Failsafe Query

by Michael Jenkins

  Mike ran and jumped around in the stream below the waterfall, enjoying a splash. There was no sign of any alerts or indications from him; he was just like a kid having fun and his tail wagged wildly. Billy Phish moved him along the plateaux and up to the long runnels that Jugsy had indicated on the imagery about another sixty metres further on from the waterfall.

  ‘These runnels are ideal,’ Billy Phish mentioned to Sean. ‘Especially as I can stand up in them and not be seen digging a body in from any vantage point.’ Sean had hoped for a quick win from Mike, especially as this drop-off point would have been the best for the killers. A gloomy thought of failure came from his inner self but he kept his anxiety tucked away, so that the others wouldn’t sense it. He trusted his instinct and felt sure that one of the first four target areas he had marked would be the right one. He had twelve such areas to search and hoped it wouldn’t take more than two or three of those.

  The team were soaking wet with the incessant drizzle and covered in black wet peat from underfoot. They returned to the pickup for a break and for the tea and pastries that Billy Phish had picked up at the local bakery the day before. They chatted and relaxed, each of them enjoying the solitude of the wild Pyrenean hills. The sun began to peep through.

  Sean’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He glanced at the text sent on ‘telegram’, noticing it was from TABASCO – the codename for Samantha. The one she had chosen herself. He always smiled at that. He opened the page up to its full size and walked a few paces away from the vehicle.

  ‘Update/one eye on you/love you/call me’ was the first line. ‘Typical Sam,’ Sean muttered. He opened his GCHQ app for voice calls and tapped the secure call button. The secure call was connected within seconds.

  ‘Hello my lover,’ Samantha said. ‘Some good news and some not so good news.’

  ‘I haven’t got much time Sam, I’m out on the ground right now,’ Sean answered. ‘Go on. Send.’

  ‘Well, One-Eyed Damon has been busy. I’ll make this brief,’ she said. ‘The good news is he’s tracked Big Bang Frazer down, put a tracking device on his vehicle and paid a few people off to provide the dirt on him.’

  ‘Excellent. Keep going.’

  ‘He’s also going to set a few things up that you can use as collateral and, in the meantime, I’m in the process of doing a cyber phish on him.’

  ‘Just what I want,’ Sean said. ‘You’re ahead of me already.’

  ‘I’m always, erm, on top of things as you know,’ she said sassily. She mentioned how she would bait Frazer with an email that would trick him into clicking on a link in it – a cyber phish – which would then download a malicious software node direct into his computer.

  Sean listened to her plan, which matched his. ‘In which case, you’ll know I want you to hack into all his emails and contacts, all his business dealings and every aspect of his financial transactions. We are going to nail this bloke hard to the mast for what he did to me.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Sam replied. ‘Now, listen to this. One-Eyed Damon has left a “marker” with him as you asked. Are you ready for this?’

  ‘Go on,’ Sean said pensively.

  ‘Well, One-Eyed Damon rigged his house up in Surrey. He only went and rigged it up with army grenades and booby traps.’

  ‘Fucking hell,’ Sean said with a gasp.

  ‘Yep. They were all dummy grenades and explosives, lined up in his windows for all to see, just to get an effect and put the shits up him. He’ll know it was military and you’re on to him. One-Eyed, erm, went a tad further too.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘He rigged the back garden metal gate to an electric transformer with 100 volts running through it. That’s his normal route into the house apparently. Knocked the bloke clean up and back ten yards by all accounts, blowing the fuck out of him.’

  ‘Jesus Christ,’ Sean said. ‘One-Eyed certainly took the marker to weapons-grade eh?’

  ‘He did. Best bit is that the bloke was fully unconscious, taken off to hospital and the police took over eight hours to clear the bloody building!’

  ‘A proper job then. Fair play. One-Eyed is okay, right?’

  ‘Oh yes, he’s had a ball. Videoed the fucking lot, then walked down the street with his white stick past the dumb coppers manning the cordon.’

