The Raids / Warrington

       Chen looked at the house through his night sight binoculars. The body heat scan showed that no living person was in the house; everyone had gone to work at the cold room. Chen opened the car door and gave the thumbs up signal to a man in a dark van that was parked across the road. The side door of the van slid open and four men dressed head to toe in black exited. Each of the four men was carrying a black carbon suitcase in their hand. The men looked like modern day Ninja as they headed toward the front door of the house where they met Chen.

       Chen removed a small piece of wire from the side of his watch and inserted it into the keyhole. The lock made a clicking noise as it opened. Once inside, the four men headed upstairs and then split up into the four bedrooms. All four bedrooms were bugged in minutes. Spy cameras were fitted to lampshades or curtain rails, wherever they could be hidden. Chen moved from room to room as the surveillance team planted their equipment. He noticed that none of the rooms had beds in them. The occupants preferred to sleep on thin mattresses on the floor. The house smelled of strong cooking spices and body odour. The smell of curry had permeated through the building, tainting the fabric of the carpets and curtains with it noxious spicy scent.  The content and belongings that the surveillance team searched appeared to be innocent enough.

      Chen entered a room that had two mattresses on the floor. There were pictures and scriptures on the wall that appeared to be written in the Saudi dialect of Arabic. The Saudis had every reason to be angry with the Western governments. When the British Army tried to suppress Iraqi rebels during its occupation of the Middle East, following the First World War, they had enlisted the help of King Ibn Saud of Hejaz. King Saud had used the British mandate to camouflage his own mission of destroying the Iraqis in the south of the country for his own end. In 1927 Britain signed the Treaty of Jeddah, recognizing the independence of Saud`s kingdom, known today as Saudi Arabia. He declared himself King and his family have ruled the country ever since, siphoning millions of pounds into personal wealth. The British government`s policy of colonisation, rarely seemed to benefit those countries or their peoples.    

       The next bedroom that he entered had a large flag pinned up on the wall. The flag had a deep red background with one white stripe that ran diagonally across it.

       “What country does that flag represent?” asked a young technician. He was busy planting tracker devices in some shoes that he had found in a closet.

       “It`s a Padi scuba diving flag,” Chen said. “It`s used all over the world to attract scuba divers to their diving centres. Two of the men that live here are Egyptian we believe. The East coast of Egypt borders the Red Sea. The reefs there like Ras Mohammed are world famous. It`s the best scuba diving in the world. The diving schools in Sharm el Sheikh tend to use local people as instructors because they expect to be paid less than foreign instructors are. It looks like our friend here is a diver. That worries me too. Semtex is just as deadly underwater.” Chen opened another closet door and looked inside. He found what he was looking for.

       “There is a full set of diving equipment in here; make sure you put tracers on all of it.”  Chen walked through the other rooms and told his team to be on the lookout for any other scuba equipment. There was none. It could just be an innocent hobby, but it`s better to be safe than sorry when you work in the terrorist industry. He walked back to the scuba gear that he had discovered and picked up the wet suit. The technician had already placed a tiny transmitter in the material of the suit. It felt damp as if it had been used recently. A chill ran through Chen as he contemplated the possible scenarios. The most likely, was the manufacture of limpet mines. Limpet mines had been used to great effect by both sides in the Second World War. It would be relatively easy to attach a large explosive device to the hull of a ship and then swim away undetected. To be successful all that the plan would require was a target and a competent diver.

       Chen called the control room of the TTF and reported his concerns. The control room would then inform the port authorities of the possible danger of terrorist attack from beneath the sea. Chen told the control room to request a copy of the port`s manifesto for the coming months. It would give them details of all the ships that were due to dock in the port and could help them to identify a potential target.

       The docks in Liverpool were still very much a working deep-sea port. They handled millions of tons of cargo from all over the world every month. The city`s historical maritime heritage, also made it a popular destination for naval events, and the armadas of ancient wooden sailing ships that competed in round the world competitions.

      Chen checked his watch. The four surveillance men appeared in the hallway downstairs. They were all finished exactly on time. Chen shut the front door behind them as they left. The four men in black climbed back into the side of the dark van and the door slid closed. Chen started the engine of his vehicle and headed in the direction of the cold room distribution centre. The black van waited for him to pass by and then pulled out behind him. They were to follow the Chinese man to the cold room and set up surveillance equipment there too. It was going to be a long night.