Gray Vengeance

by Alan McDermott

  ‘That’s why I’m being recalled,’ Thompson said. ‘Five deal with domestic issues, whereas we have international reach.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Harvey told her. ‘Are you saying Six are taking over from here?’

  Thompson walked over and caressed his face. ‘Don’t pout, Andrew. It doesn’t suit you.’

  ‘I’m not pouting. I just feel it would be better if we worked together on this.’

  ‘I agree,’ Thompson said, ‘but this comes from the home secretary herself. You’ve done a fantastic job over the last few days, and I think you’d be a real asset in taking this forward, but we have our orders.’

  Harvey couldn’t help feeling used, in more than one sense. ‘What about us?’

  The words felt childish, even desperate, as they left his mouth, though Thompson didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘I took the liberty of checking your work calendar, and you’re due a couple of weeks off. Why not take some leave and come and stay at my place for a while? I’ll probably be working late most days, but it would be nice to have someone to come home to.’

  Thompson rubbed her hand against his groin in an effort to get the point across, and Harvey instantly warmed to the idea. The feeling was temporary, however. ‘I just hate the thought of getting this far and abandoning the case.’

  ‘You won’t be,’ Thompson assured him. ‘I’m going to need someone to bounce ideas off, and you’re just the man. Although you’re not officially on the project, that doesn’t mean I can’t use that brain of yours. Now, hurry up. I need you to get me back to London.’

  Harvey dressed quickly, energised by the thought that he wouldn’t be completely cut out of the loop. He told Thompson he would be heading downstairs to collect some belongings and would meet her at the front door.

  In the basement, Harvey found Tony Manello running the early shift. The NSA operative was staring up at the big screen, sipping at a black coffee.

  ‘She’s an impressive beast,’ Manello said. ‘Fifty-nine cells taken out in less than two days. I tell ya, I’d hate to be a bad guy right about now.’

  ‘Amen to that,’ Harvey agreed. ‘Tell me, though. How do you feel personally about having every single word you type monitored?’

  ‘As long as you’ve got nothing to hide, what’s the problem?’

  ‘No problem for you, maybe. But what about someone abusing the system? Imagine an NSA analyst trips across a congressman’s downloads and finds he’s been having an affair or is involved in less than legitimate dealings. Isn’t there the temptation to sell that information on? Or, worse, blackmail them directly?’

  ‘Nah.’ Manello laughed. ‘Everyone with access to this system knows the penalty for using it for extracurricular purposes. Trust me, no-one wants to contravene our information security policy. Besides, all of our devices are monitored by a separate team, and we undergo random surveillance. We all understand the scrutiny we’re under.’

  ‘What about your president? How does he feel, knowing every spoken and written word is going into this database?’

  ‘Actually, he’s exempt, so it’s not a problem for him,’ Manello explained. ‘We can block the output so POTUS, senior military and intelligence personnel, your cabinet members, anyone of any political importance gets to continue without fear of revealing anything detrimental to the national security of our nations.’

  It made sense that certain interests would be protected, but the more Harvey thought about it, the scarier it got. Every word he typed at the office would be under scrutiny, and in his line of work he was bound to enter more than his fair share of keywords likely to trigger downloads. It was Big Brother taken to a whole new level, and he wasn’t sure he was comfortable with it, especially as he’d likely have to face the same scrutiny as the NSA staffers.

  ‘I’d better get going,’ Harvey said. ‘I just want to grab some data from my terminal, then Sarah and I will be out of here.’

  He took a flash drive from his pocket, but Manello put out a hand to stop him. ‘Sorry, Andrew, but nothing leaves here, and certainly not on a memory stick.’

  ‘Can I copy it across to our secure server?’ Harvey asked.

  He got a shake of the head from Manello. ‘The access you’ve enjoyed so far was a one-off owing to the size and nature of the events. Going forward, all information will be processed by us and fed through to the relevant government departments as and when necessary. That keeps the loop as small as possible.’

