“Clear. And thanks.”
“Management and direction. In line management terms, you get me, I’m afraid. Your previous line manager is not cleared for this. You take up a post that reports to, and takes direction from, UNSC Ad-hoc Committee 23. That is an extremely important point. You must be careful to compartmentalise your roles, because you are both a British intelligence officer and an officer of a multi-national organisation, and these two roles will sometimes clash. In the event of a conflict of interests, come to me. Clear?
“You are, as of ten minutes ago, the head of a unit designated ‘United Nations Transnational Incidents and Emergencies’. For better or worse, to the few who know of it, it’s known as UNTIE. On paper it is a sub-department of UNTNC, but only on paper. The unit is physically based here in Annex 3, along with most of the UN’s other secret squirrel units. Not as nice as Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, but much less in the public eye. You have two members of staff, but we don’t have time to meet them today.
“Your predecessor. UNTIE leadership rotates around the five permanent members of the security council. The other members don’t know it exists. Last time, China supplied the boss, and this time it’s Britain’s turn, hence you. Your predecessor was a certain Chen Yongjun, known to his Western contacts as John Chen.”
Peri dared to interrupt. “Is that the same Chen Yongjun that is – or was – a major in the PLA Second Department? He was ‘made’ by the Canadians and then floated around as a military attaché in various English-speaking countries?”
“That’s the one. Have you come across him before?”
“His name came up once. I was just showing off. Sorry, go on.”
“Chen spent nearly two years in the job, and was about to retire, both from UNTIE and from the PLA. My personal opinion is that his heart wasn’t in the job, and he was mostly going through the motions.”
“So why was he in Wales?”
“Ah, now that’s the big question, isn’t it? We’re hoping you can find out. Also, for what it’s worth, Lisa Li didn’t take to him either. She couldn’t really say so, but I think she was disappointed by him, and slightly embarrassed that he’s turned up dead on somebody else’s turf. Namely, ours. She was the one who insisted that UNTIE should poke into it. I believe she’s hoping that Chen’s reputation comes out of this with some dignity.”
“What happened to him?”
“All we know is that he was fished out of the drink on the Welsh coast. He may have fallen off a cliff, got busted up and floated away on the tide. The police, of course, are investigating. The curious thing is that he called in a buckthorn amber just before he died.”
“Buckthorn amber? Now that just sounds like a cider to me.”
“With a deft transition, we have now moved on to British protocols. As Lisa indicated earlier, Britain is one of several countries with preternatural investigation protocols. We hide ours behind the shield of an intelligence compartment named ‘buckthorn’. As of right now, you consider yourself read into buckthorn. The buckthorn community is quite small. A handful of people in each of the intelligence agencies, a select few counter-terrorism specialists in the police – the Met, MOD Police and Police Scotland – and a few people in UK Special Forces. It’s divided into three groups, cleared for various levels of intelligence. The three levels are designated green, amber and red. If you have buckthorn green clearance, then you are read into a cover story that is about investigating UFOs and similar incidents. If you have buckthorn red, then you are read into the real story, that buckthorn is about protecting humanity from monsters.
“And buckthorn amber? What’s that cover?”
“Supernatural beings – demons, werewolves, vampires and the like.”
Her eyes went wide. “Bloody hell! Do they really exist?”
“That would be a discussion for another occasion. Buckthorn event levels, now. Confusingly, they too are on a scale of green, amber and red. A buckthorn green event is something that bears investigation. An amber event is actively being investigated, and the investigators are escalating to obtain more resources. A red event is a confirmed preternatural occurrence, posing a risk to life, and requiring strong action.”
She bit her lower lip as she listened, then tried to confirm that she was following everything he said. “In short, Major Chen called in to report a preternatural event under investigation, then turned up dead a few hours later.”
Wilkinson smirked. “You have total recall of every word I said, so there’s no need to make empathic noises.”
Peri scowled at him. “I’m reflecting the conversation, not empathising. I want you to know I’m actively listening. Maybe that’s one bullshit training course you managed to avoid?”
“Fine.” He looked at his watch. “Tempus fugit.” He pulled a ruggedized laptop out of his case and slid it across the table to her. He fished a device that looked like a key fob out of his pocket and slid that across to her too. “Everything you need is on the laptop, unlocked with the security token.”
“Classification?” she asked.
“Maximum of TOP SECRET BUCKTHORN RED,” he answered. Naturally it’s protected and high-grade encrypted. Mislay it and… well you know what happens next. You’ll find two partitions, one with UNSC EYES ONLY, the other with UK EYES ONLY. Do yourself a favour and don’t ever confuse the two.
“The UNSC partition is a dump of all the relevant files from UNTIE. Case protocols, administrivia, case histories, and all that good stuff. Read it on the plane, by all means, but under the circumstances it’s more important to bone up on the UK material.
“The UK EYES material gives you everything you ever wanted to know about buckthorn protocols. It includes contact numbers, names and responsibilities. Handle with care.”
“Of course.”
He sighed, looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and then leaned forward across the table. “Right. Change of subject, some hard questions and then you need to get on the road.”
“Yes?” She looked wary, which made him frown.
“Got anything to hide?” he demanded.
“What?”
“When Chen turned up dead, Li instantly insisted on a replacement, and it’s Britain’s turn. Li insisted on an immediate investigation. She forced the pace.” He looked at Peri expectantly, and let the silence linger. When Peri made no move to fill the gap, he scowled. “Li asked for you by name, Peri. Why?”
Peri gaped. “She did what? How would she even have heard of me?”
“I want to know what you’re up to, Peri,” Wilkinson said, firmly.
She stared at him. “Nothing. I swear, it, Wilko, I am not ‘up to’ anything. I was surprised to get called in here – just ask Ewan and his people.” She scowled at him. “No, I’ll go further, I was bloody furious to get called in the middle of the night and have my life turned upside down. To be honest, I’m still really annoyed because what with your pathetic count-down crap, it feels like I was strong-armed into this, and now you’re implying that I can’t be trusted? Is that what you’re implying, pal? Because if that’s what you’re thinking, mate, you have got it so bloody wrong! In fact how about this – take your fucking UNTIE job and shove it where the sun don’t shine! Because I won’t put up with this, I really will not.”
Wilkinson made placatory air-pats with his hands. “No, no, don’t go off the deep end. I have to ask. You will take up this post, and you will fly to London. This has all been approved at the highest level. But we need to understand what is going on with Lisa Li. You are sure you have never met her before?”