Tuesday, May 30th, 2017
19:00 GMT+1 (18:00 GMT May 30th)
Foxtrot Two
Cameron, Craig & Olivia
London Bridge
After a dash up the river, and a radio message from Q directing them to a rendezvous with SENTINEL ZERO TWO, they casually tied up their approriated RHIB at London Bridge City Pier on the south bank, not 250-yards east of London Bridge.
The meeting place was beneath the south end of London Bridge where the three vigilantes waited in the shadows until a slightly damaged Range Rover Sentinel hove into view and pulled up beside them. The opportunity was taken for Cameron, Craig, and Olivia to replenish their supplies of ammunition from the Sentinel as they waited for the other arrival. Fifteen minutes later, they were joined by another, also slightly battered Range Rover Sentinel, SENTINEL ZERO THREE. Cameron, David, Lynn, Jasper, and Trevor talked through events and took some time to figure out their next play. A phone call was placed and other interested parties joined in with the planning. Finally, after twenty minutes, a plan of action was agreed upon. It would not be easy to get all the pieces in place in time to take down the enemy, but there really was not much choice.
"What's going on?" Olivia demanded as the adults climbed back into their vehicles.
"You three are to head up-river. Ultimately, we are all making for Victoria Station, only, we need to ensure that the enemy arrive at the right time and in the right place. That entails putting our people at risk, but that will be the only way in which we can all survive this," Jasper explained.
"Business as usual, then!" Craig quipped.
"Seemingly," Jasper replied darkly as he started the Sentinel's engine.
19:08 GMT+1 (18:08 GMT May 30th)
Foxtrot One
Polaris, Spark, Belle, Rigour, Overrun & Minder
Embankment
They left the District Line Tube train after just five stops, getting off at Embankment.
They had intended on taking the train as far as Westminster, but Q had identified more Gémeaux thugs gathering at Westminster and Victoria stations. Men were moving towards Embankment, even as they had stepped off the train. Gémeaux obviously had some damn good live intel available to them which was very worrying. The team had no choice but to run for it and try to cover the one and a half miles to Victoria Station on foot. It would be difficult but it would not be impossible, and more importantly, it would draw in the enemy for the endgame in which they would cease to be enemy and instead, become meat for the coroner down at the morgue. Foxtrot One knew what was at stake, but they would never turn down a tasking just because it was slightly hazardous to their continuing good health. All six members were ready to kill again and rid their city of Gémeaux, once and for all, sending a blatant message which could not be ignored.
The six of them had a brief discussion and they opted to take different routes, splitting into two groups and making for Victoria Station, supporting each other where possible.
19:12 GMT+1 (18:12 GMT May 30th)
Foxtrot One One
Polaris, Spark & Overrun
Their chosen route would take them via Whitehall Place and then across Whitehall towards St James's Park and up past Buckingham Palace.
They figured that there would be plenty of security and therefore less chance of being ambushed by armed assassins – at least that was the plan. In reality, they were fair game, only, help was readily available for those in need. Word had gone out to certain Vengeance allies that Vengeance was in need of assistance. However, until those allies were in place, Vengeance was on its own. The three youngsters ran along the pavement, all keeping their eyes wide open for trouble. To any other member of the public, they were just three rabid children racing somewhere and they were, for the most part, ignored. Polaris made use of the parked vehicles as she ran. Checking out the reflections in the glass for anyone following or paying attention to them. As they paused to cross over Whitehall Court, Polaris caught sight of a man and a woman in the reflection of a car windscreen. One of the pair, the man, held a weapon of some kind down beside his right thigh. If that wasn't enough, the man was also grinning. It was obvious that they had been spotted and identified. However, before Polaris could say a word, Overrun found herself face to face with a woman who grinned before she grabbed hold of the twelve-year-old girl just as a mass of Japanese tourists surged past. Polaris pushed through the foreigners and she was able to see Overrun being pulled up the street. Polaris bolted forwards, racing after Overrun.
"Spark! Cut over... Spark?"
Polaris looked over her shoulder, but she could not see the older girl.
"Spark?"
..._...
Spark had her own problems.
