Chapter Seven – Under Investigation Part 1
It was late in the evening by the time Gavin Ashton left the ARC, and by this point the rest of the core team had been told of the afternoons guests Lester had received. None of them had gone home, and soon the night shift had begun filing into the Anomaly Research Centre. Abby, Emily and Danny were in the menagerie whilst the rest of the team were in the armoury as this was the one place in the ARC the night shift never entered. Jess was quietly sitting at the ADD; she was completing her field report for the anomaly that had appeared earlier that day, with the routine nature of the anomaly it wouldn't take her too long to complete. She suddenly felt a presence behind her, quickly turning around she saw Lester walking towards her with a grim look on her face.
"Miss Parker, I need you run a Lockdown drill now please" he said quietly, and Jess didn't argue with her boss, she just pressed a few keys on the keyboard and the lockdown alarms blared through the ARC. The alarm was different to the anomaly alert, the lights that pulsed through the corridors were a darker red and the siren had a deeper sound. After a couple of minutes, the ARC had been completely evacuated and only the members of the core team remained in the Hub, the lights finally turned themselves off, meaning all exits were now completely locked down, the dim blue from the emergency lighting now filled the Hub as the metal shutters reached the ground, sealing the team in.
"Why have you launched a lockdown drill James, we haven't got one scheduled for two weeks. What's going on?" Matt asked the ARC director.
"I needed to be able to talk freely to you, and the only way of doing that is in a lockdown situation. The CCTV is disabled right now?" Lester said as he looked at Jess.
"Yes, all power is shut down in the ARC apart from the backup system which I have remote control over" Jess said, holding up the tablet in her hand, Lester gave her a small nod.
"Right we don't have long so I will make this as brief as possible" Lester said, taking a deep breath before he started "As you probably al know by now, earlier today we were visited by the Defence Secretary as well as members of MI5 and the CIA. Its seems that the Ministry of Defence are launching an investigation into our handling of Philip Burton and New Dawn, one that has been prompted by the security services and our allies across the Atlantic" Lester said.
"I understand why the MOD are investigating it, but what does it have to with the Americans" Jenny asked the civil servant.
"What Burton was planning to do was not only a matter of national security but also international security; it seems our friends in the White House feel the need to get involved. They threatened to go to NATO if we didn't cooperate with them" Lester answered.
"So who is Gavin Ashton? We may or may not have searched him and his file says he the Assistant Director of ARC Operations. Since when have we had an Assistant Director?" Connor asked, earning him an elbow in the side from Becker.
"Gavin Ashton was hired by the minister two months ago to assist with ARC operations. The command structure of the ARC is changing, it seems the minster has concerns over my leadership of the ARC, and he wanted someone in place should something happen to me" Lester answered, seeing the looks concern on the faces of his team.
"What do you know about him? Have you met him before?" Danny asked.
"I know Gavin very well, I was his mentor when he worked as an MI5 officer, I became his liaison at the Home Office until the anomalies and the ARC, he then became the head of Royal Protection until 2012 when he took a leave of absence to look after his son's. It was on my recommendation he became our Assistant Director. He's a good man with a modern perspective, but he is naïve and can be bloody reckless at times, he tends to think of the consequences after the event" Lester paused giving Matt a pointed look "He agreed to taking the Director role as a favour to me, I thought if you were going to have a new boss, he might be the best fit. However I don't know how loyal he is to me or the minster" Lester finished.
"That's all well and good, but you're not going anywhere, are you James?" Jenny asked quietly.
"Not yet, but I don't know how secure my future here" Lester said, looking Jenny in the eye, there was a moment of silence between the team.
"So what happens next, if they are investigating us?" Matt asked cautiously, looking at Lester.
"You be honest with them, and tell them the truth" Lester said simply, knowing he didn't have much longer till lockdown would need to be lifted "One more thing, the security of the ARC has been compromised, I found one of these in my office" Lester said, pulling out a small plastic bag from his suit jacket pocket and holding it up, the team saw a small metal disk in the corner of the bag "I'm assuming its some kind of listening device" he said, looking at Connor who took the bag from him.
"I'll have a look in my lab, how did you disable it?" the young computer geek asked.
"I accidently dropped it into a glass of water, complete accident" Lester said, Jenny looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"How very clumsy of you James" she said, giving the ARC director a smile. He raised an eyebrow at her before walking over to the ADD, he then turned back to face the team.
"Captain Becker, I need you to do a complete sweep of the building for any more of these devices, if you find any, leave them be. They can't know we know about them, any private conversations need to be through hand written channels only" Lester said "I don't know what's going to happen next, but understand this, I will not let some bloody government crack pots interfere with our work here" he finished, looking at his team, he then turned to Jess.
"Miss Parker, lift Lockdown and the run diagnostics on the ADD system. This needs to look like a routine drill. Give it an hour and then I want you lot to go home" Lester said, before walking through the Hub and over to his office, closing the door behind him.
xxxxx
The next morning, Abby, Conner and Jess arrived at the Anomaly Research Centre later than usual thanks to road works taking place in the city centre. Pulling her black Ford Focus into its parking space, Abby was the first out of the car just as her mobile phone beeped, looking at the screen she read the message to herself, it was from Jenny.
