by KC McLaren
Jonathan felt the chill from the vast space break through into his body, or was that the effects of being scared. He looked to his left, in the far corner he could see stairs leading to an internal elevated room, some sort of observation deck?
“That’s the monitoring and control room,” Strickland said as he started to walk towards the stairs. “A little more… shall we say scoped out than what you have…”
Without a word, Jonathan followed.
They climbed two flights of stairs to a closed door which opened automatically. A guard rail and platform ran the full breadth of the long structure.
They entered the control room. A bank of monitors on the opposite side greeted Jonathan, currently turned off. Further down to the left a set of large LCD screens displayed system information, below them on workstations more computers and seats. As he walked over to take a close look – the monitors turned off.
“I don’t think Genesis wants you to see everything, Jonathan,” said Strickland chuckling.
“My apologies,” a female voice from nowhere in particular said. “I do not mean to offend. It is an automatic protocol when a stranger enters the room to shut down certain areas. I can turn them back on if you wish.”
Genesis has a voice? Jonathan looked over to Strickland who beamed a smile of a child. “Quite impressive that it’s referring to itself in the first person”, Jonathan said. He suspected it was more source code than pure AI. Artificial Intelligence was quite a long way off, unless it had the power of ThornScope.
“Genesis,” Jonathan spoke still looking at Strickland, “how long can the systems run a Quantum core before having to power down?”
“Three hours, thirty-five minutes and 16 seconds, depending on the calculations I am asked to do,” came the reply.
Three freaking hours? Jonathan was now extremely concerned. At least one guiding grace, it could never crack ThornScope’s protocols – still extremely dangerous though. But at least now he understood how it was able to bypass the security banking protocols in Greece and why Strickland needed him. In particular, why he needed ThornScope to bypass the security protocols of the Bank of England.
“This is all very interesting, Jonathan,” Strickland said with impatience, “but we’re on a time schedule.”
“Just one more thing I would like to know,” Jonathan replied. “Genesis...”
“Yes, Mr Beckett. What may I do for you?”
“Calculate PI to twenty trillion digits…”
An eerie silence resounded around the room, Jonathan smiled.
Chapter 42 | Green Lights
EGIL SAT IN THE PASSENGER SIDE of the back of the lead Range Rover as Jason drove in his usual manic way speeding along Westferry Road parallel to Canary Wharf. Just as well there was little traffic on the road, he thought to himself. He looked at his watch, two am, would tonight ever end? Speeding through traffic lights he had an uncanny sense of being watched. Not watched, maybe monitored? Some sort of surveillance? He looked around, the buildings flashed by in a blur. Nothing much else to see apart from Carl's team behind them driving perilously close. There was something not right, a gut feeling. But then again was there anything right about the past day? They flew past another junction, Jason didn't even bother to slow down, lights on green. How the hell could all the lights be on green? He glanced over to Jason’s side of the vehicle and took a look at the speed indicator. It was hovering around the 70mph mark. They were in a 40mph zone, not one speed camera lit up and there were plenty of them on this stretch of road. Not possible. His thoughts were interrupted by Carl who sat in the back.
“So, Egil. You believe that there are elements in our government that are planning on some sort of coup?”
“I wouldn’t say so much as a coup, Carl. That's dangerous talk my friend...”
“You are worried though, aren’t you?” Carl persisted.
Didn't want to get into this now, there were more important things to get on with reluctantly he replied. “Yes I am. From what I’ve learnt over the past twelve hours or so there are elements within our government who are backing this so called Genesis movement. I strongly believe they are hell bent on creating a Federation of Europe. In turn remove the most basics of freedoms we enjoy both here and in the European Union. Total big brother utopia.”
“Who do you think is behind all this... all this so called conspiracy?” Carl replied.
Egil had brought both Carl and Jason up to speed on the unfolding events. “We've been given our orders, Carl. The overriding priority of the mission is to find, secure and bring back Jonathan Beckett...” At any and all costs, he thought to himself.
