Week Six Continued
They were back in the room just after 14:00, everyone sat back down. “This afternoon will explain why there has been all the secrecy. We know from this morning, the drugs were packed into containers on a monthly basis, and moved to Dublin, I visited the shipping agent last week to find out where they were being sent to, each consignment note is in the second report.” He was interrupted, “did you set off the bombs in Dublin?” Dave said he couldn’t comment on that. Each container was being shipped to Boston, the address was a company based there, six companies were based there. Each one had the same director, an eighty five year old man. He wasn’t behind it, I went back to the messages on the dark web. I could see Patrick Finn was communicating with someone who he talked to in a different way. I spoke to someone I know, I asked if it was possible to trace the identity of someone on the dark web. Several hours later he messaged me back with the details. It was a senator in the US Government.” Both Cyrus and Nathaniel Dawes sat up. “He was in contact with other people, three of the people were involved with vending companies in different parts of the US, vending companies mean cash, it was the laundering method for the drugs money. I haven’t bothered investigating them, the details are in the file. I asked my contact to look again and find out who the other people were, it was the day before I flew to the US. There were four other senators and three more names. The senators were easy to trace, the three others are directors of weapons manufacturers, The messages which are noted in the report give the reason this whole drug manufacture and distribution network was set up.” He stopped to drink water, all eyes in the room were on him, “Your President is trying to reduce the conflicts the US is involved in overseas, we all know they supply weapons to other countries to assist in regime change or keeping small countries, usually in the middle East, fully armed. Some people don’t like that, they lose money or don’t make as much if the weapons aren’t required. The drugs were being sold for two reasons, one is personal gain, the other is to have sufficient money to carry out the plan discussed in many of the messages. The President and Vice President are to be assassinated.” There were gasps round the room, “with both of them dead, the Leader of the House would then take over, he is pro American interference in foreign countries. The manufacturers would be back in business. I don’t have any details of when this is to happen from the information I have, it is still early on in the process.” Looking at Nathaniel Dawes, perhaps you could ask your fellow Deputy Director, he is involved.” With that he sat down, Sally squeezed his leg, she stood up, “you can now open the laptops, plug in the stick I will give each of you, it will help explain how everything is tied together.” Dave left the room, Sally ran out after him, he was leaning against a wall, his head down. “Are you OK?” “Yes, I need to wash my face, that was exhausting.” “you’ve been talking for over four hours without any notes, no wonder you are knackered. Sit down I will get you a drink.” He drunk the whole bottle of water, “you had better go back in, I will return in a couple of minutes.” When he walked back in, his face gave nothing away. Everyone wanted to ask him questions, they answered between them, Sally replied to any regarding the report, Dave spoke about the investigation. Three were up at the board behind them pointing to someone then tracing who they were in contact with. It was 18:00 when the Prime Minister spoke. “I think we should stop now for the day, resume again in the morning. No one is to make any calls regarding this before we have had a discussion in the morning. We owe our thanks to the two at the other end of the table, I will speak to them later, dinner is at 20:00, it is not a formal dinner, casual clothes if you want.” They all filed out, Sally took the sticks from the machines, none of the reports had been left. In the room she kissed and hugged Dave, he wanted a bath, she ran it while he undressed, he lay back with his eyes closed, he looked asleep, he wasn’t he was thinking, there was another session tomorrow, he was going over the presentation for that one. Sally had put a coffee on the side of the bath, she heard a knock at the door, Jane Goodley was outside, Sally let her in, “where is he?” she was told he was in the bath, Sally went in to let Dave know she was here, he rearranged the bubbles and said for her to come in. “I’m working on tomorrows meeting, if you want I will get out and see you in the bedroom.” She shook her head, “I want to know if there is more to come?” “Yes, it’s the British turn to have some home truths, it won’t be pleasant. Do you think today was worth all the secrecy?” “I understand now, can I ask you about Dublin, how did you manage to set off so many bombs and incendiaries?” “It wasn’t me, I told a couple of friends what I was doing, they offered to help me, they said something about payback, I have no idea what they meant.” There was a broad grin on his face. “I’ve lost the soap do you want to help me find it?” “You can’t ask me a question like that.” “You haven’t answered, it slipped off me somewhere further down.” Sally heard her saying she was going, her face was red when she came out. “Tell him to stop it,” she walked past Sally and out the room. “What was all that about?” “I asked her if she wanted to help me find the soap,” “you’re too bad, you would have had a shock if she had stuck her hand in the water,” “so would she.” “I’ll find it,” her hand and arm went straight down to grab Dave, a minute