The Kemmynadow Betrayal
by Jardyn39
Chapter 7 - Miss Alice
As the double padded sound proof doors closed shut, the lighting in the briefing room was turned up to reveal a large circular table and walls covered with a wide assortment of maps and charts.
Harry was a little shocked to see two familiar looking people sitting at the table.
"Ah, Harry! I was beginning to get worried about you."
One of the men whom Harry knew from the television but had never met, nor ever thought he would meet, jumped up and shook his hand.
"Forgive me," the Prime Minister said smiling and introducing himself properly before guiding Harry over to a chair. He then sat next to him and asked, "Coffee, Harry?"
"Um, thanks," Harry managed to say.
"How you doing, Harry?" asked the second man in a deep familiar voice.
"Fine thanks, Kingsley," said Harry returning his smile. Bateman sat opposite and Miss Alice stood before them, waiting to begin.
"Let me first just say something for Harry's benefit," said the Prime Minister. "The only people that I have confided everything to are those people in this room. Harry, Miss Alice is my authority in this matter. I'm afraid Brigadier Colonel Falcon is just someone who thinks he should be an authority.
"For your benefit, Miss Alice, I'm giving Harry Potter complete access to everything we have at your discretion. Even the things we've withheld from the Other Minister."
"Other Minister?" asked Harry.
"He means the Minister of Magic, Harry," said Kingsley with a smile.
"Oh, sorry," said Harry.
"Harry, as far as I'm concerned we are all working towards the same end. That is, the complete destruction of Lord Voldemort and his supporters. When that is done, the magical community can go back into obscurity. I'm really not interested in anything else."
Harry smiled and nodded. He had the feeling that this was one Minister he was going to like.
"All I'd ask is that you maintain, shall we say, a degree of discretion in your dealings with the Ministry of Magic?" asked the Prime Minister.
"I'm not their favourite person at the moment," Harry admitted, "but I promise not to reveal anything you don't want them to know."
"That's all we can ask," the Prime Minister responded. "Miss Alice, would you like to begin?"
"Thank you, Prime Minister. I'd like to start with an update of our latest intelligence, and then later I'd like to give a short history of our wider activities for Harry.
"Harry," she continued, "these meetings are recorded and minuted, but we do not refer to our real names for security. I've given everyone name signs so you can understand, but don't worry too about it for now. I'll be transcribing this first meeting myself and the audio tapes will then be destroyed."
Harry nodded seeing everyone reach forward and hold up a place marker. Bateman's had S396, Miss Alice was M101, the Prime Minister was PM47 and Kingsley was U14. Harry took a look at his own place marker. He was U15.
The Prime Minister nodded as she pushed a button on the table before her. A harsh buzzer sounded.
"This is the Forty-third general briefing meeting for Project Resolve," Miss Alice began before listing the code names of the attendees as well as the date, time and place.
"In the period since our last meeting there have been five further attacks confirmed by the Ministry of Magic. They also advised that the unconfirmed attack last week in Birmingham was indeed Death Eater activity as we suspected. This means that we are now reconciled with the Ministry's statistics up to the previous period.
"For this period there are six potential attacks that we know about but the Ministry has not confirmed yet. There were twelve fatalities associated with these attacks, four of whom were children. U14, can you add anything to this?"
Kingsley nodded and said gravely, "Yes. Five of the attacks are almost certainly their work, but the Ministry investigators are unconvinced about the fifth. It was a robbery and no one was killed that time."
"Yes," said Miss Alice, looking down at a file in front of her. "It was the state of the security guard and dogs that made Police suspicious, wasn't it? I'm afraid I disagree with the Ministry. I believe this does warrant further investigation, especially as we don't yet know what was stolen. I've instructed the Police to make additional investigations through the usual channels."
Miss Alice continued to give details about the confirmed attacks and the grim statistics of Voldemort's campaign of terror and intimidation so far.
"It is still my opinion," she concluded some minutes later, "that the Ministry of Magic is not making the best use of its knowledge and abilities. Voldemort is working with purpose, and we know what that is. He wants power and he's sifting through the magical community, killing obstructers and collecting collaborators. I refuse to believe that the Ministry cannot anticipate his moves, especially given the number of people is relatively small."
