Authors: David Lowe
‘It should be this evening. Once we pick them up, we’re bringing most of them over to Liverpool, where they’ll be staying for a couple of days. I’ve got two of the ex-Provo boys staying at a safe-house closer to the target in Cheshire. They’re experienced and know what they’re doing. I’ve arranged for Sean ‘s replacement to make their own way to London. In the meantime, the boys who were working with Sean in London are giving SO15 the run around down there,’ Murphy said.
‘You’ve done well,’ Sayfel said taking a sip of his drink, ‘The only fuck up has been the unfortunate meetings with that bastard Hurst making your man McCrossan return to Ireland. Are you sure that your man can sort him out without my company getting involved?’
‘It’s all in hand. He’s going to set him and Adams up so they’ll be left in a vulnerable position where we can finish the job we should have done years ago. You forget, we’ve also got unfinished business with those two as well.’
‘It sounds like it’s going to be a busy week. If it goes according to plan, it’ll be a war on two fronts.’
‘You can count on us to do our bit.’
‘How do you know your man on the inside’s not been feeding you misinformation?’
‘He worked for us for many years when I was with the Provisional’s. During that time, he set the wheels in motion numerous times for the security services to go off on wild goose chases to get them off our tails. He’s the one who nearly gave us Adams and Hurst on a plate all those years ago and on top of that he led the British security services so far away from us we could move those from the south Armagh brigades to bomb canary Wharf,’ Murphy said.
‘Let’s hope he can still deliver. Let’s get some more drinks in.’ Sayfel instructed one of the men he arrived with to go to the bar.
‘I thought Muslims didn’t drink,’ Murphy said, ‘I’m surprised to see you having a beer.’
‘We don’t,’ Sayfel said raising his glass to finish off the beer remaining in it. ‘I’m sure you’ve had to do things in the past on operations that went against your beliefs’.
* * *
David leant into Gary’s ear and whispered, ‘Now there’s a few more punters in the pub, I’m getting out before Sayfel spots me. If he does, we’ll be compromised. Give me the car keys and keep your eye on him. Don’t let him out of your sight. I’ll see you back at the car.’ He turned to Tony and said, ‘Tony, you come with me, but stay to my left so it’ll be harder for him to see me. If they split up, Gary you stay with Murphy. I’ll stay with Sayfel.’ Gary got the car keys out of his pocket and passed them to David. David nodded to Tony and both officers got up and started to leave the pub with David looking away from Sayfel. Once out of the pub, David and Tony walked quickly back to the car. Unlocking the car doors, he told Tony to keep his eye on the entrance to the pub while he got into the passenger seat to make some phone calls. The first was to George.
When David told George about Sayfel being in the pub, George said, ‘Fuck me that was a close one. Is he still in the pub now?’
‘Yes, so get me as much back up as you can. I’m assuming the fucker’s going back to the London area. I’ll see which car he gets into so we can get the reg number.’
‘I’ll see if Staffs have got anyone available.’
‘See what you can do George. I’ll give Jenny Richmond a ring. Some of her mob might be near-by and able to help out.’
‘You do that and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.’
‘Thanks George.’ David rang Jenny Richmond. On answering the call, David said, ‘Jenny, it’s David Hurst. You’re not going to believe this, but we’ve followed Murphy to a small town called Yoxall in Staffordshire.’
‘I know. I monitored your radio transmissions. Is everything alright?’
‘I know this is a long shot, but are there any MI5 officers in the area? Murphy’s meet was only with our old friend Sayfel. I saw him as clear as day sitting there with two other Asian lads. I can only assume they’re also Al Qaeda.’
‘So that traitorous shit is back. Don’t worry, there’s an operation ongoing just outside Lichfield. That’s only down the road from where you are. Switch the tracker on in your car and I’ll get two mobiles down to you. What’s your plan?’
‘The other Cheshire officers are going to stick with Murphy while me and another Cheshire officer stay with Sayfel to see where he goes.’
‘I don’t want you to approach him. Have you informed anyone else?’
‘I’ve told George and he’s trying to rustle up some help from Staffordshire’s Special Branch.’
‘Don’t worry Staffordshire’s Special Branch I’ll have those MI5 officers on their way to you now. Go onto channel twenty-five and we can talk there. Remember you’re not to approach Sayfel.’
‘Understood, thanks Jenny. Do me a favour and let Debbie know.’
