Tuesday, May 30th, 2017
18:05 GMT+1 (17:05 GMT May 30th)
DYNAMO
Eric, Ewan & Jordan
Whitechapel
They were all of a mile outside of the centre of London.
The van was parked up in White Church Lane near to a park. There were several other, very similar-looking vans which helped them to hide in plain sight. The very moment they had stopped at the side of the street, Eric had clambered into the back, leaving Ewan on lookout, where he had then begun to piece together the scattered Vengeance teams, consisting of twenty-three others, who were scattered around eastern London. There was a plan for resolving such an event, like they were enduring at that moment, and it involved using every skill available to Vengeance. The first step was to annihilate the immediate enemy before going dark for an indeterminate amount of time while planning a retatliatory strike against that enemy to wipe them out for good. That first step also included simply staying alive.
"Okay...," Eric mused as he checked on each team.
With a few clicks of his mouse, a live video stream from the DLR was displayed on the screen above them. Eric could recognise the shapes of Harper and Electra amongst the others – they were all safe; but for how long?
"Let's see what's happening at Bank, eh?" Eric muttered as he switched the video image to Threadneedle Street.
"Oh, shit!" Jordan exclaimed as he spotted a BMW X5 and two BMW 5-Series saloons slew to a halt alongside the curb. "Foxtrot One, how copy?"
Four people burst from each vehicle and made for the steps which led to the Bank Tube Station thirty metres below.
SENTINEL ZERO ONE
Rachel, Rylee & Simon
Oxford Street
The waiting was hard.
Over the communications, they had heard the alert. They had heard their friends battling under fire. They had heard their friends in danger. Simon was struggling to contain Rylee's need to intervene and the girl was constantly twisting and turning in the front passenger seat as she kept a good lookout for trouble, desparate to be able to fight.
"Can't you sit down for even a minute?" Rachel asked, getting slightly annoyed with her daughter's inability to sit still.
"Don't bother, Rachel," Simon grinned. "Ever since I've known her, she's had ants in her pants."
"I have not!" Rylee exclaimed in a hurt tone.
"Oh, come on!" Simon responded. "You can't sit still. You can't lie still. You have to be on the go every second of the waking day. Those ants up your crack have been the cause of you being punished on many an occasion."
Rachel laughed at her daughter's annoyed expression.
SENTINEL ZERO TWO
David, Lynn, Jeremy & Christopher
West end of the Limehouse Link Tunnel
They burst out of the tunnel at speed with two of their attendant BMW X5s just feet from their rear bumper and the third a short distance behind them.
David forced his way behind a small Mercedes A-Class and a medium-sized truck, taking to the centre lane, siren screaming and blue lights strobing. The traffic was thick and very slow to move out of the way. It was all but gridlock and there was absolutely nowhere for the other vehicles on the road to go as the Range Rover Sentinel approached a junction with traffic lights. They ground to a halt, a situation which the men in one of the BMWs chose to take advantage of as three dismounted, moving between the cars and approaching the Sentinel, two to the left and one to the right. As long as they kept the doors locked and the windows closed, they were safe from mere bullets. However, an improvised explosive device could immobilise or kill them, not to mention the collateral damage from the innocent commuters close by. As one, Jeremy and Christopher pushed open the rear doors, dropping to the tarmac and firing carefully aimed suppressed single shots from their SIG Sauer MPX-K assault rifles. Both vigilantes were masked and hooded, their identities hidden as they coldly gunned down two of the three men before they clambered back aboard the Sentinel as the third man limped back to his ride. Only those in vehicles close by saw the act and they were astonished by what they were witnessing. Those closest to the two boys had noticed the armour they wore as well as the twin sabres which were readily recognisable as Vengeance markings on their upper left breasts.
