Chapter 11

The next ten days were times of frantic activity and tedious boredom as those of us who worked had to simply get on with doing our duty. The needs of the Forestry Commission don't simply go away when you start a campaign of vendetta. Sam was lucky, he headed down south to scout out the ambush site and pronounced it suitable as checks on a series of mobile phone providers by way of pay-as-you-go sims coupled with an unlocked mobile told him that anyone getting into the site was not going to be able to get a call out. He also added that his brother lived over a mile away and was unlikely to go investigating strange noises due to the heavy scrub around the site acting as a sound dampener. Emma took Gwen, Nancy and the girls off to a car boot sale on the Sunday and they were able to get a second hand mobile which I reset to its factory settings and proved capable of taking the crooked cops own mobile sim as well as the recently departed Mohammed's. A careful check to remove any clues to its original ownership as well as removing its memory card soon had it in a virgin setting. I added the sim from the crooked cop and switched it on safe in the knowledge that there was no signal nearby and that my wireless security would prevent it from leeching onto my broadband. I did realise that the phone's unique identifier would tell the cops a location of last use and possible ownership, but it was highly unlikely to be tracked back to us.

I soon identified various members of Ali's organisation by cross checking the two sims against the number only logs on the phone and came away quite satisfied that Ali would probably respond to an anonymous text from the phone if it gave a location where Jenny could be found.

We had eventually decided to leave the gang's minibus alone. There was far too much chance the local plod had it identified and there was also the possibility it had a tracker attached, although that would not have worked too well around Kielder. We had decided to take the London cop's car down to Pratts Bottom simply to throw a massive spanner in the works for any investigating team. Emma and Sam had collected it the other day and Sam was driving it down to the location wearing a disposable overall to prevent contamination.

The rest of us were travelling in style ... well for given values of style in a minibus which Emma had borrowed from someone in her Krav Maga class in Newcastle It was not going to Pratts Bottom, but to a pub car park on the southern outskirts of London and we would then make our way there on foot. Hopefully the dark evenings and the chill of a February would enable us to wrap up so well as to be unidentifiable to anyone observing us. Also no one would be able to identify us, particularly as we all planned to change our appearance in various ways, Emma had acquired a box of wigs and all the adult ladies planned on using their makeup skills to age us in various ways. Sam and I had also stopped shaving and had some pretty impressive stubble to disguise our outward appearance somewhat, whilst the kids planned on wearing hats to hide their general appearance.

Hopefully it would be enough, there's only so much you can do and at times you have to trust to luck and make sure that the crime scene was well policed and cleaned afterwards to remove anything incriminating.

Sam, Emma and I had gone over the shed cum warehouse that we planned to use with Nancy as she was still the only one I trusted with a crossbow to be accurate enough to be dangerous to the gang. We had also counselled her on target acquisition and selection and I was fairly sure that her fear of men would not freeze her in place ... well not with a weapon in her hand anyway. The others we intended to place in the scrubland around the warehouse and site covering the two exits to the building as well as placing Laurel and Mike at the entrance to the site. A purchase of some children's working if toy-like walkie-talkies complete with an earpiece gave us limited communications too.

The warehouse itself was quite large and I hoped that Ali's gang wouldn't be so large as to make it impossible for them all to get in, if not then Gwen, Jenny and Andy would join in the fight, followed by Laurel and Mike. Still, I believed we were as prepared as we could be in the time we had and I was determined to not leave any of the gang who terrorised my family alive. I had discussed with Sam and Emma about dragging the bodies in and torching the place, but we decided that it might attract attention far too soon, there was a chance that, even with the vehicles parked around, the site might not be investigated until sometime on Monday.

"Could booby trap it after we've dealt with the scum I suppose," said Sam very early on Saturday morning as we were all preparing our gear for travel.

"Don't want innocents getting hurt," I replied.

"Yeah that's true, got enough on my conscience without adding new ones," he sighed.

"We're taking enough bleach to 'nuke' the site anyway," I chuckled.

