by Geoff Wolak
The blacks thought better of it, and knelt, hands behind heads, sirens sounding out.
With the local men arrested, the CT police back in their van, calm reclaimed the street.
Graveson noted, ‘Just another day in London.’
‘Where did you start out?’
‘Watford, then here.’
‘Family?’
‘Had a steady girl, copper, but the move broke us up. Then I had another steady female officer, but the job gets in the way. We had conflicting shift patterns, and that has split up more coppers than anything else.’
I nodded. ‘I heard, yeah. And the CT lads here?’
‘Four days on, three off, which is better. The four days are twelve hours days, but we like the time off. You can see family and do things.’
I clocked Tiny in a wig. She looked right at me as she came in.
‘What?’ Graveson asked, a glance over his shoulder. ‘Bit of skirt?’
‘I wouldn’t dabble here, too dangerous. She’d probably kill me in my sleep.’
David called at 7pm, as I sat in my room with Graveson, an old war movie on the TV. ‘Are you free around 9pm?’
‘Sure, just sat in the hotel watching TV.’
‘I’ll send vans.’
‘There’s a CT police van outside.’
‘We’ll let them know.’
The van arrived at 8.30pm, and we mounted up, the existing CT van to follow. I walked back to the CT van, and handed over cash without anyone outside seeing. ‘Curry on me.’
‘Thanks, Boss.’
At Vauxhall the vans waited in the underground car park, David’s new assistant taking me up, and he looked familiar. I wondered if he was the ‘chap’ punched on the nose by Terry.
In a meeting room I found the Deputy Chief, who was anything other than happy to see me. ‘Jet lagged?’ I asked as we shook. I sat down with David.
‘Been a rough few weeks.’
‘I saw some of it on the TV,’ I quipped.
‘We’ve been hiding evidence,’ he testily stated. ‘But there are a still some shit questions coming from Congress and the Senate. Even had a story in the New York Times about the plane shot down by the Navy, a man with no fingers recovered. The conspiracy theories are flying around thick and fast.
‘And then there’s Senator Phillson, linked to mob and assassinated in public. That gets a lot of air time. And as for the missiles, still questions being asked.’
I began, ‘What did the FARC men admit to?’
‘Their stories are sketchy, the FBI believe they’re hiding something.’
‘Will they be charged?’
‘They’ll stand trial for a thousand charges, and all come with the electric chair.’
‘Dead men don’t change their stories later on,’ I quipped.
‘And am I going to get the truth from you?’
‘Not if you’re dumb enough to want to go after Deep State.’
He took a moment. ‘I’ve known about them for years, heard rumours before that, but whenever we had something more than a rumour it was about someone we couldn’t investigate.’
‘As it is now. But if you have a course of action that is … not suicidal, I’ll help.’
‘If I have an understanding of them, then I can do my job better and … maybe confound them a little.’
I glanced at David.
David suggested, ‘He has a right to know.’
I sighed. ‘Senator Phillson was pulling the strings of a Commander Gomez, ex-Navy signals intel and a very capable operator. Gomez was above Colonel Raywood, a good operator, but he took risks. Charley Rose was below Raywood.
‘Now, today, Senator Delaney seems to be top dog, and there are several different teams, none of whom seem to talk to each other, hence the screw-ups. One group has been supporting me, and was encouraging me to investigate the missiles and track back, shocked when the trial led back to the same building they were sat in.
‘When I confronted my contact with what I knew he was shocked, and not party to what went on.’
‘So they’re not so clever,’ the Deputy Chief smugly noted.
‘No, definitely not; the left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing. And the right hand was firing missiles and risking being exposed. As for the tainted drugs, they were still gearing up and hadn’t manufactured much, but could have done.
‘What a man called Solictor gave up, working for Raywood, was that Raywood wanted to destroy all cartels, perhaps for personal reasons - because he mother died from an overdose when he was ten. Despite his desire to destroy the drugs industry, Raywood had been working with the Medellin Cartel for at least two years.
‘He was working with cartel man No.3, Manchez, who was killed by his own people when they suddenly couldn’t sell any drugs. As for the foot soldiers, you have all the phones and ID cards. So, what do you plan on doing?’
‘Not much I can do, because if they’re exposed then people will see it as an agency conspiracy.’
I nodded. ‘I gave you a good write-up to the media.’
‘It all helps, and for people to think we have agents embedded with you makes us look better. But as the Congressmen ask – how come we didn’t know about the missiles?’
‘Because your own people were shafting you. And Deep State, they got all my reports to the Pentagon a minute after I gave the reports.’
‘There’s a secure recipient list, and I can’t stop it,’ he said, sighing out.
‘Do you have any useful advice for me?’ I asked. ‘As far as Deep State are concerned?’
He shrugged. ‘If you refuse to cooperate they’ll pressure your government. Delaney is the Senate leader, could be president in two years, but he’s said he won’t run.’
‘So there’s little any of us can do.’
‘Given what they did, we should keep an eye on them,’ he suggested. ‘They nearly sunk a carrier! They’re more of a threat than the damn North Koreans!’
