‘Hello again, sir.’ Said Wadsworth. ‘It seems you’ve got friends in high places.’
‘What do you mean?’ Dave asked. He was staring at the prone body of Thomas, as the white van that had parked behind him in the layby pulled up. Another officer jumped out of the van and retrieved some ‘Road Closed’ signs from the back. He set about closing the road in both directions, at both ends of the layby.
Wadsworth continued. ‘I got a call from your friend Edwards at MI5. He had a feeling you were going to do something like this. Nice punch, by the way.’ He smiled.
The rest of his team were locking down the scene and turning round traffic. The general’s body had been covered.
Dave stuttered a ‘Thank you.’
‘Pleasure sir.’ Replied Wadsworth. ‘I’ll walk you back to your van. Apparently, you have to get back to your office. Mr Edwards requires your help.’
Chapter Forty
An hour had passed since Dave’s encounter with the general. On returning to his office, Dave had phoned Sam to let him know what had happened. Sam had, understandably, chastised him for risking his life.
The core MI5 investigative team were now assembled in the investigation room at Thames House. Virani was back from the London Eye, the bomb made safe and taken away for analysis. Sam was there with Neil Barford, Nick Upex and Zavina Latif. Grant Bray had also decided to join them.
Virani had finished debriefing the team about the events that had taken place at the London Eye. She turned to Sam.
‘Over to you Sam.’
Sam stood and started to recount the earlier event.
‘He was waiting for me Jay, just sat there, on his bike, waiting for me to turn up. Cheeky bastard. I couldn’t get him though, he was too fast.’
‘I understand, Sam, don’t beat yourself up about it. These things happen. You were on your own. Had you turned up with backup, he would’ve just taken off.’
Sam tried a smile and used a slight nod of the head as a way of agreeing before he continued.
‘The scary part Jay, is that he said he has six devices left to plant.’
Sam looked at his peers, one by one. Each had a look of shock on their faces.
‘And he said he’s going to wait until he’s planted them all before he sends the texts. We could end up with six simultaneous explosions if we don’t find him.’
Virani was definitely shocked by this news.
‘Bloody hell. Are you sure, Sam?’
‘As sure as I stand here, Jay.’
‘Then we have to find him. Number plate?’
‘Didn’t have one. I don’t even know what type of bike it was, I’m more of a car person.’
‘Okay, let me think. Nick.’
Upex sat straighter than he already was. He stopped tapping his pen on his notepad, giving Virani his full attention.
‘Yes boss?’ he asked.
‘CCTV from Belvedere Road. He was there for a while. Something may have picked him up. See if there’s any way you can track him. Sam will give you the details of his encounter.’
‘Yes boss.’ Upex repeated. This time in affirmation instead of enquiry.
‘Anything else, Sam?’
‘Yeah, he knew I was going to be there.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Well, to start with, he knew that backup was following. Then he told me to come back here and tell you, “The lovely Ms. Virani” as he put it, that he wasn’t there.’
‘So, what do you think? We’ve got a mole?’
‘I don’t know. From what I could glean from Dave, the mate I sent to ID the general.’
‘A bloody stupid decision on your part, Sam.’ Virani interjected. Sam looked at the floor like a penitent child and Virani continued.
‘But I did say by any means, so I’ll end up taking a bollocking for that one. Anyway, what about him?’
Sam met Virani’s gaze again.
‘Well it was like the general knew Dave was going. Dave was lured to the office and the general took a shot at him. How would the general have known a phone engineer would really be there to ID him?’
‘Good point, Sam. Who else knew about Dave?’
‘Just Mickey.’
Barford raised a finger.
‘Yes Neil?’ Virani asked.
‘It’s obvious isn’t it Sam? You’re phone’s been cloned.’
Sam looked aghast for a second, then realised what had happened.
‘The train.’ He said as he plundered his memory for the occasion in question.
Virani looked confused. ‘Sorry?’ she asked.
Sam explained.
‘He sat opposite me on the train. The morning after the Salisbury Plain explosion.’
Virani still looked perplexed, so Sam extended his explanation.
‘When you called me, he was playing with his phone. He dropped it and it slid across the table. When he picked it up, he lost his balance, or pretended to. He knocked my phone with his own, must have done it then.’
Virani thought for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what was being said. Eventually she asked ‘Is that even possible?’
Upex was the first to answer.
‘It’s Near Field Communications, Jay. Quite a new technology on mobiles. Sam’s got the new Samsung Galaxy, so he has it. A few other manufacturers have put it in their flagship models too.’
Of those present, Bray looked the most confused. He interrupted.
‘And you can clone somebody’s phone with this Near Field thing?’ Bray asked, incredulously. ‘Seems a little insecure to my non-technical mind.’
Upex elaborated. ‘Not normally Grant, no. You usually have to have both devices handshake, to stop this kind of thing. But we know Raynor’s technically sound, maybe he’s found a way to bypass the standard NFC protocols.’
‘I see.’ Said Bray, obviously not understanding a thing.
‘We might be able to use it to our advantage.’ Suggested Nick.
‘How so?’ Asked Virani.
‘Well he seems a little obsessed with Sam, maybe we can send Sam to false locations, send a bunch of armed squaddies instead?’
‘Good idea Nick, we’ll give it a go. You up for that, Sam? You won’t have to leave the office.’
‘Worth a try.’ said Sam. He walked across the room to a map of London which was hanging on the wall. He swung his arm in a circle, marking out an imaginary line around the Waterloo area.
‘I think he’s still around here somewhere.’ Sam added. ‘When Nick gets CCTV, we might be able to see if he leaves the park.’
He studied the map for a few more seconds.
‘We need somewhere with a tactical advantage.’ He added. ‘As well as somewhere the public won’t be at risk.
‘He’s on his own now. Nobody to run to.’
The team had learned in the last hour that the fifty-seventh floor of The Shard, and Culpepper Fostervold specifically, had been the target of the previous attack. Fortunately, the rest of the Culpepper Fostervold staff had left for the day. An investigating team had been deployed to apprehend James Culpepper.
According to employees of Culpepper Fostervold, James Culpepper had advised everybody to go home before he himself had left the building for the day. Jackie Atkins, the office manager had confirmed that all staff had left apart from Lucas Fostervold who said he had a few things to finish off before he left for the day.
Sam studied the map for a few moments more, and then pointed at the iconic Battersea Power Station. ‘Here.’, he announced.
‘It’s a building site, but it’s also well known. It’s not out of the question that it would have been a target anyway.’
Virani studied the map. She walked to a laptop connected to a projector and sent a Street View image to a large screen. The image was from Cringle Street, as close as Street View could get. Tall, solid gates stopped the public from gaining access to the building site.