Tested by Fire by David Costa (brene brown rising strong .txt) 📕

‘There’s a little club I just happen to be a member of not too far from here.’

Chapter Forty-nine

After he’d shown his identification to one of the security men, Reece was escorted to the security suite on the first floor of the Conference Centre. The Centre itself was full of delegates and the noise of a thousand voices in conversation was deafening. The security suite held around ten people who were either talking on phones or radios or watching monitors. Sitting at the back was Graham Lockwood, Gold Commander, who stood to greet Reece.

‘Mr Reece, for what do we owe the pleasure?’

Reece sensed the question was in no way a pleasant greeting.

‘Good to meet you again, sir,’ he lied. ‘We’ve been following a suspect this morning and it would appear he is one of your conference delegates.’

A look of panic came over Lockwood’s face.

‘You mean they’re here, in here now?’

‘It would appear he is on his own and completely clean, not carrying anything of danger to us but we can’t take any chances.’

‘Can you be sure? Where is he now? What are you going to do?’

There it was again, thought Reece, what are you going to do, the old swift two-step making sure he knew that if anything went wrong, it would be Reece to blame.

‘That’s why I want to use your screens to monitor him while he’s here and try to get his details from when he scanned his Conference card at the security tent.’

Lockwood knew Reece was in charge and he was only too happy to hand over control in this particular instance.

‘Everyone,’ shouted Lockwood attracting all the eyes in the room to look his way. ‘This is Mr Reece I want you to give him whatever assistance he asks of you, this is important. Mr Reece, you have the room.’

Reece could see the questions on the officers’ faces as they looked from Lockwood to him.

‘At this stage, I need someone who can use the screens to cover the whole Conference area from the main hall itself to the side shows and cafés, so which screen is best and who can do this for me?’

A young-looking constable put up his hand.

‘I have good coverage, sir.’

‘What’s your name?’ asked Reece as he pulled up a chair and sat down beside the constable.

‘Jones, sir.’

‘OK, Jones, first off I’m not a Sir call me David. Second, show me what you can see.’

It only took Reece five minutes to spot Tourist One sitting on his own in the café area.

‘That’s him, Jones, keep your eye on him while I make a phone call.’

‘Yes, sir, sorry, David.’

Lockwood had been watching over Reece’s shoulder.

‘Are you not going to grab him?’

‘No, not yet. He’s only a part of the plan. We need to see if he’ll lead us to the rest. Where he is now is no risk to us, after all he’s just gone through your security. He uses a false name of Kevin Jones. I checked with your people at the front security tent when I followed him through, and they confirm it’s the name he’s used to attend as a delegate. A quick check through my people shows the address he’s given exists, but it’s a dead letter drop; he doesn’t live there. Mr Lockwood, as you can now see, these people are very professional and there has been a lot of thought put into their planning. We’re close and this Kevin Jones, who I’m sure is no relation to our Constable Jones here, will help us bring the lot of them down.’

‘I hope for all our sakes you’re right, Mr Reece.’

‘So do I, so do I. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to speak to my people and let them know where our friend Kevin Jones is right now.’

Reece then phoned Jim Broad describing what had happened and where he now was.

‘What do we do now, David?’

‘We need to keep Tourist One under tight surveillance. We can’t afford to lose sight of him. Send April here to work with me. Get her to pick up Mary we might need her insight to help us identify people we don’t know if Costello is the only Irish connection here. Keep Cousins and Harrison in Irlam for now while you find out what house Tourist One came out of this morning. If we find that, then we can move in closer and work out if we use the troop to hit it or wait and follow whoever leaves it.’

‘We might have some good news on the house. We discovered number two Henley Avenue is the only house in the street that’s rented – the rest are long-term ownership.’

‘That’s great. Get the boys to walk past a few times to see if they can spot any occupants, but not to get close until after dark, by that time, with the Conference more or less closing up around five, we should find Tourist One on the move again.’

Reece went back to the screens and Constable Jones.

‘Anything to report, Jonesy?’

‘No. He’s just sitting there drinking and appears to be watching the world go by.’

‘Is he watching anything in particular?’

‘No, that’s just it, just watching.’

‘Keep watching but change cameras regularly; he might be watching us watching him. I haven’t had a bite for some time, so I think I’ll go down and see what they have to offer. If he moves, follow him and phone me.’

Reece wrote down his number and headed for the ground floor. It was easy to find the café and to mingle with the large crowd. He entered the open café behind Tourist One, who was still sitting at the table and reading a newspaper scanning the crowds. Reece ordered a coffee and a ham sandwich before sitting down