False Friends (28 page)

‘But how does kil ing civilians achieve that?’

‘By making them think about their lives. By showing them how weak and defenceless they have become. That’s what Anders Breivik achieved in Norway. And that’s going to be repeated across Europe until the people rise up and defend their countries.’

‘Steady, Simon,’ said Thompson.

Kettering looked at Thompson as if seeing him for the first time. ‘We’re among friends,’ he said.

‘We don’t know that,’ said Thompson. ‘Not for sure.’ He looked over at Shepherd and raised his glass. ‘No offence. I mean, we’ve known Sean and Roger for donkey’s, but you two are the new kids on the block.’

‘None taken,’ said Shepherd. He smiled across at Kettering. ‘The Norwegian’s the one that kil ed al those kids, right? Please don’t tel me you’re planning to kil kids.’

‘It was a socialist camp,’ said Kettering. ‘He knew what he was doing. He knew that by kil ing the way he did he’d get his whole country talking.

The whole world.’ He drank more champagne. ‘Are you going to pul out of our deal? Is that what you’re thinking?’

‘Once the guns leave my hands it’s not my problem,’ said Shepherd. ‘They can’t be traced to me. I doubt that you’d tel the cops where you got them from and even if you did it’d be your word against mine.’ He shrugged. ‘Money’s money, that’s what I always say.’

Kettering nodded, then leaned over and clinked his glass against Shepherd’s.

‘Doesn’t it worry you, what’s happening to our country?’ asked Thompson.

‘I don’t give it much thought,’ said Shepherd. ‘I don’t pay tax, I come and go as I please and I do pretty much as I like. I leave my money offshore, so even if the cops were to get on to me I could move overseas and they’d never get me. I’m bul etproof, mate.’

‘At the moment. But what wil you do when they get rid of money and everyone is chipped?’ said Thompson.

‘Chipped?’ repeated Sharpe.

‘They’l do away with money and you’l have a chip under your skin that you use to buy everything, and the moment you step out of line your chip is wiped,’ said Thompson. ‘It’l be the ultimate control ing tool. If we get to that stage it’s al over. The rich wil get richer and richer and the poor wil stay poor.’

‘I’m not poor, mate.’

‘Compared to the Russian oligarchs? Compared to Tony Blair and the Bushes and the rest of them? Compared to the bankers? They’re the ones who are taking over, unless we do something.’

‘You’re a great one for conspiracies, aren’t you?’ said Shepherd.

Thompson’s eyes hardened. ‘You need to read more,’ he said. ‘You know what a false flag is?’

Shepherd did but he wanted Thompson to continue talking.

‘It’s when the government does something but blames it on someone else. Hitler did it when he burned down the Reichstag. The Yanks did it in the Tonkin accident when they claimed that the North Vietnamese attacked one of their destroyers. The biggest false flag of al time was Nine-Eleven.’

‘You think the Americans kil ed their own people?’ asked Shepherd.

‘It was Bin Laden who brought down the Twin Towers,’ said Thompson. ‘I’m not one of those morons who think they used explosives. Of course they used planes and of course it was Bin Laden behind it. But who was behind Bin Laden?’

Shepherd didn’t say anything. He sipped his champagne.

‘The Americans,’ said Thompson. ‘They trained him, they funded him and they told him what to do. And afterwards they kil ed him. Why? Because they wanted Iraq’s oil and they wanted the world in fear, because a population living in fear is easier to control. You’ve read
1984
?’

Shepherd shook his head.

‘You should,’ said Thompson. ‘George Orwel was way ahead of his time. Read
1984
and
Animal Farm
and you’l see exactly where the world is headed. It’s one huge conspiracy, Garry. They wreck our economy, they keep us in fear, they destroy our national identity, they take away our faith, and then one day we wake up and we’re al slaves. Unless we do something.’

‘I’m starting to wish I hadn’t asked,’ said Shepherd, trying to lighten the moment. Kettering and Thompson were both staring at him intently.

‘It’s not a joke, Garry,’ said Kettering. ‘This isn’t a race war; it’s a fight for the survival of our species. Because once the elite has total control there’l be no going back. They’l control the food, the water, the money supply, the land, everything.’

‘So what do you guys do, when you’ve got the guns? Do you attack Downing Street? Do you take hostages? What’s the plan?’

Kettering grinned and tapped the side of his nose. ‘That, Garry old lad, is on a need-to-know basis.’

‘And you don’t need to know,’ added Roger.

