When you added to that the agents they had in the field who were experts in intelligence gathering, then Erebus and his colleagues had everything they required in order to mount a counter terrorism strike.
Erebus hadn’t told Colin Bailey everything on his grand tour; the Olympus group monitored the secret services too, so that if direct action was ordered they didn’t bump into any of our own people and expose the true nature of the Larcombe operation. At this stage though they were just building up a picture of the terrorist cell and monitoring its activities; if and when an attack on the streets of London was imminent, they needed to be ready to act.
Because of her personal involvement with the 7/7 bombings in London Athena was keen to be directly involved; her preference was for the cell to be smashed well before it got a chance to give an operation cell the green light to attack targets in the city. Erebus was more inclined to take the cautious approach.
“If we are interpreting the data we’ve gathered correctly, it would be foolish to assume we could eliminate the threat in one fell swoop Athena. There are a series of interlocking cells as Thanatos has described it to us on the board, and certainly in this case these cells overlap. We could not be certain that the entire cell has been disrupted.”
Thanatos continued with his analysis.
“We have recruited a mole from within the Muslim community to infiltrate the alleged plot. As I said earlier, progress is slow. Our man on the inside has to proceed with extreme caution. Two of the members of his link in the chain are brothers, another is their uncle; all three have been backwards and forwards to Pakistan this summer.
Their calls to Britain and internet communications have been under surveillance and our informant is supplying us with details of their movements in and around the capital now they are back in the country.”
Athena stood up and stretched; it had been a long day with no sign of it ending any time soon.
“If there are twenty initiatives under scrutiny by MI5 and ourselves, can we even be sure this is the most appropriate one for us to be focussing on?”
Minos was also unconvinced that they could select a target that would cripple the cell’s capacity to carry out an attack.
“There are too many players Erebus; we might need to remove fifty terrorists to eliminate the cell totally. That’s a non-starter! The Olympus Project has to continue for many years to come. Our work is too important to sacrifice resources on one element.”
“We might be able to take out the suicide squad on the streets” suggested Alastor “that might only mean removing three or four bombers.”
“It would still leave us exposed” said Minos “and we have other targets which need our attention. I vote that even if it means we risk a tragedy in the capital, we leave the matter to our nation’s security services.”
“God help us!” said Athena.
“What other targets are you alluding to Minos?” asked Erebus.
“Our high security prison population is perhaps twenty percent Muslim; possibly more. Over the last decade many are Afro-Caribbean and white Caucasian converts. The most radical prisoners have become very adept at targeting vulnerable prisoners and offering them protection and support through religion. They have plenty of time in which to do this after all. So we find a number of prisoners who on the outside are members of organised gangs being converted and then when they leave prison they are spreading the message. The risk is that more and more criminal gangs will be recruited by groups such as Al-Qaeda. The challenge of prison extremism is not going to go away.”
“We can’t send an operative into a high security prison to kill the more influential jihadists; it would be a suicide mission at worst. He would be charged with murder and banged up for the rest of his life at best” said Erebus emphatically.
The room fell silent for a while and then Athena spoke.
“Could we perhaps persuade the authorities to transfer prisoners to limit the influence of these extremists?”
“It would need our communications people to cover their tracks completely; any such instructions must never be traced back to Larcombe. If several of the ‘big hitters’ were put in a van and moved to another establishment, we could arrange an accident.” said Thanatos.
“The accident would need to be catastrophic. All the occupants would need to die; driver, warders and prisoners” said Athena “we can’t ambush the van and shoot the extremists; it would leave too many questions.”
Erebus spoke. “Prepare a plan Thanatos; the collateral damage is unavoidable. We have to think of the greater good.”
He continued. “We haven’t resolved this situation regarding the mole or the removal of our prison population extremists; we need to revisit those matters on another occasion. We need more intelligence in these areas Thanatos. See to it. If that means getting more people on the inside, so be it. If we need to invite one of their number to spend some time with us at Larcombe then we should organise that as soon as possible.”
Alastor asked “Would it be a ‘catch and release’ visit?”
“One way ticket only.” replied Erebus.
CHAPTER 15
Colin had arrived back in the West Country; he had sent a text to the transport section, suitably confusing for anyone monitoring mobile phone traffic but crystal clear to the drivers back at Larcombe, as the train was pulling out of Swindon.
‘Fireboy home in fifteen; hope to see you soon.’
He walked out of the station in the heart of the Roman city and straight into the passenger seat of the Olympus minicab.
“Good trip?” the driver asked.
“For me, yes” replied Colin.
The driver chuckled and eased the cab into the slow moving line of cars. It was a mild autumn evening and the trees were starting to shed their leaves in larger and larger numbers. Colin watched the changing scene as they drove out of the city into the countryside. He had been so preoccupied with his training over the past three months that he had forgotten how quickly time had passed. Today had been a breeze; he was back doing what he did best. He wondered what Erebus and the others would make of his performance. Would he get a gold star potentially?
The minicab negotiated the leaf strewn driveway and pulled up by the stable block. He was delivered to his door. He assumed any performance review was on hold until the morning at least. He thanked the driver for the lift and wished him goodnight. When he got inside his quarters he unpacked his rucksack and changed his clothes.
Colin was stood holding the pistol and thinking back over the past twelve hours or so. Would there be anyone still left in the armoury? Should he return the gun and spare ammunition tonight? It was then that he glanced over to his desk and spotted another ‘post it’ note on his laptop.
It was from Erebus again. ‘Pop in when you get back Phoenix. We’re working late.’
Colin stashed the gun and ammo in his locker and walked over to the main house. He found Erebus and the others in the drawing room; they were relaxing with coffee and some sandwiches. Thanatos waved a lazy hand towards the supper spread on the side table and told him to get something for himself.
Colin hadn’t realised he was so hungry. It was a long time since his lunch at the Snowdrop Inn and he had travelled back to Bath as quickly and inconspicuously as he was able. The luxury of idling away an hour in the restaurant car or the station buffets at Victoria or Paddington had been tempting, but too risky.
He was just about to bury his teeth into a salmon and cucumber sandwich when Erebus interrupted him.
“All went according to plan then Phoenix?” he said, sipping his coffee.