May 28th
By eleven thirty Sunday evening we had replaced all fourteen doors that lead to the central high security area. I had great fun testing three of them against a grenade launcher. They all passed with flying colours - it would take a substantial amount of explosives, and time, to blow your way through that lot.
All external windows had been replaced with bullet proof glass and a globally controlled shutter system had been installed. We left one of the lorries in the car park, with some building equipment piled up next it.
I decided to get a proper night's sleep for the first time since Wednesday.
We still didn't know how they were getting their info from Arthur and how long it would take to filter through to the agents over here, or indeed where those agents were based, or what they intended to do... okay, there was loads we didn't know, but there was a fair chance that if they were going to act on our planted info then it would be some time tomorrow.
Some of the marines could barely string a sentence together but I was confident in their ability to point guns at people when required. In all fairness, they had more experience in dealing with the sort of attack that fifty CIA men may launch against this complex. Only six of us had been given iris recognition access to the labs themselves but that would only be needed if an attack began while the staff were in residence. Considering the work they were engaged in, I was surprised they seemed to stick to a nine to five, Monday to Friday schedule. I suppose they had to rest their brains sometime.
I put my sleeping bag down in the canteen and set my alarm for five thirty, enough time for a couple of coffees before the cleaners and catering staff arrived at six. Having trained myself to sleep under any conditions whenever I could, and also having been working constantly with only cat naps for three days, I drifted off in under a minute.
I was just rinsing out my coffee mug when the phone rang. I'd never known White to be up and about before six, it must be important.
"Everything okay, 45?"
"I made it through the night without the marines emptying a fire extinguisher over me or pissing in my shoes, so I'm happy. Are you in the office?"
"No, I'm in my kitchen. I've just had a call from our tech boys; they've discovered how the Yanks are stealing a march on us. Thankfully it completely exonerates Arthur, he has no way of knowing what's happened."
"How are they doing it?"
"It's good timing that we've been able to glean this this morning. We've been re-examining the scans they took when you brought him back from Washington. The cheeky bastards have put a nano microphone in his access socket."
"A nano microphone? I didn't know they existed."
"It's pretty crude, but they estimate it can pick up any conversation within twenty feet."
"So any time you've sat across a desk from him, or he talks on the phone..." I was staggered at the appalling ramifications.
"Exactly."
"So how are they getting the sound? Some sort of transmitter? What range has it got?"
"We don't know, but it certainly wouldn't cross the Atlantic. Best guess at the moment is that thirty miles would be pushing it. They tell me they could remove it fairly easily without harming Arthur, but I thought we'd leave it there for a few days at least."
I pondered the possibilities.
"So they could have a receiving station anywhere within thirty miles - it could just be a laptop recording everything - and then pass anything significant on as and when. Bollocks, that doesn't tell us anything about where these fifty agents may be based."
"No, but at least we know that one way or another they are likely to know whatever I tell Arthur within a few minutes. That's why I've called you first. It's up to you now at what time I bait the trap. How's progress over there?"
I filled him in on the details.
"I estimate it would take a truck full of high grade explosives to get into the central core, and that's not exactly covert. I don't think anyone could force their way into the labs without bringing the roof down on top of them. And even if somebody got hold of the door codes, the iris recognition is all but infallible. There's still some work to do on the outside, and when we leave they need more security staff than an old guy with a limp, but right now Houdini couldn't get into that lab."
"Excellent, well done."
"Is there anything else? I have to get everyone organised for the arrival of the staff."
"Just the timing of my leak."
"Oh yes. Could you make it about four thirty this afternoon? I'll make sure all the staff have left by five, then we don't have to worry about them getting caught up in anything. All things considered, I think a night time attack is far more likely."
"I agree, 45. Shall we make it three thirty? That should give them time to get the information from whoever is monitoring the bug. Even they wouldn't launch an all out attack without a little bit of planning."
"Okay, fine," I said, "three thirty it is. We'll give the impression of a deserted building by five thirty and keep an eye out for any surveillance. I assume we treat this as a terrorist attack if it happens?"
"Of course, we have no information to the contrary, do we 45? Officially we have no idea who these people are. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned they fucking are terrorists. In fact," he paused, "you know what, I've been stuck behind a desk for too long. I think I'll come and join you this evening if I can. I'll let you know later."
At six thirty that evening I met A1 and escorted him to the building via the open waste ground at the back.
He quickly briefed all T14 agents and then he and I squeezed into the portacabin with the marines.
"We are expecting an attack or attempted infiltration this evening," he said, "and hopefully we will have half an hours notice of their arrival. Your mission is to support my agents in defending this establishment. We may face up to fifty men armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers. My agents prime concern is protecting the inner core of the building from infiltration or destruction. We are also concerned with keeping this out of the public eye as far as possible. I don't want an all out firefight here tonight. We may well only get a dozen or so infiltrators. If that is the case I want them all captured alive with the minimum of fuss. If they just try to enter the building we let them do that and my agents will take care of them. However, this is officially a terrorism prevention operation, and we are authorised to use lethal force if required."
He was about to continue when his phone beeped an alert. Within seconds, my phone followed suit.
I read the message and we showed our phones to each other. More messages came through.
"Right, listen up," said White, "we are expecting an imminent visit from a dozen men. 45 get everyone inside and secure the labs."
I ran out and gathered our twelve agents, leading them towards the first lab door.
"They'll arrive in about twenty minutes," I said. "We're only expecting a scouting party of a dozen but we have to be prepared for anything. We've had reports that the other groups all left their locations at the same time by truck. Our other teams are staying put in case they return but there's no way they can reach us tonight travelling by road. We're assuming that tonight the local team will scout the premises and launch a full assault tomorrow with all fifty or so agents, but that's no more than an assumption at present.
"So for tonight we wait and observe. The infra red cameras will allow us to track them if they get inside the building, maybe even identify some of them."
In the event, all that happened that night was that a van parked near the entrance and took lots of photos, while somebody under the ruse of looking for a runaway dog had a good look around the perimeter of the building.
Tracking devices placed on the vehicles of the other groups showed that they had indeed abandoned their bases and were all heading for Cambridge, so 61, 37, 22 and their teams were all choppered back to an airfield ten miles away so that they could join us for the events of next evening.