“I don’t believe in conspiracy theories,” Carl replied. “Why don’t we just find David Strickland and bring him in?”
Sara, sitting next to Carl, spoke, “David Strickland is one of the most protected people on the planet. You can’t just waltz up and take him by force or by any other means. It would also mean showing our hand…”
“There’s not much of a hand to show or play currently, Sara...” Egil said interrupting. “I’m sorry about earlier, Carl. I couldn’t tell you everything till I spoke with the Home Secretary. But I can assure you he is not planning a coup..."
“That’s ok, Egil. You work in very strange ways. Whatever you need, my team and I are with you. And if that means taking out someone like David Strickland, just give me the green light.”
“Wow, Carl,” Egil said laughing, “two minutes on assignment to MI5 and you are talking conspiracy tactics already? Contrary to popular belief MI5 don’t go around killing anyone, let alone high profile ranking ex-Prime Ministers…”
Goodness me, Egil thought. Never imagined being in a situation or having a conversation that involved the possibility of planning the assassination of an ex-high-profile-UK-PM.
“Not often anyways,” Jason said joining in the banter. “We leave that sort of messy stuff to our friends over at MI6. Or for a really good cock up party, the CIA…”
“Jason?” Egil said with mock stern in his voice. “Shut the fuck up and concentrate on bloody driving. I want to get to the penthouse in one piece.”
“Yes, Sir. Certainly, Sir,” Jason replied, “Sara, before Egil kicks my arse, I have to say. What a move on him… Never seen anyone take the big guy down in thirty seconds flat, let alone a school girlie…”
They all laughed, including Egil.
“OK, OK… Get your mind back on the job, Jason. I hope to God that your hacking skills are as good as you think they are. We’re going to need them.”
“We’ll have help,” Jason replied. “My friend has stopped behind at Thames House, she's better at this stuff than I am. And we can rely on her discretion.”
“For all of our sakes I hope you're right,” Egil said turning back to Carl. “Make sure your team is on high alert. I've got a feeling this is not going to be as easy as I think.”
“What makes you think that?” Carl asked.
“I don’t know. Call its spook gut instinct, I think we are being watched. By whom, or what. I have no idea. Have you noticed we’ve not hit one red light?”
“Yep. That does seem strange.”
“Watch our six. Just make sure your team are alert.”
“Roger that, boss,” Carl pressed on his mic and relayed instructions to his team following in the Rover behind them.
Another five minutes and they were turning into Millharbour back to the apartment complex of Pan Peninsula. Egil noted the place was still a hive of activity from the raid earlier before. There were TV crews, press and all manner of people around now. Something Egil did not like for one moment, but he knew it could not be helped. They drove up to the perimeter and Jason wound down his window. The policeman on guard said a polite hello, looked into the back of the car and nodded to Carl.
“The entire apartment block is now deserted,” he said to Jason and waved them through.
Police were out in force and where the incident had taken place was now cordoned
off with all inhabitants asked to leave. I bet that made them all happy, Egil thought to himself.
Carl got on his radio to get updates from the police on the ground. “The lift to the apartment as you can expect is out of commission. However, I’ve been told the stairs can still be used.”
“Thanks,” Egil replied. “I want everyone out of the apartment.”
“Roger that."
“And I mean everyone, forensics whoever and...” Egil continued.
Carl put a hand up to interrupt. “Egil, I’m being told there are people up there. Seems they are your friends from MI6 and are not responding to the ground commander’s requests to leave.”
“What are they doing up there?” Egil spat out to no-one in particular. Yeh, he thought, it’s Jacobs doing. “Can you get patched through directly to whoever is taking the lead for MI6?” Egil asked Carl.
“Yes I can, what do you need?”
“OK, tell them we are on the way up and they will be gone before we arrive.”
