Stone Fall

by J. D. Weston

  “Sure,” said Melody.

  “You can take him out.”

  There was a long pause. Melody and Frank both knew the plan would give them direction. It was a loose plan, but it was all they had.

  “What happens if the phones aren’t intercepted?” asked Melody.

  “Plan B.”

  “What’s plan B?”

  “Make a new plan,” said Harvey. The comment wasn’t meant to be funny, it was a statement that perfectly summed up their predicament. They had only one option.

  “How are you feeling, Stone? Are you sure you’re up to this?” asked Frank.

  Harvey stared at him.

  “Well, just let me know if you need anything, you look like crap, are you guys-”

  “We’ll be fine, sir,” said Melody. “Are you going to see-”

  “Denver’s family? Yes.”

  “Please pass on the condolences of the team, sir. We all loved him. I can’t believe he’s gone,” said Melody.

  “I’m supposed to go down to the river now. There’s more questions to be answered I’m sure,” said Frank.

  “What’s to say?” said Harvey. “Denver’s a hero. If it wasn’t for him that four-hundred-year-old cathedral standing there would be levelled, and none of us would be stood here talking.”

  “He’s a hero alright, but that doesn’t make the news any easier to break to his family.”

  “He was close to his mum,” said Melody. “Would you like me to go? You know, it’s sometimes better coming from a woman.”

  “That’s kind of you, Mills. But there’s some things that need to come from me. You three have enough on your plate.”

  Reg returned from around the corner and walked towards the rest of the team. Frank turned to him and watched the small-framed man scurry along in the cold.

  “There’ll be a service?” asked Melody.

  “Of that I’m sure,” replied Frank glancing back. Then he turned to face St Paul’s Cathedral. “We’ll all be there.”

  Reg returned to the group. “Closed, no sign of anything, security in reception.”

  “Good, we still have time,” said Harvey. “Let's do this.”

  “Did I ever tell you all about my wife?” asked Frank as the team made ready to go.

  “No, sir,” said Melody.

  “She was a lovely woman really, caring and the rest. Did the things for me most men wouldn’t do for themselves. Looked after me. We had a good many years together too. We travelled, we ate well, saw things some people only ever seen in photos. Jan was a good woman, the best. Salt of the earth. You know what I’m saying?”

  The team nodded slowly.

  “I lost her, three years ago. Some bastard felt that the time was right to destroy the lives of those around him.” Frank stared at them with watery eyes. “You remember the Bow Street bomb?”

  Melody’s eyes widened. “She was on that?”

  “Same carriage. She didn’t stand a chance.”

  “That was Al Sayan too. What exactly are you saying, sir?” asked Melody.

  “What am I saying? I don’t know really.” He huffed. “Loss? Hate?” He sighed. “Someone I respect a great deal once told me something that I’ll never forget.” Frank looked up at the sky and searched for the words. “Sometimes a man does something so bad, so evil, that society has an obligation to seek revenge, to right the wrong. And sometimes, those who have been so badly wronged are owed so much that they earn the opportunity to enact that revenge. For it’s those that suffer the most who most deserve the closure that retribution brings.” Frank turned to Harvey. A tear ran freely from Frank’s eye.

  Harvey gave an indiscernible nod.

  “What am I saying?” said Frank, turning to Melody and Reg. “Go get them. For Denver.”

  They stripped the van of everything they needed and loaded it all into the Audi Frank had left for them. Reg removed his laptop, a mobile antenna and the mobile comms receiver.

  Harvey helped Melody remove her Peli cases, surveillance equipment, two Heckler and Koch MP5s and her favourite, the Diemaco. It was a 7.62mm calibre assault rifle with a telescopic scope. The rails on the underside could hold either a red-dot laser or a grenade launcher. It was an awesome looking weapon and Melody’s choice of weaponry for long range. The rifle also had a selector that changed the action from single shot to three-round bursts or full auto. Melody preferred the accuracy of single shot, but would quickly shift to three-round bursts if her position was compromised.

