The War of the Spooks - a story by Forcon & James G

[forcon]

Feb 6, 2020 12:47:32 GMT amir said:

Gentlemen- great timeline!

I hope the SAS doesn’t have to do many more assaults without additional support forces. In a six minute CQB fight, Collin’s 19 Troop took over 10% casualties, and has effectively lost the use of one or more of his subunit patrols (one at 50% or two at 75%) until his wounded men return or replacements (L squadron or combining with another attrited unit) are integrated and trained up. It’s true that he accomplished the mission and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the GRU, but his losses limit his tactical flexibility in future operations. The “good” news is that once the diplomatic missions are secured most other targets should not require a CQB assault unless there are extenuating circumstances (sensitivity of location, collateral damage concerns, etc) and allow for combined operations using Specialist Firearms Units, TA infantry, or other armed elements for support or even to conduct portions of the assault.

The scene with the Spetsnaz assault on Lakenheath was very well done. Good to see them cast into a direct action mission that is not a suicide mission- difficult yes, and a strategic decision to incur a high level of casualties to inflict a degree of disruption (although maybe less than expected) on a key USAF main operating base (MOB). The major and his fellow survivors will doubtless be interrogated, and a manhunt should be launched for the uncaptured members of the team, but my assumption is this likely not the only direct action mission the Spetsnaz launched, so there is a disruption effect achieved and a further diversion of resources in the manhunt. Further, the Russian spetsnaz are all professional long service soldiers unlike the Soviet era version. It is could be that the survivors have a post attack plan to either evade, or conduct follow on operations given their higher levels of experience and training,

Thank you! I'll let James answer that first part about the SAS. At Lakenheath, the thinking was to destroy as many F-35s as possible on the ground. The mission was obviously difficult as you say, but not quite a suicide mission either. The two snipers who escaped will have a long road home ahead of them; there were indeed more Spetsnaz operations on UK soil, which will be mentioned further down the line. Those Spetsnaz men captured at Lakenheath aren't going to have a good time, but they were in uniform and haven't committed any war crimes to speak of, so the interrogations can't be too harsh and will have to be within the confines of what is allowed by international law. Spies or Spetsnaz captured out of uniform is a different matter. 

[forcon]

Four 

"I can't do this anymore, Alena," Charles spluttered frantically. He was panicking, more so than normal. "We're at war now. It's treason. They'll have my neck if I'm caught, maybe literally." Charles Bishop, a Civil Servant working for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, was a man with deep, dark secrets.

"And what would your lovely wife think about what you did to those little girls?" Alena, someone who also worked for her own country's foreign relations department albeit in a very different capacity, asked him. "Besides, it's too late now. All the information you've provided over the past two years is on record. You decide to break our agreement, I could let all of that information fall into the wrong hands."

She stepped closer to him, smiling sharply. Charles, a man of many vices, had been easy prey for an experienced officer of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR. His history had been delved into and an ugly rumour from Charles' university days had been proven as true by Alena's SVR colleagues at the now-closed Russian embassy in London. A trap had been set involving a girl far too young to be involved in something like this. That part had always been distasteful to Alena, but it was a job and her country came first. Charles had fallen right into the trap and proof of his desires - and his willingness to act on them - had been caught on camera. At her first meeting with him, Alena had shown Charles the video and, numb with shock, he had agreed to comply with her demands. Now he was having second thoughts, but it was far too late to walk away.

"Fuck!" Charles exclaimed as his terror mixed with his rage. He cared little for NATO's cause, but he didn't want to go to prison - for what he'd done to those girls or for betraying his country, or worse, for both - but he couldn't shake the feeling that that was where he was heading. Every time he fed Alena, his SVR handler, a morsel of information, Charles' chances of getting caught increased. Here, in this hotel room in central London, Charles handed Alena his latest information. It was a stack of papers, a photocopy of a document detailing plans to increase diplomatic cooperation with non-NATO European states as the war raged on across the continent.

