After checking the perimeter he returned to the building and began removing the feeding trolleys from the cells, which had once been walk-in kilns.  At the first cell, Arkin asked to go to the toilet.

“You’re sitting on a commode, so just go when you need to.  It will get a bit uncomfortable after a while, but this will all be over in five days...if not sooner.”  He placed a new strip of tape over Arkin’s mouth as he began to protest, and went to tend to the prisoner in the next cell.

Chapter 6

Diane Lane walked over to Harvey’s desk and handed him a sheaf of papers.  “These are his known acquaintances, ordered by last date of contact.  The most recent was two days ago, when he contacted the first six names on the list.”

Harvey took the list, skipped to the last page and noted that the last entry was number two hundred and four.  “That’s a lot to get through.  Let’s take the top ten on the list and hand the remainder over to the local Police,” he told her.

“My thought exactly.  I’ve been in touch with Scotland Yard and they’re disseminating the list to all local forces as we speak.”  She handed Harvey a thick file.  “These are police reports regarding the missing boys.  When we speak to these people we need to ascertain their whereabouts at the times the boys disappeared.”

“Good work, Diane.  Let’s go and have a chat with them.  You take these three,” Harvey said, circling three names, “I’ll take these two, Hamad can have numbers three, five and six.  Before we go, get onto GCHQ, ask them to monitor all calls and emails, in and out, for the top ten names on the list.”

As if on cue, Farsi arrived and made a beeline for Harvey’s desk.  “I brought the contractor in to speak to Gerald.  Much of what he told me went over my head and I thought it best to let him talk to someone who also spoke geek.  From what I did understand, a lot of the stuff he asked for was pretty routine, although Gray had some specifications for communicating with a website in Joburg.”

“Yeah, we already made the South African connection.  Gerald’s working on it.”

Farsi began to remove his jacket but Harvey stopped him.  “We’ve got a couple of his old Army buddies to visit.”  He jotted down the names and addresses and handed them to Farsi, along with the police reports.  “Make a note of the dates and times and see if you can tie either of them into their disappearance.”  As an afterthought he asked “What of the security firm?”

“They emailed his order over along with basic descriptions, but they can’t go too deep into capabilities and weaknesses as they are only distributors.  We will need to go to the manufacturers for those and I don’t think it’s going to be easy at this time on a Sunday.”