‘True, but what my researcher suggested to me a while back, was that Deep State has grown and shrunk like the tide, changing with each new administration. If you halt, block, or deter this lot, more come around in a few years. It’s not had the same staff for twenty years.’
David put in, ‘You’ll always have military men thinking they know more than the White House, and you’ll always have secret groups in one shape or another. Two senators having a private chat is a mini Deep State.
‘Here in the UK we’ve had similar problems, and recently, Lord Michaels being the prime example. But we’ve not had military men consorting with people they should not be consorting with.’
I put in, ‘General Boltweir admits to contact with them, but was horrified at what I told him. He’ll keep his distance from now on and be careful. And if the Joint Chiefs knew they’d want Deep State gone.’
The Deputy eased back, ‘Joint Chiefs are close to Delaney, he’s on the top committees. They won’t upset him.’
‘Any suitable evidence has probably been buried by now,’ I suggested.
He nodded. ‘NSA are pissed off, they want a larger role but failed to do what your lot achieved. And you found Li Xing and Terotski, which has caused those above to ask why we never found them.’
I held my hands wide. ‘I have a good team, and I have the underworld contacts. And you assisted with developing those contacts.’
‘I made that claim, yes.’
David began, ‘So, in summary, there’s little any of us could do, or should do, against Deep State, other than stay vigilante because they do seem to be prone to trying to rule the world their way – and seem to have no issues with the mass murder of their own citizens.’
The Deputy faced me. ‘And if they step out of line?’
‘I have some people that will kill them, no evidence left behind. Had they not cleaned house, I would have tried to do that for them.’
He faced David. ‘Is that London talking, or Wilco talking?’
‘That’s Wilco talk
ing, but on our behalf and with our best interests at heart.’
The Deputy faced me again. ‘You have people in the States?’
‘No, but I could find you at home, sneak in and steal your watch as you sleep and leave no evidence behind. My team has grown and matured, and continues to grow, and is well funded.’
‘We’re well funded as well,’ he quipped.
‘You’re still fighting the Cold War!’
‘That will change, because we now have a dedicated counter-terrorism department, plenty of talent and a good budget. We even have a new narco unit.’
‘If that unit wants to know something, ask me,’ I told him. ‘But stay away from Tomsk.’
‘And if we were ordered to go after him?’
‘It would be a bloodbath. And if he took the stand, your head would be on the floor of the courtroom. So if they order you to do so, tip me off and leave it to me to sort out. And if you come across someone as mad as Raywood, send me their details and I’ll deal with them before they make their play for global domination and mass murder, tainted cocaine in the McDonalds burgers.’
‘Do you even fear Deep State?’
‘No. A few years back I would not have had a clue about such people, nor how to protect myself, nor how to reach them, and I would have been afraid. Now, they’re just men in shirts in an office with some powers, but they make mistakes, they make lots of mistakes, and my people only need them to make one mistake and we have them.
‘They operate at a high level, so do we. Now we do at least, and we can push back and look after ourselves. I have many agencies to call upon, plus all my underworld contacts, and my phone is way more powerful than yours even; my people can stretch and break laws when you try and stay inside them.’
He faced David. ‘You’ve come a long way, now an impressive team.’
David responded, ‘They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and we’ve been attacked many times these past years, and each time we get better at dealing with things, each time we learn something and adjust our processes.
‘And our Deep State was Lord Michaels, and we learnt from it, and we have … people in place now to help deal with such matters.’
The Chief slowly nodded as he thought, looking tired. ‘Next comes Kosovo. They’re making plans already.’
‘Will they want the American Wolves?’ I asked.
‘Most likely. They see it as a special forces operation, plus selective bombing. But we have a wrinkle in that the KLA are … not as reliable as we would like, and some like robbing and killing for fun. We’ll have to keep their antics out of the media.’
‘I’ll start training the Wolves for deep dark woods full of Serbian soldiers.’
He laughed. ‘Maybe they read the book.’
David put in, ‘Let’s hope the Serbs never read it.’
‘Tomsk translated it into Serbo-Croat and Russian,’ I told him. ‘So they might have read it.’ I faced the Deputy. ‘Will the FBI ask me difficult questions?’
‘They want answers, and no one has the answers to give them.’
I faced David. ‘Anything on record here about Deep State?’
‘No.’
‘None of the players?’
‘Terotski and Li Xing, the Canadian contactors, Cholos, Manchez, no Americans.’
‘If your people create a timeline of key facts, I’ll go through it with them, just so that I’m ready for the FBI.’
He made a note.
I faced the Deputy. ‘You’re trying to walk a fine line between what’s legal and what’s necessary, and that will always give you stress. If David here was working by himself and trying to deal with Lord Michaels he would have got nowhere, those above him preventing him for doing his job.
‘You’re stuck in the straight and narrow, and stressed because of it, little shits above you breaking the law, and you can’t touch them. So smile nicely, nod your head, then call me, and my friends in low places will meet evil with evil, and we’ll all pretend that they cancel each other out.
‘If not, Delaney will start a war somewhere, and someone like Raywood will poison millions of people. We’re on the same team, so starting thinking of us in that way. You helped us often enough, and we can help you now. You keep your desk clean, and crime free, and let us lend a hand, because we have a common cause – the avoidance of dickheads playing God.’
