BEHIND THE CURTAIN
CHAPTER TWO - Aversion
Zafar was sitting in the Watch room, scanning the morning newspaper that had been left on the desk by Green Watch, who had been on the day shift. It was the usual rubbish that was left lying around, often with a porn mag tucked secretly inside it.
"Oi, Abdul, you deaf of summat?"
Zafar looked round to see who the obnoxious newcomer was. A bloke in a Brigade uniform was leaning casually against the Watch room door. He had no rank markings and a sports bag was slung over his right shoulder.
"I musta been standin' ere about twenny minutes!" the bloke moaned. "What you readin' anyway?" he strode into the Watch room and grabbed the newspaper, the porn magazine fell to the floor. "Oh yeah?"
"It's not mine."
"Nah, course not. Your lot ain't allowed to look at this stuff are ya?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zafar demanded, knowing full well that he shouldn't rise to the bait.
"Is your Guv'nor about Abdul?" the bloke casually changed the subject as if he had just made a comment about the weather.
"He's on a shout, and my name ain't Abdul."
"That means I'll have to talk to your Sub then, doesn't it? I take it he's in?"
"He's in his office. Up the stairs, turn right."
"What's your Guv'nor like then?" the bloke pressed. "Callaghan. I heard he lost his wife and kid a while back, kinda careless of him."
Zafar decided that he didn't want a conversation of this sort, or any sort, with the bloke he assumed must be Jamie McAllister.
McAllister made another remark about liking curry and left to find Pearce.
"Cheers Abdul."
Zafar ignored him.
Adam swore as something scraped against the side of the appliance. He slammed on the brakes, the fire engine jolted.
"I don't like the look of this…" Mick glanced warily out of the side window.
The police were nowhere around, as Craig nervously pointed out.
"Figures," Alex muttered to herself. "Can't trust a copper to be around when he's supposed to be!"
"Do you think we should take a look down there?" Mick considered, spotting a dark alleyway off to their left.
A grey mist was collecting around the alley.
"Could be smoke," Adam observed.
The appliance cruised slowly into the alleyway, blue lights flashing silently. There was an orange glow at the end of the passage, which was denoted by the tall graffiti covered brick wall.
"Is that it?" Craig moaned, not happy with the level of excitement posed by the fire in a rubbish bin burning brightly before them.
Mick still wasn't entirely convinced his crew were safe round here. All the stations in the Area who had attended calls on this Estate had suffered some form of trouble from the gangs of local kids. Mick started to wonder if he should have waited for the police.
The crew hardly had time to get out of the appliance when all hell broke loose. Bottles, bricks and miscellaneous missiles flew towards them from every angle, following by whooping laughs and cheers whenever a target hit. Mick yelled at his crew to get back into the appliance.
"Reverse!" he ordered Adam.
Adam didn't need telling twice. He
threw the appliance into reverse and they shot backwards. At the other
end of the alley, another vehicle was coming into view, threatening to
block their only escape.
"This shift started at six o'clock," Geoff Pearce was busily informing Blue Watch's new recruit Jamie McAllister.
"Yes, Sub, I did tell Station Officer Callaghan I would be late. I had a personal problem to deal with," McAllister explained.
"Well don't let it happen again."
"It won't, Sub."
Pearce let McAllister go. He decided that perhaps he was losing his touch where discipline was concerned. Then he had to remind himself that it was no longer his job to discipline Blue Watch.
A thought had occurred to him recently. He would be drawing his pension when his (now) two-year-old daughter Eve graduated from university, which of course she would be going to do in a few years time. That's if he was still around at all.
He thought about George Green. A man who had given his life to the Fire Brigade, not literally fortunately. But he had spent all his working life as a firefighter. At least Geoff had got some sort of authority under his belt. George, it had seemed, had been quite content to stay at the bottom of the ladder. He had been forced to retire after failing the eye test in his routine medical.
Geoff wondered if he would be the next member of Blue Watch to be put on the scrap heap. George, Sicknote, Billy, Kevin, Nick, Recall, Bayleaf, John… All of them had moved on, in one way or another. He didn't know who Blue Watch were these days. They were all young lads, with their lives ahead of them, while his life was mainly behind him now.
His thoughts were interrupted as
the pump ladder, now back on the run with a full crew, was called out to
assist police at Blackwall Marina.
Blackwall's appliance shot out of the alleyway as the police moved in.
"Everyone ok?" Mick asked, concerned for his crew.
