“Reloading!” he shouted at Seth. As Liam turned he noticed Seth had been hit. Blood spatter was all over the floor and the table next to the Seth’s lifeless body. Liam scrambled through the claret blood spatter toward Seth’s body.
“SETH!” “SETH!” he shouted as reached up to Seth’s neck. Gunfire continued towards the office. There was no pause. Lindon and Anthony repositioned on the roof as their radios crackled to Liam’s desperate screams “MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN, SETH IS DOWN!”
The gunfire turned towards the roof and Lindon was pinned down. His knees were pressing on broken glass. Another cry came over the radio from Liam, “NO PULSE, NO PULSE, IM COMING UP!” Liam attempted to drag Seth out of the office and into the hallway but the bullets continued to rain in as Kioshi began firing with an assault rifle. Liam rolled to the door. Seth’s blood was stained all over him. “SETH IS DEAD!” he cried as he reached the roof. Lindon and Anthony both froze for a moment. The pops and bursts were so frequent it quickly became one elongated explosive bang as Lindon and the team fired toward Kioshi who turned all his attention to the roof and fired wildly with both his guns. Unable to find a target he flipped his scope into night vision. Lindon fired several shots but it was too dark to see his target. Kioshi’s bullets were becoming more and more accurate. All three men were pinned down behind small brick structures on the dusty rooftop.
The drone recorded everything. Room Foxtrot was in a silent panic. Roger had aged twenty years in twenty minutes. Every line on his face was creased and he struggled to stand, as his legs became jelly.
“I CAN’T SEE HIM, CAN YOU?” Lindon shouted toward Anthony.
“No,” came the response.
“C’mon Liam, we gotta get this done,” Anthony said. If Anthony could have chosen Seth or Liam at this point he would have picked Seth. He would at least be capable of getting their mission completed despite the current situation. Liam had seemed wrong footed from the beginning.
“Now?” Liam questioned, “We can’t.”
Anthony said under his breath, “Now, we gotta do this now. C’mon before we get killed.”
Both men watched Lindon pop shots off into the darkness from behind cover. Several bullets hit the vents and brickwork Anthony was hiding behind. Then, a pause, Kioshi waited. He didn’t know if had hit anyone and so waited for return fire. Lindon stood to fire back and as he did he was charged to the ground. Confused and panicked he thrashed against the hands around him.
“What’s going on?” Lindon looked to his left and saw Antony’s face.
“Sorry buddy” he growled as he swung a syringe at Lindon. Liam moved towards him. He didn’t want to help but knew he had to. Lindon and Anthony struggled. Lindon positioned his feet flat and powered Anthony off of him. He then kicked him in the ribs. Lindon couldn’t believe it. His own team was turning on him. The messages raced through his mind ‘trust no one, people are looking for you’.
Lindon looked up and saw Liam who was five feet away. He stood timidly looking at Anthony on the ground. A second of quiet passed, then gunfire erupted again. Punctuated by bullets swooping past Liam and Lindon with only inches to spare. Lindon ducked down behind a vent. Liam was hit in the shoulder a second later and dropped to the ground in a deadweight fall. He began groaning. Lindon didn’t know what to do. Was Anthony working alone or did Liam know? He thought. Lindon decided that Liam must be in on it. Lindon fired his entire clip back at the building whilst moving backwards. Blue lights began flashing off the walls below. More and more started until the whole space below was one blue pulse. The entire police force headed Lindon’s way. He jumped up between gunfire and ran. Eventually he reached the door back downstairs.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” Liam shouted as Lindon disappeared. He had tears on his face and blood all over his arm. Lindon looked back at him for a split second. Then disappeared down the stairs as fresh gunfire erupted. Lindon knew that Anthony and Liam were sitting ducks, but it was now every man for himself. Lindon’s boots clunked down the stairs as he rushed to escape.
“FUCK! FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!” Roger screamed, slamming his fists on the desk. No one answered. The last thing Bill and James needed was an irate civilian trying to tell them what to do.
