Chapter 29: Some you lose

08:30, 30 August

Jamie woke with a nagging, throbbing pain in his back. He tried to ignore it as he let his brain wrestle with the issues he still faced. If the Pakistani teenager had been accurate, there were still four camps holding captive survivors, two in Glasgow and two in Edinburgh and he needed to come up with a plan to liberate them as soon as possible.

He was also thinking about all of the expats sailing across the Atlantic in their various sized boats. He had no way of knowing how prepared they were for bumping into armed terrorists and was wondering if he should be trying to do something to orchestrate where they all came ashore. What he could do about that he had no idea so far, but he felt it would be important nonetheless.

Another issue that had been rattling around in his head was that of the Faslane naval base. The submarine had been sunk and that was fine, but at least one of the terrorists had escaped before the boat had gone down. Jamie was worried about what else might be at the naval base. He didn't know, for example, whether back up Trident missiles were stored there and if they were, whether there was any delivery mechanism other than the submarines?

He realised that such a possibility couldn't be ignored and he would need to investigate the base as quickly as he could.

The final issue he was wrestling with stemmed from an e-mail he had received in the UK mailbox linked to the SIS site. He could still picture the short message clearly in his head.

Highlander

We're scared. There are seven of us, all Scottish Muslims, and we're trying to stay out of the hands of the terrorists. Many of our friends have already been taken. Can you help us?

Kalif

Jamie's problem with this was that he couldn't tell whether the message was part of a trap, a way to try and set him up. He was battling hard to try and stop himself from condemning all Muslims because of what had happened. He had been friendly with one or two Muslims at school and knew a little about their faith from his studies. His awareness led him to believe that most Muslims were decent people and that he shouldn't tar them all with the same brush as the terrorists.

What to do then in response to this message? He hadn't responded to the e-mail while he gave himself some tome to think and perhaps take some advice from those around him. With that thought he eased himself out of bed and went to take a wake-up shower. His eyes felt slightly gritty due to lack of sleep, as it had been almost 02:00 before they had returned to Skibo.

The jets of water worked their magic on him and he turned the showerhead until he had the most powerful setting and then let it pummel and massage the aching spot on his back. It was one of those strange moments where you deliberately give yourself pain and welcome it because you know it's making things better. Jamie let a single, deep groan escape his lips.

Once he was dressed, he made his way down to the hotel's kitchen and rummaged around to find something for breakfast. He found a huge canister of pancake mix and turned on the griddle to heat while he measured the correct quantities and whisked up a batch of batter. Once he was happy the plate was hot enough, he began to ladle small quantities of the batter onto it and was soon cooking up eight pancakes at a time.

By the time the smell of freshly cooking pancakes roused the girls, Jamie had cooked three batches and had a plate stacked full of them. As the three girls wandered into the kitchen, dressed only in the big fluffy hotel robes, Jamie announced breakfast was ready. He had found a bottle of maple syrup and jars of blueberry and strawberry preserve to go with the golden pancakes and a fresh pot of coffee had just finished percolating. Between them they carried plates, the coffee and the food into the dining room and ate as they discussed what plans Jamie had for the day.

Chief Justice John Roberts swept his gaze round the conference of his fellows and let out a sigh. Although the senior amongst the nine people in the room, he was in fact the youngest and in some cases by quite a margin.

The senior statesman of the group was John Stevens, a Chicagoan by birth and close to ninety years of age. Appointed by President Ford in 1975, he had over thirty years experience on the Supreme Court while the Chief Justice had a mere two.

The only woman currently part of the august group was Ruth Ginsburg, a slight, bespectacled woman with her hair pulled back austerely into a bun at the back of her head. Born in New York, Ginsburg was the first ever Jewish woman member of the Supreme Court and she was, along with Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, regarded as its most liberal.

"Well for once we actually have to do a little work for ourselves," said Roberts to none of them in particular.

He was referring to the fact that the Supreme Court seldom exercised its 'original jurisdiction'. Mostly the cases they considered were appeals, cases where there was a question of constitutional law or federal statute. That meant that considerable legal argument and counter argument had usually already taken place before a case reached them and their job was to consider whether any failing existed in law with the judgement of the lower courts.

Exercising original jurisdiction called for the Supreme Court to also consider questions of fact, as well as conclusions of law. That was not a normal role for them and their staffers were going to have to take on far more of the initial casework than would be the case with most of their work.

"Given the seriousness of the situation and the urgency, I'm suggesting we hear this as quickly as we can. I know we're out of season (the Supreme Court normally hears oral arguments between October and April), but will you agree to hear legal arguments tomorrow?" he asked them.

"Will our people have enough time to pull together the necessary briefs?" asked Clarence Thomas, the only black Associate Justice.

"The issues are pretty straightforward. So straightforward, as you know, that normally we wouldn't even entertain the idea of considering them as the answers appear clear cut, Clarence," said Roberts.

"Congress passed a law forbidding international travel, so the administration is well within its rights to stop these expatriates from travelling. With an Act of Congress in place, I can see no breach of the constitutional right to travel.

"And it's the President's right, through the State Department, to decide whether or not to accredit diplomats. We all know that's settled federal law: Ambassadors are not official until they have been granted diplomatic or consular status by the receiving national government. I'm sure we can all quote US v Kostadinov from the early eighties to back that one up."

"I wouldn't be so quick on that one John," said Ruth Ginsburg. "I would want to consider carefully the authority of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and weigh that against the federal judgement."

