by Ted Tayler
As for her, she was making a life for herself in London. A single life, with Tommy’s millions to ease the pain. The money she had put up for Sean to get Tommy out was substantial, but it didn’t make much of a dent in the sums the lawyer told her she had available.
Colleen had filled a holdall full of cash to give Sean when they got back. That was Tommy’s pay-off. He could live well enough on an island with two hundred thousand to get settled. In time, she would let him know she wasn’t joining him, and the money he had was all there was, and he needed to make it last. It wasn’t as if he could fly back and do anything about it, was it?
She saw a bloke in a white coat, with a stethoscope around his neck.
“Excuse me, doctor,” she said, “have you been treating my husband, Thomas O’Riordan?”
“I have, Mrs O’Riordan, it’s slow, but he’s coming along. He’s a tough nut. I expect him to be on his feet tomorrow.”
“He’ll be able to transfer to Durham then?”
“I see no reason why he shouldn’t be made comfortable enough to manage a five-hour journey. I have asked that they make two comfort breaks, instead of the usual one.”
“Thank you,” said Colleen. She was satisfied Tommy was being transferred. The next stage was up to Sean and his crew. What she wanted now was to get in his car and get off home. It was time to learn how he planned to pull off the escape.
*****
Phoenix and Athena were playing with Hope when the phone rang. It was Giles Burke. He had traced the missing transfer documentation. Phoenix gave his two girls a kiss and ran across to the ice-house.
“Anyone we know?” he asked.
“Tommy O’Riordan is being moved on Friday,” said Giles. “The other three are lifers too.”
“If my memory hasn’t failed me, the twenty they will have moved this week represents half of the Category A prisoner at Belmarsh. Is there any sign the other half is going north to the same place?”
“Not yet,” said Giles. “Although the Young Offenders Institution set up four years ago may be primed to occupy the whole site in the future. There’s been criticism over the way the maximum-security prisoners are held. They’re banged up most of the day and conditions on the wing are dark, gloomy, and depressing.”
“My heart bleeds,” said Phoenix. “Instead of showing these critics around the prison so they can write this garbage, they should hand them a list of the victims these bastards are responsible for at the prison gate, and then tell them to piss off.”
“If they didn’t let them in, the press would only make up rubbish. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m on your side.”
“Sorry, Giles, I know you are, mate. Thanks for the information.”
Now you know who will be in the van on Friday, what will you need from us?”
“Rusty and I will drive over tomorrow,” said Phoenix. “I’d like to be part of your shadowing team. I need to get a feel for the lie of the land. We’ll see if we can identify spots where they might ambush the van and try to break O’Riordan out. You should continue to fly your drones, and we’ll be in constant radio contact with you, so you can give us the big picture, rather than the limited amount we can see on the ground.”
“Rusty will drive, I presume?” asked Giles.
“He trained me to a reasonable standard when I first arrived here, but he’s the expert. So, he’ll drive, while I take notes.”
“I’ll send Rusty the details of the formations, and the rolling change points as soon as you’ve left. You two need to be in Belmarsh by nine forty-five in the morning. Your contact will be Andy Walters. I don’t believe you’ve met him?”
“The name doesn’t ring a bell, what’s his background?”
“Andy was a driver for senior military personnel in Iraq, and Afghanistan. He left the Army in 2011 and has freelanced as an armed chauffeur for any number of Arab Royals visiting London. He wrote the modern book on these techniques. Even Rusty could learn a trick or two.”
“You can tell him that, I’ll pass,” said Phoenix, and headed for the lift.
He checked his watch. Hope would be off to bed soon. He and Athena could talk through his plans for tomorrow and Friday. Artemis had finished her shift at four, so she and Rusty would be getting a meal now. He ran up the stairs to their apartment and knocked on the door.
“Phoenix,” said Rusty, “what can I do for you, mate?”
“Did you get tomorrow’s details from Giles yet?”
“We’ve been chilling out. I haven’t checked my emails for a while.”
“The truth is he’s knackered,” called Artemis. “He was half-asleep in the chair when you knocked.”
“I need to borrow him for an hour later,” said Phoenix. “I’ll grab a bite with Athena, then pick you up at eight, alright, Rusty? We can run through the driving you’ll be doing tomorrow.”
“Oh good, he’ll be sitting,” said Artemis, “probably for the best.”
Rusty grinned at his friend.
“See what I have to put up with? No problem. See you at eight. I guess we’re off to the orangery?”
“Where else?” said Phoenix.
Thursday, 12th June 2014
The alarm rang at six. Phoenix was showered and dressed in fifteen minutes. As he drank his first coffee of the day and munched on a slice of toast, Athena came into the kitchen.
“I wanted to see you before you left,” she said.
“Today’s just a recce,” he shrugged, “boring stuff, for the most part. I was trying to think last night how I would organise a breakout if I was one of Tommy O’Riordan’s former colleagues.”
“Who took over after he went to prison? Do we have pictures of his gang members?”
