Red Hawk Rising

SAC gave Corporal Hill the directions to get to the barrack block to drop his gear off.
***
The Russian Consulate in Manchester had a very impressive communications mast on top of its building. It was said to be the most advanced in Manchester. Similarly, its communication centre in the consulate housed some sophisticated listening equipment. The consulate’s military attaché, Major Andrei Garasov, was responsible for coordinating the gathering of intelligence on the RAF’s ‘Red Hawk’ system. At the moment he was focusing on Argonaut Industries factory at Heald Green. He had the ‘listening’ team combing the wavelengths in the hope of finding out which one the missile and radar would be using. Garasov also had a team of four agents working the places that the RAF personnel based at Handwell, were known to frequent. There were other agents, controlled directly from Moscow, also being directed to seek information but he had no direct contact with them. Moscow had informed him that he would be informed by Moscow of anything significant that he should know. Garasov knew that there was a build-up of RAF personnel going on which meant that the Red Hawk system must be getting close to the trials stage. Garasov had one of his agents photographing RAF personnel that visited Argonaut Industries. The information was passed to the other agents who had the task of frequenting the pubs and dances that the airmen were known to visit. There they would engage them in conversation and seek to find out about the work the airmen were involved in. It was the seemingly inconsequential pieces of information that, when put together, could provide a picture of what was happening. Plied with alcohol, some tongues could become loose with restricted information.
Garasov cleared his desk and locked up. It was late afternoon and he would go out this evening to check on his agents.
Corporal ‘Andy’ Hill turned into the barrack room that the Junior NCOs (non-commissioned officer) were billeted in. He picked one of three empty bed spaces and put his bag on the adjacent locker. Blankets, sheets and pillow were stacked on the bare mattress cover. No-one else was in the room as the personnel were all still at work. He quickly made up the bed and unpacked his bag into the wardrobe and locker. Then he headed back to the JSTU office, carrying a clipboard and pad. Andy spoke to the SAC and asked for the tech. library. Going in, he met a slightly overweight corporal and introduced himself. The other responded with, “Hi! I’m Corporal Armstrong — Admin. I’m responsible for the JSTU detachment’s admin. Good to meet you. Call me Mike.” Andy asked for the Red Hawk manuals, such as they were at that stage, and Mike indicated a row of them on a shelf. He picked up the first one and sat himself at a spare table and started to read and make notes. Andy noted the main assemblies of each major item of the system. He then noted down the sub-assemblies and then the important components. They would need to monitor each part during the trials. At the factories he would look for the test results of the different parts and try to assess probabilities of failure. He would be back to the mathematics he enjoyed. Mike suggested a mug of tea for Andy and organised the SAC to get it for him. Sipping the tea, Andy worked quietly through the manuals in preparation for his visit to Argonaut Industries on the morrow. Five o’clock came and Mike called out to Andy that it was time to go. Andy asked for another fifteen minutes to finish what he was doing. Mike nodded his agreement, pleased to note that Andy was not a ‘clock-watcher’. Sometimes this unit called for people to work long hours and all the members needed to be committed. Finished, Andy labelled his notes and arranged for them to be locked away for the night. For security reasons, no written material was allowed to be taken to the barrack rooms where someone might be able to access them.
Mike and Andy walked back to the barrack room together. They washed and cleaned up and headed down to the NAAFI for a beer before dinner. There was a room for the junior NCO’s and they headed for that. Settling down with their beer, Mike talked about himself. He had been with the unit from the beginning — over six months — and knew all the RAF personnel. While it was known as a Joint Service Trials Unit, this one was purely RAF. He had had an introductory tour of the factories and where RAF personnel were accommodated when he joined the unit but had been at Handwell ever since. Mike was about Andy’s age and they appeared to have got their corporal’s stripes at about the same time. Mike told Andy that he had met a young lady at a dance at Alderley Edge and it was getting pretty serious. Andy was less open about himself but gave a few details, saying his love of mountaineering left him little time for romance. They finished their beers and headed for the mess for dinner. The food turned out to be of a lower standard than the West Sanby mess.
After dinner, Mike got changed into civvies and headed out to meet his lady love. Andy decided on a quiet night in to prepare for the morrow. When they got back to the barrack room, they saw a notice posted up that all personnel were to attend the security briefing in the morning. Andy spent the evening introducing himself to the other corporals and getting to know them. They were all highly knowledgeable about their trade groups and all had been specially selected for the unit. In civilian life, several would have been classed as ‘boffins’. Where trade unions divided up the work into different parts, there were no such divisions for the RAF