Century of Jihad (17 page)

Mr Groves, confused by this unexpected development, responded, ‘Yes, yes, I do. We’ll leave straight away, but how’s Emma? Where’ve they taken her?’

A reticent Mrs Banks responded, ‘I’ll be able to give you more information when you arrive, Mr Groves. Just now the nursery children are our main priority.’

Emma’s parents, having first fitted the child seats in the back of their car, drove as fast as they legally could to Thornbury. Arriving at the Community Centre they were met with a scene of organised chaos and noise. There were lots of people milling about, and one area was full of small children. They could see Simon and Sarah sitting listening to a story.

A tall, smartly dressed woman, holding a clipboard, approached them.

‘I’m Mrs Banks,’ she said. ‘And you are?’

‘Mr and Mrs Groves,’ came the reply.

She ticked their names and then asked them to come with her into a small side room, where she closed the door and asked them to take a seat.

They emerged twenty minutes later, shocked and red-eyed. Looking across the large hall, they saw their grandchildren were now playing with toys, oblivious to the enormity of the day’s events and the impact those events would have on their lives. As Mr and Mrs Groves walked over to the children, first Simon and then Sarah noticed them. Their little faces lit up and they came running across, ‘Ganma!’ ‘Dandad!’ Bending down, arms outstretched to catch them, both grandparents hugged the little ones tightly. They told the children that Mummy was very busy and so they were coming with them now. The two small children were very excited at this turn of events.

The Groves’ thanked Mrs Banks as she escorted them out of the building. She said she would be in touch, and repeated her condolences in hushed tones so the children couldn’t hear. Then she turned and went back inside, waiting for more relatives to arrive.

Before heading home to Gloucester, the Groves detoured to Emma’s little house and collected clothes, toys and the Advent calendars for the children. Someone would have to come back in the next couple of days and find the Christmas presents which Emma had hidden around the house.

On the journey to Gloucester, Simon chattered on about the bangs and all the policemen rushing about and the ‘Nee Naws’ he’d heard. Sarah, meanwhile, went through her repertoire of carols several times. In the front, the two adults wept silently.

In Bradford, Mr and Mrs Khan sat watching with horror as more and more details of this nationwide terrorist outrage unfolded. All the while Mr Khan felt a creeping dread coursing through his body. They’d not heard from Ahmed for several months now. It had been gnawing away at him for some time. The long silences and absences. The decision over a year ago to visit Pakistan to do ‘good works amongst the poor’. Choosing to live away from his home and his family. Nor did he seem to be using his brilliant chemistry degree. Or was he?

As he watched the television, Mr Khan allowed himself to think, ‘Could Ahmed be involved?’

Ed and his team, having arrived in their office at the Yard at 7.30am on the morning of Monday, 20
^th
December, immediately embarked upon another day on the trail of the Underground and nightclub bombers and their accomplices, making phone calls and going over more CCTV footage.

Theo and Stuart were just about to go out to conduct further enquiries when, at approximately 10.00am, they all became aware of increased activity at the other end of the sprawling, open plan office in which they had but a small corner to call their own.

Ed’s curiosity had just got the better of him, and he was about to investigate the cause of this flurry, when in came Deputy Assistant Commissioner Braithwaite surrounded by other senior officers. The group had a sense of urgency about them and were talking animatedly amongst themselves.

The group came to a sudden halt in the centre of the sprawling room. DAC Braithwaite raised his right hand in a gesture indicating he required a halt to all conversation. A deathly quiet descended on the room. All eyes were now fixed on the DAC, who paused for a moment, taking in his surroundings, before addressing his audience:

‘Ladies and gentlemen, could I have your attention please? I have some dire news to report. At just before 9am this morning, a co-ordinated assault took place on nine nuclear power facilities in the UK. Information is still garbled but, from what can be ascertained, terrorist cells have launched attacks on the facilities. They forced entry into each of the establishments, overwhelming the Civil Nuclear Constabulary security force on duty, before proceeding deep into the establishments. Their intention, we must assume, is to cause maximum damage to the reactor buildings within. Local police forces have responded to the attacks by deploying armed response units, as per Op Plans, to the sites in order to contain the situation. COBR has been activated, and it is anticipated that military units will be deployed. Casualties have been reported from all locations and the situation at this time is still fluid. Updates are coming in constantly as the situation develops. I have already spoken briefly about the events to your senior officers. They will now give their teams any new instructions in the light of these developments. That’s all I have for now. You will be kept up-to-date with further developments as information comes to hand. Thank you.’

