"Ah Secretary!" the assitant secretary to the permenant secretary smiled slightly as Sir Andrew paced out of Customs at Heathrow "I trust the flight was satisfactory?"
"I'm not you're Harrow schoolmaster now Kingston-Brown"
"I understand Secretary" Kingston-Brown fumbled with the plethoria of folders, fine red leather ministerial books and FCO notebooks, a sea of post-it bookmarks sticking out "Minister requires your immediate prescense in the East India Room over Zimbabwe and problems over those blasted Saudis"
"And the Japanese question?"
"Well..um..we are still waiting for the DTI (ed: Department of Trade and Industry) to get back to us and-"
"How many times did you call them?"
"Twice Secretary I-"
"How long ago?"
"Midnight last night and again first thing this morning se-"
"They have someone there 'till at least half three in the morning, why didn't you call then?"
"I didn't think secretary I thought you-"
"Who the bloody hell do you think I am Kingston-Brown" Sir Andrew quickend the pace to get out of the terminal and into the Ministeral car "I am Sir Robert Davies Andrew, Permenant Secretary to the Foreign Secretary not some two bit s-sodding yankie-doodle republican beltway, state department...t-toss pot* who can be bought over with cheap whisky and a Cuban Cigar!"
Sir Andrew stormed into the Rover 75 along with Kingston-Brown (who was now white as a sheet).
"When I say I want something immediatly, I will get it immediatly. I don't wait, I don't sit around, I go and get it" he fumed "I don't just bluntly barge in and take it like some of our transatlantic..cousins" he said for want of a better word "I get it through consensus, I get it through bartering and agreement, I make sure that the other party is at least okay with us taking it in the first place!"
Kingston-Brown nodded slowly as he gripped onto the folders.
"And you..you haven't even started to take let alone do what I have just described myself!" he said in a raised tone "I'll deal with the Minister, you get on the line to the DTI and you *will* get me my deal over the subsidies, you *will* get me co-operation with our contacts with in Tokyo and you *will* get me exactly what I need" he stopped and leaned over, a glint of dissatisfaction in his eye which tarnished what was a face of perfect calm "do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Y-yes Secretary"
"Splended!" Sir Andrew beamed, leaning back into his seat "Now then, shall we stop for lunch before we start our business?"
The venue for lunch was decided to be a new small sandwich shop in (of all places) London's SoHo, Kingston-Brown had suggested noodle bar Wagamama but Sir Andrew declined, having declared that he have had enough of of the Far East (or any east for that matter) after this Tokyo business had finished.
"Thank god Hong Kong and Maccau have gone" Kingston-Brown said as he jotted down another set of notes before tucking into his Chicken and Bacon Bagguette "mmm..anyway why are we in a hurry to complete the deal with Tokyo then?"
"Easy" Sir Andrew nibbled from his turkey stuffing baguette "we have got a serious problem that will probabbly happen within the next 24 hours"
"The pair?"
"Yes, the pair, I spoke with the minister directly on the flight home" Sir Andrew said rubbing his brow before taking another bite out of the baguette "apparently the Home Secretary has leaked last night that MI5 have discovered that our quarry are about to escape Japan, total pandemonium in Fleet Street apparently for tomorrow's papers and what not"
"You're not going to tell them?" Kingston-Brown said as he flicked through Cabinet minutes "it'll be very damaging for inter ministrerial relations"
"I know, I know, thats why we need to prod Gallagher in the right direction before its too late" Sir Andrew took another hearty bite "otherwise we'll be looking for the resignation proceedure" he smiled darkly "en masse"
***
"Steady...steady.." Macca was now covered in mud, soaked "keep pulling..gently like"
"And just how do you classify 'gently' in a labor?!" Trenchard rubbed his eyes, still a bit ill as he pulled back slightly. The engineering crew watched as the trucks wheels fought against the mire, still stuck.
"Didn't the Germans get stuck like this in Russia?" Williams thought out loud as he watched the ongoing specticle with the assembled crowd, watching it all through their lunchbreak.
"How long has it been now?" Asuma remarked "four hours?"
"I counted five" Noa piped up in Japanese.
"Yeah" Kanuka nodded "five"
The truck started to move, the black (and mud) clad engineers cheered as they saw victory within their grasp.
"Steady there like" Macca said slowly into the mic as he watched the display from a makeshift Fairfax display "don't pull too hard"
"I'm trying to get the balance beleive me" can the reply "just a little more.."
