PENTONVILLE PRISON
0930 HOURS
Inspector Alexandra Russell signed the inspection and evidence reports to ensure that the 'chain of evidence' requirements were complied with.
The blue-jump-suited forensic team exited the secure facility before stripping their non-contamination suits to ensure the preservation of evidence.
In the dun-colored corridor, the senior technician tilted her head as she listened to her team supervising the autopsy. "Inspector, they've completed the autopsy except for the toxicological tests. They need another twenty-four hours for those to be completed, but the doctor has found something that she needs to speak to your about. Can you please call her?"
Alexandra engaged her secure comms link as he followed the team into the control center where Ronan and Sir William were inspecting the video feeds.
"Russell here. You have something for me?"
"It may not be anything, but we noticed that the deceased has some severe blotches on his left calf. I've worked with several of our returning servicemen from Iraq and Afghanistan at the Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham. I think this is leishmaniasis, but I can't be sure. It seems he was bitten only four months ago. I can't tell you which country for at least another seventy-two hours."
"You can tell which country the infection was caught?" Alexandra held a finger up as her superiors attempted to interrupt. She gestured for them to follow her to a secluded corner of the control room away from the plasma displays.
"Yes, I worked on the team that is attempting to develop a protective barrier against the sand flies that propagate this parasite. There seems to be four specific genetic variations. I've sent the team in Birmingham some of our blood and tissue workups for them to begin testing. Can you please tell Sir William that I told them it was on his authority?"
"I will. Thank you, Doctor."
She turned to face the two men and whispered. "Al-Addabi..."
"Outside!" Ronan ordered as gestured at the boom microphones that are used in all secure facilities to record conversations for security logs.
**
Inside the armoured, pearl-gray Audi A8, Ronan exited the secure compound and made a sharp right onto Caledonian Road. "We're secure now, Inspector. As of now, we have to assume that we are being monitored by everyone. So all comms are to be only in secure rooms or networks. Is that understood, William?"
"Yes, yes. Stop nagging. Tell us what the doctor told you, my dear," Sir William grumbled from the back seat.
"She recognized several contusions on his legs as symptoms of leishmaniasis. Apparently, several of our lads have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with this pest and we're trying to determine the best methods to treat it." Alexandra replied as she established a secure link with Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC). "I'm in, sir."
"Good. Route all traffic on Operation Prometheus to my inbox. Use a backdoor program; I don't want five or six to know what I'm up to." Ronan ordered as he sped towards Mayfair. (The designations of five and six were commonly used within British security forces as the abbreviation for the intelligence organizations of Great Britain—MI-5 and MI-6.) "I don't want to let the spooks know what we're up to."
"Do you want to know if they attempt a trace, sir?"
"Yes, route it to one of our old SO15 traps. Pretend it's a mistake." Ronan changed lanes and automatically dialed from the buttons on the steering wheel. "This is Iron Hammer. Arrival status of flight from Kandahar required."
YOU ARE READING
The Shaddad Conspiracy
Adventure“Your murder victim was not an innocent, naive woman. She was on our terrorist watch list. The fact that she escaped from Basra and lived a normal life in London buggers belief, but she was planted here by a foreign government to wreck the Taliban p...
