The men said nothing, simply moved closer and closer, bats raised and ready to strike.  Joseph Olemwu’s head spun as he tried to keep an eye on all of them at the same time, and when the blow came he barely saw the blur of the wood before it crashed into his temple.  He dropped to the ground, out cold, and the men wasted no time applying plasticuffs to his arms and legs.  Sonny Baines put his glasses case back in his jacket pocket and clicked the talk button on his collar mike twice.  The three men picked the unconscious Olemwu up and carried him into the darkness, and after a hundred yards Sonny heard a voice in his earpiece.  “Seventy yards out, eleven o’clock.”  Sonny adjusted his heading and saw the transit van when he was within ten yards of it.  The driver was scanning the surrounding area with night vision glasses, ensuring there was no-one around to disturb them.  Satisfied, he opened the rear doors and Olemwu was bundled in unceremoniously.

“Christ, Carl, could you have hit him any harder?  You nearly took his fucking head off.”

“He’s fine, look,” Carl said, giving Olemwu a kick.  “He’s breathing, ain’t he?”

The van pulled out of the park and once on the road the driver turned the headlights on.  In the back they settled down for the long journey, using Joseph Olemwu as a footrest.

Chapter 3

Sunday April 17th  2011

John Hammond was preparing his notes for the next morning’s Joint Intelligence Committee meeting when Andrew Harvey knocked on his door and walked in without waiting to be beckoned.  Normally Hammond would have had something to say about the intrusion, but Harvey was a solid operative, very experienced and above all a man who knew when to stand on convention.  If he ignored the unwritten protocol it was often with good reason.

“Something big has come in,” Harvey told him.  “We’re all gathered.”

Hammond nodded, locked his workstation and followed Harvey.   In the conference room, Diane Lane used their arrival as her cue to start the briefing.

“In the last thirty minutes, calls were made to all the major newspapers as well as the BBC and Sky news channels to inform them about this new website.”