Out of the Shadows (Akira and Deane Thriller Series Book 1) (30 page)

‘I hear you,
Maddy.’ In the background of the stage and in amongst the shadows,
Akira mumbled the nickname for his former love and couldn’t repress
a tear as he said it. The last time he had ever said it was so many
years ago in a darkened hospital. For some reason, he really felt
the need to say that word almost as if it reconnected him to his
dead wife despite failing her in recent events. His right hand felt
the bruises all over his body, in particular the heavy bruising
around his left temple.

Several feet
away he heard Salenko give his speech at the second political rally
he had organised. The loyal followers, increasing with each rally,
were now at their feverish best as they screamed out a chorus of
‘RUSSIA IS POWER!’
At least this is going
to plan.

Akira’s heart
was racing as he recalled his confrontation with Marraud. It had
been some time since he had been beaten in combat and despite his
wounded pride, he still felt all-powerful and that the unfortunate
emotional ties had prevented his victory. Everything had changed
now. Gone were the feelings of sympathy and the bond he had felt
with Marraud. All that was there now was an anxious need to make
sure it was over and Marraud, like all the others who had stood
against him, was gone forever. The clock was ticking and with it so
was Akira’s dream of the future. He made eye contact with Denyer
and moved over to his position. ‘Well?’ he snapped.

Denyer almost
stood to attention and took out his mobile phone. ‘My source at the
FSB has several addresses. I’ve gone through my notes and picked
out which one is the most likely. It was the best I could do in the
time.’

‘Where is he
now? Where?’

Denyer passed him a piece of
paper. ‘I’ll come with you, together we can make sure he-’

Akira pushed
him back. ‘No. Stay here with Salenko. It’s vital this rally goes
ahead as planned.’ He strode past and rushed down some stairs. The
thunderous chants from the rally behind him seemed to heal his
wounds as Akira felt the hatred and determination from the crowd.
The potential that Russia had once it was under his control
electrified him; it would win the war and crush the West. At the
same time, he was certain it could all be threatened if the
legendary Marraud had his way. Legend or not, he would have to be
stopped, with no chance of a reprieve.

Ramsey looked
behind him and noticed the S.U.C.O. members filing through the door
and taking their seats. The MI6 number two lingered for a moment
but made his mind up and approached the bench of the courtroom
style set-up that had been installed
,
all to give Drake his moment of
glory
.
He moved to
Drake and caught his attention.

‘Not now Ramsey. The inquiry is
about to start. Whatever it is, it can wait till the end of the
day.’

Ramsey put a
hand on the desk. ‘This will only take a minute, sir. I’ve been
looking through the records and couldn’t find the Pathologist’s
report concerning Bedford. I could contact the office
of-’

Drake moved forward and spoke
quietly. ‘Leave the matter to me. I will deal with it. Now…take
your seat.’

Ramsey saw the
fire in Drake’s eyes and decided to leave the matter for another
time.
I’ll get that report though…
he told himself.

The Chief of
MI6 watched the assembling briefing room and waited for silence
before he rose from his chair and addressed everyone. He looked out
at five rows of seats and two guards posted at the doors. ‘Before
we begin this inquiry, I’d like to make it clear that it is with
great regret that this had to happen. Team S.U.C.O. which stands
for Special Undercover Covert Operations has served our country
magnificently well over many years. Unfortunately…in these changing
times, we must be more vigilant with our undercover operations. It
is the hope of this inquiry committee that we find the underlying
cause of the S.U.C.O. team’s failure in their last operation to
date; Operation Reprisal. My colleagues here’ Drake looked to his
left and right at the two other committee members, ‘have decided to
waive their opening remarks so we can start with one of the most
principal witnesses; Agent Samuel Olsen.’

Olsen got up
from his seat, exchanged a look with Carter, who sat next to him,
and walked over to the main table, in front of the inquiry
committee.

Drake ignored
Olsen’s glare and read from a card in front of him. ‘Agent Olsen,
please rise and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that
the testimony you are about to give to this committee is the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god?’ His
tone was lacklustre throughout.

