Baba?
Baba.
No sign of a break-in? Apart from the frigging elephant that came in through here.
It's not suicide, you don't attempt suicide like that. And it definitely wasn't a sexual proclivity.
How d'you know that?
He had his clothes on, he was fully dressed.
You can have sex with your clothes on, can't you?
There's no sign of any sex toys. So?
So that kind of pleasure requires the complicity of at least one other in order to reach...sexual nirvana.
They can come and sort out my place anytime, it's spotless. Thank you.
Thanks for the...sex lesson.
So are we looking at retribution Fakir style?
Well, they were in custody being tortured by me, according to Grace.
Who are these Fakirs? I mean, what are they up to?
A bunch of students with this stuff on their head and whirling around and up for a party...
And then this "strappado" stuff.
A third party acting on their behalf?
We haven't heard anything from Leonard yet, have we?
No, he's doped up to the eyeballs.
Right.
No point hanging around here then.
MONITORS BEEP
If the head of General George Washington was taken as a war trophy,
would the leaders of America be content to let it remain undiscovered?
Unmourned, unburied...?
Someone will take his place.
Yeah. OK. All right, thanks.
Yeah, thank you, very much.
He's come off the hunger strike. Well, that's good news.
Not if she picks up the mantle.
I don't want her on my conscience.
Is this one real? It's been coated in a lot of lacquer, but yes, it's real and it's male. Oh, great, fantastic.
The teeth are in very good condition so I should be able to get some DNA.
But...
But? But what?
The teeth are in such good condition. I mean, there's very little wear on the cusps.
Now if this was the Mahdi - he was 40 when he died - then I'd like the number of his dentist.
Are you saying it's too young?
Possibly.
Can't we just give it to them anyway?
No way! I can't fake evidence and give half-baked results, Boyd.
You've got principles, have you?
Of course I have! Haven't you?
Yeah, yeah...
They didn't eat sweets, then, though, did they?
Maybe he didn't grind his teeth at night?
A spiritual man, he could have just lived off air, you know, moisture...
I'll just continue with the DNA profile.
He's rich, they could've mashed his food up, did they have straws then?
I feel so angry about it.
It's my job to guard our heritage...and I told them everything.
The society will survive.
It has done for 100 years.
Come on, drink your tea.
We've got a skull.
But? Well, we need to carry out a DNA comparison to make sure that it belongs to your family line,
and that can take anything up to...
36 hours. I don't want you to do anything extreme.
I'll do my best
to get it done in...
..maybe 12 hours. I just don't want you to do what your father did.
Ghandi walked the length of India in a loin cloth.
Is that less extreme?
Who are you to say what is the best way to heal our country?
12 hours.
Thank you.
You're saying she strung you up?
I went out with her for two years,
I think I'd recognise her.
Why would Catherine Braithwaite do this to you now?
I don't know what goes through her mind.
I never did.
OK. Lay it out for me.
Did she overpower you?
Hit you over the head?
Ask you to try on the ropes for size?
I don't know, I...
can't remember.
What are you holding back? Nothing.
Look...I don't know how to say it.
I just...
thought she wanted me back.
Are you saying it was sexual?
Why would she leave you like that?
Well, you'll have to ask her that.
Where might I find her?
Thank you for coming back. Oh, I just want this to be over. I'll bet.
Would you like some tea? I had a bit of a late night last night.
Just need to jump start the brain.
Baba used to...
My father, he used to have coffee in the morning.
I'd smell it as I woke up.
Arabic coffee. It's a lovely idea.
Dad was in his shop from early morning till all hours,
yet he always found time for me.
He was very well educated your father, wasn't he? Yeah.
Very well travelled.
His father was Ayatollah.
Sort of like our aristocracy.
Sort of.
This looks good. OK.
Salaam aleikum.
My family is Shia, so they are always suspected of Iranian sympathies.
Were they part of the '92 uprising?
All my uncles were executed.
So your father thought he was bringing you here to safety?
He'd seen it coming and already sent Mum and I to England.
He, er...followed us, borrowed some money and set to work.
This looks good.
Mm. OK.
It's cheaper, something else your father taught you.
What else do we need for breakfast then?
We need some fried Halloumi, za'atar.
What-a?
Oh, um, cheese and thyme and some olive oil. OK.
