Bearings: The Compass Trilogy Part One
Page 12
There was one other aspect which we hadn’t overlooked as such but at this particular moment was not part of the investigation. That aspect was if this property was to be a safe house and storage depot, where was the ordnance coming from…? This entire synopsis was illustrated on the wall boards…
At 0722 the ferry docked in Rotterdam. At 0745 the AIVD confirmed that the subject vehicle was travelling along the link road to join the A16, they also confirmed the presence of the Opel Astra. This would have Backpack heading in the direction of Antwerp… There was no mention of Starling’s white Mondeo… This final observation had two of Arjen Van der Gruut’s men charging onto the ferry and another two halting disembarkation together with blocking the RoRo’s linkspan. We congregated in Sarah’s office, the door and blinds closed. GCHQ were relaying the Dutch radio communication, Sarah was translating…
“They’ve evacuated the ship; only the senior officers are remaining to assist in the search… The car has been found on the mechanised mezzanine… It’s locked…”
We were all looking at the floor; we already knew what the search would find. If Starling wasn’t tailing the subject he was either badly injured or dead, his body on board or in the sea…
Another brief burst of RT communication coupled with the look on Sarah’s face and we had our answer. Not waiting for the translation,
I said quietly…
“Ok… Find out how and give them permission to allow their scene of crime officers to begin… I’m on my way to see Robin… Oh and someone please send Steve in would you…?”
I left the office, closing the door quietly and walked directly to Janet’s office without looking at anyone. My mood was such that I didn’t wait for Jan or knock. I walked straight in…
“Is there a problem chief…?”
“Sir, Starling has been killed on the ferry by the subject or the lilywhite...”
“Sit down; tell me what you know…”
“Most of it is on the boards for your walk through but briefly… Two hours ago the RUC confirmed the presence of the second subject vehicle on the Liverpool bound ferry. We were waiting for Snipe’s images of the Hull embarkation although it now appears academic as the AIVD have confirmed both subject vehicles are en route to Antwerp. We are also certain that Stakeholder has been killed too. Norman is in Dublin assessing a burned out vehicle which was discovered on the M1 to the north of the city late last night. Again the RUC description of the vehicle matches…”
Robin’s intercom jumped into life…
“Sir I have Steve Case, he’s here for Iain…”
“Thank you Janet, send him in… I take it that’s what you want…?” “Yes sir…”
Steve entered and came right over to me and grabbed my shoulder…
“I’m very sorry Chief… It’s difficult when you lose one of your own…”
I acknowledged what he said and carried on…
“Sir I want Steve’s men to pull Catlin now, take him to the farmhouse where I can interview him…”
They both knew what that implied… “Are you sure Chief…?”
“Yes sir, I brought him in, I’ll take him out…” Robin thought further about what I had said then…
“Very well… However, Steve your men cannot be involved. Apprehend him then take him the nearest nick with high security, we’ll take from there…”
“Yes sir, consider it done…”
“Iain… It will happen again you know…”
“I know that Robin but this is different… To be done in when in the field is fair and square but this is all due to Catlin, one of ours and for money. A shitty thirteen grand…”
“Carry on Chief… Save the walk through I’m sure the Foreign Secretary will want to be in on it too…”
“Sir…”
At 0905 both subject vehicles being shadowed by Belgium’s VSSE were heading west along the A2 to Genk…
Chapter Fourteen
Rod Catlin had been unceremoniously dragged from his bed at 0825 and hauled into the rear of an unmarked police Ford Transit. He was then transported to Humberside Police Headquarters whose basement had been rebuilt to house various types of accommodation appropriate for such occasions…
No one had processed him; no one had explained the charges to him either. In fact no one had spoken a single word to him. He sat in his cell on the edge of the foam blue mattress wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. He didn’t know it but his interrogation had already subtly begun…
“Chris, you and I are travelling to Hull… Catlin has been taken to their police HQ and we are to transport him to the farmhouse, interrogate him then… Well…”
Chris looked at me with eyes growing wider with realisation…
“If you think for one minute I’m holding your hand while you do little more than basically commit murder, you’re on your own…”
Chris had been saying this to me in a hushed tone as he led me to his office…
“Hang on Chris, he’s responsible for Starling’s death and h’…”
“Oh…? When were you promoted to judge…? It’s fucking wrong…! And makes you no better than that lot…”
He said this pointing to the POI faces on the boards. He carried on…
“What are you going to do then hey…? Double tap every fucker who has a go at one of us…? No investigation or interrogation, just murder… As I said you’re on your own son and I think you’ll find the rest agree too…”
“Robin has agr’…” Chris interjected again…
“Yeah, yeah Robin has what…? Agreed…? Said carry on Chief…? Of course he has…! A nice neat end to an embarrassment, one he should have seen coming, he sanctioned the employment of an officer with a questionable background… Why didn’t Box put up a fight when this office said we wanted him…? Because they wanted him gone and this was an ideal opportunity… I was as surprised as you when he agreed to help place the det’ cams…”
