She spoke in a low voice. ‘Your friend in the cathedral garden is dead,’ she said.
The bomber looked at her, then looked away. ‘He is in heaven.’
‘You did this for God.’
‘God is great.’
‘But you were helped.’ She paused, staring hard into his eyes, trying to get him to look back at her, to make a human connection. ‘You were taught how to make the bombs.’
At last he looked at her. ‘You know nothing.’
‘I know that you were taught by the Afghan.’
She saw the surprise in his eyes.
She pressed her advantage. ‘I know that you got the materials from the friends in Sudan.’
She did not know this, though she strongly suspected it. His expression did not change. He continued to be startled by how much she knew.
She said: ‘It was the Sudanese friends who told you to kill the General.’
She held her breath. That was what she needed to confirm.
At last he spoke. His tone of amazement was unmistakably genuine. ‘How do you know?’
It was enough. Tamara walked away.
*
Back at the embassy she went to her room. Suddenly feeling completely wiped out, she lay down on her bed. She slept for a few minutes, then her phone rang.
Service had been restored.
She answered. Dexter’s voice said: ‘Where the hell are you?’
She almost hung up. She closed her eyes for a moment, summoning her patience.
He said: ‘Are you there?’
‘I’m in my room.’
‘What are you doing there?’
She was not going to tell him that she was recovering from an ordeal. She had learned long ago not to admit weakness to a male colleague. They would never tire of reminding you about it. ‘I’m freshening up,’ she said.
‘Get over here.’
She hung up without answering. She had come close to losing her life, and she could no longer take Dexter seriously. She walked unhurriedly across the compound to the CIA station.
She found Dexter sitting at his desk. Phil Doyle was with him. By this time Dexter had learned more. ‘They’re saying a CIA woman arrested a suspect!’ he said. ‘Was that you?’
‘Yes.’
‘What are you doing arresting people? What possessed you, for Christ’s sake?’
She sat down uninvited. ‘Do you want me to tell you what happened, or would you prefer just to yell at me?’
Dexter bristled but he hesitated. He could not deny that he had been shouting, and his boss was there. Even in the CIA, it was risky for a man to open himself to the accusation of bullying. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Make your case.’
‘Make my case?’ She shook her head. ‘Am I on trial? If so, we’d better be formal. I’ll need a legal representative.’
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.’