"You see, you've saved yourself a whole lot of trouble with this," Alena told him, purring now. Whenever it seemed like Charles was really losing it, she could always rely on his worst weakness. "It wasn't so hard to get this, was it?”

"Not as hard as fifteen years in prison," Charles snapped back. The stress was eating him alive. His hair, blonde on the day that he and Alena had met, was greying at the edges. "But I just - I can't do it. Not again. They'll catch me this time, I know they will."

"No, Charles, they won't." The two made eye contact. "Not unless I give them a reason to suspect you."

“Then you’ll lose me, as an asset, or whatever you people consider me,” Charles protested, though his voice was dripping with despair.

“And if you stop working for us, I’d lose you anyway. You don’t want to walk away, Charles, I promise. When this is all over, the war I mean, we’ll cut you loose. You’ll be free to live your life without working for me, but until then, you don’t just work for us, you belong to us, Charles.”

Resigned now to a fate that he knew was certain, Charles slumped down onto the bed and cradled his head in his hands. His tie was loosened and his face was slick with nervous sweat. “What else do you want from me, Alena?”

“There is a meeting tomorrow which will involve your Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs. Nothing will come of it, but I want to know what your Foreign Secretary will be asking.”

“That’s…impossible. I know about the meeting. I’m not cleared for that.”

“But you can get hold of the notes afterwards, can’t you, Charles?”

“I don’t know, I-I-I think maybe…” Charles stammered along. Alena was worried about his mental state; the man was close to cracking completely. He was too much of a coward to turn himself in to the police, to take responsibility for his actions, but Charles might be tempted by the easy way out if she put much more pressure on him. She had to be gentle here.

Alena sat down on the bed next to Charles. “You can do it, for me, and for yourself. For that lovely little family of yours. You don’t want to lose them, do you? It won’t be hard to do, Charles. I promise. A few more weeks, maybe even just days, and this will all be over.”

Neither Charles nor Alena noticed the presence of a trio of black Rangerovers outside the hotel room, or the twelve grey-clad men who emerged from their doors as the vehicles skidded to a halt. The first warning either of them had was the sound of the door crashing open and shouted commands.

“Armed police! Hands in the air!”

[stevep]

forcon,

Good to know that little worm got caught, along with his handler. However I wonder why now as there might be the possibility of feeding false information to the Russians. Or possibly they have known for some time and been feeding false info - although that would be difficult without his knowledge - and decided there's no point in continuing.

Steve

[forcon]

Feb 6, 2020 14:49:42 GMT stevep said:

forcon ,

Good to know that little worm got caught, along with his handler. However I wonder why now as there might be the possibility of feeding false information to the Russians. Or possibly they have known for some time and been feeding false info - although that would be difficult without his knowledge - and decided there's no point in continuing.

Steve

Thanks. Yup, Charles - The Rat as I choose to refer to him - is in for a rather unpleasant 25 years for his crimes. There could always be a possibility of turning him, but a lot of people would be very upset about that. He's in the custody of the police right now, not MI5 or anybody else, so they would have to get him released without charges and act like the whole thing never happened for the SVR to believe that he was still working for them, which would be very tough, especially with quite a few people who would much rather see Charles prosecuted. 

[amir]

But Alena doesn’t have diplomatic cover anymore- if she ever did. Pretty easy to lean on Charles to build a case then present her the option of cooperation or punishment. Alena has a support network that can be rooted out, and leaning on Charles to help turn her is a first step. You can also interrogate Charles for previous collection requirements. This will help fuse with other information acquired by various means to begin to identify the enemy’s strategic plans and concerns.

[James G]

Feb 6, 2020 12:47:32 GMT amir said:

Gentlemen- great timeline!

