Chapter 37 in the serialisation of the book 'Insurrection' 4th book in the 'Corpalism' series

37

Trust, but verify.
Ronald Reagan

"How's this going to work then, Mags?" asked Alb.

They were in Gerry's apartment, hoping to remain undisturbed. If Val wanted to find Alb she'd go to his place first and that would give them time to collect their thoughts. They'd set up a game of RISK© on the coffee table; that should do as a cover if they needed one.

"Well," said Mags, eyes bright with the excitement she seemed to be carrying round with her all the time of late, "Mackie will open an account, we CHAPS the funds across. Mackie will get one of his geeks to bounce the money around the world a dozen times or so, splitting it down into negligible sums. The money will be used for purchases and then the products will be sold and the money will re-enter the system at a new point, whereupon it will be gathered and dumped in the destination accounts. Following all that Mackie will take delivery of the goods."

Gerry's face was a picture; this was the woman whose previous claim to fame had been the quality of her Angel cake. Was there no end to her other talents?

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that," said Alb, "once this Mackie chap has got his hands on our cash what's to stop him doing a runner with it?"

"He wouldn't do that," said Mags.

"Oh, come on, Mags," said Alb, "What's to stop him?"

"And he's a spook," said Gerry, trying out the word, marvelling yet again at how their lives had changed in such a short time, "he'll have lots of fictitious accounts. Alb's right, what's to stop him buggering off to Fiji or some such place."

"Because he's Mackie, that's why," said Mags, "When he gives his word you can count on it."

"But Mags," pressed Alb, "be fair, we're talking about our life savings here."

"That's right," Gerry said earnestly, "we'll all be thrown out of here and that's just for starters."

Mags stared at them both, hands on hips, "Alright," she conceded, "I'll go and see him. Tell him I want to watch the operation through to conclusion."

"Is that such a good idea?" said Gerry, uneasy now at the turn things had taken, "What about if things go wrong?"

"It will be perfectly fine," said Mags, pushing past them.

∞

"Right," said Alb waving his pointer at the flip chart, "the state opening of Parliament will see all of our targets bagged up together in the House of Lords....."

"So we're really going to hit Parliament?" asked Bill.

"Yes, of course," said Cynthia irritably, "that's what we've all been discussing all this time, haven't you been listening?"

"Yes," said Bill, "but I still can't understand why. Parliament represents us, the British people, so in some respects, we'll be attacking ourselves, surely?"

"No," said Wilf aggressively, "they've been stitching us up for years. This is pay back."

"You have promised the Queen's safety," said Fiona, "I won't stand for that, you know."

"Neither will I," said Cynthia, pinching her lips together in a tight line of disapproval.

Gerry affected disappointment, though truth be told he would've had difficulty harming the Queen, and said sombrely, "The Queen is strictly out of bounds."

"But Charlie boy will be there and he's an acceptable target," said Alb, "are we all agreed on that?"

"Oh absolutely," stated Fiona and Cynthia together.

"After what that man let them do to poor Princess Di," added Dora, "I only hope I get there before anyone else."

"Oh, there'll be a queue for him alright," said Esmé grimly.

"Right," said Alb, pointing to the sketch on the chart, "the Lords is here, to the South of the building, this is where they'll all be gathered." Alb still had a kernel of doubt about Mackie's true motives in helping them but he had to admit the man was proving useful; the low down he'd provided on the inside of the Houses of Parliament was a god send.

"There are two entrances we need to be concerned with," said Gerry, warming to the task, it was a near as they were ever going to get to a battle plan, "the Cromwell entrance here and the Peers entrance here."

"The fire escapes are here, here and here," continued Alb, "We send the hit squad in the two entrances and we will be waiting when they all come running out."

"Lambs to the slaughter," said Tom.

"These are not lambs," said Alb, angrily, "these are wolves, they've sold our country for their thirteen pieces of silver and they must pay the ferry man."

"You mean the price," offered Harry.

"I know what I mean," said Alb.

"Now we need to assign targets to key individuals to ensure that we don't miss anybody."

"We claim Prince Charles," said Cynthia emphatically, to nods from Esmé and Fiona.

"And I want the Labour leader," said Bill.

"And I want the Tory scumbag," said Ron.

"Less of the scumbag," said Bill.

"Hey," said Mags, "they're all traitors, remember that, they've all sold the nation out."

Ron and Bill eyed each other mistrustfully.

"This has got to be the perfect op," said Gerry, "so we must prepare and that means planning, and planning and planning again."

"And training," said Alb, "brush up on your physical conditioning." He was looking worriedly at Mort and Reg as he spoke. They both knew too much to be left out but were definite liabilities for the combat.

"The WI will be ready," stated Vera, stealing Cynthia's line and smiling wickedly as she did so.

"I've got a few comrades down the Legion," said Dave, "they've expressed an interest."

"What? The WI? The bloody Legion?" questioned Alb and Gerry in unison.

"Who've you lot been talking to?" squeaked Jonesey.

"Just a couple of the lads from my old regiment," said Dave. He looked offended.

"I told you I was going to get the WI involved," Cynthia said snappishly.

"What friends?" asked Harry, looking at Dave, "Do I know 'em?"

"Stan and Roger for two," said Dave.

"The wheelchair brigade?"

"Don't you worry about them," said Dave, "we have plans."

"What the hell?" said Alb, completely outraged now. "You can't just go around telling every Tom, Dick and Harry...no offence Harry, Tom... we'll have the Old Bill down here before you know it."

"Has anybody else said anything?" demanded Gerry.
There were a few nervous glances exchanged, "I contacted a few of the Chelsea boys," said Frank, who'd been unusually quiet this whole time, "and they seemed well up for it."

"What?" demanded Alb, "Who?"

"Just a couple of me old muckers," Frank mumbled, looking hard at Lenny and Sticky both of whom to his certain knowledge had also put the word out.

"For crying out loud," hissed Alb, "this is a top secret op, we can't let word of this get out before the kick off or the bloody place will be crawling with MI bloody 5."

"Well, I'm sure the WI know how to keep a secret," Cynthia said, with no sense of irony.

"It's alright, Alb," said Mags, comfortably, "Mackie will give us the heads up if anything goes awry."

"But that still doesn't mean you can go blabbing to everyone you know," stated Gerry, "secrecy is the key here, remember, careless talk costs lives."

Cheers

Arun








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