Part   Thirty Two   "Another Debrief"

 
Sunday 1st November
 

"I hope that's the last time?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Smart, but you may be needed again."

Tammy walked away and out onto grass at the rear of Abigail Adams House, a few miles north of London. She'd arrived Saturday lunchtime after being intercepted in Aberdeen by a Security Service team and was then flown into Stansted, a short drive from her location. The debriefings had started almost immediately, she'd been subjected to detailed interviews twice so far.

Tammy hadn't met a single person she knew, yet, and was feeling isolated. At least the gardens allowed an escape from the house, even if the frequent showers cut short her perambulations.

What was becoming clear was how much bigger the intelligence operation had been than she could have imagined. Tammy had been but one small cog in the machine, a distraction for the benefit of the Gores and Lavoskas. Unfortunately, Hilary seemed to have taken her eye off the ball and hadn't been completely upfront with Tammy, or Jenny.

In short it was a mess.

Hilary was apparently being debriefed elsewhere, some safe-house somewhere in the South. The rumour mill wasn't reaching Tammy but she wondered if it meant the end for Caithness Marine?

One consideration had been whether there was a mole in the operation, perhaps in London, Thurso or anywhere else? Tammy really didn't know where the other agency offices were, this was compartamentalised, she'd been told, if you were compromised you could only risk revealing a small part of the overall scheme.

She made her way back indoors as the rain turned from a light shower to a torrential downpour. She wanted to use the pool but her case had been packed by someone else, in a hurry, and was lacking a few items. She sought the housekeeper.

"Excuse me, can I go shopping?"

"Sorry, Miss Smart, you can't leave until the investigating officer says you can."

"I don't have a swimsuit or gym clothes and I only seem to have four bras, thanks to whichever idiot went through my room on Friday afternoon."

"That's hardly our concern, this is not a spa and you are not here for a vacation. Please make use of the laundry bag in your room if you are short of anything, it's emptied twice a day."

Tammy didn't have her normal mobile, and the bag containing Beccy's identity had been emptied, including the mobile phone that Hilary had placed in there. Her weapon was also missing. She had no internet access and no voice communications; there was only so many times you could read the newspapers, turn on the telly or listen to the radio news.

Lunch followed a short while later, she'd been told not to ask any of the other guests what they were doing in the house, and not to reveal why she was there. Some of the faces at the lunch table hadn't been there at breakfast and a corresponding number were missing.

With food out of the way, and the rain persisting, Tammy went down to the armoury. She finally met a familiar face.

"Good afternoon Miss Smart, good to see you again."

"Thank you, Range Officer, am I allowed down here?"

"I've not been told otherwise. I have your Glock 26 here, it needed servicing but there was no evidence of it being used recently although I understand you were involved in a fatality."

"No, I used the pistol that someone else had dropped, I didn't have my Glock with me."

"Right, let me go through the range safety instructions for you."

She left there thirty minutes later, satisfied with her score. She hadn't needed to re-qualify until the next summer but Tammy was happy that she was improving.

She walked up to her room and put the radio on, choosing BBC Radio 5 live. One news story concerned a MtF transgendered prisoner finally being moved to a female prison. Was there a real risk that Tammy could go to prison for killing Anita Gore?

This had been covered in the debriefs, the interviewing officer had been hard on her, much more than the police officer on Friday afternoon. Saturday afternoon's first debrief session had been tough, one question kept coming back, did she have the right to take a life? Was there an alternative?

Tammy had been forceful, if Anita hadn't been stopped then who else would she have shot? Was there an option to using deadly force? She'd been so close to Tammy that almost any shot was deadly. If the aim of that first session was to knock Tammy's confidence, it had been well and truly obtained.

It was with trepidation that she went back into the room on Sunday morning, but she'd had another sleepless night to ponder what had happened, how it had played out and whether she was right - or wrong. This time she fought back against the questions, challenged the interviewer to choose a different action given the same circumstances.

Finally she'd found out that the look alike girl was a female police officer, a deliberate decoy. She'd survived with a flesh wound and would apparently be out of hospital in the morning. It also seemed that other officers had originally been at the crematorium but had been called away whilst everyone waited to go into the chapel. There had been a false alarm on the other side of Inverness that required armed officers, making sure it took longer to respond to any calls from the crematorium. Were there other accomplices?

Naturally Tammy was upset that a police officer had died, especially one who had been there to protect her. John Gore received no sympathy, the crematorium CCTV showed that he'd shot the two unarmed officers and his wife had shot the decoy as well as one of the armed officers. Tammy's shot wasn't covered by CCTV, she was pleased to hear. Her bedroom phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Miss Smart, are you ready to go shopping?"

"I was told I couldn't."

"Change of circumstances, please go to the carpark."

Tammy went to pick up her bag, but it was empty bar a pack of tissues. She didn't even have any make-up with her. She grabbed a jacket, swapped her shoes for boots then walked down to the basement.

Her driver was clearly armed, but she wasn't certain about the female who was waiting by the car.

"I'm Kim, we've had word that you're needed in court tomorrow so you need an outfit or two that's suitable. I've been told you can use this debit card."

