The Saxon Network

by Norman Hartley

  ‘Sounds like fun,’ GG said.

  ‘I’ve just been talking to Oxo,’ Chunk said. ‘He’s tested the link from the helmet cams. That’s working fine. Kate, if you set up your laptop here, he’ll acquire a satellite and test the link to you.’

  While they were doing the tests, I received word from Danton. Everything was on track. They’d begun unloading the Spinner from the Flanker and we had excellent pictures, including a sequence of Vossler supervising. It was far more than I had dared to hope.

  Jay estimated they had at least another half hour’s work. We’d estimated their Green Lane journey at about forty-five minutes. That meant we had over an hour in hand. I asked Jay go to Weatherby’s house and transmit the pictures to Kate as soon as Vossler left. Lottery and the rest of the team would head for Spring House by road. Once we had Vossler in the trap, we needed to be sure no-one removed the Plague germs from their storage point.

  Birdy checked in and announced that he was glad he crashed because he was in helicopter heaven.

  ‘We’re going up in the world,’ he said, ‘this beast is an absolute beauty.’

  ‘Great,’ I said, ‘try not to break it. When Vossler leaves, assuming he does go on the Green Lanes run, can you circle but keep well out of visual range?’

  ‘Will do,’ Birdy said. ‘I won’t be all that conspicuous. There’s quite a few machines in the air because of the Garden Party.’

  I went next to find Cronin. He was in his room resting and he looked worried.

  ‘It’s OK,’ I reassured him, ‘it’s looking good.’

  ‘It’s Vince,’ Cronin said, ‘he’s in a really bad way. We’ve just had word from Paris. The Iranians are on the move. We presume they’re heading for London. Leo’s on to them.’

  ‘I thought it was Omar Vince was afraid of,’ I said.

  ‘Hell, he’s afraid of everybody. Every time anything happens, he thinks it’s a threat to him.’

  ‘With a bit of luck, this all be over by tomorrow,’ I said.

  Cronin shrugged. ‘Let’s hope, but it’s going to take Vince a long time to come back from the place he’s gotten to.’

  ‘Keep me posted,’ I said. ‘I’m leaving for the ambush site shortly. So far no hitches.’

  We went by quad bike. Chunk took one and Rachel came on the back of the second one with me. She had shed her Edwardian finery and looked serious and businesslike in black jeans and dark top.

  I arranged a rendezvous point with Tim, well away from the Trap area. Half way there, I had word from Lottery. The vehicle with the Spinner on board was leaving Danton and – wonder of wonders – Vossler was travelling with it. Omar was driving, Vossler was a front seat passenger and Yukovsky was in the back with the kit. It could not have been better.

  ‘Targets have got their own people along the route,’ Tim reported when we arrived. ‘We’ve seen two of them. They haven’t seen us. Looks as if they’re using forward reporting.’

  Forward reporting was a method used for convoys on dangerous routes. The vehicle called ahead to the next checkpoint to make sure it was safe to enter each new zone. If they didn’t get a satisfactory answer, the vehicle would immediately stop, or leave the convoy route.

  Tim read my thoughts. ‘Don’t worry boss, their watchers won’t spot our watchers. We’re better at this than they are.’

  Fifteen minutes later, our watcher reported in. The vehicle had reached their first checkpoint and received the go-ahead to continue.

  ‘Are you hearing this, Birdy,’ I said into the Loop. ‘Loud and clear’ Birdy replied. ‘I’m airborne and can be with you in five minutes if needed.’

  ‘It doesn’t look as though you’re going to be,’ I said. But I was wrong. I had reckoned without Vince Delgado. A few moments later, the Loop buzzed and it showed Kate’s identity number. I was expecting her to report that Jay had started transmitting pictures from Danton.

  Instead GG came on the line.

  ‘Trouble,’ he said calmly. ‘Your man Delgado has freaked. He’s had some kind of news from Paris and he’s jumped into a car and is heading in your direction. Kate’s gone after him.’

  I checked that everyone on the Loop had heard, then Kate came on line.

