Firefight

by Chris Ryan

  At 19.00 hours it was his turn to get some rest. Drew and Kennedy switched on the NV binoculars and kept watch over the encroaching gloom. As he lay on the bed, Will's mind was turning over; but he was dog tired and he soon fell asleep.

  Kennedy woke him at midnight. He sat up immediately and it took a moment for him to remember where he was. Latifa was still awake, still sitting in the chair, her arms fastened tightly behind her back.

  'You should try and sleep,' he told her.

  'Sleep?' she asked him, one eyebrow raised. 'How could I possibly go to sleep?'

  Will shrugged, grabbed a bar of chocolate, then took up his position. He had another eight hours of surveillance ahead of him and he had to keep on the ball.

  *

  The luminous dial of Faisal Ahmed's hand-held compass glowed dimly in the darkness. On the train he had memorised his Ordnance Survey map of the region so there was no need for him to consult it by torchlight. By his reckoning, the house would be approximately 200 metres south of here. He moved stealthily through the forest and, sure enough, a minute later he saw a bright yellow light shining through the trees.

  He stopped, gently laid his rucksack on the ground and removed his NV telescope. The trees ahead of him were distinguished in the hazy green light, and the glow from the upstairs room burned too brightly for him to look at it. But that was OK.There were other things he needed to look for first. They would have set up some kind of early-warning system. A tripwire around the property was possible, but unlikely - too difficult to set up and too easy for wild animals to set off. No, if he were in their shoes he'd do something else.

  It didn't take him long to locate the motion-sensor boxes spaced at regular intervals along the wall. No doubt they would have been set up all around the house, ready to alert the men inside the moment he approached. He moved his sights up to the roof. That was the obvious way to approach, but it was impossible.

  He'd have to think of something else; but for now, he needed to keep behind the tree line.

  He packed the NV telescope away and pulled out a set of ordinary binoculars. He could see one man at the window, also looking through binoculars. One very accurate shot and maybe he could kill him from here. But it was high risk and taking out just one of them would do him no good at all.

  He lowered his binoculars, sat down against the trunk of a tree, closed his eyes and thought.

  Gradually a strategy started to form in his head. He considered it slowly, meticulously, making a mental list of its weak points and judging whether the risks they posed were acceptable.

  Eventually, he was satisfied. But he needed some equipment and that meant hiking to a nearby town.

  Faisal Ahmed spent five minutes locating a hollowed-out tree trunk where he could store his rucksack; then, without hesitation, he started retracing his steps out of the forest. If he could get what he needed that morning, he would be back in situ by the afternoon.

  Which meant that he could put his plan into operation as soon as it was dark again.

  *

  'I think perhaps you have misjudged my brother,' Latifa Ahmed said, quietly. The sun was just beginning to rise and nobody had spoken for hours.

  Will turned to her. She looked desperately tired. Desperately anxious. But still she had the same fierce determination in her eyes.

  'He was never going to just walk up and knock on the door, Latifa,' he replied, quietly.

  She shrugged, but her attempt to look nonchalant was not successful.

  'You should eat something,' Will told her. He left his post at the tripod and walked over to where the food was stashed. 'There's bread, I think. I could uncuff you for a while.'

  For a moment she looked as if she was going to refuse again; but at the last minute she nodded, her wide eyes brimming once more with tears.

  'Stand up,' Will told her, gently. He was glad it was Kennedy who was asleep at that moment. He could do without the sarcastic comments. Latifa did as she was told and Will undid her cuffs. She stretched out her arms in front of her, then hungrily devoured the slice of white bread Will offered, and then another.

  'You really think he will come?' she asked Will.

  He hesitated, aware that Drew was watching him intently. 'Do you?' he asked her.

  Slowly, Latifa nodded her head. She gazed out of the window. 'He will come,' she whispered. Then she turned back to Will. 'You saved my life,' she said. 'Twice. When Faisal arrives, I will ask him not to kill you.'

  Will blinked as her words sank in. Was she saying that just to reassure herself? But then why did she sound so confident?

  'I need to cuff you again,' he said.

  Latifa nodded, then obediently put her hands behind her back, her head bowed.

  'Perhaps you should try to sleep, Latifa,' he said.

  'Perhaps,' she replied quietly. 'Perhaps.'

  *

  He walked into the toy shop at two minutes past nine. The man behind the counter was reading a newspaper and didn't notice him until he was a metre away.

