He opened his mouth to reply but Lela wasn’t interested. She spun round, threw out her leg and caught his midriff. He flew across the foyer and slammed into a bin, emptying the contents all over himself.
Less than ten seconds had passed from throwing her first punch to when she turned back towards Tom and Ahmed. Both stood open jawed at what they had just witnessed. Lela hadn’t even broken sweat as she smiled at them. She had very much enjoyed her first fight and most importantly had learned a lot from it.
By the time the security guard had been alerted to the commotion, Lela, Tom and Ahmad were peacefully queuing at the kiosk. Tom and Ahmad were still in shock and left Lela to place the order. The guard laughed at suggestions that the little girl at the kiosk had beaten up the Neds. He banned the Neds for six months for fighting amongst themselves. The Big Ned, however, was in no condition to leave. Having thrown up from the pain numerous times, an ambulance had been called.
Saki came running into the foyer just as Tom, Lela and Ahmad were heading back into the cinema.
“Lela? Tom?”
“Yes Dad?” replied Lela. Tom and Ahmad were in no condition to talk.
“Are you OK?”
“Yes, fine thanks. What’s wrong?”
“I just saw some boys being escorted out, as though they’d been in a fight?”
“It was nothing, just some Neds, you know what they’re like, fighting each other all the time,” replied Lela casually.
“Are you sure that was all?” he asked knowingly, looking straight into her eyes.
“Yep,” she said winking, they would talk about it later.
“OK,” he winked back and smiled, laughing to himself as he made his way back to the door at how unfair the fight had been. Eight boys against his Lela, they hadn’t stood a chance. She was the best student he had ever taught and certainly better than he was at her age.
The three had just begun to make their way towards the front door when the little Asian man had bolted inside. They had no idea why, but whatever it was, it had him moving very quickly. They paused and looked for Sinead. She was nowhere in sight. She had moved around to the back with Kevin after being spotted. One of them gave her a call and explained what had happened.
“Follow him you idiots, see if you can spot the kids,” she ordered.
By the time they had made it into the foyer, the little Asian man was making his way back outside, laughing to himself. However, his face changed the minute he spotted them.
Saki had been imagining his little Lela’s first fight and was wishing he had been there when he suddenly caught sight of three pairs of eyes looking at him. He recognised two of the faces. He scanned his memory and recalled both faces. They had been jogging outside the estate within the last two weeks but not together, separately. He had put his earlier concerns about the motorcyclist and the woman down to paranoia. It may be coincidence. However, Saki didn’t believe in coincidence. On the other hand, he didn’t want to spoil Tom’s birthday party unnecessarily. He took his mobile from his pocket and dialled a number.
Sinead called Conor.
“I’ve just heard from my guys, they’ve just been made by the Asian guy.”
“Jesus, you’ve only been there five minutes and he’s made all five of you, you’d think you were a bunch of amateurs,” fumed Conor.
“Conor, I’ve told you this job is bad news. I have a really bad feeling about it. We have no idea what we’re up against. We should just get the hell out of here while we still can.”
“You don’t understand…” Conor caught himself, Sinead didn’t need to know about the deal. She just needed to do her job. “Have you even confirmed if the kids are there yet?”
“No but I’m fairly certain they are.”
“OK, hang around. If you get an opportunity, take them. Otherwise, we’ll take them at the house later.”
Conor hung up, Sinead’s bad feeling was contagious, a knot was developing in the pit of his stomach.
The three took their seats as though nothing had happened. Ahmad had been sworn to secrecy as they had entered the dark theatre. The trailers were already running.
Ahmad whispered to Tom as they sat down.
“Did we really just witness Lela kicking those guys’ arses or am I dreaming?”
“I think we both must be,” replied Tom. He knew Lela’s training was special but had no idea just how amazing it was until then.
Ahmad had always had a soft spot for Lela, most of Tom’s friends did, but Ahmad was now completely smitten.
“You really have one wicked sister!” he exclaimed as he replayed the scene in his mind. “I’ve never seen anything like that, not ever, not even in the movies.”
Tom was also reliving the moment. However, the memory for him was slightly tainted. He had stood helpless while his sister did the fighting, it just seemed wrong somehow. But then you couldn’t argue with the result, she really had kicked their arses well and truly. You definitely couldn’t argue with the result. Ahmad was right, he really did have one seriously wicked sister. He smiled.
Chapter 17
“Conor, we’re pulling out right now.” Sinead had called the minute the first police car had arrived.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her panic.
“Police. One car just arrived but another two undercover ones just pulled in,” she said as she walked out of the rear of the complex. “We’re dumping the car and the bike, we’ll be with you as soon as we can.” She ended the call as one of the crew flagged down a black cab.
“Train station,” she said as she closed the door.
Once at the train station, they used another cab to the next station before using a third to return to a street close to their camp. Conor picked them up where the taxi had dropped them off.
“The place was crawling with cops by the time we left. These guys must have some very powerful friends,” explained Sinead.
“It might not have had anything to do with us, it might have been a drug raid or something, you don’t know,” replied Conor more for the benefit of the crew than anything else.
Sinead didn’t like it, her instincts were seldom wrong.
The SO12 Special Branch “A” squad commander had reacted immediately to Saki’s call. Saki was well known to them having been vetted by them many years earlier when he had first taken responsibility for Tristan during a trip to the Kennedy Estate. Only few ‘civilians’ were entrusted with the safety of the Prime Minister’s children. Within ten minutes, 50 police officers had been on scene and within 15 minutes, they were joined by eight members of the Strathclyde Police Force Special Protection Unit, SPU.
There was no sign of the suspicious individuals other than their abandoned motorbike. Saki had never seen their car and therefore did not know that it had also been abandoned. A scrupulous sweep was made of the entire complex while the kids sat blissfully unaware of the mayhem outside. Sniffer dogs were called in to search for explosives and five special protection officers joined the kids in the theatre to look out for anything suspicious. With five minutes to go before the end of the movie, the all clear was given. The decision of what to do next was left to Saki and the Special Branch Commander in London. Both agreed that the kids should enjoy as normal an evening as possible and decided that the trip to the ten pin bowling should proceed as planned.
A security perimeter was set up outside the complex and a number of undercover officers joined the customers both in the cinema and in the bowling alley. The SPU Officers would be playing on the alley either side of the kids.