"Well, we can argue that one Ruth. So far as I can see the only unusual aspect to what we need to consider is the status of the boy calling himself King James. You know, my daddy always taught me that it was important to learn something new every day and I've made my quota for today already. I've learned that Scotland has a completely separate legal system to England, although the laws passed by the UK Parliament take precedence. Even the structure of the courts and the officers that run them are different in Scotland and England. How about that?

"The staffers are quite excited at wading through the Scots and UK law to try and unravel the legality of this appointment. It's certainly something different for them, a law geek's idea of heaven," said Roberts.

A quick vote with a show of hands confirmed that the Justices would give Ambassador Manning and the administration half an hour each to make their arguments the next day. They all accepted that they had a long night ahead of them to review the material their staffers were putting together, but that was nothing new for them.

"We can confirm that there are Trident missiles stored at the Faslane naval base, Mr President," said the Army Chief of Staff.

General George William Casey Jr. was not surprisingly a career soldier, the latest in a notable line of Caseys who had served their country with distinction. His last command before taking up the post of Chief of Staff had been almost three years with the multinational force in Iraq. Now he was the bearer of bad news, as the possibility that terrorists could get their hands on nuclear weapons was a frightening one.

"General, I want those missiles taken out of harms way and I want it done yesterday," said President Bush.

"Consider it done sir. I've got an assault force standing by on the Stennis ready to roll immediately," the General replied.

The USS John C. Stennis was the flagship of the JCS Battlegroup that consisted of the carrier, four destroyers, two guided-missile frigates, a guided-missile cruiser and a combat support ship. It had been from the Stennis that the Blackhawk helicopters had flown the Special Forces and NSA technicians to Cheltenham. Currently the battlegroup was steaming around the Atlantic off of the coast of Southern Ireland and as the General had said, another Special Forces team was ready to make the trip to Faslane at a moment's notice.

"Mr President if you authorise the mission and sign the order, I'll notify the flag officer of the Stennis that he has a go," said General Casey.

Always prepared, the General turned to his aide who produced the mission order already made up for the President to sign. The President signed the order with a flourish and the General saluted on his way out of the oval office.

Aboard the Stennis the communications officer delivered the orders to Admiral Drew MacColl and he in turn called for the team leader of the Special Forces to launch the planned assault. Within ten minutes of President Bush signing the order, a pair of Blackhawk helicopters were in the air heading for the Firth of Clyde.

Assam was down to having only one of his original cell left, the one who had escaped from the sinking submarine, and was relying heavily on the Pakistani teenagers he had trained up. Jamie had shot one of his team at the mosque, another had died after he and a Pakistani teenager had been interrogated by Petty Officer Stevens when their jeep had been run off of the road and Hadij had gone down with the submarine.

Leaving his two remaining camps guarded solely by Pakistani 'conscripts' was dangerous he knew, but the importance of finding more of the Trident missiles was such that he decided he would need to lead the hunt himself with his last cell member. The two terrorists from the Glasgow, bolstered by twelve of the Pakistani teenagers, loaded into three jeeps and headed out along the M8 towards the Erskine Bridge and Helensburgh.

Jamie dropped the girls off at Dreghorn and told Stuart about his concerns over the Faslane base and the possibility of there being more Trident missiles. Stuart agreed to join him for a quick fly-over to check out the base and see whether there were any terrorists there.

The flight took only twenty minutes and they barely missed spotting Assam and his little convoy of jeeps on the way. Jamie circled the base cautiously, his eyes flicking from his instruments to the base below as he kept his concentration on spotting anything that might be a danger to the Lynx.

He was using his peripheral vision; acutely tuned to even the slightest movement outside, but it was movement inside the cabin of the helicopter that caught his eye instead. Jamie had spent quite a bit of time in the air in the past few weeks and hadn't come across anything else in the air in all that time. He berated himself now for having lost his discipline. He had not been checking his radar as frequently as he should have been and now the movement that had drawn his eye proved to be a pair of spots indicating that there were two other aircraft heading towards them.

Jamie slapped Stuart's arm and the other boy stopped his own scanning of the buildings on the base to turn and see what was up. Jamie pointed to the radar and Stuart knew immediately what the two blips signified.

"Try to raise them on the radio," Stuart said into his mic.

Just then another movement caught the corner of Stuart's eye and he turned to see three jeeps heading towards the gates of the base.

"Shit, Jamie, look. Tangos!" Stuart cried.

Jamie looked to his left, past his friend's body, and saw the jeeps. He swung the helicopter round and headed towards the vehicles to confirm that they did indeed hold terrorists. A rifle appeared out of the passenger side window of the lead jeep and that was enough to confirm to Jamie that the jeeps contained hostile forces. Before the helicopter got too close, he swung it away once more.

"You try and raise the aircraft and I'll keep an eye on the tangos," Jamie said.

He immediately heard Stuart trying to hail the pilots of whatever was making the blips on the radar.

This is the King of Scots, King James VIII in a helicopter over Faslane naval base calling unidentified aircraft approaching. Please identify yourself and hold your position. Do not, I repeat do not approach any closer," Stuart said, a little breathlessly given the situation they were in.

Jamie and Stuart waited for a response, but there was nothing. Stuart tried once more.

"Please identify yourself and cease your approach. There are hostile forces in the immediate area. I repeat, this is the King of Scots, please identify yourself."

Inside the Blackhawks there was consternation. They had picked Jamie up on their radar from some distance away, but there had been no contact until they were barely ten miles away from the naval base. When the pilots heard Stuart's voice tell them who was on the aircraft over the base and asked them to identify themselves, they were at a loss as to what to do next.

All of them had been following the SIS web site closely, both for intelligence, but also because they were impressed with how the teenaged survivors were conducting themselves, how they were fighting back against the odds.