Troubleshooter

Chapter 42 - Abandon Mission

 "TROUBLE."

THE Controller almost dropped his phone and fumbled to press the 'end call' button. Something had gone wrong; that was for sure. Terribly wrong. Should he give the abandon-mission message right away? Better get out of Dodge first.

The call meant that there was an established digital trail between the action team and himself. Depending on who had found out, someone would show up in this location sooner than later. If it was a military-led investigation, he probably had some hours; if the metro police ran the show, probably half an hour. If the Security Service or MI6 was on to them, they probably had someone next door or in front of the building already.

The Controller ran through his mental checklist. He created the abandon-mission message with the background of the situation as he understood it and sent that away. The Asian Man would decide what to do with it. Then he pulled the computer hard disk drives from the housings of the two desktop machines that stood on his work desk and the printer toner. A grab into the lower desk drawer brought up a modified camping gas cooker with a small blue tank. The output nozzle that usually heated the pot was detoured with a rubber hose. He turned the valve to on and led the rubber hose into the housing of the first computer. The Controller counted to ten and then zapped a cigarette lighter close to the housing. There was a swooshing noise from inside the computer as the gas sucked out all oxygen in a small explosion, generating a fireball of about 1000 degrees Celsius. Immediately, the room smelled of burned plastic. The Controller repeated the ceremony with the second computer.

He did not worry about fingerprints, as he would not return to Europe, ever, after this was over. He gave the room a last glance. All clean, all good.

One last SMS from a neutral, never-used burn-phone to the mother ship. "Controller exits position permanently."

His checklist was complete.

Position B was his next stop after diligent trail-shaking activities. He stepped out on the street and immediately turned left and walked toward the Tube station, only fifty meters away. He was just a man within the crowd. When he entered the station, he could hear sirens in the distance. Were they aiming for his former location?