Light of the Sun: They always make a mistake and when they do, we kill them...

by David Costa

  The room fell silent for a few seconds while Reece and Anna took in what they’d just heard. It was now time for Sir Ian Fraser to break that silence.

  ‘As I told you when you joined us, we had already been briefed with the information you have just been given. I would think you might have some questions yourselves and the first question, I’m sure, will be what happens now? I’ll hand over to Jim who is up to date. We’ve placed him in overall charge of the day to day running of this operation.’

  Jim Broad had a pile of buff folders in front of him which he now passed around the table, keeping one for himself. Each folder had a large red X across the front with the words OPERATION SEARCH and TOP SECRET in capital letters across the top.

  ‘I think the code name for this operation is very appropriate. This operation is now a country wide search.’ said Broad standing to continue as if he was addressing a lecture hall.

  Reece was laughing inside. Normally operation code names are selected by a computer so that they haven’t been used before or the danger of being crossed over to another file. This name had either not been used before or had been deliberately selected by ‘C’ or Broad, who continued to speak, while at the same time reading from the folder in front of him. Everyone followed his voice while reading the words in their own folder.

  ‘As of 10 a.m. this morning our two Hezbollah hoods have left Malta on the same vessel they sailed on into Valletta. We have instructed our two agents Matthew Simons and Palo to come to London on this afternoon’s flight. When they get here, we’ve agreed they’ll both run a combined operation desk at our rooms on the third floor, all information received will be fed through them. We have the resources of all the agencies at our disposal. All those agencies will be dropping everything else and concentrating their efforts solely on Operation Search. This will include the MI5 watchers, GCHQ at Cheltenham, the Met Anti-Terrorist Squad, and ourselves of course. David, I want you and Anna to work together on this. As you can see from the file, we still have little to go on, but we do believe this terrorist cell is here, somewhere in London. We do not think our girl in Malta hung around. We already have some feedback from Sir Julian Richardson Smith in Malta who has been speaking to his contacts in the Maltese government and police who are looking into the dead body of our Iranian Colonel. They inform him at this stage that they believe that he has been assassinated by the Israeli Secret Service, who I’m sorry to say Kurt, have form for this sort of thing previously in Malta.’

  Reece could see a small smile at the side of Kurt Shimon’s lips.

  ‘Par for the course as you British would say,’ replied the Mossad boss.

  Broad nodded then continued with his report.

  ‘Sir Julian was also able to tell us that a woman fitting our team’s description booked into the same hotel room where the body was found and vanished without paying which we all know is a big no in the hotel trade.’ It was Broad’s turn to smile before continuing.

  ‘The local police have been able to get the CCTV from the reception area of the hotel. They confirm through the local taxi drivers, that the woman went straight to the airport in one of their cars. Through his contacts and with a bit of persuasion from Sir Julian, who has told the local authorities the British government want to help in the search for the killer, he has been able to obtain the CCTV from the hotel and the airport security cameras.’ Pointing to the opposite wall to where they were sitting Broad aimed the remote-control pen in his hand.

  ‘If you would look at the screen the first video you will see is from the hotel.’

  The video lasted about five minutes. Showing a young woman with Asian features with dark shoulder length hair. She appeared to know about the camera, keeping her head down the whole time, she was at the reception. They could see her talking to the receptionist but there was no audio. They watched as she handed over her passport which the receptionist appeared to scan with a scanner under the counter then handed it back with a key card before pointing to the stairs and lift. The video ended and Broad pressed another button on the pen.

  The second time the video showed the woman carrying a small rucksack and walking with a limp. She was walking through the main doors and into the airport departures area of the building. After looking around, she walked to the ladies, where after a few minutes she reappeared, this time with a silver-coloured walking stick. Reece was not one hundred per cent sure, but he would have put a month’s pay on it being the same one they had seen the Iranian Colonel walk into the hotel with, the one he couldn’t find later. The woman on the video then booked in at the ticket desk before going through security, placing her rucksack and the walking stick through the security scanner before picking them up without problem on the other side. At the Departure Desk she had produced her passport, which had been scanned. The cameras, which had been in sweeping mode, picked her up moving through the airport and sitting a short time before moving through with other passengers to join her plane. Reece noticed she never lifted her head for a clear shot from the cameras. This woman knew what she was doing and wasn’t going to make it easy for the security people who may be looking for her. The video screen went blank once more and Broad continued to speak.

  ‘I’m sure you all noticed how she kept her head down and came out of the ladies with a walking stick, probably the one handed over by the Colonel, the one we believe contains the plutonium. How they’ve wrapped it we do not know yet, but however they’ve done it to get it past the airport security certainly works, because she was able to board a plane to London and we now believe she and her walking stick are somewhere in this country, most likely this city.’

