Andy said, “Thank you, sir. I’ll get that report done immediately.” Flying Officer Goodhew left him to it.
Out in the North Sea, the Ivor Noventsky was steaming for the Baltic. Captain Petrovsky had orders to return to base. It was clear that British intelligence had found out about the plan to take the klystron and had foiled it. One up to British intelligence but it was not all over. Moscow would try again. The Royal Naval vessel, that had shadowed the Russian trawler, returned to its normal patrol duties. Major Garasov was preparing a report for his superior in Moscow, noting that the disruptions to their intelligence work had started after a ‘Corporal Hill’ had joined the RAF unit evaluating the Red Hawk SAM system. He noted that this person appeared to be more than an administrative corporal and was understood to have been connected in the past with other operations against USSR activities.
***
Oleg Berin, alias William Enderby, was squatted down on the sea wall looking at RAF West Sanby through hooded binoculars. He noted activity on the northern side of the airfield in the form of foundations being prepared for a building. Other services were being connected to the site. He slid down out of sight and walked south toward Parfleet St Peter. Not much to report but there could be soon.
It was 16.30 hours and at Wensley Electronics the RAF team packed up their gear for the day and headed out to their bus for the trip to RAF Ouston. The three friends sat together and talked about the move and its implications. Since Lance and Andy were meeting the twins, Dan decided to ‘phone Margaret and see if he could meet her that evening as well as on Saturday. Time would now be short for them all. The thought of having an unexpected weekend on Tyneside pleased Andy. He thought that he had better see if he could visit his parents but he also wanted to spend time with Alice. They would have to discuss it that evening.
As the bus neared RAF Ouston, Alice and her father were getting into the car to drive home to Corbridge. On the way, she asked him if he had read the day’s ‘Daily Mail’ and he said he had glanced through it. “Did you see the article and photograph of a police operation at Scotch Corner? One of the men in the photo looked like Andy.”
John Walton gave his daughter a sideways look and said, “It’s highly unlikely that it would be Andy. Trucks have been stolen or broken into at Scotch Corner quite a few times. The man in the photo would be a plain-clothes policeman who happens to look like Andy.” Alice accepted the answer but her intuition told her differently. She decided not to say anything to Andy. John spoke again, “What do you two plan to do this evening?” Alice said that nothing had been decided. They hadn’t expected Andy would still be here. “Well, if he is here early, he could have dinner with us. Then the two of you could go for a drink, if you wanted to,” he suggested.
“Thanks, Dad. We’ll see what time he gets here and decide then,” replied Alice. Anne had planned to stay in Hexham and Lance would meet her there and they would go for a meal. That evening Anne would learn of Lance’s impending departure.
In the quiet countryside of Buckinghamshire, MI5 had a special house that was used for holding and interrogating special prisoners. Here, Hamilton met with colleagues to discuss the progress of the interrogation of the two prisoners. The driver of the Ford Consul had given his name as Leonard Bailey and he gave an address in Blackley in Manchester. Checks showed him to be telling the truth. There had been no identification papers on him — only some money. He was genuinely frightened by his situation but wouldn’t admit to an association with the other prisoner or that he had been following the Brennan Transport pantechnicon. His story was that he was driving to Newcastle to see a relative and had a break at Scotch Corner. When he started to leave, the other man jumped into the car and pulled a gun on him and made him drive off. They couldn’t change it. At this rate they would have to let him go. It would be difficult to make any charges hold up in court. An examination of the burnt-out wreck revealed no more than that he was the owner of the vehicle. They got even less out of the other prisoner. He wouldn’t give his name or anything but insisted that he have a lawyer.
“I suggest that we let Bailey go but keep him under surveillance to see who he might lead us to or what we can find out,” said Hamilton. The others agreed. “If he was associated with the Russians, he could end up being killed by them to prevent him talking. We know that the Russian Consulate in Manchester was involved in planning this attempted theft of the klystron. I think it was Major Garasov that was involved but I can’t prove that. Do we ask for a “persona non grata” on him or are we better off keeping the one we know?” asked Hamilton. The team had a brief discussion on the question