The traffic eased enough for David to push past a truck and a van. He took the traffic lights at red, skidding around a small Renault which had found itself in their way. They took to the centre of the road as they raced along the A1203 westbound. To their left lay the redundant docks of Wapping and ahead of them, Tower Bridge and The Tower of London. They passed within half a mile of Eric, Ewan, and Jordan who were parked up in DYNAMO to the north. To the south, they had reached the St Katherine Docks as they joined the tree lined East Smithfield with the same three BMW X5 4x4s on their tail. One X5 tried to come up the inside and David cut him off with a violent serve to the left which caused the X5 to smash into a steel Gatso speed camera mounted on the pavement. The heavy camera smashed into the windscreen of the BMW, passed through, and killed the driver even as the vehicle smashed into a tree beyond the camera. David avoided the wreckage of the disintegrating BMW and continued driving, well aware that they still had two in hot pursuit.
As they closed Tower Hill, the traffic grew heavier with larger trucks and cars causing trouble in the traffic.
SENTINEL ZERO THREE
Jasper, Trevor, Dakota, Tanya & Diana
East India DLR
While protecting Foxtrot One, and firing on the men across the street, a BMW X5 had slewed to a halt and three men had jumped out.
They had each been armed with FAMAS F1 assault rifles and they were swift to engage the Sentinel. The 5.56-millimetre bullets did little damage to the armoured Sentinel, however, the high rate of fire – over a thousand rounds-per-minute – was not doing the glazing any good. Trevor and Dakota kept them at bay with short bursts from inside the Sentinel. They had no need to hang around for long, as the very moment they received the signal from Foxtrot One above them, they could go. Finally, it came: "Foxtrot One is clear."
"In!" Jasper ordered as he stamped his foot on the accelerator.
Trevor and Dakota ceased fire and hit the buttons for their windows, sitting back and pulling on their seatbelts. Behind them, the three men and one survivor from the other group jumped into the BMW X5 which swiftly began to pursue them. Jasper raced off down Blackwall Way, overtaking two cars along the way and attempting to put as much distance between them and the pursuing BMW X5. After racing around a tight ninety-degree left turn, Jasper floored the accelerator praying that no pedestrians stepped out in front of him. The blue lights built into the vehicle were strobing and the siren was screaming to warn other road users as well as pedestrians of their approach.
At a mini-roundabout, Jasper went straight down the wrong side, blasting past other vehicles. Blackwall Way was not an easy route, but the traffic slowing them up would also slow up their pursuers, Jasper knew. After another mini-roundabout and a hard right, then a left, they were on the A1206 Prestons Road, heading south. It was a calculated risk, but Jasper figured that it would be the best way to stay alive before they could get deeper into London and, they hoped, safety. They thundered over the drawbridge across the entrance to the West India Docks and took a right down Marsh Wall and they raced past the South Quay DLR station at the Millwall Inner Dock as well as the front entrance to the Wayne Enterprises Site A. The pursuing BMW X5 matched every turn as it rapidly ate up the distance, the driver not caring about anyone or anything else on the roads or pavements. The road was not broad and each time the X5 tried to come alongside the Sentinel, the blaring of horns from the opposing drivers saw the BMW either falling back behind the Sentinel or taking to the opposite pavement and sending pendestrians diving for safety. At a T-junction, Jasper took the front off a small Peugeot car, the plastic bumber spinning away as he continued driving. Then their luck ran out as the Sentinel and the BMW blasted past a pair of Metropolitan Police motorcyclists astride their BMW 1200 motorcycles. Almost immediately, they both took off after the Sentinel and the BMW.
Jasper ignored the motorcycles as he concentrated on removing the BMW from the equation. His chance came a few hundred yards further on as the dock came to an end to his right and the road curved around its end. Jasper slowed and feigned a swerve to the right to which the BMW driver responded by accelerating hard and taking Jasper on his right. With exquisite timing, Trevor counted Jasper down as he calculated the best point of impact.
"... Two, one, NOW!" Trevor announced and Jasper cranked the wheel hard over to the right, smashing the right front wing of the Range Rover Sentinel into the left side of the BMW X5.
The BMW driver jinked right, only for his passenger to yell out a warning but not before the three tonne vehicle smashed through a set of steel bollards and then some steel railings allowing the vehicle to dive into the dock with an enormous splash. The BMW sank like a stone, taking its occupants with it.
"Shame about the pollution," Jasper quipped as he stopped momentarily to watch the BMW sink.
He was about to move off when the two police motorcyclists pulled up with one blocking his path. Jasper grinned as one of the officers strode up to Jasper's window, pulling off his helmet.
