Chapter 24

Donnie stopped peeling the potatoes and went to answer the doorbell. Katie had got him into the habit of checking through the 'spy-hole' before opening the door and he did so now. He saw a man and a woman, both wearing caps with Scottish Natural Heritage on them. Donnie thought they looked harmless enough and he opened the apartment door.

"Good evening, Sir. We're sorry to bother you, but could you perhaps spare us a few minutes to talk about a petition we're sponsoring?" the woman said.

As a rule, Donnie didn't like 'cold callers' and would normally decline and politely close the door. The name of the organisation these two were from made him more sympathetic this time, however, and he decided to hear them out.

"We're asking people to sign our petition to call for development of the site of the battle of Bannockburn," the man explained.

"You can also make a donation to our campaign fund in return for one of our caps," the woman added hopefully.

"Sure," said Donnie. "Where do I sign?"

He fished in his pocket and drew out a £10 note, which he folded and slipped through the slot on the collecting tin the woman held out.

"Thank you, try this one for size," said the woman, handing Donnie a cap similar to the one she was wearing.

Donnie tried the cap on, but it was obviously too small.

"Oops, sorry," she said, taking it back and handing over an alternative that she pulled from a bag.

"Just sign in the next available box," the man said, handing over a clipboard and a pen.

Donnie took the cap and then the clipboard. He signed his name on the sheet and handed the clipboard back. As the man took the clipboard, he subtly angled it and Donnie felt a slight scratch from the wire clip.

"You'll have to watch that," he said. "The clip is sticking up."

"Sorry about that," the man apologised.

The couple thanked him for his support and turned to go. Donnie closed the door and went back to preparing a meal for himself, Katie and Vivien.

The couple hurried to a car that was parked close by. The woman placed the 'too small' cap that Donnie had tried on inside an evidence bag. The man carefully removed the clip that had scratched Donnie's hand and did the same.

"No doubt in my mind that he's the right man," the man said.

"I agree and we should be able to get a DNA profile off of the cap or the clip, which should help avoid doubt in the future," said the woman.

Malloy reviewed the latest reports. His people in Scotland had reported they had close quarters visual confirmation that Tartan Terror was the man in the apartment in Bridge-of-Allan. He noted the DNA samples that might be useful in the future. Other sources within the civil service had confirmed that Donnie McGregor had been present throughout the First Minister's briefing at the time the CCTV had him in London.

"What the hell am I dealing with here?" Malloy asked himself. "He can't possibly be in two places at once and I know he doesn't have a twin, but who can the guy on the CCTV be then? I do not believe in co-incidences, but what can I do? McGregor has over a dozen witnesses, including the First Minister, that prove he was in Edinburgh. I can't have him arrested again without stronger evidence. If I could just get someone undercover on that site!"

Malloy typed up another message and hit the send button.

A series of phone calls ended with Donnie agreeing to meet Archie, Eric and Louise at Ardbrecknish the following morning. The meeting took place in Eric's apartment, more specifically in the room where Eric had all his kit set up. Archie began with his confession.

"I have a confession and an apology to make," he said.

Donnie chuckled.

"Lighten up, Archie. It can't be that bad," he admonished.

"No, this is serious, Donnie. You know that I was never happy about the tip-off the police received about you? The job I mentioned that I had Eric and Louise working on started out as being a follow-up on that. I'm afraid what they've found makes things a bit more ... shall we say ... complicated?"

"You're talking in riddles, Archie. Just spell out what it is that they've found," said Donnie.

"That's where the apology comes in," continued Archie. "It seems that MI5 tailed me after my first meeting with them at the Govan police station. That led them to you. They linked my tip-offs about the planned terrorist attacks on Grangemouth and Sizewell to you and then linked that to all the money you suddenly had."

"How do you know all this?" Donnie asked.

"The wizard over there has hacked into MI5's systems," Archie explained.

Donnie looked at Eric.

"Should we really be doing that?" he asked.

"Look, you hired us to keep you and the others around you safe," Archie argued. "If that involves a wee bit of hacking, then so be it. Anyway, what we've found is that you are under surveillance. You are being followed and they are listening-in to all of your phone calls."

"I think you're being a little overdramatic," Donnie laughed.

"Show him," Archie ordered.

Eric spun to his screen and his fingers danced across his keyboard.

"Did you have a couple of visitors last night?" Archie asked Donnie.

Donnie wondered where Archie was going with this and he peered over Eric's shoulder to see what was on the screen

Close quarters visual confirmation that subject is in the apartment in Bridge-of-Allan. Samples taken for DNA profiling for future identification purposes.

Donnie remembered the couple from Scottish Natural Heritage and the petition. He remembered the cap and the scratch and equated them with the reference to DNA profiling. Sudden realisation dawned that what Archie was telling him was true – he was under observation by MI5.

"What else have you found out?" Donnie asked.

"They got a little excited yesterday because of this," said Eric.

He clicked and the CCTV footage of the two terrorists bumping into the woman played. Eric paused the clip on the frame that showed Donnie's face as he shouted at the men.

"If I had to guess, I'd say you were using your Mojo again yesterday," said Archie. "That has really confused them, as their observation has you down as being in a meeting with the First Minister in Edinburgh, while this CCTV footage has you in London."

"The goddess transported me to save the girl in that clip," admitted Donnie.

"Well why didn't she think about avoiding CCTV cameras?" Archie demanded.

"Archie, the goddess never explains why I'm asked to do anything. I'm almost positive that she has ulterior motives behind every service she asks me to perform," Donnie replied.

"Maybe that's it?" Eric exclaimed.

