Absolution

Chapter 7

“No, I’ve never met Sergeant Porter.”

“I didn’t say you had met him, I asked if you knew him,” Layla said coldly.

“Lieutenant, how would I know him if I haven’t met him?” A smug smile flitted across Arlington’s face.

“Well, I thought you’d remember the name of the British soldier whom you ordered assassinated by American Special Forces operatives in Afghanistan.”

Arlington’s lips thinned and a white outline appeared around them, an indication of how angry he was.

“Lieutenant, be careful what you accuse me of,” he said coldly.

Layla tilted her head to one side and considered the man in front of her.

“Do I need to be careful when I accuse you of doing a deal with Sharq, which involved providing him with classified information in return for killing Porter and Gerald Baxter? Or perhaps it is your part in the killing of Major Collinson that I need to be careful about?”

“How dare you imply that I would order the killing of allied soldiers?” Arlington hissed, his fury barely contained.

“I wasn’t implying anything, Mr. Arlington. I was accusing you, and not without proof. Let’s not pretend that we don’t all know what you are and what you did.”

“Why, you little bitch, who the f*ck do you think you are?”

Porter moved forward, but Layla stopped him, her hand raised. She moved forward and put her own face inches from Arlington’s.

“I am the officer you are going to have to deal with until Major Pemberton returns. You need to understand that means treating me and the people here with respect. Quite frankly, you give Americans a bad name, but I have to work with you. Now, we have a situation in Colombia and we would like any information you have about the drug cartels known to be operating in and around the Sabana of Bogota.”

“Colombian Drug Cartels are a U.S. concern, not a British government concern. So, my advice is that you leave it to the big boys.”

“The situation involves a British national, so that makes it the British government’s concern. Quite frankly, what the PM will want and expect is your total co-operation in this matter. A British female aid worker has been kidnapped. No demand has been made as of yet, but we suspect that is because they have not realised that there was a witness to the kidnapping.”

“So, some stupid tart gets taken hostage and we have to go in and bail her out. Jesus, don’t you even give them training?”

Porter moved so quickly that neither Layla nor Arlington had time to react. Grabbing the American by his suit lapels, he pinned him against the wall. “Shut up and listen you bastard. Firstly, that ‘tart’ happens to be a highly experienced Oxfam aid worker; secondly she appears to have let herself be kidnapped to prevent the killing of twenty local children, and thirdly…”