Sorry for the delay but RL has really hit over the last couple of weeks or so. Anyway thanks to all those who read and of course to those who reviewed. Note the series only ever gave Mary's support team their first names so I've added surnames. Re some of Harry's comments - as this is not an AU fiction I'm trying to tie his thoughts in with my post 10.6 stories.
May 3 15. 00 Surveillance result: Tracking of the asset led us to a contact (code name Falco) who subsequently met with a woman featured on the ports warning list. Failure to arrest her at the point of entry six weeks ago due to her use of a false passport. Alias used: Denise Marsden. Real name: Mary Kane. Nationality American. Digest of research undertaken by officers, Zoe Reynolds, Danny Hunter and Malcolm Wynne-Jones has produced the following major points.
a) She has been convicted in absentia for her part in bombing the Absalom abortion clinic in Florida which produced several fatalities
b) Her husband Paul Kane is due to be executed by electric chair on Saturday.
c) The organisation they were part of was/is called 'Defenders of the Innocent' combined with a name and shame website 'Call to Justice'.
d) Since her arrival it would seem that she has been living with a man called Steven Barfield in a rented cottage in the Wirral. Pictures of him, his sister (Rachel Goldsmith) and her husband (Robert Goldsmith) now on file. Initial Intel based on further tracking of the taxi and Falco, and their subsequent contacts.
e) Mary Kane's first victim was the doctor who performed an abortion when she was operated on for appendicitis at the age of fifteen. His death twenty five years later in what we assume was a revenge attack suggests she is keen on blood bolstered anniversaries.
Working theory of the team is that Mary has been invited here to continue the anti-abortion campaign on British soil. Her aim: to create a network of terror to commemorate her husband. He is scheduled for execution on Saturday making it probable that a major target has been selected for liquidation on that date. Currently we are unable to ascertain the size of the organisation involved or any of their planned targets. Assumption is that a UK website mirroring the US one exists containing full details of potential victims.
Further Intel arrived during meeting. Only five of the bombs are pipe bombs, the rest are Semtex with a capacity for wide spread devastation. Have agreed to bug the cottage Mary Kane is currently residing in with the aim of obtaining further Intel. Lead operative to be Zoe Reynolds reporting back to Tom Quinn for instruction/decisions as required. Operation will be coded top secret with only MI5 operatives to be involved. Manchester branch to be contacted and asked to make staff available for the operation. Danny Hunter to continue searching for the English website on the dark web. Malcolm Wynn Jones to set up and organise distance monitoring of existing prolife groups, the current suspects, plus any further individuals who may be implicated.
I wish I could use my own team but the locals do know the area best and I'm forced to consider my budget. We're just at the start of the financial year and heaven knows what else we'll have thrown at us by its end. Looking at the allocated cash flow I'd characterise the main weapon in the 'War against Terror' as an abacus backed up by windy proclamations from the politicians. These days I spend more time arguing with the bean counters than I do with the Home Secretary, which is really saying something. In the absence of being able to use my own crack troops I've finally pulled rank and insisted to Manchester that they use their best personnel even if they have to remove them from other operations. They protested a little until I explained about the Semtex, the memory of the IRA bomb of '96 still lingers there. I also made sure I praised their efforts so far. To give them their due they have done a good job and an occasional resort to the honey jar sometimes works better than a harangue. Malcolm gave me the names of the most reliable techies working out of that office, he trained several of them and I trust his judgement. He's as big a fixture in Section D as myself and has seen nearly as much operation wise as I have - to the point were most of us owe our lives to his geeky machinations. Long may he stay - once he retires I'll be left managing this near kindergarten on my own.
On the issue of those who've been here for a long time, possibly too long, I was forced to leap in and defend Tessa to Tom, which really went against the grain when I know that she seeks every conceivable opportunity to undermine me. Unfortunately she's too good at her job for me to get rid of – I wish. As I learnt in the military one disaffected officer can wreck endless havoc on morale. In this instance though I endorsed her protest that she couldn't have done anything to circumvent that particular cock up and despite my anger with the port authorities I'm forced to admit that they are every bit as stretched as we in here. I seem to remember hearing that Catherine and Graham both had to do a couple of weeks work experience when they were at school (heaven alone knows what some unfortunate employer had done to be stuck with Graham and his second hand opinions) but perhaps the idea ought to be extended to our politicians. Let's see them spend a week with Customs and Excise trying to check the passport and documents of someone with limited English while an irate queue of middle class middle England builds up behind. Pick out which of the seemingly normal travellers are indoctrinated killers, work out whether or not someone who can't answer questions accurately is criminal or just vague. Combine that with a few sessions of donning the rubber gloves as a precursor to checking anal cavities for drugs and I'd be willing to bet that the budgets for that part of public service would inexplicably rocket.
On a personal level I'm really worried about the ramifications of this bomb protest group – seemly the US website, on which we assume they are modelling themselves, carries the implication that they will go after anyone who may have had any association with supporting abortion. Great! That could be just about the entire population of medics and pro-abortion organisations to watch out for and protect without us, referencing my earlier comments re the abacus and windbags, having been gifted the resources to do so. Even worse do I have to ask my ex if my daughter could possibly be affected? Given her hair raising career - or in my case hair losing - let alone whatever she may be up to in her personal life I can just hear that conversation going well. Ever assuming that Jane doesn't put the phone down on me the moment she hears my voice.
This virtually non contact is tedious and hurtful, deliberately so I'm sure - Jane's targeted revenge for what she sees as my years of neglect. I don't really need to be continually reminded that I stuffed up in so many ways on the family front, I know it, but really considering that it's been fifteen years and counting since the divorce, when combined with the number of times I've had to bail out Graham thanks to his addiction to soft drugs, you'd think by now she'd have dropped the uncaring father routine. If, as she endlessly claimed while citing Robin the wondrous as being a much more wholesome influence, I was the one damaging the children how come Graham's career as a pot head started after I was forced to butt out? Overall that's a real parenting triumph for her, aided that smooth, self regarding, sanctimonious git.
I freely admit I wasn't around much for the three of them– due to the little matter of having to earn a living. I also admit I wasn't exactly faithful, but when it comes slinging to the endless accusations about the extra martial poking act perhaps she should take a good look in the mirror, prior to admitting that she's about as pure as the driven slush herself. Claiming she was working all those extra hours just for the money. Nothing will ever convince me that it wasn't a form of payment in kind contract whereby she got the extra teaching hours and Cock Robin got personal services delivered in the staffroom! Damn the pair of them – I could just about forgive the infidelity, people in glass houses and all that, but what I will never forgive is the poison they poured into the ears of my children. All I can do is hang in there and hope one day someone might have a change of heart.
Thanks for reading and if you have a moment please review.