Free Gray Redemption (Tom Gray #3) by Alan McDermott

do likewise?” 
Harvey asked, hoping for — and getting — a negative response.
    “No, we carry on.  There’s
a link in Asia, I’m certain of it.  That was Abdul Mansour’s last known
location and now Al-Qaeda chatter has gone off the charts.”
    “As happened just before 9/11,”
Harvey mused. 
    “Exactly,” Ellis said.  “A
lot of it is rubbish — a smokescreen — but the sheer volume makes it near
impossible to pick out the relevant stuff.”
    She rubbed her temples and let
out a sigh.  Harvey could see she was under an enormous amount of pressure,
as were they all, but as head of the organisation she bore the brunt.  He
wanted to cheer her up by letting her know about the meeting with Wallis, but
if he mentioned it she would no doubt ask what information he had shared in the
past.  That wasn’t a conversation he wanted to get into right now.
    “I’m heading home,” he said, and
Ellis nodded as he made for the exit.
    Outside, the sky had clouded
over once more, heralding yet more rain in what had already been the wettest
May in recent years.  It was only a ten minute walk to Armando’s and he
arrived just as the heavens opened.  Inside, he found a table near the
back, and the drinks arrived just as Wallis dashed through the door.
    “I’m beginning to see why my
wife wants to go home,” he said, bringing a smile to Harvey’s face.  He
knew that Doug loved his current assignment, and the more his wife complained , the more determined he was to stay.
    Wallis hung his coat on a stand
and sat opposite Harvey.  They enjoyed their drinks in silence for a
moment, Wallis favouring a pint of bitter to Harvey’s lager.
    “So what have you got for me,
Doug?”
    Wallis savoured his beer before
putting the glass on the table and leaning closer to Harvey.
    “The order to keep it under wraps
came from the Home Secretary himself,” Wallis said, and saw the expected
surprise on his friend’s face.  It quickly turned to curiosity.
    “So who were the prisoners?”
    “The one he was concerned about
was Sam Grant.”
    Harvey made the quick transition
from curious to confused .  He’d never heard the
name, and was certain he hadn’t seen it in any recent reports.
    “Who is this Grant guy?”
    “We don’t know.  Colonel
Travis Dane, commander of the Special Activities Division on Jolo sent his
picture over to Langley and all they got back was the name and an order not to
share with anyone, not even you guys.”
    Harvey wondered why the minister
would want to withhold information from his own security services, and the
obvious answer was that it wasn’t an operation that he wanted the Intelligence
Services Commissioner to know about.  The commissioner is responsible for
service oversight and can visit any of the security services at his discretion,
requesting documents or information relating to any case.  Each year he
reports his findings direct to the Prime Minister.  This report is then
laid before parliament and subsequently published. 
    If the Home Secretary didn’t
want this case becoming public knowledge, it could only mean one thing. 
But who would carry out such an operation?  It would have to be someone
with access to the system.  He made a mental note to check with Gerald
Small to see if any of the sub-nets fit the bill, but one leaped immediately to
mind.
    Farrar.
    Ellis had said that even she
didn’t know who he worked for, which pointed to his role being covert. 
And if it was Farrar, did this mean that this Sam Grant was one of the
passengers he was expecting?
    “Who were the other prisoners?”
He asked.
    “Simon Baines and Len Smart,”
Wallis said.
    “Are you sure?”  Harvey
asked, a little louder than he intended. 
    Wallis nodded.  “I read
through the report just before I left the office.  According to Dane, one
of his troops caught three armed men wandering around the jungle and brought
them in for questioning.  They wouldn’t talk, so Dane sent their