by Hatchett
He got up and pressed the communicator. “Ya know where we goin’?” he asked the pilot.
“Yes,” came the response.
“Then let’s go!” Mamba shouted, then sat down.
The engines started up and the rotor blades started moving. It wasn’t long before the Chinook lifted off the tarmac and swooped around to head West.
Ayla was watching from one of the windows in Terminal 3, smiling and hoping she’d never see Mamba again.
88
Day 19 – 12:45
Heathrow Terminal 3
After Mamba’s announcements earlier in the day, the people huddled together in check-in were allowed to go back to their rooms to shower and change before having something to eat then carrying on with their normal routine.
Jack had watched Mamba disappear with Ayla and had then tried to find Sami. He’d noticed at the meeting that Sami was the one asking all the questions and seemed to be in charge of Volkan’s people. Jack finally found him near check-in and asked if they could have a quiet word. Sami had agreed but explained that he had a lot to do and that it would have to take place after Mamba had left. Jack had been surprised, but pleased, to find Sami was going to stay; he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, unlike some of the other Neanderthals in the group. Jack had then scoured the area to find Sarah, telling Bear and Issy to stay where they were for the time being.
Jack found Sarah easily enough and together they’d gone to the Security Command Centre to see what damage Basir’s bomb had done.
It had been clear to see as soon as they entered the room that it was a right-off. All screens, monitors and PCs were smashed. Keyboards, stationery and bits of glass and metal littered the floor. The desks and chairs were right-offs and the Command Ring was a burnt-out shell. The lower false ceiling had burnt away, and the remains of various cables hung like vines under a jungle canopy. What hadn’t been damaged in the blast, had burnt in the subsequent fire and there were scorch marks all over the room. Thankfully, the doors to the armoury and Jack’s office had still been standing, although both were covered in soot. A couple of Turkish men had been guarding the door to the armoury, smiling at the frustration etched on Jack and Sarah’s face.
When Jack had tried to enter his office, he found that the scanner wasn’t working, so he and Sarah had gone back into the corridor and tried that one. This scanner had been working, and they went in, took a seat and Jack pulled out the Johnnie Walker Blue Label and poured them each a drink.
They had turned off their comms and discussed various topics from the viability of fixing the Security Command Centre to Mamba, the Turks, their people, the hubs; anything and everything except what had happened to the Major.
They had then gone back to their rooms to have a sleep and freshen up before heading back to Terminal 3 in time to watch Mamba leaving.
Jack had been surprised, but ecstatic, to see that Mamba was taking just one Chinook and leaving the Lynx and Apache sitting undisturbed on the apron. If he’d been in Mamba’s shoes, he would have taken all three, and he wouldn’t have sent them back either.
After Mamba had gone, he and Sarah walked back down the stairs from level 2 to Level 1, and they were both surprised to see Ayla walking across the concourse with a smile on her face.
“Ayla!” Jack shouted, “wait up.”
Ayla stopped and waited for Jack and Sarah to catch her up.
“How come you’re not with Mamba?” Jack asked.
“I didn’t want to go,” she explained.
“I’m surprised Mamba let you stay,” Jack noted.
“Yeah. Ahmed said he wouldn’t, so I made myself scarce. He didn’t come looking, thank God!”
Ayla turned and continued on down the stairs to the ground floor.
Jack turned, ready to go back to his office, when he saw Sami coming towards him.
“Just the person,” Jack said. “Would you like a drink in my office while we talk?
“Lead the way,” came the response.
“Have you spoken to Volkan,” Jack asked, as they made their way along the corridor to his office.
“No. I’ve been trying all morning on a satellite phone he gave me, but he’s not picking up.”
Jack had suspected that Volkan would be in touch with his own people, if nothing more than checking up on what Mamba was doing, especially after what had happened to Sully and his estate.
Jack waited until they were all seated and had a glass of Famous Grouse in their hands before he started.
“I’m sorry to inform you that the reason you can’t get hold of Volkan is that he’s dead.” Jack began.
Sami didn’t react how Jack expected. “It did make me wonder,” he said, “when he didn’t pick up the phone. Once? OK. Twice? Never. And I must have tried eight or nine times. How did he die?”
“Mamba took one of our attack helicopters and shot a missile into the top of the pyramid.”
“How do you know?” Sami asked.
“We watched it happen in real time on our screens…until Mamba blew them up as well,” Jack said, pointing towards the one-way mirrors and the devastation in the Command Centre the other side.
Sami just nodded in acceptance, then let his head fall to his chest as he looked towards the floor. “My brother would have been in the pyramid,” he whispered. “He was one of Volkan’s bodyguards….” He let the rest of the sentence trail off as he thought about it.
Jack waited patiently. It was important that Sami made his own decision without Jack prompting.
After a few minutes, he looked back up at Jack.
“You OK?” Jack asked.
Sami just nodded, although there were tears in his eyes. “We didn’t want any of this,” he explained. “It was all Volkan and Mamba, driven by dreams of world domination.”
