The Return of Seven by Kenn Gordon - HTML preview

“Mr Andy surely if the storm hits us it will hit the people in the Whaling Station as well. So they will not want to wander out in it and it may even cause damage to their base. They will not be able to operate their boats which are a lot smaller than the Catherine May.”

“Abdalla I am sure you are right but I am not sure I get the point.”

“Mr Andy they will not be able to get help. Could we not use the storm to our advantage and attack while they are hunkering down?”

“We would need a bigger crew than just the four of us on the Hind. We can’t just fly over it and let loose with our cannons and rockets. Apparently according to ‘The Suit’ we need to capture their geek.”

“Mr Andy that is why we have been talking, that is to say Sandy and I. They want to help put an end to all this. They all want to avenge Jane’s death. As you know we have never kept secrets from our family and friends within Team Seven. They have asked to do this and as normal, have threatened to come along even if we tell them to stay.”

I looked to see all of our team standing with Abdalla. They were all looking at me. I looked into the eyes of my father. I looked long and hard to see if there was even the slightest shadow of doubt there. They were steadfast as were the eyes of all the civilians.

“What about Oran? Has anyone asked him how he feels?”

“Oran says yes” His unmistakable voice came from behind me and Cyber pushed his way in.

“OK so once again we change plans and wing it I suppose. Do we inform ‘The Suit’?” All their heads shook as if connected to a central computer processor. So it was decided the Catherine May would head out on the tide and make for the bay of Kirkja on the opposite side of the small Island where the whaling station was located in the Faeroe's but they would drop off barrels of fuel for the chopper in the cove of Svinoy, in order that we would not be stuck for fuel out in the North Atlantic during a storm. Meanwhile we still had to take care of their boat that was located somewhere around the top of Unst. We would take care of that as soon as the boys at the R10 got back to us. I did not particularly want to use our HIND on them unless we had to. If they were close enough to shore we could use our AR50’s. I went to my cabin and stripped off for a shower. I unwound the bandage from my arm I would redress the wound after my shower. After setting the shower to hot I lathered up with soap and washed myself down then I let the shower rinse the suds off. I washed my hair and then turned the shower all the way to cold. I let it pound on my back as I leaned against the wall of the shower cubical. I let the cold water ease the strain from my body and from my mind. After a good long soak I switched the shower off and towelled dry. I put a new dry self adhesive dressing on my arm. Carefully with the tip of my KaBar I cut the stitches on my chest and pulled them out. There would be another scar on my body to go with all the others I was picking up. I dressed in clean underwear and a new Nomex suit. I attached my body armour and put on my pair of Sig Sauer’s along with my KaBar and Busse knifes. I wiped my hand across the steamed up mirror and I looked at my reflection. I hardly recognised myself. I was definitely not the man I was a year ago. I was not even the man I was 6 months ago. I was a shadow of my form moral self. I was preparing to go out and kill people I did not even know. Was I killing for SIS or my country? or was I killing for myself in some form of self conceived form of protection of myself and my friends? I really did not know if I was a good guy any more. I wondered if Lachie felt the same or for that matter Abdalla and Hans. I know our civilian family and friends had also shot at our enemies. I could not remember if they had killed anyone or not. That is how fucked up my life had become. I was sure or one thing above all else. When this mission was over I would be done with SIS and their power games. They could sort their own problems out or get the SAS to do their dirty work. They had taken who I was away from me.

ACT 63

A Land Rover pulled up next to the Catherine May and a young Corporal, stood at the bottom of the gangway.

“Ahoy the Catherine May, permission to come aboard?”

“What do you want” Sandy shouted back down at him

“I have some documents for Team Seven from the R10”

“Wait there please, I will get someone.”

The man waited, while Sandy went to fetch one of us. I saw sandy coming towards us when all the dogs raced past me and headed for the gangway. We all raced after them. They stood at the top looking down at the Corporal who was about halfway up. The dogs were snarling but they held their ground at the top, not even putting a paw on the gangway.

“I told you to wait at the bottom of the gangway. Are you deaf or stupid or both?” Sandy shouted at the man who was visibly shaking.

