Red Notice

36

The rest of Blue team scrambled to load the last of their kit into the black Range Rovers. The vehicles had plates that identified them to traffic police, and always stood gassed up and ready.

They roared out of the Lines a couple of minutes later and sped down the road with magnetic blue-light units flashing on their roofs and behind their radiator grilles.

Police outriders on motorbikes were already moving ahead of them with lights flashing and sirens blaring, a rolling roadblock to seal junctions and roundabouts, clearing traffic for the SAS convoy travelling behind them at speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour.

Red team, on three hours’ standby, were already racing into the Lines. They’d stand by in their crew room in case they were needed for this incident, or any other. But, as Gavin had said, X-ray One should be in the hands of the French by the time he landed.