Whatever the reason for taking a step back as he pulled, it was a poor one. The huge mud bath caused by the movement of men and machinery around in circles in such a concentrated space created an enviroment that labors simply wern't designed for.
"So we've learned that we can't bloody take labors in on the sodding western front then like?" Macca said as they surveyed the mud covered truck being checked over in the hangar. He cringed at the poor Fairfax, laying back on the mud as the clouds started to part covering it with lush Far Eastern sun. It looked as though it was sunbathing, a giant German being a bit overzealous with where it went to sunbathe.
"Well, I'm sure the Royal British Legion** will be very happy to tell that to its Great War vets" Gallagher chuckled "ooo I'm sorry Major McDouglas but apparently Labors are a tad finicky in the wee mud there sir, they'd be noo help on tae western front I'm afraid!"
"Yeah yeah enough of Rab C Nesbit please***" Macca rubbed his face "I've got a Labor t-" he held his head "oh christ, got a bloody headache like guv"
"Ah! Caught a cold eh?" Sakaki came in, also covered in mud "we're going to drag the thing to the edge and raise it" he looked at Macca's pupils "you look like you need to lie down"
"Well..at least you'll now how much stress your Cheif engineer can take" Goto shrugged.
"Well that rules him out of the operation" Gallagher sighed, looking to Trenchard "We need one person to perform the arrest, preferably a male and if you've got someone who did his rounds as a beat copper that'd be great?"
"Just for the afternoon?"
"Well we don't have any choice, we have an opening of between 1pm to about 5pm"
"Thats what the intelligence suggests?"
"Thats what it seems to suggest anyway" Gallagher held up a folder "the surveilence information that the good Permenant Secretary aquired for us and police reports"
Outside it appeared that it was now a truck attempting to recover the Labor that was meant to recover the truck.
***
"Here is the plan" Gallagher pointed a a simplified map pinned up with magnets on the whiteboard "our target is driving a Daihatsu Move" he tapped the pen on the middle of the map "he will drive through this crossroad, he drives through here every day to get to his place of work"
"The car itself is stolen, the plates have been changed and might have been changed today for all we know" Goto continued "The Tokyo City Council authorities have been very happy to co-operate with the joint police authorities and will help by changing the traffic lights to red"
"The heavy traffic will trap our man and then we'll hit him" Gallagher smiled, looking to the three chosen people sitting before him "what did you do before you joined us?"
"Me?" Williams blinked "um, did a couple of years for Kent Police before transferring to the Met guv"
"And you?" Gallagher continued.
"Err, I did my first couple with the Met in Hackney, then I moved to Brixton Police station as a Community Liason Officer, I also worked with Thames Valley Police in Enfield****"
There was a pause. Gallagher looked to Goto, and nodded to the third person.
"Oh" Goto looked "Ota, what did you do before you joined us?" he asked in Japanese.
"Why I did my beat at Nakano Station busting some heads before I joined the Riot Squad sir!" Ota said proudly. He was reading the breifing in a translated document.
Goto turned back to Gallagher "he served with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police without incident"
"Well" he smiled "We won't have much time, I'm well rehersed with the procedure of how to get a man out of a locked car"
There was quite a silence, just how do you get a man (who dosen't really want to go anywhere with the police anyway) out of a locked car? Gallagher took a pen and drew a simple car on the whiteboard.
"Pay attention lads" Goto was now providing translation as Gallagher spoke.
***
Those words echoed in Trenchard's head, his eyes still kind of wide, his palms were drenched with sweat as he watched from his seat at a Cafe on the intersection.
"Stop staring for christsakes!" Wills hissed as he sipped his coffee.
"This wasn't in training back home I'm sure of it mate" Trenchard said slowly "and the way that Japanese bloke grinned" he shivered.
"Maybe he liked the plan"
"That much?!" Trenchard looked at Wills "it looked as though the lad gets cheap thrills from beating up bad guys!"
"Nah it ain't that bad" Wills looked over at Gallagher, he was reading a copy of the Japan Times as he leant against the wall. It was three pm as the scene set on some busy intersection in Ebisu. All were in plain clothes and all were waiting.
"Where is Captain Goto?" Wills looked about "wasn't he meant to be watching just in case something went wrong?"
Ota himself was himself reading a book at a Cafe across the street, the pavement was thick with people so it was quite difficult for Trenchard to make him out.
"Bloody hell, if guv screws this up and that bloke gets out of the car or something?"