"Would you care to explain this, sir?" the officer asked politely having run the vehicle's licence plates and been told to tread very lightly.
"I think they need help," Jasper commented as he jerked a thumb at the backend of the X5 which was still just visible above the cold murky waters of the dock.
"Should we be rushing, sir?" the officer asked nonchalantly as he followed Jasper's thumb.
"There's more chance of them 'coming quietly' if you leave them for a little while."
The two officers peered into the back of the Range Rover, taking in the masks worn by those in the rear as well as by the two men in the front of the vehicle.
"Drive safely, please, sir."
"Yes, officer."
Jasper pulled off and he casually headed north onto the A1261 and then the A13.
Foxtrot One
Polaris, Spark, Belle, Rigour, Overrun & Minder
Bank Tube Station
"Foxtrot One, how copy?"
"We hear you," Polaris responded, recognising Jordan's even tone.
"We have you less than a minute out from Bank. You have a dozen bad guys descending from the surface. You come into the Bank DLR station at thirty metres. You can't take the Central Line at your level due to a 'signalling failure' . . . the Monument Circle Line and District Line station is at eight metres but the bad guys are almost there. When that train stops, you all need to ascend to the Northern Line at twenty metres. Now, when the train stops..."
The DLR train slowed to a halt at Platform 10 and they shot out the doors on the right hand side the very moment they opened enough for them to pass through. There was a mass of people and no one took much interest in a bunch of kids in hoodies, not noticing the ominous black masks and blazing eyes beneath the hoods. They raced off the platform and then up a long escalator to the Northern Line lower concourse where they bolted across the large open space, dodging dozy tourists and even dozier communters. The group took another escalator downwards, racing down the left hand side past those travellers who preferred to let the escalator take them all the way. Just as they reached the bottom, Spark looked back up the escalator and there was a collective gasp from several commuters who saw the ominous electric blue eyes flashing from beneath the hood. Spark took in the angry looking woman and three men who had just started pounding down the escalator towards her.
"They're here!" Spark announced as she bolted after the others.
Foxtrot One raced down a long tiled corridor before they found themselves on Platform 4 for northbound Northern Line trains heading towards High Barnet. Belle looked up to the display mounted above the platform and groaned.
"Next train two minutes," Belle told everyone.
"That could be a problem," Rigour considered as she peered back down the tiled corridor where she saw the angry looking woman appear.
Minder did not look happy as she moved closer to Belle.
Foxtrot Two
Cameron, Craig & Olivia
The bullets peppered the water as they approached but then the deadly trail stopped and Olivia noticed the co-pilot, in the left seat of the helicopter pointing at something.
Olivia turned and she looked past their RHIB and the pursing RHIB to witness an amazing sight. Twenty feet over the water, fourteen tonnes of helicopter bore towards them at eighty knots. The 4.5-metre wide helicopter hung beneath its 18.6-metre diameter main rotors, its landing lights dazzling Olivia as she stared uncomprehending as the massive beast approached, its three engines easily drowning out those of the much smaller French helicopter. Then Olivia snapped back to reality and she recognised NIGHTSHADE flying on a collision course with the French chopper. The Dauphin flew backwards to get out of the way, rising slightly, but then Keira must have stood on the brakes (metaphorically speaking) as NIGHTSHADE flared, her entire underside exposed. Then Olivia saw NIGHTSHADE turn sideways as the helicopter leveled out and Craig turned them away from the enemy helicopter and towards the enemy RHIB. But just as they passed beneath NIGHTSHADE, Olivia saw Kate appear at the portside hatch and the muzzle of a Maximi erupt with flame as a stream of 7.62-millimetre bullets left the weapon at seven-hundred rounds-per-minute.
There was an almighty bang when one of the Turbomeca Arriel 2C turboshaft engines atop the French helicopter detonated as it absorbed major battle damage way beyond anything it was designed to endure. The French helicopter wobbled as it struggled to remain airborne, black smoke poured out of the torn engine compartment. Then the second engine quit as the gearbox seized due to lack of oil and the helicopter simply dropped from the sky, splashing down into the River Thames. One of the pilots had the prescence of mind to deploy the emergency flotation bags which detonated, two long ovals exploding out from the nose and two more spherical ones exploding out, just aft of the passenger compartment. There were three men aboard, one fell into the water, obviously wounded as he could only swim with one arm. He was soon joined by both pilots who wore lifejackets which they inflated once they had jumped into the water. Those two assisted their wounded comrade towards the waiting police RHIB.
