To Kill a Grey Man (18 page)

“Why did you not do all this before?” said Surge.

“Because I needed my eyes,” said The Grey Man.
 
“The process I have to go through is
complicated and one wrong move would screw everything up.
 
Trust me.
 
If Jonathan could have done this I would have let him.”

“The more dangerous threat to us in the short term is John Sea.
 
He has circulated descriptions of us throughout
the underworld and it would be dangerous for us to walk the streets at present,
we need to get this stopped.
 
He owns a
large country golf club south of Manchester.
 
I have hacked into his system there and he has just closed it to the
public stating a restructure.
 
I have
also accessed his telephone calls and it looks like he is calling in a number
of his cronies so I assume he is waiting for us.

“Good,” said Collins.
 
“Let’s
not disappoint him.”

“I suggest,” said The Grey Man.
 
“We give him a few days to stew before we do anything drastic.”

“Any idea how many men might be there?” asked Jonathan.

“I would think around thirty,” said The Grey Man.
 
“Any more and they will be falling over themselves.
 
Today is Wednesday so shall we say Saturday
is D Day with a briefing tomorrow night?
 
By then I should have everything we need.”

“Perfect,” said Collins.

The Grey Man disappeared back down into his cellar and Surge started
towards the garage to work out.
 
“Are you
coming?” he said to Jonathan.

“Just need a quick word with my dad.”

“Sure,” said Surge and disappeared into the garage.

Jonathan turned to his dad and said, “I want to phone Olivia.
 
Do you think that would be alright?”

Collins was surprised his son wanted to contact Olivia but decided
not to interfere.
 
“Go talk to The Grey
Man to see if there is a tap on the line and see what he can do if there is.
 
But be very careful what you say.
 
Do not tell her too much, I do not want to put
her in danger.”

Jonathan went down the stairs into the cellar.
 
The Grey Man was making himself some tea in
the small kitchen.
 
He looked perfectly
at home.

“Can you help me?” said Jonathan.
 
“We have a girl running the shop and I want to see if she is okay.
 
Dad thinks they may have tapped the line.”

“Let’s see,” said The Grey Man and he started to push the computer
keys.
 
Somehow he knew the telephone number
of the shop which did not surprise Jonathan at all.
 
His fingers flew over the keyboard.
 
“Yes.
 
There is a tap but I can block it for ten minutes without anyone knowing.
 
Would that do?”

“Perfect,” said Jonathan and he wandered upstairs and went out the
front on to the large parking area.
 
He
dialed the number not quite sure what he was going to say.

Olivia answered on the first ring.
 
“Hello.”

“Hi,” said Jonathan.
 
“It’s me.”

“Oh, are you and your dad okay?”

“Fine.
 
Has anyone else been round?”

“No.
 
But there have been
various cars parked for long periods outside the shop but no new visitors.
 
What is going on? I thought you and your dad
were just ordinary people.
 
Why have you
got guns?”

“I cannot tell you over the phone but I promise to tell you
everything when I see you next.”

“Where are you now?” she asked.

“I cannot say for your sake.”
 

Olivia was quiet so Jonathan continued, “Look I promise you this
will be over soon but know this, my dad and I are the good guys,
we’re
not going to be in any trouble.
 
I want to ask you something.”

“What?”

“When I get back and I prove to you all is good, would you go out
with me?”

“Go out where?”

“You know, on a date.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Olivia.
 
“I have two children.
 
I don’t go
on dates.
 
Who would look after them?”

“Well, they could come with us.”

There was another long pause.

“Come and ask me face to face,” said Olivia.
 
“And assuming I am not putting myself or my
children in danger, I will let you know.”

Jonathan saw this as a ‘yes’ and said, “Great.
 
Look if anyone asks, we have not had this
talk but I hope to see you soon.”

“Keep safe,” said Olivia and the phone went dead.

Jonathan could not keep the smile from his face as he went indoors
to find Surge who was exercising.

“Why are you so happy?” said Surge.

“No reason,” said Jonathan.
 
“Just think it is a lovely day.”

Surge looked at the grey clouds outside, felt the cold wind and the
hint of rain in the air.
 
“What are you
on about?” he said and attacked Jonathan who just had time to block before they
circled and the sparring began.

.
  
.
  
.
  
.
  
.
  
.

Hugh McDonald logged on to his computer.
 
He would break into The Firm today, he was
sure of it.
 
