Day Ten
He looked at his watch, it was now after midnight. “David, I don’t know what to say to make you reconsider,” “the truth might be a good place to start.” “It’s not up to me,” “then tell the person who calls the shots, without the truth, I won’t be working for you, it’s nothing personal, you know that, but I have to think of Sally and myself.” “You always said you would do anything for the security of the country,” “not this time,” he picked up his phone and scrolled through his contacts, “I will expect you both to be in your office ready to start work at 09:00 tomorrow morning, if you are not there, your passes will be revoked, all work will cease, you will be paid what is due to you. There will be no further work from MI5.” Dave wasn’t listening, he found a pen and wrote down a phone number, he passed it to Jane. “You know what you have to do,” “You might as well cancel our access now,” She stood up to leave, “goodbye David, goodbye Sally.” Dave followed her as she walked to the door, Sally pointed the gun, he stopped her before she reached the door, he turned her round to face him. Sally watched as he kissed her on the cheek, she saw his hand reach down and squeeze her bum. There was no reaction. The door was carefully opened, he looked out, the corridor was empty. Jane Goodley returned the kiss and walked out into the corridor. When the door was shut, he held a finger up to his mouth, Sally nodded. Graeme Rogers was waiting in the lounge, he called to Jane when he saw her. When she was sitting, he asked how it had gone, “there finished, they are returning home tomorrow, I told them there would be no more work, in the morning I will have their access to the building removed and their ability to log onto our servers.” “Won’t he use his own software to access the system?” “We found how he did it, he cannot get in. I’ll send you a copy of the recording in the morning.” They left in separate cars, Jane Goodley wondered if she had done the right thing.
Two floors above, Dave was in the bathroom, the taps were running, but the plug wasn’t in the bath. “I’m not sure if the room is bugged, I don’t think it is, but say nothing about her visit, I will explain it all in the morning.” Neither of them had a good sleep, Dave lay awake, he was trying to figure everything out and formulate a plan. Sally was up before the alarm call, The clothes for traveling back were laid out, everything bar their toiletries was packed. They were down for breakfast at 07:30, as they were eating, a waiter asked if the duty manager could join them. Claude duBois sat at the table, Sally had spoken to him previously, Dave had only ever said hello. The waiter brought him a jug of coffee. “I understand you are leaving this morning.” Dave nodded, “the work we were doing finished early.” “Will the people who have been sitting in the lounge be leaving as well? There is one waiting now, the doormen say two more are across the street.” “They are police, watching out for us, they won’t be here once we are gone. I’m sorry if they have upset any of your guests.” Claude said they hadn’t, “it was the porters who noticed them and reported it. Will you be back later in the week?” “I’m not sure at the moment.” He stood up, apologised for interrupting them and was gone. After breakfast, Dave paid the bill, he spoke to the head porter before they returned upstairs. Gathering all their bags, there was a knock at the door. Sally let the head porter and another porter in. “This bag is to be put in your storage, we will pick it up later.” Dave and Sally each had a laptop, he also wore his backpack and carried his briefcase. The head porter led them down the staff staircase, through the kitchens and out into the street at the rear of the hotel, Dave passed him a folded note. They walked until he saw a cafe, sitting inside Sally asked what was happening and where were they going. “To the MOD, we need some answers,” “What was all that about last night?” “I think I know, but we will find out later, we have been thrown out again, but this time I think it’s to give us space.” “Why did you grab her arse again last night?” “I wanted to find out if she was on our side. I guessed if she had slapped me then I would have known she wasn’t, it was all I could think of,” Sally laughed, “I think you enjoyed it.” He took out a burner phone, calling the Admiral, he had to wait until he was free. “sir, Sally and I would like to see you, do you have any free time?” “10:30, for an hour,” “sir, I am armed and we won’t be using our real names, we will need to be escorted.” There was a pause, “Richard Marks and Harriet Jukes, thank you, will see you at 10:30.” “What a horrible name, makes me sound posh.”