Meanwhile, the second RHIB had broken off the pursuit and hightailed it back down the river.
NIGHTSHADE
Keira & Kate
On approach to London Heliport
"Echo Golf Lima Whiskey this is Merlin Zulu Juliette Niner Niner Eight on approach for emergency refuelling, over."
There was a slight pause.
"Niner Niner Eight, Lima Whiskey, we do not have you on the schedule, over."
"Lima Whiskey, that's why it's called an emergency refuelling! We are a military helicopter on a military flightplan . . . can you assist, over?"
"Copy, Niner Niner Eight, take pad four, take pad four. Lima Whiskey out."
"Nice conversation!" Keira growled as she flew a hundred feet over the River Thames, passing Battersea Power Station and Battersea Park to port as they flew over Chelsea Bridge.
They flew over Albert Bridge and then Battersea Bridge before banking gently around the next bend in the river. As they approached the heliport, Keira dropped down to forty feet sweeping past the heliport at thirty feet before slowing the helicopter and entering the hover, spinning around to face the heliport and gently descending.
"Gear down," Keira ordered.
Kate reached over to the centre of the centre console and she moved the silver lever from UP to DOWN and they both felt the thump of the tricycle landing gear dropping and latching into place, then three green lights illuminated to the right of the undercarriage lever.
"Gear is down," Kate confirmed.
Keira expertly brought NIGHTSHADE down onto the concrete landing pad which extended out into the Thames.
..._...
On the flight in, Kate had given Keira time to pull on her weapons and mask before doing the same for herself.
As such, when they had landed and then shutdown, the refuelling team were welcomed by a masked Goshawk and Scorpion. While Goshawk supervised the refuelling, Scorpion took a brief moment to walk around her command to check for damage. Apart from a few inconsequential new air vents there appeared to be nothing which might threaten their mission. A man with a clipboard dutifully appeared to receive payment of the landing fees and for the fuel which was even then flooding into the helicopter's empty fuel tanks. But before Scorpion could explain that she did not have any cash, a Land Rover Discovery raced through the gates of the heliport and slid to a stop. A man jumped out and he ran towards the man with the clipboard where he brandished his SO15 identification and a company creditcard.
With the financial formalities taken care of, the SO15 man waved as he returned to his Discovery. Minutes later, Scorpion and Goshawk started the three engines and they were marshalled into the air. As the giant helicopter turned to the east, the refueller turned to the man with the clipboard and he grinned.
"That was fucking Vengeance, that was!"
Foxtrot One
Polaris, Spark, Belle, Rigour, Overrun & Minder
Bank Tube Station
The angry looking woman ran towards Platform 4, eagerly seeking out her prey.
She looked up and down the platform, looking for six people, five of whom appeared to be young adults or children. The information on her prey was very limited, but one order had been very specific – find the file and if they did not have the file, kill them. On top of that, there was a significant bounty for any Vengeance members who were killed and that was a financial incentive which could not be ignored. The woman was a professional and despite having caught sight of a hooded individual, about twenty feet down the platform from where she stood, she made no show of her discovery as she moved into the crowd of evening commuters. Bank and Monument was a very busy Tube station, serving over sixty-four million passengers a year – an increase of seven million over the previous year. There were dozens of people crammed onto the platform awaiting the next train. Her colleagues joined the crowd on the platform without looking at her or each other.
They mingled just as if they were ordinary commuters but any professional would have noticed their tactical distribution and recognised it for what it was.
..._...
A few yards away, three professionals had grasped the situation, almost instantly.
Polaris, Rigour, and Minder had all been trained to recognise an impending attack but they had also been trained not to give the game away – too soon. It was obvious that they had been spotted, but how might they make their escape without endangering every other commuter on the Tube train? It was Rigour who came up with an idea, shutting off the voice synthesiser on her mask as she moved towards a large man who was pointedly ignoring the short girl. When she was just six inches away, Rigour screamed, loudly. All eyes turned on the man who hastily backed away from Rigour, unsure of what was about to happen.
