Chapter 22

Donnie stood on the viewing gallery inside silo #1 and surveyed the first wheat crop with some pride. Row upon row, pod upon pod were growing well and it would soon be time to start the first harvest. The grain would be stored within the purpose-built hoppers that were an integral part of the walls of the silo. The stalks of the wheat would also be gathered and bailed before being sold on as animal feed.

"It still looks unreal to see all these layers of wheat growing so far underground," said Carol, who was standing beside him.

"The best bit is that within a couple of weeks we'll have another crop planted and growing," Donnie observed. "Using artificial light and heat means we're not constrained by the seasons and we can grow two crops a year."

"There are another twelve silos ready to plant," Carol informed him. "The final building work to finish the remaining silos should be complete by the end of the year. That will just leave the surface buildings, domes and the landscaping to finish it all off."

"With the way grain prices are continuing to rise, it won't be long before this site is paying for itself," Donnie smiled.

"When do you think the additional accommodation will be needed?" Carol asked. "The four new people you hired have all moved in, but to be honest, the amount of space is an embarrassment."

"I'm not sure when we'll fill the space up," Donnie answered.

"The goddess won't tell me!" he added to himself.

It was almost as if Donnie's thought attracted the attention of the goddess and within seconds he heard her voice.

"You need to learn to be patient, Dòmhnall. I keep telling you that things will eventually become clear. This facility is going to need many people to get it into full production. I've had you build living accommodation and other facilities to comfortably fit several hundred families. This summer, I want you to revive the ancient clan gathering. Send messages out around the world, call clan McGregor from wherever they have been scattered."

The idea immediately grabbed Donnie and he turned to Carol.

"Maybe we can do something to step up our recruitment over the summer," he said. "How does the idea of a McGregor clan gathering sound to you?"

"What is it?" Carol asked.

"A traditional clan gathering involves trials of strength, the showing of livestock, games for the kids and other things like genealogy," Donnie explained. "It's basically an excuse to get the clan together from all over the world and celebrate being a McGregor!"

Everyone Donnie spoke to after that was excited by the idea of a gathering and a date was quickly fixed.

As part of the arrangements, Donnie gave Eric Black his first job for Gregorach Enterprises.

"Eric, I need you to come up with an online strategy to contact as many people with a connection to the McGregor clan as possible," Donnie explained. "I've decided to hold a clan gathering in the summer and I want to attract as many people as possible. Any ideas?"

Eric had already installed a dizzying array of equipment in the accommodation he had been assigned at Ardbrecknish. Almost before Donnie had finished speaking, Eric's fingers were flying across his keyboard.

"We'll need a domain name to set up a dedicated website," Eric provided a commentary for what he was already doing. "I'll need an idea of the surnames to target and then I can basically hack into some government databases to get contact details so I can mailshot the target audience. You might think about some advertising too."

Donnie could see that Eric already had a list of surnames and he seemed to be writing a program to perform some kind of search function.

"What are the dates? What about accommodation? Have you come up with a programme of events yet?" Eric fired off a string of questions.

Donnie could see that he had a lot to organise in a relatively short space of time.

Archie Roy had told Donnie that he was keeping a low profile as he knew that he had come under scrutiny from the UK security services. That wasn't entirely accurate though. He hadn't been idle and in the best traditions of the doctrine of the SAS, Archie was trying to go on the attack.

He had started by trying to learn more about 'sonny'. Archie called in a few favours from people he had worked with in the past. The covert nature of some of the roles the SAS undertook meant that he had come across intelligence staff on a regular basis. Now he was trying to quietly put a name to 'sonny's' boyish face.

This was something that couldn't be rushed. Archie cast his net and then had to sit back and wait to see if anything came back. To have been more aggressive would probably have resulted in alarm bells going off somewhere.

After almost six months, all Archie had was a possible name – Fergus Malloy. That was a start though.

Archie was also interested in the two detective inspectors who had tried to arrest Donnie. Dave Lawrence had told him about the reference one of the officers had made to a 'tip-off' when they had searched the apartment. For Archie, that spelt trouble and he knew it was something that he would have to follow up.

He decided that he could be more aggressive while investigating the officers and used some of Donnie's money to basically buy as much information as he could get. A conversation with Donnie had told Archie that details of his financial transactions, his bets and his lottery wins shouldn't have been freely available. His first task was therefore to identify how the police had found out about them. Just where had the 'tip-off' come from?

With the arrival of Louise Coleman and Eric Black at Ardbrecknish, Archie rubbed his hands at the prospect of how he could use them in his line of work. He knew Louise had been in intelligence and that Eric was a wizard with technology.

"Perhaps between them, they can help me make some progress?" he thought.

Gathering the pair together in one of the completed meeting rooms at Ardbrecknish, Archie probed to identify how they could help.

"What branches of intelligence have you worked with?" he asked Louise.

Archie could see immediately that Louise was not keen to discuss her service.