The girl had suddenly found herself cutoff and alone. She had seen Polaris bolting into the seemingly endless mass of Japanese tourists. But the throng had been all but impenetrable and Spark had lost sight of Polaris and Overrun. She deviated from the agreed plan, as she bolted along Whitehall Court towards the huge Ministry of Defence building located alongside the River Thames. Her location and her destination flashed into her mind along with a reasonable map of the surrounding streets and what lay between her and her destination. She had no illusions that it would be easy, a fact backed up by the two men who had laid eyes on her like a tiger might eye a juicy steak. They were now pursuing her down the street, about thirty yards behind her. Spark was still sore from her rough treatment and the extra activity, the running, the evasion, it was just adding to the pain her body felt. The adrenalin which flowed through her veins pushed the pain aside and allowed her to run harder and faster.
A plan was forming in her mind – it had a low chance of success, but she had no other choice.
Foxtrot One Two
Belle, Rigour & Minder
Theirs was to be the most dangerous route as they headed for Westminster and the oncoming forces of Gémeaux.
They also figured that making for the seat of government should help their safety – yeah, right! It was unsettling to be on the run in their own capital city. It was also Belle's home and she knew that were it not for her being a member of Vengeance, she could press a button and be almost instantly surrounded by a hundred armed soldiers and police officers. Instead, she would fight alongside her friends and complete the mission – all while staying alive which would not be easy.
They ran along the Victoria Embankment, the enormous Ministry of Defence building rising up on their right, and the River Thames to their left. Across from them, the London Eye towered into the sky. They raced on past New Scotland Yard and on towards Westminster Bridge. Just as they came level with Westminster Underground Station, they heard a shout from towards Big Ben and they saw four men running in their direction. The group continued along the pavement, making for the west end of Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. The traffic was still heavy, despite the hour, and the trio were able to make use of the vehicles to screen their movements from the six men who were causing traffic problems as they bolted across Victoria Embankment to the tune of car horns and the comments of unhappy commuters. The two groups came together thirty yards short of the bridge and pedestrians scattered as two of the men were promptly floored by Minder and Rigour. A third followed soon after as Belle shoved the man under the wheels of a large coach which bounced slightly as it shattered the pelvis of the man, leaving him to bleed out across the tarmac.
All three were able to break off from the fight and escape into the milling crowds of onlookers, many of whom were braving the danger to capture the scene on iPhones and other devices.
Foxtrot One One
Polaris & Overrun
Whitehall
Overrun was not about to let herself be taken.
The girl executed a perfect flip, her feet climbing the side of a Ford Transit. Her captor was forced to let go of Overrun or have her wrist snapped by the unexpected manoeuvre. Then Polaris appeared and the woman was kicked to the ground by the two girls before her colleagues could intervene. The two girls then raced up Whitehall Place before they took a right on Whitehall, the man and two women – one with a bloody face – on their tail.
Three hundred yards later, they reached the traffic nightmare which was Charing Cross where seven roads all came together into a giant roundabout which was made infinitely worse by the many pedestrians crossing over past the statue of Charles I and on to Trafalgar Square or up The Mall. Neither girl paused as they dodged across the road to the left hand pavement, ignoring the angry horns from the red doubledecker buses and myriad black taxis. Both girls paused as they figured out a safe way to navigate the fast-moving traffic on Charing Cross. That allowed one of the pursing women to come within a dozen feet of Polaris who grabbed Overrun and they dodged in and out of the racing vehicles, cars, vans, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, et al. But so did the woman. Polaris was almost killed by a Ford Focus but she jumped at the last second and she rolled across the startled driver's bonnet before she fell to the roadway where she narrowly avoided being squished by a motorcycle courier. The woman was not so lucky as she was struck from the side by a doubledecker bus and thrown into the path of a lorry. Overrun winced at the audible crunching of bones and the screeching of brakes but ran with Polaris into Trafalgar Square, sending pigeons fleeing before them. They raced past the towering 169-foot column of the Admiral Lord Nelson and the four lions commemorating the British Royal Navy's victory over France and Spain, 21st October, 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar.
The stopped traffic, thanks to the mangled remains of the woman, had allowed the other woman and the man to catch up and they were not far behind the two youngsters.
Foxtrot One Two
Belle, Rigour & Minder
Westminster
The trio ran up Great George Street having taken a right at Big Ben.