“Whatever you do, just stay where you are or the big dog will eat you and don’t eyeball the Akita as she will take it as a challenge. Trust me son that is not a fight you want.”

“They are all big dogs mate and I am not moving.”

“Oran, would you be so kind, as to collect the documents from our friend?”

Oran walked through our pack of dogs and collected the manilla envelope from the Corporal. Then he brought it back up to the Catherine May.

“You can go now Corporal” I shouted down at him.

“What about your dogs? Will they stay where they are?”

“Sure they will, unlike you, they do as they are told.” Oran shouted back at him.

With that he walked backwards down the gangway, keeping his eyes on the dogs all the time. He kept walking backwards until his back was up against the Land Rover. Then he felt for the door handle and quickly jumped in and slammed the door shut behind.

“What do the Scope Dopes say then?” Lachie asked

“As I have not perfected the art of seeing through sealed envelopes, I would have to say I don’t know until I open it Lachie.”

“Funny” was his single word reply

We walked back inside and all stood around the main table in the galley which was still covered in shipping charts. I pulled my KaBar and sliced open the envelope and then pulled out the two sheets or printed paper that it contained. The top sheet was marked with co-ordinates and had a map of the northern area of the Island of Unst. The second sheet showed a picture of a large crabbing boat. It had a fibreglass hull and single deck house above. The boat appeared, to be fitted with a pair of outboard motors. When I say large boat, that is relative, most crabbing boats are less than 20 feet this boat was about 30 feet long. It was sold complete with a small black RIB. Crabbing boats from the Highlands and Islands are nothing like the boats that the Canadians use around the Arctic Circle. The boats used in this area are small inshore boats. The boat had a Lerwick registration. The information on it, said that it had been purchased yesterday and that it was a cash sale. The boat had previously been owned by a fisherman from Unst. So we had a location and identity of the boat that had been used by the men who had tried to disable our chopper or to actually kill us in mid flight. I passed the papers around the team so everyone could read it for themselves.

“Ideas anyone?” I asked

“We should go to the person that sold the boats to them and see if they can help us in any way” Hans said

“It says the previous owner of the boat, lives in Newgord on the West of Unst, we could pay him a visit and see how many of these guys are and also get a description. Perhaps even an address where they are staying at?”

“Sandy, you are an old salt, would you mind going with Lachie and see if you can pump him for information and then come back here. Take the Land Rover, and Lachie can you wear a Storno under that mop on your head along with a throat mike.”

“Why me Andy?” Lachie asked

“Well mate to be honest apart from Rosemary you are the least military looking. Especially if you wear an old boiler suit, you also know enough about engines so could pass for a boats engineer. Sandy knows the waters. Take a good bottle of whisky with you to loosen tongues a bottle of your Laphroaig should so the job nicely.”

It did not take Sandy and Lachie, long to get ready to go. I could see from a slight bulge under Lachie’s boiler suit he was taking no chances. They set off and I settled down with Stu at the table which still had his charts on as well as the two sheets of printed paper from the Scope Dopes.

“How should we do this Hans?” I asked

“It depends on where they are along with how they are set up. If they are just on that boat, then it would not take much to sink it. If I were them I would have someone on over-watch just to make sure no one like us, were sneaking up. If they have a spotter, we will have to take care of them first. If they don’t then things become much easier. There is one thing that could put a spanner in the works.”

“What would that be Hans?”

“We know they don’t mind using civilians as hostages. Before any attack on them we have to be sure that there are no human shields”

“OK we have all the high tech toys so we should be able to sort that if and when required. Between you and Abdalla we have a Hostage rescue team. Oran can you know how to connect all our systems as in the PDA and BAE units?”

“I can do better than that. I can real time link to any satellite that is in our region. Including thermal imaging, whilst it will not tell you who is on the inside of a building or a boat. It will tell you where and I can extrapolate from their position, and the area around them, if they are hostile or not with a 90% accuracy. I will then feed it to your PDA and you then get to make the choice.”