I hope the SAS doesn’t have to do many more assaults without additional support forces. In a six minute CQB fight, Collin’s 19 Troop took over 10% casualties, and has effectively lost the use of one or more of his subunit patrols (one at 50% or two at 75%) until his wounded men return or replacements (L squadron or combining with another attrited unit) are integrated and trained up. It’s true that he accomplished the mission and inflicted disproportionate casualties on the GRU, but his losses limit his tactical flexibility in future operations. The “good” news is that once the diplomatic missions are secured most other targets should not require a CQB assault unless there are extenuating circumstances (sensitivity of location, collateral damage concerns, etc) and allow for combined operations using Specialist Firearms Units, TA infantry, or other armed elements for support or even to conduct portions of the assault.

The scene with the Spetsnaz assault on Lakenheath was very well done. Good to see them cast into a direct action mission that is not a suicide mission- difficult yes, and a strategic decision to incur a high level of casualties to inflict a degree of disruption (although maybe less than expected) on a key USAF main operating base (MOB). The major and his fellow survivors will doubtless be interrogated, and a manhunt should be launched for the uncaptured members of the team, but my assumption is this likely not the only direct action mission the Spetsnaz launched, so there is a disruption effect achieved and a further diversion of resources in the manhunt. Further, the Russian spetsnaz are all professional long service soldiers unlike the Soviet era version. It is could be that the survivors have a post attack plan to either evade, or conduct follow on operations given their higher levels of experience and training,

Thank you.
I hadn't thought of it that way - losses for the SAS - when I should have. It will limit them. Thankfully, as this isn't the 80s, Russian ops on UK soil will be small. Troubles at home mean their missions requiring SAS counteraction will be rather ineffective too. Storming those compounds using police and then calling in the SAS was all about political interference. We will be seeing the politician at the centre of this in the next update.

[James G]

Feb 6, 2020 14:49:42 GMT stevep said:

forcon ,

Good to know that little worm got caught, along with his handler. However I wonder why now as there might be the possibility of feeding false information to the Russians. Or possibly they have known for some time and been feeding false info - although that would be difficult without his knowledge - and decided there's no point in continuing.

Steve

It could have been the case that he was known about and fed clever disinformation. It is hard to do, risky, but has been done by intelligence agencies in the past, MI-6 included.

[stevep]

Feb 6, 2020 17:18:22 GMT forcon said:

Feb 6, 2020 14:49:42 GMT stevep said:

forcon ,

Good to know that little worm got caught, along with his handler. However I wonder why now as there might be the possibility of feeding false information to the Russians. Or possibly they have known for some time and been feeding false info - although that would be difficult without his knowledge - and decided there's no point in continuing.

Steve

Thanks. Yup, Charles - The Rat as I choose to refer to him - is in for a rather unpleasant 25 years for his crimes. There could always be a possibility of turning him, but a lot of people would be very upset about that. He's in the custody of the police right now, not MI5 or anybody else, so they would have to get him released without charges and act like the whole thing never happened for the SVR to believe that he was still working for them, which would be very tough, especially with quite a few people who would much rather see Charles prosecuted. 

forcon,

  If he last's that long. Pedophiles tend not to be popular with other prisoners and if he goes to jail simply for treason in war - unfortunately we scrapped the death penalty for that - that could also make for a rough time for him.  Either way such abuse of a serving prisoner would upset me, not at all.

  Steve

[James G]

