Dark Forces by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page B

really our problem. We’re more interested in the British jihadists and, so far as I’m aware, there are no Brit snipers out there.’
    Shepherd gestured at the thumb drive. ‘That guy’s special,’ he said. ‘He was looking at a shot of a mile or so. And there were two men on the roof with him. Two spotters is unusual. And I think he had even more jihadists watching out for him. That was how he managed to avoid the explosion. It looks to me like IS were going out of their way to protect him, which would make him a high-value target.’
    ‘But not for us.’
    ‘The Americans, then. I’m serious, Jeremy. There’s no way of knowing how many guys that sniper has killed. At least get your people to do facial recognition on the pictures, see if he’s known.’
    ‘Okay,’ said Willoughby-Brown, but Shepherd had heard the lack of conviction in his voice.
    ‘What now?’ he asked. ‘I’m getting a bit tired of sitting in that container watching video feeds.’
    Willoughby-Brown grinned. ‘I can remedy that,’ he said. ‘I need you out in Turkey.’
    ‘Since when has Five operated in Turkey?’
    ‘We’re liaising with Six.’
    ‘They don’t have their own people?’
    Willoughby-Brown grimaced. ‘Why are you giving me a hard time, Daniel? I thought you might jump at a bit of overseas travel. Get you out of your rut.’
    ‘What rut?’
    ‘I just meant a change is as good as a rest. Revitalise the old batteries while serving Queen and country. But the threat is a UK one. We have a source in a refugee camp, a chap by the name of Yusuf Yilmaz. He’s made contact and is offering us names and photographs of Islamic State fighters who have passed through the camp pretending to be Syrian refugees. He helped them get the paperwork. He says they’re on their way to Europe. The UK in particular.’
    ‘So fly him over and debrief him in Thames House.’
    ‘I wish it was that easy,’ said Willoughby-Brown. ‘He has a number of demands, including fast-track to British citizenship and rather a lot of money.’
    ‘If the intel’s good, what’s the problem?’
    ‘Because we don’t have the intel. All we’ve got is an initial contact, via an agent of ours who works for an NGO out there. We need someone to go and talk to him, to see if he’s offering us gold or shit.’
    ‘You can send anyone. A bloody intern could handle it. Check out the intel. If it’s good, put him and his family on a plane.’
    ‘Our local guy has met with Yusuf but I need someone more experienced to sit down with him.’
    ‘So he’s a people-trafficker, this Yusuf?’
    ‘It sounds like it. As I said, at the moment we have little in the way of hard information. But if he has what he says he has, we could have a major Islamic State cell, or cells, already in place in the UK.’
    Shepherd sighed. ‘Okay. When do I leave?’
    ‘I’m having your John Whitehill legend refreshed for you as we speak. The documents should be ready within the hour. The Hampstead flat still works as Whitehill’s address and we’ve been placing various bylined stories in magazines and on websites so it’s the perfect cover. Have you heard of Suruç?’
    Shepherd nodded. ‘The Turks have one of their largest refugee camps there. Forty thousand Syrians, last I heard.’
    ‘It’s a massive set-up,’ said Willoughby-Brown, ‘basically a huge tent city with two hospitals, seven clinics, and enough schools for ten thousand kids. It’s just over the border from Syria, close to where Kurdish forces have been battling it out with Islamic State.’
    ‘How many refugees are there in Turkey now?’
    ‘Around three million,’ said Willoughby-Brown. ‘Even if just one in a thousand of those are Islamic State bad guys then we’re looking at three thousand potential Islamic militants in Europe. Suruç itself is relatively safe though there was a bombing there in July 2015 that killed thirty-two people.’
    ‘At the camp?’
    Willoughby-Brown shook his head.