IC - 29 - The Alpha and Omega

[Mephistophilis]

3pm Tuesday 16th March 2010, High Wycombe Police Station, Buckinghamshire

3hrs until the church service.

After eventually managing to collect his thoughts enough to rejoin the traffic, Kris manages to make it to Prisha's house without any further difficulties. She's not in when he arrives and he parks it out the front, slipping the keys through the letter box. Jocelyn and Simon meet him at the house to pick him up. They both notice the grazing along the sidewalls of the Range Rover tyres but the look on Kris;s face tells them not to ask.

Ten minutes later they arrive at the Wycombe Police Station. The sky is very overcast now, bathing the town in a preternatural gloom - like there's a major storm coming. At least the power seems to be back on and they can't hear the grumbling of the diesel generator.

[Philulhu]

Kris approached the front desk. ”Where's DI Malone?” he asked the duty sergeant.

[Mr. Handy]

Jocelyn follows Kris inside. She knows better than to comment on the Range Rover.

[Silver Priest]

Simon also follows. Further time removed from his dream allows him to regain his usual skepticism, if only just. But there's a hint of mania peeking up beneath the surface; he is increasingly desperate to catch Balfour in the act and prove that this entire thing was a run of the mill group of religiously fanatical terrorists and that there was no real supernatural involvement. He had always prided himself on his sense of reason, and the fact the man had made him start to doubt that reason could explain all of this infuriated him. Simon would get to the bottom of this. He would make it all make sense.

[Mephistophilis]

DI Malone is at his desk with a half eaten Pret A Manger sandwich. As Kris and the others enter he stands up and wipes off his hands. 'About time you showed up Sapru, did you sort out the child in London, taken into emergency protection?' Before even waiting for an answer he continues, 'Anyway, we've got enough on our plate here. Revd Balfour is going ahead with his service, with or without his daughter. He's all over the news, serving writs and injunctions but Miss Goldfarb has been able to use that as more evidence against him and keep Regina in care, at least until tomorrow.'

He opens the blinds to his office and looks out into the street outside, 'That odious Thomas woman was here earlier with her news crew. But I think they've gone.' Closing the blinds and turning back he says, 'They're probably outside the church now. We've got crowds of gawkers and even some nutjobs claiming to be new converts, I've got uniform on the ground managing traffic! I don't know whether Balfour is letting them into the church but they'll at least be gathering outside - as you might appreciate, relations between the church and the police are currently...a little strained.'

He picks a manila file up from his desk and throws it towards Kris, it has COMPLAINT: K SAPRU - L BATES; 15/3/10 written in black marker across the front. Handwritten notes spill out and some photographs, the one Kris can see looks like it is documenting Sarah Balfour's injuries in the car crash. 'You're lucky I don't even have time to deal with this right now.' He gathers the folder back up and shoves it aggressively into a drawer.

'Your Johnny Zero is still in custody, Regina in care. So where do we stand? The Revd Balfour is pressing ahead with his service at 6pm today. We need a police presence for the public order risk alone. I can maybe even justify having an armed response vehicle on standby. Is what you learned about your child in London enough to get this service closed down completely?'

[Mr. Handy]

"Unfortunately, no," says Jocelyn. "We're going to have to keep a close eye on Reverend Balfour. He doesn't seem like he's just going to give up."

[Silver Priest]

"I spoke with Louise Hayman. She admitted to me she lied about having no contact with Mr. Zero-- he called her up a few weeks ago and asked her to put him in touch with some of his old associates. Given his loyalty to Balfour it seems evident he was on some business for the man."

[Mephistophilis]

'So we still have concerns, but not enough to close it down...' biting his lip he asks, 'What about the terrorism angle?' Looking particularly at Jocelyn.

[Mr. Handy]

"Unfortunately, we have nothing there that we didn't already know," says Jocelyn. "We have suspicions, but no hard proof. Balfour was probably radicalised in Kenya, but we can't definitively connect him to Red Trumpet. I can check with MI5 to see if they've learned anything more since last I spoke to them, but I wouldn't bet on it."

[Silver Priest]

"The fact he strangled and very nearly killed me when I mentioned the group to him should serve to prove he's dangerously unstable and connected to them. Frankly, I don't understand how he wasn't arrested for that." He glares at everyone in the room.

'As best we were able to establish, Balfour wants to carry out what he believes will bring about the end of the world; the death of a lamb. As best as we were able to determine there are two young children whose families are among the church membership.I suspect he'll attempt to kill one of them, which will be the signal for his followers to unleash hell on earth. Zero all but confirmed that he had an alternative plan this time around; he's determined not to postpone the apocalypse again. He does desperately want Regina back. I think he ironically believes she'll only be safe with him, if the end of the world does happen."

"Perhaps we can use that to our advantage," he muses. "I suggest we contact Balfour and offer to release Regina into his custody a few moments before his sermon is to begin, as a sign of good faith. In return, we demand ourselves and/or armed officers attend his sermon, ostensibly to prevent any unrest given all the troubles his church has had recently. That way if Balfour tries anything we'll be ready to stop him before he murders his daughter. And if Balfour refuses the offer, that gives you all the evidence you need to prove the man is plotting something he does not want the police there to stop."

