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UG2:Spying By Numbers
Part 10 Fuschia Cottage |
First posted here in 2014/5, this story had only been available on Kindle since 2017. The third & fourth books are also now out.
It was eight o'clock on Friday morning as Heather loaded their cases into the back of the hire van whilst Sophie used an electric pump to re-inflate the tyre that had been 'got at', the plan was for them to catch the nine o'clock ferry to Penzance.
The previous afternoon had calmed down when Heather supplied Peter Cookson with a copy of Steve Daly's deleted data, including information on a company bank account that seemed to be his cache for the stolen money. Heather explained that every time sheet would have to be checked again and the deductions re-calculated. Whether the cache was sufficient to satisfy the Revenue was a different question but everyone would be receiving several years of tax forms over the next week.
Heather promised to return to St Mary's to explain her findings to the tax inspectors who were due in two weeks time. Once they had left the chandlers, the pair walked into the harbour so Sophie could download the latest video from her secret cameras, which hadn't been declared to the police yet.
As they pulled out of the parking bay, heading for the ferry, a small crowd was seeing them off. Heather had mixed feelings about this, the real losers were the wives of the boatmen. She did have limited sympathy for the CEO but he had taken his eye off the ball so carried some responsibility for what had happened.
It had taken some time for the wives to understand that Heather hadn't caused the problems, she had just exposed them, although the women would have liked a scapegoat.
They drove onto the ferry, observed by Sgt Marc Taylor.
"Well Sophie, let's go home."
"Good morning, I think."
"Morning Heather, I take it you're not looking forward to this?"
"No, but do we have a choice?"
"Don't think of it that way, it's a debrief not an enquiry."
"I know but I get the feeling I'll be told off."
"Possibly, but if it was serious then you'd have been hauled up to London a few days ago. Now .... race you to the shower."
It was early Thursday morning, very early, and the pair were due several hundred miles East of Redruth for two separate meetings. Right now, at five o'clock, they had less than an hour to be out of the door to ensure they made it onto the 0605 service into London's Paddington station.
Fortunately the cottage was only ten minutes walk from the station. Unfortunately the train journey would take over five hours.
The first meeting was with DI Kevin Edmunds at midday so they had no time to grab lunch beforehand and neither fancied food on the train. Depending how late the train was, they only had a maximum of forty-five minutes to get across to New Scotland Yard from Isambard Kingdom Brunel's London railway terminus.
The next meeting wasn't until Friday morning and that was at Thames House with Jenny, with a promise that Sophie's pass would be waiting for her. All of this meant an overnight stay in Redhill, possibly two, as Sophie wanted to drive her car to Cornwall.
"Get a move on!"
"Yes, wifey."
"Come on Heather, there's no need to be like that."
The previous Friday had been hectic. By the time they had reached Redruth it was half-past eleven and they still had to pick up the keys to the cottage from the estate agency. Even that wasn't straightforward.
"I'm sorry but I've not had confirmation that the funds have been transferred."
"Why now? This was all agreed a week ago! Next you'll be telling me that the Bank Of England has gone bust."
"No, but it was having trouble with the electronic funds transfer system."
"Maybe, but I suspect something more local; it's nearly lunchtime and you haven't bothered to check the fax machine for the past hour."
"That is slanderous."
"But true, have you seen the pile of incoming faxes? Go fetch, like a good boy."
A few minutes and signatures later Sophie and Heather walked back to their van, which they'd parked outside the cottage. Another, smaller van, was now parked there.
"Good, err, morning Heather, morning Sophie."
"Hello Jimmy, they sent you all the way down here?"
"Yes, but I'd go anywhere for two lovely ladies."
"Jimmy Ruddle, behave yourself! Do you have everything?"
"Of course."
"What about the security sweep?"
"We did it yesterday, then changed the locks."
"So these keys are no good?"
"Nope, shall we go in?"