"He won't, we'll be right on top of him before anything happens" Wills smiled "he's done this a thousand times"
Gallagher looked up from his paper down the road from the intersection, there he was. Aoi was driving slowly with the flow of traffic.
"All units, get ready" Gallagher said slowly into his receiver. Goto said something in Japanese, Trenchard couldn't understand it, he saw someways off to the north of the junction were was a van parked at the side of the road, through the crowds he saw two men mucking around with a bunch of cables in the ground leading up to the set of traffic lights at the intersection. As the yellow move drove slowly past Ota and Gallagher, the lights turned red.
Gallagher dumped the paper in the bin next to him "All Units go go go!" he said quietly waving Ota to follow as he paced quickly through the crowds on the pavement.
"Thats our call" Wills said, getting up, discreetly pulling out his steel baton as he pushed through the crowd, Trenchard reluctantly following.
Gallagher ran through the now stationary traffic, all traffic lights had gone to red. Goto had told him that he had three minutes max to get Aoi out of the car before normal service was resumed. A tow truck on standby. He pulled out his steel baton, Ota right behind him as he sprinted up to the car. As he drew close the reverse lights flashed on.
"Bugger!" Wills cursed as he navigated his way through the maze of cars "Aoi's seen him"
Gallagher didn't seem to mind now the Daihatsu was moving backwards and forwards, damaging cars in front and behind, he did mind that there was a passenger in the car.
"Sort the bloody wifey out!" he shouted to Ota, pointing at the now distressed female occupant of the front passenger seat, drawing back his baton he struck out at the upper right corner of the window. Several cracks appeared and then the glass shattered and then it smashed.
"Get out of the bloody car!" he shouted as he cleared the glass from the edges "I know you can speak english you prat now get out or I'll bloody drag your arse out!"
Aoi, quite shocked at the first smash, was distracted by Ota smashing the other window and getting the door open.
"I told that idiot!" Gallagher fumed as Wills got to the car "not to waste time with the door!" he dived through the window, delivering a sharp punch to Aoi's jaw before getting his hands on the seatbelt "now help me get him out of here!"
The car rocked as Wills grabbed onto Aoi's neck and with Gallagher holding his waist the struggling EDA operative was pulled through the window, the horn sounding once, maybe twice, gathering more and more attention to the bunch of western gangsters car jacking a poor Salaryman.
"Goto we've got him" Gallagher said as Wills took Aoi, trying to push him to the street, Trenchard was in tow "get the tow truck here a-" he paused "wait.."
Wills and Trenchard were confronted by what looked like a gathering group of unhappy people. Gallagher had forgotten to add the fact that they were foreigners in a different country.
"What do you think you are doing!" one man said angrily in broken English to Williams.
"We're police, this man is a terrorist, we are arresting him" Williams said, rather unsteadily as Aoi struggled.
"They're kidnapping me! Help!" shreiked Aoi in Japanese "do something!"
"Shut up!" barking in Japanese, Ota caught up with the lady in tow, taking out his badge and ID card "I'm an officer of the law here, stand back!"
"Oh yeah?" the man said, also in Japanese "any man can make a mickey mouse badge!"
"Yeah which station you from?!" another shouted.
"I'm with the Mobile Police!" he pointed to Wills "these two are British policemen apprehending a dangerous terrorist!"
"He's right" Goto said as he got out of a car, his uniform showing beneath his overcoat "now lets just calm down ladies and gentlemen, we need to wait for the local police to take him away anyway Ota"
"Cheers" he sighed, turning off his Radio and then wincing "oh bastard! I cut my hand on the window"
"Well we could've just arrested him when he left the car where he worked"
"Nah, doing it this way, he had nowhere to go" Gallagher smiled as the familiar sirens became louder and louder "always worked a charm in Ulster"
"I suppose this was something people in Ulster had to get used to I suppose"
"Hey when you see everything from armed rebellion to bombs to troops on the street, a couple of blokes dragging a man out of a car through it's door window dosen't raise an eyebrow lemme tell ye!" Gallagher chuckled.
Goto just watched as the police took Aoi and the lady away in their car. Slowly making their way down the street in the thick traffic as the traffic lights resumed their business.
Life went back to normal.
"Sir they took them to the local precinct station!" Ota said.
"How was Aoi?" Goto asked.
"Just a burst lip, a small cut from the flying glass, thats all"
"Excuse me?" a couple of people stood behind Goto and Gallagher.
"Yes, uhm" Gallagher turned around, not liking what he saw.
"Freinds of yours?" Goto asked, a puzzled look on his face.
