Chapter 19

... these satellite images show the Saudi oilfields burning fiercely and are confirmation that things in the Kingdom seem to be turning badly against the Royal family there. Despite spending billions of dollars to try and appease anti-government feeling, the movement for more democracy continues to gather support. In other news...

Donnie and Archie were watching the TV in the Bridge-of-Allan apartment, waiting for some sign that Donnie's intelligence had led to action against the Asians, but so far nothing had shown up. Instead they were watching as the Middle East continued to descend into chaos and world oil supplies were being severely disrupted.

The UK Government had already taken steps to stop the sale of all North Sea crude and was now refining the home produced oil to satisfy UK demand. The 'sweeter' crude was normally sold at a premium and cheaper crude bought for the home market, but that was all changing.

"Things might be about to get even worse for the UK if this man is allowed to carry out his plans."

The image of an Asian man appeared in Donnie's head. As Donnie 'watched' the man climbed a set of metal ladders onto a piece of plant. His view pulled back and Donnie could see a number of huge cooling towers and what looked like dozens of tall gas flares.

"This is Grangemouth. This is one of ten refineries in the UK and it is the only one that has a direct link via pipeline to the crude oil coming out of the North Sea. This man is Masood Tangir. He is employed at Grangemouth as a maintenance engineer. Next Thursday he will make adjustments to a number of valves and set a small fire that will result in this whole refinery being destroyed."

"Can you give me any other information, goddess?"

"That should be enough, Dòmhnall. Have Archie use his contacts again and stop this attack before it kills hundreds of people."

Donnie realised that the goddess had given him all that she was going to. He turned to Archie.

"Archie, I've got details of another terrorist attack that's being planned."

Archie gave him a strange look.

"Are you trying to tell me that you've just been away on another 'jaunt' while we've both been sitting here watching the news?" Archie asked in disbelief.

"Not this time," Donnie smiled. "Don't ask me how I know, I just do okay? There's a man employed at the Grangemouth Refinery called Masood Tangir. He works in maintenance. He's planning on sabotaging the refinery in such a way as to make it blow up. I think he plans to do this within the next week or so."

"Are you sure?" Archie asked.

"Of course I am," Donnie answered.

Archie nodded his head.

"Yes, of course you are. It's the Mojo again, isn't it? How am I going to explain this one?" Archie asked. "One tip-off to the security forces might be accepted, but two within a matter of weeks is going to make them very suspicious about me, never mind the targets I'm feeding them!"

"Perhaps we could just make an anonymous call on this one?" Donnie suggested.

Archie shook his head.

"If you're right and he's going to do this within the next week, then we can't take the risk that an anonymous call will be acted upon quickly enough," he said. "No, I'm going to have to make some more calls. I guess I'll just have to live with the consequences."

With a sigh, Archie grabbed his jacket and headed out to make a return trip to Glasgow. He purchased some additional pay-as-you-go mobiles at a 24hour ASDA supermarket and charged them up again in the car. Taking a chance, Archie dialled the new number he had been given the week before rather than the original emergency number. When it connected immediately, he gave a sigh of relief.

"This is Bamber35," Archie began.

Before he could say anything further, the 'handler' cut him off.

"You know better than to make a nuisance of yourself tying up lines like this, Bamber35. I can't give you any information on active operations, so you'll have to watch the news like everybody else."

Archie cursed under his breath. He could swear that it was 'sonny' on the other end of the line and he could imagine the smug, self-important, grin that the man was probably wearing right then. Trying to remain professional, Archie started his contact over again.

"This is Bamber35, I have intel on Tango1 for immediate targeting."

This time Archie's report was interrupted by a curse from the other end of the line. He smiled to himself, thinking 'sonny's' smug grin might just have faded.

"Bamber35 requests a repeat prescription," Archie continued.

"When?" the voice on the phone asked.

"In 220 minus2, minus0, plus0," Archie answered.

"Acknowledged, Bamber35."

Archie smiled in satisfaction. 'Repeat prescription' was jargon for basically repeating the last recorded activity – in his case a further meeting at the Govan Police Station. He had gambled in giving the coded Signal for only twenty minutes, believing 'sonny' would pull out the stops to make himself available.

"I can't believe that idiot thought I was phoning him for an update! How stupid does he think I am?"

Exactly twenty minutes later, Archie walked through the main entrance to the police station once more. He didn't make for the desk this time, but instead headed for the door he had used on his last visit. It opened as he approached and the boyish features of 'sonny' glowered at him in welcome.

Once they were safely inside an interview room, 'sonny' spat out a warning.

"You'd better not be playing games, Roy. My time is too precious to be used feeding your needy little ego!"

Archie clenched his teeth and tried to count to ten before responding.

"I'm Bamber35 to you, don't forget it again," he said, pointing out to 'sonny' that he had breached protocols by using Archie's name. "I'm too professional to need my ego boosted on something as important as this. I'll wait for the results of my last information to make the news; I don't need updates from you. Now, do you want my latest intel or not?"

Sonny wasn't happy at Archie's tone, but he knew he had to suck it up if he wanted what Archie had. He nodded to indicate that Archie should continue.

