Bearings: The Compass Trilogy Part One

by Mr Iain F Johnston

  I popped in to see Janet to get a number for Belfast and to find out the timescale for it all.

  “Hi Charlie, how’s it looking…?”

  “Och, there’s nothin’ much for me to do… The firebomb was a local issue I’m just overseeing it all. My replacement is here and has it all under control…”

  Deep breath…

  ”Why don’t you come back here, we could see if the Belgians have anything for us and you could speak to the Box guy at Hull…?”

  “Aye, well, I’ve been doin’ a wee bit of thinkin’ about that… If it is Morris he must have started his journey in the UK. No one picked up on him here or the ports, sea or air… Do yer hear what I’m sayin to yer laddie…?”

  “I do Charlie, there could be a unit in the UK planning something but wouldn’t that nullify the ceasefire a bit…?”

  “They never said it would last forever and I’ve never trusted the sneaky wee bastards…”

  “True but Box didn’t pick up on McQueen either, not in Belfast, Swansea or Plymouth… The only one that was picked up on was me…!”

  “Aye yer right there laddie… Strange that… A word of caution to yer… It was the car that gave you away, at the Box review, once they saw the way you looked then clocked the vehicle, you were sussed. Remember that laddie… You only had me breathin’ fire; the next ones may not be as friendly…”

  “Thanks Charlie…”

  I said soberly, lesson learnt…

  “Och yer fine besides someone needs to look out for the new bright boy… How did you do today…?”

  “Very well, He was very happy with it so far and we’ve been given the full green light, for everything and more besides… I was amazed…”

  “Remember laddie, you started this, don’t let them push you from the table…”

  “They won’t. Robin wants to talk to me about that… Charlie, we want you in on this too…? I, er, well, we, specifically mentioned you today and the assistance you’ve given us. I think he’s going to speak to the Home Secretary… If it’s put you in an awkward position, I’m sorry…”

  God, I felt like I was talking to my father…!

  “Aye, well I’ve been thinkin’ about that too… I am comin’ back on Sunday…”

  YES…!

  “Excellent…! I’ll tell the lads… Now go find my car and money…!”

  “Och yer cheeky wee bastard…! I’ll have yer for that one; I’ll see you Sunday…!”

  Janet beamed at me and gave me thumbs up. I walked over to tell the lads and they were equally pleased. I thought being able to bring Charlie in on this, at such an early stage, would be massive for us. To have such an intelligence heavyweight would help us hit the ground not just running but sprinting…

  *****

  Robin called us in. Janet was in her chair, notebook at the ready and an inordinate amount of paperwork… This was official…

  “OK, let’s sort out a few things…Norman…?”

  “Yes boss…”

  “For this project, you will be head of the Southern Operational Corridor… There will be some fieldwork but you will mainly work from here on the Intel we receive for your section. You will have a secretary, an office runner and due to the port volume for your area, five field personnel…. You and I will pick them personally… Do you prefer to be addressed officially as S.O.C, SOC or OC South…?”

  Chris and I both were giving him the eyes… I certainly didn’t want to be addressed as WOC, which they’d all pronounce “wok” and Chris had the face of a man who thought EOC would certainly not be mistaken for any kind of Olympic committee but rather end up being ewok…!

  Norman looked at us both and grinned, he got it too… ”Er, I rather prefer OC South, boss…”

  “Good…! I do too… You will also be overall third in command… Are you ok with that…?”

  “I need to think about that one boss, by the time it gets to number three; it’s usually gone to shit…”

  “Fair comment, you salary is also to be improved, what are you now, C5… Mm…?”

  A nod…

  “Ok then, I2… Janet has all your paperwork; we’ll go through it all at the end…

  Bloody hell…! That was a jump to an intelligence 2 grading. Christ…! That’s nearly a £10k bump… Norm knew it too, he looked somewhat pale…

  “Chris, Very similar brief for you too, OC East, I take it…?” Another nod…

  “Your field personnel will be four; however your staffing levels here we be the same, as they both will be for you Iain too… OC West…?”

  “Yeah, tidy boss…”

  “Chris, a salary bump for you is difficult, you’re at the highest level now for a senior field officer… However, a change in job title would probably affect that… If we bring you in so to speak, and put you on say I4…? Would that improve things a little…? You would of course have a duel expense account like these two thieves; you would also be 2IC…

  Chris nodded satisfactorily; clearly SFOs weren’t paid as much as I thought… Second in command too… I liked it…

  “Now Iain, things are going to change dramatically for you… Yes you have the same brief as your colleagues but you are to be promoted to Section Chief… I understand you haven’t been with us very long, that is why you will be spending time with me so you can digest the politics of it all… The Foreign Secretary is very impressed; you drew up the plan, presented it and got preliminary funding, tasking and personnel… I have already spoken to Chris who has been assessing you both continuously and he has agreed to mentor you…

  “Be under no illusion young man, you will be in the company of very serious, very powerful people who in some cases will delight in your mistakes… We will, of course, be watching your back… Congratulations…!”

