Red Hawk Rising

and the scientists from Royal Aircraft Establishment. They went on to discuss parts which had been giving problems and the rates of failure of different components. In conjunction with the contractor, the RAF team was identifying components that were not meeting the specification and making changes where possible. This would go on after the RAF had taken delivery of the initial equipment to be used in the trials and the information fed back to the manufacturer so that improvements could be made. Part of the work of Andy’s section would be to collate this information during the trials and prepare regular reports. When they had finished, Andy went in search of Hamilton, tearing the top sheets out of the duplicate notebook and putting them in an envelope. He was directed to the company’s personnel department and asked to see Mr Hamilton of the Department of Defence. The secretary disappeared into an office and Hamilton followed her out. Andy gave him the envelope and said it was the information he had asked for. “Good,” said Hamilton. “I’ll be in touch.” Andy was doing his own thinking and decided to ask members of the RAF team which company employees were normally seen around the project. It might help if a pattern emerged regarding which ones were around on the days in question. He went back to the laboratory and found no-one was there and headed for the assembly bay where the radar unit was. There was the scientist, Flying Officer Goodhew, Sarge and the rest of the team in earnest discussion. They had powered up to start tests and there was an electrical short which blew a fuse but after it had blown the klystron. The cause had been quickly identified and questions were being asked of Corporal Brennan. He claimed that he had checked everything properly. The scientist was more concerned to get a replacement klystron from Manchester. Goodhew told Sarge to write up an incident report and get it to him by the morning. He took the scientist with him to get a replacement unit across to them overnight. Andy listened with interest, thinking back to when everything was being connected up. The team set up to start checking each unit. There was real concern that the transistors might have blown and that could mean the replacement of a number of circuit cards. Fortunately, they should all have duplicates in the units and be switched over. Sarge headed back to the lab to start compiling the report. Andy asked Corporal Williams if he remembered what happened when Corporal Brennan called out to him (Andy). The reply was that he followed Andy to the door of the module. Andy asked what had changed when he went back to check on the civilian installing the klystron unit. Williams thought about it and then said the cables had been connected while he wasn’t watching. He turned back to the cables connecting the klystron and looked closely at the multi-pinned plug and socket. It had black soot marks from the flash when the system shorted. The electrical short had welded the metal shaving to the pins and although much of it had melted, it was still clear that some foreign material had been in the plug and socket when the power was switched on. He called Corporal Brennan over and said, “What do you make of this?” as he showed him the plug and socket. There was an insistence that they had been clean before they were re-connected. Andy excused himself and headed across to see Sarge in the lab. He explained his misgivings to Sarge and asked the name of the civilian that had installed the klystron. He was told it was Sam Wilson. Andy wondered aloud if he was linked to any of the missing spare parts. Sarge suggested that they discuss it with the team on the way back to Ouston and out of earshot of the employees at the factory. Andy agreed and then went in search of Hamilton. He found him again in the personnel department and asked if he could see him privately. Hamilton nodded and beckoned him into an interview room. He shut the door after them and Andy explained what had happened to the klystron and the possible role of the employee, Sam Wilson.
“Okay, leave it with me,” said Hamilton. “I’ll do some quick checking on who Wilson associates with.” Andy headed back to the lab. while Hamilton went down to Flying Officer Goodhew’s office because it had a scrambler on the telephone. Knocking, he went in and asked if he could use the telephone urgently, suggesting that Goodhew stay.
The scientist left the office and Goodhew said, “We’ve arranged for a replacement klystron to come from Manchester tomorrow morning. They couldn’t send it overnight but it should arrive by lunchtime tomorrow.”
Hamilton nodded and said, “An employee here appears to have sabotaged the klystron but we can’t prove it yet. I need to talk to my office to find out who his associates are. Then I think we should talk to your CO.” Goodhew nodded and pointed to the ‘phone. Hamilton made his call to London and explained what he wanted and why. He was to organise a photo of the suspect and a copy of his personal details and someone would pick them up in thirty minutes time. Wilson would be tailed and a check also made of his known associates. He was also told that a Russian trawler, the Ivor Noventsky, appeared to be heading into the River Tyne. An alarm bell went off in Hamilton’s head. “I think we need to proceed with caution,” then went on to discuss a possible plan with his colleague. After putting the ‘phone down, Hamilton asked Goodhew to telephone Squadron Leader Dawson and let him know the situation. He then left the office and headed down to personnel to organise the information on Sam Wilson. Twenty minutes later, the security at the main gate telephoned