MUSIC: "Mirror In The Bathroom" by The Beat
♪ Mirror in the bathroom
♪ Please talk free The door is locked Just you and me
♪ Can I take you to a restaurant that's got glass tables
♪ You can watch yourself while you are eating... ♪
What you went through as a child was very traumatic.
My mother smuggled me out of Iraq during a war.
My father escaped as Saddam was hunting down my family.
Where you see signs of trauma, I see echoes of my parents.
School helped me.
Were you a boarder? Yeah.
It was the only option after my mother died.
I sold the lease on the paper shop to pay the fees.
An aunt in Iraq signed all the documents.
She faxed them to school and I was in.
And how old were you?
Fourteen. Fourteen?
Very young to be all on your own and in a foreign country.
Every other girl in there was the daughter of a British army officer.
They probably understood me better than anyone.
I suppose so.
How can you help? Hypnosis? Drugs?
How's the coffee?
Catherine Braithwaite. We picked her up at the Tower Hotel.
She's got an alibi for last night. Which is?
She was at a defence fair which ended last night with a big bash.
I know Leonard's a creep but he did say she did it.
And she's got the kit.
This is her bedtime reading.
So who was at this fair?
Well, apart from the protestors, security companies, civil servants
armed forces, politicians, 300 companies from 40 countries including Scott Grey.
You don't hear much about this industry at election time, do you? I wonder why she was there?
Well, I guess the international arms trade needs translators, you know.
She looks pissed off. She does...
Let's leave her for a bit, mm? OK.
OK, let's start on a normal day.
You'd wake up...
how?
Er... Well, did somebody call you or did you have an alarm clock?
I had a clock.
Um, it was a robot. Bobby the robot.
'We didn't have an alarm.
'I woke hearing the radio.
'I always woke hearing the radio... Where was the radio? Downstairs?
'Baba would put it on as he made coffee
'and then forget about it.
'Baba never switched the radio off.
'I tried to steal some sweets when he wasn't watching.
'Except he was always looking at me. Smiling.'
HE SPEAKS GENTLY
What sort of things would you hear on the radio?
People talking.
Um, news.
And that's what you'd hear each day when you woke up, the news?
Every day.
Not that day.
So it was quiet that day?
You went downstairs?
It was quiet...
'I, um...
'Normally, Baba would be marking up the newspapers for the newspaper boys.'
But not that day?
That day the paperboys found you, didn't they? Behind the counter.
'It was quiet...'
METAL SHUTTERS RATTLE
Um...he...
Baba had a bandage, a sling on his arm.
There was no mention of a sling in the original report.
It's a genuine recovered memory.
Jaffiri was tortured, given treatment, then murdered.
I could check the hospitals?
No, cos they'd have put a plaster cast on a broken shoulder. This is somebody who did a temporary job.
What, his torturers?
We always assumed the torturer and the assassin were on the same side
but why show compassion to your victim and then kill him?
He was killed as a punishment.
By the Iraqis.
So he was interrogated by the Western alliance.
Through torture they believed that he wasn't a threat to security.
HE SCREAMS
They let him go. Let him go, yeah.
Patched him up, sent him home...
where Hadid was waiting.
We're looking for someone on our side.
Keep talking to her.
Do you know this man?
Yes, it's Michael Leonard.
What's your relationship to him?
What WAS my relationship to him?
We used to be lovers, I'm afraid.
What do you mean "I'm afraid"?
Let's just say we were incompatible. How?
How were you incompatible?
He lacked ambition. When did you see him last?
About, um...12 years ago.
What happened to him?
He got strung up by his arms.
Oh, he's developed new tastes.
He says you did it.
Why would he do that?
Why would he string himself up or why would he accuse me?
Either. Either.
Well, I don't know.
A cry for attention?
You supply translators to the military.
Where? Wherever they're needed.
And whoever needs them? Scott Grey is a business.
We have a portfolio of clients with an international reputation.
In the course of your work, have you ever come across this particular suspension technique?
What do you think I'm involved in? Just answer the question.
We're bound by confidentiality.
And what if we need to know in the interests of national security?
Our work is classified.
January 1993. An Iraqi exile,
Omar Jaffiri was murdered in London.
Before his death, we believe he was tortured using this method.
Well, in 1993, I was a 22-year-old student heavily involved in Oriental Studies.
You were also the lodge master of the Fakirs.
Did you take that seriously?
At the time possibly. Now it just makes me cringe.
Where were you at two o'clock this morning?
At a reception, at a banquet,
all at my hotel, all on CCTV.
