“What…! Nothing from the house, the stables or the car…?”
“No…apart from the firearm, no fingerprints on anything else…sweet FA in fact…He’ll walk by Wednesday at the very latest…”
Steve…? It’s Charlie… Can you not hold him for a false passport…?”
“Charlie, I’d love to hold him on the fact that he’s an all-round nasty bastard but he’s not committed any offence…Maybe we should’ve let him thump Charlie Nine, at least we’d have an assault charge…Very clever is our mister Garret…We can try for an extension on investigative grounds but with the ceasefire and the kid gloves they are handing out in the corridors of Whitehall these days, the application will fall on deaf ears. My Commander has heard that the Home Sec’ is having his ears bent already…”
“God…Don’t you just love politicians…! Any sniff on the lilywhites yet…?”
“No not yet…Again though one will walk…” “Garret’s driver I assume…?”
“That’s the one Chief…Calls himself John Charlton…We’ve nothing on him. I’ve given Seamus the heads-up…Our INTEL is crossing the sea on the next flight…We may get lucky as we did with O’Keefe…”
“And of course, there’s nothing on the car…”
“Again true… The Audi was bought legit, albeit with a false name but buying from the auctions allows you to acquire vehicles without too much paperwork and believe me, we are struggling to ascertain the origin of the driving licenses and passports…For all intents and purposes they came from the same gaff as yours or mine. The quality is that good…! Essentially they are real, even the numbers register with our databases…”
That piece of information could have frightening consequences… “Steve we have the other two banged to rights though…Yes…?” “Oh absolutely, no worries on that score…”
Steve said this with reassuring confidence …
“We have fingerprints everywhere for those two including O’Keefe…We’ve also matched him to the CCTV from Chelmsford city centre…The preliminary trace elements from the Vauxhall Carlton are damning enough but together with the device you flirted with under the bath it’s goodnight Vienna for those two…
Charlie looked satisfied…Then added…
“Steve…From experience it may be a good idea to have the rear garden X-rayed…?”
“Ahead of you there Charlie…That’s happening this afternoon also a couple of loose earth areas at the stables too…”
“Nice…Very nice…”
“Chief…This campaign has been massively funded definitely on a scale we haven’t seen before…As I said their documents are real…The Sterling we have found is counterfeit but you need UV filters and other gismos to suss it, again it’s ninety-nine percent genuine…The bods from the Royal Mint have said that if we were to ask the French to print our money it wouldn’t be as good as this stuff…If you look at their vehicles too. They are of a high quality and modern…If I’m totally honest with you two…This has the hallmarks of Government funding…It’s that good…! Without you boys backing us, we’d have missed half of this…”
“We need to see which, if any, foreign organisations gain from this…Which foreign organisations gain from us taking an economic hit…This could have been Verena Bezold part in the campaign, utilising her knowledge and former Yemen Contacts…”
“Steve, who put the DVLA on to the Scottish World Cup Squad…?”
“It was luck more than judgement Charlie… One of their computer programmers was cross checking the name Paul Mariner so he inputted John Wark and Alan Brazil thinking they too were English…”
Charlie let out a snort of laughter…
“Yeah I thought you’d have fun with that one…! Anyway they are working through the squad now…
That’s what we have Chief…We’ll get there… Personally I don’t think we are too far behind, we’ve caught up tremendously…I’ll be at the Birdcage for 1300 to get ready for the 1500 briefing…”
“Thanks Steve…I was hoping we could both brief the group…?”
“Yes…I’d like that…We could throw Frank to the lions too when discussing the raid…I know Commander Shreve is attending…”
“We know…We’ll have it spot on for you Steve…” “Thanks Iain…I appreciate it…”
Chapter Twenty Two
By half past one the offices were buzzing. Desks had been moved to accommodate the twenty-five chairs needed for the attendees we would also be using both overhead projectors for the presentation. Steve, Frank and I had retreated to the relative calm of my office to go over the finer points when Robin joined us…
“Gentlemen…We are relocating…” “Where to sir…?”
“Downing Street… The Prime Minister and opposition leader need to know now, particularly as we have been tearing up his countryside and issuing amber warnings… Sergeant Mortimer is on his way from Northolt to go through the stable discoveries…”
“Right then…Er…We’ll get everything ready then…!”
“Oh, don’t look so worried Iain…If the briefing is anything like your daily review, we’ll all be in for an interesting afternoon’s entertainment…”
“Sir…If I may…You’re enjoying this aren’t you…?” “Yes…Yes I am…. Carry on…”
And off he sauntered…
“I need a fag…! You know what this means…?” “No, what…?”
“We have to go right back to the beginning, to January, pre Compass…”
“Good luck with that…!”
*****
We were ushered in through the rear entrance of No 11 then on through the connecting doors to No 10… The staircase to our left led down to the basement; there a conference room had been prepared for us.