  Broad pressed the button once more and two full-frontal photos of the woman came onto the screen.

  ‘These are the best photos we could get, but they are rather good. The one on the right is when she passed through the security search area at the airport. The one on the left is from her scanned passport. You will find copies of the photos in your file along with the details page of her passport.’

  Reece looked down at the photo and tried to lock it into his brain.

  ‘As you can see, even though Anna had the small Geiger counter and passed close to the Colonel when he had the walking stick in the hotel reception, it still didn’t show any signal. We believe the Iranians have in some-way found a covering for the plutonium that protects it from scanners,’ said Kurt Shimon.

  ‘Yes. On that we can agree. So, you can see we have a huge problem,’ said Fraser, ‘The plutonium is now in this country and our scanners are useless. We need to find these people fast and eliminate the threat from them and the plutonium. Do we have anything on her arrival in this country Jim?’

  Broad pressed the button on the remote device again showing a red dot on the screen which he used to follow the woman as she walked through Arrivals at London airport. The video was like the one showing her leaving Malta but this time staring into a camera at the passport desk. The red dot then followed her outside the building for some distance before they could see she her climb into a black cab.

  ‘As you can see, she arrived in London last night on the late flight from Malta and she still has the walking stick with her. We are currently trying to locate the taxi driver through the Met and MI5 but so far, we do not have any more information. We are also checking traffic cameras and APRN to try to track the taxi but nothing yet.’

  Broad pressed the button once more and a screenshot of a passport came up.

  ‘This is her passport document which is also in your folder. It shows her name as Carletta Maguire, twenty-five years old from Catford London. A quick check by the Met Anti-Terrorist Squad can confirm that a young lady of the same name lived there until two years ago when she appeared to travel to the Far East but did not return. There are two years left before the passport runs out. The photo looks like the real Carletta Maguire, but inquiries have confirmed it is not her. The passport has never been reported lost or stolen, so, I would worry about the real Carletta whereve
r she is. It would appear our lady who is similar in appearance is travelling on a false document, as we suspected. As of now she is our main target of interest. All resources are at our disposal. David if you could stay behind, I need to talk to you? For now, I believe Kurt has some information which he needs to update us with.’

  Kurt Shimon stood as Broad sat back down at the table and walked over to stand in front of the wall screen.

  ‘Thank you, Jim, and thank you Sir Ian for allowing us to help in this mission, which is critically just as important for us, as it is for you. As you’ve already heard Colonel Shafi, was indeed an agent of Mossad. Like you, we do not usually admit to who our agents are, dead or alive. Indeed, we have agents in the past, who have been captured and tortured before being executed publicly, hung from a crane in a square in an Arab town, just because we wouldn’t admit they were one of ours. Shafi knew this when he became one of those agents. I have a quote in a frame on my office wall which keeps me going when I ask myself the question why am I doing this job? The quote from Golda Meir states, ‘I understand the Arabs wanting to wipe us out, but do they really expect us to cooperate?’ Golda is dead many years, but in my time, I’ve come to understand that these Arabs don’t just want to wipe us out, but anyone who supports us as well. This operation involves our two countries and our separate intelligence agencies. If we are to defeat these people, we need to work closely together on this. It might not suit some in our political or civil services, but we are at the coal face as you would say. The niceties of politics are not available to us, so we fight a common enemy every day together or alone. You are aware of our main interest in this. One of our agents has been killed and we will find out how or who exposed him. We believe everything about this involves the one we call the Arab. In your folders you will have the information we have on him and two photos; the one which was taken at celebrations just after 9/11, and the other just at the start of all this when he was photographed by our agents in Tehran in the company of the Quads General. The reason I’m here today instead of talking via a conference call is that I have something more to bring to the table. Forgive me, Sir Ian, but I wanted to wait until we were all here as this was passed to me from our London Embassy this morning. Jim, could I borrow your remote for a second.’

  Taking the remote Shimon took a small pen-stick out of his coat pocket and finding the slot at the side of the wall screen inserted the device and pressed the button. The screen lit up to show a photo of people sitting at a distance around what looked like a swimming pool with a building behind them. Shimon pressed another button and the photo zoomed to a close-up stronger focus showing two men and a woman sitting at a table by the pool outside what now appeared to be a villa. Using the red highlight button Shimon rested the light on each person in the photo.

  ‘The same agents who took the photo of the meeting between The Arab and the Quads General outside the cafe in Tehran, followed the Arab to the villa and at great risk were able to obtain this one photo. The first man is our friend the Arab; real name Abdullah Mohammad Safrah.’ Highlighting the woman next to him he continued.

