Carter waited for the Americans to go on. Mullins dug out his smartphone and gave the screen his war-face, unlocking it. The Kentuckian tapped and swiped at the screen for a few beats. Then he slid the handset across the polished table.
Carter scooped it up and eyeballed the screen. He found himself staring at a picture of a burly Afghan male with a neatly stubbled beard, short dark hair and a scalp so flat you could play billiards on it. He was dressed in a shabby camouflage jacket, with a shemagh tied around his neck.
‘Recognise the face, chief?’ Mullins asked.
Carter nodded slightly. ‘Omar Sharza. He was an interpreter for the Afghan Special Forces. I worked with him a few times on my embed posting. One of the good guys.’ He lifted his eyes from the screen, squished his eyebrows together. ‘What’s he doing in Afghanistan now? You were supposed to get all them lads out.’
‘Sharza elected to stay behind after the Taliban takeover,’ Proudlock explained. ‘Voluntarily, I hasten to add. He’s been helping to organise rat runs from Afghanistan. Getting people out of the country before the Taliban can put them to death.’
Carter lifted his gaze. ‘This guy reckons he spotted Dave?’
‘Not exactly,’ Proudlock said. He exchanged a nervous glance with Mullins.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Four days ago, Sharza was moving through a small place called Khordokan. He was helping to smuggle out an anti-Taliban official.’
Mullins said, ‘Sharza got talking with one of his contacts in the village. This contact told Sharza that he’d seen a man matching Vann’s description the day before. He’d stopped at the village to barter gold for a couple of mules.’
‘Are we sure it was Dave?’
‘As sure as we can be.’
‘Sharza put the word out to his network after the satphone was reactivated,’ Ortega said. ‘Asking them to look out for a guy who didn’t look or sound like a local but dressed like one.’
‘Vann has been on the ground for five months,’ Mullins explained. ‘Which means he’ll have a beard, and he’ll be dressed in local clothing. The disguise would fool a passer-by, but if anyone saw him up close or heard him talk, they’d quickly realise he wasn’t from the area.’
‘Khordokan?’ Carter screwed up his face. ‘That’s not far from the Tajikistan border.’
‘Yes,’ Proudlock snapped. ‘What of it?’
‘What’s Dave doing all the way up there?’
‘We don’t know. It’s possible that the location of the rebels’ base of operations was compromised and they had to move further north at short notice.’
Mullins said, ‘Khordokan is considered safe territory. Or as safe as can be in Afghanistan right now. The people there are fiercely opposed to the Taliban, so it makes sense as a safe haven. But that’s obviously pure speculation. Could be any number of reasons why Vann is in the area.’
‘Assuming he’s still there,’ Carter said. ‘He might have moved on by now. The trail might have gone cold.’
‘Even if that’s the case, Vann can’t have gone very far,’ Ortega said. ‘Not with the rest of the country crawling with Taliban and ISIS-K fighters, and rival militia groups.’
Carter shook his head forcefully and said, ‘I know that area. It’s sparsely populated. Scattered villages and farms, lots of narrow mountain passes and caves. Dave could be hiding anywhere.’
‘Sharza is in the area as we speak,’ Mullins said. ‘He’s making discreet enquiries, collating local intelligence. That should help narrow down the search area to something more manageable.’
Carter puffed his cheeks and exhaled. ‘Even so, it’s going to be bloody difficult. Like searching for a grain of sand on a beach.’
‘This is our best chance of locating him, chief.’
Carter stared at him. Mullins sounded like a guy desperately trying to convince himself against all logic that his plan would work.
‘It’s more than that, mate,’ Carter said. ‘This second-hand sighting is your only lead. It’s shit or bust.’
Mullins made a gesture with his huge hands. ‘It is what it is. You know the deal. If the situation wasn’t a fucking mess, guys like us wouldn’t be called in to clean it up.’
‘Obviously we can’t trust Sharza to conduct the search for Vann by himself,’ Ortega added. ‘He’s a good guy, as far as we know, but he’s not trained in search-and-rescue operations. He doesn’t have the skill set for this kind of job.’
Proudlock said, ‘Your orders are to fly to Uzbekistan, cross into Afghanistan and rendezvous with Sharza. Once you’ve successfully located Vann, you’ll notify Langley directly. We will then jointly assess the situation and decide on next steps. If it looks like we need to pull Vann out, we’ll let you know.’ He indicated the two Company men with his delicate hand. ‘Mike and Bryan will brief you on the particulars. Any questions?’
‘Why me?’ Carter asked. ‘I’m hardly flavour of the month at Hereford these days, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
A smile teased out of the corner of Proudlock’s mouth. ‘Yes, I read about that unpleasant business after Mali. You seem to have a habit of pissing off ambassadors in every country you work in.’
Carter clenched his jaw tightly, burning at the memory of his encounter with Brathwaite in the aftermath of the Mali siege.
‘I won’t forget this,’ Brathwaite had told him, his voice incandescent with rage. ‘Disobeying orders. I’ll bloody ruin you, man. D’you hear?’
Carter had dismissed the threat as a bluff, but the bastard had been as good as his word. Brathwaite had been ultimately responsible for his posting to Chile.
In a way, I’m only sitting here now because of that fucker.
‘To answer your question,’ Proudlock said, ‘you know Vann, which means you’ll know how he thinks. What he’ll do in a particular situation. That may prove useful in locating him. Secondly, you’ve had experience of operating alone in Afghanistan.’
Carter considered for a beat. Proudlock saw the hesitant expression on his face and frowned.
‘I must say, I thought you’d be champing at the bit to get involved.’
Carter glared at him. ‘Why would you think that?’
He stabbed a finger at the folder in front of him. ‘It’s all there in the file, old boy. You hate authority and dislike taking orders from other people. This is an independent mission. Just the sort of thing for a chap like you.’
