The Rules

by Laurence Todd

  We chatted about life, sports and beer for a few moments. Despite being an American he was an avid fan of English rugby rather than American football, a game I found unfathomable, and we talked rugby for a few minutes. We also had a laugh about a training session I’d had with Mickey Corsley one time. Mickey’d unceremoniously put me on the canvas, saying he was able to do so because I was lacking concentration and unfocused. Mickey hadn’t pulled his punches and, even with a headguard, I’d heard bells.

  “So, what can I do you for?” He got serious. “Why does Special Branch need my help?”

  “It’s like this. I’m interested in a firm called Hembreys. You know the firm?”

  He nodded. “Certainly do. A leading American chemical corporation. What do you specifically want to know about it?”

  “Anything you know that’s off the record,” I began. “We’ve got a file on them, of course, but people in your line of work often get to hear things which don’t make it into official reports. You know what I’m saying?” I raised my eyebrows.

  “Yup, we do indeed,” he replied, knowingly, touching the side of his nose.

  “So, any little titbits of information or gossip you may have heard about Hembreys would be extremely useful to us. I’ll not let on where I heard it; it’ll be just between us.” I tried to sound reassuring.

  “Is it worth my asking why you wanna know this?” He looked at me over the top of his glasses, still grinning.

  I thought about this for a couple of moments. “Yeah. Put simply, I’m looking into a situation where the name Hembreys has come up, and whilst of course we know what the firm does on the surface, given the importance of what it does and who it does it for, the security services are interested in hunting down a little more detail. So, given what you do here, I’d be interested in knowing anything you can tell me about this firm.”

  He nodded, then put his coffee down and returned to his desk. He spent a minute on his laptop, looking at various pages which seemed to flash across his screen. He returned to his seat.

  “Just checking a few dates. Right, you want to know about Hembreys.”

  I agreed I did.

  “As I said, it’s a chemical corp, fourth or fifth largest in the US. Its current market capitalisation would probably pay off South America’s total debt,” he said nonchalantly. “Makes all kinds of goodies. Deals with national governments from a position of parity, almost. In the States it’s a bellwether company.”

  “What does that mean?” I was curious.

  “Simple terms? It’s a company whose financial condition is an indication of the health of the market. If the company’s doing well, it suggests the economy overall is doing well. For argument’s sake, if Hembreys produced a huge loss, or was involved in a major scandal, like its products causing people to die, the implications would reverberate right throughout the economy. It’d have a knock-on effect on other companies in the same market, even if they’re doing okay. Companies like DuPont or Pfizer, for example, would see their share price slide through no fault of their own. Firms like Hembreys are that important to the economy. There you go, economics 101.” He laughed and took a large gulp of his coffee. “But I digress. Hembreys mainly produces all kinds of chemical products. There’s no issue with what it makes or who it sells to.”

  He stopped, focusing on me for a moment.

  “But there is an issue somewhere,” I tentatively stated.

  “Correct.” He smiled. “Given what the company makes, and who it gets exported to, you can imagine the secrecy involved when its products are being exported from the States. You don’t exactly advertise in the trade papers you’re bringing in a whole raft of potentially very dangerous chemicals. Everyone involved in the States has to be vetted and approved by the FBI before being allowed to be involved in this.”

  I agreed this was true. Happened in the UK as well.

  “There was a situation not too long ago concerning Hembreys when a very small amount of a top secret compound was reported as having gone missing, and the company got its ass kicked by the CIA for it. The compound was exported from the US, being shipped to a research facility here in the UK. But this compound ended up with the wrong people. The CIA learnt it had fallen into the hands of—”

  “Of Red Heaven,” I interrupted. “It was hydroxilyn, wasn’t it? They were planning to use it to blow up the Albert Hall. Special Branch stopped them.”

  I’d been involved in stopping them, arresting the protagonists, the Addley brothers. David Kader had been killed before we could arrest him, shot by Christine Simmons, who’d been acting as an undercover agent. Dennis Reagan had been killed the night before, and his killer never found, though I’d stake my life it’d been Richard Rhodes.

  “Yeah. Most of what was taken was recovered.” He lowered his voice slightly. “I did hear, though, someone inside MI5 was implicated in getting hold of it for Red Heaven. That’s why security both sides of the pond now keeps tags on Hembreys.”

  “I’d not heard that one.” I hoped I was lying convincingly. “From our perspective, there’s someone inside Hembreys our security people are interested in and are watching.”

  “Yeah, I know. Donald Dellvay.” He grinned. I wondered how he knew this. “My source named him as the person the CIA believes responsible for this stuff getting to Red Heaven. He’s a scientist himself, joined Hembreys right after resigning from the CIA.”

  “The CIA?”

  “Yup, based over here in Europe. That’s why Hembreys hired him. He knows Europe and has lots of contacts over here.”

  “Could be how he met this MI5 suspect.” I was musing out loud. Kader could have met Dellvay through routine intelligence channels and no suspicions would be aroused.

