Three Faces of West (2013) (33 page)

“Is he armed?” Asked one of the other operatives monitoring events via his computer,

“Yes. Looks like he’s carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.”

This was the confirmation that Harvey and the team needed that the personnel they were up against were personally armed and dangerous,

“Thousands of those things are shipped all around the world, wouldn’t take much to procure a few without too much trouble. Notify the police marksmen, and tell the special services to take it into consideration as they are deploying. Instruct them not to engage until they are notified.” Harvey warned, “Alpha 1 proceed as you see fit.”

Another building lay in front of him, just off to the left. Carefully monitoring the patrol movements of the guard, he slipped past him to the rear end of the longer structure. Noticing a door, Jack approached it, gun raised, to find out what was inside,

“Entering now.” He whispered into his earpiece as he opened the door slowly with one hand, his pistol raised level with the other. It was deserted,

“Seems like storage compartments, I’m clearing them out now.” He said as he examined all of the areas. The building was quite long, with all the areas lined in a row, flanked by a long corridor area which Jack slowly made his way down stopping at each area one by one,

“What can you see?” Asked Harvey,

“Nothing, they are all empty so far. Checking the last one.” Was Jack’s reply as he approached the last compartment. Suddenly something did not feel quite right; Pausing next to the door, Jack had an overwhelming uncomfortable feeling but he could not determine what it was. With his pistol raised his eyes fixated on the door, looking for any sign, the slightest inkling of a shadow…but there was no such giveaway,

“Your imagination is getting the better of you Jack.” He thought to himself. Calculating the risk, he took the decision to proceed. Moving into the doorway the compartment was empty like all the rest in front of Jack with his gun raised. He proceeded some more, advancing another yard before he was startled. With lightning speed he came face to face with a guard positioned inside the last area, obviously hearing movement he must have hidden once West had entered the building. Instantly without saying a word he swung his automatic rifle around, clearly with the intention of shooting Jack. Reactively with his Walther poised he pulled the trigger before a word or movement could be made, firing a bullet into the guard’s head, killing him outright. The suppressor on the gun barrel muffling the bang as it fires ensuring the killing has gone unnoticed apart from the splattering of blood from the exit wound as the man thudded to the ground.

“Alpha 1, are you alright?” Said Harvey,

“Yes, contact taken out in the next building.” Confirmed Jack as he dragged the quite heavy body further into the compartment to better hide it, hoping that it lay undiscovered.

Outside the still air was calm with the backdrop of normal city life far away but was disturbed ever so slightly by the faint thud from inside the long building. It attracted the attention of the guard who almost stumbled across West earlier, who by now had begun to come back on his patrol route. Alerted, but still suspicious he approached the source of the sound which he determined to originate in the structure beside him. Coming round the corner slowly and with his own rifle primed and ready to fire, he cautiously made his way to the back where the rear door was. Unbeknown to him he had stumbled directly into the sights of a police marksman positioned on the roof of a building across the street,

“Contact, hostile inbound. Permission to take out target.” Radioed the sniper as he tracked the movement of the guard,

“Harvey, the police say there’s a hostile inbound, they are asking permission to take out the target.” Said Aazim who by now was sat at a computer on the opposite side of the desk to join in the monitoring,

“Alpha 1, you have a hostile inbound on your position!” Warned Harvey to Jack. Sensing the danger, he made his way to the door, but it opened just as Jack got to within two feet away from it,

“Harvey the guard is going through the door now!” Said Aazim,

“Are the police authorised to fire?”

“No idea!”

While the confusion reigned at Thames House, Jack, seeing the door open instantly knelt down. His left knee resting on the wooden floorboards, waiting for the figure to appear as he pointed his gun yet again finder pulsed on the trigger. The guard appeared turning left, then to the right in the direction of where West lay in wait. The eye contact between the two men lasted perhaps half a second, as he was already in a marksman’s crosshairs when a shot was taken. In through the right temple and out of the left, the terrorist guard did not stand a chance,

“Target down.” Said the police marksman as the man he just shot fell to the floor. Thames House listened intently to the drama as it continued to unfold,

“Wait, there’s another in my sights.” Said the sniper, as another figure appeared,

“Is he a friendly?” Asked another officer. Harvey alarmed tried to clarify,

“Inform the police there is a friendly officer in that location, do not fire, repeat, do not fire!!”