[Mr. Handy]

"Couldn't we simply press charges for the assault now?" asks Jocelyn. "That would shut down his ritual right quick. We could lock him up overnight. It would be morning before he gets a bail hearing."

[Philulhu]

Kris was distracted by the complaint but managed to snap himself out of it to weigh in with his thoughts.”Arresting Balfour is going to look heavy-handed but that might be our last resort,” he said. ”If he’s holed up in church, it could prove difficult to get him out without turning it into a siege, and if he’s still in there when it’s service time, the game’s over.”

He thought for a bit. “We could offer to return Regina but he and Mrs Balfour will both need to be present to pick her up. That gets him out of the church and when he’s here, arrest him for assault?” he suggested.

[Silver Priest]

Simon contemplates. "The issue with that is that it's only a temporary solution. Balfour would be out in a short time I suspect, especially as he can argue he was under a lot of stress with his daughter being kidnapped. He'd miss the prophesied date, but his church would receive a massive outpouring of sympathy--thanks in part to that odious Thomas woman-- and be bigger than ever. And if he ever decided another date is meant to bring about the end of the world, he'd be much harder to stop. Based on interactions with Mr. Zero I don't think anyone is likely to turn on him in the interim either."

"I agree that its better than nothing and a last resort. But our aim should be on a permanent solution; in my view, that's getting men on the inside of his service and catching him in the act the moment he shows any indication of harming his daughter."

[Mephistophilis]

'With all due sympathy for what Dr Eagleton here experienced at the hands of Revd Balfour,' adds Malone, 'No jury would ever convict him after what he's been through with his daughter - and I wouldn't be able to justify keeping him in custody, you've seen the lawyers he has available on the end of the phone.'

He presses the first two fingers of each hand against his temples and rubs them in slow circles, closing his eyes as if in some pain. Eventually he opens them again.

'This suggestion of returning Regina to get officers inside the church. Talk me through that - how we aren't recklessly endangering the child - and how I persuade social services to go along with it after only just getting them to take the child out of her parents' custody.'

[Philulhu]

”We don’t necessarily need a long-term solution, we just need to get him put of the way tonight so whatever he’s got planned is interrupted,” he said. ”He can’t conduct the service if he isn’t there.”

[Silver Priest]

"Sometimes to take a king you need to sacrifice a pawn," says Simon. Looking at the likely horrified faces of those around him, he clarifies. "No I'm not suggesting we let Balfour murder his daughter, that's what the police would be there to prevent. But we know with a high certainty that other children will be present in the church. If we don't get our men inside the service, he's likely to just murder one of them, and there won't be anything we can do about it. Even were we able to arrest him there's no reason to think that one of his other followers couldn't just go ahead and do the murder for him. It's not as though it will have any special effect; all they need to do is believe they've fulfilled the Lord's will and they'll go ahead with whatever they're planning; and that could be much worse than a single murder.

"Balfour's weakness--the only one we can exploit at present-- is his love for his daughter. He is a true believer and thinks her sacrifice will bring about the end of the world, but he also believe the Lord will protect her as he did with Issac. I think he feels he's already delayed too long and needs to go ahead with the sacrifice, but he's afraid if Regina is not present for it she will die without his protection, which means he's not thinking clearly. We need to use this as leverage and get as many people close to him ready to intervene as we can. And if he for any reason refuses the offer, it provides you with further evidence of his ill intent. What father would not want his child back for the end of the world?

"As for how to get the girl released, can't you just tell social services its not worth the bad press any longer? Balfour's more popular than ever and we don't have any direct evidence he's ever abused her. Coach it as trying to avoid a lawsuit for religious discrimination or some such."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's true," says Jocelyn in response to Kris. "We only need to disrupt what he's planning tonight. After that, then we can worry about him rescheduling it, because then we'll have time. And after a second failed prediction of the end of the world, his reputation will suffer, and fewer will still believe him. But I don't want to put Regina at any risk."

[Philulhu]

”I’m not suggesting that we actually hand her over. We just say we’re willing to do it, we’ve just got to satisfy ourselves that she’s not at risk so we just need to ask them a few questions first,” said Kris.

[Mephistophilis]

'I can't be making bargains with Balfour that we don't intend to keep. And I can't arrest him in the hope he'll call off his service. We may not need a long-term solution but it is going to need to be better than "arrest Balfour tonight". I still have to deal with the religious congregations in this town and I'm going to have to deal with the flack from the media and the Chief Super.'

[Mr. Handy]

"Then the three of us will just have to keep Balfour under surveillance," says Jocelyn. "He's desperate, and that makes him likely to make a mistake. And if he does, we'll be watching and ready. There's also that shelter he has prepared, where he plans to survive the end of the world somehow. If it weren't available to him, maybe he'd reconsider his plans."