  ‘So when does my access expire?’

  ‘Twenty minutes ago,’ Manello said. ‘I got a call locking it down. Any requests to use the system will now have to go up to your boss and she’ll pass it to your home secretary.’

  Harvey was frustrated, but Manello clearly didn’t have the power to change NSA policy. Well, if he couldn’t get direct access, then Thompson’s offer was the next best thing. ‘Is it okay if I log into my terminal and close down the link to the office?’

  ‘Have at it.’

  Harvey entered his password to unlock the PC and scribbled down a phone number before going through the process of closing down his connection to the company servers. Once finished, he closed down the terminal and stood, pocketing the small pad of Post-it notes in the process. He shook hands with Manello and made to leave, but a firm hand gripped his biceps.

  ‘The pad, please.’

  Harvey sheepishly took it from his pocket, tore off the top slip, and handed it over to Manello.

  ‘Had to try.’ He shrugged, pocketing the rest of the pad. As he rode the elevator back up to the ground floor, he used a pencil to take a light rubbing of the top of the pad, revealing the imprinted number of the African cell phone. The door pinged to announce his arrival on the ground floor, and he found Thompson waiting by the front door.

  ‘So, are you going to book some time off and spice up my winter evenings?’

  ‘I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas,’ Harvey said with a smile.

  They walked round to the back of the building, where the Honda was waiting. Harvey climbed on and Thompson once again took the pillion position, squeezing him tightly. Once he reached the main road, he opened the throttle and the powerful machine effortlessly ate up the miles. When he got to the motorway, he saw that traffic was once again moving, though not in the volumes he would have seen a week before. It was still enough to make him check his speed, and an hour and a half later he pulled into the car park for Thames House. The journey through the capital had seen a steady flow of vehicles, suggesting the worst of the blockages had been cleared up.

  They rode the elevator to the office, where Thompson collected her belongings before heading over the bridge to the Six building. Before she left, she dropped a slip of paper into Harvey’s shirt pocket. As she disappeared, he took a quick look at the note. It contained an address in Pimlico and a succinct message:

  9PM. Bring wine.

  The prospect of the evening ahead was tempered by his desire to see their operation through to its conclusion. He decided to visit his boss to see if she could shine any light on the decision to cut Five out of the picture.

  ‘Believe me, Andrew, I’m as angry about this as you are.’

  Ellis stood behind her desk with her arms folded tightly across her chest, a sure sign that she was ready to explode. He’d only seen it a couple of times, neither of which had been particularly pretty.

  ‘We don’t even get access to this new system,’ she continued, ‘which really pisses me off.’

  ‘I was told the orders came down from on high.’

  Ellis nodded. ‘The home secretary herself ordered us to drop it and let Six take over. We’re to co-ordinate the interrogations, but anything we glean has to be passed on to Vauxhall for action.’

  ‘It makes no sense,’ Harvey said. ‘You’d think they’d want every possible resource working this. Somethi
ng doesn’t smell right.’

  Ellis gave him a familiar look, a raised-chin posture that suggested she felt great pride about her work and her people. ‘Exactly how I feel. The question is, what do we do about it?’

  ‘I may have a way in,’ Harvey told her. He explained about Thompson’s invitation to bounce ideas off him, carefully leaving out the physical aspect of their new-found relationship.

  ‘I always found her manner to be . . . acerbic,’ Ellis said. ‘Especially towards you. Why would she suddenly warm to you overnight?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s just my raw, animal magnetism.’ Harvey winked suggestively, drawing a raised eyebrow from Ellis.

  ‘Whatever it is, I want you to keep on pressing the same buttons.’

  Harvey nodded. ‘I’ll get what I can from her. Does this mean we’re going to be launching our own investigation?’

  ‘No,’ Ellis said, ‘we’re just going to follow up on a lead, one that we wanted to verify before passing it over to Six.’