  Frank spoke to the officer in charge at the scene and arranged for the van to be taken to headquarters. He then tossed Harvey the keys to the Audi. “I’d wish you luck, but…” He paused, unable to find the words. He knew he was sending his remaining team off into the unknown, short-handed and emotionally scarred, but there was little he could do in such a short amount of time.

  “For Denver, sir,” said Melody.

  “For Denver,” replied Frank. He turned and took the longest walk of his life down to the river, where divers and investigators tried to piece the puzzle together, and scared onlookers filmed the scenes on their mobile phones.

  Harvey tossed the keys to Melody.

  “Why am I driving?” she asked.

  “It’s got four wheels,” replied Harvey.

  Reg had begun to set himself up in the back. He placed the small antenna on the roof and ran the cable down beside the rubber door trim. His laptop sat on the seat beside him and he placed the comms unit on the parcel shelf with the headphones plugged in and hanging on the headrest.

  Melody’s equipment was loaded into the boot and several pairs of binoculars and her scope were unboxed and kept loose beside Reg.

  “Okay, before we move, let's do a comms check,” said Reg.

  “Stone,” said Harvey pushing the button on his ear-piece once.

  “Copy.”

  “Mills,” said Melody.

  “Loud and clear,” confirmed Reg. “Comms is good. My connection to the satellite will be slow without the powered v-Sat unit the van had, but I’ll see what I can do with the modems I have, and create an SSL VPN back to headquarters. This laptop won't run LUCY so well, so I’ll be using the power of the command centre and just viewing the visual over the link to keep the bandwidth down, it should mask our IP as well.”

  “Sounds technical, Reg,” said Harvey. He slid the action back on his Sig and chambered a round, flicked the safety on, and put the weapon back in his waist. “Yep, that works.”

  Melody climbed into the driver seat and pulled the door closed. She started the engine and pulled her seat belt across her chest. “Where are we going to do this?” she asked.

  “Somewhere with little to no people, but close enough that we can get back here, quickly,” said Harvey. “Reg, tell me what you see on satellite.”

  “How big does the space need to be?”

  “Big enough for a car to explode with no collateral damage.”

  “Okay, the nearest large empty space I can see is Wanstead Flats. There’ll be a dog walkers, maybe even some dogging action, but we can probably park out of the way.”

  “Which way?” asked Melody.

  “A13, A406,” said Harvey. “We’ll be against the traffic this time of day.”

  Harvey slid his belt across when Melody put her foot down. The Audi’s powerful engine kicked in, and before he knew it, they were leaving the city.

  “Where’s your phones?” asked Harvey.

  Melody pulled her phone from her pocket, and Reg passed his forward over Harvey’s shoulder.

  “Here goes, Reg are you ready?”

  “I’m activating the scanner now, it’ll effectively use LUCY’s tracking mechanism, and provide a bandwidth monitor. If somebody else starts tracking the same phone, my tracking bandwidth will be affected, then I can start identifying the source.”

  “In English, Reg?”

  “It’s like water running through a pipe. If you turn one tap on, you’ll get full flow, but if a second tap is turn
ed on, the flow of the first tap will decrease.”

  “Okay, sounds easy enough,” said Harvey, glancing across to Melody with his eyebrows raised. “Turning on the first phone now.”

  Harvey turned Reg’s on first, then five minutes later turned Melody’s on, and then another five minutes later, he turned his own on.

  “The last phone is on, Reg. You got them on screen?”

  “Yep, all clear,” replied Reg. “I have three flashing operatives and three bandwidth monitors running. I’ve set audio alerts up to sound when the bandwidth drops below a certain threshold.”

  “Right, next can you look for missing persons?”

  “Missing persons?” asked Melody.

  “Missing persons,” confirmed Harvey. “We’ve still got two taxi drivers missing. It’ll be useful to see if we can get the number plates, so we don't stumble upon some poor old cabbie eating his sandwiches.”

  “You think they’d keep the plates on? I would have thought they’d swap them out,” said Reg.