The defence fair? Yes, clients. Thank you.
I think she's telling the truth. Fingerprints don't match her to either of the crime scenes.
Why would Leonard point the finger if he knew we'd find out it was a lie?
Maybe there's something in what she's telling us.
Maybe he is trying to get our attention.
He didn't tell the Foreign Office where the skull was, but he led us to it.
Now he's saying, "Take note of this woman."
The guy's in hospital. Do you think he set this up?
I think she was a random thought to distract us from the real attacker because he still feels threatened.
He can't have strung himself up with his hands tied behind his back.
When I found him, he said he broke the vows, it's a punishment.
Elaine Wilson's done that.
What?
Broken the vows.
I have to get to the hospital.
I think you should stay away from the Lodge for a few days.
Give everyone a chance to cool down.
You serious?
Yes, I am.
You really are.
That's sweet.
I'll call you when I get to the hospital. All right.
Oh, God, it doesn't get any better, does it?
As in life in death - smelly. You're telling me.
The cranial plates are only just fused, not the saggital nor the cornal sutures.
So this guy was in his twenties.
So it's not the Mahdi? We've only got ten hours left. Can you stall her?
This could be just any old skull, huh?
It's the only skull you've got. Well, tell me something I don't know.
OK... It was coated in gold...
I know that. So someone thought he was special.
OK. Let's go back to the start here.
The Fakir Society was founded in 1900 by an army officer.
Could this have come from that time?
Possibly. That's enough for me.
The style of the adornment indicates that period. Right, is it African?
The shape of the skull is consistent with that,
but I'll know much better when I get the DNA.
Good, good. OK, so if an army officer brought this back
from Africa 100 years ago, chances are it's somebody important.
It's not the Mahdi, but it's somebody significant, it's somebody important enough to have done that.
Look, this is one of my little babies.
Now, this went through a controlled decaying process
with the flesh rotting off the body over a period of weeks.
Somewhere hot and dry, above ground, in there.
You watched this rot in there?
Yes.
And look at the distinctive patina.
It's the same as this one.
Right.
Right, so, African...
100 years old, somebody important, not the Mahdi,
rotted in a dry...hot place...
..above ground.
Like a mausoleum.
Possibly.
Poor Wilson, she rather let the side down, didn't she?
It wasn't her fault. Whose was it? Yours?
You wanted a pure wife, divine in her ignorance. If you never told her
what she was protecting, she couldn't defend herself.
She was no use to herself or to us.
Did you ever consider she might be a threat?
Wilson. I'm due on the ward. I'm worried about Thomas.
It'll blow over. Will you have to resign? I think I should.
Andrews is trying to get me to change my mind.
Thomas feels he should be the lodge master.
I'm sure he does. Andrews doesn't think he's ready.
He's too much of a loose cannon. He's that all right.
Still, Andrews trusted him enough to let him into the inner circle. What are you talking about?
Retribution.
Thomas!
Leila.
This is gonna be pretty tough for you.
This is the transcript of the confession of the man who killed your father.
I'd like you to read some of it.
Why? You think he's lying?
No, no, he's not lying.
He did kill your father.
Then why do I need to read it?
I think it's very important that you go back there.
I can't.
OK.
Would it help if I read some of it?
"I was in the UK posing as a Jordanian businessman.
"The target...
"Jaffiri ran a small shop.
"He opened it at 6.00-6.30 in the morning..."
SHE READS IN ARABIC
Salaam aleikum.
What happened before that?
I'd been stealing sweets
so when the shutters opened, I hid behind the counter.
The security grille? It opened from the outside so I was alone in the shop.
The newspapers.
Where were they? They wouldn't be there.
They'd be outside on the street.
Who brought them in?
The shutters opened, it got bright...
How's that? It was dark in the shop but he wasn't dark.
He was Anglo. Hold on, let me try something.
That's him.
That's the man I saw.
He smiled at me.
Look after your daddy.
He looked...sad somehow.
Where are we going? Andrews' flat.
His home. Fakir's lodge.
D'you think he'd appreciate the irony -
that we have to erase him from history to keep his legacy alive?
TELEPHONE RINGS
Hi. ..I'm trying to get hold of Wilson.
She hasn't?
Any idea where she might be?
Right. Thanks.
I have to go.
Do it. Do it!
It's time to look behind the veil, sweetheart.
I'm begging you! I'm one of you!
You don't understand, do you? You never were one of us.
Help!