"True," said Emma. "Won't stop them asking Jenny or the rest of you where you were, but you can use the walking through the forest as you did last Saturday as your alibi as you didn't go online at all to leave a footprint."

"We've covered everything that we need to with Jenny as well as the others," I replied. "We're just keeping it simple, no enhancements, just the same story for all of us."

"See you down there then," said Sam as he got into the cop's Mondeo and we boarded the minibus.

The minibus had a full tank of diesel and we made good time though I was quite deliberate and not breaking any speed limits ... well not by much. The one thing we didn't want was to be caught on camera, so in addition to having our weaponry, we had a couple of ten gallon jerry cans of fuel available that I'd filled up in Otterburn where I knew there wasn't a camera looking at me.

It took me nearly eight hours to get down to the pub we'd chosen and figured if we were seen that we'd not be too memorable, and whoever saw us would not put two and two together when the news came to light.

As it was, a bewigged Nancy and Emma sorted out the unpacking the minibus outside the Rose and Crown pub and we left toting our bags of weaponry and generally avoiding getting too close to people. From the pub we walked to a service station and then down into Pratts Bottom along Rushmore Hill and hence through the woods until we reached the small industrial units. As I left the pub I had sent a text saying I was on assignment, but heard that Jenny was being moved to a safe unit and gave the post code for it and then crossed my fingers as there was no reply.

The unit we wanted was deserted and on the site itself there was only the Mondeo with Sam waiting alongside it grinning as we made our appearance.

"I unlocked the unit, it's basically a very large shed with an office at one end. I put a small light on in there and it's enough illumination to see by, although Emma has a flare gun for when we want to confuse and blind them," he said as we clustered round.

"OK, we know the positions we want. Just be careful and keep warm, you all have flasks with hot tea in them. Just keep a look out, it might be quite a while before anyone shows up ... assuming they do at all," I admonished as the youngsters and Gwen moved to the pre-planned positions with the crossbows and bows they had for emergencies. Sam, Emma and Nancy followed me into the building where we helped Nancy and Emma up onto the roof of the office whilst Sam and I moved ourselves behind some stored equipment under tarpaulins at either side of the doorway and sat down to await developments.

Several hours passed and we were rotating the families through the warehouse to keep warm and also to use the toilet facilities inside using bleach to assist with the flushing and strict instructions to do a basic wipe down of anything touched. Just after ten when I was getting worried that we had wasted our time Laurel announced via walkie-talkie that several vehicles were coming up the road and onto the site.

"Observe but do not approach or engage," I sent back a little redundantly, she knew the plan but it never hurts to reinforce.

"Yes Dad," was the reply.

"I don't believe it, they're putting their lights out, do they think we're deaf?" came a caustic comment from Gwen.

"'They' don't know we know they're coming ... I hope," I replied.

"They're stopping about a hundred metres from the warehouse, Dad," came Laurel's update.

"Let me know if they leave anyone to guard their vehicles," I sent back.

"Yes Dad, count is 25 plus so far," Laurel replied.

"Roger."

"Count is at thirty two and they are moving to surround the warehouse, not enter it. Have identified Ali," came Laurel's excited update.

"Positions," I sent out.

"Correction; they're bunching towards the big roller shutter door at the front and it looks like an argument as to who is going in at the small door. Probably about who goes inside and opens the big door," came Gwen's response.

"Fookin amateurs," from Emma.

"Yep, radio silence now unless it's important," I responded.

I surmised correctly that the outside teams would move into position to cover the entrance/exits of the building with particular regard to getting Andy and Mike between the mob and their vehicles as the lads were crack shots with their bows, far more than Gwen, Jenny or Laurel, who were covering the edge of the woods for stragglers.

They say patience is a virtue but it's not a virtue I was cultivating during what seemed like an age before anything happened. All I could hear was guttural Urdu from outside the door with the odd word in accented English. Ali, it seemed, was having a dispute with some of his gang who felt that this was a trap as it was a ridiculous place to hide out. They were also pointing out the lack of a police presence, something that witness protection should be providing. Finally there was a muffled bang and a gurgling moan and I figured Ali was sorting out his discipline problem permanently.