"BBC News Tokyo, we were going to ask what you were doing just now" the first man smiled, the other had a microphone, obviously BBC Radio "is this the new British overseas policy?"
***
"Check all systems, make sure everything is water proof and then wash it!" Sakaki said to the British Engineer, his english was getting better.
"I just got a call from Ota!" Asuma put the phone down as he watched the Fairfax being cleaned off in the hangar from their vantage points in the office.
"How did it go?" Kanuka asked.
"What did they do?" Noa hmphed "Ota's so lucky getting picked to go out into Tokyo"
"Didn't you know what they did?" Kanuka grined.
"Nope" Noa shook her head.
"They went carjacking" Kanuka smiled.
"No way!"
"Yep" Asuma nodded "where they got the authorisation for that kinda thing is a mystery"
"Then Gallagher nearly punched a British reporter, had to get restrained by Goto and a few other people"
Noa kept shaking her head, she didn't want to know what these crazy Brits were up to now.
"Yeah, I think we know what they think of the press in England now" Asuma said, watching
****
Sir Andrew smiled as he sipped his tea, he was quite a relaxed chap now since he arrived home from tokyo.
"Its done"
"They got him?" Kingston-Brown looked up from his papers as he placed them on the desk.
"They should find out within the next 48 hours where the pair are now"
"MI6 said they tracked them on an outbound flight to Singapore"
"They should be in London or Manchester quite soon"
"Will this Gallagher be on their heels?"
"I bloody hell hope so" Sir Andrew sighed "this whole adventure has cost us quite alot, it'd be a rather large white elephant if it was found that the pair slipped into Ireland through the UK after all"
"Yes..it would rather sir"
----
###Please scroll past Author's notes for Chapter notes.###
Author's notes:
Basically this is the part I have been waiting to do for about a year. I originally thought of it after hearing some of my dad's stories about his tour of Ulster.
I had it all planned out in my mind since November 2002 but have only now just put it to paper, this is the millionth mental revision and final draft and suprisingly it worked just fine first time.
I was also quite interested in expanding the character of Sir Andrew. An object of calm in normally turbulent seas, I wanted to show his dark side in my (probbably inaccurate) portrayal of the British Civil Service Machine.
All in all the end will probabbly come quite soon, I hope you've enjoyed it up till now. I am quite happy to say that I'll be giving the whole fic an overhaul as soon as its finished, will probabbly confer with other writers such as Nagumo who have far greater experience in both the Anime and Manga sides of the Patlabor universe in order to give TCPL the decent and accurate storyline it deserves.
Cheers!
Pud.
####
Chapter Notes:
* Sir Andrew's reference isn't actually against the average american itself, its his frustration of him (a life long independent civil servant) having to deal with party political appointments which change every 4-8 years who have little or no experience of the outside world of international affairs. One British Civil Servant once remarked that there was no differnce between how civil servants in America or the USSR were appointed apart that "One side has a lust for money bordering on the extreme and the other likes the vodka a bit too much". Although this is a heavily simplistic way of looking at it, from what I have read, dealing with a Republican is like dealing with a hyperactive child suffering from tourettes syndrome so I sympathise with the current leaders of the world who have to put with with Republicanism.
** Gallagher refers to the Royal British Legion, the British branch of the Commonwealth War Vets Charity and support organisation. He then goes on to refer to the Great War (WWI), joking of how the labors of today would probabbly fall apart in the mud and blood of the battlefields of Pachendale, the Somme and Ypres (sp).
*** Rab C Nesbit is a classic BBC Comedy about a drunk Glaswegian. Because the dialect was in total glaswegian, it was very hard for anyone outside of even Glasgow to understand it. A challenge for even the hardiest of linguists.
**** To clear up the confusion, London actually has three police forces. In the 'square mile' (or the financial district or oldest part of London right in the very centre) you have arguably the very original police force in the world, the City of London Police. This is ringed on the outside by The Metropolitan Police (this force too also argues that it is the oldest force in the world, hence why it is allowed to be called *The* Metropolitan Police and not just The London Metropolitan Police partly because of good old British arrogance and partly because it'd be silly for a city that has three police forces to have a name that conflicts with at least one of the other forces (i.e. The City of London Police) it'd be like having the New York Police Department and the New York Metropolitan Police Force or something). Then on the outskirts of London you have Thames Valley Police which actually has it's HQ in Oxford of all places, 70 odd miles west of London in Oxfordshire, as the name suggests it's beat covers the River Thames into London by curiously only the Western side of London; it dosen't cover the Thames on the Eastern side of London.
