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  “Must have been pretty intense,” said Hooley. “Were you OK dealing with so many new people all the time? I got the impression you were always happiest in one to one conversations with someone you were familiar with.

  “That was a big advantage of having you sat in my office. You could be right at the heart of things but also in your own space. Julie Mayweather was worried that it would be me who wouldn’t cope. She knows I’m not one for small talk. But it was fine. When you left to come down here it seemed very strange to be back on my own. I had quite got used to you being around.”

  Realising he was starting to drift off the point he pulled himself back to the start of the conversation. “Anyway, tell me how you got on down here? You must have done pretty well because we never heard anything.”

  Roper fiddled with his shirt sleeves which had risen inside the arms of his suit jacket. Looking down he said. “You have to remember it is different here. There are a lot of people who are neurodivergent so it’s not as if people have a go at you for doing things differently. Sometimes ordinary people are in the minority.

  “We are all careful not to put each other under pressure; that’s one of things the team here is really good about. Just because we are similar doesn’t necessarily mean we will get on or all think and want the same things.

  “My sessions were carefully planned and everyone was briefed beforehand so that they had their own individual plans. Most of them went well. People understood what I was talking about and quickly went off to do their own versions. When I first came up with this, while I was working with you, people got cross when they couldn’t understand the Rainbow Spectrum.

  “At first, I was worried it would happen here, but it was OK. A few people decided it wasn’t for them, most were fine. It took two weeks and I saw forty people altogether, with thirty-seven going off to do it themselves.”

  Listening to this Hooley was suddenly certain that it was the pressure of having to keep proving himself at the Yard that had led to Roper being suspended while he was working the child abuse case. It spoke volumes for his drive that he had stuck it out. That had been three years ago, long enough that he could enjoy the benefit of hindsight.

  That would always be a problem with office situations. Inevitably, there was a pecking order and if the top dog was a bit of a dick, then the people on the bottom rungs suffered. Good managers could go a long way to combating the problem but it required constant attention, and that wasn’t always a realistic possibility. If you had a bad manager, forget it.

  Nowadays the Met worked hard at being inclusive - but there were always problems. Today they tried counselling; in his younger days Hooley hadn’t been above giving a difficult colleague a slap, just to prove who was boss. He sighed. Looking back, he wasn’t a fan of the old ways - in many ways they had been pretty awful - and he wasn’t proud of his behaviour then. But huge strides had been made from when it was rife with corruption and people were routinely ‘fitted-up’. There was still a long way to go but it was better.

  In the ‘good old days’ someone like Roper, a brilliant analyst and detective, wouldn’t have lasted five minutes. His mobile went off, surprising him with how loud the ring was. He picked it up sure he must have disturbed everyone within a hundred feet of where he was sitting, but no one seemed to notice, apart from Roper who was paying close attention.

  He looked at the number and thought it looked like David Cotter’s. He hadn’t had time to input his details yet so it wouldn’t show on the caller ID screen. He tapped the answer icon and pressed the phone to his right ear. At first, he could hear nothing then suddenly Cotter was through: it sounded like he was shouting at the phone.

  “I’m in the car and should be with you in ten minutes.” The next bit was drowned out by what sounded like running water and it was Hooley’s turn to shout at the phone. Then Cotter was back on the line. “I said if anyone is going for a coffee can you make mine a Cappuccino with an extra shot. In fact, make that two extra shots. I’ve had a terrible day.”

  He must have had the volume set high because before he could respond Roper was on his way. By the time a flustered looking Cotter turned up a cup of strong coffee was waiting. It was cool enough for him to knock back in four large mouthfuls. The DCI noted that not only did everyone here walk round like they were in a race, there seemed to be a lot of people who liked to race their drinks.

  Cotter put his cup down, giving it a round of applause. “That was fantastic and I’m willing to bet that you got it Jonathan.” Roper gave him a thumbs up. “I reckon there were three extra shots in there, which actually worked really well. I’ve got to go to the loo so bear with me and we can get started.”

  Minutes later and Hooley had outlined his initial thoughts about contacting everyone who had direct contact over Roper’s Rainbow Spectrum, then expanding out to speak to anyone who may have known about it.

  “The first part is easy,” said Cotter. “Jonathan and I jointly organised it and I also spoke to each of the individuals who wanted to get involved. I’ve still got those name in my files, which it may surprise you I have called Rainbow Spectrum. After that it is going to get a lot more involved. There were some people who were interested but didn’t know Jonathan and were uncomfortable at the thought of having to deal with a stranger.”

  Hooley couldn’t help glance over at Roper, something Cotter picked up on.

  “Jonathan wasn't the least offended.”

  Roper was shaking his head and shrugging to display he was fine about it. He said. “David and I discussed it at the time but I understood. Sometimes I don’t feel comfortable with people so if it’s possible to avoid them then that makes it much easier for everyone. There’s nothing worse than having to talk to people when you don’t want to.”

  “Are you talking about other people on the autistic spectrum?” asked Hooley.