  ‘He’s about half a mile ahead of me,’ she said, ‘I don’t know where we are and I don’t think Delgado knows either. He’s lost it completely. He said he needed to warn you but he has no idea where to find you.’

  I could hear road noise and the sound of a straining engine behind the voice.

  ‘I’ve just passed a sign. We’re in a village called Winbane.’

  ‘Shit,’ Tim said, ‘that’s not far from Spring House.’

  ‘I’m gaining on him,’ Kate said, ‘I’m going to try to run him off the road.’

  I wanted to scream ‘no’ but I knew it was pointless. Kate thought like one of us and it was the obvious thing to do.

  We all listened in total silence, then the sound of screeching tyres came over the circuit, followed by a series of heavy bumps, then a bang and the sound of what was obviously a crash.

  For a moment, I went cold with fear. Not again, I thought, please not again! Being aware of Kate in danger was far worse than facing any myself. Moments passed, then I heard her voice, happy and triumphant. ‘Got him.’

  It was a moment of pure joy but it didn’t last.

  I hadn’t even have time to ask how Kate was before one of our team reported that Vossler’s vehicle had stopped at their second checkpoint, near the canal, and barely half a mile from the Tiger Trap, and was not going on.‘They’re having some kind of discussion It looks as though it’s going to turn off. What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Nothing,’ I said, ‘stay concealed. Birdy, can you hear this?’

  ‘I hear.’

  ‘Close in,’ I said, ‘they know something’s wrong. If they turn off the route, we have to be able to track them.’

  Tim came on the Loop immediately. ‘I can see them. The track they’re taking leads to Diddiscombe village. From there, they could get to Spring House by a B-road. Birdy can you try to scare them.’

  We heard Birdy laugh. Then we saw the helicopter. Birdy was flying dangerously close to the tree-tops. It was barely dusk but in the darkness of the forest the helicopter’s spotlight blazed white. Birdy skimmed overhead, circled then faced the vehicle, hovering a few feet from the ground, dazzling the driver.

  The vehicle stopped, then did a frantic U-turn, heading back to the Green Lane.

  ‘We’ve got them,’ Tim said, ‘He has to come this way.’

  But we had reckoned without Omar’s driving skills. Just before the Green Lane there was a narrow track through the woods. It was only just wide enough for the vehicle and certainly too narrow for the helicopter. Omar performed another screeching turn and the 4WD lurched deep into the woods.

  ‘That’s torn it,’ Tim said, ‘Birdy can’t stop them there.’

  Then we heard another laugh over the Loop.

  ‘Never say never, Tim darling,’ Birdy said, ‘these modern machines can do wonders.’

  We watched in disbelief as Birdy brought the helicopter in under the trees and turned off his spotlight. The helicopter would not fit into the gap, could not. Then the spotlight came on again, blinding Omar. The cabin of the helicopter was actually below tree-top level and the rotor blades only a fraction above them.

  Birdy slowed to a hover. Omar, braked then did another dramatic U-turn and headed back towards us. Then just as I was sure we had them, Omar slammed on the brakes and came to a halt. Something was worrying him. It could only have been instinct. There was nothing to see ahead. We were well hidden. The track was clear. He was almost home.

  At the side of the Green Lane there was a gap in the hedge. It led nowhere, except to ploughed fields and tightly packed orchards. But if Omar decided it was a better risk than the road ahead, he still had a chance of winning.

  I took my decision. I stepped out into the lane close to the edge of the trap,
directly ahead of the 4WD and raised my catapult. I couldn’t see into the cab but I could imagine the moment. The 4WD had extra-tough glass. A ball-bearing would have little impact on it. Omar would know that. If I had judged right, Omar would not be able to resist a chance to run me down. And I was right. Omar jammed his foot hard on the accelerator and the 4WD lurched forward, sending a shower of earth and grass into the verges at the side of the lane. I held my ground just long enough, then leaped aside and the 4WD sped on straight into the Tiger Trap.

  The moment was theatrically beautiful. It looked as though the earth had opened up. The nose of the 4WD fell three feet, leaving the vehicle jammed, irrevocably, rear wheels spinning. At the exact moment, searchlights fixed in the trees flared into life. The whole scene became a stage and filming began in earnest. Four SAS men leaped into the pit and crowbarred open the rear door.