Five


Adam Young wanted to be the Prime Minister. He’d entered politics for that reason. It drove him, that desire to get to the very top. There was no other reason which he saw to be in this game called national politics if it wasn’t to aim for the highest he could go. He was currently a couple of rungs down from the top of the ladder. Yong served as Security Minister, under the Home Secretary at the UK’s Home Office. His career path upwards wasn’t something that he could accurately plot out because it would always be subject to events, but he intended to soon move to a Cabinet job, then one of the Great Offices of State before being in Downing Street eventually. Another few years and he’d be there. There were some crazy people in Moscow who wanted to interfere with this process though. They were trying to put a blot on his career with their insane war which they had launched against Britain and its NATO partners. Just over a day ago now, those coup-ists in Russia’s capital had sent their army into the Baltics. Young was a government minister but he wasn’t fully briefed on the exact details of how the war was progressing there in Eastern Europe. These things were secret, need-to-know. It wasn’t one being lost by NATO but neither, propaganda aside, was it currently being won either. A big mess it all was. Hundreds of British casualties had been taken out there in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The war came here to Britain too. Young wasn’t ultimately responsible for how the fight against Russian efforts with their spies and Spetsnaz was going but he was intimately involved in the political side of things. He wanted to claim credit where there was some to take and to make sure that none of the sticky stuff stuck to him when it was sprayed about. The former would win him one day that position at the top which he coveted; the latter would see a shameful return to vacuum of the backbenches.

Not a core member of government’s crisis committee which was unofficially being called the War Cabinet, Young was still a participant when called in. He went to his second briefing this morning. Whitehall felt like a military camp. There were armed soldiers everywhere, even some light armoured vehicles including a couple mounting air defence missiles pointed up into the bright blue sky. Sandbags, concertina wire and metal barriers were up all around the heart of London’s government district. Young went through the checkpoints along with the Met. Police officer who’d been assigned as a bodyguard for him at a time of war. The Cabinet Office had its main entrance on Whitehall. The road was closed to traffic and pedestrians this Sunday morning. It was still busy though with all sorts of people about. Officials, policemen and soldiers were passed on the way in by Young and his little entourage. He came to the Cabinet Office with that bodyguard, an aide and a spook from MI-5 whom he’d handpicked to join him in meeting with the PM and his top team. There were those at the Security Service whom Young had recently rubbed up the wrong way due to several matters and this was one of them. In the long run, it might not do that spook’s career any good because of how he was making use of her but that didn’t concern Young. On his way to the top, everyone else was disposable. There was a War Cabinet meeting at ten o’clock. Young showed up early but found he wasn’t the only one already here. He spoke with one of the junior ministers from the Ministry of Defence and then the Chief Whip who was also in the building but not due to attend the meeting. Then, going down belowground, Young went with only Hargreaves from MI-5 to the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A: COBRA.


The Foreign Secretary was absent and so too was the Deputy PM. Young knew that the first would be missing – the China issue had her attention – but he was surprised to see the second member not here. In the yesterday’s briefing which had required Young’s attendance, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (the deputy role was de facto for many who held that Cabinet portfolio) had been present and was rather involved in discussions concerning Russian activity on British soil. He’d spoken more at that meeting than Young’s boss the Home Secretary. Missing he was though, not at the PM’s side. If there was something seriously wrong, such as a Russian attempt against his life, Young would know about that. So… it was something else, something political or diplomatic which he might be informed about or might not. Regardless, the man whom Young wanted to impress wasn’t here. This put a dampener on his mood somewhat. The path to power for Young was currently through that man. Alas, that was an issue for later. Meanwhile, there was this briefing to get through. Other top-level attendees beside the PM and Home Secretary were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Defence Secretary, the Attorney General and the uniformed Chiefs of the Defence Staff & General Staff. Young was joined by other junior people, his most recent pet from MI-5 included, because this gathering was concerning Operation Castle Moat. Other events would be brought up in relation to that ongoing effort to protect Britain at home from the war being fought mainly overseas but it really was about the domestic fight.

