Chapter 27

Friday noon and Kiara was in charge. She crouched with David and Rob beside her. This was a new situation for all of them. Rob and David were used to Michaela’s command. And Kiara had a lot of experience as a first lieutenant under Michaela but she was not used to being the boss. Michaela tried to smooth the way for all three in her patient counseling during the project planning. In fact, Michaela was more worried about chain of command and communications that she was about the excellent plan itself.
Derek’s professional driving made the trip to Slough as an uneventful as could be expected, traffic jams, notwithstanding and the team arrived just at the time prescribed. They all had a chance to gather their personal forces during the drive.Travelling out of London on a Friday afternoon until cars were once and for all banned. Just how they could carry out this type of operation under those circumstances was too difficult a question to contemplate at that time.

Derek dropped the trio and their equipment as near to the warehouse as safety allowed. He would be contactable via David internal phone at a moments notice. Should the plan blow up, he could provide armed backup as well. Derek assured them he was well capable of providing covering fire if it were needed.
“OK. Let’s do a quick review of the plan. We’ve been over the plan a million times. We sit here and observe the guard to pick up his modus operandi and then take him. After that ,we go in.”
“You make it sound so simple. Tell me,were you ever in PR back in the U.S.”
“What?”
“Well, you’re trying to sell an extraction operation where we will be outnumbered, outgunned and frankly mad to attempt.”
“Remember Gwyn is in there, Joe’s depending us. And cut the loose talk!”
“Damn you’re good!” Rob exclaimed quietly.
Tuck, fed up with having to walk around in circles all day, leaned against the old warehouse signpost and lit up a joint. Finding the wind in his face, he turned around to shelter and so doing faced the building. Otherwise, his dobbie would never get lit.
Kiara rushed up behind the guard and grabbed him around the neck pulling him behind a bush. Suddenly, he was looking directly at three guns barrels pointed at his head. All he managed to get out was “Shit.”
“Hello. My friends and I would like you to give us information on your boss and someone we are looking for…”
Tuck began to whimper directly and fortunately bright enough not to whimper too loudly. Look, I’ll tell you what you want…don’t kill me…I never liked the guy in the first place. My mates brought me along. It blows. Just let me go.”
“Shut up for a second,” Kiara was not prepared for the simpering idiot in front of her, her tough guy approach soon dissipated into polite questioning.
“Don’t kill me,” Tuck whinged, holding his arms above his head to protect himself from the guns aimed at his head.
David took up the slack, realising Kiara was completely bemused by the sight before her. “Where are they holding the hostages?”
“The what?” Whimpered Tuck.
“An older bloke and a middle aged woman.” Rob said helpfully.
Tuck suddenly understood what they were after. Maybe he was going to get out of this after all. Eagerly, he said, “Oh, yeah them. Ya want me to tell you where they are?”
“Well?”
“You have to promise not to kill me.”
“Look mate, we’re all holding guns to your head.You’re in a pretty lousy bargaining position.” David was amazed by the stupidity of the toad in front of him.
“If I’m dead, you’ll have to find them yourself.”
“Alright, we’ll let you go. As soon as we do though, you run up the road as fast as you can and get the hell out of dodge.”
“Huh.”
“Fuck of out of here or we’ll kill you, no problem.”
Tuck was suddenly calm. “Oh yeah, cool. I give you the info you let me go and I fuck off home.”
Kiara watched the exchange and shook her head in amazement. Worse still, Tuck had a SMG looped over his back just inches from his hands as he sat on the ground. Kiara moved behind Tuck and removed the gun very carefully. She held the gun at the ready.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, ” Tuck exclaimed. “It’s not loaded.”
“What?” Asked Kiara.
“Oh yeah. Dirk won’t let us carry any ammo with us in case we fall down and the gun goes off or somfink.”
Kiara grabbed the attention back from this glimpse into Ealing Comedy, “So, where are they holding the man and the woman.”
