The Fallout

MI6 Boss Meets with Sir Julian Finch

MI6 Boss: This is the Chief of The Secret Intelligence Service. I would like to speak with Sir Julian Finch, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. We are known to each other and he definitely wants to speak with me.

MI6 Boss: Sir Julian, We have not seen each other for ages. Are you aware there is a park near my office? Touching grass is wonderfully invigorating. And that park allows you to have a conversation without the complication of unnecessary ears.

Sir Julian: A park?

MI6 Boss: A park. Wonderfully free of prying eyes and unwanted ears.

Sir Julian: We could have a conversation in my office.

MI6 Boss: Of course, we could have a conversation in your office and everyone in your office would know I was there speaking with you. No doubt there would be entries in the Log of Visitors. A walk in the park has none of those complications.

Sir Julian: So you are not suggesting I attend your office, to catch up with you, but rather we meet in the park near you?

MI6 Boss: Meeting in the office is resplendent with complications. Walking in the park frees us from prying eyes and unwanted ears. And the park visuals are much more invigorating than our offices.

Sir Julian: A park is very unconventional.

MI6: You are correct, Sir Julian and I realise I have misread the situation. I will shortly attend upon your office, with entries in the Log of Visitors, with prying eyes and unwanted ears and we can have the candid and sensitive conversation that is necessary between us. I had intended to walk to the park, but I will drive to your office, or more correctly be driven. That will be more records of our meeting. I apologise for overlooking the need to follow protocol.

Sir Julian: A candid and sensitive conversation, you say?

MI6 Boss: Yes.

Sir Julian: It seems you are refreshing my memory. It is rather a large park. And quite attractive. Certainly in comparison to our drab offices.

MI6 Boss: A large and beautiful park, which is usually sparsely populated during work hours.

Sir Julian: That sounds like the kind of venue where your conversation is unlikely to be interrupted.

MI6 Boss: A highly recommendable quality in a park.

Sir Julian: So you are suggesting we go for a walk in the park near your office?

MI6 Boss: I know it is walking distance from your office. Meet me just inside the entrance that faces the street outside my building in 20 minutes. You have not got anything better to do.

Sir Julian: I will see you in 20 minutes.

The telephone call then ended and the MI6 Boss made his way to the park shortly thereafter.

When the MI6 Boss saw Sir Julian had attended the park, he was a little surprised, but grateful. The telephone call seemed to be making slow progress.

MI6 Boss to Sir Julian: “Getting you here was like pulling teeth. I do not intend to waste time. You have a very serious problem. One of your officers, Contessa Fortescue, a mid-level liaison officer between the government and MI6, has, or more accurately now, had a brutal Iron Curtain assassin for a boyfriend. The partial good news for you is one of my agents killed him a few days ago. And killed one of his colleagues also. They were both in the apartment the assassin seemed to be sharing with your officer.

We have got your Contessa in custody and we have got a book we intend to throw at her. When we confronted your Contessa shortly after my agent rid the world of those two assassins, she refused to cooperate with us.

As I see it, the question for you is to what extent has this female traitor compromised your department and the government? There may well be other areas that enjoy the splendour of her betrayal and compromise.

It seems I will have to do an investigation into your department.

The killing of the Iron Curtain assassins aside, there is no part of this I am enjoying.

That, all of that, is why we are walking in the park."

Sir Julian: That is quite a lot of bad news.

MI6 Boss: Do you have any thoughts on how you propose to handle that bad news and in particular, the potential compromise of your department and the government by the traitor?

Sir Julian: "A brutal Iron Curtain assassin ... in the heart of Whitehall. This is an unmitigated disaster, 'C'. One we must contain at all costs. My proposal for handling this ... particular stain ... is to establish a Joint, Covert Task Force. It would comprise a small, trusted team from my department, working directly and solely with a liaison from your Service. Their mandate would be to exhaustively audit Contessa's entire operational footprint – her access, her communications, her movements, and crucially, any individuals she may have influenced or compromised. We must demonstrate a swift and decisive response, but one that is completely under wraps. The last thing we need is this becoming fodder for public consumption or, heaven forbid, a diplomatic incident with our allies."

MI6 Boss: “I am convinced you have not fully switched on to this. I am meeting you in a park, not either of our offices, to deliver this bad news to you and you are telling me your concern is becoming fodder for public consumption or a diplomatic incident with our allies.

Your department has been compromised by a traitor. I have no sense of humour about this and very little patience. I should never have had to have this conversation with you. The inquiry is yours, but I will monitor it, and if I do not like it, there will be serious trouble for you.