‘I will and try to keep Sayfel alive. We would like to speak to him at some later date.’
Sat in the front passenger seat, David’s eyes were focused on the entrance to the pub as he waited for Sayfel to emerge. Only taking his eyes off the pub entrance to glance at the clock in the car to check the time he grew increasingly impatient for Sayfel to emerge. After sitting in the car for nearly fifteen minutes, David saw Sayfel and the two Asian men emerge from the pub. As they walked away from David’s car, for a brief moment his instincts took over his discipline. Touching the handle of his pistol nestling in its holster under his jacket, he thought about getting behind them. Using the element of surprise he knew he could shoot Sayfel as well as take out his two henchmen. David’s left hand began to open the car door while his right hand reached for his Glock.
‘What are you doing,’ Tony asked, ‘our orders are to follow, not to challenge them.’
‘I’m just watching them,’ David said removing his right hand from under his jacket and picking up the radio transmitter said, ‘All units, Sayfel and his two friends are across the road from The Bull pub and they’re getting into a red Audi A6. I can’t make out the reg number yet.’
‘Alpha Mike four, we’re virtually at your location. Keep us posted on their direction of travel,’ came the response from one of the MI5 mobiles Jenny dispatched to assist David.
‘Thanks Alpha Mike four. He’s starting to move off southbound on the A515 towards Lichfield, so he may be coming towards you,’ David said.
‘Thanks, we see him now. Orders are for you to leave him to us. You’re to return to your original target,’ the MI5 officers instructed David over the radio.
Disbelieving what he was hearing, David said, ‘That’s a negative. Your control told me to stay with Sayfel.’
‘There’s been a change of plan. I’ve been instructed to order you to return to your original target and leave this one to us.’
On hearing the transmissions Tony said, ‘What shall we do Sarge?’
‘Fuck them, get after him, Sayfel’s mine,’ David replied filled with rage. As Tony drove off after Sayfel, David rang Jenny Richmond at Thames House. On answering, he said, ‘What’s going on? Your mobiles have instructed me to back off Sayfel. Can you confirm this?’
‘Yes, Sayfel’s our target. Pull off him now and leave him to us,’ Jenny said firmly.
‘Why?’ David asked.
‘Don’t question my orders. Sayfel’s not your target. You’re to stay on Murphy,’ Jenny said.
Terminating the call and in frustration, David banged his fist on the dashboard shouting, ‘Fuck them, fucking MI5.’
As Tony pulled off Sayfel’s car and began to drive back to Cheshire’s ISB office, tiredness took over David. Hardly a word was exchanged between the two officers on the return drive to Chester, but it gave David time to reflect on the day’s events. From following McCrossan to Yew Tree farm in the Irish republic to Murphy using his wife as a decoy only served to confirm in his mind the police mole was already passing police activities onto the targets. Looking out of the window of the front passenger door, he was alone with his thoughts as images of him shooting McCrossan to seeing Sayfel flitted in his mind. Going through the events of the last couple of days, there was one name that came to mind as to who could be the Cheshire officer passing intelligence onto the Irish.
David kept mulling over in his mind the best approach on how to get things into motion. Who should he pass his thoughts onto? Should it be George or Jenny Richmond? He knew if he contacted George, he was keeping it in-house, but George had a previous good working relationship with Alec Harvey and that could compromise the investigation into finding the mole. He knew George would contact Alec Harvey, who would have his own ideas that could influence George. If he told Jenny, George would be bound to follow her orders, but it might put a strain on his relationship with his DI who may be offended David did not trust him by approaching him first. It was a dilemma. This was about doing the right thing, as well as taking the right approach with two senior officers that respected him. The issue was too important. Lives had already been lost. He could not discuss with George what had happened that morning in Ireland. As they left the M6 motorway, David instructed Tony to pull up. He decided it was best to call Jenny Richmond outside the car, out of earshot of Tony.
* * *
As night fell the heat of the summer’s day began to recede as did David’s temper. The chat with Jenny on the way back to Chester helped. He learnt why only MI5 officers had to stay with Sayfel and not him or anyone else from the ISB. On top of that, Jenny agreed with him as to who could be passing information onto the Real IRA. She told him she would instruct George on the best approach to take in the investigation into the mole. There was another good reason to look forward to getting back to the Special Branch office in Chester, Jenny told him Debbie was there. Once Jenny knew Sayfel was working in collusion with the Real IRA, she sent Debbie over from Manchester straight away to work with David to prepare the path for George’s investigations.
