In Charing Cross hospital, Sally was sitting at the bedside, her Glock was in the pocket of the Kevlar vest, Jane was sleeping, having been sedated. Dave had phoned to say both Ruth and armed officers were on there way, the car bringing Ruth was to take her to MI5. Sally saw the door open, through the frosted glass, she could make out it wasn’t a nurse or a doctor, she pulled out the Glock, it was a relief to see Ruth, she looked at Jane, then Sally, “What’s happened, they said she was ill?” “Sit down, I will tell you briefly.” They swapped places, “I’ve seen you before,” “it was last Friday in Jane’s house,” “but…,” Ruth looked Sally up and down but couldn’t find the words to say what her brain was thinking. She was now holding Jane’s hand. Sally said she had been hit in the shoulder by a bullet, and she was not in any danger. Ruth held it together, at least whilst Sally was there. The glass panel in the door darkened, there was a knock, Sally took out the Glock again, Ruth froze, “who are you?” “Police,” “Come in slowly, make no sudden movements.” “The door opened, a policeman similar in size to Dave came in, “stay by the door, carefully take out your ID and throw it on the bed.” Her gun never stopped pointing at him, she watched every move he made. “Ruth, pick up the ID, now take my phone from the top of the bedside cabinet, scroll through until you find Dave, then press dial, put it on speaker.” There was a lot of fumbling, before she heard it ringing, “Dave, there is a policeman here, can you check him out, I have his warrant card?” “Name,” it was Ruth who called it out, “Sergeant Harold Watkins.” “Wait,” Dave asked Brick if he knew him, he nodded, “ask him what his nickname is.” The policeman had heard, “It’s Rodney,” Dave relayed the information to Brick, “That’s him.” Sally heard Dave say it was OK. “Sorry, but I was taking no chances,” she put the gun away, “You’re not police, who are you?” She had learnt from Dave, “I’m Sally.” He asked again, this time more insistent, “your boss knows. I’m going now, this lady, Ruth, can come and go freely, no one other than medical staff are allowed in.” Sally thanked him, hugged Ruth then left, I will be back this evening.” She had some very strange looks as she walked through the hospital, outside, a Range Rover was waiting for her.
Sally walked into Dave’s office, she had changed downstairs before coming up. He stood up, she hugged him, she carried on hugging him, “I thought he was going to shoot you.” Tears were streaming down her face, he found a tissue and wiped her eyes. “It all worked out in the end, none of us were hurt, I would have preferred it if we had been ten minutes earlier, Jane might not have been shot, but we can’t change that. How is she?” “They have to open up her shoulder to remove fragments of bone, I’m not sure when it will be done, the bleeding has been stopped, she’s doped up to the eyeballs, Ruth is with her, I said we will go back this evening.” There wasn’t a chair for her, she sat on the edge of Dave’s desk, “Why don’t you get some food, I’m going to be here for some time. Bring back coffees when you have eaten. She didn’t realise how hungry she was until she saw the food. Two copies of the report Brick had written were on his desk, he was reading through for a final time. Sally put a coffee on his desk, the other two she put on Dave’s. He signed both copies. “One is for me, the other is for your boss, he will want to know what you have been doing, I don’t need to say anything about discretion, do I?” “No, I will say nothing, is it interesting working here?” “I guess it depends on what you are doing, plenty of people are in here doing the same job day after day, others have more varied duties.” He finished his coffee and was ready to leave, “I can’t say it I enjoyed the day, however it was certainly different, thank you for the experience, I hope I was able to help.” “You were very good, if anyone asks me, I will say how well you did.” They shook hands, Sally hugged him, she thanked him again. He was escorted out the building, he looked round for any sign of a police vehicle. Ten minutes later, he was in a police van, heading for his base.
