Politicians change, the lies stay the same.....
How far would someone be prepared to go to ensure that they held the power, made the money and went unchallenged? In Westminster, the politics of Justice and Security heat up to beyond boiling point as a sinister Government level plot moves into high gear with even higher stakes.
The National Administrator General, the Commander in Chief of the National Security & Police Service is found dead in his office on the top floor of New Scotland Yard in what the coroner rather too quickly rules is a simple case of suicide.
The Commander however senses foul play, especially as at the same time he finds the body of a young Transport Division Security Service Officer who was seconded to an operation being coordinated by the now late Administrator General, on a railway line just north of Clapham Junction in South London.
Subsequently the Commander finds an unlikely ally who agrees with him and charges him with the task of finding out the real plot behind these two seemingly connected deaths.
All this whilst fending off dark agents, secret assignations in the corridors of power and politically motivated personal agendas that threaten to carefully manipulate people and events that if unchecked could destroy the entire Security Service from within.
The fifth in the series, this episode was also the quickest produced, being written in just eight days!
During a hectic journey the reader will visit all sorts of familiar locations of the political world from New Scotland Yard through to the Home Office building in Marsham Street.
This episode also marked the series moving towards more involved politically motivated crimes and plots as well as increasing the ranks of familiar regular characters.
Excerpt:
If there had been anyone else in the office, they would have seen an extremely concerned look on the face of Sir James Peters, the National Administrator General of the Department of National Security & Civil Defence, the UK police force responsible for all levels of crime fighting and investigation across the country.
It was a very well appointed office, befitting the position of its occupant, the most senior Security Officer in the land. The antique oak desk with traditional style silver gilt pen holders, the photographs on the wall of various officers, buildings and other things connected with the service all added to an atmosphere of power and control.
Unusually for the Administrator General, he was dressed in his full dress uniform, probably the most elaborate of the outfits issued to officers, with a multitude of gold braiding and medal ribbons decorating the finely tailored dark blue almost black tunic.
He looked out of the window on the top floor of New Scotland Yard in central London across the nearby rooftops in the direction of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and just visible, the top of the London Eye Ferris wheel.
It was late morning and he was making the most of the rare quietness between the appointments and meetings that usually dominated his schedule. Taking in a last view of the city sky line before him, he took a deep breath and returned to the desk, sitting down slowly as if savouring this moment.
On the desk facing him was an antique gold edged photograph frame, within it a black and white photograph of his late wife. He had been a widow for almost a year now although he was still very much married to the service in many ways.
He thought of her for a while, silently recalling fond memories of their many years together but soon he had to return to business in hand. Reaching in the lower desk drawer, he retrieved a notepad and began to write what appeared to be an important note which he then signed and sealed in an envelope before carefully placing it in the post out tray behind him.
Then on the computer situated to one end of his desk, he called up the internal e-mail system where he proceeded for the next couple of minutes to compose a further message, the message quickly disappearing from view as he clicked the send button to send it on its way through the sub-ether on to its intended destination.
Suddenly his concentration was broken when there was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" in called in a wonderfully authoritative tone that echoed around the spacious office.
After a brief pause, the door opened and a well dressed man stepped inside, firmly closing the door behind him.
"I was wondering when you where going to appear" the Administrator General enquired.
"Well now you know" the stranger responded where upon he produced a silenced gun, aimed directly at the Administrator General, fired two direct and clean shots and instantly killed him.
The unidentified killer paused for a few moments, ensuring that his shots had been successful before returning his weapon to the hidden depths of his jacket and moving forward.
The stranger spent the next few minutes very carefully manipulating the scene, including the position of the body. Also he spent a few moments on the computer before making sure that a couple of documents that where on the desk, were removed to the nearby document shredder.
Seeing that his work was complete, the mysterious killer turned and discreetly left the room.
-----
"Platform 17 for the 11:02 Southern service to Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis" the automatic recorded announcer boomed across the concourse of Victoria Station.
In amongst the busy crowds, the gold braiding of the uniform of one person stood out clearly. That person being Deputy Divisional Commander Tracy Caverner, the second in command of the city's Transport Division of the Security Service.
Although she was scanning around the busy South Central side concourse of the station seeing that all was well, Tracy was in fact technically off duty although this was not really a term that applied to her much as a rule.
In fact the reason for her patient waiting was to greet her husband, the Commander whom she had been expecting to arrive within the last half an hour. By now however she was coming to realise that he was now unusually late to the point where she began to suspect he was not coming at all.
Momentarily contemplating a cup of coffee, Tracy's thoughts where interrupted by her radio suddenly calling her.
"Lima Tango Zero Two from control" the radio blurted out loudly for most of the concourse to hear.
Tracy quickly grabbed the radio and turned the speaker volume down before responding.
"Go ahead" she responded.
"We have just this minute received a report of a body on the line just north of Longhenge Junction" the dispatch officer back in the Divisional Head Office Control Room over in Holborn announced.
"Oh joy..." Tracy responded with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
"Southern have stopped all trains between Victoria and Clapham Junction and the power will be off in a few moments" the dispatcher informed her.
"Who are our nearest officers available?" Tracy enquired as she walked across the concourse in the direction of the South Eastern side of the station. All around her waiting passengers where beginning to stop in their tracks as the large electronic destination boards all suddenly began to show a series of suspensions and cancellations of services.
"You are the nearest senior officer Maam" the not entirely unexpected response came.
Walking briskly over to the south eastern half of Victoria's concourse, Tracy looked around for a solution to her next problem which was a distinct lack of transport. It was probably two or so miles to Longhenge Junction and with the power off, options where now understandably somewhat limited.
"Excuse me!" Tracy called to one of the Network Rail officials who had bravely ventured out of his office to see what all the chaos that was beginning to build, was all in aid of.
"Yes?" he responded.
"Do you have anything around here that does not require electrical propulsion?" Tracy enquired.
"Well there is that" the official pointed in the direction of platform 2.
"That will do nicely!" Tracy looked over to where the official was pointing and responded with a happy grin.
-----
"What the hell is going on?" the Commander murmured to himself as he alighted from the South West Trains service on platform 10 of Clapham Junction Station.
The reason for his enquiry was obvious to see, as although the South Western side of the massive station was operating normally, there did however appear to be a major problem building over on the South Central side with the northbound services to London Victoria as throngs of passengers crowded the platforms while an awful lot of trains were apparently not moving.
"Lima Tango Zero One to Control" the Commander called over his radio as he ascended the steps up to the bridge that connected all of the platforms together "I am at Clapham Junction and so it would appear is everyone else. What's occurring?"