Tuck guessed he had played his luck as far as he could and told them all he could remember. He even drew a map of the complex on the ground in front on him. David recorded every bit of it on his headcorder. The manoeuvre was sounding pretty straightforward now until Tuck added, “Oh yeah I forgot, that woman is in a room full of young girls she has to look after.”
“Young girls? How many?”
“Jervis’ harem, oh about ten or so.”
Alarm bells were ringing in her head. “Ten girls, plus Gwyn and Clive…How the fuck are we going to get that lot out of here. Michaela you never told me about this!”
“Can I go now?”
“Alright you can go. I’ll walk you to the end of these bushes. As soon as you hit the pavement, run as fast as your little legs can take you. Or I shoot them out from under you. Now!”
David shoved the bloke out of the end of the row of bushes and watched him run into the distance. Sure that he was not about to turn back, David returned to his companions. Tuck knew the punishment for losing a gun was severe and he pretty much figured that it might be terminal, even for an unloaded gun.
“He got way all right.”
“Ran like the wind. He’s probably in Maidenhead by now. And, we had better move fast before this guy misses a check point. That so called interrogation took too much time.”
“Right” growled Kiara. “Let’s take this nice and slowly. If that fat little bpy was telling the truth, it could be easier than I thought.”
“You mean you actually believe there is a door right next to where we need to go?”
“Yes, for some reason, I do. That guy acted like we did him a favour.” “I think Kiara is right. Once he knew we would not kill him, he mellowed out and acted as though he was happy.” David said.
Rob picked up SMG and flung it over his back via the strap.”
“What are you going to do with that, throw it at the bad guys?” David asked.
“I don’t believe in littering!”
“Come on, you two nitwits, let’s go get Gwyn.” Kiara broke out of cover and rushed across the gravel forecourt, quickly followed by her fire team. They crept round the right side of the building towards the entrance they planned to use. They encountered no resistance.
“If Michaela were here she would not like this…one bit.” David said to himself.
The small steel door appeared more quickly than they expected. Kiara opened it, carefully poking her gun through first. There was no one. “Come on.”
The stairs led up to a room to the right side.
“Well, this is it,” Kiara thought with a silent prayer. She carefully opened the door. Her companions winced in anticipation.
It was the right room…Inside they found Gwyn and her charges, reading and playing with some toys.
“David! What are you doing here?”
“We have come to rescue you.”
A little girl looked up from her book at David, and smiled and said very quietly, “Have you come to rescue us as well?”
Gwyn reacted quickly as if she were a boarding school matron. “Now girls keep the noise down and we will all get out of here.”
David, Kiara and Rob plastered themselves on the way beside the door that they had now closed.
“David, our minder will be back any second, get out of sight!”
In walked the minder, a five foot nothing thug, portly and balding, picking his teeth as he walked in. Kiara jumped the man, pulling him to the floor as she broke his neck with her hands. No one noticed that his other hand held a gun, his finger on the trigger. In a desperate attempt to save his life he pulled the trigger as he died, spraying bullets into the air about the girl’s heads.
“Thank god SMGs pull so much!” Exclaimed David.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Yelled Kiara to Gwyn and the terrified girls. “David you and Rob take point and I will head up the rear. Anything moves, kill it!”
“What about Clive?”
“Fuck Clive he can take care of himself. That bastard got us into this mess, I am not going to get killed getting him out.
Rob, on a hunch ran out the door and took a right turn, shooting dead a thug guarding the next door along. As the guard went down, his gun fired, the bullet singing along the stone corridor past Rob. He kicked the door open. “Alright Clive, I’ve killed the guard. Grab his gun and find your way out of here.”
“What about the girls?”
“We’re taking care of them.”
Clive grabbed the gun on the floor and headed out the door to the right.
“There’s a stairway just there to get out.”
“Thanks, but I have something I’ve got to do.”
Rob had a good idea what that might be, “Good luck.”
Clive ran on down the corridor, firing his gun at the guards running towards him and the sounds of invasion.
“Rob, come on. Let’s move out.” Kiara called him, angry that he had disobeyed her orders.