“I deal with people who want to kill us. There are a lot of them. I do not have time to investigate public servants who allow their departments to be compromised by traitors and who align themselves with people who want to kill us.

“To help you with your deliberations and to assist you in focussing your attention, it will be useful for you to remember, we kill people. The boyfriend of the traitor is now dead and so is his colleague. Switch on to how serious this breach is. My loyalty and the loyalty of my team is to Queen and Country and we serve with pleasure.

“You will do this inquiry and you will do it properly. There is no other option for you.

"I will now return to my office. I suggest you take some time to walk in this park and appreciate its beauty, before you return to your office. And also take some time to appreciate the magnitude of the task ahead of you and how failure is not an option.”

Confronting The Traitor

M2 was not finished with the traitor, Contessa Fortescue. He attended upon her in custody. And he brought some photographs with him to endeavour to enrich her custodial experience.

Introductory pleasantries were minimal from M2. He got straight down to business.

“I watched and waited for three (3) days for my chance with your boyfriend. When he gave it to me, I took it, immediately. And I took his mate with him. You were lucky you were not with them.”

M2 then told Contessa:

“This is how we deal with traitors.”

Channelling Agent Nicky Parsons, M2 showed Contessa photographs of the two (2) now deceased Iron Curtain agents whom Nicky Parsons used as a  human shield (from the Soho gambling den raid and the raid on The Cultural Exchange Bookstore in Bloomsbury.).

“You had your chance to cooperate and you rejected it.

"With human shields as part of our arsenal now, we get to be even more effective in our raids.

"I will enjoy every moment of you being a human shield.”

M2 spent several minutes patiently going through the photographs of the now deceased human shields.

“I am grateful to our crime scenes teams for having the insight to photograph these degenerates after their demise. It enables their utility to continue after their life has been extinguished.

That look of terror on your face is you realising, it is not a matter of if for you, it is a matter of when.”

M2 then collected the photographs and said: “This visit is done.”

M2 then ended his meeting with Contessa Fortescue and made his way to work.

Team Meeting

The day after M2 had his not so romantic interlude with Contessa, Nicky Parsons called a team meeting of The Famous Five. The main topic of discussion was the traitor Contessa Fortescue and what should happen with her.

Nicky proposed a campaign of deliberate psychological torment involving Nicky or Harriet (or both) systematically arranging interviews with Contessa on three (3) separate occasions, only to cancel them on the day of the proposed meeting. The aim being to escalate the anxiety and despair of Contessa.

M1: That sounds like a great plan.

M2: I like it.

Emily: It definitely has a delicious quality to it.

Harriet: What is not to like?

Nicky: That went down even better than I had hoped.

M2: "Does the traitor become one of your human shields?

I would be quite happy to utilise her as a human shield."

Nicky: This is an interesting meeting. The human shield was my next proposed topic of discussion.

M1: The traitor has no utility for MI6, other than as a human shield. She is no different than the Iron Curtain agents you burned in the Soho gambling den raid and the raid on The Cultural Exchange Bookstore in Bloomsbury.

Emily: It looks like we might be looking for a venue to raid.

Harriet: I have a few prospective venues, but there is some material through which I must trawl. Perhaps we could share that load?

Nicky: Ideally it would be a quick, uncomplicated raid.

M1: A repeat of the Bookshop raid?

Nicky: That was the kind of raid I had in mind.

Harriet: My prospective venues generally seem to fit that mould.

Nicky: Things are a bit quiet here at the moment, for which I am grateful. It seems we are available to help you with your trawling.

Do you have a favourite prospective venue?

Harriet: “The most likely venue is a Small Corner Shop with a Back Room in BeBop Circus. It is used as a drop point and a place to store and then pass on sensitive materials. 

The intelligence I have is that sensitive materials are present waiting for an exchange. The hidden back room is where hosting the materials and the exchanges occur.

The sensitive material the subject of the exchange is said to be False Passports and Travel Documents for some undesirable Iron Curtain agents, with the aim of creating false identities for ongoing operations within the UK.

In the circumstances our trawling would be to see if there was a better option and perhaps think of any reason not to use that venue as the raid venue.”

Nicky: “If you can share your trawling load around the team, we can help you.”

The Boss Joins The Team Meeting

It was then that the Boss entered the office of Nicky Parsons.

