Harry's Game by Gerald Seymour Read Free Book Online

prepared to give ground. The Northern Ireland Secretary chipped in, "I

    think we all accept, Frank, that it's near impossible to stampede this sort of operation.'

    'But I have to have results." The Prime Minister drummed his knuckles on the table. "We cannot let this one hang about.'

    I'm not hanging about, sir, and you well know that no one in my force is." The Ulster policeman's retort caused a certain fidgeting down the sides of the table from Ministers who had begun to feel their presence was irrelevant to the matter in hand‐‐other than that by their arrivals and departures the cameras could witness the activity and firm hand of government.
    The Commissioner wished he'd come in faster. One up to the RUG.

    The Prime Minister, too, sensed the chilliness of the situation, and invited the opinion of General Fairbairn. As the GOG Northern Ireland, commanding more than fifteen thousand men there, he expected to be listened to. He weighed his words.

    'The problem, sir, is getting inside the areas the IRA dominate. Getting good information that we can trust and can then act on fast enough while the tips are still hot. Now, we can thrash around as we did yesterday morning, and as we have done to a more limited degree this morning, and though we pick up a bit‐‐a few bodies, a few guns, some bomb‐making equipment‐‐we're unlikely to get at the real thing. I would hazard the motive behind the killing was to get us to launch massive reprisal raids, cordon streets off, taking house after house to pieces, lock hundreds up. They want us to hammer them and build a new generation of mini-martyrs. It's been quiet there these last few weeks. They needed a major publicity attracting operation, and then a big kick‐back from us to involve people at street level who are beginning to want to disengage. The raids we have been mounting these last thirty‐six hours are fair 24

    enough as an initial reaction, but if we keep them up we'll be in danger of reactivating the people who had begun to lose interest in the IRA.'

    'What about your intelligence men, your men on the inside?'

    'We don't go in for that sort of thing so much now, we tend to meet on the outside‐‐after the young Captain was murdered three months ago, horrible business ... the Ministry wasn't happy, we suspended that sort of work.'

    'Suspended it?" The Prime Minister deliberately accentuated the touch of horror in his voice.

    'We haven't had an operation of anything like this size to handle for around a year; things have been running down. There hasn't

    been the need for intelligence operatives. Now we would have to set up a new unit completely‐
    ‐the men we have there at the moment are too compromised. I don't think in your time‐scale, Prime Minister, we have the time to do it.'

    lie said the last drily, and with only the faintest hint of sarcasm, sufficiently guarded to be just about permissible for a Lt‐General in the Cabinet Room at No 10 Downing Street.

    'I want a man in there ... nothing else to think about," the Prime Minister was speaking deliberately, the Agriculture man thought‐‐ lice and slowly, just right for the transcript being scribbled in the corner.

    'I want an experienced agent in there as fast as you can make it. A ;good man. If we've picked the killer up by then nothing lost, if not .. I know what you're going to say, General: if the man is discovered I will take the rap. That's understood. Well?'

    The General had heard enough to realize that the interchange of ,dcas had been over several minutes earlier. This was an instruction by the Head of Government.

    'For a start, sir, you can get the gentleman taking the notes over i here by the door to take his last page out of the book, take it over to the fire and burn it. You can also remind everyone in the room of the small print of the Official Secrets Act. Thank you.'

    The General got up, flushed high in his cheeks, and, followed hurriedly by the Chief Constable, who was