Locked and Loaded: A Riz Sabir Thriller Omnibus

by Charlie Flowers

  Here we went. I held onto a handhold. Fuzz was talking into her mike.

  ‘London Centre this is Golf Kilo Charlie inbound to Stratford. Squawking 7700. Be advised we are KTS repeat Kilo Tango Sierra, please advise MOD and they can contact us on the emergency channel. Contact is Colonel David Mahoney, repeat, David Mahoney. Out.’

  I was trying to guess how long it would take for a message to get to the Colonel. If his phone had cut out it meant the authorities had shut down the mobile networks in London and invoked MTPAS, the Mobile Telecommunication Privileged Access Scheme. Hopefully we had access to it on our secure sets. I couldn’t remember if we could. Fuzz spoke in my ear.

  ‘Do your lot have a code word to use on air for this kind of event?’

  I shook my head. The reservoirs at Tottenham Hale streamed by. We flew through flocks of birds and flashed over the overhead rail lines at a perilously low level and dropped back down. There went gravity. My stomach lurched.

  ‘Not for this kind of event, no.’

  Overhead there was a rumbling crash like the worst summer thunderstorm, audible even through our headphones and the canopy. Fuzz caught my eye.

  ‘The Typhoons. That’s their sonic boom. They’re here, slowing down, and scanning for targets. Sixty seconds.’

  I said one final prayer under my breath as we shrieked in over Hackney marshes. La ilaha illa l - Lah , Muhammadun rasulu l - Lah …

  I looked back. Calamity was setting up the personal radios and Holly was chewing gum and looking out the window with a grim expression, her cut-down M14 in her lap. She racked a round into the breech and turned the Eotech sight on. Fuzz angled the chopper to follow the big railway line at Temple Mills and we screamed past the Eurostar sheds, climbing at the last moment at the bridges. Another lurch. I clung on for dear life. Stratford spread out before us and grew, grew …

  There was a black and yellow helicopter hovering impatiently like a fat wasp over the old Stratford shopping centre. Fuzz spoke in our ears.

  ‘Cops. Watch this. They could be our only hope.’

  She pulled the helicopter up and into a tight curve right, past the police helicopter and down. We dropped like a broken elevator. Behind us there was a flash and a shocking bang that rattled the airframe. We looked back. The police chopper had fallen in fragments onto the roof of the old centre in a rain of greasy smoke and burning aviation fuel, speared by a thin vapour trail.

  Fuzz laughed.

  ‘Typhoons shot the wrong bird.’

  I looked up and out as we spiralled down. I couldn’t see anything at all. Jesus Christ. Everyone was shooting at us.

  ‘Where d’you want set down Riz bhai?’

  ‘I don’t know Fuzz, can you do a circle?’

  ‘Sure. Coming round.’

  She grinned behind her shades as the shopping mall filled the canopy and we dropped down to a suicidal height, below the green eye sculptures opposite the bus stand and round the back. I glimpsed a crashed double decker and crowds. Pandemonium. Chaos. Flashes of gunfire. There they were. There they were. We flew through a pall of smoke and tracer zipped past the window. Now we were UNDER the main building, and round, climbing and decelerating over the tube lines, scant inches from the cables. A vehicle park rose to meet us. The vast grey expanse of Marks and Spencers loomed before us on the right. We dropped like a stone.

  Fuzz spoke in the mike as gravity went south again.

  ‘Hands up who’s seen Blackhawk Down?’

  She sure knew how to kill the tension. We laughed, we who were about to die. With expert precision, she let down the collective, swung the nose round, flared at the last moment and dropped the Gazelle onto the concrete, kissing the ground with the skids. Dust and litter exploded across the plaza and we checked our kit.

  ‘Go chicas go . We’re all on channel six 446.2 megahertz. I’ll take care of the air. Garryowen.’

  We dropped from the chopper and ran forward. Earpieces in. Scan to channel six. We pressed our call and monitor buttons. Bleeps and hashes filled our ears. Switch to Vox mode. Good to go.

  Calamity cocked her machinegun and shouted back at us.

  ‘Follow me! Garryowen!’

  34

  The chopper lifted away and Calamity trotted forward to the fence, lugging the Minimi.

  Christ. They’d just started saying Garryowen. That was their code for kill everything. It was the old US 7th Cavalry charge motto. We really were into it now. It meant every living thing in front of us was going to get shot dead.

