Chapter 19

"Shoot him! Reynolds! Shoot him!" A noise seemed to shout at her from every direction, their voice jumbled in her head.

The young man stood ahead from her. He had been running when he heard the voice too and turned, his chest and falling heavily as saw her.

Training her rifle on him, Jules felt a flood of hatred and anger towards this man so that pulling the trigger took little effort.

She watched the bullet strike him between the shoulder blades as he turned to run away; the force throwing his arms out to the side as he fell on his front.

As she walked over, Jules could see that he was still breathing. His fingers were clutching at the dusty earth as his cheek rested flat against the ground, his eyes wide and looking out from the corners up at her.

His lips moved against the sand, trying to speak but Jules could not understand and she did not care.

Removing a handgun from a holster strapped to her thigh, Jules pressed her boot upon the man's back and bore down.

The man let out a wail of pain which made the corner of Jules's lips twitch in satisfaction as she emptied a clip of ammunition into the base of the man's skull.

His eyes were pure white as the blood began to gush from the front of his body and pool around his face.

She began to re-holster her weapon when she felt the ground shift beneath her boots just before an explosion tore through a building behind her.

Spinning around, Jules's chest was gripped with a sudden and overwhelming fear as she watched a cloud of fire and smoke tear through the central building in the compound.

"No," She took a step forward, raising an arm to protect her face from the falling ash and debris, in shock, "No, he can't-"

Opening her eyes in shock, Julia sat up and looked all around her.

She let out a small breath of relief when she found that they were still in the compound, the mid-morning sun drifting in through the window.

Spinning her legs over the side of the crate she had fallen asleep on, Julia sat and thought about her dream.

Had it been a dream? It felt too damn real for a dream, so a memory then perhaps?

But Julia could not imagine why she would feel so much hatred for a man that she would empty a clip into the back of their head, almost separating it from their body in the process.

A shiver ran through her spine as she closed her eyes and could see it as if it was right in front of her when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Whipping her head around in shock, she saw Marc raise his hand from her shoulder and watch her with concern.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Did she tell him? If it was a memory then perhaps he would know about what happened but then that would mean telling him what she had done.

Julia looked away in shame, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay," Marc said slowly, clearly not believing her, "Well, I brought you something to eat which wasn't in a packet." He held out a square metal tin for her with a fork against the side.

She looked at him with renewed eagerness as she took the mess tin by the handle and looked inside at the real food, "Where did you find all this?"

"There was a fully stocked kitchen in the other building," Marc explained as he walked around and came to sit beside her, "I say 'was' because Carlos has found it now."

Jules laughed a little as she dug into her food, sticking the prongs of her fork into half a grilled tomato and stuffing it between her lips. The food tasted like heaven after all the packet ingredients they had been eating.

She offered him some but he held up a hand.

"I've already eaten. I wanted to let you sleep after everything we've . . ." Marc sat and watched her closely, his words trailing off into nothingness but they both knew of what he was speaking.

Jules let out a small sigh and stared at the food in her lap as she chewed slowly, preventing her from speaking too soon when she felt his fingertips at her temple.

Her eyelids fluttered close and her head tilted towards his touch a little as he ran his fingers across her cheek and back up towards her temple, running them slowly through her dark blonde hair.

Swallowing her food, Julia let out a small mewl of content as his fingers travelled lightly towards the back of her head when his fingers brushed the place where she had hit her head and sent a small jolt of pain through her scalp.

"Sorry," Marc whispered when she pulled away and remembered where they were.

Sliding off the crate, Jules walked across to the opposite wall and stared at the dozens of documents and pieces of paper stuck which hung from it, "Have we been able to decipher anymore of it?"

Most of the documents were written in the local language, a stack of which Kazeem and Hassan were hurriedly trying to translate in another room but there were a lot of documents.

Marc gave a small sigh and watched her, "Not yet. We're waiting on a call from London at the moment."

Jules grew slightly overwhelmed with what they were facing and her shoulders sagged a little.

