Three Faces of West (2013) (39 page)

“GET DOWN!!!” He shouted as soon as it left his hand from the throw. A second elapsed before the blast struck. The remains of the window, blown to disintegration outwards as the interior of the trailer smashed and splintered causing the debris to fly out, scattering all over the ground as the entire trailer shook. The flash from the explosion plunged the interior in darkness as the bulb blew, destroying all power inside, leaving the three killed Russians in a black metallic tomb. Through the smashed remains, the two surviving squad members made sure to carry their deceased member away; they did not leave one of their own behind.

On the bridge John was still taking cover but the shootout had still persisted as more SAS men arrived reinforced by armed police in tow. In the maelstrom figures could be made out approaching the bridge, carefully making their way through around each part of the structure dodging the bullets as they continued to zip past. Jack suddenly leaped round a near girder to land behind his partner, both relieved to see that each other had survived so far,

“Where are we up to with the poison factory?” Asked Jack, shouting above the noise,

“Well they’ve barricaded themselves into the warehouse. The SAS are trying to stop the trucks from leaving, but they it looks as if they are stretched.”

“You still have that bomb?”

“Yes.” He said as he pulled it out of his pocket. The timer revealed the urgency of the situation,

“Oh God, the timer!”

“What is it?” Jack asked concerned

John looked Jack in the eyes, “We’ve only got two minutes!”

Almost out of time Jack needed to relay the intelligence he had procured from River View,

“Alpha 1 to Control.”

“Go ahead Alpha 1; make it quick, you only have a couple of minutes to plant that bomb in the warehouse!!” Shouted Harvey,

“Bruenstein has bombs planted all over London; he plans to deploy the poison carts at the sites in time for detonation, and to release the poison.”

“Where?”

“The targets are Parliament, Downing Street & Whitehall, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.”

Harvey calmed down slightly, “

“Alright I’ll have the police evacuate those areas and army bomb disposal squads dispatched.”

“Make it quick Harvey; they’re scheduled to go off in less than 30 minutes!”

“Just make sure you destroy that stockpile. Bruenstein can wait; hopefully he won’t release it anyway.”

As Harvey came off communications, John turned to Jack once more,

“Jack we only have one minute before this thing explodes!!!”

Almost out of time, they had to act now. Still under cover from fire coming from the rooftop Jack tried to signal the SAS men,

“We need covering fire on that roof!!”

“What?”

“Just fire!!!”

With no options left, both men threw caution to the wind and started moving forward. Both firing their pistols, by now without their silencers, straight onto the roof, as withering fire pinned them down at the near side edge. It spurred the SAS and the armed police on,

“MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!” Were the shouts as the Special Forces stormed the bridge under a cover of fire. One, then two men on the rooftop immediately flung backwards as they were shot multiple times, others laid down fire onto the bridge hitting one the of the police officers in the right shoulder causing him to collapse in a pool of blood,

“Man down!!!” Shouted a college over the gunfire,

“John, throw the bomb onto the roof!!” Urged Jack,

“I can’t get close!!”

“Just chuck it!!”

Under the covering fire, John raised up to position himself for the throw. He could feel the air blow past his ears as live rounds flew past at dangerously close quarters but he had get rid of the bomb. Arcing his arm back he tensed up ready to hurl it away, a large spark with a loud ping caused him to flinch, crouch and abandon his attempt,

“Shit!”

“You alright?” Asked Jack,

“Yeah. It was just a bullet ricocheting that’s all. I’m not hit.”

He picked the bomb up a second time from the floor, only to notice the timer once more,

“30 seconds left!” He said

Getting up he attempted to try again. With time almost up this was the last chance; from here it was either risk getting shot or a certainty of being blown up. Deciding to take the risk he rose again for a second try, until he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. He crouched down again partially,

“What’s wrong?” Asked Jack,

“Up on the roof, it’s Grey!”

“Grey? Maxwell Grey?!!”

John directed his partner to him, “He’s up there, look!!”