The card in question was her Beccy one, as far as Tammy knew all of her earnings from the Security Service went into that account, but what was the balance?

"Court?"

"I'm sorry, I haven't been told."

Was this one of the cases that had kicked off a week earlier, or something related to Friday? As she wasn't being put on a flight to Scotland, Tammy didn't believe her liberty was at risk, although she had very little of that right now.

"Where are we going?"

"Brent Cross, do you know it?"

"Yes, quite well."

"How come, it's a long way from Scotland?"

"I was born in Edgware." Tammy decided she'd already said too much, would Kim be reporting back on her? Probably.

The ride took half an hour, the driver parked on the top deck of the carpark.

"It's a bit exposed?"

"Maybe, Miss, but there's only one access onto the deck and we could get away by helicopter if an evac was needed."

They ignored the lift and went down two floors by stairs, the driver ahead and Kim behind Tammy. It was quickly clear that the driver was not comfortable shopping for women's clothes. Kim was chatty, helpful, but really had no idea what suited Tammy, they tackled the formal wear first.

"What about that black suit?"

"No. it's a shame but I left a couple of suits in Cornwall that I could do with right now."

She went for burgundy, cream and navy, choosing a knee length skirt and trousers to go with the jackets. She added separates, blouses, tops, undies, shoes, make-up and a box of pantyliners from Boots.

"Are you done?"

"Not quite, can you look after these?" Tammy handed over the bags before walking into the sports store, Kim hard on her heels. Two swimsuits and two sets of gym wear completed the day's purchases. She stopped by a cashpoint to withdraw a hundred, just in case.

Behind her there was a scuffle, as she turned around, cash and card in her hands, a youth in a black hoodie was on the floor, a small blade near his right band.

"Umphffff"

"You're under arrest for attempted robbery, you do not have ...." Kim had decided to intervene, preventing Tammy from being mugged, but this was now attracting a crowd. Security guards arrived but all they could do was ask their control to call for uniformed police. Kim didn't have a radio and her phone was a personal one, without control room numbers. The driver suggested to Tammy they left.

"Now!"

Kim was abandoned, she'd have to find her own way back. They made it to the car without incident and were on the road a minute later.

Tammy started to shake, was she really that close to being hurt, and she didn't even know he was so close. This was different to having a gun pointing at you, this would have been a literal stab in the back, and she hadn't been aware he was there.

But what about her protective detail, how had the youth got so close? This wasn't good.

"Why wasn't I armed this afternoon?"

"We don't just hand weapons out."

"Mine is in the armoury, I practised with it earlier."

"Do you really think it would have changed how that played out just now, Miss? If you produce a handgun in a UK shopping centre you will get panic and will end up have to justify yourself to idiots who've never had to handle a weapon."

"Well ......"

"Do you really think that being armed solves all the problems? That kid got too close before we clocked him, that's mine and Kim's fault. Your only part was that you were a likely victim, nothing more."

Tammy said nothing for the rest of the journey, she used the lift straight from the carpark level to her room on the second floor to hang her new clothes up, she was in the pool twenty minutes later.

After dinner she was again called, but this time went into the study where she found Dave Brown was waiting.

"Ah, Tammy, take a seat."

"I didn't know you were here?"

"I just arrived, I'm here to brief you."

"Makes a change from having to answer the questions."

"Believe it or not, Tammy, I've had to read everyone's debriefs, and there were rather alot of them. I have a small team putting together a comprehensive report on the past few months."

"So my sessions aren't that important?"

"Of course they are, you were heavily involved, far too closely involved, and it had consequences."

"Like Anita Gore?"

"Yes, now I believe you're aware about tomorrow?"

"Sort of." Not really.

"Okay, it's a day out in the Old Bailey, you need to speak to the prosecution team."

"Okay, will I actually be needed in court?"

"Not for a few days, you need to see Jenny too."

"What about the cases in Edinburgh?"

"You'll do those by video from here."

"So I'm not going to Scotland?"

"Not for a while, that's to reduce the risk of another cock-up as well as for your own protection."

"Is there a risk?"

"There's always a risk, it just needs to be managed. Right now we can't be certain that the Gores and Lavoskas didn't have help in Thurso or nearby. Plus your presence might complicate things."

"How?"

"The WPC who acted as a decoy is coming out of hospital in the morning and will be seen around Thurso for a few days, accompanied by your former bodyguard."

"My friends will know she's not me."

"But we're not worried about your friends."

"Isn't she frightened she'll be shot again?"

"Again there's a risk, but she doesn't want to be a target, it's just to get their attention."

"What's Hilary doing?"

"Hilary's toast, forget her."

"Oh. What about the office?"

"That was very nearly shut down, but it was generating enough good intel that it's been given three months to prove itself under new management."

"Who?"

"Suzie."

"Is that going to be a problem, she's my sister?"

"No, your involvement with Caithness Marine is over."

"I still own the building."

"That's unfortunate."

"What about my work with the Security Service?"

"You're officially on three months leave, but you'll be compensated for the time you spend with us."

"So I'm doing nothing?"

"Did I say that?"