‘Amen to that,’ said Sean. He raised his glass and smiled thinly. ‘No offence.’

‘Wel , that was just plain weird, wasn’t it?’ said Shepherd as he drove away from the pub and headed to Hereford. He beeped his horn at Kettering and Thompson, who were climbing into their Jaguar. They waved as he drove away. Sean and Roger were sitting in the back of the Jaguar, deep in conversation.

‘What was weird was the way that you brought Ray into the frame,’ said Sharpe. ‘That wasn’t right, you know that?’

‘I needed to find out what they were planning to do,’ said Shepherd.

‘Yeah, but mentioning Ray like that just makes them associate us with him even more. It made it sound like Ray had been talking to us about them and they won’t like that.’

‘It went okay,’ said Shepherd, accelerating past a mud-splattered tractor.

‘We should tip Ray off and give him the option of pul ing out.’

‘You’re over-thinking it, Razor,’ said Shepherd. ‘It was a brief conversation and then we were straight on to the great conspiracy theory. They were so fired up about that they won’t remember where it started.’

Sharpe sighed and folded his arms. ‘Aye, maybe.’

‘The Roger guy, the bald one, is Roger McLean. Button reckons he met with that Norwegian who shot al the kids. He’s anti-Islamic, big time.

Button’s going to be very interested to know that he turned up.’

‘And that Sean, what do you think? UDA?’

‘Military-trained, that’s for sure. He knew how to handle the Yugo. I’l run him by Charlie, see what she says. So what’s your take on the Bin Laden thing?’

‘The conspiracy?’ Sharpe shrugged. ‘I can just about buy the Americans getting Bin Laden to attack the Twin Towers, but the whole global-conspiracy thing is a bit much. But it makes for a good story.’

‘What about the theory that the West demonised Bin Laden?’

‘That’s true enough,’ said Sharpe. ‘And they used him as an excuse to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. But that doesn’t make it a conspiracy. A conspiracy needs some very clever people and it was George W. Bush, for God’s sake. Didn’t he have an IQ of 91?’

‘I think that’s an urban myth,’ said Shepherd. ‘But what they seem to be saying is that it’s bigger than politicians. And it was the bankers that caused al the problems we have now, right? So I guess there are two options – either the bankers did it deliberately, in which case it is a conspiracy, or they were al just plain stupid. In which case why are they getting mil ion-pound bonuses?’

‘Yeah, wel , my vote’s for the latter,’ said Sharpe. He looked across at Shepherd. ‘What’s your interest?’

Shepherd shrugged carelessly. ‘The Five case I’m on at the moment is about fundamentalist terrorism and there’s an al-Qaeda angle. I just wonder how much of what al-Qaeda does is about Bin Laden and how much is just disaffected Muslims. I don’t get the feeling that there’s a master plan at work. But maybe there is. Maybe there’s someone pul ing al the strings on this, keeping our population in fear so that they won’t notice that one by one their civil liberties are being taken away.’

‘I think it’s much simpler than that,’ said Sharpe. ‘I think that there are a lot of unhappy people in the world and terrorism is just an excuse for them to vent their frustrations. A big chunk of the population is unhappy, unhappy enough to kil and maim civilians. And that’s a pretty scary thing to admit.’

‘And what about those guys?’ said Shepherd. ‘Kettering and Thompson.’

‘Them? They’re as mad as bloody hatters. But with guys like Sean and Roger with them they could be dangerous. If they know more guys like Sean they could do a hel of a lot of damage with those guns.’

‘And the grenades,’ said Shepherd. ‘Let’s not forget about the grenades.’

They drove in silence for a few minutes, then Sharpe sighed and stretched out his legs. ‘I sometimes wonder if we should even bother fighting this whole Muslim thing,’ he said.

‘What?’

Sharpe grimaced. ‘Wel , first of al , they’re going to win in the end, aren’t they? They’re ten per cent of the population now, give or take. But they’re breeding way faster than us.’

‘Us?’

‘You know what I mean. I’ve got two kids, which just maintains the status quo. You’ve got only the one and there’s no sign of you having any more.

But your average Muslim family breeds like rabbits. Six kids. Seven. Eight. And most of the guys have more than one wife. So they’re breeding faster than us. And it won’t be long before there are more of them than us and then they can vote in their own government and everything changes.’

‘You’re crazy,’ said Shepherd. ‘Even crazier than usual.’