Give me your weight. Give me your weight!
You made me do it. It was your fault, you made me talk.
OK. I've got you.
Let's get her in the car.
SOBBING
'Stella.' I can see flames on the roof. What?
BEEPING
Bloody technology(!)
I didn't hear you knock. Step away from the fire. Why? These are company documents.
I have every right to destroy them. It's evidence in an ongoing investigation.
No, this is classified information.
Step away from the fire.
Or what?
What happened to Wilson? What have you done to her? Let's say she was rendered stressed.
You facetious little bastard.
She betrayed our secrets. What have you told her?
Nothing. Just gave her a little glimpse of the truth. Why didn't you trust her?
I trusted her to be true to herself and I trusted you not to abuse your position.
You taught me that I would have to be ruthless.
You want me to make an exception for your wife?
I wouldn't even make an exception for you.
You're finished. You will never work for Scott Grey! Don't think that's your decision any more, do you?
Old man.
The files covered more than 100 years, 40-odd different conflicts -
South Africa, Biafra, Korea, Second World War...
Malaysia, Ireland, Afghanistan...
The first recorded one was in Sudan, 1885. What's all this?
I'm hoping it's our first victim.
Oh, we got the bones from James Andrews flat.
This brake in the humerus, it could be the result of stress during torture.
MAN SCREAMS
This could be Dyer's first recorded torture.
The skeleton came in this shroud.
Is this the original?
I don't see why not.
There's evidence of staining which could be body fluids.
It was missing one vital component.
This. A skull.
I'll run checks and see if there's a match.
Dyer steals it from a tomb to use it as a symbol.
"You break the oath, you know what you get."
Very Victorian Gothic.
This is scientific, this is a masterclass in torture. That's why his legacy's lived on.
It's a torture bible. It is.
And the Fakirs have been disciples, operating a secret recruitment programme for that entire period.
They're talent spotted at university, those with aptitude are groomed for service.
How do you spot a sadist? These aren't sadists, they're professionals.
These files are from operatives on active duty.
Scott Grey is an international company, a business with a brand name.
There's always a war somewhere. And it's not just the British military they're aligned to,
they went freelance some years ago. This is a very lucrative market.
So how are we gonna close them down after 100 years?
This implicates heads of intelligence, ministers, governments.
We're not gonna get this through the courts unless we have a witness,
somebody who's gonna blow the whistle from the inside.
Cyril Barrett, he started all this.
And he's gonna help us finish it.
Thank you.
We found this...in a bin outside Michael Leonard's flat.
Senior Service.
There are still a few veterans loyal to the old brand.
It's tainted with the tuberculosis bacilli.
Did you really help to string up Michael Leonard?
I'm a sick man.
You certainly are.
Why did you do it?
To keep us on the trail of Andrews?
I didn't want you to trail him, I wanted you to nail the bastard...
and his cohorts.
No risk to yourself or your secret service.
So you strung up Michael Leonard, you used him.
Leonard is an idealist, he was keen to help.
You're telling me he was willing? It was a consensual act between two adults.
You wanna take Andrews down, you prove it to me.
You disappoint me, Boyd,
I thought you were man enough for the task. I over-estimated you.
Andrews tortured Jaffiri, IN London, but not on UK sovereign territory.
An embassy, a foreign embassy.
If you knew, then the Government knew.
There'll be a parliamentary enquiry before any prosecution.
You're looking at a year or more.
I'll be long gone, Boyd.
TB isn't terminal.
It is when your immune system is compromised.
HIV.
Who would have thought that seeking human warmth
could be so detrimental to your health?
Why do you want Andrews so badly? Is it personal?
I testified in 1946 at Nuremberg.
Look it up.
I never dreamt the trial would be more
than a single aberration in the affairs of nations.
Torture is a practice which corrupts the fundamental basis of human rights.
Devalue that benchmark and it's a very slippery slope.
Is it meant to unnerve me?
Making me wait for hours?
Nice dabs. Mine or his?
Oh, take a look at this.
Two torture victims, 100 years apart.
The injury matches Omar Jaffiri's. Given allowances for scaling, yes.
Perfectly.
Wow. Well done.
You've got my prints, what does that prove?
Ask your witness what she saw me do.
Nothing, except help her father.
How did you help him?
Opened his shop for him, carried... Carried the newspapers in for him.
Because his arm was in a sling. Exactly.
He was injured.
I have an alibi for the entire 24 hours before Jaffiri died.
