Impeding Justice (21 page)

‘
We are not whores by choice, but good Romanian Girls,’
Sasha spat at him, ‘It is you and your filthy ways that have
tainted us.
Proxenet
nenorocit!’

‘
You call me a, fucking Pimp Bastard, huh, you
honour me, but I am much more than that as you are soon to find
out.’
He laughed out
loud and, after a pause, looked around, his face showing a fury.
Sasha guessed it was because his men hadn’t laughed with
him.

‘
Is something wrong?’ He
sneered, looking from one man to the next. Only Gary did not
respond. The others all shook their heads vigorously. The Unicorn
stared at Gary. A stare, which Sasha saw, shook Gary’s resolve.
When asked again by The Unicorn if something was wrong, he
answered, 'No, boss.'

‘
Enough of this playing
games. The clock is ticking. We have only forty minutes left. Get
them ready!’

Two guards came forward carrying four
sleeveless jackets. Each one bulging with explosives.

Chapter
Forty-Three.

It was approaching eleven twenty five by the
time Lorne and Roberts reached the gathering point for the start of
the demonstration. Thousands of protesters milled around organising
themselves into groups. The atmosphere held nothing other than
camaraderie. They waved the usual banners amongst which, Lorne
spotted one held by the person waiting to lead the march, it
depicted a picture of the late, Sir Robin Cook, who had been a
staunch critic of the war in Iraq.

A quick glance around didn’t give any cause
for concern. She hoped they weren’t barking up the wrong tree by
latching on to this event.

Across the road she spotted a couple of white
vans and wondered if MI5 agents and Tony were inside any of them.
As if reading her mind one of the vans, the nearest one to her,
briefly flashed its headlights. She acknowledged the contact with a
swift nod of her head.

Within minutes of their arrival, the demo got
under way. Lorne and the Chief followed the group at a snail’s
pace, but soon became bored and decided to get ahead by taking a
short cut. With the Chief behind the wheel, Lorne kept a constant
look out for anything suspicious.

‘
Anything?’

‘
Nothing out of the
ordinary. Which begs the question, do you reckon we’ve read things
right?’

‘
It’s hard to tell, but I
hope we have as there’s only thirty minutes left to
deadline.’

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel
as he guided the vehicle in first gear along the route on Millbank.
They had just crawled past Great Peter Street when the Chief said,
‘Look… Over there.’

Lorne followed his pointing finger. She saw a
black van with blacked out windows parked at an odd angle, which
smacked of a hasty pull in rather than a planned parking.

‘
Could be interesting,
though it is a bit of an obvious vehicle, it practically cries out
to be investigated. Can you pull over?’

As he did so, the Chief said, ‘That could be
the ploy, to be so in our face, we won’t believe it. Get on to
Warner, hopefully he's in one of the surveillance vans and can get
a quicker check on it than our boys can.’

Lorne grabbed the binoculars lying on the
back seat of the Chief’s Lexus and focused on the number plate of
the van.

‘
Damn, I can only see half
of the number, that bloody mini is obscuring the rest.’

She flipped out her phone and selected a
number she’d recently put on speed dial, ‘Hi Tony, are you in one
of the vans?’

‘
Yes, it was me who flashed
the lights at you, anything up?’

‘
Not sure. We have a van
sticking out like a sore thumb, the type gangsters on the telly
choose, but my Chief thinks it's worth checking out. He thinks it’s
possible they would use such a vehicle either as a decoy or with
the idea, it being so visual, we would ignore it. Do me a favour
and run the plate, though I’ve only got half a number for
you.’

‘
Fire away.’

‘
November, Mike, 06,
Romeo.., and that’s it. It’s a black Ford transit.’

‘
Christ, you don’t expect
much do you? Hold the line, Inspector, one of the guys is just
searching the database…’

Lorne kept her eyes peeled on the van.

‘
It’s coming through now,
Lorne…Let’s see. We’ve got twenty matches.’

‘
Shit. Anything that leads
back to Abromovski?’

