Contents ( 84)
- 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
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- Acknowledgements
‘Really? Look, are you sure you don’t need a doctor or something? You know the guy five doors up has a place in Harley Street. We could ask him to take a look at you?’
‘No, honestly, it’s only a bug,’ Sarah lied. ‘It’s no biggie.’
Michael did not reply. He just nodded and held Sarah’s gaze, until the sound of the cooker’s alarm broke the silence. It spurred him into action. Removing a large, orange Le Creuset pot from the right-hand oven, he threw in some chopped bell peppers, stirred the contents and placed it back in.
Once done, he turned back to Sarah.
‘So, you think having no clue about Victor is going to come back and bite you in the arse?’
‘It could. But it won’t if I can get ahead of the story.’
‘And how are you going to do that?’
‘I have absolutely no idea. But next time there’s a development in this, I need to be the one breaking it. And I can’t let . . . a stomach bug get in my way.’
TWELVE
Detective Chief Inspector Bruce Bull switched off the car’s ignition and glanced at his watch.
2.35 a.m.
Far too late for a day to end. Far too early for the next to begin. Not that shift times applied to Bull right now. The moment Flight PA16 went down, his usual working hours became meaningless.
Bull had been with Counter Terrorism Command – a specialist police unit designated SO15 – since its formation in 2006. He had joined as an already experienced investigator, having spent the previous eighteen years with Special Branch. Now fifty-eight and with any notable contemporary long since retired, no officer in the Metropolitan Police had witnessed even half of the horrors Bull had endured.
His career focus on terrorism had begun over thirty years before, with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 that had killed 270 people. Britain’s single biggest terrorist atrocity, just months after his appointment to Special Branch.
In the thirty-two years since then, Bull had witnessed the very worst of humanity. Every terrorist attack on British soil – or against British citizens or British interests abroad – fell within the jurisdiction of Counter Terrorism Command. But that made up only a fraction of the unit’s work. The majority of its time was focused upon prevention. The countless planned attacks which, thanks to 1,500 specialist operatives like Bull, never happened.
It had been an entire career dedicated to a single end: to never again allow devastation on the scale of Lockerbie.
For thirty years, Bull had achieved exactly that.
Until today.
Now there were almost twice as many dead as ’88.
As the only member of Counter Terrorism Command with experience of the Lockerbie investigation, and as one of the unit’s senior officers, there was never any doubt that Bull would take the lead on this bombing. And so it was Bull who took the call that turned a tragedy into a political nightmare.