Page 59 of An Eye for an Eye
‘She’s bound to get it,’ said Peter, determined to keep his mother off the subject of what they actually had planned.
‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that,’ replied his mother, without explanation. ‘I’ll see you both for supper, but don’t expect your father to join us, as he’s unlikely to be back before you’ve gone to bed.’
We’ll be seeing him long before we’ve gone to bed, thought Artemisia.
•••
Danny drove into Northolt just as Beth finished washing the dishes and the twins were going over the details of their plan for the last time.
William was pleased to find that the rest of the team were already in place, carrying out their different responsibilities in preparation for a royal visit. They were well acquainted with the protocol whenever the Queen or the Prince of Wales returned home following an overseas visit – they would escort them back to Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace or Clarence House to be greeted by cheers from onlookers – but this was a foreign royal who would be visiting Windsor Castle and Number 10 Downing Street, when jeers were more likely than cheers from the public.
The next person to appear on the runway was the Defence Secretary, followed shortly by the Foreign Secretary, theCabinet Secretary, the Permanent Secretary and Mr Trevelyan, the Permanent Secretary’s Permanent Secretary. The ministers formed a line to greet their foreign guests, while behind them hovered Chief Superintendent Warwick, Detective Inspector Paul Adaja and several armed officers.
Parked in a separate line and facing the opposite direction were seven police outriders from the Met’s special escort group, six chauffeur-driven Jaguars and three luxury coaches.
They all looked up as a private 747 descended through the clouds and landed on a runway used only by foreign heads of state and visiting royalty. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had recommended during Cabinet that – as three billion was at stake – Prince Majid bin Talal Al Saud, the King’s cousin, should on this occasion be afforded the same privileges as a visiting head of state. The Prime Minister had agreed.
Once the plane taxied to a halt and the steps had been wheeled into place, the aircraft door was finally opened. The first person to emerge was the Saudi Minister of Defence. As his entourage came down the steps, all dressed in identical white thawbs and keffiyehs, William wondered which one of them was the Minister’s son.
Standing on the balcony behind them, binoculars trained on the arriving party, Ross picked out the Black Prince immediately, and never let him out of his sight as he was accompanied to a waiting limousine.
The Foreign Secretary stepped forward, bowed, shook hands and welcomed His Royal Highness to Britain on behalf of Her Majesty’s government.
The Prince went down the line and shook hands with the greeting party before they all took their allocated places in the cavalcade of waiting limousines. On a signal no one otherthan a seasoned professional would have spotted, the special escort group set off. Their responsibility was to make sure the convoy didn’t stop moving until they arrived at Farnborough forty minutes later, where another greeting party was already waiting.
William, who was in the car bringing up the rear, picked up the phone in his armrest as the well-ordered convoy made its way out of Northolt onto the main road. He listened carefully.
‘There are only a few protestors at Farnborough and almost none at Windsor,’ reported Jackie. ‘Not least because they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near our visitors. However, that doesn’t apply this end – a large crowd’s already gathering in Trafalgar Square, who I’m told plan to march down Whitehall and greet the Saudi delegation before they meet the Prime Minister. There is also a helicopter already hovering above Whitehall.
‘The march organizers have assured me,’ continued Jackie, ‘that it will be a peaceful demonstration. However, that won’t stop the usual bunch of thugs, who will turn up for any protest simply to cause trouble.’ Jackie paused. ‘Don’t you sometimes wish, sir, we had the authority to ban marches like these?’
‘No,’ said William. ‘On balance I still prefer democracy to dictatorship.’
He ended the call as the convoy continued its journey down the outside lane of the motorway. It always amused William that the sight of police outriders, lights flashing, sirens blaring, ensured that anyone on the outside lane slipped into the middle lane and quickly fell below the speed limit.
•••
Peter and Artemisia crept out of the house a few minutes after ten and caught the number 14 bus to Piccadilly, climbed upstairs and took a seat near the back. They were so nervous that hardly a word passed between them.
When the bus came to a halt at the top of Piccadilly Circus, they got off and joined a large group of protestors who were carrying banners and chanting as they made their way towards Trafalgar Square.
With each step they took, Artemisia became more and more exhilarated by the thought of taking part in a demonstration that would surely leave both governments in no doubt how people felt about the treatment of Simon Hartley.
As she turned the corner at the bottom of Haymarket, her heart leapt when she saw what must have been a hundred thousand people gathered to add their voices to the cause. She stood on the fringe of the vast crowd and listened to speeches by Tony Benn, Tariq Ali and Dennis Skinner, whose words were regularly interrupted by prolonged cheers.
•••
The long black convoy of nine vehicles drove into Farnborough thirty-nine minutes later and came to a halt on the perimeter of the runway.
As the visiting party made their way onto the parade ground, Company Sergeant Major Fletcher sprang to attention, and, in a voice that frightened away any stray pigeons that had dared to waddle onto his parade ground, bellowed, ‘Present arms!’
A platoon of Grenadier Guards in full dress uniform carried out the order.
The royal prince and his party were escorted to a smallstand that wouldn’t have looked out of place at Royal Ascot, but had only been erected the day before.
No sooner had the visiting party sat down than they had to stand up again while the band of the Royal Marines played two national anthems – ‘God Save the Queen’ followed by ‘God Save the King’ – as a squadron of Tornados came out of the clouds and flew above them in a V formation, with the white and green colours of Saudi Arabia evaporating behind them.
There then followed two hours of parading the vast array of equipment that three billion pounds would acquire, should the Saudis decide to sign the British contract. William kept his eyes firmly fixed on the royal party as others watched the display.