Dead Edge

by Jack Ford

  Didn’t he just want the words not to come out. Didn’t he just want the feeling of protectiveness not to be present. Didn’t he just want the thought of who the hell does this Bradley think he is, not to be there. But it was. Goddamn it, as usual it was. ‘You can’t put it all on Woods. If you knew anything about politics, and really understood about interparty ideology and the continuity of foreign policy, both on philosophical and practical levels since the end of the Cold War, you’d see that it doesn’t start with John… Woods. He’s in a corner. One that was already built for him. So before you go pointing that judgmental finger, know your facts, Bradley.’

  The atmosphere was what Cooper might, diplomatically, have called tense.

  ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I wouldn’t have said anything if I’d known you were such a staunch Woods supporter.’

  Feeling – and not appreciating – the hard glare from Maddie, Cooper shrugged, muttering, ‘I’m not.’

  ‘It’s just that you seem…’

  Not wanting to talk about it anymore, Cooper cut in. ‘Don’t worry what I seem. What I seem is not all that I am… Look, can we just get back to what we were talking about? And hey, I appreciate you giving up your time for us.’

  With more gratitude than he’d intended to show – and certainly more than Cooper deserved – Bradley exclaimed, ‘Yes, please. Yes. Gosh, yes.’

  Cooper raised an inward eyebrow but spoke as cordially to Bradley as he could. ‘So, with what we know, I guess that’s why Ismet was pretty ambivalent about the boy on the ship. Yes, he’d be pissed that you guys had come and assisted us, especially if he was trying to keep the fact that he may have lost the boat quiet from whoever owns it. Clearly, they’re not people to be messed with, but ultimately no one was going to investigate what a boy was doing on the ship.’

  ‘So you think they were shipping arms from Turkey to Libya?’ Maddie said.

  Bradley looked confused. ‘Turkey to Libya? I don’t think so. Let me show you something. Come on.’

  Bradley got up and walked through to his study with Maddie and Cooper following a step behind. He sat at his computer. Looked at both of them earnestly. ‘I shouldn’t be showing you this, and I could lose my job for even having you in here, but if you look at these retrospective radar graphics… here, look. I can tell you for sure your stealth ship didn’t go to Libya. We tracked it – unofficially of course – heading west out of Turkey, past Libya and then we lose it. It doesn’t register on our system again until two days later. Then we pick it up again passing through the Straits of Gibraltar – the narrow channel between North Africa and Spain. The sea is only about nine miles wide at that point and there’s a British military base right on the Rock of Gibraltar. On a clear day you can see North Africa even without binoculars. Nothing gets through that gap without being spotted. Look, you can see here that your ship went through the Straits and out into the Atlantic, then headed south down the Moroccan coast. And then, if you take a look at this, it then goes down to about Casablanca, and strangely, for some reason, turns right around. Does a great big U-turn out at sea, and sails back on itself, past Gibraltar, into the Mediterranean and then, as you said on the phone Maddie, you find it a few days later abandoned off the coast of Libya, south longitude to Crete.’

  Maddie looked at Cooper. ‘Morocco? What the hell was it doing right out there? And why go all that way, only to turn right around and come back?’

  Bradley said, ‘Out of interest what did this Ismet guy tell you they were carrying?’

  Maddie gave a wry smile. ‘Amongst other things, olives.’

  To which Joshua Bradley grinned and replied, ‘Is that what they’re calling it now?’

  WASHINGTON, D.C.

  USA

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  ‘Hey John, I’m glad I saw you. I didn’t realize you were going to be about. I brought those books on China’s power plants Jackson wanted to read. Didn’t he tell you I was coming by?’

  Listlessly, John said, ‘No.’

  ‘You don’t look so great. You coming down with something?’

  ‘No.’

  Beau frowned, looked down the hall by the entrance of the Executive Residence.

  ‘Well, if you’re sure. But anyway, listen, good news… Is it okay to talk? Is there a blackout along here?’

  With a heavy-lidded gaze, John nodded. ‘It’s fine, Beau, there’s no ears here but I’ve only got a couple of minutes.’

