Terror Illusion

by James R Conway

Once they were back in the car, Jonathan started up the laptop again and brought up the tracking screen.

  “He’s heading north on the Edgware Road,” said Jonathan.

  “Going out on the M1,” said Mac. “He is going to dump the car at York and go the rest of the way on the train. He’s following his instructions from Grendan West to the letter. He’s been instructed to be on the eight o’clock train from York to Newcastle tomorrow morning. That train leaves London at six o’clock, that’s in five hours time. Why don’t we go back to the St. Katharine’s flat and get showered and changed and maybe grab something to eat. Then we can be back here for the six o’clock train.”

  “Are we just going to let him get away?”

  “We know exactly what his plans are. It will take him at least three and a half hours to get to York by train and then I expect he will sleep on a station bench for a couple of hours. Call Karen and ask her and Roger to meet us at the flat.”

  Jonathan made the call as Mac drove back to St. Katharines.

  “I’m already back at the flat,” said Karen. “Roger is on watch. I’ll call him and tell him to shut up shop and come back here.”

  The traffic on the streets of London was very light at this time of night and it took Mac only twenty minutes to drive back to the flat.

  When Mac and Jonathan stepped out of the lift into the living room of the flat, Karen and Roger were watching a film on late night television.

  Karen stood up. “Do you guys want a drink?”

  “I’d murder a cup of tea,” said Jonathan.

  “Me too,” said Mac.

  Karen went to brew the tea while Mac and Jonathan sank into the armchairs. Once Karen had served tea and biscuits to everyone, Mac spoke. “We decided to have a few hours rest before we head north to follow Sean. Thanks to Jonathan, we know exactly what Sean’s plans are.”

  “I’m rather worried that the bomb that Sean has planted might go off before we catch up with him,” said Karen.

  “Very little chance of that,” said Mac. “He is following Grendan West’s instructions to the letter and West told him to explode the bombs remotely on Sunday night, so that’s almost certainly what he is going to do.”

  “Do you want to try and catch a couple of hours sleep?” said Roger.

  “We should probably lie down for an hour or two,” said Mac.

  “I’ll give you a knock on your doors at five o’clock,” said Karen. “Will you want any breakfast when you get up?”

  “Toast and coffee works for me,” said Mac. “We can get a proper breakfast on the train.”

  “Same here,” said Jonathan.

  Mac stood up. “I’ll see you all at five o’clock” With that, he and Jonathan went to their bedrooms.

  By five twenty next morning Mac and Jonathan were showered, dressed in fresh clothes and ready to leave the flat. “I checked the location of Sean’s car before we left,” said Karen as she drove them out to Kings Cross station “As we expected his car is parked at York railway station.”

  “It sounds like he is still behaving exactly to plan,” said Mac. “Let’s hope our luck holds out.”

  Mac and Jonathan both stepped out of the car and Karen drove off. They were just in time to buy their tickets and catch the six o’clock train to York.

  “Two first class singles to Newcastle,” said Mac, offering his debit card to the ticket clerk.

  He picked up the tickets and turned to Jonathan. “I think we’ve earned a bit of luxury this morning.”

  “Thank you very much,” said Jonathan.

  They walked over from the ticket office to the departure board to check on their train’s assigned platform then walked onto the platform to board their train. The first class section was at the rear of the train and they were soon seated comfortably in the armchairs that comprised the seating in first class on this service.

  The train started moving, slowly picking up speed as it cleared the station, crossed over the maze of tracks and points and entered the tunnel north of the station.

  Jonathan looked at Mac and said, “I hope he doesn’t choose to detonate that bomb right now!”

  “I think that his project is designed to avoid any injuries. Remember, its main purpose is to swing public opinion in favour of anti-terrorist legislation. If the plot ever came to light and they had actually killed people, there would be more than hell to pay.”

  An attendant came to their seats and they ordered a large cooked breakfast each with a pot of coffee to accompany the breakfasts.

  The train had now accelerated to its normal cruising speed of two miles a minute yet the ride was smooth and quiet, especially in the first class section with its improved suspension and superior sound insulation.

  “I think we’ve done enough driving to last us several days,” said Mac as he stretched out his legs and leaned back in his seat.

  They were just finishing their breakfasts as the train slowed down and stopped in Peterborough station. It had covered the first eighty-four miles of its journey in just forty-five minutes. After a stop of about two minutes, the train got underway again, accelerating smoothly to its cruising speed.

  Mac’s mobile phone rang and it was Roger.

  “We’ve been looking at CCTV from your train,” said Roger. “There are two men in coach number four, seats twenty-two and twenty-three, that look like they could be a couple of MI5 spooks. We thought you might want to check them out.”

  “We’ll do that and get back to you,” said Mac, and he ended the call. He relayed the information to Jonathan.

