For a moment Haller looked blank. He had been unaware of the chase and the clever switch that had been staged to grab the device and pull Trent’s agent away from protecting him. “All of this has been blown out of proportion,” he responded. “We all went into this knowing that each of us would use the technology for different purposes. Now the Chinese want more and doubtless so will you. Just in case you haven’t guessed, the laptop is encrypted so unless I co-operate it will be useless to you or anyone else.”
Benning reached again into the box. This time he pulled out an A4 sized picture print and placed it face upwards in front of the doctor. “I’m afraid your Indonesian friend didn’t get very far.”
Haller stared in horror. The graphic image showed Nazar lying on a pavement in a crumpled heap. His face was smeared with blood. He looked dead. His deep revulsion was compounded by the knowledge his back up laptop insurance plan had gone terribly wrong. Benning pulled out the final item from the box. Haller shuddered. It was the original laptop, covered in sticky and congealed blood.
Benning tapped the bloodied machine with his index finger several times as though carefully weighing up the significance it held. “So two for the price of one.” He paused for a few seconds. “I would imagine that the one you tried to hide away is your back up or insurance policy. The more pristine one, your current working device.” He looked hard at Haller who was now sweating despite the coolness of the room and beginning to look flustered. “Is that right doctor?” It was a direct question.
Haller nodded. “Yes.” His expansive hands waved around as he became animated and rather loud. “What happened to Nazar?” he blurted, his voice rising in pitch.
“I’m afraid he resisted handing it over. Agents of the Ministry of State Security can be over-zealous.” Any remaining colour had drained from the doctor’s face. Benning became more forceful. “I am trying to help here. What is on the two laptops?”
Haller looked at the floor and sighed in apparent resignation. “The contents of the one taken from Nazar are a mix of my own work, work from the research project and work I have undertaken for the Americans. The other one is just the latter work. I was flying over to the US with it. Partly to continue my work for them and partly to get approval for the proposition from the PLA. I was intending to have my back up machine somewhere safe, off grid, in case I needed it. Then they kidnapped me.”
Benning gave a wry smile. “Very plausible” he responded, “only I think you had no intention of recommending their proposal to your American backers.” Haller looked alarmed but kept silent. “Let me give you some positive news. As I said at the start I am here to assist you. You may not believe that, in the circumstances, but it is true.” Benning turned to the guard. “Please release the ties binding the doctor.” The guard stepped forward and unsheathed a thin stiletto knife from his belt. Swiftly he cut through all the ties and then resumed his position. Haller noted he didn’t put the knife back but held it loosely by his side in his right hand.
“Thank you” Haller said politely. His demeanour showed signs of slowly returning to normal though the characteristic smile was absent.
Benning picked up the bloodied laptop and put it in the box along with the photograph. “I’m afraid this belongs to the PLA. Whatever happens.”
He then picked up the clean laptop and handed it to Haller. “I need you to decrypt this device and allow me to check its contents. You will then decrypt the second device. In return you may come with me to the United Kingdom and help me apply some of your technology to that being developed through Lansing Research. It should take no more than a few weeks of your time. After that you will be a free to go and resume your life in whatever way you choose. Neither I nor the Chinese will require your services any further. If you keep your counsel and maintain confidentiality about this, you will not hear from us again.”
Haller felt compelled to ask. “And if I refuse?”
Benning stood up and walked around the desk. He perched on the edge, his feet only just touching the floor. “You, the box and its contents will be taken to a place in China that few have ever heard of and even fewer have ever returned from. At some point, days, weeks or even months from now, you will agree to decrypt the machine and work for them. Everyone does. When your usefulness expires you will disappear forever.”
Haller had expected that answer. He paused as if in thought but the reality was he knew he had no choice. There was one thing to clarify however: “If I share the American work with you then you will need to clear it with them. Use your so called special relationship. I do not want to find myself freed from the attention and hostility of the PLA for it to be replaced by the same malice from the Americans.”
Benning smiled without any hesitation: “Consider it done. Now if you would be so kind as to open this up and grant access to its contents. That’s a good chap.”
Chapter Sixteen
Trent left the market and walked south. Within a few minutes the company Cadillac pulled up alongside him and Vincent dropped the window. “Ready to go?” he asked. Trent nodded and climbed in.
The car proceeded to the interstate and then made its way towards the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Trent waited until the suburbs of Boston had passed before making a call. It gave him more time to think about what he was going to say and he knew Lauren would be out of her last meeting.
He pressed the speed dial. There was a click and the dial tone commenced. Four rings and he heard her voice. It sounded soft and even. The day must have gone well. He took a deep breath and began. “I’m afraid we have a problem” he tried to keep the tone level.
“What kind of problem?” came the immediate response, not anxious but firm.
“Haller didn’t catch his plane. My contacts in Amsterdam think he may have been kidnapped along with all the material on his laptop.” Trent braced himself. The pause lasted fifteen seconds. “Hello?” he said, knowing that it was unlikely he had been cut off.
“I’m still here.” Lauren’s voice was icy. “Wasn’t anyone assigned to watch over him?”
