Sorry can't manage three chapters this time but on the plus side it is a longer one & I hope you enjoy it. I'll try and get part two of this section up as quickly as possible : )

Harry was in bed when the call came through from D.I. Jarvis that the American embassy was under siege by suspected Arab Freedom Fighters, Spikings and Dempsey were already there as were the S.A.S. She scrambled out of bed to dress pulling on a combat vest over her jumpsuit and taking her gun from where it was secured.

Spikings met her as she drove up to the police cordon, it was a familiar scene the blue lights of the beacons revolving, a barricade set up and the sound of the RT units crackling to life as information was passing back and forth.

'Harry, I need you to manage the uniformed police and keep this area locked down. There may be additional combatants hiding in any of the office buildings around here, we're getting the keys to all the buildings in this block and those adjacent. I need you to ensure systematic searches are done and smoke out anybody that looks like they may join the party.

'Where's Dempsey?' Makepeace asked the first thing that came into her head knowing her former partner was unlikely to be clearing any building unless it was the embassy.

'Briefing the S.A.S. from the inside,' the Chief Inspector responded tersely as he accepted a printed communication from Chas. 'He's managed to get himself in there and is using the intel to brief them as to where they should make entry. God help him if they get wind of his location.'

'I see,' Harry fought back the fear for her former partner and decided the best way she could help him was to make sure that the terrorists didn't' get reinforcements. Her instinct was to go in and protect his position but since she had no idea where he was that wasn't possible.

'Joyce came running up and took her briefing from Makepeace who was now an Inspector and they began to work through the buildings until they struck gold and found another cell which was heavily armed and ready to make a fight of it.

Whilst the S.A.S. scaled the American Embassy an impressive shoot out was in progress a block away with Harry in the thick of it. The smell of cordite was thick in the air as Spikings came to view the location which was now engaged in battle royal as the Embassy team had done their work and what was left of the Arab Freedom Fighters were being taken to hospital or lifted out in body bags.

Hargreaves jogged up to him. 'This engagement is the main support cell sir; we've checked the rest of the buildings inside the police cordon. 'D.I. Makepeace is attempting to negotiate with them but they seem to be somewhat reluctant to surrender their position.'

'We've got to consider the possibility that they may detonate explosives in the building,' Spikings responded tersely. 'Where is Makepeace?'

'In the building opposite, third floor which is opposite to where they're holed up, we also have people on the roof of the building we're monitoring them from. If they get on the roof we can take them out from our position and other buildings around their location.'

'Good work,' Spikings acknowledged as he went to the rear of the building Harry was in and joined her. He radioed the S.A.S. team and gave them the location of the current affray only to be told that the embassy was the S.A.S.'s theatre of operation and SI10 could take it from here.'

'Glory boys,' Spikings swore fluently. 'He then had the Home Office minister on the comms and spent time informing the minister of the current situation. Dempsey joined them as he'd done what needed to be done at the Embassy. He'd been winged by a bullet, caught in the ricochet and his arm was bleeding.

'Fry,' Makepeace shouted to the young officer. 'Apply a field dressing to D.I. Dempsey's arm,' she turned to Spikings, 'they don't appear to be willing to negotiate sir, so our options as I see it are to go in or just mount a siege turning off all utility supplies to the building. Even then there are probably enough machines dispensing snacks and drinks to keep them going for a few days.'

'Yes well the minister wants us to go in immediately as the left are planning a massive demonstration tomorrow in support of the A.F.F. and we might get some hotheads breaking through the police cordons. We have police divisions in coaches now coming up to the city and the S.P.G. are already getting into position. I have to go and brief a bunch of journalists shortly. So Harry I suggest you work out the best way to get into that building with the least number of casualties and brief me on that when I get back.'

'Yes sir,' Makepeace swallowed hard. She walked over to Dempsey who had his shirt half off and was gritting his teeth as Fry applied the field bandage to his damaged arm and shoulder. 'I need to discuss an operational matter Detective Inspector are you well enough to do that.'

'Yeah sure, happy to help,' he gave her that smug grin that got right up her nose. Makepeace had ignored him for weeks and he couldn't help feeling pleased that she needed his help.

Harry was irritated but not so much that she'd forgo his assistance because in the end she was the sensible one of the two of them. She waited for Fry to finish and then Dempsey shrugged on his shirt minus the sleeve and a combat vest and followed her to a small room where the plans for the building opposite were laid out 'Roof do you think?'