Three men were hot on their heels with a forth some distance behind. Of the fifth, there was no sign, and the sixth was pinned under a coach – presumably dead or dying, they all hoped. Taking a left along Parliament Square, they dodged in and out of the marauding pedestrians, none of whom could walk in a straight line, many stopping every two feet to take photos of the, admittedly fascinating, buildings which surrounded Parliament Square. Then came trouble from the direction of Westminster Abbey. Two women and a man had emerged from the west end of the magnificent stone structure and they were moving in the direction of Belle, Rigour, and Minder.
One of the women deployed an ASP as she crossed The Sanctuary moving to attack Belle. The girl dodged the first strike, diving to her right and rolling on the pavement to dodge the second slash of the ASP. As Belle came back to her feet, she drew her own ASP and brought it upwards to defend herself from the third strike. While they fought, Rigour and Minder faced off against the other woman and the man, each of whom deployed an ASP each. There were screams from scared tourists as the fighting escalated until Rigour went down hard onto the pavement, her head colliding with a vertical steel bollard cemented into said pavement. Minder fought the woman while the man left Rigour and went after Belle who had put her woman down hard enough to make her stay down. Then, as Minder drove her right fist into the woman's face, eliciting an explosion of blood and a yell of pain, she saw the man advancing on Belle draw a compact machine pistol from under his jacket.
Minder was too far from Belle to be able to protect her, not that she was not about to try and Rigour was struggling to her feet, a few yards away, shaking her head to clear the minor concussion.
..._...
The Micro UZI was readily identifiable and the weapon was presumably just as deadily as its larger variants.
Belle knew that she was about to die; she knew that there was nothing she could do to prevent the bullets tearing through the lightweight armour of her FCCS2 and on into her body. As the weapon came up in line with her chest, Belle saw the man grin nastily, just as he began to squeeze the trigger. However, just as she was about to turn her back on death, there was a colossal BANG and Belle was stunned and awed to see the Gémeaux gunman thrown into the air like he was some discarded rag doll. The smashed corpse flew completely over the BMW X5 which had struck it before splatting down on the tarmac behind and rolling to the curb beside a group of horrified tourists who, it seemed, were not so horrified they could not record the macabre scene on their phones. Belle's eyes had followed the corpse as it had flown through the air, her mind morbidly obsessed by the airborne dead body. Then her attention had focused on Sergeant Beck as the man had jumped out of his red police vehicle, his Glock 17 unholstered and held in his right hand.
"Did I get him?" Beck asked rhetorically.
"I don't think he's getting up any time soon," Belle responded as she glanced over at the destroyed corpse of the former Gémeaux gunman.
"I think you dented the Bimmer, boss," Beck's long-suffering partner, PC Ryder, commented as he examined the front of the police vehicle which was hung up on another steel bollard. "This is going to take some explaining."
"We have it all on camera . . . I hope," Beck responded.
"Can you send us a copy?" Belle asked. "Because that was FUCKING AWESOME!"
"You better go," Beck pointed out with a chuckle as sirens began to converge on them.
"Oh, yeah..."
Minder and Rigour grabbed Belle and they ran off up Victoria Street, leaving Beck to clear up the mess.
Foxtrot One One
Spark
Horse Guards
Spark emerged from Horse Guards Avenue onto Whitehall just across the road from Horse Guards Parade.
She could see the two mounted Life Guard Troopers in their red tunics and white plumes on duty at the gates attracting the usual throng of evening tourists seeking a photo opportunity with the immaculately turned out soldiers. A brief glance behind and Spark saw the two men not a dozen yards behind. Quickly, she bolted across the street with the men close behind. She passed through the gates, between the two mounted troopers and her eyes darted around. She saw a dismounted trooper on guard over to the right and she made for the soldier, stopping just a foot away. The man in his red tunic, white jodhpurs, and black riding boots stared into nothing, looking over Spark's head like she was not even there. His left hand inside a white gauntlet held the top of his scabbard which rested on the stone flagstones while his right in an identical white gauntlet held his sabre vertically. The towering helmet with the white plume a long way over Spark's head.
Spark looked directly up at the man as she pulled back her jacket, just enough to reveal the twin sabres of the Vengeance symbol on her FCCS2.
"Help me..."