  Harvey knew Ellis was playing a dangerous game, one that could end her career. When you answered to a major political figure, you had very little leeway for interpreting instructions. Fortunately, Ellis could make black and white orders look as grey as a Moscow winter.

  ‘So how exactly do you want to play this?’ he asked.

  ‘From what you’ve told me, the trail leads to Nigeria. If, as you suggest, the bombing in Kano was no accident, it would be prudent to investigate the phone at the hospital. Obviously you can’t be in two places at once, so we’ll send Hamad. Meanwhile, you pump Thompson for all you’re worth and Hamad can follow up any leads.’

  The double entendre told Harvey that his attempts to play down his new bond with Thompson as purely platonic hadn’t fooled Ellis. That aside, he had reservations about including Farsi in the operation.

  ‘If we ask Hamad to go to Nigeria, he would have to communicate with us constantly, either by phone or by email. Both of those can be tracked.’ He told Ellis what he’d learned from Manello, about intel staffers living under increased surveillance. ‘Bearing in mind the scrutiny I’ll be under from now on, it wouldn’t take long for them to know what we’re up to.’

  ‘Then get yourselves clean phones and new laptops,’ Ellis said.

  ‘I’m not sure that’ll be enough,’ Harvey said, thinking of Manello’s underground operation. ‘The best option may be to make it look like business as usual here, and send someone else in Hamad’s place.’

  ‘Something tells me you already have someone in mind, and I hesitate to ask who it is because I’m not sure I’m going to like the answer.’

  ‘Tom Gray. He’d be perfect,’ Harvey said quickly, before Ellis could protest. ‘Travelling to places like Kano is part of his job, so he wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Plus he has the skills to look after himself.’

  ‘But no tradecraft,’ Ellis pointed out. ‘Besides, you told me he refuses to leave his daughter’s side. How will you convince him to abandon her here while he trots off to Nigeria?’

  ‘I’ll think of something.’

  Ellis fixed him with a stern glare. ‘You know how I feel about Gray. He’s unreliable, possibly even unstable. In fact, I heard just today that he killed a few people during this crisis.’

  ‘That wasn’t his fault,’ Harvey said. ‘It was self-defence.’

  ‘Perhaps, but you can’t deny that trouble has a way of finding him, and the last thing we need is Gray starting an international incident. What about Kyle Ackerman? He’s already in the region.’

  Kyle Ackerman, an ex-marine now working for the UK Trade & Investment department in South Africa, had run similar missions in the past, but to say he was close to the target location was a little wide of the mark.

  ‘I think you’ll find that Kano is roughly the same distance from Pretoria as it is from Heathrow,’ Harvey said. ‘I did consider him, but there’s no real advantage of using Kyle over Tom.’

  ‘Apart from the number of bodies they leave behind,’ Ellis said.

  ‘Which is why Tom is the best choice. We now have a leaderless DSA and no-one knows how they’re going to react to their new situation. Things could go quiet for a while, or the whole area could explode into violence. We need to send in people who are prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that means Gray and his team.’

  ‘Oh, so it’s a whole team now? Were you thinking fifty? A hundred?’

  ‘Just Gray, Smart and Baines,’ Harvey said, ignoring the jibe. ‘Perhaps one more.’

  Ellis sat at her desk and fiddled with a pen. ‘Okay, send his team in.’

  Harvey turned to leave, but Ellis wasn’t finished. ‘But Gray stays here, and the rest go in purely as support for Kyle, who’ll lead the investigation. Gray’s men can provide security, under strict rules of engagement.’

  ‘Understood.’

  Harvey went back to his desk and began plotting the mission in his head. Avoiding electronic communications was going to be paramount, which meant it wouldn’t be easy to give Ackerman the big picture over the phone or by email.

  The second, and much less difficult, task would be convincing Gray to provide a team to run the mission.

  Chapter 30

  17 December 2014

  Tom Gray was enjoying his second peacefully domestic night in a row when the buzzer for the gates tore him away from helping Melissa with her dinner. When he reached the monitor, he instantly recognised the car waiting for entry.

