Chapter 2

“Should we do a recce mate?” Curly asked. it would have been the right thing to do normally but I did not have the time and was sure they had cameras up.

“No mate it looks like they have CCTV, and we might give away our positions,” I replied. We backed the car up until we were just by the entrance to the industrial estate.

We spent some time discussing our plan of attack. There was only one plan that we both agreed with. We would have to do a basic smash-and-grab. We would wait for the backup to arrive. We did not have to wait long. Two four-by-fours pulled up next to us. six lads stepped out.

We got out of our car; I recognised two of the lads from my meeting with Crumble at the pub. The two were ex-military the other four did have that look.

“Lads the boss told us to do anything you asked for!” one of them called Jacko told us.

“Right, they have CCTV, and we have no way to knock it out, so this is going to be a smash-and-grab style raid!” I said.

Then I told them how we would do it. Two of the new lads would go to the far end of the industrial estate just in case any of the thugs ran, two would stop at this end for the same reason. The other two would guard the front door just in case any of the thugs got past us.

We would start the action by smashing the window of the thugs four by four. I hoped this would make them open the door and that would give us a way in. Curly got the tyre lever from the back of our car. He handed it to one of the lads who would be behind us, guarding the door once we had gone in.

Curly and I checked out guns and the lads all did the same. They all had handguns apart from one who had a sawn-off shotgun. With a nod, we all started to get into position.

I stood to the right of the door, and Curly stood to the left. We had our guns ready and started to control our breathing.

I glanced at the lad by their four-by-four and nodded. He smashed the driver’s side window and the car’s alarm started to scream out. Seconds later the door in front of us opened and a Somalian lad stepped out. He hit the ground when Curly smashed his huge right fist into his jaw. Then we both stepped through the door.

Inside the unit, there were boxes and crates all over the place, there was an office set up on the far side of the unit. There was a line of refrigerators to our left.

An Asian lad stepped away from the fridges and shouted a warning out to his mates. I dropped the lads with two rounds to the torso. There was no going back now...

Another lad came out of the office. He was not armed but Curly dropped him with a double tap. The office window shattered as men with guns started to fire at us. I went right and Curly went left. There were crates to the right, and I dived behind them.

Neither Curly nor I had fired yet. The lads were burning off ammo without really aiming at us.

A door to my right opened and I saw a huge figure step out, it was the lad they called Tegsy. He had a MAC -10 in his hand. It was a proper old-school gangster tool. I lowered my gun and hit him twice in the upper thigh. He hit the deck and the gun slid across the floor. I put another round in his upper right arm. He screamed like a girl. Then started shouting the word medic, obviously he played far too much Call of Duty.

He looked at me and shouted “Medic!”

I stood over him and smiled.

“You dirty fucking rapist!”

Then I shot him twice in the chest.

Another lad followed him out of the door, a handgun held out in front of him. It was not one of the lads that had been to the house to hassle the girls. I dropped him with a double tap. His weapon fired as he hit the floor. I heard a Glock fire, and I guessed it was Curly.

The firing from the office slowed down. I guess someone in there had realised that if they kept firing, they would soon run out of ammo. I ran from the crate to the doorway. I swung the door open and shots hit the door jam.

I dropped to one knee and fired two shots into the room. Then I heard more shots hitting the door jam and the wall. It sounded like small-calibre ammo. I waited for it to stop and ran into the room. The room was filled with chrome work benches, two women stood to one side. They were screaming. A lad appeared to my right, a small gun in his hand. I double-tapped him. I did another scan of the room. There were no doorways and nowhere to hide.

The girls were weighing and packing little parcels of cannabis. There were bags of the green material everywhere. I told the girls to get down and stay down. They did and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. One of the girls had a knife in her hand and was coming around the side of one of the work benches.

“Get down and stay down!” I shouted and pointed the gun at her. She was not going to stop; her eyes were full of anger, and she was screaming in some language I did not understand.

I aimed at her leg and put a round into it. it was not a fatal wound, but it would keep her down for a while. The other girl stood up. she was screaming at me as well. This time in English.

“Don’t shoot please don’t shoot!” she screamed.

“Get down and stay down!” I ordered. She did as she was told. I walked around the workbenches and gave her a whack with the butt of the Glock. She would be out of it for a few hours and would wake with a headache, but she was still alive. The other girl was screaming and clutching her leg. I kicked the knife away from her and kicked her in the face. She was out for the count. The wound was not bleeding too badly, she would be okay.

