TWENTY THREE
Akbar and Muhammad watched as their compatriots departed from them and walked towards their vehicle. Little did all four men know but that would be the last time they would see each other.
Half hour later both men set off for work. Muhammad had been given the job as a dishwasher in the Exhibition Centre kitchens and Akbar was given the job of cloakroom assistant. Having secured work through an agency both men had managed to get access to the building on that fateful day.
Akbar went into work wearing his distinctive polo shirt which he covered his denim jacket over and Muhammad wore a red neck jumper and a sued jacket.
Once in the cloakroom and kitchen they began their day’s work and waited for the fireworks to erupt. Both men looked like they were busy working away but in reality that were waiting for a sign that Norman’s plan was working.
A few hours later, their patience was rewarded.
One of the staff while looking out of the kitchen windows spotted the first explosion. He quickly told his colleagues. The kitchen staff laid down their tools, drifted towards the windows, and watched as the chaos erupted. Gossip spread around the building and within a few minutes, all staff knew what was going on.
News reached Akbar and Muhammad in their separate manner. Akbar and Muhammad though were aware of the increased tension on the faces of the Police and Security Guards that guarded the Chinese President and his family.
As the chaos erupted, the dignitaries and guests of the Chinese President sat down for lunch. They started to talk through the politics and affairs of state that existed between the two nations of China and the United Kingdom. Some were just simply engaged in chit chat while others were using the event for wheeling and dealing. It was at this stage that everyone heard a powerful blast followed a succession of loud explosions sounding off one after another.
‘In my country they would crush this sort of thing immediately’ whispered one of the Chinese dignitaries.
His colleague rolled his eyes in agreement.
The audience watched as police officers posted to keep an eye on things moved towards the disturbances and explosions. Several important looking Policemen looked quite shaken.
One of the police officers reported that there had been several explosions. His commanding officer immediately ordered the blast shutters closed. The Bomb Blast window system, which had been installed in the build-up to the visit, could resist any explosion or fire. With the bomb blast doors down it immediately blocked the building off sealing off the audience in a safe cocoon of metal and heat resistant glass.
Over the loudspeakers a series of instructions were barked out. A monotone voice instructed the staff and guest that there was no need for panic and that this was just a precaution to deal with the excessive protests that were being encountered at the bottom of Holyrood Road and festivities would re-commence shortly once the situation outside was stabilised.
A period of peace continued as the lunch and festivities continued. Several people stood up and started to work through speeches about the President’s daughter and how it was a great day for the President and his family. The President addressed these followed a little while later by his daughter.
This was all brought to an end when the rocket fire began. Unexpectedly the building came under a hail of fire from the rear as an armoured piercing rocket was heard exploding to the rear.
A few seconds later, everyone watch in horror, as a helicopter was seen coming crashing down a short distance away from the building.
At this point, the staff and guest started were told to move into the basement. Table by table the VIP’s were rushed towards the basement of the building. In the chaos, no one noticed two men who were preparing to retrieve their special weapons. These weapons had been stored in a concealed compartment hidden behind one of the radiators in the cloakroom.
Around them, everyone could hear the tell-tale characteristics of rockets smashing into the walls of the building.
Akbar and Muhammad watched as those who had been wounded from the force and shock of each rocket hitting the building were pulled away to safety.
They could see the panic written over everyone’s face.
It was painted across their faces like a birthmark and could not be missed by anyone observing the panic that was around them. Akbar and Muhammad knew everything was playing straight into their hands and that Norman’s plan was going to pay off.
Thinking nothing of the harm that was being created around them both men demeanour changed from one of subservience to one of terror as they prepared for their attack on the Chinese President.
The men calmly watched as the police at all the entrances began to barricade themselves in from inside with desks, chairs and all sorts of debris they could gather in the minutes following the rocket attack.
Unknown to both men Susan and Simon were also in the building.
Both had agreed to work together to stop the attack. They both knew with great reluctance that they would be unable to report the planned attack. All they had was a collection of circumstantial evidence. Susan knew that MI5 and the Police would throw her out of the building and disregard any concerns that Susan had about the visit and the planned attack out as soon as they heard that Simon was involved.
His name was poison.
Furthermore, that would also want to know why she had not arrested Simon or killed him immediately.
Therefore, this meant that that both Susan and Simon would have to intervene on the day of the attack. But right now with riots and explosions erupting outside and rocket attacks smashing apart the building things did not look promising at all. In actual fact it looked more like the attack would be a success.