"I'm not you're Harrow schoolmaster now Kingston-Brown"
"I understand Secretary" Kingston-Brown fumbled with the plethoria of folders, fine red leather ministerial books and FCO notebooks, a sea of post-it bookmarks sticking out "Minister requires your immediate prescense in the East India Room over Zimbabwe and problems over those blasted Saudis"
"And the Japanese question?"
"Well..um..we are still waiting for the DTI (ed: Department of Trade and Industry) to get back to us and-"
"How many times did you call them?"
"Twice Secretary I-"
"How long ago?"
"Midnight last night and again first thing this morning se-"
"They have someone there 'till at least half three in the morning, why didn't you call then?"
"I didn't think secretary I thought you-"
"Who the bloody hell do you think I am Kingston-Brown" Sir Andrew quickend the pace to get out of the terminal and into the Ministeral car "I am Sir Robert Davies Andrew, Permenant Secretary to the Foreign Secretary not some two bit s-sodding yankie-doodle republican beltway, state department...t-toss pot* who can be bought over with cheap whisky and a Cuban Cigar!"
Sir Andrew stormed into the Rover 75 along with Kingston-Brown (who was now white as a sheet).
"When I say I want something immediatly, I will get it immediatly. I don't wait, I don't sit around, I go and get it" he fumed "I don't just bluntly barge in and take it like some of our transatlantic..cousins" he said for want of a better word "I get it through consensus, I get it through bartering and agreement, I make sure that the other party is at least okay with us taking it in the first place!"
Kingston-Brown nodded slowly as he gripped onto the folders.
"And you..you haven't even started to take let alone do what I have just described myself!" he said in a raised tone "I'll deal with the Minister, you get on the line to the DTI and you *will* get me my deal over the subsidies, you *will* get me co-operation with our contacts with in Tokyo and you *will* get me exactly what I need" he stopped and leaned over, a glint of dissatisfaction in his eye which tarnished what was a face of perfect calm "do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Y-yes Secretary"
"Splended!" Sir Andrew beamed, leaning back into his seat "Now then, shall we stop for lunch before we start our business?"
The venue for lunch was decided to be a new small sandwich shop in (of all places) London's SoHo, Kingston-Brown had suggested noodle bar Wagamama but Sir Andrew declined, having declared that he have had enough of of the Far East (or any east for that matter) after this Tokyo business had finished.
"Thank god Hong Kong and Maccau have gone" Kingston-Brown said as he jotted down another set of notes before tucking into his Chicken and Bacon Bagguette "mmm..anyway why are we in a hurry to complete the deal with Tokyo then?"
"Easy" Sir Andrew nibbled from his turkey stuffing baguette "we have got a serious problem that will probabbly happen within the next 24 hours"
"The pair?"
"Yes, the pair, I spoke with the minister directly on the flight home" Sir Andrew said rubbing his brow before taking another bite out of the baguette "apparently the Home Secretary has leaked last night that MI5 have discovered that our quarry are about to escape Japan, total pandemonium in Fleet Street apparently for tomorrow's papers and what not"
"You're not going to tell them?" Kingston-Brown said as he flicked through Cabinet minutes "it'll be very damaging for inter ministrerial relations"
"I know, I know, thats why we need to prod Gallagher in the right direction before its too late" Sir Andrew took another hearty bite "otherwise we'll be looking for the resignation proceedure" he smiled darkly "en masse"
***
"Steady...steady.." Macca was now covered in mud, soaked "keep pulling..gently like"
"And just how do you classify 'gently' in a labor?!" Trenchard rubbed his eyes, still a bit ill as he pulled back slightly. The engineering crew watched as the trucks wheels fought against the mire, still stuck.
"Didn't the Germans get stuck like this in Russia?" Williams thought out loud as he watched the ongoing specticle with the assembled crowd, watching it all through their lunchbreak.
"How long has it been now?" Asuma remarked "four hours?"
"I counted five" Noa piped up in Japanese.
"Yeah" Kanuka nodded "five"
The truck started to move, the black (and mud) clad engineers cheered as they saw victory within their grasp.
"Steady there like" Macca said slowly into the mic as he watched the display from a makeshift Fairfax display "don't pull too hard"
"I'm trying to get the balance beleive me" can the reply "just a little more.."
Whatever the reason for taking a step back as he pulled, it was a poor one. The huge mud bath caused by the movement of men and machinery around in circles in such a concentrated space created an enviroment that labors simply wern't designed for.
