The Devil's Handshake (48 page)

Ignoring screams of bullets hitting flesh and
blood spatter, Avi and Yossi quickly pulled Thomas behind them
while David the bodyguard of Nara quickly did the same to her.

“
Circle,” cried Mikhail to
his men while the two Close Protection Officers of the Metropolitan
Police Protection Unit took up position at the front acting as the
point. By the sounds of the weapon fire, Mikhail knew instantly
they were caught in an L-Shaped ambush.

“
L!” he shouted to the team
to tell them what type of ambush they were in. As he did, a bullet
seared passed his ear hitting one of the parents behind that the
fully trained team were using as cover.

Unbeknown to the assault team Mikhail had
been prepared for such an attack ever since he scoped the school
for risks once Thomas informed him that he was going to send
Victoria there.

So instead of panicking as Ahmed hoped he
would do and moving into the line of fire, the experienced Israeli
bodyguard ordered his team to shift forty-five degrees to their
left.

Taking up point, the first armed police
officer fired his pistol four times toward the front of the L.

“
Victoria!” Nara screamed in
panic desperately looking for their daughter amongst the confusion,
spotting her frozen in fear in the middle of the running track.
Immediately Nara, spurred on by her maternal instincts, broke from
the center of the circle taking her personal security officer,
David with her with automatically.

“
Fuck!” cried Avi as she
bolted.

“
Go with her Avi,” Thomas
ordered his bodyguard.

“
You’re the fucking
objective not her!” Mikhail cried overriding Thomas’s order as
other bullet whizzed past them and into another set of screaming
parents and teachers.

“
Go!” Thomas ordered with a
look that was obeyed. This time, Mikhail reluctantly
nodded.

Thomas took up Avi’s former position on
Mikhail’s shoulder by tapping on it in the process to show he was
now the last-man in the formation.

“
Mikhail, we have to move
towards them,” shouted Thomas seeing people and children being cut
to ribbons around them.

“
No way!”

“
There are too many of them,
we will fall back via the center then back up towards the
school.”

Reluctantly knowing his old friend was right.
Thomas followed his orders as they began to do by walking backwards
in a cool measured manner.

Seeing them form up to do so Ahmed realized
the team of the Englishmen weren’t panicking instead, they were
using the panic in front of them as cover.

“
They are
escaping!”

“
Break cover, attack!” he
ordered the men on the side of the L-formed ambush, a fatal mistake
as they up until then had the benefit of cover.

“
Targets moving!”

“
On the right,” cried Benny
seeing them break cover.

Immediately the two police officers fired off
three rounds hitting two of the ambushers coming out of the trees
before they could fire another volley.

Seeing his comrades falling by the side of
him, the remaining Somali gunman panicked as Ahmet had told them
that the target would not be armed, he was wrong!

“
Action Movement! V
Formation,” shouted Mikhail at the two officers at the front.
Straightaway Thomas took up on his left while Benny did the same on
his right. Yossi immediately came up beside Thomas as the second
officer fired off another couple of shots towards the trees at the
left.

With no ability to return fire but not
wanting more children or civilians, to be hurt they shouted, “DOWN!
DOWN!” towards the remaining parents, teachers and terrified
children still standing frozen in fear.

Swearing in Somali on seeing the side of his
ambush was being counter-attacked, and his ambush was breaking up
because his men were fleeing the scene, Ahmed ordered his men away
from the advancing counter-attacking V.

“
Take out his family!” he
ordered towards his remaining men determined to extract some form
of revenge from the fast deteriorating situation.

Unfortunately for Ahmed though they only got
time for one round of shots off in Nara’s direction, as the rapid
fire of the two officers ripped into the trees around them.

Knowing he had missed his chance. Ahmed
reluctantly ordered their withdraw cursing in his wake as he did
so. Escape was his overriding objective now.

What felt like an hour but was in fact less
than a couple minutes later the attack was over.

“
Cease-fire” cried the first
officer as they surveyed the carnage behind and in front of them
realizing now that the attackers had withdrawn from the
field.

“
Boss! Nara is down,” cried
out Avi to Mikhail in his earpiece.

“
It’s Nara!” said Mikhail to
Thomas ashen faced.

Turning his head, ignoring the screams, sobs,
wailing of parents, teachers and more terribly children Thomas’s
eyes fixed upon Avi and David’s position.

Seeing them on their knees over a body he set
off like a freight train at full speed towards them, his head on
fire.

Reaching them in a matter of seconds, he
found Nara on the ground with Victoria at her side.

“
Naraaaa!” he screamed
seeing blood pouring out of her.

“
V-i-c-t-o-rrria-” Nara
whispered concerned for her daughter and not understanding why she
felt so cold.

“
It is okay boss. She’s
okay!” answered David rapidly in succession having checked Victoria
over finding it was only blood spatter on her. Turning momentary
towards his little girl to make sure although he could see she was
in shock but not physically unharmed he nodded his thanks towards
David.

Focusing all of his attention back on Nara,
looking down on and one knee fear gripped him.

“
Plum is okay! My Darling,”
Thomas said, the shock beginning to hit him as he told
her.

“
I am sorry my T-h-o-m-a-s-”
Nara whispered, pain starting to go, light fading from her
eyes.

“
Shhhhh, darling!” Thomas
answered, knowing his beloved was dying in his arms.

“
I can’t stop the bleeding
boss!” said Avi in despair seeing she had been hit twice in the
stomach trying to keep pressure on the wounds with a mass of blood
everywhere. Time stopped.

“
I love you my Darling,”
Thomas said towards Nara ignoring his bodyguard’s words, tears
abundant in his eyes knowing he was losing her and there was
nothing he could do to prevent it.