"Hey," Marc stood and walked over to her, noticing her demeanour and general silence, "We'll stop this and get Safia back."

Jules looked up at him and realised that he believed that through and through but in all the great movies she had watched somebody had to lose.

They couldn't have it all and Jules's fear was that if it came to making a decision, who would she choose?

Until then she would do her damnedest to protect her country.

"Marcus, Jules," Twitch leant around the door, "MI5 are calling."

Laying her mess tin down they left with Twitch into the other room where a laptop had been discovered, hacked and set up on a crate surrounded by a pile by translated documents.

Carlos was stood a few feet away from the screen which was streaming a glitchy picture of three people, one of which Jules instantly recognised as Commander Strong.

"Lieutenant and Sergeant Langdale," Carlos introduced them as he stepped to the side and they approached the screen. A small square in the corner portrayed their own image back at them.

"Commander," Marcus said as they both saluted.

"At ease, Marc," Strong's voice came over the speaker sombre and clear whilst the image of his body froze for a second as he moved before it quickly caught up with itself.

Jules placed her hands behind her back as did Marc.

"Everyone this is Michael Truro and Samantha McAndrew of MI5. They have been put in control of monitoring this situation and preventing an attack."

Jules looked at the pair. Michael was stood to the far left wearing a dark suit and matching hair but his features were almost indistinguishable from the quality of the video.

Samantha stood between Truro and Strong. Jules rather thought her hair was a light colour but the background was dark and it was hard to make out although her bright blue eyes weren't as she leaned in close and greeted Julia and Marc.

The way she said their names with familiarity, as if she had heard of them before, put Julia on edge and she thought back to the black BMW's which had been following them back home.

"And is that Carlos Ramirez in the back, I see?" Samantha asked with interest.

Jules looked behind her to Carlos who simply stared at Samantha with a raised eyebrow in confusion. He shrugged his shoulders to Julia to say that he had never met the woman before.

"Enough of that," Michael told Samantha before he turned to them, "You have my entire task force behind me working to prevent this. Is there anything new you can tell me except that you believe it shall happen on the tube? Do you know which tube?"

"There are references to Victoria Station in some of the paperwork," Kazeem called from the back.

"What was that?" Truro shouted, "The connection is lousy, you're going to have to speak up I'm afraid."

"Oh," Kazeem stood and stepped between Marc and Julia carrying a piece of paper, "There are references to Victoria Station," Kazeem shouted, "And explosives such as C4 being carried in backpacks."

"Right, get people down to Victoria Station and-" Truro turned away and looked to be ordering his people about.

"Sir," Marc spoke to Strong, "We would like permission to continue on with our mission."

"Denied," Truro spun back around and took up the entire screen, "You are all to return home ASAP, we have this under control now."

"But sir-"

"-Your mission is unsanctioned and therefore I am unable to support it. You are too close to this, Lieutenant. You and your men are to return home now."

"What!?" Carlos exclaimed from behind them.

"We are already on the ground sir," Julia protested with as much respect as she could, "And I cannot allow these men to slip away when they're planning-"

"-Thankfully what you can and cannot allow is not up to you, Sergeant," Truro told her, "Return to our base and get on the next flight back."

"Bullshit," Twitch scoffed behind them in disbelief.

Julia and Marc looked at each other suggestively. Neither of them could let this go.

"We have this now, Lieutenant," Truro reminded Marc, "Thank you for bringing it to our attention, now come home."

"Sorry sir, but you're- uh-bre-ak-ing- up- and- gah- uh-" Marc stuttered.

"Commander, order your men home! I'm leaving this to you." Truro exclaimed in anger before he and McAndrew turned around and stormed off.

Strong waited until Michael and Samantha were far enough away until he turned back to the screen and gave them a small wink, the corner of his lips tilted upwards in a smirk.

"The drone located the truck," Strong told them in hushed whispers, "It's approximately ten miles north of your location. Good luck."

"Thank you sir," Marc nodded before the screen went black and the connection was severed.

