On Sunday, they were at Heathrow, they saw Jane Goodley, she handed Sally an envelope, Dave asked why they were there. “To help smooth things along if there are any problems.” “That’s bollocks, me, smooth things, I’m more likely to make it worse.” “You are here for a reason, it will become apparent as time goes on.” Sally had opened the envelope, she passed Dave his new MI5 ID and security pass, “I’ve got one as well, I guess we have been re-instated.” The flight was long and boring, it was the second time in a few weeks Dave had done the trip. They were booked into The Willard Hotel, close to The White House, their room was huge, as they unpacked, Dave called room service to have their clothes pressed. There was an informal buffet on Monday evening, it was a get together, everyone had name badges on, Dave hated these gatherings, Sally chatted to anyone, Dave followed behind, he didn’t want to talk, it always ended up with him being asked about encounters he had. His excuse was to say he couldn’t discuss the work he did. He was forced to make small talk, Sally kept trying to involve him. People started to drift away, that was his excuse to head to the bar, he ordered a beer and sat on his own, he had told Sally where to find him. “Come on, let’s go to bed,” Sally was standing at the side of him, “I know you hate this sort of thing, but sometimes you have to do it, I liked it.”
It was an early breakfast, a coach was waiting to take them to Langley, they filed out and through security, The morning meeting was due to start at 10:00, those not involved or on call were shown into a lounge. There was a coffee machine, magazines, newspapers and a TV. Cyrus Grantly came and found Dave, “My job is to look after you and Sally, anything you want, let me know, did you bring me the software you promised?” Dave handed over a USB stick, Cyrus slipped it into his pocket, he sat with them drinking coffee, “Have you got anything else for us?” “Maybe, we’ll see how the meetings go,” “I don’t think there will be a settlement in your favour, your lot have tried before.” Sally asked if he was married and if he had children. “My wife is Marybeth, we have a boy Cyrus Junior who is eight and his big sister Rosie who is twelve.” “How does she cope with all the secrecy?” “Many of the families where we live are involved, the wives support each other, it works well, there is always something going on.” They chatted for most of the day, Dave wasn’t involved in any of the discussions. Despite doing nothing, by the time he climbed on to the coach, he felt tired. During the meal that evening, Jane Goodley spent some time sitting with them. “David it’s not going well, you may be called on tomorrow, I don’t know what you are going to say, but please remember we are trying to do a deal with these people.” “Jane, if you are asking me to speak to them then there obviously isn’t much chance of a deal.” “Please try to put our side of things in a different way, you have a way with words.” She left them to finish their meal. “What will you say?” “I don’t know, I have thought about a few ways to approach this, but I’m not sure, I will do a little preparation when we have finished. I don’t mind doing it myself if you want to stay down here and chat.” “No, I’ll go with you.” In the room, he fired up the laptop, “I want something for tomorrow, it has to make them sit up and pay attention. He opened up his VPN, he used a server in Romania to log into his cloud storage, downloaded a piece of software he wanted to use then logged into the CIA, he found what he was looking for and downloaded a page from a document. He then removed the program, logged off the VPN and transferred the page onto a stick, “Sally, I want you to find out where their business suite is, I want ten copies of the page on the stick, make sure no one sees the printed sheets, put them in an envelope and bring them back here, I’ll explain what it is when you return.” She was gone for half an hour, “it was busy, I had to wait until there was a pc free, I stood by the printer taking off each copy as it came out.” She handed over an envelope, “You printed out a page from the CIA file on the President, I didn’t tell you beforehand in case you were panicky.” “How will that help?” “It will let them know I can find out the information without having to ask for their help.” Dave took out a notepad, he wrote down headings for each topic he wanted to talk about, the order could be changed round depending on how he felt it was going.
- Special Relationship
- US wars and regime change
- US standing in the world
- Moving forward
Sally was watching as he wrote each title down, “What are you going to say?” “I will tell them what I think, it may upset both sides of the table, but I don’t care. I think this is what has been bugging me all this time, no one will tell the truth, say it how it is, it’s always said in language that is neither positive or negative, not many of them have the balls to speak openly, they are all fearful of their jobs. Tomorrow, they might hear a few truths. If it means we don’t get any more work, then that’s fine by me. If however, they decide to keep us on, then the air will have been cleared. I think I will feel better once I have done it, if I don’t get to speak then I will say it when I get back.” Sally wanted to know if he was sure about what he had planned. “If you don’t think I should do it then say so.” “No, I want the Dave I saw on Monday night, not the brooding one there has been lately, if it means no more work, then we will find something else to do.”
