DARKNET CORPORATION Read Free

it dawned on him, remembering what
separated the English-speaking peoples.
    “Anyway, it stuck. He was
originally a ‘para’, fro m The Parachute
Regiment ” Bill clarified. “He’s a Welshman, so the SS suited him.
They’re based near Cardiff.” Bill suddenly realised he was starting to ramble.
Joe probably had no idea what or where Cardiff was.
    Joe shook his head and continued, “Well he’s come up in connection with
Abu Ukasha .”
    “What kind of connection?” asked Bill, a frown forming on his face. They had been side by side fighting people like Abu Ukasha . Surely Bone couldn’t be carrying on the
fight, freelance? Or was he still serving and under some kind of cover?
    “We got these images at a clandestine meeting in Jalalabad two days ago
with a local called Akhtar al Hamid, who we believe to be a trusted courier to
Abu Ukasha ” said Joe. He went on to explain that al
Hamid was one of several possible personal couriers they had identified and
were intensively surveilling in order to find information to locate Abu Ukasha .
    “We traced four-wheel-drives with the partial plate we got from the image
and the only one in the whole of Afghanistan with that partial registration and
a western registered owner was one for International Risk Management. So we
checked passport photos of everyone employed by them, and bingo! We identified
George Wood. We’re pretty sure, it’s him.”
    Confident he had addressed Bill’s doubts, Joe said, “This tracking
personal couriers thing worked with Bin Laden so we
are trying it with Abu Ukasha , but we’re getting
overwhelmed with possibles and need to concentrate on
the probables .” Turning to the big screen he
continued “Wood doesn’t fit the mould so he’s ticked up in interest.” Looking
back at Bill, he said, “That’s why we need to take a different approach with
him, and that’s where you come in. We want you to find out what his connection
is with the courier al Hamid and whether it’s related to Abu Ukasha or whether there is some other innocent
explanation.”
    Bill said “Sure. But I am not just going to barge in and ask him what
he’s up to. I’ve worked with him before but I’m not that close to him. If
there’s anything going on, talking to him will tip our hand.”
    “Of course not,” said Joe. “But if and when the time comes to confront
him, the fact that you know each other gives us options as to how we might
engineer a chance meeting, or whatever.” Joe said it soothingly trying to be
persuasive.
    “Geoff has already signed off on this and you’ll get all the technical
resources you’ll need and all you have to do is report back what you find.
Either rule him out if there’s an innocent
explanation, or we’ll escalate if we find he’s dirty and can lead us to. All we
will need is Abu Ukasha’s confirmed presence in a
specific location and we’ll fry his ass,” Joe promised.
    “OK Joe, let’s get started,” said Bill.
    Joe smiled and said “Fine!” He called out to his personal assistant “Jed!
Get technical services in here to brief Bill.”
    While they waited for the technical services people to arrive Joe said, “Now
you can expense any operational costs through your normal channels. You just
need to use the operation codename “Dinner-Jacket” in your expense reports and
they’ll be cross-charged to me. Whatever you need to get answers” he said
conspiratorially. “Oh and the target codename for Wood is ‘ Bicep’ . We
get operation codenames from an arbitrary sanitised list when we register a new
operation but at least we can choose our own target codenames that allude to something memorable” he explained. “Otherwise we would
be lost trying to remember who’s who with the large number of targets we are
generating for this one.”
    A corporal in a uniform Bill didn’t recognise knocked at the door. “Come
in Jenkins. Lay it out for Bill,” instructed the CIA chief spook.
    Jenkins laid down a