Authors: David Lowe
‘How about this Mark Dunn, the scrap metal dealer in Gorton? According to our intelligence, he’s also likely to have a hand in this?’ David asked.
‘Mark’s a blind alley as far as you’re concerned. While he supported the Provo’s during the Troubles, he’s retired since the Good Friday agreement,’ Jimmy said. Then pausing for a moment, he added, ‘He’s the one that passed on most of this onto me. It was him that Sean McCrossan contacted. Murphy’s the man you boys should be keeping an eye on. From what Mark says, he’s the one running things over here for the Real IRA.’
David and Steve looked at each other and David said, ‘Jimmy, you’ve come up trumps again. What do you want for this information? I’ve been authorised by my DI to ask what it is you need.’
With a disapproving look, Jimmy shook his head and said, ‘I thought you two knew me better than that. I want nothing from you but to catch these bastards before they start up again on the mainland. Nothing’s changed since the old days. I still haven’t forgiven the Provo’s for killing my brother in the Europa Hotel bombing in Belfast in the seventies.’
‘I’m sorry Jimmy,’ David said, ‘but I had to ask. Things have changed regarding how we deal with informers these days. If you did need anything, we can’t sanction it any more. It has to be our DI.’
Jimmy stood up to pick up the mugs off the coffee table the two officers had been drinking from and said, ‘Your processes might change but some things don’t change. McCrossan and his boys are still ruthless. Watch your backs, especially you Davey. He’s out to get you, but more likely than not, it won’t be him that does it. It’ll be one of his boys.’ Holding up the empty mugs, he said, ‘Would you like a refill and talk about the old days.’
‘I’d love to,’ David said, ‘but with what you’ve told us, we need to get things moving.’ David stood up and shook hands with Jimmy. ‘I won’t forget this and when things quieten down, me and Steve will take you out for a drink where we can reminisce as much as we like. How does that sound?’
Jimmy let go of David’s grip and as Steve stood up, he shook hands with him saying ‘That sounds a grand idea. Come on. I’ll show you out.’ The three walked down the hallway towards the front door and Jimmy said, ‘Of course, if I hear anything in the meantime, I’ll be in touch straight away.’ As the officers walked through the door onto the walkway, he added, ‘Take care boys. Once I have more, I’ll let you know and don’t forget, let me know if you want me to check out anything else you come across.’
As the officers walked off towards the stairwell, David said, ‘Thanks Jimmy, we will.’
Chapter Fifteen
GMP’s
Special Branch Office,
16.30 hours, Thursday, 5
th
July
In a briefing room off the main ISB office, a video conference was taking place between George Byrne, David Hurst, Steve Adams, Debbie Heron and her MI5 manager, senior intelligence officer Craig MacDonald who were sat around a large oval shaped table looking up at the screen at Jenny Richmond from MI5 in Thames House. ‘If the intelligence David and Steve received is correct, we’re going to have to go over to Ireland and check this out straight away. It changes our plans, but we need to know who McCrossan’s staying with as well as who he meets while he’s there. It’s imperative we find out as soon as we can who it is that’s coming over from Ireland to replace McCrossan in London. In the meantime I’ve arranged for an authority to tap into this Dunn’s phone and communications in case McCrossan contacts him again,’ Jenny said to the assembled officers.
‘I agree,’ Craig said, ‘but I suggest this is a job solely for MI5. We should leave Special Branch out of this. They can focus on collating evidence on the targets we know of with an eye towards us actioning arrests at a later date.’
‘I can see where you’re coming from Craig,’ Jenny said, ‘David’s going over to Ireland with the MI5 officers. Not only does he know what McCrossan looks like, he knows how McCrossan operates. That intimate knowledge would be an invaluable source for MI5 officers to tap into, especially if any unexpected developments take place between McCrossan and his cronies. How do you feel about that David?’
‘I’ll do as I’m ordered to. If it’s simply evidence gathering, you know I can do that. When we were dealing with PIRA, I got used to going over to Ireland to assist the RUC and Army Intelligence on their operations,’ David replied.
‘This is not a slight against David’s abilities. I know only too well how good he is in the field,’ Craig said, ‘but my concern is having a police officer along could potentially compromise not only David here, but the MI5 officers he’s working with.’