At the desk, he said who they were and who they had come to see, there names were checked off on a screen. A buzzer was pressed, two armed soldiers appeared, they were escorted into a side room. Once the guns had been handed over, they passed through a metal detector arch, the Admiral was waiting for them. Nothing was said until they were in his office. “I think you need to explain what is happening, you’re not exactly flavour of the month.” “I refused to go along with what they wanted, no one would tell me the truth, police have been following us. Last night we had a visit from Jane Goodley and Graeme Rogers, the conversation was recorded, we were told if we weren’t in our office at MI5 this morning, we would be out. Police were waiting for us this morning, no doubt they would have been following us again.” “Why are you here?” “We need a base to work from, I will investigate this, but on my own terms. Part of it involves the forces, especially since a member of the SBS was killed. I think the government wants to do a whitewash job on it all, we will be blamed when there is no result. I’ve already made a start.” A buzzer was pressed, “bring in coffee for three.” Turning back to Dave, “it’s true what they say about you, there is always a mess to clean up afterwards.” “There is more, we need false ID’s, three each with everything else, I don’t want to use our names at the moment, add passes into this building. Can I ask if you have been told to report if we contact you, and if so, who to?” “There was a notification from the Home Secretary asking for Graeme Rogers to be informed. I spoke to the Chief of the Defence Staff for guidance, he said for me to ignore it. If you are in this building then you are here on MOD business which has nothing to do with him.” “Thank you sir.” “What about you Miss Fellowes, you’re in this as much as David?” “I’m not as experienced as Dave, but even I can see something isn’t right. We will find out what it is, but I think there will be a mess to clean up.”
They sat in silence as the coffee was drunk, the Admiral spoke when he put his cup down. “The Brigadier is out the loop, I am your contact, there are only five people who know about this, the three here now, the Chief and one other, you will meet that person when we have finished, they are waiting in the basement. The five of us will have an initial meeting, we will discuss what each of us know and then we will plan what we do. The ID’s will be with you in a couple of days, I guess you will be working from home, Miss Fellowes, you will be back at work tomorrow, I understand your leave of absence has been cancelled this morning. David, you will be driving your cab.” He called the Chief saying they were ready, Dave asked how he knew they would be here this morning, “you had nowhere else to go, but we know your first loyalty is to us.” “Will there be coffee, or should we take one with us?” “Lunch will be brought in at 12:30.” They were the last to arrive, the Chief was speaking to Jane Goodley, Sally was surprised to see her, Dave had thought it would be her. It was a large round table, no one would be at the head. It was the Chief who started. “We all know why we are here, this meeting is not being recorded, there will be no records of it having taken place. We are here because each of us has questions, not about the operation, but the run up to it and the resulting clamp down on proper investigations. The meeting has to be honest and open, if we want to get to the bottom of this, then it is no good withholding information. Mr. Stretton and Miss Fellowes are going to have a hard enough job. We must tell them as much as we know.” Dave interrupted, “before we start the discussion, may I ask a couple of questions, why is Graeme Rogers not here and who set the police on me?” “It was decided not to invite him, he was the one who instigated your surveillance, he has been trying to find you since you slipped out the hotel.” “I have to make a call, it concerns our safety, it doesn’t need to be private, he used the phone on the table, “Trevor, it’s Dave, can you go over to our house, I want you to check every car in the street, see if there is any watching the house, check for people walking up and down, you know what to do, £200, I’ll pay you when I’m back in Loughborough. Email me and let me know.” He returned to the meeting, “sorry about that, we need to be safe, I don’t suppose he is aware of this meeting. There is something about him which I cannot figure out, it will come in time. May we go round the table and say what we know, no matter how small or insignificant you think it might be, Sally will make notes as we go along.” None of them had much to add, most of it was to do with the run up to the raid. Neither the Admiral nor the Chief were investigators, they only dealt in facts. Jane added a little more, however she could only say what she had been told, Dave wondered out loud if some of the information was misleading. He added what he knew, “I spoke to someone I know, he thought the drugs were bound for the US, he thought the bags and boxes found on the island might be consolidated and shipped to the eastern side of the US, he said customs wasn’t quite as strict, a vessel coming from Ireland wouldn’t raise as much interest as one from Latin America. I asked if he would give me any more intel, he refused, somehow, somewhere, the CIA is involved, like they are with a lot of these sorts of things. His parting words were to follow the money. He will not give us any further information. My question following on from that is, how could a small republican group, raise enough money to finance a project like