  ‘Top class,’ Sean said. ‘Give him the payment and get back to me when you’ve done the data mapping.’

  ‘Love you,’ she said in a whisper. ‘Stay away from any tarts.’

  *

  Sean finished the call and saw a small black Citroën approaching the lay-by. He saw a waving hand appear out of the window, quickly followed by a cigarette being thrown to the ground. It was Jugsy.

  Jugsy had worked through the night on his analysis and finished at 4am to grab a few hours’ sleep. He had then set off in his car and arrived at Target 2 just as the team were taking a break. He parked up and urged Sean to come and have a look at what he had found. Sean could see he was excited. Jugsy pulled his imagery out of a small brown briefcase to show Sean what he had analysed during the night.

  ‘Looks to me like a sunken piece of ground. Could be a grave,’ Jugsy said keenly. ‘I found a similar one at Target 3 and also an area where there was significant change in the ground near here,’ he mentioned. He was pointing to Target 3 again, which was an open plateau above a small copse.

  ‘Well, let’s go and have a look,’ Sean said, glancing up to see Mike scuttling around the target area sniffing away, hunting for his treat. Mike was soaking wet but loving his extended time in the outdoors. The region was full of small valleys, and a high-topped plateau dominated an area some fifty metres away that had not been visible from the track. It was here that they looked at Jugsy’s sunken grass. It was probably too open to dig a body in the peat there – and Sean wasn’t convinced it would reveal anything. It was a curious feature nonetheless. Billy Phish used his metal rod to probe some vapour holes into the sunken area and about two feet down. It did look like a shallow grave. Mike then had a sniff. Nothing. Not a thing. Jugsy used his bare hands to prise open the turf and used a small trowel to probe further. Nothing. It was a very curious shape but just a sunken piece of ground.

  The weather had improved but large clouds were moving briskly across the sky, allowing sudden bursts of the sun followed by the occasional shower as the wind swirled high above them. Mike continued searching across the wide expanse of the Pyrenean moors and Jugsy investigated other markers they had identified from his photography. It was 5.25pm and Sean could see the whole team were exhausted. They began the long walk back to the trucks, Melissa occasionally slipping on the grassy hillocks. Sean felt gloomy, but he smiled occasionally at the escapades of One-Eyed Damon.

  ‘How confident are you that we can find Alfie, then?’ Melissa asked, as they trudged across the dank moor.

  ‘I don’t quite know at the moment – all I know is, if this team can’t find him, no one ever will.’

  ‘And what do we do then?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, it’ll be game over for me I can assure you. I’ll be shafted again but hopefully you’ll get back to some sort of normality.’

  ‘I don’t think normality will ever come back my way again after this,’ Melissa calmly said. ‘But why don’t I use my police contact? She might be able to help in some way.’

  ‘How?’ Sean asked, head down into the breeze, tramping faster now as the vehicles came into sight.

  ‘Well, she blew the whistle on the Met Police some years ago. She has some great contacts and we could use her to drip-feed some of the more juicy and corrupt stories Alfie discovered, without revealing ourselves as the source.’

  ‘Great idea – but my job isn’t about that,’ Sean said dourly, not being keen to have such discussions until he had found the files.

  Melissa retorted. ‘The way I see it, Sean, is that I owe Alfie. And I want to help him get some recognition now his life has been taken from him. Surely you can understand that?’

 
; ‘I know. It’s not quite that simple though. When we have something tangible to look at, I’ll decide what we do next, so you’ll need to trust me on that for the moment. My bosses have only one aim and that’s to stop something getting out – but I don’t know yet exactly what that is. They don’t really care about you and me, but I do care about making sure we do the right bloody thing for both us and Alfie.’

  ‘Thanks. I can see you know what you’re doing but do please remember I’m good at what I do too.’

  Sean glanced across at her face, hidden now below her hood, which was dripping with rainwater. She was appealing to him and she was genuine. He looked at the peat bog stretching ahead of them and thought a little about how indeed Melissa could help.

  ‘So, what will you do when this is all over, Sean? Will you stay in the service?’

