At 17:00 he was phoned with the time, 03:30 with entry into the building around 04:00. The location of the meeting point was written down. He walked along to Jane’s office. “We have a time, will you inform everyone where and when, the teams need to be ready to enter the building at 04:30.”
“I will be going with you, I have been ordered to oversee everything and report to the Home Secretary. Sir Rupert wants to see you tomorrow, expect a bollocking from him. My car will pick you up at 02:30.” Dave suggested she go home and get some rest, it was probably going to be a long night. As he was leaving, he called into the stores, picked up something he thought he would need and left for the hotel.
He booked another night, the chances of him seeing Sally were fading. She was coming out the shower when her phone rang, Dave said he was in the bath, soaking before he ate and then went out at 02:30. “Did you have anything to do with the press conference the Prime Minister gave this morning?”
“I was in Downing Street, we met just before it started but said nothing to him other than there was another location. Why, I’ve not seen or heard anything?”
“He looked really annoyed the way the UK had been treated by an ally. He answered some of the questions saying there would be retaliation. He didn’t directly point the finger at the US, but no one was left in any doubt.”
“No. it was afterwards I laid into the politicians, I said for them to stop fucking about.” He immediately apologised for swearing.
“Dave, you can’t speak to these people like that.”
“Jane said the same thing, I offered her my pass if she didn’t like it. I will be spending the night with her.”
Sally laughed, “that will be an interesting encounter.”
“She is to be with me when we go into the building.” He went out to eat as late as he could, eating alone in an Indian restaurant, he was the last to leave. In his room, he changed into dark trousers and put on his coat. In the hotel lounge, he was the only one there. He chatted to the porters until the doorman called to say his car was here. There was silence in the car as they drove east, he gave the driver their destination. Three minibuses were already there, the windows blacked out, the door of one opened as they approached. All Jane could see were people dressed in black, with balaclavas covering their faces, she listened as one of them spoke to Dave.
“A team is at the substation, they will kill the power at exactly 04:00, the generator has already been disabled, there will be emergency lighting come on, but that may help us, one team will enter from the roof, two men are up there already, the door is unlocked, they have been down to confirm what your man saw. Team blue will enter through the corridor, secure the entrance then begin to round up the people, they will be cable tied and left. Team red will rush up the stairs, past the main office and enter through the door Team blue secured. That’s it, plain and simple, no shooting as instructed unless we are fired on, there might be thunderflashes if we think they are needed, but you know what these operations are like, a lot is decided as we go along. Once the area is secure, power will be restored and the building will be yours, we will disappear.” Dave shook his hand and thanked him.
Jane checked her own teams were ready, then spoke to a senior police officer, two more minibuses containing police were waiting in a supermarket carpark ready to go. Dave plugged his headphones into phone, he said for Jane to follow him. “Walk slowly, pretend we are a couple wandering home.” Her arm slipped inside his, near the warehouse, he stopped in a shop doorway. “If anyone comes along, act like we are kissing.” He joked that it might be quite nice, he received a slap for being cheeky. From his pocket, he took out a night vision monocular, scanning the roof, he could see two figures, more were silently climbing the fire escape, he passed it over for Jane to look.
Checking his watch, he said to get ready, they moved closer to the fence, suddenly the whole area was plunged into darkness, there were two flashes they could see through the blinds followed by loud bangs, noise could be heard from inside the building. Where the loading bays were, the shapes of people could be seen, the torches on mobile phones were being used to give a little light. Dave led Jane down to near the entrance to the offices. At the same time as his phone rang, the lights came back on. “Call the police and your teams get them here now. Stay by the door, direct them up the stairs to the second floor, I’m going to see what we have found.”
Around twenty people were sitting on the floor, including four marines in uniform. Dave asked if there any weapons, he was passed a box with four side arms and belts. Looking round, the place was filled with electronic eavesdropping equipment. “Who’s in charge here?” There was no reply, “OK, you will all be arrested and charged with espionage until one of you says who the boss is.” There was still no answer. “The police are on their way here now, you will each be processed and taken into custody, you have until they arrive.”
One of the soldiers came over to Dave. “There is a man at the door, demanding to know who we are and what we are doing on his premises.”
“Is he British?” There was a nod. “Tell him to fuck off or he will be arrested.”
Jane came upstairs with a senior police officer, “what do you want him to do?”
“Take over from the soldiers, secure the building, let no one in or out without your or my authority unless they are wearing government ID. Phone the Home Secretary, tell him to get over here to see the scale of what has been going on. We need more coppers to process this lot, he will have to make a decision about what to do with them.”
She looked at him to protest about calling the Home Secretary so early, but decided against it. Shortly after she said he would be here in an hour. The SAS had gone, replaced by the police, two Home Office men were waiting for instructions. “I want everything photographing before anything is disconnected and removed, judge how many vehicles you will require.”
