Week Four Continued
There was a knock at the Colonel’s door, an orderly came in. “Take these two people to the accommodation you prepared earlier, show them where the canteen is.” Dave thanked the Colonel, Sally sat in the back this time, the orderly was next to Dave giving directions, “Have you been here before sir, you look familiar?” “I’m not a sir, I was a sergeant, I spent six months here training many years ago, David Stretton.” Sally said his picture was on the wall in the Sergeants Mess, “I saw it when I was up here for a couple of hours.” “Are you the lady who was shooting?” “Yes,” “there was a lot of talk once you had gone, someone said you were a good shot.” Sally smiled, “stop here, it’s this block.” She thought is smelt like some of the university student accommodation as they went in, they were on the ground floor, a door was unlocked, “this is it, I put tea, coffee and milk in earlier, I can get anything else you might need, I’ll help you bring your bags in.” Sally looked round, there were two bedrooms, each with two single beds, a bathroom with a shower, the kitchen was basic, there was a table and four chairs, finally a small lounge with two sofas, a couple of small tables and an electric fire. Everything had been put in the bedroom, Sally opened the cases and quickly hung up the clothes, some were left in the suitcase. The laptops were put in the bottom of one of the wardrobes. Dave asked where the canteen was, it wasn’t far, a couple of minutes walk away. Sally said she was starving, and wanted to eat, “do we still need to carry the Glocks?” “No, we can put them away now.” The canteen was busy and noisy, Sally looked round, she was the only woman other than the couple behind the counter, many stared at her. They lined up and were served, Sally had half a chicken with new potatoes and salad, Dave had beef curry and chips. They sat quietly eating, Sally was looking round, everyone was huge, many bigger than Dave. He asked if she wanted a dessert, “I saw apple pie, some of that please, he took the plates with him as he left, he returned with jam roly poly for himself, both desserts were covered in custard. “Can I change my mind, I want yours?” Dave handed his over, Sally’s dish was soon empty, “go back up if you are still hungry, they won’t mind.” Dave was standing up talking to two people when she returned, she said hello, “this is Sally, we work and live together. Sally these two are Mitch and Shiner, they are instructors here, I did my training with them, word has got out we are here.” The four sat down, “excuse me while I eat,” They asked why they were here, Dave put a finger up to his mouth, “Sally will be here for around a week, I will be coming and going.” “Were you anything to do with the job on an island, we have heard a bit about what happened? One of the others met up with Taff last week when he was down in Wales.” Dave nodded, Mitch looked at Sally, “were you the woman?” She looked across at Dave, “it’s OK,” “yes, it was me, I spent a couple of hours here familiarising myself with an Uzi, I used the medium sized one.” Dave said about the one who was executed, Sally said it was horrible. She was standing up, “do any of you want coffee?” “We came across to ask if you wanted to join us in the Mess.” Dave said not tonight, we have had a busy day, “we will be having an early night, depending on how it goes tomorrow, we might come across.” They all shook hands, the two left, “do you want any more to eat, have you had enough to see you through until breakfast?” “Yes, I’m full, I saw biscuits in the kitchen, if I’m hungry I’ll eat them, right now I feel tired.”
It was strange sleeping in a single bed with Dave across the room, at 07:00 she climbed on top of him, “I missed you during the night.” They ate a full breakfast, and were waiting at 09:00 when there was a knock on the door, it was the orderly from the night before, “I’m here to take you to your office.” They took the laptops with them, it was a five minute walk, Dave said to remember the way. Sally plugged in the laptops and switched them on, Dave closed the blinds then went off to find where the coffee machine was, the place was deserted, only a few people were working. He asked one of the people, a door was pointed out, through it he found a kitchen, boiling a kettle, he opened a cupboard looking for mugs and made coffee for them both. Sally was talking to someone when he returned, he worked out he was from IT, she said she needed the password to access the internet, a printer and plenty of paper. Five minutes later they were working, Dave locked the door from the inside. Where do you want to start? “The files from Yuri, we need to look at them first, see where it takes us, we can decide where we go from there. If we both look through them, and then say what we think.” He downloaded the files and copied them over for Sally to look at, they both sat reading, Sally was making notes as she read, two hours later she stopped, Dave was leaning back with his eyes closed. “I’ve read the same messages several times, does it say what I think it does?” Dave opened his eyes and nodded, “The President and Vice President are to be killed.” “Why?” “Look who is in on the plan, the owners of two large weapons manufacturers, the President is trying to stop wars and cut down on the defence spending, if the two of them are out the way, the Speaker of the House then takes over, he has connections to another weapons company, the wars the US are involved in would continue, more money for those manufacturing. It’s always about the money.” “What are we going to do now, someone needs to be told.” “Not yet, Yuri has identified everyone in the emails and messages. I suggest we concentrate on making sure we create a report up to the point where the drugs are shipped to the US, once we have that done, we can call the US side ‘part two’ or something like that. We need to make sure it makes sense to someone reading it for the first time, if we try to work on too many parts, we will end up achieving nothing. Once you have made a start, I will read it and make corrections while you carry on, stop for lunch, we can start in the afternoon, I have to phone Taff and book my flights, fly out on Monday afternoon and be back on Tuesday morning, I will be using a false ID.” As they left he said for Sally to see if she could find her way, after a