Page 166 of Never
Doyle spoke in a reasonable voice. ‘You’re not on trial,’ he said. ‘Just tell us what happened.’
She told them the whole thing, and they listened without interruption.
When she had finished, Dexter said: ‘Why did you go to Karim? You should have reported to me!’
He was angry that he had been left out of the drama. Tamara was exhausted from the tension, but she forced her brain into gear and recreated the thought process she had gone through. ‘My informant said the assassination was imminent. But the phones were not working. I had to decide what was the fastest way to get the warning to the General. If I had gone to the palace myself, I probably couldn’t have got in. But Karim could.’
‘I could have gone there.’
Why couldn’t he work this stuff out for himself? She said wearily: ‘Even you wouldn’t have got in immediately. You would have been subjected to questions and delays. Karim has instant access to the General. He was able to sound the alarm faster than people here at the embassy – in fact, faster than anyone else I can think of.’
‘All right, but why didn’t you report to me after you had seen Karim?’
‘No time. I would have had to tell you the story. You would have been sceptical, and we would have had a long conversation very like this one. Finally, you would have believed me, but then it would have taken you time to assemble a team and brief them; and only then would you have set out for the palace. It was obviously better for me to go to the scene right away and try to spot the bombers. Which I did. Successfully.’
‘I could have done that more efficiently with a team.’
‘Except that you would not have got there until after the explosion. The assassination attempt took place within minutes of my arrival. In those few minutes I correctly identified all three bombers. Two are now in custody and the third is dead.’
Dexter changed his line. ‘And it was all for nothing, because the General wasn’t in the car.’ He was determined to diminish her achievement.
Tamara shrugged. She hardly cared what Dexter thought. She was realizing that she could not work under him much longer. ‘Probably he wasn’t in the car because Karim warned him.’
‘We don’t know that.’
‘True.’ She was too tired to argue.
But Dexter was not finished. ‘A pity your informant didn’t tell us sooner.’
‘That was your fault.’
Dexter sat upright. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘He wanted to see me yesterday. I told you I had to leave the training session early. You ordered me to postpone the meeting instead.’
She saw that Dexter had not connected the two events. Now he was worried. It took him a few moments to respond. Then he said: ‘No, no, that’s not how it happened. We had a discussion—’
‘Crap,’ she said, interrupting him. She was not having this. ‘There was no discussion. You ordered me not to meet him at the appointed time.’
‘You’re misremembering this.’
Tamara directed a hard look at Doyle. He had been there. He knew the truth. He looked uncomfortable. She guessed he felt an impulse to lie, in order to avoid undermining Dexter’s authority. If he did that, Tamara decided, she would resign on the spot. She kept her gaze on him, saying nothing, just waiting for him to speak.
Eventually, he said: ‘I think you’re the one who’s misremembering, Dexter. My recollection is that the conversation was brief and you gave an order.’
Dexter looked as if he would explode. He reddened and his breath came fast. Struggling to control his anger, he said: ‘I guess we’ll have to agree to differ, Phil—’
‘No, no,’ said Doyle firmly. ‘I’m not agreeing to differ.’ Now he was in the position of imposing discipline, and it seemed he was not going to fudge the issue. ‘You made a judgement call and it turned out badly. Don’t worry, it’s not a capital offence.’ He turned to Tamara. ‘You may leave us.’
She stood up.
Doyle said: ‘You did good work today. Thank you.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ said Tamara, and she went out.
***
‘The General wants to give you a medal,’ Karim said to Tamara the following morning at the Café de Cairo.
