The Keepers of the Persian Gate

by Sydney Maurice

  “Take the next exit immediately! Take us to the Houses of Parliament right now or I’ll blow your fucking head off,” ordered Morgan.

  “Yes,” replied the driver.

  The driver took a slip road which brought them back towards the M40 and Central London. Fortunately, although the rest of the motorcade appeared to be aware of what had gone on in Fred’s Land Rover, they didn’t seem to be doing anything to engage them. Rather, they continued to escort the vehicle.

  After another thirty minutes, the motorcade approached the Palace of Westminster. As they went to pull into the MPs’ entrance, Morgan noticed that the guards at the gate were not the ones he was used to seeing. “We can’t go here. I have a bad feeling about this, turn around,” he commanded the driver.

  As the driver drove past the gate, all hell broke loose and the surrounding motorcade began trying to ram Paddy and Morgan’s vehicle off the road. Morgan opened fire on the other cars.

  “Go across the bridge, go, go, go!” shouted Paddy.

  The chase took the motorcade past Big Ben and across Westminster Bridge over to Lambeth. However, when they reached the other side several police cars were flying in their direction with sirens blazing.

  “Turn around, go back to Westminster,” shouted Morgan. The jeep skidded through a 180-degree turn at the far end of the bridge and made its way back towards Westminster. However, as they re-crossed the bridge, several more police cars appeared from the direction of Whitehall, blocking the way.

  “Turn right!” shouted Paddy.

  “But that’s a one way system, and we’d be going against the traffic?!” said the driver.

  “Did you not hear me?” replied Paddy.

  The jeep skidded right onto Victoria embankment, running along the side of the Thames. As it did, the vehicle ran up on to the pavement several times, before narrowly missing being smashed into a wall by an oncoming police car.

  “Turn left!” shouted Morgan.

  They were now driving in the direction of traffic again, heading up Northumberland Avenue to Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square.

  “Where the hell can we go?” said Morgan.

  “They have us totally surrounded. We won’t be able to get out of Central London,”said Paddy.

  “We could just stop and hand ourselves in. News cameras would be here in seconds. They’d have a lot of explaining to do once this sitting MP starts shouting off about what they’ve been up to,” said Morgan.

  “They’ll have shot us before we can get around to that and you know it!” replied Paddy.

  Suddenly Fred jumped forward and launched himself on Paddy. He must have come to without them noticing. Paddy reacted quickly, using his own leverage to open the door and throw Fred out of the car in the process.

  “Drive to Hyde Park!” shouted Paddy

  “You heard the man! Go now, down the Mall toward the Palace!” shouted Morgan.

  Paddy pulled out his mobile phone and searched through his phone for a particular number. “Please God, say it’s here, please say I still have it,” Paddy thought to himself. “Yes!”

  “What’s that?” said Morgan.

  “It’s the mobile number for a Colonel in the Household Calvary at Hyde Park Barracks. I just hope he answers!”

  The phone rang several times.

  “Maxwell here.”

  “Maxi, it’s Paddy Trimble, I need you to listen very carefully. I am coming in to Hyde Park Barracks through the front gates in a black Land Rover, reg…”

  Paddy gestured to the driver and Morgan pressed his gun against the driver’s head.

  “XH53 AFH,” replied the driver.

  “Reg XH53 AFH. All vehicles in pursuit are hostile; I repeat, all other vehicles are hostile, including local law enforcement.” explained Paddy.

  “Understood, Paddy. ETA?” said Colonel Maxwell.

  “Five minutes,” replied Paddy.

  “You understand this will probably cost me my commission?”

  “Yes and I won’t forget it,” replied Paddy as he hung up the phone.

  “Will this work?” asked Morgan.

  “I hope so!” replied Paddy.

  “I wish I had your confidence,” replied Morgan.

  “I saved the man’s life following an IED explosion in Iraq five years ago. Trust me, he’ll do everything he can to help us.”

  The driver accelerated through the Admiralty Arch at a speed of ninety miles per hour. They passed the front of Buckingham Palace with the motorcade still in hot pursuit, then turned on to Constitutional Hill.

