Chapter 5

We sat there with our jaws dropped. Talk about upping the stakes.

“We haven’t been told where the band tour will want to play yet. I expect that Oxford will feature, sometime in September. We usually get six or seven months to organise them, so should get a message soon. If ‘Exarctics’ have lost the singer and drummer, it will take some time before they can play again.”

“Yes. Your friend, Rudy, was helping ‘Dominerter’ and has moved in with them, now his house is just a shell. They’re playing a series of venues in Spain, at the moment. What’s that look for, Maxine?”

“Look, Justin. It’s just that I feel as if I’m not really needed here. I’ve passed on information, agreed, but this is all going on and I’m just getting told what’s happened. I’ve always been more ‘hands on’ with a case, and this doesn’t feel right.”

“I can understand what the two of you are thinking. The point is that it was you meeting the Bartons and providing us with that photo, along with the name of Rudy and the bands that got us looking closely at them and their links. That, alone, has saved lives and eliminated three assassins who were responsible for many deaths. With investigations at this level, there are no egos. You have as much right to be here as anybody. Andy and Maria feel the same. I know, as we’ve spoken about it. While things are happening in Europe, it’s up to the authorities there to deal with it, with us getting points for providing them with the information.”

“I know, but it all seems as if I’m being told a story, with a new chapter when I come here.”

“As far as we know, there’s one more chapter to be written, and that’s what Klaus does next. Without playing, he may start reaching out for his handler, and that could give more closure. The Russians seem happy, just working out and seeing agents to try and recruit more players. They’re doing exactly what a band leader should do. No, you’re not being sidelined, as the finale of the story could be here, in Blenheim, next September, and your input into that will be vital in us saving thousands of lives, including our heads of state.”

“I suppose, if you put it like that. Have you any plans for looking at the car?”

“Our tactical group have been working through modelling scenarios. If it comes from Genoa to a port here, we’ll need to know the port of entry. I expect that Southampton will be the most likely.”

“That would be on the loading details, so you have about a week to set something up. If it’s taken from the container at the dock, he would have booked a long transporter to take it to Blenheim, to further the story that it can’t be started. Given that he wants to leave before the big bang, I would expect that he would have his own car. It may be in a separate container, but I would expect that he’d use a forty foot one with both in.”

“That’s an interesting thought, Maxine. If we want to put his container into a safe place, we could say that we have a tip that there’s a drug shipment in a forty-foot container from Genoa, and quarantine all of them for inspection”.

“It would pay to find out the ratio of twenty to forty-foot ones in an average unloading. You wouldn’t want too many.”

“This is all good. If his own is in the container, so he could follow the truck, it would be another pointer to him getting away early. If we do use the customs ploy, we could have a container in the shed, filled with the inspection team and bomb experts, to do their job overnight. I doubt that we could hold his container for more than two days, unless we organise a strike with the lifter operators. That may expand into a full-blown stevedore strike that would lock up the docks for weeks. We would like to avoid that!”

“If your team can work through the night, the normal customs inspections could take place during the days. If there is a bomb, and it’s removed, you don’t want to leave him enough time to double check, so he should get it back a day before the show.”

“Good thinking. There’s a lot of details that can only be planned at the last minute. Never fear, ladies, there will be plenty for you as the event gets close. We have a lot of agents out there, watching and checking, from our service and other European services. Genoa is going to be a problem, seeing that the port is run by the Mafia gangs and knowing their need for security. We’re trying to put someone inside the shipping office as a clerk. They won’t be going for Mafia secrets, just the paperwork for the car.”

We spoke about likely scenarios and then Maria drove us back to my home. I made some sandwiches for Lena and I and we spoke more about what we had got ourselves into.

“I’m not sure about this, Maxie. Justin is sounding like the officers that used to plan operations when I was serving. All bright sayings and wishful thinking. That used to get troops killed.”

“I’m with you on that, Lena. It’s everything happening without us that bugs me. It’s all very well to be told that we’ll be involved in the final phase, it’s just that I can’t see our place in it. Let’s take it that the bomb is removed or made inoperative. The whole thing will be an anticlimax when nothing happens. I know that nothing happening is what we’re working towards, but it all seems so, well, pointless.”

“There is taking the Count into custody, as well as any accomplices. That might get exciting. Thinking about the Count, that’s the odd thing about the whole business. He has to have a reason to try this. There’s a lot of loose ends. Where he’s getting a nuke is the main one. Even if he’s picked up a tactical shell, they don’t grow on trees. Then there’s the expertise needed to enable it to be detonated. It’s something that terrorist groups dream about, but only found in the nuclear arms world.”

