by Alan Judd
‘Sorry I was short with you. It’s just that something urgent has come up and there’s not time to explain. I’ll call in later. Meanwhile, get me on the mobile if you need me.’
‘Of course, yes, I’m so sorry, I—’
‘Don’t be. All my fault.’
‘There’s a message for you from Sussex Police, a DI Whitely wants you to ring her.’
‘Good, thanks. Bye.’
‘And your car keys are on your desk. At least, I assume they’re yours. I’ll bring them down.’
She was still flustered and concerned when she arrived. He put down his briefcase. ‘Elaine, this just proves I wouldn’t get anywhere without you, not even out of the building.’
‘Michelle Blakeney – director HR – has been back to me already about the OFRA meeting – Open Plan For All. I said you’d had to postpone again this morning. She sounded quite cross, actually – well, it is the third time – and wants to know when there’s going to be a decision.’
‘Tell her it’s just been made: no more open plan.’
‘She’ll be awfully cross.’ Elaine couldn’t hide her smile.
‘I know. And meanwhile you and I will just have to cope with our mutual distress at this announcement. Tell her I’ll discuss with her later.’ He picked up his briefcase.
‘I hope everything’s all right?’
‘Thanks, so do I. I’ll explain as soon as I can. If by any chance Sarah should ring, let me know straight away. Keep in touch. And Elaine – the eye. You’ll have to say something about it.’
‘I box.’
‘Of course.’
‘I won.’
Charles nodded. ‘Good. We’ll go into this later.’
It would have been quicker into Westminster by train but he reckoned he might need the car. When eventually he turned off the Embankment he idled into Cowley Street, postponing in the last minute what he had raced for in the last hour.
Her car wasn’t in sight and the door was locked. He closed it quietly and walked from room to room, as he had in Viktor’s house. There had been no more unpacking, the bathroom was as he had last seen it, her clothes were hanging as he remembered, the dishwasher was still only half full from when they had last eaten.
There was a message on the phone from 2.14 that morning. For a few seconds there was silence, then her voice, speaking slowly and sounding flat. ‘Charles, it’s me. I’m all right. I’m with Peter Tew. He wants to meet you, to exchange me for you. I’m on my mobile but there’s no point ringing it. We will call you again on yours.’ There was a pause, murmuring in the background, then, rapidly, ‘If you try to involve the police or anyone else, he says he will kill me.’ Then a click and silence.
He listened again, saved it and stood staring at the receiver. He was calm. Not the calmness of detachment, still less of indifference, but of calculation; so long as he could see a way to act, he would focus on action. Everything else would come later.
His mobile rang. DI Whitely sounded excited. ‘Prisoner friends of your friend,’ she said. ‘Three names stand out. One’s still inside, another was released early eighteen months ago because of health problems and may be dead but the third is on our doorstep, just up the road from here. Michael John Swavesy, aged forty-seven, fourteen years for armed robbery, supply of firearms, possession of a firearm, receiving stolen goods, got off a murder charge on what sounds like a perverse jury verdict. Said to have been a professional hitman. Good behaviour, trained as a clock and watch repairer, released after eight years three years ago, so out well before your friend. No indication whether they kept in touch. Sounds promising. Took a swing past his shop this morning, doesn’t look as if he does much business. Want us to have a look at him?’
‘Thanks, Louise, that’s very helpful.’ Charles thought. ‘We don’t want to alert him. We want to watch him. I don’t suppose you’ve got the resources to—’
‘Not without my super’s say-so and even then only for a short time for something specific. I dare say the Met—’
‘Let me get back to you. Meanwhile, find out everything you can about him – cars, phones, family, contacts, habits, everything. Take your watch in.’
‘So long as you get me a new one if I don’t get it back.’
‘Two for a conviction.’
‘Deal. Oh, and your friend – he’s got cancer. Terminal, they say.’
‘Does he know it?’
‘Think so, yes.’
Hence Peter’s urgency, why he was doing it now, why he had absconded. ‘Anything else?’
