4

Two days later, I was in Thames House waiting outside the office of Barrow Jones, my ex MI5 special section boss. He was now very senior and in common with all very senior people you have to wait to see them. It demonstrated their importance if you had to wait. It wasn’t like this in his old section. Barrow never gave a stuff about status, but from what I could observe here, his underlings did. Their status was dependent on his status so they were trying to make Barrow look important; therefore, a mere mortal or member of a sub species, such as me, had to wait. Just as I was running all this through my mind, Barrow came to the door of his office.

‘Have you been waiting long, Jake?’

I raised my eyebrows.

‘I do apologise. I spend more time waiting to see people who are waiting to see me than actually seeing them. The inefficiency is throttling me. Come in, come in! It’s great to see a member of the old team.’

I find that all great leaders have this simple way with words – the old team, not my old team. And he was a great leader, always able to make things happen so that you could achieve. He had this way of giving you the information you needed while treating you with consideration and supporting your decisions, enabling you to take responsibility for what you achieved. That was the main thing about him. I always felt it was what I wanted to do not what he wanted me to do; although I knew he was the person directing my efforts.

We shook hands and I followed him into his office. We settled into a right-angled corner settee with a round table set within the confines of the seating area. Then a stiff woman came in and asked, ‘Would you like coffee, sir?’

‘Hot, black and sweet for Jake please and my usual, Ms Sweet, and when Jake comes again can you get him in here as soon as possible. He’s a very important person; his time is extremely valuable.’

She looked at me, and clearly didn’t think I could possibly be important, then back at Barrow. ‘Certainly, Sir Barrow,’ she answered and left.

‘Sir Barrow? What on earth is this about?’

‘The silly buggers knighted me, Jake.’

‘When?’ I hadn’t heard.

‘Must be a whole month now. I toyed with the idea of saying no but it was made clear to me that saying no wasn’t acceptable.’

‘Can I ask why you were knighted?’

‘That’s an extremely good question but I’ve absolutely no idea what the answer might be. It says services to the security of the United Kingdom, but in reality they get a certain number each year and somebody decides who to give them to. I think this year they gave them to people with odd forenames.’ He smiled and shook his head. ‘You’ve done more for the security of this country than I ever have. I’ve never risked being killed; you have.’

‘No, Barrow, I just don’t have an odd first name.’

He started to laugh as Ms Sweet came in with the coffee and from the look on her frosty face, laughing was an infringement of protocol.

‘Shall I pour, Sir Barrow?’

‘No, I think not, Ms Sweet. Jake here has a range of very technical skills including the ability to pour coffee and to kill people, so I think it would be much safer for all of us to let him pour.’

Her eyes widened and she backed rapidly out of the room as if I was about to strike her dead and as soon as she’d gone, we were both laughing.

‘I don’t think I can put up with this much longer. I’m going to have to reorganise this lot and staff it with human beings and I want a replacement for the old team.’

I knew he was weighing up whether I might re-join him. I felt honoured that he might consider me. I suppose that’s the measure of his leadership.

‘I know why you’re here, Jake. Nicolas told me. I can get you into the prison. In fact, I’ve already taken steps to position an experienced operative in the cellblock. He’s actually served time for real. By the time you’re trained he’ll be established. I’ll arrange for him to guide you but, and this is important, Jake, you’ve to be trained first and I’ll send you to the States to be trained. Secondly, you’ll have to be a member of MI5 Special Unit.’

‘MI5 Special Unit?’

‘Just a relabelling of what we had before but it now has a separate undisclosed budget.’

‘Will it give you any problems to reinstall me?’

‘I talked with the personnel people or HR or business partners or whatever they call themselves these days and that’s fixed. Is that okay, Jake?’

‘I’m happy if Sir Nicolas is happy.’

‘He said as long as you come back to him after this job’s done. A key issue will be your cover.’

‘Yes, well, I think I could go in as me. That means they’ll soon find out that I’m an ex-military copper. So I’ll be as popular as a pork chop in a synagogue. It also means I can’t possibly be undercover and it’ll also give rise to the information that I put Jase away and confusion will reign.’

‘Jake, that’s a very high-risk strategy. Somebody might just kill you for being a copper.’

‘Very true but if a false identity’s uncovered then I’ll definitely be killed.’

‘True and there’ll be ex-soldiers and probably Family links in there. What will be your crime?’

‘Murder.’

‘Where?’

‘In the States. I reckon that if you can get me transferred from a nice notorious prison in say Oklahoma it may create an impression.’

‘So you’re an ex-military policeman, imprisoned in, I suggest Mississippi State Penitentiary, for murder of, let us say, an FBI Special Agent.’

‘Why Mississippi?’

‘Yes, well, I know somebody. Hold on a minute.’ Barrow went to his computer and banged a few keys. ‘Right. The prison’s Parchman Farm. It’s the only maximum-security prison in Mississippi and one of the roughest toughest in the States. Well, that’s a reputation I’m sure it doesn’t deserve.’ He came back and sat down again. He thought for a few moments. ‘An appeal court hears your appeal and you’re given leave to be transferred to the UK. I’ll get that fixed with Sir Nicolas.’

‘What about the court case?’

‘No problem there; I’ll talk to somebody from the embassy. Let me see, the Home Office decides where you go. I’ll get Mabry onto getting you sent to Peasmarsh. He wants this job done. You were sentenced to fifteen to twenty-five years in the States on a plea bargain and here it’s life. Okay, Jake?’

‘Sounds good to me, Barrow.’ I knew it would go as smooth as silk. It’s the network scratching each other’s backs and Barrow must have been owed more favours than the rest of them put together.

‘One small thing that I know will be all right, you’ll have to go through a psychological assessment.’

‘Okay.’

‘I’ll fix that. Assuming everything goes as I expect, you can do something for me while you’re in there. Peasmarsh is new. It’s a high security prison run on experimental lines that have resurrected some historical ideas. I want your views of it as an incarceration centre for spies and terrorists. I think it would be useful to have an inmate’s view.’

‘Do I get a consultancy fee for that?’

‘I see the private sector has already warped your view of the world. Let me see, the consultancy fee will just pay for your fares, accommodation and training in the States.’

‘Touché!’ We did a high five just as Barrow’s administrator walk in. Consequently, we had a deal and a very shocked administrator. I wonder if they think people turn into something else when they become very senior or get knighted.