Both peered upwards to see a familiar figure amongst some of the terrorists on the rooftop, indeed it was Grey, even in the chaos it was clear it was him. Fixated, it was the first time they had seen him for a long time, and his presence only confirmed his implication in the plot and his allegiance to Victor Bruenstein. Their position gave away their own presence to him and it was only a matter of a few seconds before they were spotted. Taking cover, Grey could clearly see over to the bridge where the firepower was concentrated, instantly almost sub-consciously, he saw Jack only a few hundred yards from him. This was the man who busted him out of jail, but he wasn’t a friend. Drawing up a pistol he began firing indiscriminately in their direction as Jack ducked for his life. Vital seconds were now ticking away as more SAS officers joined in the fight, shooting a hail of bullets into the stonework around the rooftop. Three more terrorists fell, hit in the chest, crying out agonizingly as they dropped. The situation now desperate, caused Grey and the remaining henchmen, of which their numbers were dwindling to fall back from the edge slightly as chunks of masonry flew everywhere from the bullet impacts,

“Get those vans away!!” He shouted as he stumbled. The entire criminal operation now hinged on the ability to flee the area to the detonation points as back on the bridge, John saw his chance. Stumbling forward and with all his might, he hurled the bomb as far as he could.

It hurtled through the air, spinning in flight, upwards and onwards, but would it reach the roof? Grey tried to regain his position once more on the rubble strewn surface as a heavy object landed approximately five feet away from him. Hitting the asphalt with a heavy thud it was enough to notice for the criminal. Looking on he could see it was one of the bombs, the plastic explosive lying on the floor, its timer flashing. Grey’s eyes widened as the timer counted down, 10 seconds left. It was a split second decision; does he throw it back out, or run? His instincts dictated his action, heading straight for the fire escape at the rear of the building, the same one John had used earlier in the operation. He ran. Seeing what was coming, Jack pulled John back as the others followed suit,

“RUN!!! GET OUT OF HERE, GET OUT!!!!” He shouted as they all ran back across the bridge, the bullets seemingly meaningless in the impending event.

One of the terrorists tried vainly in an attempt to throw it back, striving to get to it on the ground. The last thing he saw was the timer strike zero.

A white flash flooded the surroundings as the bomb exploded. The detonation blew the roof off, disintegrating it and taking out all the remaining terrorists there, their screams only being heard for a fraction of a second as they were engulfed. Collapsing inwards, the whole shattered remains began to fall through into the interior, ripping into the whole setup, setting off more fires. Within a second the whole poison stockpile and the manufacturing equipment inside ignited. A huge fireball accompanied by a horrendous roar burst into the air, blowing out all the windows, scattering white hot debris around and instantly sending everyone in the vicinity to take immediate shelter or hit the ground. A backdraft of wind followed by the intense, scorching heat enveloped everyone, friend of foe. West and Hudson turned round from their lying place on the ground to witness the scene; the warehouse, now a raging inferno was only recognisable as a burning, brick shell. The explosion showed the violence of the explosion and the total destruction of the now collapsed building, in the flickering yellow and orange light in the night sky.

At the side, everyone at the vans had a grandstand view of the fireworks. The heat and wind from the proximity stunned everyone, but it was a chance for the poison trucks to yet still make good their escape. One driver decided the risk was worth it, getting into his van and starting it up immediately attracting the attention of the SAS once more,

“STOP!!!” Shouted one of the officers as the van roared into life. Opening up the throttle, the terrorist sped forward causing the officer to point his weapon, but jumping out of the way in quick time to avoid being run down. Such was the haste, there was only one way to stop him,

“Flash bangs!! Flash bangs!!!” Another squad member shouted as he pulled out a stun grenade. Seeing the immediate danger, the terrorist going for broke, wound the driver’s window down and fired at the SAS man, hitting his shoulder and breaking it as he did so. Stumbling back from the shot, the professional quickly switched hands and tossed it successfully, exploding near the speeding van. The flash quickly blinded the desperate criminal causing the van to swerve to a halt. Taking no chances, three more SAS moved up to the van firing without orders. A further load of ammunition slammed through the windscreen and into the driver, killing him outright. The shattered glass, painted red with blood spewed out from entry wounds of the corpse inside.