The Boss: “This is convenient. I can tell you all the news. Sir Julian Finch is the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. Relevantly, he is the boss of your traitorous acquaintance, Contessa Fortescue. He and I have had a chat. Sir Julian will conduct a review of his department, which I will monitor. So you can be comforted that some progress is being made in that area and we can concentrate on our own work.

“Where are my manners? Good morning, agents. 

Now that I have caught you up with the relevant news, I will leave you to continue with your work.

Thank you, agents.”

The boss then left the office of Nicky Parsons and returned to his own office.

Emily: Now I know the Boss does whirlwind visits.

M1: If Sir Julian Finch is conducting a review of his department, the traitor Contessa Fortescue has no utility to offer MI6, other than to be a human shield.

Harriet: That is certainly an interesting take from the news of the Boss. It is also a take with which I agree.

Emily: It seems the raid planning will be intensifying.

M2: There is no reason to spare the traitor from being a human shield.

Nicky: OK, then. It looks like we will be meeting back here tomorrow to refine the raid planning. I will let you know when I settle on a time. In the meantime, Harriet will give us some of her intelligence material, so we can help her with her trawling.

Follow-Up Team Meeting

The discussions in the follow-up team meeting were fairly brief.

• It was agreed Harriet had made the best choice for the raid venue, the BeBop Circus Corner Shop with a Hidden Back Room.

• There was no reason to change the pairings from the raid on The Cultural Exchange Bookstore in Bloomsbury:

• M1 and Agent Emily will cover the back entrance.

• M2, Agent Harriet, Nicky Parsons and the traitor, Contessa Fortescue, will take the front entrance.

• Harriet would again ensure the proposed human shield (Contessa) was available to accompany them on the raid.

• M1 had driving duties and M2 had equipment duties.

The discussion then moved on to whether it would be prudent to have more than just The Famous Five attend the raid from MI6. It was agreed two other teams would attend the raid, because there may be a significant gathering in the hidden room and the extra agents would be required to subdue and secure the transgressors.

Nicky Parsons would take care of organising the extra MI6 agents to attend the raid.

It was proposed they leave from MI6 at 11:00 am, as the meeting they proposed to interrupt was scheduled for noon.

The Raid

Everything went smoothly preparation-wise on the morning of the raid. There seemed to be an air of glee in the Famous Five MI6 vehicle as they approached the pick-up location for their now handcuffed traitor colleague.

When Nicky Parsons appeared to collect her from her MI6 agents was the first time Cintessa learned about her impending adventure.

Upon greeting Contessa and the MI6 colleagues, all that Nicky Parsons said was: “You are coming with me.”

Agent Parsons walked Contessa to the MI6 vehicle and placed her in the back seat. Once Nicky Parsons resumed her seat in the vehicle, she said to Contessa: “You are going on an adventure.”

There was no other conversation until the agents arrived at the raid venue.

As the Famous Five alighted from the vehicle and put on their protective equipment for the raid, M2 had his only conversation with Contessa. And it was very brief: “Judgment day has arrived.”

A rather concerned Contessa asked: What is going on?

Nicky Parsons replied: “This is your adventure.”

The terror was building in Contessa.

As Nicky Parsons grabbed Contessa and placed her directly in front of her, Contessa was saying “No” over and over.

Parsons: Too late, Traitor.”

Parsons grabbed Contessa tight and shoved her through the front door of the Corner Shop.

The raiding agents were greeted by panicked occupants of the Corner Shop, who unleashed a burst of gunfire. Almost all of that gunfire was caught by the human shield, Contessa, as the team had planned and M2 had foreshadowed.

Contessa spent the remainder of the raid on the floor. Her life was now over.

Once the gunfire receded, the panicked corner shop occupants were subdued and handcuffed.

A corner shop staff member was then volunteered by MI6 to provide access to the hidden back room. He did not need to be convinced to cooperate.

By the time the hidden back room was to be breached, all the MI6 agents were in the corner store. All the undesirables in the hidden back room were surprised by the breach, but they did not respond with gunfire. Their response was more akin to freezing, which made their apprehension easier.

Securing the sensitive materials the subject of the meeting and the raid was then a simple task.

Harriet had contacted MI6 for a clean up team by the time the agents returned to the body of the corner shop. And they arrived within 15 minutes.

The raid went smoothly and the Famous Five achieved all their goals.

There was no discussion of Contessa Fortescue in the vehicle on the return journey to MI6 headquarters.

As they were getting close to MI6 headquarters, Emily said: “We should adjourn for lunch before we return to the office.”

M1: Lunch:

M2: Lunch

Harriet: Definitely lunch.

Nicky: Lunch, it is.