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Friday 30th May 2014
Thurstan stepped from the lift to be met by Gandalph’s: “Morning, Boss.” They waited, briefly, whilst the doors closed. “Just came to tell you everything’s fine,” Gandalph said quietly. “I swept the place as you asked and I’m more than happy there’s nothing there.”
“You’re absolutely sure?”
He smiled.
“Yep, absolutely.”
“How much do I owe you?” Thurstan asked him.
“Five hours twenty and a scoff allowance will do me, Boss,” he grinned.
The DCI patted him on the arm.
“Good lad. Go home and get your head down and we’ll see you this afternoon.”
Entering the office he bumped into Arthur.
“You’re in early, Thurstan. Wet the bed?”
“Cheeky sod!” he retorted. “What about yourself?”
“At my age, it’s expected. You’re only a youngster,” he laughed. “Want a cuppa?”
Later that morning, like scouts round a campfire, he, Chalkie, Lizzie and Degsy sat huddled around the coffee table in his office. The conversation was muted.
“So that’s my thoughts on the matter. Even though one of the subjects, as far as we can tell, doesn’t fully fit the profile, I think we should cover him as well.”
Chalkie eyed the other two as he spoke. “I think it would be foolish not to.” They nodded their agreement.
Degsy leant forward and took another chocolate digestive from the plate. “Given that we’ve only got two days until MI5 move their chap, how long are we going to be watching the other fella out in Wales, Boss?”
“Well, I’ve already spoken to the Chief who says we have the resources for three days max. He spoke to the Chief Con of North Wales whilst I was there. It seems they’re big buddies. Your man in North Wales agreed to pay a third of the costs on the basis it would probably cost him a lot more if he had the bloke’s murder to deal with. If nothing happens within three days, the guy gets locked up on child porn allegations. Any more questions?”
“You’re quite certain of the provenance of this information?”
“Totally, Chalkie. Couldn’t be more certain. The uncertainty is whether Nickson will show up. It’s the best shot we’ve got.” He smiled apologetically.
“Seeing as we’re ‘encroaching’ into MI5 territory, it sounds like this has come from a hacker or someone of the ‘Deep Throat’ mould?” Lizzie chipped in, looking at Thurstan expectantly.
Again an apologetic smile, with a hint of a sigh.
“I don’t think I’m giving anything away if I say it’s a bit of both but anything else I can’t say, sorry. If this leaks there will be hell to pay so the only people who can know about MI5, as I said before, is us, in here.” He pointed to the main office. “Them out there get told nothing but what they need to know to do their jobs. The same applies to the surveillance and firearms people with the exceptions of the Team Leaders who’ll be on the job. They’ll have to know about the MI5 close protection team, we don’t want any accidents there.” He bit into a chocolate biscuit then continued: “We’ll be there to identify and arrest Nickson. We want to prevent what he intends to do or, if we don’t manage that, we prevent his escape. That goes for both locations.
“With regards, specifically to the MI5 operation, anything that happens within the safe house compound is theirs to deal with. If it spills out onto the street in the immediate vicinity of the premises, say within 50 metres, they sort it out, we mop up if needs be. Anything further than that, we intervene. Hopefully, we’ll get him on the way in. I anticipate the safe house will be locked down at night so that’s when we’ll be getting some sleep. There’ll be a skeleton staff during dark hours just in case but I think Nickson will only turn up when they’re ready to move their man, which will be sometime during the day on Sunday, between ten and four. The first day of the deployment here will be a settling in period, making sure we’ve set up right.
“Chalkie, you and Liz will be Bronze for the Welsh job. Alternate with the shifts. North Wales will provide Silver command.
“Derek, you’ll be Bronze here in Liverpool, I’ll be Silver. Gold command in both locations will be the Chief Constables.”
He sat back in his chair. “Chalkie, you and Liz sort your arrangements and plan, then get back to me.”
When they’d left the room Thurstan beckoned Degsy closer. “We haven’t got much room for error on this one, Derek. You and I will be communicating via our own personal channel. I may have to make decisions I don’t want anyone else to hear. If something happens at that safe house that’s not in the game plan I don’t want people charging in. It needs to be controlled. We may even have to just quietly walk away.”