With that the DAC left the room, which now descended into a babble of voices and a flurry of activity as the senior officers, who had entered the room with him, approached their respective teams.

DI Ward hurried over and stood beside Ed. ‘Ed, I want you and the team to focus on, and respond to, information coming in regarding the attack on the Oldbury site. Pursue lines of inquiry directly, or use local assets. Liaise with local Counter Terrorism Teams, etc. Other teams will be focusing on the attacks at the other locations. These attacks, and the recent attacks in the capital, must now be viewed as part and parcel of one strategic plan so we will have to work with that in mind. That is why we’re not pulling you from any lines of enquiry you and your team may be pursuing in respect of the London attacks. You may well find the lines of enquiry start to overlap. That’s what I would expect, although we must all keep an open mind. Liaison among team members, and with other teams, must be first rate and we all must be prepared to think outside the box.’

Over the coming days, all information coming into SO15 from around Britain was sifted through with a fine toothcomb. The movements of the trucks used in the assaults on the power stations were traced back through the use of CCTV footage from roadside cameras, motorway cameras and from footage gathered from along the routes as the terrorists transited through villages.

The movements of the truck used in the Oldbury assault were quickly traced back as far as the Leigh Delamere service area on the M4 motorway. The arrival of the truck at the service area, in the early hours of the morning of 20
^th
December, was clear from security footage taken from CCTV coverage of the truck park. Two men of Asian origin could be seen jumping down from the vehicle soon after its arrival. The two men calmly walked from the vehicle, across the truck park, to a recently arrived blue Ford Mondeo car parked nearby. It could be seen from the footage that there were two other men in this vehicle, and the two from the truck joined them, getting into the rear of the Mondeo.

An hour later a group of six men, also of Asian appearance, was seen clambering out of an old van in the service station car park. The footage showed them walking straight past the services and motel and making their way towards the truck park. They walked across the truck park and stopped beside the vehicle from which the other two had earlier decamped. The camera observed Ahmed and his team opening the cab and trailer doors, jumping on board the vehicle; four entering the trailer. The truck then pulled away from the service area en route for Oldbury. Minutes later, the four men in the blue Mondeo drove back onto the M4 motorway. They were also picked up on motorway cameras heading east onto the M25, then M23, eventually reaching the Port of Dover, where they were observed boarding a ferry to France. France, like most other nations, has not quite established the same level of CCTV coverage as the UK, resulting in the disappearance of the terror suspects, at least for the time being.

Ahmed’s cell did, however, leave behind them in their abandoned old van a wealth of forensic evidence for local Counter Terrorism officers to find, by way of fingerprints and DNA. This would prove useful in not only identifying the terror cell members, but to the investigation generally.

Ed and his team traced back the movements of Ahmed’s cell as far as Swindon, Wiltshire. In order to facilitate their investigations, the team temporarily moved their base of operations to Swindon Police Station. There, using a combination of CCTV footage and interviews with members of the public, they eventually traced Ahmed’s Swindon address.

Accompanied by local Counter Terrorism and firearms officers, they stormed the now empty apartment. They found messages from Ahmed and his accomplices on a computer, which explained their reasoning for the forthcoming attack and their personal messages of disdain for the corrupt society they felt they needed to turn back toward God. Apart from the messages, there was little other evidence that the occupant of the tiny apartment was anything other than a very tidy, if perhaps eccentric, young man.

Neighbours, who had gathered in the street, described Ahmed to the detectives and the gathered Press, as a likeable young man. Always pleasant and respectful, but someone who kept himself to himself with only a few visitors seen calling at his address in the preceding months.

The trail eventually led the officers back to the starting point for the truck, which had been used in the Oldbury assault. This turned out to be a large warehouse, located on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Slough.