Up came the normal screen
and then a new message was displayed, “
You
are now persona non gratia, no longer welcome
”.
 
Underneath this it was signed ‘
The Grey Man’
.
 
Then the screen went blank and his computer
shut down.

Hugh powered it up again in a panic and typed in his password.
 
Up came a message, ‘
password incorrect
’.
 
He
tried a number of computers but they were all the same.
 
He then tried to log on as someone else but
still no joy.
 
He started from the
beginning re-registering his details.
 
As
soon as he typed in his name the computer shut down.
 
He did this over and over trying all
different combinations but getting the same result.

Hugh was one of the greatest computer brains in the UK but he could
not even get onto the system.
 
He looked
around his
department,
everyone else was having the
same problem.
 
The worst thing was Hugh
did not have a clue how The Grey Man had done this or how to get round it.
 
He was finished and he knew it.
 
Three hours later he put on his coat and left
the building, a broken man never to return.

.
  
.
  
.
  
.
  
.
  
.

At 5.00 pm The Grey Man came up from the cellar and wandered into
the kitchen where Surge was about to start making dinner.
 
“Would you mind if I cooked tonight?” he
said.
 
“Knock
yourself
out,” said Surge.

The Grey Man arranged all the pots and pans he would need.
 
Then went through all the provisions they had.
 
He decided to cook a simple Indian meal of
chicken in a mild curry sauce with basmati rice and Bombay potato.
 
Once he had everything laid out he went back
to the cellar.
 
As with
all his safe houses, he always had a few bottles of wine laid down.
 
He picked two of his
best,
Carmin de Peumo 2007, a Chilean wine made in very small quantities of late
harvested grapes.
 
He decanted it into a
couple of flasks over a strong light so he could see where the sediment was and
ensure it did not transfer and then left it in the cellar to breathe for a
couple of hours.
 
He also found a bottle
of a 1981 Glen
Spey
single malt whisky which he knew
Collins would like.
 
At 7.30 pm he
started to cook and then calling everyone to the kitchen, he dispatched
Jonathan to get the wine and whisky.

They sat down in the front room on the big leather sofas with the
plates on their laps.

“I have a request,” said The Grey Man filling their glasses with
wine.
 
“The last few days have been
difficult and the future no less so.
 
Let
us have an evening with no shop talk and talk of happier things.”

So as they ate Jonathan spoke of his life at university and Collins
told them all about his trip to Israel.
 
Surge
spoke about his new life at the pub and how he came to realize how much he
enjoyed it.
 
Finally The Grey Man, to the
utter surprise of Collins and Surge, spoke a little of his life and how he had
become The Grey Man.
 
In all the
years they had known him he had never spoken about anything so personal.

At the end of the evening, Jonathan made coffee and Collins passed
around the whisky.
 
He stood and quietly
said a toast, the only toast they ever spoke and then only when they were
operational.

 
“Who’s like us?
 
There are none like us, so here’s to us.”

As the evening broke up The Grey Man said to Jonathan, “Are you free
tomorrow?
 
I have a lot to go through and
could do with some help.”

“Sure.
 
I would be glad to,”
replied Jonathan.

Collins looked at Surge and raised an eyebrow.
 
In all these years he had never heard The
Grey Man ask anyone for help.
 
What a
strange evening this had turned out to be.

The Grey Man went back to the cellar and lay on his bed.
 
He realized this evening was one of the
highlights of his long life, to listen and share with friends was so new and
alien to him but so wonderful, he drifted off into a peaceful sleep, the first
for a very long time.

Chapter 24

Final Planning

The next morning after breakfast Jonathan went down into the cellar
with The Grey Man and sat at a separate terminal.

The Grey Man said, “We need to understand who we are up against.
 
To plan properly I need to work out how many
men, who they are and where they are.
 
The
easiest way to do this is to monitor their mobile phones.
 
In this day and age everyone carries a mobile
phone full of data, all of which are linked up to a satellite and can be
tracked by GPS.”

“But we do not know their numbers,” said Jonathan.

“No problem,” said The Grey Man.
 
“They are all based at the country club and golf course.
 
As it is closed to the public, anyone still
left in that area we treat as a hostile.
 
Make sense?

“Sure,” said Jonathan.

The Grey Man quickly showed Jonathan how to scan the area, pick up
the telephone numbers then trace them back to the individuals.
 
