ELEVEN
Susan mulled over a glass of red wine. She felt sorry for herself. What was she going to do? She was so close to tracking him down. She picked up her half-drunk bottle of wine. She then placed it down and started to look at her mobile. It flashed to life with Tony’s name on it. She went over to answer it. Then she decided against it, switching it off. She picked the bottle back up and poured herself another large glass of wine. To be honest she wanted to be left alone. She was no longer sure she wanted to continue the charade she had been having with Tony. After all what did she get out of it? Not love anyway. She was certain it would not be long before a younger model replaced her. That was the track record of Tony anyway. Get them young build them up and then drop them. He was a first class prick she knew it, he knew it and most of the office knew too.
A few more mouthfuls of wine and she drifted off to sleep on her couch in front of her real flame fire. The heat and three quarters of a bottle of red wine proved too much and soon she was fast asleep curled up on her sofa. Once a sleep she began to dream about a black and white dog. The dog was her pet dog she had when she was little. Ben was a great dog it’s was very loyal to her, it was generous and always stood by her side protecting her from the evils that lay out in the world. But in her dream, her dog was vicious and growling. This was something unknown to her why had her dog changed so much.
As her dream continued, she watched as her dog bite her on the leg. Later her dog started to happily bark in her dream and then pictures of her friends from University and time of great pleasure and nights out flashed before her eyes. Even that long forgotten dream of travelling around the world and backpacking around the globe came back. How she longed to be back to that time when life was free and she had no worries.
Several hours later Susan woke with a groggy head. She felt awful. Her head was throbbing and she felt like she was going to be sick. As she started to gather her thought and realise where she was and what she had been doing a thought entered her mind. It was one of those eureka moments you read which would prove a catalyst to solving her problem for Norman. It so obvious really she was just surprised it had taken her so long to realise.
Her first words of the day were ‘Susan Blackburn you are so stupid’.
She went off to have a shower to wash away her hangover and get ready for the day’s work. After a long satisfying shower, she came out of the bathroom in her favourite dressing gown. It was one of those dressing gowns that provided comfort as well as safety. Fully dried she dropped it onto the floor by the side of her bed selected the days outfit that she had placed on the side of her bed and changed into a fresh change of clothes. 15 minutes later, she was off back to the office.
Once at her desk she cleaned up the now dried coffee and tied up her desk. A few minutes later, she was into her systems. A few minutes later, she had blanked out the rest of the world and was busy concentrating on the task at hand. Susan found it really easy to blank out the rest of the world and focus on all that was important for the task in hand.
Now in the MIS classified system she started to run a photo ID from the Border Police Force records and synchronised this with her own face recognition ID software. After two day’s work, she was able to identify the passport photograph and new alias of Simon. It was a John Falster.
She did a run on property owned or rented by a John Falster. A few minutes later, the computer popped up with one result. It was small flat purchased in 2005 in Edinburgh Scotland. She had her man.
A few days later Susan was given permission to conduct a surveillance operation of John’s flat. A small team was ordered north into Scotland. Once in Edinburgh her small team prepared to head straight to John Falster’s address. With the target identified, they then set up round the clock surveillance of his building.
Having personally identified the target, Susan felt confident that could now phone Norman and give him the good news.
A few minutes later, she was connected to Norman on his direct phone.
‘Norman, it’s me, we have found Lloyd’
‘Excellent’ said Norman,
‘Glad that the only breach to this plan had now been addressed’.
‘What do you want us to do?’
Norman had been thinking this over and realised that Lloyd would be more beneficial left alive than dead. He could be the only lead they had with the Chinese and the more they knew what he was doing the quicker they could limit any damage until after the Chinese President had been terminated. There was still the question as to how they Chinese knew about the meeting between the secret services of France, the United States and the United Kingdom and how they would react following their failed attack.
‘I want your team to take over and monitor movements and prevent Lloyd stopping our little Chinese operation’.
‘OK this is now a Section 5 operation’
‘You complete your side of the operation then’.
