There followed an hour of interviews and a further two hours checking and correlating the duty logs. Finally a further hour was spent interviewing Josey herself. Fawzia couldn’t find any further actions to recommend. At first Ray couldn’t fully understand what the officers were doing. It looked like some computer gaming convention. Over the course of the assessment, however, it became clear that this was a command centre for offensive operations. They were currently rehearsing taking down the entire nuclear powered energy system of a hostile state and working to co-ordinate the cyber-attack with other military, media and civil actions. He was impressed and at the same time intimidated by the capability on display.
By the time they rode the elevator upwards together and were signed out of the building, Ray was beginning to grasp the massive strategic power of Rose Garden. It wasn’t just hacking computers but engaging in operations to disrupt and destroy whole systems and infrastructure. It could be worked into conventional warfare operations and in new and unconventional forms of attacking enemy states.
Twenty minutes later they were back in the Jaguar and leaving the base. Fawzia let Ray drive. “Stonehouse Barracks Plymouth, and don’t spare the horsepower” she surprisingly quipped. It was a jocularity that Ray hadn’t seen before. Certainly at work she was every inch the consummate professional and obviously good at what she did. He still doubted the wisdom of her involvement in Lightening and he retained a nagging doubt about her various disclaimers in respect of understanding exactly what was going on at each facility. Still, he thought, she is beginning to relax and that could only be helpful in assessing her. Ray smiled in a confident way; he was beginning to warm to the Major. They drove west into the setting sun.
Chapter Six
Olsson had arranged to meet Alicia for a late lunch in the small café below St. John’s church in Smith Square. He had refused point blank to come into her office or any other official building. Whilst it was a convenient venue for both of them as they had afternoon appointments around Whitehall, it was hardly secure or discreet. She concluded he felt at risk and needed a busy public venue. The place was filled with a strange mixture of tourists, civil servants from the surrounding offices and the eclectic and wealthy residents of the splendid Georgian homes in the locality. The smell was of coffee and savoury hot dishes.
As she descended the stone steps she spotted him on one of the tables tucked discreetly away in the corner. He had obviously been there long enough to order a coffee and what looked like a very healthy salad. She nodded and went straight to the counter, ordering a mineral water and a homemade lasagne. It had already been a long day and she knew from her years in the service that taking every opportunity to fuel her body was important to her performance in this sort of pressure situation.
She took her tray to his table and sat opposite him. He hardly looked up. Perhaps he felt it was the required behaviour of someone being clandestine. Alicia smiled at him trying to inject some informality and put him at his ease. “Thank you for agreeing to meet me” she said, “your e mail came as something of a shock.”
Olsson finished his mouthful of salad before trying to speak. He spoke slowly. “I thought it best to do this outside of normal channels…forgive me.” He shifted in his seat and put his fork down on the table. Alicia took a sip of her water and began to tackle her lasagne whilst he spoke. “Since yesterday we have been running photographs of the cell suspects through our image recognition systems. It has just thrown up something about the one known as Li.”
Alicia looked at him expectantly waiting for the punch line. Olsson continued deliberately as if reading a script. “Li may be known to us from our work on the cyber warfare capability of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.”
Alicia nodded. It fitted. She surmised that Olsson must have obtained the information from Section Fifteen of MI6, a portfolio of specialists looking at cyber warfare threats from the military of potential enemy states.
“So you have verified this with your Section Fifteen?” she asked.
He studied her for a few seconds. “Yes,” he replied. “I should have reported to the Head of MI6 when we matched the photograph of Li. In view of the content, however, I thought on it for a while and decided the right thing was to tell the Security Service. To tell you. You will appreciate that it puts me in an awkward position. I may need some form of protection.”
Alicia felt uneasy with the whole approach but her curiosity got the better of her. “You did the right thing,” she lied. She pulled a small tablet from her bag and switched it on. After a few moments she had the image on screen and handed it over to him. “Take me through the photograph please” she asked. Olsson took a deep breath.
“The picture was taken about a year ago in Hong Kong. It was a private reception hosted by a Chinese software firm called TwoBitz, ostensibly to launch a new research project in artificial intelligence. In truth we are not quite sure what transpired but we do know that it was regarded as a matter of some importance to the Chinese government. We believe various agreements were reached on the sale and transfer of some cutting edge technologies between private companies, most of which would be illegal to sell to China. We managed to place a discreet camera on one of the waiters but our sound recording measures failed. Hence we just have this photograph as part of about sixty seconds of video in total.”
“Go on” Alicia nodded.
“The large man in the centre in the lightweight suit is General Fu, Director of Network Warfare in the People’s Liberation Army. Next to him on the right is the head of their specialist hacking unit, Major General Han. Having the two of them together is what made the photograph notable and confirmed the importance of the event to the PLA. I had to run a full analysis of it at the time.” Olsson took a sip of his coffee before continuing. “The dark haired gentleman is an American. He works for Esterhazy Investment of Chicago. They are developing biomechanical coding technology at a brand new laboratory in New England, but they also do contract work for the US military and NSA. His name is Trent. Behind him, partially in shot, is a Swiss national, Doctor Ernst Haller, founder of the Haller Clinic. He is clouded in notoriety as he appears to specialise in the genetic enhancement of babies. All of course denied, but with a very impressive client list. I understand our own bio-medical Lansing Research Division has a partnership with them.”
