Part Forty   "Bugs"

 

 
Friday 6th March (Continued)
 

Tammy went quietly with the public relations officer and the military policeman through a security door into a side office. None of the boys saw her disappear.

"Now Miss Tamara Smart, is that your name?"

"Yes, it's my legal name."

"Were you Thomas Edward Smart?"

"I was but that error has since been corrected. My passport was correctly re-issued just before Christmas."

"Now, why do you have clearance to DV level?"

"DV? I'm sorry but I'm still waiting for my full briefing."

"Developed Vetting, that means you're cleared to Top Secret if necessary."

"Oh, I didn't know. Sorry."

"Let's get back to why you as a school girl, who used to be a school boy, have higher clearance than some who work here?"

"Given that I've signed the Official Secrets Act and I have no idea who you are, I might need to contact my friends first."

"Okay, my name is Chris Hunt and I'm from Royal Naval Intelligence."

"I guess you're up here because of the leak? How many weeks have you been here?"

"I'm not the one being interviewed."

"Okay, if you wish, how long have you suspected Thomas Young?"

"Why that name?"

"His nephew, Christopher Jones, was supposed to be on the tour but the lad is sat on our coach bored out of his skull. He would have received the envelope before passing it to someone else, probably his aunt Linda or uncle Patrick."

"You seem to know much more than you should possibly know."

"I had a short briefing on the way here."

"Who from?"

"An accountant."

"Don't jest."

"It's true, at least that's her cover."

"Now we're getting somewhere. Which agency?"

"Security Service."

"Bloody hell. Why?"

"Look, I was on this trip anyway and knew something was going on but until we were just outside the gate I had no names. Even then I don't believe I actually saw Thomas Young and I didn't see any student holding an envelope before Mr Fulton had taken it away."

"Right, but why are the Security Service interested?"

"I'm not certain, I was due to speak to them tonight, unless you have a secure phone here?"

"Do you know the number?"

"It's in my mobile but they might not be comfortable with me calling from a strange number. I don't see why I should, anyway. What's in the envelope?"

"A birthday card, is it Jones' birthday?"

"His name wasn't on the daily list at breakfast. So, what else was in the envelope?"

"We can't disclose that."

"So it's information potentially of use to an enemy?"

Chris nodded.

"Now, are you going to do a controlled delivery or confiscate it and give the boys something to talk about?"

"We'll have difficulty, regardless."

"Jones is a day student and it's Friday so he'll be away sharp at three fifteen. You could put a GPS tracker in the envelope?"

"He could discard the card and the outer envelope."

"There's an inner envelope? Sub that with the staff canteen menu for next week."

Chris laughed. "You're good, I can see why the agency grabbed you."

"It's more complicated than that!" Is was Tammy's turn to laugh.

"Problem is we don't have any GPS trackers."

"Bugger, so much for that idea."

"Now, Miss Smart, do you believe Jones is aware of this?"

"I doubt it as he managed to forget his ID today."

"So he would probably have queried the card?"

"His birthday might be this week or next, I just know it's not today. In that respect he would have accepted the card without question. If you challenge him, or any of the students about this then it will get back to the family."

"I take it you wouldn't say anything?"

"Not unless something placed him in danger, I'd have a duty of care as I'm a prefect."

"I understand. You still wouldn't disclose our conversation?"

"Not to him, but I will have to report it later. The question remains, what are we going to do? If we leave it much longer the questions will get louder."

"Wait here."

Chris left the room but the MP remained. Tammy considered speaking to him but reasoned he wouldn't reply. She was only waiting a minute.

"We've removed the extra paperwork."

"What's the excuse for my delay?"

"You needed the ladies so you could redo your makeup?"

It was a few minutes later when she reached daylight. Tammy was last onto the coach, to great applause, fresh ruby lippy was the only evidence required.

"Problem Miss Smart?"

"I needed the ladies loo and got lost."

"Well, now you're here we can go. Please leave your phone off this time."