ACT 64

Lachie called in on his Storno.

“Andy. there were just three guys that the old, crabber saw. He said that they came over on the ferry from the mainland. They were on foot and just came along and paid in cash. Mr Alexanderson, the crabber. Then took them to where he moored the boat. He said that they sounded foreign, but that anyone outside the Shetland Islands sounded foreign to him. He further said that they had a big bag of cash and that each one had a holdall. They claimed that they just wanted to fish for fun.”

“Roger that Lachie. So, we have killed one and that just leaves two.” “They are anchored about four hundred yards offshore”

“OK Lachie, can you find somewhere discrete for you and Sandy to watch their boat and I will arrange something from this end. I will get back to you soon, there are some things I want to check out first. There are some things about all of this that just do not ring true.”

“Roger Andy.”

The truth was I was beginning to question everything that we had been told from the start. Why had two men who I had trusted and entrusted with all of our lives, lied to us about what was going on.

‘The Suit’ had said it was all about GRH, and true they had kidnapped my father. They were the ones responsible for destroying our homes. They were also responsible for the death’s of Jane and that of her father, even though they did not kill them directly. That much was true. Then there had been the parts that Hans and ‘The Suit’ had kept from us. The Korean Geek and the new Bio Weapon. The CIA were certainly behind the rise and fall of governments when it suited their purposes. The money trail led right back to them, so that part was true. The problem for me started was when the Korean family were killed. I am sure that the Antonov’s loadmasters probably gave out the information that the Koreans were at Kinloss. Neither of them seemed the type for Neo-Nazi material. So I was guessing they had sold out not for ideology, they had sold out for cash. Why would the GRH kill the family of the Korean Geek? That part made no sense. If the GRH wanted the Geek to work for them they would want to be nice to him. What if there were two things going on? What if a lot of what was going on were coincidentally linked? Was it possible that the stuff going on with the geek had nothing to do with GRH? What if the story we had been told about this Bio Weapon was complete and utter bullshit? If, we then went down that track, then either the world was out of control and the GRH now controlled the entire world. I needed to look at the FBI files on the leadership of GRH. Hans had said that Oran was closing down their money which meant that they already knew who the leaders were, yet ‘The Suit’ said he did not yet know. That would mean that the two men on the boat that Lachie was watching were men from GRH. If GRH were as big an organisation as we were led to believe, then they would have sent more than three men to take out our specialised team. The drug dealers in Manchester, they were just that. It was Marcus Brown junior, who had made them out to be bigger than they really were. He had also used low life to get arms. The OSMA website was what it was. A website for mercenaries. It did not care who they hired out to. GRH was a reasonably well funded organisations but only because of the CIA. Hans and ‘The Suit’ knew a lot more than they were telling, and it all revolved around the Korean Geek. I needed to talk with Abdalla. I went and found him and we went ashore on the pretext of walking the dogs. When we were far enough away from the Catherine May, Abdalla stopped and looked at me.

“Mr Andy what troubles you so much that we have to talk about it away from our friends?”

He looked at me, with unblinking eyes, which in reality was Abdalla speak for, go on.

“I think we are being used by ‘The Suit’ and by Hans. I find it hard to believe that Hans would lie to us or to use us. But it is the only answer. What is it that connects the two of them that does not connect the rest of us?”

Again Abdalla, gave that look to me again. He would do that to get all your thoughts before answering.

“Hans stated that he had Masters, as did ‘The Suit’. You and I and the rest of team seven excluding Hans and ‘The Suit’, we are all technically civilians. They however have masters Hans said he reports directly to the chief of staff at NATO. That is about as high up the military tree as you can climb. The suit brought the third highest man in the RAF to a meeting with a bunch of civilians. I suspect that if we had still all been military then we would have had the number one, the Marshall of the Royal Air Force. I am sure there are two separate operations here, that somehow have crossed over. I just don’t know any more what is truth and what is complete and utter bullshit!”