The soldier of the Life Guards Regiment of the Household Cavalry looked down and took in the symbol and the blazing blue eyes before he then looked directly at the two men advancing on Spark. The serving soldier did not think twice as he turned towards the two men, his boots crashing down making his movements and intentions obvious. The two men both ignored the soldier to their cost, each drawing a pistol. The soldier deftly used the hilt of his sword to smash the nose of the closest man before he brought the blade of his sabre down and he drove it through the abdomen of the second man. Spark wasted no time as she swept up a fallen pistol, turned towards the first man, and she coldly took her second human life. The wounded man screamed as his hands grasped his abdomen, desperate to staunch the flow of blood as his life quite literally flooded out of him. The gunshot had caused a mini panic amongst the tourists and two armed police officers had swiftly appeared from the direction of the parade ground, Heckler & Koch MP7 PDWs held in their hands.
"I can take it from here," the soldier said to Spark. "Get out of here!"
Spark did not need any coaxing as she bolted through into Horse Guards Parade, seeking to escape before the cavalry, quite literally, arrived. Two large police horses and their riders were cantering across Horse Guards towards the sound of the gunshot. They easily intercepted the hooded Spark, despite her attempts to escape, and corralled her in place. Spark pulled her top to one side, exposing the Vengeance symbol for the second time in almost as many minutes.
"Where you headed?" one of the mounted police officers asked.
"Victoria Station," Spark replied as if she was hailing a cab.
"Hop on!" the officer grinned as he held out his right hand.
Spark grasped the outstretched hand and she found herself hauled into the air and deposited on the back of the horse, behind the police officer.
"Hold on tight!"
With that, the two police horses moved off, rapidly increasing speed to a fast trot and then into a full-on canter as they headed out of Horse Guards Parade.
Foxtrot One One
Polaris & Overrun
Trafalgar Square
The two girls ran between the two fountains, dodging the tourists who meandered around the square.
Then Overrun lost her footing as she stood on a pigeon – the bird survived, but Overrun fell head over heels onto the stone slabs. Polaris ran over to help, but the man had caught up and he brought out an ASP, extending it with a flick of his right wrist. Polaris struck out with her left foot, kicking the man in the stomach and then the chest. The man responded as he took the ASP across Polaris' shoulders, causing the young girl to scream out in pain. The strike made Polaris even angrier than she was and that gave her the edge as she span and kicked out, sending the man flying backwards. The back of his legs struck the stone surround of the left hand fountain, and he fell backwards into the shallow water with an enormous splash.
"You fucking, bitch!" the man spluttered as he rose to his knees.
The woman ignored her wet comrade as she attacked, striking out and catching Overrun across the cheek with the end of her ASP. The twelve-year-old screamed out as her hands went to her face, but then she remembered that she was wearing a mask and apart from a burst of pain, she was still in one piece. Polaris grabbed Overrun by the arm and she ran, pulling the older girl with her. The woman was not far behind as she bolted after them, her soaked colleague clambering out of the fountain. The two girls bolted for the northwest corner of the square and ran up the two flights of steps, coming out opposite The National Gallery. Without looking back, they both ran west, along Pall Mall East which then became Pall Mall. As the two girls and their pursuer kept on running, Polaris grinned as she recognised where they were and they crossed over Carlton Gardens where the whole sorry file saga had begun, just a week or so before.
After a major run of almost 750-yards, the pair were flagging as they reached the corner where Pall Mall turned into St James's Street where it took a sharp right to the north. Also at that corner was St James's Palace and Polaris chose to make her stand, seeing that help was potentially close at hand. The Gémeaux bitch ran at Polaris as the girl slowed, however, Polaris simply turned her back to the woman, who then collided with Polaris and fell to the ground. Even so, as the woman scrambled to her feet, a pistol evident in her right hand, a voice sounded out, loud and clear.
"Army! Drop the weapon!"
The Gémeaux mercenary did not heed the challenge, and the very moment she brought her pistol up, the Coldstream Guard, resplendent in scarlet tunic, dark blue trousers, polished black boots, white leather belt, and black bearskin cap, snapped off four rounds from a little over twenty yards distant, all of which struck, centre mass, tearing apart the Gémeaux mercenary's heart and lungs. The woman was dead a full second before her shattered corpse struck the roadway. The Coldstreamer ran over, his bayoneted L85A2 assault rifle held at the ready. Polaris was about to identify herself to the running soldier when the woman's colleague attacked, from the side, a pistol in his hand and Polaris was knocked to the ground. The man never saw the soldier; he was too intent on finishing off the two girls – his final mistake. As Overrun made to protect Polaris, she was shoved to one side by the Coldstream Guard who then thrust the 6.875-inch blade of his bayonet into the mercenary's left side, fatally wounding the man who dropped his pistol and grasped his left side even as he sagged to the ground. He was hurried on his way by the Coldstream Guard who smashed the butt of his assault rifle into the man's forehead.
