Pete Dodge & Terry Nick
Pete Dodge took off his mirrored sunglasses and opened the window of the Ford van that he was driving. He was looking at the smouldering embers of what was once the Orford Arms, his business, the base for the 18th Brigade, and his home. The buildings were raised to the ground by the fire, which had started in the cellar and spread quickly. Two weeks ago he had a successful door security business and control of the lucrative drugs trade that came hand in hand. Now he was a fugitive from the law and his empire was crumbling before his eyes. Word had spread quickly that the Brigade`s headquarters was destroyed, and that its leader had gone to ground. Rival gangs were already moving in on his area trying to secure the security contracts that the Brigade held, in the event that Dodge didn’t resurface. Whoever controlled the door security also controlled the drugs, which was a huge cash cow. He needed to regain his grip and enforce his authority immediately. The 18th Brigade had devastated the Russian Mafia`s business interests overnight in retaliation for the deception surrounding the River Dee bomb, and the kidnap of Jeannie Kellesh. His troops had done well so far, but he had received a call from one of his lieutenants, Dano, alerting him to the situation at the Liverpool Casino. Dano had informed Dodge that he and his men were surrounded by armed police. The best option was to surrender and be charged for what could be construed as an armed robbery gone wrong. It would be difficult for the police to prove that it was anything other than that.
Dodge turned to his passenger and said, “We need to set up a new base immediately Terry. Use the offices above the Quarter-Deck in Oakwood, and get word to all our people that we are very much still in business.” The Quarterdeck was a two-storey pub building that the Brigade frequented. Terry Nick had just been released from hospital after being shot twice in the foot by a Russian enforcer. His wounded appendage still raged in pain but he needed to return to business immediately. Terry was Dodge`s main enforcer and they needed to regain control. Nelson`s Quarterdeck was a large pub which only traded on the ground floor. The void space above it was unused apart from a small office. It would suffice as a base for operations temporarily. Terry had already used his vast network of contacts both domestically and internationally, to apply pressure to the Russian Mafia to call a truce. Going to war was bad for business, especially against millionaire-backed mercenaries like the Organizatsiya.
Terry had spent six years in a Californian penitentiary following a foiled arms deal. The American courts looked dimly on foreigners breaking the law on American soil, and they placed him into the worst prison that an Englishman could enter, San Quentin. San Quentin was opened in1854 and is the oldest jail in its state. It is the equivalent of a human jungle where a lone white Englishman is at the mercy of the prison gangs. Terry Nick was a big man, pumped up by Nandrelone injections and a strict weight-training regime. His shaved head and Nazi tattoos made him an immediate target for the black inmates but a natural ally to the white Nazis. San Quentin was segregated into racial groups, The Black Guerrilla Family, Neustria Familia, Cripps, Bloods and Black P. Stones absorbed the majority of black and Italian inmates. The Mexican Mafia protected the Hispanic prisoners while the Aryan Brotherhood covered the white population. The Aryan Brotherhood took Terry Nick into their ranks and under their protection on day one of his sentence. The bulk of their memberships were white skinhead supremacists, most of them were marked with similar Nazi tattoos to those worn by Terry. The Brotherhood has a membership of over one- hundred and twenty thousand hard-core members involved in drug trafficking, racketeering and protection rackets. According to the FBI the Aryan Brotherhood makes up just one percent of the American prison population but is responsible for twenty six percent of the murders in the federal system. Their members were spread far and wide across the American continent making them a formidable crime organisation. The advances in technology now made controlling and the organisation of such gangs considerably easier. Mobile phones smuggled into prison extended the reach of the prison gangs, making them more dangerous. Prison guards and their families were identified and targeted. They were influenced or forced to turn a blind eye to contraband being smuggled into the prisons. Many warders were assassinated for non-compliance or for giving gang members a hard time. Huge crime families could be operated from a prison cell, and multi million pound drug deals arranged from behind bars. It was just as easy to eliminate rival gang members and their business interests. Terry Nick had already contacted his affiliates within the Brotherhood to enlist their support against Russian Mafia aggression. The screw was already being tightened across the USA.
Dodge had made similar calls for assistance to groups sympathetic to the 18th Brigade worldwide. The alarm had spread around the globe overnight through fascist communication networks, the links normally used to arrange drugs and arms trafficking were now buzzing with a call to arms against Soviet Mafia interests worldwide. The Nazi website Stormfront.org was a hive of activity as word spread. A Nazi group known as the Hammerskins which has chapters in Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Portugal, Spain New Zealand and Australia has a membership which runs into the tens of thousands, and is just one of hundreds of similar groups. The specific policies of these neo-Nazi groups differ slightly from country to country, but they all include an allegiance to Adolf Hitler, anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. They also use their large memberships to control the extortion, drug and sex trades. They actively seek to recruit disaffected violent youths into their ranks, some of whom would enjoy nothing more than going to war against a rival crime organisation for whatever reason at all.