  Norman shook my hand…

  “You’ll have to learn French now yer thick Scouser…! Nice one Iain…”

  Chris slapped me on the back and grinned… ”Canny bastard…!”

  Janet beamed at me…

  Me…? I was strangely disconnected by it all… At these times you would ring your family and share the good news. I could do none of that… I also noted that Robin was giving me time to take it all in. I was about to express my gratitude when Robin raised his hand…

  “Gentlemen… Let us not forget the implication of this… The Foreign and Home Secretaries will expect results. The Prime Minister will demand results…”

  We settled down as the Mess brought food in…

  Robin told us that computers would be arriving on Monday, the most modern available, also British Telecom, BT, had launched its mobile network, Cellnet nationwide and we were to have their latest products too. On the surveillance side we were to be supplied with the latest technology from Detector Electronics… Not industry standard stuff but cutting edge. Their representatives would be here in the coming weeks to set up training workshops…

  I wanted to get started now. I didn’t want to lose sight of what we’d been doing and the possible significance of McQueen’s excursion or Morris’s possible movements…

  Robin’s telephone ringing brought us back down… The Home Secretary had been studying the package Robin had taken with him and was making a lot of noise... He felt the homeland security services may be undermined by the project particularly as its inception was not a Box 500 initiative.

  “Your job, after all is to look outward not inward. I’m sure I’m right…? No, I feel I need to discuss this urgently with the Prime Minister, our families are lunching together on Sunday…”

  Christ…! It had started already. The Home Sec’ was all the motivation Charlie had needed to effectually jump ship.

  Chapter six

  “Well, of course Home Secretary, if you feel there are certain areas were we could improve matters, your input, I’m sure, would be most constructive... Thank you for finding the time to call…”

  Robin replaced the receiver with amusement, he loved it and could play the game as well, if no
t better than most…

  “That was your first lesson Iain…” “Received and understood sir…”

  “Oh, I’m not the least bit worried about him. It doesn’t need an act in Parliament just the Prime Minister’s signature and we had that before our meeting today… He can cry to whomever he chooses, it’s done…”

  So that’s what he was doing for the rest of Tuesday. Nice move Mr. Director…!

  “Ok gentlemen. Time is moving on and there are another couple of items to discuss. Firstly, one of the concessions I had to bow to for us to be lead service was the air traffic… Both secretaries and the RAF feel we need not be involved directly. Yes we will continue to gather intelligence by our usual methods however, the RAF has a long standing strong relationship with Box and they don’t want us diluting it… On the positive side, part of the initiative is for Box to increase manpower. We will augment this by further enhancing our field operations abroad and widen our asset net…”

  Was that a concession…? We’d been rushed off our feet by one “positive” seen at one of only three ports we were monitoring… I for one and judging by Norman’s body language, he for two were quietly relieved.

  Robin continued…

  “The foreign intelligence services we liaise with are concerned with the increase of non-desirable human traffic particularly from deregulated near and Middle Eastern countries as well as the old Eastern Bloc… Troubles are escalating in these regions quite swiftly… My colleagues here feel tension is mounting and is heading in our direction…”

  We said nothing so he carried on…

  “As you know we have historically struggled to recruit field officers for these target areas and for certain areas of the Far East too… We don’t seem to be an attractive employer to ethnic minorities. These two areas are to become the services main priorities…”

  Ok, that made sense, our intelligence gathering in these regions has never been the greatest… I’d stick out like a sore thumb. We knew he had more to say so we all kept quiet…

  He continued…

  “Part of our brief is to enhance our reputation and relationship with our near neighbours. We are to cultivate professional relationships…To put it bluntly gents, we want their Intel and we don’t want to beg for it. This point was stressed to me frequently…. Iain…? I believe the BND and DGSE were curious about this project, am I right…?”

  “Yes Robin, more than once… They appeared very eager…”

  I waited to see who responded, no one… They were clearly waiting to hear what else I had to say.

  “I have a theory… I think the French held back their knowledge of Angela McQueen’s movements…”

  That titbit lifted heads…Robin seemed genuinely surprised… “Really…? How so…?”

  “Well… They clocked her the moment she walked through the Nothing to declare gate at Roscoff, right…?”

  Nods and murmurs all round…

  “Their officer had the brains to notice her subtly checking the vehicle for a “tell”, yes…?”

