Remember Remember

by Alan Wade

  “We could always detain him under the anti-terrorism laws; sir.”

  “And do you think that will make him inform us of what he may or may not be doing?”

  “No sir,” the Major paused but, “Marham is still an option.”

  “If you take Johnson to Marham you will get information through torture, but will that information be of any use?” growled Bagshaw.

  “It will tell us once and for all if he is linked to Olu Deniz and the Anthrax.”

  “It may, but it may not get you any further than finding the murderer of a man in Olu Deniz. I think our more important consideration is the one regarding Anthrax and why Johnson is going abroad again?”

  “My initial thoughts are to meet others who are involved.”

  “And do you think he will meet with these people after you have interrogated him at Marham?”

  “I don’t know sir, he may, or he may not.”

  “But do you think there is a strong chance of him meeting these people if he is allowed to go on that cruise?”

  “Yes I do sir, but we may lose him again as we did at the races.”

  “That’s a risk we have to take, but at the very least we may get photographic evidence of who he meets and if we’re lucky voice recordings and plot details; plus knowledge of accomplices,” Commander Bagshaw paused and took a sip of coffee, then continued, “ therefore I think the best option is to follow Johnson on the cruise.”

  The commander finished his sentence in such a way that Rock knew it was not further opinion he wanted, but a way forward to shadow Johnson on the cruise.

  “If we do allow him to go then I believe we will need a team of at least eight people; five male and three female who are all new to the case.”

  “Yes, I agree and you will need the highest authority both on land and at sea if you are to monitor Johnson throughout the cruise,” Bagshaw picked up a pen and continued, “who is Johnson cruising with?”

  “Costa sir, he’s sailing from Savona on the Costa Atlantica on July the 25th.

  “And what are the ports of call?”

  “Savona to Marseille, then to Barcelona for two nights, then to Palma Majorca, then to Menorca, then Malta and finally Alexandria in Egypt. Then the ship cruises back to Savona.”

  “We’ll need to wire his cabin and his dining table. Do you think there’s any chance of wiring him?”

  He shook his head and replied, “Practically impossible sir, the guy knows just as many tricks as we do. But maybe we could wire Jacky; that may be of great help; there’ll be handbags, cosmetic bags, toiletries etc. We have access to her house and the ability to come and go relatively unnoticed.”

  “Then lets try that approach and leave Johnson clean.”

  Rock nodded in agreement and continued, “The only issue is that Johnson, to our knowledge, has never included Jacky in any meetings, therefore if a meeting is to take place it will be without her.”

  “True, however Johnson may inform her when he needs time alone, even if it’s just for a few beers and that will alert your team to a rendezvous opportunity.”

  The Major nodded in agreement; knowing this approach hadn’t worked at York Races, but he kept his counsel.

  The meeting continued for a further ninety minutes after which the operational plan was in place. Rock would lead the team, with Costa’s approval he would be a crew member and only as a very last resort would he approach Johnson. His team would comprise three women and two men from the SBCT’s anti-terrorism team; plus two men from the SAS contingent stationed in London, as part of the armed rapid response group for the capital. It was believed they would have powers to detain, restrain and arrest Johnson and any others he may meet. Bagshaw noted the destinations of the cruise ship and felt the only ports of call which could create a problem would be Malta and Alexandria.

  “Major, if you were Johnson, where would you meet your accomplices?”

  “Logically I’d say Alexandria because of where it is and how it’s governed, but Johnson has wrong footed us so many times that I have an open mind. It could be anywhere sir, even on the ship.”

  “I do agree, but I’d back you on Alexandria.”

  Chapter 17

  July 18th, Whitehall, London.

  Alisa Maine-Brown walked the short distance from 10 Downing Street to her waiting chauffeured car and police escort. As head of MI5 her duty had been to debrief the Prime Minister and his cabinet with regard to the latest intelligence from Turkey and Iraq.

  She had stated that the intelligence documents shared with the U.S. administration gave clear unequivocal evidence that weapons grade Anthrax had been manufactured by an unlicensed country or countries on an industrial scale. The Anthrax had a different signature to those of all licensed manufacturers but was of equal potency.

  It was known the two containers raised from the seabed off Turkey had contained Anthrax phials and one of those containers still held enough Anthrax to contaminate a large part of Europe. The SS Afyon had been registered and owned by a shipping company linked to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government and along with two other similar ships had sailed containers from Iraq to all parts of the world.

  The SS Asyon and SS Verax had been impounded in Malta and extensive scrutiny of their log books led intelligence to believe that containers had gone missing, lost at sea, illegally traded, misplaced or submerged. Each ship had similar lifting cranes to the Afyon and enough chain capacity to raise and lower containers to the seabed; both were also equipped with state of the art biological cleansing stations.

  Intelligence now estimated up to 18 containers could have been submerged or redirected on land, each containing some form of terror weapon.

  In the past twenty years over ninety Iraqi doctors, biologists and pharmacists had trained with the help of the US and UK governments in biological warfare. The vast majority had returned to Iraq during the Iraqi/Iranian war and many had stayed, giving Saddam Hussein the knowledge base for biological warfare production.