  ‘No problem. I’ll make it quick. Just wanted to say we were right not to go charging in about the letters with Coop, because guess what…? I was sorting out my room in the monastery and I found one of Cora’s crayons in my drawer. Then it came to me. I don’t know why I didn’t remember before, but then I guess that’s old age for you… The last time Coop came to see me, Cora had wanted to do some drawing, some kind of bug or something. Anyway, my sciatica was acting up so I stayed out playing in the gardens with Cora… when I say playing, I was sitting down with one of those cigars you gave me, and she was chasing the cat. Point is, I sent Coop into my room to get some sheets of paper from my top drawer. That’s where the letter was, with other kinds of correspondence. He must have thumbed through the pile of paperwork to find a plain sheet of paper for Cora. That’s how the print must have got on it. I must say, John, it’s a damn relief it wasn’t him, but more of a relief that we didn’t accuse him. I think us not trusting him might’ve sent him spinning, and he’s already on the edge. Anyway, you’re not the only one who’s got a busy life. I got to run… But John, I’m glad it’s turned out okay.’

  John Woods said nothing.

  63

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  Chuck Harrison crinkled up his face as the chocolate marshmallow ice-cream hit his tooth, sending his nerve-endings into overdrive and a metachronal wave of pain through his body like it was a Mexican wave at a soccer match.

  With his cell on the dash, Chuck smiled to himself, still grimacing slightly from the pain. The US could do worse than use a tub of Ben and Jerry’s Utter Peanut Butter Clutter for enhanced interrogation. It’d have the terrorists talking like they were telling bedtime stories. He laughed out loud at the image in his head. And then pressed fast dial.

  Three rings followed by a quiet, ‘Hello.’

  Chuck said, ‘It’s me.’

  ‘I know. Who else calls me?’

  ‘It’s on. But you’ve got less than forty-eight hours.’

  ‘There’s no way. It’s impossible.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. There’s every way because, Harry, failure isn’t an option.’

  SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

  USA

  64

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  Peering down the corridor for any sign of Granger, Maddie stepped into the main office, where the AC was on full blast and Rosedale, Levi and Cooper were sitting. Not speaking. Feigning busyness by means of studying paperwork which didn’t need to be studied.

  ‘What are you doing, guys?’

  Levi: ‘Work.’

  Rosedale: ‘Work.’

  Cooper: ‘Work.’

  Maddie nodded and said, ‘Looks important.’

  To which Cooper replied, ‘It is.’

  ‘Then just a quick heads-up, Tom. It’d probably help if you held the document the right way up.’

  Cooper slammed down the paperwork. ‘What is it you want, Maddie?’

  She walked across to sit on Rosedale’s desk which caused Cooper to fight the urge to get up, grab him by the lapels of his white, sharp, linen shirt and throw a hard, well cantered right hook.

  But instead he cricked the tension out of his neck. Out of his fingers. Knew he needed to be on his best behavior. Sat watching Maddie give Rosedale a smile, who accepted it like a hungry kid in a candy shop.

  ‘I’m actually glad you’re all here. Because our conversation with Joshua, it got me thinking. But I needed to check something out first before I said anything… I’ve just come off the phone to Gap cloth
ing. After we’d had the discussion with Bradley the other day I called Gap, and they’ve just got back to me. And I think now I’ve got my head around some of what’s going on… You’ll remember of course the kids who were washed up on the beach of Algeria wearing the same yellow T-shirts with the purple logo across the front. And as Tom rightly identified it was the same top our boy, Andreas, was wearing when we found him on the ship… Because all the kids were wearing them, I suspected they might’ve been donated by some organization. Turns out that’s exactly it. Those particular T-shirts never actually got on the open market, because after a quality control check – which they do after every five hundred prints – Gap realized that because of the script they’d used, one of the letters on the logo looked more like a letter D than an A. So they stopped the print, fixed the problem, but also changed the color of the logo for the next run. So there are literally only five hundred of those tops in that particular color with that particular design fault. Obviously they couldn’t sell them, so they organized for a couple of charities to have them. One’s in Yemen, but the other one is the one I’m interested in. It’s called Syrian Relief Clothing. Gap told me this charity is located in the north-west of Syria… Right here…Look…’–Maddie pointed to the large map on the wall before adding. ‘And as you can see it’s just under thirty miles from Ismet’s shipping company.’

