Chapter 35: The law of unintended consequences

As the men of the 7th SFG burst through the wall of the apartment in Berwick Street, the NSA technicians at GCHQ in Cheltenham registered a call from the location on a mobile phone. The call was connected to another source they had been monitoring, this one in Liverpool and suspected of being another terrorist cell.

"Hello?"

"There is no time, this is Bird Song. The Americans are here; they're in the apartment. It is time for 'apocalypse'. Let the others know."

The connection was broken and the technicians looked at each other. All branches of the US security services worked on a strict 'need to know' basis, but it didn't take a lot of intelligence for the technicians to guess what was going on at that moment in London.

The London site was the only one they had managed to pinpoint up until now and the very short mobile message they had just heard confirmed that the intelligence they had gathered was being acted upon. They relayed the latest recording off to Fort Meade and discussed its significance.

"I guess our guys are taking care of some of the baddies?" said one of the technicians.

"Sounds like it, I hope they give 'em hell. The phone call was certainly short and sweet. What do you think he meant - 'it's time for apocalypse'?"

"I don't know but it didn't sound good."

The electronic 'take' from Cheltenham was processed very quickly at Fort Meade. In the post apocalypse world there wasn't a great deal of intelligence to analyse - mainly satellite imagery - and a team of NSA specialist had been dedicated to this task. It was a similar story at the CIA in Langley and for that reason, analysis reached the White House in record times.

Stephen Hadley, The President's National Security Advisor, had the best guess analysis from both the NSA and the CIA within two hours of the mobile call having been made. He sat at his desk thinking, considering what he should tell POTUS.

Hadley was of course well aware of the President's orders to 'lift' the apparent leader of the terrorists before the expatriates and the seamen from HMS Vengeance had time to reach the UK and the US had to withdraw its forces altogether. Now looking at the intelligence brief it seemed clear that the President's order and the action it had set in train might well lead to unintended consequences.

If he read the language correctly, the message from the London cell was to begin to kill the remaining survivors rather than the plan that seemed to have been in operation up until then. Hadley was well briefed on the scenario where the terrorists were trying to convert survivors with the hope of creating an Islamic state in the UK. Now it appeared as if that plan was about to be dropped in favour of the fanatic Islamic fundamentalists indulging themselves in an orgy of teenage blood.

Hadley made his decision and stood to make his way to the Oval Office. He passed through the various secret service checkpoints and was admitted with quiet efficiency. POTUS was behind his desk, wading through a pile of papers that were set in front of him. He looked up as the door to his office opened and raised an eyebrow at his National Security Advisor.

As is often the case in these circumstances, when a subordinate is the bearer of bad news to a senior figure, Hadley wanted to try in some way to make his own task easier. For that reason he didn't immediately alert the President to the mobile phone call and its possible significance, instead he reported on the success of the raid to capture the head of the terrorists.

"Mr President, a squad from the 7th Special Forces Group made an assault on the terrorist stronghold in London just over two hours ago. It would appear that the assault went well and the woman code named 'Bird Song' should even now be on one of USS Stennis's long range aircraft and on her way here. Only one casualty sir, one of the troopers took a round in his arm, but it's not serious and he should make a full recovery," reported Hadley.

The President grinned widely, already thinking about the publicity he would be able to generate by putting the terrorist leader on display for the media.

"That's great Stephen. Set it up so that I get to meet the team who made the assault at some point and I'd like a ceremony here at the White House to recognise the trooper who was wounded," said POTUS.

"Ahhm, there is just one other small matter sir. Our technicians at Cheltenham picked up a mobile phone message from the apartment just as the assault was taking place. Here's what our analysts are making of it," said Hadley, handing over the brief he carried with him.

With years of practice, the President quickly skimmed the intelligence brief and then handed it back to his advisor.

"What am I supposed to make of that Stephen?" he asked.

"Well sir, the analysts believe the call might well be a coded phrase that signifies a change in the terrorists' policy," replied Hadley.

"Spell it out for me Stephen," the President ordered, his face losing its grin.

"Ah sir, the message gives every indication of an order to begin to kill off the surviving teenagers throughout the country. It would seem as if our action to take out the leadership is something they have planned for and like all good fanatics they want to go out with a bang," said the National Security Advisor.

"And what advice does the NSA and CIA have for me at this time Stephen?" POTUS asked, making the man in front of him squirm.

"We are suggesting putting troops on the ground in each of the cities where we have registered mobile phone traffic between the terrorists sir. We should do everything we can do to avert the massacre of these kids that our assault seems to have kicked off. We should also do what we can to alert people over there that the terrorists might be about to change their tactics. Forewarned is forearmed sir," Hadley replied.