‘
That’s a negative. We’re
matching the names to the Russian’s businesses and addresses and
coming up with nothing. We’re still following the crowd, give me
your location. We’ll get close to it and get a pick up on any
activity inside.’

When she told him where she was he told her
they were only a couple of streets away and would be there in a
couple of minutes.

She didn’t have to wait long before she
spotted his van across the street from the black one.

Her phone rang.

‘
Right, we’ve got a full
plate now and it matches one stolen this morning.’

‘
That puts a positive spin
on things, I guess.’ She turned to Sean Roberts and mouthed the
information to him.

‘
Lorne, are you still
there?’

‘
Yeah, Tony, why what’s
up?’

‘
The satellite has tuned in
and we’re getting some "chatter" coming through, can you hear
it?’

Lorne strained her ear:
“Get the girls ready.”
This was followed by a lot of scuffling, then:
“I said, sit still, bitch.”
Whack.

A
girl screamed,
“Leave her
alone.”
There followed another
couple of slaps. Lorne’s heart sunk. ‘That’s Charlie. Tony.
My
daughter
is inside that van.’

‘
Okay, Lorne, we’ve got to
see how this pans out. It may lead to vital information to enable
us to locate any threat and stop it happening. Try to remain calm
and objective.’

‘
Is that what you would do
if your child was in there?’

‘
No, I’d storm it. But, I’m
begging you not to. So much is at stake, and by doing so you may
put Charlie in even more danger. At least she is alive. In a hail
of bullets she could be the victim…Lorne? Lorne, am I getting
through to you?’

‘
Christ, it’s a big ask, Oh
God!’

‘
Lorne…’

Sean had his hand over hers. She’d put the
phone on loud speaker and he'd heard what had been going on and
what Tony had said. He took the phone.

‘
She’ll be all right, Tony.
Just give her a second, we’ll call back.'

‘
You sure you’re up to this,
Lorne?’ Roberts asked.

Hurt and anger built up inside her, she tried
to pull her hand from under his, but his grip intensified. Blowing
out a sucked in breath she’d been holding onto for the past thirty
seconds, she nodded and told him, ‘Don’t worry about me, Sean. I’ll
cope with whatever that bastard has to throw at me, as long as I
get my little girl back in one piece.’

‘
Look, it’s not too late to
back out. You can go home and wait it out with Tom…’

‘
I
said
I’ll be okay! I know my heart wants
to go in guns blazing, but I can see what Tony is saying. That way
Charlie would be in more danger than she is now. At least we have
some contact.

She re-dialled Tony.

‘
Everything okay,
Lorne?’

‘
Yes, Tony.’

‘
Right, while you’ve been
gone an argument has started, they're still at it. The way I’m
reading it is that maybe one of his henchmen is on the
turn.’

‘
That sounds interesting.
Tony, excuse my ignorance, but can the satellite pick up how many
figures there are in the van, by infrared or something?’

‘
We should be able to. We’re
pulling another satellite round as we speak. There it is now. By my
calculations, looks like seven people in the back and one sitting
in the driver’s seat. No, hang on a minute; he’s climbing in the
back with the others. Yeah that’s eight bodies all
told.’

‘
This may be asking the
impossible. but can you make out how many girls are
inside?’

‘
We can just about make out
four slight figures. It’s a good bet they are girls. The other four
are thick set, bouncer type physiques. Hold on, the argument has
flared up again.’

They sat in silence listening to what was
happening inside the van.

‘
I won’t let you hurt her
anymore.’

‘
And, tell me, Gary, what do
you intend to do to stop me? Taken a fancy to her have
you?’

‘
That was The Unicorn’s
voice, Tony.’

‘
No. I just think she’s been
through enough today, what with having to sit and watch the film of
her family being burned to death.’

‘
Oh, and, how about your
family, Gary? Tell me, do you know where they are right
now?’

‘
Why, you sick
bastard...’

What followed sounded like a tussle between
the two men. Then a thud before a girl with an accent was heard
saying: 'Are you all right, Gary? Don’t, please; don’t put yourself
in danger for me.'