  “Of course,” came the reply. It was accompanied by one of Roper’s looks that suggested just by asking the question Hooley had shown how out of touch he was.

  Hooley smiled and held his hand up in mock surrender. “Sorry Jonathan, I’m just a mere mortal. Thanks for putting me right. Even at my advanced age you can still learn something new and interesting.”

  This triggered an unexpected response. “At your age, it is terribly important that you are in an environment where you exercise your brain; another important tool against dementia. The latest research is very clear on how vital it is to maintain brain fitness as well as body fitness.” He paused and studied Hooley in a way that suggested he had a lot more to say.

  Hooley cut him off. “Thanks for that Jonathan. You know I always treasure your advice but that is the second time you have drawn my attention to a dementia threat. A man could get paranoid.”

  He turned to Cotter for moral support and was dismayed to find the man had gone red from the effort of not laughing. The DCI tried to ignore him. “As I was saying, it would be good to know just how many people I need to speak to about the Rainbow Spectrum. We have to start somewhere and I would like to do so very quickly.”

  To his chagrin Cotter was now wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, at least he wasn’t rolling around chortling. He finally pulled himself together.

  “It’s going to be a big number. To make it simple, let's take the first thirty people, even though not all of them developed their own ideas. Then you have the people involved in the second round. Just doubling that number, which is very conservative, takes us to sixty people. They will have talked to other people. We’re looking at a minimum of one hundred and twenty, maybe as many as two hundred.”

  “In that case,” said Hooley, refusing to be daunted. “Let's get started. Jonathan, you need to be involved, at least at the start.”

  Chapter 34

  The office was small and square, the walls free of any decoration and the carpet a metallic blue colour. The room was dominated by an oblong table that was big enough to allow four people to sit around in comfort. It was constructed
from the sort of recycled plastic that made you think it was probably indestructible.

  Sitting on top of the desk was a thermos flask of hot black coffee, one of hot water and a smaller one containing semi-skimmed milk. There was also a selection of tea bags, two large bottles of mineral water and a plate of assorted biscuits. The effect was neutral and unthreatening; just what David Cotter had ordered. He wanted to convey a simple message that this was strictly informal and people could leave at any moment.

  The first four people had been spoken to: it hadn’t taken long since it was a straightforward exercise in asking them to recall what they had done at the meeting with Roper, and how things had developed since then.

  One young woman was prone to wandering off the point; she enjoyed picking up on different ideas and within minutes would have guided the conversation into unexpected areas had Cotter not made a number of deft interventions to bring her back on course.

  Hooley had asked for a time-out: he was already starting to wonder if this was the best approach, at least from the point of view of using Roper’s time. Maybe it would be better to use a different tactic.

  “What do you think Jonathan?” he asked. “I appreciate it was my idea to have you here but I’m thinking that may not be the right call.”

  Roper had sat unmoving throughout the earlier discussions. He had positioned himself slightly to one side, and to a large extent had kept his head down, looking at a spot on the floor but not asking any direct questions or appearing to take much interest in the proceedings.

  He looked up. “I did find it helpful. Although not in the way you might have been hoping. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work but I thought it might turn out to be a general discussion about the Rainbow Spectrum. It’s made it even more obvious to me that if you understand the spectrum then it tells you how I think about things. So, for that reason it has been useful, but I don’t want to sit through much more of the same thing.”

  It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of his detective skills, thought Hooley, but it seemed that he had managed to avoid being rebuked by Roper. Given his recent warning that he was risking dementia he felt a sense of relief. What other medical horrors might have been mentioned? He knew he needed to lose more weight, but he was fitter than he had been a year ago, and had significantly cut back his drinking. Not all the way. Life was too short not to have the odd pint or decent glass of wine.

  He turned to Cotter. “What do you think David? I’m inclined to agree with Jonathan: we are going to have to rethink our approach.”

  Cotter stood up to stretch. In this confined space Hooley noted for the first-time what good shape the man was in. Not especially muscle bound, but clearly fit. Even in his younger days the DCI’s idea of a workout was standing at the bar for an evening session.

  “I’m with you,” said Cotter. “I don’t want to sound big-headed, but I think the three of us might be a little too high-powered for what you are hoping to achieve. At least at this stage. What I can do is provide someone from my department to take my place. That will help to reassure people that this isn’t some huge witch-hunt.”

  Hooley also stood up. “That’s sounds sensible. You and Jonathan can get back to your own work, but I am going to stay with this for now. We need to keep pushing ahead with this and I think I can afford the time more than either of you.”

  “That makes sense,” said Cotter. “It gives some continuity to what we are doing and allows my team to adapt to what we are looking for and then if you have had enough we get someone to take-over from you. Would you like me to get the ball rolling on that one? I can talk to the MoD police for you.”

  Hooley and Roper walked back to their work area, stopping off via the coffee shop for essential mid-morning supplies. Although Hooley avoided the rather delicious looking chocolate muffins, he thought it was bad form of Roper to bag the pair and then clearly enjoy every mouthful of them. To add insult to injury he would probably lose weight.