"One down," came Gwen's quiet voice breaking radio silence.

"Acknowledged," I replied just as quietly.

The door into the warehouse opened and I could see a guy creeping towards where the roller shutter door was.

'This is madness, ' I thought. 'They should all be coming in through the small door, opening that roller shutter is going to alert anyone in the building.'

Yet that's what happened, the door opened noisily on an electric motor and as soon as it was high enough they all crowded under it and began creeping if you could believe it towards the office complex at the far side towards where the light was showing. Incredibly they left no one back at the door and all seemed intent on making their way towards where they thought their quarry lay.

"Two haven't entered and are making their way to the back of the warehouse," Gwen announced.

"Moving in to disable vehicles," came Andy's voice.

"Acknowledged," I replied knowing there was no way these thugs would hear me.

The group had finally got to the centre of the warehouse and roughly where we'd decided to engage them.

"Take them out," I commanded.

The first move was Emma firing a flare gun directly at the group, it wasn't too accurate generally, but at that range she couldn't miss and the brightness of the flare distracted them totally.

At that moment Sam stepped out of cover and pressed the close button on the roller shutter door, a slight modification to the plan, but effective. No one noticed at all as one or two were frantically trying to douse the flames that had spread to one of their comrades whilst the rest milled in panic, not one even thinking to aim a weapon at where the flare had come from.

Finally one of them screamed for silence and then aimed what appeared to be an AK47 derivative at the office block and opened fire in full auto spray and pray mode. Within four seconds he'd expended the full mag and, other than hitting a window and the wall above it once the rate of fire lifted the gun with each shot, he had to be hitting the roof as well as going nowhere near hitting Emma and Nancy, plus probably deafening his colleagues if my own ringing ears were to be believed.

At this point I stepped out partially from cover and took out the guy closest to me in the back with a bolt and was back under cover before anyone noticed me. Sam then did the same only aiming through a gap in his cover the bolt slicing into the head of an assailant making a similar noise as it would hitting a hard cabbage.

This was enough to alert the rest of them that they weren't alone and unlike their erstwhile colleagues in the woods of Kielder some actually started hosing down suppression fire in all directions even to the extent of taking two of their own colleagues down.

This was enough for Emma and Nancy to get in on the act and an arrow and a bolt hissed almost silently down to take out the guy with the AK47 and one toting a sawn off shotgun.

"It's a trap, run!" came a cry from within the mob and they all started towards the big door only to see it closed and two more of their numbers drop from our deadly fire.

They paused for a second and then ran like hell towards the small door and our choke point. Three more bolts and an arrow hissed down to take out more of the thugs, though judging from a scream one at least was only wounded.

"Too fuckin easy," hissed Sam's voice in my ear.

"Two outside down," came Gwen's confirmation.

"Trying to exit, small door, keep 'em bottled," I announced.

One of the thugs wrenched the door open only to fall back with a scream, an arrow protruding from his chest. Two more bolts hissed through the doorway catching one in the leg and the other missing but making the ones at the front of the mob press back.

There was panic and almost pandemonium in front of me as I kept firing from the darkness into the crowd as did the others until with only about fifteen of them left standing someone screamed out in Urdu for them to take cover ... and their doom was sealed.

There wasn't much in the way of cover in the warehouse, but a bit of work on our part had placed several boxes in the centre that looked a lot more sturdy than they actually were. We'd kind of emphasised a false sense of security, despite there being little or no protection at all, a cardboard box was not going to stop a bolt or an arrow any more than it would stop a bullet.

Yet it seemed one at least had some sense as they did not stop in the centre but ran with a couple of others towards the office complex, only for his two compatriots to go down with an arrow and a bolt in their chests respectively. Two more in the centre went down with bolts from Sam and myself as they desperately laid down fire all over the warehouse which only occasionally came close to Sam and me, but never the ladies on the office roof.

