Latent Hazard

by Piers Venmore-Rowland

  He turned to the most recent balance sheet and looked at the property assets figure. Oh shit! Why the hell hadn’t he noticed this earlier? The figure in the accounts was greater than the total set out in the Dewoodson valuation report. Bloody hell! There was £7.4 million unaccounted for! His mind was like a car without synchromesh. He struggled to think of a reason why it might be different. Of course! Development properties could be held in the accounts at cost – and they wouldn’t necessarily be included in the valuation report. Rafi stopped and thought. So somewhere there had to be details of the missing developments – probably a letter from the valuer which simply stated that the developments had a value greater than their book cost. £7.4 million wasn’t large, but it could conceal one or more key properties. They had to find this missing piece of information. ‘Oh yes!’ he exclaimed.

  Kate looked at him as if he had a screw loose.

  ‘That devious little bugger Wesson is still hampering our investigations,’ Rafi exclaimed.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘We’re missing a letter which sets out PREH’s development properties. See if Rick can get the valuer to talk and get him to do a word search for “development” on all their computers.’

  John called across the room. ‘Want an update on MI5 and UKSOIL?’ It was a rhetorical question. ‘It seems that the journalist Kaleem Shah is the suicide bombers’ quartermaster. The good news is that they’ve traced and have under surveillance five of the suspects. The question is how the hell do we work out what target, or targets, this little team is going to attack? So far MI5 have drawn a blank!’

  ‘Let’s try and narrow it down a bit,’ said Kate. ‘Do we think that Kaleem Shah is a suicide bomber?’

  ‘No,’ said John, ‘he’s the organiser.’

  ‘Will he stay in the UK or flee with the Chechen terrorists?’ asked Kate.

  ‘I reckon he’ll hop on board one of the trawlers,’ said John.

  ‘I’d put my money on Great Yarmouth,’ said Emma, ‘and opt for the suicide bombers going for a London-based target, as it would give the highest profile.’

  ‘But where might they strike?’ asked Kate.

  Aidan, who had returned from the conference room upstairs, volunteered a comment. ‘They’ll stay well away from the financial exchanges. The last thing they’ll want is to have the markets closed because then they won’t be able to get their hands on all their profits.’

  ‘Good point,’ said Kate.

  ‘Perhaps they intend to use the suicide bombers to scare people?’ Rafi ventured.

  ‘What could we put on the list then?’ asked Kate.

  ‘Transport hubs,’ suggested John.

  ‘Politicians and residential areas where City bankers live,’ added Emma, ‘and what about top schools, where foreigners working in the City send their children?’

  ‘Anything else?’ said Kate.

  ‘The nuclear train?’ suggested John.

  ‘I doubt if the suicide bombers’ explosives would be powerful enough to do any real damage,’ said Emma, ‘or at least that’s what the reports I’ve read indicate.’

  Rafi wasn’t certain where the idea came from, but his thoughts had wandered to other things nuclear. ‘Could they target the nuclear arms industry? If an attack resulted in a radioactive leak, others could use it as a way of putting pressure on the Government and the new upgraded Trident missiles programme.’

  Everyone turned and looked at him.

  ‘Emma, is there anything in the South-East that might fit the bill?’ asked Kate.

  ‘The obvious one is the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, outside Reading.’

  ‘Thank you. Please put it on your screen.’

  Emma was frowning. ‘Can we go back a step or two, please? Oughtn’t we to be thinking of other ways of tracing where the terrorists might be? No doubt MI5 will have gone through the list of possibilities systematically. But, might it be worth checking to see if Unicorn Crescent Finance has issued any of the missing suicide bombers or Kaleem Shah with a credit card which doesn’t show up on the usual searches done by MI5?’

  ‘You mean they could be using a credit card, thinking it was safe?’ continued Kate.

  ‘Worth a try!’ said John. He called across to Peter, ‘Did you get that? Can you pass it on to Jeremy’s boss, Neil Gunton? Thanks.’

  A minute later Peter put down the phone, looking relieved.