Ed and his team, who had now moved their operating base to Slough Police Station, studied the CCTV footage gathered in the Slough area. Once again this footage proved vital in piecing together the movements of the terror cells.

The RAF Chinook and Merlin helicopters, laden with Special Forces troops and their equipment, started to arrive at the nine scattered nuclear power stations in the late afternoon of 20
^th
December. The clatter of the rotor blades from the large machines, particularly the distinctive ‘Wocha, Wocha’ sound emanating from the Chinooks’ twin sets of rotors which gives the Chinook its nickname in the Services, could be heard for miles around in the otherwise silent air. The helicopters touched down outside the perimeter fences of each of the establishments, disgorging the troops and their equipment onto the ground.

Captain Matt Thomas was in command of the SAS team and the Special Forces Support Group personnel assigned to the Oldbury power station. A tall, stocky-built man in his mid-thirties, he had originally joined the Scots Guards on receiving his commission, and had later moved onto the SAS for the adventure and the opportunity it gave him to push boundaries and test his resilience. His second in command was Lieutenant Steve Zaslawski US Army Special Forces. Additionally Thomas’s team comprised six SAS troopers, supported by a forty man support platoon from the Special Forces Support Group’s B Company, comprising personnel from 1 Para and the RAF Regiment.

Matt was relieved to have Steve back on his team. The two men worked very well together – they had also become good friends. Both loved the outdoors and challenging sports. Steve had joined Matt in the Harlech Triathlon earlier in the year and they were planning many more such ventures in the coming year.

Steve had initially intended to be in San Francisco over Christmas, flying out on 18
^th
December. However his closest childhood friend had suddenly decided to get married at the beginning of December, and Steve had changed his holiday plans. At the time it had caused some disruption to the team’s training schedule and Matt had been rather annoyed. Now, however, he was grateful, silently thanking this unknown couple several thousand miles away and wishing them eternal happiness. Given the situation which was unfolding, there was no-one he would prefer to have at his side than Steve. Steve had returned just a week ago and gone straight into the short training exercise from which they’d now been pulled away.

In the freezing December air Matt and his men, with the co-operation of the Gloucestershire Police Commander, joined the police containment operation of the terrorist cell. The terrorists were still holed up in the workshop with their hostages, pinned down by a now battered and exhausted police cordon. As Steve and a senior police officer organised his men and some newly arrived police reinforcements to relieve the exhausted police officers manning the cordon, Matt set about establishing himself at the Command and Control Centre close by. Matt was at this point mindful that the police were still in command of the incident. He knew, however, that in the event the situation was to deteriorate and the Government decided that the situation was to have a violent resolution, he would be given command to implement the orders. Briefing Matt at the Command Centre were Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) Dunstan, Gloucestershire Police, and Superintendent McDonald of the CNC. ACC Dunstan explained that the terrorists had failed, despite several attempts by him throughout the course of the day to make contact, to respond. All had been quiet for several hours and no shots had been exchanged between the opposing forces.

Briefing over, Captain Thomas addressed the Police Commanders and those of his own personnel who were present:

‘Gentlemen, as you know my men and I have been deployed to offer assistance and expertise in the ongoing situation. We are also here to ensure a successful conclusion. Due to the extent of the terrorist activity in the UK at this moment, the resources available to me are much reduced. I have seven SAS personnel and forty Special Forces Support Group personnel at my disposal at this moment in time. SFSG personnel have been deployed and will be acting as a cordon and snipers. They will be working in pairs and covering the X-rays, which is how I’ll refer to the terrorists from now on, from all sides. I have sufficient numbers to enable personnel to be relieved. These men will be my eyes and ears out there, keeping me appraised of developments. In addition a Security Service Intelligence Team and Technical Support Group is on its way from London and will be arriving imminently. It will be deploying eavesdropping devices to assist with gathering intelligence on the X-rays’ state of mind and that of their captives. The SAS resources will be used as an assault force should the need arise. The deployment of police resources and any negotiations with the X-rays at this time is, of course, a matter for the police. However, I would ask that I be kept informed of any police activity which may have a bearing on the situation or on the safety of my men.’