Full Black - Brad Thor [151]
Ashford looked at the two men. The tears were flowing again. He had given up. He was broken. They had him. “Where do you want me to begin?” he asked.
Harvath stepped in, opened the bottle, and shook out one of the pills. Ashford opened his mouth. Harvath placed the pill on his tongue and then gave him some more water to wash it down.
“Let’s start with who you’re working for.”
“You already know who it is,” said Ashford.
“I want to hear you say it.”
“James Standing.”
“The terror attacks in Europe and Chicago that you helped us work on, who was behind those?”
“James Standing.”
“And the attacks on movie theaters across the United States that just happened?”
“James Standing.”
“The airport attacks?”
“Standing,” Ashford repeated yet again.
“Tell me about the terror network itself,” said Carlton.
The MI5 man looked at him. “It was built by the Chinese as part of an asymmetric warfare plan called unrestricted warfare. Standing financed and helped arrange for the stealing of the plan from the Chinese military. He then had every person who had been involved in crafting the plan killed.”
“How many terror cells are in the United States?”
The Brit had to think for a moment, but then replied, “Hundreds. Easily, hundreds. Your entire country is infested.”
“How do you communicate with the cells?”
“I want a guarantee in writing that I am honestly going to get immunity from prosecution.”
Harvath leaned forward. “How about instead we dump you outside the Russian Center of Special Operations with a sign around your neck saying you helped get three Spetsnaz soldiers killed?”
Carlton motioned for Harvath to back off. “We’re not negotiating anymore, Robert. I gave you my word. Now tell me how you communicate with the cells.”
“There is a hierarchy of commanders,” Ashford finally stated. “When Aazim Aleem was killed—”
“By you,” Harvath clarified.
“Yes. By me. After I killed Aazim, a man named Mustafa Karami was promoted. I then relayed commands to him, or Standing did. He then contacted the appropriate cells through emails, chat rooms, coded telephone conversations, and the like. Despite having been set up as a tool of the Chinese, for all intents and purposes it is a fully functioning Islamic terror network.”
“Why was Aazim killed?” asked Carlton.
“Isn’t it obvious? We couldn’t have the CIA interrogating him. That would have been the end of all of it.”
“And what was your end game in all of this? What was your goal? Yours and Standing’s? Certainly, this isn’t just about terror for terror’s sake.”
Ashford grinned sadly. “It was about making the world a better place.”
“By murdering people? Innocent men, women, and children?” demanded Harvath.
“All in pursuit of a greater good.”
“In other words, the ends justify the means?”
Ashford nodded and Harvath wanted to beat the Brit to a pulp, all in pursuit of a greater good, but the Old Man could see he was getting worked up and signaled again for him to stand down.
“How were these attacks supposed to make the world a better place?” Carlton asked.
“The only hope for the world is the collapse of the narrowly focused nation-state model. The planet is too interconnected, society too complex to be ruled by mob mentalities that only care about what’s good for them and don’t give a damn about anyone else.”
“So the attacks were meant to collapse the concept of the nation- state?”
“They are meant to collapse the United States. Once the U.S. is out of the way, the rest of the world can be led—”
“Into complete and utter darkness,” interjected Harvath. “Without America, there’s no peace. Without peace, there’s no prosperity.”
The Brit shook his head slowly. “Without America, there is justice.”
Carlton studied his former friend. “How did you go from fighting communists to becoming one?”
“I opened my eyes, Reed. I saw the incredible suffering in the world. Then I opened my mind and went looking for answers.”
“You have no idea,” said Harvath, “what the world would be like without America.”
“We’ll see soon enough.”
“Really? And who’ll