Holyhead/ Sian`s House

      Tank walked over to the patio doors and looked at the view. He watched the waves crashing against the rocks beneath the white lighthouse, which looked tiny from this distance. Sian and Mustapha were in the kitchen making coffee. Mustapha had become upset during their discussion so Tank suggested that they made some coffee to give the Iraqi man a break.

      He had a major situation to control and he tried to arrange the pieces in his mind. He heard a car approaching and turned to see Chen and Faz come to a stop outside. He waved at them through the glass and signalled with his hands for them to come in. They walked in silence toward the house gazing out past the building to the sea. Tank was playing mental chess with the information that he had gathered from the last forty-eight hours.

      The most wanted terrorist on the planet was in the country and had tried to import explosives from the now redundant, but still dangerous, Irish Republican Army. Sian and her team had apprehended two men who were in the process of smuggling the explosives from Dublin to Holyhead, but Tank was convinced that it was a decoy to cover a larger shipment.

      Chen walked into the room with Faz at the same time as Sian and Mustapha walked in from the kitchen carrying their coffee cups. Chen and Faz simultaneously reached for their guns. Mustapha froze like a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming truck.

      “Whoa! Put the guns away. Put the guns away please guys! He is not who you think he is.” Tank moved between his officers and Mustapha and the two agents lowered their guns.

      “Meet Mustapha Ahmed. He is the brother of Yasser Indri Ahmed.” Tank took the coffee cup from the shocked Mustapha, whose hands were shaking, spilling the hot liquid onto the wooden floor.

      “As you can tell, my guys are quite keen to catch your brother.” Tank lead Mustapha to the couch and he sat down next to him.

      “What did we get from Patrick Finnen?” Sian asked referring to the interrogations at the customs suite.

      “It`s pretty complicated but the gist of it is that he thinks he was set up by the Axe group. Finnen and his cronies, all ex Provo’s, were approached by Axe, who wanted to purchase guns and explosives.” Faz started to explain.

     “I am sorry but what are Provo`s?” Mustapha interrupted. If this was really all about his brother then he wanted to understand.

     “Provo`s is the slang name for Provisional IRA members. They were the Catholic paramilitaries, terrorists. Anyway the contact came from a man called Sanjeet, who was based in Kilkenny. He handled all the negotiations for Axe, and he had insisted that the cargo be split into three loads. The black Mercedes we already know about, there is a transit van somewhere full of AK-47`s, Uzi submachine guns and grenades. In addition, the icing on the cake is that there was also a van containing Semtex, twenty-two RPG`S and two Surface to Air Missiles. We don’t know where that is. Finnen seems to think that the guns are still in Ireland.” Grace Farrington shrugged her shoulders and raised her hands as if baffled by her own story.

        “Do we know where this stuff is headed?” Tank stood up and walked over to the patio doors. He unfastened the top button of his shirt and loosened his tie.

        “Warrington, Finnen said that his brother Billy had traced the money to Warrington. The second prisoner is Usef Mamood. He says that he was just picking up a black Mercedes. That’s all, he was to let the previous owner drive it onto the ferry across from Dublin to Holyhead then he was to drive it back to Warrington. He`s been working in a sandwich distribution warehouse at a place called Kingsland Grange. We have his address, where he shares a house with six others, all Middle Eastern nationals. They all pray at a mosque in Appleton. He is insistent that he knew nothing about any explosives. He says that he`s new into the community where he lives, and that he was set up. One more thing, we have traced the SIM card from the phone that made the anonymous tip off. It is an unregistered prepaid SIM card, we can`t trace the owner but we have triangulated the whereabouts to guess where, Warrington.”Faz smiled, her white teeth seemed to gleam against her dark skin.

       “Warrington is where I was sent to as a young boy. My brother has many sympathizers in that community, but I cannot believe that those people would make bombs.” Mustapha stood and walked toward Tank.

       “What will happen to me now? I am related to him Mr. Tankersley that is all. I have done nothing wrong. I do not believe in their Jihad. I’m no threat to anyone.” Mustapha was beginning to fear for his liberty.

       “Right now you’re in as much danger as everybody else. They have tried to take you to your brother; they have contacted you regularly by telephone. I’m afraid that you are very much in trouble, you`re a link to your brother. Financially we can find out where your money is coming from and who is giving it to you. We can get closer to Yasser as long as we have you and Yasser will be thinking the same thing. He`s tried to reach out to you and you have rebuked his approaches. You`ve now become a liability to him, Mustapha, that means that you`re in great danger. We will put you into protective custody for now. It`s for your own good.” Tank put his big hand onto Mustapha`s shoulder trying to reassure him.

             “Chen, get the crime lab boys to Mustapha`s caravan, tell them to dust for prints. I want to know who was looking for him. I want the electronic team to rig that telephone line to divert. If they call him again I want it bugged. Let`s have Finnen and Mamood transferred to Liverpool and tell Timms to put our best men on that. I want to know everything that they`ve told us is correct.”  Chen turned and pulled out his cell phone, he was already dialling when Tank turned to Faz.

       “Grace, have a full Armed Response Team prepared to hit the Warrington address that you have. We`ll hit the distribution centre, the mosque and Mamood`s home address simultaneously. You and Chen take a team each and I`ll take the other. Run all this by Major Timms immediately and tell him that we have Yasser`s brother in protective custody.” Faz moved toward the front door. She started dialling before she had gotten outside.

       “Sian, if Patrick Finnen thinks that those machine guns are still in Ireland then that’s where I want them to stay. Make sure that your people are checking everything that passes through that port. I want you to go over to Dublin to coordinate with the Irish Police. Find Billy Finnen and find those guns.” Tank stopped and took a mouthful of cold coffee.

       “And Sian, don’t worry about Mustapha. I will make sure he is safe,” Tank felt strange giving that assurance to Sian and a shiver ran down his spine.