Bomb Grade Read Online Free

satellites provides the potential for the worst terrorism imaginable.’
    â€˜To whom will I be responsible? The station chief? Or direct to London?’ Charlie had rarely engaged in an operation where jealously guarded territory did not have to be respected. Diplomatic niceties were always a pain in the ass.
    â€˜London. But through the embassy,’ ordered the sharply featured Peter Johnson.
    â€˜What’s my officially described position to be?’
    It was Patrick Pacey who responded. ‘An attaché. Don’t for a moment forget the genuine political importance of what you’re doing …’ He made a hand movement over the conference table and Charlie became aware that each of the group had his personal dossiers before them. ‘There won’t be any of the nonsense of the past,’ continued the department’s political advisor. ‘Just one example of what you’ve always explained away – and got away with – as necessary operational independence and you’re on the first plane back to London. And in this building only long enough to be formally dismissed from the service once and for all.’
    â€˜And don’t suffer the slightest doubt at our seriousness,’ endorsed the deputy Director. ‘There are changes to our function. This is one of them: you’re one of them. So you’ve got to change, like everything else about the business we’re now in. There’s no place for anyone disobeying orders. That clear enough?’
    â€˜Completely,’ Charlie said, caught by just one part of the threat. ‘This isn’t seen as a temporary assignment: one specific operation?’
    â€˜The Americans got agreement a long time ago to appoint an FBI office in Moscow specifically to monitor nuclear smuggling,’ reminded the deputy Director. ‘You’re our equivalent.’
    â€˜To liaise ,’ instructed Simpson, the moustache hedge seemingly moving slightly out of time with the man’s upper lip. ‘That’s your sole function …’ He gestured sideways to Pacey. ‘You’ve got to do more than simply think what the politics are. Whatever it is, it will be inextricably tied up with legality. The Russians are the law, not us. We have – you’ll have – no legal jurisdiction. All the nuclear stuff haemorrhaging across Europe is coming overland through Poland and Hungary and Germany and the two countries that made up Czechoslovakia and what was Yugoslavia.’
    Minefield was too much of an appalling pun, thought Charlie. ‘It’ll be a waste of time even bothering,’ he declared. ‘Before we’ve even begun working our way through the officials we’d need to consult, every terrorist group, despot or dictator will have atom bombs up to their knees.’
    â€˜Let’s be more specific,’ said the distinctively voiced Director-General. ‘We decide here in London who should be consulted and who shouldn’t. The important thing for you to understand, totally and at all times, is that you must never, ever, act without consulting us.’
    He’d made the protest to maintain his credibility, which was all that mattered. There were other, more essential parameters to be established: one more important than all others. ‘I don’t think I can operate effectively – as I will have to operate – living in the embassy compound.’
    â€˜Why not?’ demanded Williams, sensing a danger.
    Because it would severely limit the enormous expenses benefits, thought Charlie. ‘According to what you say, the nuclear trade is handled by gangsters: an acknowledged Mafia.’ He briefly hesitated, wondering if Natalia had transferred to the Interior Ministry, just as quickly thrusting the intrusion aside. ‘Would the Foreign Office like the idea of my meeting a questionable informant on embassy property …?’ He turned his attention to