Max explained to James and Amy the details of the planned attack on the Olympics. He explained their intention to kidnap the terrorist leaders and force them into revealing the location of the cells. It was essential for their safety that they leave London and return to Dorset. They agreed reluctantly, but assured Max they would be ready and willing to help if they were needed.
Meanwhile, Ruhab Gupta had received his phone call providing Robert Leighton’s home address. The caller also informed Gupta the security forces were treating the video of the men planning the attack, as a hoax and for now, they were not in jeopardy. Obviously, that would change after the attack, and they would have to go into hiding, but it had always been an acceptable outcome for them.
Gupta’s men tied up the old woman and left to wait for Max, Carla, and Tim to arrive at Robert Leighton’s house.
Max, Carla and Tim set off in a taxi, to Robert’s home. It was an impressive detached house, surrounded by a tall brick wall, with imposing wrought iron gates at the entrance. They got out of the taxi and it drove off, as Max pressed the intercom button set into the gatepost. Moments later the gates parted just enough to let them through, and immediately closed again.
Several small Wi-Fi cameras transmitted their arrival back to Gupta, who was parked a short distance away in a hired car, hidden amongst others in the street.
Gupta and his three men left their car, removed the cover plate to the intercom and bypassed the keypad, partially opening the gates. They went in and hurried up the drive, unobserved by Robert Leighton, now he had guests.
The security system to the house was minimal, because Robert was not a significant security risk in administration. He just had a camera with the intercom on the gate and a burglar alarm in the house. With Robert at home, the alarm would not be set.
***
Gupta assessed the house and grounds, and planned his attack.
The traditional style 2 story house lay central on a long plot. The landscape gardener had improved the feeling of space at the sides of the house, by leaving it open to lawn and flower borders, up to the tall boundary wall.
The central carved oak front door, with its wide sidelight windows, indicated a large formal hall, probably with an impressive galleried staircase leading up from it. The wide bay windows each side, suggested the principal rooms had views to the sides, as well as front or rear. Most likely the kitchen and back door were central to the rear of the house.
Because there was no cover in the garden, they would need to move swiftly to capitalize on the element of surprise. He doubted there would be weapons in the house; the three people he held captive earlier did not carry any.
Gupta instructed his three men on the plan of attack.
“I will enter the front door, as soon as I see you in position to cover the back door, Ahmed.
“Shamel, you cover the back left corner, so you can see the back and left side. Shoot the people inside if they try to get out through the windows.
“Take the front right corner, Jamal, so you can shoot them if they come out the front, or right side windows.
“When I signal you Shamel, I will go in the front door. You signal Ahmed to go in the back, and kill anyone in the downstairs rooms. I will wait in the hall, to prevent anyone escaping down the stairs. When you have cleared all the rooms downstairs, we will both go and clear upstairs.
“I will hold the landing. Ahmed, make sure you check for a basement and search all cupboards; these people are smart, we cannot afford to underestimate them again.”
Gupta’s men were well trained and therefore, they had already come up with the same attack plan themselves. They also knew their opponents were cunning, so surprise was the surest way to beat them, guns alone were not enough.
In the hall, Robert Leighton greeted Carla with one of his warmest, charming smiles. She knew that he was angry with her because Sam would have told him of her threat. The man was an intelligent political animal, not a cornered cat, and so he relied on charm, not belligerence, to keep her on side. However, Robert switched to friendly indifference to Max and Tim; charm would be wasted on them!
Robert closed the front door, and ushered his guests into the drawing room at the front right-hand side of the house.
Immediately the front door started to close, Gupta’s men scurried into their agreed positions, ducking under windows as necessary.
It was purely by chance that Max glimpsed movement in a mirror over the fireplace, facing the bay window. Both Carla and Tim felt a sense of danger at that same moment, some deep telepathic signal from Max. A primitive sense we all have, when tuned into it.
Robert stopped talking, no one was listening to him; his three guests were ducking low, and peering through the windows at the men surrounding the house. One glimpse of Ruhab Gupta’s bandaged face and they knew they were facing death, it was just moments away.
