‘Don’t use this number again,’ said Kamran. He ended the call. Gillard, Thatcher and Waterman took off their headphones. Kamran looked at Thatcher. ‘Why isn’t he calling?’ he asked the negotiator.
Thatcher shrugged. ‘Maybe he’s trying to build the tension,’ he said.
‘Well, it’s working, all right,’ said Waterman.
‘The prisoners are there and so are the bombers,’ said Kamran. ‘And we don’t know what he wants us to do next.’
‘On the bright side, from now on we’ll be the only ones who’ll see what’s happening,’ said Waterman. ‘From a PR point of view, they’ve just gone several steps backwards.’
‘Maybe it’s not about PR,’ said Kamran.
‘But what, then?’ asked Gillard. ‘What the hell does he want? And why won’t he tell us?’ He looked up at the screen. ‘What do we do now? Wait or send in the negotiators?’
‘I’d recommend waiting,’ said Thatcher. ‘Shahid has planned this perfectly so far. He must have something in mind.’
‘I just wish he’d let us know what,’ said Gillard.
BIGGIN HILL AIRPORT (7.12 p.m.)
Talpur moved his head to the left, trying to look out of the door but there were too many people blocking his view.
‘What’s happening?’ said the woman in front of him.
‘I don’t know,’ said the man sitting next to her.
Talpur craned his neck to look out of the front windscreen but all he could see was the wall of the hangar. Why weren’t they getting off the bus? Why wasn’t anything happening?
‘Driver!’ he shouted. ‘Can you see what’s happening out there?’
The driver didn’t react but several people in front of Talpur turned to him.
‘Driver, can you see anything?’ shouted Talpur, standing up.
‘Shut up, man,’ hissed Ahmed. ‘You’ll get us killed.’
‘We need to know what’s happening,’ said Talpur. ‘The prisoners have been released, we’re at the airport, so why aren’t they releasing us? Shahid said we’d be released.’
‘He also said that if we deviated from his instructions, we’d all die.’
‘Brother, we know that only Shahid can detonate these vests. And if we’re sitting in this coach, he can’t see us. The windows are blacked out.’
Another of the Asians turned. ‘Just sit down and shut up.’
‘You want to sit here like sheep and wait to see if Shahid will allow us to live or die?’ Talpur took a step towards the driver. ‘Driver, what’s happening out there?’
The driver twisted in his seat. ‘Sit the fuck down!’ he shouted at Talpur.
Talpur raised his hands and let the trigger lie in the flat of his right palm. ‘I’m not holding the trigger,’ he shouted. ‘I’m not going to press it. My hand is open. Look.’ He took another step forward and pulled the chain so that the woman slid across to his seat.
The driver’s eyes tightened. ‘Sit the fuck down or I swear I’ll shoot you in the head.’ He had a gun in his hands now and he was pointing it at Talpur’s face.
‘My name is Kashif Talpur and I work for the National Crime Agency. I’m a cop.’
‘Sit the fuck down now!’ shouted the driver, his finger tightening on the trigger.
‘You have to listen to me! We can’t detonate the vests. They can only be detonated by phone. You have to get them off us now!’
The Asian man sitting next to the priest stood up and screamed at Talpur, ‘You’re going to get us killed!’
The driver pointed the gun at the man. ‘You, sit the fuck down! Everyone, sit down, now!’
Talpur heard footsteps outside the coach. ‘Please, everyone, just keep calm!’ he shouted. ‘We can get out of this if we all stay calm.’
‘Go back to your seat now!’ shouted the driver.
‘No! You have to listen to me. No one here is going to press the trigger. The triggers don’t work.’
‘What’s happening in there?’ someone shouted from outside.
‘If we were going to detonate, we’d have done it already!’ shouted Talpur.
Two more Asians at the front of the bus got to their feet at the same time and began shouting. The driver took a step back, trying to cover the two of them with his gun by swinging it from side to side.
‘We’re not going to hurt you. Can’t you see that?’ yelled Talpur.
He heard a noise behind him. The emergency exit door opened and he caught a glimpse of two men in leather jackets with handguns.
‘Don’t shoot!’ shouted Talpur. ‘I’m a cop! I’m a fucking cop!’
There were more sounds at the front of the bus, dull thuds. He whirled around and saw another man with a gun at the door, next to the driver.
‘Listen to me!’ shouted Talpur. ‘I’m a police officer. No one here can detonate their vest. They are remotely controlled. We are not a threat. I repeat, we are not a threat!’
LAMBETH CENTRAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMAND CENTRE (7.13 p.m.)
‘What’s going on? Who told the SAS to go in?’ said Gillard. He turned to Murray. ‘What’s happening?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ said Murray, staring up at the large screen showing the feed from the Biggin Hill hangar. SAS troopers were at the back of the coach and the front. Two of the SAS men had gone inside, Jim Hawkins leading the way.
‘Were shots fired?’ asked Kamran. The feed was silent so he had no idea whether the troopers had used their weapons or not.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Murray.
‘They’ve opened the rear door,’ said Gillard. ‘What the hell is happening?’
Kamran frowned at the screen as the seconds ticked off. It didn’t make any sense. If the vests were going to detonate, what was taking so long? Were they trying to lure the SAS in so that they would be caught in the blast?
‘They shouldn’t have gone in without negotiating first,’ said Gillard.
‘Something must have happened,’ said Murray.
‘Then do us all a favour and find out what,’ said Gillard.
BIGGIN HILL AIRPORT (7.14 p.m.)
Jim Hawkins kept his MP5 trained on the face of the man standing in the aisle. His finger was tense on the trigger and the slightest increase in pressure would put a slug virtually instantaneously into the man’s skull. ‘Drop the trigger,’ he said.
‘I can’t,’ said the man. ‘It’s held in place with the Velcro strap. I couldn’t drop it if I wanted to.’
‘What do you want?’ asked Hawkins.
‘I want off this fucking coach,’ said the man. ‘We all do. Listen to me, I’m a cop. My name is Kashif Talpur. We are all here under duress. We can’t detonate these vests. They can only be detonated by remote control. You need to get them off us.’
Hawkins frowned. He looked over at McMullen. ‘What do you think, Terry?’
‘I think if they were going to detonate, they already would have.’
‘He’s telling the truth,’ said the Asian man standing by the priest. ‘This is not our doing.’
All the men wearing the vests began to talk at once, proclaiming their innocence and pleading to be allowed off the coach.
‘Shut the fuck up!’ shouted Hawkins. ‘Sit down, shut up, and put your hands on your heads.’
LAMBETH CENTRAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMAND CENTRE (7.16 p.m.)
Captain Murray put down his mobile phone. ‘The terrorists have surrendered,’ he said. ‘They’re saying they acted under duress.’
‘Duress? How?’
‘They’re claiming that the vests can only be detonated by remote control. The triggers don’t work.’
‘Then we need to get the vests off them immediately,’ said Gillard. He looked up at the screen showing the feed from the hangar. The SAS men were taking the bombers and hostages off the bus. One of the troopers had a pair of bolt-cutters and was using it to sever the chains. ‘Alex, get the hostages and bombers separated straight away. The bombers can be kept in the hangar but our men can take care of the hostages right now.’ He nodded at Kamran. ‘Mo, can you talk to Silver and make that happen? And get him to send in bomb disposal to sort the vests out.’