Free The Fall of Night by Christopher Nuttall Page B

that role since Donavan had become Prime Minister.
     
    “You may have heard that there was an…unfortunate incident in France last week,” the Policeman said.  His nametag read BRIGGS.  “There have actually been some protests in several southern cities in Britain relating to it, all coordinated through the network of mosques that we have identified as being hotbeds of Islamic fundamentalism.  The protests have been carried out without violence, but there were some incidents of genuinely worrying behaviour and, I believe, signs that there is a real network coordinating their actions.  This cannot be coincidence, Prime Minister; I believe that this represents a disturbing trend in Islamic behaviour.”
     
    He tapped the display.  “You will remember that the Americans killed seven British Muslims in what remains of Saudi Arabia last month,” Briggs continued.  “All of them came from these four mosques” – the display changed again – “and all of those mosques held protest marches demanding that the Americans turn over the bodies for proper disposal.  This was impossible, of course; the Americans simply destroyed the bodies once they had been identified.  Less well known is the fact that the Americans took an eighth British Muslim alive…and forced him to talk.  He was talking about an entire recruiting ring that gave him training before shipping him into Saudi.”
     
    Donavan shuddered.  “The Americans tortured him,” he said.  There had been any number of articles on the practice when it had begun, before Oakland; afterwards, the American public would have been quite happy to bathe the entire Middle East in radioactive fire.  Millions had died in Oakland.  “He would say anything under torture.”
     
    “The Americans gave us some of the information and we checked it out,” Briggs said.  Langford felt a moment of sympathy for him; his superiors should have handled such matters, not dropped them in the lap of a relatively junior officer.  “Sir, there is a network there and it represents a clear and present danger; we need to take it apart, quickly!”
     
    He paused.  “The growth of right-wing extremism is also becoming worrying, with reports of illegal arms and training flooding into inner cities,” he continued.  “Incidents of racial hatred and even outright violence have been on the increase, some of it in response to the actions of the Islamic network.  Something has to be done.”
     
    “If we arrest the people behind the network, we’ll have a riot on our hands,” Neddy Young said.  “We cannot afford that, not when we are making progress at last.”
     
    “You mean when you are appeasing them,” Briggs snapped, too tired to continue.  Langford silently applauded him.  “This situation is too unstable to continue…”
     
    “We will take it and think about it,” Donavan said.  Briggs heard the note in his voice and sat down bitterly.  “Major-General?”
     
    Langford exchanged a long look with Briggs before taking control of the display.  “The main item on the agenda is the deployment to the Falklands,” he said.  “The fleet is currently one week away from the islands and the number of incidents has fallen sharply.  ASW frigates reported some contacts with submarines – we know that the Argentineans have purchased several newer submarines from the Russians, including three nuke boats – and there have been some long-range aircraft flying out to take a look at us, but nothing of great importance.  The Americans…”
     
    “I told you so,” Bruce McClain snapped.  “This little operation cost us billions of pounds, money we can ill afford to lose; I knew they were bluffing.”
     
    “It had to be done,” Donavan said reluctantly.  Langford could almost read his thoughts; to a man like him, the wishes of the islanders were paramount…and he assumed the same was true of the archetypical reasonable man.  The problem was that nationalists