The junction box for the alarm was just to the left of the door, but the camera looked directly at the path, there was a blind spot right at the door but off to the left, the camera covered the alarm security pad, but not the junction box.
It took him about two minutes to bypass the alarm pad and disable the security alarm. Another minute and he had the lock picked, the door creaked slightly as he opened it, a clear sign the back door wasn't used very often.
As soon as he had the alarm sorted he carefully replaced the Junction box cover making sure that the screws all looked identical to when he first undid them, then, once that was done he did a quick check to make sure he hadn’t missed a thing before putting the screwdriver back in the holdall and zipping the bag up, there would be no evidence.
Slipping in silently he waited a few moments for his eyesight to adjust to the darkness.
There was a second glass door, on the right was the office, the left had the lunchroom. The office looked too small to go all the way to the edge of the building, but he couldn't see any door, ‘must be in the main workshop’ he thought as he cautiously began trying the door, it was unlocked.
Four cars were in the workshop, not unusual for the size of the garage, but the security on the building was all wrong, where's the sodding Rolls Royce?’ he thought to himself, ‘with this security, the sodding place should be full of ‘em, that or a Ferrari or two’. Instead, they were two Japanese cars, a BMW and a Volvo, nice cars, but way below the price tag for the security.
In the next room was a different story, four more cars, two of which were high-end sports jobs, to Joey they looked like a Ferrari and a Maserati, they were partly dismantled, the third one was just a chassis, possibly a car being rebuilt. The last one looked really odd due to its ‘ordinariness’, it was the Mondeo.
The Mondeo was so ‘ordinary it just looked like a green skinned Alien on planet Earth. Something just wasn’t right, he couldn’t say what it was, but it just didn’t seem right having an average car in the same garage as the two supercars, also the fact that they were half stripped down gave a strange feeling, there was something else going on here, that he was sure of. ‘Better get my arse into gear, get the job done and get the hell out’ was his immediate thought, ‘after all, she did say it was a Chop shop’
He’d brought a torch, an Army issue one which had the light sitting at a right angle to the handle, the bottom of the battery pack (which was also the handle) was flat so soldiers could stand it up anywhere and still have two hands free to work with whatever they needed to work on. He clipped the red filter on and turned the torch on, it gave him just enough light to do what he needed to.
A quick search of the back of the Mondeo showed where the bullets had hit, they’d passed through the back panel, a couple of seconds later he’d popped the boot or trunk open and searched inside. Both bullets were in the back panel, smashed into the back wall.
A pair of tweezers came in really handy, and a little gun oil, dabbing a tiny amount of oil onto a rag he used the tweezers to push the rag into the crevasse the bullets had made, slowly a tiny amount penetrated between the bullets and the car, eventually popping the round out.
The criminals would know that the car had been shot at, and the bullets were still in the boot of the car if they saw the holes but no rounds they’d know something had been tampered with, he was prepared for that.
He’d take the cases off two rounds earlier in the day, now he took the first one out, punched it between the tweezers and pushed it into one of the holes, as soon as it was wedged in he did the same to the second, as soon as both were in, away went the tweezers, out came a rubber mallet and both were hit hard enough to knock them firmly into place.
‘Good use of a Manchester screwdriver’ he smiled to himself remembering what his Dad used to call a Hammer, ‘if only you could see me now dad’ he packed everything away.
“Joey” Smithy’s voice sounded urgent, “Stay put, the security company’ is doing the rounds, car driving down the street.”
Joey was still by the car, he almost froze, then slowly crouched down, an automatic reaction. There were no windows in the room and very few in the whole building, but noise still carries, and that was the main concern, knock a spanner off, or anything over and the latter would be enough to ‘wake the dead’.
‘Two places in this street’ the guard thought to herself as she wound the window of the car down, the security pad was right by the driver’s window, reaching out she waived a small device over a pad, the gate began to open.