“Roger that.” Carl got back onto the radio asking to be patched through and relayed the message. A few seconds past. “The rude bastard. The guy up there told me to go fuck myself...” Carl said laughing.
“I thought he might. Right let’s get up there. Follow my lead when we get there,” Egil replied.
They all got out of the Range Rover. Carl’s team were already waiting standing next to their own vehicle.
Carl asked, “You guys packing?”
Egil looked to Sara and Jason. They nodded.
“We’ve got more equipment in the back of the Rover’s.” Carl said waving to one of his team members to open up the back of the cars. “Get the police flak jackets on and gear up with the two-way radios. They are the same ones my team are using now and will bypass any attempt of comms blocking. Switch to channel 9.”
“Until I say otherwise, we are treating anyone left up there as hostile,” Egil said to Carl as he got his gear on.
“What if they don’t want to move out of the apartment?” Carl asked.
“Use force then...”
“OK, on your orders. Your call sign is TANGO-2. You all can hear me, but only I can hear you. You can’t communicate with each other only through me. And, Egil? What if they decide to resist?”
“Shoot them in the freaking knee caps for all I care. I’m in no mood for these internal pissing contests. If they are armed, do what is needed.” Egil replied.
“Egil, you sure about this? We are talking about going up against our own,” Jason asked putting his own combat gear on.
“Until we know different? They are not our colleagues. There is no reason for MI6 to be on scene…”
“But…” Jason continued.
Egil gave Jason a stare that meant only one thing.
“Yes, boss. Roger that…” Jason replied.
“Good, let’s get going. Carl take point. You know what I expect.”
They walked down into the underground garage. It was deserted and felt eerie to Egil. He watched Carl’s team lead the front line in combat formation. A veteran combat soldier he was obviously not taking any chances. Sara, Jason and himself took up the rear a few paces back. Their own guns out but pointing downwards to the floor.
Moving quickly towards the lift area Egil noticed that whilst the rest of the garage was intact the lift area had not faired too well. The van from Egil’s vantage point looked strangely intact till they moved to the right side towards the stair well.
Two of Carl’s men flanked either side of the stairwell door, the other behind Carl. Carl opened it ready for anything that may be behind.
Egil glanced to his left. Looking at the carnage he could see the side of the van ripped apart. The directional blast and force focused towards the lift doors. Poor bastards he thought, anyone within the blast area would have been killed instantly. As for the lift that won't be used for quite a while. The bodies had already been removed but he could see the results of the carnage, blood and body matter telling the story of death.
"Egil, going through the doors now," Carl said over the comms. "It's going to take about ten minutes to climb the twenty odd flight of stairs to the penthouse. Keep up..."
Carl’s team reached the door of the penthouse first, Egil, Sara and Jason lagging behind.
Carl came over the radio again, “We’ll breach the door first and search the apartment. You three stay in the stairwell till I give the all clear. Maintain radio silence.”
By the time Egil had cleared the last few flights of stairs Carl’s team had already gone through the penthouse door. He felt the silence deafening. Sara and Jason came up and stood slightly behind him. She gave Egil a reassuring smile.
“POLICE! GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES, NOW!”
Egil flinched at the command. They had clearly made contact. More shouting and expletives exchanged.
“THIS IS THE LAST TIME I ASK. DOWN ON YOUR KNEES!” Egil heard Carl shout again. Egil moved forward but Sara grabbed a hold of him. He turned to her, she shook her head in a no, not yet gesture. How ironic, he thought, an MI5 officer now having his own body guard. She was right though and decided to stayed put.
“CLEAR”, Egil heard as what he surmised was the team sweeping through the apartment.
“Tango-1 to Tango-2. All clear. Come and join me in the room on the right. I believe this is the room you are looking for. Seems a few other people want something similar,” Carl said.
Egil heard more muffled voices before the radio went silent, “I’ll have your job for this…” He smiled to himself recognising the voice. This is going to be interesting.