  ‘This is the woman we’ve been speaking about; Shafi’s killer and the courier of the plutonium into this country. The third man, we do not know. This photo was taken with a long-lens camera from some distance away. The villa just outside Tehran we believe belongs to the Arab and here we have him briefing his people. We again believe the briefing is for this mission in London.’

  The photo showed the Arab and the woman from a frontal view, but the second man was side on, and they could tell that he was young, athletically built and dark skinned.

  These photos are four days old and taken around the same time that Shafi was sailing down the Mediterranean towards Malta, so from the timeline we now have, we can safely assume that all three people in the photo at the villa are in this country.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ it was Reece who spoke, ‘Considering how small the walking stick is and the Quads involvement why have the Iranians not just used the diplomatic bag and transferred it into this country without all this risk through Malta?’

  Kurt Shimon looked at ‘C’ who nodded for him to answer Reece.

  ‘A good question, Mr Reece, and one we asked ourselves when this whole mission came to our attention. I think we should look at a few important points. We think most importantly, the Iranian government have made a big thing of denying that they’re working on any tactical nuclear weapons. They have denied access, as far as they can to the atomic energy inspectors, inspecting the locations, where we suspect they are creating the essential product to make such weapons. Because of this the West has come down hard on them with sanctions, leaving their own people suffering because of the Ayatollahs intransigent stance. If it was to come out that their officials were caught trying to use their diplomats to transport plutonium, then they fear those same suffering people would rise up and overthrow them. The Quads have always used the terrorist arm of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad to do their dirty work. If such a terrorist was to be caught with such a weapon it’s deniable. If they succeeded, then it suits Iran’s purpose, namely, to damage the West, and in particular Israel, if they can. The people we have encountered so far are just such a terrorist arm and we know that the Arab has been involved not only with the Islamic Jihad but with the Iranians for some time. He is a willing partner and a dangerous opponent. This is the main reason why we are willing to work with anyone who is a target of this man to help catch him and his friends or eliminate them if necessary. Something I’m sure you have experience of yourself, Mister Reece, I hope that answers your question?’

  It was Reece’s turn to nod his agreement.

  It was then the turn of Sir Ian Fraser to take back control of the meeting.

  ‘Thank you, Kurt, everything is helpful if we are to stop these people in their tracks. As you can see, both our Prime Ministers have been briefed on this threat and both agree that we should work closely together on this. There are no state secrets at stake, just a threat from terrorists that both countries are aware of. That said, this operation because it’s on British soil, will be led by MI6. The operations room to co-ordinate everything coming in and controlling reactions will be in this building. Matthew Simons will be the main conduit for the running of this operation from that control room. Everything will go through him. I expect him to be here in a few hours and ready to brief everyone on what we have at 5 pm today. Jim Broad will represent Kurt and myself at these briefings and report directly to us, so that we can then brief our Prime Ministers. Unless you have any questions, I suggest you go and make yourselves familiar with the set-up of the control room and collect what weapons and radio communications equipment you need from stores. We have laid on two BMW cars fitted with radios and tracking equipment in the underground garage. Does anyone have any questions?’

  ‘If, as we expect, these three people are already in this country, what if they’re ready to go now? What will we do?’ asked Reece.

  ‘A good question David,’ replied Broad. ‘We have put all our agencies on alert as far as we can, circulating the photos we have of our suspects. As everyone here will know, there are always many covert and surveillance operations ongoing in the capital at any one time. These can involve anything from counter terrorism to foreign spies and serious crime. We will divert some of the Watchers from the A4, MI5 and the Met Anti-Terrorist and Drug Squad teams from their own surveillance operations, to support the search for these people. The Met and the anti-terrorist team have extensive coverage of the city using a CCTV system with the ability for facial recognition, which will be monitored by a special team. On top of that, you have uniform police patrols who will be told to watch out for these people; not to approach, but to observe and inform us right away. Therefore, we need to have a strong control, with as much information as possible going through this building to prevent teams crashing into each other and causing more problems on the ground than the ones these terrorists will cause. We are not able to
stop them if they were to go out this minute and carry out their attack, but with the information we are providing, these agencies can react quickly to such an attack, as they always can. The military have a Hazmat Nuclear and Biological Weapons teams at London barracks alongside our bomb disposal teams ready to move if needed. Our people at GCHQ and the Israeli equivalent are monitoring all calls between Iran and this country just in case our friends communicate with each other. Our next move is to get briefed up at 5 p.m. then get out there, find these people, and eliminate the threat. Anna, I know that Kurt wants to go to your Embassy to brief your ambassador, so if you could be back for five that would be great.’