For the next month Susan’s team watched and scrutinised the movement of Simon across the city of Edinburgh.
A base was set up in a flat opposite Simon’s flat. It was small and well hidden from outsiders while providing Susan’s team with the perfect base to strike if required. It also gave them the perfect listening and observation post. From their base, they could watch everyone coming and going with immunity from detection.
During that month as her team tracked Simon nothing exciting or interesting happened. Daily reports which were uploaded to Norman and Tony. These recorded that most of his movement appeared to be around the Edinburgh University and the Scottish Parliament areas. He was spotted taking photos of the parliament from Arthur’s Seat but that was the only unique event over the month. They also followed him around the Mosques of Edinburgh, Motherwell and Glasgow. Despite close surveillance, he appeared to show no signs of being aware of his shadows.
Finally, towards the end of the month Susan authorised a break in by the MI5 officers to look around Simon’s flat and to plant cameras and listening devises in his room.
That night as the team listened and watched Simon come into his flat they suddenly heard a high pitched noise then a bright flash that knocked out all the listening devises and cameras in one quick ostentatious blaze.
What they did not realise was Simon always released an electromagnetic pulse devise each time he entered his flat. He always fired a small burst of electromagnetic radiation. This pulse of electromagnetic radiation quickly altered the magnetic field within his flat for a second or two. The resulting rapidly changing electric fields and magnetic fields made all electrical and electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges. Unless your electronic devises were protected, they became useless little more than dead devises.
That day having fired the devise Simon also noticed the tell-tale signs that someone had entered his flat.
A few hours later on as the night approached the surveillance team picked up a call on Simon’s phone asking for a doctor to visit. The team immediately cancelled the doctor’s visit.
Once this had been done one of the surveillance team, who was a trained medical officer was ordered to impersonate a doctor and make the visit.
Agent Williams turned up at the targets flat just over an hour later. He knocked the door and was quickly invited in.
‘Good evening Mr Falster’ he said smiling.
‘I'm Doctor Ronald.’
‘Welcome, please come in’
Williams shook Simon’s hand and kept good eye contact with him. He was trying to give the impression that he was confident and knowledgeable.
He sat down, maybe four feet across from Simon maintaining eye contact at the same level as Simon.
Simon started to look Williams over. Immediately Williams leant towards Smith and began to small talk.
‘How do you like this hot weather, we have been having lately Mr Falster?’
This seemed to settle Simon.
‘So Mr Falster, How can I help you today?’
‘I’ve been feeling sick all day. I have been vomiting all night and its coming out both ends now. I think it’s something I have eaten’
Williams looked around the flat with its three good-sized cupboards. There was a smallish living room with a space where a small dining table stood. He noticed the coal effect electric stove and the unclean kitchen littered with last night pizza and the mornings dirty plates and cooking utensils.
‘Fine. Tell me what you have been eating’
Quickly Williams realised Simon had been drinking quite heavily and that was probably the cause of his illness.
Williams began to think that if this was the notorious Simon Dunbar, then he was well past his best days and was probably drinking himself to death. His boss Susan would be lucky if he survived the month let along being taken in to be interrogated and pumped for information.
He quickly finished the diagnosis and proscribed some basic antibiotics before leaving. As he left the bland coloured flat that was now in poor decorative order he noticed the bottles of drink littering in the bin by the door as he started to walk down the stone spiral staircase towards the street level. He was now convinced that his prognosis was correct.
Once out he reported back to Susan that the target was in bad shape, alcoholic and would be hospital bound within the next six months. He also explained that he could see no signs of any surveillance equipment or special equipment in the flat. He also confirmed that he was the same person as the passport photo.
Having completed his task Williams decided to head to bed as he would be on an early shift the next day and he wanted to make sure he was alert and awake for his next shift.
Within a few minutes Williams was asleep while his colleague Lewis was monitoring the flat throughout the night.
Lewis waved at Williams as he past and turned back to his binoculars.