“Do you have any weapons in the house Robert?” Max whispered urgently. “We are under attack by the terrorists.”
Robert’s face turned deathly white as he flustered, “uhh, no!”
Tim commanded “Max, Carla, you deal with the front door, Robert and I will deal with the back door.”
He pushed Robert low to the floor, and dragged him through the hall to the kitchen door.
Tim held his eye to the dusty keyhole and looked across the kitchen at the silhouette of a man, through the obscure glass of the back door. The handle turned and the man entered silently, a suppressed pistol held aloft in front of him. Tim whispered his instructions to an astounded Robert Leighton, adding for effect, all their lives depended on him!
Max and Carla signaled their mutually conceived plan, to each other, and watched the front door intently.
***
The gleaming brass doorknob turned quickly and the heavy oak door opened. Ruhab Gupta started to enter, his suppressed pistol held ahead of him in one hand, steadied by the other. His forearm pushed the door open as he entered.
Max launched his full body weight at the door, feet scrabbling on the polished wood floor to maintain pressure. Ruhab Gupta’s arms were trapped forcibly between the leading edge of the door and the doorframe. The instant Max moved, Carla leaped like a cat and grasped the pistol. One hand held the suppressor, forcing it away from her and down, and the other gripped the rear of the pistol, preventing the inevitable release of the cocked hammer and firing pin.
Fortunately, silence was not part of the plan. All Ruhab Gupta’s men heard the agonized scream as the heavy door almost amputated his arms.
Max yanked the man into the hall as Carla slammed the door shut after him, to keep anyone else out. A deft flick of her right leg at Gupta’s ankles, knocked his feet from under him and he fell with a heavy slap, to the hard floor. The momentary winding as he fell, silenced him. Carla released the hammer so the gun was safe, flicked the safety on and pistol whipped Gupta with the heavy metal suppressor. He would be unconscious for several minutes at least.
Carla and Max did a search of Gupta’s body for weapons and any information that might be useful; they also held onto his mobile phone.
Now they had a gun the odds were better, but there were three skilled killers outside who knew Gupta was down.
***
Curiosity and the desire to rescue their fallen leader, drove Ahmed to cross the kitchen towards the door, where Tim was hiding.
Ahmed planned to open the door to the hall, and pull it towards him so he could see past its leading edge, to check if anyone was hiding there. Care and caution was needed; he felt certain that his victims would have Gupta’s gun by now.
He turned the door handle, and the moment the heavy door was free to swing open, it smashed into his face, breaking his nose and cutting a deep vertical wound to his forehead, from eyebrow to hairline. Stunned and in a sea of pain, he fell back like a toppled statue. The back of his head smacked hard on the vinyl-covered wooden floor, and he was knocked unconscious.
At just the right moment, Tim had done a flying dropkick to the leading edge of the door. The instant it flew open, Robert pushed through and pounced on the fallen gun. Tim landed as light as a cat on all fours and followed Robert into the kitchen.
Still hunched over, Robert turned quickly and flung the gun towards Tim as though it were a hot potato. He wanted nothing more to do with it!
***
Max and Carla approached them and eyed up the successful capture of the second killer.
“I wonder what the other two outside will do now?” pondered Max aloud, to no one in particular.
The silence that followed had piqued the curiosity of Shamel and Jamal. They were staked out on opposite sides of the house, so could not see or secretly communicate with each other. If they were to call out, it would confirm their position and the uncertainty of their predicament. Unaware of Ahmad’s capture, they thought it might put him at risk, by distracting him. So far, no shots had been fired, so perhaps Ahmed was quietly working his way through the rooms, and had not found the victims yet?
Several more minutes had ticked by, nothing was happening! This was all taking far too long.
At the start of the attack, it had been inconceivable that they would need to do more than prevent escape from the house. Now they faced going in!