‘That’s enough to be going on with, isn’t it? I mean—’
‘More than enough, it’s very helpful. I was just – where was it, his last prison? Open prison.’
‘Not far from here. Old army camp. Holiday camp now, they come and go as they please. Do courses to prepare for outside, bed their visitors if they can. Live pretty much as if they’re out already except they don’t have to pay the rent.’
‘Did my friend have any visitors?’
‘Dunno, not sure it says. Let’s have a look.’ There was a pause. ‘No, doesn’t seem to – yes, hang on. A Mrs Chester.’
‘Katya Chester?’
‘Mrs K. Chester, that’s all it says.’
‘How often? More than once?’
‘Doesn’t say. Just says when permission was first granted.’ She gave the date. ‘May have been just that once. You think he had something going with this married lady, then?’
‘Something, yes, but not the usual thing. Not his style. Anything else? Did he do any courses?’
‘Hang on, let’s – sorry, gone past it. Here we are – trades, vocational, education. No, nothing listed, unless – no, he didn’t do any courses but he took one. I mean, he taught one. Computing skills. Taught it to other prisoners. So they could get up to date on fraud for when they come out, stuff like that.’
‘They had computers in prison?’
‘Unless they did it with matchsticks.’
Afterwards Charles started to dial Michael Dunton’s number but changed his mind and rang Graham Wood of the Civil Contingencies Unit. He was less likely to ask questions. ‘When did the CNI attacks begin?’
Graham drew his breath. ‘Well, that’s the thing. We can’t say for sure. They might have been into our systems some time before we knew about it. First indication we had on the GSI network was in May. I can look up the actual date if you like.’
Charles didn’t need that. The dates were close enough. Katya’s permission to visit had been granted in April.
The COFE meeting was again in the COBR. Charles had got Angela to bring it forward to later in the morning. Because of that there were only Angela, Tim Corke and Michael Dunton. It took ten minutes to bring them up to date.
As soon as he finished Michael Dunton said, ‘We must tell the police. I don’t know whether the Met still have their specialist kidnap squad but they’ve got the expertise anyway and the sooner they get on to this the better Sarah’s chances.’
Charles reverted to his usual tactic, nodding agreement. ‘Of course. The only reason I haven’t got on to them already is that I wanted everyone to know where we are and whether Tim’s people have had any luck with what I asked for during the night. Because that might help steer the police investigation.’
‘Some, but not necessarily anything that’s going to be any help with Sarah,’ said Tim, speaking faster than usual. ‘At least, not yet. We got into Jeremy Wheeler’s laptop straight away, thanks to the details you gave and to the fact that he leaves it on. He wasn’t using it for any nefarious purpose but simply to play chess. Seems to be a protracted game but we don’t know who with, except that he calls himself Toast, as you said. We won’t know where Toast is until he goes live again and comes back with his next move. If he stays live for long enough we’ll get a fix but it can take time, especially if he’s on the move. What we have established, however, is that Wheeler’s and Toast’s chess games coincide with our cyber poacher’s access to the MI6 system and f
rom there to the others. They – whoever they are – are piggy-backing on Wheeler and Toast to get into our systems.’
‘That ought to be impossible,’ said Michael. ‘The laptops issued to Wheeler and other ISC members have no access to the sealed systems within the agencies. There are no links. The information we supply electronically to the ISC doesn’t come from within our own systems. There are simply no bridges back to us. You know that, Tim, your people set it up.’
Tim shook his head. ‘That doesn’t mean that someone couldn’t contrive it, given the expertise. If your Jeremy Wheeler—’
‘I don’t think Jeremy could do that,’ said Charles. ‘But his laptop is the one he was issued with in the old SIA and maybe it could, without his knowing. If he uses it to communicate with people within the Office – as I suspect he does because he’s always trying to find out about things – then he might be opening a pathway that a sophisticated cyber thief could exploit.’