"Thank you," Polaris offered in her electronically distorted voice as she clambered to her feet, her eyes fixed on the blood dripping from the razor sharp point of the soiled bayonet.
The Coldstream Guard had seen the Vengeance symbol both girls bore and he simply nodded as an armed police officer came running from the direction of St James's Palace, all of eighty yards distant.
Polaris grabbed Overrun and they both ran across Pall Mall and vanished into the narrow 345-year-old Crown Passage which would lead them through to King Street.
A short while later...
20:02 GMT+1 (19:02 GMT May 30th)
Victoria Station
London Victoria station is the second busiest London terminus.
Somewhere in the region of eighty-five million passengers pass through the station each year. Many passengers make use of the terminus to travel between Central London and Gatwick Airport. It is also joined with Victoria Coach Station which connects the capital with many major cities to the north and the south. As was usual, the station was heaving with hundreds of individuals, families, groups, all heading somewhere. Groups of people gathered below the giant departures and arrivals board, searching for their train and from which platform it would depart. In amongst the throngs of humanity, armed British Transport Police officers and uniformed Network Rail staff moved to ensure the smooth flowing of those travelling by train as well as to maintain the security and integrity of the mainline railway station.
It did not take long for the Network Rail staff to clock the increased presence of hooded youths in amongst the crowds – a sure sign of impending trouble. The British Transport Police (BTP) were notified and they kept a wary eye on what was going on. However, two of the more senior BTP officers had clocked an increase in adults who were simply milling about without aim, unlike true passengers who were usually intent on boarding their trains and getting to their destinations. Some appeared to be dishevelled and had a 'foreign' suggestion about them. There was the sense that something was about to 'go down' in the station. However, when the senior officer onsite radioed for tactical support, he was told to 'neither act, nor respond to anything that he or his people may see, think, or witness'. That confused the hell out of the twenty-year veteran of the British Transport Police, but he went along with it and he withdrew his officers to the periphery.
All around, three groups of people moved through the crowds with purpose – only, the hunters had no idea that they had suddenly become the hunted, nor that they were about to become suddenly and violently extinct.
..._...
François Boucher was the leader of the first group of men and women who were milling around the station.
The man was a French mercenary. He was a bullish man who had spent much of his life in the French Troupes de Marine. Along the way, he had received a nickname. While nobody dared say it to his face, he was known behind his back as 'Sauvage' meaning 'untamed'. The man actually made Hit Girl and Wildcat seem like fucking girl scouts in comparison to the blood on his hands. He enjoyed killing and he gave little attention to collateral damage. All he cared about was how much money he was getting once he had completed a mission successfully. If a few innocent people died along the way, so be it. As well as a reputation for being ruthless and bloodthirsty, the man also ranked exceedingly high on the 'inhuman animal' scale – if there ever was one. When he went after a mark, he often targeted any females involved in the mission. I say 'females', rather than 'women' because the man cared less about the age of his victims who suffered violent sexual attacks. Ten, twelve, fourteen, twenty-four – it was all the same to the untamed, inhuman, bastard.
He had never been happier than the moment he had been told to lead a Gémeaux mission into London and retrieve a file 'by any means necessary'. Those were orders which the Frenchman liked to follow, and he would go to extremes to complete any mission. He had dreamt of having his way with the Vengeance females before slitting their throats and he was determined to enjoy them before they died. However, things had not quite gone according to plan. Just fifteen minutes earlier, he had been informed that the Vengeance Sentinels had been spotted in the area around Victoria Station and that the stolen RHIB had been seen around Vauxhall Bridge, three quarters of a mile to the south of the station. Something was going on and it appeared that Victoria Station was to be the rally point for Vengeance before they escaped to the River Thames – at least that was one possible idea.
So far, their giant helicopter appeared to have vanished which appeared to be the only good news.
..._...
High above the station, Arbiter snuck into the control booth which served the tannoy system in the station and which was currently empty.