  “Might do, might not. No harm in knowing, is there?” replied Harvey.

  They pulled into a parking area in the wide, open space of Wanstead Flats within less than thirty minutes. The car park sat on the edge of a large triangle of grass, which was bordered on all three sides by roads. There was a lake near one corner and a few clumps of various trees spread sporadically across the expanse of grass.

  “No taxis in sight,” said Reg.

  Then the laptop omitted a soft beep.

  “Bingo,” said Reg. “It’s Harvey’s phone.”

  Beep.

  “There’s yours, Melody, bandwidth just plummeted on the tracker.”

  Beep.

  “Three for three,” said Reg. “He’s locked on.”

  “Okay, we don't have long,” said Harvey. “I’m not sure what we’re up against here. I’m expecting the second taxi with another lunatic behind the wheel, but we should be ready for the cavalry. These aren’t skilled killers, but they are ruthless and will do anything for the cause. They won't even need to get close to me with a car bomb.”

  “This is insane,” said Melody. “You have no idea what they’re capable of.”

  “No, you’re right,” said Harvey, “I don't. But neither do you and this way we’ll find out sooner rather than later.” Harvey finished stuffing all the phones into various pockets of his cargo pants. “Melody, can you set yourself up discreetly in those trees there?” Harvey pointed to a copse of trees surrounded by long wild grass.

  Melody climbed out the car, retrieved her Diemaco from the boot, tapped on the car window as a gesture of good luck to Reg and Harvey, and walked away carrying the Peli case. She needed to get into position, put the rifle together and calm her breathing down.

  “Reg, keep your head down, stay out of sight and shout when you see something. You get the plate numbers?”

  “Yeah, I’m working on it now.”

  “Good you’ll need them more than us, let's hope we can do this and get to them before they end up like poor old Arthur.” Harvey opened his door and stepped out. “Keep the comms open,” he said, then closed the door, glanced around him, turned, and walked calmly across the expanse of grass. His limp was clearly visible but much better than it had been an hour before.

  Harvey walked slowly to the centre of the open land. He saw Melody drop into the long grass five or six hundred yards to his right, and carried on walking for a minute to give Melody a chance to put the rifle together. Then he gave her another minute to calm her breathing. Emotions were high, her adrenaline would only need a little hint of action, and her heart would start pumping fast.

  He glanced across at her and saw no movement. So he stopped, folded his arms, planted his feet shoulder width apart, and stood ready for whatever was about to happen.

  He could have been wrong, his theory could have been way off. The whole strategy was based on assumptions which themselves were based on guesses. But what else did they have? If they waited for facts to arrive, they’d get nowhere.

  Harvey stood for twenty minutes, turning every now and then to change his viewpoint. A few men walked past more than a hundred meters away. Some walked dogs, another just walked with his hands in his pockets, cutting across the grass to get somewhere. A group of teenagers sat on a bench a few hundred meters away, two on the seat, three on the back, They passed a joint between them and kept their hoods up to stay out of the wind that blew unobstructed over the patch of wild.

  The wind was gusting. When it dropped, the world seemed silent, but when the gusts came, the cold wind was loud in Harvey's left ear. His right ear was protected by the ear-piece, which was silent. Even Reg wasn’t making any jokes. Tensions were high in the team.

  Two hours had passed when a man walked to Harvey’s right alongside the lake. A casual glance told Harvey the man had a beard, was below six feet and wasn’t in a hurry. He was foreign, judging by the skin tone. Harvey looked passed him but kept his eyes focused.

  A taxi drove into the car park and pulled up beside the team’s Audi.

  “Guys,” said Reg.

  “Reg, did you get the plates of that taxi?” said Melody.

  “I’m running them now. They belong to a blue Ford, they’re stolen plates.

  “Ah, Christ,” said Melody.

  The man with the beard was a hundred yards away from Harvey. He adjusted direction slightly and began to take a route that would lead him close to Harvey and on towards the taxi.

  “You guys seeing this?” said Harvey.

  “Harvey, can you take a step to your right?” said Melody. “You’re blocking my view.”