“You’re thinking that it may all be part of a bigger plan?”

“That would make sense. Russia is constantly rattling sabres, and so is America, these days. Then you can add China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, France, and good old Blighty to the nuclear countries. China has never said, openly, that it would use them. North Korea isn’t that far ahead to have something small enough with the sort of result we’re talking about. Both India and Pakistan have declared that theirs are only for deterrent purposes. Ours are deployed on submarines or as big bombs, and so are French ones. That leaves three possibilities, the US, Russia, or Israel. We know that the US has depleted uranium shells, and they do send a lot of weapons to Israel. Russia could have almost anything you could think of. Who knows, we may not even have a nuke. It could be a chemical weapon that is short lasting but highly contagious.”

“You’re talking about something that would wipe out the country but would leave it habitable in a few weeks?”

“It’s logical, from a military viewpoint. You end up with a small number of survivors who are easily overcome. You just need to clean up all the bodies, and then you just take over the entire country. If you think about it, any one of the three countries that we’re left with would be happy to have our island as a blank canvas to occupy. The US would be able to dominate Europe by being this close. Russia would have Europe in a pincer situation, and Israel would be able to send a load of settlers to take over the agriculture, a long way from the thorns in their side from closer enemies. If you like conspiracies, it could be a joint venture between the US and Israel.”

Her logic stopped me in mid-chew. As I finished my mouthful, I was thinking hard.

“We’ve never been told what the assassinated people were thinking, and who they were trying to influence. If there’s a common thread, it could point us to the likely instigators. The use of different terrorist organisations could be a way to hide the real reason for this all, If it’s really some Italian group wanting to eliminate the government, they could do that at home, without all this complication.”

“That’s all something we’ll need to talk to Andy and Maria about. I don’t trust Justin, completely. He’s so sure of himself, a lot like the officers that we started talking about.”

The next day, I sent a text to Maria, asking if I could talk to her about a new trend in fashion that I was keen to explore, and inviting both her and Andy to the apartment for lunch. Bertie was in Scotland for the week, listening to a couple of new bands. She texted back to say that they would come. I called Lena to say that we would host the Bartons for lunch to talk about trends.

That morning, I went to the shops to get some good things for lunch and tidied up in the apartment. I laid the table for four and opened a bottle of good wine. Lena arrived early and helped me get lunch ready. Maria buzzed at the outer door, so I pressed the button to let them in, then waited by the open apartment door to welcome them when the lift doors opened. We didn’t talk business, and I served lunch. Andy was looking around.

“Nice place you have, Maxine.”

“It was Berties’ before we got married. He was like a lot of titled folks, asset rich and money poor. In the case where I met Lena, we all came out of it very well off, mainly from horses doing the right thing. Since then, we’ve built his original business into something quite impressive. I’ve only added a womans’ touch, mainly having something to eat in the fridge.”

“You’ve brought us here for a reason.”

“Yes, Andy. You’re right. We’ll talk further after we’ve eaten, but, until then, I want the two of you to think hard about my first question. Would you trust Justin Thyme with your life?”

They both looked surprised and then at each other. We finished the meal, and I cleared the table, bringing out a coffee pot that had been percolating. When we were comfortable, Maria spoke first.

“Do you have a particular reason for your question, Maxine?”

“Both Lena and I have been at the pointy end a few times. Lena more than me. We have both developed a healthy knack of being able to read people. Lena thinks that he’s like one of those back-room officers who send troops to their death without any thought. For me, he reminds me of a certain, highly ranked, police officer who was planning my own death, after being gang raped.”

Andy took Marias’ hand.

“This is against everything that has been pounded into us since we left the normal force. I’m not sure what his game is, but, no, I wouldn’t be running in front of him if he was holding a gun. This is something we’ve spoken about, in private, since we first met him.”

“Next question. Were you working for him when we met at Laon?”

“No, we weren’t. Our boss knew that we were there, but it was just a stop on a buying trip. We followed normal procedure and put a report in with everything we had done and everyone we’d met. It was a couple of weeks later that we were told about the murdered agent and told to report to Justin. We went down into that command centre for the first time with him. I expect that our report was remembered at one of the many meetings, when the murdered agent was discussed. We, and our own group, weren’t aware of the other assassinations.”

“Yes, the assassinations. From what we’ve been told, Elly and Butch did the shootings and Emile did the stabbings, both controlled by the FAI. Klause has a dark past but hasn’t done anything that we’ve been told of. There are a few things that aren’t adding up. Can you tell us what the targets were doing that got them killed?”