In the centre of the room was a mahogany table with seating for thirty two, on the table in front of every chair a file had been placed, there was also eight silver trays containing refreshments…the two projectors we had requested were already switched on and whirring away against the far wall…
It had all the appearance of any boardroom you would encounter in any large business anywhere…
I noticed Sergeant Mortimer and moved in his direction… “Afternoon Bill…”
“Ah Iain…We have certainly stirred the hornet’s nest…Nice job in Romford, by the way…”
“Not Guilty…! That adventure was planned and executed by these two bandits; may I introduce Inspectors Whatley and Case…? Lads, this is Sergeant Bill Mortimer of 621 EOD…”
Friendly handshakes were offered by the three men who would ultimately shoulder the responsibility if my judgement was correct…These three men exchanged knowing glances…
“Iain if I may…? I have some experience of these encounters…Be assertive and talk confidently and you’ll be fine…Remember we are all about to gang up on them and put them off their Pimms…”
“I’ll remember Bill, thanks…”
“They look to us for reassurance and we’ve come this far due to your group’s bloodhounds…”
We all took our seats…Robin had agreed to lay the foundation; he would open the briefing with historic points of the operation. Sergeant Mortimer followed who explained all of the explosive devices, their technicalities and subsequent diffusing, eloquently and expertly.
Steve and Frank followed walking everyone through the Romford operation… Sarah, Charlie, Chris and I finished off explaining the incidents in Germany and Ireland…
Questions followed from the Prime Minister and shadow ministers.
“So the consensus of opinion is that this PIRA active service unit has been in place for some time, probably established before the ceasefire…?”
“Yes Prime Minister… The RUC Commander, Seamus O’Brien and his forensic team are currently sifting through the remains of a fire at O’Hanlon’s country property; so far he has given us information indicating that this campaign is an updated version of an earlier plan they made which involves multiple ASUs…I believed the Belfast Station Chie
f was keeping the Home Secretary briefed in on the RUCs findings…?
The Prime Minister eyed the Home Secretary as he said…
“Yes…I know of the original 1970’s plan…That indicated Four ASUs…Let’s have your honest appraisal Section Chief…”
His voice indicated that his last comment wasn’t a request…
“Well…We discovered the stables in Brasted more by accident rather than design…If the two males hadn’t been so visible we would still be chasing our tails…”
I looked around the table before continuing…
“The use of diversionary tactics and the standard of planning indicate sophisticated military input and intelligence…I believe a certain group of PIRA hardliners, irreconcilables, have been given direction and funding… I think we need to dedicate assets to investigate an overseas connection sir…”
“I would have to agree with you…You also believe the three Dutch based males are heading our way…?”
“Yes sir I do and very soon…They may even be on the move now…As Sergeant Mortimer indicated in his briefing, the five VBIED’s were all ready for deployment…If there are other ASUs, their timetable could be similar with our three target subjects needed to head them…”
The Prime Minister gazed at us all in turn before replying…
“This robust performance is to continue…Both Secretaries and I will see to it that you receive all the cooperation required…”
He turned to the Foreign Secretary…
“Douglas…? Lean on the Dutch and Belgians, we must have them a little more proactive…”
He then looked at the home Secretary…
“Michael…? Liaise with the appropriate Chief Constables…We need a larger presence at the ports, we also need to have SO19 involved more…High profile visibility…”
He paused before continuing…
“I will speak to the Fleet Commander and Chief of Naval Staff…He’ll want to be fully briefed in, of course, before he deploys and commits more surface vessels, but again, I agree with your Intelligence Estimate…These three may choose to travel more covertly and I want every vessel at sea which isn’t electronically identifying itself heaved to…”
I could sense it was time to leave however there was one other avenue I wanted to discuss…
“Prime Minister…If I may before we leave…?” “Yes, by all means Section Chief…?”
“Sir there is another question…Are PIRA being manipulated by another group of political activists not yet widely known in the west…? Is this an attempt at destabilisation by one of the emerging Middle Eastern terrorist organisations…? As you have said sir, we must remain robust…Are we being subjected to a litmus test to see how robust we actually are…?