From the telephone numbers he could trace who
paid the bills, even though many were pay-as-you-go phones and should be
untraceable, all of these thugs paid by credit card thinking that
was
secure.
 
Jonathan
learnt how to access the credit card numbers and from them came names and
addresses and bank account details.

All of these
he
sent to The Grey Man who put them into some custom software that built a
detailed dossier on each man compiled from the major databases on the internet,
criminal, health and governmental.
 
By
the time he was finished they had everything they needed on every man.

From here they cross referenced the most dangerous, those with
criminal records for violent crimes, and those with military experience.
 
These were marked in red as dangerous and the
rest marked in blue.

Next these were all plotted on a map overlaying the plans for the
main house at the golf club.
 
In real
time Jonathan could see where each man was, portrayed by a
coloured
number and see the numbers move around as the men went from room to room.
 
In all there were thirty seven bad guys.

Lastly The Grey Man uploaded all numbers to the listening computer
at GCHQ.
 
He went through some words that
when spoken would highlight those conversations, amongst these were their names
so anything with regard to them would be flagged, then guns or weapons, or any
specific times to try to capture changes of shift.

“May I ask you a question?” said Jonathan when they finally stopped
for lunch.

“Sure,” said The Grey Man.

“How are the four of us going to go after thirty seven killers armed
to the teeth and waiting for us and hope to come out alive?”

“Four of us are not.
 
You and
I will be in the car monitoring the operation and passing
intel
.
 
Your
father and Surge will be the only ones going in.”

“So now it’s two against thirty seven,” said Jonathan.
 
“That is suicide!”

“No,” explained The Grey Man.
 
“These are not top class
operatives,
they are
second and third rate thugs and more of a danger to themselves than to us.
 
First of all let’s look at the mobile phone
situation.
 
Only very stupid men or
amateurs keep ordinary mobile phones on them which can be traced back when they
are operational.
 
Everyone knows that all
mobiles these days are linked to satellite GPS and any law enforcement person
can get access to that data, they might as well carry a flashing neon sign with
them and blow horns every five minutes advertising their presence.
 
Professionals use specialized phones like the
ones we carry or coded radios which can be listened in on but only if you know
exactly the right frequency, even then they do not show where the person is.”

“Secondly, in this country there are very few who have killed despite
what you may see on television.
 
Most of
the men we are up against are not professionals as we know
them,
they are small time thugs and enforcers used to breaking a man’s legs and arms,
not actually killing people.
 
Those who
have actually killed have probably been involved in a gangland type execution
where the mark is tied up and then shot.
 
Very few would have any kind of fire fighting experience when someone is
firing back at
them,
in fact many would only have fired
a gun on a rifle range.”

“Now if we were up against
special forces
or
military personnel it would be a different story.
 
They would be cool, calm and controlled, having
and sticking to a detailed plan.
 
They
would know how to defend territory and how to control and cover areas of danger.
 
We would need a different plan and possibly
some more help.
 
But we are up against
untrained, ill-disciplined louts who hardly know one end of a gun from the
other.
 
All are probably scared stiff and
will break with the least provocation.
 
Remember,
you cannot buy experience, courage or loyalty.
 
When your dad opens fire, all hell will break loose in that house.
 
Some will run towards the danger, some will
run away and many will start firing indiscriminately.
 
Fear will rule.”

“Now whoever is in charge has done well to limit the amount of people
they have got.
 
Anymore and they would
start to get in each other’s way and kill each other as they go.
 
As it is, it will still be very dangerous for
them and you and I will help make the situation even more chaotic.”

“Let’s discuss our plus points.
 
You have your father and Surge who are consummate specialists.
 
This is meat and drink to them.
 
Not only have they trained countless times on
how to do this over many years, they have also cleared houses in the field on
more than one occasion, faced with bigger odds than these against us now and against
better trained enemies.”

“They have a way of working which is unique.
 
Not only do they appear to know by instinct
where each of them
are
at any time, killing anyone
else that comes in range, they are also able to back each other up perfectly when
trouble looms.
 
Plus we will have eyes on
them and be in constant communication with them feeding them information and
helping sow chaos.”

“How?” asked Jonathan.

“Surge will go in first quietly taking out guards as we identify
them for him.
 
Your father will follow
from the opposite direction.
 
As soon as
they are both in position he will open up and draw trouble to him.
 
Surge will then work the periphery.
 
John Sea’s men will expect the trouble to be
where the gunfire is coming from, not attacking from behind.
 