"He touched me!" Rigour cried out. "He tried to do things to me!"
"What . . . no!" the man began.
He turned to his left only to see a gloved fist flying through the air. The fist struck him in the face, smashing his nose, and sending the man flying backwards onto the platform. There was cheering as the man fell. Minder simply nodded from beneath her hood as she stepped back into the crowd. As for angry woman, she simply shook her head and grew angrier. It had been a cheap shot, but a decisive one, cutting her team by a quarter. Then the woman noticed her mistake – she had been focused on her fallen man, so when the train had swept into the station, she had missed the throng of people boarding. Had their quarry boarded the train? Damn it! She pushed forward and stepped aboard the train, looking out the windows as a loud beeping sound warned everyone that the doors were about to close. Then she saw them, six people standing in a line, all wearing masks beneath hoods.
Two of them raised the middle fingers of their right hands and just stood there as the train swept out of the station, angry woman banging on the doors, even though she knew it was far too late for her to do anything about the situation.
..._...
The moment the train vanished, Rigour put her boot into the Gémeaux assassin's face, putting him out cold.
"This is Rigour," the girl said over her encrypted mobile phone. "I have a package for you – Platform 4, Bank."
At the other end of the call, Commander Haig grinned as he began to issue orders, among which he ordered a team to the station.
"Two minutes," he replied as he dropped the call.
"Shit!" Belle exclaimed as six very pissed off men appeared on the platform.
They took one look at their fallen colleague and then ran at Foxtrot One.
..._...
Unbeknownst to Foxtrot One – or the Gémeaux assassins – Commander Haig had instantly ordered the Northern Line Bank and Monument platforms to be shut in both directions which included closing the platform entrances and preventing any trains from stopping at the station.
The immediate benefit of the order was that Gémeaux and Vengeance were very much alone on the platform except for a few passengers who rapidly sought safety on another platform as fists began to fly. The men considered it an easy fight – they were fighting kids and a woman, after all. However, in reality, they were fighting two trained killers and a very pissed off protection officer who would protect her principal to her last breath. Rigour was itching for a fight – she hated being a normal girl; she just wanted to punch things until they bled. As for Polaris, she had six months of healing to make up for. Overrun was not to be left out, and neither was Spark who had suffered and needed to vent much worse than she had with Olivia earlier that day. That just left Belle who was getting very annoyed with her PO for pushing her back away from danger. Hadn't she proved herself on more than one occasion? Couldn't she look after herself? She was fighting in her own capital city and she was determined to fight and not be protected by others.
Belle stepped forwards, purposefully ensuring that her PO was a step behind her.
..._...
The platform was not all that deep, maybe eight-feet at its deepest, which made the fight all that more interesting.
Should you fall off the platform, into the concrete so-called suicide pit which led from tunnel to tunnel, there were four steel rails, two of which carried the wheels of the trains while the remaining pair provided power to the trains used on the line. One power rail ran in the centre of the main pair (the negative rail) while a fourth rail (the positive rail) ran along the wall, furthest away from the platform. The trains made use of 630-volts DC with negative 210-volts available at the second rail and positive 420-volts DC available at the fourth rail. Touching the wrong piece of steel could be decidedly deadly.
It was one-on-one as Polaris and Rigour bolted for the larger men, leaving Spark, Belle, and Overrun to take on three men who still towered above the girls. Minder went to town on the remaining man who grinned as he and Minder sized one another up. Polaris went in hard, using her agility to surprise her man, jumping up at the last moment and taking her boots across his face, but the ribbed sole of the combat boot just skimmed the bastard's grinning face as he pulled back and punched Polaris in her left side. The ten-year-old fell to the ceramic tiled platform, yelling out in pain and rolling away from the Gémeaux bastard who tried to stamp on her head with his size thirteen boots. Just feet away, Rigour was fighting for her life as she dodged punches and kicks, a fighting knife brandished in her right hand. The ten-year-old was out for blood and none of the men were walking away from that platform alive if she had anything to do with it. She may have been small but she could move, and she surprised her opponent by absorbing a stiff punch, before plunging her blade into the man's right thigh. The man yelled out, more in anger than in pain. The Gémeaux assassins had been told that they might be fighting 'brats with skills' – nobody had actually explained to the assassins what a Predator was, nor how complete their training was. However, the Gémeaux assassins were well aware that cornered animals fought way beyond their means when death was the only other way out. Though the man was wounded, he was not out, but the protruding knife grip became a target for Rigour, each kick and punch agravating the wound and producing grunts of pain from the man. Rigour knew what she was doing as she began to wear the man down, causing more and more blood to soak his trouser leg.