  “Probably right,” Sharone replied. “There’s evidence they met a couple of times. Dellvay’s over here at present, working with a company called Ambersial. You ever read the business pages?”

  “Only if I’m having trouble sleeping,” I replied facetiously.

  “You should read them. You’d be amazed at what you can pick up. Hembreys is going into partnership with Ambersial. Not a full-on merger, just a mutually beneficial working relationship. It was all over the business pages when the official announcement was made. It’d been kept under wraps until then.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Hembreys is expanding into the market for pharmaceuticals. Just like over here, American firms have stringent safety processes to adhere to before anything can be marketed. Ambersial’s going to be doing some of the testing for it. It has considerable expertise doing this. It’s a good fit, businesswise.”

  I nodded. He continued.

  “Up to a little while ago, Ambersial was looking to partner up with an Israeli firm, but it fell through. That’s when it looked to tie in with Hembreys.”

  “Why’d it fall through?”

  “I’m not really sure. The Israeli firm just announced one day it was backing out. I never knew the official reason why.”

  He sipped some more coffee and took the last biscuit.

  “But Ambersial’s a firm which’s had its share of headlines because it uses animals to conduct tests on various products. I mean, by law, it has to, it doesn’t have a choice. But it’s attracted lots of unwelcome attention from animal rights groups in recent times. They’re really going after Ambersial.”

  “But it’s been doing what it does for a number of years. Why now?” I asked.

  “Company like that, doing what it does, is always going to attract criticism from animal welfare groups and various charities. But the shit really hit the fan for Ambersial recently. Some undercover investigation from a Channel 4 Dispatches programme found clear evidence of animal abuse going on, lots of dogs being ill-treated. Some dog was shown clearly in pain and the staff were doing nothing to alleviate it. It found animals were being used for all manner of tests which had no proven scientific value, no commercial potential. They did these just to see what would happen.” He shook his
head.

  I’d not seen the programme but I remembered the furore in the press about it. I was disgusted anyone could cause harm to dogs. I loved dogs. It was the only thing Hitler and I had in common. There’d been questions in the House about Ambersial and its practices, but nothing had come of it.

  “Ambersial got a lot of harmful publicity and all the animal rights extremists’ve come out in force. You heard of the group CDA, Close Down Ambersial? It’s going all out to try and put Ambersial out of business.”

  “Hembreys really picked its moment to join up with Ambersial.” I grinned.

  “Hasn’t it just?” Sharone agreed. “In the States, Hembreys has had to contend with groups like PETA who’ve been campaigning against its decision to get involved with a company which uses animals to test products on. That’s mainly why it’s attempting to move some parts of its operations over to Europe. But animal rights protesters are becoming just as vocal and active over here. Ambersial’s not the first company these people have gone after. You heard of HLS?”

  The initials sounded familiar but I couldn’t recall what they stood for. I shook my head.

  “Huntingdon Life Sciences. Company was in the news a lot around the early 2000s as there was a concerted attempt by animal rights activists to close it down. Went to great lengths to try and shut this company down, and they weren’t always too concerned about the methods they used either: everything from blatant intimidation right up to attempts on the lives of key people working there. They went after the banks that loaned HLS money, people who’d bought shares in the company, anyone in any way financially connected. They even targeted key personnel online. They’d be outside the labs watching people drive away and follow them to their homes, or else take down the registration number and try to trace them that way. There were even a few car bombs planted near their site.”

  He paused for a moment. “In the end, they had to bring in security experts to train their top managers about what to look for under their cars before they turned the engine on, checking for anything suspicious attached, or to see if their brake cables had been severed. They were even advised not to park their cars at home, just in case.” He sniggered. “John Major, your ex-Prime Minister? This was all in his constituency, one of the three safest Tory seats in the country.”

  He evidently found this somewhat amusing. I joined in with his laughter, though I didn’t find anything funny about car bombs and attempts to kill innocent people.

  “Ambersial’s currently experiencing similar kinds of hassles,” he went on, “lots of animal rights fruitcakes demonstrating outside their new premises being built in Cambridge. There’ve been several mass demos at weekends about what they do. There’s also a permanent hard core of demonstrators there, round the clock. They’ve continually gotten onto the site and caused some extensive damage.”

  I nodded, saying I’d seen news items about this.

  “Hembreys makes several of the chemicals Ambersial uses in its experiments to check product safety, which was another reason why it made sense for there to be closer ties between the two firms, thus the partnership deal. It’ll take effect once the new Cambridge site is completed.”

  “So what exactly will the partnership look like?”

  “Ambersial will continue doing what it does, using animals to test products, and it’ll have brand new, state-of- the-art super-duper hi-tech labs to do it in. Hembreys will provide finance and support services, which’ll help open up the American market for them. Businesswise it’s a good deal for both firms. Both stand to make big profits from this arrangement.”

  “Yeah, and all from torturing animals,” I said sourly, thinking about the dogs.

  “You really think morality enters into this?”

  He looked at me for a moment. It looked as though he was wondering whether he could say what he was planning. He nodded.

