‘Precisely,’ said John. ‘And it wouldn’t be difficult to make it collapse.’
‘And if it did go bust?’ asked Kate.
‘It would leave one hell of a mess across the public sector!’John took a slurp of his coffee. ‘My team has also come up with another angle. With the help of Companies House we’ve drawn up a list of all the people who sit on the management boards of these limited liability partnerships. Several of the names are very interesting. There are a couple of politicians and some professional advisers to Government departments! I have given Jeremy’s colleagues the full list of names to see what they can make of it.’
‘Oh, I almost forgot to say,’ added John. ‘We had a look at where else they operate. One of their businesses provides the guards to the garage at Bishopsgate police station! MI5 has traced their security man, who was away from his post at the time of the bombing. He’s now on holiday in Spain and, rumour has it, he’s buying a villa out there!
‘I’ve passed our preliminary findings to the commissioner and he’s briefing all his opposite numbers that their security may be compromised and that they have to keep this under wraps. So far he hasn’t spoken to the Government departments, given the number of politicians and special advisers that seem to be on the terrorists’ payroll, innocently or otherwise.’
The atmosphere in the room had perceivably cooled. Kate finally broke the silence. ‘Who would like to go next?’
‘MI5 has found another link between Jameel Furud and Basel Talal,’ said Jeremy. They are trustees of a charity, which works with a number of high profile companies, and sponsors students undertaking voluntary work in Africa. It’s not a big enterprise. MI5 are looking into how the airline tickets are booked and where the students have worked.’
‘My team has also been looking into their fish processing business,’ continued John. ‘It’s a substantial business and a nicely profitable one at that. It operates a fleet of trawlers out of the UK and Estonia, which gives them a base close to the old Soviet Bloc.’
Kate looked thoughtfully at John. ‘Their fishing boats could provide a means of moving things and people in and out of the UK… We should locate all of their trawlers…’
‘We are already on to it,’ said John. ‘On the internet there are lists of EU trawlers. The information includes lots of details on each vessel and who owns them – shown by port…’
‘Can I make an observation?’ interrupted Rafi. ‘I’m thinking practicalities. We’re talking in terms of trawlers being used to get people in and out of the UK. I agree with their usefulness for getting things in, but I’ve a problem with using them for an exit… Wouldn’t they be too slow?’
‘I agree,’ said John. ‘How about they use them just to get the terrorists out of UK territorial waters? Thereafter, I personally would want something much faster to whisk me away.’
‘That’s a good point John; make sure that we pick it up when we discuss the terrorists’ exit strategy in more detail.’ Kate paused. ‘Where have we got to on the property front?’
‘Emma and I were wondering whether they might use one or more of their properties to support potential terrorist attacks,’ said Rafi. ‘Just imagine how much easier it would be to attack something from a secure, nearby property over which you have complete control. And if one takes PREH’s full name – Prime Real Estate Holdings – literally, their portfolio should comprise property investments of institutional quality. Ergo, the properties should be in prime locations. The list of property addresses from the company’s mortgage register runs to three pages and, among those, I’ve identified four properties which look distinctly out of place…’ Rafi studied his scribbled notes. ‘A retail park on the outskirts of Peterhead and three industrial estates in: Prestwick, North Walsham and Hartlepool. I’ve given Emma the addresses. She’s seeing whether they’re near any potential targets.’
‘Why do you think that?’ enquired John. ‘Surely that’s a bit over the top. These days a plain van suffices for most purposes, so who needs properties?’
Emma raised her head from the screen of her PC; her face was sombre. ‘What if one of the properties overlooked a nuclear power station – would that change your view?’
‘Oh shit, yes!’ replied John.
‘Well, at a first glance, the Hartlepool property is bang next to the nuclear power station. If you follow the energy theme,’ continued Emma, ‘The North Walsham property is only a stone’s throw away from the huge gas terminal at Bacton. Peterhead is one of the major Scottish fishing ports and it’s close to another gas facility at St Fergus… Which is vast. The fourth property is next to Prestwick airport and is not that far from Hunterston nuclear power station.’
A shocked silence fell over the room. It was broken by Jeremy who spoke to John. ‘Remember when we chatted to Mario about the PhD dissertations?’
‘Bloody hell! Yes. Energy targets would fit.’
‘How’s about we get a large map, plus several sheets of acetate which can be laid over it with the locations of the properties? We can add the other items as we come across them. For example, Emma will soon have the ports that the trawlers are operating out of and the list of key energy installations.’
‘We can do better than that,’ added Kate. ‘Let’s borrow the touch screen monitor and the computer with mapping software from downstairs.’
‘Great idea,’ said Emma, ‘I’ll sort it.’
Rafi felt shattered. It was well after midnight. Sleep deprivation was closing in on him. Slumped over his desk, something nagged at him. On the one hand, his brain told him it needed to turn off; on the other hand, a thought was niggling at him – he felt sure there was something obvious he’d missed. He would reread the property company’s accounts and then get some sleep.
He opened up the accounts for the current and previous years; some sections had scanned badly. He found the note on properties in both sets of accounts. They were not very clear. Rafi took out a blank sheet of paper and started to decipher what was written there. He picked out the word external and a word beginning with valu… It was as if someone had let off a firecracker behind him. He sat bolt upright. His tiredness evaporated. Of course, how bloody stupid of him! The accounting standards required property companies to have annual revaluations of their assets.
He called across to Kate. ‘There’s an external valuer out there with the full details of all the properties in the portfolio. Sorry I’ve been a right idiot not to have thought of this earlier.’ He was annoyed by his elementary slip-up. The nagging feeling had stopped and abject tiredness took over.
‘I’m off to get some shut-eye, before I keel over. Kate could you arrange for me to be woken first thing, please?’
‘Will do. Sleep well.’
Rafi slept soundly. By 6.40 a.m. he was back at his desk with a steaming cup of strong coffee, wondering what Thursday might bring. First, he rechecked the web to see if he had missed anything on PREH, the terrorists’ property investment company. There was little there to help him. His next task was to find the elusive property valuers and quickly. He was pleased that PREH used an external and not an independent valuer. The latter would be difficult to track down quickly as it could have no dealings with the company other than undertaking its valuations. In contrast, an external valuer could undertake other work for the company, and their property lettings, buying or selling work would, with any luck, be recorded on one of the specialist property databases. Rafi realised this was where he had to look. The cynic in him surmised that PREH’s external valuers would be rewarded with excellent fees for their non-valuation work.
He shouted across to Kate and Emma. ‘As a matter of urgency, we need a contact at a commercial property agent who will do a search of their property databases for us. Do you know anyone? Unfortunately, I now can’t trust any of my contacts.’