Zero History

particular batch of Semtex that the IRA were heavily invested in. Plastic explosive.
Distinctive chemical signature. Still a few tons of it out there, as far as anyone knows.
And the card from a digital camera. Photographs of mosques, all over Britain. The dates
on the images were a few months old, but not over sell-by, as suggestive evidence goes.”
“And when you said you were using something ‘off the shelf,’ that was it?”
“Yes.”
“Who was it originally for?”
“Not important now. No need to know. When I jumped off the Burj, silly tit, I blew the
window of opportunity on that one. But then I had a girlfriend in trouble. Vinegar and
brown paper.”
“Vinegar?”
“Improvised fix. Whatever’s handiest.”
“I’m not complaining. But what about Gracie? Won’t he tell them about us?”
“The beauty of that,” he said, putting his hand on her hip, “is that he doesn’t know
about us. Well, you a bit, possibly, through Sleight, but Sleight’s without a governor now,
with Gracie a secret guest of Her Majesty. Sleight’s busy getting himself well away from
all of it, I’d imagine. And it’s looking better than that, actually, according to the old man.”
“How better?”
“American government seems not to like Gracie. They’re turning up all sorts of things
on their end. He’s getting major interagency attention, so the old boy hears. I imagine ours
will eventually decide he’s been the victim of a practical joke, but then he’ll have genuine
problems back home. Huge ones, I hope. I’m more worried about your Big End in the
long run, myself.”
“Why?”
“Something’s happening there. Too big to get a handle on. But the old man says that
that’s it exactly: Big End, somehow, is now too big to get a handle on. Which may be
what they mean when they say something’s too big to fail.”
“He’s found Meredith’s last season of shoes. Tacoma. Bought them, given them to her.
Via some weird new entity of his that targets and assists creatives.”
“I’d watch the ‘targets,’ myself.”
“And he’s paid me. My accountant phoned this morning. I’m worried about that.”
“Why?”
“Hubertus paid me exactly the amount I received for my share of licensing a Curfew
song to a Chinese car company. That’s a lot of money.”
“Not a problem.”
“Easy for you to say. I don’t want to be in his debt.”
“You aren’t. If it hadn’t been for you, he might not have gotten Chombo back, because
I wouldn’t have turned up. And if he had gotten him back, swapping Milgrim, he’d have
eventually had to deal with Sleight and Gracie, down the road. I wasn’t just putting the
wind up him with that. He knows that. You’re being rewarded for your crucial role in