Sese Obi, the wannabe-African warlord he’d helped defeat a year earlier, was a more realistic proposition. However, the last they’d heard, Obi had been embroiled in local skirmishes hundreds of miles away from Kano, and wouldn’t have had the time or funds to be the driving force behind the bombings.
That really left only one person. A man with connections to—and a motive to hate—the UK government, as well as the wherewithal to mastermind the attacks. He also had more than enough reason to want Gray wiped off the face of the planet.
‘Tell me about James Farrar,’ Gray said.
Harvey looked confused. ‘You know all about him.’
‘I mean, tell me what progress you’ve made in finding him. You told me he skipped bail ages ago. Where is he now?’
Harvey gave him a condensed version of their search efforts over the previous months, and voiced his frustration at not being able to follow up on certain leads.
‘So this Thompson woman is brought in to lead the search, but she concentrates her efforts on places you know Farrar would avoid like the plague. That’s like looking for a polar bear in the Amazon rainforest.’
‘That pretty much sums it up,’ Harvey admitted, and Gray could see realisation dawn.
‘You just told me the home secretary only wants Six to continue the investigation, and one of the people involved is Thompson, who did her best to make sure the search for Farrar failed.’
Harvey nodded slowly. ‘Usually when you start talking like this, I take it with a pinch of salt.’
‘But it smells right, doesn’t it?’
Harvey nodded again. ‘I’ll float the idea past Ellis and see what she thinks,’ he said, grabbing his coat from the utility room. ‘In the meantime, you think about lending us Sonny, Len and one other for a few days.’
‘Consider them yours,’ Gray said, ‘and I’m coming along, too.’
‘That was what I originally asked Ellis for, but she wants you to stay out of it. Besides, what about Melissa?’
‘Ken and Mina can take her for a few days.’ His in-laws had taken the insurance money from the house fire that killed Vick and bought a place in southern Italy. ‘They live far away from here now. She’ll be safe with them.’
‘The boss won’t like it,’ Harvey said.
‘Then she doesn’t have to know,’ Gray said, a determined look in his eye. ‘I believe I’m still free to travel when and where I want, so Melissa and I are going abroad for Christmas. What I do from there is no-one’s business.’
‘I can’t talk you out of this, can I?’
Gray ignored the rhetorical question and pulled out his phone. ‘Sonny,’ he told it, letting the auto-dial feature do its work.
Harvey waved his hands like a madman, causing Gray to ask what the hell the problem was.
‘Just ask him to come over,’ Harvey whispered. ‘Give him no further details.’
Gray thought it strange, but did as he was told. After hanging up, he asked the MI5 operative to explain.
‘One of the key parts about this operation is that electronic communications are out. Your team will rendezvous with Kyle in Abuja and fill him in on the details.’
‘Are you saying I’m under surveillance?’
‘I can’t go into specifics, but I can tell you the parameters under which you’ll have to operate. Don’t ask me to elaborate, because I can’t and I won’t.’
Gray nodded for him to continue.
All communications had to be face to face, Harvey said, with telephone and email out of the question. Dead drop emails were also out, so Gray’s team couldn’t even create a message, save it as a draft and wait for Harvey to read it. That method was usually successful at circumventing any eavesdropping techniques, but Harvey warned Gray not to try it.
‘I’m serious, Tom. Don’t even type out a draft text message. In fact, just leave anything electronic here at home.’
The idea that anything he said or typed into a phone or computer sent a chill through Gray. ‘How long has this kind of surveillance been going on?’
Harvey looked uncomfortable but answered after a moment’s pause. ‘Not long. Only since the attacks.’
Gray’s forehead furrowed at the news. ‘This doesn’t sound like something you just cobble together in response to a major incident,’ he said. ‘They must have been working on this for months, if not years.’
‘As I said, I can’t go into that.’
‘Well, you should certainly question it,’ Gray nearly shouted. ‘You can see how angry I am about this, and I bet others will be too when they find out.’