‘I understand your concerns Craig,’ Jenny said, ‘but this should be a straight forward surveillance job.’
‘It hasn’t been so far,’ Craig said, ‘and having someone passing information onto the Paddies makes this operation far from straight forward.’
‘As soon as David passed onto us his what his informant said about there being an insider passing information onto the IRA all these years, we’ve been working hard at finding out who it is,’ Jenny said, ‘we have come up with a couple of possible names. Some of my staff here are checking every email, phone call and any form of communication McCrossan may have received while he was here in London, especially communications made in the last forty-eight hours. To date from the names that have come into our searches show it’s a police officer passing the information on.’
‘Who’s on the list,’ Craig asked.
‘I’ll let you know once we’ve more to go on,’ Jenny said.
‘Going back to sending David over to Ireland and correct me if I’m wrong,’ George said not wanting the discussion to move on without clarification of David’s role in assisting MI5 being confirmed, ‘I take it Craig’s concern is if unexpected events occur that necessitates the MI5 officers having to take action that will affect the operation of the Real IRA cell to our advantage, as the actions they take will be outside the remit of those expected from a Special Branch officer, simply having David there could hinder them having to do what is necessary.’
‘That’s very diplomatically put George,’ Craig said, ‘and that’s my point in a nutshell. Jenny, you know as well as I do, it’ll be best to leave McCrossan and what he gets up to in Ireland solely with MI5. Of course, there’s nothing preventing MI5 from passing over information they gather in the meantime to assist Special Branch in their line of enquiries on this operation.’
‘I’ve noted your concerns Craig, but I still think we should send David over with a couple of our officers for the reasons I’ve given,’ Jenny said.
‘And just to clarify that reason is what?’ George asked.
‘To simply observe and pass on information to the MI5 officers he is with,’ Jenny said, ‘he’s not to participate in any actions that needs to be taken, be it arresting McCrossan or in disturbing the Real IRA cell he’s with.’
‘As it’s your show, it’s your call Jenny,’ Craig said holding up his hands in a manner showing he was passing sole responsibility to Jenny, wanting no blame to fall on his shoulders should it go wrong.
‘I have similar reservations as Craig in sending David over to Ireland on what is basically an MI5 operation. My concern is David’s safety,’ George said, ‘what’s your plan for them when they get over there?’
‘To allay your concerns, Craig it is my show and don’t worry, should anything go wrong I’ll take full responsibility,’ Jenny said. ‘the plan is for David and two of my officers to fly over to Northern Ireland. There they’ll meet up with MI5 officers from the Belfast office. I’ve already got the Belfast office trying to house McCrossan. They’ll drive down to south Armagh, and if McCrossan’s not already been housed by then, they will continue with that line of enquiry to find out exactly where the farm is he’s using. Once he’s housed, they’ll conduct surveillance and observe McCrossan, seeing who he meets up with and so on. This is where I think David’s presence will be essential. We can tap into his experience of dealing with Irish republican terrorist groups, as well as the knowledge he has of any former PIRA operatives McCrossan may be recruiting to the Real IRA. While they’re out there David will be politely asked to withdraw if MI5 need to take action that’s outside Special Branch’s remit. Does that seem agreeable to all of you?’
‘That makes sense and is fine by me,’ said George.
‘I agree,’ said Craig.
‘More importantly, how does that sound to you David? After all, it’s you I’m sending out there,’ Jenny asked.
‘I’ve no problems with that,’ David replied.
‘Then we’re agreed,’ Jenny said. ‘David, I want you to be ready to go by half seven this evening. You’ll need an overnight bag, as you could be there for a few days. I’ll contact you to let you know the arrangements. I’m arranging for a helicopter to fly up from London to Manchester with the MI5 officers I’m sending over to Ireland. At Manchester, it will pick up David and then fly over to Belfast. Once I have the flight details, I’ll contact you. In the meantime, I want Steve Adams to go to Liverpool and meet up with the Special Branch officers based in Merseyside. Steve will liaise with them so they can tap into his knowledge of dealing with IRA groups. Steve, you’ll also need to take an overnight bag with you, as you could be with them for some time. I don’t want you commuting over to Liverpool from Manchester, I want you on hand in the Liverpool area twenty-four, seven.’