  Rosedale whistled. ‘So what are you saying? You think those kids were originally on the ship after all?’

  Maddie shrugged. ‘I don’t know, but it’s looking more and more likely.’

  ‘Jesus. That’s some kind of statement… What is he up to?’ Cooper said.

  ‘There are still so many dots which need to be joined up. They told me the refugee camp is for orphans, as well as kids who’ve been separated from their families. The average age of them are between eight and twelve.’

  Rosedale threw his cowboy hat to the side. Stood up. Walked across to the map. Stared at it intensely, as if somehow looking closer would give him the answers he needed. ‘I’m guessing the levels of security in a place like that is next to nothing.’

  ‘Yep. Every possible resource is stretched to the absolute limit, and there just isn’t the manpower to have the luxury of anything near a safe haven.’

  Rosedale took a deep draw on his Graycliff cigar, his voice becoming angry. ‘Which makes it a great place for anybody who wants to find kids to exploit.’

  Maddie glanced at Cooper, who’d managed to spill his coffee all over his highly polished desk. ‘Exactly. And the tragic thing is they aren’t missed. On occasion there’s some kind of head count, but mainly it’s about having somewhere to go to get away from the conflicts. The most basic kind of sanctuary.’

  ‘And it seems not even that, in this case,’ Rosedale added.

  ‘No, exactly, and worse still, when I contacted someone from the charity they said they were so overwhelmed they wouldn’t know if eighty kids were missing or not. Many of the kids are so traumatized, even basic information like names isn’t taken. The guy from the charity said he’s worked in a lot of places, but this one, and others set up specifically for younger refugees, can end up becoming really dangerous places for the children.’

  ‘And there’s nothing that can be done?’ Cooper asked hopefully.

  ‘There’s no-one to complain to, is there? And no-one high up in authority will do anything either. The country is in chaos. No authority is going to spend time looking into it, and we’ve got no hard evidence to prove those poor kids were on this ship. Even if we had the power to push someone to look at it, they’d say that the kids could’ve been on any trafficker’s boat.’

  ‘You think they’re trafficking, Maddie?’

  She nodded at Cooper. ‘I guess that’s the obvious thing, isn’t it?’

  ‘But who’s paying?’ asked Rosedale. ‘Usually people traffickers like to get paid, and it’s hardly as if these kids have money to pay to be smuggled into Europe.’

  Levi, finishing off the last can of Mountain Dew, that he professed not to enjoy nor drink, nodded. ‘What about sex trafficking? Using the kids for that?’

  Maddie felt sick. ‘Christ, I hope not. That’s another thing the charity guy said. There’s been lots of reports of sexual abuse, and violence towards the kids. It’s the worst kind of situation.’

  ‘And the obvious place to be trafficked is mainland Europe, and from there they’re free to travel, mainly unchecked.’

  Maddie shook her head. ‘That’s not where they went though, Levi. The ship passed Europe. We know it went out into the Atlantic but we don’t know exactly why… But I’ve got a theory. Let’s say for argument’s sake the kids were definitely on the ship, okay? Well, I don’t think there’s any chance they drowned. They didn’t fall off that ship. And it’s not as if it’s one of those tragic accidents we see on the news where a boat carrying migrants overturned. This is different.’

  Levi sat up in his chair, which faced out towards Granite Mountain. ‘You think they were thrown off?’

  ‘I do. But I think they were dead first. I think like Andreas, who died of dehydration and heat exposure, those other kids had an awful death too. Slow and agonizing. Cooped up below deck with no oxygen.’

  ‘And obviously eighty dead kids are no use to anyone,’ Rosedale said.

