Chapter 4

A blue Mercedes pulled up in the car park adjacent to the sports field. The occupant remained in the car, starring out across the field to the double-storey house, wondering what mystery lay within.

"Harry!" Ruth calls out. Harry quickly returns from the ensuite.

"Yes, any news?" Harry asks.

"Malcolm just received a new bomb threat. Colin's tracing it now."

"Patch me through," requests Harry.

"Harry, here it is;" Malcolm replies. A thickly muffled French accent stumbles over English words saying, 'A bomb will go off in 2 days. Now you pay us.'

"Well, they do sound a bit juvenile. Malcolm, what are the others up to?" Harry inquires, to which Malcolm replies,

"Zaf and Ros are on their way back. We'll call a meeting when everyone's back."

"OK – work on the trace and look for any possible locations for this Frenchman." Harry pulled his phone away and was about to hang up when he heard Malcolm,

"Harry, wait! They've just walked in."

"The S.B. guy was a total moron."

"Thankyou Zaf," Ros replied;

"He wasn't too smart, but rather forthcoming. He was paid off by a German. Didn't catch his name; wasn't really interested in who was paying him six figures."

"Like I said, a total moron!" Groans came from all round as Zaf's comment resounded through the phone line.

"So, he's a dead end?" Harry clarified.

"Yeah, he is pretty stupid. He looked devastated when I told him his six figures would be taken for MI5 training." Sneered Ros.

"Hm...OK. Adam, you take charge and call me when you've got something more substantial. Call Ruth if you need her. I've got other things to do."

"Sure, talk soon." Adam replied and the phone call ended. Ruth looked to Harry, questioning his 'other things to do'.

"I'm going for a walk."

"O Harry, I'd rather you didn't."

"Don't worry, Ruth, I won't be gone long, just need some fresh air." With Ruth assured, Harry left the back door and walked the perimeter of the garden, deep in thought.

Back on the grid, Malcolm and Colin's trace has found an ESL (English as a Second Language) centre within a 5mile radius of the phone box used to make the bomb threat. Colin searched CCTV for any info on their Frenchman, while Malcolm went in search of Adam.

"Adam, we've got something;" he called out crossing the grid to Adam's desk. As he arrived he continued saying

"It's an ESL centre. We think the Frenchman was approached to make the call because he would not understand what he was actually saying. I think it'd be very easy to find out the information if we had someone in there."

"Ok, I'll go in." Ros said.

"No Ros, we need the shy look. Jo, you're up. Zaf can you prep her. She needs to be a uni student looking for someone to give her private French lessons, willing to teach some English on the side. An ESL centre would be the perfect place to find someone keen to practice conversational French with. Do we know what this guy looks like?" Adam asked.

"Colin's checking CCTV now." Malcolm replied.

"OK, keeping working on it. Once you've found our caller, give all relevant information to Zaf, and then track him back through CCTV to look for our real bombers. Once you find that out, give the info to Ros for surveillance. Zaf, once Jo is prepped, check out who else our bombers have contacted."

Just as Adam finished speaking, Colin appearing with a print out, saying,

"this is our Frenchman. It looks like he was supposed to say more, but couldn't be bothered trying hard enough. He had a paper with him that had a lot more notes on it than what he'd told us."

"Good work Colin; work with Malcolm on the next task." Adam replied.

The group nodded and dispersed as Adam pulled out his mobile.

"Ruth, how are you going out there?"

"Ok. My family's napping and Harry's gone for a walk. Adam, I've noticed there's a car across the sports field that has been there a while."

"I'll get Malcolm to check it out. We've had a mini break-through. We found the Frenchman goes to an ESL centre, so Jo's going in to get close to him. The wonder boys (Ruth smiled) are working through CCTV following any leads from their end. Any major issues you've uncovered?" Adam asked.

"None so far," Ruth replied,

"Uni fees are going up, but nothing substantial to warrant a bomb threat...unless the purpose is to create a whole lot of noise about the increase of uni fees."

"Would uni students really be that concerned to bother with all this?"

"Actually, it would be a good cover for anyone else with a grudge against the security services. Create a smokescreen, get a patsy to do the bomb threat, while you do what you like."

"That's a sadistic idea, but a good one, Ruth. The bombers are still in this, but they should lead us to our mr big. Get Harry back, we'll need him on this one."

"Don't forget the car, Adam!"

"Already on it," Adam replied, finished the call and walked towards the tech room.

"Adam, our regular scans have picked up a car that's been parked across the sports field for the past 30mins."

"Good, Malcolm; that's what I'd come to tell you. Who is it registered to?"

"It's registered to a Stuart Cooper; a relative of Ruth's." Adam sighed, beginning to realise just why Ruth disliked her family so much.

"Ok, I'll call Harry to discuss. Thanks Malcolm."

Meanwhile, Harry had taken a turn around the garden thinking about the strain he'd put on Ruth's family, just by being there. He was grateful they could rest in his company; but the concern for their safety weighed heavily on his mind. There was also the word 'training' that Ros mentioned – different context; but it still made him think about the days he'd spent in training, all those years ago. Turning towards the house, he looked upstairs and saw Ruth on the landing waving him in. Sighing he moved towards the house and hoped it was good news.