BooksBarbecue
Back A Shadow Intelligence
Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Oliver Harris
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. FORTY-FOUR
  47. FORTY-FIVE
  48. FORTY-SIX
  49. FORTY-SEVEN
  50. FORTY-EIGHT
  51. FORTY-NINE
  52. FIFTY
  53. FIFTY-ONE
  54. FIFTY-TWO
  55. FIFTY-THREE
  56. FIFTY-FOUR
  57. FIFTY-FIVE
  58. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I called Stefan. He had checked into the St Regis Hotel, next to Astana airport. The political situation had rendered flights scarce but he was well positioned to grab one at any sign of trouble.

‘We need more on the internet café she used,’ I said. ‘It’s her last known location. She was in there a while. I want to know what she did on that computer aside from contacting me. The search history was wiped but I reckon they might be monitored by the owners, in which case there will be records on the central system. Their security cameras don’t work, if that’s any help.’

‘I can take a look.’

I searched for more information on Stevenson’s death. There was nothing online. A few stories speculating on his intelligence service connections had vanished.

Meanwhile, overnight, a lot of accounts had appeared making anti-Chinese comments. About two hundred of them, mostly in Russia, some in Kazakhstan. Aliya was on a Sinophobic jag of her own: Chinese companies buying up Kazakh land, Chinese men stealing Kazakh women, Chinese dams diverting water from Kazakh lakes. Who was steering her? Vishinsky? Russia using residual Kazakh prejudice against the Chinese to ensure their own grip on the region wasn’t supplanted?

She linked to aerial shots of prison camps in Xinjiang, supposedly housing thousands of ethnic Kazakhs. There was an interview with a man in Almaty.

My wife went to China in 2016 and hasn’t returned. A year and eight months have passed since then and we have had no word from her. We’ve just recently found out that she’s in a re-education camp. I’m begging our government, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to return the mother of my children. We’re living in a kind of hell at the moment.

I switched the laptop off, lay back on the bed and saw Stevenson walking towards the lamplight and the pond. I felt the darkness returning. The only way of staying sane in this job was to remain detached. Other people’s tragedies defeated that or rendered it psychopathic. The stupid game, Joanna called intelligence work. You involve people, telling yourself it’s under control, draw them in.