later she was naked and in the bath. They were late down for dinner, it was a large round table this time, Sally sat next to Jane, she whispered to her saying they were late because she had found the soap. She saw her go red, before turning to talk to the person on her other side. The conversation over dinner wasn’t great, everyone was still going over the revelations from this afternoon. After coffees they moved into the lounge, the Deputy Director asked Dave to join him at a table with Cyrus. Sally was with the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary. He was quizzed about his findings, “there is much more detail in the file, it needs to be read several times to fully understand the conversations.” “I almost didn’t come, it was your words about being aware and doing nothing. Cyrus has since told me how you have helped us before. I want to thank you for what you have done.” “It was Sally as well, she played just as important a part as I did, we come as a team. She is very good, on the island she took the same part as the rest of us. Sally is a bloody good shot, she almost beat me in a competition last Sunday.” Sally was being asked about Dave, she said he was worn out, he hasn’t stopped for five weeks, neither of us have, plus there has been the stress of being protected for the last two weeks, it has taken it’s toll on both of us.” The Foreign Secretary had joined them, “I’ve never seen anyone talk like that for such a long time, how does he do it?” “He becomes the investigation, he goes through every detail, he has gathered most of the information, I don’t know how many times he has read the reports making corrections, he has been working towards the meeting, you saw him focussed today, I’m amazed he kept it up as long as he did. Afterwards he almost collapsed, it physically drains him. He will take time to recover.” “Is it true he drives a cab?” “Yes, it’s his therapy.” She looked across at Dave, he looked like he needed rescuing, standing beside him she reminded him he still had preparations to do for tomorrow. “Thank you, I need to sleep.” “Did you notice Jane avoided you tonight?” Dave was almost naked, “Yes, she wouldn’t look at me.” “It’s because when we sat down for dinner, I said we were late because I had found the soap.” He closed his eyes with a smile on his face. Sally kissed a sleeping Dave and turned the light out.
The following morning at breakfast they were told the morning session would be held without them, they sat on a bench outside for a while then walked round the grounds. The Americans were gone when they returned, hopefully in a few hours they would be as well. It was another buffet lunch, in the meeting room, Sally put a copy of the report in front of each person, Dave got up to speak. “This report is just as devastating as the one yesterday afternoon, I haven’t prepared a talk, it was done on Saturday, it isn’t long, please read it through before asking any questions.” Sally was re-reading it to remind herself, there were gasps round the table, Dave was looked at several times, but no one spoke. It was the Prime Minister who spoke first. “It’s true what they say about you, whenever you are involved in something, there is always a trail of carnage left behind. This is shocking, how can so many people have carried on without being discovered?” “Because they are good, it’s only due to me knowing who to ask and trying to have things done that have never been tried before, we are looking at this report. Graeme Rogers was my way into this, something wasn’t right, why did he force Jane to kick me off the case? It immediately raised my suspicions, that and a £2m chateau in his wife’s name in France, she doesn’t work, hasn’t been left any money, how could she afford it? Everyone else led from him. You have some serious housekeeping to do. There are around twenty names who need to be investigated further. We don’t want to be involved in that part, it’s down to internal security and the police if you can trust them. If you don’t need us any more, may we leave?” They were again thanked by the PM, as they left Jane Goodley followed them out. “Thank you both,” she kissed Sally then hugged Dave, he kissed her as she let go. “I will speak to you both in a couple of days, there is a lot to go over.” They packed and left as quickly as they could, Sally typed in ‘home’ on the satnav, she drove while Dave snoozed in the passenger seat, she phoned Olivia saying they were on the way home, she said there would be milk, bread and a meal for tonight in the fridge. Sally thanked her and said to come round the next day about lunchtime. Having eaten, they went to bed, it was only Olivia shouting up the stairs when she let herself in they woke. Sally went downstairs in her dressing gown. “Sorry, we were both still sleeping, I think it was being back in our own bed.” Dave was in the shower, he was dressed and ready to go downstairs before Sally, “I’m reluctant to go down without you, I don’t want her to try anything on,” “she won’t, I warned her.” He chatted to Olivia until Sally came down, she thanked her for looking after the house. Dave picked up his phone, there were a load of missed calls. He started with Jane, she told him he had a meeting on Friday with her at 10:00, and another with the PM at 12:30. He didn’t agree to either, the last missed call was from the MOD, the Chief wanted to see him, he spoke to Sally before agreeing to any of them. “Go, get it over and done with, don’t stay over, I won’t be with you, I want a few days here, I will be back to work on Monday.” Olivia had sat there listening to the conversation, she realised Sally was a different person to the one she had been before she met Dave.