He shouted for the senior police officer. “Seal off this carpark, let no other vehicles in, we will be removing all this equipment later.” He said to Jane he was going to find the boss of the site, downstairs on the first floor there was a very angry man.
Dave asked who he was, “Andrew Collingwood, I’m the night manager, who are you and what are you doing?”
The question was ignored. “Have you informed your boss, and is he on the way here?”
“Yes.”
“Good, I’ll speak to you both then, this shouldn’t interrupt the day to day running of your business. Do you have a canteen? We could do with around fifty bacon or sausage rolls, anything like that, let me know how much it is. I will give you a card to pay for them, don’t forget red and brown sauce.”
Returning upstairs, he asked Jane what she was planning to do with the ones tied up in the centre of the room, some of the women were upset and sobbing. “We can’t hold them, the only ones we can arrest are the Marines, and I don’t see any point in that, they would be out the next morning and back in the US later that day.”
“OK, why don’t we get a WPC up here, have the women searched and processed then released, have more police take them to where they came from if they don’t have transport, I still don’t know who the boss is.” Jane went off to find a policewoman, Dave went over to the group on the floor.
“Right, the women will be processed, names and addresses taken, your ID’s will be retained as will your phones, they will be returned at a later date. Once this is done you will be free to go, if you do not have transport, you will be taken to where you want to go. However, none of this will take place until I know who is in charge. It’s now up to you, the sooner I know, the sooner the ladies will be on their way home, the men will follow after.” Dave sat watching the group, eventually he pointed to one of the women. It’s you, stand up and come here, someone find a pair of scissors to start cutting the ties on the ladies, this one first.”
Dave led her to an office he had seen, “sit down,” he leant across the desk and looked at her ID. “Mary Stevens, well Mary, you could have saved a lot of time by owning up earlier.”
“How did you know it was me?”
“Every so often, someone would glance at you, the didn’t glance at anyone else.”
“My name is David Stretton, you may have heard of me, perhaps not, Cyrus Grantly was a friend of mine, but we fell out recently. Your country has been doing some very bad things in this office, I know you will say you were only doing what you were told to do. I’m not bothered about that, you won’t be arrested and interrogated, there isn’t any point. I want your help to save me a lot of time. I will find out the information, I would rather not spend ages trawling through files. How long ago was this set up and who do you report to? That’s it, nothing difficult.”
There was a long pause, he thought at one point she was going to say nothing, but she spoke in a very quiet voice. “Around two years ago, it was before I was assigned here. The information is sent to the Foreign Affairs Department.”
“Will you tell me who is in overall control of that department?” She shook her head. “OK, I will look in the morning when I am back in my office, but you might want to help me one more time. I will suggest a couple of names, a nod would be sufficient, Nathaniel Dawes.” There was no response, “Bob Smidowitz,” Dave saw a lick of the lips at the mention of his name. “You can rejoin your friends now.”
The rolls had been delivered, both the Americans and the police were eating, the Home Secretary was talking to Jane. “Can we talk in private please,” They went into the office Dave had just left. “I know which department the information is sent to and the person in overall control, I would like your permission to talk to him. This isn’t just a British problem, have you looked at some of the equipment, there are labels with other European countries on them. It’s time someone spoke directly to them.”
“No, you do nothing until I have spoken to the PM, he will decide what we do next.”
“It’s going to take days to clear this, each set of equipment needs to be kept together for analysis later on.” A policeman knocked on the door. “The main man wants to see whoever is in charge.” The three looked at each other, it was Jane who spoke, “this is your operation, we are only here to assist.”
Dave went downstairs, he saw the night manager talking animatedly to another in a suit. “Who are you and what the Hell is going on?”
Dave ignored the question, “do you have somewhere we can talk?” He was led down a corridor on the first floor and shown into what he assumed was the main meeting room, Dave sat at the head of the table. “Do the Americans rent the top floor from you?”
“It is an agreement arranged through our head office in the US, I have no veto over who comes and goes, they don’t bother us and we don’t bother them. Will you tell me what is going on?”
“I terminated the agreement tonight, the equipment upstairs will be removed over the next few days, the police will remain until the operation is completed. Can you tell me how the equipment arrived on site?”
“It came over with shipments of goods from the States.”
“Thank you for the information, we will try not to interrupt your business, but I have commandeered the small car park outside, we will need it for our vehicles.”
“But you haven’t told me who you are.”
“No, I haven’t, ask the Home Secretary, he is upstairs.”
