“I want you to listen to what I am saying and telling you very carefully until this is over. I want you to do exactly what I tell you and I want you to stay very close to me when I tell you to. Is that okay?”
Again, “Yes, Dad.”
“Remember, as long as you listen carefully to me and do as I say we will be fine. Stacey is here to look after you as well, and as long as we all stick together, we will be okay. Right, Stacey?”
“Yes. Emily, we are all going to stick together and look after each other. We are all frightened, it’s not just you, we all are. But we are with your Dad and he knows what he is doing because he was one of the best soldiers when he was in the army, wasn’t he?” Stacey is reassuring me, never mind Emily. I suddenly feel hopeful.
Then Emily asks Stacey a question. “Where are your Mum and Dad, Stacey?”
“They are stuck at their work, they were there when this trouble started. I have spoken to them and they are safe. Their office is very high up in their tall building.”
“Good,” Emily says. “I am pleased they are okay. Stacey, you are part of our family today and you’re right, Dad will look after us.”
The girls continue to chatter among themselves.
As we round the next corner, Lord’s stadium comes into view, the sun glistening off the top of the tall stands, especially off the marquee tops of the tallest far stand. The famous ‘Bubble’ building of the Media Centre seems to float in mid-air, looking like some kind of alien spacecraft away on our right. Maybe it could fly us somewhere safe, even to another world; anywhere would seem safer than London at the moment.
The gunfire outside is clearly audible now from inside the car, the cracking sounds reaching into us are now constant. Some shots sound as though they are very close, but most still sound farther away as far as I can tell. I don’t mention these noises, however.
The cricket ground is directly on our right-hand side now, the Alien Spaceship hovering above us. We turn right at the end of the road, keeping the ground on our right and I power down the road at speed. My right ear buzzes and I look at my phone screen. It’s Dan calling, I press to answer.
“Yes, Dan.”
“Boss,” he shouts urgently. “Multiple hostile contacts have been spotted to the rear of the building directly on the other side of the water. I have reports that some have crossed the bridge. These ugly fuckers aren’t taking no for an answer, what’s your current ETA?”
Shit. “We are eight minutes out. Have any been spotted to the front of the building?”
“Negative, Boss, get here A-SAP and expect contact on arrival. I’m moving outside ready to open the gate, and I’ll position men in covering positions in the grounds overlooking the gate.”
“Roger, Dan. Be ready for us, we’ll be coming in hot!”
“Copy that, Boss, over and out.”
This is not what I want to hear. The plan was to make it into the Orion Building safely before the chaos reached it, but it’s now already at the back of the building.
The Orion Building is situated in the Paddington basin business district, directly to the east of Paddington Train Station. The building is eight floors high including the ground floor, and the top seven floors are covered with mirrored, light blue tinted glass, twenty millimetres thick. It’s layered toughened glass, not technically bulletproof, but it would take several heavy rounds to get through it in theory.
The ground floor has no glass at all, apart from the entrance doors, also made from 20mm glass, which is bulletproof. These doors then have a hardened steel sliding door which can be closed electrically and internally behind the outer glass doors.
The ground floor is walled all the way around and constructed from a metre-thick reinforced concrete. They may be nicely decorated, the walls painted white with different metallic silver painted shapes inside and out, so they don’t look severe, but these walls are bombproof.
The building itself is in the shape of a right-angled triangle with the rear of the building running adjacent to the canal. This canal has then been extended to also run down the West side of the building and is three metres wide and two metres deep. These two sides make up the right angle of the triangle and basically have a moat running beside them.
To the front of the building are two perimeter walls, also at right angles to each other. These walls, together with the two sides of the building, make up one big square. Inside the walls is a road leading to a small flowered island outside the main entrance. An off-road from the island goes to the underground staff car park, for staff with passes. Everything is surrounded by a cleverly landscaped garden area with footpaths and benches.
The perimeter walls are two metres high with spikes crowning the length, the white walls nicely decorated in the same design as the walls of the building. They are also broken up with custom-made metal grilles in different patterns to give a view of the world outside, while not allowing the outside to get in.
The large entrance in the wall is on the left as you come out of the building, with the road beyond it. A large, sliding barred gate constructed in heavy metal can be closed, but would normally be open during business hours. Then, a security station positioned by the gate, complete with a security barrier and retractable bollards across the entrance road, controls both visitor and staff access in the day.
The Orion Building is extremely secure, with state-of-the-art CCTV cameras discreetly positioned all over the site. The building itself has the latest advanced alarm system. Put all these features together, and you have one of the most secure buildings in the capital, in fact in
