First Response

BIGGIN HILL AIRPORT (7.12 p.m.)

Talpur moved his head to the left, trying to look out of the door but there were too many people blocking his view.

‘What’s happening?’ said the woman in front of him.

‘I don’t know,’ said the man sitting next to her.

Talpur craned his neck to look out of the front windscreen but all he could see was the wall of the hangar. Why weren’t they getting off the bus? Why wasn’t anything happening?

‘Driver!’ he shouted. ‘Can you see what’s happening out there?’

The driver didn’t react but several people in front of Talpur turned to him.

‘Driver, can you see anything?’ shouted Talpur, standing up.

‘Shut up, man,’ hissed Ahmed. ‘You’ll get us killed.’

‘We need to know what’s happening,’ said Talpur. ‘The prisoners have been released, we’re at the airport, so why aren’t they releasing us? Shahid said we’d be released.’

‘He also said that if we deviated from his instructions, we’d all die.’

‘Brother, we know that only Shahid can detonate these vests. And if we’re sitting in this coach, he can’t see us. The windows are blacked out.’

Another of the Asians turned. ‘Just sit down and shut up.’

‘You want to sit here like sheep and wait to see if Shahid will allow us to live or die?’ Talpur took a step towards the driver. ‘Driver, what’s happening out there?’

The driver twisted in his seat. ‘Sit the fuck down!’ he shouted at Talpur.

Talpur raised his hands and let the trigger lie in the flat of his right palm. ‘I’m not holding the trigger,’ he shouted. ‘I’m not going to press it. My hand is open. Look.’ He took another step forward and pulled the chain so that the woman slid across to his seat.

The driver’s eyes tightened. ‘Sit the fuck down or I swear I’ll shoot you in the head.’ He had a gun in his hands now and he was pointing it at Talpur’s face.

‘My name is Kashif Talpur and I work for the National Crime Agency. I’m a cop.’

‘Sit the fuck down now!’ shouted the driver, his finger tightening on the trigger.

‘You have to listen to me! We can’t detonate the vests. They can only be detonated by phone. You have to get them off us now!’

The Asian man sitting next to the priest stood up and screamed at Talpur, ‘You’re going to get us killed!’

The driver pointed the gun at the man. ‘You, sit the fuck down! Everyone, sit down, now!’

Talpur heard footsteps outside the coach. ‘Please, everyone, just keep calm!’ he shouted. ‘We can get out of this if we all stay calm.’

‘Go back to your seat now!’ shouted the driver.

‘No! You have to listen to me. No one here is going to press the trigger. The triggers don’t work.’

‘What’s happening in there?’ someone shouted from outside.

‘If we were going to detonate, we’d have done it already!’ shouted Talpur.

Two more Asians at the front of the bus got to their feet at the same time and began shouting. The driver took a step back, trying to cover the two of them with his gun by swinging it from side to side.

‘We’re not going to hurt you. Can’t you see that?’ yelled Talpur.

He heard a noise behind him. The emergency exit door opened and he caught a glimpse of two men in leather jackets with handguns.

‘Don’t shoot!’ shouted Talpur. ‘I’m a cop! I’m a fucking cop!’

There were more sounds at the front of the bus, dull thuds. He whirled around and saw another man with a gun at the door, next to the driver.

‘Listen to me!’ shouted Talpur. ‘I’m a police officer. No one here can detonate their vest. They are remotely controlled. We are not a threat. I repeat, we are not a threat!’