  The DCI checked his watch. “I’ve got half-an-hour before the next round of interviews. Are you happy with these arrangements? I’ll only be down the corridor if you need to speak to me urgently. Otherwise this isn’t going to take up all my time so I will be popping back here for a decent chunk of the day.”

  Chapter 35

  Just after midday, Hooley returned to find Roper was having an early lunch, his food and drink carefully lined up. Two sandwiches at the head of the queue, followed by a pair of muffins and finally his coffee. All in a nice straight line. As a finishing touch, he’d moved his waste bin so that he could throw his rubbish away without moving from his seat.

  He looked up, tugged at his left ear lobe and said. “I’ve been making quite a bit of progress. The answers are going to be in what I was looking at before. The way I failed to pick up on the boat being called the Ipsos has really opened my eyes.”

  Hooley’s back protested as he eased himself back into his seat. He needed another visit to the osteopath. He didn’t know how Jonathan spent so much time hunched over his screen without suffering any aches or pains.

  “I wonder if the next bit will be that straightforward?” Hooley couldn’t help sounding a note of caution. “It isn’t often that terrorists leave cryptic clues lying around. Usually, it’s a bit of internet posturing and dire threats, nothing as subtle as hiding information in plain sight.”

  “You’re right, it is going to be difficult,” said Roper. “The person doing this is very smart and wants to prove they are cleverer than me. I used to get this at school. Kids said I was just a nerd and kept challenging me.

  “This gives me the same sort of feeling. Someone out there doesn’t like me; they don’t like me at all, and probably want to hurt me. It was just the same as school. I used to get hit all the time. I would pretend it didn’t hurt but that didn’t stop them.”

  Hooley was thinking Roper had just revealed a bit more about himself. He had no idea if this was a good or bad thing, only that it was a clear sign of how much pressure he was under to be delving back to his hated school days. He wished he could help but he shared Roper’s view that time was running out.

  “I’m interested that you keep saying it is one person doing this. You don’t think it could be a group of people?”

  Roper didn’t hesitate “That’s a very good question; one that I have been thinking about quite a lot. There is an overall approach, or master-plan, which has been created by one person. That much is obvious.”

  Hooley couldn’t agree more, thinking that even he had worked that out. He looked expectantly at Roper, fascinated to hear what came next.

  “But as I said, this is one person, and they want to destroy me. It’s exactly like being back at school. I’ve had to dig down, more than I have ever done before, including overhauling my approach to the Rainbow Spectrum. It’s allowed me to start pulling together details that had been closed off to me.

  “Once I accepted this was entirely about me, rather than a plot to disrupt GCHQ with me as the means to an end, other things started to make sense. I asked myself how many people would be needed to work on the plan; again the obvious answer is one. It would have required a lot of thought but you don’t need a team of people.

  “So, the next thing is what evidence do I have? By doing a deep memory dive I could see that there was a clear pattern. First, I was ‘prepped’ to look at developments in a certain way. One example. Before I was given anything about the American situation, I was sent a lot of statistical information about contacts between far-right organisations.

  “These were incredibly detailed, had been previously checked and approved by intelligence experts. Once I had absorbed it all there could be no doubt that there was a lot more activity and co-operation than previously believed. Social media has allowed anyone with an extreme view to find like-minded supporters.

  “By the time I received the main briefing documents I was already convinced and looking for new links. It was why I jumped on the meeting in New York and r
ead too much into it. But it was the way they exploited my Rainbow Spectrum which really got my attention. They spotted a weakness I hadn’t been aware of.”

  Hooley took a drink of water to cover his astonishment. While he had never claimed to understand how Roper’s Spectrum worked, he had come to view it as an amazing asset. It hadn’t occurred to him that it could be a massive weakness as well. He was equally amazed at the way Roper was calmly deconstructing his own performance. Like a mechanic stripping an engine; but this engine was the brain.

  When Hooley picked up the water cup Roper had broken off. Now he carried on. “The problem is simple. I was in the habit of assuming that using the Spectrum let me see the whole picture, and that is a big weakness.

  “You actually brought it home to me with your observation about the weather. I realised I had stopped looking everywhere and was exclusively using the Spectrum to get my answers. After that it was easy for them. Just hold things back - like the weather report - and I would go off in the wrong direction. Now I know what has gone wrong I can do something about it.”

  Chapter 36

  Hooley had gone off for another of his group discussions, leaving Roper glad of the opportunity to spend time on his own. He wasn’t uncomfortable with the DCI, but he desperately wanted to practice his unique form of meditating. Not because he wanted to relax. He was confident that all the answers were almost within reach; he had to find a way of bringing them closer.

  Many years ago, he had discovered he could, with very little effort, slow his heart down. In the early days he had made himself pass out, but persisted until he got it just right. He was able to bring himself to a place where he hovered on the cusp of falling into a deep sleep while experiencing real clarity of mind.