There was silence in the CP for a full ten seconds after she finished, but it felt like ten hours as just what they were dealing with sank in, then slowly at first each one turned back to their screens, the operators began relaying information to the teams and everyone began taking on the roles they were required to do.
“Charlie papa, this is the south barrier” a call came over the radio, “we have a bit of a situation here.” The operator turned to Sandy, she covered her mike, “I think this might be serious she said quietly, then turning to the mike again she called up, “Charlie papa to south barrier go ahead”
“We’ve got members of the press here wanting to know the situation, they want to know why they can’t broadcast” the barrier team came back.
“Inform them we have a situation with an unexploded device” Sandy took the mike, “we are evacuating the area, tell them there’s a press blackout at the moment and all frequencies are disabled due to possible remote detonation, that’s why they can’t transmit” she lied, and she knew they would know it, but the fact was they were being jammed as well, the Police jammers used for preventing remote detonation of a device blocked every signal for up to half a mile, and they operated on every frequency available, not just the ones mobile phones used.
“Passed that message on” the team replied, “but they still want to know when they’ll be able to broadcast and is there a chance of an interview for being so patient?” from the tone it was obvious the press had been anything but that, but that went with the territory, she’d do the same in their shoes.
“Roger” she replied over the radio, “inform them we’ll gladly oblige after the incident” she clicked the mike off, “Keep me apprised of that situation,” she told the operator. She had no intention of giving the interview herself, it was something set up for DS Jones and Sergeant Harris, they just didn’t know it yet, ‘won’t hurt their careers’ she thought knowing it would seriously embarrass their bosses who’d refused to look at the evidence.
Chapter 38
“Okay, let's cut through the Bullshit shall we, Just what is really going on here?” BJ asked Jacko as soon as they were separated from the rest. Jacko had teamed her up with himself going to the front of the building, Mac and Sergeant Harris were teamed up together, their job would be to segregate the people as they came out, no one had explained much at this point, a third member of the squad had taken two officers around the back of the building, it seemed really strange, unless you were trying to prevent escape, that was all she could think of. The fourth member seemed to be playing with some kind of remote control robot on tracks, a very strange robot with a camera fitted to a long tube-like structure as well as a mechanical arm that looked like it had some kind of firearm fitted. She knew the arm usually had a high-pressure water cannon fitted, but this one didn’t look right! “And just who are you?” she looked sideways at him as they prepared to approach the door.
“The last question first” Jacko began, “we’re known as Scorpion Team, and our job is taking down scumbags like these” she knew he was only telling part of the truth, but it would have to be enough, “These clowns are only part of the whole picture, but they’re an important part, and they have the evidence you need to get the men behind Akbari’s murder”
That stopped her literally in her tracks, so far she hadn’t mentioned the case, “what do you know about that?” she couldn’t help the question.
“You do know whom Akbari worked for, don’t you?” he asked as they began picking up their equipment, she was uncomfortable around firearms, and it was strange that a supposed ‘bomb disposal’ guy was bristling with them, he wasn’t carrying a weapon she recognised, the team had managed to make sure their ‘commandos’ were ready for them, all that is except for Smithy, he had ‘something special; as he put it. The captain was also carrying one sidearm she could see, and probably others she couldn’t.
“He worked for MI6” she replied, then added “which is strange as they normally ‘clean their own house’ and we don’t usually get to hear much about it”
“Except this time” Jacko cut her off, “we hoped a rottweiler would catch the case, ‘6’ have tried to shut you down, but there are people inside who want this in the public domain”
“But isn’t it national security and all that crap” she protested slightly, “they usually fire off at us, they get us to back off, and whats”
“Usually” he admitted, “but this one has too many rotten apples to hide, instead this time, we want to expose a few and watch the rest scurry for cover, and believe me, there’ll be quite a few, anyway, enough of the chit-chat, let’s get on with this” and with that he banged on the door. “POLICE, OPEN UP”
“Alex, it’s me, Sergei, we’ve got trouble down at the Garage” the voice on the other end of the phone sounded worried, not frantic, but concerned, “The Police are here, banging on the door demanding to be let in”
“Why?” he demanded, “what for?”
“No idea,” the reply came back, “I called you first, the others are making everything ready, did you know anything about this” the voice demanded.
“Don’t be stupid” Alex replied, “No one told me anything about it, what do they want?”
“They’re saying it’s some kind of exercise, looking for bombs” Sergei replied, he sounded on edge and had good reason to be, the Mondeo used in the shooting a few days before was sat in the damn place, and he’d had no time to start work on it, it even had the ‘VIN’ number still attached to the Chassis, he indicated to another mechanic to get to work covering it up in some way.
Everyone knows that cars have number plates to help track the ownership of a vehicle, and even a chassis number, but very few know of what’s called the ‘Vehicle Identification Number’ or ‘VIN’ for short that is also used for tracking when a vehicle is stolen.