“Just a security guard doing the rounds” Smithy whispered into the mike, “She’ll drive around the yard, check all the vehicles are where they’re supposed to be, might get out and check a few doors at the office building or workshop, then she’ll be out of our hair, standby” he reassured everyone.
Jacko couldn’t see what was going on, it was on Smithy’s side of the building, that didn’t mean he could be careless, one wrong sound, or move and that might trigger an alarm that would have the guard coming over for a look, he stayed perfectly still, then again he was sitting down already.
The gates closed behind the car, but no one moved, they all knew the guard would only be a couple of minutes in the yard, she may be a security guard, but like everyone else they had targets and deadlines to meet, forty businesses a night, minimum of two visits ‘at random’ but at least an hour apart, she’d only a few minutes, five at the max, and she’d be back later in the night.
Three minutes later the car was heading out of the driveway and down the street, unfortunately, towards where Joey was, he could hear the engine and tensed up. The car drove right past, then stopped at another place down the road, car wreckers, this time the guard got out of the car and went in on foot, ten minutes later she was back and away.
“Street’s clear” Smithy reported as soon as the car disappeared, “guard shouldn’t be back for at least an hour.”
“Any chance we can track her?” Jacko asked, he really hated surprises.
“Are you serious?” Sandy cut in over the link, “I’m tracking you folks, and following Mac through London, you think I’m Superwoman or something?”
“Guess it’s a no to that then boss” Joey chipped in, everyone knew he’d have a huge smile on his face as he said it, “humour relaxes the tension” he’d tell them, and he was right, “I’ll be out in a jiffy” he carried on, “Give me five, then call the cavalry, meanwhile you folks have a big day tomorrow, so get ready”
Chapter 37
“The car you and Sergeant Harris are interested in” the voice spoke, it was the same one that sent the first voice message, “is in a garage in Cirencester, a chop shop owned and run by the Russian Mafia, it was delivered this afternoon and they’ll be dismantling it”
“Now you’ve heard the message” BJ assured Harris, I called you to set this up as soon as I got it, and yes, my source is the first rate” she assured him, “I’m pretty sure they’re linked to the intelligence services, but can’t confirm it”
“And you trust them?” Harris asked.
“It’s the same one who gave me the information about Akbari, the stuff I was almost killed over” she assured him, “so yeah, I trust the source, but there’s more that you need to pay attention to!”
“The garage is known to have weapons” the voice went on, “consider them well armed and extremely dangerous, they have at least one Mac 10 and possibly AK47s though we haven’t confirmed how many, exercise extreme caution.”
“That it?” he asked slightly disappointed, “you want me to get a warrant with that information? We’d have no chance!”
“No” she replied, “What we need is a ruse to get in and check the building” she looked slightly sheepish, she knew it was asking a lot, the whole thing was stretching the bounds of credibility, “what we need is to use this” she waved the phone screen in front of his face, “to get your boss to give us a bomb drill, we get that” she put the phone away, “we get in
using the excuse of checking the building, no need for a warrant!”
“You want me to go with that?” he was incredulous, “you do realize everything we find would be illegal, we’d be crucified in court” he assured her, “Not with that! I want a warrant, and I want a hard copy”
“How about this then” she slammed a brown envelope about twelve inches long and eight inches wide down on the table, it was about an eighth of an inch thick, she slid some papers out, the top one was a signed warrant for searching the premises, he didn’t know the Judge’s name but it was official, under it were ten or more photographs of cars and what looked like quantities of drugs, “This enough for yer” her Manchester accent coming through, before he could say anything she went on, “and yes, it’s the same garage, taken inside, don’t ask me how, I’ve got no bloody idea, but it’s a drug deal that went on apparently, inside the bloody place!”
How or when the photos were taken she had no idea, but they didn’t look ‘faked’ or at least not to her they didn’t, she had no real idea if they were of the same place, all she knew was someone wanted them to raid the place, and they’d promised the car they were looking for was in there. The photos showed the car entering and they were time stamped as yesterday at 4 pm, less than twelve hours before. Chances were the car was still there.