The sniper held his nerve as he watched the figure grab the dead guard and pull it inside to hide it,

“Hold your fire, that is a friendly, I say again that is a friendly.” The police officer heard over his own earpiece. He kept off the trigger. Jack headed out again now that he had dumped the body with the other one together,

“Hope nobody discovers them.” Jack thought to himself as he made toward another building to search. Another one was further down but due to the orientation, the snipers would not be able to cover him all the way round,

“I’ve lost him.” Said another police sniper as Jack reached the bottom end and out of sight,

“Control to Alpha 1, you are out of sight of the police snipers, use caution.” Warned Aazim,

Jack replied, “Understood.”

He made his way round other buildings; the whole place was a maze, aggravated by the darkness. The restricted lighting in this part of the compound only served to make matters worse as Jack moved between walls and round corners. Knowing full well that there may be other guards around in this clearly important part of the site, he took his time moving from point to point but the close proximity of each building frustrated the police snipers and special services moving in and tracking him,

“Where is he?” Asked one of the police marksmen looking through a sniper scope, it was hard tracking somebody when they had disappeared from view,

“Do we have a visual?” He asked. Concerned, Thames House decided to find out,

“Alpha 1, report your position. Confirm we have a fix on your location.” Asked Harvey.

“No response, come in Alpha 1 report.” Replied Aazim

“Come in Alpha 1…Jack?”

There was absolutely no reply whatsoever from West. Hearing the words perfectly through his earpiece there was nothing at all he could do about it, freezing in his tracks with his hands raised, he was held at gunpoint by another guard. Caught red-handed, the situation seemed like a checkmate as the short cold sawn off barrel dug into the back of his head. Without moving his prisoner, the masked guard slammed his shotgun barrel under Jack’s arms forcibly gesturing his to place his hands upon his head. All he could do was stand there as he was fleeced on the spot, holding the forearm to his head with one hand; Jack felt the woollen gloved hand pat him down, until he came across his Walther. Removing it in brusque fashion the terrorist captor pushed and shoved West in such a violent way, forcing him toward a concrete structure on the other end of the compound,

“Wait,” Said one of the snipers as he looked into one of his sights, “Contact. Two people, one of them are being led by the other. He’s armed.”

“Do we have a positive ID?” Asked Harvey,

“Negative. It may be your man on the ground. He may have been compromised.”

Monitoring the situation, one of the operatives turned to Harvey, “If that’s West and he is caught, if he talks.”

Harvey cut him off, “He won’t talk.”

“Then do we send in the special services?” He was asked,

“No, not yet. One man cannot jeopardise the whole operation. Keep monitoring the situation; I want to know the second something happens. Any sign of increased activity, we go in.”

With his hands raised above his head, Jack was bundled into the large concrete building with its dingy interior. Dimly lit inside at least Jack could see where he was going now, it was some kind of dog kennels, an impounding facility for the guard dogs accompanying security on the site. Having only a few seconds to survey his surroundings, he heard the door slam behind as the guard turned violent toward him within the privacy of the four walls,

“WHO ARE YOU?!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!!!!”

Realising he was on his own now, West had to quickly think on his feet as the guard began to rough him up. The barrel end of the sawn off pressing into his right cheek, the coldness of it stinging like a bee,

“I’m just a burglar!! I didn’t realise what this place is!! Please don’t hurt me!! I’m just looking to see what I could take that’s all!!! You don’t have to shoot mate, please don’t hurt me!!!” He pleaded. Obviously trying desperately to sound like a harmless petty criminal,

“YOU THINK I’M STUPID? WHAT YOU LOOKING FOR?!!!!” Continued the guard,

“No, No mate-‘

“I’M NOT YOUR FUCKING MATE!!!”

“OK, OK, look, I saw this place was a dock, so I only came looking for something, you know, anything like cargo or something to take. Anything I can steal and sell off. I swear I don’t know anything!!! Are you going to call the police?” Jack continued,

“WHAT ABOUT THE GUN?!! WHERE’S THE FUCKING GUN COME FROM?!!!”

