Scorpion's Vengeance, "Busted"

In the last episode the cops got some intelligence in where the car used in the shooting might be, but to get at it they're going to have to be creative with some of the truth!

MI6 would have no problem with that, but would the cops? If the intelligence is wrong it could finish their careers, but if they do nothing and the intelligence is right then the culprits get away with Murder!

What would you do?

They arrived without sirens and lights, a Police Land rover at each end of the two streets blocked access off, armed officers carrying standard issue MP5s jumped down and started holding up traffic. More vehicles rolled in with Police going door to door evacuating the workers.

One vehicle, a Ford Transit, sides blacked out, the single back door had officers milling around it like bees round a honeypot, the Transit pulled into the curb at the north end of the street, about twenty yards from the barrier, it was the mobile command post or ‘CP’

The rest of the officers, instructions given were steadily clearing the street

“What gives officer?” one guy asked.

“suspect vehicle in the road sir” the cop ushering him out replied, “we’re evacuating everyone, we've set up a perimeter just down the road”

“Must be a car bomb then!” he was adamant, the cop decided to let it slide.

Everything was done with a minimum of fuss, once the word of a bomb got out no one argued.

Standard procedure in such things is instead of going to all the businesses at once and causing panic the police quietly visit and evacuate each business one by one, that way they don’t lose control of the situation, they just didn’t tell people where the ‘suspect vehicle’ was.

Just then a Land Rover pulled up, a late model civilian looking vehicle, three men and a woman in body armour clambered out, each one carrying an automatic weapon slung across their shoulder and a pistol strapped to their sides, like the old western gunslingers, two of them went to the back of the vehicle and started unloading equipment, a third headed towards Billie and Harris who were by the command post.

“DS Jones and Sergeant Harris I presume?” the soldier put out his hand in greeting, there were four others at the ‘CP’ all four were senior officers, there for the glory if everything went well if things went pear-shaped they'd be scarce as hen's teeth. “Captain Jackson” he went on, “Army bomb disposal, heard you might have something you want us to deal with, that right?”

“What? er who called you folks?” it was the station superintendent asking the questions he was a little ‘flummoxed’

“Standard procedure” Jacko lied, “anyone puts one of these things in, the computer gives us a heads up, we thought it would be good practice to get down here and get the lay of the land, where’s the suspect device?” his eyes were dancing between the people, watching to see what happened next, everyone looked sheepish.

“Err, it's actually inside”

“No matter” Jacko replied, “but I need to talk to whoever's in charge of the operation, is that either of you by any chance?” He asked cheerfully knowing what the reply would be..

“That'll be sergeant Harris” the most senior officer replied passing the buck.

“In that case” Jacko replied his face taking on a sterner look, “there's a cordon in place for onlookers” he pointed to the barrier set up and manned by uniformed officers, “kindly move your arses behind it!” he escorted them to the cordon and made it clear the officers weren’t welcome. Turning to the officers manning the cordon he simply said, “no one passes, and I mean NO ONE!”

“Sir” the two cops jumped to attention, ‘Not arguing with this guy’ they thought.

“ make sure of it, I don't care who they are!” Jacko turned to talk with Harris, “sorry for seeming to take over sergeant, just needed to establish the cordon, as I said, you ARE in charge, it's just we know what, or rather whom we're dealing with,” he turned to one of the team, Sandy was heading to the CP, laptops slung in computer bags over her shoulder, “You know what to do Sandy?”

“Is the Pope a bloody catholic?” Sandy shot back, “course I do” she closed the door as soon as she was in the vehicle.

Two operators in the command post were coordinating the teams, one team at each end, their job was to keep joe public out. Two other teams each with two people were slowly emptying each of the buildings of people and taking them to the barriers.

“Right, listen up” Sandy spoke loud enough to get their attention, “this no drill, I know you were told it was, but it’s not, it's not a bomb” she let that sink in for a moment, “what we have is a serious criminal gang, well armed and extremely dangerous” she stopped to let that sink in, everyone in the CP stopped and turned towards her, it was obvious who was taking control there, besides the two operators there were a couple of others, mainly people working computer screens, digging out whatever information they could find for the men and women ‘on the ground’ it was vital everyone had whatever information they needed as soon as they needed it.

“Just what is really going on here?” Billie asked Jacko as soon as they were separated from the rest. Jacko had teamed her up with himself going to the front of the building, Mac and Sergeant Harris were teamed up together, their job would be to segregate the people as they came out, no one had explained much at this point, a third member of the squad had taken two officers around the back of the building, it seemed really strange, unless you were trying to prevent escape, that was all she could think of. The fourth member seemed to be playing with some kind of remote control robot on tracks, a ‘Goliath’ robot. “And just who are you?” she looked sideways at him as they prepared to approach the door.

“The last question first” Jacko began, “we’re known as Scorpion Team, and our job is taking down scumbags like these” she knew he was only telling part of the truth, but it would have to be enough, “These clowns are only part of the whole picture, but they’re an important part, and they have the evidence you need to get the men behind Akbari’s murder”

That stopped her literally in her tracks, so far she hadn’t mentioned the case, “what do you know about that?” she couldn’t help the question.

“You do know whom Akbari worked for, don’t you?” he replied as they began picking up their equipment, Billie was uncomfortable around firearms, and it was strange that a supposed ‘bomb disposal’ guy was bristling with them, he wasn’t carrying a weapon she recognised, the team had managed to make sure their ‘commandos’ were ready for them, all that is except for Smithy, he had ‘something special; as he put it. The captain was also carrying one sidearm she could see, and probably others she couldn’t.

“He worked for MI6” she replied, then added “which is strange as they normally ‘clean their own house’ and we don’t usually get to hear much about it”

“Except this time” Jacko cut her off, “we hoped a rottweiler would catch the case, ‘6’ have tried to shut you down, but there are people inside who want this in the public domain”

“But isn’t it national security and all that crap” she protested slightly, “they usually fire off at us, they get us to back off, and whats”

“Usually” he admitted, “but this one has too many rotten apples to hide, instead this time, we want to expose a few and watch the rest scurry for cover, and believe me, there’ll be quite a few, anyway, enough of the chit-chat, let’s get on with this” and with that he banged on the door. “POLICE, OPEN UP”

The first draft is finished now, and I'm going through editing the story as I go, it's been interesting doing things this way as I've just re-vamped the first two books ready for a re-launch and it's amusing to see the little things that make the stories flow together.

There's a special treat in store for anyone who clicks the link in the photo below in the next few days (four more to be precise) but I won't say much more than that.

Hope you enjoy the story.

Lawrence

ps don't forget to leave a comment.