"My phone! I need to get it back."

There was a groan as Tammy stepped back off the coach. She definitely heard "bloody woman" and thought it could have been the teacher's voice.

***

Tammy and the rest of the group made it back to the school for lunch in good time. In the refectory many of the sixth formers kept looking at Tammy then turning away plus she suspected she was being discussed behind her back. Angela was keeping out of her way so wasn't any help. Tammy wanted to feign illness and get home so she could contact Heather but that would have meant explaining herself to Joan, twice, so wasn't an option. Instead she was resigned to last out the afternoon as best she could.

In the main hall, meanwhile, a runway was being constructed. It wasn't long before Tammy was sought.

"Hello Miss Lane."

"Ah Tammy, I was expecting to see you this morning?"

"I was on a pre-arranged trip and I have to go to English now, I'll be back in an hour."

"I could really do with a hand, no-one here understands what's needed."

"I've never done this before either."

"Yes, but you're a woman so it's in your genes!"

"I'm also Lady Macbeth in a production we're rehearsing for the next hour."

There was a loud bang from the main hall, a noise that reverberated throughout the ground floor of the school. Penny threw her hands up and stormed back towards the site of the noise. She was barking instructions before she'd reached the doorway.

Tammy decided retreat was the best option so went first to the loo and then to her English class.

"Miss Smart, I believe that lipstick is too bright for school. The teaching staff were issued new guidelines today so finally I know what is acceptable, I don't expect to see those nails next week either."

Thanks Tanya for the nails, she thought.

"Now, Macbeth."

The hour went quickly but Tammy's reputation was going downhill. She cried off the free hour that followed English on a Friday and went to the loo again to clean her face. Next stop was the main hall.

"Tammy, dear, what have you done? Put some lippy back on!"

"I can't Penny, I'm still at school and there's some new rules today apparently."

"Never mind, we can't find any more power outlets, do you know where they're hidden?"

"We've always been a bit short in here, the school's a few hundred years old and the governors are a bit tetchy about modern things like the right number of sockets."

"What do you do?"

"In the past for major stuff they've put a a generator outside, or more recently I've seen the caretakers run a feed from the kitchens as that was upgraded a year ago."

"Great, can you organise that? I knew we'd chosen well!"

With that Penny was off to somewhere else. Tammy, meanwhile, wondered how to deal with this not-so-easy request. She walked up onto the stage and went in hunt of one of the caretakers, fully expecting the answer.

"No Miss, not without authority."

"Mr Brown, this is essential, or so I've been told, where does the authority have to come from?"

"The governors hold a meeting then they write to the Head who sends it down the line, after we've done a survey and evaluation of course. We usually allow two months."

"I'd like it done in less than two hours!"

"If you get the authority then I'll do it, but first you need a governor on the premises committee."

"Premises committee? I know just the person."

Tammy took her phone out but first had to switch it on, becoming impatient as the startup slowly progressed. Finally she could make her call, after all the waiting notifications had finished arriving.

"Dad, I'd like a favour, except it's not for me."

"Where are you?"

"On the stage in the main hall."

"Wait there."

It took a minute but Richard arrived bearing a piece of paper.

"Will this do? We included it as an ad-hoc item at Wednesday's meeting just in case. Don't abuse it!"

It was a letter from the governors signed by Harry Davison empowering Tammy to make extraordinary requests to the facilities staff on behalf of the fashion show organisers on the sixth and seventh of March only.

"Thank you!" She leant over and kissed him, having to stand on tip-toes as she wasn't wearing heels at that moment. Tammy darted off towards the last known location of Mr Brown waving her sheet of paper.

Of course Tammy wouldn't let it go, just in case it was lost, so first had to beg the school secretary Janet Adams for a few copies.

"Why didn't your father ask when I typed it?"

"I don't know, but he's always had PAs and secretaries think for him, even when working for himself."

"Do you have one at home now?"

"Not yet, it's one of those things that wasn't very high on the priority list when we moved in."