"So we've learned that we can't bloody take labors in on the sodding western front then like?" Macca said as they surveyed the mud covered truck being checked over in the hangar. He cringed at the poor Fairfax, laying back on the mud as the clouds started to part covering it with lush Far Eastern sun. It looked as though it was sunbathing, a giant German being a bit overzealous with where it went to sunbathe.
"Well, I'm sure the Royal British Legion** will be very happy to tell that to its Great War vets" Gallagher chuckled "ooo I'm sorry Major McDouglas but apparently Labors are a tad finicky in the wee mud there sir, they'd be noo help on tae western front I'm afraid!"
"Yeah yeah enough of Rab C Nesbit please***" Macca rubbed his face "I've got a Labor t-" he held his head "oh christ, got a bloody headache like guv"
"Ah! Caught a cold eh?" Sakaki came in, also covered in mud "we're going to drag the thing to the edge and raise it" he looked at Macca's pupils "you look like you need to lie down"
"Well..at least you'll now how much stress your Cheif engineer can take" Goto shrugged.
"Well that rules him out of the operation" Gallagher sighed, looking to Trenchard "We need one person to perform the arrest, preferably a male and if you've got someone who did his rounds as a beat copper that'd be great?"
"Just for the afternoon?"
"Well we don't have any choice, we have an opening of between 1pm to about 5pm"
"Thats what the intelligence suggests?"
"Thats what it seems to suggest anyway" Gallagher held up a folder "the surveilence information that the good Permenant Secretary aquired for us and police reports"
Outside it appeared that it was now a truck attempting to recover the Labor that was meant to recover the truck.
***
"Here is the plan" Gallagher pointed a a simplified map pinned up with magnets on the whiteboard "our target is driving a Daihatsu Move" he tapped the pen on the middle of the map "he will drive through this crossroad, he drives through here every day to get to his place of work"
"The car itself is stolen, the plates have been changed and might have been changed today for all we know" Goto continued "The Tokyo City Council authorities have been very happy to co-operate with the joint police authorities and will help by changing the traffic lights to red"
"The heavy traffic will trap our man and then we'll hit him" Gallagher smiled, looking to the three chosen people sitting before him "what did you do before you joined us?"
"Me?" Williams blinked "um, did a couple of years for Kent Police before transferring to the Met guv"
"And you?" Gallagher continued.
"Err, I did my first couple with the Met in Hackney, then I moved to Brixton Police station as a Community Liason Officer, I also worked with Thames Valley Police in Enfield****"
There was a pause. Gallagher looked to Goto, and nodded to the third person.
"Oh" Goto looked "Ota, what did you do before you joined us?" he asked in Japanese.
"Why I did my beat at Nakano Station busting some heads before I joined the Riot Squad sir!" Ota said proudly. He was reading the breifing in a translated document.
Goto turned back to Gallagher "he served with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police without incident"
"Well" he smiled "We won't have much time, I'm well rehersed with the procedure of how to get a man out of a locked car"
There was quite a silence, just how do you get a man (who dosen't really want to go anywhere with the police anyway) out of a locked car? Gallagher took a pen and drew a simple car on the whiteboard.
"Pay attention lads" Goto was now providing translation as Gallagher spoke.
***
Those words echoed in Trenchard's head, his eyes still kind of wide, his palms were drenched with sweat as he watched from his seat at a Cafe on the intersection.
"Stop staring for christsakes!" Wills hissed as he sipped his coffee.
"This wasn't in training back home I'm sure of it mate" Trenchard said slowly "and the way that Japanese bloke grinned" he shivered.
"Maybe he liked the plan"
"That much?!" Trenchard looked at Wills "it looked as though the lad gets cheap thrills from beating up bad guys!"
"Nah it ain't that bad" Wills looked over at Gallagher, he was reading a copy of the Japan Times as he leant against the wall. It was three pm as the scene set on some busy intersection in Ebisu. All were in plain clothes and all were waiting.
"Where is Captain Goto?" Wills looked about "wasn't he meant to be watching just in case something went wrong?"
Ota himself was himself reading a book at a Cafe across the street, the pavement was thick with people so it was quite difficult for Trenchard to make him out.
"Bloody hell, if guv screws this up and that bloke gets out of the car or something?"
"He won't, we'll be right on top of him before anything happens" Wills smiled "he's done this a thousand times"
Gallagher looked up from his paper down the road from the intersection, there he was. Aoi was driving slowly with the flow of traffic.
