Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [79]
'You know about UNIT?'
'Only what I read in FT. The paramilitary meet the paranormal, and go in all guns blazing. So this message is in a UNIT code?' If anyone knew it was Ozzie. Oswald was a regular at the Cafe. Although he was only twenty-three, he was an expert on the alien incursions that were still meant to be a secret. From the Abominable Snowmen to the Zygons, Oswald knew his stuff. He'd even spoken at conventions in America.
'Not a code as such. It's a simple system based on key phrases. It's been in use for years. '
'It's comic book stuff. I don't understand why they didn't just use a secure line or encryption.'
Oswald nodded thoughtful y. 'That's the scary thing. UNIT clearly no longer have access to the equipment, or they have been compromised. They'd only use this method as a last resort. It's meant to look like an ordinary business letter to any censor or monitor. It's the sort of crypto a Third World country would use, not an European one.'
Doug tried not to think too hard about that. 'So what does the message mean? I've worked out that PCL is UNIT, Abe's the ... President?'
'That's right. "Power Commission" is the United Nations, strictly speaking. "Server" is the local government,
"engineer" means soldier, "manufacturer" means foreign power. It's real y hokey.'
Doug was reading back the message. 'So what they're saying, this bit here, about the engineers already being in contact with the manufacturers, is that the British military were in league with the aliens?'
'Yeah. Told you so.'
'So now you're saying that you knew this was going to happen al along.'
'Well, if you remember, last week I did tell you that the Martian atmosphere was breathable.'
'Sure, just before you told me that Elvis died in November 1995 of diabetes.'
'I played you his last CD,' he laughed, 'what more do you want?'
Oswald scrutinised the printout again, for theatrical effect more than anything else. 'Reading into it, the two guys who went into the saucer were in on the deal, and those that weren't have been rounded up and put in prison.
That's the "in the dark bit".' He paused. 'The conspiracy runs deeper than I thought.'
Doug laughed, and began wiping down the counter. 'Yeah, but whaddya going to do?' he said in his best Homer Simpson voice.
Oswald fixed him with that intense stare of his. 'We fight back.' He motioned around the Cafe. 'From our state-of-the-art command centre.
At one o'clock precisely, David Staines was let into the Prime Minister's office deep within Number 10 Downing Street.
Greyhaven looked at home already, sitting at the same place as his il ustrious predecessors. On the staircase up to the PM's study there were paintings and later photographs of all the previous occupants of the office, rows and rows of portraits. Like most Britons that passed them, Staines could recognise a dozen or so, the list becoming more complete as he reached the top of the stairs and the twentieth century. He paused at the last photograph. He and the Prime Minister had never been close political y, but they respected one another. Staines had no idea that Greyhaven had been planning to kill him.
There was still a constitutional problem - Greyhaven couldn't just make himself Prime Minister regardless of how many Martians backed his leadership bid. The British constitution being what it is, there was some dispute about what conditions needed to be met - the dissolution of Parliament muddied the waters still further. One thing was for certain: just because Greyhaven had the mace didn't mean he was the Prime Minister. For the moment, officially, he was still only the Acting-Prime Minister.
Staines chose not to draw attention to this. 'Prime Minister,' he oozed.
'Home Secretary.' Greyhaven was studying a typed report and didn't look up at first. Finally, he granted Staines his full attention. 'What is the mood of the country?' he enquired in the tone of voice you would normally used to ask after the health of a maiden aunt.
73
Staines had spent the morning receiving police, army and intelligence