This time Abdalla spoke to me

“Mr Andy, I too have thought things were becoming strange, when we were asked to go to Korea and get Mr Chang’s family. Why would Mr Hans risk all our lives for the Koreans when we were starting to solve the problem with the GRH. I wish I had an answer for you Mr Andy, but I fear that the only way that we will get the truth is with direct confrontation with both Hans and ‘The Suit’.”

“Abdalla do you think that Oran is in on it? Or is he just another pawn?”

“No Mr Andy I do not think he is involved, however he may be being used as we are.”

So how do we go about this then.

“We know that there are some members of the GRH, that Lachie and Sandy are watching, so it is safe to assume that they know we are here. I think our first move must be to remove them from the equation.”

“Abdalla, by remove, you mean kill?”

“Yes Mr Andy, before they get another chance to kill us. I do not believe that the GRH have the unlimited bodies, that we were led to believe. Nor do I think that we are of much importance to the GRH. We are not a country, nor do we wield any form of power. In short there is no profit to be had from us. It was not the GRH that came after us, it was Marcus Brown Junior who used them as his own private army.”

“OK Abdalla let’s you and I go and join Lachie and Sandy. We will have Stu drop us somewhere near them.”

We finished walking the dogs and then set of to join up with Lachie.

Abdalla took a AS50 complete with suppressor and incendiary shells and I took the VAL. We never spoke to any other members about what we had discussed. When Stu had dropped us I asked him to wait around the headland for us and I would contact via Storno channel seven. If the truth were told about my own feelings I felt like a snake. Normally team seven were solid and all open with each other. Now I was doing the same thing as Hans and ‘The Suit’. I tried to close my mind off to all this and I would discuss it with them, when we had finished the task at hand. We were not going out for prisoners nor were we even looking for information. We were going to murder two men. They were probably, quite bad men and they would not have the same qualms as me, if the roles were reversed. I contacted Lachie so he would know we were coming up on his position. When we got there, I sidled up to him.

“We gotta talk some after we do this and I would prefer we did that out here away from other ears.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It is mate. OK what is the situation here? Are both the men on board the boat?”

“Yes Andy but I never brought any optical sights with me so I cant tell you much more than two men are on the boat.”

I took the VAL and switched on its BAE I looked down at the boat through the BAE Scope. Then pressed the zoom button on its side. Instantly the digital zoom showed me clearly the two men who were sat inside the cabin of the Crabber.

“Abdalla do you think you could put some holes in their boat just below the water line, towards the rear of the boat and I will destroy the RIB. That way they with no doubt jump overboard they will either drown or we will have to finish them off.”

“Andy my friend, you have changed and not for the better” Sandy said

“I know, but this has to be done.” I replied and then rethought what we were about to do.

“Hold off Abdalla, I have changed my mind about how to do this. Sandy if you wish to go down to the shore over there” I said pointing to the way we had come up.

“Thank you Andy I think I know what you are all doing up here and if I am strictly honest with you, you boys are not the men you were last year”

With that Sandy went over the knoll behind us and headed down the way we had come. The three of us huddled together, like the co-conspirators that we were. I had sent Sandy away because I did not want him to see what we were about to do.

“Abdalla, drowning is not a good way to die, we should make it quick for them as there is nothing to be gained from spinning it out. I am sure they could not provide us with more information, than we already have.”

“Mr Andy what do you propose we do?”

“I shoot them dead and you make the boat explode. But we will need to swap firearms. I don’t want any one to find a body with a bullet in it. The AS50 will go right through and the VAL its loaded with incendiary rounds. So you could target the fuel tanks.”

“I could do it Andy?”

“Thanks Lachie, but at some point I have to take responsibility, I cant ask other to do this.” with that I reached for the AS50 that Abdalla had.

I say reached because I was going to. But in the time I had been answering Lachie, Abdalla had sighted in on his targets. Two suppressed shots about one second apart. The two heads that had been sat on shoulders inside the cabin of the crabber boat exploded all over the inside of the wheelhouse. Another 2 seconds later a series of three shots followed by a bright orange fireball of an explosion. The old crabber boat seemed to splinter into a thousand pieces. Bits of wood, metal glass and of course now dead flesh, rained down onto the sea. I was stunned because Abdalla had taken the choice out of my hands and he had done it so quickly. Part of me was grateful that he had done this and killed the men in cold blood. Part of me was so angry, because it was a choice that I would have to make at some point and I had chosen now.