Chris paused for breath. I said nothing as I knew my lesson was to continue…
“Ask yourself another question… Why hasn’t he come to me with this…? The guy in the office trained to do this kind of thing, the guy in the office who has the experience to do this kind of thing. When I was visiting all these exotic places, I wasn’t on location filming you know…! It wasn’t tuxedos, sexy dolly birds and dropping fifty grand at the hotel casino. It was shitty rooms and double tapping some greasy little fucker who thought for the greater good a world without the UK in it would be a better one, but this…? No Iain…! Not this… Not on our watch…”
“No, let’s go and get him and squeeze him like an orange ‘til his pips squeak then hand him over to Steve… SO12 are masters at this. They’ll spin the fuck out of it with the media until his mother will cross the road to avoid him and it will be a huge embarrassment to the individuals in PIRA who don’t want the ceasefire to continue…”
I sat in his office with him until my anger had begun to subside. Chris was right, I wanted vengeance for Starling and maybe Robin was using my naivety and emotions for his own ends… As any rational human being, I was disturbed by his use of the term murder. Killing Catlin would serve no purpose… Yes, Chris was right, we would get what we needed then I’d hand him over to SO12…
“Your right…Come on Chris, let’s get going, we’re wasting time…”
Just as we were leaving Norman rang in to confirm that the burnt out vehicle was an ’89 navy blue Opel Vectra which had been 90% destroyed by fire which appeared to have started in the engine bay. A small area of the rear boot had remained intact which had revealed two interesting finds. One appeared to be the remains of a package containing a large amount of Sterling notes the other was the remains of a ledger, a hard backed A4 sized book similar to what an accountant would use. Although the remaining parts had suffered quite severe water damage from the fire brigade, Norman was confident our forensic science laboratory could work its magic.
As far as the body was concerned it would r
equire dental records or even possibly DNA investigation to identify the driver. Norman had already asked the RUC to compare the former as this would be the quicker of the two processes. The techniques used by our Military Intelligence would investigate the latter using samples the RUC had recovered from O’Hanlon’s house…
*****.
McQueen parked the Renault 19 in a vacant bay opposite the Estates Offices on the Europlaan in Genk; she crossed the busy avenue and entered. Garvie drove around watching her then he parked too…
Dillon Garvie always knew the fate which awaited O’Hanlon, his attitude and arrogance had made him one too many enemies. He was just too loud and that stupid bloody car…! It was he who had informed the Provos of the navy Vectra. It was he who had fitted the incendiary device too… Yes, he smiled to himself, to be unknown and to be able to travel freely was to be a true asset. Garvie also thought himself somewhat of a specialist in shadowing subjects and detecting shadows too … His true instructions had been given to him prior to the onset of the operation… He was to shadow only, riding “shotgun” if you like. If McQueen met with a problem Garvie was to intercept and assist… The placing and subsequent removal of the Fiat Croma from Roscoff had been his job as was following her journey to and from Germany before returning to the safe house in Holland to update Robert Morris and Gerard Harraghy who stayed there. McQueen was also to be paid in full and used again. She would only be subject to appropriate action when both safe houses were in place…
The VSSE had used the A B C technique to follow them both successfully since they had crossed the border. Garvie was totally unaware. If he had known at that particular moment two VSSE officers were photographing him and filming McQueen he wouldn’t have been so confident…
McQueen exited the offices and returned to her car, turned left on to the A2 and drove toward Roermond. Garvie did the same. Two AIVD officers waited there for the short drive to Germany…
The two officers who had collected the IMINT entered the property offices and placed the closed sign in the window. Ten minutes later a call was placed from the VSSE headquarters in Brussels to the Birdcage. As Chris and I sat in a car on the M1 motorway heading for Hull my mobile phone rang…
“Section Chief…”
“It’s Sarah, we know which property… A house in Bokrijk, it’s a suburb of Genk, west of the city centre…”
“Ok… I want you to ask Niklas to have the two subject vehicles pulled the minute they enter Germany and have them taken to RAF Bruggen were they are to be held… I want the Opel driver back in the UK for SO12…”
“What about Backpack sir…?”
“No… We’ll keep her at Bruggen for now… I want Charlie to contact Brize and arrange a flight for three over there; oh, you better let him know he’s going on a trip too…”
“Ok Chief, one of us will ring you back…”
I looked at Chris and said…
“I hope you have clean underwear, after the farmhouse we are going to Germany. The VSSE have the address that PIRA want to use as a safe house. It’s just outside Genk…”
“What devious little plan is hatching in your equally devious little mind…?”
