Quintin Jardine: Skinner's ordeal

I know, Charlie, but we've got to look. We owe it to them: to them and their families.'

Suddenly in the distance, they heard the sound of sirens. `That'll be the reinforcements.

Let's get back up the hill and set up some sort of a command point.' Skinner turned and retraced his steps through the thick heather, leading the way. 'Who's the bloke in the van?' he asked Radcliffe as they walked.

An eye-witness. A shepherd. He was up the hill there when the plane came down. We found him shambling along the road. We'll get nae sense out of him for a while though.'

Radcliffe winced as they trudged up the hill. 'Are you up to this terrain, my friend?' asked Skinner solicitously. 'I mean, it's not that long since your operation. And you're not as young as your men.'

I'm fine, sir,' said the uniformed officer, although his pale face belied him. He was in his late fifties, and earlier that year he had undergone major surgery. 'It just gives me a twinge every now and again.'

Aye, well; just you look after yourself.' The DCC paused. `You made good time getting here.'

Radcliffe nodded. 'Just luck, sir. I happened to be in at Haddington early this morning.

When HQ put through the message from Air Traffic Control, I grabbed five of the six people in the station, piled them into the bus and came up here. But you've made pretty fair time yourself.'

Skinner glanced at his watch. It was a minute after nine a.m. `Right enough. Mind you, I was stopped for speeding on the way.' Radcliffe smiled tensely, not suspecting for a second that the other man was speaking the truth.

They stood together on the brow of the hill, looking to the north, where two red fire tenders were winding steadily onwards. Just behind them came an ambulance with a police car in its trail.

A drop in the ocean, sir, that's all they are,' said Radcliffe grimly.

`Don't I know it, Charlie. Let's find out what's been done.' He took his mobile phone from his pocket, switched it on and dialled the number of Police Headquarters in Edinburgh's Fettes Avenue. The call was answered as quickly as ever.

`DCC Skinner here. Get me ACC Ops, wherever he is.' `Very good, sir,' said the telephonist. 'I think he's in the Command Room.'

When Jim Elder, his colleague in charge of force operations, came on the line Skinner could hear the babel of sound behind him. At first the Yorkshireman had to shout above the din, until after a few seconds it subsided.

`Bob, it's good to hear from you. Where are you?'

I'm at the crash site, Jim. I was south of Edinburgh when the Chief called me, and I burned rubber getting here. Tell me, how were we alerted to it?'

Air Traffic Control,' said Elder. 'They called us to say that the seven a.m. Edinburgh shuttle had vanished from their screens at eight minutes past eight, over the Lammermuirs, at a height of eight thousand feet. It just turned into a shower of sparks on the VDU, so they said.'

`What's been done so far?'

As you know, the disaster plan puts me in charge at HQ. The Chief's on his way out to you. When I got in, I found that your Maggie had started things moving. She's got units from all services heading out to the scene.'

Aye,' said Skinner. 'Some of them are here already. But it's not fire engines we'll need, Jim. The flames will go out of their own accord. And it's not ambulances either. You can stand down the emergency centres; they won't be having any patients from here.'

He felt his voice crack, and paused.

`No hope, Bob?' asked Elder, quietly.

`No, Jim, none. What we'll need up here are experienced people with the stomach for what has to be done. I'll send the fire and ambulance people away. They'll have other calls, where they can do some good.'

`What d'you need then, mate?'

Skinner paused again, gathering his thoughts.

`First of all,' he said eventually, 'I'll need stretchers, blankets and bearers. And I'll need some sort of a field mortuary. This place is the middle of nowhere. We'll try to find a hall as close as we can to here that'll be big enough to take all the bodies. But God, man, I doubt that Meadowbank Stadium would be big enough!

`No, I need tents, large ones, and the people who can get them here in a hurry and have them operational. I need the Army, Jim. Will you get on to Craigiehall and ask Scottish Command if they can help us. Ask them if they can get choppers up here with a full battlefield set-up, and as many men as they can spare to help our lads with the dirty work.'

Okay, Bob, I'll do all that. What about the Civil Aviation Authority — should we tell them?'

Skinner thought for a second. 'The airline will have done that, for certain. But you might want to ask them what they'll be doing and whether the people they send up here'll need assistance.'

`Right. Speaking of the airline, I've already asked them for a list of all the passengers on board, seat by seat, and all the information they have on each of them. Once you confirm that there are no survivors, I'll get the next-of-kin operation geared up. Mind you, we're getting calls already. The switchboard's lit up. Royston's people have acquired an emergency number, but it hasn't been flashed up on telly or radio yet.'

ACC Elder gulped. 'God, I almost forgot — there was a call for you a couple of minutes ago. Your other office in London. They said they wanted you, urgently.'

Skinner scowled. In addition to being Edinburgh's second most senior policeman, the big DCC was Security Adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland. As such, he was a member of the MI5 network. Scotland, with one notable exception, did not have an extensive history of terrorism, and so the job was not onerous, but by its nature it could thrust its way unplanned into the busiest of working days. And this one promised to be one of the most hectic of his career.

`Bugger it,' he said. 'This overrides them. If they come back on, tell them what's happened, then put them on to Special Branch, and ask Brian Mackie to speak to them.'

I'll try,' said Elder, 'but they might not like it.'

`Tough shit. Right, what else do we require? For a start, although one of our mobile HQ units will be coming up here under the plan, we're going to need two. There are no buildings for miles around, and Alan Royston will want somewhere separate to handle the media.

I'd like you to send Maggie Rose up, too. In our rehearsals, she's played the part of co-ordinator at the disaster site, so it makes sense that she does it here. Normally it might fall to Charlie Radcliffe, who's standing beside me, but I need him out in the valley directing the troops.' He paused, as Elder grunted agreement on the other end of the line. 'Anyway, I can think of no one better than Mags. She's rock steady under pressure.

I'll stay here until everything is in place, and the recovery operation's under way. Then it's over to you, Assistant Chief Constable Ops. I don't mind telling you, Jim, I wish it had been you who was closest to the scene this morning. Times like this,' he said, grim and earnest, 'I'm glad I'm just a simple thief-catcher!'

Still gripped with tension, he looked back once more down the hill and to the north. There, several police vehicles were making their steady way towards him. And behind them he saw a blue Vauxhall Frontera.

`Jim,' he said sharply. 'Which medics have been called in on this?'

`Didn't the Chief tell you?' replied Elder. 'He called Sarah, straight away. Then he called the Health Board and asked them to implement the disaster plan.'

Charlie Radcliffe, standing nearby, caught the change in Skinner's tone. He saw his eyes narrow and his jaw clench. Involuntarily, he backed away.

`The daft old sod!' Skinner shouted. 'Surely to Christ one of us up here's enough for him.

Surely there are enough doctors in Edinburgh. Surely he could have spared her this!'