“The ball is already rolling Dodge,” Terry Nick said looking at the smoking ruins. His foot was throbbing with pain and he winced as he tried to move it to a more comfortable position. “If Alexis and his Russian friends want trouble then they are going to have their hands full.”
“We have a problem now the government and the Terrorist Task Force are involved. Blowing up that boat was not the most subtle plan I have ever encountered. I think that we should arrange a meeting with the Task Force, we need them off our backs,” Dodge said, “let`s be honest we knew nothing about any bombs. We were tricked into this by the Russians.”
“You can`t be serious Dodge,” Terry said, “you can`t go to the police. They will string you up.”
“Look what has happened since we became involved in this bloody mess,” Dodge turned to Terry and looked him in the eye. Communication with the police was a taboo, problems were dealt with in-house. “Matt and Ivan are missing or dead. The arrival of the Task Force at the Orford means that the riverboat bomb is being linked to us. You got shot in the foot. Our boys are surrounded by armed police in a casino and we are ready to go to war. We will lose everything if we don’t sort this out right now.”
“Look what we achieved last night Dodge,” Terry said angrily. The pain from his bullet wounds was increasing as his medication wore off. “We gave the Russians a good kick up the arse, they won`t mess with us again in a hurry. Our contacts in America are ready to give them a good shoeing.”
“Your Aryan Brotherhood friends will use it as an excuse to move in on Russian businesses. The same goes for all the rest of our affiliates, they all have their own agendas. The best we can hope for is that the Russians will see it as too much trouble to take us on. Be under no illusions Terry, if they want us gone then we are already dead.” Terry remained silent as he mulled over what his leader was saying. It went against the grain.
“I tell the Task Force everything that we know and give them the fucking Russians on a plate. We can carry on as normal and pick up their prime sites,” Dodge said slowly trying to coax Terry onto his side. “We didn’t ask for any of this bullshit Terry, let`s lay the blame where it belongs.”
Terry nodded slowly as he saw the opportunities that would arise if the Russians` key players were arrested or shot by the Terrorist Task Force. The plan was brilliant and could definitely work. It looked like they would not have to wait very long to find out.
Chapter 20
The Saudi Embassy
The Saudi government knew that Jeannie Kellesh was still alive. They also knew that a Russian entrepreneur was behind her kidnap plot. Demands was delivered to the Saudi Princess`s father which instructed them to increase the price of crude oil by 10 dollars per barrel. The increase was to be maintained for a minimum of ninety days, after which she would be released. Any attempt to alert international security services to Jeannie`s plight would result in her death. It appeared to the outside world that there was no tangible evidence that she was still alive. All the evidence pointed to her being a victim of the Islamic extremists that had bombed the riverboat at Chester, and the press were still all over the story causing domestic unrest.
The Saudis moved their crude oil price up and cut back production sharply, leading to diplomatic condemnation throughout the Western world. Since 1960 crude oil prices was governed by the OPEC nations. Prices had historically been affected by conflict in the Middle East, but the unilateral price increase from the Saudis seemed to have no justification. The OPEC cartel is made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Libya, Qatar, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis oil production counts for over thirty percent of the world`s crude oil. If they increase the price then everyone else has to follow suit. OPEC`s principle aim is to safeguard the collective interests of the oil producing nations, with a view to eliminate harmful and unnecessary fluctuations. This unilateral price rise had caused chaos to international business. Air travel and product transportation costs doubled overnight forcing many small businesses across the globe into bankruptcy.
The interrogation of the Russian Mafioso Yuri had delivered the name of the man behind the plot, and also the probable whereabouts of Jeannie. Even though they knew where she was being held the Saudis were reluctant to use their military forces to attempt to recover the Princess, because she was being held in Soviet territory. Tension between the southern Russian states and their Middle Eastern neighbours was fraught for centuries. The Soviets had always supported and supplied Syria with arms and armour, which caused ill feeling amongst other Muslim countries. Military forces across the Middle East were on amber alert following the Saudi airstrike on Syrian land. An additional incursion into a Soviet satellite state would be seen as an act of aggression and political suicide.
The Saudis had decided to hand over both the perpetrators and the information that they had recovered to the British government. The bomb, which had killed so many young people on the River Dee, was an act of international terrorism on British soil. The fact that it had no political justification attached to it was irrelevant. If the British moved on the information that Roman Kordinski was involved, then the Saudis could not be blamed for outing the plot. British Special Forces were far better equipped to deal with a possible incursion and rescue attempt than the Saudi military. The decision was made; the Russian Yuri was to be handed to the British along with the recordings of his evidence under interrogation. The only way to carry out the plan without alerting the Russian Mafia was if Yuri was already dead.