days. The crate containing the device would be burnt and carefully broken and then removed from the dockyard along with the damaged fuel pump, associated fuel lines and other fire-damaged equipment from the
Abbas thought carefully before relaying the new information to Sadoun Khamil, and his message, when he had composed it, was much longer than usual. As well as the purely factual data provided by Trushenko, Abbas also included a proposal that he had discussed previously with Khamil but without reaching a decision. There was, Abbas reasoned, no reason to wait any longer. The Gibraltar device could now be detonated at any time and, though the positioning of the London weapon was crucial to the Russian operation, it made very little difference to the hidden agenda formulated by al-Qaeda. Therefore, Abbas concluded, there was no reason why they shouldn’t initiate the detonation sequences immediately.
He pressed ‘Send’ and checked to make sure the message was successfully transmitted. Then he shut down the computer, shut and locked the bedroom door and walked down the stairs to prepare a meal. It would, he knew, be at least two hours before Khamil would reply.
Dekker took out a pen and prepared to write.
‘French Customs stopped the lorry and the escorting cars, purely for a routine documents check,’ Lacomte said. ‘There are two young men in the cab of the lorry, which is, as we guessed, an articulated unit. There are three escorting cars, all Mercedes and all, in the opinion of the Strasbourg Gendarmes, armoured.’
‘Personnel?’ Colin Dekker asked.
‘The two saloons each contain a driver and three passengers, all young men, all with diplomatic passports.’
‘Those will be the
‘The third,’ replied Lacomte, ‘is a long-wheel-base Mercedes limousine, containing a driver and escort in front of the partition and two passengers behind it. The Gendarmes report that one is a gentlemen of about sixty, and the other a man of about forty-five to fifty years old. As with the others, all four are carrying Russian diplomatic passports.’
‘Do we have an ID on that car – a registration number?’ Richter asked.
Lacomte looked back at the sheet of paper. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but you can easily identify it – the two saloons are light blue in colour, but the limousine is black.’
‘What are you thinking?’ Colin Dekker asked.
‘Those two passengers obviously aren’t
‘I’m sure we can arrange that,’ said Dekker.
With the strength of the opposition known, Lacomte turned to the assault plan. Immobilization of the truck would be carried out as suggested by Trooper Jones, using plastic explosive. The Mercedes saloons were a different problem. There was no point in immobilizing them and it would, in fact, suit their purposes very well if they drove off at the first sign of trouble, but nobody seriously expected that to happen.
‘The thing about an armoured car,’ said Colin Dekker, reflectively, ‘is that in most cases it’s designed only to protect the occupants against their attackers. What isn’t generally realized is that it also protects the attackers from the occupants.’ He glanced round at a number of puzzled faces. ‘What I mean is, if the
‘Yes,’ Erulin nodded. ‘All our personnel have to score a minimum of ninety-three per cent on a two- hundred-metre range.’
‘And at, say, twenty to thirty metres?’
Erulin smiled somewhat grudgingly. ‘I would personally discharge any GIGN NCO who failed to achieve a perfect result.’
‘OK,’ said Colin Dekker. ‘So what I suggest is this. We bow to the wishes of the French Minister of the Interior, and my team hits the convoy. There are only four of us, and four vehicles to be attended to. Under normal circumstances, those would not be unreasonable odds, but these are not normal circumstances. I’m worried about crossfire, and about opposition personnel getting out of their vehicles on our blind side. We also don’t know what order the vehicles will be in. My guess would be Mercedes saloon, truck, limousine, second saloon, but that might not be the case if they sense trouble. They’ll certainly be linked by radio, and they might send both saloons ahead and let the limo drop back. It’s still all rather vague.
‘What I propose, therefore, is that Trooper Jones plants his plastic on the truck drive-shaft, lights the blue touch-paper and then retires a safe distance. It’s just conceivable that he might be able to do that unseen, especially if both saloons have gone on ahead, but I wouldn’t count on it. He will then cover the truck cab with his weapon. That’s Phase One, if you like. Phase Two starts when the plastic cuts the drive-shaft. Troopers Smith and Brown will lob CS gas grenades at the two Mercedes saloons, aiming to lodge them under the engine compartments of the cars.’
‘How will that help, against an armoured vehicle?’ asked Lacomte.
‘Simple. The bodywork is armoured, but the air-conditioning system takes in air from outside the vehicle. It’s a hot day, and the cars will almost certainly have the systems running. Even if the driver switches it off immediately, the interior should get a good dose of gas, and that should hopefully be that.’ Colin Dekker looked round. ‘However, let’s assume that it doesn’t. The grenade rolls too far, or the occupants have anti-gas respirators in the car and manage to get them on, or something else goes wrong. We will be carrying Hocklers – Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machineguns – which are highly efficient weapons against personnel outside their vehicles, but of no use against an armour-plated Mercedes. Mr Beatty—’ he gestured at Richter ‘—would prefer the opposition to walk, rather than be carried, away from the scene, and so would I, so I don’t want to use armour- piercing rounds or anything heavier than the Hockler.’
‘So what do you propose?’ asked Lacomte.
‘One CS gas grenade for each car, shoot out both tyres on the side facing us, plus a demand for immediate surrender. If they don’t surrender, that’s where Lieutenant Erulin’s GIGN are going to carry the day. If any window opens on any of the vehicles, except the limo, I want a stream of bullets going in before anything nasty can come out. The Hockler isn’t accurate enough for that, but your team—’ he turned to Erulin ‘—shouldn’t have any trouble.’
‘None at all,’ the Frenchman confirmed.
‘And the truck?’ Richter asked.
‘That should be the easiest of the lot,’ Colin Dekker said. ‘As soon as the charge detonates, Jones will fire two rounds from his Arwen up into the cab.’
‘Arwen? What’s an Arwen?’ Herron asked.
‘It’s a nasty-looking piece of work,’ Richter said. ‘Like a short-barrelled twelve-bore shotgun, but with a five-shot magazine like a revolver. It’s basically designed for anti-riot work, but it can handle an interesting cocktail of ammunition, lethal and non-lethal. My guess is that the first round will be armour piercing and the second a CS gas grenade. Colin?’
‘Exactly.’
The brief silence was broken by Lacomte. ‘Has anybody any better ideas? No?’ He turned to Dekker. ‘What about personnel disposition – where do you want the
Dekker shook his head. ‘At the moment,’ he said, ‘I don’t know. I’m sure Lieutenant Erulin would agree with me that force dispositions are better sorted out on the spot.’ Erulin nodded agreement.
‘I must be getting old,’ Richter said. ‘I’ve been so tied up working out how to stop the convoy, I’ve forgotten the other essential. We also have to stop the convoy personnel contacting Moscow as soon as they meet trouble.’
