“We don’t have any more men, Josh, and the team is set. I know you want to get into the action, but we need air cover and you two have that task; I can’t afford to lose any of the other men off the ground, and besides, this is what they train for,” I tell him.
“What about…”
“No Josh, you have your orders, is that understood?”
“Yes,” he pauses, but I wait, “Sir.”
“Alice, have you anything to say?”
“No Sir, only that you can count on me, Sir.”
“Thank you, Alice.”
“Dan, anything to add?”
“I don’t think so, I know these two are up to it. They will have the best seats for the show,” he says.
“Thank you for the insight, Dan. Okay, let’s get ready for the Lynx to arrive. Dismissed.”
Josh and Alice briefly stand to attention, turn and leave the office.
“Well?” I ask Dan.
“Didn’t go too bad, Josh was bound to want to go in with you. He’ll be okay, I’ll have a chat with him.”
Lieutenant Winters knocks on the window to get our attention; he is holding up the telephone.
“What’s this?” I say, getting a bad feeling.
I take the phone off the Lieutenant who is looking serious, and he mouths to me that it is Colonel Reed; this isn’t going to be good.
“Colonel?”
“Richards, how is your preparation coming along?”
“We will be ready to go on time,” I tell him.
“We have had to move that time forward. Richards, I need you in the air by 1345 hours, I have spoken to Winters and he says that is achievable, agreed?”
“That would be a rush, Colonel, and is not preferable for the mission; what is the reason?” I question.
“Operation Denial is having very mixed results,” the Colonel tells me, unsurprisingly. “It could go either way and the Prime Minister wants contingencies and wants them now. Major Reese believes that if Sir Malcolm did keep the records and details of this strain of virus, then they could be vital in formulating a way to halt its spread or even cure it. The PM has been briefed with that theory so you can imagine the pressure he is applying; he wants the contents of that safe at Porton Down in the quickest possible time frame. He has ordered the mission be brought forward, apart from which the weather forecast is deteriorating and storms are likely from 1600 hours, which is terribly bad luck all round!”
“I see; he does know that there’s no guarantee these files are in the safe?”
“Of course, he bloody does, man, but we won’t know either way until we have looked, will we?” the Colonel barks.
“Understood, Colonel, I will pull the mission forward.”
“Put me back on to Winters,” the Colonel orders without any sign of an acknowledgement.
“God wants you,” I tell the Lieutenant sarcastically and hand him back the phone,
“Heads up!” I shout across the hangar and everyone looks in my direction. “The mission is pulled forward; we take off at 1345 hours.”
Josh and Alice look at each other warily while the Special Forces guys just nod and go back to their preparations. It’s par for the course for them, as they are well used to mission timings changing at the drop of a hat.
“What’s Reed saying now?” Dan asks me.
“Nothing new really, only that the PM is pinning his hopes on this safe by the sounds of it and therefore the whole country is… he wants the mission done A-SAP and so has ordered it pulled forward.”
“No pressure then?” Dan jokes.
“He did tell me that the weather is going to get worse, possible storms at 1600 hours.”
“That could be bad news, so I’ll see if I can get any more detail on that,” Dan says seriously.
With about ten minutes until the two Lynx are due to arrive, I go over to see how Sergeant Dixon is getting on with planning the safe crack. He has set up a table and is leaning over it, looking at the information and schematics SecLock emailed over to us. With him are Corporal Simms, the SAS Team Leader, and Lance Corporal Watts, the demolitions expert from the SAS troop. I am hoping they have identified a method to open the safe because if they haven’t, we will have to revert to good old-fashioned brute force.
The men don’t get up or stand to attention when I arrive, and I didn’t expect them to; these are Special Forces Operatives. They do greet me with a few ‘Sirs’, but don’t stop their discussions or planning, nor would I want them to. I do need to know what they have discovered, however.
“Report,” I say.
“Sir,” Dixon says, as he does stand up to address me directly. “The details of the safe sent over are extensive, but the bad news is that there is no way to override the electronic lock without disassembling the input facility, the keypad, Sir. The good news is that with the right equipment the good Lieutenant is arranging for us, we can take the input facility apart and should be able to override the locking mechanisms electronics and open it. That’s the good news, Sir, but it will take a bit of time.”
“Specifically, how much time, Sergeant?”
“Without a test run, I can’t say for sure, Sir?”
“Best estimate then Sergeant?”
“Ten to fifteen minutes, Sir, maybe twenty.”
“Are you certain this method will work?” I ask.
“Eighty percent, Sir; we are confident that we will be able to open the safe with a high-voltage portable plasma cutter; the Lieutenant is arranging for one as a back-up, Sir.”
“Why don’t we just cut it open then?”
“Cutting it open would take longer, approximately thirty minutes, possibly more—and it runs the risk of damaging the contents, Sir.”
“Is there another back-up plan, Sergeant? We won’t be cutting it open; we cannot risk damaging the contents,” I tell him.
The Sergeant pauses for a moment, “back to plan A Sir, break it free from the floor and take the whole thing with us. From what you described, we can use the
