YASMINE AHMED
The dead woman`s identity card confirmed that she was Yasmine Ahmed. As far as mistakes go this one was a classic. A preliminary search of the woman`s rucksack confirmed that it contained no explosive materials, but there was a Scuba diving wet suit and a mask that had been tagged by surveillance agents in the bag, and there was also a two-litre bottle of mineral water and a mobile telephone. To all intents and purposes she was an innocent young woman, riding her motorcycle.
To top it all Mustapha Ahmed had escaped protective custody during all the commotion, and he was nowhere to be found. All the agents from the Terrorist Task Force had been summoned to the top floor of the station in Liverpool city centre.
Tank was stood by the window looking at the River Mersey. The weather was wet and the sky was still gloomy despite it being nearly midday, and the river looked dark green and murky. Major Timms was in the goldfish bowl office. He was pacing up and down with a telephone placed to his ear, and from the look on his face the conversation was not a pleasant one. The press had already picked up the story and they were having a field day with it. A young Iraqi woman had been shot four times whilst riding her motorbike. `Islam-aphobia hits Liverpool` the tabloids would read later that day, and speculation that the young woman was related to the wanted terrorist leader, Yasser Ahmed was rife. Records from Iraq stated unrequitedly that Yasmine Ahmed had died in an allied bombing raid near Baghdad, and there was no concrete evidence that this woman was Yasser Ahmed`s sister. There was no solid evidence that she had left Iraq alive, or that she had ever entered the United Kingdom.
Major Timms put the phone back in its cradle and banged on the glass partition. Tank looked toward the noise and Timms gestured him into the office. David Bell was already seated at the desk opposite Major Timms, and he looked very uncomfortable. He was the man that collated information, but the information that had been gathered from the raids in Warrington was useless. The man they knew as Tariq had handled all the money transactions between Dublin and the mosque, but he had been missing since the customs officers made the first arrests in Holyhead. The rest of the information gathered was rumour and speculation, and Bell knew that Timms needed solid facts to work on but there were none. Major Timms nodded toward the fat controller indicating that he wanted an immediate update. Tank stood to the side of the desk leaning against the glass wall.
“All the information that we have gathered from our interviews is pointing toward this man called Tariq. He seems to have been the logistical organiser of the arms deals in Dublin. He is also associated with Nassir al Masri but we don’t know the whereabouts of him either. We have concrete proof that Yasser Ahmed, Nassir al Masri and Tariq are working together, but nothing beyond that,” David Bell wiped his sweaty brow with a handkerchief.
“What is our theory on Yasmine Ahmed`s involvement in all this? The press are going to have a field day on this one. It will not be long before they link the shootings in Holyhead with the raids in Warrington,” Tank said.
“The forensic evidence recovered from the men that attacked you in Holyhead only confirms what we already know. They were all living in Warrington and working for several employment agencies carrying out temporary work. Sometimes they worked at the distribution centre but not always. They were known to worship occasionally at the mosque there, and were friends of Tariq. We have been looking for Yasmine Ahmed ever since Yasser used her identity to enter the country. We can only assume that she went to the marked address in Warrington and picked up the Scuba gear on her brother`s instructions. The majority of people that we have interviewed are asylum seekers. They will not jeopardise their residency applications by associating themselves with the incidents that we are investigating,” the fat controller paused for a sip of water.
“I am assuming that Yasmine Ahmed was heading toward Liverpool when she was shot therefore I am also assuming that Ahmed and his affiliates are in the city somewhere.”
“We need to make a press release that indicates that Yasmine Ahmed was shot whilst being involved in terrorist activity. Tell them nothing more specific than that. As far as the press are concerned you will tell them that the incidents in Holyhead and Warrington are unrelated. I do not want London on our backs while we are looking for this bastard,” the Major stood and pointed at the digital photograph of Yasser Ahmed.
This would not be the first time that the truth was massaged by the security services. After the shooting dead of a Brazilian immigrant following the July/7 bombings in London, the press were initially reporting that he had run away from and resisted being arrested by, armed security service officers. Eventually the Metropolitan Police issued a full apology stating that the innocent Brazilian had not run away or resisted arrest. He was the victim of mistaken identity. Some members of the public sympathised with the police who had to make a split second decision. Other sections of the public condemned the killing as police brutality. The door opened suddenly and Grace Farrington popped her head round it.
