TWENTY ONE
News of the bloody and grisly attacks in Birmingham, London, Bradford, Manchester and Edinburgh was being discussed by several academics on the morning TV. The TV had come on to wake up Akbar and the rest of the team.
Some professor from a well-respected institution started a 5 minute seminar on how this was a classic example of Al Qaida led attack and how white-Anglo working class reaction which was disengaged by mainstream politics was reacting to these attacks. Akbar could see the joy in the interviewers eyes as she outlined how this was creating a great security risk to the United Kingdom Government and whether the Prime Minister should consider increasing stop and search powers by the police.
‘Great’ thought Akbar they are playing right into Norman’s hands.
Less than an hour later, the four men were dressed in military order. All four met and then set about their tasks for the day ahead. Helping each other, they set about loading a series of bags into two vans parked in the car park outside their hotel. Led by Hussein the four men pair up and got into each of the vehicles. Each was full of enough weapons to arm a small army.
Hussein and Ahmed got into one vehicle and drove off towards the centre of Edinburgh. A few hours later, they drifted with their bags into the set of tents that had been set up by the ‘Occupy Edinburgh’ campaigners that had been protesting for the last few weeks outside the Scottish Office building. The crowd of protesters had chosen monolithic, symmetrical building as the site to make their protest. The buildings that featured a number of sculpted decorations, in an Art Deco style, had been designed by the notable British sculptor: Sir William Reid Dick were designed to be symbolic figures including heraldic devices and large bronze doors that were supposed to represent the journey from earth to heaven. However, the building really looked like something that had been built to house a Nazi war-rally during the mid-20th Century.
Oblivious to this Hussein and Ahmed Set up their tent and got ready for the next day. With the tent set up both men began to mingle with the protesters making sure they looked part of the protest.
At seven AM the next morning, both men awoke.
Peering out of their tent they could see the sun had just risen and it was masking Carlton Hill with it rays.
A lone jogger sored down Waterloo Place passed the rows of silent tents that constitute Occupy Edinburgh. "Wake up," the man, shouted "Wake up and get a job."
Most occupiers were not yet awake, but both men could not sleep for the cold from the night. They dressed, and were up ready for the day’s action.
One of the protesters unzipped his tend and shouted out "Twat". He then zipped his tent back up and went back to sleep.
Hussein and Ahmed nodded to each other and begin their preparations for the day’s activity inside their tends.
Hussein thought back to the previous evening’s conversation about the protesters. Both men agreed that felt that their protest was little more than insipid thinking. Some sort of vague thinking in which the protests wanted to remonstration about something but they did not know what they really were protesting about.
Hussein and Ahmed felt it was no longer their problem really.
Hussein and Ahmed arrived on the sixth day of the occupation. The protesters were mostly students and the odd hippy. Hussein and Ahmed were amazed at how the place seems staggeringly well organised and was growing fast.
They estimated that there were 100 tents lining the steps of Scottish Office and it was growing by the hour.
The camp looked like it had the means to last until the winter. It even had a kitchen that was even compliant with health and safety regulations and had been there since day one. Portable toilets were even in place, and the Council even supplied a full gamut of recycling bins. There was even a tech tent – filled with enough hardware to host a TV station.
That evening both men even visited the university tent where there were 24-hour lectures on China and the demise of the capitalist model.
The team of course knew all about this as they had been monitoring the build-up of the camp via Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. This had even allowed them to make a few connections providing an easy trail for the police afterwards to link it to a Middle East terrorism cell in Edinburgh.
A few hours later, the two men even joined in a kick about with a football.
The players called themselves Occupy FC. Hussein and Ahmed found it funny that the players were not even occupiers. Two of the men wore suits; obviously, executives on their way back from a day’s work at the Scottish Office and had decided to join in on their way home.
During that evening as they tried to spread the word of their views, providing more evidence for the police to link their attack to their terrorist groups both men began started to spark up friends. They even met a 29-year-old community arts worker. She started a great debate about how you can only go to the ballot box every five years and how politicians do not actually represent your view and highlighting the importance of this kind of protest and how it brings together people to build an alternative.
However, to Hussein and Ahmed they thought it was funny how the vast majority of the protesters were all young, white and students. The various groups of people fell into a spawn of three or four competing actions called by several different groups, which had merged plans. Predictably, there was several Socialist Workers in the camp. In one clump of tents, there was half a dozen Anonymous campaigners, frequently clad in crumpled suits and shiny masks.