  “I’m gonna tell you something I heard about the importance of this deal to both firms, and the source who told me this swears it’s true, so I’m gonna swear you to secrecy about what I’m about to tell you. Fair enough?”

  I nodded my assent. He finished his coffee. He sat back in his chair.

  “A couple months ago, a car being driven by a couple of the animal rights activists outside Ambersial went off the road whilst leaving the area, hitting a tree at some speed, crashed into a ditch. Both occupants were mangled up and died from their injuries.”

  I nodded. “I remember reading about it.”

  “Thing is,” he said, leaning forward, “my source told me it was no accident. They were run off the road by two other cars. One came up alongside them, one came at them head-on from the opposite direction. With someone coming at them they tried to evade it but couldn’t move ’cause they were hemmed in by the car to their right. They couldn’t pull away to avoid the incoming vehicle. They swerved, went off-road, straight into the tree. Damn lucky the car didn’t explode on impact.”

  “Your source is saying they were killed?” I wanted confirmation I’d not misunderstood.

  He nodded. “That’s what he said.”

  “Why’d it happen?”

  “A couple of reasons.” He pulled his chair slightly closer to mine. I sat forward. “Both victims were prominent animal rights campaigners. They were the main figures in CDA. They were involved in organising the protests against this new facility being built. They’d been royal pains in the ass for Ambersial. The company had had to hire extra security to stop protesters encroaching onto the premises, stopping building from going ahead. Every so often there’d be some kind of big demo against the company. Protesters’d lie down in the road, blocking access to the site. They targeted small suppliers who provided services for the company or who did work for it. A small firm servicing the company’s photo-copiers had all its windows smashed one evening, and the owner had his car tyres slashed. Several other small firms also suffered damage to their property. Even the guy who cleaned their windows was threatened. In the end, the hassle was such they got fed up, stopped doing business with Ambersial altogether. Construction of the new site was running weeks behind schedule, which was driving up its costs. It was even impacting on Ambersial’s share price. The market didn’t seem to think the new site was going to be up and running on time. Ambersial had borrowed heavily to build this new site. The delays were really harming its business.”

  He paused for a moment. I waited.

  “The word I heard from my source was, Hembreys was gonna pull out if the protests continued and kept causing delays. It’s a firm not used to protesters causing delays like this. It wants something, it usually gets it. Something like this’d never be allowed to happen in the States. If PETA stepped outta line like this, it’d be stomped on, hard, by the authorities. So Hembreys tells Ambersial, get it sorted, and quick, or it’ll pull out altogether. Neither party can afford to lose this deal, especially Ambersial, given its debts. Like I said, it’s borrowed heavily to get this new site built. So it brings in people from outside to help tighten up security. A couple of weeks later, these two take a headfirst dive into a tree. Police investigate; write it off as an accident. All very neat and tidy.”

  He described this in a calm, almost matter-of-fact manner, like he was reading instructions about how to erect an IKEA bookcase.

  “Nobody believes this was an accident,” he continued, “but nothing can be done because there’s no evidence it wasn’t an accident. Police have posted it as an accident. That’s it.” He shrugged. “Ambersial, of course, denies any involvement and expresses sympathy to the victims’ families for what it calls an unfortunate accident. But, whatever, the protests pretty much die out soon after this, construction continues along its merry way. The partnership deal’s still viable. Both sides are happy.”

  I remembered hearing the manager at Titanomachy saying they’d sent Richard Rhodes to Cambridge, after being contacted by a firm in the area, to help out with security. Had he been involved, directly or otherwise, with the deaths of the two activi
sts? This would be well within his skillset.

  “Of course, that’s the official version of the investigation into their deaths: they were driving too fast, lost control of their vehicle.” He paused for a moment. “But there’s something else as well. Did you know there’d been a break-in at Ambersial’s onsite office just before this?”

  “No, I didn’t.” I shook my head.

  “Couple of nights before the accident. Someone gets into Ambersial’s office, which is a large Portakabin onsite. Details of whatever was taken were never made known; neither was the fact of the burglary. Company never reported it to police.”

  I was surprised, and apparently it showed on my face.

  “It’s true, it didn’t. But I hear on the grapevine Ambersial’s mightily pissed at this, says it has to be someone involved in CDA. Couple of nights later? Pow.” He punched his right fist into the palm of his left hand. “Car goes off-road, kills two people. Police found a briefcase in the car, lots of confidential papers and documents belonging to Ambersial. There was also a laptop belonging to someone at the company.”

  “They think these two did the break-in?”

  “Them or someone they knew. Evidence points to this.” “What kind of confidential documents?”

  “That I don’t know. I just heard it was confidential stuff.” I considered what I’d heard for a moment. “If this happened a couple of nights afterwards, they’re not particularly good burglars, are they?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” Kevin Sharone’s eyes narrowed.

  “Think about it. You break into somewhere like Ambersial, you’re not gonna carry around anything you took, are you? First thing you’d do is get rid of anything taken, or at least stash it someplace safe. If they’d found anything incriminating, they’d get it to someone who could put it to good use, not carry it around with them.”