Jack just nodded in understanding.
“We don’t belong here. We should be back home, especially now, helping our families.”
“I can help you,” Jack said.
Sami automatically looked suspicious and Jack inwardly cursed himself for not waiting a little longer before making his play, but it was too late now.
“Hear me out before you make a decision or jump to any conclusions,” Jack pleaded.
Sami thought about it and nodded.
“It’s probably best if I show you,” Jack said. “Come with me, and bring some of your guards if you want.”
Jack rose from his seat and headed for the exit. “You stay here,” he said to Sarah as he walked passed, and she nodded in agreement.
Jack walked along the corridor, out onto the concourse, up the stairs to Level 2 then along one of the jetways and down the steps onto the Apron, closely followed by Sami, who hadn’t bothered bringing any of his people with him.
Jack moved so that he was standing with a wall behind him and a view West towards Terminal 5. He swept his arm across the grounds. “We’re not interested in fighting, but will do if we have to. We just want to try and rebuild some sort of civilisation.”
“That was what we were doing back at home until Mamba and his pals came along and managed to convince Volkan to be part of all this,” Sami noted. “Greed.”
“Maybe,” Jack conceded, “although in Mamba’s case, I think it’s just for fun.”
“What else do you want to show me Jack? I know you didn’t bring me out here just to show me everyone working on the grounds and give me some sob story.”
“Not entirely, no. I did want you to see all this so you could see how many innocent civilians we have on this site, many of whom we have saved over the past couple of weeks during our rescue missions. But I also wanted to convince you that when I say we’ll fight, I wanted to prove I meant it.”
“OK,” Sami said hesitantly, looking around warily for any attackers.
“You won’t see them unless they want you to see them,” Jack explained. “Issy, hit the wall where I point.”
“Where’s Issy?” Sami asked, looking around in confus
ion, as Jack pointed to a part of the wall above their heads.
A second later pieces of brick rained down onto the floor. Sami jumped, looked all around and then looked at the small hole in the wall.
“I didn’t hear anything,” he said.
“Silenced,” Jack explained. “That bullet could have been for you, if I’d given the order.”
Sami looked at Jack.
“We could take out every single one of you at any time,” Jack continued. “Bear.”
Sami saw a huge man with ginger hair appear from the baggage area twenty metres away. Even at that distance it was clear to see that he was heavily armed.
“Joel, Irish.”
Sami saw movement from the corner of his eye and when he turned to look, he saw a tall, slim black man, also heavily armed. He turned a little more and saw a shorter, but equally dangerous looking man, emerging from behind the Lynx helicopter. None of the men had their weapons raised and all were grinning.
Sami turned back to Jack. “Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if I tried to get my gun and shoot you?”
“If you’re lucky, you might get your hand to the gun before the lights went out.”
“I thought so. Why didn’t you take us out while Mamba was here?”
“We were caught by surprise and weren’t ready. When we were ready, I took the decision that it wasn’t worth the risk to life, so we waited.”
“So, did you make up all that stuff about an underground hideaway to get rid of Mamba?”
Jack laughed. “No. It’s all real, but I doubt he’ll ever find it, or if he does, he won’t be able to get in.”
“You know he’ll come back really pissed, don’t you?”
“Yes, but we’ll be ready next time.”
“I don’t doubt it. So, what now? Sami asked.
“It depends on what you want to do.”
“Would you let us all go home? Just like that?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“But, what about the two guys who were killed by my people? I’m not taking the blame for what happened to their bodies afterwards.”
“Were the shooters generally good people, or were they more like the two who did the rest?” Jack asked.
“They’re OK,” Sami said. “A little hot headed sometimes, but they’re young and were scared.”
“Then they can go with you. There is one condition, though.”
Sami looked at Jack and waited.
Jack turned to look at him. “You remove and leave all the weapons.”
Sami put his hand out for Jack to shake, then took the MP5 off his shoulder and handed it to Jack. “You’ve got a deal.”
Jack smiled and said, “Issy, you get that? You can come in now.”
“Roger, Jack,” came through his earpiece.
A few seconds later, they heard the engines of various helicopters warming up from somewhere to the North of the airport.
“Let’s go tell everyone the news,” Jack suggested, taking Sami by the arm.
As they turned Sami noticed that the three soldiers that had appeared earlier had now vanished.
89
Day 19 – 14:00
Heathrow Terminal 3
Jack and Sarah stood on the apron as the last of the unarmed Turks walked up the ramp of the Chinook. To one side of them was Bear, Irish, Dave, Daniel and Joel. To the other side was Issy, Gina, Andy and Travis.
Another Chinook had already taken off a few minutes earlier, taking Nathan Briggs’s men and women back to Hendon, Kyle and Jack Jr included. Despite Jack and Sarah trying to convince them to stay, they both wanted to return to what they saw as their new home. Jack had been disappointed but accepted their decision. In the few moments that they’d had alone together, the two young men had told their father that they thought Sarah would be good for him and wished him luck. For once, Jack was stuck for words, wondering how they had found out, but he realised that they were all now one large extended family, even if some of those family members were clearly more interested in spreading malicious gossip.
