OSC London
OSC London
Whitehall place
Lat = 51 degrees, 30.4 minutes North
Long = 0 degrees, 7.5 minutes West
Three hours after his conversation with Charlton, Max was viewing the CCTV footage from the Bakerloo line.
He had started with the incident scene footage from Paddington underground station; his attention was now drawn to a figure running up the escalators and then walking up the stairs to street level.
The figure was dressed in grey clothing and the face was clearly of Middle Eastern gender.
Max rewound the footage to the platform where the scene showed this figure leaving the last carriage, turning back to it and then running away.
Twenty minutes later Max had ascertained that the mystery figure had boarded the doomed tube train four minutes earlier at Edgware road carrying a rucksack.
Max froze the picture and studied it there was something different.
He run the footage forward to Paddington station and studied the figure leaving the carriage.
“Bingo.” He exclaimed!
The nearby phone rang, “Max here.”
Strayker was on the other end. “Max meet me in my office in five minutes.”
Max printed off the image of his suspect and walked up to Strayker’s office.
Strayker was with Charlton. “Max we have a make-up of the device, Charlton you can proceed with your briefing. “Well gentlemen the device was approximately ten pounds in weight and consisted of a substance known as Amatol, Charlton paused for a moment.
“Go on Strayker prompted.”
“To put into simple terms, this substance is made up of Ammonium Nitrate that exists as colourless rhombohedral crystals at room temperature but changes to monoclinic crystals when heated above Thirty-two degrees Celsius.
Max grinned. “That’s in simple terms!”
Charlton smiled. “The Ammonium Nitrate was mixed with Trinitroluene or TNT to form Amatol; all which is needed is a simple detonation system.”
Strayker interrupted. “And this was enough to cause the devastation at Paddington.”
“Well almost, the persons who created this device added a little extra to give it a bigger kick!”
“What little extra was that then?” replied Max.
“Something very simple, petroleum; I calculate that one pint would have been enough to create the catalyst to increase the bombs effectiveness, producing the effect at Paddington.”
“That’s one hell of a cocktail,” Strayker replied.
Charlton turned and faced him. “One very simple cocktail sir, which in that confined area was enough to cause the initial fragmentation followed by a fireball affect.”
“These items.” Max cut in. “Would appear to be simple to gain access to?”
Charlton raised his hands in despondency. “That’s correct Max we have very little to go on in that direction.”
Strayker looked at Max in expectation. “I hope you have something we can use Max.”
“Well it’s funny you should ask that sir.” A big smile formed on Max’s face.
Charlton looked at Max with astonishment. “You have something we can use.”
Max produced the photo.” This gentleman I believe is our bomber.”
Strayker reached out and Max handed him the print.
“Are you sure of this Max.”
Max explained the sequence of events with the man in the picture and the fact he had no rucksack when leaving the station.
Strayker looked directly at Charlton. “Would a rucksack be big enough to accommodate the device?”
“Conceivably; yes.”
Strayker’s face showed relief. “What’s the game plan Max?”
“With your permission sir, I would like to take a team and this picture down to Paddington tomorrow at around the same time of the explosion.”
Charlton looked puzzled. “How will that help us?”
Strayker’s face beamed with understanding. “Go on Max tell him.”
“I have a feeling that our man left the scene using some sort of public transport, a bus or taxi.”
“What if he had a getaway vehicle waiting?”
“Too risky a vehicle hanging around that area at that time would draw attention, something he wouldn’t want.”
“Right, I want you Charlton to make enquiries however remote, to trace where the materials for the bomb may have been sourced.”
“Yes sir.” Charlton turned and exited the room.
“Max, I have read your final report on Roy Smith’s induction training and have acted upon your recommendation, as of this morning he is now classified operational, code name Eagle six.
Roy Smith had accompanied Max on the raid on Shakira’s base in Zimbabwe. It was his first encounter into the world of the OSC, both Max and he had been wounded in the ensuing battle.
Roy had been with the SAS prior to this, when the previous Eagle six had been killed on an earlier mission; Max had earmarked Roy as a potential replacement.
“One final point Max!” “No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing.”
Max held up the photo. “I think we had better find this son of a bitch urgently.”
“Okay Max, get some copies of the photo over to Vince at ICIS, maybe they can come up with some antecedents on him”.
Max turned and left Strayker’s office; he turned right and walked the length of the corridor, took the end door on the left and descended two flights of metal rung stairs. He opened the door to his right and walked into the armourers and supplies section.
A man in his fifties with short cropped grey hair and built like a tank was busy stripping down a weapon, as Max entered he looked up and smiled.
“How are things in the real world Max?”
“Believe me Johnson you don’t want to know.”
The two men shook hands.”
“You are going after the bastards who blew the Paddington tube station.”
Max gave him a vacant look.
“I know Max, it’s on a need to know basis, and even though no one has said anything my experience tells me it was a device and no accident.”
Johnson was a former paratrooper his speciality weapons, munitions and explosives.
“Right then Max what do you need?”
Max lent over the desk, picked up a pen, note pad, and wrote down a list of names.
“A dozen Metropolitan Police warrant identity cards with photos of these men.”
“When for Max?”
“O-five hundred hour’s tomorrow morning, together with covert two way radios”.
Max handed the note pad over to Johnson.
Johnson quickly scanned the names looked up at Max.
“Everything will be ready for you Max”.
Max left returning to Strayker’s office.
He knocked and entered; Strayker was on the phone in the middle of a conversation, he gestured to Max to take a seat.
“That’s correct I need to know current contingency plans for a reoccurrence of this type of incident”.
“Are you expecting another incident?” Came the reply.
“I believe this was not a one off”.
There was a pause. “Well we um... Don’t have any contingency plans in place for this type of incident”.
Strayker’s face took on a glower expression he could feel the anger welling up inside.
However, he was too much of a professional to allow it to surface. “Well minister I would strongly suggest that someone make this a priority and I will mentioning this matter to the Prime Minister tomorrow morning”. He hung the phone up.
“Damn bureaucrats”. He muttered.
He looked over at Max. “One day this country will fully know of the deeds you and this department have performed”.
Max put his hands in the air. “I never signed up for the notoriety I prefer to be a faceless entity”.
Strayker stood up. “I know Max; I know”.
“Anyway Max let’s do the job we are both competent in doing”.
“Have you selected the team for tomorrow”?
“Yes sir, we will be going in as plain cloths police officers, I have arranged the appropriate documents”.
“Okay Max, I’m seeing the commissioner and I’ll advise him of your activities”.
Max stood up. “I think I’ll pop over to Vince at ICIS
and see how things are developing at his end”.
“Take Roy Smith with you Max, you can bring him up to speed”.
Max turned to leave. “Oh by the way Max some good news”.
Max turned with a look of interest.
“The rooftop helipad is now operational”.
“That’s a month ahead of schedule sir”.
“Why don’t I call a chopper up and you can collect Roy on the way to ICIS”.
“Give me fifteen minutes to make the calls to Roy and the rest of the team”.
“Fifteen minutes it is”.