Shamel was nearest to the front, so he decided he would peek in through the windows each side of the front door. Depending on what he saw, he would then check the side windows. He deduced that if he could see no one, their targets must be upstairs.
The hall door into kitchen was open, but no one was visible there. The doors to the two side rooms were wide open; in the drawing room doorway, to the right, there was a pair of legs on the floor, Gupta’s legs. He was perfectly still, and lay face down.
Ahmed was next to the body, kneeling down with his back to the doorframe and peering over the body. He was motionless, perhaps in deep shock at the sight of his fallen leader.
Perhaps he remained still because there was a gun pointed at him? Perhaps this was to lure him into a stupid trap?
Shamel crept around the building and peeked in through the side window to the study. Still Ahmed had not moved, there was no one else in the room, not even hiding behind the open door. They could be hiding in the opposite room of course, or in the kitchen. He moved around the house and checked out each room; finally he told his brother Jamal what he had seen, and that he planned to enter from the kitchen, and check on Ruhab and Ahmed.
Shamel moved quickly through the empty kitchen and hall, and approached the two motionless bodies.
He saw Ahmed’s hand move, and tenderly touch Ruhab’s arm. ‘He is still alive then,’ Shamel thought.
Ahmed than flopped forward onto Ruhab, as if distraught!
Shamel ran to Ahmed, and bent over to alert and comfort him.
The metallic click of a cocked pistol, near his ear, sent the chill of fear along his spine.
***
Max whispered from behind the open door, “Call your friend to come in here with you and don’t make any mistake; if I believe you are about to warn him, it will be the last word you utter. We want you all alive, so this is your only chance. Nod slowly if you understand and agree.”
Shamel slowly nodded.
“What do you call your friend?” asked Max.
“Jamal, he is my brother.”
“Say this, and only this,” commanded Max. “Jamal, get in here, now!”
Shamel reasoned that whilst he was alive, they still had a chance to kill their targets, and although he did not mind dying in battle, he did not want his brother to die.
Shamel did as he was told.
Max quickly repositioned Ahmed. The two thin nylon fishing lines that had moved the unconscious man were now obvious, they ran under Ruhab’s body.
Max instructed Shamel to kneel at Ruhab’s head, facing into the hall. He hid in the front corner of the drawing room, out of view from the windows, although Max could see anyone looking in, reflected in the mirror over the fireplace.
Shamel assumed the others were upstairs keeping out of sight, which must be why he had not seen them in the other rooms. Perhaps he and his brother could overpower Max and kill him, before the others came to his aid.
Keeping the others hidden was part of Max’s plan, to maintain the upper hand should things go wrong.
***
Jamal had made the same checks through the windows as his brother, he was not about to fall for any trick. He saw his brother and Ahmed gazing at the prone figure of their leader.
Cautiously Jamal entered the house through the kitchen and approached the three members of his team in the doorway.
Shamel looked up and flicked his eyes to the right, indicating where Max was holding him at gunpoint. Jamal had no time to swing his gun to fire at Max, through the solid wooden door, because Carla dropped a rolled up, heavy Chinese silk rug onto his outstretched arms, from the gallery landing. The gun was knocked from his grasp, and fired harmlessly into the floor.
Tim easily cleared the 3 meter distance from the opposite room before Jamal could turn, and felled him with a bone crunching right hook.
Max was furious with Shamel for giving him away to his brother, and expressed his wrath by pistol whipping Shamel, smashing his nose with the suppressor.
“Lesson learned?” spat Max, as he glared icily at Shamel.
Shamel nodded like a scolded child, as he tried in vain to staunch the flow of tears, blood and snot gushing through his fingers.
With the organization and coordination of synchronized swimmers, Tim and Carla locked the back door and looked out through the windows, checking for any other threats. There were none.
***
Max called Robert to come down, and everyone met in the hall, with the captured killers. As Robert reached down for Jamal’s fallen handgun, Tim grabbed the barrel firmly, pointing it out of harm’s way and said, “I’ll take that, Robert!”
