Alan removed his headphones and placed them on the desk in front of the terminal. He turned to Warner:
‘That went okay, didn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ replied Warner with a shrug, ‘I was expecting the PM to pursue the matter of black operations, though I have to admit I wasn’t expecting a request to establish one today!’
‘But we can do it, right?’
‘I assume so; I’ll have to look at the structures currently in place before I can say for sure, but, yes… it looks doable.’
‘Good news about the rare-earths!’
‘Yes, very good! When we wrest this from DEFRA it’ll make our other operations a lot easier to run – there’ll be fewer brains that need frying, for a start!’
Alan grimaced: ‘Lovely image..! Although I’m wondering if we also need to “fry” the PM’s brain! I did not care for that threat about being arrested again!’
Warner laughed: ‘He’s just trying to rattle you! Relax, he knows the stakes and he’s committed already with his request for the black op! Besides, we can’t run everything from here. It’s much easier to have him fully independent but on-side and restrict any controls to the relevant people he meets. They’ll just require one-off specific manipulations – we perform them once and move on. Controlling the PM would require almost constant interventions. And by not controlling the PM we also do not need to exercise general control over the civil service or his cabinet. You understand?’
‘Yes, I think.’ Alan stared blankly at the terminal screen. ‘But I wish we could get the PM and MI6 to drop this pointless pursuit of the Gang of Four.’
Warner did not respond.
‘Don’t you agree?’ asked Alan, insistently.
‘I’m… conflicted on that one, Alan. I accept your view that these Earth manifestations are potentially dangerous and should really be avoided, however…’
‘What?’
‘I’m curious! Just as the PM and MI6 are. The PM himself said: “The Gang of Four precipitated all this”. But to what end? What is in it for them? And why such a ruthless treatment of the Sponsors? Nothing about them quite adds up.’
‘Perhaps the rare-earths–’ began Alan.
‘Surely an incidental matter for them. But here’s another question that’s been vexing me: Why are they still around? And why decamp to Wiltshire, for God’s sake!?’
Alan shrugged.
‘Either they are hunting down more extraterrestrials, or–’
‘Or, what!?’ asked Alan.
‘Precisely! I want to find out, what!’
Alan loudly exhaled: ‘Curiosity killed the cat, Helen! Trust me, you don’t want to get involved!’
‘I suppose you are right, Alan,’ replied Warner with a smile, ‘we won’t get involved – directly. But let’s continue to help the PM and MI6. If we can find the gang again and keep track of them this time – why not direct that information to the PM and allow him to make “contact”.’
‘What will that achieve?’ asked Alan, nervously.
‘I’m not sure,’ replied Warner staring blankly ahead; she then promptly snapped out of her reverie and turned to Alan: ‘Anyway! I’ll get to work on this ash business, and you should return to GFS and be ready to administer the new entity from there, I think a GFS subsidiary, something even hidden from GFS itself, would be ideal for our needs. The accounts at GFS are already a spiral-staircase of impenetrable contradictions!’
‘Christ, Fairclough is going to have a cow when he sees me!’
‘Forget about him! His days are numbered. Soon you will be running GFS, Alan.’
***