by Duncan James
***
It was quite late when Paul Bridges responded to the phone call from Isabelle Paton, and made his way yet again to the Permanent Secretary’s office. By then, almost everyone who needed to know about the plan did know, and Robin Algar guessed that a lot of other people would be working late that evening as a result.
“Come in, Paul,” said Algar, waving towards an armchair. “Make yourself comfortable - join me in a glass of something?”
“Wouldn’t mind a scotch if you’re having one,” replied Bridges.
“I think we’ve earned it today,” said Algar. “Thanks, by the way, for your quick response about the code word for this little saga. Have you passed it to Ernie Stevens?”
“Yes, I have,” replied Bridges. “Sorry we couldn’t use ‘Hawaii’, but that’s already a contingency plan for something else.”
“It was only a thought,” replied Sir Robin. “I’d better tell you what ‘Op. Honolulu’ is all about.”
The Cabinet Secretary succinctly outlined the first phase of the proposed plan, which now had the wholehearted support of the United States.
“The Americans will probably not have a great involvement in the beginning,” said Algar, “but if we succeed, then there will be a second, even more daring effort to bring about a permanent political solution to an Ireland without terrorism. And the States will be involved heavily in that. But if we don’t succeed in bringing peace to the province, then all bets are off, and a great many political careers will be at an end, I suspect.”
“I can see why they are involved,” said Bridges. “And they must have some role to play, even if only in bringing an end to the financial support given by NORAID, surely.”
“Yes, of course. It will be no use our friend Alistair Vaughan helping us to empty their coffers if the Irish Americans are still busy filling them, especially as they only support one side of the political divide. But they made a start some time ago, by banning their web site, and Sinn Fein’s.”
“Now I know a bit more about the plan, I’ll have another word with Alistair tomorrow. He really must be persuaded to be more cooperative,” said Bridges.
“The Prime Minister is speaking to the Governor as well, so I think he’ll get the message all right. He was just a bit afraid of acting against his own future best interests, I think.”
“You were certainly wise to set up the dedicated secure communications links,” commented Bridges. “It doesn’t bear thinking about if there was to be a serious leak.”
“Secrecy is the essence of success here,” agreed Algar. “I think the financial part will be OK - it’s small and self-contained. And I think, too, that the combined military/police operation directed against individuals will be carried out by very small units, none of which will have the slightest idea of the broader picture. Only a few at the top who are directing things will have that. The noisy, public part of it will be dealing with their arms and ammunition dumps, and I’m not quite sure how the military will handle that.”
“Certainly not quietly!” agreed Paul Bridges. “I suspect they will delay that part of the exercise a bit until some of the major players are out of the way, so they can’t kick up too much of a fuss. It will also take quite a while to plan that aspect too, I should think, not least because public safety will be a factor. The last thing you want is too much collateral damage.”
“I’m not at all sure,” said Algar, “that in some ways it might not be a good idea to actually claim credit for dealing with the decommissioning of arms in this way, after all the talking has achieved nothing. A few brownie points for the Government taking a strong stand, and all that.”
“Just so long as you don’t arouse suspicion that the Government has been involved in other aspects as well,” warned Bridges. “This whole thing will need the most careful handling publicly.”
“Absolutely,” agreed Algar. “The Prime Minister and I will be taking Andrew Groves into our confidence tomorrow, for that very reason. As a matter of interest, Paul, when might the video conferencing be available? I can see we shall need to be using that rather sooner than I had expected.”
“We’ve earmarked the old press briefing room for it - in the good old days, it was used for the daily briefing of lobby correspondence, until one of the PM’s predecessors stopped it. It’s next to COBR ‘A’ downstairs, as you remember, so handy for everything else, and we’ve started installation already. A large, flat, plasma screen will make them feel as if they’re almost in the same room. It should all be ready, subject to test transmissions going well, by the weekend.”
“That’s good,” responded Algar. “I can imagine it is going to be very well used in the days and weeks ahead.”