Harris wasn’t so convinced, he wasn’t stupid, if they got this right it would be the biggest bust of their careers, but if the information was wrong, they’d be lucky to stay out of prison let alone still be on the force, he wasn’t going to throw his career away, but at the same time, he wasn’t going to let this chance get away.
“Look, it’s three in the morning” he began.
“I know that” she shot back testily, “I only got the information last night at eleven, had to check a few things out on the way over, I’ve got a feed set up from the street cameras for us to watch, to see if the car really is there, it’s on my laptop” she began pulling the machine out and setting up.
“Can I see the footage?” he asked, “If it’s legit I’ll set things in motion as soon as it’s daylight if everything pans out” he went on.
“It will, and can you be ready to roll by mid-morning?” she assured and asked at the same time.
“I get it” he spoke again, “It’s a chop shop”
“Right” she cut back, “the car isn’t going to be whole for much longer, less than a day I’d say before they start shipping parts out, and it’s an average family saloon.” she turned the machine on, “Can you be ready by mid-morning?”
“One thing at once” he cut back, “but yes, if we need to”
“Are you two bloody serious?” it was Harris’ immediate boss, the station ‘super’ short for ‘superintendent’ who was screaming at them, BJ tried to intervene, one hand held up silenced her. “Let me finish. Do you have any idea the panic it'll cause? and then when the press gets wind of this”
“That's why we want a drill boss” Harris began, “full bells and whistles, so we can get access”
“You'll have them fawning over a major car theft ring broken” Harris cut him off, “besides”
“Don't give me that crap” the super silenced him, “I know about the warrant, I've already checked, there's no such warrant logged in the flaming system, that's skating on thin ice, you get caught with that and not only kiss your career goodbye, you'll be in jail”
“And if we do nothing” Billie butted in, the super tried to cut her off, she spoke even louder, “a bunch of thugs get away with murder, attempted murder, gunning people down in the streets for God's sake and who knows how many car thefts, YOU REALLY WANT THAT?”
“But”
“If we go with a normal warrant and the shit hits the fan, who's going to explain the civilian casualties? Have you seen AK47 can do? my intel says they've got at least a couple!” she leaned right in, this may it cost her career, she no longer gave a damn. “These pricks killed a man and dumped his body in the Thames, right under the bloody noses of all our bosses in Parliament, then they tried to gun a man, no make that three people down in broad daylight on your streets, you really want them to walk away?” she sounded disgusted, fact was she was disgusted, not with the superintendent, but the whole system that has politicians and the like cowering in a corner because someone ‘might not like’ what the police might have to do.
“If you want any more convincing” Bille took a brown manilla envelope out. She took a bundle of things out, they realized they were photographs, even Harris hadn’t seen them before, she spread them out. They were street camera pictures, some from London, others from the scene of the shooting, then following the car from where it was left to the garage, it was there! “How about this, talk about the chain of custody!”
They arrived without sirens and lights, a Police Land rover at each end of the two streets blocked access off, armed officers carrying standard issue MP5s jumped down and started holding up traffic. More vehicles rolled in with Police going door to door evacuating the workers.
One vehicle, a Ford Transit, sides blacked out, the single back door had officers milling around it like bees round a honeypot, the Transit pulled into the curb at the north end of the street, about twenty yards from the barrier, it was the mobile command post or ‘CP’
The rest of the officers, instructions given were steadily clearing the street
“What gives officer?” one guy asked.
“suspect vehicle in the road sir” the cop ushering him out replied, “we’re evacuating everyone, we've set up a perimeter just down the road”
“Must be a car bomb then!” he was adamant, the cop decided to let it slide.
Everything was done with a minimum of fuss, once the word of a bomb got out no one argued.
