by Olly Jarvis
Harris put her elbows on the table. ‘We need to understand this before others do.’
‘No,’ Ella replied, her voice firm now. ‘Everyone needs to know. We are one people. Take a step back. We are stuck in cycles of conflict.’
‘What do you mean?’
Ella sighed again. ‘Don’t you get it? We always have a choice – power or enlightenment.’
Harris looked blank.
‘We need to evolve our thinking.’
Harris fired another question, ‘How?’
It was Ella’s turn to lean across the table, exasperated by her interviewer. ‘By going back to the beginning.’ It was only by explaining it to Harris that these thoughts had begun to crystallise in Ella’s head, and it finally made sense.
Harris’ eyes narrowed. ‘How do I know you’re telling the truth?’
Ella laughed. ‘Then we’re really not on the same page.’ She stood up. ‘That’s enough for now. We’ve helped each other, now I see Carter.’
Harris huffed. ‘All right, five minutes, that’s it.’ She opened the door and led Ella down the corridor. Ella scanned the empty rooms for Lizzie and the others, but there was no sign. Harris stopped at the door to another interview room at the end of the corridor. Ella could see Simon sitting alone at the table, twitching. He looked so different.
‘He’s withdrawing,’ said Harris.
Ella went in and shut the door.
Simon glanced at her then closed his eyes, his face scrunched up.
‘I sometimes wondered if Tom was bisexual,’ Ella began, ignoring Simon’s discomfort.
He opened his eyes, then scoffed. ‘We had a stronger connection.’
Ella could see the sweat on his forehead. ‘Why didn’t he tell me?’
Simon shrugged. ‘He loved you.’ He rubbed a shaky hand over his face. ‘He was trying to get clean when he did it.’ He moved his head up and down like a dog seeking approval. ‘He was always trying to get clean.’
Ella regarded Simon so differently now. ‘You risked our lives… Lizzie’s.’
Simon winced. He looked broken.
‘Did you put Greg on to Lizzie?’
He grimaced then manically rubbed his stomach. ‘I had no choice.’
‘There’s always a choice,’ she shouted. Her mind raced ahead. ‘That’s why you wanted me on the inquiry, someone you knew, so you could get the inside track?’
Simon rocked backwards and forwards in his chair.
‘You knew I’d go to Jim for help?’ Full realisation dawned. ‘You told them?’
‘I’m sorry,’ he whined. ‘I had no idea he was so dangerous.’
‘I never liked you,’ she said with an icy stare. ‘I just never knew why.’ She gave him a last lingering look of contempt, then left him swaying in his seat.
Chapter Seventy-Six
Harris was waiting for Ella outside the door. Ella nodded her appreciation as Harris led her back to the interview room.
They retook their seats, ready for the next round.
Harris went first. ‘I didn’t understand half of what you were saying but…’ she paused. ‘But we know from the chatter we’ve picked up online that something is happening very soon, something we need to stop.’ Her eyes were almost pleading.
Ella scrutinized Harris’ face. She could read her now. See the desperation. She decided it was time to make her trade. ‘I can help you with that, but you’ll have to tell me everything you know.’
Harris got up and walked around the table. Ella could feel her agonising over what to do. She decided not to press, let the witness get there on her own.
Harris retook her seat. ‘OK.’ she sighed. ‘I went to see Matthew Shepherd before he disappeared. We wanted him to become a CHIS for MI6 – it stands for covert human intelligence source.’
‘I know what it stands for,’ said Ella. ‘So, you wanted him to give you information about Kline?’
Harris nodded. ‘He said he wouldn’t get involved in politics.’
‘Go on,’ said Ella, at last feeling she was gaining the upper hand.
‘We knew Kline was recruiting very intelligent young people, using the guise of climate change activism to attract them.’ She rubbed an eye in a tired gesture. ‘People are afraid of the future, they’re easy targets. And like Shepherd, he was working on this amazing theory, Genesis, based on historical facts. Kline is using it to seduce people into following him.’
