Pirate - Duncan Falconer [110]
The Lynx’s engines roared to full power and it rose off the deck and politely reversed off the back end so as not to harass the men and their gliders with its downdraft. It turned to one side and dropped out of sight as it headed towards the coastline a few feet above the waves. Without any of its navigation lights, it soon disappeared from view and seconds later it could no longer be heard, the throb of its engines absorbed by the blustery wind.
Downs walked around the edge of the hustle and bustle and over to Stratton and the glider he was to share with his old friend. ‘Bloody madness, if you ask me,’ he said in his rich Irish brogue and wearing his usual grin. ‘I’m talking about this glider lark. What do you think?’
‘I think that about sums it up,’ Stratton said. ‘And you and I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world right now.’
‘Ha, bloody roight.’
Lieutenant Phelps stepped out on deck and searched the men spread out in front of him until he found who he was looking for. ‘Stratton?’ he called out.
Stratton turned to look at the man whom he hardly knew.
‘A brief word, please,’ the officer said.
Stratton left Downs and walked over to him.
The officer stepped away to a more private piece of deck as Stratton arrived and glanced around to ensure they were out of earshot of everyone else.
‘I have a message for you from London,’ Phelps said. ‘The Chinese insist they don’t have an agent in Somalia at this time and have not had in recent months. They have acknowledged the agent you confronted in Yemen. Given that, London is inclined to believe them. Why would they acknowledge one and not the other? They have accounted for all of their known citizens in Somalia and none fit the description of the woman in your report.’
Stratton felt surprised by the revelation. His initial inclination was to believe it but he wasn’t immediately sure why.
‘Good luck,’ the officer said, before walking away and back inside the superstructure.
Stratton’s head started to fill with questions about what the girl could have been doing in Somalia if she wasn’t an agent. Maybe the Chinese were lying. That he could believe. Maybe she was connected to Al-Shabaab and the acquisition of the weapons. If so, something had clearly gone badly wrong for her. But that didn’t explain why she would have been sneaking around the Oasis when he found her. None of the dots connected in a way that worked for him. He couldn’t find a remotely satisfying explanation for it. He clearly didn’t have enough information.
Despite the possibility that she had duped him, he couldn’t dislike her. He never got the impression she was a bad person. Which was possibly naive of him but he fancied himself a fair judge of character.
He wondered where the girl was at that moment. Had she truly gone back to Somalia to finish whatever it was she had started there, madness though it had to be? Hopefully she had made it safely to another coast. If she wasn’t a Chinese agent, it helped explain why she jumped ship. She knew Stratton would have included her in his report. She would also have expected him to go to the nearest British safe haven and would have expected her to accompany him. The Chinese authorities would also have been informed. She wouldn’t have wanted to be interviewed by the British, and even less by her own people.
Stratton’s thoughts were interrupted by Howel and Winslow stepping out on deck through a door beside him. The two officers headed over to Downs.
‘The old man said you can go ahead and prepare for departure,’ Winslow said. ‘He’s adjusting the ship’s speed and heading to reduce the wind so that you can complete the assembling of the gliders.’
Downs looked into the wind and decided it had indeed grown weaker in the past few minutes. He brought a whistle to his