Chapter 4

St. Stephens Tavern, London

The morning debrief  had unfolded as Justin had expected - disastrous. He was not used to coming out on the short end of a mission. Being recalled home was the height of professional embarrassment. Transfer was a looming possibility, demotion or worse. Justin pondered it all and his next move as he raised a Dorset ale to his lips at a small black circular table near the curving mahogany bar. St. Stephens, a gilded age era pub, boasted tin-coffered twenty foot ceilings and dark paneled walls. It had a comforting old world feel that Justin needed right now. At his table by the window he regularly glanced back over his shoulder out to the busy street. Suddenly beside his table appeared the lanky man he was hoping to see. Justin turned back from the window surprised, “Director?”

“Never use the front door, Watson, especially when there is a need for discretion,” Jeremy Lloyd deadpanned.

Justin nodded and motioned him to a chair, “Thanks for seeing me.”

The Director of Special Investigations had pretty much saved Justin’s hide during the recovery of the van Gogh in Russia directing insertion of Georgian Special Forces and enlisting CIA support. Justin knew he would be dead in a Grozny alley or worse if weren’t for Jeremy Lloyd.

“ I cannot stay long but I will have a pint,” Lloyd said as he turned back around and waved two fingers in the air to the bartender who snapped to attention. In short order two frothy pints arrived.

“I hear events did not go well.”

“Well? Disastrous might be a more appropriate term.” Justin moaned.

“Syria is fluid. The situation grows graver by the day.”

Justin nodded.

“And British strategy has been constantly evolving.”

“And there’s the issue,” as Justin leaned forward intense, “We are now propping up a regime that has killed hundreds of thousands. First we are supplying arms to the rebels, next we are cutting ties… No one trusts us. I had to put a bullet in the head of the Commander I had sheparded arms to the month before. It is madness.”

“It is Britain’s new homeland protection strategy. There is a looming chemical catastrophe in Syria. Assad has vast stockpiles of Sarin, Ricin, mustard gas and VX. We have confirmed usage from the Americans of multiple deployments of Sarin on bands of opposition fighters.”