‘
That’s right, Gary, Sasha
is fine, aren’t you, my dear? But, let me show you just what a sick
bastard I am.’

A crack, like a bone breaking came over the
system followed by a scream of pain.

Please, Charlie, don’t get involved
.
Lorne thought
with her eyes tightly shut as she listened to the
proceedings.

Sean slammed an angry hand into his steering
wheel. ‘Jesus Christ! It sounds to me like The Unicorn’s under a
lot of pressure. Close to the edge. What the hell is he
planning?’

‘
I don’t know. More to the
point, how are we going to get those girls out alive?’ Lorne
asked.

By now, the demo had reached the van, a few
of the students had started calling for the Prime Minister's head.
With all the noise and commotion it proved to be impossible to hear
what was going on. Until the unmistakable sound of a gunshot
splintered the air.

Chapter Forty-Four.

The demonstrators within earshot screamed.
Someone shouted, ‘A gun, someone is firing a gun…’

The mob erupted into a panic of escapees
looking to save their skins.

‘
Christ, what
now…?’

Lorne hadn’t addressed Tony or the Chief in
particular, but it was Tony who answered.

‘
We carry on and let it pan
out. You probably didn’t hear, but after the shot, we heard screams
and men shouting, but since then, nothing. We need to sit tight for
a few seconds longer, then…’

His sentence left dangling they stared over
as the back doors of the van flung open.

Four girls, pushed, shoved or pulled, landed
on the pavement. With AK47 machine guns in their backs forcing them
to move forward, the girls were frog-marched towards the Houses of
Parliament.

Lorne grabbed the binoculars from the Chief
and shuffled forward in her seat for a clearer view through the
manic crowd. ‘Oh, My God, No…’

‘
What? What is it, Lorne?’
The Chief asked trying to wrestle the binoculars back off
her.

‘
Charlie…She…She has a
suicide vest on…’

‘
WHAT?’

‘
Lorne… Chief… Are you
there…?’

The Chief picked up the still connected
mobile from Lorne’s lap. ‘Tony?’

‘
We’ve obviously got a
volatile situation here. I need your assurance that Lorne can
handle it. If not, I suggest you get her the hell out of here,
NOW!’

‘
Right….Lorne…No…Shit, Tony,
she’s got out of the car…! Lorne, where do you think you’re fucking
going…?I’m going after her, Tony, stay connected…’

Lorne pushed her way through the manic crowd,
panic rising and threatening to choke her. Through all the noise
she could hear Roberts calling and pleading with her to stop, but
she couldn’t, she had to get to Charlie. Then, two pairs of hands
grabbed her arms and propelled her away from the direction she had
been going in.

‘
Lorne…Lorne, stop. Come on.
You can’t do this alone. We’ll help…’

She looked into Tony’s eyes. On the other
side of her another agent she recognised, held her arm.

‘
Get into the van,
Lorne.’

She knew she had no choice and didn’t want to
have to make Tony man-handle her into the vehicle. Once inside Tony
steered her to one of the seats.

He sat opposite her.

‘
Lorne, you said you could
handle it… Oh, fuck, what am I saying? Agent A, pass that flask. As
he undid the lid and steam escaped the Chief’s voice came over his
phone lying on the desk behind him.

‘
Tony…Tony…’

‘
Tony, here…’

'For God's sake tell me that was you lot
grabbing Lorne? I’m outside your van…’

‘
We’ve got her… We’ll let
you in.’

‘
What are you fucking
playing at, Lorne?’ Roberts asked breathlessly, his tone coming
across more as a concerned friend rather than her
superior.

‘
I think it was a knee-jerk
reaction…’

‘
It was, Tony, thanks… I’m
sorry, sir. I’m okay now, I promise. Just give me a minute lads,
she spoke to the other agents. Tears of frustration and humiliation
pricked as only unshed ones can, but she swallowed hard. The agents
in the van swivelled their seats around and stopped staring at her.
Tony handed her a cup of coffee and then cleared a space for the
Chief to sit down.