  “Do you think they are after us?”

  “I don’t think so. Of course, they might be on a completely different case, but I’d like to check them out just the same. Let’s take a look at them on the screen first.”

  Mac selected the train and the coach and brought up the CCTV images of the passengers in coach four. He zoomed into seats twenty-two and twenty-three and studied the faces of the two men sitting there. He clicked on each face in turn and viewed a pop up giving details of the person: name, age, occupation. In both cases, occupation was blank, but one of the names rang a bell somewhere. He looked again at the face. It was a long time ago. The face was much older.

  “Yes!” said Mac. “James Whiteley. I worked with him on a mission in Scotland years ago. I thought he’d retired.”

  “Perhaps MI5 is using retired officers these days,” said Jonathan.

  “It might make some sense,” said Mac. “Easy to deny if anything went wrong, good experience, pay by results rather than keeping them on the salary. It could make a lot of sense.”

  “Who’s the other guy?” said Jonathan.

  “I don’t recognize him.”

  “What should we do about them?”

  Mac pondered the situation for a moment, then said, “I don’t dare go up there in case Whiteley recognizes me. Can you take a stroll up there and perhaps do a memory trace without them noticing?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” said Jonathan as he stood up. He walked forward in the train until he reached coach number four. There were very few passengers in the coach on this early morning service, and Jonathan quickly spotted the two MI5 guys that he was looking for. They were seated either side of a table and there were newspapers and coffee cups spread out on the table between them. They both appeared to Jonathan to have nodded off to sleep. Thank would make the memory trace easier.

  The four seats on the other side of the aisle were empty and Jonathan sat so that he could see the man that Mac had identified as James Whiteley. He concentrated on Whitley’s face and closed his eyes.

  At first, there was a fog, but that cleared and Jonathan was into Whiteley’s mind. There was a jumbled picture of Whiteley and his companion getting onto the train. Jonathan concentrated on going backward through Whiteley’s memories. A taxi to Kings Cross station. A pub in London. A phone call. Donnelly. Newcastle. York. It was getting jumbled again. Jonathan concentrated hard, what about Donnelly? Bergen.
Overboard. York. York. What about York?

  Suddenly the image in Jonathan’s mind faded and he opened his eyes to see Whiteley looking across at him.

  Jonathan got up from his seat and walked back down to the first class section of the train. When he got back to where Mac was sitting, he told Mac of the images and memories that he had seen in Whiteley’s mind.

  “Good work!” said Mac. “I suspected as much. These guys have been sent by MI5 or Black Ops to get rid of Sean before he can tell the world what has happened. They are going to do exactly the same as us and watch for Sean to join the train.”

  “What about Bergen? And overboard?” said Jonathan.

  “I think that’s how they plan to get rid of him,” said Mac. “There is a daily ferry from Newcastle to Bergen, in Norway. They plan to kill him on board, and then dispose of his body in the middle of the North Sea.”

  “I suppose that solves a problem for us, unless Sean detonates the bomb before they do him in.”

  “No, I don’t want them to get away with that,” said Mac. “If they think they can just bring some guy out of jail to do their dirty work and then get rid of him, they will think they can get away with even more dirty tricks. On the other hand, if they know that we are around, they might just think twice.”

  “What do you plan to do with Sean?”

  “I’ve been giving that quite a lot of thought. I want to try to bring him over to our side,” said Mac. “If I can control him, I think he could be a good operator.”

  “Would you trust him?”

  “Of course not!”

  As the pair had been talking, the dawn had started to come up and the first rays of morning sunshine were streaming into the coach. Mac called for two more cups of coffee and the attendant brought them.

  As they finished their cups of coffee, they felt the train starting to slow down as it approached York. The train stopped and Mac told Jonathan to step out onto the platform and look for Sean.

  He looked up and down the platform and he saw a distant figure getting onto the train, and was pretty sure that it was Sean. He also saw the two MI5 men step off the train. They looked up and down the platform then got back onto the train. Then he stepped back onto the train and returned to his first class seat.

  As the train started to move, Mac called Roger. “We are just leaving York for Newcastle. Jonathan is pretty sure he spotted Sean getting on the train. Can you confirm that?”

  “We’ve been tracking him and he just boarded your train. He’s sitting in coach number three. Your spooks are back in coach number four.”

  “Keep an eye on the spooks and on Sean,” said Mac. “Let me know if there is anything suspicious.”

  “Right you are,” said Roger and he ended the call.

  “Time for a relaxing hour to Newcastle,” said Mac as the train gathered speed. “Things might be a bit busier once we get to there. I suggest we get an hour’s nap.” He then noticed that Jonathan had fallen asleep. After all, they had both had little sleep for the past forty eight hours. Mac closed his eyes.

  Chapter 32