Meeting in the Conference Room, 9.30am
Abby slammed the car door shut and looked up and Connor and Jess, who were standing at the side of the car and checking their own phones as well.
"Did you get a message from Jenny?" Abby asked them, Connor gave her a nod whilst Jess checked her watch.
"I got one as well, we have ten minutes to get some coffee and meet them in there" Jess replied as the three of them made their way towards the lift.
"What do you think it's about, do you think it has something to do with what happened yeste-" but Connor stopped mid-sentence as Jess punched him in the arm and gave him a pointed look. Connor fell silent after that. At 9.30, the three of them trooped into the conference room and found the rest of the team gathered round the large rectangle table, Lester was sitting at the head of the table whilst Jenny, Matt and Becker were sitting on his left and Emily and Danny were on the right. The newest arrivals sat in the spare chairs just as another man entered the room, the team recognised him as Gavin Ashton, dressed in a slim fitted black suit .
"Good morning all, I apologise for the early nature of this meeting" Gavin began, standing at the foot table and addressing the team "As you all probably know by now, my name is Gavin Ashton and I have been employed to the ARC as Assistant Director by the minster, my role is to provide support to James in the running of the vital operation here" he said, looking at the faces in front of him, he could the glares of the assembled filed team members, and he knew they thought he was the bad guy.
"One thing I need to make clear is that I am not coming in here looking to take over from James as director, nor do I want to cause any friction with this team" Gavin paused for a moment as he wanted to word what he needed to say carefully "Recent events have interested a lot of different parties, the main being our friends in the Ministry of Defence. I'm sure James has filled you in on the upcoming investigation that will be taking place, my presence at the ARC has nothing to do with it, and I am not part of this inquiry" Gavin finished and he could still see the untrusting looks he was getting from the team.
"I appreciate I will need to earn your trust, after what happened with the previous government officer who was seconded to work here" Gavin said, and Emily leant into Danny.
"To whom is he referring to?" Emily whispered, thinking he may have been talking about.
"Christine Johnson, it's a long story, I'll explain later" Danny replied as Lester stood up and buttoned up his suit jacket before walking to the head of the table.
"Thank you Gavin, whatever is going to happen will happen, however your jobs are not in any doubt" Lester said to his team, just as the sound of the ADD alarms filled the room.
"Of you go then, do your thing" Lester said dryly to his team, who all stood up and left the room, he then turned to face Gavin, who looked like he was going to ask something.
"Do you mind if I tag along with the team, I feel like I need to get as involved as I can for them to trust me" Gavin asked his former mentor.
"Yes you may as well, although if try not to get killed. Probably won't look to good when the inquiry begins" Lester replied and Gavin gave him a small nod before following the team out of the room.
Xxxxx
"I still don't understand why he has to come with us, is he spying on us?" Connor asked the occupants of the ARC pickup truck, Matt was at the wheel and Abby was sitting in the passenger seat, whilst Becker was sitting beside Connor.
"All he'll be doing is staying with Jenny, I'm sure he just wants to see us doing our thing" Matt said, trying to be diplomatic with his answer.
"Do you honestly believe that?" Abby sked the team leader, just as the voice of Jess Parker filled the inside of the pickup.
"Guys, the area has been evacuated and as of yet there hasn't been an incursion. I've hacked the CCTV and it's all clear, and the police are on site keeping people back" Jess said, before adding quickly "You're a minute out from the site".
"Thanks Jess, keep us updated" Matt answered, glancing in the rear mirror and seeing Jenny behind the wheel of the second pickup with Gavin sitting beside her, behind them was the black 4x4 carrying the special forces soldiers.
"We need to forget about Ashton and concentrate on the anomaly. If he is watching us, we don't need to give him any fuel to add to the fire. No heroics, we do this by the book" Becker said, just as the location of the anomaly alert came into sight. The anomaly was located on a busy high street, and the road closure had caused serious traffic problems and the crowds had gathered along the road. After showing their government ID badges to the police officers, they were allowed through the police cordon and Matt parked the pickup just past the row of police cars that were blocking the road, other emergency vehicles also lined the side of the road. The team clambered out of the pickups and powered up their EMD's, Connor then began to unload the Locking Mechanism from the bed of the pickup. As the team assembled by the entrance to the sound, a loud roar filled the air, Jess filled their earpieces.
"The anomaly is located in the store room of TopShop. There has been an incursion, but the CCTV was knocked out before I could get a closer look. Jenny, you're going to have to get the public moved further back. I'm sending down a medic crew just in case you need them" Jess finished, just as a loud crash forced the team to turn around. They heard the shattering of glass and watched as several clothing racks and mannequins flew out of the shop and landed on the road.
"Jenny, do your thing. Becker, tell your men to stay outside, if anything comes out that shop they shoot it" Matt began "We'll enter the shop and attempt to contain the creature" he finished and his assembled team gave him a nod, Matt then turned to look at Gavin "Stay back with Jenny" Matt said and quickly unloaded an EMD rifle from the pickup "Use this only if you have to, that switch to power it up and pull the trigger. Lester said your ex-MI5, guessing you must be a good shot" he said before he and the team moved towards the shop. Once they were close enough, Matt chanced a glance round the corner and into the shop window to see what the team were up against.