  ‘How did Neil take your suggestion?’ asked Kate.

  ‘Surprisingly well – all he said was thank you.’

  Kate’s phone rang; it was Beverley, the commissioner’s personal assistant.

  ‘Oh dear, yes of course,’ replied Kate. ‘Emma could you and Aidan tidy up his papers which are strewn around the commissioner’s conference room. He is back and would like to use it!’

  Rafi sat there thinking. What else might he have missed? He dozed off.

  At 5.55 p.m. Kate lightly shook him but he remained out for the count. She paused wondering which bit was safest to shake a little harder. She softly tapped his leg.

  Rafi woke suddenly. ‘Ooouch!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘Don’t tell me you’ve got a bruise there as well!’ said Kate. ‘Sorry, but I’m running out of options as to where’s safe to touch you.’

  ‘No probs! Was I asleep long?’ Rafi sat up to find everyone was looking at him. ‘Sorry for the forty winks, but sleep has been a bit scarce.’

  ‘Time to see the boss,’ said Kate.

  This was going to be make or break, thought Rafi as he followed the team up the back stairs to the commissioner’s conference room. He was worried key pieces of the terrorists’ plans were still missing. The terrorists had planned the whole affair with great precision. Their plans were multifaceted and this made them very difficult to stop. At least the terrorists didn’t know they were on to them. He arrived in the boardroom still wrapped up in his own world.

  Rafi was brought back to reality by a gentle touch on his shoulder.

  ‘Are you OK?’ enquired Kate. Rafi sensed that a bond of mutual understanding and respect had started to form between them. He turned and looked straight into Kate’s warm eyes, not two feet away. He hadn’t had the opportunity to look at her face close up – it was her eyes that captivated him.

  ‘Sorry,’ Rafi stuttered, ‘I was miles away – again. It’s just that the terrorists have been very careful to cover their tracks and plan to attack in several places at once. I keep worrying that I’ve missed something and it turns out to be costly.’

  Close up, Kate’s smile and her twinkling eyes had a disarming effect. Rafi wasn’t accustomed to such closeness; he moved back a pace to give himself a bit of breathing space and stepped straight into the path of the commissioner, who had entered the room at some speed, aware no doubt that he and David were running two minutes late.

  ‘Sorry sir.’ Rafi noticed that he’d scuffed the commissioner’s pristinely polished shoes.

  ‘No problem,’ came the reply, ‘let’s get started!’

  Rafi turned and looked at Kate whose smile was bordering on a chuckle. She looked at him, whispering, ‘Whoops.’

  At the boardroom table, Kate and Rafi sat opposite each other. The commissioner looked around the table. ‘So, how are you progressing? As we agreed at our last meeting, this is crunch time. We will have to inform our political masters sooner rather than later. Kate, please update us.’

  Kate looked at the faces around the table. They looked haggard. She just hoped she could do herself justice and convey the gravity of the position to the commissioner. The chips were down and she didn’t like what she was going to report.

  ‘Sir, let me summarise the position. Quite a lot has happened since our recent phone conversation. We believe that the missile attacks will come in the first couple of hours of daylight tomorrow morning. Through David’s Estonian contact, Colonel Matlik, we have confirmation that the terrorists have five Kornet anti-tank missile launchers and between three and four missiles
per launcher. As you know, these missiles are lethal pieces of equipment. In addition, we now find that they also have four South African 60 mm Vektor mortars with eighty high-explosive shells.’

  Kate paused. ‘We’ve narrowed down the potential locations of the targets and I’ll come back to this in a minute.’ The commissioner nodded.

  ‘Following helpful discussions with the Immigration Office, we have identified two fast track and legitimate ways of getting UK visas, which the terrorists have used to get five people into the UK. Colonel Matlik and his contacts in Moscow have identified four as being former Chechen militia. We’re advised to treat Messrs Miromov, Dudayev, Popovskaya and Kowshaya with extreme caution. We are told that their training and experience is such that they’ll give the SAS a run for their money. The fifth person, a journalist called Kaleem Shah, is ex-Sandhurst and has experience of war zones in the Middle East and urban warfare.’