  “Go straight through Wellington Arch!” shouted Paddy, as he launched off a few more rounds at one of the jeeps that was coming a little too close for comfort. They were now in Knightsbridge with only several hundred metres left to go. Further gunfire broke out from the motorcade behind. As they reached the home straight, suddenly, just in front of them, a mobile tactical response helicopter appeared. It was moving up Knightsbridge and it was getting lower and lower in altitude.

  “Move faster, faster!” shouted Paddy. The driver accelerated.

  “Ok, begin to slow a bit…It’s the next turn right. Be ready to turn…… and NOW, NOW!” shouted Paddy.

  The jeep skidded just a mere fifty yards in front of the helicopter, leaving a huge trail of smoke from the tyres and almost tipping over as a result of the turn. They had turned onto a narrow and unassuming driveway under an archway. The helicopter could not follow and had to proceed to higher altitude. What the rest of the motorcade had not appreciated was that on the other side of the arch, the Army was waiting in droves, armed and ready for confrontation.

  Just before the main gate, the driver unexpectedly threw open his door and jumped into a set of bushes. However, the momentum of the jeep carried Paddy and Morgan past the guards and into the barracks. At that moment, the two other Land Rovers which were in immediate pursuit had their tyres fired upon by the soldiers. They were each forced to pull to the side of the narrow drive in order to find cover.

  The chase was clearly over. When the dust settled, an MI5 agent waved down the Army officer at the gate and walked to his positon. More and more police were arriving at the scene by the second.

  “We are in pursuit of two fugitives. We demand that you hand them over immediately!” shouted the MI5 officer.

  The Second Lieutenant at the gate stood up to respond. “Proceed any further and you will be fired upon. We operate under the jurisdiction of the Royal Military Police and Ministry of Defence. If you have a problem, take it up there!” responded the Second Lieutenant.

  After a further few minutes of stand-off, the motorcade retreated back to the main road and appeared to be setting up their own base of operations at the other side of the road. Colonel Maxwell greeted Paddy and Morgan and took them immediately to Barracks HQ where Morgan could get a message to his executive committee. Calls were already starting to flood in from the MOD and the Cabinet Office about what had just happened. In the meantime, Paddy sat down with Maxwell.

  “How long can you hold them off?” asked Paddy.

  “I’ll give you as much time as I can,” said Maxwell.

  After ten minutes, Morgan had finished his initial calls to his committee. The ISC would hold its meeting in Hyde Park Barracks in one hour.

  ***

  It took slightly more than an hour to get organised for the committee meeting. Although MI5 had set up a field base across the road, they soon made themselves scarce. Morgan had tipped off a contact in the media that the police and army were carrying out some sort of major anti-terror exercise in the area. The members of the ISC would be arriving under the pretext that they were there to survey it. MI5 could hardly open fire on sitting Members of Parliament in front of the news crews in attendance.

  In the most opulent of surroundings, Colonel Maxwell ordered a grand room overlooking Hyde Park to act as the venue. Household Cavalry patrolled the lawns outside the windows as the final preparations were made. Finally, the executive committe
e was able to convene to discuss the situation. The first member of the executive committee was Margaret Neave, an old-fashioned conservative with a robust reputation for not taking prisoners. The second was Jack Stevenson, an independent from Yorkshire. He was very much a man of the people. Third, was the committee’s Chairman, Rear Admiral James Dyke, or Lord Ballintoy as he became known after receiving his peerage. Finally, there was Stephen Wilson, a Labour MP for East London. The rest of the executive committee was made up of various support staff and high ranking civil servants. As everyone sat down, Dyke addressed the committee.

  “Members, as you are all aware this is an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee, and not the full ISC. I am not fully briefed on the situation and it would be wrong of me to try to address the issues surrounding this meeting. Therefore, I am handing you over to Morgan Wright.”

