Rat Trap

Cover Title Page Disclaimer Dedication Epigraph Characters Glossary Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Acknowledgements About the Author Copyright Cover Table of Contents Start of Content 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 Disclaimer This book contains views and language on nationality, sexual politics, ethnicity, and society which are a product of the time in which the book is set. The publisher does not endorse or support these views. They have been retained in order to preserve the integrity of the text. Dedication The first one is for JILL Epigraph All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926) Characters The pilots of Speedbird 5106 Burgess Captain Hislop, John Co-pilot Simpson, Peter Co-pilot The Hijackers Asif Clay Joanne Fender McGruder Packer Rice Heathrow airport staff Dawlish Deputy to Greenwood Greenwood Senior Air Traffic Controller (SATCO) Scott Airport Commandant The fugitive Nasoud, Shafiq The negotiator Latymer, Hilary Executive Officer, Civil Emergencies (Hijacking), Home Office Police officers Bracken, Philip Detective Inspector, Special Branch Hollis Detective Inspector, Special Branch, Alpha Group responsible for security at Heathrow Airport Lucas Detective Chief Inspector, assistant to DCS Seaborne Maxon Assistant Chief Constable, Gloucestershire Police Morgan Detective Superintendent, Commandant of Alpha Group responsible for security at Heathrow Airport Seaborne, Clarence Detective Chief Superintendent, Special Branch, Commander of Special Duties Group (Hijacking) British army Anderson Major, Executive Officer Crashaw, Sir Peter Lieutenant General, Latymer’s liaison with MoD Mayhew Assistant (ADC) to Brigadier Spencer-Handley Porson Sergeant, Mapping officer Spencer-Handley Brigadier, officer in charge of armed forces in pursuit of Nasoud Stanton Signals officer Others Mallory Group Captain, Station Commandant, RAF Chivenor Martindale, Barbara Personal assistant to Latymer Orrell, Bill Farmer Orrell, Betty Daughter of Bill and Marjorie Orrell, Marjorie Wife of Bill Whitaker, Ronnie Light aircraft pilot Glossary ACC Assistant Chief Constable ADC Aide-de-camp, an officer who acts as a confidential assistant to a high-ranking military officer CID Criminal Investigations Department, British police force CO Commanding officer GOC General Officer-in-Command VTOL Vertical Take-off and Lift FBI US Federal Bureau of Investigation NCO Non-Commissioned Officer, a soldier who has come up through the ranks The Met London Metropolitan Police Force OS Ordnance Survey, Britain’s mapping agency PM the British Prime Minister Provos Members of the Provisional IRA, terrorist organisation in Northern Ireland RAF Royal Air Force REME Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, British army RT Radio Telephone SATCO Senior Air Traffic Controller Chapter One OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD British Airways Captain Burgess, on the flight deck of Speedbird 5106, glanced across at his second pilot, then over his shoulder at his number three, placed behind the two more senior pilots on the folding jump seat, monitoring them both on the approach to Heathrow. Hislop and Simpson. Beyond and behind Simpson, and out of his range of vision as he concentrated ahead, were the navigator and the engineer, making up the flight deck complement of the Boeing 707. The two pilots with Burgess were both a lot younger than himself, at fifty-two, and a world away from him in experience. There was the void of two wars, Europe and Korea, between them and himself. Both had flown only civil air routes since leaving the College of Air Training at Hamble. Simpson was a cheerful imitation of young men who had died over southern England and northern France, while Hislop… Burgess sniffed in audible disdain, catching sight of his second pilot again from the corner of his eye. Hislop was a man with a problem; the problem was politely referred to as his wife. Only that morning at Kennedy International, at five o’clock Eastern Seaboard Time, he had bawled Hislop out for spending a sleepless night unsuccessfully trying to contact that same wife by transatlantic telephone. Wives who drank or who were unfaithful, and Ruth Hislop