‘I know this already,’ Ella replied. It was time to play her trump card. ‘I know when Kline is going to strike.’
‘Really?’ Harris’ eyes widened. ‘How do you know?’
‘What I don’t get,’ Ella replied, ‘is why it matters so much to you?’
Harris took a breath. ‘One of his followers is the daughter of the President of the United States.’
‘What?’ Ella leaned forward.
‘Sarah Hart.’ Harris dipped her head. ‘She came over as a student at Cambridge, Kline got his claws into her and, well, the US Government are pulling their hair out. There’s nothing they can do to stop her.’
Ella almost laughed. ‘Her dad doesn’t even believe in climate change?’
‘They’re very embarrassed about the whole thing and it’s coming to a head.’
Ella wanted to laugh. ‘Can’t they put her on a plane home?’
Harris scoffed. ‘The leader of the free world kidnap his adult daughter?’
‘Where is she now?’
‘We think she took a flight to Syria with Kline and some of his cronies.’
Ella’s eyebrows went up. ‘Syria. Why?’
Harris shrugged. ‘No idea, but it’s not far from where you were planning to go. Coincidence?’
‘No,’ Ella replied. ‘I’m very close to understanding everything. I’ll give you the date,’ she said. ‘But in exchange, you’d have to let us go, so that we can find the exact location.’
Harris leaned back and put her hands on her head. ‘This was your endgame all along.’ She snorted. ‘To get me to release you.’
There was no point replying.
‘I’m the one who’s been played.’
Ella remained impassive.
Harris glared at her. ‘I’d never get the clearance.’
‘What choice do you have?’ Ella shrugged. ‘Who else is going to work it out in time?’
Harris sat motionless for a moment. ‘Wait here,’ she said, getting up and leaving the room.
In complete control, Ella let her eyes wander, meandering along the walls of the sparse room. She felt strangely calm, nothing was going to stop her.
Harris came back in carrying Ella’s bag and some paperwork. Her shoulders had lost some of their tension. ‘OK, but there’s a condition.’
Ella had already guessed.
‘I’m coming with you and I have to bring Sarah’s security detail, an agent called Grant.’ She put her palms together. ‘I don’t have a choice.’
Ella regarded her for a moment. ‘It’s a free country.’
Harris’ eyes lit up. ‘Thank you.’ She opened the door ‘Let’s go. The others are waiting for you on the plane.’ She handed Ella the sheets of paper. ‘Visas.’
Ella still didn’t entirely trust Harris. ‘You let me think I led them to Jim, that it was my fault?’
‘I’m sorry,’ Harris replied with no sincerity. ‘We’ve both got jobs to do.’ She fiddled with the buttons on her jacket. ‘So when’s it happening?’
Ella took her bag and walked out. ‘The night of the 31st of March.’
‘That’s tomorrow night!’
Chapter Seventy-Seven
An air hostess led Ella down the aisle passed all the scowling passengers in their seats, who must have assumed she was the reason for the delayed departure.
She saw Lizzie first, in an aisle seat next to Jay.
‘Mum!’
She bent down and hugged her daughter.
The stewardess stuffed Ella’s bag into the overhead locker and guided her i
nto a seat on the other side of the walkway, next to Broady. ‘We’ve got company,’ said Ella, causing the others to look down the aisle. Harris and Grant came past and headed to the back of the plane where they took their seats. Ella noticed Harris was now wearing a brand-new pair of black trainers that looked odd with the rest of her outfit. ‘I did a deal,’ said Ella.
‘I don’t know how you did it,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘But I’m impressed.’
Ella buckled up and gave Broady’s arm an appreciative rub.
‘Mum,’ said Lizzie, leaning across the aisle. ‘I’ve seen that guy before. He was at one of Kline’s meetings, and watching the farm.’
‘He’s the bodyguard of Sarah Hart.’
‘The President’s daughter?’ said Broady, making a face.
Ella nodded. ‘She’s gone to Syria with Kline.’