couple of wrong turns, she found their accommodation, from there she found the canteen. There was plenty to choose from, they didn’t stay long, there were no wrong turns on the way back. In the office he called Taff, “it’s Monday night,” he said he and Colin would be flying into and out of Belfast, “don’t ask any questions, it’s all in hand.” He booked his flights, he would be flying out from Birmingham. Sally was typing furiously, he closed his eyes, he was thinking, his original plan was to fly to the US to speak to someone higher up than Cyrus, but wasn’t sure who, in view of the discovery a new plan was required. He opened his eyes when he heard the printer, Sally passed him the first ten pages, he read through the start of the report, when he had finished, he went back to the beginning, he had a highlighter and a pen, he corrected some parts, wanted others moved, changed words, it’s how it always was, each time Sally retyped it, there would be fewer corrections. A plan was forming, he leaned back, his eyes again closed. Sally had gone to make drinks, Dave logged on to the internet, he found the CIA site, waited for the software to let him in. He had met both the deputy directors when he had been in Langley before, he had told the political appointee he was an asshole, it hadn’t gone down well, the career deputy he had spoken to and found OK. The issue now was the political one was on the list, he was involved. Normally he would have spoken to Cyrus saying he wanted a meeting, the request would gradually climb up the chain with more and more people wanting to know why. That method wasn’t going to work, a different way would be required. Dave looked at the diary for Nathaniel Dawes, he wanted to make sure he would be in Langley later in the week. He was, various meetings were in his diary, included was a dinner booking at the Waldorf Astoria for Thursday night. Dave made a decision, he would fly out on Thursday morning, flying back the following day.
They worked until 18:00, they immediately left for the canteen, it was quieter than the previous night, Dave said some may have gone home while others would be getting ready for a night out in Hereford. “Can we do something?” Do you want to try the Sergeants Mess, it will be busy, there may be some wives as well, a chance to talk to someone other than me.” Sally was in the shower first, Dave joined her, he used a separate shower head, before she moved to rub in the lather on his body. As they were drying themselves she asked why there were two shower heads,
“so two people can shower at the same time, nothing is private in the Army.” They were dressed casually, Sally could hear the noise as they approached, she hung on to Dave, “don’t leave me on my own, I might go off with one of the hunky blokes.” They weren’t recognised at the door, Dave said he was an ex-sergeant and to check with any of the instructors inside. A minute later Dave’s hand was being shaken, there was a kiss for Sally, it was where she had eaten the day she had flown in for training. Drinks were ordered for them both, Sally looking round thought it was like a rough working mans pub, the sort that are long gone now. People came up to shake Dave’s hand, they all seamed to know about Sally as well, she was flattered by the attention she was being given. She couldn’t make out much of the conversation, it was too loud, looking at Dave she saw how happy he was, she would ask him why later. Around 22:30, the room started to empty, they hadn’t moved from the bar, eight of them were standing talking. A couple of tables were empty away from the bar, someone suggested they move so they could sit and talk. The conversation up until them had been about other people, exploits when they had been training and officers. Sally had quickly found out the present company had little faith in their superior officers. A tray full of beers were brought over to the table, Sally was given a gin and tonic, she had lost count of the number she had drunk. The bar was shut, the staff were clearing up, nearly everyone had gone, the talk now turned to Dave and Sally, he was asked what he was doing here. “We’re working on a project, it was decided to work here as there would be no distractions, we will be gone after next weekend. “What happened on the island off the Hebrides?” Dave explained in detail what had taken place, he said there were two others with them, someone asked if it was Taff and Colin, he nodded. Dave took great pleasure in saying they released two from the SBS who had been taken prisoners, the rest of the table laughed. “There were six of us and around thirty five of them, so the odds weren’t too bad,” there was more laughing. “It was all over in around thirty minutes,” Looking at Sally one of them said they had been told she was in the thick of it. “Taff said you had been on other jobs as well, there might be a place for you here, it would make a change from the hairy arsed squaddies we have.” Someone else now asked Dave if he was involved in the incident on the River Tay, “we heard there was a woman throwing about a boat, driving like a nutter.” Dave smiled and looked at Sally, he asked what jobs they had been on, for the next half hour they discussed how when they were needed more and more, they were being used less and less, “none at the top have the balls any more to send us in.”
They were told it was time to go, outside there were handshakes, Sally lost count of the times she was kissed. In their accommodation she stood in the kitchen with a coffee, “I’ve never heard you talk so openly, normally you say nothing about what you are doing.” “We were amongst friends tonight, they understand what goes on, not one of them will say anything about tonight if they are asked, it’s therapy after a mission, you know what it’s like, you’ve talked endlessly before, it gets it out of your system, they kill people with their hands if necessary, it gets to you, they have to talk about it. That’s why when they are not working, they laugh, very rarely will you find one sitting in a chair thinking, it’s not good for them.” He put down his empty mug, he picked up Sally and carried her into the bedroom, “now which bed shall it be tonight.” It was a struggle in a single bed, at 02:30, Sally moved into her bed and slept until Dave woke her in the morning.
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