The PM asked Young to begin by running through the recent instances of hostile Russian activity which had occurred since the last meeting. The Security Minister did just that. There had been no more military-grade commando actions followed the initial ones which came in the immediate hours following the opening of hostilities. The attacks made by Russian Spetsnaz at the airbases of RAF Lakenheath and RAF Waddington, plus the sinking of that vessel as a blockship off the Royal Navy base at Devonport, hadn’t been followed up. The hunt was still ongoing for the surviving members of the teams which made all three of those big strikes with success achieved in Lincolnshire: four Russian special forces soldiers on the run had been caught and either died fighting or were captured alive. Finding those responsible for the Devonport mission was still not showing any positive sign of progress but there were some breadcrumbs being followed with some men who’d got away their attack in Suffolk against the Americans. As to the fourth Spetsnaz mission, that one which they failed to get going against Army Headquarters at Marlborough Lines in Hampshire, the complete team remained in custody. They’d been caught in uniform, literally minutes after changing out of civilian clothes, and were thus being held as internationally recognised POWs. The wounded were under guard like those uninjured were: this was the case with other prisoners taken in those further enemy actions.

Moving on, Young addressed the issue of Russian operatives acting in a paramilitary role committing semi-terrorist actions rather than as special forces raiders. There had been two further attacks by them overnight. Lone attackers armed with explosives had now committed half a dozen bombings and acts of arson against civilian targets. These latest strikes hadn’t been as high-profile as Heathrow Airport or MI-6 headquarters which had been seen when the war started but instead low-profile, big reward targets out in Buckinghamshire and up in Ayrshire. Civilian power and telecommunications links had been hit at the most exposed places to cause maximum effect. Military wise this did nothing for Russia’s war in Eastern Europe yet these were done to undermine British public morale as part of Moscow’s hybrid warfare geo-political strategy. There were a couple of these terrorists in custody and one was in a body bag; three more were as-yet unidentified. Those who had done this were long time deep cover agents and where their false identity was known, the pretend lives they led were being picked apart. Young was asked if there were likely going to be more of these attacks. He could only say that that was unknown. The chance was there that Russia had shot its bolt – six agents was quite the number to have hidden for so long – but there might be others. This caused several worried looks among the faces of those present. These politicians were more concerned about these than the ‘traditional’ commando attacks. What had happened at Heathrow was still fresh in their minds and Young knew that they, like he, feared another mass casualty event but also knew that there would be public unease when the lights went out and the internet went down across the country.

When it came to Russian spies, Young led in the update given to the War Cabinet by the spook from MI-5 which he had brought here. He himself was on top of his brief when it came to espionage matters but an expert in the field was the best person to tell them what they wanted to know. Young didn’t want to put his foot in it anywhere: if she did, which he doubted, it wasn’t his career on the line. He’d chosen Hargreaves because she could talk with the confidence required but also didn’t ‘frighten’ the PM and others either by being too clever, too mysterious and too arrogant… Young knew there were plenty of other spooks who would love to be here but would fulfil that unwelcome criteria. He turned it over to her at right moment. Sitting back and listening to her, Young revelled in his wisdom of picking her. She was pretty and smart. She could speak their language. Her briefing was missing unnecessary details yet gave them what they needed. Young had arranged with her beforehand what was to be covered. He wasn’t hiding anything from the War Cabinet, it wasn’t a case of that, but there was a way of doing this which he wanted to see done. It had to make him look good. Intelligence agents of Russia’s two principle espionage agencies had been arrested on British soil. There were GRU and SVR officers picked up since the war had started. Police teams, supported by MI-5 who had no powers of arrest themselves, had detained ones known about previous to the opening of hostilities. There had been some incidents yet nothing too dramatic. A few had escaped the net cast with several runners caught though not all. The hunt was on to find the rest of them. None of these had diplomatic cover and had been pretending to be businesspeople, journalists or emigres. MI-5 had surveillance and counter-espionage operations underway against them before the war. Now those operations were blown but the spies were in custody. Of course, there were more: others not previously known about. Multiple lines of enquiry were being followed to identify further spies. There had been some success achieved already. One of those detained early on had expressed a wish to sell out Mother Russia for a better life – naturally, he put it a different way: who would believe it but he apparently actually had a conscience, wanted to do the right thing and loved Britain? – and there had been some good information which came from that: two arrests had been made with one of them a previously unknown spy and the second a traitor to Queen and County. There were some more breadcrumbs to follow from this, to a safehouse in South London. From out of the Russian Defence Attaché’s Office there had come a secondary source of intelligence. Hargreaves went into more detail on that than she and Young had discussed but not enough to steal his coming thunder. All told, one hiccup at the end aside, she did what he wanted from her. He’d chosen well. Young was here for the glory and wanted it all alone.