‘I wouldn’t worry too much at him Lewis, the way he looked tonight I wouldn’t be surprised if he survived the night’ said Williams.
***
Several hours later Williams who was fast asleep was woken up by his partner Lewis, who had come to the end of his night shift.
‘William wake up!’
‘You had better get a look at this’
Looking through his high powered binoculars Lewis watched as several police vans pulled up and forensic team began to enter the building.
It was the next day and Lothian and Borders Police had begun their investigation of Simon’s flat.
Williams and Lewis quickly hacked into the police radio system and were able to hear that a death had been reported in Simon’s flat. Suspecting the worse, the team began to prepare to step down.
Lewis made the call to Susan as to what had happened and began to prepare a closing report to her ready for the closing of the operations and their planned withdrawal from the site.
Susan who was now operating from G Division’s headquarters also picked up a report of a man from Simon’s flat who had committed suicide. He had blown his face away; the flat stunk of drink an obvious case of suicide. She too began to prepare to redeploy beck down to London.
A few hours later, Susan made the decision to stay in Edinburgh until the autopsy was completed. She planned to finish off her closing report to her boss and Norman. At least she had tracked him down and made sure that he was no longer any threat to either the UK or the covert operation that MI6 were about to undertake.
The autopsy did not begin until a few days later, three days after the death of Simon was reported. The autopsy was conducted by the local pathologist to determine the cause of death, the state of health of Simon before he died, and whether any medical diagnosis and treatment before death was appropriate.
With the body laid out in a body bag the pathologist with the evidence sheet covering his face and hands. The body of Simon lay in a body bag to ensure that as much of the evidence from that body was contained within the body bag. The evidence sheet was removed which the pathologist used to examine the body further.
He examined the external body checking over the body for signs of death. He took the usual photographs of the body ensuring all evidence was recorded and then got his assistant to upload them to the central database in Greenock. He then noted the cheap and low quality clothing he wore and their position on the body before they were removed. Next, he searched the body for any evidence of residue, flakes of paint or other material and then he searched the body using ultraviolet light for any other evidence of death. He then recorded the syringe marks and tattoo on his arm and left leg. He then undertook an internal examination. Toxicology, biochemical tests and genetic testing were conducted helping him confirm the cause of death.
The pathologist quickly determined the time of death as 23:40, the exact cause of death as suicide, and that the man had been a heavy drinker and drug addict and was aged approximately 30 to 35, and was male.
By late afternoon, Susan received the Autopsy report. As a routine, she began to check a few details off between Simon’s MI5 records and the Autopsy. Very quickly, she noticed something odd. The profile was wrong, as were the tattoo’s and marks on his face. Within a matter of minutes, she was able to work out that this was not Simon at all.
She immediately phoned her team who were on the train down to London to get back round to the flat and recommence the search for Simon.
Later that night the team were back in place and were working out how Simon had left the apartment without anyone of the team noticing.
In the early hours of the next morning Gary Ardent one of the surveillance team started to run over some of the recordings of the last few days’ activities. Watching recordings of the flats using the heat sensitive camera he noticed a man leaving Simon’s flat and walk down to the flat on the floor below. He then watched as two men walked back and forward in the room and then stayed in the room.
Gary realised he had found the illusive Simon and the trail was once more live. He immediately phoned through to Susan ready to give her the good news.
‘I think I have found him, I am just uploading infra-red film to you now’
A few seconds later, the film arrived via fast broadband to Susan’s computer.
‘As you can see Simon leaves his flat leaving the dead body in his flat. He then walks down to Mr Stuart Pages flat’.
Before he spoke to her, he checked off the map of the tenement and spotted that the flat belonged to a Mr Stuart Page.
‘It looks like he stayed there and has been staying there for the last few days’.
‘What are your instructions?’
‘Thanks Gary, keeps a watch on the flat, I need to think this one through.’
The next day as their systems once more became fully operations the attention moved from Simons flat and began to centre on Stuart’s flat. This was just as Stuart left his flat for Milngavie.