The cottage was almost bare, with polished wooden floors throughout the ground floor. Upstairs had cheap carpeting that would need to be dealt with in due course, or at least before the winter arrived. Although it was now the third week of October the weather was still mild, with no sign of frost.
Jimmy explained the security measures he and his team, the rest of which having since departed, had installed. It had helped that BT had fitted the fibre a few days earlier, under MI5's supervision, so the communication equipment was already in and tested. Once again the small third bedroom had been turned into an office with a safe and additional alarm.
Once they had the new security codes, and had tested the secure phone for themselves, the girls put their equipment in the office and locked it. With Jimmy's help they unloaded the van into the lounge, much of the work would have to be done later as some shopping was needed.
They headed for Trago Mills at Falmouth and were grateful that they had the van, that enabled beds and rugs, wardrobes and other furniture to be loaded straight away instead of waiting for delivery at some point during the following week. The total bill came to several thousand pounds but had the benefit of making certain one of the duty managers was available to assist. As an afterthought they also picked up a barrow for moving everything around.
Finally they called into Tesco to stock with food and cleaning products, although this was a stop-gap measure and a bigger shop would have to be done before the weekend was over.
Jimmy had hung around and was booked into a B&B until Saturday morning 'just in case' but would have volunteered to stay on seeing how Heather and Sophie couldn't trust any of the locals yet. By the time the van was unloaded for a second time it was seven o'clock but at least one bed was made.
"Let's get a Chinese."
"I don't fancy the clearing up, we'll eat out."
Once they'd eaten, Jimmy was invited to join them in a local bar, but declined the suggestion of a few beers.
"Sorry but I have to drive back in the morning."
They had no energy left when they arrived back at the cottage so had shared the one bed that was available, for pragmatic reasons.
The following morning meant testing the shower and dashing out to buy milk as they'd both forgotten it. From nine there was a succession of visitors to the door, mostly neighbours who only wanted to know one thing:
"Are you using the cottage as a holiday home?"
The answer, as ever, was, "no this is our home."
From midday several deliveries arrived, the washing machine and freezer being two of the most important. There was also the matter of a small car, Heathers. The idea was that it would not leave Cornwall so did not need to be anything fast and fanciful - sensible and economical would be preferable. It also meant that her insurance was lower.
"I just hope you don't need to do any evasive driving in it?"
"Seriously, Sophie, have you seen the roads around here? I'm certain the Romans never made it to Cornwall."
By the time they shut the door on that Thursday morning, heading for Redruth Station for the 0605, they had the cottage more or less how they wanted it. The second bedroom had been finished but they opted to keep that for visitors or until they fell out with each other. There was a suggestion that Heather snored, although she denied it.
The train journey was uneventful, and quite boring - they couldn't discuss any operational matters and there's only so many times you can read the newspaper. Once they finally reached Paddington they took the Circle line round to St James' Park and walked the rest, just making it to Broadway House by midday. This time there were no issues at Security before they took the lift to Emily's office.
"Sophie, Heather, so lovely to see you again."
"Thanks Kevin, but you didn't call us here to compliment us?"
"No, consider it a bonus! Anyway, the videos you sent up were very interesting."
"We thought so, Heather had a suspicion that the boat was being used for smuggling."
"Good call, Heather, but don't take risks like that again." He had clearly read the report.
He continued, "we've examined the footage and it looks like the crew have done this before judging by the way they handled the transfer. What have Devon and Cornwall said?"
"We haven't told them about the onboard cameras or the additional crew members."
"Oh, so the crew haven't been interviewed about that yet? We'll have to ask Special Branch down there to do some work on our behalf."
"Can they be discrete?"
"Good point but we can't send a Met Team down there without stirring things up. Whatever happens, that route is now finished as a means of getting someone into the country so we need to focus on other routes."
"We'll keep our eyes and ears open."
"Good. I had some news this morning that we might have identified the male who you met on the boat. He's believed to be a Kosovan named Duran Kelmendi who lives near Tirana these days. He has links to Armenia and specialises in explosives so the assumption is that the large box travelling with him contains his tools of the trade. We urgently need to know where he's gone."
