The Walking Dead

From the centre of the room, a beam of light sliced the darkness and fell on the face of Jamal. The source of the light was a small video-camera — what his father would have sold in his shop — and its beam was on Khalid's face and his eyes, which blinked. Syed was behind the camera, and at his side was Faria. None of them saw him. He was not noticed. He held his breath and listened.

Khalid held a sheet of paper in his hand, and complained: 'It's so difficult — it's hard to read with the light in my face.'

'Doesn't matter,' Syed said. 'He will have had time to learn it.' Faria said, head angled and her hands on her hips, accentuating her curves, 'I'm not sure it sounds right, do it again.'

Syed took on the accent of an American — he was crouched over the camera, eye pressed to the view-finder, as if it was Hollywood. 'Ready? OK. Action. Go in five.'

Beside him, her hand out, Faria dropped each finger as she counted down five seconds, then pointed to Khalid.

Khalid gazed at the lens, and his eyes seemed to water. 'Here we go…"I would like to say to you that I have come to Britain in order to strive in the path of God and to fight the enemy of Muslims. I am the living martyr. God, be He exalted…" It's so difficult to read this. Do I keep going? Right…"At this time we say to the whole world, and declare it as a mighty shout, that the will of Muslims will not weaken and that the retaliatory fire will blaze until the crusaders and oppressors have departed from the Muslim homeland…" Do I have to read it all, or can I go to the end?'

'Just do the end,' Faria said.

'The last sentence, his sign-off,' Syed said.

'Going in five…"To Blair and Bush, I say that the curse is on your faces. I will await you all, my brothers, in Paradise. Do not forget me in your prayers…" That's it. Can he learn that, no stumbles, straight to The camera?'

'Yes, he can,' Faria said. 'At the moment it sounds like the written word, not the spoken word. It needs to be drafted again.' Syed mimicked the studio director: 'Cut. Break the set.'

'It is impossible to read it with meaning and make it a sincere testament because it is not me that is going to walk,' Jamal said.

Ibrahim turned away, went quietly into the corridor. Then lights flooded on and he heard the curtains dragged open.

'He will say it well,' she said, her voice faint to him. 'Just as he will walk well because he has the dedication — we do not — and the strength.'

* * *

Dickie Naylor said, 'We're moving fast, little pieces beginning to slot together. It's all about The Threatened Swan. I apologize, is that a riddle to you?'

'Miss Reakes briefed me on the work of Jan Asselyn in the Rijksmuseum, but out in Montana we're not big on art,' Hegner said, drily.

'I don't know how many hotels, accommodation addresses we've checked but it'll be hundreds…It's the swan on the T-shirt that did the business. Ibrahim Hussein was in a hotel in north London until Saturday. They remembered him checking in. Never left his room all the time he was there. So, he's somewhere in London and we have the city in lock-down. There were others in the hotel, probably linked, and it's being worked on. For the first time, Joe, I feel a faint justification of optimism.'

'Not warranted, Dickie.'

'Christ, you ape a kill-joy well. Why not?'

'Where I come from, Dickie, all the bombs are not at the airport or up against the Green Zone of Baghdad. A few, but not the majority. They hit round the country, not where the security is tightest Here, it won't be London. You call for a lock-down and you've every gun-carrying policeman you can muster on the streets, off days in lieu and furlough breaks, and every one of them who would be doing thieving, mugging, fraud, rape and administration. Your capital is stiff with policemen standing shoulder to shoulder. So, the Twentyman, the Scorpion, leaves it well alone. Go look where you're soft and unprotected, where your citizens gather in numbers, because that is where the threat will be. Look where there are no guns, no barricades. Look where ordinary people go about their daily business, where your citizens think they're safe.'

'But that could be anywhere.'

'I'm telling you it won't be London but somewhere that thinks it's safe and out of the terror frame. Somewhere there is still innocence, and ignorance.'