The Old Enemy by Henry Porter (read with me .TXT) 📕

think anyone really appreciates who she is. And if they knew what Toombs and Reiner undoubtedly suspect, they wouldn’t touch her. This is a defensive action to protect themselves. They don’t understand much, but they grasp enough not to want exposure and scandal.’

‘Like the British, although they understand it much more.’

‘Which makes it even more of a betrayal,’ said Zillah. ‘But this here, in the United States, is an outright disgrace. I have never seen anything like it.’

‘Is Daus aware of all the activity?’ asked Samson.

‘She’d have left the country by now if she were.’

‘And Stepurin?’

‘We don’t know who has jurisdiction on that. Word is that he might just be given bail and quietly allowed to leave the United States. But the people at the top don’t know he’s the one who shipped in the nerve agent and hired Vladan Drasko. Toombs and Reiner do, however. So, the administration would be making a huge, dumb-assed mistake if they freed him.’

Paella, salad and more beer arrived. The crew sat with them to eat. It was only then that Samson noticed that all four carried weapons beneath their Ariel II jackets.

Next day, at 7 a.m., as the tide rushed into the bay, Anastasia’s devices were exchanged for a printer and leads. She wouldn’t use the ship’s WiFi to connect the printer to the computer because of the risk of a hack, which Naji assured her was entirely possible. She had worked for several hours overnight and produced a document distilling the main discoveries in the order she wanted to introduce them. Sitting next to Samson, she read it over and over and kept on going back to reduce and re-order. She gave part of it to Samson. He was impressed and said so. The plan was to circulate the statement shortly after she had answered questions, which would mean a large number would have to be printed for members of Congress before she reached the building, because she sure as hell wasn’t letting the master copy or the computer out of her hands. They argued over what to give Reiner, Anastasia maintaining that his suspension made the deal void. A deal was a deal, Samson said. He hadn’t risked his life several times over the last couple of weeks to start reneging on an agreement with an ally, which, in any case, might benefit them. If he had the material before the hearing, he could argue with his bosses that he had been right all along and that everything was about to be made public.

She again found herself apologising. ‘It’s all on me.’

‘Yes, it is. And I wish it weren’t, but you’re the only one who can do it. I’ll be right behind you.’

‘However much I prepare, it can all go wrong with one question.’

‘Have you talked to the Congresswoman you mentioned – Ricard? Can she help?’

Anastasia snorted a laugh. ‘Turns out Shera took two hundred grand from Abelman via GreenState. I guess Denis knew that when he was talking to her. And Reid! Jesus, the film is utterly disgusting. That ugly old man fucking that poor young girl, and from behind! I mean, you know what he was doing!’

‘Please!’ Samson looked away. ‘You’ve done all you can. Let’s go sailing. Forget it all for a few hours.’

The anchor was snagged on an old cable that led from the wrecks. Zillah took half an hour to free it, moving the boat backwards and forward on the engine and eventually raising the sails and turning the boat away from the wind to free it, a high-risk manoeuvre. She steered Ariel II downstream into the tide and wind and they tacked across the broader reaches of the Potomac, heading towards Nanjemoy Creek and the Maryland–Virginia state line, where Samson took over and sailed close-haul with his eyes never leaving the luff of the main, as Fleur had taught him. Anastasia and Naji sat nearby, looking up at the sails. She had her arm round his shoulder, which, unusually for Naji, didn’t seem to bother him. They had been much closer since the flight from the Balkans to the Baltic.

At midday, they turned for home and ran before the wind with the sails stretched out like wings. They reached Washington just after nightfall and moored a hundred metres offshore. It was then that the detailed planning began.

Chapter 36

2172 Revisited

She wore the dark dress she’d used for Harland’s funeral, and a lightweight jacket and a silver necklace that Denis had given her. It was his first gift to her – not at all valuable; she always kept it in her washbag. Zillah had equipped her with a pair of lightly tinted glasses and a baseball hat, also black. Over her shoulder she carried the bag that contained Denis’s computer and twenty copies of her statement – a further forty would be printed when Anastasia was sure they would be needed. At Security, she was required to take out the computer and turn it on, which wasn’t a problem. No one among the Capitol Police, the journalists on their phones, the aides and congressional staff scurrying hither and thither recognised her. It was Monday and things were a little slow, the more so because storms in the South, stretching up to the Carolinas, had delayed flights into the capital.

They went to the back of Room 2172 and sat down. Anastasia noticed that a few things had changed. The carpeting around the witness desk had been replaced with a slightly darker shade of blue and the desk itself was new, longer and narrower. She assumed that the contamination had been limited to the desk and where Denis and Steen had fallen and, of course, Steen’s briefcase, which had been destroyed. There had been no trace found on either her or Tulliver’s clothing.

The schedule announced two witnesses for the session ‘Assessing American Policy in Northern Iraq’ – the Honourable Alison Carney, Acting Assistant Secretary, the Bureau of Middle Eastern Affairs, US Department of State, and Dr Sheila McNeill, Professor