Egil, Sara and Jason entered the apartment. Two men lay of the floor face down hands tied behind their backs with plastic cuffs tied around their wrists. One of Carl’s men stood over the two with his gun trained on them. Egil thought of asking him to stand down but thought better of it. Another member of Carl’s team stood outside the door next to the computer room. Sara walked over and entered first. He and Jason followed her.
Egil entered the room and could not help smiling. The last team member of Carl’s stood to one side with his gun aimed at another guy face down on the floor. Carl was a little more aggressive. The man he was guarding was shouting verbal abuse to Carl who had his size 12 boot pressed firmly on his neck.
“I was tempted to just shoot him,” Carl said to Egil. “But he says he is acting on the PM’s instructions. Or at least he believes he is.”
“Is that you Egil?” said the man on the floor, “Get this fucking goon off me…”
Carl forced more pressure on the guy’s neck making it hard for him to breathe.
“Good morning, Walter. Seems to me you are in the wrong playground,” Egil replied with a hint of laughter in his voice. “Carl, if you don’t mind, remove your boot and let him breathe a little…”
“I want more than his boot removed. I’m here on the instructions from the PM…” Walter said coughing and spurting.
“Shut up Walter. I see you’ve not changed much over the years. Get him off the floor and onto the chair. Let’s play question and answer.”
Carl grabbed hold of Walter by the scruff of the neck and in one easy movement picked him up and threw him into a chair.
Sara and Jason busied themselves over at another computer station tapping away on the keyboard.
“Guys,” Egil said, “I need the room for a few minutes. Carl, these idiots? Any of his team carrying weapons?”
“Nope, thankfully for them. Not. Otherwise this foul mouth…” he pointed to Walter with his gun, “would not be talking at all.” Carl turned to Egil, “I’m not too happy about leaving the room.”
“It’ll be fine. Five minutes is all I need. Take the other guy with you too. Sara, Jason, you two too, out now. Please.”
Chapter 43 | It’s been a long time
EGIL WALKED OVER to Walter. “Stand up and turn around Walter. You’re a bloody fool for being here, man.”
Walter stood up and did as he was told, E
gil took a combat knife out and cut the plastic cuffs turning Walter back around.
They looked at each other and Walter took a hold of Egil with a big bear hug. “It’s been a long time my good friend. I always told your father he should have convinced you to join MI6, not that wimp outfit you work for.”
They both laughed, not too loud. Not enough for anyone else to hear.
“OK, OK, enough of the bear hugging. What the hell are you’re doing here, Walter?”
“Your goon is right. I believe I am here on the instructions of the PM. But I know that is bullshit,” Walter waved his hands around the room, “this is all bullshit.”
“He isn’t a goon, Walter. Be thankful, I gave instructions to shoot anyone that resisted and I trust him a lot more than I trust you and yours at present. Now tell me exactly why you’re here and what for.”
“I got a call a few hours ago to get a team together, come here and remove the computers and anything else I could find. I was told that the instructions had come from control and under the direct orders of the PM. Which I know is complete bull.”
“Yes I believe it is. At the very least that would be MI5s job,” Egil replied smiling. “Where were you asked to take them?”
“Back to Vauxhall Bridge,” Walter replied. Vauxhall Bridge being the Head Quarters of MI6. “And that’s all I know, Egil. I’m glad you turned up when you did.”
Egil stared at his old friend. As with the Home Secretary someone he had known for all of his life. And like the Home Secretary, a master spy, but a street soldier. One that could lie with ease, claim all the innocence of a baby whilst throwing around smoking mirrors as if they were going out of fashion.
“Walter I don’t believe that for one moment. I’ve asked my team to leave so we can have private words. I don’t want them to know how far we go back. What you did for my father and all, I will always be grateful. But don’t give me crap about so called instructions from the PM. You know a lot more, you always do.”
Egil could see Walter’s shoulders sigh as he sat back down on the chair.