As well as the stresses of the day, tiredness was beginning to tell on him. Walking into Cheshire’s main ISB office where the DC’s and DS’s worked, he was unable to stop yawning. ‘Are we keeping you up?’ Gary Baker asked, sat with his feet up on his desk drinking a mug of herbal tea.
‘I’m sorry, I’m knackered, it’s been a long day,’ David said looking for a vacant seat next to Gary.
‘There’s a seat here,’ Gary said taking his feet off his desk and reaching over to a chair. ‘Dominic’s put the kettle on so we can have a brew while we debrief what happened tonight.’ He looked over to the officer and in a loud voice said, ‘Dom, get the sarge a drink. He feels too tired to do it himself.’
‘It’s alright, I’ll make it,’ David said getting out of his seat thinking to himself, ‘Cheeky fucker, if only he knew.’
‘It’s alright sarge,’ Dominic said, ‘I’ll show you proper Cheshire hospitality. What do you want? We’ve got a range of herbal teas . . .’
‘A nice strong coffee for me please,’ David said interrupting the officer who had walked over to the table and was switching the kettle on to bring it back to the boil.
‘We’ve only got decaff, is that OK?’
‘Only if you can put three heaped spoons of sugar in it,’ David said. Thinking there had to be a limit to Gary Baker’s team’s attitude to a healthy lifestyle, he was finding it hard to believe that a CID office had no proper coffee.
‘We’ve got sweetener. Is that alright for you?’
‘Leave it mate, I’ll get a proper coffee when I get to my hotel, wherever that is!’ David said shaking his head.
Gary turned to David and said, ‘Oh I forgot to tell you, there’s an MI5 officer here to see you. She’s in with Alec at the moment updating him on our job and she wants a word with you. It’s most probably to give you a bollocking for telling MI5 where they could stick their suggestion that you pull off that Sayfel character. I wouldn’t mind a bollocking off her. A nice bit of skirt she is too.’ Picking up the message left on his desk, Gary handed it over to David saying, ‘You never know you could be in there.’
Not being in the mood for banter and offended by the sexist overtones of Gary’s comments, David snatched it out of his hand. Looking at the message, he immediately recognised the handwriting and said, ‘For your information, as you put it, I am in there. The skirt, as you call her, is Debbie Heron and she’s my girlfriend. While you and your team might be on a health kick purging your bodies of impurities, you should also clean out the impurities in your mind, I don’t appreciate your sexist attitude.’
‘Sorry Davey. No offence was meant. I didn’t know,’ Gary said flinching away from the officer while holding his hands up apologetically.
‘And don’t fucking call me Davey, it’s David to you,’ David said as his weariness lowered his tolerance threshold.
‘I’m sorry, I really am.’
‘Apologies accepted,’ David snapped back at Gary, ‘I’ll go and join them. Are you coming Gazza?’
‘Do you think I should?’ Gary said realising this was not the time to bite at David’s attempt at sarcasm.
‘Well I wouldn’t ask you otherwise would I?’ David said in a curt manner.
The two walked to Alec’s office where Gary tentatively knocked on the door. Shaking his head at Gary’s timidity, David gave three loud raps on the door. Before he received a reply, he walked into the office where he saw Alec sitting behind his desk with Debbie sat in one of the seats in front of the desk.
Alec smiled at David’s brusque manner as he entered and said, ‘And a good evening to you too. Come in, make yourselves comfortable and tell me all that happened this evening.’
‘I’m sure Debbie’s filled you in on what Murphy got up to and the significance of who he met up with?’ David said.
‘Yes she has,’ Alec said, ‘I just wanted to know if you had another slant on what happened tonight?’
‘As I’ve already briefed MI5, Debbie will have given you the full SP,’ David said.
‘Not quite all,’ Alec replied, ‘What happened to Sayfel when he left the pub?’
‘Sayfel was followed by MI5 and traced to a flat in the New Cross area of Birmingham,’ Debbie said to the three officers, ‘He’s a target in a dedicated MI5 operation. At this stage, there’s no requirement for the Branch to be involved. Jenny Richmond emphasised that there is still a need for him to be left loose to give us the opportunity to see if we can tie him into any other Al Qaeda operations and operatives. That’s why you were told to break off your pursuit this evening.