It was 18:30 when he had finished the report, Sally had gone over it several times making sure it was correct. This time she had seen the images Dave added in, a year ago, she would have been sick seeing them, now it didn’t bother her, they were dead for a reason. At times she did think about their families, but these thoughts soon disappeared. Dave said he felt worn out, Sally wanted to know who to send the report to, “the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister, Jane Goodley and Howard, they can forward it to anyone else they think needs to be told.” “I said we would go back and see Jane this evening, do you want to go to the hotel first or see Jane?” “I want a bath or a shower,” Sally thought, then suggested they go to the hotel, shower and change, go to see Jane, then eat in the West End, “we can have a long soak in the bath when we return. See if you can book Saturday night in the hotel, we can travel back on Sunday.” Leaving the office, he explained to the senior person on duty about visiting Jane later and to have the police informed of their visit. They were at the hospital just after 20:00, visiting was due to end in less than thirty minutes. Ruth was still there, Jane was now conscious, sitting up in bed, her shoulder was swathed in bandages. They both kissed her. Sally said she looked better than earlier. “Thank you both, again I owe my life to the pair of you. How did you find me so quickly?” “We’re not going to talk about that tonight except to say, we discovered it was him the previous night, I was on my way to inform you, the police had no problem following you, there was a tag in the lining of your handbag. When you are out of here and feeling better, we will discuss it then.” Ruth said Jane had no clothes, she had permission to stay the night, but had no toiletries. “Sally, why don’t you and Ruth take a taxi to Jane’s house, pick up what you need and return, I’ll stay here with Jane.” With that agreed, Dave was left alone with Jane. Tears rolled down her face, “it was horrible, I was prepared to be killed, I was defiant. It’s true what they say, your life flashes past you.” Dave was wiping away the tears, she reached out for his hand, “how do you do it? Earlier on you were shooting people, now you are tender and caring.” “I might not be a pleasant person at times, I can be cold and clinical, but underneath, I think I’m kind and caring.” She held his hand firmly, “Sally is a very lucky person.” “I think I’m lucky having her. We’re good for each other.” Her eyes closed, she was still holding his hand. His hand was still being held when Sally and Ruth returned. Jane’s eyes opened, she let go of his hand, Ruth kissed her. Sally said they were going now, they both kissed Jane and then Ruth, saying they would look in tomorrow. The idea of eating out was changed, it was now after 22:45. Dave said they would order room service in the hotel, by the time they were nearly there, they had decided to eat out after all. There was an Indian restaurant a couple of streets from the hotel, the taxi dropped them off there. At 01:00 they were in the lift heading for their room, Sally ran a bath, she was in first, Dave joined her, she was lying back between his legs, “This has been a Hell of a day, I didn’t think it would be like it was. We set off this morning for a normal day and look what happened, Jane is kidnapped, we rescue her, I shoot someone and I find out there is another person in love with you.” He stopped soaping her front, “what do you mean?” “Oh Dave, you’re her knight in shining armour, she’s in love with you, not in a sexual way, you’re the wrong sex, but a woman can tell.” “It won’t last long, she’ll be back to her normal gruff self.” “I think she has always liked you, right from the start, although she would never admit it, she likes the way you work and disrespect authority. I like it as well. It’s as if you don’t give a shit, but those who know you understand you really do care, and that’s why you are the way you are. Tonight, after this bath, I’m going to have something she never will, you.” She turned to kiss him. Moving she sat astride him in the bath, getting out, they roughly dried themselves before carrying on in the bed. They were woken in the morning, by Dave’s phone ringing, it was 07:30, he was asked if he was still in London. “Yes,” “a car will pick you up for a meeting at the Home Office. Please be waiting at 10:00, the meeting starts at 10:30.” Sally was climbing on top of him, “Sorry, unfortunately I won’t be able to be there at that time, I have a prior appointment, make it one hour later.” He hung up without waiting for a reply. Putting the phone down, he turned his attention to Sally. They were amongst the last down to breakfast, there was to be no interruption to today’s meal, it was leisurely and enjoyable. Getting ready for the meeting, Sally suggested they delay it another half hour. “No, there will be plenty time later,” reluctantly she let him go and carried on with her makeup.
