Operation Sabre

by Glenn Carter

  Conor looked at them wide eyed for a moment before saying, ‘Who are they?’

  Bald replied, ‘I’m not sure, but we are going to find out.’ Paul and Sharav were shoved onto a sofa. All five members of the gang were staring down at them. There was no escape. Bald came over and grabbed them by the scruff, pulling them to their feet. ‘I don’t like people coming into my house without permission! Who sent you?’

  Paul and Sharav looked up at him and Paul frantically tried to remember his interrogation training. He was breathing quickly and tried to calm his thoughts. He stayed silent.

  Bald turned to Spike and said, ‘Tie them up.’

  Spike approached them, smiling. ‘It’s okay boys, we have ways to make you talk. Ways that I really enjoy. He pulled two cable ties from his pocket and within seconds both Paul and Sharav had their hands tied painfully behind their backs.

  Bald stood close to them and smiled, ‘Boys we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Spike here has a way with people. He gets them talking no bother at all.’ Bald was now inches away from their face, ‘WHY ARE YOU HERE?’ he shouted. Silence. Then with a rush of temper he punched them both in the stomach. They were knocked back on the sofa, gasping for air.

  Terry, who had piloted the micro drone into the living room was watching everything and started to panic. ‘Captain, you okay? You want to use the special code word? Just let me know and I’ll get help. Say it!’

  Bald man noticed something in Sharav’s ear. He reached down and pulled out the earpiece and then quickly turned Paul over and grabbed his one as well. ‘Oh, this is more serious than I thought,’ he said, as he dropped the earpieces on the floor. Sharav tried to suck enough air in and shouted ‘boobie misad…’ Bald crushed both earpieces with his heavy boot. He looked at Sharav and said, ‘What was that, boy?’ Sharav closed his mouth and looked down.

  Bald turned to Spike and said, ‘Make them talk.’ Spike smiled a sickly smile and left the room. Meanwhile Paul stared at Conor, his face getting red with rage. He was furious with Conor. Now face to face with Conor, Paul wanted revenge. He had recovered sufficiently from the punch to say through gritted teeth, ‘You betrayed us! I’m going to make sure you pay for this. We trusted you!’ The gang looked from Paul to Conor.

  ‘Do you know him Phil?’ The blond woman asked Conor.

  ‘I don’t know what he’s on about,’ Conor replied in a strong London accent. ‘Never seen them before. Now let’s get them talking.’ He walked up to Sharav and Paul and slapped them hard across the face.

  Bald pulled them back to their feet just as Spike returned carrying two small metal devices. Spike turned to Blondie, ‘I’m going to need their hands for this, can you cut them loose?’ Blondie grabbed Paul and then Sharav and cut the cable ties with a large knife.

  Spike explained what he was going to do. ‘The old forms of torture are the best.’ He placed Sharav and Paul’s thumbs in two vice-like contraptions and started turning the screws. ‘These are called thumb screws’. They were used in medieval Europe around the 1600s to extract confessions from people who they thought were witches. It’s a simple device that basically crushes your thumbs. Extremely painful. I’m hoping you don’t talk.’

  Paul and Sharav looked at each other. Their hands were held out in front of them and each thumb was secured in the thumbscrews. It was becoming very painful when something unexpected happened. Spike, who was turning the screws, began to laugh. At first the gang started laughing along with him, but after twenty seconds they stopped and looked enquiringly at Spike. Spike had now stopped turning the screws and was bent over, slapping his knees in hysterics.

  Bald said, ‘What’s so funny? Don’t you think you’re enjoying this a bit too much?’ After a minute Spike fell on the floor gasping for breath as his laughter continued.

  ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him,’ said the blond woman. As she approached the boys to tighten the thumb screws she sneezed. She looked surprised. Then she sneezed again, then again and couldn’t stop. She was sneezing every couple of seconds and had to back away and sit down.

  Bald looked at both his gang members in disbelief, ‘What’s going on?’ Then Spotty said, ‘Boss, I don’t feel too well. I’m just going to visit the loo.’ Sixty seconds later they could hear a huge diarrhoea explosion coming from the bathroom across the hall, along with heavy groans. Then another diarrhoea explosion, followed by four or five more. Bald shook his head. ‘You better not have anything to do with this!’ he said as he approached Paul and Sharav menacingly. He asked Conor to hold Sharav. As he was about to turn the thumb screws, Bald collapsed to the floor and before long was snoring peacefully on the carpet. Ten seconds later he woke up, jumped to his feet and rubbed his eyes. ‘Listen you two, how is this happening? Did you drug us?’