He took an early train to London, he had walked to the station, on the platform he looked round at the other commuters, none of them had done what he had over the last few weeks. Jane poured him a coffee when he was sitting in her office, “Graeme Rogers has gone, as have a load of senior police officers, early retirement.” “I don’t suppose there was much chance of them being prosecuted.” “David, is there any more to come from your investigation?” “Nothing, as far as I’m concerned it is finished, I won’t be looking at it again.” “I had hoped Sally would have been with you, I wanted to thank her, I will do it next time I see her.” “She is exhausted, she has never worked so hard. She needs time to recover, the thing is, she can’t take time off from work, she feels guilty about being away, one of the other women asked her if she was a spy. Somebody has said something, can you check up, have a look at the backgrounds of the people she works with.” “The reason for the meeting is the software you used, I want a copy, I understand you have a way into iPhones, it would be very useful, and the one for the dark web.” “I don’t have the one which will disclose the original senders name, I think it is still being worked on, I will bring the others next time I’m down. What does the PM want with me?” “I don’t know, he didn’t say.” “Yes he did, you aren’t telling me.” “Listen to him, discuss what he says with Sally.” Dave walked to the meeting in Downing Street. He sat in Parliament Square before walking the last short distance, he had gone over what might be offered to him. Once through security, he was led along to an office on the ground floor, Richard Carlton was talking to an aide, he stopped, greeted Dave and said for him to sit down. The aide left when their conversation was over, “thank you for coming, are you on your own?” “Yes, Sally is worn out, she has to be back at work on Monday and didn’t want to come down.” “Again, you and Sally have dug around and uncovered the truth, and as usual you have left others to clean up the mess, this time there was a big mess.” He stopped talking as coffee was brought in, Dave drunk his quickly and poured out another cup. “What you and Sally did in the time you had was remarkable, I’ve read the report several times, it is well written and presented in a logical way a layman could understand, you both have talents which are lacking in many of the staff we have.” Dave guessed an offer was about to be made. Miss Goodley has been liaising with the Director of the CIA, it is proposed to set up a joint committee to meet as and when required, to discuss current and future projects. It would utilise the unique talents you and Miss Fellowes have. It is not a political appointment, you would both remain retained as you are at present, but there would be an increase in the amount paid to you.” “How would the work we do for the MOD and MI5 be affected?” “It wouldn’t, you would carry on as normal, when there was an issue which affected both countries, you would be the first contact.” “This is MI6 territory, not MI5, when they find out, won’t there be trouble?” “You will be dealing with issues relating to the UK internally, anything the Americans find out, would be passed through you, and vice versa. MI6 will not be involved, at the moment, they have enough problems of their own. I don’t expect you to answer now, discuss it and speak to Miss Goodley, she will give you more information.”
It didn’t take long for him to walk the short distance to the MOD, he announced he had arrived and said he would be having lunch, the receptionist said she would ring him when the Chief was free. While he was eating, his phone rang, he spoke to Cyrus Grantly saying he could meet him at the Embassy at 17:30, however he didn’t have his passport with him. Cyrus said it would be OK. Later in the Chief’s office they talked about the last five weeks, after the initial raid on the island, the only part the MOD played was to provide accommodation and security, both of which Dave thanked the Chief for arranging. “David, is there anything which didn’t appear in your report?” “No sir, we left nothing out, the MOD comes out of this untarnished, unlike MI6.” The Chief said he had liked Graeme Rogers and thought him a decent chap. Dave said you can never tell what’s going on in people’s minds.
The final call of the day was to see Cyrus, he wanted to thank Dave and Sally for all they had done for the USA, “you haven’t invited me here just to say thank you.” “No, I understand Jane Goodley made you an offer today,” “it wasn’t her, it was the Prime Minister, I want to talk it over with Sally before I say yes or no.” “David, you are both invited to the States next week, when can you travel?” “I’m not sure, I will need to speak to Sally, she is back at work next week.”
There was a lot to think about on the train home, Sally was waiting for him at the station. He had phoned ahead to say when he would arrive, but nothing about the meetings. Within half an hour, he had showered and changed, the dining room table was set, there was wine already opened. “Is it a special occasion tonight?” “Yes, we are back in our own home, it’s our time now.” It wasn’t until they were sitting on the sofa she asked him about the meetings, Dave said how each one had gone and what was discussed. Sally sat in silence, Dave wondered what she was thinking, after a while she sat up and moved to an easy chair to face Dave. “Accept the offer, there are two reasons why, it sounds more office based, it could be part of the answer for when you don’t want to be running about everywhere, the other reason is much more important, the shops are better there.” She smiled then went to hug him, “what about next week, and the trip to the US?” “I don’t want to take more time off, I may be able to swap Thursday for Tuesday, we could fly out on Thursday and back on Sunday.” “The problem is the first flight into Heathrow lands at 06:30, that would be pushing it for you to be at work by 09:00.” “I wouldn’t be too late, I will see on Monday, no more work talk now, it’s our time until I have to get ready for work on Sunday evening, we also can bill MI5 then, it’s going to be a lot.”
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