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28th May 2014
Gandalph stood at the door. A full week since the DCI had decided the unit would go on the attack and they still had nothing. Thurstan looked up wearily.
“Stephen, come in. What’s the matter? You look troubled.”
Gandalph smiled sheepishly and shuffled into the office.
“Can I have a private word with you, Boss?”
“Go ahead,” Thurstan said, slightly anxious; personal matters were not one of his strong points.
“Not here, Boss. I can’t be certain. That SB bloke and the suits were in here, if you get my drift.”
Minutes later, they were strolling through the Albert Dock.
“So, why are you so worried, Stephen?”
“I’ve got some information, Boss, but everything about it is very, very sensitive, including how I came by it.”
“From an informant?”
Gandalph shook his head.
“Not exactly.”
Thurstan looked at him searchingly.
“Is this something to do with your aptitude with computers?”
The slight smile told him everything.
“Have you hacked into something, Stephen? Something big?”
Gandalph nodded. “Something massive.”
Without really being conscious he was doing it Thurstan had started to surreptitiously glance around. “Have you hacked into SB’s systems?”
Gandalph sat down on an isolated bench. Thurstan next to him.
“That’s only the start of it, Boss. Maybe I got carried away but it’s all untraceable. Believe me. I’m good at this stuff.”
“Please tell me you haven’t hacked MI5?”
“Ok, should we go back now then?” Gandalph looked him firmly in the eyes.
They sat in silence.
“Ok, tell me,” Thurstan eventually said, with a hint of exasperation.
“You said to pull in any contacts we had. So I did. An old mate from my SB days.”
“You were in SB? I wasn’t aware,” the DCI interrupted.
“Yeah, I was only there eighteen months. I got caught shagging the missus of one of the DIs. In my defence, I didn’t know who she was originally and when I found out I was as gobsmacked as anyone else.”
“I assume when you found out that was the end of the matter?” Thurstan looked at him hopefully.
A wicked little smile played across his face. “Not exactly. She was a good looker and horny as hell. The DI found out and it all went tits up. To keep things quiet, I got to pick where they were posting me, so I was happy. SB wasn’t my thing, Boss.” He paused. “Anyway, I spoke to my mate. He played the game. Didn’t know anything, but I know him too well and he knows it. He gave me some very subtle clues, probably would have been missed by anyone else. I knew he was pointing me in the direction of the Councillor file. Just before he left we ended up discussing that programme from years ago, “Call my Bluff”. Remember it?” Thurstan nodded. “As he was going he said, ‘There’s a lot of strange words in the English language. Triskelion. That’s odd.’ Then he did one.
“I couldn’t ignore it so I worked from the back of my camper van and parked up in a couple of quiet lay-bys I knew from my younger days and bam! I was in. Interesting stuff. But something was missing. It wasn’t quite interesting enough, so I checked it all again and that’s when I caught it. There was a mention of ‘triskelion’, sneakily hidden away. Although it didn’t say so it was obvious, to me at least, it pointed to MI5.” He leant back and glanced around as he did so. “Well, I’d started, hadn’t I, so it had to be done. It was strangely easy, but then again I am fucking good at this. I’ve read everything. In a nutshell, two people fit the profile we’re looking at. Both are in Liverpool. One of them is due to be moved shortly and the other spends a lot of time at his holiday plot in North Wales. There’s too much for me to tell you here, Boss, so I posted it to you in a birthday card. When you get it just separate the back part of the card. Between the layers is a thin sheet with everything on it. It’s sort of delicate so be careful.”
“And you’re sure you’re not traceable?” Thurstan looked at him searchingly, looking for a glimmer of doubt.
Gandalph chuckled. “Absolutely. I bought myself a second-hand laptop from a market up in Cumbria for cash and everything I used has been wiped, stripped down and disposed of. It’s either in a canal somewhere now or part of a cube that used to be a car, on its way to Africa probably. Yeah, I’m certain.” He stood up. “Ok if I go back to the office now, Boss?”
The DCI looked up and replied absently, “Yes Stephen, go ahead.”
He took a few steps then stopped and turned. “Oh, and you’ll need a magnifying glass, Boss. For the card.”