John Judge
Page 25
***
Mark Slattery had considered himself very lucky falling into the top job as Commissioner of Police. Obviously, he was sad that the death of James Reynolds, his predecessor, had produced the opening. He had initially thought it a bit odd that within 12 hours of Reynolds’s demise he had been told to take up the reigns. But dismissed the questions in his mind quickly, ‘never kick a gift horse’ he thought. Now he had an important job to do and wanted to impress his new masters. The phone at his home rang disturbing his reflections; he picked up the telephone, ‘Commissioner Slattery here’ he said with a little more pomp than usual.
‘DS Walters here Sir, I’m afraid we have a major incident. Last night the Central Information Office was attacked. All of the computer systems and files were destroyed. One of the guards was injured when he tried to raise the alarm and has been hospitalised. Thankfully his injuries are not life-threatening...’
Slattery spluttered, ‘what... how could... do we know who was responsible and have we apprehended the culprits?’
‘No we do not sir and they have not been apprehended yet but we believe it is the same group that attacked Kings Cross police station and possibly those responsible for the death of Commissioner Reynolds.’
‘I’ll be right over Detective Superintendant, have a full briefing ready for me when I arrive.’
‘I’m afraid it’s not all there is Commissioner, an attack took place simultaneously at what we believe was a backup storage system at the Crown Court in Southwark. That was also destroyed .’
‘My God, DS do you realise how my first briefing to First Minister Garside is going to go down? Just get my briefing ready, I believe it won’t be long before I am summoned to Downing Street.’