51
Twenty-nine minutes earlier
OSC operational base
Hesters Copse
Hampshire
England
Lat = 51 degrees, 12.8 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 57.1 minutes West
Tuesday 19th September 1989 (same day)
Sixteen thirteen hours BST
As soon as Strayker had been informed by ICIS of O’Rourke’s whereabouts he had called Colin Bishop eagle 5 at Hesters Copse who had immediately scrambled team five using a Lynx HAS.3 helicopter call sign Solex-4 from nearby RAF Odiham.
The Lynx is an extremely fast helicopter with a top speed of 201mph capable of carrying up to ten troops.
Colin Bishop had been listening into the Comms chatter and had directed the pilot to New Scotland Yard in Broadway.
The pilot had brought the helicopter in across St James Park and then banked hard to starboard over Birdcage Walk vectoring the helicopter towards the dust cloud stemming from the ground a quarter of a mile ahead.
He initiated a hover over Toothill Street and Broadway the rotors clearing the clouds of dust emanating from the crippled building.
Colin Bishop along with three of team five had abseiled down the ropes and were now touching down on the ground as O’Rourke turned towards them.
The four men quickly fanned out and assumed the kneeling position their HK-MP-5s trained on O’Rourke.
O’Rourke’s was looking at the armed men on the ground when his attention was immediately drawn upwards as his ears just made out the sound of a man’s voice from a hailing system.
“O’Rourke, place your hands behind your head and go down on your knees. Now!”
He looked at the men on the ground and their military uniforms and then above at the military helicopter, he muttered to himself, “army bastard scum.”
For many years, he had fought the British military machine in Northern Ireland and an uncontrollable rage grew inside of him, he reached with both hands into his jacket pockets and felt the familiar texture of the grenades.
If he had known whom his adversaries were, he may have made a different choice!
He began to run forward towards the armed men and for a millisecond; he felt several incredible forces pounding his body and his forward impetus immediately coming to stop.
In that, instant the living world expired for him.
As soon as O’Rourke had placed his hands in his pockets and began moving forward, Colin Bishop gave the order, “take him out!”
The rounds from each man’s weapon pummelled O’Rourke’s body ripping pieces from it.
They watched as O’Rourke’s body was thrown backwards several feet by the kinetic energy from the rounds, finally slamming down on the ground.
Colin Bishop spoke into his Comms, “cover me.”
He moved forward and prodded O’Rourke’s body with his weapon and noticed the massive wounds to his lifeless body, he knelt down and searched the body and found the two grenades in O’Rourke’s jacked pockets and the handgun.
He removed them, walked away, and spoke into his Comms, “this is Eagle -5, target neutralised, Solex-4 can you touch down here, over?”
The pilot replied, “Keep the area below clear eagle-5, I am coming down.”
Broadway was now beginning to fill up with emergency response vehicles; Colin Bishop looked down the road at the stricken building and instinctively knew this had been a hard hit on the British Police, there was going to be a lot families that would not be seeing their loved ones again.
As the helicopter touched down, they bagged O’Rourke’s body up and loaded it onto the helicopter.
The pilot checked around him and slowly pulled on the collective stick and applied pressure to the pedals, the helicopter lifted, the pilot raised the machine above the building line and spoke into his Comm’s, “Solex-4 to eagle -5 are we a go to RTB, over?”
Colin Bishop replied, “that’s affirmative, RTB, out.”
The pilot rotated the helicopter one-hundred and eighty degrees and then lowered the nose slightly using the control stick and this caused the helicopter to accelerate forward.
He spoke into his Comms, “ETA RAF Odiham, sixteen minutes.”
As the Lynx flew across St James Park Colin Bishop, spoke into his Comms, “eagle-5 to ICIS over.”
GAIL’s voice replied, “Go ahead eagle-5.”
Colin Bishop said, “Advise MP we have taken out O’Rourke and his body is with us on route back to RAF Odiham, over.”
Vince Edwards voice responded with, “I have satellite imagery coming in on New Scotland Yard, what’s it like down there eagle-5?”
Colin Bishop paused for a moment and replied with, “it’s a bloody mess Vince, there’s going to be a lot of heart ache over this one, I’ll give you and the Major a full SITREP when we get back to Hesters Copse, over.”
“Thank you eagle-5, I will advise Major Strayker, ICIS out.”