“For some reason, Maxine, I think that you’re on to something that you’ll chew at until you get an answer. All of the targets that were shot or stabbed, were pro-Israel, and pro-America. I believe that we’ve gained some points from our cousins by putting a stop to that.”

“And the others?”

“Various reasons, mainly political firebrands and pro-Palestine rabble-rousers.”

“And those killings have stopped. Since when?”

“About three weeks before we met in Laon. There hasn’t been one since then.”

“So, the murder of the French agent, your report, and my information about the bands stopped the assassinations of pro-Americans. Do you think that there may have been two organisations operating? One that killed the pro-Americans and other one, or more, organising the other deaths?”

“If I was on a normal case, that would be something I would have followed.”

“So, why has nothing more been done to follow up the other cases. Why hasn’t Justin debriefed us more. Or, more importantly, why hasn’t he passed us on to other agencies who are following them up? More importantly, what makes this case so different?”

“The likely attack at Blenheim, for one.”

“You’re dead right. It’s an attack that is being planned by the same people who killed that mix of rabble rousers. Tell me. Before you met Justin, had you ever heard of Parsley?”

“No. We do move in interesting circles in the service, but that’s something very new, and unlikely to be an organisation that our own service would approve of. Execution without a trial isn’t our way.”

“No more than extradition without a hearing? Abduction without question?”

They looked surprised and then looked hard at each other. Maria spoke.

“What you’re saying has helped us to reconstruct our own thoughts. We’ve spent our time with Justine as the hired help. Both he, and Rosemary, have spent several years in Washington, as exchange agents to learn how they operate. They went over in twenty-seventeen and came back after the next election. That’s all in their public record. What’s not known is why they went there before the latest election, for three months, supposedly to cement our ties with the likely winner. You asked if we trusted him, well, I wouldn’t trust him to bring home some fish and chips. Now, you must have a notion based on this discussion.”

“When I offered the nuclear idea, Rosemary picked up on it and Justin followed her lead. We were talking about where an Italian Count could get a small nuke and realised that it would need the backing of one of the nuclear countries. We came down to three that were likely to be able to supply a tactical warhead. Russia, America, and Israel.”

“Wait! Are you saying that one of our friends is behind this? Russia, I can understand, but that would bring down a rain of missiles on their head. A nuke in England would be tantamount to declaring war on the rest of the world. That’s preposterous!”

“What if it’s not a nuke. What if it’s a virus or nerve agent. The explosion in the engine would be enough to rupture the gearbox which could have enough in it to kill everyone locally, and so easily transmitted to be passed to every person within a few feet, spreading out through the country, until everyone is dead.”

“Then you wait until coming in and just inhabiting the empty country, killing any survivors. That is almost logical to work. What does Justin have to do with it, though?”

“He was brought in to keep a lid on it, until the final day. You two, and us, have been brought into the inner circle to keep us quiet. We will have a role in Blenheim, and that will be as victims. Probably along with the Count and his band. I expect that there will be a show of taking the container and inspecting the car, but, in reality, it will just be show.”

“So, you think that the cousins are behind this?”

“It’s entirely possible, seeing the crazy people in charge. It follows the ‘warrior’ mentality, gives them a new country on the doorstep of Europe, and leaves them with a whole new economy to build. Tell me, have you met Sage?”

“No. We don’t think that Sage is a person, a bit like Parsley. The only unit with that name was the Special Agency for Government Expansion, set up a few days after Musk was given the Department of Government Efficiency, but has never sat, as far as we know. Oh dear! With what you’ve proposed, it’s starting to look as if you’re right.”

“Do you have friends within your own service who you can trust with your lives, because that’s what it will be?”

“We do. We also have ways to talk to them to appear all above board. What do you suggest?”

“That you pass on the suspicions. They could set up a parallel unit. The first thing is to find out how much of this they know. If the danger is so real, they should be aware. I would open a communication link, so that I can let them know where the container is arriving. They should then set up a couple of low-light cameras in the customs shed, to see if any inspection was done on the container. I’m sure that there will be inspections of any other container, and it’s very likely that something will be found, seeing where they’ve been loaded.”

“How do we stop the explosion?”

“Stop the truck on the way, offload the container and wrap it in concrete, then drop it in a quarry, with a microphone in the water to hear any blast. Hopefully, the virus will be contained. The other thing that they can do is monitor any evacuation of US organisations or their bases late in August. The show is from the twenty-sixth to the thirtieth.”

