TTF/ Casino Liverpool
Tank, Faz and Chen exited their Mitsibushi Shogun in the car park of the Liverpool Casino. The casino was a relatively new building in comparison to the historic docklands in which it stood. Situated next to the Albert Docks it looked out of place next to its ancient neighbours. The walls were white and the building was almost triangular in shape. Thirty feet high glass windows surrounded the reception area, which revealed the interior of the casino and its first floor bar to entice passers-by in. The River Mersey ran past the rear of the casino, you could flick a poker chip into its murky waters from the casino`s restaurant balcony. Tank walked to the trunk and opened it. Inside was a metal lock box and Chen opened it with a digital combination code. Tank reached inside and removed three battle vests, which he distributed between them. The battle vests were made from knitted Kevlar fibres, which made them light, but capable of stopping a high velocity bullet. Ounce for ounce the material was stronger than stainless steel. Faz removed three Mossberg 12 gauge pump action shot guns. Each gun had a magazine that held eight shells containing double o shot. Double o shot was comprised of the largest lead pieces available for ballistic use. It was designed with stopping power as the prime function, and could drop an elephant at a hundred yards. The three Task Force agents went through the motions of checking that the magazines were full and functioning. Tank removed his 9mm Glock pistol and repeated the checks on the smaller weapon, Faz and Chen followed suit.
A senior uniformed officer approached their vehicle, crouching behind it dramatically as he arrived. Tank recognised him as the chief officer of the Organised Crime Unit, and a major pain in the arse.
“I have an undercover agent inside the casino, with approximately six members of the 18th Brigade. My agent informed us that their objective is to rob the casino and burn it to the ground. I have the casino surrounded with Armed Response Unit officers, and when I get the word we will arrest everyone inside including my agent. We do not need Terrorist Task Force involved, it`s my jurisdiction,” the uniformed officer said agitated at the arrival of the Terrorist Task Force agents, “this is an Organised Crime Unit operation and I am ordering you to stand down.”
“How does get stuffed and fuck off grab you?” Tank said in reply, “you have no authority over any of my agents, and the 18th Brigade became Terrorist Task Force jurisdiction when they decided to get involved in blowing things up. You can leave the Armed Response Unit in place. I have requested them as back up but you and your men aren’t required here.” Tank glared at the Police Chief. The domestic law and order agencies had no authority over the Terrorist Task Force, who answered directly to the British government. The police officer flushed a crimson colour in anger but he knew that Tank was right, and he had no authority.
“How dare you speak to a senior police officer like that, you Neanderthal? I will be making a complete report about this behaviour,” the officer blustered.
“You are not my senior officer, and in case you hadn’t noticed we are not members of the police force,” Tank chambered a shell into the Mossberg loudly which made the policeman recoil adding further humiliation to the Police Chief`s hopeless position, “now take your report and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine, because we have some terrorists to catch.” Tank pushed passed the policeman followed closely by Faz and Chen.
Faz noticed a marked police car parked in front of the main doors of the casino in full view of the armed men inside, two uniformed officers leaned against the vehicle chattering. Suddenly a burst of automatic machinegun fire pierced the night. The bullets were fired from an upper window inside the casino. The two uniformed officers dived for cover as their vehicle was peppered with high velocity bullets. Sparks and shattered glass filled the air. The tires exploded and the noise echoed across the dark waters of the River Mersey.
“So much for a low profile approach,” Tank sneered, “uniform has screwed this up already. Faz, take charge of the Armed Response Unit, have them maintain the perimeter until we can work out what to do next. We have no idea if that’s the Russians or Brigade men shooting at us, and we don’t know who else is in there. Chen, you come with me I’ve got an idea.”
Tank communicated with a special operations listening post that was situated in an old school building on the other side of the city. He requested an unmanned helicopter drone to survey the casino from above. Within a matter of minutes the miniature helicopter was above the building. The engines were capable of running in silent mode and the machine was almost impossible to detect at night. The unmanned drones were used by American Delta Force operatives extensively in the mountains of Afghanistan, searching for Osama Bin Laden. On November 5, 2002 four senior al-Qaeda members who were travelling in a car through the Yemen, were killed by a missile launched from an American Predator drone. Their machines are described as `medium altitude, remote controlled aircraft`. On May 15th 2005 Haitham al-Yemnini, a senior Pakistani extremist was also assassinated by a CIA controlled remote drone in the disputed territory of Kashmir. The unmanned drone passed information back to the listening post in the old school. Heat seeking equipment on board the drone showed the position of fifteen people, who were seated together in a group. Eight others were spread out around the building`s perimeter. There were two other subjects giving off detectable heat, but not to the level a live human would radiate. Tank had to assume two people were already dead or dying.
The Armed Response Unit surrounded the casino alongside over a dozen Terrorist Task Force agents. Grace Farrington positioned the Task Force agents where they could get a clear shot at anyone trying to leave the building. The members of both elite forces resembled Robocop in their battle armour. They were equipped with state of the art night vision and motion sensors; nothing could enter or leave the casino undetected. The weapon of choice with British Special Forces was the new Brugger and Thomet Semi-Auto Tactical 9mm pistols, which are capable of firing over 900 armour piercing bullets a minute. They had the capacity to kill everyone inside the casino if the order was given, by simply shooting through the brick walls. The problem that the Terrorist Task Force agents had was that they couldn’t identify the good guys from the bad guys, unless they breached the casino walls.
Major Stanley Timms spoke to Tank from the control room, via a micro-receiver which the TTF agents had inserted into their ears, “What`s the situation Tank? Can we move in?”
“Negative Major, we have a group of fifteen subjects in the centre of the building, and eight others positioned around the interior perimeter, it looks like a hostage situation. Uniformed officers came under automatic gunfire a short time ago, so we have the building surrounded by Armed Response Units and our agents. The commanding officer from Organised Crime Unit has a bug up his arse because he has an undercover agent inside. The undercover officer has infiltrated the 18th Brigade ranks and apparently tipped of the OCU to the casino mission,” Tank explained the situation.
“It would appear that the Brigade has taken issue with our Russian friends. We are getting reports of over thirty incidents in which buildings suspected as brothels have been attacked and burned. All have links to dubious Russian businesses. You need to get those hostages out of there in one piece Tank. Westminster is all over this following the River Dee and Manchester bombings,” the Major sounded under pressure to get a result. The position was being compounded by the rising death toll. The British public were on the verge of panic fuelled by misinformation in the press. Islamic extremists were being blamed for the riverboat bombings. The responsibility for the bomb at Manchester Piccadilly station had landed at the same place. Dozens of buildings, reportedly being used for the sex trade were ablaze across the north west of the country, fuelling the flames of racial mistrust.
“We need to breach the building`s perimeter Major,” Tank said as he walked across the parking lot toward a building site. He could see a huge yellow JCB digger parked silently on the empty construction lot.
“I think I have an idea Major,” Tank said.