The Wrath of Shakira Page 6

North Circular road Ilford

  Lat = 51 degrees, 34.6 minutes North

  Long = 0 degrees, 2.6 minutes East

  To

  East London Mosque Whitechapel

  Lat = 51 degrees, 31.2 minutes North

  Long = 0 degrees, 3.6 minutes West

  Omar cursed, “Damn radio” as he tried to tune into a station on the cars radio, he looked at his wristwatch; detonation should have occurred five minutes ago and he was trying to pick up the news that would have surely been hitting the wavelengths now.

  They were travelling south on the North circular road approaching the exit with the A118, twenty minutes later they had entered Whitechapel road crossing the junction with Cambridge Heath road, they could see the Mosque on their left.

  Omar stopped the car and turned to Abu Wael, “wait for me here”. He left the car and walked into the Mosque.

  Max had eyeballed the car pulling up through his binoculars and was studying the lone occupant; “that’s our man,” he said.

  Superintendent Attlee replied, “are you sure?”

  “As sure as you and I are sitting here.” He spoke into his radio, “Eagle six from Three we have contact, suspect is sitting outside the Mosque in a white Citroen, and the driver has gone inside, all personal hold your stations.

  Max turned to the driver, “can you get some details on that vehicle the registration is Golf, Alpha, Juliet, Three, Zero, Zero, Bravo.

  The driver picked up the in car radio mike, “MP from Alpha Zulu One request PNC check over.”

  “Go ahead Alpha Zulu One.”

  The driver relayed the vehicles registration number and waited for the reply.

  Ten seconds later the reply came, “Alpha Zulu One you should have a White Citroen saloon there are no current details on this vehicle, last owner advised the DVLA he was no longer the keeper, that was four months ago.”

  “Received MP Alpha Zulu One out.”

  At that moment, Omar came running out of the Mosque and drove off down Whitechapel road passing Max on the other side of the road.

  “Follow him,” Max said to the driver.

  The driver gunned the engine and completed a U-turn, Max spoke over the radio, “target vehicle is on the move we heading East along Whitechapel road and have point.”

  The white Citroen turned right into Vallance road followed by Max in the blue Ford Sierra the team in the range Rover was already facing up Vallance road as they passed.

  Roy’s driver had come out of Cambridge Heath Road, into Whitechapel road and was fifteen seconds behind Max heading up Vallance road.

  Max looked at his driver; “what’s your name?”

  “Paul Jobson sir”.

  “How good are your team Paul?”

  “None better sir.”

  “Right don’t lose them and make sure they don’t clock us; do your stuff.”

  The driver picked up the in car radio, “Alpha one to Alpha’s two and three, I have lead commence tail and drop off.”

  At that point, Max’s car driver dropped back from the Citroen and was immediately passed by the Range Rover whom took up the tail.

  Roy’s driver had turned off to the left into Buxton Street and floored the pedal; he had hit the switches and the blue lights behind the grill Flashed away.

  With the headlights flashing alternatively, he approached the junction with Brick lane and turned right with the back end going into Oversteer; the driver applied more power and the rear wheeled drive Granada corrected it self.

  At the end of Brick lane they turned right into Bethnal Green Road, the driver killed the lights as they approached Vallance road just as the Citroen turned right out in front of them.

  When he had entered, the Mosque Omar had switched on the radio and tuned in several stations, all were reporting the bomb scare at Stansted and how a device had been disarmed.

  His first thought was to get Abu Wael back to a safe house but not the one in Bethnal green.

  He had picked up a set of house keys for an alternative safe house in Bow. That is where he was driving to now unaware of the company following him.

  Roy’s car was now the tail following at a discreet distance, other vehicles interspaced all three Police vehicles as they travelled along Bethnal green road and into Roman Road.

  The Citroen turned right and travelled down Grove Road, Max’s driver took up point as they all turned left into End Road and Bow Road.

  Omar turned right into Wellington way and parked up down on the left, both men climbed out of the vehicle and entered a house.

  Max’s driver turned into Wellington way pulled up a hundred yards from the Citroen, he turned to Max, “this is a dead end road sir, no way out for a car except back here?”

  “That’s remarkable, how do you know that?”

  “I was based at the Bow Road nick just around the corner; I walked the beat around here.”

  Max called Roy and gave him a Sit-Rep.

  Roy and the Range Rover had taken up position in Bow Road facing West near to the Wellington way junction.

  Max looked at Merchant Street in front of him on his right, and directed the Range Rover to take up position in it.

  “Roy I want you to be prepared to tail the Citroen should it leave here.”

  “Roger that max.”

  Johnson’s voice came over the radio, “Max where do you want me.”

  “Standby Johnson.”

  “How far is that Police station from here?”

  The driver replied “hundred yards up the Bow Road from here on the left.”

  “Johnson you should find Bow Road Police station on you left hundred yards past where we are, park up there for the time being.”

  In the house, Omar and Abu Wael were watching the Television reports of the Stansted incident.

  “I don’t understand how they discovered the bomb,” Wael commented.

