………………………………
Florence Daniels the Home Secretary was having a difficult conversation with Nina Henning the junior minister in charge of rehabilitation and reform. “So, Nina, what do we think happened?”
Nina was feeling relieved that the events at the ExCel Detention Centre hadn’t been as bad as she had feared when she had first been warned that a mass break-out was being plotted. It was embarrassing that such a thing could happen but encouraging that the security services had given enough warning for the plot to be contained. It had been unfortunate that it had been planned for a day when there were so many press in the vicinity but that had hardly been her fault. The security service briefing had been accurate and she’d been able to get the MCF to intervene in time. “As far as we can tell it was instigated by a group outside the Detention Centre. There was some level of communication with inmates about it but we still don’t have complete control over unauthorised contacts between inmates and the outside. According to information gained by the Centre’s staff someone threw a ball into the recreation area from outside and there was a message in that. What we don’t know is how the inmates knew it was coming or why they believed what the message said. MCF did a pretty good job of preventing the break out as planned but then they were able to prepare. The intelligence services are confident that the group involved has been disrupted for the time being.”
“You know the PM is peeved that this cut across the Centre for Banking Excellence announcement.”
“She can’t blame us for that.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t blame you for that, ah, personally,” Florence responded. “Luckily she had just had some good news about the response to her last TV broadcast. That took her mind off it. And the press reaction to the break-out has been better than hoped. I think we’d rather it was handled before the event in future, though.”
Nina was relieved. It could have all been much more of a problem. And, if it was some sort of anniversary celebration for the Fordswell incident then they had got off pretty lightly.
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Another discussion was taking place in the security service building at the southern end of Vauxhall Bridge.
“Aileen, I thought you might like to hear the results from East London.” Christa Blake, chief of field operations for internal intelligence had dropped by Aileen’s office. It was one of the things that Aileen enjoyed about her wider role on intelligence committees — it sometimes allowed her to know more than she otherwise would about the impact of the work of her team.
“Is it as bad as the papers are telling us?”
“Not at all. Quite the reverse. The final figures were twelve absconders — all low risk individuals — got out. Six of those were picked up between the detention centre and the river. The others are still loose. The ones we picked up were carrying phony ident cards. Not bad forgeries but I think we’ll be able to spot anything like them that turns up in future. And we have two of the group that were responsible.”
“Have they got much to say for themselves?”
“Nothing much that we didn’t already know. They’ve not really been clued in on how the organisation works. They’re just foot soldiers, really. There was a property on the Isle of Dogs they were using as a jumping off point but it’s clean. We weren’t hoping for much. The ExCel inmates didn’t have anything useful to say either. They’d been tipped off something was happening but the details aren’t clear yet. It’s lucky we have the outside information sources we do. Otherwise it might have been a bigger thing. We certainly wouldn’t have got the MCF on site quick enough without that input.”
“Do you think they’ll try again?”
“I’m not sure. The word we have is that the organiser took fright and their quarter-master, well their supplier of ident cards at least, is back out of the country, we think to Ireland. The protestors will go back to spray painting and pamphleteering for a bit is my guess. The CRMRE seem pretty harmless at the moment. The whole ECR thing seems to have just been a diversion. It doesn’t seem to be more than this one group. We’ll just have to keep our ears open and your techies will have to keep up the good work with the data analysis. It can only be a matter of time until one of these groups manages to pull off something serious through. They only have to be lucky once, we have to be lucky all the time. After all, the MCF can’t be everywhere. Encouraging results with the location analysis, though.”
“Yes, Catherine’s team do a good job.”
“She was the one that spotted the ECR tattoo?”
“Yes. That was a bit of good fortune. Pure chance really. On one of the toys at the Club Regina. Finding Inky Skin was a help.”
“I’m not sure how happy our source was to have to sample their wares, though.”
“Your team are so dedicated!”
“It looks like that. I’m not sure it was necessary though.”
“Catherine is also doing the analysis work on the MAMBO data.”
“We need to discuss MAMBO at the next joint intelligence committee meeting. The Home Office is thinking of mandating MAMBO devices for anyone convicted of respect agenda offences. That will significantly increase the number of individuals whose data you’ll have to track. Home Office wants to see if there is any correlation between increases in arousal events and re-offending rates. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if they are more likely to re-offend when they’re distracted by a stiff cock but it would be good to have the data. Oh, and I think Florence Daniels was upset by the PM’s arousal rating.”
“I was worried that might happen. Can we stop the politico’s trying to use the technology to out-macho one another?”
“Probably not. They manage to do that without technology, after all..”
Chapter 24: Discussions in the Club
In the basement of the Regina Club, Sam Danubo looked up as Natalie was walking towards him. She was smiling and holding up a maid’s costume on a hangar.
Sam had got used to most of what he was expected to put up with at the club but he still hated the sessions where he had to wear women’s clothes. Somehow it was a greater humiliation to be forced to dress as a caricature of those that now claimed supremacy over him. He knew that Natalie knew how much he hated it. No doubt that accounted for the smile.
“Time to be busy,” Natalie breezed, “I’ve got someone that really needs a sissy maid right now. I’ll just get your underwear.”
Sam grimaced as Natalie went towards the cupboards at the back of the room. She was half way across when the intercom from the bar upstairs buzzed.
Natalie answered it and then came back to Sam’s cage with a disappointed look on her face. “Seems you won’t be wearing hose and heels today,” she said. “Your Chinese friend is in again asking for you especially. So, I guess we’ll save the bra and panties for another time.”
With a small sense of relief, Sam let Natalie fit the cock cage and wrist cuffs that Catherine required him to wear. He pulled the hood on over his head and then fitted the gag in place and tightened its strap. Natalie stood by watching patiently and then, as usual, checked the straps for tightness. She clipped a leash to his collar and led him off towards the club room.