***
Terry and his team headed across the river following the old Jubilee tunnel through to Westminster. It was midnight and when they exited the station, he knew there was a short overground run to the target area. ‘Not much moonlight’ he thought thankfully. He had twenty fully armed men that would split up into two groups once they entered the CIO offices in Great George Street. Terry’s team were to secure the target and ensure all personnel were locked away, alarms disabled and the external perimeter well guarded. The other group lead by Alan Walker would seek out the computer servers and infrastructure and set about destroying them. Paul Cobb had provided him with a number of small explosive charges that would do the job.
Terry waited for his watch to tell him it was 0030 hours and time to hit the target.
John, in the meantime had made his way south and then east along the Jubilee line to London Bridge. He and his group of ten armed men waited at the jump off point for the appointed hour. They lay in the shadows and shrubbery that surrounded the Crown Court building in their black garments and ski masks completely blending in with the darkness that surrounded the Thames River.
‘Go, go, go,’ Terry and John simultaneously commanded. Both groups entered their target areas and set about completing the job they had rigorously planned.
Terry had the most complex task of disabling the security guards. He knew from John’s briefing where they would be at this hour, but there was a risk that they would not be together. His team had been split into three groups and came into the target from different directions. Alan Walker had been told to wait until the guards were disabled and under control. The entrance area was dimly lit with just sufficient lighting for security purposes. There were six guards on the shift this night and he was able to identify were four of them were. He needed to find the other two before he could bring in Alan. As he was about to edge forward towards the guards’ office, a security guard emerged from a corridor on the left. Terry quickly stepped out and held his gun firmly under the guard’s chin. ‘Keep absolutely quiet and I promise you will not be hurt, grunt if you understand me.’ The guard threw his hands in the air and made several grunts.
‘Lay down on the floor and with your hands visible.’ Terry gave a signal to his men who quickly bound the guard. Before a gag was put into place Terry kneeled down beside him and spoke quietly in his ear, ‘I can see your chums in their office, where are the others? Answer me very quietly.’
The guard trembled and whispered ‘there are no others, Frank phoned in sick so there’s only five of us.’
Terry nodded to the men to finish gagging him. He gave a signal to his team who quickly descended on the guards’ office. One of the guards reacted very quickly and reached for a panic button on the desk. Terry slammed the butt of his weapon into the man’s jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground. It was too late, the alarm was deafening.
He reached over to one of the still conscious guards and grabbed him by his blue tie, ‘where is the control box for the alarm and you had better be quick?’
The guard, trembling, pointed to a wooden closet door in the corner of the room. Terry shouted ‘get that noise off now and get the other group in’. The alarm was quickly disabled, but Terry was unsure whether they had been quick enough. He pointed to five of his men and instructed them to take up sentry positions at the entrance points. Two other men bound and gagged the guards. Alan Walker and his team raced down to the computer server area and were fully aware of how much quicker they needed to work. The alarm could attract Stapo within minutes. They placed their explosive charges on as many machines that appeared to be of significant size. Alan instructed his men, ‘reduce the detonation time to 5 minutes and move out as soon as you have done that.’ He was certain that the combined blast would probably destroy every machine in the building. They carried out their task with quiet efficiency and then made their way back to the exit points. Alan joined up with Terry’s group and whispered that there were only 3 minutes left. Guards at the exit points gave the thumbs up and so both teams could make a quick exit back to Westminster station. Within seconds of them reaching their underground escape route several loud thuds of the explosive charges could be heard together with the sound of police vehicle sirens.
John and his team had not experienced any hitches in the operation at the Crown Court building. There were no guards, just two computer service engineers who offered no resistance. Two of John’s men escorted the frightened computer men outside of the building as John was concerned that what they were about to do may bring the building down. Paul, the explosives expert carefully examined the walls in the cellars that housed the very expensive computer systems and infrastructure. He concluded that if he placed his charges at certain points he could rupture the containment walls and flood the whole place out. Just to make sure he carefully placed small devices in each of the large machines.
On John’s signal, detonators were set and the group made their way back to their getaway underground. The loud thump he could hear as they entered London Bridge station told him it had gone to plan. Paul Cobb held his finger to his ear as if to say ‘listen’, the loud bang was followed by several smaller thuds. Paul smiled at John and gave him a thumbs up. They descended underground as the Police vehicle sirens became louder.
John Judge Page 24