I did a quick search of the room and there was no one else around. I edged out of the door. There were some crates to my right, and I ran to them and huddled down.

There was still sporadic firing coming from the office. Curly was returning the odd shot.

“Side room clear mate!” I shouted out.

“Good work!” He replied and rounds hit the crates I was huddled behind.

My phone rang. It was Crumble.

“Mate you have six cars coming your way ETA fifteen minutes, we estimate twenty tangos!”

“Thanks for the heads up Mucka!”

“We are behind them, and we are tooled up,” Crumble said.

“See you in fifteen,” I said and hung up.

“Mate we have two Zero incoming, should be here in One Five minutes!” I said.

More rounds hit the crate I was behind.

“Then we need to get this done ASAP!” he replied.

“Roger that!” I said. I slid to the floor and edge around the side of the crate.

The shape of a man came into view. I aimed. Both shots hit his torso. I heard screaming from the office, he was not dead, but he was not happy. I heard Curly putting some rounds into the office. As he did so a huge Asian lad tried to slip out of one of the now glassless windows. He was on Curly’s blind side, but I had a clear aim.

I changed mags and aimed. He was a big unit and thus a big target and I did not miss. I fired three shots. One hit his shoulder the other his chest and the last his face. He was dead before he hit the floor. I scooted along and got a clearer view of the office. I edged around the unit’s side wall until I was at the junction with the office wall.

I stood up and I could see five men in the office. I fired at one, double tap into the chest, he was dead well before he hit the floor. As soon as I had fired, I ducked as all the lads fired at the window I had fired through. Shit, I thought about to myself how I wished I had a grenade.

At the same time, I heard Curly firing. I heard screaming from within the office. Then the door swung open and the white lad we knew as Connor made a run for the door.

My first shot was in his upper thigh, he skidded across the floor and when he had stopped moving, I put two more rounds into his torso. He jerked and yelled as the rounds whacked into him. Behind me, I heard a Glock being fired. I hoped it was Curly. I heard screaming and then a shotgun fired. Its huge boom was so distinctive. I dropped to the floor, the shotgun boomed again, and I heard Curly returning fire. His double-tapping gave away the fact he was SAS-trained. I rolled to my left and aimed at the office door. I saw an Asian lad with a machete coming my way. I double-tapped him in the chest. He dropped to his knees, and I put another double tap on his head.

Another lad stepped out of the door, and he died on the spot as rounds hit him from me and Curly.

Then everything went quiet. There was no firing, just the groans of injured men.

“I think we have taken all the tangoes out of the game mate!” I heard Curly shout.

“Okay mate, cover me!” I shouted back.

I changed Mag, then stood up and checked the office. There were dead bodies. One body was twitching. On the floor was a cheap Russian-made handgun. I picked it up and shot the twitcher twice in the head. No more twitching.

“Office clear!” I shouted. We then both skirted around the edge of the industrial unit and check that there were no more of the druggy thugs. The unit was clear, all the occupants apart from the two girls were dead. We had taken out a few druggy thugs which I saw as an act of public duty.

It was obvious that this was a drug distribution site. In the office, there was an open safe that was full of bags of Class A. I did not know the street value of drugs, but it looked like there was a lot of shit there. There were three bags of cash. We did not have time to count it, but I would have guessed that each bag was worth thirty or forty grand. I grabbed them.

We were about to leave the unit when we heard the sound of shooting from outside. I gathered up my three mags and emptied all the rounds out of them. I had ten rounds left. Curly told me he had less than four.

I headed back into the office. I searched the Twitcher. He had two spare mags for the Russian cheapo. Curly searched another guy and found a Cheap Glock rip-off and two mags. So, we had extra weapons. We moved to the door and heard more shots.

I opened the door and after counting to three I dodged out of the door. There was a van five yards away. I ran to it and heard rounds hitting it.

There was a battle going on and I wondered how long it would be before the police officers arrived.

I peered around the side of the van. One of Crumble’s lads was on the ground. Two bullet holes were evident in his chest. I saw a large Asian lad pop up a few yards away. He pointed an old Wembley-style revolver at me, and I dropped back behind the van. I counted six rounds hitting the rusty metal. Then I popped around and the mug was stood up slotting rounds into the chambers.