Direct Legacy by James Stejskal

Author:James Stejskal
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636241203
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

28

Hamish picked up the radio-telephone handset in the padded, secure office. The unit was connected to a large, cabinet-sized encoding device and then to a heavily insulated cable that pierced the wall through connectors impervious to manipulation or tapping and went directly into a radio relay system linked to a big antenna outside.

Sitting in a big comfy swivel chair, probably the only one in the building other than the commander’s down the hall, he regarded the thick gray sound-proofed walls, decorated with sheets of instructions and timetables indicating when a new code was to be fed into the phone, and the proper procedures for firing the thing up. There was an armed forces calendar that showed the month with a happy photograph of soldiers being served a meal in some pleasant tropical spot, maybe Bermuda, but he wasn’t sure. No pictures of Northern Ireland he could see after he flipped through the pages. The calendar was meant to lure gullible youths into the military, those who needed a way out of whatever bad circumstance they were in or maybe those who thought they could better themselves with a trade like medicine, or vehicle mechanic, or killer of men. It just depended on whatever tripped their trigger.

Hamish chuckled; he was above all that. Being a Harrow boy with connections, he knew he had arrived when he got into Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a lifelong dream since he read his first Ian Fleming novel under the bedcovers after lights out. Everything he had done was oriented on that goal, from passing his A Levels in Classical Greek and Latin, to playing rugby, although he quit that after being knocked about a little in team scrimmages. He never even considered it possible that his Eton colleagues hated him or that his obscure foreign languages were not much use anywhere but in a library or museum; all he wanted now was a success, a big one at that, and he could pick and choose assignments. The op he was currently working fit that bill. Maybe he’d go to Paris or Vienna, somewhere upscale that fit his personality.

And certainly not Washington. It’s probably still classed as a hardship assignment and, worse yet, it’s filled with Americans.

He dialed the numbers for the office he wanted and waited for the buzzing to cease and the ringing to begin. After four rings, someone picked up.

“SUMMIT,” the voice said.

“It’s ARGON. I need to speak to SENTINEL.”

“You have him. Go ahead.”

“I have an initial operational report for you,” Hamish said.

“Wait one.”

A pause.

“Go ahead ARGON, we’re recording.”

“As approved by London and based on the intelligence that QUEST may be across the frontier, we launched OUTSIDER this evening with a small team to do a recce of the site. The team is in position now and will remain there for no more than twenty-four to thirty-six hours. I would like to reaffirm your instructions on disposition of the target if his presence is confirmed.”

“I understand. If they find QUEST, the team is to bring him back if feasible.

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