Week Three
As Dave drove off to start work, he stopped level with the car the Americans were in, he wound down his window, he indicated for them to do the same. “I’m going Ubering, do you want to follow me, or have you put a tracker on my car? My first stop will be at the café, if I see you there, I will buy you a coffee.” They followed him as he carried on, in the café, he ordered three coffees to take away, he walked down the street, he put the drinks on the top of the car. The two got out to join him, there was a man in his forties, and a woman in her twenties. “They’re milky white, I didn’t know how you liked it, you’re on a horrible stakeout, the road is quiet, nothing is happening, there can’t be much to put on your report at the end of your shift. Has Cyrus said how long you will be watching me?” The man said, until they were told not to. “Well, I will be Ubering for the morning, depending on how busy it is, I might stay out until later in the day, Sally will be home mid afternoon, we won’t be out after that. I could send Cyrus a list, but I’m sure he is following orders.” Dave drained his coffee, “I’m off now, if it’s busy, I don’t think you will keep up, if you do, I will lose you in town or on the university campus, you won’t get past the barrier and there are several exits. See you later.” With that, he went back into the café, he picked up the first job on his phone, it was over to Leicester, once he had dropped off, he phoned the Admiral, “I’ve changed sim cards, the number I called you on is the one to use now, the Americans are following me, I think they know the last number I used. We have started, but I need another pair of hands, someone who can enter data without asking questions, I also need a place for us to work, I have a plan, but not sure if it will work.” The Admiral said for him to carry on, “sir, Garats Hay used to be an Army base, I’m not sure what it’s used for now, however I know it’s guarded, so something must be going on there.” He was told he would be updated later in the day on both his requests. Before he finished, another laptop was bought from PC World, the two he had seen earlier were waiting further down the road as he arrived home. Sally was already there, she was in the shower, he stripped off and waited for her to come out. It was only the ringing of his phone which stopped them from making love, “leave it, let them ring back,” “no, it might be important,” “I’m more important than your phone,” she protested. “A secure office and an assistant will be ready by 09:00 tomorrow, tell me your registration number and I will make sure you will get past the gate.” He said to Sally they had an office and an assistant from tomorrow. “Come back to bed now, tomorrow can wait.” In the evening, he set up the new laptop, Sally put everything they would need into a box, she left it by the front door.
The following morning Dave had said for Sally to dress as if she was going to work, everything was put in the boot, he lay down in the back seat, Sally waved to the Americans as she drove off to the university, she drove in the main entrance and out one of the quieter ones. Fifteen minutes later, she was at the security barrier at Garats Hay, Dave was now sitting beside her. In reception, he said there should be an office allocated for him, a voice behind him asked if he was David Stretton. They both turned round to look, “I’m Peter Jamieson, I’ve been sent up to assist you,” he handed over a sealed envelope. Sally tore it open, “it his authorisation from the Admiral.” The lady behind reception handed over a key, “tea and coffee making facilities are in the room.” She gave them directions, Dave looked round before he and Peter went back to the car to bring everything in. When they returned there was the smell of coffee in the room. Sally was introduced, “I don’t know how much you have been told, I hope nothing, you are here to transfer data generated by Sally and myself into files, Sally will guide you to begin with, but you will be expected to use your initiative, however, if you are unsure about anything, always ask. This project is top secret, you never leave the room unattended, if you are working alone lock the door if you go out. Tell no one about what you are doing, if anyone asks, say you have been doing mundane data entry. I hope your part will last no longer than a couple of weeks. Where are you staying?” “There are rooms here, I came up late last night,” “do you have a girlfriend?” “Not at the moment.” Sally fired up the laptop she had been using, she spent half an hour going over what she had done so far and what Peter would be doing. Dave carried on downloading files from MI5 and the CIA, the further down the list, the smaller the files were, Sally was on bank accounts, she was downloading five year’s worth of statements for each person. Peter was being bombarded with files, Sally saw he was fast, she checked he was putting the information in the correct places. There was a break for lunch, Peter said he had started as a data analyst before becoming a researcher, “this is the first time I’ve worked outside Whitehall,” Sally said she had been a researcher many years ago, Dave said nothing. The afternoon was the same as the morning. Sally said she had seen nothing out the ordinary, “there are no large sums in any of the accounts, they all look like normal people.” “I know, we might have to widen our search, by tomorrow we should be on to the people found on the island, once they are done, we will start on the paperwork from the island then the possessions, somewhere there will be clues.” The laptops were taken home with them.