‘It’s Afghanistan,’ Carter said pithily. ‘If this goes south, I’ll end up with my head on a bloody stake.’
‘It won’t,’ Ortega insisted.
‘You’re the right guy for the mission, brother,’ Mullins said. ‘If anyone can find Vann, it’s a goddamn war hero and a Medal of Honor recipient.’
‘It’s just a gong, mate. I didn’t even want the thing. All it’s done is make half the lads back home jealous. I would have been better off without it.’
‘Screw them. Am I right? Me and Bryan, we worked with you before. We know your qualities. Fact is, we wouldn’t send you out there if we didn’t think you were up to it.’
‘It, er, goes without saying that this operation is completely deniable,’ Proudlock added hastily. ‘If you’re compromised or killed, we’ll deny all knowledge of your activities.’
A deep groove formed above Carter’s brow. He had his doubts. He’d seen the news reports about Afghanistan. The whole country was falling apart at the seams. Warlords were at each other’s throats, terrorist groups were setting up training camps in the mountains, drug traffickers were slaughtering one another to gain control of the main smuggling routes. Famine, death and economic collapse.
I’ll be going into the country, he thought, when everyone else is trying to get the fuck out.
But he owed Vann. The Ulsterman had taken Carter under his wing years before. Vann had guided him, put him on the straight and narrow. I would have been kicked out of the Regiment a long time ago if it hadn’t been for Dave, he reminded himself.
Besides, Carter figured there might be an upside to working with the Company. Do this job, he reasoned, and there was the possibility that the CIA might take him on as a contractor. The Circuit was shrinking. Money and opportunities were drying up. Working for Uncle Sam didn’t sound like the worst idea in the world.
At least I’m not toxic over there. Not yet.
He said, ‘When do I leave?’
‘Today,’ Proudlock said. He frowned at his watch. ‘Five o’clock this morning. A little over four hours from now. Our friends here have taken care of the logistics. We’ll explain everything, then you’ll be straight onto a private jet.’
Carter looked at him closely. Something had been gnawing away at him for the past several minutes.
‘Why do you care?’ he asked.
Proudlock stared at him blankly. ‘Pardon?’
‘About Vann. You’re going to a fucking lot of effort to find a missing guy who’s not even with the Regiment anymore. You could deny any knowledge of his operations, sit tight and wait to hear from him.’
There was a beat of silence. Proudlock shifted uncomfortably. Mullins and Ortega swapped anxious glances.
Mullins said, ‘It’s a delicate situation. We don’t want Vann to end up as a guest of the Taliban, or ISIS-K. Or anyone else. That could make things complicated.’
‘Dave wouldn’t spill his guts. He’s a committed operator.’
‘We’re not worried about that, bud,’ Ortega said.
‘Then why the sudden concern for his welfare?’
‘Outside this room, only five other people know about this operation. Including POTUS himself. Everyone else is in the dark.’
‘So?’
Mullins said, ‘Vann is off-reservation in the most lawless place in the world. If he’s taken prisoner, his captors won’t need to get him to confess to anything. They’ll just splash his face over social media and claim that he was doing all kinds of evil shit on our dime. If he’s unlucky enough to get kidnapped by ISIS-K they could hold a gun to our heads. Use him as a bargaining chip. Hand over some of our friends from the prison camps in Syria, or your man dies. That sort of thing.’
‘The president staked his political career on getting out of Afghanistan,’ Ortega said. ‘It was messy, sure, but whatever we felt about it personally, he wanted out because it played well in the polls. If word gets out that we’re still involved, a lot of people will look like assholes. You get the picture?’
Carter said, ‘I see it, all right. Your commander-in-chief doesn’t want to get caught with his dick in his hands.’
‘If that’s how you want to put it, yeah.’
‘There’s another issue, of course,’ said Proudlock. He shifted awkwardly. ‘Your chum Vann left the Regiment under something of a cloud. An unsanctioned airstrike during his time as an embed, as I understand it.’
Carter stared at him. He remembered the story. Vann had been embedded with a team of Afghan SF in the south-east of the country, along the porous border with Pakistan. Towards the end of his rotation, he’d called in aircraft ordnance on a target near the Tora Bora cave complex as part of an operation to flush out a group of hardened ISIS fighters. Four civilians had been killed in the attack. A subsequent investigation had discovered that the target had not been officially sanctioned by coalition commanders. Vann had attempted to cover up the mistake by subsequently inventing a legitimate reason for the strike, an act which had ultimately led to his dismissal from the Regiment.
‘It wasn’t Dave’s fault,’ Carter argued. ‘He called in air support on what he believed was a legitimate target. He had no idea there were civilians in that area at the time.’
‘Nonetheless, he appears to have a track record of going rogue. Disobeying orders. Perhaps history has repeated itself here.’
‘Meaning what?’
‘Perhaps he has taken the law into his own hands again. Maybe he’s out there right now with the National Alliance fighters, settling scores with rival tribes. That could be problematic for us, for obvious reasons.’
Carter saw a flicker of anxiety in the spook’s eyes. Despite his arrogant tone, it was obvious that Proudlock was under pressure. Carter could guess at the reason. The Company had approached Six asking for help. Someone – Proudlock or his superior – had recommended Vann to the Americans as a safe pair of hands for the job. Now the guy had gone AWOL.
Proudlock would be desperate to clean up the mess before heads rolled. Starting with his own.
Proudlock leaned across the table and dropped his voice.
‘Just find Vann,’ he said. ‘Whatever it takes. If you fail, it’ll be bad for all of us. Understood?’
‘Is that a threat?’
‘It’s whatever you want it to be,’ Proudlock said. ‘But I promise you this. Let us down, and your career will go up in flames. I’ll make damn sure of that.’