‘Well, this time it’s different. It’s Wotan’s doing, of course – you see, he has come up with something most interesting. As you probably know, as part of the Sharing of Intelligence Treaty between the SIS and the CIA, they, and a few other of the world’s intelligence networks, watch all the key international airports of the world, particularly those of countries endangered by terrorism and those of countries that support terrorism. All passenger lists, incoming and outgoing, are fed into Wotan, and to the CIA central computer system in washington, and the computers are able to build up patterns of movement and link names to dates and events.’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, among the names you gave me were Ben Tsenong, Wajara and Lukas. Ben Tsenong is a student at Oxford, studying atomic energy; he is from Namibia, and on a United Nations scholarship. There are no records about him in Namibia – which is not unusual: records in South West Africa are appalling. However, Wajara could well be Felix Wajara. He’s a key figure in the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia and one of the most powerful blacks in the country – if they ever have free elections, he would stand a good chance of becoming prime minister. The name Lukas was harder, because that is a Christian name and not uncommon out there. However, on 10 August Felix Wajara arrived at Tripoli Airport in Libya with one Lukas Ogomo. Lukas Ogomo is a senior member of SWAPO – South West Africa People’s Organization. On a separate flight, on the same day, the chairman of SWAPO, Hadino Dusab, also arrived in Tripoli. And now, what is most interesting of all, on 9 August, guess who else flew to Tripoli?’

‘Stun me,’ I said.

‘Patrick Cleary.’

He stunned me.

‘On 10 August Lukas Ogomo sends a telegram to Ben Tsenong in Oxford saying, “All has been agreed.” The telegram was sent from Marzoc, which happens to be where Quadhafi’s top guerrilla-warfare training establishment is based.

‘Tsenong gets a telegram from his mother on the same day telling him his father has died. Wotan has been able to discover that someone called Tsenong was buried in Otjitambi around that date, so the cable appears to be genuine – probably just coincidence that the two were sent on the same day. But not coincidence in my opinion that Cleary, Ogomo, Wajara and Dusab were in Libya that day – what do you think?’

‘No, no way. But why Libya?’

‘Quadhafi gives a considerable amount of assistance to terrorist organizations purely on ideological grounds. He also gives assistance for other reasons, and Namibia has something that Quadhafi can’t get enough of at the moment.’

‘Uranium?’

‘That’s right.’

‘So that gives Libya’s motive, but what about Namibia? What do the Namibians want with nuclear power stations in Britain?’