Wilco- Lone Wolf 20

by Geoff Wolak

  ‘Has a mug with his cover name on it, No.2.’

  ‘So all settled then. When you have a mug with your cover name on you’re definitely settled.’

  ‘While you’re on, Suzy from 14 Intel will stay in Panama, local boyfriend, undercover work for our friend.’

  ‘And do the taxpayers keep paying her?’

  ‘No, so fake her death.’

  ‘And we get what from this arrangement?’

  ‘A contact in the area with great local knowledge and contacts. If you had a man in the region in trouble, she’s there.’

  ‘That would be a benefit, yes. And she’s available to us?’

  ‘Of course, and if you objected I’d recall her. It’s your final call.’

  ‘And Tiny?’

  ‘Will join my Intel team and is available to you. She’s shit hot and a natural.’

  ‘A good find then.’

  ‘Yes, add them both to you list of assets.’

  Bob Staines called a minute later. ‘There was an incident -’

  ‘Yes, she called, David Finch will sort it.’

  ‘And the team?’

  ‘They pull back for a day or two, take a rest, then resume.’

  ‘I’ll sort that now. It was just a road rage incident.’

  ‘Yes, but still, she was in danger, so thank them for me.’

  Sat back down, Swifty began, ‘That girl, Tiny..?’

  ‘A natural, shit hot undercover. She can do in a hotel and casino what we do in the jungle. She helped out greatly in Panama, caught a few people for us.’

  ‘Your new bird..?’

  I sighed loudly, and stared ahead. ‘She’s in danger. And I don’t want to have to think about her. Enough to worry about with Kate.’

  ‘You need a clear head, less shit in there.’

  I nodded, and stared into my cup for a minute. Finally looking up a number, I stepped out into the cold and called.

  ‘Hello?’ came Cecilia’s voice.

  ‘It’s me, I just got back.’

  ‘Been seeing you on the news most days, it was odd. And a worry.’

  ‘Look, there’s … a few people trying hard to kill me, and … they could follow me to you, and … standing at your graveside is not what I need in my head right now.’

  ‘Oh. And these people?’

  ‘A rogue element of the CIA. They could find you, even on an RAF base.’

  ‘Kind of makes it hard for you to have a life.’

  ‘What life?’ I quipped. After a long pause I said, ‘Look, if things change -’

  ‘When will people stop trying to shoot you, exactly?’ she testily asked.

  ‘Well, maybe in the future -’

  ‘Do what’s best for you, not worry about me. I knew this would be hard, and … when I saw the TV news each night, well, I can’t imagine the pressure you must be under from all sides.’

  ‘We might meet again -’

  ‘Or you take a bullet next week. I was never planning on getting close, foolish teenage girl idea, I should have known what I was getting into with James Bond. But in real life James Bond has the scars, and people try hard to kill him. So don’t worry about me. Starting thinking about yourself for a change. Bye.’ She cut the call.

  Back inside, I sat and sighed.

  ‘You broke up with her?’

  I nodded.

  ‘She OK about it?’

  Again I nodded.

  ‘Clear your head. That’s an order.’

  I nodded.

  In the morning I left Swifty to sleep and I walked around to the canteen in a stiff cold wind, a few in, Murphy and his buddy in.

  I grabbed food and sat with Henri and Sambo, Hamster in early and eating.

  Murphy turned to me. ‘Boss, could we choose which troop sergeant we’re with?’

  ‘Which one do you prefer?’ I asked. ‘Because there are only two of them.’

  ‘Anyone apart from Rizzo.’

  Henri and the others laughed loudly.

  I told Murphy, ‘He’s a good soldier, plenty of experience.’

  ‘I ain’t never seen me a man wipe his arse and eat a sandwich, then smell his hand.’

  Henri was almost in tears laughing.

  ‘You can be with Slider.’

  In the Intel Room I found the white boards and had a look as the team came in. I sat in with Sanderson and a brew, and we went through a few aspects together, and he understood that there were a few things we could not discuss.

