Page 18 of End Game (William Warwick #8)

‘HM HAS JUST ARRIVED ,’ said Paul, his voice crackling down the line. ‘She’s being accompanied to the Royal Box by Lord Coe and Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.’

William smiled for the first time that evening.

He had dealt with disgruntled taxi drivers trying to bring London to a standstill, a possible IRA attack, not to mention a group of obsessed cyclists attempting to prevent the Queen from reaching the stadium.

Whatever came next – whatever Faulkner had in mind – William felt he was ready.

He barely had time to enjoy the thought before two of the CCTV screens in front of him began to flicker. A few seconds later, all of the CCTV screens in the Gold Suite were showing blank screens.

William froze for a moment, before adrenaline took over.

‘Panic slowly,’ he told himself, before he picked up his radio hoping someone would tell him what the hell was going on. One of the phones on his desk began to ring. At least the phone lines weren’t down.

He grabbed the phone.

‘Commander Warwick, it’s David Bailsford, Communications Director at the National Grid.

I need to warn you we are experiencing a concerted cyberattack on the grid, and from what I can see it’s being orchestrated from China, although the British aren’t exactly helping.

We have it under control at the present time, but you should be aware that the situation could change without warning. ’

‘What do you mean the British aren’t exactly helping?’ asked William.

‘As I speak,’ said Bailsford, looking up at his screen, ‘I estimate there are eighteen million households with their televisions on, ten million kettles on the boil, and lights blazing in at least three rooms in every home in the land. It’s like having the Cup Final, the Grand National and a royal wedding all happening at the same time. ’

‘Understood,’ said William, only too aware of the consequences if the National Grid were to go down.

‘I’ll instruct our maintenance team to double-check our back-up generators just in case we lose power.

By the way, my CCTV screens went blank for about a minute.

Could that be related to a cyberattack?’

‘Unlikely,’ said Bailsford, ‘as they haven’t managed to infiltrate our systems yet, but you should check out why you lost power. It may have been nothing more than a blown fuse.’

William put down the phone and grabbed his radio.

‘Rebecca, we lost power on the CCTV screens in the Gold Suite a few minutes ago. All the screens are back up now, apart from the one outside the generator room. I’ve also just received a call that the National Grid is experiencing an unusually high volume of possible cyberattacks.

As you know, I don’t believe in coincidences, so grab an engineer and try to find out what caused my screens to go blank and why the camera outside the generator room still isn’t working. ’

‘Will do,’ said Rebecca, already on the move.

William looked back up at the CCTV screens, his eyes moving slowly along the VIP boxes until they once again settled on Faulkner, who was giving someone a thumbs-up.

William’s eyes continued to scan the remaining VIP boxes, where he spotted the Russian Ambassador returning the compliment with a nod of recognition.

Had Ross been right all along? Was Faulkner’s outing with the cyclists nothing more than a distraction before the main event?

If so, what should he expect next? Were the CCTV screens meant to stay off for longer than a minute, or were they blank for just long enough for someone to add another piece to the jigsaw?

Rebecca was back on the radio. ‘Sir, I’m with the chief engineer.

A fuse had blown, but the back-up battery kicked in, so problem solved.

Jim’s going to look at the security camera in the corridor in just a minute, but he just wants to double-check the equipment in the generator room first. He’ll report back to you directly once he’s finished,’ she continued.

William wasn’t convinced it was going to be quite that simple, his gaze still fixed on the CCTV screens, where he saw the engineer enter the generator room and give him a thumbs-up on the security camera.

William pondered why Faulkner had given the Russian Ambassador a thumbs-up sign.

Was it connected to the screens going blank?

He was still watching the engineer when the door to the generator room suddenly opened and two more maintenance personnel, wearing the same uniform as the engineer, entered the room.

One slammed the door and they’d both pulled on balaclavas before William could see their faces.

The engineer turned round, a look of horror on his face as one of them headed towards him.

Willliam grabbed his radio and called an all-stations alert as the larger of the two men knocked the engineer to the ground with a single blow, gagged him and tied him up.