At 11:30, he and Sally were sitting at a round table, also present were Richard Carlton and Henry Wiggins, the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, together with the Chief Constable. Two desks away from the table were occupied by private secretaries. Notes were being taken by a lady sitting at a third desk. Richard Carlton tapped his glass with a pen. “May we start please, we are here to discuss the events of Friday morning, possible fallout and where we go moving forward. David Stretton and Sally Fellowes are part of the team from yesterday, the other person, I understand was a serving police officer. Their names are to be kept secret. David, we have all read your comprehensive report, I understand there is another one completed by the police officer.” “Yes, he was not involved in the shooting, he did witness one shooting, his job was to guard the people we captured.” The Chief Constable wanted to know if the situation could have been resolved without the use of firearms. “No, when a gun is pointed at you, there is no other option.” “Did you use unreasonable force to secure those you had captured.” “This wasn’t a training exercise, where you all go down the pub afterwards and have a pint and a laugh. It’s real life, I don’t care if I use more force than is required. I made sure they wouldn’t be any further threat. If I cut them or they have sore wrists or ankles, that’s their problem not mine, and before you ask, I didn’t read them their rights, as far as I was concerned, they had no rights.” Dave was asked if there was more he hadn’t put in the report. “Yes, the two weeks I spent going through every case Jane Goodley had been involved in before I found the one with Sir George Dawson. Had I discovered it earlier in the day, the kidnap may have been averted. He was also responsible for the kidnap in Dagenham.” Dave and Sally now heard about the kidnap itself, they had been told very little, the driver was shot through the lung, the armed guard was hit twice, once in the arm, the second shot in his stomach. The driver he heard would recover, the guard would take much longer. They also learned that Jane was to undergo an operation today. The Home Secretary now took over, “the press are hounding us for more details, they want to know who was kidnapped and who the people in black were.” There followed a discussion in which neither he nor Sally took part, He leaned back on his chair to be level with the secretaries. “Can you organise coffee and biscuits if there are any?” Dave waited until they had finished, it was agreed to say it was a senior civil servant who was taken, the figures in black would be explained as Special Forces who were training in the area and whose services were used. “How are you going to explain Sir George? He was shot on his own premises, when his name is public, it won’t take long to trace it back to Jane Goodley, he made quite a lot of noise when his son was shot. You need to issue a “D” notice or whatever it is called now, stop the press reporting, you have to protect Jane Goodley as well.” Again, the conversation didn’t involve Dave or Sally, it was agreed a further discussion would take place later. There was a knock at the door, a trolley with coffee and biscuits was brought in and left. One of the secretaries poured out the drinks, he made a point of putting the plate of biscuits in front of Dave. The Prime Minister asked Dave and Sally what could be done to prevent this happening again. He thought carefully before answering. “If you want my honest answer, nothing, you can plan all you like, but who can prepare for revenge. This was almost a year in the planning, the only mistake they made was using the number plate from a car scrapped in one of their own recycling centres, if they hadn’t done that, we might be talking about a dead Jane Goodley. It was well planned and it almost succeeded the first time.” The Prime Minister wanted to discuss the future of the Head of MI5, they talked for a while but got nowhere. It was Sally who interrupted, “you are all talking round the subject, have any of you talked to Miss Goodley, why don’t you do that, if she wants to return to work, then this conversation is a waste of time. One of you will have to speak to her and find out her intentions.” The three looked directly at Sally, Richard Carlton spoke, “I see you are as forthright as Mr. Stretton, thank you for your advice.” The meeting came to an end, Dave thought it had been a waste of time. He and Sally were asked to stay behind. Only the Prime Minister remained. Dave poured more coffee, “once again you have come to the rescue, would you and Miss Fellowes consider setting up a special unit, to be called on in cases like this?” “You have these units in place already, there is the SAS, the SBS and the police have their Tactical Support Unit, there isn’t room for another one. We work outside the rules, you can’t have an official group operating the way we do, when word got out, the shit would hit the fan. Besides, neither of us want to live in London, Sally has a job, I drive my cab, it suits us both. There are plenty people on your books who can do the physical bits, what you are short of is independent thinkers, too many are trained in the government way of thinking. There needs to be a change, if there were more people like us, we could retire. Most government departments are stuffed with graduates, where are the people with real life experience. If I applied to join MI5 now, I wouldn’t get past the application form. You need to have practical people, what use is a graduate in media studies, who doesn’t understand bank accounts, who can’t read between the lines, who can’t tie two bits of information together. There hard to find, I know that, if there was anyone better than us, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Recruitment needs a kick up the arse, devise tests for applicants, make them think, pick only the best, you might end up with fewer people, but they will be better.” “It sounds like you are talking yourself into a job.” “Not me, I will help in any way I can, I already do, spending every Friday down here. Sally has almost finished her firearms training, after yesterday, I would give her a pass with flying colours.” “The copper who helped out yesterday is good, a quick learner, he should be rewarded for what he did.” “What was his name?” “Brick, he said it was his nickname, you should be able to find him from that.” “You have both now saved Jane Goodley twice, you know there can be no public thanks, no mentions in the paper, I don’t think you would want that anyway.” “Money always helps.” “And you Miss Fellowes?” “It may sound corny, but I have what I want.” She squeezed Dave’s arm. “I think we compliment each other.” “Are you staying in London?” “One more night, I have work on Monday morning, Dave will be driving his cab.” Richard Carlton shook his head, “We are going to the hospital from here, hopefully we can have an uninterrupted meal tonight.”
© 10210ken 2025
