Read Online Avenger by Frederick Forsyth - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Frederick Forsyth
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an army unit drawing its recruits from right across the board, with (and unlike the all-male SAS) quite a proportion of women soldiers.
Although it can if need be fight with lethal efficiency, the main tasks of the Det are to locate, track to lair, survey and eavesdrop the bad people. They are never seen and their planted listening devices are so advanced that they are rarely found.
A successful Det operation would involve tailing a terrorist to the main hive, entering secretly at night, planting a 'bug' and listening to the bad people for days or weeks on end. In this manner the terrorists would be likely to reveal their next operation.
Tipped off, the slightly noisier SAS could then mount a sweet little ambush and, as soon as the first terrorist fired a weapon, wipe them out. Legally. Self-defence.
Most of the Det operations up to 1995 had been in Northern Ireland where their covertly obtained information had led to some of the IRA's worst defeats. It was the Det who hit on the idea of slipping into a mortician's parlour where a terrorist, of either Republican or Unionist persuasion, was lying in a casket, and inserting a bug into the timber of the coffin.
This was because the terrorist godfathers, knowing they were 'under suss', would rarely meet to discuss planning. But at a funeral they would congregate, lean over the coffin and, covering their mouths from lip-readers behind the telescopes on the hillside above the cemetery, hold a planning conference. The bugs in the coffin would pick up the lot. It worked for years.
In years to come, it would be the Det who carried out the "Close Target Reconnaissance' on Bosnia's mass-killers, allowing the SAS snatch squads to haul them off to trial in The Hague.
The company whose name Steve Edmond had learned from Mr. Rubinstein, the Toronto art collector who had mysteriously recovered his paintings, was called Hazard Management, a very discreet agency based in the Victoria district of London.
Hazard Management specialized in three things and extensively used former Special Forces personnel among its staff. The biggest income-earner was Asset Protection, as its name implies the protection of extremely expensive property on behalf of very rich people who did not want to be parted from it. "Lhis was only carried out for limited-term special occasions, not on a permanent basis.
Next came Personnel Protection, PP as opposed to AP. This also was for limited time-span, although there was a small school in Wiltshire where a rich man's own personal bodyguards could be trained, for a substantial fee.
Smallest of the divisions in Hazard Management was known as L&R, Location and Recovery. This was what Mr. Rubinstein had needed: someone to trace his missing masterpieces and negotiate their return.
Two days after taking the call from his frantic daughter, Steve Edmond had his meeting with the chief executive of Hazard Management and explained what he wanted.
"Find my grandson. This is not a commission with a budget ceiling," he said.
The former Director of Special Forces, now retired, beamed. Even soldiers have children to educate. The man he called in from his country home the next day was Phil Gracey, former captain in the Parachute Regiment and ten years a veteran of the Det. Inside the company, he was simply known as "The Tracker'.
Gracey had his own meeting with the Canadian and his interrogation was extremely detailed. If the boy was still alive, he wanted to know everything about his personal habits, tastes, preferences, even vices. He took possession of two good photographs of Ricky Colenso and the grandfather's personal cellphone number. Then he nodded and left.
The Tracker spent two days almost continuously on the phone. He had no intention of moving until he knew exactly where he was going, how, why and whom he sought. He spent hours reading written material about the Bosnian civil war, the aid programmes and the non-Bosnian military presence on the ground. He struck
Although it can if need be fight with lethal efficiency, the main tasks of the Det are to locate, track to lair, survey and eavesdrop the bad people. They are never seen and their planted listening devices are so advanced that they are rarely found.
A successful Det operation would involve tailing a terrorist to the main hive, entering secretly at night, planting a 'bug' and listening to the bad people for days or weeks on end. In this manner the terrorists would be likely to reveal their next operation.
Tipped off, the slightly noisier SAS could then mount a sweet little ambush and, as soon as the first terrorist fired a weapon, wipe them out. Legally. Self-defence.
Most of the Det operations up to 1995 had been in Northern Ireland where their covertly obtained information had led to some of the IRA's worst defeats. It was the Det who hit on the idea of slipping into a mortician's parlour where a terrorist, of either Republican or Unionist persuasion, was lying in a casket, and inserting a bug into the timber of the coffin.
This was because the terrorist godfathers, knowing they were 'under suss', would rarely meet to discuss planning. But at a funeral they would congregate, lean over the coffin and, covering their mouths from lip-readers behind the telescopes on the hillside above the cemetery, hold a planning conference. The bugs in the coffin would pick up the lot. It worked for years.
In years to come, it would be the Det who carried out the "Close Target Reconnaissance' on Bosnia's mass-killers, allowing the SAS snatch squads to haul them off to trial in The Hague.
The company whose name Steve Edmond had learned from Mr. Rubinstein, the Toronto art collector who had mysteriously recovered his paintings, was called Hazard Management, a very discreet agency based in the Victoria district of London.
Hazard Management specialized in three things and extensively used former Special Forces personnel among its staff. The biggest income-earner was Asset Protection, as its name implies the protection of extremely expensive property on behalf of very rich people who did not want to be parted from it. "Lhis was only carried out for limited-term special occasions, not on a permanent basis.
Next came Personnel Protection, PP as opposed to AP. This also was for limited time-span, although there was a small school in Wiltshire where a rich man's own personal bodyguards could be trained, for a substantial fee.
Smallest of the divisions in Hazard Management was known as L&R, Location and Recovery. This was what Mr. Rubinstein had needed: someone to trace his missing masterpieces and negotiate their return.
Two days after taking the call from his frantic daughter, Steve Edmond had his meeting with the chief executive of Hazard Management and explained what he wanted.
"Find my grandson. This is not a commission with a budget ceiling," he said.
The former Director of Special Forces, now retired, beamed. Even soldiers have children to educate. The man he called in from his country home the next day was Phil Gracey, former captain in the Parachute Regiment and ten years a veteran of the Det. Inside the company, he was simply known as "The Tracker'.
Gracey had his own meeting with the Canadian and his interrogation was extremely detailed. If the boy was still alive, he wanted to know everything about his personal habits, tastes, preferences, even vices. He took possession of two good photographs of Ricky Colenso and the grandfather's personal cellphone number. Then he nodded and left.
The Tracker spent two days almost continuously on the phone. He had no intention of moving until he knew exactly where he was going, how, why and whom he sought. He spent hours reading written material about the Bosnian civil war, the aid programmes and the non-Bosnian military presence on the ground. He struck
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