‘They won’t, Tom. What I’ve already told you is in strict confidence, and it goes no further.’
Gray was about to reply, but Harvey wasn’t finished. He looked over at Melissa, who was holding up her empty dessert carton. ‘For both your sakes, forget I ever mentioned this.’
Gray took a swift step forward. ‘Don’t you dare threaten my daughter.’
‘I’m not,’ Harvey said, his hands raised in submission. ‘I’m just warning you that it isn’t just the British government who have a stake in this.’
Gray stopped and considered the implications for a moment. ‘How big?’
‘You don’t want to know.’
The discussion was interrupted as Sonny buzzed to announce his arrival. Smart arrived a few minutes later, and Gray let Harvey explain what was required of them. Both Smart and Sonny were happy to take on the mission, until Gray dropped the bombshell.
‘Tell them about the restrictions they’ll be under.’
Harvey reluctantly gave them a rundown of the rules regarding communications, and their reaction was the same as Gray’s.
‘Our government actually signed this off ?’ Smart asked. ‘When?’
‘Yesterday,’ Harvey said. ‘Look, if they hadn’t, a couple of hundred bombers would still be out there, killing thousands of innocent people. We managed to take them all down in twenty-four hours.’
‘So the end justifies the means?’ Sonny said. ‘I didn’t recall seeing an announcement about it on the news.’
‘And hopefully you never will,’ Harvey told him. ‘Look, I can’t say I’m thrilled about having my privacy stripped from me, but if it manages to prevent another attack like this, they can happily read my emails.’
‘What about long-term?’ Smart asked. ‘I mean, three years down the line and every lunatic and extremist is locked away. Then what? Does it get mothballed, or will they turn their attention to more mundane activities like rooting out internet trolls?’
‘I have no idea, Len, but before it got that far I expect they’d target drug dealers, criminal gangs, paedophiles and a host of others from the arse end of society. All I really know is, it can make a big difference.’
Gray had to admit to himself that there were positives to take from it, and as he wasn’t involved in any illegal activities it shouldn’t affect his life too much. But still . . . . Well, the time for hand-wringing was over. ‘All right, everyone, let’s concentrate on the mission.’
Harvey told them to focus on committing the information he was about to give them to memory. ‘Because of these surveillance restrictions, once you meet Kyle, you’ll have to fill him in—in person. I’ll come up with a reason to get him to Abuja and you’ll have to handle it from there.’
It took twenty minutes for Harvey to explain what was required, and once they were able to recite it all back he prepared to leave.
‘What about weapons?’ Sonny asked.
‘You’ll have to pick some up when you get there.’ Harvey checked his watch. ‘I’m afraid I have to leave right now.’ He nodded at the group and made for the front door, but as he reached it, he stopped and turned to the three men.
‘Seriously, do not breathe a word of this to anyone. I’m probably under special surveillance because
of what I know, which means they’ll know I’ve met you and they’ll be looking through your browsing habits for anything out of the ordinary. Just keep using your electronic devices as normal until the mission starts, but once you set off, leave them here.’
And with that, Harvey dashed out into the rain, leaving Gray and his men to make their final preparations.
Chapter 31
17 December 2014
Andrew Harvey’s cab pulled up outside the address in Pimlico and he gave the driver a reasonable tip before climbing out and taking in the surroundings. The row of white terraced buildings stretched down the street, each one fronted by black metal railings, and he knew it was an area out of his reach, given his meagre salary. How Thompson could afford it wasn’t his business, but he suspected it wasn’t down to diligent savings and shrewd investments.
He rang the bell and the door was answered a minute later by Thompson dressed in a white towelling robe. As he entered the hallway, he smiled and held up the bottle of red wine he’d brought along. Thompson ignored it and pushed him up against the wall, her mouth latching onto his.
The kiss was fleeting, and as Thompson pulled away she let her hand brush over his crotch.