The
smart-looking agent looked at each member of the committee in turn.
‘I do, sir.’

Drake continued. ‘Mr. Olsen,
you may consider yourself under oath. Please be seated. For the
record, please state your name and occupation.’

‘My name is
Samuel Patrick Olsen and I’ve worked for MI6 for eight years. My
current assignment is Head of team S.U.C.O.’

Drake’s tone lifted slightly at
his next comment. ‘And your status now?’

‘I’m currently
inactive, sir.’

‘Fine. Let’s
start at the beginning please. Operation Reprisal came about
because of what happened on another operation, codename Safeguard.
Tell us about that.’

Olsen found
several papers on his desk. ‘Well I went to Oman to join up with
OMA1, our agent there on Operation Safeguard. We were both offering
additional security for the Royal visit. During that visit, an
attack took place where we lost several agents and narrowly averted
a car bomb explosion that would have been fatal. Our intelligence
showed it was the Kiprich brothers. The Oman police investigation
also proved this.’

Drake thought over his next
question. ‘According to several reports made by the survivors of
the Royal security teams, your behaviour and decision making was
reckless and caused the death of several agents. Explain.’

‘Well, that’s
their opinion, sir. I left my position from the security team
around the Prince and went to a nearby car that I was convinced was
a threat. Thankfully, it paid off. If I hadn’t gone then everyone
there would be dead, sir.’

Drake raised
his voice in an attempt to add drama to the moment. ‘But you left
your position, which made the Prince vulnerable to enemy fire.
Isn’t that so?’

Olsen squirmed
in his chair, knowing he was being backed into a corner. ‘It’s not
as clear cut as it sounds; I knew that car was-’

‘Answer the
question, Agent Olsen. A simple yes or no will suffice.’

‘Yes. I left
the Prince vulnerable for an instant but I was right about
the-’

‘And the resultant car chase?’
Drake raised a hand to stop the agent from responding straight
away. ‘You stole a Police car and chased a white Mercedes through
the town of Muscat. Eight Omani locals were killed in that chase.
Now tell me…did Agent Deane, who was in charge of the operation,
authorise this?’

‘Well, there was no time-’

‘Once again, a simple yes or no
will do.’

‘No, sir
but-’

Drake cut in. ‘Thank you. Now,
let’s move on to Operation Reprisal please. Tell us what happened
when you were informed of this operation.’

Olsen locked
eyes with Drake, but eventually looked down and laid out several
official reports on the desk, to be used as a reference throughout
his testimony. ‘Well, on Monday, 8 a.m., Feb 12th 2001 I was in
Operations Command with some of my colleagues. At that point,
Richard Elliott, who was then Chief of MI6, came in and assembled
both S.U.C.O. teams in briefing room one. He informed us that
Operation Reprisal was a go operation and that G.C.H.Q. had
provided us with intelligence on the Kiprich brothers, Gyorgy and
Jozef, that showed they were now in
Kraków
, Poland. Elliott told us that
POL1 already had a fix on them. He also informed us that our
S.U.C.O. Commander, Hal Burton, would be giving us our operation
briefing some time later on. From then on, each team member began
to prep themselves for the upcoming operation.’

Drake fiddled with his glasses
as he listened to the testimony. ‘I see. Tell us about Burton’s
briefing.’

‘It was on the
same day, at about 13:30 when Burton gave his debrief. He handed
each team member a copy of POL1's report and took us through a
series of satellite images concerning the operation. This covered
the storage bay area that the Kiprich brothers were using and the
house they were staying at as cover. Burton informed us that we
would split up, with my team tackling the storage area and Agent
Jordan's team handling the house. He also covered travel and that
the strike time would be 02:00 hours. From there we made our way to
the armoury and left the building, on route to Heathrow
airport.’

‘I think in the
interests of keeping information on a basis of what we need to
know, we should move on to when you and the other agents arrived in
Kraków, Poland.’