"I take it he couldn't have flown in?"
"No, he's on immigration's banned list here and across Europe."
"Does he tie into your investigation?"
"Certainly, but he could be here for a different reason as well, the main thing is we need to find him. We're also looking for the boat that dropped him off, it's been identified as the Bosphorus Star, a Turkish general cargo vessel."
"Thank you for the update, Kevin, we'll do our best to find more intelligence for you."
DI Kevin Edmunds thanked everyone then took the opportunity to leave, sensing that the subject matter was about to change.
Emily had been quiet so far during the meeting but felt she had to raise an issue.
"Heather, you and Sophie were compromised, how effective can you be in the future?"
"Emily, it was necessary to identify ourselves before issues became uncontrollable."
"I mean you drew your weapon and fired in a public street plus informed Sgt Taylor that Sophie was carrying a weapon, which led to her being arrested temporarily. It was hardly the ideal outcome?"
"Perhaps not but I did what I could do at the time."
"I must say that as the Met Police issued your weapon, we can also withdraw it. You need to be more controlled or you will lose it, understand?"
"Yes, Emily."
"Now, Sophie, I've obviously read your report and seen the boat video as well as your personal camera, but how did you become distracted enough to be taken out?"
"I thought I'd heard a noise like a hatch being opened and was listening for anything else, I was surprised, that's all."
"You shouldn't have been there at all if you'd followed instructions."
"Granted, but I doubt I would have been granted permission to plant the cameras either so we wouldn't have known about the Kosovan bomber."
"Plainly DI Edmunds is more concerned with the intelligence that was gained than the operational foul-ups and risks taken. Consider yourself reprimanded, DS Grieve."
"Yes, Inspector."
"Now, Sophie, I understand that you're being paid by the Security Service?"
"It's through Heather's company so it looks as if I'm her employee to anyone who might be able to check."
"But your role is field agent?"
"That and whatever else is necessary."
"Okay, just be careful and continue reporting anything relevant to me."
As they left the building it was clear that Emily was not happy about getting the pair of them out of trouble, One of the issues now was that Devon and Cornwall Police were aware that a pair of intelligence officers were living in mid Cornwall. That meant there was an increased risk of their role being leaked, ending their ability to work under those identities or in that area.
Emily had insisted that Heather and Sophie needed to keep under the radar and not cause Emily, or the local Police, any problems. That could be difficult to achieve, Heather realised.
They took the tube to London Bridge Station and caught a fast train to Redhill. First task when they arrived was to do a little shopping using Sophie's car, taking the opportunity to refuelling it. The last task was to pick up some fish and chips as neither had the energy to cook. Going to bed, even before nine, was an easy decision to make. Sophie had the last word of the day.
"If you start snoring I'm leaving."
Heather was not enjoying Friday as her train into London was currently stopped between stations, again. The announcement did nothing to appease her when she was informed there was a broken down freight train somewhere on the line.
"I'm late already."
"So? You should be used to this, having lived in London all your life?" Sophie was not the most positive thinking person this morning.
"I was born north of the river and caught a bus to my office every day, if a road was closed the bus diverted until it was past the problem. If I was late getting to my office then the worst that ever happened was having a client waiting at the door or a couple of missed calls."
"So because you are from the North side you can moan loudly about the trains down here?"
"That's not what I meant."
“Your attention please. This train will be terminated at Croydon East, please listen for further announcements”
"Great, have I just proved my point? How do we get from Croydon East?"
"We'll walk to Croydon West and take the first one into London Victoria."
They weren't the only ones to have this idea so ended up playing sardines on the service from Croydon West, with Heather moaning every few minutes. She was not in a good mood when they finally arrived at Thames House, an hour late.