His associate produced a spray can, and ran towards the security camera, clearly surprised to find it was working again.

Two eyes peered up at William and a spray later they had disappeared from the screen.

William knew that time wasn’t on his side, and he tried not to think just how many things could go wrong in the next few minutes.

He left his finger jammed on the emergency button of his radio, and didn’t remove it until three voices checked in.

‘All three of you head for the generator room now ,’ William said. ‘There are two intruders. Arrest them and then report back to me immediately.’

‘On our way,’ said Ross, who was already running towards the generator room.

While William continued to look at the blank screen, he recalled that the generator provided emergency power not just for the internal security cameras but for the stadium’s lighting, as well as the media centre which transmitted radio and television broadcasts to hundreds of countries around the world.

Now he knew why someone had needed the CCTV screens out of action for a minute, and why Faulkner had given the Russian Ambassador a thumbs-up sign.

If only Rebecca had stayed put. It was now obvious the intruders were in no hurry and would have waited for her to leave.

But would the home team get there in time to stop the generator being put out of action?

If that were to coincide with a successful cyberattack on the National Grid, affecting power both inside and outside the stadium, and the stadium’s emergency generator wasn’t working, there would be no opening ceremony.

He glanced back at the Russian Ambassador’s box to see a smug smile on Mikailov’s face, as if he knew exactly what was going to happen next.

···

Ross and Paul were within yards of the generator room when the two masked men came running out of the room. When they saw the two police officers, they charged off in opposite directions, with Ross and Paul following closely behind.

Paul tackled the first one, quickly turned him over and handcuffed him, while Ross continued running after the faster man.

When Ross was only a yard away, he hurled himself at him and managed to pull off his balaclava, only to feel the full force of an elbow being slammed into his jaw, sending him toppling back onto the ground.

Ross was immediately back on his feet and began sprinting after the man, but it quickly became clear he knew exactly where he was going.

And just as Ross began to gain on him, he was, without warning, tackled from behind by someone who was clearly part of a well-organized back-up team.

Although Ross recovered in moments, by the time he jumped back up, both men had disappeared.

Ross swore out loud. Only one good thing had come out of the failed pursuit.

He’d recognized the man he’d been chasing.

The man from the Oval, the man who got into his taxi, the man he’d driven to Kensington Palace Gardens.

Now Ross knew exactly who they were up against. He turned around and hurried back to the generator room.

Rebecca was the first to reach the generator room and rang William on her radio. She left the channel open so William could hear her conversation with the engineer. Once she’d removed the engineer’s gag and untied him, Rebecca asked, ‘How bad is it?’ And she wasn’t referring to his state of health.

‘They knew exactly what they were doing,’ said the engineer between breaths.

‘One of them, who was clearly in charge, tied me up while the other one smashed the distribution box attached to the back-up generator. But that’s only half the problem.

When I first got here, I found a couple of circuit breakers connected to the power supplies for the stadium lights and media centre that shouldn’t be there.

Not only that, they can be remotely controlled, so someone, anyone, out there could trigger them at a moment’s notice.

And to make matters worse, because of the way they’ve been fitted, it will take some time to remove them.

And as the emergency generator is now beyond repair … ’

‘Can you fix the generator?’ asked Ross, as he ran into the room, only wanting to hear one response.

‘No one can fix it,’ replied the engineer. ‘It’s too badly damaged. We’ll somehow have to get hold of a replacement distribution box within the next thirty minutes.’

‘Why thirty minutes?’ asked Ross.

‘Because,’ said William, who’d been listening to every word, ‘that’s when the opening ceremony begins and the floodlights are due to come on, and when the whole world will be watching. Twenty-nine minutes to be exact.’

‘This must have been planned for weeks,’ said Ross.

‘Possibly months,’ said William. ‘So, if someone triggers the circuit breakers and we have no working back-up generator, the stadium could be left in darkness and there won’t be a single TV station in the world showing the opening ceremony.

’ William thought for a moment. ‘Hold on a second while I make a phone call.’