  Sean stopped, adjusted his rucksack and took a drink of water from his CamelBak drinking system. He turned to look at Melissa, noticing her dishevelled hair and pale face without make-up. She was breathing hard but her eyes were mesmerising. Sean smiled, knowing full well she was tugging his emotions again.

  ‘I’m out of the service now, Melissa, and there’s no going back. But they’ve given me a lifeline here and I’m going to bloody well take it. I’ll probably move overseas and set up a small art business somewhere – or just disappear.’

  ‘Good,’ she replied. ‘Let’s get this done properly and get the bad apples shafted at the same time.’

  ‘If I don’t get to these files it’s me who’ll be shafted hard. So, you need to trust me when I say we don’t talk to anyone.’

  ‘Bit bolshie today aren’t you?’ Melissa teased with a smile.

  Sean sighed. ‘Bolshie works with you; suggestion doesn’t.’ He looked for her reaction.

  She smiled cockily. ‘As you wish, but when you need some proper investigative skills let me know.’

  Sean walked by her side and in silence as they headed for the car, and then stopped for a while. He pulled out his Thermos and poured coffee.

  ‘Actually, you could do a bit of work for me Melissa, with your copper friend in the Met Police.’

  ‘Go on. What?’

  ‘There’s one other bastard I need to see to before I retire and get back to painting pictures. He’s the man who caused me to be here now and nearly had me killed.’

  ‘At last. Something meaty I can get working on.’

  ‘I’ve got a couple of people working on it for me, but your police contact – is she open to doing the right thing? Or is she a yes-woman?’

  ‘Nope. She’s dynamite, a real maverick in the Force. She forced through the exposure of child abuse rings when many were trying to cover it up. She’s got balls. And, what’s more, she’s still a mole for the Investigative Bureau on the inner goings-on within the Force. She’ll give me access to archives I would need to check.’

  ‘Good. I’ll get you some secure comms to connect to her. Can you find out everything we have on this man, his connections within the establishment and government circles? He was a copper for a short while then turned into an international crook and murderer. Somehow he managed to get loads of government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan and I can’t fathom out why. He must be doing something shifty with people high up.’

  ‘OK. I’ll get onto it. What exactly did he do to you then?’

  ‘Killed me. For a short while at least.’ Sometimes Sean knew he had to give a little and open up. This was one such occasion.

  ‘Sean, I just wanted to say something to you.’

  ‘Go on.’

  Melissa looked down slightly and grabbed her plastic mug. ‘I’m really grateful for you looking after me, you know that right?

  ‘Yes of course. You just show it differently. I can see that.’ Sean handed her a chocolate bar and stood up.

  ‘Thanks. I do. But I feel really safe with you. I know now how dangerous this is, and you’ve been very kind to me. I like that.’

  Sean looked at her. She was drenched. Her eyes looked up at his and she seemed tearful. The tough exterior was seeping an emotion, revealing Melissa’s softer side.

  Just as Sean was about to speak, Billy Phish appeared over the small crest. He took off his rucksack and sat on its edge. Sean poured him a coffee, throwing in six sugar lumps.

  ‘Not looking too good is it?’ Sean said. ‘I was convinced this was the best site for the killers to get to.’

  ‘Fear not, it’s early days right now. You’re in a good position, mate, so don’t give up on us just yet. I still reckon we’ll find the body. Your boss needs to trust you on this and he has no choice but to sit tight and wait until you get the answers. Unless of course he’s running another concurrent operation – an official one.’

  Sean wondered about this. ‘I’m not sure but I do know they’ll cover up Alfie’s disappearance and keep it low profile and say nothing more than him being AWOL. But I suspect someone else is also at play here. Everything points to an American agent having killed Alfie. The analysis Liz gave me showed that one of his killers had been in the United States for a long time before coming over to France.’

  Billy Phish looked thoughtful and retreated into humour.

  ‘You see – I was right mate. I knew the Yanks were involved somewhere along the line.’