David told him, ‘We’re a phone call away.’
‘Good to know, and yes – I’m stressed.’
David told him, ‘You’re trying to fight the fire without any tools. You can’t tell the fire it’s in the wrong, and to please desist.’
We finally shook, and I headed back to my hotel in the vans. Back in my room, Graveson off to watch a movie in his room, I called Tiny and she came up, still in her black wig.
‘Anyone question the wig?’
‘A lady did, but I told her I had cancer. That shut her up.’
‘Good thinking. Right, shower time.’
After sex in the shower, followed by a shower in the shower, we ordered food, and we sat eating it twenty minutes later.
‘How’d your meeting go?’ she asked.
‘America has many groups, all pulling in different directions. Here we had Lord Michaels, and they have similar problems, Senators playing God.’
I studied her.
‘What?’
‘Could you … pull the trigger in someone you don’t know?’
‘Hell yes. Killing those two men was easy, and I don’t lose sleep over it.’
‘I’ll get you an M4 with sights, and you can practise. Did you ever see the movie, Terminator Two?’
‘Yes, loved it.’
‘You saw that woman at the end, M4 with silencer..?’
‘I could do that, yes,’ she enthused. ‘I’d duff-up that Terminator and beat his balls.’
‘I … don’t think the robot had balls.’
‘But in the first movie he walks naked and people see him, so he had to have a cock and balls or they would have said something.’
‘It was scripted, crazy woman, not real life!’
‘I reckon the robot has balls, to look normal.’
I sighed and shook my head.
At 6am my phone trilled, Tiny complaining. ‘Wilco.’
‘It’s Rocko, and we just fished a dead body out he canal, man in combats.’
‘One of ours?’
‘No, they found him when they went fishing.’
‘I’m on my way back.’
Phone down, Tiny asked, ‘You have to go?’
‘Dead body in the canal at GL4. Go shopping if you like.’ I jumped up and got dressed. When ready, I kissed her on the head. ‘Don’t worry about reception, I’ll tell them you’re a hooker.’
‘You better not!’ came from a face in a pillow.
I woke up Graveson, and he got ready as I grabbed an early breakfast and a coffee. He joined me, awake and alert, if not nervous, and we ran to the CT van first.
I shouted, ‘Got to get back to GL4! Trouble there.’
Graveson grabbed the car, and we led the van off, the traffic light enough.
At the second service station we pulled in. The van parked next to us.
I said to them. ‘Check your fuel, get a coffee to go, use the toilet if you need it.’ I fetched two coffees to go, one handed go Graveson. As we left, both Graveson and the van topped up fuel.
An hour later we pulled into GL4, local police cars seen. With the CT van halting, old friends greeted, I drove with the MP Captain to the canal, finding a white tent, a body in it, men in white overalls, police dotted around.
Rocko began, ‘Shot in the back, small calibre – he never drowned.’
I pointed beyond the canal. ‘Has anyone searched?’
‘Not yet.’
I led him and Graveson two hundred yards north, through a gate and over an old stone bridge and to a track that delineated our land. On that track I knelt. No vehicles for weeks. I walked on, soon
kneeling. Prints.
‘One man walked this way, not two.’ Up ahead I could see the start of a hedge and a row of trees buried in that hedge. ‘Rocko, watch those bushes.’
He made ready his Valmet and called over two armed MPs. They spread out and aimed into the bushes as I advanced, following the tracks. The tracks led past the bushes and on, but I soon spotted a second pair of tracks, going the opposite way. I backed up and studied the bushes. Looking up, I could see scuff marks on the tree.
Standing tall, I could see blood on a broken branch. ‘Get SOCO!’
An MP ran off, SOCO soon running this way.
I pointed, ‘Man climbed the tree, blood there, but not from the body. That’s the blood of our shooter.’
A leg up, and the small broken branch was cut off, soon bagged up.
Turning, I followed both sets of prints to the road, no new evidence found after a good look. We walked back to our own property.
Ducking into the white tent, I stood over the body and peered down at the face. ‘I know that face from somewhere.’ I got a better look. ‘Do me a favour. Photograph him, then do an artist’s sketch and make him look normal, or tanned. And fast. And I need the bullet dug out quickly.’
I walked twenty yards east, telling everyone to stay back, and I checked for prints in a radial line, this area being dirt not grass. There were prints, well defined, man and dog, but there were no prints from some cold and very wet assassin walking towards the base.
Back at the main gate, I stepped inside the gate house. To the MP Captain I said, ‘What time was the last patrol in that area?’
‘They’re every hour, sir, but we vary the times so that no one can predict us. Nothing was seen, and the dogs never saw, smelt nor heard anything.’
‘You searched the base?’
‘Top to bottom, sir.’
‘I found tracks, and a man up a tree left some blood, so … the man up the tree shot the man you found swimming. Question is … why? Someone sent that man, and someone else shot him.’
‘Police divers on the way to look for a weapon, sir.’
I nodded, and headed for the canteen, a dozen Echo lads in.
‘What do your reckon to our cold wet stiff?’ Moran asked.