Between the two of them becomes a killing
ground.”

“So no danger then,” said Jonathan sarcastically.

“No,” I did not say that,” said The Grey Man.
 
“But let’s just say if I was a betting man, I
know where my money would be.
 
Now we
have a long way to go to be prepared so I suggest we get back to work.”

For the next few hours they labored away bringing all the edges into
a pattern.
 
Then at 6.00 pm, over a light
supper, The Grey Man gave a small presentation.

The three of them sat on the sofas in the front room and The Grey
Man stood in front of a large monitor and keyboard that Jonathan had carried up
from the cellar.
 
He switched on the
screen and up came a picture of the manor house at the golf club.

“This is the target,” said The Grey Man.
 
He then pushed a key and a schematic 3D image
of the house appeared and inside numbers moving around with different
colours
.
 
“These are
the marks.
 
We can see by their cell
phones exactly where each one is.
 
Now
there may be a few not carrying cell phones, you will need to look out for
these.
 
The numbers in red are the most
dangerous with police or forces records for violence.
 
As you come across them I will let you know.
 
Please terminate with extreme prejudice or in
other words do not play with these guys.” He looked at Surge at Collins who
nodded.

“As it is a hotel, they have a sophisticated control system, CCTV in
the grounds and on each floor.
 
All
lighting can be controlled centrally as can elevators and some emergency doors,
plus the main burglar alarm which will be off as the grounds and floors are
patrolled by guards.
 
Thankfully there
are no dogs.”

“Can you get to the system?” asked Collins.

“No problem,” said The Grey Man.
 
“It is updated through an internet link to the manufacturer.
 
I have overwritten the system and it is now
mine.
 
Currently I am looping the image
fed to the CCTV cameras so we can play back when we need to control the system.
 
The image the cameras show are pretty
constant and my software can compensate for lighting, in other words even
though I am filming in daylight if I ran it at night the system will show a
darkened image.
 
As you approach, I will
run my tape and you will pass unnoticed.”

The Grey Man then displayed each of the cameras in the hotel,
flashing from one to the
other,
each corridor was
shown with armed men walking up and down.
 
The main meeting room were full of men laughing, eating and playing
cards.
 
“About half are on duty at any
one time, the rest are sleeping or congregating in the meeting room.”

They also saw men sitting near the windows scanning the grounds.
 
For Jonathan it was unreal to see inside the
hotel without them knowing.
 
He found it
incredible.
 
For the others it was a normal
briefing courtesy of The Grey Man.

“Please note,” continued The Grey Man.
 
“This hotel was built for leisure not
security and there are many blind spots.
 
If in doubt hug the hotel walls.
 
The lighting has been set not to shine into the bedrooms and upset the
paying guests.
 
The guards patrol the corridors
but do not appear to check the doors that are centrally locked such as the fire
exits.
 
They rely on the system to show whether
it is locked or unlocked.
 
Of course I
can override this and open these doors without anyone being aware if we need
to.”

“To just enter and kill John Sea would I think be very difficult.
 
These guards are waiting for you and I would
suggest the merest noise would bring them down and trap you.
 
You are going to have to neutralize as many
as possible before going after Sea.”

“Do you agree?” he said, looking at Collins.

“Yes,” said The Assassin.
 
“I do
not want to get trapped downstairs with an army waiting for me.
 
Let’s do it your way.”

“I suggest that Jonathan and I park up in the grounds far enough
away not to be caught by the patrols.
 
You
two get
miked
up and wear the night vision goggles.
 
I will loop this camera for thirty seconds
which will allow Surge to go in first.
 
I
can open this door which is also in a blind spot.”
 
He flashed up a side emergency exit door.
 
“And Collins, if you can enter two minutes
later through this door on the other side as it is also difficult to see from
the windows.”

Displaying the schematic on the screen again The Grey Man said, “Make
your way up to the top floor via the stairs shown here and then work your way
through this route until you meet up.”

“No problem,” said Surge.

“Stealth will be everything,” continued The Grey Man.
 
“But as soon as you are compromised Collins,
please open up with everything you have.
 
Jonathan and I will have planted some flash bangs which are a cross
between a grenade and a flare designed to make as much noise and light as
possible.
 
I want it to sound like a full
blown attack.
 
In the confusion I will
let you know John Sea’s position.
 
I have
isolated his phone and he cannot hide.
 
Once
you have taken him out, return to the car and we are away.”