“Abdalla? Why?”

“Because Mr Andy, my friend it is not who you are. Yes you have killed men, but not like this. This is a job for someone of my skill and training. I have done this many times and I am good with my reasons. They were bad men, they made their choice when they came looking for us. I made my choice and stopped them.”

I really did not know what to say to Abdalla. He rarely spoke more than a sentence and always chose his words wisely.

“Stu bring the boat back around is for can please.”

We three walked back over the hill and down towards the shore, there was a long walkway that posed as a small pier, Sandy was already standing there with his hands in his pockets.

“Did you do it Andy?” he said without turning around

“No, It was me, because it is my job” Abdalla’s deep and soft voice said from over my shoulder.

“Good” Sandy replied. Nothing more was said until the Catherine May appeared from round the headland and nosed into the end of the pier. My father and Mr Henderson lowered the gangplank down on to the pier and we trooped on in single file. I walked straight down to the Galley where Rosemary was cooking dinner, she had a large pot of coffee on the side of the stove and it was bubbling away.

I grabbed a cup off the rack and three quarter filled and then sat down at the table and grabbed the green Jameson's bottle and put a good slug into my mug. We, as in the team, needed to talk and we needed to do it now. We were fractured and perhaps broken.

ACT 65

Stu took us back around to the harbour. We tied up to the outside of the wall. Sandy said that the storm would hit us tonight. So soon we would have to either change our mooring position or head out for the Faroes. In the Galley we had Abdalla, Lachie, Sandy, Stu, Rosemary, my father and Mr Henderson. Oran was working away in his hold. It seemed wrong to hold a meeting without Hans, but we had to know where the rest of the team stood before we challenged our friend. I don’t think that any of us entirely trusted ‘The Suit’ so holding a meeting without him was pretty much the normal thing. I felt like a louse talking about Hans behind his back. Team seven had no secrets from each other, at least until today. I took great time and pain to explain to all the others the concerns that I had and asked them to give me their thoughts. I thought no one was going to talk then it was my father who spoke up

“Don’t you think that we should give Hans a chance to explain son, before we make any decisions”

“We will dad, its just that things don’t stack up. You know that there is no one here, who would not help Hans, if he just asked for it. But a lot of what we have been told is absolute B.S. and I need to know that all of you, are not in danger because of a lie.”

“When is Hans due back and what about ‘The Suit’?”

“They are both due back either later tonight or tomorrow.”

“In that case we should have them come aboard and then ask our questions out at sea. But we will have to move away from this harbour before the storm hits” Sandy said.

“Is there no question of the benefit of doubt?” Rosemary asked

“Sure, but at the moment we have no idea, except that things are just not quite the way the are being portrayed.”

“Andy this is going to be very awkward, now we have told everyone of our concerns. It is almost impossible to hide ones suspicions. Would it not be better to lock them up in a hold until we can get out to sea and then ask them to explain themselves. I would think that is our best option.”

“Thanks Abdalla, much as it pains me, I think I agree. I know Hans is part of our family but we have to make sure we get the truth. Can we use the two forward holds Stu?” Stu nodded to me, we sat to await our friends.

Hans was the first to arrive, He came onboard and down to the galley. I could tell that he could feel the tension in the air. He was looking around, trying to judge each face. Abdalla stepped in behind Hans and pressed his Sig Sauer into the small of Hans’s back.

“Hans we have a problem that we need to solved. So please do not do anything. Do not make any sudden moves. Lachie can you take all of his weapons.” Abdalla said in a very calm and polite way.

Lachie first removed the big Desert Eagle from the shoulder holster, that Hans was wearing. Then he removed the two Busse knives along with the extra clips of ammo. Lachie followed it with a full and thorough pat-down, and as Hans and Abdalla had previously taught us, he did not miss the arse and genital areas. He then patted Hans on the shoulder. And said

“He’s clean.”

