Operation: Loch Ness

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The real end to the affair came a week later.

Banks’ superior officer had survived the fiasco at the castle after Banks made a full report on their return to Lossiemouth. The incident in the car park was reported as a domestic terrorist incident, which kept the politicians happy as they had somebody concrete apart from themselves to take the blame. A team went down into the chamber under the house, found the dead beasts where Banks said they were, and then sealed the place up by pouring, in Wiggins’ words, a shitload of rock and concrete down any hole they found in the area.

Banks got a letter on Saturday morning, and took it along to the mess to show the sarge and Wiggins. He got a round in, a pie and a pint for each of them, then took out a photograph to show them. On the back, it had a date: time stamp of early morning of the day before, and a handwritten message.

“She’s back. Love, Sandy Seton.”

Banks turned it over to show them the other side. It was a photograph of the loch, under a heavy gray sky. The photograph looked grainy, slightly out of focus, and there was no sense of scale.

But the three dark humps were clearly visible.