  We ran forward to the fence between the empty vehicle park and the centre. Calamity loosed a burst from her Minimi into the chainlink. No time to worry about ricochets. Fragments whanged past us. It burst apart in a shower of sparks and hot lead. Thank God. We pushed through the fence and ran to Marks and Spencers, scanning for targets. Too hard, the crowds were all over the place and the screaming was horrible. Ahead of us there was a muffled explosion. Where where they?

  Something seemed to be on fire up ahead. Calamity had sought cover on the other side of the mall by some sort of street furniture. My radio click-clicked. She was smoothing the belt from her box mag and nodding at me.

  An Asian guy in a G4S uniform came out of a fire exit. He broke into a run and was reaching to draw … Bang-Bang had her rifle into aim and shot him. He smacked back off the Samsung shop window and bounced to the ground in a spray of arterial blood. I gave her a look, but went forward to check him over. Dead. Spit-sheen eyes. He had a Glock in his hand. Shit. I took the Glock and stuck it my waistband. Bang-Bang laughed as she walked off.

  ‘You following me or what cuz?’

  And then all hell broke loose. Metres before us, Johnny Devlin and eight of his men had walked into view and split up, and they were all carrying AKs. They were also all wearing G4S uniforms. The crowds were now like panicked sheep. They were the prey and we had… we had two sets of wolves. I brought my MP5 into the shoulder and looked at Bang-Bang. She shrugged and shouldered her M14 and got the scope into view.

  Time slowed, stopped. Devlin saw me. His face went white. And time sped up again and we were off. The crowds scattered for cover.

  ‘ Panic drives human herds . Panic drives human herds . ’

  I couldn’t get that thought out of my mind. We went to war. Devlin’s team ran forward to the positions me and Ali had marked up a lifetime ago in a warehouse in Derby and a range in Estonia, took aim, and opened up on the stores and the crowds. Their guns barked and spat flame and smoke and people started dying. We opened up. All over the mall, glass exploded and tracer went right and left. I yelled into my radio.

  ‘Holly, contact front! Calamity, cover fire!!’

  We took cover behind the square tree pots by the side of the Marks and Spencers. Hash in my ear. All across the mall glass exploded.

  ‘ Calamity to Riz . Tell me who to kill . ’

  ‘ Riz . Do you copy ? ’

  Hash.

  ‘ Copy . ’

  ‘They’re wearing G4S uniforms.’

  ‘ Light ‘ em ? ’

  ‘KILL THEM ALL CALAMITY, LIGHT ‘EM UP!’

  We all stood up and took aim and let fly.

  Westfield lit up like July Fourth had come early.

  Calamity’s long bursts of 5.56 thwacked into the stragglers from Devlin’s main squad. They smacked to the floor surprised and dead. Blood and glass flew. The tracer rounds set fire to an awning. The remnants of Devlin’s team ran into the cover of the main shopping corridor.

  Suddenly Ali himself ran into my sights from the right and the red dot illuminated his upper chest. He stopped. I squeezed the trigger. Brass and smoke. My ears rang. He dropped.

  The return fire sputtered and then petered out. Bodies lay spreadeagled and starfished as far as the eye could see. Blue cordite smoke curled in the mall. The echo faded. Devlin and the rest of them had disappeared. I hit the radio.

  ‘Chase ‘em in!’

  Bang-Bang ran for the main doors, changing mags as she ran acro
ss the blood and broken glass. She came to a halt and starting blasting rounds and screaming curses. Calamity broke cover and then a second later, so did I, getting as many rounds downrange as we could on full-auto.

  ‘GIRLS WAIT! Wait for the cover!’

  Calamity ran up and tapped me on the shoulder.

  ‘I’m your cover. Now let’s go and get your girlfriend out of trouble.’

  ‘Calamity - there’s three of us, and two squads of them. We don’t even know where the other squad is yet.’

  There was a shattering burst of incoming rounds, glass flew out and Bang-Bang came racing back round the corner, skidding next to us and laughing as the smoke puffed over us and rounds screamed off walls.

  ‘Any ideas?’

  ‘Nope. There’s too many of them and I’ve trained ’em a bit too well.’