  Kate paused again. ‘We believe that each Chechen mercenary has a Kornet missile launcher, a Vektor mortar and two targets. Jeremy has been chatting to a senior contact in the SAS, who advises that they are likely to be operating as individuals. As far as the fifth missile launcher is concerned, we think it is for their high speed getaway vessel, Golden Sundancer. She is in the North Atlantic, heading, we believe, for a rendezvous point off the north Scottish coast tomorrow evening.

  ‘Nine UKSOIL-trained suicide bombers have been identified, as has their quartermaster, Kaleem Shah. Jeremy’s colleagues at MI5 have traced five of them, but unfortunately Mr Shah and four of the suicide bombers are unaccounted for. Moving on to the ringleaders – MI5 have the four . . . Jameel Furud, Basel Talal, Maryam Vynckt and Sheikh Akram Tufayl – under constant but discrete surveillance. There is a fifth possible ringleader: Miti Lakhani, who runs their terrorist training base in Africa. Unfortunately he has vanished. Maryam and the sheikh are behaving normally. Jameel is enjoying his golf at a luxury hotel in Marrakech and Basel is on board their getaway vessel Golden Sundancer.

  ‘Three of the terrorists’ deep sea trawlers are in port at Peterhead, Great Yarmouth and Troon and ready to put to sea. All are fully provisioned for a long voyage. Two of the vessels have recently undergone major refits during which new engines and long range fuel tanks were put in. The engines have been fully commissioned over the past couple of weeks. We therefore have three exit points.’

  Kate paused and took a sip of water. ‘We have either eight or ten targets to identify and protect. Until we have confirmation that the fifth missile launcher is on the getaway vessel we must assume that there are ten targets.’ Kate looked across at her two bosses. ‘Our current informed guesses are that: terrorist number one will attack Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station, plus one further target currently unknown.’ There was an audible drawing in of breath as the word nuclear was uttered. ‘They have a vacant industrial property which overlooks the power station,’ she explained.

  ‘The second will attack the St Fergus gas terminal and storage tanks and the North Sea oil pumping station at Cruden Bay. Both are close to Peterhead, where the terrorists own two ideally located and vacant industrial properties.

  ‘Number three will attack Heysham nuclear power station on the Lancashire coast where they own a property with a clear line of sight. We think that he will also attack either Sellafield nuclear reprocessing centre or Hunterstone “B” nuclear power station.

  ‘And terrorist number four will attack the Bacton gas terminal. They own a property in North Walsham, a few miles away. His second target is still unknown. This could be Sizewell nuclear power station, or the Grays liquid petroleum gas storage depot on the banks of the Thames near to the Dartford crossing. But our instincts tell us the missing target will be in London. We had the marshalling yards at Willesden at the top of our list, but MI5 report that there are currently no nuclear containers there, so we are still looking. We have an outstanding lead on some development properties and hope they will help fill in some of the gaps.

  ‘As I said earlier, missile launcher number five, we believe, is on board Golden Sundancer. Its targets are unknown, but at this point our view is that this missile launcher is for defensive purposes only.’

  Kate shifted in her seat. ‘Time is not on our side. The facts, as we and MI5 read them, point to the attacks coming early tomorrow morning shortly after dawn. In the meantime MI5 has its operatives and anti-terrorist officers en route to these locations. They will remain very low profile.’

  ‘Now for the terrorist game plan, as we see it.’ Kate paused, not so much for effect, but rather to collect her thoughts. ‘Rafi and Aidan have been looking at the wider picture. This is where things get truly scary. We have reason to believe that the terrorists are trying to engineer the collapse of our already weakened financial system and UK plc. This, we believe, is their primary objective. By so doing, they will reap huge profits in the derivatives market.’

