Free Black Ops: The 12th Spider Shepherd Thriller by Stephen Leather

Troubles.’
    ‘We were lucky,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘We have to be,’ said Button. ‘There are dozens of cells planning similar atrocities every day of the week across the UK. We can be as professional as we want but at the end of the day sometimes it comes down to luck. If you hadn’t been on surveillance yesterday it could have all gone down very differently. Still, as I said, no civilians were killed, four of the jihadists are dead and one is in custody, so it’s drinks all round.’
    Shepherd shrugged. ‘I guess so.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘I don’t understand why they do it, these guys. Why attack civilians when there are so many high-profile targets? Track down Tony Blair and hack him to death – that I could understand. Go for the politicians. Go for the army, that I understand. But why attack civilians? I just don’t get it.’
    ‘The clue’s in the name,’ she said. ‘They’re terrorists. It’s about inspiring terror. If they kill a soldier in uniform then the public can convince themselves that it won’t happen to them. But a truly random attack scares everyone.’
    ‘But achieves nothing. It makes no sense to me. I don’t think it ever will. What do they want? Sharia law? The UK turned into an Islamic state? That’s never going to happen. Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan? They’ve got that. At least with the IRA you know what they wanted. A united Ireland. This lot? It’s like they just want to hurt people.’ He sipped his coffee and shrugged. ‘I’m overthinking it, right?’
    ‘There’s no easy answer,’ said Button. ‘That’s the problem. All we can do is be vigilant.’
    ‘Well you say that, Charlie, but maybe we should stop British citizens from flying into these war zones because they’re sure as hell not going as tourists. They’re going to be trained and this is what happens when they get back.’
    ‘They hadn’t all been to Syria, Spider. And so far as we know, none of them had been for training in Pakistan. There’s something else at work here and frankly I’m as confused about it all as you are.’ She forced a smile. ‘Still, ours not to reason why.’ She swung her briefcase up on to the table. ‘Anyway, there’s a job that requires your undercover talents in a more traditional area,’ she said. She opened her briefcase, took out a file and pushed a photograph across the table towards him. It was a black and white surveillance picture, taken with a long lens. A small man, balding and with round-lensed spectacles, was climbing into the back of a limousine. Another man, taller and wearing a dark coat, was holding an umbrella over the man to keep off the rain.
    ‘This is Max Jansen. His daughter was on Malaysia Airlines Flight Seventeen.’
    ‘Shit.’
    ‘Yeah. She was eighteen and was flying to Bali with a couple of friends for a gap year. They were going to work for an animal charity.’
    Shepherd grimaced. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 had been shot down in the sky above the Ukraine–Russia border in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew. Shepherd remembered seeing television footage of the aftermath of the crash near Torez in the Ukraine. It was heartbreaking seeing the personal belongings scattered among the wreckage, the larger body parts covered by sheets. The Ukrainian forces refused to let air crash investigators near the site but seemed to have no problem in allowing Ukrainian peasants to sift through the wreckage looking for valuables.
    ‘Jansen blames Putin for the attack. He holds him personally responsible.’
    ‘Sounds reasonable,’ said Shepherd. It was generally accepted that the passenger plane had been shot down by pro-Russian separatists using a Buk surface-to-air missile. The Russians had blamed the Ukraine forces for the attack, but the Ukrainian government claimed the missile had been launched by Russian troops under orders from the Russian government. Shepherd tended to believe the Ukrainians.
    ‘Jansen was involved with a