  Calamity took out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag and passed it along. We all took a puff. I passed it back. Bang-Bang had her thinking face on.

  ‘How are they communicating if all the networks are down?’

  That I knew.

  ‘Mobile phones with their own portable base station. It’ll be in one of their vehicles.’

  ‘So if we take that out …’

  Bang-Bang grinned and nodded at Ali’s corpse.

  ‘Cover me.’

  ‘Holly, wait –’

  She was gone. She scrambled forward across the plaza and took cover behind Ali’s body and grabbed for his phone. We both stood and went to full auto as she ran back, incoming rounds thwacking little kicks of dust behind her. Me and Calamity looked at her as if she’d lost her senses. She was giggling.

  ‘OK - cover me again.’

  And she ran for the Samsung shop, pursued by rounds. We fired back, at flashes, smoke, anything. We went to full auto and brassed up the whole area.

  ‘FALL BACK!!’

  The whole plaza turned to a maelstrom of smashed glass. I turned to Calamity.

  ‘On me.’

  We made for the Samsung shop pursued by a storm of gunfire. We dived through the front door as the main shopfront dropped in pieces to find Bang-Bang placing the mobile against a large television. She pressed the volume control and MTV became deafening. What the … Bang-Bang grinned.

  ‘Open channel. Now it should be full of MTV and jammed. Let’s go.’

  Jesus Christ. We checked our mags and headed back out into the open, weapons in the shoulder. I called Fuzz.

  ‘Fuzz, what can you see?’

  ‘ Salaams brother … circling… haven’t been lit up by any Typhoons yet . We got plenty police cars and fire trucks , all hell’s breaking loose in the station . They’re setting up roadblocks . Just took some incoming to your south . Going down to take a look , out . ’

  She sounded like she was having a great time.

  I ran left to Ali’s leaking bloody corpse, dropped the MP5, and grabbed his AK and some mags.

  I looked at Bang-Bang.

  ‘What you got in that satchel?’

  ‘Makeup, lippy, some thumb drives … me PSP. Ah. Lemme see if I can get a map up. Google’s no good, I’ll try OpenStreetMap … nah. No network coverage at all.’

  Obviously the concept of no internet was completely alien to her. I kept scanning the upper levels through the AK’s sight as we jogged along. Calamity started to back up as we ran towards the main shopping centre entrance. The front of Marks and Spencers had caught fire. It was a wall of flame.

  ‘My God. Riz, they’re setting fire to everything.’

  She was staring at the furnace that was starting in the store and I grabbed her shoulder and she snapped out of it and we ran.

  We went left into the main building through the big glass doors. Panicked crowds saw more people with guns and screamed and scrabbled for cover. There were many, many, dead men, women and children. We had to run over them. Rounds started thwacking in from ahead and we returned fire and dived down the escalators, jumping over huddled people. Alive? Dead? We ran forward. At the junction by O2 was a wall of haze and rapid rifle fire zipped out of it at us. We loosed some rounds off to get their heads down and then broke right for cover.

  We ran down the corridor to the opened fire doors. Outside was some sort of traffic ramp and an ambulance with its lights flashing and engine running. We took cover behind it. The rear doors were open and all the crew were sprawled dead on the tarmac. The ground was wet with blood.

  Calamity laughed to herself.

  ‘I’ve got a bit in my eye.’

  Bang-Bang had a look.

  ‘Shutup you gadha, there’s nothing there.’

  I was glad they were getting on at last. I ran to the cab and tried the radio. I grabbed the handset from the terminal and keyed the pressel several times to get in on the net.

  ‘Anyone listening, this is Riz Sabir, KTS, any first responders or security forces can get us on here or 446.2 megahertz.’

  Static. I looked back inside. I couldn’t see anything apart from trapped civilians. Outside and across the way, nothing. I could hear more rotors now. Bang-Bang looked restless.

  ‘Fuck this guys, I’m going back up to O2 to look for targets. I’ll call. Mwah.’

  She racked a round into the breech of her rifle and ran back inside through the glass doors. Suddenly a male voice scratched in our earpieces.

  ‘ Red Troop for any KTS callsigns , come back ? ’

  I looked at Calamity.

  ‘The Gun Club is here.’

  Calamity looked back and shook her head slowly from side to side. We’d been dreading this. The SAS had arrived. Our chances of getting out had halved again. After a while I spoke.