"Look, I know you signed the official secrets act – I did too – but you work for Donnie now," he argued. "I'm not going to ask you to reveal anything that would compromise your integrity, but from what I've found out so far, I suspect that someone in intelligence is involved."

"How so?" Louise asked. "Why would intelligence be interested in Donnie?"

"Someone tipped-off the police about Donnie's financial transactions – now anyone in the markets could do that," Archie explained. "However, the informant also passed on the fact that Donnie had won four lottery competitions in three different countries. In my book the only people who would know that would be intelligence. That amount of money moving about is always notified to them."

Louise nodded to confirm that what Archie was saying was true.

"I'd even hazard a guess that his winnings from the bookies were big enough to have been reported too – probably by Donnie's bank," Archie added.

Again Louise nodded.

"Why would the intelligence services pass that information on to the police?" Archie asked.

"Too much to do," Louise replied. "There are only a limited number of human assets available to cover everything. When something like this comes up, we pass it to the uniforms to take a look – it's routine."

"Are you sure?" Archie pressed. "Donnie's involvement with the SNP wouldn't be something that they could be worried about? This entire facility and Donnie's inventions wouldn't attract their interest?"

Louise thought about that before answering.

"Anything that has the potential to influence the political landscape interests them. If Donnie has influence, if he's funding the SNP, then sure – that would attract their attention," she said. "The SNP are making policy and passing legislation here in Scotland, if Donnie's in any way shaping that then they're on him. He doesn't seem to have extreme views though, so I think it's doubtful."

"What about this place?" Archie asked again.

"If the projections I've heard are true, this facility might soon be producing a heck of a lot of wheat," Louise observed. "You've seen the stories on the news as much as I have. There are riots all across the Middle East – partly because of food inflation – and we've already experienced bread shortages here in the UK.

"If food, or a lack of it, could lead to civil unrest, then again the intelligence services will be interested. That could put this place on their radar. Now the stuff that Professor White is working on – that's a definite if they know about it. Anything that could affect the balance of power in terms of imports – especially oil – will be high on their agenda," Louise finished.

"Instead of all this guesswork, why don't I just take a look in their systems and find out?" Eric volunteered.

Archie turned to look at the 'geek'.

"You mean you could do that?" he asked.

"I don't know until I try," Eric replied. "I haven't met a system yet that I couldn't hack though. With Louise's help it should be a swizz."

"What can I do?" Louise asked doubtfully.

"Well, you can tell me what kind of system it is, you can tell me your last log-in details and you could describe the kind of packages you used for a start," Eric replied. "Particularly what e-mail system was used."

"Can I leave you to try it?" Archie asked. "If you find anything I want to know as soon as. Oh, if you do get in, I'm interested in a spook called Fergus Molloy as well. If you can find out anything about him, I'd like that too."

Eric and Louise nodded to show they were willing.

Archie went in search of Donnie to discuss some other issues that were bothering him.

Archie found Donnie discussing a potential cost over-run with Carol. He waited for the conversation to finish and then indicated that he had something he wanted to go over with Donnie.

"Can we talk?" Archie asked.

"Of course," said Donnie. "It's good to see you around the place. Have you decided it's safe for you to go out in public again without a spook looking to follow you?"

Archie let Donnie have his little joke.

"I've been looking round the site here," Archie said. "You've completed twelve stand-alone family units, with eight more almost done. There's eight different accommodation blocks with ten apartments each, there's a school, a surgery, a theatre, meeting rooms and an exercise facility with a half-sized pool. There are various storerooms and community spaces too.

"So far there are less than a dozen people living on the site, but with all the amenities you're building I'm guessing it won't be too long before the numbers start to increase. Somebody has to fill all the jobs you're creating I guess."

Donnie nodded.

"Things are going to get chaotic here if you don't appoint someone to manage logistics," Archie suggested. "Jack Wilcox may be a pilot, but as a Commander he's got experience of running a base. Why don't you make him responsible for the running of the site?"

Donnie thought about what Archie was saying and he could see that it made sense. If he appointed Jack now, before numbers increased, then the Commander would have the chance to familiarise himself with everything and get organised.

"That sounds like a good idea," Donnie agreed. "I'll speak to Jack and see if he's interested. You've already been assigned Peter MacAdam for security, but I'm keeping Louise and Eric for myself just for now."

"Good, I can certainly use Peter," Archie grinned. "That brings me onto the other thing I wanted to mention. I've asked Louise and Eric to do a little job for me. Given what you've just said about keeping them for yourself, I hope you don't mind me taking advantage of their skills?"

"No, it should be fine for now. I certainly don't have enough to keep them fully occupied yet," Donnie conceded.

"How are things with your studies and the SNP?" Archie asked now that he had his business out of the way.

"The studies are almost finished and I think I've done okay," Donnie answered. "As for my political career, Parliament is not far from recess so there isn't much going on. I do have the First Minister's weekly briefing to attend this afternoon though."

"How's Vivien doing?" Archie asked.