  Paul smiled, ‘Yep!’

  Bald pulled his large arm back with his fist clenched. Paul winced as he saw the fist flying towards him. Mid punch, Bald fell backwards hitting his head on the floor, again fast asleep. Paul used the distraction to throw his head back hard, smashing it against Conor’s nose. Paul and Sharav both rushed out of the room only to be met by the fat spotty teenager staggering out of the bathroom looking green. They had no choice. Upstairs. Conor, with his nose still bleeding, ran after them. The boys entered what seemed to be the gang’s control room. Paul frantically looked around. ‘There!’ He ran over to the corner of the room picking up what must be Rachel’s phone. ‘Grab some papers!’ he said to Sharav. They both grabbed what they could and stuffed them into their pockets. Then Conor was at the door. He held his arms out blocking their exit.

  ‘Paul, Sharav, this isn’t what it looks like.’ Conor was now using his Irish accent.

  ‘Who are you anyway?’ shouted Paul.

  ‘You know who I am.’

  ‘Stay away from us,’ said Sharav.

  Paul and Sharav were backing away towards the door which led to the balcony. Sharav, keeping his eyes on Conor, reached for the handle and slid the door open. They stepped out onto the balcony. Conor followed them slowly. Just then Bald arrived at the door.

  ‘You little…!’

  ‘Ronnie, it’s okay,’ Conor interrupted in his London accent. ‘I’ve got this.’

  Bald barged his way past Conor, moving quickly towards Paul and Sharav. Their backs were against the balcony. There was no way out.

  28

  Skittles

  ‘You drugged us!’ Bald spat. ‘I’m going to kill you.’

  Bald looked over the edge of the balcony. He turned to them both, smiling. ‘Three stories up. Do you bounce?’

  He edged towards them. He grabbed Paul by the scruff and started lifting him. Paul’s legs were in mid-air when Conor suddenly rushed towards Bald, grabbing him around the neck in a sleeper hold. He was trying to cut off the blood supply to knock Bald out. Bald backed into Conor quickly. Conor fell backwards pulling Bald with him. He managed to roll backwards as they fell, throwing Bald over his head towards the other end of the balcony. They were both on their feet again quickly. Bald looked confused, ‘What is this, Phil?’

  ‘Sorry Ronnie, this isn’t personal.’ Before Bald could process the sentence, Conor landed a right hook into his face, knocking him back into the room. He followed him quickly. Bald grabbed a metal lamp from the table. Wrenching the cable from the socket, he pulled the shade off and smashed the bulb so that shards of metal and glass were sticking out from the top. Conor approached him slowly as Bald swung the lamp wildly saying, ‘You won’t leave this house alive.’

  Conor ducked under the lamp as it swung towards his head. Then he had to jump back quickly when Bald tried to stab him in the stomach. They were edging around the table in the middle of the room. Paul and Sharav were watching from the balcony door. Conor looked at them. ‘Stay back,’ he warned them. Conor’s split-second distraction was enough time for Bald to throw the lamp at him like a javelin. The broken glass stuck into Conor’s arm. He staggered backwards, pulling it out slowly to
reveal a large gash. Bald laughed as he reached for a baseball bat propped up against the wall. Conor, weakened by his wound, looked around the room for a weapon. Paul and Sharav looked in disbelief as Conor fell to the floor holding his arm. He was on his back and was trying to edge away from his assailant. Bald walked towards him wielding the bat. As he stood over Conor he said, ‘Goodbye Phil or whatever your name is!’

  With a sudden burst of movement, Conor twisted around on his back, pushing hard with his feet against the wall and slid fast under the table. As he was sliding, he kicked against the underside of the table, throwing it towards Bald. The table smashed against Bald, knocking him backwards, and he hit his head hard against the wall. Sharav and Conor looked aghast as Bald slid down the wall unconscious.