“Hans there are things that are wrong with what is going on and we need to have the answers. We will be going out to sea just as soon as ‘The Suit’ gets on board. For now though, we are going to ask you to stay in one of the boats holds. You will not be harmed if you do as we ask you. I am sorry that we have had to do this. Abdalla, Lachie can you take Hans to one of the holds and make sure he is as comfortable as you can make it for him. Hans I do not feel good about this, none of us do, but we have to have, our answers.”

Hans said nothing. Abdalla kept one hand on Hans’s shoulder while Lachie walked in front of Hans. As they left I looked at the faces of my family and friends and I could see the concern, worry and hurt in all of their eyes. We were quite used to catching and interrogating all sorts of people. What we were not good at was doing it to not just one but two of our own. These were people we had trusted, these were people that we loved, these were OUR people. I just shook my head and sat down and looked into my empty coffee cup. No one said anything, not even my father. Lachie and Abdalla came back.

“He’s secure in the port hold, I gave him a duvet and a bucket along with a bottle of water and some ration bars.”

“Thanks Lachie.”

They both sat down at the table which still had big DE-XVX and the two Busse knives along with the three spare magazines for Hans’s hand canon.

“Stu can you put these in the weapons locker for now” I said as I gathered them up and passed them over. Stu, juggled the armful, and went to one of the cabins that we had set up as a small arms armoury. Still no one was speaking, Rosemary had not even offered to refill my mug, something that she would have done without thinking. It would have been a reflex action. So she had made a conscious decision, not to fill it. Was this just another sign of team seven being split apart. I went and got the coffee jug and filled my mug and also all the other empty mugs that were at the table. I put the coffee pot back on its trivett. I sat back down aware of the eyes on me. I looked at my reflection from inside the cup. I wondered if things could get any darker than what I saw in the eyes looking back at me from the steaming surface. I felt rather than heard ‘The Suit’ come on board. I nodded to Lachie and Abdalla, so that they would be ready to repeat the actions that they had. I knew we had to be careful with the suit. When we had become members of SIS the suit had managed to put Lachie on the ground in a single move. Lachie was a big man in comparison to ‘The Suit’. He came into the Galley and stopped just inside the doorway. I could tell from the way his eyes were darting around the room. He knew something was wrong and he was looking for escape lanes. Without looking around he said

“I assume that either Abdalla or Lachie have me covered from behind. I am unarmed. Knowing you as I do Andy you are not going to take my word for that.”

“Sir we have some questions but first I would be grateful if you would go with Abdalla and Lachie to one of the forward holds. I hope that this will be a very temporary thing, so please just do as you are asked.”

Again Lachie did a though pat-down and just came away with a couple of pens and a mobile phone. As soon as the Suit was locked away we set out to sea. I knew the Icelandic Cutter was heading towards Unst, so we headed in the opposite direction. Sandy headed for a disused Shell oil rig that had been left, just off the Shetland Islands. It had not been used in over 20 years and was on permanent concrete legs. Although no one used it any more and it would be too expensive to dismantle. What it would do for us is give us somewhere to hide, providing we could get there before people started to look for us. If we tied up too the Oil Rig we would effectively become invisible to RADAR. So if the Cutter were to search for us what they would see the Oil Rig that would be on their charts, and hopefully ignore it. It would take us about 40 minutes to get there if Stu pushed the diesel engines, which would throw us through the water at almost forty knots. As soon as we left the inshore waters, I heard and then felt the power being forced out of the twin turbines. I felt the shift in our angle on the water as the hydrofoil at the front of the boat came down and forced the prow of this fishing boat up. Consequently the stern sat down in the water and the twin custom made props devoured the salt water and forced us over the wave tops. Rosemary busied herself in the galley. My father and Mr Henderson were sat at the table drinking coffee and talking quietly to each other. Sandy was with Stu in the wheelhouse.

“Lets go on deck” I said to Abdalla and Lachie.

I led the way up the stairs to the deck. I walked past the mid port hold wh