Olsen took a
sip of water before continuing. ‘At around 01:20 both teams had
left the armoured van and were en route to the target coordinates.
As we arrived, I heard over our short-range radios that Team A had
arrived at the target house. I then replied that my team had
arrived at the storage bay and were about to engage. I gave a
signal to Agent Carter’

The male member of the
committee spoke for the first time. ‘Hold on, I’m having trouble
keeping up here. Agent Carter?’ The individual flipped over several
sheets on his desk. ‘What was his role?’

‘Agent Daniel
Carter was the deputy on my team, sir. He used the infrared scope
on his Colt M16A2 rifle to identify that there were two guards
outside the storage bay. I ordered Agent Carter to stay with the
rest of the team as I tackled the two guards. Once that was done, I
ordered Carter to take the other agents and circle the storage bay
looking for other exits and terrorist backup.’

‘I entered the storage bay but
found it to be empty. No resistance was encountered.’

The female
committee member interlinked her hands and asked a question. ‘What
were the contents of that storage bay?’

‘Well, that was
confusing; nothing was in it really. Just old files, old shells
that were redundant, several boxes of redundant rifles and nothing
else of interest. It was at this time that I was attempting to
contact Team A-’

Drake piped up.
‘Attempting?’

‘Yes sir, my
radio was not picking up their signal so I ordered Carter to try to
contact them but with the same result. Nothing. It was at this
point that I laid the charges and set the timers to two minutes. We
then made our way back to the armoured van. Before we could really
communicate or do anything else such as attempt to raise Team A, we
were under heavy fire.’

‘From whom?’

‘The Kiprich
group, sir. I ordered Carter to get to the van and start the
engine, ordering the rest of the group to provide cover so we were
able to move into the woods and engage the attackers. We took cover
behind the largest tree available and attempted to force them back.
From what I could see, we were outnumbered six to one and were
mainly pinned behind the tree, unable to be very effective in our
return of fire. It was at this time that two men ran past us and I
recognised them as Agents Jordan and Gibbs.’

‘How did you
recognise them? Weren’t you all wearing your equipment at this
time, Agent Olsen?’ Asked the female committee member.

‘Yes ma’am but
each team member has an armband on their uniform that identifies
them to everyone else. I saw it was Gibbs and Jordan. I then gave
an order to turn back.’

‘There must
have been other options, surely?’ Asked Drake as he leaned forward
in his chair.

‘None. I used
my night vision to scan the area ahead and could see no sign of any
other Team A members coming our way; only more attackers. We had no
choice but to leave.’

Drake smiled in disbelief at
the agent ahead of him. ‘I find that hard to believe.’

Olsen told
himself to stay calm and continue as he had done. ‘There was no
choice. I wasn't prepared to lose any more agents in a futile
situation. You have to remember the odds were six to one in the
terrorists favour. I didn’t have any options available to me except
to retreat.’

‘Exactly where did the Kiprich
brothers obtain these extra forces that made the situation so hard
for you?’

‘I don’t know. You’d have to
ask the Kiprich brothers.’

Drake said nothing for a
moment. ‘Carry on.’

‘We got to the
van which Carter drove back to the pickup point. From there, we
were airlifted to Warsaw airport and then back to Heathrow before
arriving at MI6 HQ. That completes Operation Reprisal,
sir.’

‘Anything else to report?’
Asked the other male committee member.

‘Only that when
we were on our way back to MI6, whilst at Heathrow Airport, I
noticed a headline on one of the day’s papers. It was relating to
our operation in Kraków and at the time, I wondered how this had
happened. I'm convinced that no one on my team had leaked anything
to the press. This is crucial to this inquiry.’

Just a few feet
away, Drake felt a rush of adrenaline through his body. Leaking the
news to the press was not something he was proud of but he didn’t
regret it either. In his heart, he knew he would do the same again
in an instant. The moment Operation Safeguard had run into trouble,
he had seen his chance and acted quickly to make sure all roads led
to MI6 and his reinstatement. Keeping a stony face, he raised his
hand and overruled the committee member next to him. ‘It’s another
matter the committee is considering. You may step down. At this
point we will adjourn for lunch and return in one hour’s
time.’