Trent launched into his explanation: “Indeed but they failed. In fairness, given the timescales we couldn’t mobilise enough cover. The sole agent was highly recommended. There was some kind of elaborate deception. Well planned and prepared with potential state co-operation.”
“Enough!” shouted Lauren. “Last night. Last night I asked you to sort this because it was causing me concern. In less than a day it has become a bigger problem. How do you expect me to have confidence in this venture if it seems even you are struggling to get a grip of it.”
Trent was ready. “I have sorted it” he said flatly. “I spoke with the NSA. They are going to track Haller down for us and if necessary extract him from his kidnappers.”
Lauren’s voice conveyed surprise: “The NSA will be unhappy with us for dabbling in this area outside of their oversight. Why would they help?”
Trent squinted involuntarily as if bracing for an impact as he continued. “I told them we were beta testing a way of disrupting the North Korean ballistic missile system.”
“God alive. Are you mad?” came the instant response.
“Listen”, continued Trent with urgency in his voice “they have swallowed the idea that Haller is essential to the test. It’s the only motivation that would register with them.”
Lauren’s voice had risen to a high pitch. “Apart from the inconvenient fact we are not doing a test to disrupt North Korea. This is a fantasy. When the NSA find out we will be lucky if we are not shut down.”
Trent paused. It was the punch line he was finding most difficult to deliver. “Actually we are beta testing a product we could use in that way.”
Lauren was silent. Trent waited. “Trent I will call you back.” The phone went dead.
Vincent drove steadily along the freeway. It was a pleasant day with plenty of sunshine and good visibility. The traffic was reasonably light in the early afternoon and he had kept to the speed limit.
Suddenly a State Trooper car pulled off a side ramp and took up position about five cars behind. Vincent wasn’t too concerned. These things happened. After a few minutes they would have checked the plate and licence details and would drive past or leave the freeway.
Fifteen minutes later they were still there. Trent was busy texting on his phone and checking his e-mails. Vincent interrupted him. “We have company. State Troopers.”
Trent looked out of the rear window. As he did so the car pulled forward into the outer lane and sped past. Within a minute it was out of sight. “Seems to have been a co-incidence.”
Vincent wasn’t convinced. Over the next hour he steadily and subtly changed speed and position to check on the surrounding traffic and noted cars coming on and off the road as they approached. Trent’s phone rang. It was Lauren.
“Trent, I have to express my disappointment with all of this. I know that some of these are your companies but they are all within the Esterhazy corporate structure and at the very least I should be informed about something with this strategic level of importance. I understood Haller was working on our genetic enhancement programme. The project you embroiled him in with the British and Chinese was meant to be a one off. For whatever reason that has come to grief and it seems that instead of mitigating it, you have dug a deeper hole for us to fall into. I’m flying up to New England in the jet later this afternoon. I will be at our facility by six and will expect a full update and explanation.” The phone went dead again. Trent sat back. He knew he was playing with fire. He decided to call ahead to check on preparations for the beta test.
When he had finished the call, it was Vincent who spoke first. “I hate to make your day worse” he said, “but we are still being followed. Very good and very professional, using four cars.”
“The NSA” said Trent. His voice was sarcastic, “How comforting.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lockdown, blackout and boredom. The three defining characteristics of a safe house duty. Alicia was already frustrated. She had brought Olsson here because it was designated in the operational plan for Lightening. It was where Benning would also be secured if he could be found. However she had no intention of staying trapped in this rather tired looking 1970’s house. The place would be protected by two heavyweights from Special Events, both former metropolitan police S.C.O.19 firearms officers.
Olsson had been quiet since leaving Whitehall. He appeared to have lost the will to live without access to his phone and laptop. No one had any communications device, they were left in London. The only link to the outside world was via a specially secured landline telephone that looked as if it was as old as the house. What they did have was a good store of food, a Freeview television in the lounge and an impressive weapons locker hidden in a recess behind the wardrobes in a bedroom upstairs. All the doors were heavy with steel plate and the double-glazed windows had bullet proof glass on the inside. The house, garden and surrounding roads and neighbours were covered by an extensive CCTV system linked to a large screen in the kitchen that held up to 12 camera images at once. One SE officer was monitoring the CCTV at any time. The other could rest between occasional forays into the low maintenance garden to check the perimeter. Olsson had taken refuge in a magazine of crosswords. Alicia pretended to read a book on the natural history of the river Severn while she rehearsed over and over the events of the last twenty four hours in her mind. She felt that she had missed something, something that didn’t seem to add up, but couldn’t put her finger on it.
The television images interrupted her thoughts. It was the news channel. She turned up the volume which had been on mute. A female voice was speaking over helicopter shots of what looked like a car crash on the road into a service station. “…Police are appealing for any eye witnesses. The two vehicles are thought to have collided in a freak accident in fog but no injuries are reported. They would particularly like to speak to the drivers of the vehicles.” The picture changed to one of the United States President and the voice continued without pause…”in other news the US Presidential visit…”
The secure phone rang to interrupt her. She muted the television. The call was relayed through GCHQ which screened active safe house communications. It was Mark Dixon at the command centre now relocated to the police station in Cheltenham. “Alicia. I hate to bother you but do you know where Nia is? Has she been in touch?”
