In a single movement, everyone rose from their seats. They took their places in the queue to exit the room. Virani smiled, and exchanged pleasantries with the team members as they filed past.
When the rest of the team had left, Virani turned to Latif. Sam wandered over from where he was sat.
‘Hiya Zav, you alright?’ Sam asked.
She smiled an unconvincing smile.
‘Probably a lot better than you’ll be once I’ve told you this.’
‘Well we’d better sit down then.’ Virani suggested.
They arranged themselves around a meeting table, Sam and Virani sat one side, Latif the other. Latif had the feeling she was being interviewed. Virani kicked things off.
‘What’s wrong Zavina? You have something to tell Sam?’
‘Yes Jay, I’m sorry Sam, we picked up some chatter, we think it may have to do with the Trashman case.’
The great British tabloid press. As always, they’d come up with a catchy nickname which always seemed to stick. The security services invariably hated them. It humanised the evil behind the actions. At times, the nicknames were so ridiculously comical they could make a stone-cold killer sound like a nice guy that you’d invite to the family barbeque.
‘Raynor, please Zavina, not Trashman.’ chided Virani.
‘Of course. Sorry Jay.’
‘Well, this chatter, sorry Sam…’
Sam butted in this time.
‘Zav, stop apologising. Just tell me, it can’t be that bad.’
‘Okay, here goes.’ Zavina took a deep breath.
‘The chatter would indicate that Raynor is working for somebody else.’
‘And?’ Asked Virani, she was starting to get impatient.
‘How does this affect Sam?’
Latif was about to apologise again, but managed to stop herself.
‘The chatter suggests that Raynor informed his employer of Sam’s involvement. It seems he has a gut feeling that you’re going to cause him problems, Sam.’
‘That’s what I’m here for.’ Said Sam, forcing a smile.
‘Not if they have their way. Raynor’s employer has issued a termination order, Sam. A burn notice. They want to assassinate you.’
Sam paled. The words smacked him in the face like a prize fighter’s jabs. ‘They. Want. To. Assassinate. You.’ Each word stinging slightly worse than the one before it.
‘Sam? Sam…‘ Virani tried to get his attention, but he was there only physically. Eventually he came out of his shock-induced trance.
‘Thank fuck I sent Julia and Jack away.’ Was all he could say.
‘Okay, let’s try and be pragmatic about this. Sam, you’re to stay here, at Five, there are plenty of…’
‘No. No, I’m not running scared. We can use this to our advantage. If I suddenly disappear, they’ll know something’s wrong.’
He looked up, first at Virani, then at Latif.
‘Zavina, did we get a trace?’
‘No, Sam, unfortunately. By the time GCHQ got this batch of chatter to us, it was too late. We do know there’s more than one person behind this.’
‘How so?’ asked Virani.
‘He said “We’ll sort it.”’
‘“We’ll”. Plural. Are you sure?’
Latif scanned her transcript.
‘Yes, here it is “Look, don’t worry about this Edwards guy, we’ll sort it. The termination order’s going out as we speak.”’
Sam shuddered
‘Thanks for that Zav, I needed reminding.’
He managed a weak grin.
‘Wasn’t thinking, sorry.’ Said Zavina.
‘Okay. I need to let Grant know about this, Sam are you sure you don’t want to stay here?’ Virani asked.
‘I can’t run Jay. It’s not in my nature. But it’d be good to know that you’ve got my back.’
Virani tapped the cap of her pen against her lips as she thought. Sam and Zavina exchanged a glance, patiently waiting for Virani’s wisdom. Eventually, Virani, stood. She pushed her chair in.
‘Okay Sam, I’m going to bring Grant up to speed. I can’t promise we can have someone covering, and I won’t be able to tell you if you do have a Guardian Angel. If you know, you could blow his cover.’
Sam took a deep breath and exhaled from puffed cheeks. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.
‘Well that’s reassuring, Jay. I may, or may not, at any given time, have a Guardian Angel. Bloody brilliant.’
‘Sorry, Sam, it’s the best I can do. You know how stretched we are at the moment. Now, carry on as if nothing has changed.’
‘Easy for you to say, you’re not the one with a sniper sight trained on your forehead.’
‘Oh, they won’t use a sniper, Sam. Too public, too open, too crude. It’ll be an accident, or a kidnapping and disappearance.
Anonymously blowing up parts of London’s one thing.’
She stood up straight and headed for the door.
‘Killing MI5 agents so publicly in cold-blood? I don’t think for one minute they’d do that. I’ll catch up with you later. Zavina, if there’s any more chatter, let me know.’
Virani left the room.
Latif looked at Sam. A mournful look, as if it were her fault.
‘I’m so sorry Sam, I don’t know what to say.’
‘Don’t worry about it Zav, shit happens. Let’s try and stop these bastards before more people get hurt.’
Chapter Twenty
Sam joined Nick Upex and Neil Barford at Nick’s workstation. Nick was still searching for connections. The Tattoo, Raynor’s history, anything to give them an insight to the man.
‘Got anything yet?’ Sam asked.
‘A couple of hits on the tattoo, Sam.’ Replied Upex.
‘Seems to have been the squad tattoo of a unit that was created in the early sixties.’
‘Any idea what its purpose was?’
‘Not a great deal. I’d guess it was a British cold war response to Soviet threats, possibly even a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
‘It was called SCU8. Special Covert Unit. Not sure what the eight’s for, might be the eighth iteration of the unit? Eighth set of team members?’
Upex flicked through his notes. Barford stopped chewing his pen and added.
‘It was only disbanded a couple of years ago, Sam. Don’t know why, records don’t tell us. Probably due to cost-cutting. No more cold war, no need to spend on this unit.’
‘As for Raynor, his records, what little we have, started around fifteen years ago. Doesn’t seem to be any record of him before that. Flawless career, got paid, paid taxes. Good little squaddie. His history shows he was Infantry, but we now know he was in a unit that nobody knows anything about.’ Said Upex.
‘Well we don’t think there are any records.’ Added Barford.
‘The bloody database is locked down so tight. We keep hitting brick walls every turn we take. Even with our clearance levels we’re not allowed into these files.’
Sam thought about this for a moment. His suspect was a member of a special military unit, used for covert operations. Operational since the sixties without anybody knowing about it. This could be a can of worms. But what was so sensitive that it was locked down so tightly?
‘Nick, can you get the names of the other squad members?’
‘No chance, Sam. All locked down.’
‘Jenkins.’ Said Sam, to nobody in particular.
‘Eh?’ Asked Barford.
‘Sorry, just thinking out loud.’ Sam replied.
‘Jamie Jenkins and Brigadier Saunders. They operate out of Tidworth Garrison. They helped out after the Salisbury detonation.’
‘What about them?’ asked Nick, failing to see the connection?
‘Well they’re real military.’ Said Sam. ‘One’s a bloody brigadier. He may have clearance for the data we can’t access. If we could get ID’s on some of the other members of SCU8, we might be able to track them down, and Raynor through them.’