  Harvey causally kicked the grass around him and moved three paces to his right.”

  The man adjusted his course, he was typing something on his phone as he walked.

  “And again, Harvey, he’s changed his course again.”

  “He knows you’re there,” said Harvey. “He’s using me to block your shot.”

  The bearded man suddenly stopped and looked up from his phone. His eyes were wild, pumped full of adrenaline, fear, hate, and whatever else. Harvey could see the man’s chest moving with his heavy breathing. He was thirty meters away. If he was wearing a vest, Harvey would be obliterated at that range.

  “Oh, Jesus,” said Reg. “I have him in the binos, he’s fumbling for something in his sleeve.”

  “A vest?” said Melody

  The taxi revved its engine. Reg kept low but adjusted his position. The taxi driver’s face was obscured by a long white headscarf.

  “You guys,” said Reg. “This taxi’s getting ready to play.”

  “Mr Harvey?” the man called. He brought his hands together and pulled his cuffs down over his hands.

  “Reg,” said Harvey. “Does beardy have anything in his hand?”

  “Left looks clear, although his right hand is clenched.”

  “Melody, you ready for this?” asked Harvey.

  “Copy. Drop on my count when the wind drops. Reg, get ready to run like hell.”

  “What do you want?” called Harvey to the bearded man. “Hold fire, Melody,” he said under his breath.

  “You’ve been busy,” he replied,

  “Not as busy as you.”

  “Did you honestly think that luring me out here would put you in a strong position?”

  “I’ve seen your face now, that’s the only position I need,” replied Harvey.

  “How is your friend?”

  “My friend?” Harvey replied. “I don't have friends. You need to check your intel.”

  “Oh, Mr Harvey. You surely remember Arthur?”

  “Name doesn’t ring a bell,” said Harvey. He glanced across at the taxi four hundred yards to his left. He could hear the diesel engine being revved. “Is that your mate? Sounds like he’s having trouble.”

  “He’s just fine, Mr Harvey.”

  “I bet he didn't do the knowledge either did he?” Harvey was referring to the extremely stringent test of London that
all black cab drivers had to get through, in order to earn their right to drive a black taxi.

  “That is a blessed man,” said the bearded seriously. “Do not mock him.”

  “Guys, I’m in a spot of trouble here,” said Reg over the ear-piece.

  “Okay, Reggie, don't panic, I’m watching him,” said Melody.

  “So is he,” said Reg. “He’s looking right at me.”

  “Reg, stay focused. Have you got tabs on that tracker yet?” said Harvey quietly.

  “It’s coming.”

  “Don’t play games, Mr Harvey,” said beard. “We do not need to hurt your friends, but we will if we have to. I’m sure you have seen what we are capable of.”

  “Capable isn’t the word I’d have used.”

  “You’re going to walk towards my friend, Mr Harvey. Then you are going to sit inside the taxi.”

  “And where is it exactly I’m going?”

  “Your destination depends on how nicely you decide to play, Mr Stone.”

  “If I play nicely?”

  “You will see.”

  “If I don't play nicely?”

  “Somewhere special.”

  “Will you be coming with me?”

  “I’m ready to go to either destination, Mr Harvey. I’ve been ready for a very long time.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “Your friend, Reg, isn’t it? He will most certainly die.”

  “He’s not my friend,” said Harvey.

  “He’s not your friend?”

  “That’s right, he’s not my friend.”

  “He looked like a friend this morning when you all learned about poor old Mr Denver. I watched you all, it was very touching.”

  “You should have joined us, we could have touched you.”

  “Enough of the small talk, Mr Harvey. Walk.”

  Harvey turned away from the man and muttered to Melody, “Melody call the distance, let me know if he closes in.”

  “This is crazy, Harvey, we should just take them both out.”

  “Too risky, Reg you have me on screen?”

  “Three times.”

  Harvey stopped in front of the taxi and stared through the windscreen at the driver. The driver stared back grinning. His front tooth was missing. Harvey continued to stare.