  ‘Right. And if we supposed the crew panicked when they realized, then what do they do?’

  ‘Dump the kids overboard, but out into the Atlantic,’ Cooper said.

  Rosedale asked. ‘Do you think dumping the kids was the only reason they went out to the Atlantic? Do you think, like Levi says, they usually take them to mainland Europe?’

  Shaking her head, Maddie said, ‘No, because Josh told us even though they’re not supposed to track the ships, which are allowed to sail unchecked, they still do, and often Ismet’s ships sail around and down the coast of Africa.’

  Levi frowned. ‘Okay, but if they went out into the Atlantic before they turned back so they could dump the bodies, they wouldn’t have washed up in the Mediterranean.’

  Maddie, not enjoying the subject matter, but enjoying being in her element when it came to talking maritime matters and anything nautical, said, ‘No, you’re wrong. The kids would still be washed up somewhere in the Mediterranean, and in this case on the beach of Algeria, because of the special way the tides work. The Atlantic Ocean is huge and, as you know, water levels rise and fall with the gravitational pull of the moon as it orbits the earth, which in turn causes the tides to rise and fall at the shore.’

  ‘I’m still not following how the kids ended up there,’ Levi said.

  ‘My point about the Mediterranean is that it’s not tidal. The only natural outlet is through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Atlantic. Not only are the Straits only about nine miles wide, but there’s an underwater shelf which inhibits the flow of tides too. But here’s the really interesting thing. As a result of this restricted flow, the Mediterranean acts a bit like a huge lake – geographically, it’s hot and the sun evaporates more water than gets replaced by the rivers that run into it. The water level in the Med is always slightly lower than the Atlantic and so water constantly pours through the Straits of Gibraltar to fill it back up. Coupled with that, all that evaporation makes the Mediterranean water much saltier, much warmer and slightly heavier than the Atlantic water, so even when Atlantic tides are pulling water out through the Straits of Gibraltar, the water moves out through massive deep warm water current flows, but at surface level, the top 50 meters or so are constantly moving eastwards from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean, which means…’

  With a grin of real pride in his voice, Cooper said, ‘Which means apart from you being brilliant, it means that anything, or in this case anyone thrown into the sea around that part of the Atlantic, around Morocco, will get sucked straight back into the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar and could easily have been washed up on the coast of Algeria.’

  Maddie smiled back. ‘You got it, Tom.’
>
  With love and tenderness, Cooper winked. ‘No baby, you’re the one who’s got it.’

  A sudden bang made Cooper and Maddie turn around to look at Rosedale. He smiled innocently. ‘Sorry. Hand slipped… What were you saying, Maddison?’

  Cooper seethed. Didn’t want to give Rosedale the satisfaction of an argument, nor did he think it was appropriate to deflect from what they were saying. He turned his attention back to Maddie. ‘We have to do something, Maddie.’

  ‘But this is the problem, Tom. What? Are you suggesting we try to turn around the way refugee camps are run? Because we’ll be in for a losing battle. And it isn’t a question of not wanting to try. Or are you talking about Ismet?’

  ‘Everything. The kids. What Ismet is doing. And why he can use those ships? I mean we keep saying the Qataris, but that’s pretty general.’

  Rosedale had tried to make a point of not speaking to Cooper, but couldn’t help but question him. ‘You’re talking about taking them on? That’s not a good idea.’

  ‘And what, leaving kids vulnerable to whatever the hell it is that Ismet’s doing is?’

  ‘No, I’m not saying that, Thomas, of course it’s not okay. So far from okay it’s unreal, but if Ismet’s using Qatari ships, which have the go ahead from the powers that be to go unchecked, well that means the people behind them have some pretty big influence. We can’t forget the threats and break in. You’re not in the SEALs anymore, sugar.’

  Frustrated, Cooper lit a cigarette. ‘You know, what I can’t forget is the eighty dead kids. Anything else, I don’t give a damn about.’

  ‘But that’s exactly what you have to do. These aren’t your regular guys. I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but we can’t go storming in,’ Rosedale said.