"All units, get ready" Gallagher said slowly into his receiver. Goto said something in Japanese, Trenchard couldn't understand it, he saw someways off to the north of the junction were was a van parked at the side of the road, through the crowds he saw two men mucking around with a bunch of cables in the ground leading up to the set of traffic lights at the intersection. As the yellow move drove slowly past Ota and Gallagher, the lights turned red.
Gallagher dumped the paper in the bin next to him "All Units go go go!" he said quietly waving Ota to follow as he paced quickly through the crowds on the pavement.
"Thats our call" Wills said, getting up, discreetly pulling out his steel baton as he pushed through the crowd, Trenchard reluctantly following.
Gallagher ran through the now stationary traffic, all traffic lights had gone to red. Goto had told him that he had three minutes max to get Aoi out of the car before normal service was resumed. A tow truck on standby. He pulled out his steel baton, Ota right behind him as he sprinted up to the car. As he drew close the reverse lights flashed on.
"Bugger!" Wills cursed as he navigated his way through the maze of cars "Aoi's seen him"
Gallagher didn't seem to mind now the Daihatsu was moving backwards and forwards, damaging cars in front and behind, he did mind that there was a passenger in the car.
"Sort the bloody wifey out!" he shouted to Ota, pointing at the now distressed female occupant of the front passenger seat, drawing back his baton he struck out at the upper right corner of the window. Several cracks appeared and then the glass shattered and then it smashed.
"Get out of the bloody car!" he shouted as he cleared the glass from the edges "I know you can speak english you prat now get out or I'll bloody drag your arse out!"
Aoi, quite shocked at the first smash, was distracted by Ota smashing the other window and getting the door open.
"I told that idiot!" Gallagher fumed as Wills got to the car "not to waste time with the door!" he dived through the window, delivering a sharp punch to Aoi's jaw before getting his hands on the seatbelt "now help me get him out of here!"
The car rocked as Wills grabbed onto Aoi's neck and with Gallagher holding his waist the struggling EDA operative was pulled through the window, the horn sounding once, maybe twice, gathering more and more attention to the bunch of western gangsters car jacking a poor Salaryman.
"Goto we've got him" Gallagher said as Wills took Aoi, trying to push him to the street, Trenchard was in tow "get the tow truck here a-" he paused "wait.."
Wills and Trenchard were confronted by what looked like a gathering group of unhappy people. Gallagher had forgotten to add the fact that they were foreigners in a different country.
"What do you think you are doing!" one man said angrily in broken English to Williams.
"We're police, this man is a terrorist, we are arresting him" Williams said, rather unsteadily as Aoi struggled.
"They're kidnapping me! Help!" shreiked Aoi in Japanese "do something!"
"Shut up!" barking in Japanese, Ota caught up with the lady in tow, taking out his badge and ID card "I'm an officer of the law here, stand back!"
"Oh yeah?" the man said, also in Japanese "any man can make a mickey mouse badge!"
"Yeah which station you from?!" another shouted.
"I'm with the Mobile Police!" he pointed to Wills "these two are British policemen apprehending a dangerous terrorist!"
"He's right" Goto said as he got out of a car, his uniform showing beneath his overcoat "now lets just calm down ladies and gentlemen, we need to wait for the local police to take him away anyway Ota"
"Cheers" he sighed, turning off his Radio and then wincing "oh bastard! I cut my hand on the window"
"Well we could've just arrested him when he left the car where he worked"
"Nah, doing it this way, he had nowhere to go" Gallagher smiled as the familiar sirens became louder and louder "always worked a charm in Ulster"
"I suppose this was something people in Ulster had to get used to I suppose"
"Hey when you see everything from armed rebellion to bombs to troops on the street, a couple of blokes dragging a man out of a car through it's door window dosen't raise an eyebrow lemme tell ye!" Gallagher chuckled.
Goto just watched as the police took Aoi and the lady away in their car. Slowly making their way down the street in the thick traffic as the traffic lights resumed their business.
Life went back to normal.
"Sir they took them to the local precinct station!" Ota said.
"How was Aoi?" Goto asked.
"Just a burst lip, a small cut from the flying glass, thats all"
"Excuse me?" a couple of people stood behind Goto and Gallagher.
"Yes, uhm" Gallagher turned around, not liking what he saw.
"Freinds of yours?" Goto asked, a puzzled look on his face.