  I told him, ‘The files for this will be classified Top Secret, sir. Gather up all the material.’

  He made a note. ‘Always odd when you call me sir.’

  ‘You’re a rank higher, and a proper officer.’

  ‘We all know where the real power lies.’

  ‘Wanna swap?’

  ‘No, people keep trying to kill you. And it’s a long list, still growing.’

  I shot him a peeved look. ‘Oh, the girl, Tiny, she’s now part of this team, and she’ll have some top-level work for me and for London.’

  ‘She seemed … a bit flippant.’

  ‘She is, like Tomo, but in Panama she was excellent, killed a few men, and she’s great undercover. She just needed a chance to show what she could do. And her mate, Suzy, is detached from us now, she’ll stay there a while, might even fake her death, so update a file.’

  ‘London happy with that..?’

  ‘Yes, because they have fuck all real spies worth a damn. These ladies proved their ability undercover. If SIS had a good team then we’d not be doing the damn work for them.’

  ‘A big difference between James Bond on the TV, and in real life. I’ve met a few, and they were all a bit lame.’

  I tipped my eyebrows. ‘CIA ask me questions, but they have some good teams, no evidence left behind.’ I took a moment. ‘Any of the team have worries about security around here?’

  ‘Less so now, and we have a great many people applying to work here, and they now that if they leave here then it’s mundane paperwork, theories and scenarios.’

  I nodded.

  He told me, ‘Get some rest, Major, you look like shit.’

  ‘Long flight. Always takes a few days to get back with it.’

  ‘And how would you rate 14 Intel now?’

  ‘They’re getting better, they’re accumulating the experience, but apart from Tiny and Suzy no one stands out as a superstar. I’d not send them off to do a job by themselves.’

  ‘14 Intel have recruited a few they think could be superstars, they’ll join us soon, and I’ll rotate some of the less capable.’

  ‘Ask Robby I guess, I don’t deal with them much.’

  ‘And Maggie?’

  I considered that. ‘If she was in a civvy undercover role she’d be good, because when the cards are down she could punch out a man or kill him. Oh, how’s the pub?’

  ‘Restored now, London compensated the owner generously. MPs use it, and we had regular SAS and Paras here, and they used it, so it made the owner some money.’

  In with Tinker and Reggie, I began, ‘Reggie, how’d you like to retire to the south of France and work part time for me. You’d get a full-time wage, good money.’

  ‘Sounds good, but … a bit odd. Where would I live?’

  ‘I have a team down there, they’ll explain it. Just need a keen volunteer.’

  ‘The weather here is terrible for my health, I normally go away for the winter.’

  ‘Then go pack, and I’ll arrange a meet with your new boss, but you stay in touch with Tinker on a daily basis, doing valuable work for us with a small team.’

  He exchanged a look with Tinker, and grabbed his files before he set off for a better climate.

  Tinker asked, ‘We still looking at Washington?’

  ‘Deep State has cleaned house, so … probably not. But there may be a time when they piss me off, so … we need an ear to the ground. Let’s drive to Cheltenham later.’

  After lunch we drove north in two cars, MP Graveson now
my official bodyguard. Tinker had an MP assigned to him as well. At GCHQ we signed in, soon in a large room with many managers, many familiar faces, the Director greeting me.

  He called order for me.

  I began, ‘First of all, thanks for all the hard work, you made a difference and saved lives, namely mine. What I’m here for today is to ask for additional data resources. You have large computers here?’

  The Director put in, ‘Some of the biggest and fastest in the world.’

  ‘What I want … is the following.’

  They made ready with notepads.

  ‘I want every phone number in the world, every mobile, every sat phone, and all old and dead ones as well. All of them. I want a phone index for the Eskimos, and people in Nepal. All of them.

  ‘I want all car number plates for the planet, all ID cards ever produced, all names and addresses for as many countries as you can get. If I find an old car with a body in it, I want to be able to say: this make and model, when was it produced? This registration belongs to who, this ID card belongs to who, and when did they go missing.

