Chapter 7
After a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast, Kate and Rafi were at their desks in Wood Street by 7.45 a.m. on Monday.
Soon, though, Rafi found himself alone; Kate had disappeared to work with John and the rest of the team downstairs.
The office felt strange without the pent-up tension of the previous week. Rafi tidied his desk and then browsed the Internet to see how the main overseas markets were trading. He looked at Bloomberg’s news page first. There, at the top of the ‘Breaking News’, was a headline that made him smile: ‘International markets closed – in respect for all those who lost their lives in London’. Rafi clicked on the link to read the story. It explained how the chairmen of the major international banks operating in London had got together and asked their home stock and derivatives exchanges not to open for the day as a mark of respect, and the idea had snowballed. Rafi smiled; the Chancellor had arranged things in a very appropriate manner.
After forty minutes he’d run out of things to do so decided to see how things were progressing in the Ops Room. There Rafi was greeted as one of the team – basically no one took much notice of him! He looked at the screens and listened to the discussions going on.
Puddle Jumper had arrived at Safi in the early hours of the morning with its crew of six. They had cleared customs. Golden Sundancer and the sheikh’s plane were some five hours away.
The atmosphere ratcheted up a notch as Giles and David walked in, accompanied by Len Thunhurst, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, John, Kate and the rest of their teams.
Rafi noticed that video links had been established with regional police command centres. Those around him spoke of Operation Dry Clean and explained that it would be the largest series of coordinated arrests ever undertaken.
Giles started the video link briefing. ‘The need for secrecy is absolute. Details of the arrests and the names will not be released until Len Thunhurst is satisfied that it’s safe to do so. The terrorists’ network of contacts should not be underestimated – let us not forget that two members of COBRA have been arrested. Operation Dry Clean will commence as soon as we receive confirmation that the ringleaders have been apprehended. There will be hell to pay if they are tipped off and give us the slip at the last moment. The capture of the terrorists is scheduled for 3.30 p.m. this afternoon, give or take a bit. Until then we must keep our actions under wraps. Len Thunhurst will be in charge of the UK arrests and I shall be overseeing the arrest of Maryam Vynckt in Luxembourg.’
Len took up the proceedings. He congratulated Giles and his team on their work and turned to Emma. ‘The floor is all yours.’
Emma looked worn out. She was a little hesitant at first, but soon got into her stride. She pointed to the electronic presentation on a second screen, which was linked to the conference rooms of those listening. Emma explained, using the diagrams on the screen, the relationship between Basel Talal’s venture capital business; Jameel’s Prima Terra; Maryam’s Gulf Trade Bank and the sheikh, who was the chief financier. She also mentioned the raft of public and private companies controlled and manipulated by the terrorist leaders. Jeremy nodded approvingly.
Emma paused to take questions and then put a new slide up on the screen. This contained a very lengthy list of names and addresses linked, where available, to mugshots of the people involved. She turned to Jeremy. ‘Thanks to the work of MI5, we have so far been able to trace 289 of the 323 people we are interested in. MI5 will be seeking your assistance to find the missing individuals.
‘For those on our list,’ she continued, ‘We’ve adopted a colour coding of red, blue and black. The names in red are individuals who have been complicit in the recent terrorist activities and for whom we have more than sufficient evidence for a prosecution. The blues have direct connections with the recent activities, but more evidence has to be gathered before we’ve got a watertight case. The names in black are circumstantially linked: while we believe that they’ve been very much involved in the terrorists’ plans, we need more information before we can confirm their involvement. The red names are our first priority. However, all the names are important as they’ll complete the picture of what the terrorists have been planning and will corroborate the case against those we’re going to prosecute.’
Emma pointed to the screen. ‘As soon as we have a person in custody, we’ll give their name on our list a yellow background. That way we can quickly see how things are progressing.’
‘Thank you, Emma,’ said Len turning to the video camera. ‘Many of the people you will be arresting are sleepers. Do not feel any sympathy for them – they are all implicated. Once in custody, we need to build a complete picture and identify any loose ends that we may have missed. Emma and her team, with the help of MI5, John and his team, have prepared a dossier on those you’ll be arresting. It will provide you with background details of what these individuals have been doing and how they’ve crossed the line. I do stress that each and every one of them should be treated with caution.’
Len paused to let his last statement sink in. ‘The resources of this terrorist operation have been likened by MI5 to those of a small to medium-sized country. They have on their payroll some of the most dangerous mercenaries we have ever had the misfortune to deal with. And be warned: some of the people on this list are very well connected. And please be aware that these sleepers or invisibles, who would usually go unnoticed, are extremely valuable to us. The fact that we don’t catch them with a smoking gun should not lessen the gravity of their involvement.’
The commissioner turned to Jack Fisher, one of John’s team, who blushed as he stood up. His voice started as a quiet squeak. John passed him a glass of water and gave him an encouraging smile. ‘Jack has spent the last couple of days, with the help of MI5, unravelling the terrorists’ network of outsourcing companies working for the public sector. What he and the rest of the team have unearthed makes for unpalatable reading.’
The commissioner nodded towards Jack, who had recovered his composure. ‘You’ll see there is an extensive list of companies, limited partnerships and businesses, which are controlled by the terrorists. Key individuals in these companies have been listed above. Their paper and electronic records will be needed so that we can identify the internal chains of command and see exactly what they have been doing.’
Len concluded matters with a stark warning. ‘We have good reason to believe that several of these people have a direct line of communication with the terrorist leaders. Until we have all the key leaders in custody we must, under no circumstances – I repeat, under no circumstances – let the cat out of the bag that Operation Dry Clean exists. Is that clearly understood?’
Fifteen minutes later, after a series of searching questions, the video links were turned off and connection was re-established with those tracking Golden Sundancer and the sheikh’s plane, and those planning the capture of Maryam in Luxembourg.
Colonels Turner and Gray and a reduced team came back into the room, which was rapidly reverting to a mini war room. On the central screen there was now a large electronic map showing Morocco and the north-west coast of Africa.
The clock on the wall gave the time as 11.06 a.m. The Prime Minister was scheduled to stand up in front of the House of Commons in less than three hours. Even though it was a bank holiday, these were exceptional times and the House was in emergency session.
Rafi turned his attention to the activities in Morocco. The chart showed a red dot which was making its way across the screen following a thin yellow line towards Marrakech. It was about 700 miles away. There was a second red dot 100 miles offshore tracking a thin yellow line along the coast towards the port of Safi. Then he spotted another red dot by Marrakech and a number of blue dots.