Further down the platform, Minder was exchanging blows with a man who found himself to be fairly evenly matched. He was also very aware that the woman he fought was armed and was not short of a skill or two. Both produced fighting blades and tried to slash the other, all while trying not to fall onto the tracks. Minder grinned as the back of her right fist caught the man in the face, blood exploding from his nose. The man grinned back, not caring in the slightest as blood ran down his ugly mug. Then Minder screamed out as the man's blade penetrated her top and she felt the blade . . . the man grinned, expecting to have caused a mortal wound, only Minder grinned as she remembered that her body was covered in composite armour which was all but impenetrable – at least by a simple knife.
"Try again, you ugly twat!" Minder said as she circled the man, searching for an opportunity to strike.
In the back of her mind was her charge who fought just ten feet away from her.
..._...
Belle was concentrating on her opponent, all else pushed away as being of minor importance.
She focussed on her skills. She focussed on where her limbs were. She focussed on where her opponents limbs were. She dodged, moved, dodged, moved. Never did she stay still for even a moment. Movement was life. However, as she avoided the incoming punches, she lost situational awareness and, most importantly, she forgot that she was fighting on an eight-foot-deep underground Tube station with an active rail line only a foot away. She never noticed the increase in air pressure as a train approached at speed, pushing air down the tunnel ahead of it. The trains were almost a perfect fit for the tunnels which meant the air pushed ahead was often the first sign to waiting passengers that a train was inbound. Belle was not familiar with the Tube, always having travelled in armoured vehicles above ground for most of her fourteen years of life. Luckily for her, her opponent did not notice either, or she would have been dead meat as he pushed her in front of the racing train. However, Belle did bounce off a carriage as the blast of air knocked her off balance, the collision disorientating her for several moments which almost cost the Princess her life as she was kicked to the ground, luckily rolling against the wall, just eight feet from the electrified track. Belle recovered quickly, bracing her back against the wall and thrusting out with both of her legs, mustering every ounce of strength that she possessed.
With a yell of clarity, the Gémeaux assassin fell backwards and there was a loud bang as the man fell in between the two power rails, completing the circuit.
..._...
Spark and Overrun were way out of their element as they fought the men before them.
The pair chose to fight together, protecting each others back as they fought off the two men. Both girls could protect themselves, but both preferred to make use of weapons – firearms, rather than their own hands and feet. Not that they would not give a good account of themselves. Again the Gémeaux assassins underestimated their targets as Spark pulled out a Balisong, surprising Overrun as well as the two men. With a nonchalant flick, the Balisong was flicked open and Spark stood her ground. Not to be outdone, Overrun pulled out a Fairbairn Sykes fighting knife and she brought her arm back, throwing the blade with unerring accuracy and catching her attacker in the chest. The man was stunned – he had expected the blade to miss or strike with too little power to do much damage. Though it was not enough to drop the man, it was enough to even the odds.
"You just lost your knife, you stupid bitch!" the man growled as he moved in close.
"Did I?" Overrun growled back as she produced another blade, identical to the first, and stabbed the man in the abdomen.
Spark slashed at her Gémeaux attacker as he moved to punch her, tearing a chunk from his hand, blood spraying across the platform, as the razer-sharp blade dug in. Spark moved in, animal ferocity overcoming her fear as she faced death. She lunged at her Gémeaux attacker, knocking the man off balance enough for Spark to kick him between the legs as hard as she could. Her boot came in contact with something which the man found painful and he bellowed out in agony before he sagged to the ground. Spark did not hang about as she rammed her left fist into the bastard's face and then the Balisong in her right hand into the bastard's throat. The bellow stopped as the urge to breathe overcame the pain from his squashed testicles. The man fell to the platform and he gasped for air.