Carla spoke. “Robert, we will need your help to try and stop the terrorist attack on the Olympics. I believe your brother Sam has briefed you by now.”
“Yes, he has, although I am not sure I can actually do anything more than I have so far.”
“We will see,” Carla replied, “in the meantime, I will hang on to the DVD I have for you; it is the only copy left in the world.” she added meaningfully.
Robert’s face smiled congenially, but his eyes glowered at her.
“You want to keep me on my toes, don’t you?” he replied somewhat clipped.
“Sam will be contacting us when he has set up all my requirements” said Carla. “Until then, we will have to wait here with these apologies for terrorists, until the interrogator can deal with them.”
“You won’t make us talk,” Shamel snuffled defiantly at Carla.
“You believe that do you?” she replied lightly.
“We will have the people who planned this attack, all their families and loved ones, their children as well. We shall all sit down together just outside the Stadium, and wait for something to happen. When it does, you will be the first to experience it.
“You can watch as your friends, loved ones and children, die in whatever agony you planned to inflict on the unsuspecting, innocent public. We will be wearing hazmat suits of course, so we will probably be alright.”
Carla gave a gleeful smile, to emphasize her indifference to their reluctance to confess.
Shamel paled noticeably.
“Oh!” added Carla. “Were you expecting a bit of sleep deprivation, a slap or two? Perhaps even a broken fingernail or dare I suggest it, waterboarding? Were you going to be terribly brave and endure endless agony and die a martyr?”
She paused for effect.
“We have no connection with the government or security forces; we are not bound by their conventions. There will be no public outcry about torture and cruelty, in fact, after the interrogator has finished with you, you will never be found. You will simply vanish and nobody will know or care about how brave you were.”
Carla paused again for further effect.
“There are so many people for the interrogator to work with, and most of them have never experienced more than a pricked finger, so I think we will get our answers extremely quickly.
“You know as well as I do, that a man or woman would willingly face pain and death for a belief, but to watch their child suffer and die in front of them, is a different matter.”
Max and Tim stared at Shamel, stony faced. It was a look that showed there would be no mercy.
“All that agony for nothing, just think of it. You bravely hold out and say nothing, yet the people you are trying to protect tell us everything. We are only interested in stopping the atrocity, not in taking prisoners or holding you to account. As I already said, we are not working for the government or security forces.
“Be as brave as you like, we don’t care; no one will find out who told us what we wanted to know, but I bet you will be blamed, and your friends and family will curse your name.”
Carla walked away as Shamel was about to speak; whatever he had to say, she made it clear to him she was not interested. The fact was, she desperately needed answers, but it was unlikely Shamel would tell them anything truthful. In his position, she would tell half-truths, waste time, and stall as long as possible.
“We should tie up these four, before they are all conscious. They might be difficult to handle, when we move them to the interrogation center” suggested Tim.
“Yes, you are quite right Tim. Can you arrange something that they will never get out of?”
“I will hunt around and find something that will hold them.” He came back with lengths of stiff galvanized fence wire, wire cutters and pliers. This would make excellent shackles, no locks to pick like there are with handcuffs, and impossible to rub through.
Tim was taking no chances. He double shackled each man with a figure of eight loop, twisting the wire between their hands and together at the ends. Even with wire cutters, it was hard to cut the thick metal.
“Time for some food and a drink,” suggested Max. “ while we refine our plans.” The others agreed and left Robert to prepare sandwiches, tinned fruit and coffee, which left them suitably full and better tempered. Only water was given to the terrorists.
Whilst the others took turns guarding the prisoners, Robert had a full night’s sleep.
***
Early the next morning, a call came through to Robert from his brother Sam. The team Carla had requested, with the equipment and supplies, would be available later that afternoon.
The building had been located, but the legalities would take several days to complete, so Sam suggested that they just quietly move in and keep out of sight.
The men who masterminded the plot, and their families, had been located and would be delivered to the building in vans, that evening.
So far, typically of The Organization, all the pieces were fitting together at a fine pace.