Of course, when you're late it's standard practice for extra delays to occur, making you even later. Today half of the 'airlock' security doors weren't working so there were queues in the entrance hall. Added to that, Sophie's new pass was missing and took several minutes to find.
"Where have you two been? I have another meeting in fifteen minutes."
"Good morning Jenny, let's just say that there was a transport conspiracy against us this morning."
"Come on, we've plenty to go through."
She led them to the secure meeting room and asked Val to join them. Val was carrying a laptop bag, which was handed to Sophie without any explanation.
"Introductions first, Val this is DS Sophie Grieve who is attached to this team temporarily, you've met Heather previously. Sophie, this is Val who is one of my analysts." The usual "hellos" followed.
"Now, Heather, your suspicions were proven correct but your field craft is lousy."
"Jenny, I've never had any training, three months ago I was just an accountant."
"Good point, but common sense should have told you not to take risks or go against direct orders."
"That email arrived too late, plus we didn't know for certain there was an illegal on the boat last Thursday."
"Sophie, you should have known better?"
"I've been through that with Emily," she corrected herself for Val's benefit, "DI Emily Keane of the Counter Terrorism Unit. We had no backup and weren't keen on involving Devon and Cornwall Constabulary."
"So you should have waited to see if there was video evidence of an illegal and then asked for backup for the following week's run?"
"I'm not convinced there was going to be another run given what was happening in the rest of the company." Heather offered, Sophie nodded her agreement.
"Fair point but the video alone should have been enough to prosecute."
The discussion continued along the same lines for a few more minutes, but Sophie was suspicious of Val's presence as there was no obvious need for her. That soon changed.
"Val, what do we know about Duran Kelmendi?"
"Although he's based near Tirana he has banking facilities within the EU, especially Italy and Greece. We've asked for his financial records but nothing's come through yet - it might take a while. He has however used a known Visa card in the past few days in Harmondsworth."
"That's right by Heathrow Airport."
"Yes, Sophie, which is worrying as it matches the intelligence we received a few weeks ago."
"Do we have any more information?"
"No, unfortunately, but we are trying to locate known associates. One of them is believed to be currently in Switzerland and may travel here soon."
"I'm sorry everyone but my time's up." Jenny stood and walked out of the room, leaving the others wondering what to do next. Val hesitantly asked Heather a question.
"You seem to know Jenny well?"
"I've known her for a few months, but I don't think I can say much more than that." Sophie shook her head.
Val was plainly thinking about another question but Sophie decided she was fishing for information that could not be given, intelligence officers and analysts do not share information unless it's on a need-to-know basis.
"Come on Heather, let's get going."
As they reached the lobby area John Smith, the Personnel Security Manager, intercepted them.
"Ah Miss Young, DS Grieve, could you come with me please?"
Heather's face dropped.
"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong."
"Good." Heather wasn't fully convinced however.
They were led along a maze of corridors to a sign that said 'Training Unit'. John directed them to a side office.
"Ladies, this is Trisha Waters and she's one of our training co-ordinators. I'll leave you in her capable hands."
"Good morning, Heather and Sophie. Let me get straight to the point, Heather, you haven't had any training and I understand you've had action in the field but were unprepared for it."
"That's about it."
"And you, Sophie, are a police officer with several years of protective experience but very little in field craft."
"I have had some training in covert surveillance as well."
"Right, now I'm proposing that we arrange a week for you both covering the basics."
"Where?"
"I'm told you have a property in the South-West so we're looking at a course that the Royal Navy runs in Plymouth, there's one starting in a week's time."
"I hope that doesn't include yomping across Dartmoor with a full pack?" Heather was quite concerned.
"No, it's gentler than that. I'll email you the course joining instructions."
By the time they were ready to leave it was fast approaching lunchtime, a quick decision was taken to head for London Bridge and Borough Market rather than try one of the expensive eateries in Central London. Val bumped into them in the lobby.
"Leaving?"
"Yes, we need to get some lunch."
"There's a decent restaurant a couple of floors below us, and it's not expensive."