‘Syria?’ repeated Broady.
‘She’s at Cambridge,’ said Lizzie, realisation spreading across her face. ‘I knew I recognised her.’
‘Jesus,’ said Jay leaning into the conversation. ‘Not her father’s daughter then?’
Ella didn’t have the energy for any more questions. She let her body fall back into the seat. The plane began to reverse off the stand and out onto the apron.
‘You OK?’ asked Lizzie, studying her mother.
‘I’m fine, why?’ she replied, without bothering to move.
‘You seem different,’ Lizzie replied, examining every inch of Ella’s face. ‘You seem… lighter, like a weight’s been lifted.’
Ella reached across the open space and cupped Lizzie’s face in her hand, then mouthed, ‘I love you.’ She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes; sleep came easily.
When she woke, the plane was in the air. She checked her watch and let out a yawn. ‘How long was I out?’ She rubbed her eyes.
‘Couple of hours,’ said Broady, glancing up from his pocket-sized book. ‘Check him out,’ he said, flicking his head towards Jay whose face was pressed against his window. He turned to share something with Lizzie, giggling like an excited school kid. ‘He’s been like that since we took off.’
Ella laughed. ‘What are you reading?’
Broady closed the cover.
‘The Bible?’ Ella asked. ‘Where did you get that?’
‘It’s mine,’ Broady replied. He ran a hand across the cover. ‘Helped me through some tough times.’ He opened it up again. ‘I’ve been reading Genesis,’ he said. ‘I guess I’m kind of seeing it for the first time.’ He put a finger on the page and began to read aloud in his Arizona twang. ‘Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’
‘Sends a shiver down the spine,’ said Ella.
‘Yeah,’ Broady replied, glancing at her with a quizzical expression. ‘God could have sent that comet, right? There’s nothing in Matthew’s theory that says he didn’t?’
Ella’s forehead wrinkled up. She could see her opinion mattered to him. ‘I suppose Matthew would’ve said there could only be one god who sent the floods. ‘She paused. ‘Some call him God, some call him Allah. Some call him nature.’ Her brow relaxed. ‘I think his point might’ve been that there are too many ways of saying the same thing. Fighting over differences that will only divide us. That’s why he wanted to find this single point from where it all began.’
At first, Broady appeared satisfied with the answer. ‘But we know others must have survived the floods, right? Take the aborigines, they go back before Noah. And the tribes in the Himalayas must have survived that high up? And to pass on the Yeti story?’
‘I agree,’ said Ella letting her voice raise into a passionate whisper. ‘But the fertile crescent is where farming began, we know that’s where corn was first cultivated and where a worldwide religion eventually took hold. This is where modern civilisation begins.’ She paused. ‘Our cycle.’ It felt strange saying that word, as if it implied an acceptance that she believed it. She gave Broady an awkward smile. ‘Then the religion kept splitting. Chan would say forming new tributaries, wouldn’t he?’
He held her gaze for a moment, then ran his finger down the page. ‘Make yourself an ark of gopher wood: you shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.’ He looked at her again. ‘If that part is accurate it’s got to be dust now.’
‘Keep reading,’ said Ella unsure if it was because she liked the sound of his voice.
‘The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days. Hey, check this out: In the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Chan was right.’ Broady tapped the verse with a digit. ‘My dad gave me this bible when I was a kid. It’s the only one I’ve ever read.’ He rubbed his chin. ‘Why do we all think Noah landed on Mount Ararat?’
‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ Ella mocked. ‘You’re still a good Christian.’
Broady went to strike Ella with it in mock anger just as a stewardess came past and glowered at him.
‘What about after the flood?’ Ella asked. ‘Did Noah build anything else?’
‘No,’ Broady turned over a couple of pages. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said, spotting another passage. ‘After the waters have receded, Genesis 8, verse 20: Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.’
‘An altar?’ said Ella, leaning into Broady’s shoulder to see the text for herself. ‘Made of what?’
