Chapter 6: Gathering Intelligence
"WE DID IT, WE BLOODY WELL DID IT!!!" Damio Pullson shouted.
He was watching the television with his colleagues. They were all in a large house in the countryside outside Diamond.
With the men and women was Dr. Chris Engels, known to the group as Chris Enton. Chris was a 30-year-old white rat with a black patch of fur around his left eye. He had degrees in Psychology and Sociology and he never thought of working for the intelligence services; but he was recruited away doing his PhD and was good at monitoring fascists.
He had been with the group for four months and got friendly with them, working slowly into there organisation and was working his way into their inner circle. He was able to stop some assassinations and kidnappings and he knew the group were planning something major in Diamond. He didn't know what it was and he wanted to find out more information before telling his superiors. But he was too late to stop the first bomb.
"So what do you think about this Chrisy boy?" one of them asked.
"It gets our message across," Chris answered.
"It should do," Pullson said. "It's just a warning shot."
"How many bombs are there?" Chris asked.
"That would be telling," Pullson said. He did it because he thought if Chris was picked up by the police he wouldn't be able to tell them anyone. But Pullson didn't know Chris was an MI6 agent.
"What's the next stage?" another fascist, a green female parrot asked.
"You're under orders to have a low profile unless told otherwise," Pullson answered. "Me and Shijo are in control."
Chris' mobile phone started to ring in his pocket. All the fascists looked at him but he knew how to stay calm. Chris took the phone out his jeans' pocket and looked at it. He saw it was his MI6 handler.
"I'm going to take this outside," Chris said and walked out of the room into a large field.
"Enton," he said.
"You know of the bomb in Diamond?" his handler said in a posh public school accent.
"Yes."
"We need intelligence and fast."
"Dam did it, he ordered the bomb," Chris said.
"Are there more?" the handler asked.
"Yes, but I don't know how many."
"Find out and e-mail on the address."
"Okay."
Chris was about to hang up but heard his handler shouting. Chris quickly put the phone back to his ear.
"Where are you?" the handler asked.
"In a place called Terracor House, twenty miles away from Diamond."
"Call every two hours; if we don't hear from you we assume you are either dead or captured. If that's the case we'll send special forces."
"Okay," Chris said and hung up.
At the same time Detective Inspector Jeffery Blake was getting the investigate of the explosive into fall swing.
Blake ordered police to close the scene; he also sent forensics and they told him about the device. He also order a background check on all underground workers and had CID officers questions people able to talk; he was targeting mainly homeless people and performers.
A Detective Sergeant, a 32-year-old female fox went to Blake just after interviewing a homeless man at the hospital.
"I got news for you Jeff," she said to the snow leopard.
"Good," Blake answered, "what have you got?"
"I interviewed a homeless man at St. Stephen's," she said looking at her notebook. "He told me that on Friday morning, around 2 am he saw a man under the platform of the station at St. John's. He said that the man looked like fitting something under the platform. After about ten to twenty minutes the man went off with a pistol in his hand. The homeless man said that he kept looking incase anyone was watching him."
"Did the homeless bloke get a look at the man?" DI Blake asked.
"He said it was too dark to tell but he thinks it was someone like a mole or a shrew."
DI Blake was about to order an officer to check the background of rodents that worked on the tube or had a firearm when a team of men and women in suits entered the room.
Blake saw a black cat in a dark blue suit and a silver tie. He sense that he was the leader of the group and he turned toward him and shouted: "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?"
"Calm down," the cat said. "The name's Winston Drake, MI5."
"I don't care if you are the king," DI Blake said. "Now get out of my station!!"
"Now Jeff, you are a good copper, but you are a copper, your job is to catch murderers and rapists and robbers. My job is to catch the terrorists that plant bombs and assassinate key figures."
"Don't patronize me!" Blake said to Winston. "Anyway the bomb has gone off; this is Special Branch work, not MI5."
"Don't question me, I was sent by the DG of MI5, the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister."