  Omar tried to struggle out of the driver’s cab but he was trapped. I had my catapult in my hand. It would have taken seconds to reload. One headshot and it would have been over between us and Sarah avenged.

  Omar stared back defiantly, his eyes full of hate, daring me to make the shot. He knew I would not and I read the contempt in his face.

  Then Kate grabbed my arm.

  ‘John,’ she said urgently, ‘we have to move. It’s not over yet.’

  Chapter 26

  It should have been the moment of triumph, but Kate was right: it wasn’t over.

  She looked shaken and there was a livid bruise on her left wrist but so sign of more serious injury.

  ‘Are you alright?’ I said, reaching to look at her injured arm.

  She ignored my concern and pulled her hand back.

  ‘What about Delgado?’

  ‘He’ll survive. I left him in his car, in a ditch back there.’

  ‘He nearly screwed the whole operation,’ I said, ‘you did brilliantly to stop him.’

  ‘They’ve got a backup plan,’ she said urgently, ‘that’s what Delgado was panicking about. He got word from his brother, the Iranians are on their way to London, they’re probably there already. The plan is that if anything goes wrong while they are transporting the Spinner, they’ll go ahead with the attack anyway.’

  ‘How can they? The germ canister is at Spring House, we’ve got the Spinner and we’ve got the lot of them. Look!’

  Vossler, Omar and Yukovsky had all been dragged out of the trap, securely tied and were being formally arrested and cautioned by Rachel. Every step was being filmed from several angles. Police backup was on the way and we had established that the Spinner was inside the trapped vehicle. Lottery and a team of two were about to break into Spring House to secure the area where the biomaterial was being stored until the police arrived.

  ‘They’ve got a fallback’, Kate said. ‘It’ll only be a token attack. They’ve already sent a small quantity of the Plague germs to London and they’re going to set off some kind of device in Westminster underground station. It won’t work properly and it may not kill all that many people but you know what the Internet is like. It’ll still create a world-wide panic and Iran will still be blamed.

  I spoke into the Loop and briefed everyone.

  ‘We’ve got to get to London, I said, ‘Tim, you take command here. Chunk, I need you with me.’

  Chunk acknowledged and I told him to meet me at the helicopter.

  ‘Birdy, are you still airworthy.’

  ‘Apart from a few grands’ worth of scratches, we’re fine.’

  ‘Great flying, by the way, are you good for a trip to London?’

  We could all hear Birdy’s laughter.

  ‘Why not? We’re not supposed to land at the London heliport this late without prior notification but hell, I’ll be lucky to end up with a mini-cab licence anyway.’

  ‘Birdy,’ Kate said, ‘we still have to get the pix out. What kind of a satellite setup do you have on board.’

  ‘We’ve got an Aviator 400.’

  ‘Fantastic,’ Kate said exultantly, ‘Then I’m coming with you. I’ll work on board.’

  ‘GG,’ I said, ‘are you hearing this?’

  ‘I hear.’

  ‘Can you handle the ground end if Kate comes to London?’

  ‘That little insult will cost you a second bottle of single malt. Of course I can.’

  ‘Rachel,’ I said. ‘Are you across this?’

  ‘I’ve been listening. I need to warn the Met anti-terrorist unit.’

  ‘Can you give us time to get to London?’

  Rachel hesitated.

  ‘I have to tell them.’

  ‘I know, but we have to get inside the underground station before the police close it off. You can say we hadn’t verified the information yet. Delgado was not a reliable source.’

  ‘It’s risky.’

  ‘I know. But we know who we’re looking for. The police don’t. They’ll just shut everything down and the attack will probably go ahead.’

  Rachel’s sigh was clear over the network.

  ‘OK. As long as you stake me to go into the minicab business with Birdy – when I get out, that is.’

  ‘They’ll get them, Rache,’ Tim interrupted. ‘We won’t let you down. I’ll be with you in a minute.’