  “Somebody must have discovered it when you left, don’t worry this is only a small hiccup, stay here while I go to Hussein.”

  Omar left the house drove to the end of the road and swung the car around gunning the engine back up Wellington road; if he had been a little more observant, he might have clocked the blue Sierra and Range Rover, but his mind was elsewhere; at the top of the road, he turned right onto Bow road.

  Roy spoke into his radio, “we have him Max.”

  Omar sped along Bow road and turned right onto the A102 (M) entering the Blackwall tunnel, the Gold Granada followed.

  Max had been on the radio to Strayker bringing him up to speed, he had left one man in the Range Rover with the driver keeping a watch on the house whilst the rest of the team had made their way to Bow road Police station.

  Max had ordered his men kitted up whilst he looked at a London AZ street atlas.

  He was looking at the school in Mornington grove that backed onto Wellington way.

  “Superintendent; can you have the school evacuated and the residents in the surrounding streets as well.”

  “It’s time for a gas leak I think,” replied Superintendent Attlee.

  “Good thinking; take our driver with you he has intimate knowledge of the area.”

  Meanwhile Roy had tailed the Citroen to Benledi Street East 14 South Bromley.

  Max was kitting himself up when Roy called him advising him of the Citroens destination.

  “Stay on him Roy.”

  At that moment Strayker arrived, “Sit rep please Max.”

  Max acquainted Strayker with the events.

  “Well done Max; I want you to deal with the house in Wellington Way, I’ll have two teams airborne and directed to Roy at the second house.”

  Max commandeered a room in the Police station with his team, “We are going in; first we need to establish how
many and where they are, Andy that’s your job with you bag of tricks, I must emphasis we need live X-rays for interrogation I will check with Johnson and see what he can come up with.”

  Superintendent Attlee poked his head through the door, “all clear for you now Max.”

  “Okay Andy go; do your stuff.”

  Back at Whitehall place on top of the OSC building a Westland Lynx-Army Helicopter was lifting off with two teams of six OSC troops. Team leader Paul Fisher had located an ideal landing site half-mile away from Roy’s location at a disused Electricity generating station, near to the A1011 Manor road.

  He went over to the pilot and gave him the coordinates,

  He then pointed to Abbot road and Benledi Street on the map, he spoke into a spare mouthpiece, “this is the target area, must avoid flyover at all costs.”

  “Roger that will circle around and come in from the North.”

  Roy was watching the house in Benledi Street when he was distracted by a radio transmission on his communicator.

  “Eagle six from Blue team leader over.”

  “Go ahead Blue.”

  “Our ETA is ten minutes to the Disused Electricity station half a mile North East of your twenty.”

  “Standby there Blue I’ll join you out.”

  Roy pulled a street map out and looked for Blue teams LZ, he turned to his colleague in the back “stay here and keep watch, if the X-ray moves follow him.”

  Roy exited the car and legged it down Benledi Street back to the main road.

  Max walked over to Johnson, “I need a live X-ray from this raid what can you give me?”

  Johnson went around to the front passenger door and opened the glove box; he pulled out what appeared to be a handgun in a holster.

  “I want them alive not dead.”

  Let me introduce you to the Taser gun; picked it up from a Colleague recently when on a trip to America.

  He handed the Taser to Max who pulled it out from the holster and studied the Yellow Poly carbonate decals on either side.

  “Those mark it as less-lethal; American Law and enforcement swear by them Max.”

  “Go on Johnson run it by me.”

  “The Taser T-18 advanced stun gun; power output fifty thousand volts and eighteen watts, creating an Electro Muscular Disruption (EMD) which temporarily overrides the central nervous system, taking over muscular control.”

  “All that from this tiny hand gun.”

  “That’s right Max; it has a range of up to fifteen feet and a hit anywhere on the body can be effective, leaving no injuries or lasting effects.”

  “Show me how it works.”

  Max handed the weapon over to Johnson, “simple Max like a real handgun here is the safety catch, and it has fixed front and rear fin and blade sites with a daytime laser site just point at your target and fire; this will propel these two electronic barbs attached to the coil wires, there is a five second long pulse enough to debilitate the toughest of targets.”

  “Excellent; I only need one live X-ray.”

  Benledi Street

  Benledi Street East London

  Lat = 51 degrees, 30.8 minutes North

  Long = 0 degrees, 0.2 minutes West

  Upon entering, the safe house in Benledi Street Omar had been subject to a severe dressing down from Hussein.

  “I swear I was not followed Hussein.”

  Hussein was peering out of a downstairs window at the Gold coloured Ford Granada with two occupants one hundred yards down the street.

  “Come here,” Hussein, barked angrily.

  Omar came over to the window, “what do you see?”

  Omar scanned the street his eyes locked onto the Gold Granada his face turning ashen.

  “But; but that’s impossible.”

  “Where’s Abu?”

  “He’s at the safe house in Wellington way”.

  “Well we can kiss his arse goodbye; you bloody fool I’ll deal with you later now leave here and loose those bastards out there.”

