Bearings: The Compass Trilogy Part One

by Mr Iain F Johnston

  I replaced the receiver then called Steve back,

  “Steve…? Head for RAF Lyneham. There will be a Royal Marine Puma arriving… Where is the truck now…?”

  “We believe it to be at an overnight stop on the A5 close to the M69 just south of Hinckley. That’s as of nearly three hours ago… They are close to their estimated target, very close…”

  “Yeah they are; too bloody close…”

  Hearing the conversation, Charlie had approached with a map of the area,

  “Steve, along that stretch of the A5 there’s a disused runway…I’ll have air support on the ground. There are two SO13 units en route from London. Frank will have them meet you there too…”

  “Good… I take it EOD are informed…?” “They are en route…”

  “Ok… Expect a patch call from the police patrol that sniffed them out… Right, I’ll call when airborne…”

  I hung up looking across at the other two,

  “Colonel Harris is aware, they are filing the flightplan now. How do you want to play this?”

  “It’s not up to me Charlie, Steve will be the man on the ground-we just supply the INTEL, remember…?”

  “But…?”

  “Yeah I know; ‘but’…”

  I let it rest there. We wanted more involvement at the sharp end but that would not be sanctioned, nor would it ever be.

  “I don’t want the two uniformed officers walking up to them and asking to see their driving licences. That’s what got the two lads at Wrington Hill killed…”

  “And the patrol officer on the M5…”

  “Precisely… That would have been a lot worse if not for the Royal Navy. I don’t care how much merry hell their Chief Constable is trying to make; they saved a coppers life Charlie…”

  “Aye laddie they did…”

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Being local patrol officers-both Baldwin and Harper knew the locale well, meaning both knew that they would need to locate the Mercedes truck on foot. There would be minimal, if any, covert view from the main road. The area was rather small catering for panel vans rather than the larger HGV’s; it was also surrounded by hedgerow to keep it out of the public eye of the suburban houses built across the street.

  The Three Pots public house added its own diversions. How to search the area and keep a watchful eye on the pubs two entrances…? To have a pint of something cold after a long day driving, is an attractive proposition: PIRA terrorists or not. It was not unrealistic of them to perhaps assume one, if not both, of the target subjects were enjoying a drink.

  The public house was also very popular in its own right; enjoying a large patronage from the local residents, adding the rest stop made it more so. Its geographical location, so close to the A5-M69 crossroads, meant the area was always busy with a very eclectic bunch of individuals. They needed help…

  Officer Harper had an idea,

  “Chris call in CID, have them clock the pub while we search the rest area…?”

  “Ok… We’ll need to approach from the north, leave the car and walk in…”

  “That may look a bit suss, the two of us walking along with a flashlight each…”

  “Best we can hope for really. We’re too visible with these Battenberg markings. We should park the car in say, Beechwood Avenue and then walk down Wolvey Road…”

  Harper nodded adding,

  “The service station sells fleece jackets, I’m sure Suresh would let us have a couple to cover our uniform shirts…”

  “I’ll sort those Denise. You get on to control and have a couple of plain clothes down here… Oh yeah, there’s a patch call to an outfit in London too…”

  *****

  We four had assembled ourselves in the fifth floor comm’s room. The call from the two uniformed officers would be relayed into here and recorded by both us and GCHQ. Sitting there silently in the semi darkness I once again found the hum of the air conditioners faintly soothing. This room had a womb-like feel to it. I could understand why the techies stayed in here so long. It was a world away from the madness of the fourth floor offices.

  Andy had remained to assist Matt with the communication. We were hoping for overhead IMINT from one of the three NSA satellites; however this was proving a little difficult due to time constraints and the small matter of the ongoing issues in Iraq and the Balkans… From an intelligence viewpoint these two were fulltime operations. So good old fashioned RT comm’s it would have to be then…

  Mark Ward had also joined us, allowing Box to have realtime input. This was a shrewd measure by Robin after his chat with the Home Sec’. Wright-Stevens had had his nose severely knocked out of joint when he learnt we had given the INTEL on Morris to the RUC and, as usual, hadn’t been backward in coming forward vocally on the matter. Interestingly, the Home Sec’ had been quite dismissive of his tirade.

  “Chief, the call is coming through now…”

  I positioned myself closer to the mic’ then looked at the others in the room.

  “If any of you have input which could help, jump in at any time…Ok…?”

  “Officers Baldwin and Harper this is the Compass Section Chief, things are little lively there…?”

  “Beats the usual Wednesday night revellers Chief, that’s for sure…” “I bet, what do you have…?”

  “Ok, knowing the area as we do, surveillance from a distance is not possible. The area the target vehicle is in is heavily covered by hedgerow with just the one entrance. It has been designed that way to dislocate it from the suburban residences and to a degree, the pub…”

  “Understood, any updated intelligence on the car…?”

