27th June
‘As there are only seven of them,’ Joan reasoned, ‘they can’t operate a cell structure because they would all need to know each other.’
She walked over to the whiteboard.
I glanced around the table at Helen, Duck, Jenny, Angela, Colin and Vladimir. All were looking intently at what Joan had written on the board. She had summarised all that was currently known about the WAR operatives and their potential roles:
1 – Flight lieutenant Carl Rodriguez – Groom Lake
*Access to starcruisers
*Intelligence gathering and subversion re. Area 51
*Intelligence gathering and subversion re. A51H (White and Hawker)
*Backup to Henderson
2 – Corporal Joss Henderson – Groom Lake
*Intelligence gathering and subversion re. Area 51
*Intelligence gathering and subversion re A51H (White and Hawker)
*Backup to Rodriguez
3 – Dean ? – White House
*Intelligence gathering and subversion re. White House
*Fake presidential orders:
(Attack on Gobekli Tepe?)
(CMW attack on Waterford?)
(Recovery of CMW?)
4 – ?? – MI5
*Intelligence gathering and subversion re. MI5
(Discovered Meadowcote)
(Knows about Northchester?)
(Knows about Resolution?)
(Knows about Waterford?)
5 – ??
*Missile launch sabotage capability
6 – ??
*Field operative
(Destruction of Meadowcote)
7 – ??
‘It must also be the case,’ Joan continued, ‘that most of them will have key positions in which they can either directly gather highly classified intelligence or independently effect operational decisions, or both.’
‘Why wouldn’t all of them have that sort of influence?’ I asked.
‘Because any contained group like this,’ explained Joan, ‘needs field operatives. One or more of them must have destroyed the Meadowcote bunker. Agents who do that sort of thing would tend not to be the same people who work in high profile roles and gather intelligence.’
‘It’s not so much a matter of skills,’ Jenny added. ‘It’s more about the extra complexity, and hence risk, of multiple roles. Imagine if you were spying on your employer but also had to nip out at lunchtime to shoot somebody.’
‘It makes sense,’ I said.
‘Paul and Robin are going to talk to the president tomorrow,’ said Joan, ‘to try to identify Dean.’
‘Will he be arrested?’ asked Helen.
‘We wouldn’t want to do that at this stage,’ Joan replied. ‘This is a dedicated, elite force. We’re not that likely to quickly get information from any one of them using any form of interrogation. It would be much better to monitor the ones we know about and hope they lead us to the ones we don’t – in the same way that we found Dean.
‘We’ve had a lead on the van that we saw leaving Meadowcote before the explosion,’ Joan continued. ‘It was stolen, then abandoned and set on fire.’
‘Why burn it?’ asked Duck.
‘He, she or they will have assumed that nobody would link the van to Meadowcote,’ Joan replied. ‘It was pure chance that Robin, Paul, Robert and I were there. Setting it on fire would make everyone assume that it was yobs that took it, and a fire would also destroy any residual evidence.
‘Fortunately, the fire brigade got to it very quickly – an engine was returning from another call – and the crew saw the fire start. They saved quite a lot for forensic to work on.
‘He, she or they were very professional – no fingerprints. They must have worn gloves. Forensic found some hairs, however. They got DNA and it matched a sample on our database of military personnel – an ex-marine called Fred Wycombe. I’d like Jenny and Duck to follow that up.’
‘Is there anything Swan and I can do?’ asked Helen.
‘I don’t want to put you at unnecessary risk, Helen,’ Joan replied. ‘With the exception of one of the multiple personalities of your local vicar, you’re the only one who can command the starcruisers. It’s possible that they will be very important on Judgement Day.’
‘Can’t Helen take them back to Area 51 and have the authorised pilot reset to, say, Hawker?’ I said.
‘Most people at Area 51 don’t work for A51H,’ Joan replied. ‘They think that one of their starcruisers is at the bottom of the Atlantic, and there’s a major panic going on about the whereabouts of the other. If either flew into Groom Lake, we could never get it back – even on the orders of White or Hawker … or even the president.’
‘If we’ve got nothing to do,’ said Helen, ‘can Swan and I borrow a starcruiser for a day out?’
‘I think that’s a good idea,’ Joan replied. ‘Pilots regularly fly their aircraft to keep sharp. Although flying a starcruiser isn’t quite the same thing, the more you use it; the more natural it will seem if you need to command it in action.’
I sensed that Helen was very happy with maintaining her commander status – particularly as the operational rationale, just explained by Joan, gave her a reason for treating the starcruisers as her own personal toys. Indeed, I had begun to wonder if she saw Amy and Wendy as machines or whether she was beginning to view them as friends.
‘One thing though, Helen,’ Joan concluded, ‘please stay away from cornfields.’