Chapter 34: The tiptoe boys

At the Faslane naval base, Jamie was scratching his head as he tried to weigh up the pros and cons of a new situation. The skills audit at Fort William had turned up seven teenagers who claimed to be fairly experienced with large pleasure boats. Each had had a father who was nuts about boats (and other large boy's toys) and the teenagers had spent a fair amount of time learning how to pilot and navigate the craft.

When Jamie had asked Stuart where the skilled teenagers were, he had been directed further into the naval base to a dock where four Sandown class minehunters were berthed. The teenagers were swarming all over one of the vessels, pointing out various aspects to their friends and claiming they could sail the vessel easily enough.

Hearing the claims, Jamie wondered if they were just bravado or if the boys really could handle the ships. They were relatively small in navy terms, just over fifty metres long. If the teenagers could pilot them, they might prove to be very useful in helping the adults who were out in the middle of the Atlantic, possibly about to be overtaken by horrible weather.

His original reason for identifying these teenagers had been to try and find someone who would be able to use the radio equipment at Faslane to make contact with the expats. Now he was faced with another decision. Could they man the ships? What if they got into difficulty once they put to sea? What if the ships malfunctioned? Was it worth taking the chance of putting teenagers at risk to try and safeguard some of the adults in small boats?

He came to the conclusion that it was worth taking the gamble. The teenagers seemed very confident in their abilities and Jamie had seen some of the US news coverage showing just how small some of the boats being used were. He didn't fancy their chances in the weather that was forecast. As King, he had a responsibility to try and look to the safety of all of his subjects.

Jamie called to the teenagers and questioned them closely, satisfying himself that they were at least willing to make an attempt at sailing the minehunters. He asked what they needed and was told that more hands were required. It was agreed that they would take out one of the ships into the Firth of Clyde and see whether they could handle her. If that was successful, they would split the experienced teens between two ships and take them out to try and pick up some of the adults.

Volunteers to help man the ships were plentiful, the survivors seeing this as something of an adventure not to be missed. Jamie watched as the lines were cast off and the first ship, HMS Blyth edged away from the dock and into open water. It certainly appeared as if the teenagers knew what they were doing and Jamie smiled as he saw the ship pick up speed as it moved further into the Firth.

He had kept one of the seven teenagers ashore, the one who claimed to know most about ship to ship and shore to ship radios. When they made their way to the radio control room, the youngster took a few minutes to examine the huge array of equipment before seating himself and donning a pair of headphones.

"I don't know what most of this stuff is for, but I recognise the basic stuff," the teenager said.

Jamie was impressed as he watched the boy set himself up to begin to transmit.

"What do you want to tell them your Grace?" he was asked.

"Tell them to make for Faslane in the first instance. Let them know that I am concerned for their safety if they try and make landfall anywhere else. I'm not sure what information they'll be picking up so warn them that there is a big storm catching up with them from the west," Jamie replied.

The US SF team spent most of the afternoon and evening watching the building opposite. The street was quiet and there was no sign of movement. However, they had concluded which apartment the terrorists were using. The 'give-away' were the heavy curtains covering each of the windows to ensure no light could be seen from the outside.

Now, as darkness fell, the ODA was moving further up Wardour Street before doubling back down Berwick Street and quietly entering the apartment building next door to their target. The Captain located the apartment that was directly adjacent to the one he believed the terrorists were in and his men set about their pre-arranged tasks.

First, all of the furniture was moved silently away from the wall that was shared with the other apartment. A mirror was removed from the wall and carefully set aside. One of the team produced a razor sharp box cutter and made a deep cut in the wall at head height. The construction was modern and the skin of the wall was made from sheetrock, perhaps a quarter of an inch thick, tacked on to wood strapping. The box cutter sliced through the sheetrock easily and the sergeant soon had the panel completely cut out to expose the wooden frame and the brickwork it was attached to.

Silence was essential. Even the slightest noise might be picked up by the terrorists on the other side of this wall. The Captain and most of the squad were sitting on the floor while they watched their colleague working away steadily. The sergeant pulled a hand drill out of a bag and very slowly began to bore into the mortar between two of the bricks. The need for quiet made it a slow and laborious job, but half an hour later he was able to gently wiggle the brick free and remove it from the wall, exposing a second layer of brickwork behind the first.

The going was easier and quicker now that the wall had been breached. The pile of removed bricks grew steadily until a hole big enough for a man to pass through was created. The sergeant took a rest and another man took his place to begin to work on the second layer. The deconstruction continued all through the night and most of the next morning, until only the thin layer of sheetrock stood between the squad and the terrorists in the apartment next door.

The communications expert on the team now moved forward. He too used a hand drill to bore a tiny hole near the floor. He set up a screen and then directed a thin filament camera into the hole. The camera had a fish-eye lens and the squad was able to see the weird, distorted image of the room in the other apartment on the little screen.

The screen was monitored for another two hours until the ODA were sure there were only four tangos in the apartment. The Captain's job was made much easier by the fact that only one of the terrorists was female.

Twenty minutes later and all four of the tangos were in the room. The squad formed up and the Captain tapped the point man on his helmet to tell him to go. The Master Sergeant punched his fist through the sheetrock and deposited a stun grenade. He stepped back and to the side to protect himself from the blast and then launched himself through the plasterboard and into the room. The Master Sergeant dropped to one knee as his Uzi spit slugs into the terrorist on his left. The squad member who had followed closely behind him dropped to his knee also and took out the dazed tango on the right.