Kingsley sighed deeply.
"The Ministry has never been a particularly efficient organisation," he admitted. "Hardly any of the best people are in the right jobs, and when you consider that he has his own sympathisers throwing us off on wild goose chases, it's a wonder we can get anything right. Dumbledore was the only one who could anticipate clearly what his short term objectives might be."
"Well," interrupted the Prime Minister gently, "they are hardly going to let us tell them how to organise themselves."
"No," agreed Miss Alice, "but we can help. If we had more information about the individuals, I'm sure we could anticipate Voldemort."
"The information you need," responded Kingsley, "isn't available. Not in written form, anyway."
Harry frowned to himself.
"Yes, U15?" the Prime Minister asked with a smile. "Don't be afraid to jump in."
"Well, I was just wondering. I imagine the information you need is what makes an individual valuable."
"And vulnerable," added Miss Alice.
"Yes, I can understand that. My point is that if this information isn't written down, can't it still be gathered. Either from the Ministry departments who do know part of it, or perhaps from the individuals themselves?
"Miss A-, sorry I mean M101, how would you gather the information you need from non-magical people?" asked Kingsley.
She dropped the place marker she had been waving at him and said, "Well, I would trawl through every written piece of trivia I could find about them. Most people have a police record, usually for some minor misdemeanour committed in their youth, but sometimes a pattern emerges."
"Yes," agreed Harry. "If they got convicted of using a particular curse, you'd know they had that skill."
"More to the point, the nature of the crime can often be a good indicator of their true sympathies."
Harry nodded.
"The Ministry writes everything down, doesn't it?" he asked Kingsley. "If we got access to those records, all of them, could they be analysed?"
"Harry, the Ministry generates tons of parchment every year. There is no way that could be analysed, even if we were to get access."
"I disagree," interrupted Miss Alice. "Here in the United Kingdom, we have intelligence records and risk assessments on every single individual. Of course, those records are incomplete, often inaccurate and misleading sometimes. Well, quite a lot of the time, actually. The point is we have the computing power that can sift through vast amounts of data looking for connections.
"I am sure we have the resources. We have equipment to cope with data on millions of people tracking connections in minimal information. If we were to use our computers to analyse only a few hundred thousand individuals, using detailed trivial information, we are bound to get results."
"Where does the Ministry keep its records?" asked Harry.
"There is a magical link between the Ministry in London and a depository somewhere in Kent. Everything goes there, but it's very secure and there's no way we could get permission to look at those records. Actually, if we did gain access, how would you enter the information? I've seen you typing at those consol things. It would take years."
"Well, we have plenty of terminals and operators for data entry," said the Prime Minister. "Don't we have document scanners too?"
"No, that would still take too long," said Miss Alice. "I rather assumed there was a more magical solution to our problem."
"How?"
"Well, obviously I don't know how, but you must have a way to copy documents. All we need to do is find a way to copy the text onto a media our computers and read directly."
Kingsley was looking at her blankly.
Then he said, "My world is turning upside down. I'll see what I can find out, but don't expect too much progress any time soon."
"I'm afraid there is some urgency," said Miss Alice. "We must assume that Voldemort will anticipate our attempt to do this. He will undoubtedly endeavour to take control of the records for himself. Mind you, in his place, I would have done so already."
"But that's impossible," Kingsley said automatically, but then he stopped and frowned to himself. "You know? I called for a record a week ago on a suspect. I was sure the record was incomplete, but I assumed I was mistaken. It had been years since I had looked at it, after all."
"Then we have to assume the Ministry records are compromised."
"I could be mistaken. I should call for records of people I know better to check for any inconsistencies before we jump to conclusions."
"No, don't do that. That will draw too much attention. Again, Voldemort would be most interested in monitoring the records being called for and by whom."
Kingsley nodded as the Prime Minister turned to Bateman.
"Well Sergeant, it looks like you have your new objective. Secure the Ministry archive for us."
Bateman looked up and smiled.
"Now, S396, will you report on your assessment of our current military activities?" asked Miss Alice, sitting down.