Steve smiled and looking up at the screen at Jenny said, ‘That’s fine by me. I might even be able to refine some of those Scousers.’
‘I know you like to wise-crack, but this is not the time for joking,’ Jenny said, ‘This is a serious operation and we must use the time we have to get into them before they can carry out any operations they’re planning.’
Replacing his smile with an intense glare, Steve said, ‘You don’t need to tell me how serious this op is. The bastards nearly killed me once. You don’t forget that in a hurry.’
‘That’s why I want you with the Merseyside Branch officers all the time. I know you won’t let officers new to dealing with the Irish dissident groups relax for a moment. I want you to get over to Liverpool as early as you can this evening and report to the DCI operations at the Branch offices at Merseyside’s Headquarters.’
‘No problem,’ Steve said, ‘I can be there by seven this evening.’
‘If we get this right, we’ll nip this Real IRA threat in the bud. Hopefully, we’ll stop them early enough to prevent it getting into the media. George and Craig, I suggest we have another video conference at ten tonight so we can go through anything our officers find to give our planning some substance,’ Jenny said.
‘Not a problem,’ Craig said.
‘If there’s nothing else,’ Jenny said, ‘I’ll get on with making the arrangements.
As the screen was switched off, the assembled officers began walking out of the briefing room. George approached both David and Steve, ‘You two have to hand in your Berettas.’
‘You’re having a laugh aren’t you George,’ David said, ‘I am going over to south Armagh. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s a bit dangerous out there!’
‘If you let me finish, the Special branch are going to fall in line with the rest of the other departments and forces and use the Glock Seventeen. The magazine has more rounds than the Beretta. Familiarisation is supposed to take half a day, but I’ve squared it off with the firearms instructors to give a half hour practice with the weapon. I want the two of you to go downstairs to the range as the instructors are waiting for you and they’ll issue you with a Glock.’
* * *
Removing the protective goggles and earmuffs, David looked at his Glock in the booth he had been using at the range in the basement of the building housing the ISB offices and shouted over to Steve, ‘I like it, how about you?’
After making his weapon safe, Steve stepped out of his booth and walked behind David and said, ‘I like it too.’
As Steve spoke, the firearms instructor’s voice came through the speakers of the address system, ‘Do you two want to let off some more rounds?’
Both David and Steve looked up to the booth where the instructor was sitting shaking their heads they didn’t. ‘Wait there, I want a word with you before you go,’ the instructor said making her way out of the small booth that gave an overview over the whole range. After descending the few steps, she approached the two officers and said ‘This is all very irregular, but as your DI’s request was supported by MI5, I’m not in a position to refuse. I just want to make sure you’re both happy that you can handle the weapon in an operational situation?’
‘I feel fine using it,’ David said.
‘Me too,’ Steve said.
‘You should Steve that was pretty impressive shooting. You had good clusters and hit the targets no problem. David, you’re targets were fine, you only had a couple of misses but that was at the beginning of the practice shoot.’
‘So I’m still the best shot out of the two of us?’ Steve asked grinning at David.
‘It’s the only thing you’re better at doing than me,’ David said.
‘I’m surprised you two are still friends. Every time you come to the range, all you do is bicker and try to outdo each other,’ the instructor said.
‘As he hates to be beaten in anything, I just love to rub it in, that’s all,’ Steve said.
‘If you’re happy with your weapons, come with me and I’ll sign them out to you along with some extra ammunition. George told me you’re both going out on ops this evening. If you have any problems with the Glocks let me know and remember as it’s standard national issue, you should have no problem getting more ammunition. You should have more than enough with the five clips I’ve given you. ‘
‘Thanks Sandra,’ David said signing for his new weapon and the ammunition, ‘I take it when you say national that includes the Police Service of Northern Ireland?’
‘Of course. So that’s where you’re going to this evening?’ Sandra asked.
‘That’s on a need to know basis, but it looks like you’ve just found out,’ David said smiling, ‘Keep it to yourself.’
‘You know me,’ Sandra replied, ‘discretion’s my middle name.’