‘Might not be just Britain,’ said Arthur. ‘On those same two days Jose Reythal, a key ETA man, Gunther Keller-Blaus, who runs Baader-Meinhof from a French hideout, Joel Ballard, an ex-CIA officer who is now a professional mercenary-terrorist, Mossif Kalib, who I am sure you have heard of – a key PLO man, and one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world – and a Russian, Leonid Posgnyet, a senior KGB officer – this entire bunch of charming individuals all arrived in Tripoli. Of course, terrorists are coming and going the whole time through Tripoli Airport, but this lot are a team of heavyweights, and it would be as well to bear in mind that their arrival might not be coincidence.

‘The Namibians are trying hard right now to shake off South African control of their country. United Nations ordered the South Africans to give the Namibians full independence twenty years ago, and they still have not done so. There are plenty of Namibian political prisoners languishing in South African jails, and the country is under complete South African domination. Namibia is rich in a number of minerals, including diamonds, platinum and uranium, and it also has the only safe anchorage along fifteen hundred miles of coast: Walvis Bay, an important strategic port to the South Africans. It’s not surprising they don’t want to let go. The United Nations have made Britain, Canada, the United States, France and Germany what they term the “contact states” – that is to say, the United Nations have made those countries responsible for putting the pressure on South Africa to free Namibia; but other than token actions every now and then, the contact states aren’t doing anything at all, because it’s not in their interest. They want to keep communism out of Africa wherever they can, and they know that as soon as Namibia gets her independence, she may well go to the left.

‘The map you photographed in Tsenong’s room is very interesting – four of the five countries are contact states: Britain, Canada, the United States and France. The only exception is Spain.

‘The Namibians are bound to feel that by really piling the pressure on South Africa, they might eventually get somewhere, and they might have come to the conclusion that a major outrage in one, perhaps in more than one, of the contact states might be the best way of furthering their aims. Nuclear power stations would of course be highly relevant targets, since one of Namibia’s principal exports is uranium.’

‘Hence Ben Tsenong’s presence over here under the cover of studying nuclear energy: as an innocent student, he probably has easy access to nuclear power stations.’

‘Undoubtedly,’ said Arthur.