Red Hawk Rising

was reported as being a plain-clothes police officer but it looked extremely like the photograph of the Corporal Hill taken at Argonaut Industries. Garasov had both on his desk in front of him. Was he now at Wensley Electronics? If he was new on the JSTU would he visit the other contractors? One attempt at eliminating him had failed. If he was a policeman, he would have been a member of the Durham Constabulary but neither he nor Vasiliy appeared to have gone to either Darlington or Durham. They seemed to disappear, as had the others involved in the attempted theft of the klystron unit. That made it likely that it had been a MI5 operation. If that was so, was Corporal Hill really RAF or a member of MI5? Garasov decided to see if the man could be located with the RAF detachment at Wensley Electronics. He still had a personal score to settle with him but it would be better to get approval from Moscow on other grounds. With the Tyneside team seriously weakened, he would have to pull someone in from outside the area and he got on the telephone. No doubt security would have been increased but perhaps photographs could be taken of RAF personnel boarding their bus. That would be all he needed. Unfortunately for Garasov, he wasn’t the only one who had that idea.

Hamilton arrived in Newcastle a little after 11.30 a.m. and was met by Louden. Driving out to Wensley Electronics, Hamilton brought Louden up to date. “I’ll talk with their security but I want you to watch for anyone wanting to take photographs of RAF personnel.”

Louden nodded. “Young Corporal Hill may be in Major Garasov’s sights, particularly after the Scotch Corner episode. Garasov will have linked Hill to his recent woes and our successes. We need to take precautions.”

At Wensley Electronics, Hamilton went to see Flying Officer Goodhew and was brought up to date on the RAF situation. Once the radar unit had been picked up on the Friday, the men would go on weekend leave and travel down to RAF West Sanby on Monday. Hamilton raised his concerns about Corporal Hill’s safety. “It would be better if he didn’t go to Wensley Electronics tomorrow if he is not needed. Could he be sent to RAF West Sanby tomorrow?”

Goodhew responded, “His folks live at Alnwick and he’s been given the weekend off to visit them. He didn’t get his disembarkation leave when he was posted back to UK so we owe it to him to have this opportunity to visit his folks. We could arrange for him to either travel down by train on Sunday or see if he could travel down with one of the detachment in a private vehicle.”

Hamilton gave it some quick thought and suggested that Corporal Hill get the train from Alnwick on Sunday and travel in civilian clothes.

“He’s supposed to be going to Coventry but that could be postponed,” replied Goodhew. “I’ll telephone our CO and bring him up to date and offer your suggestion. We can arrange for the travel documents to be picked up at Ouston. I’ll brief Corporal Hill after getting confirmation from our CO.” Hamilton nodded his agreement and excused himself to go down and finish his work at Personnel. Goodhew telephoned the Unit CO and explained Hamilton’s concerns. Squadron Leader Dawson thought that one man was giving them a lot of extra work but that was balanced by the benefits to the unit and the project. Someone much higher up had obviously had him posted in deliberately with additional orders to those on his duty list. He agreed to the suggestion and said that he would discuss the changes with Flight Lieutenant Gaskin and find out what impact the delay in Hill going to Coventry would cause. He also said that he would get the adjutant to send a signal to RAF Ouston with Corporal Hill’s travel orders and authority to issue the rail warrant. After putting the ‘phone down, Squadron Leader. Dawson wondered about the security at both Davis Aviation and Jennings Engineering. A visit by Corporal Hill to each might turn up more security issues than they thought existed. Hamilton of MI5 was also due to visit them and review personnel and security.

Back at Wensley Electronics, Flying Officer Goodhew called Corporal Hill to his office and explained the change in his orders. The official reason was that he was needed at RAF West Sanby a day earlier to help prepare for the arrival of the detachment. Unofficially, there was concern for his safety. If it was okay with his parents, the CO would prefer him to leave the base and go up to Alnwick tomorrow morning. He was to take all his gear with him and travel in civilian clothes.

Andy nodded his agreement. “I’ll organise something this evening, sir,” he replied, wondering about the plans he and Alice had.

“Oh! Corporal Hill, when the truck comes to pick up the tool kits and some test equipment, you should go out on it but sit in the back out of sight. The ‘techs’ will be going with their stuff so you go with them. That will be all.”

Andy saluted and replied, “Yessir” and left the office. He went down to see Sarge and told him Goodhew’s instructions. The RAF team was busy helping with the preparation of the radar and ancillary equipment for transport by a RAF Leyland Hippo truck and trailer the next day. A covered three-tonner was waiting in the yard to load the toolkits and other gear of the RAF team. Flying Officer Goodhew came out and called to Corporal Hill to help with the moving of the filing cabinets to the loading dock. They would all go in the ‘three-tonner’. Andy was relieved to be of help and went to check the packing of files and manuals and the movement of the filing cabinets.

By 15.30 hours the