What kind of an alibi?
The kind that will be produced if you have security clearance.
In Greek theatre, the gods act with impunity, they descend to Earth to sort out...
Deus ex machina. Yes. I'm not a god. Then what are you?
I encourage men to talk.
"Stressing techniques".
It's an innocuous phrase. That covers a multitude of sins.
All you need to know... Don't tell me what I need to know.
..is that I have never broken British law.
As long as I'm enacting British government policy, I play by their rules.
They're my rules too. Or are we living in different states to each other?
Tell me, which are the most enlightened states?
Those that define strict protocols for the use of physical pressure?
Or those that close their eyes and pray for peace?
I've got a second witness.
A testimony to where you exerted your physical pressure.
You strung up Omar Jaffiri in a foreign embassy on British soil in defiance of international agreements.
If a country chooses not to sign up to outdated treaties,
it doesn't necessarily make them the bad guys.
Sometimes laws need reforming.
You just shift the goalposts.
To allow effective interrogation.
Interrogation is not torture.
Interrogation is stress.
Like you stressed my wife.
Like you're trying to stress me now.
I'm not ready to hang you from the ceiling.
Yet.
I can only stimulate debate, I can't direct it.
I provide the space... We can arrive at the truth.
Why did you leave Iraq?
To protect my family.
Look how tight they are holding onto Dad. Just like I'm gonna hold onto you.
Please tell me where the Mahdi skull is.
I had no idea.
'I think you should stay away from the Lodge for a few day. Give everyone a chance to cool down.
'You're serious?'
To protect my family.
The observers are getting impatient.
Tell them it takes time.
JAFFIRI GROANS
What did you have to fear?
The society will survive.
It has done for 100 years.
That's sweet!
I don't see myself as an interrogator like you.
I mean I look for the truth, yes, sometimes that means...
Using physical pressure.
Yes... No... But not in the way that you employ it.
There's a difference? I get involved emotionally in what I do. Sometimes that triggers a physical response.
Isn't that just another defence for unlawful behaviour?
You abuse people, you hurt them, you stress them cold-bloodedly.
There isn't even a warm up question and answer process with you, you're straight in there!
So you don't mean it when you physically and emotionally stress people?
In the moment, yes, I do. Yeah, I do. I do.
But that's a blindness, that's a fault.
And then...
I don't do it calculatedly, I mean, I'm not doing it on behalf of a third party.
You want peace on Earth?
It doesn't come without security. You want freedom and democracy?
Let me do my job.
I'm watched, you know, I'm monitored.
We have, er... There are disciplinary procedures that keep me in check.
But your work, you go right under the radar.
I mean, when you do what you do, when you do your job,
every time, we sacrifice a little piece of that freedom and democracy.
You think we live by your values?
At best, at the absolute best,
you dream them, and while you're dreaming, who's protecting you?
Who's standing on the borders between civilisation and chaos?
Who's protecting your democratic aspirations?
Now you're practising your defence for the witness box.
I don't think so.
Why don't you come out from behind the book, Professor, and show the public what's really behind the man?
It's a science, Boyd.
Not a passion.
You need men like me.
You break the human spirit...and take away the will to live.
Do we need men like that?
You say you have a second witness, you're being used.
If you pursue this, there's going to be a moment when you no longer have a career
and you might think, "Why should I care?" Yeah.
Don't let it get that far.
Well, we are similar in one way.
And that is? We're both expendable.
You're finished.
VOICES CHANT
The DNA confirms it. He IS family.
Your father is a direct descendent.
Wilson?
I've authorised the release of your ancestor's remains.
It's not the Mahdi. But you always knew that, didn't you?
Not for sure.
The story started almost the day the tomb was destroyed.
It was a family mausoleum.
So we knew the skull belongs to our blood line
and DNA would prove our case.
So what you gonna do now?
Tell the truth?
Or claim you're returning with the Mahdi and stage a hero's welcome?
Our first priority is to get elected.
I want to thank you.
Don't. I don't know you.
I don't know your father. And I'm not sure what I've done.
You betrayed me.
But what did Jaffiri mean to you?
While his family had influence, he was a conduit between Iraq and Iran,
a way that the enemies could talk.
When his family supported a rebellion against Saddam,
we applauded him.
But when he became a refugee...
..no-one knew how to treat him.
An asset? A spy?
A potential threat?
But what was he to you?
A friend.
Omar was a friend, Peter.