Rob ran to join David, who already was clearing their path back down the corridor of moving obstacles. “Rob, you’re supposed to provide suppressive fire, not me.”
When David saw the first girl come up behind him, he began to move down the stairs and towards the door. Rob covered their path with a hail of lead, pinning all in front behind cover.
“David, move out front . I’ll make sure no one tries to flank us.” David ran across the garden, with a trail of girls running behind. What he did not know was that there were suddenly two more players in the game.
As Gwyn walked over one of the bodies lying near the door, she saw the gun partly pinned under the dead thug. Instinctually, she picked up the gun made sure it was loaded and cocked and carried on. Kiara stood behind her, shocked that such a kindly lady knew how to use a gun.
“Watch that SMG. It pulls up and to the right like crazy.”
“Quit chatting and follow the girls up!” They could hear fire coming from outside the door, and Kiara wanted them to move fast.
Gwyn and Rob lay down fire into each of their respective halls and followed the last of the girls out.
By the time all of them had gotten to the front of the building any gang member who wasn’t stone deaf knew the shit was hitting the fan.
Jervis was deaf to the commotion. He sat in front of the vid watching the news, speech in hand, waiting almost breathlessly for news of his latest atrocity. He missed it.
“Jervis! You egotistical son of a bitch!”
Jervis recognised the voice behind him. He knew the speaker too well. That voice made his blood boil with anger. “Clive, I see you’ve escaped again. It is so hard to find good thugs these days. It sounds as if most of them are getting slaughtered without a fight. No doubt my men failed to kill all your band of renegades and they have come to rescue you. Men of no faith, cannot call on the power of the lord in their time of need. Shame.”
“Actually, I’ve never seen them before in my life. You must have fucked off someone else real bad. Those guys look like real pros.” Clive wanted to wind up his adversary. He was about to punch the right button. “One more thing Vicar, two thirds of them are women. Your band of brave warriors shot to pieces by a bunch of well armed totty.” Clive could see the anger rising in Jervis, even though he was looking at his back.
Jervis, seeing the reflection of the gun in the vid screen,” You’re not going to shot me in the back are you. Not very sporting that.”
“What would you know about class and manners, you perverted maniac…” Clive was unable to finish his sentence as he felt a sharp pain in his back, just before his chest exploded, killing him instantly.
“Damn it!” Jervis spun around a 45 automatic in hand. “Who dares deny the thrill of killing that man!” In front of Jervis stood one of his Enforcers. Without a moments hesitation, Jervis pulled the trigger and fired at the man’s head.
The Enforcer attempted to return fire, succeeding only in destroying the vid screen with his burst of automatic weapon fire.
Jervis heard the smash of the screen. “Damn you! Incompetent to the last!” Jervis walked over to the still alive Enforcer and Clive, seeing each one still twitching he shot both again.
Outside the rest of the captives were well out of the building under protective fire. They all just made it out of the front gate when several were almost run over by a van screeching to a halt. The door flew open.
“Everyone, get in and get down!” Came a familiar voice.
“Michaela!” yelled Gwyn. I couldn’t stand missing all the action.
Kiara spun around when she heard the car screeching to a halt. “David, Rob, Michaela just showed up with a van and we’re getting all the girls in now. Let’s move.”
The three comrades ran backwards as they continued to fire at the few remaining active defenders. David ran right into the van with his back. Rob pulled him into the van. The two men used their bodies to protect the girls. Kiara sat by the opened door and continued to fire at the thugs on the warehouse forecourt. “Go, go drive!”
The van tore away. Derek, following, aimed the car for the motorway and rammed down the accelerator. It was all over.
“That went well!” Yelled Rob to Kiara.
Michaela cut in, “Let’s just hope the pols did as good a job as you lot!”
That was the last that was said till they arrived in London.