  'Oh, excuse me, sir. You made me jump.' He was a jollylooking man, elderly, with a white moustache and twinkling blue eyes.

  'I'm terribly sorry,' Ahmed replied, making sure his voice betrayed no hint of an accent.

  'What can I do for you, anyway?'

  Ahmed smiled. He knew his face looked appealing and open when he did so. 'I would like to buy a gift for my nephew,' he said, smoothly. 'He has asked Santa for a remotecontrolled car.'

  The man nodded pleasantly, as if this were a request he often received and he was happy to oblige. 'There are three or four to choose from,' he said, walking out into the main area of the shop before returning with an armful of boxes. He spread them out on the counter.

  Faisal Ahmed examined them. He was not interested in their size, shape or colour; he was not interested in their price. Instead, he scrutinised the technical specifications on the side of each box.

  'I think my nephew will enjoy this one,' he announced brightly.

  One minute later he was walking out with his new purchase.

  His next stop was a builder's merchants, a large, anonymous superstore where he did not have to speak to anyone.

  Here he bought himself an aerosol can of insulating foam.

  The final item on his shopping list would be more difficult to come by; certainly he would be unlikely to find it in a shop. Instead, he headed to an Internet café. A quick search gave him a list of names of local doctors and a few minutes later he had located their addresses on the electoral register. He checked an online map and memorised their locations immediately.

  Forty-five minutes later he was outside the first address. It only took him a couple of minutes to establish that there was someone home, so he moved on to the next house on his list. This one looked more hopeful.

  There was an alleyway around the back. Checking that he wasn't being watched, he disappeared down it and moments later was climbing over a high fence into the back garden of the house. He surveyed the place from the bottom of the garden. Still no sign of life. He decided to proceed. In his pocket was a leather pouch of metal instruments.

  He brought it out as he approached the back door and about thirty seconds later he had picked the lock. Once inside the kitchen, he stopped and listened.

  Silence.

  Then he began to search the house.

  He worked quietly and neatly, not disturbing anything he came across. The jewellery was easy to find, but he left that. In the small home office there was a safe bolted to the floor. Easily opened, but it didn't interest him. This was the house of a doctor and it was a doctor's implement he required.

  He found what he needed after about ten minutes, hidden away in a drawer in a spare room upstairs. It was an old stethoscope, but it still worked. It would be fine for his purposes.

  Ahmed put it in the bag with the car and the builder's foam, carefully shut the drawer, then slipped downstairs. He left by the same route he had arrived and he used his metal tools to lock t
he kitchen door again. He felt confident that nobody would ever know he had been there.

  His shopping list complete, Faisal Ahmed stealthily climbed over the garden fence and walked out into the street.

  Two hours and thirty minutes later he was on the edge of the forest. There were a few houses dotted around and he knew that somewhere here he would be able to find the final thing he needed to execute his plan.

  Sure enough, walking along the garden wall of a house which backed on to the forest, there was a domestic cat. It was a shaggy ginger Tom and it eyed Faisal Ahmed warily.

  Ahmed stayed perfectly still.

  The cat took a few steps nearer.

  When Ahmed's hands flashed out to grab the animal, he did so with an uncanny speed and accuracy. The cat hissed and tried to get away, but Ahmed's grip was too firm. He held the animal under the arm that was holding his bag and with his spare hand clamped its jaws tight shut. Immediately he headed to the forest.

  It took another forty-five minutes for him to reach the tree where his rucksack was being held. He would have to let the cat meow for a short time while he packed his purchases into the rucksack and hoisted it onto his back. When that was done, however, he clamped its jaws shut once more.

  Then he sat and waited until nightfall.

  *

  The second night of surveillance. It seemed unnaturally quiet out there, as though the whole forest were holding its breath. Waiting for something to happen.

  Drew was sleeping and so, finally, was Latifa. Kennedy coughed and Will turned sharply towards him. His colleague held up his hands. 'Don't shoot!' he grinned, before turning back to continue his surveillance. Will took a deep breath and went back to scanning the area for movement.

  'He's out there, isn't he?' Kennedy said after a minute or so, his voice more serious now. 'He's out there somewhere.'

  Will's expression remained emotionless. 'Yeah,' he said. 'He's out there somewhere.'

  *

  Ahmed looked at his watch. 02.00 hours. Now was the time.