  Tim’s voice was clear and confident but everyone on the circuit, including Rachel, knew how badly this could still turn out.

  Birdy had landed the helicopter two fields away. It still looked surprisingly undamaged but as we got closer, I saw what he meant about the scratches. To have damaged the shell of the machine, without the rotor blades being touched indicated a feat of flying that would earn Birdy a place in helicopter folklore, whatever happened in the next few hours.

  I contacted the team that we had sent the previous day to recce Westminster Underground. They were not in place but they were not far away. The team leader was a corporal from Lottery’s platoon, known as Elbow. He promised to have himself and one other man back at Westminster within fifteen minutes. The third member of the recce team was not available.

  As we boarded the helicopter, Elbow recapped everything they had already discovered during their examination of the tube station but it was not very much. As I well knew, the station was huge. It was not easy to hide a package in plain sight. The litter bins were transparent and all the benches were open. Every inch was covered by CCTV but because of the size of the station and its nearness to Westminster and the Thames, it was fairly crowded most of the time.

  Elbow said that if he wanted to leave a suspect package, he would simply dump a rucksack or bag on a seat, at a time when it was covered by a crowd waiting to board a train. When the crowd left the platform and the package was left visible, even if the surveillance operatives were vigilant, it would probably be at least five minutes before it was clocked by CCTV. That left plenty of time to activate a timing device before someone was sent to investigate. I told Elbow to try to watch the most crowded areas and we should be with him within forty minutes.

  The interior of the Bell 429 was truly luxurious. Kate went straight to the seat intended for the head honcho on any business flight and plugged in the laptop associated with the satellite system. Tim and I took the two seats beside her.

  She logged in as we took off and established a link with GG. It was a race against time now, for her as well as for us. We were no longer on the private networks I had so carefully set up. The pictures were about to go public and as soon as they did, all kinds of official interference could be used to block us.

  Ten minutes into the flight, Kate let out a whoop of delight.

  ‘Look at this. GG is a genius.’

  She ran the image sequence she had just received and it was hard to imagine a more perfect result. GG had cut together the images from the Air Museum and the first pictures from the Tiger Trap so deftly that the story barely needed commentary. Every face was clearly visible as was every step of the transfer of the Spinner from the Flanker, to the hangar to Vossler’s vehicle, right up to the final crash into the
Tiger Trap.

  ‘There’s a lot more coming,’ Kate said, ‘but we’ll get these out first.’

  From the seat beside her, I listened as she resumed her Newsgathering Duty Editor mode, only this time as an outsider enticing the various news networks to bite on the story. She posted the pictures on the Internet, together with a commentary and background notes which we had prepared in advance.

  She called colleagues and friends, gave them the link and told each one calmly that this was the story of the decade and they could not afford not to pick it up. Her first hit came not from the BBC but from Reuters.

  The news agency had already picked up the story. Kate called the Duty Editor and went over the background. I held my breath. If Reuters went with it, the floodgates would open. And they did. First, a breaking news snap ran on the Reuters general newswire, then an alert that pictures were following. BBC News24 had been dithering. They already had the pictures but the editor wasn’t sure of the provenance, despite the rising number of hits on the web. The Reuter snap clinched it. The BBC released the story and I knew Sky and the rest would be close behind.

  By the time the BBC was running the story, we were soaring over the Thames and the heliport was in sight.

  ‘When we land,’ I said to Kate, ‘ignore whatever goes on. Carry on with the story. We’ll take care of the rest.’

  I knew she would have preferred to be in at the kill, but she was too professional to argue.

  As we approached the landing area, Birdy radioed the tower and got the expected frosty reception. When we actually touched down, all hell broke loose.

  The heliport manager arrived with two security guards. He said we had broken flight security regulations in the most flagrant way and he intended to impound the plane. Birdy was imperturbable. He explained that the flight concerned a matter of national security. He said he would remain with the helicopter and explain the situation to whatever authorities the station manager cared to summon but his colleagues were leaving immediately. Chunk showed his military ID and gave the manager a freezing stare. The guards readied themselves for a tussle but the manager wasn’t up for it and signalled them to let us off.