Red Notice

12

The torch beam penetrated the strip of darkness widening behind it. Tom kept his ARWEN barrel over Jockey’s right shoulder as they moved through the gap into an equally bare room. Its walls were broken only by a massive steel door beneath a small, wired-glass window.

They repeated the pattern and this time Bryce grabbed the handle. It didn’t open. His team prepared their last charge as the net hummed with instructions for the loading of prisoners, their handover to the police and the corralling of the media.

As Maglites lit the darkness around the door so that the charge could be positioned, Tom glimpsed a flash of bare metal just beneath the window frame. ‘Fuck! Bryce — bin it! Look at this.’ He pointed to a minute length of copper wire that led from the wall to the bottom edge of the steel window frame. ‘The window’s wired to something. Which probably means the door is too. No prizes for guessing what.’

Bryce studied the window for a moment, then scraped away a little of the putty surrounding the wire. ‘It feeds through to the other side,’ he said. ‘Break any of the wires set in that glass and I’m guessing it’d be time to put your head between your legs—’

‘And kiss your arse goodbye.’ Tom leaned his back against the door, knees bent, creating a platform with his thighs. ‘Jockey, get up there and have a look.’

Jockey climbed onto Tom’s legs, put one Hi-Tec assault boot on his shoulder, then the other, and peered through the window. Five seconds later he was back down and on the net. ‘Alpha, this is Blue One — we have an IED in the basement, blocking our advance. At least twenty kilos of PE. There’s a tunnel beyond it. Has to be X-ray One’s escape route.’

Bryce started to move his team back the way they had come. He knew what was about to happen.

Tom did too, and followed. The ATO (Ammunition Technical Officer) would take care of the IED, and the police would take back operational command of the incident. Military Aid to the Civil Power (MACP) was always a bit of a slap in the face for the Met. It meant armed assistance when the police were unable to cope — with riot, organized crime or terrorism. It was always a big deal for them to hand over control of a criminal situation to the military on UK soil, so they didn’t waste a minute snatching it back.

Gavin’s voice crackled in the Blue team’s ears. ‘Alpha, roger that. Blue One, stay with the IED until the ATO arrives. All other call-signs withdraw. Move back to the holding area. Out.’