‘I was just about to take a shower,’ she smiled. ‘Join me.’
Thirty minutes later, a naked Harvey nursed a glass of Simone Rouge on the double bed while Thompson combed her silky, blonde hair at the vanity table.
‘Nice place you’ve got,’ he said. ‘Six must pay a lot better than our mob.’
‘Hardly,’ she laughed. ‘It belongs to a relative and I get to rent it at a huge discount.’
That explained a lot, but Harvey wondered who exactly could afford to rent out such a property at knockdown prices. He made a mental note to follow up on it.
‘So, what progress have you made with Michael West?’ he asked.
‘He disappeared off the face of the earth two weeks ago. I sent someone round to Bicknell Security and got the name of his client, but they said West and his team just upped sticks and left them high and dry.’
‘I’m sure Brigandicuum will be able to locate him,’ Harvey said, but Thompson shook her head.
‘I asked, but Manello isn’t hopeful. We’ve found little in the way of social media activity on West, so we can’t add his Facebook or Twitter accounts as keywords and wait for a hit. Tony uploaded West’s last known email address as one of the search parameters, but so far all we’ve got are hits from marketing firms and the usual spammers.’
‘What about the old-fashioned way? Have you checked for passport usage, credit card transactions, all the usual stuff we had to make do with a week ago?’
‘We tried all that and came up empty,’ Thompson said.
‘Okay, so West aside, what have you found in Nigeria?’
‘We hit a dead end. The chief wanted to send a team over there, but the foreign secretary ruled it out. Apparently, the Nigerian president wasn’t happy with the thought of us trampling all over their own investigation into the Kano bombing as it would make them look incompetent in the eyes of the world. President Habbas said his armed forces—such as they are—had found no suggestion of DSA involvement in the UK attacks apart from the video claiming responsibility, and that could have been made by anyone.’
‘I’d have thought he’d have welcomed international help,’ Harvey said. ‘He’d have had the opportunity to mount a large multinational operation against DSA and rid his country of them.’
‘Frankly, he seems a bit pissed off that his country is caught up in this at all.’
‘Then send a covert team in,’ Harvey suggested, but again Thompson shook her head.
‘The foreign secretary was adamant that we not go against their wishes. We do have one man on the ground, but so far he hasn’t come up with anything to contradict the official reports. And with DSA’s leaders all dead now . . . .’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t expect much to come of it.’
‘So that’s it? Investigation over?’
‘Temporarily,’ Thompson said, moving over to join him on the bed. ‘And that’s enough about work.’
Her hand started at his ankle and slowly climbed up past his knee and to his groin, where she found him ready and waiting.
When Harvey arrived at the office the next morning he went straight to Hamad Farsi’s desk and asked him what he’d found on Michael West.
‘Considering the nature of the business, Bicknell Security isn’t that secure.’ Farsi handed over a handwritten sheet of A4. As instructed the previous day, he’d recorded his findings using only pen and paper. ‘I managed to get into their office late last night and locate the file on West. The meat of it’s on there.’
Harvey scanned the document and noted the name Harcourt Industries Limited. ‘It says this is his current employer. Have you spoken to them yet?’
‘Not easy,’ Farsi said. ‘They don’t exist. No record of them at Companies House, and the address turned out to be a dairy distribution centre in Swindon.’
Despite what had gone on between them over the last couple of days, Harvey had suspected that Thompson wouldn’t be as forthcoming as she’d promised, which was why he’d sent Farsi on the nocturnal mission. It was obvious that his suspicions were correct: Thompson was shutting him out.
Harvey thanked Farsi and went to report to Ellis. He found her pacing behind her desk, and he could see that she wasn’t in the best of moods.
‘Thompson’s holding out on us,’ he said, explaining what he’d been told the previous evening and the information Farsi had uncovered.