“I am sorry to interrupt but the coastguard has just recovered a body from the river,” Grace stepped into the room.
“There would be nothing so unusual about this except that the man they recovered was of Middle Eastern appearance. He has also had his hands and his head removed. The body is with the coroner now. It could be an isolated boating accident; he could have been injured by a propeller blade but initial reports say that it looks like the injuries were caused deliberately. I have sent some DNA samples that we recovered at the mosque and the house in Warrington to the coroner`s office. They can cross reference the tissue from the body found in the river to see it could be our missing man Tariq.”
“The cleric that we interviewed said that Tariq might have been having a change of heart. He had indicated that `he was going to do the right thing`. It looks like someone disagreed with his good intentions,” Tank said recalling his conversation with the Muslim cleric.
“That could explain the tip-off that the customs office received. It could be that Tariq knew about the explosives coming into the country and decided that enough is enough,” the fat controller said as he headed toward the door. He nodded to Timms as he left indicating that he was going to prepare the press release.
“What are we going to do about Mustapha Ahmed going missing?” Timms asked.
“We have sent his picture to uniformed police officers both here, and in North Wales just in case he heads back to Holyhead. The problem is that he looks so much like his brother. The armed units are on the lookout for Yasser Ahmed. It would be easy to confuse the two of them. We don’t need another dead sibling of Yasser Ahmed on our hands.”
Tank and the Major talked about the information that David Bell had summarised earlier. They decided that Sian should return to her undercover position at the customs office in Holyhead. They agreed that Mustapha would more than likely head back there eventually. It would kill two birds with one stone; Timms was under pressure to discipline Sian for allowing Mustapha to escape from protective custody. He had not informed his superiors in London that Mustapha had probably witnessed the shooting dead of his sister.
Although the investigation had been a rollercoaster of events, it seemed that little progress had been made. They still had one of the most dangerous terrorists on the planet at large. They knew for definite that he was in possession of Semtex explosives. The Scuba diving gear made them assume that the potential target could be on or near to the River Mersey. The possibilities were endless. Along the length of just ten miles, the River Mersey had an international airport; an oil refinery; a huge chemical processing plant; one of the biggest coal fired power stations in the country; local ferry ports; International ferry ports plus three miles of busy cargo docks. These crucial economic sites were all situated on the riverbanks.
Tank and the Major both agreed that whilst security on the river could be increased it would be impossible to stop a determined attack from underwater. The coastguards were already increasing their patrols following Chen`s discovery of the Scuba equipment in Warrington. The fact that Yasmine Ahmed had tried to retrieve the equipment meant that the focus must be on the River Mersey.
The Airport and the oil refinery worried them the most because of their proximity to the water`s edge. The oil refinery at Stanlow covers 1900 acres of riverbank, and at any one time can store 2 million tonnes of crude oil. It had the capacity to produce 3 million tonnes of petrol and 2 million tonnes of jet engine fuel every year. An explosion at the refinery would cause an ecological disaster on top of the human cost. Financially an attack on a facility like Stanlow could bring the country to its knees. In recent years the site had been the target of protest against the British government`s high taxation on fuel. The protesters had used farm machinery to blockade the refinery stopping fuel tankers from leaving the site. Within 24-hours the effect of strangling fuel supplies brought the North of England to a standstill. Supermarket shelves were empty and the public couldn’t travel to work. Human reliance on the internal combustion engine was highlighted during the protest; without petrol or diesel fuel, nothing moved.
The Terrorist Task Force knew that an attack on this facility or one like it would be devastating. They decided that the site must be a priority red. This was the code given to a potential target if it was felt that an attack was imminent. The International airport at Speke, which was 7.5-miles south east of Liverpool city centre, was also given a code red status.
The John Lennon Airport was a concern, as the main runway, which ran parallel to the riverbank, was less than one hundred yards from the water. A large passenger jet laden with jet engine fuel would make an easy target for a determined terrorist, and the accessibility of Airport perimeters was a major headache for security services worldwide. Liverpool was no different to any other passenger airport. It was a `Soft Target`.