‘I can’t imagine how horrific that must have been,’ said Kamran.
‘Yeah, it’s certainly up there in my top ten,’ said Murray. ‘The kid was, what, twelve years old? Not even a teenager. We liked him. And we thought he liked us. But at the end, when he thought he was about to kill us, he was smiling. Can you explain that to me? The little bastard was smiling. And he was still fucking grinning when we blew his head off.’
‘He might have been drugged. Brainwashed, maybe.’
‘Or maybe he hated us so much he was happy to die if it meant we would die too. That’s what we’re up against with these people. They’re not like you or me. It’s a completely different mindset.’
Kamran nodded. ‘I hear what you’re saying, but the men in London, they’re British. They were born here.’
‘It’s not about where they were born. It’s about the mindset. And until you know their frame of mind, you can’t assume anything. It could be they’re getting ready to detonate come what may. And if they do, I don’t see there’s anything we can do to stop them.’
‘So what do you suggest, Captain?’
Murray flicked what was left of his cigarette over the side of the building. ‘Get your retaliation in first, as my old rugby coach used to tell me. Take them out before they get the chance to do it themselves.’
‘Even if it means hostages will die?’
‘Face facts, Mo. They’re probably going to die anyway.’
Murray’s mobile rang and he walked along the terrace as he took the call. Kamran went back into the canteen and paid for a tray of coffees, teas, sandwiches and fruit and took it down in the lift to the basement.
Gillard grinned when he saw Kamran walk into the Gold Command suite. ‘Excellent,’ he said, helping himself to coffee and a cheese sandwich. Kamran put the tray down on his desk.
Thatcher grabbed a cup of camomile tea. ‘You’re a lifesaver,’ he said.
Gillard took his coffee and sandwich over to the doorway of the suite where he looked at the large map of London and the red lights marking the positions of the nine suicide bombers. Kamran helped himself to coffee and an apple and joined him. ‘You know, getting them to the airport might not be a bad idea,’ he said to the chief superintendent.
Gillard wrinkled his nose. ‘We can’t let them on a plane,’ he said.
‘We don’t let them get on a plane. We don’t let them anywhere near a plane. We take them to a hangar where we can isolate them.’
‘How does that help us?’ asked the chief superintendent.
‘Numbers,’ said Kamran. He gestured at the map. ‘Between them they’ve got, what, a hundred hostages? Maybe more. But if we pick them up in a coach, they won’t get all of them on. In fact they’re more likely to go on board with just the ones they’re handcuffed to, right?’
‘That’s an assumption,’ said Gillard. He took a bite of his sandwich.
‘But a realistic one,’ said Kamran. ‘And if there were just nine bombers and nine hostages, well, we’ve improved the situation quite a bit.’
‘What if they insist on taking on all the hostages?’
Kamran shrugged. ‘We use a small coach. Coaches can run from, what, twenty-eight seats up to fifty plus? So we come along with a twenty-eight-seater. Even if they fill the thing, we’ve still vastly reduced the hostage situation.’
‘What about the ISIS prisoners?’ asked Gillard.
‘We’re not going to release the ISIS guys, that’s a given. And as soon as they realise that, it’s all over and everyone dies.’ Kamran took a sip of coffee. ‘This way at least we can save some lives, and make sure if anything happens it happens well away from the TV cameras. We can take them to Biggin Hill and we can make sure the airport is secure. But instead of taking them to a plane, we drive them into a hangar. Then we tell them it’s over.’
‘And if they kill everyone?’
‘They’re going to do that anyway,’ said Kamran. ‘At least this way we limit the number of casualties and the damage.’ He drank some more of his coffee. ‘Remember Operation Kratos?’
‘That was discontinued in 2008,’ said Gillard.
‘The name, maybe. But the tactics still hold good.’
Operation Kratos had been developed soon after the Al-Qaeda suicide attacks on 11 September 2001, when suicide bombers seized commercial jets and killed almost three thousand people by flying them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. For the first time police agencies around the world realised they were vulnerable to suicide attacks and the Metropolitan Police sought advice from the three countries with the most experience of fanatics who were prepared to die for their cause — Israel, Sri Lanka and Russia. They concluded that shooting suicide bombers in the chest was almost certain to detonate the explosives and suicide bombers were likely to blow themselves up when discovered. By 2002 the police had decided that the best way of dealing with them was covertly and that the bombers had to be incapacitated immediately so that they had no opportunity to self-detonate. They released their new operating procedures under the banner Operation Kratos and it quickly became national policy.
‘Any confrontation should be in a secluded location to avoid risk to police officers and members of the public,’ said Gillard, frowning as he tried to remember the official wording.
‘Can’t get much more secluded than an airport hangar,’ said Kamran.
‘What else did Kratos say? Covert police officers should fire on suicide bombers without warning, aiming at the head?’
‘Exactly,’ said Kamran. ‘Multiple shots at the brainstem to minimise the risk of detonation. This would be textbook Kratos, except we’ll be using the SAS. Who, thankfully, are not governed by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.’ He took another sip of his coffee. ‘And, just as importantly, we deny the terrorists the PR coup of having nine simultaneous bombings in London on TV.’
Gillard knew that Kamran was talking sense. Terrorism in the twenty-first century had become as much about social media and YouTube as it had about the acts themselves. ‘What about the driver? Assuming we do this, who’s going to drive the coach?’
‘I can ask my men for volunteers,’ said Murray.
Kamran looked incredulously at the SAS captain. ‘For a suicide mission?’
‘We’ll see what we can do to protect the cab, and he can bail as soon as the coach is in the hangar.’
‘Do you think Shahid will go for it?’ Gillard asked Kamran.
‘If he thinks he’s won, why not?’ said Kamran. ‘We’ll be telling him that he’s getting what he wants. How can he not take that as a victory?’
Gillard peered at the clock. It wasn’t a decision he could take on his own. It would have to come from the top. Number 10. But they were rapidly running out of time. The phone rang and Lumley answered it, then waved at Kamran. ‘Inspector Edwards for you,’ he said.
Kamran went over to his desk and took the call. ‘Hi, Ross,’ he said.
‘Have you been watching the CCTV footage?’ asked Edwards. ‘From the shop?’
‘Sorry, no, we’ve a lot of feeds coming in just now.’
‘Sami has released a hostage. A woman with a couple of kids.’
‘Did you promise him anything?’
‘He didn’t even talk to us. Still won’t.’
‘Do you have any idea what triggered the release?’
‘None, sir. Since our last conversation, we’ve had zero contact.’
Kamran ended the call and asked Sergeant Lumley to pull up the Wandsworth CCTV. ‘Three hostages have just been released from Wandsworth,’ he called over to Gillard. ‘A woman and her two children.’
Lumley had the CCTV feed up from the store but all they could see was the suicide bomber and the salesgirl he was handcuffed to standing at the edge of the picture. Gillard walked over to stand by Kamran. ‘Why would that have happened, do you think?’