Spurring the rest of the SAS on, the wounded man was helped to his feet as blood protruded from his destroyed shoulder and was quickly removed from the immediate area. The rest of his squad by now had enough and finished this standoff by seizing the rest of the vehicles from the remaining and still dazed gang members. Shouting and more stun grenade flashes hit out as the special services pushed to flush the remaining criminals out as armed police began swarming the part of the compound. Victor Bruenstein’s plot had failed.

The tenterhooks were out, and had been for a long time at Thames House. Everything had been monitored throughout as each member of the office teams sat or stood around in silence, gripped to the action. Stress levels Even though the action had been directly in the compound; the internet had been abuzz since the start,

“Harvey the news channels are picking this up.” Aazim commented as they moved toward one of the television screens monitoring coverage of the events,

“It’s on all the national rolling news channels.”

Harvey observed the many screens, each showing different media outlets with their own, unique take on the night’s events. Choosing to focus on just one, he heard the male/female newsreader duo comment,

“Just some more breaking news on the events at the docklands tonight. We’ve been telling you all evening of what the police are calling an ‘on-going incident’ well a quick update that’s just come in to us here, literally it has just reached us in the last few seconds….there are reports of more gunfire….this is from our reporter on the ground….eyewitnesses report hearing sustained gunfire around the compound followed by a second larger explosion, you’ll recall that earlier explosions were heard, possibly grenades but this second explosion clearly more significant.”

Harvey watched on as the news anchor spoke, “We’ll just tell the police to issue a statement. Just make out it was a gas explosion or something like that, the usual nonsense we give the media nowadays.”

“Just some more coming in on this now.” The newsman added, he was echoing what was beginning to be carried on all the other news outlets,

“We’re now hearing reports that multiple areas of the capital are being sealed off tonight. According to the metropolitan police, the areas of Whitehall, particularly around Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace are all being evacuated at the moment. Information is coming in all the time and…. We’re now hearing it is in relation to an unspecified threat. That’s all the police are telling us so far. So just to repeat, areas of central London are being evacuated tonight in relation to what the police are saying is an unspecified threat.”

The events inevitably became the dominant story on all the news channels,

“Just want to show you this; it’s some mobile phone footage that’s also come in to us, apparently taken from an eyewitness at the scene.”

The television screen showed a shaking, pixelated, grainy footage of a large explosion. The audio, garbled and second rate at best still managed to capture the drama of the scene as the film flashed white and yellow marking the moment the poison stockpile went up. The super imposed strapline at the bottom of the screen providing rolling text commentary on the known facts so far,

“Well that would have destroyed everything.” Remarked Harvey, “Thank god the police have started evacuating people from those sites,

“Some more breaking news tonight.” Added the newsreaders again, “We’re getting information, unconfirmed reports I should add, relating to possible bomb threats at the evacuated areas. You’ll remember, very dramatic scenes tonight, especially in the wake of the bombing at King’s Cross recently. There are also unsubstantiated reports, of army bomb squads attending those scenes…. We’ll try and get some pictures for you….more on this rapidly moving and quite dramatic story developing tonight as we get it. Info coming in all the time, so we’ll be back to this very soon.”

Harvey, turning away from the television went into a lighter tone. The burden of stress had lifted somewhat, but the operation was not over yet,

“Well at least we can be confident that the army will do the job. Those planted bombs should be diffused, making those areas safe. Hopefully.”

“But what about Bruenstein?” He was asked by the Home Secretary. Clearly it was the burning question, where was Bruenstein at this very moment?

“I don’t care what the television channels are saying.” Snapped a thoughtful Harvey,

“Get me conformation Alphas 1 and 2 are OK.”

“But what about this Bruenstein?” Pressed the Home Secretary. But Harvey was having none of it,