  ‘Come on up,’ he said, and went to the front door to welcome his guest.

  Harvey pulled up to the steps and sprinted from the car, his jacket covering his head to protect him from the driving rain.

  ‘What have you got?’ Gray asked, taking Harvey’s coat and hanging it up in the utility room. He put a fresh pot of coffee on to brew and swapped his daughter’s empty dinner plate for a cartoon-themed yoghurt.

  ‘It hasn’t been officially announced, yet, but it looks like we got them all.’

  ‘Why not? I’d have thought they’d want that all over the news, to bring a little calm to the country.’

  ‘It should be done some time this afternoon,’ Harvey said. ‘They just wanted to confirm that everyone had been rounded up and that no-one had slipped through the net.’

  ‘So that’s the end of it?’ Gray asked. ‘How did the information on West pan out?’

  ‘I’m meeting someone tonight who might be able to shed some light on him.’

  ‘At least tell me you managed to take down Efram and the guys who trained them.’

  ‘Not quite,’ Harvey said, motioning for Gray to take a seat. ‘That’s the reason I’m here. What do you think of the DSA leadership dying all at once in that explosion?’

  ‘On the face of it, I’m chuffed to bits,’ Gray said. ‘However, you told me they’d been messing around with munitions. Normally they’d leave that to the grunts.’

  ‘My thoughts entirely, though it looks like Whitehall are going to use that as the official line.’

  ‘So investigate further,’ Gray told him.

  Harvey explained how MI5 had been instrumental in bringing the cells down but had subsequently been taken off the investigation.

  ‘Something tells me that doesn’t sit well with you,’ Gray said. ‘I can’t imagine you nursing a bruised ego, so you must be curious as to why you’ve been shut out. Am I right in thinking you’re not going to let this lie?’

  ‘Perceptive, as always,’ Harvey said. ‘For reasons I can’t go into, I’m unable to follow it up myself, but I’ve been given the go-ahead to assemble a small team to act as security for Kyle Ackerman.’

  The name was familiar to Gray. He’d met Ackerman twice, both times memorable for the wrong reasons. ‘I take it you want me to provide that team?’

  ‘If these are the people behind Paul Roberts, it means they’re the ones who issued
the kill order against you. I thought that would be a good enough reason to send Sonny and Len in.’

  Gray rose and paced the kitchen, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. ‘Why them in particular?’

  ‘I know them and I trust them. It’s imperative that the people who go in know how to follow orders.’

  Gray was sure that if he tossed the proposition their way, both Baines and Smart would jump at the chance, but he felt he had a duty to keep them out of harm’s way. They were his closest friends, men who had saved his life, and putting them back on the front line didn’t sit right with him.

  On the flip side, if he was forced to pick his two most capable employees, they would be top of the list.

  He went over to his daughter and stroked her short hair. ‘What’s the full brief ? Is this going to turn into a wet op?’

  ‘Far from it,’ Harvey said. ‘All we want is information.’

  ‘And once you get it?’

  ‘They come home. We just want to gather our own intel and compare it with the news coming from Six.’

  ‘What if you find huge discrepancies?’ Gray asked.

  ‘Your team comes home, job done.’

  Silence ensued as Gray mulled things over. In the many hours since his encounter with Paul Roberts, he’d got together with Len and Sonny to discuss who could possibly have a motive to kill him. He’d been specifically targeted, of that there was no doubt, though why the new leader of DSA—an organisation thousands of miles way—would want him dead was beyond him. None of his employees had ever come into contact with the Nigerian outfit, let alone engaged them in battle, so that ruled out the revenge angle.

  Unless, they’d deduced, it was an individual with a grievance within their ranks. Gray knew of several people who would like to do him harm, not least Stuart Boyle, the teenager who had killed his son Daniel and whom Gray had subsequently kidnapped and held for ransom. Gray dismissed him as an option, simply because he didn’t have the resources or intellect to launch such an audacious attack.