‘Well, look at you,’ Ryker said as he sat back in the comfy leather chair in front of Weller’s clutter-free desk in an office that was modern and shiny. ‘You’re doing all right for yourself.’ He glanced beyond Weller’s shoulder. ‘Not a bad view, either.’
‘What did you expect? That I’d still be stuck in a comms van in some shithole country?’
‘You’re doing yourself a disservice.’
‘Not anymore I’m not.’
There was a knock on the door and Scholtz came in, tray in hand, a cafetière and two dainty mugs on top. Her face was screwed with suspicion still.
‘Thank you,’ both Weller and Ryker said as she put it down on the desk.
‘What do you want me to do about—’
‘Just tell them I’ll be late,’ Weller said, waving her away.
She left the room without another word.
‘Am I interrupting something?’ Ryker said.
‘You know damn well you are.’
Ryker said nothing to that. He poured himself and Weller a coffee. Added a couple of sugars to his. He sat back and stared across to his old colleague. Weller had been a young man in Doha. Early twenties. Clever but naive. He’d aged and rounded out a lot over the last ten years. The few flecks of gray in his designer stubble suggested he probably dyed the thinning but uniformly dark hair he had on top. He also wore glasses. Neat, designer. A fashion statement, Ryker felt. Together with his nice suit, he looked like he’d been born in a corporate office. A far cry from the scruffy jeans and colorful T-shirts Ryker had been more used to seeing him in.
‘What do you want from me?’ Weller asked.
‘So when did you stop working for your country?’ Ryker said. Weller’s annoyance at Ryker ignoring his question was obvious. ‘Or are you—’
‘No, I’m not still spying for anyone. I left that life more than eight years ago. I left it for good and I’ve never looked back since. Not until you showed up today.’
Ryker looked around the sleek office. There were two photo frames on the bookshelf off to his right. One showed Weller with a striking lady of Southeast Asian origin, the other showed two cute young kids. Weller was a family man now. This was certainly a more sensible job for such a man.
‘So how did you end up here?’ Ryker asked.
Weller sighed before he spoke. ‘The easiest way to explain it is that back in the day I was always seen as the tech guy. An add-on. Essential, yes, but not the main ingredient. But tech wasn’t really my forte, it was just what they needed.’
‘So what is your forte?’
‘I started life as a programmer, but my real passion, then and now, has always been numbers and data. I…’ He paused and then sighed again. Ryker wasn’t sure why. ‘I spotted a gap in the market for big data exploration. Techniques that could be used to help all sorts of financial institutions, from investment companies deciding which stocks to buy, to insurance companies trying to work out premiums, to banks trying to determine which businesses and people to loan money to and under what terms. I… Sorry, what?’
‘Nothing. But you lost me after about the fifth word. So you sell data analysis products for big bucks, right?’
‘We create products, license them, sometimes sell them. We develop software, we analyze data for others. And yes, for big bucks.’
‘Which explains the nice office. And probably a salary quite a few times higher than tech guy.’
‘A lot higher, yes.’
Ryker rolled his eyes. He took a sip of the sweet and thick coffee. Pretty good.
‘What?’ Weller said. For the first time, he was looking more confident and up for a fight. A little bit riled by Ryker’s tone. That was better than him being in his shell.
‘Sorry?’
‘The look on your face,’ Weller said. ‘Like I’ve done something wrong in getting here. You think I sold out, is that it?’
Ryker shrugged. ‘Not my place to judge.’
‘Damn right, it isn’t. I gave years to the cause. More than most people in this world ever will.’
‘The cause?’
‘You know what I mean. The things we used to do. The people we hurt and who were killed because of us. Families torn apart. And for what? Us versus them? Good versus evil?’
Ryker held his tongue.
‘No? You have nothing to say about that? How many people have you killed?’
Still nothing.
‘You don’t know? It’s that high? Or you just can’t bring yourself to say it out loud. Or is it that you don’t even care?’
‘I know.’
‘And you’re happy with that? You’re happy about the things you’ve done in your life? Those families who lost a father, mother, brother, sister, whatever? All because someone behind a desk somewhere decided they were bad. No trial. No judge or jury. Just a bullet in the head, or a syringe in the arm, or a rope around their neck. You feel justified?’
Ryker clenched his teeth.
‘That’s it, isn’t it? You decided in your own mind that everyone you killed was bad. They deserved it somehow. That’s fine. You’re a moral crusader. You didn’t set out to hurt people randomly, you feel justified because someone gave you the order. That makes it okay to you. Well, it didn’t make it okay to me. That’s why I left. Not because I wanted more cash and a nicer car.’
‘I left too,’ Ryker said.
That seemed to throw Weller a little.
‘I don’t work for anyone anymore. And I won’t ever again. I’m here on my own, for myself.’
