A Retreat of Truths, Part 4

[Ceridwyn2]

WARNING: LANGUAGE

Saturday, 11 November 2006, 1830hrs
Thames House, Meeting Room, London

The tension in the air of the room was palpable. There was nothing so urgent as an imminent threat to national security to focus the anti-terrorism division of MI5. Folders were piled up on the table in front of each of them. They'd been working on collecting as much information as they could since their return from Oxford. Harry as usual took his place at the fore of the table, whilst down the sides were Ruth, Ros, Zaf on the left and Adam, Jo and Juliet down the other, and Malcolm at the other end, opposite Harry.

"All right, I need information. Adam."

"We've got audio feeds coming in from the community center. From what we've gathered so far is that there is a two-pronged simultaneous attack scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1500hrs. The first of the sites targeted is Westminster. As of yet, there has been no mention of suicide bombers, so we need to assume that the bombs will be attempted to be placed shortly before the attack. We've had Bomb Squad all over the Parliament building so far and no explosives devices have turned up. We have ordered increased surveillance around the parliament, but so far it's quiet. CCTV coverage showing nothing out of the ordinary at present. We have more teams to go in tomorrow. The second prong of the attack is a hospital, but we're still awaiting confirmation on which one.

"Has there been any mention of a motive for the attacks?" Juliet asked.

"Do you think this is some kind of retaliation or point to be made following the DG's speech yesterday?" Jo questioned.

"Nothing specific has been mentioned aside from the usual rhetoric of the continued UK presence in the middle east, interfering in policies of Iraq," Ruth started. "GCHQ has been receiving Intel from this cell for a while now, but there'd been no movement until Hassan arrived in the UK. Since then there's been covert communications between this cell and a source in Northern Iraq. They've got analysts reviewing the transcripts as we speak. As soon as they have confirmed translation, I will have it."

"Malcolm, I want you and Ruth all over this, in addition to the feeds coming in from the community center. Ruth, I want you to also keep me apprised of our cousins over at GCHQ. Adam, I want you to liaise with our friends at Special Branch. See what they're not telling us. Zaf and Jo, work with Adam and Ros for the time being then I want you to get home and get some sleep for a few hours. We'll need you on deck early, once we have some more concrete information."

"If I might ask, why would they plan the bombings for a Sunday? It doesn't make any sense. Parliament's not even in session until Wednesday. If they're looking for maximum casualty, you'd think they'd plan it for a day when there'd be more people present. In addition, there are no tours of Parliament on the weekend. Even if there were, visitors are heavily monitored and searched by security," Ros remarked.

"Unless it's an anniversary attack of some sort." Zaf responded. A look from Harry and Zaf continued, "Yeah, I'll get right on that."

"And why a hospital?"

"Hassan's previous bombing attack a month ago in Northern Iraq was a civilian hospital. We have to assume that he's got reason, whatever that might be. We need to find out which hospital, and sharpish," Harry spoke with conviction.

The team members slowly piled out of the meeting room and retreated to their workstations to gather more information. Juliet spent a few more minutes talking with Harry, then she, too, left the Grid for her own office. As there was going to be an indefinite period of time left in the office doing work, Adam checked in with Jenny to make sure Wes was okay, and then placed orders of soups & sandwiches and caffeine for all of them.

The overall atmosphere of the Grid remained tense as it usually did previous to a probable terrorist threat.

A little past 2000hrs, Ruth and Malcolm emerged from Malcolm's technical support section with printouts and an audio recording. While Malcolm stayed out on the Grid, Ruth quickly headed for Harry's office. She poked her head in this office.

"We've got it!" Ruth noted with some excitement.

"You've got what, Ruth?"

"Harry, look at this," she pointed to a specific section of the printout. "The hospital target in question is Charing Cross on Fulham Palace Road. No word on why that hospital but we have been able to piece together some Intel that his brother, who had been severely injured in an air raid, had been treated at that hospital in Northern Iraq. The brother had subsequently died, and Hassan blamed the doctors for not working hard enough to save him. The doctors, some of whom were British, were shot in the head and chest, before Hassan had the hospital bombed. Over six hundred people lost their lives in that attack." Ruth appeared to have run out of steam. During which time Harry called for Adam to come to his office.

"Ruth, any information on type of explosives used in the Northern Iraq bombing?"

"IED's. Specifically pipe bombs. Charges placed in specific areas in the base of the building. There's possible links to the anti-British protests earlier in October down in Basra. But so far Hassan hasn't been connected with those. The timetable would be tight - given his flight into Syria following the northern bombing, but possible. The passport that he entered the UK with, under the name Mihyar al-Basri, puts Basra as his place of birth."

"Adam, what were you able to get out of Special Branch?"

"Nothing useful so far as the hospital attack. However, they were able to nail down some information with regards to the attack at Westminster. The plods have been going over every inch of the place with a fine tooth comb. Nothing yet, but security measures have been tightened. A joint Special Branch / Security Service raid has been planned on the community center tonight. Ros and I will be in charge of that."

"Good. Get back onto Special Branch. The hospital attack is aimed at Charing Cross. Get them to check out the building for explosive devices, and keep monitor. Hopefully we can get these bastards long before the attack will occur. The hospital will need to be notified for contingency measures."

"Done." Adam said quickly before heading back to his workstation.