‘You can’t argue with the maths,’ said Sharpe. ‘And if Turkey joins the EU then it’l happen even faster. How many Muslims are there in Turkey? A hundred mil ion? How many do you think wil head over to the UK for benefits and the NHS? I tel you, Spider, we’l be a Muslim country by the end of the century and probably a lot sooner.’

‘Yeah, wel , neither of us wil be around to see that.’

‘But that’s my point,’ said Sharpe. ‘Maybe we should be trying to speed things up.’

Shepherd shook his head. ‘Now you’ve lost me.’

‘Look, here’s the thing,’ said Sharpe. ‘Would it be so bad if we became a Muslim country? Because if you look into it, it’s not that bad for us guys.

In fact, on balance, my life would be better.’

‘Now you’re being ridiculous.’

‘Hear me out,’ he said. ‘Under Islamic law men get to run things again. No more women bosses, no more female home secretaries, no more Charlotte Buttons breaking our bal s. No more foul-mouthed chavs screaming in the street. And I’m al for covering the faces of the ugly ones when they’re out in public. The roads would be a lot safer as wel , if they were prevented from driving. Women would do what women should be doing: staying at home and bringing up the kids. And we could have more than one wife too. Think how wel that would work. You could have one as a cook, one as a cleaner, one for the bedroom, and one . . .’ He struggled to find a reason for a fourth wife. ‘Anyway, you get my drift.’

‘You’re mad,’ said Shepherd.

‘Even the booze thing isn’t a problem,’ continued Sharpe. ‘We had a group of Algerian cops over doing an undercover course at Bramshil .

Drank like fishes. And the Turks are Muslims but they brew a good beer. The only downside that I can see is bacon.’

‘Bacon?’

‘The pork thing. I love bacon butties and crackling and I wouldn’t want to give that up. But the prayer thing isn’t a problem. Look at those bastards who keep taking cigarette breaks – everything stops while they go out for a smoke. Wel , I’d be happy enough to take five breaks a day for a lie-down.’

‘You don’t lie down, you soft bastard. You kneel and pray.’

‘You know what I mean,’ said Sharpe. ‘I’m just saying that five prayers a day is no hardship. And giving ten per cent of your money to charity is a good thing. Especial y if that meant lower taxes. And putting women back in the home means that unemployment would go right down, which is great for the economy.’

‘Please tel me this is a joke, Razor,’ said Shepherd. ‘You’re starting to worry me.’

‘But the real y great thing is the whole shariah law business. An eye for an eye. Now you tel me that the UK wouldn’t benefit from a policy of removing the right hands of thieves. Or castrating rapists. And I’d definitely go for beheading some of the scumbags I’ve put away rather than them doing twelve years in a cushy jail before being sent home to their families.’

‘And stoning adulterers?’

Sharpe scowled. ‘I’m not saying that there aren’t some negative aspects, but on balance I think there are advantages to shariah law. Plus, in every Muslim country I know of, the police are respected.’

‘Feared, you mean.’

Sharpe shrugged. ‘Fear or respect, they don’t spit in your face and get away with it like they do in this country.’

‘Come on, Razor. Corruption is rife in al those countries. You can buy your way out of their prisons, and the rich get away with murder.’

‘No system’s perfect,’ said Sharpe. ‘I’m just saying that perhaps we shouldn’t be fighting an Islamification that is going to happen eventual y.

Maybe we should start embracing it.’

‘Al ahu akbar,’ said Shepherd.

‘Indeed,’ said Sharpe. ‘Fancy a curry?’

‘I thought a kebab would be more your thing after your Road to Damascus moment,’ said Shepherd.

‘No, mate, a curry and a couple of Kingfishers is what I need.’ He grinned. ‘Mind you, have you noticed that you never see women serving in curry houses? There’re no bolshy waitresses; it’s always guys. I’m sure that’s a Muslim thing.’

‘Razor, I swear to God, if you turn up for work in a man dress tomorrow I’m off this case.’ He grinned. ‘Okay, a curry it is. There’re a couple of good places in the centre of Hereford. Soon as we’ve dropped the guns off at the barracks we’l swing by before we head back to London.’

Shepherd waited until he was back in his Hampstead flat before phoning Charlotte Button.

‘Kudos, Spider, that couldn’t have gone better,’ she said.

‘You got sound and video?’

‘We got everything. Wel done.’

‘Yeah, wel , it was more by luck than judgement, I have to say. If they hadn’t jumped at the chance of a drink I don’t know how else we could have got them to the pub.’

The pub they had gone to after the weapons demonstration had been fitted with hidden microphones and cameras and the farm workers outside had al been MI5 officers.