Spark stood back up in time to observe Overrun plunging her blade down, again and again.
..._...
With two Gémeaux assassins bleeding out and another gently sizzling away, Rigour decided that the time was right to put an end to her bleeding assassin who was beginning to struggle.
The big man was feeling the effects of blood loss and his coordination was faltering. That gave Rigour the opportunity she needed as she felled the man like a lumberjack felling a Redwood. With a crash, the man was finally down and Rigour went to town. She punched and she kicked, but just like any cornered animal, the man found reserves of energy with which to fight back. Rigour was atop the man, punching his face when two great hairy hands grasped her neck and Rigour suddenly found herself struggling to breath. The FCCS2 prevented her from being strangled but only in a small way. The youngster knew that she had just mere seconds remaining to force the man to remove his hands before she blacked out from lack of oxygen. Even as she struggled, she tried to formulate a plan but then one came out of desperation and she focussed all her strength and weight as she pushed the man's head back and she held it in place. The big man's expression showed momentary confusion as he tried to figure out his opponents angle, but then it came to him in a flash of clarity and he...
The bottom corner of the front carriage passed by at just eighteen miles-per-hour, taking the head with it, a mass of blood exploding over the sides of the carriages as they flashed past, the screech of air brakes exploding into life, drowning out the sounds of fighting. Rigour had seen the horrified look on the driver's face as he had realised that there was nothing he could do to prevent the decapitation. However, Rigour was finally able to release the shuddering corpse and roll away from the platform edge, her life intact. As the girl regained her feet, she heard two gunshots and the man Polaris was fighting dropped to the platform closely followed by Minder's man, her Glock 17 pistol searching for another target.
Minder turned her pistol to the sound of pounding feet, and she recognised the uniforms of four British Transport Police officers as they ran onto the platform and she lowered her weapon. One of the officers pointed to a small door almost hidden at the north end of the platform.
"In their, up the steps for twelve metres until you come out at the District Line platforms. All is clear above."
Without hesitation, Minder pulled open the door and she pushed five children through before she followed along behind.
SENTINEL ZERO ONE
Rachel, Rylee & Simon
Oxford Street
"Zero One, you got your ears on?" Eric asked over the radio.
"Finally!" Rylee exploded impatiently. "This is Noxa, go ahead, Q."
"We need you at Victoria Station as soon as you can," Q directed. "It's time for the endgame."
"On our way, Doctrina out!" Rachel responded as she started the engine and she turned down Regent Street, heading south.
Though they only had to go a little over two miles, it would take them a good fifteen minutes to complete the trip.
SENTINEL ZERO TWO
David, Lynn, Jeremy & Christopher
Tower Hill
At the junction with the A1210, David took a left and they raced towards the River Thames with the stone walls belonging to the Tower of London to their right.
Ahead of them loomed the 123-year-old Tower Bridge which would carry them safely over the River Thames. They were not alone as the remaining pair of BMWs maintained their pursuit. As they raced up Tower Bridge Approach, David grinned as he saw a chance for potential escape ahead.
"They're raising the sodding bridge!" Lynn exclaimed.
"We'll make it," David commented as he put his foot down and pushed on down the middle of the road. "I hope!"
The traffic lights were already at red and the left hand gate was closing as the final traffic from the far side passed through the right hand gate. David hoped his siren would have some effect as he closed the bridge, however, he knew full well that the bridge followed a strict schedule without a single deviation as President Clinton had found out to his cost when he arrived late and his motorcade was cut in half when the bridge was opened during a visit to London in 1997. David raced through the closing right hand gate, closely followed by the first BMW X5. The second BMW X5, however, was caught out and it slid to a halt as the gate clanged shut, stopping on the wrong side of the road with just inches to spare. As for SENTINEL ZERO TWO, they scraped off some paint as they shot through the opposing gate causing the second BMW X5 to crash into the gates at speed.
On the south bank of the River Thames, David executed an illegal right turn and he belted up a bus lane on Tooley Street, heading west and making for the south end of London Bridge.