Sami was the last to go up the ramp. He turned and waved, and the Leaders waved back. It was early days, but they had found another group of people who might be willing to join their alliance. Jack had given Sami a satellite phone and they had promised to keep in touch.
The Chinook’s engines started, and the ramp rose, ready to depart. The Leaders were about to go back into Terminal 3 when they heard another Chinook coming from the West.
Jack was about to order everyone to find cover and prepare for an attack when Simon Nicholls in the Control Tower came through his earpiece, telling him that it was the Chinook which had taken Mamba to Corsham and that the two pilots were fine and alone.
As the other leaders went off, Jack and Sarah waited until the Chinook landed, the engines shut down and the pilots had left the aircraft and joined them on the apron.
“I didn’t think Mamba would let you go,” Jack admitted.
“He didn’t,” replied one of the pilots. “We slipped some stuff into their drinks, and when they fell asleep, we took off.”
“Sneaky,” Jack noted. “Where’d you get the gear?”
“Some young Turkish girl gave it to us. Worked a treat,” the pilot replied with a smile.
Jack smiled. He’d be having a few more words with Ayla later. Instead, he said, “Thanks guys. You took a big risk. Go get some rest.”
90
Day 19 – 21:00
Hilton Hotel
It had been a long, tiring, stressful day and all the Leaders were in the lounge, having a drink, talking over what had happened and discussing how they could be better prepared for when Mamba came back. He would be back; they had no doubt about that at all.
That afternoon, with the willing help of Ayla, they found out how Mamba got into the airport. Issy had said “I knew he’d come in through the sewers. I told you he was a rat.” Gina had pointed out that it was the tube and not the sewers, but Issy had suggested they were the same thing.
After talking with Ayla and finding out more about Mamba’s actions and the missing bits of the story from the past few days, Issy and Gina had both thanked her for keeping Mamba away from them during their time together. Ayla had admitted that it had been borne out of jealousy rather than any attempt to save them, but she was now past all that and had already moved on.
Thankfully, Andy and Travis had been present when that part of the discussion had taken place, so they now knew that nothing had happened between Mamba and their girls and this allayed their unspoken concerns which had now been brewing for quite a while. “I still want to know how he came to call you Cobra,” Andy had said when they’d taken a break.
Issy now took a drink from her glass of coke. She looked across the table and smiled at Jack and Sarah, who were sitting there looking relaxed and casually leaning into each other. She could hear Bear’s loud voice from the bar area and people laughing at whatever bullshit he was coming out with.
Tomorrow would be another day. Not a particularly pleasant one, but at least they were still alive. They had arranged proper funerals for the two brave soldiers who had died trying to do something about their attackers, for the Command Centre Operative who had been shot for no reason whatsoever, the helicopter pilot and, of course, for the Major. It could have been worse, a lot worse, Issy reflected.
Andy plonked himself down in the chair next to her, a pint of lager in his hand.
“Cheers,” he said in a mock English accent and clinked her coke glass before taking a drink. “You know what we haven’t done for a couple of days?” He asked.
Issy looked offended. “Have you forgotten about this morning already?! You know? After you accosted me in the bedroom in Hendon when all I was trying to do was get ready?”
Andy laughed. “No, I didn’t mean that!” he said, “although you were hardly complaining from what I remember.”
Issy punched him playfully on the arm.
“Stop it, you
know that violence gets me excited! No, I meant we haven’t had Issy’s daily English lesson.”
“Oh,” Issy replied, smiling. She thought about it for a few seconds. “What do you think about ballet?”
Andy looked confused. “Is that a proper question or is ballet short for something?”
“Proper question.”
“I guess its OK, but not something that interests me. Why?”
“Because I think it’s a load of old pony.”
Andy smiled. “I get it. You just wanted to start a conversation so you could throw ‘old pony’ into it.”
“And?”
“Well, you obviously think ballet is rubbish, purely from your tone.”
“Go on.”
“So ‘old pony’ somehow means rubbish. What rhymes with that to mean rubbish?” he wondered.
“Not quite, but you’re on the right lines again,” Issy said. “Pony is short for ‘pony and trap’…”
“I’ve got it!” Andy shouted, “It’s ‘crap’ isn’t it? Yes?”
“What’s crap?” Irish shouted from the bar, but Andy ignored him.
“Come on, fess up!” Andy said, sitting forward in his seat.
Issy smiled. “You finally got one, although I did make it easy for you.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Andy exclaimed, punching the air before turning to Issy for a high-five.
“Calm down, cowboy, you’ll pull something if you’re not careful, and then you’re no use to me! Anyway, a ‘pony’ can also mean £25.”
“What is wrong with you people?” Andy asked, aghast. “Can’t you speak proper English?”
The End
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed the journey.
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