Vauxhall Cross, London
‘CALL FOR YOU, CHIEF.’
The Chief of MI6’s young, enthusiastic PA put his head around the door, as she had encouraged him to do. ‘I run an open-door policy here, I hope you’ll make use of that,’ she had told him, on the day he was assigned to her private office.
‘Who is it, Sean?’
‘It’s the Secretary of State for Defence, Chief.’ He lowered his voice. ‘He doesn’t sound very happy.’
Alex Matheson had had thirty years of dealing with Whitehall mandarins of all moods and temperaments so she smiled wryly. She had had her fair share of bolshy ex-Guards officers in her time. ‘Put him through, will you?’ She took the call at her desk, looking out through the window at the perennial cranes and then beyond, across the river, at the clouds scudding over Pimlico.
‘Simon … always a pleasure,’ she soothed.
‘Not today it isn’t,’ thundered the reply from the other end. Alex Matheson got up and quietly closed the door to her office. She had a feeling she knew what this was about.
‘I’m going to do you the courtesy of getting this off my chest here and now, over this means, rather than raising it at the next COBRA, which will be embarrassing for all of us.’
‘I’m listening, Simon.’
‘I wanted you to be the first to know,’ continued Simon Eustace, the Defence Secretary, ‘that we have just wasted an inordinate amount of time and resources carrying out a maritime interdiction in the Taiwan Strait … on a completely innocent cargo ship!’
She had to hold the receiver away from her ear at this point, he was shouting at her so loudly down the line. But Alex Matheson’s heart still sank at hearing these words. It was the news she had dreaded. They had failed to locate Hannah Slade onboard Ulysses Maiden.
‘I understand this came from a meeting in person between you and the Foreign Secretary at the Travellers?’ he continued, only marginally quieter.
‘Yes, that’s correct. My Service reports directly to him, as you know,’ she replied evenly.
‘Well, the next time you feel inclined to request an operation involving a Royal Navy frigate, a helicopter and eight of my Special Forces operators deploying to the other side of the world you might want to include me in that initial conversation. Because it was a complete fucking waste of everyone’s time!’ His voice was back up to full pitch again. ‘Do you realize just how much I’ve already got on my plate in that part of the world without having to hive off precious resources to go looking for one of your cloak-and-dagger types – who isn’t even onboard the bloody ship in question? Hmm? Not to mention that the two-star we put in charge of this op has now missed being present at a serious medical diagnosis for his wife.’
The Chief took his rudeness in her stride: there was no point responding in kind. She had bigger things to worry about now.
‘Look, I’m very sorry for all the trouble you’ve gone to, Simon, and please pass my apologies to your general. I do appreciate your help. But, as I’m sure you know, this had the PM’s full backing. So, yes, of course I promise to include you in any initial conversations another time. But if you want to take this further then I really think you’ll have to take it up with Number Ten.’
‘Oh, I will, Alex. I will.’ The Defence Secretary hung up.
Alex Matheson let out a weary sigh and asked her PA to send in Felix Schauer.
‘Take a seat, Felix,’ she said, when he appeared in her doorway shortly afterwards. ‘We’ve got rather a lot to discuss and I’m going to get straight to the point.’ Her tone was brisk. This was going to be what was known in the business as ‘an interview without coffee’.
‘From where I’m sitting,’ the MI6 Chief continued, ‘this whole op is starting to descend into a complete bag of shit. We’ve lost track of Hannah Slade, we’ve lost track of Luke and Jenny, Angela’s phone has been compromised by Beijing and we don’t seem to be any closer to getting our hands on the intel we sent Hannah to retrieve. Meanwhile I’ve got Cabinet Office panting down the phone every two hours asking what we can give them on China. Not to mention a very angry Defence Secretary, who’s just crossed me off his Christmas card list.’ She gave him a hard stare. ‘Felix … there’s no getting round this, it’s all on your watch. So I’m keen to hear what you plan to do about it.’