution without knowing it,’ Jervis offered.
    ‘When can you give me something more tangible?’ Nevins asked. A sniff was not quite sufficient reason for him to propose to the minister that they should go forward.
    ‘Cheeky, yes,’Van der Seiff agreed, the slightest suspicion of a smile on his thin lips.
    Nevins frowned. ‘Sumners?’
    Sumners looked wide-eyed at his boss and shook his head. ‘I have no idea what they’re talking about, sir.’
    ‘I didn’t expect you to. Is there anything else?’
    ‘Nothing significant. The file is available for their eyes on the internal.’
    ‘I need to make a few calls,’Van der Seiff said. ‘Can we get together later in the day?’ he asked Jervis.
    ‘Sure,’ Jervis said.
    Nevins took a moment to consider the situation. ‘OK. End of the day. Then let’s see where we are.’
    Van der Seiff got to his feet and smoothed out his suit. ‘I take it you’re going to clean up Kabul,’ he asked Nevins sombrely.
    ‘Of course,’ Nevins said. ‘That’ll go in tonight even if we don’t go ahead with the Styx op.’
    Van der Seiff nodded and left the room. Jervis followed and Nevins indicated for Sumners to close the door again.
    ‘What do you think, sir?’ Sumners said.
    ‘That’ll depend on what they come up with.’
    ‘And Kabul, sir? You haven’t finalised your options.’
    ‘I want pinpoint accuracy. No bombs. People have a terrible habit of surviving bombs. It has to look like a local hit. Local weapons. That’s more to convince the Americans than anyone else.’
    ‘And is that all of them, sir?’ Sumners asked, innocently.
    Nevins took a moment to consider the question. ‘Mullah Ghazan and Doctor . . .’
    ‘Emir Kyran, sir.’
    ‘Yes. Not Sena.’
    ‘I’ll pass that on right away, sir,’ Sumners said, heading for the door and out of the room.
    Nevins put his hands on his hips as he walked over to the wide-screen monitor. He flicked a button on the keyboard. A dozen image windows appeared on the screen like a contact sheet. He touched one of them to expand it. The undersea prison filled the screen and he stared at the complicated diagram. It looked like an impossible task to him. But if Jervis and Van der Seiff said they had a sniff, well, that was good enough for him to wait until they got back to him.
    He clicked off the screen and headed out of the room.

Chapter 4
    Sir Bartholomew Bridstow sat alone in the back of the British Embassy’s black armoured Lincoln Town Car perusing a newspaper through a pair of silver-rimmed reading glasses. His sharp old eyes looked above the small lenses as