Weller sat back in his seat and sighed. ‘You know what? That just makes it all the more sad. Even after leaving them behind, you won’t, or can’t move on.’
‘You heard about Grichenko?’ Ryker said. He wanted to change the subject. Weller’s attack had riled him more than he cared to admit.
‘I saw it on the news,’ Weller replied, shuffling a little uncomfortably, though Ryker hoped the moment of confidence and one-upmanship from Weller would at least make him more open now.
‘Who else has spoken to you already?’ Ryker asked.
Weller pinched his eyes. ‘No one has. Why would you think that?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps because of the way you tried to run out of here when I showed up to talk to you about it. Like you were prepped, or like you couldn’t be seen to go against—’
‘That’s got nothing—’
‘Somebody threaten you?’
‘No!’
‘Somebody tell you not to talk to—’
‘Ryker, you’re barking up the wrong tree.’
‘You’re sure about that?’
‘Yes!’
‘If you lie to me…’
‘I’m not that stupid. I’m not like you. I just want to mind my own business.’
Ryker took a few moments to finish off his coffee as he thought. Did he believe Weller? The man was a different prospect to Diaz, that was for sure. He certainly wouldn’t trust him 100 percent – it wouldn’t have needed much pressure from another party to get him to lie about everything now.
‘I want you to talk me through what happened in Doha,’ Ryker said.
Weller scoffed and shook his head. ‘Why? Why do you even care?’
‘I just do. Then I’ll be gone. And if you tell me the truth, everything you know and can remember, you won’t see me again.’
Weller nodded. ‘I think that would be best for both of us. But what do you want to know? You do realize I never left the van that night?’
‘I know. So walk me through what happened. As you saw it.’
He sighed. ‘I imagine this could be a short story.’
‘That depends. You were in the van. Listening to the audio. Watching Lange’s drone feed, and watching our markers on the map. Take it from when me and Elliott reached the palace. Everything was working as expected up to then, right?’
‘Right. At that point I could see each of your markers, I could hear you all too.’
‘And where were we?’
He looked a little confused. ‘How do you mean?’
‘Explain where we were, according to what you could see.’
‘I don’t have a photographic memory.’
‘I’m surprised.’
‘Very funny.’
‘Just try.’
A pause, then, ‘You and Elliott were moving inward, toward Salman and Diaz. Aldern was out with the cars.’
‘Then?’
‘Then Aldern began to move. He said… I don’t remember his words, but he was going to check on something.’
‘He was already moving when he said that? Or did he say that and then begin to move?’
Weller scrunched his face. ‘Does it matter which?’
‘It might do.’
‘I honestly can’t remember. Both happened within seconds. He headed off… North, it would have been. There was a cluster of trees there, in the gardens.’
‘Which is where I went. Looking for him.’
Weller nodded. ‘Aldern’s comms went down. His marker too. Though… definitely his comms first.’
‘You’re sure?’
Weller looked up to the corner of the room as though searching there for the answer. ‘Pretty sure, yeah. Comms first. By that point he was in the trees, I think. Then his marker went.’
‘Was that the same for me?’
Weller scratched his head. ‘I really don’t know. Me and Lange were fighting to figure out what was going on. Starting and restarting everything we had, checking and double-checking, but it was like a cascade. Comms, markers, Aldern, you, then…’ He trailed off.
‘Then what?’
‘I can’t remember exactly about the other three. Whether they were at the same time or not.’
‘Were they still together when they went dark?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, I just don’t know.’
‘The black spot was in the north of the grounds,’ Ryker said. ‘I’m pretty sure we all went down because of our positioning. What kind of jammer could do that? Where would it have been located physically?’
Weller sighed. ‘You’re talking about tech from ten years ago, operated by a party we haven’t identified. Even if I gave you some options it would be meaningless unless you had more information.’
‘Give me some options anyway. Was it someone on-site? Could it have been remote? Another man in a van? A team hundreds of miles away?’
‘Most likely on-site.’ He held his hands up. ‘But I’m just telling you most likely. The other options you said are possible. Of course, you could have a drone nearby operated by a crew miles away. It’s theoretically possible to use satellites to block radio and other signals, but why would someone have gone to all that trouble? A simple physical jammer on-site is the most obvious explanation.’
‘Why didn’t our equipment pick it up?’ Ryker said. He realized after he’d spoken that his words were a little accusatory. ‘What I mean is, didn’t the gizmos you and Lange were using sweep for countermeasures?’
‘Yes, and no. We tried. We didn’t see anything untoward, but clearly we were wrong.’
‘Wrong, or lying.’
‘I’m not lying to you!’
‘No, but someone is. And you can be damn sure I’ll find out who.’
Weller practically quivered at Ryker’s words.