Chapters (58)
- Cover
- Also by Oliver Harris
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I opened the hotel jpeg, went to Info, clicked on the GPS tab. Latitude and longitude coordinates appeared in the header. Lat – N 33.00, 56.00, 17.82, Long – E 19.00, 9.00, 39.85. I entered the coordinates into our mapping software and arrived at the Millennium London Hotel, Earl’s Court.
I gave them a call. ‘Hi. I don’t know if you’ll be able to help me. I attended an event at your hotel in April last year, 23rd April. I need to speak to the organisers but have lost their contact details.’
‘What event was it?’
‘I can’t remember the exact name.’
‘Hang on … We had several events that day.’
‘Could you read them out?’
‘Asperian Retirement, The Association of Vice Chancellors, Worldwide Media.’
‘Worldwide Media, I think.’
She gave me a phone number, but it didn’t connect when I tried to call. There were a lot of ‘Worldwide Medias’ online but none that seemed more dubious than any other marketing company.
Why London? I wondered. It seemed to point towards whoever was behind this, but there was a range of options: UK government, a UK company, an outsider trying to make it look like that. Plenty of Russians in London. Plenty of offices of global companies.
Hacking a hotel was easy enough. You could just email as a current supplier, a guest, or a wedding planner, with malware-infected specs attached. A conference would leave plenty of traces.
I sat on the edge of the bed, handling one of the listening devices, thinking through options. Then I looked at Aliya’s photograph of London again, then at videos of the shooting in Semey going up and getting taken down.
FORTY-ONE
People in the crowd had guns. That was the first deflection used by officials in Semey: Salafi jihadists running amok. It attracted widespread derision, cracking the surface of Kazakhstan’s usually respectful social media. The President, as ever, played a smarter game, announcing an immediate investigation and calling for unity. He identified a spiritual crisis in society. WhatsApp and YouTube were down. Tumblr had vanished amidst claims that the platform hosted pornography.