Angela held up her hands. ‘And so who is this Toast character who can wreak such cyber havoc simply through moving his knight to pawn four or whatever? He must be a computer prodigy beyond—’
‘Toast is Peter Tew,’ said Charles. He explained. They looked doubtful.
‘That’s your main reason, the anagram?’ asked Angela. ‘That and coincidences of timing? What makes you think Tew is capable of—’
‘Peter was a cyber evangelist from the days when MI6 first started using computers seriously and in his last gaol he taught some sort of computer course. Maybe he also updated himself. But you’re right, Angela, he wouldn’t be able to penetrate and threaten our critical national infrastructure unaided.’ He nodded, reinforcing his reasonableness. ‘But if he affords access to those who can and if he has sufficient ill-will – as his kidnap of Sarah surely demonstrates – he could make his cyber connection available to the Russians or Chinese, or both. He lets whoever it is use his chess games with Jeremy as their bridge and I guess they’ve captured Jeremy’s computer, or are on their way to doing so.’
‘We must get it off Wheeler straight away,’ said Michael. ‘Close it down.’
‘Why don’t we use it first, play it back at them? Misinformation. Get their submarines off the scent of Beowulf , for example. Make them think she’s back. Also it would help us locate Peter Tew which would lead us to Sarah—’
Angela shook her head. ‘Too many hidden ifs, Charles. Of course we’ve got to get Sarah safely back, that has to be our number one priority but it’s for the police—’
‘Definitely,’ said Michael. ‘The police. It’s got to be the police.’
‘– and for our part we can’t for the sake of some hypothetical advantage allow these power cuts and cyber failures to continue an hour longer than necessary. The government would fall if it got out that we’d let them run on for nefarious purposes of our own. If we can stop them we must. We stop them dead.’ She slapped her palm on the desk.
Tim caught Charles’s eye. ‘Why do you think Tew wants to speak to you?’
‘He wants to exchange me for Sarah. Sarah’s the bait.’
‘What does he want you for?’
‘To kill him,’ said Michael. ‘As he killed Configure and Frank Heathfield. He wants revenge on those who put him away. That’s why Charles must be under police protection from now on. Another reason to involve the police immediately.’
Tim was still looking at Charles. ‘But if you’re assuming he found out where Configure and Frank lived by accessing the MI6 database via Jeremy Wheeler, why couldn’t he do the same with you? He could just turn up on your doorstep and shoot you instead of going to all the trouble of kidnapping Sarah.’
‘He wouldn’t have found me on it. Fortunately, I’ve been very remiss, haven’t yet told them where we now live.’ It was not going as he wanted. His aim was again to leave the meeting with his freedom of action intact while preserving his access to intelligence community resources. ‘Best thing would be to wait till he rings again on Sarah’s phone so that you can monitor live and get a location fix. At the same time we should get Jeremy to resume his chess game so that you can get a fix on Tew’s computer. It and Tew might not always be in the same place.’
Michael and Angela were shaking their heads before he’d finished. ‘Absolutely not, no playing those games without police say-so,’ said Michael.
Tim said nothing, which Charles felt – hoped – was an indication of complicity. They were right about the police but he didn’t want them yet. ‘I’ll tell the police when I leave here.’
‘Why not before?’ said Angela. ‘You don’t want to get home and find Peter Tew on your doorstep. And every minute counts for Sarah.’
The last was true; it was why he wanted to act now and not wait. But he needed Tim’s help.
‘They’ll want to come to my home, to help secure it. I may as well meet them there.’ As he stood to go he said to Tim, ‘I discovered last night I must have mislaid your mobile number.’
Tim gave it to him and Charles hurried out.
He walked back to Cowley Street. His mobile was cluttered with messages from Elaine, which a quick trawl showed to be about briefings, missed meetings and diary queries. He ignored them all but felt guilty about the trouble she was going to. If he rang now he’d have to explain, and there was no time for that. Once inside the door he rang Tim Corke, reckoning he would have had time to get back to his London office.
