After seventy yards the twine disappeared below the thick carpet of dead leaves in that portion of the woodland. Scott jumped as the leaf carpet spoke to him in accented English.
“If you shoot at us we will shoot back… clear?”
Carefully Scott released the twine and held his hands clear of his body. His escorts sank to the ground and moved into cover.
With a rustle of leaves a female peeled back their own survival blanket that had masked their heat signature and smiled up at the bedraggled American. Beside her in the natural depression in the ground, a man was aiming a handgun at Scott’s face. From Intelligence photographs Scott recognised him as Bedonavich.
“Christina Carlisle?” Scott asked the girl.
“Sort of.” she replied.
Scott grinned,
“Just checking… I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on.”
Returning to the room and waving its occupants back into their seats the president lowered himself into his own chair and raised his empty mug. No ancillary staff was permitted in the room at times like these. A secret service agent took the mug and returned with it filled a minute later. Nodding his thanks the president turned to business. “Gentlemen,” he said. “I have some good news, bad news and not so bad news. As of lunchtime today we have the armed forces of France joining us, that’s an additional seven division corps worth of good news. The bad news is that Her Majesty’s Government in Great Britain is planning to sue for a separate peace the moment hostilities start.” With the exception of Terry Jones and General Shaw that was startling news to the rest of the room. The president allowed them a minute to vent their anger and surprise before calling them back to silence.
“The better news is that their PM is about to get a rude awakening… ooh, just about now I think!” he said smiling after glancing at the wall clock showing the time in London.
The prime minister was in conference with his inner cabinet and one other person in the Cabinet room at the rear of No.10. It was the same room where John Major had been in conference with his cabinet in 1991 when the Provisional IRA had rearranged the floral arrangements in the back garden adjacent to the room, using an improvised mortar.
Since the confrontation at New Scotland Yard his close protection team was no longer permitted in the building. Only when he emerged did they exit the vehicles in which they now were forced to wait and sleep in. Arrangements were underway with the Ministry of Defence to supply trained CP personnel to replace the police guard the PM’s had always been supplied with previously.
A copy of Jean Baptiste van Loo’s 1740 portrait of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, stared down from above the fireplace at the gathering as the present PM and his cabinet were being briefed on the state of the negotiations taking place in secret with the Russian Government. The doors were locked and the room was probably one of the securest in the land as regards electronic surveillance, as well as soundproofing of course. The 3-inch thick glass of the windows, installed after the 1991 attack only added to security of the room.
It came as somewhat of a surprise to the occupants, given the soundproofing, that a creaking sound could suddenly be heard from the doorway. All heads turned in that direction; in time to see the doorframes visibly bow away from the door. A loud bang then followed and the door crashed open.
A ‘Ghostbuster’ from the Metropolitan Police Technical Support Unit pulled away the hydraulic door opener he had been using to allow the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to enter. He paused to admire his handiwork before dropping a red painted door ram onto the carpet in the room; it landed with a very audible 'thud'. Removing his protective gauntlets and ignoring the shouts of protest from the occupants he declared
“Do you know something, I have always wanted to do that. They didn’t have them when I was a street copper; we used what we called a ‘size nine key’ in those days.”
Entering the room behind him were several other police officers and one of the most senior criminal court judges in the land along with the American ambassador and Art Petrucci.
“Prime Minister, listen carefully to what I have to say. As you are aware I am conducting a criminal investigation into the murder of six of my officers on the 22nd March of this year in Rotherhithe, southeast London. You are also aware that I desired to trace two possible witnesses. Prime Minister I have received tape-recorded conversations between yourself and the head of the SIS, Marjorie Willet-Haugh.”
He paused to look across at the SIS Chief before again fixing the PM with a hard stare.
“A conversation in which you ordered her to find, kill and dispose of the bodies of the witnesses’ I sought. Those tapes have been examined and authenticated as genuine. I am therefore arresting you for conspiring to murder Constantine Bedonavich and Svetlana Vorsoff, both Russian nationals, in order to pervert the course of justice. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned, something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say will be given in evidence. Do you understand?”
Turning to indicate the two men beside him, the commissioner continued.
“You will recognise Sir John, the Ambassador and Mr Petrucci of course; they are here to witness this arrest.”
The commissioner then spoke to the PM’s wife who had sat quietly throughout and indicated a senior detective in the doorway.
“If you will accompany this officer he will take your written statement now, ma’am.”
The prime minister had risen from his chair, his face crimson with rage until the commissioner had spoken to his wife and mother of his children. The look she gave him before leaving the room spoke volumes in terms of contempt.
Sitting back down heavily the PM’s face was now ashen.
Following the discovery of the device in London it had been brought to AWRE to be examined fully and dismantled. The first task had been to ensure the weapon had no hidden surprises. Its initiation, arming and timing components were removed and the business begun of analysing the weapons design. This is a painstaking business, with 1960s, 70s, 80s original design and later upgrades along with cutting edge, present day technology married together. It would be easy to mistake a piece of hardware for something harmless, if a component of a nuclear device could ever be described as such, when in fact it is a booby trap or secondary trigger.
Had their present overtime budget not stood at zero the examination of the arming component would doubtless have taken place a few days earlier than it in fact did.
Stanley Bennett finished his task, the preliminary report on the ‘business end’ of the device that would now go for metallurgy analysis and then complete dismantlement. The core of the device would be reprocessed into fuel.
He made his way along to the department that was to do the analysis of the circuitry. As with everywhere else they had had their numbers pared down to the minimum. Genuine illness and disenchantment generated ‘flu’ and such meant that the departments were never crowded during working hours’. With nothing else to do until five Stan offered to help out his friend and colleague as Gupta Singh at last finished other tasks and began on the arming component. After one hour Gupta asked to see the suitcase body, and after seeing that Stan had indeed spoken the truth, that of its being a sealed unit when found, he sat in thought.