First Response

SOUTH LONDON (ten hours earlier)

Talpur stopped struggling. Nothing he did loosened his bonds. He looked around the circle. Most of the men were slumped in the chairs. One was crying. ‘What the fuck’s going on?’ he shouted. ‘Where the fuck are we?’

There were pigeons roosting in the girders of the warehouse and several fluttered to the roof, but they soon returned to their posts and began cooing softly.

‘Stay quiet,’ said a voice. ‘Anyone who talks will be gagged.’

A man moved into view from Talpur’s left. He was wearing blue overalls and his face was covered with a ski mask. Behind him a large metal screen hung from chains attached to a girder. At the far end of the building there was a pile of disused machinery, much of it rusting and covered with cobwebs. The oil stains on the concrete floor suggested that the building had once been a thriving business.

The man moved into the centre of the circle. ‘My name is Shahid,’ he said, brandishing a gun over his head.

‘What the fuck is this about?’ yelled a captive.

Shahid pointed his gun at the man and pulled the trigger. The bullet thudded into the wall. The sound of the shot echoed and the pigeons scattered in fright. Talpur could smell the cordite and his ears were ringing.

‘I will kill the next person who speaks,’ said Shahid. ‘This is what is going to happen. You will notice that you are each wearing a raincoat. Under the raincoat is a vest containing explosives and detonators, with screws, nuts and bolts to serve as shrapnel when the vest explodes. You each have written instructions in your left-hand pocket. You are to read those instructions and follow them to the letter. You will be hooded again and delivered to a specific place where the hood and mask will be removed. You will then follow your instructions. At all times you will be watched. If at any point you deviate from the script you have been given the explosives you are wearing will detonate. The vests cannot be removed. If you attempt to remove the vest, it will explode. It has been booby-trapped. Believe me, any attempt to take it off will end badly so, please, do not even try.’

One of the men began shaking his head. ‘This is fucking evil, man. Fucking evil.’

‘What I am now about to tell you is the most important thing you have to remember,’ said Shahid. ‘In the right-hand pocket of the raincoat there is a trigger for the vest, which you will keep in your right hand at all times. There is a Velcro strap to keep it in place. The trigger must be visible at all times. But the trigger will not detonate the vest. The vest can only be detonated by phone.’ He reached into a pocket of his overalls and pulled out a cheap phone. He held it above his head. ‘If I call your vest it will explode. Only I can make that call, and until I do, the vest is safe. But if I do call the number — you and everyone nearby will die.’

‘This is fucking sick, man!’ shouted the man, rocking his chair back and forth.

‘You need to shut the fuck up, bruv,’ said Shahid, waving his gun at the man’s face.

‘You can’t be doing this to people,’ said the man.

‘You’ll do as you’re told or you’re dead.’ Shahid put away the mobile phone.

‘I’m not even a fucking Muslim!’

‘Muslim or not, you follow the instructions or you’ll be dead.’

The man threw back his head and screamed up at the roof, a blood-curdling howl of frustration and pain.

Shahid walked over to him and slapped him across the face. The man stopped screaming and stared up at him. ‘You will do this,’ he said. ‘You will follow the orders I give you.’

‘I can’t. I fucking can’t. You need to let me go.’

One of the other captives shouted, ‘Just do it, man. Just do it as he says. Don’t make him mad!’

‘Fuck you! I ain’t doing this. They’ll kill us, man. We go out in these vests and they’ll fucking shoot us like mad dogs.’

‘If you follow instructions you won’t get hurt,’ said Shahid. ‘Everything will end peacefully, you have my word.’

‘Fuck your word!’ screamed the man. ‘You can’t do this. You have to let us go!’

Shahid backslapped the man again, then shoved the gun into one of the pockets of his overalls and grabbed the chair. He tipped it back and dragged it with its occupant across the concrete floor. The man struggled but there was nothing he could do to stop Shahid moving him. The chair’s rear legs scraped across the concrete as Shahid dragged it behind the metal shield that was hanging from the girder. The man was crying now, his body shuddering with every sob.

Shahid came out from behind the metal screen. He was holding the mobile phone again. The bound man was begging for help now, pleading with Shahid to let him go.

Shahid held the mobile phone above his head. ‘Let’s be clear about this, just so there is no misunderstanding!’ he shouted. ‘You will do as you’re told. Or you will die. There is no middle ground.’ He ran his thumb over the keys, then held up the phone into the air. A second later, there was a loud explosion on the other side of the screen. Blood and body parts spun into the air and splattered onto the ground.

All of the bound men were staring in horror at the screen, which was swinging to and fro, and the bloody carnage around it. Panicking pigeons were hitting the roof, their wings flapping frantically.

‘If anyone else wants to refuse, let me know and I’ll detonate their vest here and now.’ Shahid looked around the circle. ‘Anyone?’ he shouted, waving the phone above his head.

The bound men shook their heads.

‘I will say this one more time,’ said Shahid. ‘You follow the instructions you are given, and you will live. Disobey me, stray from your instructions, and your vest will be detonated. Do you all understand?’

The bound men nodded.

Talpur was nodding, too. His ears were still ringing from the sound of the explosion and he couldn’t take his eyes off a training shoe that had hit the far wall of the warehouse. It had landed the right way up, an inch or two of splintered bone protruding from it. Talpur’s heart was pounding so hard it was as if it was trying to burst out of his chest, and he was finding it hard to breathe. He was still gasping for breath as the hood was pulled over his head again.

He lost track of time. There were noises. Muffled voices. Movement. Then the sound of a vehicle being driven into the warehouse, doors opening and closing. More movement. Footsteps. Then he felt someone untie him and drag him by the collar to a van. Hands helped him inside and into a seat. ‘If you want to get out of this alive, stay quiet and do as you’re told, brother,’ Shahid hissed, then patted him on the back.