Gray Vengeance (9 page)

Chapter 16

15 December 2014

Andrew Harvey was on the phone when Veronica Ellis returned to Thames House and made a beeline for his desk.

‘Get Sarah and meet me in my office.’

Harvey went to fetch Thompson, and they knocked on Ellis’s door a minute later.

‘Sit down,’ Ellis said, preferring to stand herself. ‘Andrew, what’s the status of the servers?’

‘Gerald says we’ll be up and running within the hour. He managed to get some PCs from a local shop and is just installing the necessary software. They’ll do until we get proper replacements.’

‘Good. Hand over everything to Hamad. You two are being seconded to the NSA.’

Thompson and Harvey exchanged looks.

‘Is this just until we’re back up and running?’ Harvey asked.

Ellis shook her head. ‘I would imagine you’ll be there for the duration. They’ve been working on a new program that should help us to identify our attackers, and I need you to liaise with them. Once you’ve got names and locations, send the details to us and we’ll do the take-down.’

‘How long have they had this?’ Harvey asked.

‘And why wait until now to share it?’ Thompson added.

‘I don’t have that information,’ Ellis said. ‘It seems only the PM and a couple of others knew about its existence, and I only learned about it thirty minutes ago. Needless to say, it’s eyes-only, and you speak to no-one about it. Understood?’

Harvey was intrigued, and keen to learn more, though he knew he was unlikely to get anything else out of his boss. ‘Understood. We’ll head over there right now. I assume it’s based in their embassy?’

Ellis handed over a slip of paper. ‘Actually, it’s a place called Haddon Hall, off the A34, just outside Newbury.’

‘That’s not going to be easy to get to,’ Thompson pointed out. ‘The last update said just about every road out of London is clogged, and the M4 is shut, too.’

‘I realise that,’ Ellis said. ‘Do either of you know how to ride a motorcycle?’

‘I do,’ Harvey told her as Thompson shook her head.

‘Good. Sarah, you can ride pillion.’

Ellis went to her desk and pulled a requisition form from her drawer, which she filled in and handed to Harvey. ‘Draw that from petty cash and buy one. You’ll also want to arm yourselves. There’s no telling what’s out there today.’

The chit allowed him up to ten thousand in cash, which would be more than enough to buy a decent machine.

‘Well, what are you waiting for?’

Harvey and Thompson rose and left the office, walking down to the first floor, where the finance department handed over the bundle of fifty-pound notes without blinking. Normally, Harvey would have had to jump through hoops to sign out enough money to buy a coffee, and he suspected Ellis had called ahead. The same applied to the armoury, where they signed for a brand new Glock 31 GEN4 and three magazines containing fifteen rounds of .357 ammunition each.

Out on the street, the neighbourhood resembled a huge car park. Traffic was at a standstill, with only cyclists and motorbikes managing to navigate their way between the stationary vehicles. A few people were still sitting behind the wheel, unaware of what was happening to the country, but most were on their phones or listening to their radios, catching up with the latest news reports.

Harvey led Thompson along the side of the Thames at a jog, and a few minutes later they crossed Vauxhall Bridge, where a motorcycle dealership sat behind the MI6 building. There were several second-hand machines parked up outside, but Harvey wanted something reliable, and didn’t have time to have an older machine checked out by a mechanic.

He picked out a brand new 500CC Honda and handed over six thousand to a young motorcycle salesman with the name ‘Jerry’ tagged to his chest. The money got him the bike and a couple
of helmets.

‘We’ll need to fill out some paperwork,’ Jerry said. ‘It should only take twenty minutes.’

‘Sorry, but we haven’t got time.’

Thompson showed him the police warrant card that was one of her cover identities.

‘This about the attacks, then?’

Harvey nodded.

Jerry looked uncertain. At that moment, his manager, a balding, beer-bellied man, came outside and asked if there was a problem.

Thompson explained the situation.

The manager shook his head. ‘Sorry, lady, but we gotta do the forms before you take the bike. You of all people should
understand
.’

‘I do,’ Thompson said, drawing her weapon. ‘Give me the money back and I’ll requisition the bike instead. You know I have the power to do that, don’t you?’

The manager swallowed at the sight of the grey muzzle pointing at his forehead. His eyes flitted to Harvey.

Harvey shrugged. ‘On a day like this, you really want to piss the police off ?’

A minute and a half later, they had the keys.

‘You ever been on a bike before?’ Harvey asked Thompson.

‘Never,’ Thompson said, holstering her pistol.

‘Then just remember to hold on tight and lean when I lean.’

Harvey donned his helmet and secured the strap under his chin before climbing on the machine and starting it up.
Thompson
climbed on the back and wrapped her arms around him, and he pulled off the pavement and onto the road, heading west for t
he M4.

Tom Gray woke up to a loud ringing in his ears, and at first he was disorientated. He struggled to focus, and when he put his hand to his face it came away crimson, blood seeping from a gash on his forehead. He tried his limbs, seeking signs of damage, but he was able to move them all, and he pushed himself up onto
his knees.

A thin mist of fine powder hung in the air, and the wall three yards away was pockmarked by hundreds of pieces of shrapnel. A hole the size of a car had been punched through the concrete wall, and Gray knew that if he’d been pushing Melissa a little faster, they’d have felt the full force of the blast.

Melissa!

He crawled round to see his daughter, whose little mouth was open in a desperate cry that he couldn’t hear. The explosion had damaged his eardrums, and he realised the ringing wasn’t the fire alarm but a result of the blast. He checked his daughter over, but saw no sign of blood. Her arms and legs seemed to be functioning normally. He delicately tested them for breaks.

