Pirate - Duncan Falconer [26]
Stratton took another look at her. She was gazing at the floor.
He had heard of women being crew on commercial vessels, though it was more common in Asia than anywhere else. But she didn’t look the type to work and live on board a ship. Despite her appearance, there was something sophisticated about her. She looked educated. She looked delicate but exuded a kind of toughness. Stratton wondered what Lotto had said to her that had amused only him. He suspected it was something crudely sexual.
Stratton put his head back. London would by now know something had gone seriously wrong with the operation. Ramlal and Prabhu had hopefully escaped and informed them that Stratton and Hopper had looked for an escape option in a fishing village. They would assume a boat might have been involved in their escape. London would then have to examine the different scenarios. Stratton doubted anyone in MI6 would even consider they had been taken captive by Somali pirates. And if some bright spark did, it would hardly have been taken seriously. It was unusual for Somalis to operate so close to the Yemen mainland, but not unheard of. Yemeni fisherman had lost many of their boats to Somali raiding parties over the years. But even so, to suspect Stratton and Hopper had been victims of such an event was a stretch.
London would wait twenty-four hours after Stratton’s last communication before beginning an investigation. And then it would be little more than a discreet enquiry through established channels. The kidnapping had been a high-level task and not common knowledge beyond MI6 in London and their partners in the US – this was in general a joint interest programme, but the Brits headed up the Middle East side of the operation. The British Embassy in Yemen wouldn’t have known it was taking place for instance. But they would be alerted to the missing personnel and given the identities. The embassy would still not know what the missing personnel had been doing in Yemen. After several days of hearing nothing, investigators would be sent to the area where Stratton and Hopper had last been seen. They would find a way of including the Yemeni authorities in the search. A clever cover story would have to be created. And when that didn’t produce any results, MI6 might confront the Chinese Secret Service, since Prabhu and Ramlal would have informed them about the intrusion into the operation. A lot of suspicion would be directed towards the Chinese. That could get interesting in itself. The Chinese agent who Stratton had brought to the ground suggested that the British would soon know why the Chinese were interested in Sabarak. But that had probably been on the understanding that Stratton would get the Saudi back to where the British could interrogate him. If the Chinese suspected that hadn’t happened, they would go quiet.
Stratton wondered if London already had any clues as to why the Chinese would want Sabarak. The Chinese wouldn’t be able to shine any light on Stratton and Hopper’s disappearance anyway. The last they could possibly know of the British operatives was them riding out to sea in the boat. In the absence of any other explanation, London might well place a high priority on the suspicion that the Chinese were behind the disappearance of their people and the Saudi. The only other alternative would be that Stratton and the others had died at sea for whatever reason. Unlikely maybe but not impossible.
Stratton needed to let London know what had happened as soon as he could, not just to begin the process of his and Hopper’s repatriation. He had to prevent the wrong accusations flying in the wrong direction. That would waste time and draw attention from the important focus, which was Sabarak and the weapons.
If Stratton couldn’t get away himself, or get a message out of there by some other way, the first opportunity the Brits would have of discovering what had happened to them would be when the pirates eventually put out their identities and demanded a ransom payment.
Once that happened, MI6 would have to re-evaluate everything.