“Get the drone over there. Where’s Lindon? We need to get eyes on him now!” Bill said down the phone to the team commanding the drone pilot. Warren frantically mashed buttons to get a camera angle for a good view of the roof without the drone dropping lower. Bill shouted orders towards the base commander down the phone. No more shots were being fired now. Kioshi packed up quickly and made his exit.
Lindon ran as fast as he could with his mind racing. He couldn’t believe fellow tradesmen had turned on him. He couldn’t believe Seth was dead. The job was going so smoothly, then in a second they had descended into a war zone. Lindon didn’t know how to feel. He had shed most of his clothing and guns in the stairwell and now only had a handgun that was strapped to his thigh. He sprinted to his car. He needed to get as far away as possible. No one had seen him run through the alleys and back streets, giving him a head start. He cranked the Range Rover’s engine and launched out of the street heading east away from the terror behind.
Lindon had escaped.
Chapter 28
“Do we have him? That’s all I wanna know. Do. We. Have. Him?”
Roger paced from one side of the room to the other. He moved his fist up and down as he spoke. The room had lit up under Bill’s orders. Simon and two other men were in the corner of the room staying out of the way. Simon whispered to the man to his left “This should be interesting.”
“I’m calling the drone pilot,” Bill said with his hands raised. Bill had been here many times before and had learnt that the last thing to do is panic. James sat on one of the black glass desks and looked down at Warren who had been glued to the same seat for hours.
“Anything from the street cameras?” James asked as he looked up at the monitors.
“Nothing. None of them have an angle of the roof that gives any detail,” Warren said, clicking and tapping at the computer.
“What about Kioshi?” James said quietly.
Warren brought up the recorded film from the drone camera and magnified the small outline of a person. He shrugged his shoulders “If it was Kioshi-“
“Oh it was Kioshi,” Roger snapped from across the room.
Warren looked back at Roger whom he was beginning to dislike the longer he spent with him. Then he turned and faced James. “He either didn’t leave that building or managed to get to another surrounding building and exited out of sight. The drone dived to try and track Lindon so I haven’t got any footage that helps with Kioshi. I will keep checking the street cameras but with the rush of police vehicles and diplomatic cars it’s tough.”
Roger barged into the conversation again. “So he just managed to disappear,” he hissed with sarcasm.
“Well I don’t know, Roger. Maybe he grew wings and flew away. I can’t tell you what I can’t see,” Warren said brazenly.
Roger stamped his foot and launched into a tirade. “You’re the computer analyst! You’re the one with the sharp eyes who should be able to spot a shadow in a dark alley… I don’t know what caliber of people the army keeps but if you’re the best there is then I fear for the security of my nation!”
Bill shot to his feet and blazed Roger with a hail of anger. “HEY. Shut your mouth, pen pusher! You insult one of my men then you insult me. That man has more talent in a toenail than you’ve ever had in your whole life and he’s fought for his country! Not just sat in a plush Washington office sipping coffee and chasing after the president like a trumped up tea boy. You’re not running this show, now sit down and shut up!”
Roger had needed taking down a peg or two for days; this was as good a chance as ever. James had enjoyed watching the squabble and seeing Roger get put in his place.
“OK guys, let’s calm it down,” James said, playing peacekeeper. Roger stayed sta
nding but stayed quite. “Let’s assume Kioshi had a get-out plan, and that he has slipped out of our hands. He’s gotta be close by but let’s also consider the possibility that this wasn’t Kioshi.” James walked forwards towards the door, and then turned to face all three men. His years of counter terrorism work had taught him to look at every angle of a situation.
“We may be looking at this all wrong. This could have been a lone wolf who was going to take out a member of the security services or a diplomat who was present at the meeting. Our guys may have caught his attention and he decided to shoot his way out. Let’s keep an open mind until we know it’s Kioshi and most importantly let’s find Lindon. He couldn’t have got away without being seen. Once we have Lindon, Kioshi is no longer a problem.”
