Terrorist Task Force
John Tankersley was the lead officer of the Terrorist Task Force, a mixed group of civilian and military personnel that specialised in counter-terrorism operations. He stood over six feet tall and carried seventeen stones of solid muscle on his huge frame, his friends and colleagues called him `Tank`. He walked slowly around the police cordon, which surrounded the scene of the riverboat bomb. Uniformed officers from the Cheshire Constabulary had sealed the area off from the press and the public. There were over two hundred students on the vessel Princess Dianna when it was torn apart by an explosion. Distraught family members and the press were encamped around the scene awaiting information.
Tank watched as a dozen, Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) painstakingly searched through the debris of the bombing. There was an ever-increasing line of plastic body bags being formed on the car park of the Boathouse pub. The shapes beneath the plastic liners had no resemblance to a human form; they were merely remnants to be identified at a later date. A further two SOCO were busy analysing the remains of a burnt out van which was also on the car park. One of the officers noticed Tank`s approach and removed a white paper suit from his field kit.
“Good afternoon, sir, could you put this on please,” the officer said passing the protective clothing to Tank. Tank wrestled his huge frame into the paper suit and walked to where the two men were working.
“What are your first impressions of the situation?” Tank asked as he ran his huge hand over his shaved head. He always did this when he was thinking.
“We are ruling out an accidental explosion. We have found fragments of explosive caps stuck into the boat`s hull which would suggest a sophisticated explosive device was place below decks. The fire crews originally thought that this van might have caught fire as a result of burning debris, however upon further inspection, it`s obvious that an accelerant has been used. There is virtually nothing left of who ever this body belonged to and the way the vans sub-frame has melted suggests a large amount of flammable material was inside it,” the SOCO explained.
“Could have been suicide attack then?” Tank pushed the scientist for his opinion. The next few hours of the investigation would prove crucial, but it was very easy to make assumptions and follow a wild goose chase. Tank wanted to be absolutely sure that they would start the investigation in the correct place.
“If you are thinking that it could be an Islamic extremist attack then I would be very careful,” the investigator warned, “the type of device that use explosive caps similar to the ones that we have found, are far more sophisticated than we are used to seeing in this country.”
Tank had to agree with the SOCO. Most attacks on British soil were carried out using various homemade devices, which combined hydrogen peroxide with flour. It was an extremely effective explosive when manufactured correctly. The deaths of fifty two people and the injuries caused to seven hundred more were the result of such an explosive device on Thursday, July 7th 2005.British Muslim extremists carried out a direct attack on London`s overcrowded public transport network using such homemade explosives with catastrophic results. The evidence from the riverboat scene was pointing to the fact that, the explosion that had destroyed the vessel Princess Dianna was caused by a plastic explosive substance such as Semtex. This fact made the involvement of extremists unlikely; it indicated the involvement of a military nature.
Tank had spent much of his military career in Special Forces operations. He trained the counter-terrorist forces of a dozen different countries in the use of plastic explosives and covert operations, especially members of the Soviet Union. In 1991 when the huge Russian Empire started to collapse, so did the intelligence agencies of its satellite countries. This made thousands of expertly trained covert agents unemployed. Many became mercenaries for sale to the highest bidder, others used their talents to their own ends and crime organisations appeared all over Eastern Europe. Their military talents, which included the use of explosives, struck fear into the hearts of their enemies and law-enforcement agencies alike. Tank knew that whoever manufactured this bomb had the knowledge that could only be acquired from Special Forces personnel. Furthermore, this type of explosive chemical was strictly weapons grade and difficult to acquire. Semtex and explosives in general have two grades, commercial grade for mining or demolition, and weapons grade for munitions.
“We won`t be able to be specific until everything is analysed at the lab, but we can confirm that the explosion on the boat and the explosion in this van were not accidental,” the scientist said without making any speculative opinions. Tank nodded his thanks and walked through the car park toward the River Dee. A big yellow crane that was mounted on the back of truck, was in the process of lifting the riverboat`s shattered hull from the water. A four-foot brass propeller hung precariously from the wreckage as it was swung toward a waiting low-loader. Tank noticed a dark scorch mark about three foot long in the centre of the hull. He waved to the crane operator to stop the lifting. The man crunched a gear stick and the boat hull swayed back and too from the chains which supported it. Tank pointed to a SOCO that was tasked with capturing photographic evidence and indicated that he wanted him to photograph the deep burn.
“What do you think caused that John?” asked Major Stanley Timms as he approached Tank. The Major was the head of the Terrorist Task Force and had just arrived on the scene. He was a Major in the Royal Marines for thirty years before his secondment to the TTF, a Green Beret with a war record that would make Rambo blush. He was the only member of the Task Force that called Tank by his first name.
“Hello Major,” Tank greeted him. “Can you see the triangular shape of the burn?”
The Major stared at the scorch and could make out a triangular shape about three feet wide; he nodded to Tank in confirmation.
“It looks like the residual burn mark of an IFD,” Tank said. “An improvised formed device, or shaped charge. They were first used by the Iranians to penetrate Iraqi tank armour. Now the technology has advanced and they are standard special operations tactics. The force of the blast is directed by an armour shield on one side of the device, forcing the blast in this case, upwards through the upper decks. This is no amateur job, Major, it is Black Operations technology. This bomb was planted with the sole purpose of leaving no one above it alive.”
Major Stanley Timms nodded slowly and walked closer to Tank, linking his hand into the crook of his elbow, he led him away from the crane. The Major looked toward a guard tower on the Roman walls. The walls ran beside the River Dee for about two-miles and offered a raised vantage point to the press and curious onlookers. At this point of the river the walls were set back one hundred yards from the water and towered forty foot above ground level. Some of the best viewing points in the City of Chester were from the great stone walls. Tank followed his gaze, assessed the sight then quickly looked away so as not to attract attention. Tank could see that high up on the Roman walls stood three men wearing dark sunglasses. They were wearing dark suits and Arabian Ghutra headwear; two of the men were looking at the scene through binoculars. There were hundreds of ghoulish sightseers lining the Roman edifice but these Arabian men were very distinctive and were definitely not tourists.
“I`ve had a call from Whitehall, John. One of the passengers on that boat was the daughter of a leading Saudi diplomat. They`re anxious for any information they can get their hands on. We need to make sure that we do not allow any information or speculation to leave our team. The last thing we need now is the Saudi Secret Service orchestrating some half arsed retaliation,” the Major whispered using the noise of the crane to hamper any listening devices that may be pointed in their direction. Intelligence departments all over the world now had equipment that could pick up a conversation from five hundred-yards away. Tank waved to the SOCO chief who was stood on the opposite side of the boat hull fifty-yards away. He placed his right index finger into his right ear and the chief copied his action. Tank nodded. The gesture meant that the crime scene could be under surveillance from undesirables. Without any undue activity the officers made the scene covert. Covers and canvas screens were used to cover anything that hadn’t already been assessed, and all conversation about the evidence was stopped immediately. The general public on the Roman walls would never have noticed that anything had changed. All the forensic scientists were now aware that they were being watched by agencies unknown.
Two hundred young people had lost their lives to an act of terrorism, and it appeared that foreign militia were involved. Tank would take the culprits to task, and he wasn’t afraid of anyone who stood in his way.