"Thanks," he responded. "Basically, things are not great. After our initial successes, we've had a number of setbacks that culminated with almost a complete rout in our last action.
"Just as M101 anticipated, the enemy has increased their security. The last encampment we attacked must have had lots of early warning detectors because by the time our people got there, all the inexperienced combatants were gone leaving only a handful to fight on.
"Again, as anticipated, they were much more experienced fighters. Our weapons were next to useless against them, although our forces did take the camp in the end. We paid a high price for what they left behind, which was basically a few tents. Nothing of intelligence value was left behind and we only got four confirmed kills. Our casualties were five killed, eight seriously injured and four are missing, presumed captive."
Harry gulped.
"It was a mistake not to have Auror cover," said Kingsley.
"They were simply testing our strength," said Miss Alice.
"Yes. As unfortunate as our casualties were, we learned quite a bit without revealing our true strengths," said Bateman. "Even experienced wizards have trouble fighting an opponent that is too far away. Our snipers can get easy kills provided the wizards are unaware of the threat direction.
"Short range, the Death Eaters were even more effective than Kingsley. No offence," he added with a smile.
"None taken," said Kingsley at once.
"They do, however, exhibit characteristics we can use. They fight as individuals, not together. I'm sure, from the video tapes, that once or twice one of them was more afraid of being hit in the back by a fellow Death Eater. They don't entirely trust each other."
"With good reason," said Kingsley.
"In addition, they don't bother with First Aid in the field unless they can fix themselves up. They will also kill a fallen comrade rather than allow them to fall into our hands."
"You can use this kind of information?" asked the Prime Minister sceptically.
"Oh, yes," said Bateman confidently. "I've already adapted our training regime. I can't promise we'll have fewer casualties, but I am sure that we will become more effective."
"I'm afraid this is the brutal reality of warfare," said Miss Alice gently.
They were all quiet for a moment. Harry felt very uncomfortable at the prospect of so many people becoming casualties of what was essentially his fight.
"What about our weapon development programme?" asked Miss Alice.
"Ah, well I'm hoping to meet with the Weasley twins this afternoon. Is that still going to possible? If it is we may well get a boost with our efforts."
"Oh, yes," said Harry, smiling. "Although I'm not sure you know what you're letting yourself in for. You know their greatest ambition is to invent the biggest practical joke in history, don't you?"
Bateman laughed and nodded.
"I can cope with being the butt of their jokes provided they can help us with more of that equipment we found so useful."
"What about other things?"
"Our standard surveillance equipment just stops working when there's too much magic around, as you know. However, our boffins have managed to make prototype cameras and microphones that work reasonably well. There is still too much interference, though."
"Anything else?" asked Miss Alice, looking around.
The Prime Minister looked at his watch and swore, saying, "I'm late for the House."
Miss Alice said something inaudible and then pressed another button. Harry guessed the recording was over.
"Well, Harry, I'm very glad I made your acquaintance. I can't always attend these meetings, unfortunately, and I'm especially annoyed to not to hear Miss Alice's account of the mad things Brigadier Colonel Falcon has been up to," the Prime Minister said smiling, shaking Harry's hand again.
Then his face grew serious and he did not release Harry's hand.
"I know there are things you have got to do, and I know we will never know what they are. If you need resources that we have, just ask for them. Realistically, we will never amount to much more than a diversion or distraction against the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Just remember, if we use what we have at the right time, we just might give you and the Aurors the edge.
"I especially encourage you to use Miss Alice's knowledge and experience," he added with a glance across the room where she was chatting quietly with Kingsley. "She has an intellect that is simply scary sometimes, but she's always been a dozen steps ahead of any enemy she's faced."
"Harry," said Bateman, who had been waiting for the Prime Minister to finish, "I want to ask you to come with us when we raid the Ministry archive. We will go in with just a small team at first."
"Of course," said Harry, surprised that Bateman would choose him ahead of the Aurors at his disposal.
"It'll be a while before we are ready, though."
"Yes," agreed Kingsley coming back over, "We don't even know where in Kent it is."
"Oh, we know where it is," said Miss Alice with a sly smile. "We just don't yet know how to get in."
The Prime Minister chuckled gently seeing Kingsley's shocked expression.