  Omar left the house and gunned the Citroen down the road turning left onto Abbott road.

  Hussein observed the Gold Granada following and then ran upstairs to the back of the house he scanned the rear of the property with high powered binoculars and noticed a dust cloud on the wasteland half a mile away; “curse’s Army chopper,” he muttered.

  Hussein zoomed in for more detail and could see as the dust was settling armed troops all in charcoal grey Combat attire with a disruptive pattern, he recalled the conversation with Shakira when he had told him of the raid on their camp in Zimbabwe; “They were wearing charcoal grey uniforms with a disruptive pattern ruthless and totally professional, a British special forces unit; no doubt about it.”

  He ran to the front upstairs window and scanned up and down the street nothing unusual he went down to the back room and reached inside one of the five rucksacks on the table; Sixty seconds later he was limping down Benledi Street he turned left into Blair street and quickly looked over his shoulder there was no tail.

  He then made his way to Abbot road and then onto the India Dock road it took him several minutes to arrive at Canning town underground, the army helicopter was lifting off less than a quarter of a mile away on his left as he entered the station a cruel smile appeared on his face. Hussein purchased his ticket and the ticket operator noticed the facial expression on Hussein’s face, Hussein failed to notice a CCTV mounted near to the ticket office.

  Roy Smith and the two teams were in the helicopter heading for Benledi Street, they were going in hard a vertical abseil drop from the chopper with both teams dropping simultaneously into the rear and front of the premises using stun grenades.

  The helicopter had risen to five hundred feet in order to reduce the chances of detection and would then slowly Descend to achieve a safe height for the troops to abseil down.

  The pilot of the helicopter had just achieved a hovering height of two hundred feet above the house when he experienced the machine being forced violently upwards this was followed by a loud volatile noise; he quickly looked at his instruments for any warning or malfunction lights there were none,

  He instinctively increased the power to stabilise the machine just as projectiles slammed into the undercarriage and shattered the side window; a high pitched audible warning message broadcasted from the instrument panel; Power failure... Power failure... with a sporadic red light, engine power output was falling the engine or the rotors had been damaged.

  The computer-generated voice was now repeat-ably saying “Engine malfunction... Engine malfunction...”

  The pilot fought to regain control using his skills and knowledge from experiencing this in flight simulation.

  However, unlike a simulation he knew that this was for real and they would all die if he did not get it right.

  He looked at the altimeter one hundred feet in less than Three seconds the helicopter altitude had halved and was still losing altitude.

  The pilot wrestled with the controls and tried to eke out every last drop of the remaining power from the faltering engine.

  Roy and the teams had been violently thrown around like rag dolls in the back of the machine, three of the team had taken shrapnel as projectiles had pierced the under body of the Helicopter.

  A cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the helicopter; the pilot was just about winning the battle between man and machine but was now having difficulty locating a LZ through the cloud of smoke and dust.

  It seemed like an eternity but was no more than fifteen seconds from the helicopter being pushed upwards to the pilot landing safely.

  Roy Smith clambered out of the Helicopter; he looked at the plume of smoke and dust, what caught his eye was the devastation at the base of the cloud; the house they had been hovering above had disappeared along wi
th everything else for a thirty-yard radius.

  Civilian survivors were walking about in the street dazed, the buildings were on fire and jets of water were erupting from the street from fractured mains pipes.

  The street looked like a World war two picture from a Luftwaffe bombing raid.

  The distance sound of sirens was becoming more audible, Roy looked over at the helicopter the under carriage was peppered with holes and one of the rotors had been severed in half it was a miracle they had survived.

  Everyone was out and clear of the vehicle, the Pilot approached him; both men looked at each other for a moment, they were both encased in dust.

  Roy commented “one hell of a landing sir.”

  “Any landing you walk away from is a good one,” replied the Pilot.

  “Is the radio operational?”

  “Yep; I’ve sent a ‘SITREP’ back to command they have another helicopter en-route ETA fifteen minutes.”

  “Is it safe for me to use the radio?”

  “The fuel tanks have not been damaged; it should be okay just be careful.”

  Bow Road

  Bow road Police station East London

  Lat = 51 degrees, 31.6 minutes North

  Long = 0 degrees, 1.5 minutes West

  Just over a mile away; Max’s head had turned and looked in the direction of the loud report, one of his men came into the room, “Sir; the chopper with the team has been taken out.”

  “What are the casualties?”

  “Command has had a SITREP only minor casualties to our team, however major civilian casualties.”

  A Police officer came into the room, “Major Storm I have a call from a Roy Smith you can take it from the radio room downstairs.”

  “Thank you officer.”

  In the radio room Max listened to Roy’s account of the disaster, “You’re a lucky son of a gun Roy, get the men back to Hesters copse.”

  Max then relayed the update to both Strayker and Superintendent Attlee.

  Superintendent Attlee spoke, “forgive me gentlemen; but this seems to be getting well out of control, we are now incurring serious civilian causalities.”