I smiled…
“I may want Charlie to work on her, let her know a couple of home truths…Some of this will depend on what we can extract from Catlin, of course…”
“What are you hoping for…?”
“We have enough evidence to bury him already but I want to know where Morris and Harraghy fit in to this…”
Chris nodded in agreement before carrying on…
“I’m glad you’re sending the lilywhite back over for Steve’s lot… I have to say I was a little worried there this morning…”
“Well, you were right… I can’t go around being judge, jury and executioner can I…?”
“Not unless they point something acutely antisocial at you, no you can’t…! Iain, the number of subjects I could so easily have pulled the trigger on over the years and even when in the long run the outcome is inevitable, you still have to trust in the machinery. You still have to do it the right way or there is no point… We might as well start throwing petrol bombs in the streets of our capital as well…”
We arrived in Hull a little after midday. Catlin had been dressed in a light blue paper boiler suit and paper shoes, on being frogmarched into the waiting van he was chained and handcuffed to the rings fitted to the bodywork. Chris and I said nothing to him; re-entered the car and followed. It would take another two to three hours to reach the farmhouse.
*****
Torsten Kuefer and Karolin Traugott were not part of Germany’s BND… Niklas Meier had thought the operation more suited to GSG9. If it all went sour, he argued to the German Minister of the Interior, the anti-terrorist unit were far better equipped to neutralize the threat quietly…
Grenzschutzgruppe - 9 Bundespolitzei or Border Protection Group
– 9 were formed from the German Police as it was against their Federal law to use military forces against civilians… They were quite simply the best anti-terrorist group in the world…
There would be ten officers deployed for the operation. Two would be snipers armed with DSR1 bull pup rifles using .308; ammunition. It had been agreed that both target vehicles would be brought to a halt with a rifle shot penetrating the engine block; both target subjects would then be escorted separately to RAF Bruggen and detained. GSG9 and the BND would have access to the INTEL take from the operation as well as the IMINT from the Dutch and Belgians. This arrangement was of course reciprocal…
It was Traugott who saw them first…
“Target vehicle one identified… Red Renault 19…”
“Sierra one, received leader… Target one dialled in, awaiting instruction, over…”
“Sierra two… Target two dialled in, awaiting instruction, over…” “Sierra one and two, weapons free, repeat weapons free…”
Both snipers answered and fired…
Garvie saw the Renault swerve to the left then cross back to the right, just as the realisation of what was happening occurred to him his own car felt like it had been hit by a tree. He lost partial control as the engine instantly lost hot oil and water. With a huge plume of steam blocking his view the Opel Astra collided with the central crash barrier and ricocheted into the centre of the Autobahn… As Garvie frantically grabbed for the pistol underneath the passenger seat the driver’s door was flung open, the seatbelt cut away and he was dragged from the vehicle to a waiting Mercedes van. Inside the van his hands were secured with cable ties and a black hood placed over his head. These actions were a mirror image of what had occurred one hundred metres further along the road to Angela McQueen…
RAF Bruggen were ready for them, The Royal Air force Police had the barriers raised allowing the two Mercedes vans to sweep smoothly through the airbase gates, once inside two vehicles belonging to the RAF Regiment escorted them to the detention block. The two fugitives still bound and their heads covered were unceremoniously shoved into two cells.
Five minutes later the telephone on Sarah’s desk began ringing. She waved Charlie in…
“Sarah Collins…”
“Guten tag Sarah. We have concluded a successful operation. Both target subjects are now enjoying the company of your RAF…
GSG9 have reported that all went smoothly, also a firearm was retrieved from the Opel…”
“Danke Niklas, the Chief will be travelling there later today. He has requested that you should be involved also. Would this be convenient…?”
“That I’m afraid will have to wait until tomorrow, if this fits in with Jan’s timetable I could travel by helicopter this evening with my colleague from GSG9…?”
“I’m sure he would be encouraged by that, yes Niklas, danke…”
“Not at all, we are pleased with this new cooperation. It appears to have borne fruit quickly…”
“Yes, this was hoped from the beginning…” “Gut…! I must make preparations…”
“If you could pass our thanks on to GSG9 we would appreciate this, I believe a more formal communication is planned…”
“That is pleasing also. Auf wiedersehen Sarah…” “Auf wiedersehen Niklas…”
Charlie had been listening in…
“That’s the three of them. Let’s hope it’s been all worthwhile. I need to get Norman back here if I’m off to Germany. Well done lassie…”