First Response

BIGGIN HILL AIRPORT (7.26 p.m.)

Inspector Ian Adams stood next to the EOD technicians and watched as they worked. They had all nine vests on the ground and one was taking photographs with a digital camera. ‘Have you ever seen anything like this before?’ Adams asked the older of the two men.

‘Fakes, you mean? Not outside the movies, no. But someone went to a lot of trouble to make them appear real. They’d fool me from a distance, no question.’

Adams walked out of the hangar.

‘Sir! Are you the Silver Commander here?’

Adams turned to see who was shouting at him. SAS troopers with guns at the ready were guarding the nine men who had been wearing the vests. They were all kneeling facing the outside wall of the hangar, their wrists bound behind their backs. One of the men had twisted his head around to look at Adams. An SAS trooper stepped forward and shouted at the man to keep quiet.

‘Yes, I am. Inspector Ian Adams.’

‘My name is Kashif Talpur. I’m an undercover officer with the National Crime Agency. My governor is Inspector Mark Biddulph. He was at Tavistock Square. He can vouch for me.’

‘That’s all right, I know who you are,’ said Adams. He nodded at the SAS trooper standing behind Talpur. ‘It’s okay, he’s one of ours.’

‘I’m sorry, sir. My orders are to keep everyone here in this position.’

‘He’s a cop.’

‘I’m sorry, sir.’

Adams opened his mouth to argue but could see from the look on the trooper’s face that there would be no point. He glanced around for Sergeant Hawkins and saw him inside the hangar, standing by the coach. He went over and explained what had happened. Hawkins called over to the trooper, ‘Let him go, Haggis. He’s one of the good guys.’

Haggis used a knife to cut the plastic tie before helping Talpur to his feet.

Talpur hurried over to Adams. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said. ‘Any idea where my governor is?’

‘I’m not sure,’ said Adams. ‘But I can find out. What the hell’s going on? What were you doing with that vest on?’

‘We were forced into it. They said if we didn’t do as we were told, they’d set the bombs off.’

‘The bombs were fake,’ said Adams. ‘You were never in any danger.’

‘That can’t be right. I saw one of them explode. It blew a guy to pieces.’

‘Where was that?’

‘I don’t know. This morning some time. We were in a warehouse. They blew a guy up and said the same would happen to us if we didn’t follow instructions.’

‘They? Who are they?’

‘I only saw one of them. A guy calling himself Shahid. I never saw his face, had a ski mask on. Asian. Five ten, five eleven, maybe. London accent.’ He sighed. ‘I need a bath. And a meal.’

‘No bath, not yet,’ said Adams. ‘We’re going to need to take your clothes for Forensics. Then you’ll have to be debriefed. But I’ll see if I can get some food sorted.’ He took out his phone. ‘I’ll call Gold.’