IC - 29 - The Alpha and Omega

[Silver Priest]

"Is there no way we can hand her over to him in exchange for police "protection" at the service? I would argue its the lesser evil by far-- Balfour wants his own child to be the chosen sacrifice, but everything we've learned indicates he's fine using one of his followers children. Zero even said he had an alternative plan he'd be deploying if he was deprived of his daughter. If we don't get men inside, its entirely possible he'll just kill another of his follower's kids, and there won't be a thing we can do about it."

"If that's truly not possible, perhaps we bargain with him by letting him speak to Regina on the phone and tell him she'll be released tomorrow morning-- too late for his purposes. We monitor the phone call and see if he lets anything slip. At the very least he'll likely advise Regina on what to do when the prophesied end kicks off, which might provide us some valuable intelligence."

[Philulhu]

”That last bit might not be such a bad idea,” said Kris.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, that would be worth a try," says Jocelyn.

[Mephistophilis]

'You want to arrange a telephone call between Balfour and Regina but listen in? Now in normal circumstances that would require a court order but...hmm...if she's already in the care of social services maybe they can give the authority to monitor the call. Let me get hold of Roxanna Goldfarb before they knock off for the day and see if I can sort that out. Anything else?'

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm concerned about Julie Thomas," says Jocelyn. "She has an inside source with the police, and anything the police do, she seems to know it almost before they do. She apparently has a very persuasive colleague who has convinced someone to leak information. Has there been any progress in identifying the source?"

[Silver Priest]

"Time is short, but anyway we could use that to our advantage?" Simon muses. "Put out that we're moving Regina out of fear for her safety and hope it leaks and Balfour's goons take the bait? If they use force to try to 'rescue' her and we can tie them back to the church, perhaps we'll be able to justify shutting down the entire service and taking Balfour in. We've less than three hours though so this may not be feasible, but perhaps we can come up with some way to exploit the leak and force Balfour to incriminate himself."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's a good idea," says Jocelyn. "Time being short, and Balfour being desperate, means that he may take the bait. We just have to make sure nobody outside this room knows it's a trick. Otherwise, Julie Thomas will get wind of that and pass along word. But if everyone else thinks it's for real, she will too."

[Philulhu]

We’re assuming Malone isn’t the source… …

[Mephistophilis]

'Unfortunately there's not been time to conduct a mole hunt while we've been dealing with the Balfour case. But give me a second, I have an idea.' He takes out a police radio from a drawer in his desk. 'All units, all units, this is Romeo Mike, standby for an urgent message, over.'

'I'm going to request help moving Regina Balfour from her emergency care placement in...hmm..where do we want to say she is and where do we want to say she's going?'

[Mr. Handy]

"We'll have to say she is where she really is now," says Jocelyn. "We have to presume Balfour and his people already know that, and if we use a different location, they'd be onto it. As to where to bring her, it has to be a location we control. Is there a safe house nearby we can use?"

That had occurred to me, but if Malone is the leak, there's really nothing that we can do about it, and I didn't want to voice that suspicion to his face. If it is him, at least we'd find out quickly.

[Silver Priest]

Simon says nothing as to Malone's code name; he's no Freudian.

"One presumes we're not actually moving her, just making it seem like we are. Why not suggest we're going to try a quiet move of her to a nearby group home? If that gets leaked, Balfour has the perfect opportunity to try and snatch her up. We should imply we're doing it right after she talks to her father ."

[Philulhu]

”If that were the case, won’t it seem a bit strange that we’re broadcasting that to all units?” said Kris.

[Mephistophilis]

DI Malone shrugs. 'We don't have long. If we want to get the message out it will need to be broadcast widely. Unless you have an idea who we might tip-off to get back to Balfour? It's a risk either way. I'll be guided by you.'

[Silver Priest]

"Balfour's a desperate father and likely not thinking clearly." Simon chimes in. "I think we can risk rolling the dice here. If he sees a chance to get his daughter back before the world ends he's likely going to take it."

[Mr. Handy]

"I think its worth a shot," says Jocelyn. "He doesn't have Johnny Zero to do his dirty work for him any more, so this could flush him out. We could tail the decoy vehicle as it pretends to transport her. Even if they make us, that only lends credence to our ruse. When they make their move, we close the trap. We'll need a decoy vehicle of course, something with tinted windows, and someone we can trust to pretend to drive her to the safe house. And we'll need to keep security stepped up at Regina's real location, and keep it elevated. If the trap doesn't work, he may try for her there."

[Philulhu]

”One of us could drive, with the other two as backup?” suggested Kris. ”We might want an armed response unit on standby, just in case.”

[Mephistophilis]

'I can get an ARV on standby. My understanding is the girl's in an emergency placement in Aylesbury, there is no police presence and I don't even know the exact location. Will I broadcast the real location or a fake location? And where do we say we're moving her?' He raps his fingers on the desk. 'If you want extra security where she's staying, a uniformed officer maybe, who do we trust?'

[Silver Priest]

"I suppose Lucy Bates is out," Simon chuckles, but then has the good grace to look chastened. "Bad jest, forgive me."

"While I cannot help with that, I think we should assume if there's a leak Balfour already knows his daughter's real location. Best we make it seem as legitimate as possible and go with the actual one. As to where we're moving her, why not here? Drop a mention of how we're hoping to interrogate her about her father-- that should fill Balfour's head with all sorts of paranoid delusions about how we're locking his child up or looking for a reason to lock him up."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, that could work," says Jocelyn. "Kris should drive the decoy vehicle, since he's a constable and he already knows that Regina's not in it, and nobody else need know. Simon and I can follow discreetly in my hire car, which I'll be driving. Balfour hasn't seen it before. If he knows we're heading here, he'll realise he can't snatch Regina from the station surrounded by police, so he'll have to try for her in transit. That's when we'll get him. We'd better get up to Aylesbury so we can be in position."

[Philulhu]

”A fake but believable destination,” mused Kris. ”One with a garage where we might load Regina into a car without being seen.”

“Have we got anywhere like that?” he asked DI Malone.