  Although Hans Blix had not found any trace of biological weapons, all recent intelligence had pointed towards Iraq having made and distributed Anthrax as it wished. Therefore the conclusion was that Iraq had manufactured and developed enough weapons grade Anthrax to kill half the population of the world.

  Alisa Maine-Brown’s job was fourfold which she stated as follows: “Task one was to prove or disprove the existence of massive stocks of biological weapons.” The second task was to find their locations if they existed: the third to keep it from terrorist hands and the fourth to destroy or contain it.”

  She had concentrated all available UK intelligence forces on the project and was working with other EU countries, Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Israel and the US to help in her investigations.

  To the question from the cabinet, “Were the UK and US right in attacking Iraq,” she had stated that before the war all the intelligence pointed to Saddam Hussein having biological weapons of mass destruction and now there was actual evidence of weapons in the two containers. Plus other circumstantial evidence to prove Saddam had indeed been manufacturing biological weapons. Therefore the attack on Saddam Hussein‘s Iraq, would be vindicated as and when more of the containers were recovered.

  She had also explained the sheer lack of any hard evidence from UK or US sources which may help in the assessment of actual numbers of containers and their whereabouts. Both American and British intelligence had interviewed staff involved in Saddam’s weapons programmes and they had gleaned little from those witnesses. Credible hypotheses could be made for the fact that Saddam had indeed built WMD and the opposite could be believed, that he had been conned out of billions of dollars. Virtually all other countries were sceptical and thought the US and UK were looking for anything to make their decision to go to war credible.

  Alisa had concluded that the US had virtually given up the hunt for WMD but
were now very much back in the game after the discovery of the two containers; however they had very few leads to follow up. The British were also lacking any concrete evidence other than the two containers but had one or two suspicions and one credible link with a UK citizen which the head of SBCT 11 was following up.

  Her meeting now ended, she acknowledged her driver who had opened the car door for her and she sat in the rear seat for the short journey home; but even with a police escort the car progressed slowly through Whitehall. However by the time they reached Notting Hill she had made the decision to give further finance and resource to Commander Bagshaw’s SBCT 11 group.

  July 19th, 73 Sandiway, Bramhall, Cheshire.

  Major Rock was most enthusiastic in his address, “It seems that suddenly we are to be believed and further resources are at our command.”

  Sergeant Lawrence shook his head and responded, “We don’t need more resources, we need a breakthrough. We’ve been tailing this guy for two years and we’ve got nothing on him, everything is speculation.”

  Rock grimaced, “If you’re not happy with the situation Sergeant then leave the team and go back to your local duties.”

  He responded, “I am happy with my duties sir; I just don’t know where they are taking this enquiry that’s all.”

  “At this moment in time, Johnson is our only credible lead and we will follow that lead until we either nail him or cancel him from our enquiries. Until then we continue 24 hour surveillance. Understood Sergeant?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I repeat again, if you’re not happy then please go,” snapped Rock.

  July 19th, The Brown Cow, Stockport.

  “What do you see in him Jacky?” enquired Sergeant Lawrence as he placed his pint on the bar.

  “What do I see in who Sergeant?”

  “Johnson of course, who the hell do you think I mean?”

  “Oohh, Johnson,” she pursed her lips and stroked them with her fingers, “Johnson you say.”

  He took another swig of his beer and placed the pint back on the bar. He smiled at her wanting to tell her to piss off, but played along with the game.

  “Yeah, Johnson, ugly looking guy, bit of a wimp, says he saved us from the Argies but who knows?”

  “You bloody well know,” she snarled, “you know everything about him and probably me too.”

  “Ok, Ok love,” he smiled and raised his hands in appeasement, “all I asked is what you see in him,” he stopped talking and looked at her as she spoke.

  “He’s gentle, kind and considerate, he treats me like a lady and when I’m with him I feel special and safe.”

  “And you’ve been with him a lot lately.”

  “You should know!” she looked around the bar to see if anybody required serving, but saw no-one so continued, “why can’t you leave him alone?”

  “Orders love.”

  “From who.”

  “From above.”

  “Well, to Alan it’s just a game, he won’t do anything while you watch.”

  “How do you mean, ‘while we watch’.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean that, I mean he has nothing to hide, he’s not involved in anything, if he was I’d know by now, just leave him alone won’t you,” she shouted and then looked around the bar, embarrassed at her outburst.

  “I wish I could love, for your sake I wish I could,” he leaned forward and lowered his voice, “I know you know nothing, therefore I’ll ask you one thing; if you knew he was plotting something to damage this country would you tell me?”

  “Yes I bloody well would, now lets please change the subject.”

  “OK love, I’m sorry, I actually care for you and I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  “Why should Alan hurt me?”

  Lawrence nodded his head and smiled, “You’ve grown very close to him haven’t you?”

  She glared back, “Yes, actually I have. For the first time for a long time I’ve actually got a bloke who is good for me and who genuinely cares for me and what I don’t want is PC Plod and his mates screwing it up.”