Heather had to agree that the food quality wasn't bad but that was tempered by Val's near-constant questioning. By the time they made it to London Bridge it was nearer two in the afternoon and Heather was starting to feel tired.
She actually managed to doze off on the train, being shaken awake by Sophie as the train approached Redhill. Once indoors she again dozed.
On Saturday morning Heather was undecided - she wanted to make her way to Cornwall but Sophie wasn't ready to leave, plus wanted to drive down so her car was available. One complication was that the carpets were being replaced on Monday and ideally both of them were in the cottage.
In the end, Heather took the sleeper service that night so she would be back the following morning whereas Sophie was planning to leave late on Sunday after making some family visits.
Heather checked her emails before she left for the station, there was one from Trisha Waters:
From: Training Unit
To: Heather Young, Sophie Grieve
Date: Friday 17th October 2014
Subject Joining instructions - Intel fieldwork courseHeather/Sophie,
Please see the map and security instructions aside. You need to report to Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth at 0800 on Monday 27th October.
Regards,
Trisha
"Heather, do you know anything about this laptop?"
"No, no-one has said anything but this secure email is copied to you so you obviously have an account."
"In which case, what about a login and password?"
"No idea, that will have to be a phone call on Monday I guess."
"Typical."
The train journey was mostly uneventful but Heather was carrying her laptop and weapon, as well as a few home comforts and a good supply of clothing so she opted for a first class single sleeper cabin instead of using one of the standard seats. Even that didn't guarantee her uninterrupted sleep due to a fair bit of noise and shouting at Reading Station, the first stop outside London.
She peaked out through a gap in the curtain, not wishing to expose her nightie, to see a large police presence on the station. It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door.
"Excuse me Miss, we're looking for someone and want to make certain they're not on the train."
"No-one here except me, officer."
"Thank you, that's fine, good night."
Quite who might have caused such a security alert was anybody's guess at this point and Heather didn't consider it essential knowledge, so returned to her bed intending to catch a few more hours if possible.
Once the train reached Exeter just after three in the morning, home of the UK Met (Meteorological) Office, the stops became more frequent. Unfortunately the train also sat at Exeter St Davids Station for over an hour, then sat stationary for half an hour when the reached Plymouth. They finally pulled into Redruth at a quarter past seven in the morning.
Although the cottage wasn't far away, Heather had enough luggage to easily justify a taxi from the station. Stepping over the mail that was waiting she dropped her case but remembered to lock her secure items away. Once that was done she went straight to bed, sending Sophie a text to confirm safe arrival.
Heather was up and showered around ten on Sunday morning and figured she would have an easy day. She had just unlocked the office door when the doorbell rang. Looking out she could see a man, perhaps in his seventies, in a tweed jacket. She opened the door.
"Ah hello, I'm with Neighbourhood Watch and I wonder if you would care to become involved? How impolite of me, I'm Colonel Jeremy Smythe, retired of course, and you are?"
"I'm Heather and I'm a little busy, Colonel Smythe, I do promise you that this cottage is fully alarmed and I am more than capable of defending myself, as is my partner."
"Oh, is he here?"
"No, she is not, but she's prepared to use lethal force in a tight situation, like unwelcome visitors."
"Oh, sorry to have bothered you."
Heather smiled as she closed the door, she'd worked out one of his prejudices and doubted if he would be back. Whether the neighbours looked at the girls as good friends or as lovers was immaterial, so long as they were left alone.
Thinking a week ahead Heather worked out the best way to reach Plymouth's naval base. She could drive but it would be nearly two hours each way in her little car along the only major road in the west of the county, and would have to pass over Bodmin Moor, a bleak and exposed lump of granite. Even Sophie's vehicle would take over ninety minutes. No, the sensible approach was the train to Plymouth, unfortunately it would be the 0605 again, every day for a week. No late nights, then.
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To be continued
Unaccounted Gains Books 3 & 4 are also available on Kindle