  Kate paused again and looked across at the commissioner and the chief superintendent. They were looking shocked and sitting bolt upright, like schoolmasters during the saying of grace. Her face was unsmiling. ‘We have confirmation that the terrorists control four public quoted companies and ten private companies. These businesses employ over 250,000 people. Through these companies the terrorists have in their pockets a number of influential individuals who MI5 advise us are being paid exorbitant fees as consultants or non-executive board members. Included within the 300 or so people are: Members of Parliament, special advisers to the Government and people in strategic senior positions. It is MI5’s opinion that a number of these people could be the terrorists’ eyes and ears and could therefore be invisible sleepers.’

  ‘The terrorists have set up the privately owned company, PSSAF, and six other financial institutions to go bust following their attacks. Aidan estimates that the terrorists stand to make at least £50 billion if all goes to plan, which will add to the financial chaos.’

  Kate looked down the table at the stony faces of the two chiefs. ‘Now for the better news,’ she said, with the beginnings of a smile on her tired face. ‘Unbelievably, we – actually, I should say Rafi – have come up with a plan which the Government could use to calm and protect the financial markets. Unfortunately, his and Aidan’s cynical view is that our political masters will instinctively move into spin, damage limitation and procrastination mode. This is what the terrorists are expecting. If the politicians procrastinate, all too quickly the downward momentum will be too great for even the Bank of England to stop. However, if – and it’s a massive if – the Government can keep the markets steady, we can beat the terrorists at their own game. If interest rates and gilt prices can be held stable, the terrorists’ derivative positions will become untenable and they and their co-conspirators will rapidly face huge losses. The scale of their losses could set terrorism back several years and even bankrupt many of their financial backers.’

  ‘Rafi’s plan is for the Government to put into place a war chest which will enable them to issue shares in Government Real Estate Investment Trusts, instead of tapping the gilts market. These can be used to meet the potentially large increase in their liabilities. It’s ingenious, in that they can draw down what they need when it’s needed. Aidan reckons that this war chest could have £400 billion in it. This would be more than enough to placate the markets, under all but the very worst outcomes of the terrorist missile attacks.’

  Kate paused. Now for the difficult bit, she thought. ‘What we need is complete secrecy. MI5’s and our worry is that the terrorists’ well-placed sleepers include contacts in both COBRA and the Mayor of London’s disaster unit. MI5 are still working on the list of names that John has given them. Our concern, and a big one at that, is that if the terrorists were to be tipped off and changed to a plan “B”, we would be completely in the dark as to how to stop them. I appreciate the chances are small, but the hazards are enormous.’

  The commissioner almost interrupted again, but managed to keep silent.

  Kate contin
ued. ‘Our advice on what to do in order to contain the damage is that the London Stock Exchange and Euronext.Liffe must, at the last moment, not open tomorrow.’ She paused. ‘Also, we believe that it’s too large a risk to take to expect our political masters to fully and quickly comprehend the scale of what they’re up against. Spin, procrastination and aggrandisement have become so ingrained amongst some ministers that we seriously wonder whether they’ll move quickly enough. Accordingly, as of now, Rafi would like to bring together a team of four or five senior City gurus, who will be tasked with drawing up an economic plan for the consideration of our political masters, so that they will be able to make decisions based on facts and not on short-term political expediency and spin. Realistically, by this time tomorrow evening Rafi and Aidan will be ready to drop and won’t be in a fit state to pitch a financial recovery plan to the Bank of England or the Treasury. Who knows, the City gurus might even come up with a better plan.’ At this point Kate shot Rafi and Aidan an unexpectedly mischievous smile.

  ‘Agreed,’ said the commissioner, letting Kate carry on.

  ‘Our next proposal is that the SAS and anti-terrorist squads should be brought in to neutralise the terrorists and to search all the properties we have identified as terrorist bases. In addition, the individual terrorists must be stopped from causing damage with their missiles, but if feasible they should be allowed to escape and run to the trawlers. We can then follow them and hopefully pull in all those involved at the top of the hierarchy, who are in charge of this operation.’

  ‘Lastly, we could do with another Nimrod – AWACS. We have one monitoring Golden Sundancer. It would be useful to have a second keeping an eye on the trawler in Great Yarmouth.’