  He knew they were watching. Chances were they'd have NV, but even with that it would be impossible to see more than a metre or two into the forest. He would be able to get within that distance of the tree line without being detected. They were clearly relying on the motion sensors near the house to alert them to his arrival. He crept forward, his mouth firmly covering the jaws of the struggling cat. When he got as far as he dared, he started skirting round to the north, out of sight of the room with the lights on.

  Any closer now and he would trigger the motion sensors.

  Faisal Ahmed proceeded clinically and professionally. He removed his hand from the animal's jaws and then, swiftly, brutally, snapped the bones in two of its legs. The cat screeched pitifully, and its body went into spasm.

  He had to move quickly now. He burst through the trees and, when he was a few metres from the house, he dropped the cat on the ground. The animal was in no state to move anywhere quickly: it dragged itself across the floor, but only managed to turn in a circle. Ahmed ran round to the other side of the house, past the front door. Once he was out of sight of the weakly mewing creature, he pressed his back against the wall.

  Soon he would be able to get into the house.

  But not yet. Not just yet.

  *

  The buzzer sounded.

  Will had been resting, but the instant that tiny noise filled the room, he was on his feet. He grabbed his UMP and stepped towards Latifa's chair, aiming the gun towards her head. Drew and Kennedy had moved with similar speed, stepping back from the windows. Drew covered the door, Kennedy the windows. Will checked his gas mask was properly fitted.

  'What is happening?' Latifa breathed, her whispered voice trembling with fright.

  'He's here,' Will murmured.

  The buzzer continued to sound. It meant there was still someone out there, looking for an entry, no doubt.

  For a minute it sounded. Two minutes.

  Will narrowed his eyes. Something wasn't right. If it was Ahmed, he wouldn't have stayed out in the open for that long - he'd have got close to the walls of the house, surely, where there was more cover. Drew and Kennedy seemed to be thinking the same thing: they were both casting him enquiring looks.

  'I'm going down,' Will said, tersely. He grabbed a torch, removed the key from around his neck and unlocked the door, knowing that one of the others would lock it again after he had left.

  It was dark in the hallway and he allowed himself a moment for his night vision to adjust to the change. Once that had happened, it took him a further two minutes to get down the stairs - each time he advanced he checked any new area to which he was exposed.

  Now he was on the ground floor. The sound of the buzzer had faded away and all around him was silent. But then he heard something. High pitched. Like a scream, only not as loud. Carefully, he followed the sound. It took him into a room on the north side. The noise was louder here and it was coming from outside. Will crossed the room, then shone the torch through the window. The powerful beam illuminated something moving on the ground, and it was a moment before he realised what it was.

  A cat, writhing around but unable to move far. It had been caught in a fight, Will surmised and he had been following its desperate mews of pain.

  He closed his eyes. A false alarm. He felt the curious sensation of being both disappointed and relieved at the same time.

  The animal couldn't stay there. Its movements were clearly what was triggering the motion sensors. Grim-faced, Will hurried to the front door, unlocked it, stepped outside and strode around to where the cat was scratching about on the ground, clearly in great pain. He had two options: pick the animal up and throw it into the forest, well clear of the motion sensors; or put the thing out of its misery now.

  The cat continued to howl and Will's decision was made for him.

  It took one shot from the UMP - a weapon far too powerful for this job at such close range. The instant the shot was fired, the animal was obliterated, its flesh spattered all around. But at least it was no longer in pain; and now it could no longer trigger the motion sensors.

  Will looked out into the forest. 'Where the hell are you, Ahmed?' he whispered to himself. 'Where the hell are you?'

  He turned back into the house, taking care to lock the door behind him.

  *

  Faisal Ahmed heard the gunshot that silenced the howls of the cat with satisfaction. He remained pressed against the wall, almost entirely motionless, for an hour before he judged the time right to make his next move.

  Slowly, his back still against the wall so that he remained out of the beam of the motion sensors, he edged around to the front door. For the second time that day, he made use of the metal implements from their leather pouch to pick the lock. Once he was inside, he again took pains to lock the door behind him.

  He was good at working silently - it was almost second nature. He crept into the kitchen and swiftly located the house's main fuse box. It opened up easily, he noted with satisfaction. That was good.

  He needed a little light. He had correctly remembered the location of the door to the basement, so he went down there, shut the door behind him and drew a torch from his pocket. Out of his rucksack he pulled the receiver from the car he had bought earlier, along with a small detonating charge and a few tools. Within minutes his makeshift detonator had been created.