  Conor got to his feet holding his stomach. He smiled at Sharav and Paul. ‘Howaya lads. Right then, what’s next?’

  Paul walked towards him, ‘You okay?’

  ‘Grand. Listen we should get out of here!’

  Just as he said that, they heard the sound of a helicopter. They turned and walked out onto the balcony and saw to their astonishment a black helicopter flying towards the house. It hovered over the back garden and three ropes where thrown out, followed by six heavily armed men dressed in black. ‘Looks like SAS commandos,’ shouted Conor over the noise. One of the remaining soldiers in the helicopter was pointing her gun towards them and then lowered it, signalling something with her hand. She was using some sort of sign language. Conor squinted and tried to interpret, ‘What’s she saying… I see…. Enemy? Enemy!’ Conor swung round, as did the boys, and there was Bald, rushing towards them. Conor side-stepped, punched Bald in the stomach with one hand and used the other hand to throw him over the balcony. They all watched as Bald fell three stories, smashing through the glass roof of the conservatory.

  Ten minutes later Paul and Sharav were reunited with Terry in the back garden. The helicopter had landed in the park near the sea. It turned out that Terry had called for help even though he didn’t hear the entire code phrase.

  ‘Captain and his mate. It’s good to see you! I mean that was awesome! Come on! We did it. Go us, go us, go us!’ he chanted. ‘When can we do that again. I feel… I feel all jingly and jangly… I feel amazing.’ Terry was staring at them with wide eyes as he waited to hear what they had to say.

  Sharav eventually said, ‘It didn’t feel awesome from the inside.’

  ‘Yeah but for me, it was like watching the best movie ever! It feels like I’ve eaten a thousand Skittles,’ Terry said, showing them his phone. ‘Oh, yeah and the only slightly disappointing thing was the bomb malfunction.’

  Paul turned quickly to look at Terry, ‘the bomb malfunction?’

  ‘Yeah an explosion would have made for a great end to that bad boy of an episode.’ Terry smiled.

  ‘What bomb, Terry?’ asked Paul.

  ‘It was just a couple of pipe bombs that I decided to throw in the laundry window. You know, to shake things up a bit. I reckoned that you could do with a bit of ….’

  Paul rushed off to find the SAS commander. ‘Commander, I think there might be a couple of bombs in there. Get your soldiers out.’

  The commander looked towards the house and touched his ear, ‘Fire in the hole. Abort, abort. Repeat abort, abort, fire in the hole. Over.’ Once he had given that command he turned to the assembled group in the back garden. ‘Everyone out!’ he shouted. The commandos responded instantly and before they knew it Paul, Terry and Sharav were being closely followed by the remaining soldiers, two of whom were dragging a now semiconscious Bald between them. They congregated beside the helicopter and turned to look at the house. They waited. The commander smiled and walked over to boys, ‘Looks like a false alarm boys. I’m really glad because the gas supply enters the building through the laundry room. Anyway, better to be….’

  BOOM! The commander was interrupted by an explosion. They all watched as the windows of the house shattered. But this was only the start. There was a series of deep booming noises as the fire followed the gas pipe up into the attic and the roof was punched through by a huge, angry, orange cloud of fire. Everyone started running towards the sea. Just then, the final explosion occurred. It blew the back off the house and everyone was knocked flat. They lay there for a few seconds before the commander shouted at them to get up and keep running. As they looked behind them, they could see why. The sky was raining down with bricks, glass and stone. When they reached the sea, they looked back to see the helicopter destroyed by falling debris.

  Paul and Sharav looked over at Terry, half expecting him to be shame-faced. Instead, Terry was jumping up and down shouting ‘NOW, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!’ He was filming it on his phone.

  Forty-five minutes later the area had become significantly busier. There were countless emergency vehicles at the scene, along with a growing crowd of onlookers who were standing behind the cordon. Rob and Natalie had also arrived by helicopter. Rob talked to the SAS commander and then to the uniformed police officers who had all the gang members, including Conor, handcuffed. When Rob finished talking to the policeman, he signalled to the other officers to take the gang away. As Conor was being led away he lent down and whispered something in Paul’s ear. Paul looked up in alarm and watched Conor until he was bundled into the car.

