Chapter 24: Command and control

The impact of the murder was not as dramatic as Scott expected. In some ways this was quite depressing, a sign that society had not advanced as much as he had thought. The family were of course devastated, but others simply shrugged. The younger people, better educated and seeing themselves as the target group, were certainly more upset.

Scott himself was badly affected. Not only was it abhorrent to him that a young girl had been raped and murdered, the fact that he didn't know who was responsible was eating at him.

In the absence of a police force he led the initial investigation himself. He spoke to the girl's parents to find out as much about her as he could. He found out what she had been studying and with who. He enquired about her movements and routines, her friends.

Scott had watched enough crime programmes on TV to have a vague idea about trying to retrace the girl's last movements. He also remembered that, more often than not, the victim knew their attacker.

He gathered all those who knew the girl or who had contact with her and tried to reconstruct her last night. He realised that without a photograph he wouldn't be able to canvass others who didn't know the girl to accurately plot her movements. That gap worked in the killer's favour.

He interviewed her parents and the bank administrator who was her tutor. She had apparently been studying to become an expert in logistics. He interviewed her fellow students and her friends. He was left with a picture of her finishing class and then walking home with one of the other girl students. They had parted company only a hundred yards from the girl's home and Scott surmised it was after this that the killer had struck.

The absence of a real police force and things like forensics was an obvious handicap and one he took a mental note to try and correct as quickly as possible. But that wouldn't help bring this killer to book for his crimes. After several weeks of investigating, Scott was none the wiser as to who had carried out this terrible act.

One of the other things he remembered from TV was that killers sometimes returned to the scene of the crime, so he searched out some of Mac's trained sabre troops and asked them to set up a camouflaged observation site for the next week or so.

Sigurd made an appearance at Inveraray quite early in the spring. He advised Scott that his shipwrights had finished three of his new ships and that he could increase the amount of raw materials he could deliver to Scotland.

Scott reviewed the list of materials his specialists had drawn up over the winter and discussed with Sigurd what was required.

"We have identified a range of goods that we need Sigurd," he began, "but there's a major inefficiency in what we're currently doing that I want to try and correct."

"Well, what is it you want to do your Grace?" Asked the Norseman.

"Rather than ship all this raw ore from the Mediterranean, I wondered whether I could have you drop teams of miners and craftsmen at various places so they could refine what we want and that way your ships would only have to transport the processed metals."

"It makes no odds to me what you want shipped your Grace, the holds will take whatever we put in them."

Scott discussed a plan of action with Sigurd that was aimed at setting up a network of regular supplies of raw materials. He offered the Norseman supplies of grain and other staples such as rice, to act as both trade goods, but also to sweeten the deal in terms of what Orkney was getting from the arrangement. Scotland was producing so much food that he knew he could begin to use it as a trade item.

Scott's plan called for a regular trade with a number of countries. He was looking to exploit the times by offering some of the Scottish surplus food for the opportunity of using the labour of other countries.

If he could establish agreements with those areas that had the raw materials he wanted, he could send in small teams to extract the ores and use the locals to do all the work.

He could set up regular shipments to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and northern Africa so that he was shipping back ingots of metal instead of holds full of ore. That would make a huge difference. With the help of his specialists he had targeted all of the areas where the materials he wanted could be found. He already had enough newly trained mining engineers to send out to oversee operations and he estimated it would take perhaps a year to have the new way of securing what the country needed established. Teams had already been chosen to go out and work with the locals to mine and set up the processing technologies that would be required. Meantime, Sigurd would continue to ship raw ore.

Sigurd was more than content with Scott's promises of substantial supplies of grain and other food. He readily agreed to increase the number of ships he devoted to these operations and Scott knew this would help the country ratchet production up once they had the necessary power.

"Sigurd, there is one other thing that I need. We discussed before the great lands to the west, across the ocean. Would you be willing to send one ship on a voyage of discovery?"

"I have already been giving such a voyage a lot of thought your Grace. It is an attractive option for a Viking, a worthy challenge for our seafaring skills and our spirit of adventure."

They discussed arrangements for this, Scott indicating that he would want some of his trained people involved so they could harvest the latex he needed.

Sigurd updated Scott on his plans for dealing with the renegade Norse who were attacking Ireland. He had ordered twenty-five longships to begin to sweep southwards to try and identify where the renegades were based. Some intelligence suggested they had descended upon the Isle of Man and had taken over that island. If so, Sigurd's men would soon be knocking at their door and he was confident that the raiding would be stopped very quickly.

Scott's father returned from Fortrenn to once more oversee the development of the hydroelectric plant. He was full of praise for the people of his new earldom. Fergus updated Scott on the steps he had already taken. He was rectifying the deficiencies that existed due to Constantine's resistance to some of the improvements that were being implemented elsewhere.

He was obviously excited and enthusiastic about his new responsibilities and all the doubts he had expressed previously seemed to have vanished. Indeed, Scott began to worry a little about his father's attention being split between his earldom and the important project he had to deliver.

Fergus's absence during the winter meant that his was an area where there hadn't been the same training of new experts and Scott realised that this was something that would need to be addressed. He had already spoken about his desire for alternative, 'renewable' sources of energy and his father was one of the few who had the expertise to deliver that.

Scott decided to take a trip with his father to see how progress was going at the site of the plant. Before setting out he spoke to Gabrain and Lachlan about plans to sail south once more to support Alfred. He advised them both to stick with the tactics employed the previous year and to land scouts to find out how Alfred was getting on in the land war.

He was surprised when Tara approached him and asked if she could captain one of the Scots ships that were going south. He was not in favour of one of his wives sailing into the conflict, but Tara was adamant that that was what she did best and, having joined Scott's family, she felt she had to do her bit for Scotland.

His other wives weren't exactly happy about what Tara wanted to do, as they had grown very fond of her in a short pace of time. They recognised the strength of Tara's desire for this however, and supported her request with Scott.

Reluctantly Scott agreed that his little Irish warrior could go and he remained at Inveraray long enough to see his friends and his wife off on their journey. He then saddled up Albannach and rode with his father for Ben Cruachan and the site of the hydro plant.

What was immediately apparent at the site was that virtually all of the concrete had been poured and the basic structure for the plant was all but complete. Holes had been left to allow the turbines and other equipment to be lowered into position once they were ready. Scott was surprised at the extent of progress, especially as his father had doubled his estimate of the time it would take to get the plant on-line. The pipes to channel the water down the mountainside were also in place and it all brought home to Scott just how much the provision of the various metals, and in large enough quantities to make the things they needed, was acting as a drag-anchor on development.