Satisfied that she was clear of physical injury, he gently unstrapped her and lifted her out of the contraption, holding her tight to calm her down.

A nurse stumbled into view, blood pouring from a shoulder wound. She had a large, red stain on the front of her tunic, and she managed a few steps towards him before collapsing to the floor.

Gray carried Melissa over to the fallen woman, and for the first time he saw the damage that had been done to her back. It looked like she’d been blasted with a shotgun at close range, her clothes shredded and bloodied.

Gray knew there was nothing he could do for her, and he walked slowly towards the exit, which intersected with another corridor. The left looked clear, but to the right lay carnage. A couple of bodies lay on the ground. He took a few steps past them and looked into the A&E waiting room.

The scene resembled a horror movie. At least thirty people lay dead, and many more limbs were scattered around, the remains of those closest to the explosion. Three medical staff were already on hand, helping the few survivors. Two of them were frantically applying CPR to a teenage girl, while the other checked the remaining bodies for vital signs.

Gray felt compelled to help, but when he felt and heard another explosion from within the building, he knew it was time to get his daughter to safety. He ran for the door and pushed it open. He knew his hearing must be returning, for his ears were suddenly assaulted by the sound of a hundred desperate motorists leaning on their horns.

He realised that if the news stories were right, driving home was out of the question, as would be any other form of transport. He briefly considered a motorcycle, but there was no way he was going to climb aboard one with Melissa in tow.

He pulled out his phone and checked the distance to his home: slightly more than eleven miles away, a comfortable jog under normal circumstances.

What troubled him was the large number of explosions in the city, which made him reluctant to take Melissa through densely populated areas. The attacks seemed to have been planned with
military
precision, and if the objective was to get people out in the open, it had worked. All around him, people were beginning to
abandon
their cars and make their way on foot, the street already teeming with humanity. One well-timed explosion now would be devastating, and Gray chose not to wait around to see if he were right.

He decided that for the time being he would head for somewhere relatively safe, and he set off for Minotaur’s offices. As h
e mo
ved carefully around debris and between panicked citizens, he dialled Len Smart’s number.

‘Tom, have you seen what’s going on? It’s crazy!’

‘I know,’ Gray said. ‘I’m caught up in the middle of it.’

He gave a quick playback of the visit to the hospital.

Smart was concerned, mainly for Melissa. ‘The streets are scary at the moment. I suggest you get here as soon as you can.’

Gray told him he’d be there within half an hour and hung up before stepping up the pace. He stuck to the side streets, where the chances of being caught in another explosion were drastically reduced, though it added distance to the journey. Up ahead, between the rooftops, he could see a pillar of smoke
rising
skywards
, and as he rounded the corner he saw an insurance
building
ablaze.

He wasn’t surprised to see no emergency services in attendance. Given the number of incidents already reported on the news, the fire service was probably doing all it could. The blocked roads would also add to their headache, preventing the engine crews from reaching the calls.

Gray gave the area a wide berth, and after two more long detours he arrived at the offices of Minotaur Logistics, where Smart and Sonny were watching the chaos unfold on the wall-mou
nted TV.

‘You’re late,’ Sonny said, without the normal humour in his voice. ‘We thought something had happened to you.’ He peered at Gray’s forehead. ‘Are you okay?’

Gray checked his watch and saw that it had taken closer to an hour to cover the three miles.

‘Just a scratch. Melissa’s fine too. What’s the latest?’

‘Someone hit us really hard,’ Smart said. ‘The news said it was DSA, but something this enormous doesn’t sound like them. It has to be someone else.’

Gray was looking at the screen, where the BBC news ticker told him that almost thirteen million homes remained without
electricity
.

‘Do we have any information about the roads? I’m anxious to get Melissa home.’

‘It looks like they took out the main arteries,’ Sonny said. ‘Every major route in and out of London is blocked. Even if you do get home, you’re unlikely to have electricity. We’ve got a generator and heating, so you might as well stay here.’

‘I’m sure they’ll have power back up soon,’ Gray told him, but Smart shook his head grimly.

‘According to the news, it’ll be at least three days before they can make a start on repairs. They need heavy lifting gear to fix the pylons, but they have to wait until the roads are cleared before they can move them into position. Even then, they’re reluctant to do the work. A couple of their repair teams have been caught out by booby traps.’

‘I’m just surprised they left communications largely untouched,’ Sonny said.

‘Something on this scale means the attackers have to
co-ordinate
, and that requires mobile phones or the internet,’ Gray said. ‘Cutting those lines would hurt them, too. Besides, can you imagine the panic these scenes are causing all over the country?
Millions
will be glued to the news websites. This is a terrorist’s wet dream come true.’

‘They’re mobilising the armed forces,’ Smart said. ‘The police are overwhelmed, as you can imagine. They said they want to get the roads clear first so that the emergency services can get to the more serious incidents, but that’s not being helped by people abandoning their vehicles. The BBC asked everyone to stay with their cars, but not many people are listening.’

‘You can’t really blame them,’ Sonny said. ‘Many have to get home to their kids, and it’s unreasonable to ask them to sit in their cars for three days in the hope that traffic starts moving again.’

Sonny was right. Thankfully there hadn’t been a course in progress at the training complex; otherwise any potential recruits would have been stuck there for some time.

‘Maybe we should offer our services,’ Smart said. ‘We’ve got a couple of hundred people on the books, and I’m sure they could be useful.’

‘Good idea,’ Gray agreed, and he pulled his phone out. He found Andrew Harvey’s number in the contact list and pressed the green button.