"Grangemouth Refinery. Maintenance man by the name of Masood Tangir. He's planning a spectacular sometime over the next week," said Archie.

"And how do you know this?" sonny asked.

"You come across all kinds of interesting stuff in private security," Archie lied.

"I need more than this," sonny whined. "We can't act on you randomly fingering an individual."

"I would hope my past record speaks for itself," Archie responded. "That's all I have, it's up to you what you do with it."

"It looks like it's begun," Donnie said. Archie nodded and they both focused on the TV screen and the reporter. Katie leaned up against the kitchen doorway, the pasta she was making forgotten for the moment.

... identified as Martin Bronkle, a thirty-seven year old from Glasgow. Police are saying that this was a particularly brutal murder and that it bears all the hallmarks of a so-called honour killing...

The report re-hashed other incidents in Glasgow over the past few years that highlighted the tensions between a small part of the Asian community and equally disreputable elements of the indigenous youth.

"Why didn't the security forces stop it?" Katie asked in alarm.

Archie turned to look at her.

"Probably because they haven't identified all of those involved in the planned terrorist attacks," he guessed. "They'll be following the explosives now, waiting for their chance to take all of them down at once."

"But they've just let that man be killed!" Katie complained.

"That's how they work, Katie. They're cold and calculating. What's one life when they can save many by letting things play out a little more?" Archie asked.

Katie turned away from the TV in disgust.

"That's not the way the public thinks. That man had the right to expect the police to protect him – what about his family? Try telling them his death was necessary for the greater good! It stinks if you ask me," she threw over her shoulder.

The following week was busy for Donnie and Katie as they completed all of the necessary administration for their return to Stirling Uni. For Katie it would be her penultimate year and for Donnie, hopefully, his second and last year if he successfully completed the credits necessary for his combined honours degree.

Archie had all but disappeared from sight after telling Donnie that he was sure that he was now under surveillance and that his home phone was almost certainly 'tapped'.

"I need to just drop out of sight for a while," he told Donnie. "I knew they would get interested in me after two tip-offs."

The distraction of the two separate terror plots also came to a head and Donnie was glad that they ended well and he could put them behind him. Both were reported on the same day. with at first only sketchy details released. Eventually, as the day wore on, more and more details became available and TV news showed aerial footage of a number of addresses that had been raided simultaneously.

Talking head after talking head appeared on TV to rake over how young Asians were being radicalised and what the government should be doing to stop it. The four 'virgins' and Masood Tangir had been born and raised in the UK, so the public were struggling to understand why they would want to carry out such acts of terror. When reports speculated that the targets included Grangemouth, the nuclear power stations at Sizewell and Glasgow Airport, further 'experts' were trotted out to give their estimates of what the damage could have been.

Douglas McGregor watched all of the drama unfolding on the news and had to phone Donnie to share his views.

"And no doubt they targeted Glasgow Airport to try and make a point after the last attempt there was foiled by John Smeaton, but a nuclear power station? Why do these people hate the UK so much? They were born here, educated here – some of them very well from what the TV is saying – yet they want to kill us. Why?"

"I've no idea, dad," Donnie answered. "I think they're minds have been poisoned by some extremely radical people. They don't care – I mean, they would be killing innocent Muslims as well with these attacks. It just doesn't make any sense."

Another 'by-product' of the news reports was increased tension between young people in the Asian and white communities, particularly in areas with a high density of Asian population.

These tensions were something that elements such as the British National Party (BNP) did their utmost to exploit. Over the course of the next few weeks, the right-wing fascists of the BNP organised various rallies and marches to promote 'British-ness', but all of them had a nasty undercurrent of blatant racism.

The police had their work cut out for them when radical Islamist groups organised counter-demonstrations to co-incide with those run by the BNP and there were inevitable flash-points.

From his privileged position close to the First Minister, Donnie was able to learn just how widespread the racial tension was becoming. Most of it was confined to large English cities – particularly in the midlands and north, but Scotland was by no means excluded and there were an increasing number of incidents in and around Glasgow.

"The important thing is not to have a knee-jerk reaction to all this," Alex Salmond argued. "The Conservatives are rushing legislation through Westminster to make it easier for the security forces to arrest and hold suspects, but measures like that are just as likely to raise tensions amongst the Asian communities."

"But something needs to be done to get at the root cause of the tensions," Donnie responded. "I agree that heavy-handed tactics will just give the radicals more ammunition to claim that the Muslims are getting a raw deal, but what do we do to lance this boil?

"When intelligent, well-educated British nationals decide it's time to wear a vest stuffed with explosives so they can blow themselves up inside a nuclear power plant, then surely it's time for some fundamental changes in policy?

"Why don't we do more to integrate these communities? Why do we let them ignore our culture and customs? Why do we pander to those elements that try and import someone else's culture and establish it here – Sharia law for example? Is the UK maybe too tolerant?" Donnie asked.

"It's a very complicated one, Donnie. Look at the Netherlands, they've done more than most to try and integrate the various communities, but even there the government is finding it increasingly difficult," the FM responded.

Tensions remained high through the end of September/into October. The situation threatened to boil over altogether two weeks later when something that Donnie had been waiting for was at last reported on the news.