10

MI5 Headquarters

140 Gower Street

London W1

Lat = 51 degrees, 30.5 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 8.7 minutes West

Tuesday 5th September 1989 (same day).

Fifteen twelve hours BST

Gower Street is located within the exclusive Mayfair district of London. The street is located entirely within the W1 postcode district and is 400 yards to the North West of Green Park tube station.

It is within the City of Westminster, running from Park Lane to Berkeley Square.

Military Intelligence section five HQ or more commonly known as MI5, have been based here since 1976 and previously at nearby Leconfield House, Curzon Street from 1945 to 1976 and currently they were looking for new premises to relocate too.

Jonathan Troy was the current head of MI5, he was 48 years of age and had spent all his life in the intelligence community, a short robust figure with light brown thinning hair, and he had become head of MI5 nearly two years ago.

Around the table with him were several analysts, whom had been piecing together the evidence from the ill-fated BA-323 flight.

Jonathan Troy had just completed reading the report and looked up at the analysts around him.

The operation had been headed up by Samantha Lockhart, Sam as she was known was thirty-nine, long blonde hair which she normally wore up in a bun whilst working and she stood at five foot six inches, she was divorced from an army captain six years ago, currently with no one of the opposite sex on her radar.

Sam had spent ten years with army intelligence where she had met her husband; seven years ago, Sam left the army for a job within MI5, a year later the inevitable happened, as the couple were now hardly ever together, their marriage began to crumble and they just parted amicably.

Jonathan Troy placed the file on the desk and spoke, “So; Sam summarise for us please?”

“Initial thoughts were that the plane had caught fire possibly by accident, however our evidence shows this may not to be the case.

Sam paused for a moment, took a sip of water, and continued.

“On page three of the report is the aircraft investigation report. The flight Data recorders were located at a depth of 2,900 feet along with three wreckage sites spread over three miles, suggesting the fuselage broke up before impact. Eleven bodies were found in the water, all suffering from extreme trauma, and all showing traces of soot in their tracheae. At least four of the passengers died from smoke inhalation.”

Sam paused again before continuing, “From the voice recordings of the crew, the investigators linked the fire to possibly one of the pallets that mostly comprised of computers in polystyrene packaging. The investigators said that the localized fire likely came in contact with the packaging and produced gases that accumulated near the ceiling. They also said that gases ignited into a flash fire that affected the entire cargo hold. Firstly they have concluded that the fire weakened the structure and the tail separated leading to impact with the ocean and secondly concluded that it was impossible to allocate blame to anyone for the fire.”

Jonathan Troy said, “Your report includes some passengers of interest that were also on the flight Sam?”

“Yes sir; on board the plane, evidenced by the passenger list were two CIA operatives, I have spoken with our counterparts in Washington and they say the two men were on a routine flight back to the USA.”

Jonathan Troy interjected, “having read the report and your conclusions, it appears they may have been on the flight for other reasons Sam!”

Sam replied, “We have possible evidence to support that theory sir. Also on board was a Russian named Ivan Balagula a Russian KGB officer from Chechnya, he had flown in from Russia the day before. We have found out from the cargo handlers at Heathrow that he had showed interest in one particular crate loaded onto the aircraft, which had been transferred from an Aeroflot flight the same one Ivan Balagula had arrived on the day before.”

Jonathan Troy replied, “Do we know what was in that crate Sam?”

“The American salvage team we have hired have advised it will be another three days, before they recover it and return to New York port, bad weather has hindered their efforts so far.”

“All right; I smell something bad with this one and I want to know exactly what the contents of that crate contained. Sam as soon as you have an ETA for the salvage ship to dock, take your team to the port and examine this crate; let’s get to it!”