The Number plate is on the back and front of the car, that’s obvious to deal with. The chassis number is often riveted to the chassis in a place where the mechanics know, it’s never removed, but due to the fact it’s riveted there they can be removed by clever thieves, the VIN is a whole different story, it’s stamped into the frame, usually in the door arch and into one of the main supports, you can’t remove it without seriously affecting the safety of the vehicle because you have to cut the plate out, and that causes serious problems for all except the best of thieves, Alex and Sergei were the best at what they did.
“What are they looking for?” the question was automatic, out of his lips before he even realised, “is everything away?”
“Place is clean boss, as much as we can make it, just the car.”
“Can you get it out, away from there?” the worry came through in his voice.
“What do you think” Sergei hissed, “we got it last night, Mikhail started it, but it's in pieces, it still has the VIN number on it!”
English people wouldn't understand the words used in the reply, but Sandy spoke pretty good Russian, they just didn’t know it, but even she was struggling with some of the phrases they used.
Sandy already had things set in motion, she had an extra tent, a nine foot by nine-foot military style tent they’d brought with them, two officers had set the tent up, then put a chair and desk in it. A flap connected it to the rest of the CP. she was monitoring the phones from her devices, though they could only see the two laptops.
“Smithy” Sandy spoke into the Bluetooth mike, the team were still all wearing them, they were on a separate frequency to the Police network, “You still got the two plods with you?”
“Affirmative” Smithy sounded businesslike, even though they were on separate frequencies to the cops, he was right there with his two, they’d still hear his half of the conversation, “What do you need?”
“Just confirmed one bird, not in the nest, make sure the ‘Eaglet’ doesn’t fly away” she replied, “we need a pickup, you take your two and do that, I’ll get Mac and Sergeant Harris to make an entrance through the back.”
“Roger that” Smithy replied and clicked off. Turning to the cops he said, “come on boys, time for some real police work”
Smithy took his phone out, glanced at the screen which had Google maps displayed, saw the markers and made a decision.
“Leave the car,” he told the cops, “follow me” and started sprinting in the direction where the other marker was, move your bloody arses”
Sprinting in full body armour isn't easy at the best of times, add weapons and ammo and you're pushing the limits for most people, Smithy wasn't even breaking a sweat.
Sprinting down the street he swerved left at the first junction, using a parked car like a wall he planted a foot on the centre pillar between the doors and pushed off without slowing, gaining speed and distance, the two cops did the same.
They went straight through at the next junction, a car that had been coming down the street braked hard, the screech saying it all, the car behind wasn't so fortunate, driving too fast and too close she managed to swerve missing the car in front, but not the lamp post on the left.
“You two” Smithy turned and hissed, it was meant to be a whisper, but spoke a bit too loud, he made sure he was heard, “we need this prick detained under the investigation of Terrorism ACT, you're up for it” it wasn't a request.
The place was a small cafe, a ‘greasy spoon’ kind of place, six tables, two were occupied one had two heavy-set men sat there, neither had anything in front of them, the other had one, also heavy-set but slightly younger looking, he was on the phone, they were getting ready to leave, the bulges under their armpits suggesting trouble.
“I'll take the back” Smithy took off like steeplechaser in the Grand National, “Go” he shouted as he cleared the first wall, a six-foot leap.
“What you think is going on the boss?” one of the ‘heavies’ asked as they stood up, each one reaching for their coats. They headed for the door as it began to open, two cops carrying weapons walked in, everyone stopped in their tracks, the Russians began to back up, the ‘heavies’ moving in front of the boss.
“Just stay where you are!” the older of the two cops demanded, “and no funny stuff” his weapon was already in the shoulder and pointing in their direction, he checked the safety.
The two big guys were at least a hundred and thirty kilos, that’s two hundred and fifty pounds each, both of them put their heads down and barrelled into the cops trying to knock them flying, but the two cops had expected something like it and fast as lightning they sidestepped neatly, grabbing their opponents they deftly used a little Aikido and used the big guys weight against them, slamming them both into the ground hard, “You’re both under arrest” the older of the two screamed as they roughly wrenched hands behind backs, plasticuffs out and clipped into place they were secure.
Every operation has a plan for ‘when the proverbial hits’ and theirs was ‘do whatever you need to buy time for Sergei to get away’ once that happened, then he could do whatever was needed, warn whoever needed to know, and hopefully get you some legal help on the way, Brits loved to play everything ‘by the rules’ so a lawyer was a must, or just tell the big boss to make things like money or drugs disappear, they just followed protocol like they did this every week.
Sergei made for the back door, he knew there was a car, an old Ford parked out back, the owner wouldn’t miss the car for a few hours, and they were so easy to break into that one Ford key in five would fit any of them, he had that key with him all the time, he also knew there’d be enough petrol in the car to get him out of town, that was all he needed.
He slipped through the back door frame and began to turn, unfortunately he met a fist coming in the opposite direction, the thud was so loud the two cops stopped their cuffing the other two heavies momentarily and turned only to see Smithy dragging and unconscious Sergei back into the room, “Cuff this one too while you’re at it” he spoke to the two cops, “By the way, good job, we can read ‘em their rights when he comes round” he then turned to the stunned cafe owner who’d been glued to the spot while all this was going on and asked, “any chance of three cuppas for your hard-working security forces?”