Susan felt completely powerless at this stage. How could a junior member of MI5 ever save the day?
How could she get that collection of old guard ever take her serious?
She could almost hear them saying ‘now, now dear don’t get yourself into a fluster’.
Her fortitude was Simon. He seemed to be completely convinced that they could make a difference and was going to save the day.
However, events took control and following the explosions and attacks erupting around them both followed everyone into the safe area. As they moved through the safe area they realised that had nowhere to tread on the floor. There were too many men women and children cocooned in the safe area.
Realising all were safe Susan and Simon both ran up the stairs in search of the two gunmen in the building. They both realised that the explosions and reaction of the police was all part of the build up for the attack on Chinese President and his Chinese entourage.
Simon led Susan back up away from the people safely hidden in the basement of the building.
As Simon came to the top of the stairs on the ground floor, he dived to the ground for cover as he watched one of the gunman jump out from a small utility room, which was a dead end. He raised his gun into the face of one of the waiters trying to break out. The scene was one of panic and with the male waiter terrified and attempting to run away from his killer. The result was what Simon expected, he watched helpless as the gunman shot the waiter in the back at point-blank range.
He was dead in an instant.
The gunman then threw a powerful grenade towards the people held in the cocoon below.
It missed. It landed on the second step and did not roll down the stairs.
The grenade exploded throwing Simon back down the stairs into Susan. For a few seconds both lay crumpled up at the bottom of the stairs.
With the grenade, having exploded some people began crying in the basement. People were screaming. Someone shouted ‘Down everyone Down’ in Chinese. Others ran away from the stairs and huddled from the scene in panic. The sobbing of people could be heard. Everyone was scared.
Akbar and Muhammad were not afraid to die, that was clear to everyone from the outset of the attack. As the hostages lay in the basement both Akbar and Muhammad rushed around in a hive of activity as they searched feverishly for the Chinese President.
As they searched around the conference area, the men found their second victim. They walked up to a Chinese dignitary.
Akbar turned on the man; put a bullet through one ear at close range. He then turned in quick succession and shot four people. A bullet hit one man in the head killing him instantly. Another hit a women in the heart. Her prolonged death lasted a few minutes before she died. Another bullet stuck a cook in the neck. It severed his windpipe. The result saw him drowning in his own blood. The last remaining victim was shot in the chest and he died a few minutes later.
Akbar then pulled out a sword from his back that he had retrieved from behind a pipe at the rear of one of the radiators. He then severed one of the dead victims head off. Picking it up in his hand he through it down the stairs. Panic ensured below.
A few minutes later Akbar and Muhammad lifted one of the dead bodies and threw it down the stairs causing further panic in the basement.
The police team watched in horror as this unfolded before their eyes.
Muhammad chose another victim. This time it was one of the Policemen. Muhammad shot him with a single bullet shattering the bone in his knee that brought him crashing down to the ground. He then lifted up a rock from one of the displays bringing it crashing down onto his head killing him immediately.
There then followed a series of brutal murders. Several Policemen were killed in a horrific and brutal manner. Akbar and Muhammad were merciless. One after another, the unarmed police were killed. Unable to prevent the gunmen from gaining control all looked doomed.
Many reading about what happened in the press over the following days and weeks would be aghast at the brutality of the killings.
With great speed, the gunmen grabbed several police officers tying up four men on a bench. Muhammad then lifted up a sword and one by one, he hacked the heads of each police officer one after another.
Meanwhile Akbar set about shooting every single last remaining survivor as he ransacked the floor with bullets and small incendiary devises. Within twenty minutes, the remains of twenty police officers were killed and murdered.
In the basement behind a fallen down table lay the President, his wife and his daughter surrounded by at least ten guards armed with small weapons. All of his guards knew that they would have to defend their president to the death and would ensure that these maniacs would be taken out before anyone attacked the president of China.
The President whispered to his wife ‘God in heaven, what madness is this?’
‘How could this have happened, I thought these were peace loving people not war mongering savages’
The President began to panic, but a stroke of his hand from his daughter soon calmed him down.
Although he was safe, the President was unsure that he could really trust his guards to save his life and his family’s life.
He was determined that whoever was making this attack was going to pay for this with their life. They would be taken back to China where his military would torture them to death. But that was the future. All that the President could think of was those awful pictures from the prisons in the west and the memos floating around his office about justifying torture but he knew in his heart he could justify his revenge to himself and that is what he would do if he survived the attack.