  “We’ve the usual PNC check done on all the vehicles which were caught on the service station CCTV with one flag of note. It’s a Rover 825i, Hotel three eight eight, Bravo Papa Hotel… The colour has changed as the V5 has it as green but the garage owner assures us it’s dark red now also the name: A John Charlton, a name from your watch list I believe Chief…?”

  “That’s right officer, well done. Go on…”

  “Vehicle bought at the auctions in Bromsgrove. We’ve also the truck, of course which appears identical to the one involved in the M5 incident, Juliet one eight two, Sierra Bravo Yankee… Further CCTV observation tells us it’s quite heavily laden too…”

  “It is…”

  I looked at Robin who nodded,

  “Officer Baldwin, we are fairly certain the target vehicle is a 15,000lb VBIED. Their destination is the Catthorpe interchange. The Rover you have described is their transport for use after the device is in place…”

  The RT hissed as both uniformed officers took this information in,

  “Right, er, understood Chief…”

  Baldwin clearly had composed himself.

  “Our plan is to leave the patrol car in Beechwood Avenue then carry on by foot south along Wolvey Road, turning left to enter the rest stop. It should be fairly straight forward identifying the truck. The car will be in the patron’s carpark of the pub as only those hitched to a caravan or trailers are allowed to enter the area.

  In conjunction with this and running concurrently, there will be two plain clothes officers within the public house clocking faces. They’ve been instructed to observe only and report…”

  Chris and Charlie had been looking over a map of the local area; both saw what the officer had in mind.

  “That works Iain. The car will be out of sight and they won’t be seen until they turn into the rest area…”

  “Very well Officer Baldwin. As soon as you clock the truck, leave the area and head to the airfield. We’ll need your ground INTEL…”

  “Yes sir, we’ll leave in ninety seconds. Our last call until we return will be when we park up…”

  “Understood Chris, you and Denise take care…”

  Matt had started a countdown clock set to 90 seconds. We were all staring at the numerals…

  “Papa Charlie 4 moving in on foot, out…”

  Baldwin and Ha
rper split up on passing the gap in the hedgerow. Their plan was to search from both the left and right, meeting up again at the rear. Most of the vehicles were 40ft HGV’s with panel vans and smaller curtain sided trucks parked in an ad hoc manner. The Mercedes was at the back parked side on with its rear doors hard up against the hedge. As Harper appeared from the right hand side of a HGV trailer she could see the cab light was on and a male was sitting with his back to the door with his feet on the dashboard, he appeared to be reading a newspaper. One male, shit…!,she thought, the other was either prowling around or in the pub. She also wouldn’t be able to identify him without walking in front of the truck, allowing the target subject to get a good look at her.

  She decided to return using her previous route, for her to meet her partner at the rear of the truck stop without being seen was now out of the question.

  Baldwin had mirrored her movements on the left. On reaching the top boundary, he turned right to move to the centre of the area; passing a white panel van he too could see the Mercedes. His aspect however was a little better, he could certainly confirm the vehicles index number and the man’s face was highlighted by the soft yellow light from the cab.

  He turned, he too could see that the original rendezvous was not possible. They met up on Wolvey Road…

  “It’s a positive…”

  “Yes, I saw him too but his back was to me. If I’d walked further I would have been sussed…”

  “Right, let’s call it in. I wonder how the other two are getting on...?”

  *****

  The two CID officers, Josh Marcus and Ben Wright had entered into the pub’s lounge, this in turn opened onto an open plan restaurant area with 75 covers. Judging by the noise and animations the pub was enjoying a bumper mid-week. The staff were busily attentive, their burden increased by a particularly vocal group of eight…

  Marcus walked to the bar area and called one of the bartenders to one side producing two photo’s; his second mistake. His first had been to enter the pub looking like a CID officer, suited, booted and officious.

  Sitting in the far corner away from the door, giving a panoramic view of both entrances, McCauley clocked him immediately. Never alone; he was now looking for his mate. Ah there he was, leaning nonchalantly against the cigarette vending machine. His eyes gave him away…

  McCauley turned his head away, peering through the archway toward the bar, so far so good,

  “Have you seen any of these two…?”

  “Are you joking have you seen how busy we are…? Besides we tend to deal with waiting staff only here. You’re best heading through to the bar…”

  Marcus nodded, putting the photos away. He glanced to his partner and tilted his head. Wright, knowing what this meant began to walk toward the bar closely followed by his partner…

  Again the same negative response from the bartenders.

  McCauley saw his chance; he’d first visit the WC. If there was more outside he didn’t want to explain why he had a gun…

  “Josh this is useless, either of them could have been and gone or not even bothered to visit at all. I’m having a leak; I’ll see you outside…”

  He missed McCauley by ten seconds.

