Cyberstrike, James Barrington [short story to read .TXT] 📗

other peripherals and in the second compartment space for a number of vials, needles and syringes as well as a pouch of cooling gel to keep the contents at the appropriate temperature – was an absolutely standard off-the-shelf item. Because of the quantity of the product he had ordered, he was also given a second isothermal pack that only contained vials.

There had been remarkably little chance of Sadir being stopped or searched anywhere along his route – the Russian authorities were always very wary of targeting or interfering with any tourist spending the hard currency that the country desperately needed – but the reality was that even if his bags were to be opened and searched by some inquisitive customs officer, and even if the isothermal pack was handled and examined, it would make no difference. Nobody would interfere with it and he would be allowed to continue his journey.

The product was only a single weapon in Sadir’s armoury, and it wasn’t even a particularly important part of his plan. It was just a device that would allow him to snip off one specific loose end that would inevitably be created because of what he was going to do, and it represented the only method of achieving the result he needed in the way he needed it to be done. And he had already decided that he would make additional use of the product ahead of the operation itself. It would be a useful test of its functionality, not to mention acting as a small payment towards a debt that in his opinion was long overdue.

More importantly, the first phase of his operation would begin in less than a month, and his preparations for it had already started, albeit from a distance. Now that Sadir had the product from Vektor he could make his final preparations and then begin the journey that he had planned for so long.

Chapter 2

Six months ago

Lewisham Central, 43 Lewisham High Street, London

According to the Internet, the greatest single repository of information, misinformation and disinformation in the world, the smallest police station in London is concealed inside a stubby lamp standard in the south-east corner of Trafalgar Square. It’s just about big enough to accommodate two standing adults who, if they weren’t close friends when they entered the structure, probably would be by the time they stepped out of it.

On this occasion the Internet is almost, but not quite, correct. The decorative lamp standard is a police building, but it is not, and never has been, a police station. In fact, it’s an observation post constructed to allow a police officer to be hidden from view and at the same time to be able to observe demonstrations or other activities taking place in Trafalgar Square. The lamp post was initially equipped with a direct telephone line to Scotland Yard – the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police when the observation post was in use – to allow the observing officer to summon reinforcements if needed.

In reality, the smallest police station in London is almost certainly what looks like a substantial but generally unremarkable detached house at 1 Waxwell Lane in Pinner, Middlesex, unremarkable that is apart from the word ‘POLICE’ carved in block capitals into the stone lintel above the main door. That, unsurprisingly in view of its location, is Pinner Police Station.

One fact the Internet does get right is at the other end of the scale. The largest police station in London is, by a very substantial margin, Lewisham Central in Lewisham High Street. It’s a fairly new build, constructed on the site of the old Army & Navy Store. Building work started in November 2001 and it was officially opened in April 2004. Not only is it the biggest police station in London, it’s actually the biggest purpose-built police station anywhere in Europe, and as well as containing a large car park it also has stables for three dozen police horses and the biggest custody suite in London.

Perhaps the number crunchers and the pointy heads in the Met decided at the beginning of the twenty-first century that Lewisham was for some reason going to become a hotbed of crime, and to combat this predicted future wave of lawlessness they would need to construct the biggest and most modern police station it was possible to build right there in the borough. Or maybe it was just a big site and they needed a big building to fill it.

Assistant Chief Constable Richard Boston had no idea about any of this and wouldn’t have cared if he had known. He had other things on his mind and was at Lewisham Central purely because it was a convenient location for the meeting he had planned. It had the space and the facilities, it was only a short walk from the railway station and there were plenty of spaces in the multi-storey car park on site. Parking was not his personal concern, because although he would be arriving by car he had a driver, but it was always good to know that it wouldn’t be a problem.

The room he’d been allocated was more like a biggish office than a conference room, but that didn’t matter because there would only be three other people attending the meeting. A civilian staff member escorted him to the door, pointed out where the nearest lavatories were located and checked that the refreshments (two large Thermos flasks, one of black coffee and the other filled with tea, several individual cartons of milk and wrapped sugar cubes along with a predictably uninspiring selection of biscuits in cellophane packets) had been delivered and then left him to it. The room was fully equipped with the usual visual and audio aids, a projection screen, speakers, whiteboards, cork boards and so on, but without any of the normal posters, notices, pictures and notes that would have suggested the room was in regular use. Maybe it had been cleaned out in preparation for his meeting.

Boston had deliberately arrived about