After a brief inspection of the controls, she plugged her mobile into the system with a cable from her pack. Then she ran her finger down the mobile screen a few times before she grinned.
"Standby, guys!" she said over the comms as she hit play.
Down on the main floor, Sleuth shook his head when he heard the opening bars of music. There were many strange expressions from the masses of commuters milling about the mainline station. However, any distraction was better than none in the midst of their dreary day-to-day commute, and some began to sing along to the upbeat music. The sound of singing grew as more and more joined in, voices echoing around the decidedly echoey facility where most verbal announcements were totally inaudible.
Well, shake it up, baby, now (Shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout (Twist and shout)
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (Come on baby)
Come on and work it on out (Work it on out)
Taking advantage of the audio distraction, the scattered Vengeance vigilantes moved in amongst the singing commuters – they were the second group milling around and there were twenty-one vigilantes who were about to take the lives of the Gémeaux assassins who had unwittingly ventured into the spider's web which Vengeance had created. As the music pounded, the Vengeance vigilantes were moved into position by Q, Insidious, and Viridian, who were seated inside DYNAMO, which was parked up, two streets away, and who were connected into the railway station's CCTV system, ensuring that nothing was recorded along the way.
Well, work it on out, honey (Work it on out)
You know you look so good (Look so good)
You know you got me goin' now (Got me goin')
Just like I knew you would (Like I knew you would)
Doc and Necis moved together, navigating the crowd as if they were just two strangers, following the verbal guidance over their earpieces. They came up behind the first pair of Gémeaux assassins who were to die. On a signal from Q, Doc and Necis plunged knives into the backbones of the two men, savagely twisting the blades before pulling them out. At that same moment, the third group of people jumped into action and four men in civilian clothes stepped forward, two per dying man. The dying men were grabbed before they could fall to the ground and then 'helped' out of the public areas.
"I told you not to have that extra pint, Jimmy boy!" one of the men said loudly as he helped to guide his corpse out of the railway station before they headed around back to where the two corpses were thrown into the back of an innocuous white Ford Transit panel van.
The four Special Branch officers then returned to the railway station for their next corpses. What was important was that no member of the public was any the wiser about what had just occurred within feet of where they moved.
Well, shake it up, baby, now (Shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout (Twist and shout)
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (Come on, baby)
Come on and work it on out (Work it on out)
Noxa and Custos were up next, moving through the crowd and coming up behind a man who seemed eight feet tall and almost as much wide. Nobody was looking to fight as that would cause a scene and the wrong people would get hurt. Instead, stealth and swift deaths were required. That was no problem for the Predators; it was a situation for which they were trained. Noxa and Custos stealthily pulled out vicious-looking knives and approached their target before each rammed their blade into the man's body. Custos's blade slipped between two ribs and severed the man's heart in two. Noxa's blade took the large man in the small of his back. Due to his sheer bulk, the man had been taken when he was just feet from a service entrance and three Special Branch officers grabbed the man, bundling him through the service door to where a luggage trolley awaited his corpse.
Well, you twist, you little girl (Twist, little girl)
You know you twist so fine (Twist so fine)
Come on and twist a little closer now (Twist a little closer)
And let me know that you're mine (Let me know you're mine)
With three of his men having seemingly vanished into thin air, François was becoming wary. He had his own radio link and he began to move his own chess pieces on the virtual chessboard which was Victoria Station. François stood to the side of a Burger King kiosk, his cold steely eyes moving over the throng of humanity as it hustled and bustled on and off the trains which flowed in and out of the station almost constantly. François was sickened by the sight of every one of them – he hated the English so much he would have loved to scatter a few grenades throughout the masses, but he was disciplined, and there was a time and a place. Right at that moment, though, his hatred for the English was overruled by the enormous amount of money he would receive for completing his current mission. He still had quite a few men left, and he was going to use them. The music was decidedly off-putting, but he had already worked out that it was being played purely as a distraction.
He spoke into a small microphone attached to the underside of his right shirt collar, guiding three of his men to close on a tall girl in a hooded top – it was time to begin levelling the scoreboard.