"So, you're advising that I make a very public statement that covert operations by American forces seem to have had the unintended consequences of setting off a terrorist killing spree? A killing spree of largely innocent and unprotected children? I don't think so. No, instead I want all of our forces pulled out of the UK. That's what the King of Scots has been asking for and that's what he's going to get. Let's just see how they cope on their own. Anyway, the first of their expatriates should be reaching them soon, so let them fight their own battles, as they have been demanding. So far as we are concerned we were never at Cheltenham," said the President.

"But sir, we'd be abandoning them to a bunch of highly trained fanatics. These kids have no way of defending themselves. I think that's morally wrong Mr President, it's certainly not what I signed up for," replied Hadley, amazed at what his superior was suggesting.

"Those are my orders Stephen. When this Bird Song character arrives in the US we'll tell the media and the American people that we struck to remove the head of the terrorist organisation to try and help these kids. We will not say anything about knowing the cells up and down the country were in contact with each other or about the last mobile call mentioning the word 'apocalypse'. Am I clear on that?" asked the President, leaning forward so that he invaded Hadley's personal space and his face was thrust into the other man's.

"Yes Mr President, you have made yourself perfectly clear," Hadley managed to reply.

The National Security Advisor turned and left the Oval Office, his hands shaking with the anger he was feeling at his President's words and actions. The man was nothing but a bully and his orders were sure to condemn many young people in the UK to their deaths.

10:19, 4 September

Lee Chan had decided it would be worthwhile recording the aftermath of the battle at the Mary Erskine/Stewart's Melville schools for a number of reasons. It would a very poignant piece of footage recording the last act that resulted in the complete liberation of Scotland and it would be good to get that onto the SIS web site as soon as possible. That might speed up the point at which the US and Canada allowed people to travel.

He also thought it would be fitting to pay a tribute to the people who had bravely given their lives in the last battle, to record for posterity what a group of teenagers had sacrificed for their country's freedom.

Lee picked out several youngsters who had worked on their school newspapers and armed them with videocameras so they could move amongst those who had lived through events and record their stories. These youngsters were good and their peers were still so much in shock that they held nothing back when they were interviewed. It made for some harrowing descriptions and the scars of their ordeal were already evident on the faces that appeared on camera.

Hearing the words haltingly describe how individuals had run towards the gunfire from the English Department, seeing the anguish on the young, innocent faces as they stared into the camera and woodenly told of people dropping to the ground beside them, listening to how they had used bats and sticks to overcome the terrorists, all made for very emotional and traumatic viewing.

When Jamie watched the unedited film later that day at the Dreghorn barracks, the full impact of his fatal last blog entry the night before hit home. He listened, as teenager after teenager spelled out that they thought the message from their King was a clear one. They all thought he was urging them to take action to end the occupation of Scotland. They all saw it as a matter of personal pride, felt as if he was telling them they were letting the rest of the country down by being the last ones to be held captive.

Time after time the message was clear. It had been Jamie's blog entry that had resulted in the teenagers storming the English Department and so in turn, as Jamie saw it, it was the blog entry that had resulted in so many of the teenagers dying. Tears streamed down his face as he forced himself to sit through all of the footage that had been recorded. The courage and valour of what individuals had done, the inspiration of the first group of fifteen who had continued their charge despite the carnage all around them, were lost to him as he could hear only that he had caused it all.

When the last interview was over and Lee turned off the media player, Jamie stood and shuffled disconsolately from the briefing room. Lee saw the desperate look on his monarch's face and stood as if to go after him.

"Leave him Lee, he will need to come to terms with this himself," said Laura, understanding immediately what her brother had taken from the film.

"But I don't understand. Surely this is something to be proud of? The stories of bravery, what these teenagers achieved, are absolutely remarkable. Shouldn't we be having a celebration that Scotland's free?" he asked.

"You obviously didn't see what Jamie saw in those interviews," replied Laura. "He believes he is to blame for the loss of life. Didn't you hear all of them saying that Jamie's blog almost goaded them into action? I'm afraid my brother is suffering from a guilt trip to end all guilt trips."

Laura walked across to the window of the room and drew back the blackout curtain. She could see Jamie walking with his head slumped forward, heading in the direction of the Lynx. As she watched, he climbed aboard and seemed to go through his flight checks. Some minutes later the rotors began to turn and then the helicopter lifted up into the air and began to climb. She continued to watch the Lynx as it grew gradually smaller and smaller and then finally was lost from sight. She knew her brother and that meant that she understood that he would need to be allowed to work through this on his own. Laura had no doubt that his sense of duty and responsibility would help him come to the right conclusions.