‘She’s the least of my worries right now.’ Ellis snatched a document from her desk and waved it at Harvey. ‘Brigandicuum has been online for less than a week and they’re already shaping policy around it. According to the home secretary’s office, the number of staff we need going forward is going to be greatly reduced thanks to the amount of accurate information the new system will provide. Budget cuts of thirty percent are being considered, with a consultation process beginning in two weeks’ time.’
‘They’re cutting our numbers?’
‘So they say,’ Ellis said, holding up the paper. ‘A new rapid-reaction force is being set up to deal with the operational side of things, and our role will be to co-ordinate arrests based on the information we get from Haddon Hall.’
‘That’s it?’ Harvey asked. ‘We don’t even get to analyse the data ourselves?’
‘Apparently that function is no longer a required step in proceedings. With Brigandicuum being foolproof, we just arrange to take them down.’
‘Who handles the interviews?’
‘It doesn’t say, but don’t expect it to be us.’
Harvey was shocked at how quickly things were moving. ‘I find it amazing that they can come up with a completely new structure for the security services overnight,’ he said. ‘It usually takes the government years to plan a change this big.’
‘They’ll have been working on this since day one,’ Ellis said. ‘I guess they had everything worked out and were just waiting for it to go live.’
‘It’s a pity it didn’t go live last week,’ he said. ‘We’d have saved a lot of lives.’
‘Perhaps they weren’t ready.’
‘Oh, they were ready enough. The place was buzzing, and there was no sign of anything still being worked on. It was like they were just . . . .’
‘Waiting for the right moment?’ Ellis finished his sentence, and her words left them both deep in thought.
It was Harvey who broke the silence. ‘Did you get the note I left you? Gray thinks James Farrar might be involved in the attacks.’
Ellis nodded. ‘I got it, and I decided Gray was seeing ghosts. At least, that’s what I thought yesterday.’
‘And now?’
Ellis hit a number on her phone and asked Gerald Small to come to her office. While s
he waited for him to arrive, she asked Harvey for Thompson’s mobile number, which he jotted down for her.
‘Gerald,’ Ellis said, when Small knocked on the door and entered, ‘I need you to hack a phone for me.’
Harvey handed over the slip of paper and Small asked what in particular she was interested in.
‘All conversations from this moment on.’
‘And the reason we can’t just route this through GCHQ . . . ?’
‘It’s sensitive,’ she said. ‘How long until you’ll be ready to go?’
Small assured her that he could be in within ten minutes, and rushed back to his office to get things in motion. Ellis took a seat and asked Harvey what he thought about Gray’s theory.
‘Like you, I was sceptical,’ he said, ‘but having thought about it, who else would have a motive to specifically target Gray?’
‘He works in the security business, so he must have pissed someone off along the way.’
‘Bad enough to make them launch an attack on Britain?’
‘Fair point,’ Ellis conceded.
They were interrupted as her desk phone rang. It was Small, confirming that he was ready with a trace. Ellis hung up and hit a pre-set number on her mobile. When it connected, she asked for Manello.
‘Hi, Tony. This is Veronica Ellis. I have a request for you.’
Harvey waited while his boss went through authentication measures and explained what she wanted from Brigandicuum.
‘I need you to add James Farrar as a search parameter.’
Harvey waved his hands at her before making a cut-throat sign, but Ellis held up a finger to silence him. Eventually, she thanked Manello and hung up.
‘I thought we were doing this on the quiet,’ Harvey said. ‘Why did you tip our hand?’
‘I’m shaking the tree,’ Ellis told him. ‘Now we just have to wait and see what falls out.’
‘So how was your first assignment?’
Despite Paul Mackenzie having been with Minotaur Logistics for over nine months, this was the first time Gray had managed to sit down and have a proper chat with him. The drive to the airport was the perfect opportunity for Gray to find out a bit more about his star recruit. He, Melissa and Mackenzie sat in the back of the car, while Smart drove and Sonny rode shotgun.
Gray Vengeance Page 21