Both the PM and the Attorney General (the country’s top law officer) had questions. Young handled those. The Security Minister informed the man whose job he wanted that, yes, everything was being done when it came to working with British domestic partner agencies in the fight against Russian spies as well as their commandos and terrorists. Allies were being worked with too, especially the Americans and the French. British sovereignty in the realm of intelligence matters on its own soil was being adhered to in that complicated balancing act: it was all in hand. When it came to the Attorney General, Young struggled a bit with this man’s approach to questioning. The man was a former barrister (other holders of that post in the past hadn’t been when it would have been best if they had) and Young felt like the accused in a court of law! The two of them were party and parliamentary colleagues yet never had had a good relationship. Young gave assurances when demanded that arrested Russian – and Belorussian – diplomats held in detention by the UK Border Force were being treated properly. The Attorney General was more concerned about the treatment of the arrested spies, those without the protection afforded to accredited diplomats. Both the Defence Secretary and the head of the British Army each made remarks about not giving much of a damn about their rights but the rottweiler at the scuff of Young’s neck kept on with it. He wanted to be sure that the law was being followed where it came to them. Young asserted that it was yet the Attorney General still wasn’t happy with the responses on the subject which the Young gave him. Only finally did the Attorney General relent when the PM drove the briefing onwards. He wanted to know about one of those detained spies in particular, the one found with detailed plans of many Whitehall buildings in her home. This was concerning for the PM. Young made sure that his own face and tone shared that concern too. Hargreaves moved to interject but he quickly cut her off and handled the reply. There was a full investigation into that matter with all resources thrown at getting to the bottom of it all. The security situation in the middle of London here had been reassessed in light of uncovering of such plans which could be used to make an attack here while MI-5’s spooks were working on getting that woman to talk.

As the meeting concluded, the Defence Secretary took a moment of Young’s time and told him that he had done well. The Security Minister wasn’t trying to impress him though. Yet, thinking fast, Young realised that when it came to what intelligence nuggets had been gleamed from the SAS raid yesterday up in Highgate, success there would come from the intense cooperation between the armed forces and the spooks. Castle Moat was still on track to be an accomplishment which could only benefit him personally. There was the little matter of that bloody war raging in Eastern Europe, and of course a few thousand nukes pointed at opponents fighting a global war, but Young kept his focus on getting what he wanted in life: the PM’s office in Downing Street. He had his priorities where he wanted them to be.

[amir]

Does Adam Young have a Dog? I see he’s already using the THEM...

[stevep]

Feb 7, 2020 20:12:09 GMT James G said:

Five

....

 Only finally did the Attorney General relent when the PM drove the briefing onwards. He wanted to know about one of those detained spies in particular, the one found with detailed plans of many Whitehall buildings in her home. This was concerning for the PM. Young made sure that his own face and tone shared that concern too. Hargreaves moved to interject but he quickly cut her off and handled the reply. There was a full investigation into that matter with all resources thrown at getting to the bottom of it all. The security situation in the middle of London here had been reassessed in light of uncovering of such plans which could be used to make an attack here while MI-5’s spooks were working on getting that woman to talk.

....

  Now why do I get the feeling that Young has cocked up here?   Hopefully with no serious consequences other than the bonus of his career taking a serious, preferably fatal knock.  I wonder if Hargreaves realises how he's trying to use her and has an alternative way to get an important details across despite him.  If that spy had those details the obvious question is how many other agents in Britain or possibly even Russian forces still hidden somewhere have they been passed onto.

