Fair Game by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online

leader of Somalia’s al-Shebab movement and an al-Qaeda stooge. He’s based in northern Mogadishu and he’s a nasty piece of work. He’s effectively created an African Taliban and he’s been issuing fatwas against everything from televised football to pop music. He moved into the major league during the World Cup when he organised two massive suicide bombings in Kampala. He’s directly responsible for seventy-six Ugandans dying for no reason other than the fact there are Ugandan peacekeeping troops in Somalia. All our experts reckon that he’s gearing himself up for a major attack on the West.’
    ‘And the UK connection?’
    Button tapped the photograph again. ‘We have evidence of telephone traffic between Godane and Crazy Boy’s uncle just days before the attacks in Kampala.’
    ‘They could have just been talking about the match,’ said Shepherd.
    Button flashed him a tight smile. ‘We don’t know what they were talking about, but the mere fact that they are in contact sends up a lot of red flags. We’re looking now for financial movements between the pirates and al-Shebab and if we find them, then we’ve opened up one hell of a can of worms.’
    Shepherd nodded slowly. ‘I get it,’ he said. ‘If Godane blows up a US embassy in Africa and the Americans find out that the UK has given citizenship to the man who paid for it . . .’ He grimaced. ‘It’s going to screw up the special relationship, isn’t it?’
    ‘There is no special relationship, not any more,’ said Button. ‘That’s the problem. If Crazy Boy is funding al-Shebab terrorism, then yes, we’re going to look bloody stupid if we’ve given him a passport. The last thing we want is for the Americans to be pushing for extradition while Crazy Boy gets defended by a pack of human rights lawyers.’
    ‘Led by our own Cherie Blair, no doubt.’ Shepherd laughed. He held up his hands as Button glared at him. ‘OK, I shouldn’t be flippant, but it’s hard not to be cynical, isn’t it? How the hell do we allow this to happen? How do we get to the stage where a Somali pirate with al-Qaeda connections is able to live in the UK? Why don’t we just sling him out?’
    Button tapped the photograph of the woman and child. ‘His family,’ she said. ‘And human rights legislation.’
    ‘But he lied to get into the country. He said he was an asylum seeker when he wasn’t. Then he switches horses midstream and marries a Somali woman with German nationality and gets her pregnant despite the fact that she’s ugly as sin and twice his weight.’
    ‘It’s the law,’ said Button.
    ‘But at any point Five could have told the UK Border Agency or the Home Office who he is and had him sent home.’
    ‘Five doesn’t work like that, Spider,’ said Button. ‘We don’t reveal our files to immigration tribunals.’
    ‘I think a quiet word in the right ear might have helped, don’t you?’
    ‘And then a lawyer starts demanding to know where information about his client came from? That would be a can of worms that we wouldn’t want opening.’
    ‘We still have D notices, don’t we?’
    ‘Not for criminals, we don’t. For terrorism and national security, yes. But not for criminals like Crazy Boy.’ She smiled sympathetically. ‘I understand exactly what you’re saying, Spider. And I’m in total agreement. But we have to follow the law. If we start bending or breaking laws simply because we don’t agree with them, where do we end up?’
    ‘Anarchy,’ said Shepherd. ‘That’s what I’m expected to say, right? And no one in their right mind wants anarchy? But really, Charlie, I don’t see that anyone would choose to be in the situation we’re in with scum like Crazy Boy. They break the rules when they feel like it and cry foul when we trespass on what they see as their human rights.’
    ‘Please don’t tell me that life isn’t fair, Spider, you know how I hate it when you do that.’ She sipped her tea. ‘So, do you want to