  ‘I want to be able to look at an aircraft registration and call you, and ask who owns and operates it. I want to be able to get a ship’s name, and you tell me who owns and operates it, and where does it run, even if it’s a ferry from Greece to Turkey.

  ‘I want weapon serial numbers, as far as you can get them, and I want all businesses in the world, names and addresses and phones and what they do. If that means you need more computers, I’ll have a word with the PM about your budget. And, there are external agencies that will help with the budget.’

  I faced the Director.

  ‘We already have some of that, and we can get more, hire some database programmers, and link the databases together. At the end of it we’d have a valuable tool to any field agent, and to the police here as well.’

  I told the group, ‘What you do with phone patterns has the CIA and NSA jealous, so that should be nurtured and well-funded – it’s a key weapon we have. If you can hack a few towers and databases, do so. I then want a number to call, senior men there in shifts, because it’s often life or death.’

  A manager told me, ‘Your number comes up as priority. Actually, it flashes up as Don’t Panic!’

  They laughed.

  I smiled. ‘You may not realise it, but many people are jealous as hell of my phone, and you lot at the end of it. But in future I want my team to be able to call as well, some password used.’

  ‘We know many of them by name and reputation, spoke to a few. But would we have to field calls from Rizzo?’

  The laughed.

  ‘Maybe,’ I said with a smile. ‘And Murphy.’

  ‘Murphy, who sounds like a hick town teenager..?’

  ‘Yes, but he’s an excellent soldier, and now with Echo.’

  The Director put in, ‘We’ll set something up quickly.’

  ‘And can their sat phones be traced?’

  ‘Yes, but we can do the same as we did with yours.’

  ‘Before the next deployment,’ I told him. I faced them, ‘The two ladies from 14 Intel I have with me, Suzy and Tiny, they’re now intel field agents, and Tiny is shit hot at the job, she’d put SIS agents to shame. I’ll need a very secure phone for her.

  ‘Don’t mix them up because Tiny is actually Susan Knight, so they’re both Susans.

  ‘Suzy will remain in Panama a while, you may get a call from her. I also want external field agents to be able to call a certain number, password used. You don’t give them sensitive info, but access to the database of cars and phones. London will approve it.’

  The Director noted, ‘We already provide such a service to SIS and MI5.’

  ‘I’d want my people ring-fenced, and I may want to see what they’re asking about, so keep logs. If Rizzo asks about a horse in the Derby…’

  They laughed.

  In with the Director we sat and had a coffee, a chat about practical steps.

  I asked him, ‘Do you have an account I can put money into?’

  ‘Yes, set-up for quiet operations.’ He handed me a sheet of paper.

  I folded it and tucked it away. ‘I don’t want London complaining about the cost, but I’ll bend the ear of the PM.’

  ‘Well, we’re doing real work with you, not just planning for the day when we’ll do some real work, so here we’re adjusting budgets and teams. They all want to work on the real jobs, not the research.’

  ‘This new database…’

  ‘We have the computers, but getting the information and loading it will take time.’

  ‘Use the money I send you, work fast please.’

  ‘There are external companies we make use of, and they’d have no idea what it was for anyhow, just databases. We received a list of ships recently, and have the GPS tracks going back years.’

  ‘That aspect cracked the case,’ I told him.

  ‘We have a team on it, and any future calls we can answer quite quickly. Already have the Navy making use of it, for drug interdiction in various places, and some odd tracks have thrown up ships, Interpol alerted.’

  ‘Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.’

  Driving back, I chatted to MP Graveson, and he seemed OK, level headed. He had been fishing in the cold canal, which was now more like a lake apparently. I had to tell him to stop calling me sir when we’re in the car.

  Back at base, few men around, he drove me in a jeep to the canal with a bulge, and I jumped down. It was now a thousand yards long, much of it just three metres wide, but in the centre it was twenty metres wide. And deep, he reported; a man sneaking in would have to swim across.

  Down at the south end a new small canal ran east, but it had not been connected to the main canal yet, its banks just mud, the water brown. It ran towards the south woods, almost 400yards, where a new tower stood.