The question was a complete surprise. “I’m sorry Mark but I thought she was with you.”
“So did I” answered the Assistant Chief Constable, “She left the command centre early this morning to get a few hours sleep in a local hotel. The reception checked her in with a wake-up call for eleven. She never answered. The room was empty. No overnight bag. Nothing. We don’t think the bed was slept in. The CCTV around the hotel shows her going in but not coming out.”
Alicia took a deep breath. “I find that completely at odds with Nia’s normal behaviour. I think something must be wrong. I assume you have tried the usual MI5 and JCW channels?”
“Yes” he replied “The safe houses were a long shot. No one knows where she is.”
“Sorry but she hasn’t contacted me here.” Alicia confirmed. “Forgive me, I know it sounds stupid but I thought I just saw the Jaguar that Ray Singh and Major Wilkins were using in a collision outside Exeter. It had an unusual matt silver finish and darker metallic roof. Our newest pool cars have that colour.” There was a brief exhaling of breath at the other end of the phone.
Mark Daniels spoke slowly: “It is being run as a traffic story. I thought you might have been briefed already. In fact the grey van is the one used to assist the terrorist cell in going to ground last night. It appears to have intercepted the Major and Ray. Their car was shot up. There are, however, no signs of blood or injury. The two of them and their kit are missing.”
“Oh my god,” said Alicia, “keep me posted. I will let you know if any of them make contact here. Is there any news on the search for Neville Benning?”
Mark Daniels winced. It was another missing person from the security establishment. “Sorry no. Your Special Events colleagues are still looking. They sent someone here to check through the remains of evidence at what is left of the cottage. I gather they think he might have gone abroad.” Alicia finished the call but kept the phone in her hand.
It was a mess. Within a day of the initiation of Operation Lightening there were key people missing, covering all three strands of activity. Every instinct told Alicia that this was being orchestrated. Somewhere, something……someone, was carefully and deliberately manipulating the situation. She felt she had missed a vital clue, but what? Add to that she was really worried about Ray and the Major. She had selected the former for this operation and although she didn’t think it sensible she had dispatched Fawzia with him at the insistence of Sir Alistair. She hesitated. Maybe that was what she had missed. It had been Sir Alistair who had told her that the top brass wanted the Major to undertake the re-inspection of security. There was a logic to it after all. But why? They didn’t know her. There were plenty of others who could make that type of assessment. A fresh pair of eyes would have been good. It was her reports that were leaked. It was her equipment that was now missing. As the thoughts began to form so did a degree of certainty. The decision chain had been odd, the protocols flawed, the operational plan too reactive and the Major…why her? There had to be a common link but it was a link she wouldn’t be able to find without access to her secure network. She punched another number into the phone and called her office.
Ten minutes later she was out of the safe house. She took the emergency backup car from the garage which transpired to be a four year old blue Ford Focus. With no sign of Benning being apprehended, her role at the safe house was little more than debriefing Olsson and that was something her more junior colleagues could handle. Her phone call had been enough to convince her to head for GCHQ. The car sped away from the house and headed for Cheltenham. Without a phone she was unaware that overhead, an RAF
helicopter was heading south west to pick up Fawzia Wilkins and that, very soon, the Major would be joining her.
It took an hour for Alicia to reach her destination and a further twenty minutes of security procedures to get inside GCHQ. Fawzia was landed inside the outer compound and within ten minutes was in the main complex. Both women headed for the Joint Cyber Warfare Unit and arrived at the same time. “Major” exclaimed Alicia in total surprise…”I thought…are you ok?” Fawzia swung round at the voice in the corridor behind her. Her face reflected a cascade of emotions. Anger, suspicion and frustration were paramount. “No” she replied without formality, “I am far from OK. I have been set up and nearly killed. Your boy Ray walked off and left me a sitting duck…or at least that was what was intended. Other than by sheer good luck I should be dead.” The outburst was controlled but very emotional. Alicia stepped back. “You can’t believe Ray was complicit in this? Why? How?”
The Major span on her heel “I’m going to the debriefing section. This whole thing stinks. Why don’t you join me and see for yourself.” It was as much a challenge as an offer. Although Alicia needed to access the MI5 network it would be useful to hear first-hand what Fawzia said. She decided to follow her.
At the same time as they went into the JCW Unit, the Range Rover carrying Nia and Ray arrived at the end of the drive outside the safe house. The front seat passenger pulled out the phone cloning unit from the glove compartment and entered the secure codes. The call was routed to the safe house land line. Nia spoke crisply. “This is Head of Counter Terrorism Nia Williams. I need entry to the house for myself and three MI5 officers. We are compromised. The authorisation code is Delta Hotel X-Ray, Four, Nine, Zero. The verification number is 0204454400. There was a pause on the end of the line as the code was checked in the operations manual. It was correct. The verification number was then dialled into the open line. Inside the car the speaker blipped and clicked with each key punch. A synthesised voice hissed out “Code verified. Secure access cleared. Protocol A3.” Inside the house the manual was checked again. Section A3 simply said: “Admit to house with caution.”
Treasonable Intent Page 10