Finally the flare guttered out and a pause came over the proceedings as we all took stock of the shocking events of the last few minutes.

"All OK in there?" came Gwen's question over the radio.

"Yes, my love," I replied quietly.

"Fish in a barrel," came a comment from Emma.

The only light now was the one set up by Sam in the office and the only noises were from several who appeared to be just wounded and we waited to pick our targets, though the ten in the centre were now under concealment as was the one now hiding in the office.

"I don't suppose we could come to a deal?" a voice called out from the group in the centre.

I was just about to tell them no way when the one in the office opened fire on the group in the centre shocking us all.

"Traitors!" came a scream. "We do not treat with infidel scum!"

"Feck, that must be Ali," came Sam's voice over the channel.

I wasn't sure if any had been hit in the central group, but they all returned fire at the office the bullets ploughing through the breeze blocks and tearing up the structure. Several did stand to fire and the idiots were picked off by our group as we saw no reason to be merciful.

"We surrender!" came a cry as one stood with his hands raised only to go down with a bolt in his chest from Nancy.

"Oops," came her comment.

"We aren't taking surrenders, Nancy," I replied.

"Too bloody true, we'd go to prison for life if any could identify us," from Emma.

There was another burst of fire from the office area into the central group this time producing a few screams and a markedly diminished return of fire.

Sam and I had independently decided to take out the exposed wounded using what little light there was to spot them whilst Emma and Nancy sniped from the roof any who exposed themselves. After a few minutes more there was silence, no one was popping up to look around and no one was shooting either. Yet I did not believe for one minute we or indeed they had taken themselves out as yet. A quick check of my watch showed less than fifteen minutes had passed since the first shot from outside the door and the current stalemate.

"Gonna move around the perimeter to see if I can get a better shot," Sam announced.

"Roger, will watch the door," my reply.

I could neither see nor hear Sam due in part to the darkness and the earplugs we were all wearing to prevent hearing damage. I did trust him though to recce the situation while I cursed the fact that we hadn't thought to bring low light vision goggles with us.

Sam however had a plan and he deliberately dislodged a crate of something to allow it to spill to the floor in a very loud crash. Gunfire immediately resounded from the centre followed by a scream as an arrow from Emma took out an unwary exposed thug. Gunfire also came from the doorway into the pile of boxes in the centre as the two sides still appeared to be bearing enmity towards each other rather than looking for survival.

"Reckon there's only three or possibly four left not including the lunatic in the doorway," Emma stated.

"Yep," from Sam.

"Gwen cover the door and make sure no one gets out, I'm going for a snoop around as there's a lot of cover my side," I announced.

"Yes, my love," she replied.

I moved as quietly as I could along the back wall of the warehouse, constantly monitoring the centre to see if I could spot any movement or targets. I did surmise that they were using their dead members as shields which against our arrows and bolts was a smart move, though I doubt it had protected them from the gunman in the office. Finally though I got lucky in that the angle I was at showed me part of the interior of the office and I could see someone crouched behind a tipped over filing cabinet scanning the boxes in the centre looking for targets. Raising my crossbow I dropped a bolt in and caressed the trigger. The silenced mechanism fired the bolt over the one hundred or so yards straight onto the target who chose at that moment to lean back and instead of the bolt taking him in his side missed him completely. I pressed the auto-reload button and dropped another bolt in whilst the guy was staring at the bolt embedded in the office wall in shock (and presumably relief) before starting to drop down, too late as my second bolt slammed into his shoulder probably shattering his scapula. There was a high pitched squeal from him as he fell forward causing his compatriots in the centre of the warehouse to open fire on his position again and exposing themselves to our far more deadly fire. Three more bolts and an arrow hissed out of the darkness and it was over save for the one still howling out his agony in the office.

Sam and I carefully moved out of cover onto the warehouse floor both towards the office and getting there first I used my foot to nudge away the fallen weapon before roughly dragging the man out from his position of cover.