[forcon]

Six

Gatwick Airport was a hive of military activity. By the thousands, airliners from Delta, American Airlines, Federal Express and two dozen other organisations landed at the airport, mostly to refuel or change their human cargo before heading onwards to similar airports or military airfields in Germany.

Lieutenant Linton of the Welsh Guards' 1st Battalion, alongside his platoon of twenty-seven riflemen, were providing security to the airport. Much to Linton's dismay, the whole battalion was in the Home Counties under the 11th Infantry Brigade, providing domestic security for installations such as Gatwick Airport, rather than being overseas fighting what many were calling the Third World War. Most of the 11th Brigade's other battalions had deployed overseas or were preparing to do so.

1 Royal Gurkha Rifles were, last Linton had heard, in Norway with the Paras. 1 Grenadier Guards was in Poland, and 2 Royal Anglian Regiment was headed there as well. Only the brigade's Army Reserve (formerly Territorial Army) elements remained in Britain alongside the Welsh Guards. 3 Royal Anglian Regiment was hunting down Spetsnaz commandos in East Anglia, while the elite guards unit was stuck here guarding an airport. It was infuriating!

Linton watched as another jet lumbered off of the runway. This one was a C-17, a giant US Air Force transport jet. Where was it bound? He wondered. Poland, Denmark, Norway perhaps? The RAF was also flying its own operations from Gatwick as the airport came under military control with the invocation of the Emergency Powers Act. British troops, many of them frontline soldiers but others being from support units in the Royal Logistics Corps, the Royal Engineers, even the Catering Corps, were flying to the European mainland by the thousands as war raged on across the continent.

To Lieutenant Linton's surprise, Gatwick had yet to come under enemy attack, direct or otherwise. No Spetsnaz commandos had struck at the airport, nor had there been any sabotage attempts by spies of traitors. Two days ago, Heathrow Airport, operating in a similar capacity as a transportation hub for the deployment of forces overseas, had seen a mass-casualty attack with a fuel truck driven by a man whose family had been threatened being used as a giant petrol bomb. Flight operations continued from Heathrow, but one of the terminals had been devastated and scores of American servicemen, disembarked from the airplanes during a refuelling stop, had been killed or injured inside the terminal. The driver's wife and son had been found with their throats cut despite him having followed their abductor's instructions to the letter.

Cruise missile attacks, mostly from aircraft but sometimes from submarines as well, had also rocked Britain. Linton had yet to see the effects of such a strike, but he had been told by a friend at Brize Notion that they were horrifying to suffer through although somewhat ineffective from a military perspective.

Overall, it seemed to Linton that Russian efforts to shut down NATO’s fledgling logistical and supply hubs were going rather poorly. A part of him, however, wished that they would try to strike Gatwick; he was confident that his soldiers would put a stop to that, and at least Linton could say he’d done something during this war rather than sat around waiting for the enemy to show up! There had to be transport planes taking off from Gatwick at a rate of one-per-minute, perhaps even more. There were airliners flying alongside their military cousins with the mobilisation of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet in the United States and Britain’s decision to nationalise British Airways for the duration of the war.

Two companies of Guardsmen from 1 Welsh Guards were stationed here at Gatwick, alongside the Royal Yeomanry and its Jackal light vehicles, bristling with machineguns and grenade-launchers. Armed police officers were also present in huge numbers. While the Army held a perimeter around the edges of Gatwick, the police were responsible for direct internal security. Busses requisitioned from travel companies ferried soldiers through the various gates of the airport; at the outer gates, each bus was boarded by Guardsmen in full combat-dress. The driver’s had their identities checked, as did the men and women inside – though the checks were very brief - and then the busses were sent on, before the soldiers debarked and found themselves ushered into waiting areas in platoon and company-sized units.

