June 7th
The PM and foreign secretary sipped their tea and waited patiently for John to set up his slide presentation.
Bill White, Jennifer, Arthur and Hannah already knew the gist of his findings but were still fascinated to know the details.
"Sorry this has taken so long," said John, "but, as you'll see, there is a lot of information I've had to coordinate and try to make sense of."
He switched off the lights and pressed a button on his laptop. A map appeared on the huge projector screen, the same numbered one he had shown White four days ago.
Using the cursor he traced again the order of the incidents.
"I'll give you the details of all these incidents in order. Whether they're all linked to the group we captured I don't yet know, but it seems likely that all these attacks are part of a single plan of action. It seems to have started here, in Tehran."
He clicked on the first dot and a clip of a television news report filled the screen.
"There are currently no indications of why this started and nobody has yet claimed responsibility," said the reporter standing in front of a smoking, half demolished building. "This establishment conducting research into computers and biomechanical implants came under attack this morning when several employees arriving for work were stoned by a group of unidentified men. The building was then peppered with petrol bombs before the men ran off. We're hearing that two people died from smoke inhalation and equipment worth over a million US dollars was destroyed."
"The rest of the news reports are quite repetitive," said John, "so I've put together a slide show of photos and descriptions of the rest."
For almost an hour they watched as countless dozens of photos superseded each other, with John providing a narration.
"My conclusions," he said at the end, "are that, as there is no discernible logical pattern to their progress, either they were making it up as they went along and travelling at random, or this is the work of more than one group."
"And you say that there are many similar establishments on this route which were not attacked?" asked the PM.
"Yes, which indicates a lack of organisation, manpower, funding, planning or research, or alternately that they had specific reasons for targeting these and not the others."
"The dates don't make sense, do they?" said Adam. "There are whole weeks where nothing happens so they can't have been doing it all on one journey, assuming it was the same people. They must have gone home each time - although if it's the CIA and Iranians working together did they both go back home?" He shook his head.
"The alternative is that the phenomenon spread geographically and was taken up by a new group in each location," said Jennifer.
"Passing the baton," said John, "yes, that makes sense. Maybe that's what happened in the beginning and then a travelling group formed later on? I can't believe that if the CIA were on board and funding it from the start that there would have been such a gap between each event."
"Okay," said White, "this is all speculation until we have more information. Let's focus on the work these institutions were doing - that has to be the common link. Then we know which of our facilities we may have to protect in future."
"Unfortunately, I've drawn a blank on that," admitted John. "There simply isn't any connection, other than research into biomechanics. Why Iran and the Yanks would want to go on a global spree of wiping out such research I can't imagine. And why was the first one in Iran itself? They can't have been trying to eliminate competition."
White stood up.
"Right then. I'll have to get back to questioning them. I think that's the only way we'll find out what their intentions were, but well done John, good work. I think we could all use some rest and relaxation, who's up for a few pints."
"Ah, the magic words," said John, "so long as we can sit outside."
"Would you like to join us?" White asked the PM before feeling rather foolish.
"I haven't been to a pub in years, I'd love to. Unfortunately the press photographers, irate voters and Close Protection do rather take the edge off.”