‘Unless he already had what he wanted,’ said Kamran.
Gillard turned to him. ‘But what?’ he asked. ‘How is this in any way a victory for him?’
‘It could have been a test,’ said Waterman. ‘Testing to see how we would react, how much leeway we would give them. Now they know that the government will bow to their demands, next time they will ask for even more. And next time the vests could be real.’
Murray nodded. ‘We showed weakness,’ he said. ‘They’ll take advantage of that.’
Drury finished his call and walked back to his seat. ‘That was one of my guys,’ he said. ‘He confirms that the explosives weren’t real, and neither were the detonators. The triggers looked like the real thing but they wouldn’t have done anything if pressed. The vests were harmless. Totally harmless.’
Gillard was about to speak when the door opened. It was Sergeant Lumley. ‘It’s the prime minister, sir,’ said the sergeant. ‘On your direct line in the Gold Command suite so I can’t transfer it.’
Gillard stood up. ‘Mo, you’d better come with me.’ He looked around the room. ‘To be continued…’ he said, and headed for the door with Kamran in tow.
BIGGIN HILL AIRPORT (7.26 p.m.)
Inspector Ian Adams stood next to the EOD technicians and watched as they worked. They had all nine vests on the ground and one was taking photographs with a digital camera. ‘Have you ever seen anything like this before?’ Adams asked the older of the two men.
‘Fakes, you mean? Not outside the movies, no. But someone went to a lot of trouble to make them appear real. They’d fool me from a distance, no question.’
Adams walked out of the hangar.
‘Sir! Are you the Silver Commander here?’
Adams turned to see who was shouting at him. SAS troopers with guns at the ready were guarding the nine men who had been wearing the vests. They were all kneeling facing the outside wall of the hangar, their wrists bound behind their backs. One of the men had twisted his head around to look at Adams. An SAS trooper stepped forward and shouted at the man to keep quiet.
‘Yes, I am. Inspector Ian Adams.’
‘My name is Kashif Talpur. I’m an undercover officer with the National Crime Agency. My governor is Inspector Mark Biddulph. He was at Tavistock Square. He can vouch for me.’
‘That’s all right, I know who you are,’ said Adams. He nodded at the SAS trooper standing behind Talpur. ‘It’s okay, he’s one of ours.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. My orders are to keep everyone here in this position.’
‘He’s a cop.’
‘I’m sorry, sir.’
Adams opened his mouth to argue but could see from the look on the trooper’s face that there would be no point. He glanced around for Sergeant Hawkins and saw him inside the hangar, standing by the coach. He went over and explained what had happened. Hawkins called over to the trooper, ‘Let him go, Haggis. He’s one of the good guys.’
Haggis used a knife to cut the plastic tie before helping Talpur to his feet.
Talpur hurried over to Adams. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said. ‘Any idea where my governor is?’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Adams. ‘But I can find out. What the hell’s going on? What were you doing with that vest on?’
‘We were forced into it. They said if we didn’t do as we were told, they’d set the bombs off.’
‘The bombs were fake,’ said Adams. ‘You were never in any danger.’
‘That can’t be right. I saw one of them explode. It blew a guy to pieces.’
‘Where was that?’
‘I don’t know. This morning some time. We were in a warehouse. They blew a guy up and said the same would happen to us if we didn’t follow instructions.’
‘They? Who are they?’
‘I only saw one of them. A guy calling himself Shahid. I never saw his face, had a ski mask on. Asian. Five ten, five eleven, maybe. London accent.’ He sighed. ‘I need a bath. And a meal.’
‘No bath, not yet,’ said Adams. ‘We’re going to need to take your clothes for Forensics. Then you’ll have to be debriefed. But I’ll see if I can get some food sorted.’ He took out his phone. ‘I’ll call Gold.’
LAMBETH CENTRAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMAND CENTRE (7.27 p.m.)
Kamran followed Gillard into the Gold Command suite. The chief superintendent picked up the phone. He was expecting to be talking to an assistant but it was the prime minister himself. ‘Well done, Chief Superintendent. A perfect resolution. It couldn’t have gone better.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ said Gillard.
‘Not a single shot fired, no one hurt, and the prisoners still in custody. Frankly, we’re in awe of you. You’ll have to come around when you’re done and talk us through it.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Gillard. ‘I’ll gladly do that.’ He closed his eyes and exhaled, knowing that, as things stood, he had no idea how he would explain the events of the past ten hours, and certainly not the resolution.
‘Please pass on my thanks to the whole team there. It really was a job well done.’
‘I will, sir.’
‘They gave up, is that what happened? They realised we weren’t going to negotiate? Your strategy worked?’
‘It was a complicated situation, sir. I’m still trying to get my head around it.’
‘Well, I’ll tell you this, Chief Superintendent. You deserve a medal, and if I have my way, you’ll be getting one.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ said Gillard, but the line was already dead. He put down the phone. ‘What the hell happened, Mo?’ he said. ‘I’ll happily take the credit for a successful operation but we didn’t do anything. Shahid just walked away.’
‘Like Lynne said, it could have been a test.’
‘They want something bigger than getting us to release six ISIS prisoners? And if it was a terrorist act, what could be worse than nine bombs going off across the city?’
Kamran’s mobile rang and he took it out.
‘Is it him? Is it Shahid?’
Kamran shook his head. ‘Ian Adams, at the airport.’ He put the phone to his ear. ‘Yes, Ian.’
‘Sorry to bother you, sir, but I need to run a few things by you.’
‘No problem, Ian. Go ahead.’
‘I’m here with Kashif Talpur, the NCA guy. He confirms that they were under duress. According to him, he saw a vest explode and kill the man wearing it.’
‘Where was this?’
‘He doesn’t know. Sir, what do I do with him?’
‘Get him to GT Ops as quickly as possible. His governor can meet him here. Where are the men who were wearing the vests?’
‘The SAS have them under guard at the hangar. But if they were acting under duress, I’m not sure if we can do that, right?’
‘At the moment we’re not sure of anything,’ said Kamran. ‘What have you done so far?’
‘The ISIS prisoners are en route back to Belmarsh. I’ve removed everyone from the hangar, except for the Bomb Squad people and the men wearing the vests, though it’s now definite that all the vests are inert. The hostages are being looked after at the main terminal. There was a chain and a padlock at the back of each vest so they had to be cut off. All the men wearing the vests are telling the same story — they were forced into it. They’re claiming the vests could only be detonated by remote control and that they had been told if they didn’t follow their instructions they’d be killed.’
‘They all say that?’ asked Kamran.
‘All of them. The thing is, sir, do we arrest them? They claim that they were under duress. Can they be arrested? And what about the hostages? They’re asking to go home. I don’t see how we can continue to hold them against their will.’