  Again, agreement…

  “So, if they were that switched on, they would have known the make of car when we first contacted them, also, didn’t they care where she was going in their country…? Of course they bloody did…! I received the telephone call from them to say she travelled down the E19 to Paris. They then relayed her onward route to me like the guy was ticking off a list… It’s bollocks… I think they know her exact route through France, there and back…”

  Norman said…

  “When you put like that, it makes perfect sense… Do you want me to speak to them again…?”

  “Yeah… Please Norm, but go easy mate… I could be talking crap… Chris…?”

  “Speak to them… Enthuse about our new baby and how we may be able to assist with early warnings…It’s a good a way to start as any…”

  Making it clear than from now on I was making the team decision, Robin said…

  “Ok Iain, what’s your plan…?”

  “Let’s finesse the French a bit… The Germans too while we’re at it Norm… I’ve heard they like a touch of foreplay…”

  “And the Belgians and Dutch…?”

  “No Chris, not yet…”

  I said cautiously:

  ” Let’s see what Box can bring to the table about our friend Morris… They haven’t let us know whether the Belgians had a positive ID yet let alone put a shadow on him… They also haven’t kept us in the loop in regard to Hull. The ship docked this morning, remember. In my eyes they need to redeem themselves, their score ratio is one for three and the one was me…! The Dutch can wait for now…”

  “OK… Er, I want to talk to you about Hendon… Now if poss. … Quietly like…?”

  “Yeah… Do you need us Robin…?”

  “No, I’ll call you in as and when, if I do…”

  I followed Chris out into the lift foyer where, bloody hell, the painters were laying sheets already…

  “Lads, could we have this space for a few please…?”

  They all shuffled out… Clearly this was a regular occurrence for them in this building…

  “Go on Chris…”

  “Well, the bloke I visit in Hendon…? He’s a professional criminal… He deals in twoked motors. He knows how to do all the paperwork, VIN plates, everything. He’s very professional and very expensive…”

  “Right, what…? Do you want me to buy a Porsche from him with my new pay rise…? What…?

  “Be serious yer daft bugger… I wanted to know about nicked Granada’s… Who, if anyone, was shifting them…”

  “Got you… He knew nothing; you would have said…Ah, now I see…! He knows nothing because none have been ringed in a while…”

  “Exactly, they’re a close knit group… Of his quality there must be ten in the country at most… He’s asked and nothing…”

  “So they’ve been done a while then or another avenue of opportunity has opened to them… That’s not good news… I’d love to know if the plates on the Scorpio are the same as the beige Granada…Chris, get on to Brittany Ferries, and ask what CCTV they have…”

  “Aye man, on it now… Er and the bloke from Hendon…?” “What about him…?”

  “He’s a crim, like…?”

  “Are you sure you’re a Geordie and not a Mother Superior…? He’s an asset, Chris… Your asset… As long as he’s not into hurting kids, women or animals, I’m not worried and neither should you be…”

  “Thanks gaffer”

  Well THAT will take some getting used to…!

  *****

  Brittany Ferries had told Chris that their CCTV system was extensive in their car-park and vehicle marshalling areas… “Why wouldn’t it be…? We would have wasted our money otherwise…”

  A good point well-made we thought but here’s the rub, no one had reviewed it and no one had asked for the tapes… We were under the impression that all UK seaports received a Box review. Clearly this wasn’t the case.

  As we were still waiting for our bod from Box to arrive, our middle man to smooth the communication transfer, this would be another task that would have to wait… Or would it…?

  “Norm…?” “Yes boss…?”

  “When you went sniffing around Millbay Docks, did you introduce yourself to anyone…?”

  “I did, the terminal manager and the Police Officers who have a Portacabin there… Very accommodating they were too…”

  “Could you do it again…? Let’s see if their CCTV has images of the subject vehicle and more importantly the reg number…?”

  “Doing it now…!”

  It was 1400 and it was Friday but you never know… We already knew Swansea had no imagery so we could discount them, however, Chris’s little nags were catching, I had one now too… Then I had it…

  “Why didn’t McQueen travel from Rosslare to Roscoff or Rosslare to Cherbourg or for that matter Cork to Roscoff…? She could have cut out the UK completely and we would all be none the wis
er… We are also just assuming she drove the Granada from Swansea, we have no proof… There could have been a car full… We need to check the passenger manifest from Cork…”

  “Yes, why risk us, Box or SO12 sussing her…? Historically, south from Rosslare has always been their favoured route…”

  Chris agreed…

  “Iain…? BF has said they are happy to courier the tapes to us but due to the hour would we pay on arrival…? I er, said yes…?”

  Big thumbs up for Norm…!

  “Norm, ask them for a passenger manifest too please. Chris and I have been thinking…”