There was only Dave and Peter for the next two days, Sally joined them later, when she had finished work. On Thursday morning the Americans had gone, Dave loaded the boxes from the garage, they would be on them later in the day. It was the paperwork from the office on the island first, it was all laid out on tables round the room, they both tried to make sense of it, everything was hand written, Dave rang reception and asked for someone from IT to come up to see them, he said they needed a scanner which would be linked to one of the laptops, it was ready twenty minutes later. “Leave everything, Sally will look at it when she arrives, if there is a code or pattern, she will find it. Once we know, we can organise it and scan it all in. Sally looked through the papers, she said nothing, picking up a note book, she spent ages looking through it. Drinking the coffee Dave had made for her, she held on to the note book while she looked through loose sheets of paper. “OK, I have it, the note book lists the amount of drugs manufactured each day, the loose papers are the orders, I can’t figure out who they are going to, there is only a reference number. Look in the note book, there are references to ‘X’ and ‘CM’, ecstasy and crystal meth, it is repeated on orders sheet, put them in date order, scan each one, do the same for the pages from the note book, enlarge them to make the writing clearer, once that is done, we will see what is left.” Dave arranged them into date order, Sally created a folder for them on the laptop, Peter was scanning the sheets. It was 18:30 when they had finished, Sally was studying the remaining sheets, “Dave, they concern the duties assigned to each person on a weekly basis, I don’t think we need to scan these, but keep them separate just in case.” Dave asked Peter if he wanted to join them for dinner, there was a pub which served food nearby. The three were eating when Sally nudged Dave, she motioned towards the bar, ”tell them we will see them when we have finished.” He explained to Peter friends of there’s had just come in, “they didn’t know we would be in here, Sally has gone to tell them we are having a business meeting.” When the meal was over, Dave drove Peter back to the base, he returned to join Olivia and Michael, Sally had explained they were working down the road. The four stayed chatting until closing time, Michael thanked Dave several times for the help he had given him. Outside, they kissed and shook hands, it was a very quick peck on the cheek for Olivia from Dave. In bed Sally asked if they were making progress, “to be honest, I don’t think we are, a lot of information is being entered, but so far I haven’t seen anything to interest us. Once it is all in, we will start looking properly.”
The following morning, the paperwork from the previous day was put away. Sally wrote the names of everyone on the island on sheets of paper, each one was put on the desks round the room. Dave handed out latex gloves, “there may be blood on some of the items, it will be dried by now, but none of us want to be touching it. Everything is mixed up, so try to work out what belongs to each person, I have phone chargers, most likely the phones will be dead.” By mid afternoon most of the boxes were empty, phones had been charged, they figured out who some of them belonged to, there were five iPhones. Dave said to Peter he had done well and to go now, “see you on Monday morning.” When he had gone, he locked the door, using the burner phone he called Yuri, “it’s Dave,” they exchanged ‘hello’s’ before Dave got down to business, “Yuri, the last time we spoke, you had a program which could access iPhones, you said it worked only on the older models, do you have an update?” “$10k and it will access all iPhone, free upgrades when a new version is available.” “$5k, I could ask the Americans to do it for free, but they would ruin the phone.” They settled on $8k, “Yuri, do you have anyone in the UK I can pay, I have the money available, but I need the software now?” “Tell me when you are in London next, someone will meet you, it will be in your secure storage in around an hour.” Dave thanked him and hung up. “Is that who supplies you with all the software?” Dave nodded, “he is very resourceful, we will start on them on Monday, no work talk this weekend. I am trying not to get to involved at the moment, it will come later, you know that.” It wasn’t to be, that evening Jane Goodley phoned, she wanted to know how the week had gone, Dave was vague, “we are still trying to input the data, with three of us on it I would like it done by the end of next week and then we can start the investigation properly.” “Graeme Rogers called me today, he wanted to know if you had been in contact. I said you hadn’t called or emailed and if you did, the call wouldn’t be taken. David, why is he so interested?” “I don’t know, maybe we will discover something, but he isn’t important at the moment.” She said there would be another call next week. Nothing more was said about work, it didn’t stop Dave thinking, several times Sally had said for him to forget work.
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