"You'd best get moving, or the caretakers will want to close for the day. What time are you back in the morning?"

"I don't know, I guess it ought to be early?"

"Breakfast?"

"On a Saturday? I haven't done that since November!"

***

Richard had stayed at the school, representing the management, whilst Tammy was a gopher. By six, however, the stage was built and all the power was ready, but could not be connected until after breakfast the following morning. All agreed to return at eight thirty.

"Dad, can you get me here for seven thirty?"

"Why?"

"I want breakfast here so I'm ready and waiting, I just have a feeling that Penny and so on will be here early."

"Well, in that case, you can drive me over and I'll have breakfast too."

Tammy not only experienced that embarrassment of having a parent in the school, but it was amplified by the idea that her father might be sat next to her for breakfast the following day. Her reputation would hit an all-time low under those circumstances.

"Um, okay."

***

It was eight that evening before she could talk to Heather, except it was Sophie who answered.

"Hi Tammy, interesting day?"

"Having to dig myself out during questioning by a Royal Naval Intelligence Officer, hang on isn't that an oxymoron?"

"Been there, done it. Jenny received requests to confirm your clearance and sent a very robust reply, although officially she was at the Home Office!"

"I see, was that before or after I was at Vulcan?"

"Both, and the Navy made both requests, just in case the first was inaccurate."

"They had obtained my birth name."

"That was unfortunate but we're not in a position to erase you."

"That sounds painful."

"What I mean is that you have too high a profile to be able to slide into obscurity for any tidying up can be done, but Thomas will become a vague memory to most.

"He's already vague to me."

"Heather feels the same way."

"About what?"

"Don't worry, Tammy. Now, what can we learn about our favourite Scilly family?"

"I think it's getting complicated enough, please don't tell me there's more?"

"We're building a family tree, but Patrick Trethgarwyn is a first cousin of Billy Trethgarwyn Senior, who's awaiting trial in Cornwall for smuggling and fraud. Patrick and his brother Jerry worked on the boats for a while before moving to Scotland. Both tried for the Police, but only Patrick passed. He met Linda, his wife, later.

"Okay, I'd be quite happy not to see him again."

"Now, his wife Linda. Her mother was Russian and settled in Cornwall in the late sixties. She had four offspring, Linda, Thomas, Danielle and ....."

"Heather?"

"No, and that would be impossible anyway. No, Laura, but she's settled in the States and is married to a Congressman. Danielle lives in Manchester and is the mother of young Christopher Jones. His father is an MEP*, Chris lodges with his aunt when he's at school."

"An MEP? Hmmmm. So Thomas could be supplying information to the Russians?"

"Given that he has access to all the data on the test reactor, that's a valid line of investigation."

"His problem is getting it out of the site."

"Hence he was using the lad. What a pigs ear that was."

"Quite. Now, is my driving instructor a Russian spy?"

"Not necessarily."

"But?"

"But I'm sending you two items by courier. One is a pack of GPS trackers, the other is a replacement mobile phone."

"My phone, why?"

"We might need to make secure calls to you while you're out and about. It's Android, looks much like your existing phone but it takes two SIM cards and has a built in encryptor that's compatible with the secure landline and other secure mobiles."

"Okay, so long as I can still do the important stuff?"

"Like social media, emails etc?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't ask about the trackers?"

"No, but I suggested using one earlier today to the Naval guy, they didn't have any."

"When they arrive, put a spare one in your bag and the rest in the safe. They're off until you activate them, full instructions will be with the pack."

"Okay."

"One last thing, can we have your report on today please, as soon as possible."

"Email?"

"No, use that website Heather sorted out for you."

"Okay, but I'll do it from my bed!"

"Fair enough, please delete any local copy. I'll text you a link to a clean up program that will properly remove reports like that. Don't even hold a paper copy in the safe please!"

"Okay, good night."

"Good night Tammy, and well done."

----

*MEP - Member of the European Parliament