He read on. ‘Doesn’t say.’ He seemed troubled. ‘Beats me, but I never noticed that verse before.’
‘We remember what’s important to us at the time,’ said Ella.
‘Guess so,’ he replied, half to himself, glancing out of the window at the cloud-bed below. ‘The world’s first altar.’ He gave Ella a look, missing his customary mischievous humour. ‘Is that what we’re trying to find?’
That was one question that Ella didn’t have the answer to.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
The guy on passport control hardly gave them a second glance. Within minutes they were in the arrivals hall, waiting for Harris. A large woman dressed in black, only her eyes visible through the slit in her Niqab, stopped and stared at a large flat-screen high up on a wall, pumping out news. She started to flick some beads around her hand, backwards and forwards. Ella met her anxious eyes, then followed them towards the screen. A moving band at the bottom in alternating Arabic and English read:
US President’s daughter kidnapped.
Harris and Grant joined them and immediately turned on their phones which started pinging.
Kline appeared onscreen surrounded by microphones. He looked stressed, lacking his usual confidence. He began recounting how armed men had raided the house they were staying in and threatened them before taking Sarah.
More people of all nationalities and dress gathered in front of the television, speaking to each other in hushed tones.
‘Did they say who they were?’ asked one reporter.
Kline was trying to back away from the journalists, all jostling for position. ‘I recognised the language as Farsi. They were Iranian. Kept saying death to the United States.’
‘My god. This could start a war,’ said Broady without taking his eyes off the screen.
The reporter battled to keep the mic under Kline’s chin. ‘Didn’t you think it was dangerous to go somewhere as dangerous as Aleppo with someone of her profile?’
‘We came here to talk about climate change,’ he said with his more familiar pomposity. ‘No region is outside that dialogue.’ His supporters frantically tried to clear a path. ‘Sarah was a very brave young woman.’
Harris and Grant had moved off to make phone calls.
Ella kept an eye on Harris, watching her neck go red as she protested into her phone. ‘As I said, I think that’s a mistake, sir.’ She moved backwards and forwards, rubbing her forehead. ‘We should stay with Blake.�
� There was another pause then a reluctant, ‘But—’ She glanced over at Ella. ‘Yes, sir.’ The call ended and, after a quick conflab with Grant who had finished his own call, she rejoined Ella.
A lone reporter was now doing an anxious piece to camera. ‘Iran has denied responsibility but this could push the already fragile peace between Iran and the USA to breaking point.’
‘We’ve been ordered to go to Aleppo to help look for Sarah,’ said Harris through gritted teeth. ‘This doesn’t feel right.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Ella, leading them to some clear space in the hall. ‘You think Kline is lying?’
Harris checked her phone again. ‘Something’s happening tomorrow night, that’s what we should be focusing on.’
‘And Kline is a snake,’ said Grant.
‘It talks,’ said Broady with a grunt.
Grant shot his fellow countryman a look.
Harris faced Ella, her expression gravely serious. ‘Kline wants you dead because he thinks you might know what’s going to happen.’ She put a hand on Ella’s arm. ‘Please tell me where you’re going?’ Then, more gently. ‘In case something happens to you.’
Ella felt the hairs on her neck stand up. She glanced at Broady who blinked. ‘Cizre, on the Syrian border.’
‘That’s where we should be going too,’ said Harris. ‘Why Cizre?’
Ella didn’t reply at first, realising how crazy it would sound. ‘We think it’s got something to do with Noah.’
Harris wasn’t laughing. ‘Noah? From the Bible?’
Ella nodded.
Harris seemed to be studying Ella, as if in awe. ‘Well, you’ve got my number?’ She patted the barrister’s arm and nodded at the others. ‘Be careful.’
‘Yeah,’ said Grant ‘If we know you’re here, I reckon Kline does.’
Harris shot him a look.
Ella waited for an explanation.
Harris sighed. ‘He thinks we’ve got a leak.’
Ella rolled her eyes. ‘To Kline?’