  Rob walked over to the boys. ‘Well lads, it’s certainly good to be back in Scotland, don’t you think?’ No response. He continued, ‘So anyone want to tell me what this was all about? Looks like some adventure.’ Paul remained quiet as Sharav and Terry talked through everything that had happened. Sharav finished by saying how they managed to grab Rachel’s phone and most of the papers.

  ‘Wow, that is an amazing adventure! Better than I imagined. Well I suppose I should take the phone and get it analysed.’ He put his hand out to Paul. Paul reached into his inside pocket and handed over the phone.

  ‘Great, thank you. I’ll take the papers as well. And now I think it is time we properly debriefed you back at St Andrew’s House. Sharav and Paul hung back slightly and Sharav leaned over to Paul.

  ‘What did Conor whisper to you, Paul?’

  Paul hesitated and then whispered back, ‘He said, “don’t trust Rob”.’

  29

  The Reveal

  Late that night, Paul, Sharav and Terry found themselves in the boardroom of St Andrew’s House, a Scottish Government building in Edinburgh. It was a large room with an enormous oak table surrounded by expensive looking chairs. Also present, ready for the debriefing were William, Rob, Natalie, Esmee and three senior officers from MI5. Paul’s uncle Stewart was also there. He was chairing the meeting.

  ‘Okay everyone, welcome to this debriefing where we will be discussing the events of the last number of days,’ said Stewart. ‘Apologies for the late meeting but it took a while to mobilise everyone to Edinburgh. You may not know everyone by name, but for security reasons I’m going to keep it like that.’ He looked towards the boys and said, ‘Boys, please debrief us about what happened. Provide as much detail as possible.’

  Paul and Sharav took it in turns to tell everyone the full story. They explained what had motivated their decision to travel to Edinburgh and to seek Terry’s help. Terry smiled broadly and simply said, ‘Obviously.’

  Paul told the group how they were convinced of Rachel’s innocence and that they wanted to clear her name and find their father. They recalled how Terry had helped them locate her phone and the events leading to the house exploding.

  When they had finished, Stewart smiled and said, ‘Thanks for that. Can I say your actions were brave, if a little reckless? I hope you know that you endangered not just your lives but the life of Terry and not to mention the lives of the SAS commandos who were sent to rescue you.’ The boys nodded solemnly. ‘You did however take down an extremely dangerous gang, who were clearly set on assassinating the Prime Minister.’

  He looked around the table, ‘Okay now to the next point on the agenda. Where are we
up to in the investigation of my niece, Rachel Fox and have we uncovered Sabre?’

  Rob signalled to Esmee saying, ‘The boys retrieved Rachel’s phone and I passed it to Esmee for analysis.’

  Esmee placed Rachel’s phone on the table and shook her head saying, ‘I’m terribly sorry but this phone has been wiped of all data, so it has. I tried everything I could, but I wasn’t able to restore it.’ She looked to Sharav and Paul, ‘I’m sorry boys.’

  Rob sat back in his seat. The room was silent. Then Paul pulled a different phone from his pocket and quietly pushed it towards Esmee.

  ‘What’s that, Paul?’ asked his Uncle.

  Paul looked directly at Rob and said, ‘This is Rachel’s phone.’

  There were gasps from a couple of people in the room. Stewart said, ‘Paul, I think you’d better explain yourself.’

  ‘I gave Rob my phone instead of Rachel’s.’ He turned to Esmee and said, ‘Esmee would you mind analysing this phone? Focus on the very last sound recording along with the messages.’

  Esmee took the phone and connected it to her laptop. There followed a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. Finally, Esmee said, ‘I think I’ve got something.’

  She linked the phone to the screen behind her. On it she was able to display a series of messages which clearly showed all the correspondence from the people blackmailing Rachel, along with the photos of her father, Michael Fox. She then played the last recording over the room’s sound system. It was a clear audio recording of the gang’s discussion about Sabre. They discussed how Sabre was involved with Rachel’s investigation and how Sabre was key to both the previous and the next assassination attempts on the Prime Minister.

  The atmosphere in the room changed.

  Paul continued, ‘Conor warned me not to trust Rob. So, I gave Rob my phone instead of Rachel’s. I asked Terry to track its movements. The phone was taken to a location in Edinburgh and shortly after that, the signal died.’