  “Yeah OK Jacky,” he smiled at her again, “I get the picture now pull me another pint please love.”

  July 20th, 73 Sandiway, Bramhall.

  “You’ll gain nothing by bringing her in sir, she’s in love with him and she knows nothing.”

  “You’re sure Sergeant,” Major Rock looked at his colleague to ascertain whether there was any doubt.

  “I’m sure she’s in love with him and has no idea of what he’s up to.”

  Rock chortled, “Then our Mr Johnson is a lucky man because yesterday Thompson observed him looking in jewellers’ windows and eventually he went into Beaverbrooks and bought both an engagement and a wedding ring. It would seem that Alan Johnson intends to propose to Jacky and marry her on the cruise.”

  “Good luck to them,” smiled Lawrence, “let’s hope they have a long and carefree marriage.” but his voice then became more serious; “How did you fare with Jacky’s belongings?”

  “Very well, we’ve been able to plant a short range device in a lipstick, one in a handbag and one in a toilet bag, plus a longer range device in a suitcase.”

  “Let’s hope they’re the ones she takes on holiday sir.”

  The lippy’s the one she wears daily, the handbag’s new; we believe bought for the trip and the suitcase is half packed so we think we’ve got the goods.”

  “Will I be coming on the cruise sir?”

  “No Sergeant, I think you’re a little obvious.”

  “Yes sir,” sighed a resigned Lawrence.

  “I would like you to once again make a thorough search of 78 Sandiway and Jacky’s house, and I mean thorough. You’ve got twenty days to look into everything, and I mean everything.

  “Yes sir, everything,” echoed Lawrence.

  July 21st, The Brown Cow, Hillgate, Stockport.

  Jacky placed three more pints in front of Dave, John and Alan, took the money from the bar, worked the till and returned with the change.

  Alan looked at his friends and asked, “What do you think of me guys, what do you really think of me?”

  “Oh fuck off Alan, you’ve only had four pints so don’t get all psychological and pissed with us.”

  “I only asked what you thought of me Dave, don’t bite my head off.”

  Dave looked at him, “Well, you’re OK aren’t you. You’ve got a good pension and a fabulous girlfriend, you’ve got mates like us and you’re going on a cruise; so what’s your problem?”

  “No problem Dave, no problem.”

  John took another gulp from his glass then spoke to Alan, “You’re worried about the relationship aren’t you, about commitment. You’ve fallen in love.”

  “No I haven’t,” he replied, “guys like me don’t do that.”

  John laughed, “Guys like me, what does that mean?”

  “Nothing, nothing, let’s change the subject.”

  “OK, let’s talk about Jacky’s beautiful arse.”

  “Watch it John.”

  “You see Dave,” John turned to his silent friend. “He’s got the hots for her but he won’t admit it.”

  “The hots for her, what do you mean. I’ve had the hots for her for over two years.”

  “Then it’s about time you made an honest woman of her,” laughed John.

  “Maybe,” Alan nodded and called for Jacky, “Three more pints please darling.”

  She pulled on the beer pumps, turned her head and smiled at him, “What are you after?”

  “Nothing love, just the chance to have a good holiday together.”

  She placed the pints down in front of the three, looked at Alan and responded, “A good holiday is what we’ll have darling especially when I’m on that side of the bar, so you’d better take extra spending money for
the champagne.”

  “Champagne,” gasped Dave, “that costs a fortune on a ship.”

  “Then a fortune’s what he’d better bring,” she quipped.

  John interrupted, “It seems that the hots are going to cost you Alan.”

  “What hots,” she queried, looking at Alan, then John and Dave.

  “Nothing love, it’s just blokes talking.”

  “If you ask me blokes talk more drivel than women,” she responded and moved away to serve another customer.

  Alan downed his pint, agreed to meet his two friends the same time the next day, turned to go and called to Jacky, “See you at six, love.”

  July 24th, The Brown Cow, Hillgate, Stockport.

  John downed the dregs of his second pint and called to Jacky for a third round. He turned to Alan and quipped, “Enjoy these pints, it’s the last good beer you’ll have for twenty days!”

  Alan smiled, “Maybe even longer.”

  “Why; aren’t you coming back?”

  For a brief second his eyes widened; he looked around the bar to see if they had been overheard and satisfied with their privacy replied, “Well you never know John, I might get an offer I can’t refuse, or meet a beautiful lady and run off with her.”

  “I thought you were taking the beautiful lady with you,” interrupted Dave.

  “One should always keep one’s options open,” he replied smugly.

  “If you ask me you’re a lucky bastard for having the option you’ve got; so I’d grab her while you can and marry her on the ship.”

  “Yeah, you can do that, captains have that power,” interrupted John.

  Jacky placed the three pints on the bar and enquired, “Captains have what power?”

  “The power to marry people my love,” he replied.

  “Marry people! What the hell are you talking about?”

  “We suggested that Alan stops messing about and marries you on the ship, that’s all.” joked Dave.

  She laughed out loud, “Marry me, who’s to say I’d have him, he’s getting old and knackered and drinks too much.”