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

though he was about as useless an assassin as ever lived. I believe they put a tracker on my bike.’ He told him the whole story.

‘Well, that does change things. Did you tell Nyman?’

Samson shook his head.

‘Good.’

The food arrived and Macy ordered another bottle of wine.

‘I thought we had a conference call later.’

‘We do, and it’s important but, frankly, I need this.’ He stopped, pushed the veal around his plate, ate a potato then put his knife and fork down. ‘So Nyman put surveillance on you without knowing about this attack on you. He will have got the security services involved, and they wouldn’t be up for that unless they thought there would be success at the end of it. So what’s he told them? What does he know that he hasn’t told you?’ Macy may have been feverishly trying to forget his grief, but what he said made sense.

Samson thought for a few moments. ‘My rule with Nyman is that the thing he tells you is usually dead opposite of the truth, so I’m working on the assumption that it has nothing to do with Narva. Oh, by the way, I got sacked from GreenState. Zoe eyeballed me at the Junction and had me fired for stalking her, so I guess that’s the end of that job. And another thing, I had to lose the motorbike.’

‘You’ve had a busy day. That’s a pity, but it couldn’t be avoided. You had to defend yourself.’ He paused and considered his uneaten meal. ‘Actually, the conference call is all to do with her.’ He put his hand up. ‘Don’t ask! Denis will fill you in.’

‘Hisami! What’s he got to do with this?’

‘He’s paying the bills. That’s why you were getting two grand a day, Samson.’

‘Why’s he protecting a young environmentalist in London?’

‘You can ask him yourself shortly.’ He checked his watch. ‘I told him you needed more information and that you were likely to get bored and chuck in the towel unless he told you more.’

As Samson would remember it, Imogen phoned a few moments later. In fact, Macy and he talked for twenty minutes about Berlin and how Harland had extracted firstly an Arab terrorist and, on the night when the Wall came down, brought two agents over, the art historian Rudi Rosenharte and the woman who was known as Kafka – Ulrike Klaar – whom Harland eventually married. Both had been working for Bobby.

When Imogen’s call came, Macy listened intently then exclaimed, ‘Jesus Christ! Is he alive?’ Without looking at Samson, he asked, ‘What about his wife, Anastasia? She’s okay – good.’ He listened a few more seconds, then hung up and searched for a text from Imogen with the link she’d mentioned.

‘What the hell’s happened?’

‘Hisami was poisoned in Congress. He’s still alive. A lawyer is dead. It’s all on CNN.’

Macy found it on his phone and held it so Samson could see the screen. The clip started with a reporter in the hallway of the Rayburn Building explaining that a Foreign Affairs hearing had been cleared because a witness and his lawyer had fallen ill at a dramatic moment in the proceedings. The voice of the reporter continued as footage from inside Room 2172 was shown. The Ranking Member, Congressman Speight, was seen flourishing evidence of money transfers to Kurd-controlled accounts. The cameras turned to the lawyer, who was gripped by some sort of spasm. Samson saw Anastasia jump up and call for help. At that moment, Denis fell over the back of his chair and collapsed at the feet of Jim Tulliver. There followed random footage from the media cameras in the room, as well as from people’s phones, which did a better job of capturing the chaos of the situation. The report cut from a close-up of Denis Hisami’s body on the floor to a shot of the lawyer, who already looked dead but was said to have survived another thirty minutes, then to the chair of the committee waving people out of the room and Speight shouting at someone and gesticulating.

‘At this time,’ said the reporter to camera, ‘the FBI has confirmed that Mr Hisami and Mr Steen were poisoned, but there is no information as yet about the substance used. Samples have been taken from Room 2172 where the hearing was taking place and freshman congresswoman Shera Ricard’s office, where a meeting was held before the hearing, attended by Hisami and Steen. The Agency has confirmed that tests are being conducted on the others at that meeting. These include Congresswoman Ricard and Denis Hisami’s wife, Anastasia. No trace of the substance has yet been found in the Cannon Building. It will likely be compared with those collected when a nerve agent called Novichok was used in the case of a Russian father and daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018. In the past, the FBI has been unwilling to reveal such details. They are examining footage from the media taken immediately before the hearing and the Bureau is appealing to any members of the public who may have useful footage on their phones. At the time of the hearing, a group protesting against climate change were demonstrating in the network of tunnels under the Capitol. An FBI spokesperson stressed that the Agency does not believe the protestors had anything to do with the incident, but they may have recorded valuable evidence in filming the protest. We will bring you updates on Mr Hisami’s condition and any further developments as we have them.’

A search of the Web produced no fresh information. Samson sent a text to Jim Tulliver, asking for news, and then one to Naji Touma: ‘Naji, we need to talk, soonest. Where are you? Samson.’

By the time they reached Macy’s offices at Hendricks Harp two blocks away, Tulliver had replied. Samson read the text out to Macy. ‘Anastasia and I are okay. Denis is in a coma – he may not get through the night. Doctors won’t say how they are treating him. We are being kept here for