Only the four Marines remained, the photographers had finished, Dave spoke to them saying he wanted a link to the location of the images by 07:30. Jane asked what they should do with the soldiers. Dave went to speak to them. “You will be released soon, however you will not get your weapons back, you could be arrested for possession of an illegal firearm, but there isn’t any point in that, what I want to know is, where are the weapons kept. Is it here, or do you bring them with you at shift change?” No one spoke. “OK, last chance, you will be arrested if I don’t get an answer, none of us want that, so talk, or I will call over the police and you will be leaving the building in handcuffs.”
“There is a locked cupboard in our changing room, the weapons are kept there.”
“And who has the key?” One of the four said he did. Dave helped him up. “Lead the way, you can tell me where the key is when we get there.” It was a digital lock, “put in the combination and open the door slightly, then stand back. Try anything and I will kill you.” The man obeyed Dave, inside were more hand guns and four assault rifles. “You may return to your colleagues now.” Dave said for them to be documented and then escorted out the building. “Jane there are more weapons in the staffroom, can you organise a firearms officer to remove them. I think our time here is over, unless you want to stay and supervise.” Men were now beginning to remove equipment, everything was being photographed, logged, shrink wrapped then labelled.
Jane spoke to the person in charge of the removal. “Make sure none of this is connected to the internet when you eventually power everything back up.” The Home Secretary said well done and left. “David, I have been told to drop you off at Downing Street when we go, I am not invited, I will be going to my office.” Dave would rather have gone for a shower before seeing the Prime Minister, but he would go to the hotel afterwards.
Looking at the clock as he waited to be seen, it was 08:45, he spoke to the receptionist. “Will you tell his aide, I will be getting some breakfast in the restaurant.” She looked at him, the look said you should remain where you were, but Dave was up and off.
He was finishing his cooked breakfast when he saw the aide looking for him, “The PM is very busy this morning, there is an emergency meeting shortly, he wants to see you before it starts.”
Dave followed carrying a mug of coffee. “Sorry about that sir, I was starving.”
“I understand from reports you were successful last night.”
“Yes, no doubt the Home Secretary has brought you up to speed, it wasn’t just the UK, there were labels on machines with every European country.” I was told you wanted to phone the head of the CIA to tell him you had discovered what they were up to, but were told not to. It’s about 02:00 in Washington, call now, we will listen in to the conversation. I may guide you with questions to ask. Who will you be calling?”
“Bob Smidowitz, Head of the CIA, I will call him on his mobile, can we do number withheld from here?” The aide said he would organise it. Dave asked him for a USB stick, sitting at a computer, he downloaded software from his cloud storage. Immediately clearing the browsing history, running the software from the stick, the two watched as he logged in to the CIA backend. Bob Smidowitz was awake, messages had been going back and forward between the UK and his office. Dave found his mobile phone number. The aide pressed a button to put the call on speaker mode, as soon as it was answered.
Dave started, “Morning Bob, I guess it’s a bit early for you, did you have to be woken, or were you still up?”
“Who the Hell is this and how did you get this number.”
“The shit hit the fan in east London last night didn’t it.”
This time the reply was less polite. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Bob, I can call you that, as we have met before. My name is David Stretton, and last night, I dismantled your surveillance operation in the UK. That’s the second one in less than a week, I thought we were supposed to be friends.” The phone went dead. Dave looked on line for his office number, he redialled, someone else answered the phone. Dave put on an American accent and asked to speak to Bob. “Tell him it’s Nat Dawes.”
“Nat, thank God, that fucking Brit has found the site in London.” Dave smiled at the other two watching him, he was back to his normal voice. “Bob, I don’t like the phone being hung up on me, do it again and the press will know about this within the next ten minutes. You have a serious problem over here, you call us a friend, when all the time you are fucking us over. I understand the Prime Minister has been in contact through diplomatic channels and you haven’t replied. Well, there is no way I can be called diplomatic. Someone needs to come here and do some explaining, don’t think you can send over a lowly diplomat to try to smooth everything over, the time for that has passed. We want to know why you thought it right to set up a liaison group to discuss mutually beneficial information, while at the same time infiltrating our departments to the highest level. You’ve fucked up big time, you have until midday UK time to contact the Prime Minister and to begin trying to get yourself out the mess you have created. Oh, and one last thing, we know you have been doing the same to the other European governments. I’m sure others have been listening on this call, they certainly are at this end. Finally, if you thought it might be a good idea to eliminate me, I would advise you to think again. The people who watch my back would have no qualms about corrupting every hard drive in the US government. Midday Bob, the clock is ticking.” There was a mumbled response before the call ended.
“You certainly aren’t a diplomat, I wouldn’t have liked to be on the other end of that call. Gareth, I want both the calls ready for the meeting. David, I would ask you to stay, but you look worn out, I will contact you or Miss Goodley later.”
© 10210ken 2026
