10th April
The Reverend Roger Hartnell walked along the perimeter fence of the compound at RAF Mildenhall in which he was being detained.
Despite its status as an RAF station, the base primarily supported the United States Air Force and had been chosen as the best location for CIA investigators to begin their interrogation of the only surviving member of the group that had kidnapped Helen Hargreaves.
In common with all members of ARK, Hartnell was a minister in the Church of England. Whilst at theological college, he had been identified for the fervour of his resolute, fundamentalist beliefs.
He had felt it to be a calling from God when Bishop Horatio Rycroft had approached him, following his ordination, and recruited him for special operations with ARK.
He had joined a small team within ARK whose role had been to kidnap and interrogate those who held arcane supernatural knowledge that should rightfully be in the possession of the Church.
Despite this, he knew remarkably little about the full extent of the organisation. He had known Reginald Harris, Douglas Rider, David Butler and, of course, Bishop Rycroft. The bishop had acted as the main liaison link between Hartnell’s group and the Masters of ARK. Hartnell remained unaware, however, of the identity of anyone else who was a member of the organisation.
He had been told that this secrecy was to preserve the security of ARK.
Hartnell went over in his mind the facts that he did know which might be unknown to those interviewing him. The involvement of Bishop Rycroft with ARK was one such. Then there was the unfortunate, but necessary, death of David Butler to prevent him from betraying the group. There were the equally regrettable deaths that had occurred during interrogations in Meadowcote crypt and finally, there was the existence of the Meadowcote bunker.
It had not been strictly necessary for his small subgroup to know about the Meadowcote bunker. The fact that they were aware of it went against the need-to-know philosophy within ARK that helped to preserve its secrecy. His subgroup was based, however, at Meadowcote church, and the proximity of the church to the bunker had inevitably led to them being briefed in order to explain the other comings and goings on the site.
Hartnell had therefore become aware that Meadowcote bunker was a control room related to the operation of US nuclear weapons.
He reflected that his questioning by the CIA had thus far been very limited. He did not know much about modern interrogation techniques, but it appeared that his captors were trying to form a relationship with him rather than employ the sort of approaches that he, Harris and Rider had used to obtain information from those who had possessed forbidden, occult knowledge.
He stopped walking and looked through the chain-link fence towards the main boundary of the base and the A1101 beyond.
The high powered sniper bullet struck him in the forehead between his eyes. He died instantly.
It was five minutes before those detaining him realised what had happened. By that time, the Volkswagen campervan had reached the A10 beyond Littleport.