  ‘Did Mister Sanderson get any fish?’

  ‘He sanctioned the budget, and we drove to a place and got them, small Roach, Rudd, Tench and Carp. The Roach grow quickly, the Tench and Carp slower but they end up huge. We’ve been throwing in some feed, but in this weather they don’t eat much. They’ve adjusted well.’

  ‘How’d you know that? I can’t see any!’

  ‘They haven’t died and floated to the surface,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘What was already in the canal?’

  ‘All sorts, it’s been there two hundred years. Some monsters in there as well, some Perch seen, eels, everything. At the south end we put a metal grill, stop the big fish leaving. Small fish could get through.’

  ‘Was it a working canal?’

  ‘Not sure, because it just stops, and the nearest proper canal is two miles away. It looked like it was used for cattle drinking in summer, so a stream that was widened basically, but it’s way too deep for the cattle.’

  Stepping away, I called Bob. ‘Put some money in the GCHQ account for me.’ I read out the detail and he read it back.

  ‘How much?’

  ‘Whatever we can spare. They’ll create a new super-database of boats and planes and cars, and sat phones and mobiles, databases or all citizens of all countries. You’ll have access.’

  ‘Sounds good, yes. How about twenty million?’

  ‘Seems like a lot, won’t leave us short?’

  ‘Hell no, I make good money on the stock markets. And it’s not like we pay tax!’

  ‘If you’re sure, then send it. But can you get dodgy databases?’

  ‘Hell yes. Bought, stolen, and hacked.’

  ‘Get some that you think are relevant and send them to Tinker at GL4.’

  ‘I have a master file of European Freemasons.’

  ‘Ah, that would be good.’

  ‘And a payroll file of Russian officers and civil servants.’

  ‘You are indeed a sneaky shit. But use some of that twenty million for the databases, because that’s what it’s for. Have a team on it, delegate. I want a list of people who may want to kill me in
the future.’

  ‘Would need a big team, not sure I have the resources. Could you upset people a little less?’

  ‘I'll try.’

  In with the Brigadier for a chat, I asked that he get external units in to use the new range, starting straight away, some instructors to man the control room. He would get some Paras over.

  I told him, ‘MOD paid for it, sir, and may whinge, so let’s have NCOs use it, call it a Battle Readiness Course. If the regiments are close they can visit in daylight, or they stay at Brize Norton, I don’t want strangers here when we’re in residence.’

  ‘You’re away a lot, so then they can use the huts. Regular SAS have all used it, wagers laid and a scorecard set-up.’

  ‘We spoke before, about an artificial village, so let’s make start on that, south of the new range, large mud walls up. Inside, they make concrete houses, single storey, like a small village. But … you know the green metal fencing, the slats that are supposed to be bullet proof, we put that on as a roof, twenty feet up.’

  ‘Capture stay rounds discharged from some young squaddie.’

  I nodded. ‘We’re close to the village. With both facilities, the MOD will be happy. And like you said, we’re away a great deal.’

  ‘Various Army teams use The Factory, even RAF Regiment and Marines.’ He smiled. ‘They love the paintball contest.’

  ‘Oh, can you make Moran up to Major, he’s way overdue and hurting his career by being with us. Might even send him on some courses.’

  ‘He is overdue, yes. But if he left here … they’d give him his own company.’

  I bumped into Tiny near the canteen. ‘You rested?’

  ‘What did you have in mind, soldier?’ she teased.

  ‘Some training for you. So be ready in the morning at 9am, civvy clothes, you don’t wear uniform any more. I spoke to Sanderson, he knows. And you’ll get a new sat phone, ask Tinker in a few days.’

  In the morning a truck arrived, a pink scooter on it, a pink helmet handed to Tiny by the instructor.

  ‘It’s not an Aston Martin,’ she complained.

  ‘If you were in the south of France, who would suspect you on that?’ I posed. ‘Have you used one before?’

  ‘As a teenager.’

  ‘I need you to be expert with it, so practise outside here as well. Tomorrow you get other instructors.’