'Well they ain't on the roof so it seems like an option, what about the underground car park and the sewers that could be an alternative. If they've got any sense they'll have cut off the lifts and have all stairwells guarded. S.A.S. went in through the windows.'

'How about sending teams in from the roof and from the car park and firing tear gas or smoke bombs through the windows on the third floor to disable them or cause a distraction.'

'Sounds like my kind of plan Makepeace,' Dempsey smiled at her look of focussed concentration, she was frowning in a cute way which he'd always kind of liked.

'If they detonate explosives in the building we'll have massive casualties,' she bit her lip and looked at her former partner; why was he smiling at her like she was a cuddly toy? She pulled herself back into professional mode. 'I suppose that's a risk I'm going to have to take. If we fire gas into the building and they have wired it up they'll be likely to blow the place sky high.'

Dempsey thought about that. 'Well if we have to fight our way to the third floor from above or below they're gonna take that as a signal to blow the place anyway. Going in with silencers won't help as they're bound to defend themselves and that means noise.'

'Is there any way we could get directly to the third floor without the ensuing gun battle,' Harry looked at the plans again. 'Lift shaft,' she looked at Dempsey. 'If they're guarding the stairwell and have disabled the lift we might be able to get up the lift shaft, open the doors and sneak in that way.'

'Depends where the lift is and it depends on how many people we can get up to the door, one guy hauling himself up the cables ain't gonna do it. Screw it, gas the bastards, that gives us a fighting chance of taking them out.'

'Or we volunteer to go in and negotiate with them,' Harry offered in a quiet voice already anticipating his answer to that; his objection was almost a given.

'Well you ain't doing that,' Dempsey growled at her because he knew she wouldn't allow anybody else to do it if she suggested that course of action. 'I mean it Harry, you don't even put that on the table,' his dark eyes held hers and he could see for once she accepted his call on that. 'Anyway the Home Office want this out of the way by tomorrow and negotiations take time.'

'Any other utility shafts in the building we could use,' Harry poured over the plan and identified the shafts for electricity, air conditioning and the like and then she saw it. A large dumb waiter up to the canteen on the fourth floor which would give them one stair well to take out. 'Dempsey, look at this,' she pointed out the access from the delivery area in the underground car park. It stops at the fourth floor not the third but that would work.'

'Good thinking Harry always said you were smart,' anything he thought other than the negotiation option the thought of the princess, in the clutches of those animals made his blood run cold. 'I'll take a team up since you're the control for this.'

Harry looked at the field bandage that was showing blood seeping through it. 'You're injured and anyway Spikings can act as control.' She went through a number of things they would need and got Hargreaves onto the logistics whilst Dempsey glowered at her.

A female doctor arrived and Harry took her to one side. 'My colleague was caught in a ricochet and has flesh wounds can you examine him. He won't admit he's unfit for duty but he's already done his bit on this caper.' Harry would dearly love to see Dempsey safe in the hospital and not screwing up her command decisions by playing the protector because she knew he would. A warm feeling flooded through her, she knew he cared about her and would take a bullet for her without questions asked.

The doctor duly signed the American off and gave him a couple of tablets for the pain which he immediately palmed until Makepeace opened his hand and said 'open wide' as she took the two tablets off him and made him take them into his mouth.

'You're such a baby,' she muttered as she went back to brief Spikings on her plan. Spikings approved the dumb waiter idea as their best chance and said they'd hold back on the gas option until they got a signal from Makepeace to deploy.

'I'll distract them by opening up dialogue, all's fair in love and war.' He looked at Dempsey succumbing to the sedative in the corner. 'Pity about the Yank he's good at this stuff.'

Harry understood that but he'd already played a key role in the embassy operation and she didn't want to worry about the mayhem he would be creating so as far as she was concerned it had all worked out as well as it could. She picked out a team of six to go with her, Watson and Hargreaves were assigned.

'Good luck Harry, and watch your back,' Spikings growled finding it hard to send the two women on the operation even though he had the greatest respect for both officers.

Dempsey was playing dead and let them put him on a stretcher but then he got off it as they reached the ground floor and got into the dumb waiter with Harry just before the doors closed.

Harry swallowed hard knowing this was not the time to have an all-out fight with her fellow officer.