"BBC News Tokyo, we were going to ask what you were doing just now" the first man smiled, the other had a microphone, obviously BBC Radio "is this the new British overseas policy?"
***
"Check all systems, make sure everything is water proof and then wash it!" Sakaki said to the British Engineer, his english was getting better.
"I just got a call from Ota!" Asuma put the phone down as he watched the Fairfax being cleaned off in the hangar from their vantage points in the office.
"How did it go?" Kanuka asked.
"What did they do?" Noa hmphed "Ota's so lucky getting picked to go out into Tokyo"
"Didn't you know what they did?" Kanuka grined.
"Nope" Noa shook her head.
"They went carjacking" Kanuka smiled.
"No way!"
"Yep" Asuma nodded "where they got the authorisation for that kinda thing is a mystery"
"Then Gallagher nearly punched a British reporter, had to get restrained by Goto and a few other people"
Noa kept shaking her head, she didn't want to know what these crazy Brits were up to now.
"Yeah, I think we know what they think of the press in England now" Asuma said, watching
****
Sir Andrew smiled as he sipped his tea, he was quite a relaxed chap now since he arrived home from tokyo.
"Its done"
"They got him?" Kingston-Brown looked up from his papers as he placed them on the desk.
"They should find out within the next 48 hours where the pair are now"
"MI6 said they tracked them on an outbound flight to Singapore"
"They should be in London or Manchester quite soon"
"Will this Gallagher be on their heels?"
"I bloody hell hope so" Sir Andrew sighed "this whole adventure has cost us quite alot, it'd be a rather large white elephant if it was found that the pair slipped into Ireland through the UK after all"
"Yes..it would rather sir"
----
###Please scroll past Author's notes for Chapter notes.###
Author's notes:
Basically this is the part I have been waiting to do for about a year. I originally thought of it after hearing some of my dad's stories about his tour of Ulster.
I had it all planned out in my mind since November 2002 but have only now just put it to paper, this is the millionth mental revision and final draft and suprisingly it worked just fine first time.
I was also quite interested in expanding the character of Sir Andrew. An object of calm in normally turbulent seas, I wanted to show his dark side in my (probbably inaccurate) portrayal of the British Civil Service Machine.
All in all the end will probabbly come quite soon, I hope you've enjoyed it up till now. I am quite happy to say that I'll be giving the whole fic an overhaul as soon as its finished, will probabbly confer with other writers such as Nagumo who have far greater experience in both the Anime and Manga sides of the Patlabor universe in order to give TCPL the decent and accurate storyline it deserves.
Cheers!
Pud.
####
Chapter Notes:
* Sir Andrew's reference isn't actually against the average american itself, its his frustration of him (a life long independent civil servant) having to deal with party political appointments which change every 4-8 years who have little or no experience of the outside world of international affairs. One British Civil Servant once remarked that there was no differnce between how civil servants in America or the USSR were appointed apart that "One side has a lust for money bordering on the extreme and the other likes the vodka a bit too much". Although this is a heavily simplistic way of looking at it, from what I have read, dealing with a Republican is like dealing with a hyperactive child suffering from tourettes syndrome so I sympathise with the current leaders of the world who have to put with with Republicanism.
** Gallagher refers to the Royal British Legion, the British branch of the Commonwealth War Vets Charity and support organisation. He then goes on to refer to the Great War (WWI), joking of how the labors of today would probabbly fall apart in the mud and blood of the battlefields of Pachendale, the Somme and Ypres (sp).
*** Rab C Nesbit is a classic BBC Comedy about a drunk Glaswegian. Because the dialect was in total glaswegian, it was very hard for anyone outside of even Glasgow to understand it. A challenge for even the hardiest of linguists.
**** To clear up the confusion, London actually has three police forces. In the 'square mile' (or the financial district or oldest part of London right in the very centre) you have arguably the very original police force in the world, the City of London Police. This is ringed on the outside by The Metropolitan Police (this force too also argues that it is the oldest force in the world, hence why it is allowed to be called *The* Metropolitan Police and not just The London Metropolitan Police partly because of good old British arrogance and partly because it'd be silly for a city that has three police forces to have a name that conflicts with at least one of the other forces (i.e. The City of London Police) it'd be like having the New York Police Department and the New York Metropolitan Police Force or something). Then on the outskirts of London you have Thames Valley Police which actually has it's HQ in Oxford of all places, 70 odd miles west of London in Oxfordshire, as the name suggests it's beat covers the River Thames into London by curiously only the Western side of London; it dosen't cover the Thames on the Eastern side of London.