Well, shake it up, baby, now (Shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout (Twist and shout)
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, baby, now (Come on, baby)
Come on and work it on out (Work it on out)
Rigour and Polaris were up next, the two short (not small!) girls easily moving through the crowds of commuters almost unseen. They had a pair of targets ahead of them – two women who appeared to be closing upon Ajax and Stripe. Neither woman had the slightest idea that Stripe and Ajax were leading them into a trap – a deadly trap. Over beside WHSmith and beside the escalator which led to the Wetherspoons Bar, Ajax and Stripe stopped and they turned to face the two women who swiftly, and expertly, turned away as if they were doing anything but pursuing. They were professionals, but so were Rigour and Polaris. The pair took two swift paces forward, bumped into the two women and drove vicious ice picks into their lungs, once, twice. Both women struggled to breathe as their punctured lungs collapsed within their ribcage, then they were thrust against a wooden hoarding covering the front of a shop under refurbishment before falling throw a section covered in thick polythene. Ajax and Stripe swiftly followed the two young girls into the deserted shop, where they slit the throats of both women and left the pair to fall onto a large section of pre-arranged black tarpaulin.
Well, you twist, you little girl (Twist, little girl)
You know you twist so fine (Twist so fine)
Come on and twist a little closer now (Twist a little closer)
And let me know that you're mine (Let me know you're mine)
It was the turn of Belle and Minder who strolled past where Ajax and Stripe were slitting throats and the pair closed in on two men who appeared to be making for a coffee shop to the right of Boots. However, as they closed, the two men suddenly turned on Belle and they grabbed her, even as a woman stepped out of a small sandwich shop and took a sap across the back of Minder's skull. Her mask absorbed most of the strike, but the woman still sagged to the ground, her head swooning as she saw stars. She tried to reach for Belle who was being taken down past a row of cashpoints towards the bus station on Victoria Street.
Belle had not had time to react and a hand had been slapped across her masked mouth, preventing any attempt at screaming. She did, however, stab with the blade in her right hand, sinking the tip two inches into the thigh of the man to her right who grimaced through the pain.
"You motherfucker!" he exclaimed through clenched teeth as he slapped Belle around the head with his open hand.
Minder tried to move, to go after Belle, but she struggled to stand. Then she sensed movement behind her, and she heard a dull scream before the woman who had struck her sagged against a phone booth. Then Chief looked down at Minder, reaching for her arm.
"I hate hitting a woman, but I have no trouble hitting a murdering bitch!" the man growled as he pulled Minder to her feet.
"They . . . they've got Belle..."
"We know," Chief stated matter-of-factly.
Nobody in Victoria Station had the slightest idea that fourteen men were being covertly hunted by the United Kingdom's very own vigilante force. Nobody had the slightest idea that six men and women had already lost their lives. Two more were to join that list as Belle and her captors came face to face with the Metropolitan Police.
"'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, what's goin' on 'ere then?" a gruff voice announced out of the darkness as the two men 'helped' Belle out of the station.
Neither man was given a chance to respond as Sergeant Beck and PC Ryder mercilessly clubbed both men to the ground with the muzzles of their Glock 17 pistols. Then the Sergeant turned to Belle.
"We really must stop meeting like this, Belle," he stated in all seriousness.
"Thank you, Sergeant," Belle said, just as seriously.
"Get back in there, girl!" Beck chuckled. "We'll dispose of these bastards."
Belle did not need telling twice as she ran back into the railway station where she found Minder and Chief who were both very pleased to see the masked Princess.
Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now (Shake it up baby)
Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now (Shake it up baby)
Well, shake it, shake it, shake it, baby, now (Shake it up baby)
Aah, aah, aah!
In the space of two minutes and thirty seconds, fourteen men and women had died or been taken into custody. For the dead, their corpses were piled up in the back of a van before being removed from the scene. Not a single member of the general public had become aware of what had gone down just inches away from them, though there were many confused expressions as a cryptic announcement was made over the tannoy.
"And the score is: Vengeance – fourteen, Gémeaux – nil!"
Dakota grinned as she released the microphone button for the tannoy.
"Eat your heart out, Ferris!"
..._...
François swore foully.
The French mercenary had heard the tannoy announcement informing him that he had just lost the vast majority of his force. He glared up at where he could see someone running down a set of steel steps from what had to be the control booth, high above the station. The person, a girl, stopped and François saw himself being observed by the masked girl who actually curtsied!
"Enfoncer des bâtards britanniques!" he growled angrily at the end of his muttered tirade.
The man dodged in and out of the crowds as he made for safety - he had failed, for the moment, but all was not over.