They had an early night, Dave was apprehensive on Wednesday morning, the talk at breakfast had been about the white tie dinner that evening at the British Embassy, Dave and Sally, like some of the junior members of the team hadn’t been invited. Jane Goodley asked Dave if he was ready, she didn’t like the smile he gave her. The morning was spent sitting waiting, Cyrus was again there to chat. “I heard your name might be on the list for this afternoon, what will you be talking about?” “I won’t say anything now, but if I’m called then you will certainly hear about it later. At lunchtime Jane spoke to Dave, “You will be called just after the next session has begun, so far there has been very little movement, it looks like we will come away with nothing, there will be a spin put on it, but basically it has been a waste of time. Don’t make it worse when you speak.” Jane, Sally is coming in with me, I hope that is OK, she won’t take part, but she is my partner, we stand or fall together.” David, what are you going to say in there?” “Wait and see, if we haven’t made any progress then you have nothing to lose.” Jane left, Sally asked if he was nervous, “a little, I’m not sure what I will be saying, or when I will hand out the pages you printed.” Ten minutes after the meeting resumed, they were asked to join, two chairs were sitting at the end of a large oval table, hand written place names were on the table. They sat down, he saw the two deputy directors of the CIA, some other of their staff, the British contingent and themselves, quickly counting there were sixteen people present. Others were sitting waiting to take notes at desks either side of the table. One of the Americans welcomed them both. “We understand your Prime Minister has suggested you speak in an effort to move us from the positions we currently hold. The floor is now yours.” “Thank you, if you don’t mind, I would like to stand to speak to you, I’m not very good at talking when I sit down, I may also pace about, it helps my chain of thought.” Dave stood up and moved out from where he was, all eyes were on him. “I would like to introduce myself, I am David Stretton, beside me is my partner Sally Fellowes, we work as a team. We are good at what we do, I have helped you on several cases in the last eighteen months, information has been passed to yourselves from investigations we have carried out. We are neither politicians or diplomats, that will become clear as I progress. We are field workers who are also excellent investigators, we search for the truth, no matter who it may upset. I want to talk about four subjects, each one will bring us closer to where we are today and hopefully might lead to some progress.
I will start with the first one on my list, the Special Relationship supposed to bond us together in peace and during wartime. Each new President when inaugurated has always said there is a special relationship with the United Kingdom. The only thing we have in common is our language, there is nothing special about the relationship we have. It could be said, in the past there may have been something special, but there isn’t now. We are treated no differently to any other country, it has always been, those who give the most get to sit closer to the President. However, we have given more than most, but are kept at arm’s length. Friends help each other.
Number two on my list concerns US foreign policy. I’ll summarise US foreign policy in a couple of sentences, Trade, we want free access into your markets, in return for letting us in, we will impose tariffs on anything you want to sell to us. If we don’t like your government, we will try to impose regime change, once we have done that, we will clear off and leave your country in ruins. If all else fails we will invade your country, ruin it and have no plan for the future, after a few years we will withdraw and let the government we tried to overthrow return. Gentlemen the US is not great at judging what is best for the world, look at the two Gulf Wars, nothing has been achieved, the Middle East is still a tinderbox, Vietnam, 250k young Americans brought home in body bags, North and South Korea, still technically at war. Thousands of troops on each side of the border ready to kill each other. The USA might win the war, but they never seem to be able to win the peace.
Point three is the US standing in the world. The USA since World War Two always saw itself as the leader of the free world, it stood up to the USSR during the cold war. These days have gone, the world is changing, China is now a dominant force, as is India, both with huge populations slowly becoming more affluent, smarter and seeing the rest of the world as somewhere to expand into. They are squeezing the US. China has taken over whole sections of Africa, not with wars, or regime change, they have done it economically, by lending vast amounts of money for infrastructure, when the loans have been defaulted on, China has pointed to sections of the contracts where because of the loan unable to be repaid, they now own the mineral rights or some other asset the country has. Takeover without a single shot being fired. There is also BRICS, nine of the wealthiest countries, either in money or assets, The centre of the world is moving away from North America and Europe, you are in danger of being left behind in a changing world. How many countries would stand with you in support of Tiawan if China invaded, there is only one country I can think of, NATO would say it’s nothing to do with us, only the United Kingdom would probably stand with you. Certainly, no other country in the region would say or do anything.
