Read The Wormwood Code for Free Online Page B

in the helicopter, however, for Barney's deaf-mute hunchbacked assistant Igor, who was being taken to Dover by car.
    Williams and Thackeray were conspiring together as usual, desperately covering up the fact that they couldn't stand each other. Gail, the PR girl, was sitting with her eyes closed, absolutely petrified. Winsome, her assistant, was sitting next to the PM, looking over his shoulder at the holiday brochure he was reading, the two of them occasionally commenting to each other on various hotels and destinations.
    Barney was sitting on the other side of the PM and, if he was honest, was struggling a little against fear himself. First time in a helicopter.
    'You going on holiday?' he said eventually, hoping that a pointless conversation would take his mind off the thought that at any moment the helicopter could suddenly blow up into a ball of flame, or start spinning out of control towards a fiery demise.
    The PM shook his head, the brochure open on a page on Tunisia.
    'You wonder sometimes, don't you?' he said. 'I mean, the ordinary, hardworking people must wonder too, obviously. Obviously, everything one wonders, is in relation to the real people of middle Britain and what they wonder.'
    'Pardon?' said Barney.
    'I'm a decent man. I think the British people realise that and know that, even if they don't actually vote for me or agree with everything I say. I'm honest, above all else, and people respect me for that.'
    Mad, thought Barney, completely mad.
    'But look at today, look at what we're doing. I'm flying to the south coast to make a speech on immigration, the others are talking about red tape in the police and discrimination against women. Honourable things, but not the stuff of history. It's the tittle-tattle of politics. I think now, eight years on, the real ordinary, commonplace, regular, decaffeinated people of Great Britain, I believe, have come to expect more of their Prime Minister. Strategic issues, not micro-management. There are more important issues out there than women.' A pause. 'No offence, Winsome, you understand,' he added with a smile. Winsome smiled back, although there was hidden malice within.
    'So you want to go on holiday?' said Barney.
    'Not at all,' said the PM. 'It's not about that. Consider President Bush, George I mean, and his programme of invasions. He's got his next four years, and when we win our next term, we'll be freed up to back him all the way, help him out in the UN and make mincemeat out of the French and Germans.'
    'And that programme would be?' said Barney.
    'Oh, you know,' said the PM, 'the usual suspects. It's not like they're not preparing the ground. Dan Dan, what was the order again?'
    Williams broke off from his conflab with Thackeray.
    'They're going to do Syria and Iran together in a kind of Buy One Get One Free deal with the UN. Then, when the world's at its most distracted with that, they're going to take care of North Korea, and then next on the list are Laos and Belarus. After that there'll be time and budget considerations, but there are obviously a few more ex-Soviet states to deal with, although the CIA are doing a great job of sorting them out already, and then there's a host of African republics.'
    'It's a world of opportunity!' Thackeray chipped in, and the PM laughed.
    'And you're looking to see if Thomson's do any package deals to Iran, as a cheaper way to send the Army in?' said Barney.
    Winsome laughed until the PM gave her a swift look.
    'To be honest, and I think the people of Britain would respect this, all these places we're looking to take over, or rather, I should say, restore democratic governments to, are the most awful countries to spend time in. Iran, Syria, Laos. I mean, frankly, sometimes the sums just don't add up and realistically speaking Middle England would respect a bottom up anti-top down approach to these things, that we'd aim to draw a line at the end of the day, and the ordinary people have to understand this and I think they