"Prove it," Blake ordered.
"Call them," Winston said, giving him a mobile phone. "The numbers are saved in the phonebook."
Blake looked at the phone and went down to 'PM'. He then pressed the call button and put the phone by his ear.
"Hello," a secretary said, "Edward Bear's office."
"Yeah, this is DI Jeffery Blake from Central Diamond Police Station," Blake said, "may I speak to the Prime Minister?"
"He is in an important meeting at the moment but I have been told to content you to Chief Constable Thomas."
The phone started to ring again then Blake heard Thomas' voice say: "hello."
"It's DI Blake."
"I assume that you have met Winston," Thomas said. "Great terrorist except."
"So he is in control of the investigate then," Blake said.
"Yeah. I know you must be disappointed but you are except in robbery and theft and other major crimes. Just continue with policing for now unless Winston needs you."
"Okay sir," DI Blake said. "I just would have preferred an advance warning."
Blake then hung up and gave the phone back to Winston Drake.
"Fine, I believe you," DI Blake said.
"Good," Winston said. "Now I need all the information you and your officers have got."
In a room at Camblie Barracks were seven SAS troops. All they knew was that they were going to be apart of a secret and emergency mission.
One of them looked at his watch and found out the time was 10:23 am. Then a leopard entered the room. He name was Leon Dalo, a Lieutenant Colonel, very high ranking for an SAS solider.
"Morning gentlemen," Lt Col. Dalo said. "It's good that you were so willing to come at such short notice.
"As you know there had been a terrorist attack in Diamond. MI6 has asked for a small team to capture a suspect in the attack."
The lights were turn off and a projector was turned on. A picture of a dingo came up on the wall.
"This is Dr. Pierre Torre. He works for Lemeséfense as a weapons making and researcher. He has met with fascists a few weeks ago and his financial records are not good. So obviously MI6 want to question him.
"Anyway," Dalo said and click on button on a lead that was attached to the projector. Behind him was a picture of his house from a bird's eye view. "This is Torre's home in Arisp. As you can see he lives on the outskirts of the city and we can take him from the front and the back at the same time.
"MI6 and an SAS team of four are monitoring the house as we speak and have told me that Torre is in, but unfortunately his wife and kids are there as well."
"So what's the battle plan?" 23-year-old bull asked.
"There will be two teams of four," Dalo started off with. "One will enter at the front, the other at the back." He gave everyone a picture of either the house's front or back door. "We'll then split into pair and search for the doctor. First team to find him will have to run out of the front door and take to a car waiting outside. After that the rest of us will search the house for computers and documents and all that shit."
"What weapons do we use?" a 29-year-old bat asked.
"Semi-automatics with weaken bullets. The rules of engagement are shot to wound."
"When are we going?" a 26-year-old white Highlander terrier asked.
"In a few minutes. A helicopter is outside ready to take us to the embassy. We'll be armed there and may be given another briefing incase Torre has move or anything each happens."
Winston Drake AKA Mets had set himself up in Central Diamond Police Station. He was in total control; he could order anything in the city. He knew of the treat that there could be more bombs; he asked an officer from Special Branch to draw up a list of possible targets. He also was gathering all the information every minute; he had agents within fascists groups but they were low level. He also had access to information from Special Branch, MI6, other MI5 agents and GCHQ.
Drake was looking at a profile of a man named Graham Selmon; a 28-year-old tune worker who was a mole.
Drake picked up his mobile phone and called Chief Constable Thomas.
"Hello," Thomas said after three rings.
"Pete, it's Winston," Drake said. "I need a raid of a Graham Selmon's flat. He lives at Flat 26 in the Polross building on Umbank Street."
"Will do," Peter Thomas answered. "I'll also send out an order that he should be arrested."
"Good idea," Drake said and hung up.
Drake then turned to his second-in-command, Marie Kingsley, a 30-year-old ginger cat with black hair.