He paused and his voice became almost an apologetic whisper. “Unfortunately for me we didn’t pick out any of the blurred and partial images of those in the background at the time. You must remember the video was a moving scene and some faces are only fleetingly apparent.”
Alicia recognised the sense of self-disappointment in his voice. It had probably been one of nearly four thousand frames his team would have looked at, but he clearly held himself responsible for the oversight.
Olsson continued: “This morning our latest software spotted something we missed. The biggest surprise is the faces of the two men caught in the background behind these leading lights. This footage was sampled because it is recent and connected to their cyber warfare people. It has an 88 percent correlation. I had it enhanced and analysed again to be sure. I am now convinced the man in the PLA military uniform is your terrorist suspect, Mr Li. We have tried to look at the insignia but it isn’t clear enough, other than to say he has the rank of captain.”
Alicia was struggling to supress her excitement. Olsson had found the first significant piece of evidence about who was behind the attack. If it was Li then the terrorist cell was connected to China. Yet he hadn’t claimed the instant credit and told his boss in MI6. She now thought she knew why. Her voice trembled as she asked the next question…” And the other man in the background talking to him?”
“It’s Neville Benning; ex-MI6 and the man tasked with leading our National Threat Assessment Team.” He looked at Alicia expectantly then nodded, “Yes, fuzzy as that image is, I am sure. It would appear he was there having just been appointed to his new post. However the meeting would have be
en arranged whilst he was still at MI6. He would have needed clearance from the highest level to go there. Unless he did it entirely without anyone else knowing?”
She took her time. Olsson had uncovered something far more than the identity of Li. This had all the potential elements of a conspiracy. One she was yet to understand but a conspiracy nevertheless. With Benning having been part of MI6 it was no wonder Olsson had decided not to simply report this up the line.
“Thank you again for bringing this to me” she said calmly, “we need to inform Sir Alistair and the National Security Council.” Olsson nodded. “Do you have anything else?” He shook his head. He seemed relieved to have shared the burden of his discovery. A few calls on her phone and she was ready. “We are to go to the Cabinet Office together. We have a meeting in twenty minutes. Out of interest no one can tell me where Benning is. He left Whitehall after the Number 10 briefing this morning, ostensibly to go to university seminar in Manchester, but he never arrived.”
Olsson looked perplexed: “You mean he has disappeared?”
Alicia looked at her phone which was vibrating. It was a text update from Special Events charting the progress of the target hardening at the key sites. At least that seemed to be going well she thought. She looked up at Olsson. “It is not co-incidence I am sure. It would appear that Mr Benning may have compromised our defences and has now fled. Let’s get going.” They paid their respective bills and left together to walk across Parliament Square towards Whitehall. It was dry weather if still chilly but Alicia didn’t notice. She was turning over the information from Olsson in her mind and with every step becoming more concerned at this turn of events. Before she realised it, they were being admitted into the Cabinet Office and had passed through security.
The room they were shown into was small and stuffy. Just three chairs and a table that looked as if it had come from the canteen. Alicia and Olsson sat opposite Sir Alistair. The dry heat of the room was not the only reason that beads of sweat had appeared on the brow of the permanent secretary. “This is a pretty big claim” Sir Alistair rasped, “and frankly the manner in which it has been dealt with is unorthodox to say the least.” To him Olsson was out of line. He was shocked that Alicia had agreed to discuss the matter in a café in Whitehall. It was nothing short of irresponsible. Only the pressing circumstances stopped him from asking for their suspension from duties.
Alicia wasn’t going to give ground. She felt that she had already rattled the macho establishment which Sir Alistair and MI6 continued to preserve. She resented the dead hand of formal protocol and the grip that senior civil servants sought to exercise over security matters. Sir Alistair was a classic case in her view. Leading a range of committees and working groups and with a foot in both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Security Council. He was like a fat spider at the centre of a web of influence and cronyism. So in for a penny; in for a pound she thought to herself. “The fact is that Benning has disappeared,” she stated bluntly. “He is the key to understanding all of this I am sure. I am equally certain the Chinese are involved.” Olsson nodded his agreement but refrained from speaking. He looked intimidated.
They went through the photographic evidence again. It didn’t help. The stark fact was Sir Alistair, and for that matter MI6, clearly had a problem but seemed reluctant to acknowledge it. “MI6 could offer a number of explanations for this” said Sir Alistair. He looked across the table at Alicia. “Our first priority is to locate Benning and bring him in so we can hear from him. Until then we should not leap to any conclusions. Lightening should continue to proceed as planned.”
