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Back A Shadow Intelligence Save as PDF
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

This was the dream, that with equipment sensitive enough – with the ability to read the near-infrared spectral band – you might get a sniff of something to which your rivals were oblivious. Down beneath the abandoned Soviet tools, the skeletons of loyal comrades, in among the Miocene fossils: five billion barrels of light sweet crude. It was calling out to change history.

At the bottom of the computer imagery it said Property of Auracle Inc. Someone had stolen it off Craig Bryant’s company, given it to Russia.

FORTY-SEVEN

The flight gave me time to think. I spent a lot of time studying the GRU report, piecing together a variety of potential chronologies. The one I wanted to counter: she chases Bryant; she sells the data. I kept seeing that CCTV, Joanna getting into the car, which I tried to analyse with a cool objectivity that I didn’t feel.

Would Vishinsky trust her? If this was a long game, perhaps; if she’d been working for him for years. Meaning I would have been lied to for years. I dissected the past twelve months: my op closed down; her disaster in Turkey. Memory comes into its own when you’ve been betrayed. I saw details I hadn’t even seen the first time around. I thought through an interpretation of my life in which Joanna was working for Moscow: our relationship, its feints and circumlocution. Vishinsky had a file on us. She was tasked with getting close to me. She resisted. Finally, she was going to invite me over to the other side. I would have been good. I would have been tempted. Caracas. We’d need money.

Or it was all very carefully constructed bullshit. Oldest psyops in the book: get departments to tear themselves apart over moles. You don’t even need to penetrate, just sow doubt. The Russians were old hands at that. It might have been what got Hugh Stevenson killed. My immediate mission was clear: stop their incursion.

My gut instinct: this was Vishinsky’s idea of victory. Joanna had been working against him in some way since Turkey. Perfect Vision, whatever it was, represented that attempt. Vishinsky had ensured both Six and Vectis turned against her, closed down the Shefford operation. He not only destroyed her but who she was, her reputation. I knew he would make sure she was aware of this: her disgrace in the eyes of those who loved and respected her. Perhaps she was being made to watch it from her cell.

The image I needed to understand was Aliya’s: the one of the Millennium London Hotel. I had a message from Aliya, sent while I’d been detained: How long are you in Astana? Let me know if you want another coffee. Got something for you. Nothing from Reza Nikfar; no lead on 4,000 kilograms of stashed explosives. Although it seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt an attack coming.