*

"You know they aren't going to come back, don't you?" Samantha said as she closed the door to Michael's office behind her.

"I know," Michael walked around the back of his desk, "I've been looking over their files and they seem to do their best work when they're ordered not to do something. And right now," he sighed, "We could use all hands on deck. Who knows, they may even be useful."

"And the Prime Minister's niece?" Samantha walked over and leant her hands against the edge of his desk.

Michael looked up at her from under his lashes, "Langdale and his team are professionals, and patriots. I'm confident they won't allow her to be harmed."

Sam took a deep breath and looked out of the window at the massive screen at the front of the operations room; one screen had brought up the schematics for Victoria station whilst another was running facial recognition on known terrorists in the London area.

It suddenly felt real.

"Here, take a look at this," Michael held out a piece of paper.

"What is it?" Sam took what appeared to be an A4 size picture of a back wall as she half-fell into the chair beside her.

"It's from one of the photographs which were taken during the conference call with Langdale. It's just been analysed."

"That was fast," Sam muttered as she turned the photo around, trying to figure out what she was supposed to be looking at.

"All hands have been called in on this one," Michael explained, "Anyway, apparently that document there," he pointed with a pen to a piece of paper stuck to the back wall on which she could see some writing, "Speaks about multiple delivery systems for the explosives."

Sam frowned and looked up at Michael, "You think theres going to be more than one target?"

"Look at 7/7 bombings. They bombed a bus and multiple train carriages," Michael told her, "If they're going to do this, they're going to make it big."

Sam nodded, understanding his logic, when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Michael shouted whilst Sam continued to investigate the photograph when the door opened.

"General Ridgeway, sir," A man introduced the visitor.

Upon hearing his name, Samantha turned and rose to her feet to find the American General stood before them in his khaki uniform. His cap had been removed and was nestled underneath his arm, revealing his thick grey hair.

"Aah, Miss McAndrew," Ridgeway did not seem shocked to find her there.

Truro looked between the two as he walked across, "General Ridgeway? What can I do for you?"

"It's more of what I could do for you," Ridgeway shook Michael's hand.

Michael and Samantha looked at each other.

"I have heard the devastating news about a planned terrorist attack and I would like to offer the aid of my special task force in the shared interests of our countries."

Samantha narrowed her eyes slightly at the General as she heard the words 'special task force'. It had been the same words used to describe the program which Jackson, Evans, Reynolds and Ramirez had been included in. Her interest was extremely piqued.

"That is very kind of you, General," Michael spoke after a moment, "We could use all the help we could get in trying to locate the bombers."

"Forgive me, but I would like to send my task force overseas to apprehend the . . . head of the snake, if you will call it that," Ridgeway stood stiff, "Their unique skill set would be wasted in an urban manhunt."

Truro frowned, "General, nothing would be wasted in an 'urban manhunt' as you call it if it results in the capture of the people planning these attacks on innocent civilians."

Sam looked at Ridgeway before turning to Michael, "I think it's a good idea."

Truro stared at Samantha like she was the enemy.

"These people are clearly getting their orders from someone and Langdale has already located their headquarters as such, if we could apprehend those at the top of the order then perhaps we could get lucky and stop this attack before it even happens." Samantha arched her eyebrows at Michael who continued to look at her in anger.

Samantha simply wanted a chance to investigate this Special Task Force of Ridgeway's.

"Very well," Michael told her and Samantha smiled, clasping her hands in front of her.

"But I must insist that Miss McAndrew goes with them," Michael told Ridgeway.

"What?" Sam stared at Michael.

"She can represent me and keep me in the loop as things progress. Do you agree General?"

General Ridgeway smiled, "Completely."

Samantha stared between the two, her lips opening and shutting like a fish out of water.

"Meet me at the front desk in two hours," Ridgeway informed Samantha, "Oh, and I would change if I were you."

Samantha stared down at her navy suit.

"Good day," Ridgeway turned and left, and Samantha watched him out of the window thinking that that hadn't gone exactly as she had planned.