“Try running the name ‘Gideon Lahiri’ through the system. I’ll say it again. You only want my help, because as an independent I’m bloody expendable.”
“Aren’t we all? But then we chose to do what we are doing. I’ll look at Lahiri first thing tomorrow. The Americans are all over us like a nasty rash on this one. They’ve also been listening in to certain international chatter and have intercepted calls using the global network.”
“They’ve been using ‘Echelon’? I thought that project had been mothballed years ago.”
“Definitely not. It’s very much up and running.”
Echelon exists. The most powerful global surveillance system known to man. One capable of capturing and scanning every telephone call, fax and email sent anywhere in the world. Using sophisticated satellite systems, Earth stations, radar and communication networks, as well as an array of ships and aircraft, this is a system capable of monitoring both military and civilian communications and was originally developed during the Cold War. It is now used extensively to listen in on communications between terrorists, and to monitor the activities of organised crime groups throughout the world.
“So what have the Americans heard?” Dillon asked.
“Well you might find it interesting to discover that Paul Hammer has also made several calls to the same number in India that Hart dials. When the CIA came to us with the revelation that one of the wealthiest men in Europe could be linked with funding terrorist boot camps in northern India, you could hear a pin drop in Thames House. They also had recordings of the conversations he’d had with the same well-spoken and cultured voice of X. After he’d been briefed on the matter, the Home Secretary immediately gave us the go-ahead to initiate a full-scale undercover investigation against Hammer and Hart here in the UK.”
“And what about Latimer and Trevelyan?”
“Well, it was thought a waste of tax payer’s money to monitor either of them. The Met keep a close eye on Trevelyan and Latimer was under constant scrutiny as an MP. I must admit, we didn’t think it likely that Tommy Trevelyan would be involved. Not after he had served almost eight years in a high security prison for collaboration with the former IRA. Or so we thought until you came up with the definite link between the four men and the smuggling operation.”
“So, we have four men inextricably woven together in a large scale enterprise involving stolen goods, international smuggling, murder, and now fundraising for terrorist groups. Did they really think they’d get away with it?”
“They have done for at least the last five years, give or take. Trevelyan would almost certainly still have contacts with people who teach terrorists to make good old-fashioned bombs. Had you not uncovered what you did, we might well have been still fumbling around trying to piece the various parts together, whilst being suffocated with that shyte we call The Establishment.”
Dillon was listening intently to every word and then the spell was broken as a torch beam was being shone from Morgan’s driveway. It was his wife — she’d come out to see where he was. As she appeared at the gateway, Morgan let down the electric side window immediately and called out to her, “It’s alright darling. I’m just talking. Won’t be long.”
“Why don’t you come inside and talk? It’s warmer.”
“No, it’s okay. We won’t be much longer, really, I’m all right. Don’t fret. I’ll be in soon.”
“You’re a lucky man. It’s a rare thing these days to have a wife who cares about you,” Dillon said as Mrs. Morgan went reluctantly back up the driveway into the house. “I do hope that she doesn’t call anyone?”
“She won’t. She’s been married to me for far too long. Where was I? Yes. As I was saying, Trevelyan is not simply an aging hoodlum. He’s extremely well-connected and, as a consequence, is obsessive about who he is seen to be associating with. How many of these safe houses do you think there are?”
“Fifteen to twenty. I’m sure that there are more that are not listed, most likely only ever used in an emergency should anything go wrong.”
“The fact is, Jake, if it ever becomes public knowledge that two of the wealthiest men in England and a notorious gangland criminal have been generating vast sums of money to fund terrorist boot camps around the globe… Well, at the very least, the security service and the Home Secretary would be condemned by every other government and security service in the Western World for allowing them to get away with it. And that is, most definitely, not an option. We need a result, and we need it pretty damn quick.”
“As I see it, Trevelyan is responsible for looking after the safe houses. Hart, he is well-placed to organise the movement of the stolen works of art through The Lahiri Import & Export Company. As for Paul Hammer, I’m not sure what role he plays. Except that his hotel chain spans around the globe, including certain countries where no sane person would ever want to stay. I still believe that Latimer was useful to them in the beginning. Especially with his link to Brinks Mat, but became a liability in later years and so they had him killed. Self-preservation in its most lethal form.”
Dillon wound down his side window a fraction, outside the night was getting colder and the fine drizzle turning to heavier rain. He gazed through the misted glass and said, “I can help you. But just what the hell do you think I can do that MI5 can’t? My investigation was leading in the right direction, but you have filled in the gaps and told me far more than I knew already. So what’s your point?”
“I’ve just given you a brief outline of what we know. There is little doubt that you are right in your assumption of there being more safe houses and that their locations are kept top secret. I’m also convinced that the gold and the other materials never stay too long at any one address. You were very lucky to find what you did at the house in Lyme Regis. By moving it all around, they ensure that their liability is kept to an absolute minimum. It’s a well-oiled and very slick operation that has some extremely sinister elements to it. Mostly because it’s not just Trevelyan and the others, but their equivalent around the world and the bond we believe has been formed between them. You see, The Hell Fire Club appears to have cropped up all over Europe in recent years and now they’ve started to appear in India, South Africa and throughout South America. One has even been found in Miami!”
“But this is definitely the domain of MI5 to deal with in the UK, and MI6 overseas. So where do I come in?”
“If it’s a matter of national security, then it’s ours. You know as well as anyone it’s a fine line that we tread between the various other agencies and ourselves, and quite often it’s a problem to decide who deals with what. We’re involved because, so far as I’m aware, we know more than the rest and have a good working relationship with our American cousins in the CIA. I suppose it’s really quite bizarre to think that, with the vast resources available to both ourselves and the CIA, we can only achieve limited success. That’s where you come in. There are two reasons why we need your help: You are able to do things where we are restricted by the law. Like your little skirmish down in Dorset. But you also appear to have built up some form of dialogue with Charlie Hart and he intrigues us very much. I still cannot see where he fits in or why he is involved.”
“Have you checked his history?”
“Far more than we’ve checked yours since you resigned your commission. It seems to stand up.”
“Which doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
“Which doesn’t mean a thing,” Morgan conceded.
“But we need to know a lot more about these safe houses and why some of the locations have been deleted and others put in their place.”