this, it also needed organising, how good are they at logistics, where did the scientists come from and more to the point, where are they now. We have a job on our hands, we will be treading on people’s toes, there will be a lot of unhappy faces when we have finished. We will find out what has happened, but who will the report be given to, who will do the arrests if there are any, who will expose the politicians and probably the most serious part, what will you do if we uncover American involvement.” They stopped for lunch, there wasn’t any conversation, each person was thinking about the implications of what had just been said. After lunch, Jane spoke, “there is a lot to take in from what David said, my proposal would be to find out as much as we can, let Sally write up a report and then we discuss what we do from there. David, what do you need from us now?” “I want a diagram showing the structure of the group, names and addresses, the same information for those found on the island, other information will be required, but for now, it will be enough to start with. You have given us a task to do, I hope you will be prepared for the outcome.” Dave was asked about a time frame, “I have no idea, there won’t be much to begin with, it will take time, I will organise meetings when I have anything to tell you. Our time will be spent between Loughborough and here, if at anytime you think someone is asking too many questions, please share it.” The information he requested would be sent over to him later in the day, the meeting was over, Jane Goodley requested a further meeting with Dave and Sally to discuss how the information would be sent to him. “Who wanted the recording of our conversation last night?” “Graeme Rogers,” “why the sudden interest in me and my movements, are the police still following me?” “He wanted you followed until you were on the train and leaving London, you gave him the slip then he asked me to call the police off.” “The Chief and the Admiral are fighting men, they know less about the political goings on than I do, they will act on the findings, but I don’t see them coming up with anything, I hope I’m wrong.” “The researchers in here will be better than MI5’s they will only look for facts, nothing else.” Sally said she was going to get more coffees, when they were alone, Dave said not to say anything about how dangerous this might be, “we don’t know who we are up against, I hope I can trust you?” “Why did you grab my bum last night?” “I wanted to see whose side you were on, if you had been against us there would have been a reaction, besides, it feels good,” “you did the same when we had dinner,” Sally had returned with more coffees, she caught the end of the conversation, “I said he shouldn’t touch your bum, but he likes doing it, I’m sorry, I’m trying to train him not to do it, but it’s difficult.” Dave wrote down a different email address to send any documents to, “you have the phone number I gave you last night. Please honestly tell me who knows what is going on.” She drunk her coffee and thought, “Jane, I will know if you are lying.” There was a long pause, “one other, the Chief of the Defence Staff is aware, the Prime Minister is in overall charge of this, you aren’t to contact him unless you are in danger, he will authorise your immediate transport to Hereford, the safest place for you both. I hope it doesn’t get to that, you will both have letters signed by him to carry any weapons you require, I understand two Uzi’s are unaccounted for, you wouldn’t know anything about them?” They both shook their heads. You have the resources of the army at your disposal, the Admiral will make things happen, no questions will be asked.” Sally asked Jane if there was anything she was still withholding, “nothing, you have or will have everything we know at the moment, it is now down to you two to figure it all out. There is no time frame, Sally will have to do what she can in between work, David, go out in your cab just in case you are being monitored, I don’t think you are, but let’s err on the side of caution.” “I will have the Admiral send me details of a job they want us to do, it will give us a reason to be in London.” “I think that is everything, my car can take you to the station if you want,” “No, thanks for the offer, I want to ask the Admiral something, we will take a taxi.” Dave stood up as she packed paperwork into her briefcase, he kissed her, keeping his hands behind his back, Sally kissed her as well. When she was gone she asked what he wanted upstairs, “I want to know if they found any paperwork on the island and if so where it is.” Phone calls were made, they were still transporting the drugs and chemicals off the island, the office still hadn’t been investigated. “I want to go there tomorrow, can you arrange it?” “You will have the details by the time you are on the train.” True to his word, a helicopter would pick him up at 07:30 from Garats Hay. There was a message from Trevor, the street was clear. Sally sat with her eyes closed on the train, she wasn’t sleeping, she was doing what Dave had taught her, thinking of different scenarios and how to make a start. They were home just after 19:00, “Dave, when we have eaten can we share a bath, I know there isn’t much room, but I want to be with you?” They ate what was in the fridge, it wasn’t much, Dave took out a pizza from the freezer, they would have it later. In the bath, Dave soaped Sally’s front, he could feel her relax, as the water cooled he suggested they got out and moved onto the bed, with a quick dry with towels, she lay on the bed waiting for him, the pizza sat in the kitchen uncooked.
© 10210ken 2026