"Marie, I need you to contact some agents," Drake said and gave her a list of names and numbers. "Meet them at 7 Imperial Road."
"Sure," Marie said. "What do I tell them?"
"I want them to find these people," Drake said and gave her pieces of blue paper. "I leave it to you to decide on how to do the operations."
"I'll do it in a few minutes," Marie said.
"By the way," Winston said. He put his right hand her chin, tilled her head up a tiny bit and kissed her on the lips.
Lizzie had finally got up. She was borrowed some of Jessica's clothes (white jumper and jeans). Both Lizzie and Jessica were sitting in kitchen drinking tea. The others were watching the news for developments.
"Thanks for the clothes," Lizzie said to Jessica. "I'll bring them back tomorrow, providing that I'm still alive."
"Why do you think that?" Jessica asked.
"My dad will be angry," Lizzie said. "He is very strict and I bet he'll be stressed out because of the explosion."
"He can't be that bad," Jessica said.
"He can be. He gave me a right royal bollocking when I stayed the night with a friend last year."
"He just like any other dad; my was."
The phone rang and Knuckles went up to answer it.
"Hello," Knuckles said.
"Is this Knuckles, Stars or Sonic?" a female voice asked.
"Knuckles," he answered.
"Come to 7 Imperial Road right now," she ordered. "Bring everyone."
"Who are you?"
"Mets told me to contact you." She hung up away that.
Knuckles turned towards Ninja and Natalie.
"That was someone from MI5," Knuckles said to them. "She wants us to go to 7 Imperial Road right now."
"I'll call Stars, Sonic and Amy then," Ninja said.
As Ninja went up to pick up the phone Knuckles went into the kitchen.
"Sorry Liz," Knuckles said, "we all got to go somewhere. Give me your number and I'll call you."
"Okay," Lizzie said in a shock at his speed.
"Knuckles, a word," Jessica said and brought him back into the lounge. "What in the hell are you doing!!"
"Jess, calm down. A woman from MI5 has called us and wants us to go to Imperial Road again."
"No one is answering," Ninja said.
"We'll just go and tell her that we couldn't contact them," Knuckles said.
Lizzie came out of the kitchen and gave Knuckles her phone number on a small piece of paper.
"I'll call you tomorrow," he said and kissed her on the cheek before she left.
The others left soon afterwards.
Chris started his search on FFCI computer. The rest of the members were celebrating with Buzz Fizz; but Pullson didn't want them to get drunk. He knew that the intelligence services may discovery the connection.
Chris was using special hacking software MI6 gave him to get into Pullson files. Pullson may have been a heartless killer; but he was also an intelligence killer.
Chris was also a careful hanker. He knew anyone could walk in the room and see he was looking at Pullson's files so he pretended to play a game called Championship Manager where the aim was to manage a soccer club of your choice to as much success as possible.
Chris started to look at a file which contained financial records. It showed that Pullson was receiving large sums of money and given Dr. Torre £100,000; but he knew that already. He sent it to his handler anyway.
He then put the game on to make sure it looked like he had been playing it.
Marie arrived at the MI5 safe house. She had to arrive quickly so she used a police car with a trained driver.
She sat in a leather armchair and was reading the records of Winston's field agents. She was surprised that they were almost all of them were first year university students. A good think about them was that most of them had powers which made them good for fighting; Marie liked that the look of Jessica Staray because of her shapeshifting abilities.
She then looked at the people Winston wanted them to find. He wanted some people to go the Devil's Hand pub to talk with an underground fascist called Terry Gibson: Gibson was an expert on bomb making so was an obvious suspect. Another person was fundamentalist Catholic academic called Dr. Francis Becker: Becker came from an upper class background, had a PhD in Theology and should support the government, but was more likely to support 'Christian' causes. The final suspect was a foreigner called Agola Kwowa: he was a rebel fighter against his country's government and he was forced out by their security services.