Epilogue

The four recovered from their ordeal over the next few days. Their work, as usual, went entirely unnoticed except at the Red Dragon. The Euro news showcased the brilliant job that the Euro-pols did in stopping the “evil terrorist” truck bomb at Stansted. The news failed to mention that a truck exploded with unexpected force killing fifteen pols as it careened out of control into their roadblock. There was relief in the fact that no “innocents” were killed. Minister of Security Genino, explained that this bomb was stopped after a tip-off from “undercover agents” in the movement.
“Rob, since when are you an undercover agent in the movement?” Kiara asked.
“OK. I give up. Here’s what happened. As I was surfing and plugging in with my coop nerds down there in Mrs. Davies’ basement cocoon, I kept wondering how I could tip off the pols without endangering her, or us. Then, luck was with me when I found a site embedded under the London A to Z. It was several levels down and my mates and I did some intensive password analysis. Then, there it was. An informant’s site. No kidding. A site for the regulars to pass information along to the pols. So, I slipped in the Stanstead warning, using the high alert code I found in the site guide. I left it in a couple of other places just to be sure they’d pick it up. Now, after a courteous interval, I’ll let my coop buddies know about that site. We’ll monitor the information there in the future for our own protection.
The vid screen came on to inform David that he had a call. David sat down on the couch. “Yes, I’ll take it.”
“David how are you?”
“Fine, Gwyn, how are you doing?”
“I have recovered physically if not mentally, the sight of that girl bleeding to death was one I will never forget.”
“Oh no. She didn’t make it.”
“No, I am afraid not. The Nun at the Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Sanctity called me yesterday. She lost a great deal of blood after Jervis raped her. The gunshot wound was too much for her young injured body.”
“How are the others?”
“Well of the nine still alive, three of them suffered injury of some kind or another. Nothing serious.”
“Good. I am glad to hear that.”
“When are we going to see you lot in here again. You must come by, your are revered as heroes in the Red Dragon. I fear you will not have to pay for a drink all night, any of you.”
“That is kind of you, we will come along sometime soon. There are still a few things to sort out here.”
“How is Michaela?”
“I am not sure, she hasn’t said much since, your rescue. Been having long talks with Kiara.” This looked like being a long conversation. Eccles was now firmly ensconced on David’s lap, ready for some peace.
“Have you found out anything about Clive or Jervis?”
“Nothing, absolutely nothing. I must say, Rob doesn’t seem to be putting much effort into it either.”
“Well, seeing as there’s been no sign of Jervis on the box, I think Clive got him.”
“I personally would like to know for sure.”
“Well, I must be going. There are jobs to do. Bye.”
“Good-bye Gwyn and take care.”
“Who was that, David?” came Michaela’s voice from behind him.
“Oh, Gwyn called to tell us about the girls.”
“How are they?”
“Well the one with the bullet in her died and the rest are going to be alright.”
“I’m glad the rest are alright. It’s too bad that little girl didn’t make it. How is Gwyn taking it?”
“Well, considering. She’s invited us down for a bit of a celebration. Promised a “Heroes Welcome.”
“Wow, that might be nasty, the Welsh are very good partiers.”
“I can keep up you know.”
“That’s what I am worried about…Listen David there’s something I have to tell you.” Michaela circled the couch and sat down next to her husband taking his hand in hers.
“What? Have you made a decision, uh, about the baby?”
“No, er, I mean yes, uh…nature has made the decision for me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, when did you find out?”
“I saw Nick yesterday and he said I’ve had a miscarriage. I was pretty sure of that myself.”
“Was it painful?”
“No, not really. I bled a bit and that was really it.”
David looked for any sign of distress on his wife’s face and found none.
“Michaela, I thought you would be upset.”
“No, I guess this was just not the time, David.”
“Will it ever be?”
“I don’t know, but I’m ready to keep trying!”
David laughed, “So am I.” He kissed his wife on the lips. She put her head on his chest and they nestled together to watch the vid, for the cat’s sake, of course.
Somewhere in London, in a dingy pub patronized by the desperate and the daring, sat a man with a Vicar’s collar and a pint chatting as he eyed up an underage girl on the other side of the bar.
“I am starting an order to fight…”

The End.