David sensed that Giles wanted to get him off the line as quickly as possible, in case the topic of the PM was brought up.
Giles said very politely, ‘I’ve been considering your offer of a meeting tomorrow morning; perhaps I could come over and brief you. Would 11 o’clock at your office be acceptable?’
‘Er… yes, that should be fine. Do phone my personal assistant first thing to check the time and venue and that my diary is still free, though,’ came the reply.
‘Thank you, minister.’
Giles couldn’t put the phone down quickly enough. ‘Don’t repeat me, but that man is a self-obsessed idiot of the first order. Heaven help the country if he ever gets a department to run. Can you see if Kate has made any progress with the missing information? Thanks. I’m going to pay Greg a visit to tell him to implement our emergency plans and get a command centre set up.’
Kate and Rafi were collating their supporting information for the 8 o’clock meeting.
Down the corridor Aidan and the economics team had transformed the interview room into their base. Beyond them, the rooms that had been the offices of Chief Superintendent David Pryke and his team had been cleared. Greg and his team were working on turning them into an operations room. A group of desks had been put back-to-back in the centre of the room, with a row of phones and networked PCs with flat screens down the middle. Video-conferencing and LCD screens were being mounted on the walls and secure phone and video links to the SAS command centre, the HQ of the paratroopers and the army’s command centre in Wiltshire were being set up. The PM’s hotlines were being installed in an adjoining office.
Greg was looking concerned – his assistant was having problems getting two video links working properly. And it seemed that one of the big screens had developed an electrical gremlin, another simply didn’t want to work and in addition a touch screen was playing up intermittently.
Aidan and Emma came down the corridor to chat to Greg about their PC and printer needs. As they walked through the door, they saw that it was a bad moment.
Greg saw Aidan looking at him. ‘It’s the damn wiring…’
‘Can I have a look?’ asked Aidan.
Greg waved him across and asked Emma quietly, ‘Don’t tell me he has a degree in electrical engineering as well?’ which Aidan overheard.
‘No, I’m afraid not -just as I thought: the same leads in and out. What you have here is an older version of what we have in the office. Emma, see if you can find Rafi; he’ll know.’
Moments later Emma reappeared with Rafi in tow.
‘Rafi, what do you think? It’s similar to the kit we’ve got in our conference rooms and use to link into our laptops, isn’t it? The leads look the same; it’s just the screen and the electronics that are older.’
Rafi looked at the leads. ‘You’re right.’
‘Thanks, mate,’ said Aidan. He turned and spoke to Greg. ‘I just need to make a quick call.’
Aidan spoke to his boss, a main board director of Maine Leadbetter. ‘Hi, Russell, it’s your erstwhile colleague Aidan here… Yes, I’ve been working hard… No, I’m not off somewhere with a bit of fluff… Yes, I aim to be back in the office tomorrow… Probably by 10.30 a. m… Sorry, yes, I’ll miss the morning meeting and the early trading… Don’t worry, if I get what I’m doing right, it’ll be excellent news for the firm.’ Aidan paused. ‘This brings me to the reason for my calclass="underline" I’ve a pitch to some wealthy players first thing tomorrow and I need to knock the socks off them. I’ve got a favour to ask. Would you ring the security guards on reception and authorise my borrowing the screen from the small conference room and a little bit of associated kit?’
The request was met with silence. Greg and Rafi could tell from Aidan’s face that his boss wasn’t keen.
‘OK, let’s say that if it’s not back in time, I’ll buy a new one. You do trust me, don’t you? Oh, good. Thanks. Yes, I know I take liberties! See you tomorrow.’ Aidan put down the phone. ‘I hope he won’t mind the small white lie. There’s no way what I’m planning to borrow will be back in time. But since the markets will be closed, they won’t be much good to him anyway!
Greg, if you could find a van, would you and one of your assistants like to pay my office a visit?’
Greg’s expression changed from a scowl to a beaming smile. ‘Give me a couple of minutes to draw up a list of what I need and I’ll meet you by the back door.’
Rafi looked at Aidan, ‘Good move! I hope you’ve got what he needs.’
‘Oh, I don’t think that there should be too much of a problem. We have a basement storeroom full of last year’s kit which makes this lot look steam age in comparison. This should be fun. I’m willing to bet Greg will think he’s visiting Santa’s Grotto!’
Kate put her head around the corner of the door.
‘So this is where you are! Rafi, I thought you might like to listen in; we have the captain of the Nimrod, tracking Golden Sundancer, on the phone.’
As they scurried back to the office, Kate brought Rafi up to speed. ‘Twenty minutes ago he radioed in and spoke to John to report that Golden Sundancer was on a converging course with a trawler around 250 miles from Iceland, north-west of the Faeroes, in the middle of nowhere.’
Back in the office, the voice of the Nimrod captain could be heard clearly over the speaker phone. ‘Your vessel has hove to in close proximity to a fishing vessel, which we’ve identified as an Estonian trawler, named Anu Riina. The captain of the trawler is transferring an inflatable dinghy over to Golden Sundancer as we speak. There’s a big swell down there and the temperatures are sub-zero… A line has been secured aboard Golden Sundancer and her captain is manoeuvring to get the dinghy into the lee of the wind to make it easier to get it on board.
‘Can you see what’s in the dinghy?’ asked Kate.
‘Hold on a moment… We’ve started to get enhanced images from our high magnification camera… Would you believe it! Looks like two wooden coffins… The dinghy and the two boxes are now being pulled on board Golden Sundancer… Give me a moment and I’ll send through the pictures.’
‘While you’re at it, could you include any markings on the wooden boxes?’ asked Kate.
‘Will do.’
‘What speed has Golden Sundancer been cruising at?’
‘Between thirty-seven and forty-one knots – very respectable given the conditions down there. Their de-icing system seems to be working well; unusual, though, for this type of boat.’
‘How many do you reckon are on board?’
‘Two men; the captain and a crew member are all we’ve seen… The trawler has disengaged. She is turning south-east and heading for home.’
‘Is there any chance of them picking you up on their radar? Seeing or hearing you?’ asked Kate.
‘Don’t worry, we’re as good as invisible; we’ve got our radarcloaking device on.’ The Nimrod captain paused. ‘They have completed the unloading of the dinghy and the two boxes have been safely stowed on board.’ After a moment’s silence he continued, ‘Golden Sundancer is returning to her bearing of 152° and is getting back up to her previous speed. I’ll keep you posted if she alters speed or course, or has another rendezvous. Out.’
Kate looked up. ‘Emma have you got the pictures?’
‘Yep,’ came the reply. ‘The boxes and their markings are just what we wanted. They confirm the whereabouts of our missing Kornet missile launcher!’
‘Excellent, now we’ve only got one missile target to find, not three!’ Kate picked up the phone and relayed the good news to the commissioner’s assistant, Beverley.
John, who was now back in the room, raised his coffee cup towards Kate, toasting her.
‘Here’s to your eclectic team. Twenty-four hours ago I wouldn’t have given you any odds. Now – who knows? – we might beat the buggers, yet.’
Alex entered the room. ‘I thought I’d see how the other half lives. My goodness, it’s cosy in here!’