Andy McNab: Payback

The sergeant was satisfied. ‘Thank you, sir.’ He handed Fincham a pass – a plastic card hanging from a white nylon strap with a large black V, for visitor, emblazoned in the centre.

Fincham didn’t even nod a thank-you as he turned away and went back to his car to drive to the parking area.

The sergeant and another guard, whose duty it would be to escort Fincham into the main building, watched him go. ‘What a happy chappie,’ said the guard as he adjusted his cap and stepped out into the night. ‘I get all the good jobs.’

Danny took the stairway next to the lift. So far it had felt as though the building was deserted. It wasn’t. The place was like a warren. Many people were working on the levels below. Others might well be on the underground level that Danny was about to enter. CCTV cameras were fixed to the walls above the NO SMOKING signs. Someone somewhere could see what was going on. Danny had to believe he belonged there. It had worked so far.

He slid on a pair of plastic gloves, the type available to drivers at filling stations for protecting their hands from fuel. In Danny’s case they were to keep his fingerprints off the keyboard once he got onto a computer. If he got onto a computer. He pushed through a fire door and stepped into the corridor of floor – 1. He turned to the right, just as Fergus had instructed, and kept walking.

The layout was the same as on the ground floor. Danny was heading for room – 1/44, the Stand By Room, which was reserved for use by visitors when they were working in the building. Fergus had been in the room many times when at Northwood for briefings.

Most of the office doors were closed, but as Danny walked along the corridor he saw that one up ahead was ajar. He heard a single voice speaking: someone was talking on the telephone. It was the duty officer. Danny didn’t see him, but as he passed the room, – 1/37, he heard the words, ‘Of course it’s not. Who’d be using it at this time of night?’

Danny reached room – 1/44: the sign on the door said STAND BY ROOM, and the door was unlocked, just as Fergus had told him it would be. He quickly went inside and closed the door. The room was in darkness apart from a soft glow of light emanating from the floor on the far side. The light silhouetted a desk with a PC sitting on top. Exactly what Danny needed.

He carefully moved over to the light and looked down at a long rectangular piece of plate glass, set into the floor where it met the wall.

Danny’s eyes widened; he was staring down into the control and command centre itself. It was one huge area, like an aircraft hangar. Massive screens covered the walls. Officers from all three services huddled around computers as maps and live video feeds from Iraq and Afghanistan filled the screens.

He wanted to stay there watching all night. But there was a job to be done. He turned away, powered up the PC and took the CD from his pocket.

The lift stopped at level – 1 and the door glided open. George Fincham stepped out and strode into the corridor, with the escort struggling to keep up.

Further down the corridor the duty officer emerged from his room to meet the visitor. ‘The Stand By Room is ready, sir. It’s just along here.’

Fincham said nothing, just kept walking, and the duty officer fell in with his hasty step, the escort still trailing behind. When they reached room – 1/44 the duty officer stopped, grabbed the door handle and began to open the door. ‘The Stand By Room, sir.’

Fincham stopped walking and glared. ‘I’m not here for the Stand By Room. I’m going to the Depository.’

The duty officer, a young flight lieutenant, exchanged an anxious look with the escort. The Depository was the most secure area in the building, where secret documents could be accessed and read. Even the walls were lined with lead so that radiation from the computer’s screen could not be detected by someone out in the corridor with an electronic decoding reader.

The duty officer was well aware of his responsibilities. ‘But… but, sir? Do you have the correct clearance to access the Depository?’

Fincham had been expecting this and he was prepared. He was staking everything on this ultimate gamble. He pulled out his Intelligence Service ID card and thrust it towards the officer. ‘How dare you question me! Do you know who I am? Take me there now, or do I have to wake up your commanding officer and let you explain why his idiot of a junior officer is slowing down a time-critical operation? We are fighting a war!’

The stand-off lasted for long seconds as the two men stared each other down and the escort watched. Then the duty officer buckled. ‘I’m sorry, sir. Of course not, sir.’

Danny was still beneath the desk. He had dived down when he heard the footsteps stop and saw the door begin to open. He had listened to the argument, too panic-stricken to realize that the raised voice was one he had heard before, many months ago.

The operation had already begun when the interruption came. Danny had inserted the CD into the PC and was on his mobile, with Fergus at other end. He had been ready to start the script. And then all hell seemed to break loose and he dived for cover. When the bust-up finally ended, the door was pulled shut and footsteps echoed away down the corridor.

Now it was quiet again and Danny still had the mobile clamped to his ear. ‘All clear.’ He clambered cautiously from under the desk and went back to the PC. The CD was gently humming in the drive and the PC was online. All that was needed now was to activate Black Star’s script, which was on screen.

WOW! I DIDN’T THINK YOU’D MAKE IT THIS FAR! SO YOU WANNA USE MY SCRIPT? Y OR N?

Danny’s finger hovered over the Y key as he spoke softly into the mobile. ‘I’m ready to go. You ready?’

In the gloom of the industrial unit, with only the spill from outside security lights for illumination, Fergus and Elena were alone. Joey had been dispatched to wait for Danny at the prearranged meeting place outside Northwood. Elena’s laptop was on her knees, her script was on the hard drive and she was connected to the hotzone, ready to go. Her screen also had a message from Black Star attached to the script.

REMEMBER: THE SCRIPTS MUST BE RUN AT THE SAME TIME! GOOD TO GO? Y OR N?

‘Are you ready?’ asked Fergus.

Elena held her finger over the Y key and nodded.

‘Good,’ said Fergus. They had rehearsed the countdown. ‘OK, both of you. Stand by. Stand by. Go!’

Danny and Elena hit their Y keys at precisely the same moment.

Fergus and Elena watched as a matrix of numbers and letters swarmed across the laptop screen, constantly changing as a cacophony of telephone key tones burst from the speakers. Elena’s script was trying to connect with Danny’s.

The letters and numbers switched and changed faster than the eye could follow and the key noise grew until it sounded like one constant tone. They watched and waited.

And then everything stopped and the computer went silent.

Fergus looked at Elena and she shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.’

The seconds passed agonizingly slowly and still nothing happened.

‘Black Star said it would work,’ breathed Elena. ‘That we could go anywhere we-’

Before she could finish, the laptop screen burst into life as pop-ups suddenly appeared on the screen as they passed into four different levels of security:

Restricted

Confidential

Secret

TOP SECRET: UK EYES ONLY

Elena laughed out loud; she couldn’t stop herself. ‘We’re in! We own the mainframe. We can go anywhere we want.’

‘Sshhh, keep it down,’ hissed Fergus. He spoke quietly into the mobile. ‘You got us there, Danny. You did it.’