  Sean took a last swig of his coffee, put his Thermos flask away and pulled his rucksack over one shoulder. ‘It doesn’t quite make sense to me, though, Billy. Why would they really need to kill him? It was the files they were after and they probably haven’t found them yet unless they are hacking into all sorts of accounts, fishing for where he left them. Maybe Alfie talked and now they have them anyway? Or Alfie was bribing someone, and they’ve just had him killed for the hell of it?’ Sean turned to start walking. ‘Plenty to find out yet mate.’

  Billy Phish followed, right on his shoulder, with Melissa listening to the exchange eagerly.

  Billy Fish raised his voice, so Sean could hear him in the wind. ‘On the other hand, I’d have thought governments would be getting pretty pissed off with all the embarrassment of these whistle-blowers popping up every ten minutes and exposing new state secrets.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘So, what I find odd is that Alfie was a careful and a competent hand. It makes you wonder what sticky hands, our lot in MI5 and MI6, have been up to here. And what exactly did Alfie uncover? It could be pretty potent stuff.’

  Sean’s pace increased, his thoughts murmuring at him, as he walked doggedly in the grim conditions with Billy Phish’s voice over his shoulder. Something didn’t seem right.

  Sean continued to the third site and headed straight for the rocky outcrop that Jugsy had indicated on the imagery. This was an obvious location marker and they looked for others such as smaller rocks, distinctive bushes or distinctive natural features such as hollows or even tiny ground scarps. Sean knew that the killers would have tested how easy it was to dig the ground where they had planned to bury Alfie and then tested that they could return to that site, having timed how long it would have taken to dig the hole.

  ‘There’s one other consideration we need to be sharp about,’ Sean said to Billy Phish.

  ‘I know exactly what you’re gonna say.’

  ‘Go on – what?’

  ‘There’s every chance the Yanks will return to the body once they get an inkling they have missed something.’

  ‘Exactly right. We need to stay sharp. Keep your eyes out whilst we’re on the hills and don’t mention this to anyone.’

  Sean moved on towards the vehicles, very conscious that there were probably a few nations in play in this deadly game, and he was in the crosshairs. He continued to think through his options as he watched little Mike running around ahead of him. Mike seemed reinvigorated from his little reward and ran around the hills, stopping occasionally, moving his head and with his tail wagging like crazy. But yet again, he did not hit. The team had covered considerable ground during the day but it was now approaching 7pm. It h
ad been a long day and Sean felt calloused and weary. They had covered dozens of kilometres but found nothing.

  Chapter 28

  The Pyrenees, 22 April 2016

  Sean had a fitful night. He kept ruminating in his semiconscious state and awoke with a curious thought still burning. He wondered why the hell Alfie had written his own obituary. It suddenly dawned on him that finding the hidden Photobucket account hadn’t been a difficult part of the job, but what was difficult was finding a clue as to where he had hidden the secret files.

  He had managed to extract a significant piece of information from the hidden depths of Melissa’s memory, but needed to find the body and clothing to verify that. Had he missed a more obvious clue in what he had seen in the Photobucket account? Was Alfie so egocentric and arrogant that he wanted his own obituary published after he had exposed to the world all the secrets he wanted to disclose? Or was there a clue in the obituary? Was there a coded message contained within it? He kicked himself for so easily forgetting about the obituary and decided he needed a cryptologist from GCHQ to have a look at it. He contacted Samantha to arrange this before heading for the moors to continue the search.

  Sean, Billy Phish, Melissa and Jugsy arrived at Target 4, which was closer to where the scent dogs had lost the trail. Mike worked his way around the saddle and outcrops but, although loving the exercise, he did not hit.

  They sat on a small knoll and Sean reached for his map. He looked carefully at all the circles he had drawn on it and wondered if any of his assessments were wrong. ‘But the scent dogs and the soil analysis led me to this area,’ he reminded himself. His doubt transformed into positive faith in his instincts. Courage in his own conviction was needed. He finished his sandwich and coffee and led the team to Target 6, which was closer than Target 5.