While armed policemen patrolled between the gaggles of deploying servicemen and women, the soldiers themselves had their weapons stowed in aircraft’s cargo-compartments before they boarded and headed for the abyss. It was a somewhat inefficient system, but Linton and his fellow officers had managed to cut down the time significantly. When each bus entered the airport ground’s, it took less than a minute for a fire-team of four Guardsmen to board, briefly check the military ID’s of the personnel on board, and move on to the next bus.

An attached unit of the Royal Military Police used dogs to sniff for explosive devices hidden across the airport. Having grown up in the countryside of south Wales, Linton had been successful in befriending one of the huge German Shepherds, much to the handler’s displeasure. He bent down and let the animal sniff his outstretched hands. When Linton sat down, the dog sat on his lap and rolled on its back.

“He seems vicious,” Linton told the handler with a smirk.

“Don’t think he’d be so kind to any Spetsnaz we come across,” the handler replied. “But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t distract him from his job, sir.” Understanding, Lieutenant Linton stepped backwards. In the boredom of the daily routine at Gatwick, he had briefly allowed himself to become distracted, and he'd distracted another person from their job as well. This seemed like more of a nightmare than the war itself; he had joined the Army to fight, missing Afghanistan by a couple of years and never having been given the opportunity to 'give the good news' to ISIS either. Linton was a soldier and he wanted to prove it! How was he supposed to face his comrades who had fought in Poland and elsewhere as part of this war when they returned home? A sobering thought struck him then; they might not be coming home at all. 

That night, Linton went back to the aircraft hangar that was being used as a makeshift sangar by the members of A Company, wondering which was more likely; the world ending, or his unit finally going into action?

[James G]

Feb 8, 2020 2:07:14 GMT amir said:

Does Adam Young have a Dog? I see he’s already using the THEM...

I'm not sure what THEM is but I am gathering it is to do with the behaviour of dogs?
He is not a good guy. Not evil but not principled at all. Power drives him.

Feb 8, 2020 10:04:32 GMT stevep said:

  Now why do I get the feeling that Young has cocked up here?   Hopefully with no serious consequences other than the bonus of his career taking a serious, preferably fatal knock.  I wonder if Hargreaves realises how he's trying to use her and has an alternative way to get an important details across despite him.  If that spy had those details the obvious question is how many other agents in Britain or possibly even Russian forces still hidden somewhere have they been passed onto.

Not in my current plans for that to be the case but I might change my mind.
All Young wants is ultimate power soon enough and he'll use anyone to get it: a spook from MI-5 is only a tool. She might understand and by riding the wave.
There have been several leads uncovered and we are going to see them play out in the coming updates.

[amir]

Ah- so he might be The Adam Young. Can’t wait until he comes into his power...

In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for Aziraphale and Crowley!

Nicely done!

Linton should be careful what he wishes for. While the heavy security presence may deter a ground assault, airfields make great indirect fire and aerial interdiction targets- especially if someone on the inside can spot targets and assess effects. The good thing is he’s a long way from the FEBA, the bad thing is anybody willing to go to the trouble of striking that deep is going to make sure they get their money’s worth!

[stevep]

Feb 8, 2020 21:19:48 GMT amir said:

Ah- so he might be The Adam Young. Can’t wait until he comes into his power...

In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for Aziraphale and Crowley!

Nicely done!

Linton should be careful what he wishes for. While the heavy security presence may deter a ground assault, airfields make great indirect fire and aerial interdiction targets- especially if someone on the inside can spot targets and assess effects. The good thing is he’s a long way from the FEBA, the bad thing is anybody willing to go to the trouble of striking that deep is going to make sure they get their money’s worth!

  Duh!  I should have got that reference as been watching the current TV version, although their missed out some of the good parts of the books.  Although if it was that Adam he's taken a distinctly darker turn here and given his potential we would be in a lot deeper shit than just a war with the Russians.

  I was thinking the same thing about Linton.  The wise person, if he has a choice, wants a quiet war.