James managed to stay composed, the air in the room became less fraught with tension and everyone took a deep breath. Simon remained in his corner and nodded along to James’s rationality, but he stayed quiet. This was not his show and he had no intention of joining the debacle he was witnessing. Bill walked out of the room after finally been patched through to the pilot of the drone. His eye sockets were dark with stress and lack of sleep. He spoke quietly in the corridor for less than a minute, then turned and walked back into Room Foxtrot. Roger stared at Bill menacingly.
“The drone pilot has said Lindon is in the wind. We don’t know where he’s gone,” Bill said. James, Roger and Warren were all downhearted. Bill tried to sound upbeat. “And although he didn’t manage to get a clear image of the man on the other roof, just the heat signature, they are sure it was a male and estimated his height around 5’6’’. They have one good image of his back. He appears to be wearing black clothing and is armed. From a superimposed image of the gun the best guess is an M24 sniper rifle with suppressor. Very similar to one that Japanese Special Forces use.”
Roger turned to James. “It’s gotta be Kioshi,” he said.
Simon whispered to his technician in the corner, then decided it would be best to speak up. “The team on the ground haven’t been in contact but the police have sent armed men in with the instruction not to kill anyone. MI5 are on the ground and are going to assess the situation. GCHQ will provide all the information they can for me… but don’t hold your breath, gentlemen,” Simon said, standing up from his seat.
“How long until we will know?” Roger asked softly.
“Within the next five minutes,” Simon said as he walked out of the room and back to his office.
The news started to leak back to the Sagaris building. Jim had not heard from the team at their last agreed check-in. The driver who was supposed to pick them up had reported a lot of police and armed men. He had left without picking up the men when it became clear that something had gone wrong. Jim’s office phone rang. He picked up the receiver, paused, and then answered.
Anthony reported everything he could. They didn’t have Lindon, Seth was dead and Liam had been shot and had broken ribs. The police were now sweeping the building. Seth and Anthony needed to get Liam’s body out of there but had no way out. Jim’s jaw dropped and his tongue quivered. Losing one of ‘his’ men was the worst outcome he could have imagined. Both men were too injured to try leaping across rooftops and wouldn’t leave Liam’s body behind.
“Hold on,” Jim said. He needed to think fast but half a bottle of whiskey had numbed his brain. He searched the mission brief, desperately trying to find an escape. He had a helicopter on standby to fly them out of London but it was a long shot whether the pilot would be able to get them out of the building now that police were crawling all over the area.
Jim broadened his voice and spoke more confidently. “OK, I have a chopper on standby. Flash bang grenade the stairwell to keep the police away. I can get it there in a few minutes.” Jim frantically flicked through paperwork.
“It’s too late,” was the resigned answer from Anthony. The phone dropped to the ground. Jim could hear Anthony shout, “Don’t shoot. We’re security contractors for the event.” They were quickly arrested and the phone line went dead.
Jim leaned as far back in his chair as he could. A few minutes later he walked out of his office. The excitement in the office ebbed at the sight of despair on his face. Jim’s ears were ringing; he had tunnel vision as he walked to Casper’s office. When he reached for the door he stopped for a second and sighed. He barely had the energy to click the latch closed as he walked in.
Jim stood for a moment; his body language said it all. His head hung down. His shoulders slumped. Jim’s hands were pale as his blood struggled to circulate. He took a single breath. The smell of cigar smoke lingered as Casper puffed into the air.
“I…I…” Jim couldn’t get another word out as he clasped his fists. Casper stood and pulled out a chair by his desk.
“C’mon… sit down.” He ushered Jim towards him. Casper had been in Jim’s shoes before and didn’t envy him. Casper didn’t know what had happened but he sensed that this was not just a failed mission.
Simon sat in Room Foxtrot with an update from MI5 intelligence and reports from agents on the ground. A short man in a blue cardigan walked into Room Foxtrot without knocking and whispered to Simon “They’ve arrested three men on the roof, sir.”
