Harrison turned to the AntiTerrorist Branch detective. ‘Is the Section’s computer linked to Lisburn, Jim?’
‘No problem. We can do that this afternoon.’
‘Fine,’ Trenchard said, ‘then why don’t I treat you two to lunch at my club. I tell you, their spotted dick is beyond belief.’
They began walking down the corridor together.
‘One more thing,’ Trenchard added, addressing both men. ‘Nash would also like Tom to make an independent assessment of the AIDAN threat on the mainland and put forward any considered recommendations to counter that threat.’
Harrison wasn’t at all happy to hear Pritchard’s words of prophecy come true so rapidly. ‘Look, Al’s in the thick of all this and, technically at least, he’s got ten years’ more experience than I have. Shouldn’t this at least be a joint effort?’
Trenchard shook his head. ‘This comes from the very top, Tom. And when COBRA requests, it’s an order from God Almighty.’
That was hardly an exaggeration, Harrison knew. The acronym for the Cabinet Office Briefing Room referred to the most powerful co-ordinating body in the land, put in place to counter specific terrorist threats and usually chaired by the Home Secretary himself.
Jim Maitland said: ‘Look, Tom, I’m not one to speak against my own people, but we’ve got to face facts. Al doesn’t like the idea of you being here. You know what he’s like. Every change you wanted to make he’d see as a threat to undermine him. He’d subvert everything you wanted to suggest, if he hasn’t done so already. He’s a lovable, crusty old dinosaur who hates change and moving with the times. Never was happy with all the technology the army developed for Northern Ireland.’
Harrison remembered Pritchard’s dark warning to him that he’d be asked to make recommendations, but he decided not to mention it. Something else was concerning him more.
But now was not the time. He waited until they had finished lunch and Jim Maitland had returned hurriedly to New Scotland Yard. Over brandy, he said to his friend: ‘Look, Don, if I’m to prepare this risk assessment I need to know what’s really going on.’
Trenchard raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘Meaning?’
‘I’m beginning to know how mushrooms feel. Kept in the dark and fed on bullshit. Now forgive me if I’m putting two and two together and making five, but I know AIDAN bomb warnings have consistently referred to, I quote, “unconstitutional talks” between London and Dublin. Then there was that bomb incident at the Europa, followed by a parcel bomb sent to Senator Powers who, I understand, is a leading figure of the Irish lobby with close connections to the Clinton administration. So what gives?’
Trenchard leaned back expansively in his chair and linked his hands together in an attitude of considered thought. ‘I’m impressed, Tom. Didn’t know you were so au fait with American politics.’
‘Don’t patronise me, Don,’ Harrison retorted. ‘This might be a game to you, but to the likes of Al and me it’s more than a job. Our lives and those of our men can be at stake, as we’ve already seen. We don’t want any more disasters like Seven Dials. And there are thousands of innocents at risk out there on the pavements of London.’
‘Okay,’ Trenchard said suddenly. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘Just the bare bones, right? Enough for you to judge the situation fully. But it must go no further, not even to Al. Agreed?’
Harrison nodded.
‘When President Clinton was elected on the Democratic ticket he’d made a great play about appointing a special envoy to look into the Northern Ireland situation. With some forty million voters of Irish descent, he had to really. It ruffled a lot of feathers in Whitehall, as you might imagine. We didn’t want any interference from Americans meddling in our domestic affairs. Clinton was told this, of course, but at first seemed to ignore it. This was mostly due to the fact that he was pretty miffed with the Conservatives at the time for actively assisting the Republicans — to the extent of ordering Box to try and dig some dirt on his student days at Oxford.
‘Eventually, after a few snubs, Clinton agreed to meet Prime Minister Major. Things were stiffly polite, but it was clear the old special relationship had cooled. Clinton refused to back down on the Irish issue, so a compromise was reached. Over the next few months Washington would quietly drop, or water down, its Ulster peace envoy idea. In public at least. But a secret agenda was agreed whereby the State Department would covertly and unofficially try to seek some new ground to bring an end to the troubles.’
‘And Senator Powers is the mediator?’ Harrison guessed.
‘You’ve got it, Tom. He’s been shuttling between London, Dublin and Belfast since last summer.’
‘Then maybe he’s making some progress. Let’s hope so.’
‘I don’t think Downing Street would agree with you.’
‘Why?’
‘The government is horrified at the prospect of an American solution being found to Britain’s most intractable problem. If you ask me, they rather poisoned the chalice by insisting on one condition. That no terrorist organisation should be included in Powers’ informal discussions. It’s nonsense, of course, because they are the only people in the position to deliver peace.
‘And what has Number Ten been doing in the meantime? Mounted that huge secret effort to reach a settlement of its own before Powers got his. And they didn’t hesitate to make contact with the terrorists before they announced the Downing Street Declaration.’
‘So who’s going to win the race?’
‘Well, the Declaration seems to have got nowhere fast. I think the government underestimated Abe Powers’ abilities as a negotiator. To show willing, they had to give him what he wanted from them at the start. Then he wrung a major concession out of Dublin on the strength of it. He held all the key cards before he even started talking to the smaller players.
‘And, until Christmas, he’*d managed to keep everything secret. It was then that PIRA got hold of a senior civil servant in Dublin called Sean Shevlin.’
Harrison frowned, the name was vaguely familiar. ‘I remember reading about it. Didn’t he drown in Dublin?’
His friend’s laugh was bitter. ‘Oh, he drowned all right. But when they dragged his body out of the Liffey, they found he had all his toenails missing and a bullet in the back of his head.’
‘That wasn’t in the press?’
‘No, it certainly wasn’t. Although there was considerable pressure from some elements in Whitehall to let the Yanks know, hopefully to frighten them off, although I don’t think that would have worked. The point is, the fact that Sean Shevlin was killed after interrogation suggested that PIRA were satisfied he’d told them everything he knew, and that was a lot. And you don’t float a body through central Dublin if you don’t want it to be found. It was telling everyone that PIRA knew about the talks and didn’t like what they heard. It was their first warning shot.’
Harrison drained the last of his brandy. ‘That explains a lot, Don. The time frame fits. Just a few months after Christmas and the AID AN campaign starts in the Province. And we can see now it was just a dry run for London.’
Trenchard’s eyes had become hard and intense. ‘They’re determined to do it, I can tell you that. They’ll either bomb their way to the conference table or destroy the talks completely, one way or another.’
‘I suppose they reason they’ve got nothing left to lose.’
‘Nothing at all,’ Trenchard confirmed. ‘And that means we can expect them to go for a campaign that really hurts. And this time I don’t expect they’ll be overconcerned about innocent casualties, as we’ve already seen.’
Harrison nodded. ‘If the stakes are as high as you suggest, Don, then they won’t stop until they bring London to its knees.’