"What?" asked Louise.

"You asked before why Donnie's goddess hadn't just warned him that MI5 was sniffing around," Eric jabbed his finger in Louise's direction. "Archie has just asked why the goddess didn't consider the CCTV cameras. Maybe she did? Maybe she wants MI5 to be looking at Donnie for some reason," he declared.

"That's just plain stupid," Louise countered. "Why deliberately let them see Donnie in two places at once?"

"Because they can't do anything about it," Eric argued. "What it did give rise to though was a flurry of activity on their systems that led me to some interesting material on other terror suspects. Maybe that's it, maybe it's reverse logic. The goddess wanted MI5 interested in Donnie, so that we would get interested in them! This compound we're building has got to have a purpose. I don't know what it is yet, but maybe part of it is that the goddess needs us to get information from MI5."

"You mean that Donnie's goddess went to all this trouble – giving him the information about two terror plots, having me give MI5 the tip-offs, me being followed back to Donnie, MI5 asking the police to look at his bank accounts – all of that so that we would start looking at their system?" asked Archie.

"Hey! It's only a theory," said Eric defensively. "Can you come up with anything better? Why would a goddess make such rudimentary mistakes?"

"Eric has worked it out, Dòmhnall. I did want you to see close up the ruthless and fanatical nature of the people you are dealing with, but the more important, longer-term, objective was the link into the MI5 system. You will get important intelligence from the MI5 systems over the next year. It may make a difference and it may not. Events are starting to reach the point where even I will not be able to influence them."

Donnie gulped. How bad were things going to get if the goddess wouldn't be able to influence them?

"I like Eric's theory," he said aloud. "What 'interesting material' have you found then?"

"Well, I haven't worked my way through it all yet – there's hundreds of the stuff – but the two petrol bombers led me to a guy called Imam Ali Assam. He looks like a real whacko with links going all over the country, including cells that seem to have been making their way to Scotland in the past six months," Eric explained.

Donnie remembered the item in the FM briefing that covered the migration of Muslims from England into Scotland and guessed that was linked to what Eric had found.

"Okay, see what else you can find," said Donnie. "Archie, it seems that there's no need to apologise after all. No harm, no foul as they say. Let's just make the most of the situation."

It was clear from his expression that Archie remained to be convinced about Eric's theory, but he accepted Donnie's absolution and vowed to himself to keep an even closer watch on what Malloy was up to.

"Eric, how are you getting on with the other thing, the clan gathering?" Donnie changed the subject.

"I'm glad you asked about that," Eric replied.

Archie and Louise decided they didn't need to hear that conversation and they left the room to deal with other things.

Donnie took a seat alongside the computer geek.

"I've got everything ready to go," Eric explained. "The mailing list runs to over ten thousand names in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. I thought that those countries would be where the main Scottish Diaspora would be concentrated. I've hacked names from tax systems, student listings, drivers licensing, even armed forces databases."

"Ten thousand!" Donnie exclaimed. "That's too many, we'd be swamped!"

"Donnie, think about it," Eric explained patiently. "We're already in June. The date for the gathering is only five weeks away. How many of this ten thousand have already made holiday plans? How many will be able to come to Scotland at such short notice? I reckon we'll be lucky to get one in twenty."

Donnie could see the sense in that and he calmed down a little.

"Don't forget that this was the goddess' idea," he warned. "I agree with your logic, but you might be underestimating things."

Eric shrugged, still confident in his thinking.

"Here's the 'flyer' I'm going to e-mail out. What do you think?" Eric asked, bringing up a colourful graphic.

Donnie liked the visual impact.

"It's really good. Could you just add something in on the programme?" he asked.

Once Donnie was finished with Eric he went looking for Professor Bill White and Heather to find out how things were progressing with the construction of the recycling plant. He found them at the base of silo #8, the sound of Bill's angry voice pinpointing his location.

"No, no, NO!" shouted the Professor.

"What's the problem, Bill?" Donnie asked.

The Professor whirled round and Donnie flinched when he saw the red, angry, face.

"This simply isn't good enough, Donnie!" Bill growled.

Donnie surveyed the skeleton of what would eventually become the core of the 'plant'. Progress seemed to be well behind what he had expected and Donnie guessed that could be part of why Bill was angry.

"The tolerance levels on this pre-fabricated steel are just not good enough!" Bill complained. "This will be the fourth delivery that's basically useless!"

Donnie knew a little about the level of precision that the Professor was working to, but he couldn't understand why the orders didn't measure up.

"Who's responsible for the contract for the steel?" Donnie asked.

"I am," said a suddenly sheepish Bill.

Donnie scratched his head and looked at Heather who was trying to hide a grin.

"Err, so what seems to be the problem?" Donnie asked.

"I keep trying to tell him that he went with the wrong company for this contract," Heather managed to get out without laughing. "He went with the lowest quote. I think he was worried about spending your money!"

A quick look at the Professor's expression told Donnie that Heather was spot on with her assessment of what was wrong here.

"Is that right?" he asked.

Bill tried to defend himself.

"But the difference in the quotes was huge!" he argued. "Heather wanted to go for one that would have cost £2.5 million more. That's a lot of money!"

Donnie realised that Bill was too used to working in the university research programme where every penny spent would be scrutinised by committees and sponsors.

"Bill, I gave you a budget for building this, why aren't you using it?" Donnie asked. If this plant is delayed by a year due to problems with the steel, how much will we lose in terms of the amount that could be recycled?"

The Professor had gone from anger to being on the defensive very quickly, but that wasn't what Donnie was looking for.