  Once outside, McCauley headed for the car, started it then headed out of the pub carpark; turning left he headed in the direction of the M69. Approaching the junction, he had made his decision; he called Harraghy on the cellphone…

  “What…?”

  “There’s two plain clothes coppers in the pub, showing photos, so they are…”

  “If they knew we were here they’d be around the truck…” “Maybe they are Gerry, maybe they are…?”

  “They won’t chance it. They don’t know it’s not armed yet, we could blow it right in the middle of this pretty area, so we could…”

  “Ok then, I’ve repositioned. There’s a hotel on the other side of the motorway, I’ll remain in their carpark until 0500. We’ll meet up at the junction…”

  “You just make sure you do son, or I’ll have yer…”

  “Don’t threaten me Gerry. Save all that bollocks for the new boys, besides I could have left anytime…”

  Harraghy snorted and ended the call. He decided it was time to turn off the cab light and maybe have a little look around…

  Wright found Marcus having a fag against their unmarked Vauxhall Cavalier,

  “So nothing then…?”

  “No, just the car in the carpark there… Shit…!” “What…?”

  “The fucking car’s gone… Fucking hell Josh, do you become deaf and blind when you smoke…? He must of driven right passed you…!”

  “No one drove passed me Ben… It’s been quiet…!”

  “Shit…! He went the other way then, toward the motorway…”

  *****

  “Papa Charlie 4, control…” “Control…”

  “Confirming target vehicle… Red Mercedes truck: index number Juliet one eight two, Sierra Bravo Yankee… Parked in the northeast corner against the hedge boundary. We also confirm one occupant, although positive identification of the target subject was unobtainable without jeopardising the opp’, over…”

  “Roger Papa Charlie 4. You are instructed to join SO12 at Lindley, over…”

  “Roger control, mobile to Lindley, out…”

  Here in on the fifth floor, it was Robin who broke the silence,

  “Well, that was coolly done, excellent… Now, what of the other two…?”

  “We’re chasing them now Robin…”

  There was silence at this end, only the RT communication between officers Baldwin and Harper had been relayed to us.

  Matt turned again to Robin, “Sir a call from Hinckley…”

  Robin snatched at the telephone receiver,

  “Yes…? Right… What…! How in god’s name? Oh never mind… I suggest you widen the search… Now…!”

  Robin replaced the receiver and took a deep breath,

  “The car is gone… The two plain clothes officers have called in to say the pub was a negative…”

  “Clearly it wasn’t…”

  Chris offered his opinion,

  “The two nebby idiots probably went in all Cagney and Lacy. I reckon McCauley was in there havin’ a pint, saw them and did a runner…”

  I had to agree, however,

  “Point is, did he tell Harraghy…? If we move in now, what’s the chances he’s waiting for them or, worse still, what’s the chances of him arming the thing and quietly walking away and meeting up with McCauley. The way they left the Chiswick house suggests they’re skilful in disappearing…”

  “Can we get an eyeball on the truck from the hedge…? One of Franks S013 lads with and IR scope and NVG’s…?”

  “We won’t know that Charlie until they get there…”

  “Iain… Get on to Frank. We need an ETA for his lads from London…”

  I nodded and left the room… Returning five minutes later,

  “ETA 2130, so 20 minutes give or take. What have we from the two patrol officers…?”

  “They’ve given us a full layout of the rest area. Both of them believe covert surveillance could be set up within the area itself, you know, get the driver clear of one of the HGV’s and use that…?”

  “You mean in through the side of a curtain with a scope through the slit made in the other…?”

  “That’s exactly what I mean…”

  “They may be able to take him out from there too…?”

  “Aye there’s that, but laddie, we don’t know if McCauley can remote detonate the device if Harraghy is out of the way. We also don’t know if they are speaking to each other every hour or so and if one of them doesn’t reply…?”

  “We’d have a big hole where the pub once stood…?” “Precisely…”

  Chapter Thirty-six

  It was now a little after 0130, operational ideas had been bounced between us, Box, SO12 and SO13; each one becoming more elaborate and outlandish as the evening; (well, now morning)
wore on. The one common denominator through all of it was that we couldn’t have the VBIED detonated in the built up area in Hinckley. If Harraghy or McCauley initiated the device on an open road where casualties would be minimal…? Well, this outcome would be acceptable as a last resort.

  Close communication with Colonel March’s men had given us some optimism. They were confident that they could immobilise the truck from their airborne platform with minimal risk to the huge device in the rear of the truck. Their idea was to concentrate fire on the cab. This would neutralize the driver or any occupant with the capacity to detonate. This in turn raised a further question, would Harraghy, McCauley or both be willing to die for what they believed…? Charlie’s response was that in the case of Harraghy it was a resounding yes, McCauley he wasn’t so sure…