“Scorpion four, you ready?” Jacko’s voice came over the intercom, they’d gone back to their callsigns so as not to give their real names away in the operation.
“Roger that” Joey replied, “Barrow will be ready in thirty seconds” he reached into the vehicle and lifted what looked like a small radio controlled tracked vehicle with what seemed like a periscope out, putting the vehicle down he picked up a remote control unit with a small joystick on it and pushed the stick forward, the vehicle lurched forward, they were in business.
The whole charade was that there was a bomb somewhere, that meant they had to be seen to be looking for the device, and if the job is hazardous to life and limb then you never send a human to do a job that a machine can do, that was the ‘Wheelbarrow’s’ job.
The little ‘periscope’ had two devices fitted, one was a remote camera so that the operator could see what he or she was looking at, and the other was Joey’s adaptation, instead of the normal water cannon, it had a single barrel 12 gauge shotgun.
Car bombs almost always use plastic explosive, but plastic explosive, no matter what kind is used are all pretty safe to handle under normal circumstances, it won’t catch fire, won’t explode if you drop it, you can even shoot the stuff and it won’t explode, for that to happen you need an electrical current, and that means a detonator of some kind, and an electrical source like a battery, disconnect those and you stop the explosion, hence Joey’s ‘Wheelbarrow’ having a water cannon to take out the detonator while the operator is still a safe distance away, Joey’d fitted the shotgun that could do that, but he had another purpose for it.
“Scorpion four to one and two” Joey called back as the machine started to roll forward, “We’re on our way”
Chapter 39
“Police” the voice outside shouted above the banging on the door, “open up” it wasn't a request, “NOW!”
“What the?” the mechanics, all three of them nearly jumped through the roof, they looked at each other, no one knew what was going on. What they did know was there was a car in the shop that was so ‘hot’ it wasn’t just going to burn anyone in the area, it was going to ‘deep fry’ everyone.
The roller door of the garage was partly open, one of them ran to push the button to close it, the button didn't respond, and a strange little-tracked vehicle, one that looked like a toy tank was slowly trundling towards the half-of the and door.
“We have a robot, coming to the garage door” one of them yelled in Russian, “I break it” he reached for a wrench.
“No” one of the others yelled, he pointed to the third guy, “YOU” he pointed, “go check everything is hidden.” Turning back to the first he carried on, “Igor, that robot is a device, the British use them a lot, see the periscope” he pointed to the top, “it has a special gun”
“So?” Igor shouted back, “big deal, I hit that first.”
“And if it goes off” the first one cut in, “every cop out there will come in guns ready to shoot anything that moves, we'll have no chance!”
“OPEN THIS DOOR, YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS” the voice out front demanded, then started counting down, “five, four”
“Okay! Okay” the first Russian spoke as he began unlocking the door, why they wanted this one open when the garage main door was already up was beyond him. He opened it slightly, what you want?”
“We have reason to believe” BJ started to explain, “that an explosive device has been placed in your”
“There's nothing here” he dismissed them and tried to shut the door, it bounced back hitting him on the nose.
“We'll be the judges of that sir” Jacko moved forward, straight into the big Russian who ended up in a heap on the floor. The Russian had a good four inches extra height, and thirty or so kilos, around sixty pounds, and Jacko didn’t really push, more like bulldozed his way into
the building, and the obstruction was simply flattened.
“Hey, what you?” the big Russian began getting to his feet, “you can’t do that, it’s a free country”
“It’s a bomb threat” BJ cut in, “when that happens, we can do what we need to in order to ensure public safety” she was in Jacko’s wake, but just as strong, “Now stand aside and let us do our jobs”
“Stupid bitch, I TELL YOU THERE’S”
“CAN IT!!” she wheeled round and grabbed the Russian by the throat, kids from Moss-side never take that kind of crap from anyone, it’s the kind of talk will get you a knife in the throat, “I don’t give a shit what you said” she might have been a good deal shorter than the guy, but it was obvious who was in charge in this exchange, “WE ARE checking the place, and you can either accept it, or we can talk down the local station, and I mean under the investigation of Terrorism act of two thousand and eight, that could take a few days, and by the way Lawyers aren’t welcome, NOW WHICH IS IT TO BE?” she almost threw him down.
“Two and four” Jacko spoke into his radio, “begin the search” he walked back to the Russian, “Now sir if you’ll accompany us outside, we can arrange a place for you to wait while we check the place out.
“I told you” the big Russian began again, by now the others from the Garage had gathered round, a couple of them had wrenches in their hands, Billie glanced at Jacko nervously, he seemed to be totally relaxed, almost as if he was enjoying the whole affair, he was, immensely, but relaxed he wasn’t, he was ready for anything, “There’s nothing here!”
Scorpion's Vengeance Page 19