  “Gentlemen, the situation we face is as follows. There is reason to believe that the security of one or more intelligence agencies may be compromised. There is also reason to believe that bidders for the lucrative legal services contracts have been infiltrated and are seeking to use a successful bid as a means of gaining access to this committee’s intelligence. This is obviously highly concerning. In light of the circumstances, I have several proposals for us to consider.

  “One, I propose that the legal services tender process is scrapped immediately until further notice. Two, that an Emergency Counsel and Investigator is appointed by the committee to investigate the immediate threat. Three, that an investigation into the role of MI5 is launched by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, or IPT; and four, that we review our security arrangements.”

  Agreement was immediately secured regarding points one, three and four. “I now turn to point two on the list, namely the Emergency Counsel and Investigator. It is my proposal that Paddy Trimble, who is seated beside me, be appointed,” said Morgan. It was further proposed by Morgan that, if appointed, Paddy should be granted the same full investigatory powers of the ISC and the IPT. After some heated discussion, there was a vote exclusively amongst the parliamentary members of the committee. James Dyke counted it to be four to two in favour of Paddy’s appointment.

  “The ayes have it, the ayes have it.” Said Dyke

  At that moment, a few of the committee were visibly distracted by what was happening on the large video screen behind Dyke. On several of the split screens, there were news stations reporting civil unrest in North London, and it appeared as though a number of buildings had been set alight in Tottenham.

  “What on earth’s that all about?” said one of the committee members.

  The contents of the news reports were disturbing. Some were suggesting that violent rioting had been triggered following a shooting in East London of a young male member of the black community. The violence which followed had commenced with a mass protest outside Tottenham Police Station after a march from the Broadwater Farm Estate. Reports also indicated several hundred telephone calls had been made to the emergency services by members of the general public within the last hour. Numerous shops and premises were being broken into and reports had also circulated that widespread looting was in progress.

  Police had allegedly launched Operation Withem which was designed to immediately investigate and speedily identify the cause of the disorder. It was also announced that the Prime Minister had called an emergency meeting of his COBRA committee.

  “That’s the last thing we need,” said Morgan.

  “The riots?” asked Margaret.

  “Once COBRA is activated, then we are cut off from the Prime Minister. Downing Street has gone into lockdown. The news crews will all be distracted by what’s happening in East London. I just hope MI5 doesn’t try to attack this base with these distractions going on,” said Morgan.

  “Colonel Maxwell informs me that he has two battalions on this base. I’d like to see them try,” said Paddy.

  At that moment, Maxwell entered the room.

  “Eh, excuse me, this is a closed meeting, Colonel!” said Dyke.

  “I’m sorry, but I need to speak with you, Paddy, it’s urgent,” replied Colonel Maxwell.

  “Is it something which you can tell all of us?” asked Morgan.

  Maxwell surveyed the room, looking into the eyes of those in attendance. He then paused to look at Paddy, who provided a reassuring nod of support. “That unrest and rioting on the screen. This is part of an operation to cut off the government,” said Maxwell nervously.

  It turned out that Colonel Maxwell had been privy to its planning. Withem was the giveaway. It was the public name for a secret operation called Cromwell. The operation was set up in such a way as to shut down London. It would achieve this through instigating civil disorder. It would also cut off Downing Street in the event of infiltration of the security services, while the army instigated marshal law. “It operates on the principle that you bury your bad news on big news days,” said Maxwell.

  “So what happens next?” asked Dyke.

  “Well, I’m not entirely sure. Whoever instigated it appears to be running an amended version of the plan. For instance, this place was to be utilised as a base for the operation. That has not happened, which suggests to me that your friends in MI5 are planning to use Withem as a means of getting to this committee,” explained Colonel Maxwell.

  There was some dissent in the committee about how far-fetched this all sounded. However, Dyke explained that MI5 tried to do something similar to Harold Wilson’s government in the 1970s, in an operation known as Clockwork Orange. In the case of Clockwork Orange, the operation was run by MI5 and the Army Press Office in Northern Ireland. They managed to instigate basic civil disorder which then developed into a full scale revolt in Northern Ireland by the unionist community. It led to the Ulster Workers Strike in May 1974, in which Northern Ireland was brought to a standstill. The whole country was without power for several weeks.