She went into the kitchen to get a glass of water before there was a knock on the door. She went up and looked through the spyglass. She saw Knuckles standing at the front.
She opened the door and all of them walked in.
"Who are you?" Knuckles asked her.
"Marie," she answered. She saw Sonic, Stars and Amy were missing. "Not all of you are here, and who are you?" she asked Ninja. Winston did not know he was in the city, so did not tell Marie about him.
"Ninja Wolfstein," Ninja said. "Call Mets and he'll confirm it."
"Sure," she said and rang him on her mobile phone. He confirmed that Ninja was one of his agents.
Strait afterwards was another knock on the door. Jessica looked through the spyglass and saw it was her older brother Claws.
"It's Claws," Jessica said. "Should I let him in?"
"Please do," Marie said.
Jessica opened the door and Claws went in. He rubbed Jessica hair, messing it up and said: "Hiya sis."
The group of people moved into the lounge and sat on either the chairs or the sofa.
"Where are the others?" Marie asked.
"Stars is at Sineson Golf Club with my brother," Natalie answered. "Sonic has gone off to audition for a pop group at the Century Centre and Amy is working at Carrington Bank at St. John Squ…" She stopped in mid-sentence, realizing that Amy could have been hit in the attack. "Oh my God," Natalie said. "How could I not think of this before?"
"Don't worry about it now," Marie said calmly. "I'll find out what's happened to her."
"If Sonic knows then he might be with her," Knuckles said.
"We will send someone to the Century Centre to see if he is there."
"Anyway," Claws said, "I assume you didn't bring us around just for a friendly chat."
"Well I can't give you your missions until everyone is here," Marie answered. "Jessica, can you call the golf club and get Stars here."
"Okay, but I don't know the number," Jessica answered.
"I know it," Natalie said and both went to the landline phone.
"What about Amy and Sonic?" Knuckles asked.
"Give me a moment," Marie said. She got her mobile phone out of her pocket and called a technician at MI5 headquarter to find out for her.
Whiles at the hospital Sonic was sitting by Amy's side. He didn't leave her and he was going to leave her. He just wanted her to wake up and tell him that everything was going to be all right.
"I have thinking about our future together," Sonic said. "I can picture us living in a large house on the outskirts of Emerald. I'm a world famous rock star and you're a kickass stockbroker. We're both rich and could buy anything we want, but all we need is the love we have for eachother.
"I can picture us have children, two boys and one girl. Our families always visit us. And we barely leave eachother's side.
"I just want you to wake up and fulfil this vision," Sonic finished off. Tears were streaming down his face again.
Sonic bend down, opened his guitar case and picked it up. He started to tune it and said: "I hope you don't mind me play." And he started with a song he written for her. It was called 'Gone'.
It was coming close for Chris to make his first call to MI6: but before he did he looked at one more file. This one was an invoice; the evidence Chris needed. It showed that Damio Pullson was buying explosive materials from underground sources. When he sends it then the government can enforce the curfew on Diamond.
Chris opened an e-mail composer and attached the invoice to it. He then sent it to his handler.
Chris put the game back on screen and then picked up his mobile phone. He typed in his handler's number.
"I'm just checking in," Chris said. "Check you e-mails; I'm sure you'll be please."
"Good to hear. I'm sure my superiors would be happy with your work and just keep…"
At the same time a male black bear wearing jeans, grey T-Shirt and trainers entered the room. In his right hand was a pistol with a silencer. The bear shot Chris in the shoulder and shouted: "OH SHIT!!!!"
"CHRIS! CHRIS!" the handler shouted. "What happened?
"I've been shot," Chris answered. "Send help."
Chris threw the phone onto the floor and stomped on it so the FFCI could not discovery who he was talking to.
"YOU'RE COMING WITH ME!!" the bear shouted, grabbing Chris by his shirt and pulled him along.
Chris was unable to fight and was screaming in pain; the bullet was in the bone of his shoulder. His only hope now was if the SAS could come quickly.
To be continued…
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