'I'll go first cos I've done a lot of this, Makepeace you got my back. We need to take the stair guard out with a silencer or I break his neck.' The doors slowly glided open and they crept out the guard was asleep on the stairs so Dempsey hit him across the back of the head with his gun and tied his hands and feet and gagged him. They then shoved him into the lift which was stuck at that floor.

'Right,' Harry took over placing her hand on Dempsey's forearm to indicate she was taking charge. She instructed the officers on formation and they quietly entered the third floor. The terrorists were looking out the windows with night sight binoculars or huddled around the radio where they were negotiating with Spikings. Harry bit her lip but knew what she had to say once they'd taken point. 'Armed police, put down your weapons.' As nobody was doing that each police officer took aim and took down one of the combatants. As far as possible they shot to disable rather than kill and Dempsey grabbed the guy who lunged for the detonator. The switch was depressed so he spent the next half hour defusing the bomb whilst fighting against the sedative. Harry got everyone out of the building and the bomb squad came in to assist just as the American disabled the device.

'Over to you,' Dempsey growled at the squad's senior officer, Trevelyan, 'and before you say anything I did the training for this in the NYPD and the U.S. army; think I even got a badge for it. I'll leave it to you guys to find the semtex.' He walked out of the building and joined Spikings and Makepeace by the police cars.

'Good work,' Spikings was delighted with SI10's performance. 'Nice to have some of them to interrogate for once rather than body bags. They're going to army medical facilities outside the city as a number of our citizens might be stupid enough to try and liberate them from hospital. Fortunately, crowd policing doesn't come under our remit so we can leave the demonstration tomorrow to the Metropolitan Police who deal with that. I have to speak to the press but the rest of you can get some well-earned rest,' he looked over at Dempsey. 'I hadn't realised D.I. Makepeace had asked for your assistance.'

'D.I. Dempsey felt well enough to take part in the operation sir and due to his experience in this type of situation I thought it advantageous to use his specialist skills.' Harry lied to cover Dempsey's rear as she had done many times before.

'Y-e-s,' Spikings wasn't fooled. 'Well all's well that ends well and I like to see team loyalty, well done everyone I'll see you all in the office tomorrow afternoon.'

'Idiot,' Harry hissed under her breath at Dempsey as she watched Spikings go. That was the problem with James he just threw himself at danger with no concern about those whom he'd leave behind.

'Hey, I've got the experience with explosives and you don't,' he pointed out as Makepeace grabbed his good arm in a determined fashion and guided him to the ambulance.

'Shut up, we're going to the hospital and you will take note of what the doctor's say or I'll personally put you in a body bag.' Harry had been terrified the bomb would go off and take said idiot with it.

'Anything you say honey,' he smiled at her and sat rather than lay down on the ambulance bed. Harry was really cute when she was angry; made him want to kissher better. Yeah that was it, turn that frown upside down.

'Stupid machismo,' Harry said snippily. At least he hadn't undermined her command but that had been touch and go. She'd had to let him go in first because she knew he wouldn't take any notice if she'd disagreed with him. 'I could take a course in bomb disposal,' she muttered, 'but of course we could always use the bomb disposal unit as that's what they're there for.'

'There isn't always the time to do that Harry, I mean it's not like I wake up and think, do you know what today seems a good day to disable a bomb! It ain't like that. You deal with the cards you're given.'

'How's the arm and shoulder,' she changed the subject as she could see he was paler than normal and was feeling too tired herself to carry on the argument.

'The arm and shoulder are a bitch, but you're safe and bullet free so I call that a result.' The meds had started to work and he was feeling relaxed and affectionate. 'You know Makepeace when you get round to being my girl I'm not sure I want you in the firing line, might be a good idea to go back to the museum or polishing the ancestral silver.'

'Thank you Detective Inspector, it's nice to know I have career choices,' she held his gaze and blinked at the warmth she saw there. 'I'm attributing your current mental state as succumbing to the medication.'

'Whatever gets you through the night sweetheart, you like me though… He smiled at her benignly and was impervious to the fact that he was embarrassing Makepeace in front of the paramedics.

'We'll get your boyfriend to A&E if you'd like to go to the waiting room there,' the female paramedic grinned at Makepeace as the interplay between the blonde policewoman and the American hunk had brightened up her evening.

'Thank you,' Harry didn't bother to challenge their relationship status as it would only have amused all concerned if she had.

-oOo—