Simon nodded. “Have them released into our custody immediately. Get the police to send us names for all of them. We need to know if Lindon is one of the men arrested. Oh, and we will need to repatriate the dead American. Call my friend at the RAF. I need an American plane that he can go back on. I want an answer in the next two hours.” The man nodded then disappeared. Simon then explained to Bill and James that he was arranging the repatriation of the dead man.
“Thank you, Simon but I can make arrangements for the American’s repatriation,” Bill said.
“With all due respect. No you can’t. My job is to make sure we have complete deniability over this entire saga. He needs to be back in America as quickly as possible. I will make sure he is handed over to you with a coffin and flag on the other side of the pond. What you choose to do with him is your business.”
Bill nodded slowly; Simon had an old school style of respect that he appreciated and so didn’t want to argue. Simon looked over at Roger. He had a face reminiscent of a kid at Christmas after unwrapping a present they didn’t want.
“Cheer up, lads. It might be your man in those cuffs.” Simon walked out of the room. He had done all he could. This was for the Americans to clean up now. They had brought a mission to his shores and it had been a complete shambles. He would make sure they were out of his building before sunrise.
Chapter 29
Lindon’s escape was in fast-forward. The lights buzzed past as he sped along the motorway. Navigating the city had been difficult and the streets were still busy with people. Most of the police force had been rushing in the opposite direction as he headed north. He could drive three hundred miles before needing to fill up with fuel, possibly a few miles further if he was easy on the throttle.
Lindon began to relax as he passed the signs for Luton. Once he had reached Northampton he slowed to a cruising speed of 65mph. The road ahead was now very dark. The rain that had started as he left London began to get heavier the further north he headed. The windscreen wipers jolted up and down in a losing battle to clear the glass. As the rain pattered on the roof and the heaters forced warm air around Lindon began to feel very tired. The adrenaline had worn off and now his body was desperate to shut down but Lindon had little choice but to carry on. He still didn’t know if someone was after him. The silhouette of the man on the roof was fixed in Lindon’s mind.
The small clock on the dashboard showed 10pm. Lindon’s watch showed 1am. He reached over and tapped buttons on the radio. After a few seconds’ button bashing it flickered into life and one speaker began crackling with a voice. Minimal adjustment left and right eventually locked onto a radio station reading the news. It was a local station and so there was no mention of a London shootout. After five minutes the weather forecast was read
out. “Rain and wind unfortunately all night, but a bright and sunny morning,” the woman announced, trying to sound optimistic. There were still several vans and lorries on the road but only a handful of cars. Lindon opened the window an inch to let some air rush in. The rain poured in as well, which managed to keep Lindon from snoozing. The miles racked up and Lindon sped up. He wanted to be off the main roads before the darkness of night subsided. The engine burbled as Lindon passed a lorry. Then the fuel light illuminated and flashed. He was going to need to stop at the next petrol station.
Lindon wore his cap low as he filled up and paid. He then quickly rejoined the motorway. An hour passed. He had been driving fast since his fuel stop to get to the Scottish border and he was now only five miles away. Another hour passed without incident. The leather seats squeaked as Lindon drove over a bumpy section of road but Lindon didn’t notice. His mind had become so fixed on the events of the evening. He whispered to himself “Who had been shooting from the other building?” and “Why did they kill Seth?” For now he had no answers, only questions. Why did his fellow tradesmen attempt to turn on him was a question that he couldn’t escape but desperately tried not delve into. Could the person shooting at him actually have been trying to help him? he wondered. Maybe they knew he was going to be betrayed?
Lindon broke out of deep thought as road works had forced all traffic into a contra flow. He slowed and began to feel vulnerable. Paranoia hit hard and his tired eyes began darting in every direction. But since it was the middle of the night there was barely anyone around. The rain finally stopped. Lindon was now just over an hour away from the docks. It was now 5am. The pitch black of night remained and would give him a couple more hours of cover. Lindon turned off the main road and onto the smaller roads that he would cross to reach the docks.
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