Page 38 of End Game
‘All part of a well-prepared plan,’ suggested William. ‘So, where are they now?’ he asked.
‘They’ve been taken off to the nearest nick,’ said Ross, ‘having played their part.’
William’s eyes returned to the screen to see the royal procession approaching the tunnel. When they reached the entrance, the four motorcyclists bringing up the rear of the royal party detached themselves, just as five of the cyclists were about to enter the tunnel ahead of them.
William spent the longest four minutes of his life wondering who would be the first to emerge from the other side, while his eyes kept moving from screen to screen as he waited, and waited, and waited.
The final result: one Bentley and one cyclist. William decided not to ask what had happened to the other four.
The protection officer seated in the front of the Bentley reported back to the welcoming party, who were waiting for them outside the VIP entrance. ‘Anticipated ETA in around seven minutes,’ he said, as if nothing had happened.
‘And the final cyclist?’ asked William.
The protection officer glanced in his rear-view mirror to see one of the back-up cars swerve slightly, and smiled as the last remaining cyclist ended up in someone’s front garden, sitting in a bed of roses.
‘He’s been diverted, Commander,’ he replied.
CHAPTER 13
‘HMHAS JUST ARRIVED,’ said Paul, his voice crackling down the line. ‘She’s being accompanied to the Royal Box by Lord Coe and Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.’
William smiled for the first time that evening. He had dealt with disgruntled taxi drivers trying to bring London to a standstill, a possible IRA attack, not to mention a group of obsessed cyclists attempting to prevent the Queen from reaching the stadium. Whatever came next – whatever Faulkner had in mind – William felt he was ready.
He barely had time to enjoy the thought before two of the CCTV screens in front of him began to flicker. A few seconds later, all of the CCTV screens in the Gold Suite were showing blank screens.
William froze for a moment, before adrenaline took over.
‘Panic slowly,’ he told himself, before he picked up his radio hoping someone would tell him what the hell was going on. One of the phones on his desk began to ring. At least the phone lines weren’t down.
He grabbed the phone.
‘Commander Warwick, it’s David Bailsford, Communications Director at the National Grid. I need to warn you we are experiencing a concerted cyberattack on the grid, and from what I can see it’s being orchestrated from China, although the British aren’t exactly helping. We have it under control at the present time, but you should be aware that the situation could change without warning.’
‘What do you mean the British aren’t exactly helping?’ asked William.
‘As I speak,’ said Bailsford, looking up at his screen, ‘I estimate there are eighteen million households with their televisions on, ten million kettles on the boil, and lights blazing in at least three rooms in every home in the land. It’s like having the Cup Final, the Grand National and a royal wedding all happening at the same time.’
‘Understood,’ said William, only too aware of the consequences if the National Grid were to go down. ‘I’ll instruct our maintenance team to double-check our back-up generators just in case we lose power. By the way, my CCTV screens went blank for about a minute. Could that be related to a cyberattack?’
‘Unlikely,’ said Bailsford, ‘as they haven’t managed to infiltrate our systems yet, but you should check out why you lost power. It may have been nothing more than a blown fuse.’
William put down the phone and grabbed his radio. ‘Rebecca, we lost power on the CCTV screens in the Gold Suite a few minutes ago. All the screens are back up now, apart from the one outside the generator room. I’ve also just received a call that the National Grid is experiencing an unusually high volume of possible cyberattacks. As you know, I don’t believe in coincidences, so grab an engineer and try to find out what caused my screensto go blank and why the camera outside the generator room still isn’t working.’
‘Will do,’ said Rebecca, already on the move.
William looked back up at the CCTV screens, his eyes moving slowly along the VIP boxes until they once again settled on Faulkner, who was giving someone a thumbs-up. William’s eyes continued to scan the remaining VIP boxes, where he spotted the Russian Ambassador returning the compliment with a nod of recognition.
Had Ross been right all along? Was Faulkner’s outing with the cyclists nothing more than a distraction before the main event? If so, what should he expect next? Were the CCTV screens meant to stay off for longer than a minute, or were they blank for just long enough for someone to add another piece to the jigsaw?
Rebecca was back on the radio. ‘Sir, I’m with the chief engineer. A fuse had blown, but the back-up battery kicked in, so problem solved. Jim’s going to look at the security camera in the corridor in just a minute, but he just wants to double-check the equipment in the generator room first. He’ll report back to you directly once he’s finished,’ she continued.
William wasn’t convinced it was going to be quite that simple, his gaze still fixed on the CCTV screens, where he saw the engineer enter the generator room and give him a thumbs-up on the security camera. William pondered why Faulkner had given the Russian Ambassador a thumbs-up sign. Was it connected to the screens going blank? He was still watching the engineer when the door to the generator room suddenly opened and two more maintenance personnel, wearing the same uniform as the engineer, entered the room. One slammed the door and they’d both pulled on balaclavas before William could see their faces.
The engineer turned round, a look of horror on his face as one of them headed towards him.
Willliam grabbed his radio and called an all-stations alert as the larger of the two men knocked the engineer to the ground with a single blow, gagged him and tied him up. His associate produced a spray can, and ran towards the security camera, clearly surprised to find it was working again. Two eyes peered up at William and a spray later they had disappeared from the screen. William knew that time wasn’t on his side, and he tried not to think just how many things could go wrong in the next few minutes.
He left his finger jammed on the emergency button of his radio, and didn’t remove it until three voices checked in.