A few moments later a hand on his shoulder
brought him back from the depths of his mind as he held Nara limply
in his arms.

“
She’s gone, Thomas,” said
Mikhail his voice full of sorrow.

“
I know, I know,” he said
repeatedly in anguish before turning his head looking up towards
Mikhail with a stare of the devil. A look that gave the hardened
bodyguard shivers all the way through his spine.

58

London

The despicable and horrific attack made news
everywhere for a week around the world. Questions had been asked
why, knowing that VIPs’ children were at the school, it had taken
thirty minutes for the nearest armed police unit, and medical units
to descend on the school in force having been alerted by the two
armed security officers. Additional questions were then asked as to
how something like this could happen again at a school in his
country. Each time, the Chief Constable and the Home Secretary
tried their best to give a sensible answer. Each time both failed
in the process.

As the dust settled the facts began to come
forth.

The assassination team had killed fifteen
parents, five teachers, and more terribly six children and wounding
another ten in trying to kill Thomas.

He had lost Nara and his unborn child when
she had shielded their little girl.

Unsurprisingly Victoria, had had become
withdrawn and silent as the direct result of the trauma of seeing
her mother die before her eyes. Not even Tania could get a word out
of her.

Every night the little girl would climb into
his bed and only then would she fall asleep in his arms.

Although he had returned all the numerous
calls of condolences from his associates, Presidents, Prime
Ministers, and his and Nara’s friends, lost to his demons and grief
just like his daughter, Thomas withdrew from the normal world and
society.

Within days six men were arrested in the
manhunt that followed, now all that remained was the ringleader, a
Somali only known as Ahmed.

Although the press speculated to the causes
of the attack privately Thomas knew who had ordered it.

With the coroner ordering an inquest into the
deaths of all the victims of the school massacre, Thomas was told
he had to wait until the body had been assessed for evidence. It
had taken ten days for that to happen.

Replacing the phone in his study having just
been told he was allowed collect Nara’s body, Thomas took a moment
to mentally pull together.

He stiffening his back, straightening his
neck then went to find Tania so he could ask her if he could bury
her alongside his mother at the family plot at his father’s
estate.

“
I am sure our Gunara would
like that, Thomas,” the woman answered who had aged ten years over
the last week as she hugged him in tears sobbing in the sitting
room of her bedroom.

“
Thank you,” was all he
could reply fighting his own grief.

Back in his study, still just holding it
together he picked up the phone again. He paused briefly then
dialed the number of his father’s office. Immediately he was
transferred to Rufus when he announced whom he was.

It had been almost thirty-one years since he
last spoke to his father.

“
Thomas, I am so very
sorry!” the merchant banker said as if they had only spoken
yesterday, the second he came on the phone.

“
Thank you Father,” replied
the man, no longer the angry youth of eighteen.

“
I will ensure the family
plot is prepared for her alongside your mother,” his father stated,
knowing why after all these years he had called him.

“
Thank you Father,” Thomas
answered again before putting down the phone so not to allow his
father to speak any further.

Arriving at the TLH private office Rebecca
was immediately shown into the conference room on the ground floor.
She declined the offer of refreshments and chose to stand as she
waited for Thomas to come.

The last ten days had been a whirlwind to say
the least.

When she heard of the attempted assassination
and the carnage she immediately asked her counterparts at MI5 if
she could question the arrested members of the hit team. After a
week of giving her the run around they finally gave her permission
to do so. It hadn’t taken her long to break one of the young Somali
refugees who up to that point like his colleagues hadn’t said a
word despite intense questioning by the locals and the comic relief
of Thames House.

Walking into the room Rebecca had quickly
taken up position opposite the young man of no more than eighteen,
she could tell straight away by the expression on his face he was
terrified despite his lack of words.

Her assessment was that he more than likely
was a refugee roped in by his Principals on fear of the threat of
death of his family in Somalia if he did not do as ordered. She
didn’t pity him as he had made his choice, and it was one that
would cost him the rest of his life in prison just like his
colleagues.

To break him, all she had to do was put a
picture under his nose of Ahmed and Wasir to get the answer she had
known was right. The look of fear in his eyes told her
everything.

“
That was quick!” commented
the impressed Chief Inspector observing her when she got up without
asking a question.

“
They belong to the Clan of
the former Interior Minister of Adwalland,” she offered as a
courtesy towards him. “We will send you over any relevant files we
have them,” she added as she left in the interview room hardly less
than a couple minutes of sitting down in.

Sitting in Vauxhall Bridge updating the DG,
as to who was behind the attack on one of Britain’s most
significant businessmen the Head of MI6 she was told.

“
Rebecca, the PM wants this
bloody bugger caught!” stated the senior officer reflecting on his
rather uncomfortable meeting with the Prime Minister and the
Foreign Secretary yesterday when he was informed in no uncertain
terms that Britain should not be used to settle debts like
something out of the eighteenth century. Such was the depth of
public outrage over the murdering of children it was politically
damaging the Government. The world’s press were like a swarm of
hornets, anything even remotely related to Litchfield was looked
at: his links to the Russian President, the fact that an armed
police unit was only there to limit the casualties because he held
a diplomat passport of Russia, his influence in the corridors of
power of Westminster and so on.

The situation was a hot potato, to put it
mildly.

“
Even the bloody Yanks have
washed their hands of him!” he continued making reference to the
fact that they covertly supported Wasir’s coup attempt despite
denials.

“
We believe he is in
Mauritania, Sir,” Michael offered, drawing upon from the
intelligence that an aircraft belonging to one of the companies
Wasir was linked had flown out of Bristol airport two hours after
the attack with a passenger that looked like the ringleader
onboard.