“What about the car show, the Count, and Thyme?”

“The car show will go on without a replica Bugatti, you could put a team on the other two to see what they do. If Thyme follows others of his ilk, he’ll never expect to be monitored. You’ll need to follow Rosemary as well, as I have the feeling that she’s the one really in charge. You could take the Count down at any remote spot and grill him quietly. I doubt that he would hold out for long, even if he does know the plan. It’s possible that he was told that the engine and gearbox are both good as show, but not to look inside.”

They stood and Andy held out his hand to me.

“Thank you for a good, and interesting lunch, Maxine. It’s been good to talk to the two of you. We’ll follow through with our true friends and will invite you to our shop in Birmingham for a browse of our better stock. Some of it would look good on both of you.”

We shook hands and hugged Maria, and then they left. Lena refilled her wine glass and sat in my lounge. I refilled mine and joined her.

“That’s let the cat out of the bag, Maxie, love.”

“That it does, Lena. It does make more sense, even if it’s crazier than an Italian Count wanting to eliminate his government.”

“We’ll have to be patient until they come back to us.”

“After reading about his way of working, I would say that Andy is on his phone, right now, to set up a meeting.”

The rest of the year was quiet, with no word from Andy, nothing from Spicy, but our usual round of working out tours, going to, and hosting, parties. Bertie and I had a lovely Christmas and flew to southern Spain for a couple of weeks in the sun. We were lazing by the pool at our hotel in Marbella, after a nice lunch and a few drinks. The couple on the sunbeds next to me remarked that the sun was too hot, and they left. Another couple took their place. I had my eyes shut when I heard the woman speak.

“Lady Woodward, my name is Jenny Anderson, and I used to work with Maria in a station in Birmingham.”

I opened my eyes and turned to look at her.

“Pleased to meet you, Jenny. I expect that this isn’t a chance meeting.”

“No. My husband is very keen to talk to you. Andy and Maria have spoken to him about your remarkable brain. I gather that the snoring guy next to you is the Lord Bertie.”

“It is, and he knows nothing about what Maria, and I, have talked about. In fact, he hasn’t met either of the Bartons, just that I’ve bought clothing from them.”

“We’ll keep it that way. If you leave him to have his snooze, I’ll look after him and tell him, if he wakes, that you went for a walk as you got too hot. Head for the bar and Dave will join you.”

I got off the lounger and walked towards the hotel building, taking a look at the man beside her as I left. I got a cool drink from the bar and sat in a booth. The man wasn’t far behind me. He had a soft drink in his hand and the aura of someone with some considerable authority.

“Good afternoon, Lady Woodward. Do you mind if I join you? My name is David Anderson.”

“It’s Maxine, David, and you can sit. Your wife told me that she used to work with Maria.”

“She did. I met Andy and Maria when they were working on their first serial murder, and my brother trained Andy in cave diving with their second. They’re a remarkable couple, just on thirty murders solved in those two cases. That’s why I was instrumental in getting them recruited in the arm of the force that I’ve been in for a while. They came to visit us, before Christmas, and presented me with one of the strangest stories I’ve ever heard.”

“I hope that they were believable.”

“Enough for me to ask some questions. My job, and theirs, is mainly anti-terrorism, which is why they were sent to Whitehall when the request came in. The odd thing was that we were never told what the reason was. You would think that a huge danger to the very fabric of our society would ensure that we would get involved, if only out of politeness.”

“From what I’ve been told, in that office, tells me that politeness doesn’t figure in their modus operandi.”

“Quite! They sat me down and gave me the whole story. I have to say that I was amazed. The idea of a state-sponsored hit squad is totally out of our guidelines. The rest of it was almost the stuff of a horror film. I, and my colleagues, worked on it over Christmas, and we found out a lot that made me check where you were, so we could talk. If you weren’t so busy, I’d pitch a job offer. Now, how long are you here?”

“Another ten days, and then back to Canary Wharf to organise the full year of tours, should I live so long.”

“I’ll get Maria to invite you to their shop in Birmingham. Expect to stay overnight, I’ll organise a good hotel. You’ll meet my boss, and, maybe, a couple of others. Andys’ office is very secure, and you’ll leave with a new outfit, both you and your very brave friend, Lena Sergeant. I’m sure that she has never told you about her service, just as you don’t brag about your own. However, her having PTSD is the least that she could have come home with, just as I expect that you have some bad dreams of your own.”

“The dreams aren’t that bad, David, it’s just that I can’t forget the smell of decaying bodies.”

Marianne Gregory © 2025