  ‘Riz Sabir here. I’ve got two callsigns with me, we’re outside the High Speed 2 entrance on the car park approach behind the ambulance, if your snipers can see that. We’re wearing yellow armbands. Repeat – YELLOW armbands. Copy?’

  ‘ Copy that . This is Yeoman of Signals Edwards 22 SAS . You can call me Eddie . We’re starting our assault in three minutes . ’

  Three minutes.

  All they were going to see was a shopping centre full of Muslims with automatic weapons. A random memory intruded. I recalled that one of the dead terrorists at the Iranian Embassy siege had been found to have over seventy bullets in him. I muttered another prayer under my breath then spoke.

  ‘Have that. We’ll hold our positions, you can flush them back towards us. Copy?’

  ‘ Copy KTS . We’re putting a squad on the roof of M and S by helo , what’s the situation there over . ’

  ‘Ah, negative to that, Eddie - they’ve set fire to the building.’

  ‘ Copy . Got any idea of numbers and weapons over ?’

  ‘Affirmative. Eighteen to twenty X-Rays armed with AKs, pistols and molotovs. Two squads. The leaders are Johnny Devlin and Jawad second name unknown. Look for a tall ginger bloke over.’

  There was a rustle on the net.Something was nagging at me. I was back in the tandoori on Normanton Road and Jawad was saying “Mumbai, Mumbaiii …”

  ‘EDDIE! The hotels! They’re aiming for the hotels! Just get your sections between them and the hotels! Put your helo down in front of the one on the plaza! Do it quick!’

  Another squall of static.

  ‘Got that Riz. Target is hotels. We’re moving now.’

  ‘And Eddie, watch for the Gazelle, that’s ours.’

  ‘Copy.’

  A weird snatch of orchestral music intruded onto our frequency, ran up and down the scale, and dropped off.

  Bang-Bang spoke on our channel.

  ‘ Guys - their comms are down . I’m upstairs . Top floor . We’ve jammed ’em . Hashgarble but I just saw one in my scope and he was looking at his phone .’

  Now we were in business.

  ‘Eddie, we’ve jammed their comms. They’re deaf and blind. We’re gonna get ’em. Oh and watchout because half of them are wearing G4S uniforms. Eddie?’

  Shit. They’d dropped off our frequency. I checked my watch. Two minutes.r />
  ‘OK girls, let’s move out and kill as many of them as we can. We have comms and we have a view from the air. The Regiment is rolling in in two minutes. Our enemies are between us and them. They’re blind. Follow me.’

  We broke cover and ran forward into the mall, heading for the high ground. I hit the pressel and tried to get Fuzz.

  ‘Fuzz, we’re going in to pick them off. SAS are heading the other way. X-Rays’ target is the hotels. Can you help?’

  I heard the chop of rotors in my ear.

  ‘ Sure thing bhai . I’ve only got a pistol and some harsh language , but I’ll set down outside the Premier Inn . Hooah . Blackeye out .’

  We ran up the last set of escalators and onto the upper level. I spoke into our channel.

  ‘Girls, listen … see the atriums between the floors? If we take position on the top floor at those, we can kill any X-Rays coming back towards us as 22 drive them back in. Sound good?’

  Two sets of clicks.

  ‘Sounds great. What’s an atrium?’

  For fuck’s sake.

  ‘The big square hole in the middle of the mall, luv.’

  ‘Ah. OK.’

  Calamity skidded to a halt by Caffé Concerto and placed her Minimi on the railing, smoothing the belt feed into the box mag. She aimed down. Bang-Bang had gone for the escalators left of Nando and sought an eyrie.

  Another click-click - ‘Bang-Bang in position. I can see all the way past the food halls down to you two and River Island. Give me targets. Wave, my darlings.’

  We waved.

  ‘OK got ya. Fixed. Aaannd, panning left…’

  I took cover and drew a bead on the car park signs in the distance. Miss Selfridge was on fire, the sprinklers were starting to come on, and alarms were blatting in every shop on this level. By now anyone with any sense had sought cover at the rear of the stores or behind walls. The screaming was apocalyptic. I caught the eye of an Asian-looking family who were huddled, terrified, behind a store display. I smiled at them. It didn’t work. ‘It’s gonna be OK!’ I shouted. That made it worse.