That night until 11 PM, an orchestra of occupiers banged drums on the steps to the Scottish Office while others danced manically around.
By Mid-morning, a reporter from the BBC's convened a debate between the occupation and representatives from the local Chinese Embassy and one of the many Scottish Banking institutions that supported the IMF. Packed across the steps, the occupiers surround them and took it in turns to lambast the financial system and the Chinese government support of the developing nations.
The debates centred on blaming the bankers, and the Tory Government. The conclusion was that the system was wrong and nothing could really be attributable to a single group or individual. The problem was with capitalism and people’s greed.
Later Hussein and Ahmed dressed in jeans and t-shirt joined about 20 buses from across Edinburgh as they brought protesters to a march that set about making its way towards an Exhibition Centre and the Scottish Parliament buildings.
Around 25,000 people started to take part in the march, which started outside the council's Waverley Court headquarters on East Market Street and was due to finish at the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens, where there was to be a series of speakers.
The protesters all started to form into one vast column of marchers. Messages began to spread across the crowds that the Scottish Police Force had begun to tell people not to come and join the protest march. They had told people that Edinburgh was closed, you cannot get out of Edinburgh, the march was cancelled, the march was postponed, and there was civil disorder across Scotland all to break down the numbers.
Eventually as the protest built up the Police started harassing the assembly point where buses and the campers had made their base. Several vanloads of police from the London Met arrived at just before 10 AM, cordoned off the assembly point, and tried to prevent unsuccessfully people joining the march. At this stage, all was still well with most of the crowds still in good humour.
As the protesters marched through the city, they started to form into lines some as long as ten abreast. Their arms were linked as they marched towards Princes Street. The Scottish Police quickly formed a line in front of the marchers and started to negotiate to try to break the numbers up. However, the sheer numbers were too much and they had little option but to let the protesters march down through the city passed the burnt out flats that Stuart and Simon had once lived in and towards the exhibition centre where the Chinese President was guest of the UK and Scottish Governments.
As was always the protesters wished to stay in full view of the public. This was the best way of preventing the Police from attacking the demonstration as they had done so many times in previous demonstrations across the world.
The march continues relatively peaceful until the masses began to march down the Cowgate and Holyrood Roads. As they approached the start of Holyrood Road, more protesters joined from the South. The march was now some 30,000 strong as they marched towards the centre of Holyrood Road and were opposite the BBC offices and The Scotsman offices. At this point, the police formed a line with vans preventing the marchers from passing the exhibition centre. They wanted the protesters to turn away and march around Holyrood Park and away from the main event.
Hussein and Ahmed were now in their planned positioned.
Hussein and Ahmed started to shout out at the police trying hard to cause a reaction from the police or the crowd. It worked. Soon many of the crowd started their attempts to go through the police line and continue along Holyrood Road. At first, they achieved some success. With considerable ease they moved forward about one hundred metres. As they reached the entrance to the Exhibition Centre, the back of the march became uneasy about moving off the main road. At this stage, the police then formed a new line at the entrance to the Exhibition Centre.
At this point, the march had swelled to over 45,000 about the same population as a small town.
The local police reinforced by the riot squads from London and Glasgow prepared to stand their ground. They started their attempts to break up the march by arresting isolated people that had broken away from the crowds.
By now, Hussein and Ahmed had been crammed in Holyrood Road for several hours. Hussein and Ahmed separated away from each. At the agreed time, they both pulled out two small coke sized bottles from their pockets. Each bottle was filled with a highly explosive liquid that filled each bottle of coke. Inside the bottle was several nails and ball bearings. In quick succession, each man threw their devises at the police. One after another each bottle span through the air passing over the crowds towards the Police.
A few seconds later, all hell broke loose.
Violent blasts erupted in the crowds and amongst the police.
Flying shrapnel from each bomb erupted through the crowd decimating and injuring everyone in their path. Several hundred people were injured with each explosion as they erupted. Each blast brought out a blast of swirling debris that had been carefully planted the previous day by Hussein and Ahmed. The shockwaves that erupted brought more and more people down. Finally the crowds and the police started to panic. Crowds started to charge towards the police bringing many people falling onto the ground who were trampled to death in the chaos.
Immediately the police commander reported this to the security in the Exhibition Centre. He then ordered all doors locked, they brought down anti-riot shields effectively locking down the Chinese government and the UK and Scottish Governments, and all the various dignitaries in the exhibition centre exactly as the plan specified.
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