"Thank you, Ruth." While it was a dismissal, Harry had smiled. A crinkling around his eyes belied the seriousness of the matter at hand. Now it was a waiting game as things were coming together. And with any luck there'd be no casualties. When Harry looked up again through the glass windows of his office out onto the Grid, his eyes briefly met Ruth's. A mutual smile before they returned to their duties.

Saturday, 11th November 2006, 2300hrs
Islamic Community Center, Central London

On one side of the community center was an abandoned building and a vacant lot, on the other side a small park. On the far side of the park was a shaded alley, where Ros and Adam were set up in a dark surveillance van. They'd been monitoring communications from the center for the past hour and a half. It had been mostly quiet, its occupants playing cards, and there were sounds of music playing in the room. There hadn't been any conversation regarding the attacks thus far. A crackling on the mobile communications unit sounded.

"Alpha 2 to Alpha 1. We have movement. Two men carrying duffel bags entering the community center," the Special Branch officer called. The plods had fixed themselves up in unmarked vehicles.

"Either of them look like Hassan?" Ros asked

"Unconfirmed. Unable to see their faces clearly. Do we move?"

"Hang on a minute. Let's wait until they get inside," Adam responded.

A few moments later, Ros could hear over the surveillance bugs that they'd entered the center meeting room. Words in Arabic flew fast and furious, then silence.

"Fuck!" Ros shouted. To Adam, she quickly noted, "Tell them to get in there, NOW! Hassan's in there. They're wiring up the community center with explosives."

Adam immediately pulled on his ear-piece that would link him to Ros and the Special Branch team. Relaying the information to the Special Branch, he took off out the back of the surveillance van. In the meantime, Ros contacted Harry back at the Grid to let them know of the current situation. There wasn't much that Harry could do at the scene, but he could get the Explosive Ordnance Personnel team on site as soon as possible.

All was quiet on the communications line for a few minutes as the team got in place. Then there was nothing. What's taking them so long? It's too quiet. Ros was anxious. Then from inside the van, Ros could hear gunfire, and then a deafening explosion. The van rocked slightly. The reverberation from explosion had taken out one of the rear window panels. Once she'd gathered her senses, she barely made sure she was okay. A few scratches from glass were all she noted. She put on a communications device over her ear and packed her gun to her side then she pulled open the back of the van. Quickly shutting it, she took off to see what was going on.

The front of the community center had a large gaping hole in it, where fire whipped through. Concrete, glass and stone debris scattered over the ground and a heavy dust hung in the air as she neared the building she could see bodies lain in and around the debris.

"Adam!" Ros called out, getting closer. Nothing but an eerie silence. She looked around frantically. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye she spotted movement. A black-and-grey covered body moved from beneath some rubble. She identified him as one of the Special Branch officers, then returned her sites to trying to find her fellow security officer. "Adam!" Still nothing. Her conscious SB partner started checking for his fellow officers. They began picking through the rubble. A body. A shock of short blond hair standing out against the soot and ash covering most of the head. Ros dropped to her knees and quickly checked the body out, identifying it as Adam's. A quick check of his pulse revealed he was still alive. Unconscious, but alive. Within a few more minutes, the sounds of sirens could be heard. Ros leaned back on her legs and dropped her head, whispering a quiet prayer of thanks that Adam was alive. A few more minutes and the emergency service vehicles pulled up as close as they could. Backboards came out and supplies as they went to retrieve the conscious survivors.

Ros pointed Adam out to them. "He's alive. Barely. He hasn't regained consciousness."

Quickly two of the emergency service personnel checked out Adam, while another attended to Ros.

"Come with me, miss," the young attendant tried guiding her to the back of the ambulance.

"Never mind me, just make sure he's okay."

"Miss..." she tried again.

"Myers. Just do your job," Ros said, irritated.

"I'm trying to," the attendant stated, just as frustrated. "You've got a large gash on the back of your shoulder. Let me take a look at it."

"What?" Ros was puzzled. She hadn't even noticed that she was injured. She stopped to think. Then she realized that when the glass panel in the van broke, a shard must have dug into her shoulder. She sighed, then allowed herself to be led to the ambulance. While she sat in the open ambulance she could see more and more emergency service personnel sort through the debris and rubble for other bodies, alive or dead. She noticed the ambulance that they'd piled Adam's injured body into take off, sirens blaring.

"Where are they taking him?"

"St. Thomas's Hospital. Sit still." The attendant took her scissors and cut away the material from around the wound. The steady pour of blood had slowed to a sludge as it had begun to congeal. "I need you to lie face down on the gurney there." She then worked on cleaning around the site.

A moderate piece of glass was still embedded into Ros's shoulder. She dressed the wound until they got to the hospital. The other attendant closed up the back of the ambulance and started to move the vehicle off to the hospital.

"Where are we going?"

"St. Thomas's. Hospital. You need to have that removed."

"But I..." Ros started.

"Need to stay still." The attendant looked down at Ros, "Are you always this stubborn?"

Ros was frustrated. She needed to know what was happening. Furthermore, she needed to inform Harry.

[A Cousin]

Now, how did I miss this fic before? Ah, well...it's never too late.

I really like this chapter. The tension ramps up really well and the pacing is great. Ros' oblivious stubbornness is so...well...Ros.

[Ceridwyn2]

At the time I wrote it, I hadn't seen a lot of Hermione as Ros, so I found I was drawing some from her WitB Carol Jordan character's sense of dry humour and sarcastic wit - which she brings to Ros as well.

I found that once I started writing the story that it just kept coming.