Pinned down on a nearby table, his face pressed into the wood and the gun still digging into his flash, West continued with the charade,

“I just got it from a mate. I wasn’t going to use it!!! I don’t even know how to fire it!!! It’s just for show, to scare people you know.”

By pure chance the table was in front of the window, West had seen it and subtly positioned himself so if the guard did grapple with him, he would be pinned down on the table, maximising his chances of being seen. Aware that police marksmen was tracking him, he prayed that he was now visible to the men on the rooftops.

His prayers were indeed answered, by now he was visible, and had been since he was being led to the building. The window and the full exchange was being seen directly through the scope of a police sniper,

“Control, Alpha 1 is being pinned down by a hostile. Do we take the shot?”

Harvey paused, “Have you got a clear line of sight?”

“Negative, your man is pinned down, it’s too risky”

Frustrated, there was little Harvey could do,

“If you get a clear shot, eliminate the target.”

In the concrete building, the Guard by now had let West go, sitting him on a chair next to the table. Either he didn’t believe his story or he just had no time for it,

“Sit down!!! I’m watching you!!!” He said sternly as he went to pick up a telephone that was connected on the other wall. Not keeping his eyes off his captive he picked up the receiver in preparation to dial through to others, as Jack looked on. He needed to do something before such a phone call was made, or he could alert others. With one hand busy dialling a number on the keypad, and the other raising, shotgun in hand, West had almost run out of time as the guard just noticed something small and black stood out on the floor,

“What’s that?” He asked as he stopped dialling. The gun still pointed at Jack, he dropped the receiver to bend down and examine what it was. Looking down himself, Jack instantly recognised the object as his earpiece, it must have come out when the guard bundled him on the table, but he dare not move, he was still staring into the blackness of a twin gun barrel. The guard bent quickly bent down just at the crucial moment; the glass shattered as a large chunk of plaster flew out of the far wall near the telephone. It was a split second action, but it was clear it was a sniper bullet, a bullet that had just missed its intended target,

“Shit!!! Control, target missed.” Said the sniper who had just taken the shot, a victim of cruel mistiming. That did not matter inside the building; the guard reacted by ducking to avoid the line of fire as he looked up to the window to see the bullet hole of shattered glass in the window pane. What he did not see instantly was West taking his chance. Getting out of his chair he lunged for the guard with the intent if disarming him. Immediately he backed up to give himself some space as both they faced off before the guard finally attacked. Swinging his shotgun violently like a club straight at Jack’s head, it caused him to duck for his life as the wooden shoulder butt smashed into the plaster wall with a sickening thud. Using the opportunity of the exposed body, West hit back full force with his fists into the stomach of the guard forcing him back and then again, a full punch to the face. Stunned but not out, the guard throws himself at West, pinning him against the wall. Furniture, bumped into and thrown during the struggle continues to be disturbed as both men fight for control turning the area into a wreck. Using the sawn off, the guard slams it against the throat of Jack in a serious attempt to strangulate him, the whole scene visible but only just through the scope of the snipers,

“Control, your man appears to be fighting with the guard.”

“Can you shoot him?” Asked Harvey,

“Negative, too risky, the bullet may pass through the guard’s body and into the other. We may have two dead men instead of one.”

West, now totally paralysed gasped for each painful breath as the barrel of the gun pressed against his throat, compressing it to a point where he was about to lose consciousness. He had to do something, he kicked out, his heavy duty boots contacting directly into the shin bond of the left leg of the guard. It was enough, in releasing the gun sufficiently in the grip of sharp pain just as West grabbed the phone receiver and swung it at his head. Blowing at full force, the hard plastic smashed against the skull of his attacker causing him to drop to the floor, knocked out. Pausing briefly to catch his breath, the moved fast while he had the upper hand. Taking off the guard’s jacket, he searched the pockets to swiftly retrieve his Walther complete with silencer. Knotting it up, he quickly improvised an impromptu restraint, as he proceeded to use it to tie us the arms of the guard behind his back severely impairing his movements. Picking up his earpiece he refitted it to re-establish contact with his support,