Standard procedure in such things is instead of going to all the businesses at once and causing panic the police quietly visit and evacuate each business one by one, that way they don’t lose control of the situation, they just didn’t tell people where the ‘suspect vehicle’ was.
Just then a Land Rover pulled up, a late model civilian looking vehicle, three men and a woman in body armour clambered out, each one carrying an automatic weapon slung across their shoulder and a pistol strapped to their sides, BJ didn’t recognise the weapons at first, they weren’t police issue, but looked similar to what she’d seen Special Forces carry, and the sidearms were in hip holsters like the old western gunslingers, two of them went to the back of the vehicle and started unloading equipment, a third headed towards her and Harris who were by the command post.
“DS Jones and Sergeant Harris I presume?” the soldier put out his hand in greeting, there were four others at the ‘CP’ all four were senior officers, there for the glory if everything went well if things went pear-shaped they'd be scarce as hen's teeth. “Captain Jackson” he went on, “Army bomb disposal, heard you might have something you want us to deal with, that right?”
“What? er who called you folks?” it was the station superintendent asking the questions he was a little ‘flummoxed’
“Standard procedure” Jacko lied, “anyone puts one of these things in, the computer gives us a heads up, thought it would be good practice to get down here and get the lay of the land, where’s the suspect device?” his eyes were dancing between the people, watching to see what happened next, everyone looked sheepish.
“Err, it's actually inside, but this is only”
“A drill, we know. No matter” Jacko replied, “but I need to talk to whoever's in charge of the operation, is that either of you by any chance?” He asked cheerfully knowing what the reply would be..
“That'll be sergeant Harris” the most senior officer replied passing the buck.
“In that case” Jacko replied his face taking on a sterner look, “there's a cordon in place for onlookers” he pointed to the barrier set up and manned by uniformed officers, “kindly move your arses behind it!” he escorted them to the cordon and made it clear the officers weren’t welcome. Turni
ng to the police officers manning the cordon he simply said, “no one passes, and I mean NO ONE!”
“Sir” the two cops jumped to attention, ‘Not arguing with this guy’ they thought.
“ make sure of it, I don't care who they are!” Jacko turned to talk with Harris, “sorry for seeming to take over sergeant, just needed to establish the cordon, as I said, you ARE in charge, it's just we know what, or rather whom we're dealing with,” he turned to one of the team, Sandy was heading to the CP, laptops slung in computer bags over her shoulder, “You know what to do Sandy?”
“Is the Pope a bloody catholic?” Sandy shot back, “course I do” she closed the door as soon as she was in the vehicle.
Two operators in the command post were coordinating the teams, one team at each end, their job was to keep joe public out. Two other teams each with two people were slowly emptying each of the buildings of people and taking them to the barriers.
“Right, listen up” Sandy spoke loud enough to get their attention, “this no drill, I know you were told it was, but it’s not, it's not a bomb” she let that sink in for a moment, “what we have is a serious criminal gang responsible for at least one murder and numerous other violent incidents , well armed and extremely dangerous” she stopped to let that sink in, everyone in the CP stopped and turned towards her, it was obvious who was taking control there, besides the two operators there were a couple of others, mainly people working computer screens, digging out whatever information they could find for the men and women ‘on the ground’ it was vital everyone had whatever information they needed as soon as they needed it.
“Before you go looking” she turned to the researchers working the keyboards, “The garage is owned by a front company, it’s basically owned by the Russian mafia, they’re using it as a ‘chop shop’ for whenever they need to get rid of a piece of machinery”. She made the universal ‘quote’ sign with the two fingers on each hand, “Mostly it does legit business, but whenever they need something gotten rid of, these guys get the job, that and a great storehouse for weapons and the like” she added the last bit to get their attention, “truth is, we know the vehicle is there, we made sure of that, what we don’t know” every eye was on her, and she knew it, “is what else is there, so start searching, so be prepared for anything”.
Scorpion's Vengeance Page 18
