‘Not quite,’ said Luke. ‘He appears to have arranged for a third party in Saudi to wire a substantial amount of money to another chap in northern Egypt, a mid-level commander in the Sons of the Sacred Desert.’

‘The AQ-linked group?’

‘The very same.’

‘How much?’

‘A million dollars,’ said Luke. ‘A lot of money for a chap living in a mud hut, with a view of more mud. Don’t know what happened to most of the cash, but we have established that a hundred grand of it was forwarded on to another guy who lives in Sirte, on the Libyan Med coast.’

That certainly got Ruth’s attention. She sat up in her chair.

‘Name?’

‘We don’t have it, sorry.’

‘Will the ISI get any more from this al-Shafra guy’s close contacts?’

‘Wasn’t in his interests to show his face locally, so he kept himself to himself,’ said Luke. ‘Hardly even left his little compound. They’ve pulled his wife in, but she seems genuinely in the dark.’

‘How about his IT?’

‘He was quite assiduous at deleting content, but they’ve harvested a partial list of people he’s been in contact with in the last year or so. I’ll send it over. Fifty-odd names. Mostly noms de guerre, obviously, but the ISI think they can identify a few Saudis and Yemenis. Couple of Pakistanis. A Chechen. Might be an American in there.’

‘Great,’ said Ruth Hall. ‘Send it over, but don’t mention the source. We need to muddy the waters. A lot.’

Why those waters required muddying she left unspoken: she didn’t want to end up in court explaining how the SIS had used intelligence derived from a man who had been tortured to death by the Pakistani intelligence agency.

‘Understood,’ said Luke.

Ruth ended the call and immediately messaged the heads of the Egypt and Libya desks, to let them know that men in those countries might be involved in some attack on UK interests, with more information to follow.

Threats like this were ten a penny, and it was probably nothing, but when there was evidence that they were well-funded it paid to take them seriously.

Chapter 47.

47.

TWO FLOORS ABOVE her, Justin Nicholls was about to call the Prime Minister with an update – slight though it was – when there was a knock at his door.

It was a senior analyst who specialised in liaison with Five Eyes – the intelligence alliance between the UK and its partners in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

‘Just a quick heads-up, Justin,’ he said. ‘I’ve just got off the phone with the NRO, and they have something. It’ll be over on the feed in a moment or two.’