Alicia was disappointed but it was what she had expected. Sir Alistair began issuing orders on his phone. Special Events would be tasked with locating Benning and he expected him found quickly. Olsson insisted he needed protection whilst Benning was loose and the potential conspiracy was investigated. Alicia agreed to take him to the designated safe house for this operation where he could be held securely whilst they got to the bottom of the matter. The meeting was abruptly adjourned. As they left the building she turned to Olsson and said: “You had better come with me. We are off to a facility near Bristol identified for such an eventuality.” He acquiesced with barely a word in reply.
Twenty minutes later they were en route in a Ford people carrier, accompanied by two armed officers from Special Events. The house was under a “dark protocol” so before she left she sent a short text to Nia Williams. “Going Dark. Heading to designated safe house. Will catch up with you later.”
Back in the Cabinet Office Sir Alistair was still furious. He decided to call Alan Vickers the Head of MI6 “This is a complete mess. I knew Benning was not going to take kindly to Rose Garden but he appears to have taken the decision to betray his country. He may even have gone so far as to be complicit in this terrorist attack. Worse still he may not be acting alone. You should have spotted this and dealt with it before we reached this crisis.”
The Head of MI6 was clearly affronted and spoke with a mixture of irritation and loathing. “Might I remind you that I advised against his appointment. Whilst he was still in the Secret Intelligence Service we could observe and influence him. His globetrotting détente and co-operation could be controlled to our advantage. Once you put him into the Threat Assessment role he became a loose cannon.”
Sir Alistair sneered: “You know perfectly well he was becoming too powerful and he would have soon had the credibility to block Rose Garden with the Cabinet.”
The Head of MI6 was now shouting down the phone in unsuppressed anger: “He was never going to get his way. The Russians saw to that. The events of the last few years killed off any sympathy for his approach. He took the job because his strategy had already run out of steam. It was the profile he wanted and the direct access to the ear of the Prime Minister. When he didn’t get support for his views he went off the rails. We all share the blame for what has happened. Brilliant as he was, he should have been shut down earlier and it was the MOD that blocked that option.”
There was a long silence before Sir Alistair spoke again “So be it. We find Benning and look to unravelling whatever he has done. This is going to take some explaining to the PM.”
Alan Vickers took a few seconds to compose himself: “Agreed. I am not waiting on Special Events, however. I will put out my own resources to find him.” The phone went dead. Sir Alistair sighed and put the receiver down. “What a bloody mess” he muttered to himself.
Chapter Seven
Haller arrived at Schiphol Airport with just his laptop case, his hold bag being transferred directly to the transatlantic flight to Boston. He had just over four hours to get into Amsterdam, do his business and return to catch his flight.
The train into the city took twenty minutes and he decided on a brisk walk from the station to the rendezvous in Dam Square. His contact was already there, a stout figure of a man of Indonesian origins in his late thirties, known simply as Nazar. Haller waved to attract his attention and to the many tourists it looked like two old friends meeting up for a day out. They appeared to chat about the city and the weather as they strolled in an unhurried fashion towards the flower market. Only the most trained eye would have spotted the swop. Nazar carried a large supermarket bag and whilst Haller went to a street ATM to draw out some Euros, he handed his laptop case over to him. The switch with an identical case inside the supermarket bag was swift and deft. By the time he had collected his cash Haller was handed the substitute copy. After a few more minutes the two shook hands and appeared to go their separate ways. Haller into a small restaurant where he ordered an early lunch and Nazar in the direction of the Van Gogh museum where he caught a tram heading for the suburbs.
Outwardly calm, Haller was worried and nervous. As he picked his way through a chicken salad he checked again the other customers and kept glancing at the street outside. He was sure he hadn’t been followed but nevertheless he had to act as though under observation. The young woman on the table next to him with her old
er friend was chatting in a very animated way that had the effect of distracting onlookers from his rather solitary looking lunch. He was able to blank out her chatter about gardening and think through his predicament.
The meeting with TwoBitz in Hong Kong, a year before, had been a mistake. That much was clear to him. Under the cover of sponsoring international research it had really been a set up by the Chinese military. He had agreed to attend only at the insistence of his American backers. He had to admit a combination of greed and professional curiosity had led him astray. He found himself agreeing to lend his assistance to a project on accelerated stem cell synthesis. It looked too good to be true and indeed it was. The lucrative consultancy was merely a temptation to lead him into the real research. After a couple of months the project itself was transformed into an altogether different beast. Gradually he fell into the trap of becoming part of an elaborate trade of private and state sponsored secret technologies. He was never sure about the extent of it but evidently, at the onset, everyone believed it was a win-win.
For him it provided access to enormous computing power and a steady supply of advanced biological materials and biomechanical interfaces. These gave him the chance to build an even better offer for his richest clients.
The real damage was done when he decided to privately set up a test case back in Switzerland, unknown to the rest of the research project. The client, a wealthy Chinese property tycoon, had a child in a coma. A result of head trauma following a traffic accident. The boy was flown by private jet to Zurich. Haller used the technology to accelerate growth in the brain, to inject synthesised and original stem cell tissue and to remap and recode residual personality and function. Within a month the child was out of the coma and had recovered basic functions including speech. After three months it was evident that the child had regained some memory and personality, and although he would require considerable care, and never return to full health, the boy had cheated death or a vegetative state.
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