Another two members of the squad leapt through the hole in the wall and both pointed their mini Uzis at the last remaining man in the room. Numerous 9mm parabellum rounds tore into his body at close range and his dazedness turned to death in seconds. A fifth team member jumped on Shafiq and pushed her face down on the carpet. Plastic ties were used to secure her wrists behind her back.

A fifth tango who had been sleeping for the past few hours and had been missed by the squad in their calculations, now burst into the room and loosed of several rounds from his Browning handgun. Three Uzis swung toward him and he was riddled with lead within seconds. One of the rounds fired by the terrorist had found its mark however, and the man who had tied Shafiq was rolling on the floor clutching his upper arm.

The first two men into the room now moved forward, checked the tango in the doorway, stepped over him and then began to check the other rooms to make sure there were no more terrorists to deal with.

The team's communications man was already calling in their pick-up bird and the rest of the squad now joined their colleagues. Shafiq was hoisted over one man's shoulder, as they all made their way to the roof of the apartment building to wait for the Blackhawks to come and get them.

First aid was administered to the wounded trooper. A tourniquet was tied to slow the flow of blood and a field dressing applied, but he refused a morphine injection. The Captain was relatively pleased with how it had gone. His orders had been to capture the female alive and bring her out and that's what they had done. Apart from the one man wounded it had been textbook stuff.

09:10, 3 September

Jamie was pleased with how things had gone the day before. There were now two minehunters steaming out into the Atlantic to render whatever assistance they could to those coming from the US and Canada. They had also managed to make contact with nineteen different boats to pass on the message to make for Faslane.

When he had checked his mail later on he had found a message from Captain Mexford and he had responded to that by suggesting the HMS Vengeance also make for the naval base.

His videoconference with the Ambassadors revealed the fact that the Canadian Prime Minister had changed his position with regard to expatriates too, adopting the same stance as the US President. Jamie was now sure that if he could rid Scotland of terrorists there would be no excuses left for the leaders of both countries.

His e-mail had also contained messages from the last two remaining terrorist camps in Glasgow, alerting Jamie to the fact that the survivors there had accepted the surrender of the Pakistani teenagers who had been guarding them. That left only two more camps, both in Edinburgh to deal with.

Jamie had left Stuart to command the teenagers at Faslane and had returned to Dreghorn to see how things were progressing there. Lee Chan advised him that his idea about searching the Internet had worked perfectly and all of the mobile phone masts had been identified. Lee wanted to know when Jamie wanted to make his move against the terrorist safe house?

In response, Jamie asked whether Lee had the house under observation.

"Sure, I've had a team watching both front and rear for the past twenty four hours," Lee answered.

"How many are in there, do we know?" Jamie asked.

"We think there are six," Lee replied

"How many masts?" he wanted to know next.

"We have six to deal with and I have men stationed at each one," Lee advised.

"Okay, are the guys from the team that liberated Herriot-Watt ready to go?" Jamie asked.

"They're ready and I'll fill in for Stuart," said Lee.

The team loaded up into four jeeps this time so they could take the additional weaponry that Jamie had decided would be needed. He kissed the girls and joined his team in the lead jeep as they pulled out of the barracks.

The little convoy made its way down through Edinburgh's streets, eventually along South Bridge, North Bridge and then along Princes Street to the West End. They passed the private hospital and the zoo until they came to Clermiston Road. The hill here was a steep one and they climbed up to its brow before then heading down an equally steep gradient to Queensferry Road. Two of the jeeps pulled over and into the driveway of one of the large detached houses here while Jamie and the other jeep turned into Parkgrove Street where they parked in another driveway.

The safe house was on Clermiston Avenue and Lee had a team in the house opposite keeping it under observation. Radio contact confirmed that the numbers in the house had remained as they were before.

Jamie and Lee crept forward to have a look at their target. The house was like all the others in the street - a solid detached affair with two windows upstairs and two downstairs, all of them bay windows. The windows all had their curtains drawn and they couldn't see inside. Instead they crawled back to where their team waited.

"Okay, take the masts down and tell the guys in the house opposite to keep their camera rolling," ordered Jamie.

Lee turned to one of his team with the radio and passed on the orders.

At six different locations around the city, the power to the mobile phone antennae was cut, leaving the whole of Edinburgh as a reception black spot. Jamie signalled to the four men tasked with starting the assault and watched as they crept forward to get into place. He checked through his throat mic to make sure the men at the rear of the safe house were in place and gave the order to go.

"This is team leader, start the assault on my mark. Three, two, one. Go! Go! Go!"

The four team members lying prone behind the small garden wall that fronted the house, sat up and raised their Javelins to their shoulders. At such a short range they couldn't miss the windows and an anti-tank missile crashed through each of them to devastating effect. The same was happening at the rear of the property.

Once they had fired, the teenagers dropped back below the wall to avoid any debris when the missiles exploded and to escape the blasts.

The explosions rocked the very foundations of the house and pieces of brick and glass scattered everywhere. As it settled, the Javelin launchers were discarded and Jamie and Lee led the members of their teams into the wrecked house. They burst through the front door with Jamie screaming what they were doing into his mic so the members of his squad at the back didn't mistake them for tangos.

The house was already beginning to burn and it only took a cursory look into each room to confirm there was no one left alive. Jamie counted two adults and four teenagers, or at least what was left of them following the devastation the missiles had caused.

With the fires really starting to take hold, he knew they were in danger and ordered his team to evacuate the house. Jamie knew that the video of the attack would make for spectacular viewing and he wanted to get it onto the SIS web site as quickly as possible. He hoped the remaining terrorists would recognise the safe house of their leader and know that the game was all but over.