Craig stared blankly at Mick for a second, then pulled himself together and nodded. Alex was focusing on the several police cars that had now arrived to restore order on the Estate following Mick's radio call that the Blackwall crew had come under attack.
"I should have waited," Mick cursed himself for leading his crew into danger.
"It's not your fault, Guv," Alex told him. "If we waited for the police to arrive every time there was a fire then half of London would be in ashes!"
Gangs of kids, ranging from about
eight to eighteen years old, scattered as the police stormed their hiding
places in the vicinity of the dark passageway.
Meanwhile, Blackwall's pump ladder crew, under Pearce's command, were scouring the murky waters of Blackwall Marina, in search of a body of one of the berth holders who hadn't been seen for a while.
"I saw him board his craft an hour ago," the night watch man had explained to Pearce. "I went down about ten minutes ago and he wasn't there. The cabin was unlocked and all the lights were on. It's pretty slippery on the deck too, I thought he might have… That's her," the guard pointed out one of the canal narrow boats that were tethered to various mooring hoops along the banks. "Anna-Maria."
The bloke they were looking for was David Thornton, a 45-year old widower who spent all of his spare time on board the Anna-Maria. He was well known to the Marina and security staff, and often "popped in for a cuppa" with them.
Zafar wasn't happy with the decision to pair him with Jamie McAllister. He had only known the bloke for ten minutes and all ready despised him. They patrolled the banks of the canal basin, carefully scanning the water with flashlights for any sign of the missing man. Zafar was expecting more comments from McAllister, but they didn't come. In fact, McAllister remained silent as if he was one hundred per cent focused on the job in hand.
Zafar wondered if he should say something. "Are you…"
"Shush!" McAllister hissed. "I'm trying to listen."
"What for?"
"Splashing…"
"Oh…"
"There!" McAllister pointed towards the water.
An orange jacket could be seen bobbing around, illuminated against the beam of light from the torch that Zafar held in his hand.
"Sub!" Zafar looked around for Pearce.
There was a loud splash in the water.
When Zafar looked round, McAllister had vanished, and so had the orange
jacket.
The police remained on the Estate while Mick instructed Craig on how to deal with the rubbish fire. Adam sent a report to Control to let them know the situation was now under control. He noticed Alex talking to one of the policemen.
"I didn't know you were back in London," the policeman was saying to her. "You could have let me know."
"Why?" Alex was asking. "You weren't interested before! You've had your chance Tom."
Adam tried not to listen into the conversation, but it was an opportunity not to be missed to find out more about Alex. He realised that he knew very little about her.
"How's Katie?" the police officer, Tom, ventured.
"Like you care."
"Course I care! She's my kid too!"
Adam realised he'd been sprung as he found Alex glaring at him for listening in.
"You've had eight years," Alex reminded Tom as she continued to glare at Adam who sat in the appliance cab.
"I didn't know where you were," Tom protested, as Alex climbed into the back of the cab, trying to signal an end to the conversation.
"You could have found us, if you really wanted to."
"Everything ok?" Adam enquired.
"Nothing I can't handle."
"I know I said I wanted to put out a fire," Craig was moaning as he joined them in the appliance. "But I was thinking of something a bit more… you know."
"Challenging?" Mick supplied as he got into the front seat.
Craig shrugged. "Well… yeah!"
Mick smiled to himself. The kid had enthusiasm. He might not have joined the Brigade under his own steam, but at least the showed an interest.
"Ready?" Mick asked, sensing that maybe he had interrupted something between Alex and Adam.
"Can you give me a call sometime?" Tom was still pestering Alex.
"Don't hold your breath," she warned
as Adam started the engine.
At the Marina, Pearce was instructing Charlie to scan the powerful search light over the dark water. There was no sign of Jamie McAllister, until…
"There!" Charlie yelled.
He had picked out a shape heading towards them as they stood at the waters edge. It was McAllister, pulling with him the body of David Thornton.
Pearce and Zafar helped them out of the freezing water.
"Paramedics!" Pearce was yelling as he laid out David's body, the orange jacket that he had been wearing had slipped off in the water.
Two paramedics rushed over to start resuscitation as Pearce moved onto McAllister, who waved away the offer of a blanket.
"What did you think you were doing?!" Pearce demanded. "Jumping in like that without a line! We're a team here, we work together."
"Sorry, Sub," McAllister apologised. "There wasn't time. Is he gonna make it?"
The four firefighters watched the paramedics work until David choked back to life.
"You were lucky," Pearce warned McAllister as the crew started to pack their equipment away. "This time."