over seventy planes in its fleet. But there are hundreds of these old Russian planes in the sky. If we’d turned Elbaz away, he could have got his explosives from China to Ecuador using any one of a hundred smaller smuggling outfits. And I should remind you, every single slab of that explosive has now been accounted for.’
‘More by luck than skill,’ Senator White snapped. ‘I’ve come into this meeting today with a single proposal. After this weekend’s events, it is no longer acceptable for a US government department – even a highly secretive one like TFU – to run illegal smuggling operations. I propose that instead of winding down the Aramov Clan over two or three years as planned, we set a target of ninety days. If we’re smart, we can produce evidence showing the Aramov Clan’s links to IDoJ and make it look like the elimination of the clan was revenge for their involvement in the attacks.’
Dr D looked furious. ‘Controlling the clan represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The Aramov Clan’s transportation network is used and trusted by dozens of major crime syndicates. The only reason we haven’t moved against more bad guys already is that we have to pace ourselves, otherwise it will be too obvious where all the information is coming from.’
The Intelligence Secretary sighed. ‘As a representative of the President I reluctantly agree with Senator White. I appreciate the value of the Aramov Clan as an intelligence asset. But the Aramov operation was signed off on the basis that we were dealing with a smuggling network based in central Asia. Nobody expected it to involve terrorists turning up in Alabama on Thanksgiving.’
Dr D cleared her throat. ‘If it helps, I’d be willing to resign my post and let someone else take over TFU. We could establish new ground rules, so that no Aramov-related operation should come anywhere near US territory.’
Senator White looked less than keen. ‘First of all, Dr D, after the debacle over the past weekend, I’d assumed that your resignation was already on the table. Secondly, you can have all the ground rules you like, but the cat is out of the bag. TFU is responsible for a partially-successful terrorist attack on US soil. The faster we tidy this mess up, the less chance there is that the intelligence service’s role will become public. The Aramov Clan operation must be drawn to a swift conclusion and TFU must be shut down.’
‘Would it be possible for British Intelligence to take the Aramov Clan operation over?’ Zara asked.
At this suggestion, the British Intelligence minister gave Zara a filthy look, before chiming in nervously. ‘The British Government are firm friends to the US Intelligence Services. But we’ve got elections coming up and no politician wants this hot potato dumped in their lap.’
The meeting rambled for another hour, but the politicians couldn’t be persuaded and when the telepresence screens faded out nothing had changed.
After what the media had now named The Black Friday Raid, politicians were scared of what would happen if the public learned that an organisation run by their own intelligence service had hired out the plane that IDoJ used to help smuggle eleven tonnes of explosive into the USA, and had known about the kidnapping of Tracy Collings’ family before it happened.
TFU was being shut down, Dr D was being bounced into early retirement and Zara Asker was fully expecting a one-on-one telephone bollocking from her boss the Intelligence minister when she got back to her office.
The Aramov Clan’s fleet of aircraft would be taken out of service and the Kremlin base shut down, though the politicians had accepted that this might not be possible within Senator White’s ninety-day target.
‘I feel like a naughty kid coming out of the headmaster’s office,’ Zara said, shuddering as Amy and Ryan emerged from behind the one-way glass. ‘Everyone talks about how great democracy is, but I’d feel a lot happier if the politicians could see beyond their next set of poll ratings.’
Ryan sounded frustrated. ‘But Aramov has links to every major criminal network on earth. If we shut it down, the whole operation will have been for nothing.’
‘I’ve been saying that for the past two hours,’ Zara said. ‘But unless you plan on storming Parliament and staging a coup, CHERUB ultimately does what the politicians tell us to.’
Amy was upset for more personal reasons. ‘With Dr D and Ted Brasker both close to retirement I thought I had a good shot at a senior job in TFU in