“Giles has information on the Irish gang O’Riordan ran which controlled large areas in and around South Kilburn. Hanigan knew O’Riordan well before the Grid was set up, we’ve established that fact. Yes, it’s possible the crew they put together will be local, but with the resources, Hanigan can make available to him, whoever is heading up this operation would have his pick of the best men in the country. We would need Giles and Artemis to sift through thousands of images to identify a driver or passenger in a suspect vehicle. It would take far too long,”
“I’ll get Minos and Alastor to work on the data Giles has available while you’re away today. We may be able to narrow the field for you. You concentrate on identifying the weak spots on the route the transport follows, and how we would counteract any attempt made.”
“Fair enough,” said Phoenix, “I’d better get moving. Rusty will be sat in the car, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Give Hope a kiss for me. Tell her I’ll see her tonight.”
“Don’t I get a kiss,” said Athena.
“Why not? He’ll be playing a full-blown drum solo by the time I get there, but who cares?”
Phoenix joined Rusty by the transport garage at six forty-five.
“Take me to Belmarsh prison, driver, and don’t spare the horses,” he said.
“The radio’s tuned to your favourite station. I had time to fiddle around while I was waiting,”
Rusty set off on the A36, towards the A303. For a change, they were driving to Hampshire to join the M3. That was half their three-hour journey time sorted.
“You can’t beat Motorhead first thing in the morning, can you?” said Phoenix.
“If you say so,” moaned Rusty.
Thursday morning traffic into London isn’t much different from every other day of the week, whichever road you’re travelling. It takes as long as it takes. The occasional roadworks, the odd truck shedding its load, a lane closed off for no apparent reason, and the knob head drivers that pop up from nowhere. Rusty had seen it all. They left the M3 at Junction 2 and joined the M25. It was nine forty-four when they met up with Andy Walters four hundred yards from Belmarsh.
“Good to meet you, Phoenix,” said Andy, “and you must be Rusty?”
“It was the creaking joints that gave it away, w
asn’t it?” said Phoenix.
“No, the red hair,” said Andy, “plus the fact you two are Batman and Robin. You always arrive together, according to Olympus legend.”
Andy introduced the rest of the initial shadow team, whose collection of vehicles were scattered around the Iceland car park selected as their meeting point. He checked each team of drivers had their instructions, and they led the way. Other crews were scheduled to relieve the initial vehicles en route. Andy Walters and Rusty would stick with the transport vehicle the whole trip.
“I pride myself on being able to do this without them ever cottoning on to the fact I’m there. I know you’ve done this work before, Rusty. Are you confident you can do the same?”
“I shall do my best not to mess up,” said Rusty. “If I think we’ve raised suspicions, I’ll drop back, maybe half a mile behind them, and we’ll rely on the live feed from Giles Burke to monitor their progress.”
Andy seemed satisfied with that answer. It was now ten o’clock. The prison vehicle drove through the gates of the prison and the shadow team eased into traffic, in front and behind the van as detailed on Andy’s instructions.
“Hard taskmaster, isn’t he?” said Rusty. “Anyone would think I was a novice.”
“I’ll leave you to concentrate on the driving,” said Phoenix, “we can’t afford to mess up. I need eyes on every junction, to gauge which would be the point at which I would strike if I was them. If that means driving to Durham, so be it. I don’t want to miss anything.”
“We should have brought Artemis along for the day out,” said Rusty. “We could have popped in to see her parents.”
“To ask permission to marry their daughter?”
“I thought you wanted to concentrate on the junctions?”
Phoenix smiled to himself. Maybe one day Rusty would take the plunge. He began taking notes. The first leg of the journey was stops and starts. They spent more time stationary than moving.
“Pull off at the next turnoff, Rusty,” said Phoenix. “I’ve seen enough.”
The time had reached ten thirty-five.
CHAPTER 12
“Andy Walters will think I was spotted,” groaned Rusty as he parked the car.
“I’ll explain it to him when we meet up tomorrow,” said Phoenix, “don’t beat yourself up, you were perfect.”
“I wish you would explain it to me,” said Rusty.
“Do you fancy a decent breakfast? Let’s walk into town and find a place to eat. We can talk it through over a full English and a mug of coffee. I only had time for a slice of toast earlier.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” said Rusty.
“We’ll play catch-up with Giles when we get back to the car, just to check on Andy and the team’s progress. I have no doubt everything will pass off without incident today. The longer we have time to prepare for tomorrow the better.”
“Do you really think you’ve found the best interception point so soon into the journey?” asked Rusty.
“You seem surprised? Think about it, the further north they travel the less familiar the territory. If I assembled a team for a job such as this, I would pick men who knew the region well. If they manage to get O’Riordan out of the vehicle where will they take him?”
“A safe-house, I guess, or to the coast for a boat across the Channel.”
“The second option, rather than the first, I believe. What would you do with the other three prisoners if it was you? Would you leave them handcuffed inside the van?”
“I don’t need them, so I’d leave them behind,” said Rusty. “What about the escorts?”
“Robbery with violence will be the stock-in-trade of the guys they pick for this job. So, the escorts are expendable, as a last resort. I don’t think they will kill anyone, except by accident. That is if they happen to die as the result of a crash. They may take a hostage along with them as a bargaining tool though, and we need to factor that into our plans.”