It was Douglas Hughes, the Foreign Secretary who responded… “Explain what you mean Iain…”
“Sir most informed leaders of sound judgement believe PIRA want the ceasefire as much as we do…This operation has been planned well in advance…The Semtex used in the Warrington bombs is believed to have been sourced in the Middle East, as was the remainder of the cache discovered at the Belgian farmhouse…”
“That’s right…Carry on Chief…”
“The one piece which doesn’t fit our jigsaw is the German female…why was she involved…? Is it because of her extensive contacts in the Middle Eastern regions…? I think Robin should discuss this further with our colleagues on the third floor of the Birdcage and if I may suggest sir, you should have a chat with our close friends across the pond…They have far more assets in place than we do and their case officers have extensive contacts…If we notice, this threat has travelled east to west not vice versa…”
“Not necessarily Chief…The money originated in Ireland as did two of their major players…”
“I would have to disagree on your first point sir… The money was moved in Ireland, we have no idea where it originated or how much…Also, since when have PIRA printed sterling of any quality…? Never…Again, Angela McQueen and Declan O’Hanlon were meant to be seen…One of her instructions was to travel via the UK, this wasn’t necessary and O’Hanlon was a larger than life character who drove a big red Jaguar…Both were designed to be disposable…As for Garvie, he was in place to act as an enforcer so these two would toe the line…”
“Mm…I see, carry on…”
“Box together with the RUC are struggling…Every lead they believe they have had has ultimately led to a dead end…One of their latest, an answer machine found in a property in Armagh was generic not specific to the operation also and a point which I think is crucial, the traditional hard-line areas in the provinces are quiet. There is the usual scepticism and distrust of outsiders but nothing out of the ordinary…”
I wanted to say more but could see that some seated around the table were beginning to tune out…Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound…
“Finally, the plan was initially set up by Donna McQueen an individual we know Garret is besotted with…The pair suit each other, their psyche profiles indicate that both are sociopaths…What started as genuine belief of the IRA constitution has now probably mutated into something more grotesque…”
The foreign Secretary, I could see, was intrigued…
“Carry on Chief…You can see you have everyone’s attention…”
“I believe the Irish cause to them is now secondary…There is a permanent itch there which requires scratching…If another group has plans to attack us socially and economically, these two would be attracted to it…Their ethos being one of “If PIRA wont attack you we’ll find a group who will…”
Surprisingly Chris brushed my leg, I could see he wanted to speak…I acknowledged with my eyes…
“Another indicator sir, one which the Chief hasn’t touched on yet is the use of lilywhites…Young naïve even romantic individuals who are easily manipulated…Why…? There are many established PIRA members who would jump at the chance of being involved in a main land campaign of this magnitude…None of the usual suspects are moving. Inspector Case has already remarked to us that their safehouses are quiet…Romford was set up for this separately. Mary Catlin’s murder and the attempt on the asset Backpack were not the usual M.O. of PIRA…There are serious indicators that this campaign was not initiated across the Irish Sea, they are the weapon of choice, yes, but the trigger is something or someone else…”
The Prime Minister sat looking across the table with raised eyebrows as he digested information he clearly hadn’t anticipated…
“I’ll have an informal chat with Bill…I know he is very keen for the ceasefire to hold and has already offered us assistance through back channels…He has been one of the main motivators in having PIRA’s funding curtailed from the region…I may even…Douglas…? Set up something with the Israelis would you…? Let’s try and keep it low profile…We have that fund raiser on Saturday…Send your counterpart there an invite, we’ll bend his ear in my office…”
We all stood…The Prime Minister leaned across the table and shook my hand…
“That was your first briefing here…?
“Yes sir it was…”
“Excellent…I’ll look forward to more…” “Thank you sir…”
None of us said a word until we returned to the fourth floor… “Charlie do you have a minute…?”
“Aye laddie”
“Sarah is setting up a meeting with Niklas Meier, on the quiet like…I want you there with us…I don’t know where yet, Sarah is leaving that decision to Nik…”
“Ok… I take it Sarah and Chris will be travelling too…?”
I dumped my jacket and sat back in my chair loosening my tie, covering my eyes with the palms of my hands…
“Yes they are…God I’m knackered…! Right, I need to ring Seamus to see what he thinks of the Intel Steve sent him earlier…”
“I’ll do that…Snipe is here. You wanted to talk to him about OC East…?”
“Christ… I had forgotten…”
I re
ached for my telephone…
“Abby could we have a pot of coffee please…? Oh and some sandwiches from the mess and let John know he can come in now…”
“Yes sir…The Duty Office has sent the maps up you wanted, do you want me to bring them in too…?
“Yes love…Thanks…”
“John…Good of you to come on such short notice…”
“Not at all sir, I admit I was a little surprised but it’s a nice break from searching containers and manifests at Killingholme…”
“Busy…?”
“A bit, yes…I have to move on to Hull and Grimsby pretty sharpish, then try to set up something for the less experienced agents tasked with the general bulk shipping at Keadly and Burton upon Stather.”
I nodded in agreement; he had taken on the responsibility without being asked…A role which he naturally progressed to…
“Are you receiving enough feedback from the other field officers…? You know, renewing the SD cards in the surveillance cameras, IMINT and HUMINT…? I believe there was some sort of commotion at Howdendyke…?”
Bearings: The Compass Trilogy Part One Page 23
