Three Hours(70)
‘14 Words is a white supremacist terrorist group,’ Stuart says. ‘Its name refers to the fourteen words: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.” It calls for “White Jihad”. Its particular hatred is against Muslims.’
‘The girl whose drink Victor wanted to spike with Rohypnol is Muslim and the vandalized shop is owned by a Muslim couple,’ an officer says.
‘How many Muslim students and teachers are still at the school?’ Bronze Commander asks.
‘Just Rafi and Basi Bukhari,’ another officer replies. ‘Five Muslim students were evacuated from New School and two from Junior School.’
‘Why shoot the white head teacher and terrorize non-Muslim children and staff?’ Bronze Commander asks.
‘As well as hating Muslims and other non-whites for, as they see it, polluting the gene pool,’ Stuart says, ‘the group has also threatened liberal journalists and MPs and others who they think condone the eradication of the white race. In this case it’s a school taking in Muslim refugees. In their eyes, the staff and pupils are collaborating in white genocide.’
‘Even seven-year-olds?’
‘Probably. And they’d want to punish the parents too.’
Rose thinks of Jo Cox, the white MP and advocate for compassion towards Syrian refugees who was murdered by a white supremacist terrorist.
‘14 Words was formed as a splinter group from National Action, a neo-Nazi group banned for being a terrorist group in the UK in 2016,’ Stuart Dingwall says. ‘It is affiliated with Scottish Dawn and NS131, banned under UK terrorism laws in 2017. It has links to far-right terror organizations in the USA, Europe and Australia, several of which have planned or carried out terrorist atrocities.’
The more Rose found out about this school which, like so many others in the UK, has the freedom to worship whichever god you want, or none, has openly gay teachers and multicultural liberalism, the more she’s feared it could be a target for terrorists, both white supremacists and Islamic State, with their shared hatred for inclusivity and tolerance. ‘Our people’; you cowardly inadequate bastards have so much in common.
And it makes her furious because the school has a fantastic kind of innocence, if innocence is openness uncorrupted by prejudice, and she admires whoever fought for it because you don’t get this thoughtless tolerance without people taking risks, putting themselves on the line. Who was the first teacher to openly declare she was lesbian to the kids and then give them their geography homework? (Though in a school like this they probably don’t believe in homework.) And now a school that should represent a microcosm of the UK, diverse and tolerant, is being punished for it.
‘Since the end of June, Jamie Alton has had an online alias: “Aryan Knight”,’ Lysander says. ‘Using the alias Aryan Knight, Alton started interacting with 14 Words in August. Deakin was already a member of this terrorist group and the initial traffic between 14 Words and Aryan Knight was on Deakin’s computer on the dark net.
‘14 Words sent Alton links to white supremacist forums, blogs and propaganda videos. I’ll send you the details. As well as the online interface, I am pretty certain there were also face-to-face meet-ups, using codes for places and people.’
Usman Pabey, a young IT forensics analyst, joins the briefing.
‘I’ve been working under Lysander’s direction. At the beginning of September, Alton increased the security on his own laptop. By the end of September he was having near-constant interaction with 14 Words on his own computer as well as Deakin’s, at one point receiving up to forty messages a day from them.’
‘So we can pretty much chart a textbook radicalization process,’ Stuart says.
‘Radicalization explains how Victor Deakin persuaded Jamie to join him in this attack,’ Rose says. ‘Victor would have groomed him first and he was lonely, probably depressed, so vulnerable to radicalization.’
Beth Alton was right, Victor alone wouldn’t have been powerful enough to utterly change her son. Victor needed an organization to get Jamie to cross a line into murder and be a wingman for his attack. It was probably Victor who came up with the nom de guerre ‘Aryan Knight’ for Jamie.
‘14 Words vet all new recruits,’ Stuart says. ‘They’re paranoid about being infiltrated. Alton would have had to have a personal recommendation by Deakin.’
‘A week ago, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts were set up in the name Aryan Knight,’ Usman says, ‘with the banner “100%” or “18”; so far there’s been no activity but we’re monitoring the accounts.’
‘100% means pure Aryan blood,’ Stuart Dingwall says. ‘18 corresponds to the first and eighth letter of the alphabet, which are the initials of Adolf Hitler.’
‘How does this affect negotiation with Jamie Alton?’ Bronze Commander asks.
‘Negotiating with a radicalized terrorist is extremely difficult,’ Dannisha says. ‘Sometimes impossible. We are up against intensive brainwashing. We don’t know how extensive.’
Rose looks at the screen that shows the pottery room; it’s snowing too hard to see anyone at the window. What would she say to Camille Giraud if she could speak to her? Could she tell this sensitive, brave art teacher that they can get her and the children safely out?
Only if there is something left of the boy Jamie Alton used to be; only if they can talk to that boy. Jamie did apparently break away from Victor Deakin on the 31st of October. Did Victor instruct Jamie to say he’d broken off their friendship? Ask him to broadcast that he thought Victor was a psycho? It would be safer for his plan if nobody linked the two of them, if there was no reason for anyone to watch Jamie in the run-up to the attack. And Halloween, with its devils and ghosts, masks and disguises, is a date Victor would have chosen to deceive people; there’s a vicious playfulness to it.