  “One thing is certain: Paddy needs to be allowed to commence his investigation without further delay. The security of the Atwah trial is the first important test of the new ISC,” said Morgan.

  “We’ll need to find a way to get you off this base undetected,” said Dyke.

  “I think I can help you with that,” replied Colonel Maxwell.

  ***

  Meanwhile, back at Dunlop & McLaine, only a few miles from the civil disturbances, the staff were busy trying to deal the aftermath of recent events. Mark Glover had been attempting to steady the ship following the murder of Aamir Machete and the death of William Dunlop. Up until the civil disturbances in Tottenham, the murder at Doughty Street as well as the apparent suicide of Dunlop in Reading were making the headlines.

  There was a knock on Mark’s door and in walked most of the firm’s Senior Partners, led by Adam Scott, the firm’s second in command.

  “Mark. We need to talk.” Said Scott. He was an extremely tall, very skinny man with glasses and grey hair. “We need continuity, Mark, now that Will’s gone. It’s time to discuss it.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to bury my friend before we decide who the next Managing Partner is going to be…Also, given the circumstances, I’m very reluctant to paint a target on my back as well,” replied Mark.

  “Have you heard anything more from our new Trainee?” asked Scott.

  “No, God knows where he is,” said Mark.

  “He’s experienced, though, isn’t he?” asked another Partner.

  “Oh, yes, probably the most experienced we’ve ever had. I’m sure he can handle it,” said Mark.

  At that, in walked the Head of Security, Major Howard. “Gentlemen, message received from Mr. Trimble via Morgan Wright MP.”

  “Yes, well,” said Scott.

  “I’ll put it up on screen.” Major Howard played the video message which had been transmitted from the conference room in Hyde Park Barracks. Morgan Wright appeared onscreen alongside Paddy.

  The message was for Mark Glover. It stated that without prejudice to the ong
oing tender process, Paddy Trimble had been selected as Temporary Emergency Counsel to the ISC in all current matters.

  “Once his role is fulfilled he will of course return to Dunlop & McLaine to continue with his training. However, the nature of his role will remain entirely confidential,” said Morgan. Then the video message ended.

  “Obviously, whatever Paddy has been privy to is too sensitive to risk disclosure to third parties, even to a firm as respectable as Dunlop & McLaine.” Observed Mark.

  Scott walked over to the window and stared out of it pensively. As he stood there, he began to speak.

  “Mark, this firm is in crisis, it needs leadership, perhaps now more than ever in its long history. It needs to regain its credibility.” Scott looked all of the Senior Partners in the room in the eye. “Gentlemen, I believe it is time that we vote for a new Managing Partner. In light of the death of Mr. William Dunlop, I hereby propose that Sir Mark Glover is appointed as new Managing Partner without delay.”

  “No! Not yet,” protested Mark.

  “As you form part of the subject matter of this proposal, I’m afraid you have no say in the voting or tabling of the motion, Mark,” replied Scott.

  “I’ll refuse the appointment,” replied Mark.

  “And disgrace the memory of William Dunlop, you’ll do no such thing,” said one of the older Partners.

  “Gentlemen, I note there is a quorum of twelve of the fifteen Equity Partners in the room. All those in favour of my proposal to appoint Sir Mark as the Managing Partner, raise your hand,” said Scott.

  Scott counted the hands in the air and it was a unanimous vote.

  “Mark, my dear boy, you are the new Managing Partner. Congratulations. Now, get us out of this bloody mess…” said Scott.

  “Hear, hear,” crowed several of the Partners.

  Chapter 11

  Lancelot

  BACK IN HYDE PARK BARRACKS, preparations were being made for Paddy’s departure. Maxwell had called in a few favours from the Royal Air Force to get Paddy out of London as soon as possible. A Chinook helicopter was on route. However, as an independent investigator, Paddy would be given complete freedom to choose wherever his investigation would take him.