The roadside café was perfect for what they needed. The all-day breakfast went down a treat, and an hour later the agents returned to their car ready to face the rest of the day.
“Let’s call Giles for an update,” said Phoenix.
Giles had little to tell them about the prison transport vehicle, except that traffic was nose to tail on the M11 due to an accident, and progress slow.
“Sounds as if abandoning the shadow team was a sensible move,” said Rusty.
“It’s also something to bear in mind for the morning. Timings may be affected by the traffic for the criminals as well as ourselves.
“Are we heading back to Larcombe now?” asked Rusty.
“Let’s go back via Chiswick. It’ll be slow going through the city, but once we hit the M4, we’ll be home by three o’clock. We can have two hours in the orangery, then we can both spend time with our other half. It will be another early start in the morning.”
They had reached Swindon when Giles called back.
“Minos and Alastor have been working on the possible makeup of tomorrow’s crews. There is a maximum of thirty ‘faces’ that are right for the job, and available. That’s the best we can do. I’ve got Artemis checking back over the past four or five days to see if we can recognise any of those men in vehicles on the roads in question. They wouldn’t go into this cold, someone must have reconnoitred the area. Also, Alastor suggested they might use an isolated spot, or an abandoned aerodrome, for instance, to practice the manoeuvres they plan to use to box in the transport van, so it can’t escape.”
“Brilliant,” said Phoenix, “this will be a great help. I can reduce the workload for Artemis too. She can discount any roads further north than Ockenden.”
“That’s a massive help, Phoenix,” said Giles. “She overheard that, and it brought the widest smile I’ve seen from her in a while.”
“We’re an hour away from Larcombe,” said Phoenix, “we’ll see you both later.”
“Safe journey,” said Giles, and ended the call.
Rusty parked the car next to the transport section garage at a few minutes after three. He and Phoenix made for the ice-house to get the latest news from Giles and Artemis.
“What have you discovered, Artemis?” Phoenix asked.
“I’ve confirmed the identities of two criminals I believe will be there tomorrow so far,” she replied. “I’ll keep searching. Giles is hunting for possible practice sites in the other room.”
“Keep going with identifying the gang members, Artemis, and give me the details of the vehicles they’re driving too.”
“I anticipated that, and included make, colour and registration,” she said, “but it’s unlikely they will use those vehicles on the job, surely?”
“The two you have identified, what were they driving?”
“One drove a beat-up old van, the other a VW Golf.”
“They could be what they would drive tomorrow, I suppose. My guess is you’re looking for at least eight men, and a minimum of four vehicles. One of which will be big and heavy.”
“I’m due to finish at four, but I’ll keep going. You and Rusty will be tied up preparing for tomorrow anyway, I presume?”
“Sorry,” said Rusty, “we’ll only be two hours tops. Phoenix wants to spend time with Athena and Hope too. Tomorrow will be a long and tiring day.”
The two friends left the ice-house and made for the orangery. It was time to run through the plans Phoenix had formulated. They relied on Artemis and Giles providing more information before morning. When Andy Walters assembled his shadow team in the Waitrose car park in Belmarsh, they needed every scrap of knowledge at their disposal, so the breakout could be foiled.
“That’s as far as we can get today,” said Phoenix at six o’clock, “let’s quit. We’ll leave at the same time in the morning. I’ll visit the control centre to collect anything new they identify overnight. Can you pick up our guns and ammunition from the armoury, please?”
“No problem,” said Rusty. “I guess I’ll catch you
in the ice-house just after six, then?”
“No rest for Batman and Robin,” laughed Phoenix.
Friday, 13th June 2014
Despite the early start, everything went smoothly. The two agents left at six forty-five on the dot and had most of the extra details they needed. The identity of the gang members wasn’t one hundred per cent complete, but Phoenix was confident his plans would work.
“Do you want me to take the same route today, Phoenix?” asked Rusty.
“No, we’ll take the M4, and go north on the M25 towards Purfleet. That’s where the action will be. I called Andy Walters late last night. I told him we wouldn’t be travelling alongside them today. He’s aware now that the gang will join the party south of the Thames.”
“Are those guys carrying weapons too?” asked Rusty.
“As a precaution, yes, but if things go well, we can avoid any bloodshed.”
Rusty drove to the motorway and started on the two-hour drive east. The M25 trip could vary in length of time depending on the usual variables. They would be in the right location by ten, with luck. They had to be there by ten thirty-five.
*****
Sean Walsh hadn’t slept well for days. He had been drinking more than was good for him, but he still didn’t sleep. His stomach played him up, and he was starting to think the stress had given him ulcers.
His team was set. They had a VW Golf, a white Transit Van, a 7.5-tonne flatbed truck, and a Peugeot people carrier. For the motorway accident, he hired a woman driving a small foreign hatchback. Other cars with ‘grunt’ under the bonnet were on standby.
They had practised for ages on an industrial site near Barking. The place was brand new, and apart from construction vehicles parked on the sides of the roads, they had the place to themselves in the late evening.
One of the construction vehicles had been reported stolen last night.