Which brings me to my last point. If we take my reading of the current situation the US faces, you have very few friends in the world, plenty will say and do things to allow trade to take place, due to the way you have treated other countries you are almost alone in the world, some will help you, but want investment or something in return, like access to your markets or newer weapons systems. America has gotten rich through war, but you can’t carry on killing people to make a few companies with a lot of power even richer. There was talk during the Falklands war of you supplying weapons to Argentina to use against us. So much for the special relationship. Enough of the history lesson, let’s deal with where we are now. We give you our Crown Jewels and receive chicken shit in return. That’s not a relationship, that’s not friendship, in a school playground it would be called bullying. We want to be your friend, but not on these terms, either you deal with us fairly or you might have one less friend, imagine losing your airbases in the UK, we might be a small country, but we are in a strategic position both geographically and politically. Can you afford to lose us as your oldest ally, maybe you can, maybe you are not bothered. We might be a small country, but we can still operate at the top of our game.” He took a drink of water, picked up the envelope he had brought in, he took out the papers and placed them face down in front of the Americans, “please don’t turn the paper over until I say.” Two weeks ago, I gave you software which I had that enabled me to view the CIA files, it was undetected by your systems, I could go at will wherever I wanted. The flaw was patched by your IT team almost immediately. Last night I tried something new, you may turn over the paper.” There were gasps as the page was read, people were shouting at Dave. “Quiet please gentlemen, these are the only copies, the file and software are no longer on my computer.” “I had to show you an example of what we can still do. We have the ability to access your systems, but we choose not to do it, we are being British in asking, rather than taking, but I can assure you that if there isn’t some kind of an agreement and we walk away with nothing then it will become a free for all. We would only be doing what you are doing all the time to us and other countries. Let’s have a special relationship, a partnership of equals, together we are stronger, it takes realisation and commitment. Time to stop posturing and look to the future.” With that he sat down to a stunned silence. “Thank you Mr. Stretton for being so candid, would you and Miss Fellowes please wait outside.” Dave and Sally rose to leave, outside the room he leaned against the wall, “are you OK?” “I feel worn out,” back in the lounge, he slumped into a chair, Sally brought him a coffee. “When did you rehearse that, I never saw you practice it or write anything down,” “I didn’t, it was all inside, I don’t know how it went down in there, truthfully, I don’t care, I felt better for saying it.” He was recovering, “Jane Goodley had her head down the whole time, others had faces like thunder. If you thought you were unpopular before, it will be off the scale now.” “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” “no, but they don’t like to hear it, especially from someone who isn’t in their clique.” Cyrus returned to join them, “I’ve just seen the tapes, there are some very unhappy faces in the room, what was on the paper you showed them?” “A page from your file on the President.” “How did you get that, we plugged the holes after your last visit?” “A new bit of software.” “Will you give it to me?” “Nothing personal, but no, it’s staying with me, I don’t need to say what will happen if you come looking for it. You wouldn’t want everyone knocking on your door.” “I have been offered another piece, the cost is $1m, it is a bug which once it infiltrates a system, it corrupts hard drives, replicates itself and then moves onto other machines on the system, it wipes its tracks as it goes, it is virtually unstoppable, it has been developed for the Chinese market. Don’t forget the payment for the software I gave you yesterday.” “I have it in my office, I will give it to you or Sally later.” Dave and Sally watched as the meeting ended and everyone filed out. Jane Goodley walked directly over to Dave, there is a meeting at 18:00 in the hotel, you will be there.” She turned and walked off, “Always the popular one, aren’t you.” As they left for the coach back to the hotel, Sally heard others talking about another meeting in the morning. “Perhaps you did do something if there is to be more talks tomorrow.” “I’m not bothered, I’ve said what I think, if I’m to get a bollocking, then they can fuck off.” Sally wasn’t used to Dave swearing in normal conversation, he hardly ever did. There was just time for a shower before heading to the meeting, he had been sent the room number by text. “Do you want something smart to wear?” “No, jeans and a tee shirt will do,” “You’re not going to a meeting dressed in jeans.” “OK, trousers and a tee shirt, find an old faded one.” Sally ignored him, she laid out trousers and a shirt, “Do you want me to come with you?” “No, it probably won’t take more than a few minutes.” He walked into the room a few minutes late, not because he couldn’t find it, he wanted an advantage, inside the main players for the British team were sitting round a table, there was one place unoccupied. Dave went round to the table where there was coffee, he poured himself a cup and slowly walked round to take his place.
© 10210ken 2025