‘Thought I’d hear from you,’ said Tim. ‘You’re about to hear from the police. Michael and Angela got on to them after you’d gone, not trusting you to do it. Which you haven’t, I imagine?’
‘I shall but I haven’t quite worked out how to put it so that they don’t rush into action too quickly. I was wondering if you could—’
‘I think I know what you want, Charles. But are you sure this is what’s best for Sarah? It’s pretty high-risk and if it doesn’t work God knows what he might do to her.’
‘If it doesn’t work he’s still got me. He’ll let her go in exchange, I’m sure of that. I know him. It’s me he wants.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘How long d’you need to set it up?’
‘Well, it’s all there already. They’ll pick up your call and Wheeler’s laptop but for live monitoring it would be helpful to have estimated times. My worry is that—’
‘I know, I know. Look, I’ll ring the police now. I’ll also ring George Greene so that we’re covered, at least to a degree. Give me,’ – he paused – ‘give me a two-hour window starting one hour from now. And then can someone ring me with the results? You’ve got my numbers.’
‘That’s leaving it a bit long, isn’t it? Who knows what sort of state she might be in.’
‘He won’t do anything until he’s spoken to me. She’s a bargaining chip, that’s all. Her value is as a hook for me and he won’t want to harm her while she can still be that. He might kill her if she ceases to be of value which is why I have to make sure he thinks it’s going to work. If he gets the faintest whiff of police involvement she loses her value and probably her life.’
‘But what happens to you when he’s got you?’
‘I happen to him. That’s what happens.’
He rang DI Steggles. If he had paused he would have begun to imagine what Sarah might be going through. Imagination, like thought for Hamlet, could be the enemy of action. Also, it was essential to delay the police.
‘I was about to ring you,’ said DI Steggles. ‘What’s all this about? Bit of a garbled story here about your wife—’
Charles explained, trying to get them to focus on the scene of the crime and on finding Sarah’s car. DI Steggles was pleased by the prospect of action. ‘Where are you now, sir? We’d better get round to your home straight away. It and you will need guarding—’
‘Surely the main thing is to get any street camera footage from around her office to show what happened and maybe follow the car through London. I’ll be dashing about today. I’ve got to head south now, I should be
safe enough there. Let’s keep in touch and meet later.’ He rang off, hoping they would interpret ‘south’ as Croydon. Then he threw some old clothes into a holdall and unlocked his gun cabinet which was temporarily in the utility room. He took out his guns, mostly sporting guns inherited from his father, wrapped them in blankets and locked them in the boot of the Bristol. Then he drove round to the Westminster underground car park to ring DI Whitely in Hastings. He didn’t trust the police not to come screeching round to his house; once under protection he’d have no freedom to act.
‘Your man, your local friend you were telling me about. Any chance of trying for surveillance again, including phone tap?’
‘Not without someone putting up a case to the super. Unless the Met have one already and they ask us. What’s the urgency, anyway? Have you found out something?’
He gave her the edited version he had given Steggles. ‘Do what you can to keep an eye on him. I don’t know whether he’s involved but he could be and if he is we need to be on him. If I hear anything I’ll let you know, so keep your phone on. I may be in your area anyway, in which case we should meet.’
‘Great. But your wife, where do you think—’
‘I’ll let you know.’
Next he rang Jeremy Wheeler, hoping he would be in Sussex during the parliamentary recess. He got Wendy, who sounded hollow.
‘Yes, he is here, yes.’
‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m all right, thank you. We are just having a disagreement, that’s all. A marital tiff. I’m sure you’ll soon know what I mean.’ She laughed unconvincingly. ‘I’ll just get him for you.’
There was an indistinct exchange in the background, during which he heard his name repeated. Eventually Jeremy came to the phone. ‘Charles, how very nice to hear from you.’ His oleaginous tone was as unconvincing as Wendy’s laughter. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘Two things. I’m coming down later and would love you to show me how you play chess on your computer. Unless you’re in the middle of a game now? I don’t want to interrupt.’
‘Well, it’s a – we’re a bit tied up at the moment – perhaps—’