Cell by Colin Forbes Page A

about the weapon. I'm a member of a shooting club near the Thames. To continue, I watched from behind a gap in the curtains - watched this motor-cyclist carry an envelope to Drew's door and push it through the letter box. Then he roared off.'
    'What did he look like?'
    'Couldn't tell. Wore all the leather gear and a big helmet which completely concealed his face. Now, the envelope. It had no name or address on the outside. So, cheekily, I used a method for opening it I learned at Medfords - so you can later seal it and no one can tell it has been opened. I'd seen what was inside when the motor-cyclist came back. I stood to the side of the door with my Browning. He pushed open the flap of the letter-box and called out through the opening.'
    'Same chap?'
    'As far as I could tell. Again his machine was a Harley-Davidson. He spoke slowly and had a thick foreign accent. I decided that if he tried to break in I'd shoot him in the leg,' she said calmly.
    'Why in the leg?'
    'Then he could be interrogated later. He called out, "I delivered envelope wrong house. Push it back." I kept very quiet and he repeated the same words three times, then he gave up, rode away on his bike. Here it is.'
    She handed Tweed a sheet of paper. It was good-quality bond paper and drawn in pen was a skilful picture of a cathedral with a huge dome. Tweed looked at her.
    'St Paul's Cathedral,' she said. 'Very accurate. Good as a photograph.'
    'I agree. What do you make of it?'
    'The next target. This time in Britain. St Paul's is the supreme symbol of Christianity - which the fundamentalist Muslims want to destroy.'
    'You're reading an awful lot into one drawing.'
    'Am I?' Eva lifted her hand to push back a thick lock of hair away from her left eye. She had made this gesture several times. 'After the World Trade Center catastrophe in New York I asked Drew, who knows the Arabs, whether they really would be capable of planning such an intricate operation. He said it didn't really seem likely. Left it at that. I began to think about it, studying all the info I could get.'
    'You came to a conclusion?' Tweed enquired off-handedly.
    'I damned well did. I know the States. First they'd need one of those copious air timetables giving all flights - so they could pick out long-distance flights carrying tons of fuel. They'd have to decide which flights would be best. Then they'd have to check security. Find out where it was slack. Then locate quiet flats to rent where there was a mix of nationalities, so the killers wouldn't stand out. They'd have to visit the Trade Center several times, decide on the best place to hit both towers. Probably discover where the architectural plans were available so they could study the structure. And a whole lot more. I've been to Egypt, mixed with Arabs. They're not advanced enough to have planned September 11.'
    'Who would be then?'
    'My bet would be an American - or an Englishman.'

    Eva was about to leave when Tweed asked her to wait a moment. He darted out of the office, ran upstairs to where he found Pete Nield and Harry Butler drinking coffee. He told them he wanted them to follow an Eva Brand who was waiting in his office. He described her vividly.
    'I want to know where she goes, who she meets. You'll have to get cracking . . .'
    Butler opened a cupboard, grabbed a beret and a cap which he shoved into his pockets. They wanted to take up positions outside before their quarry left. Tweed looked at Nield.
    'Difficult for you to change appearance in that suit.'
    'No it isn't,' Harry told him. 'He can turn it inside out and it's a boring grey colour. Seen him change in an alley. Timing? Thirty seconds. We're off. . .'
    Like most of Tweed's staff they wore rubber-soled shoes, and without a sound slipped off down the stairs past the closed door of Tweed's office. Tweed slowly returned as the front door closed quietly. They would be in position well before his visitor left.
    Whenever possible Tweed organized two people to shadow a target.