“Conor, we’re pulling out right now.” Sinead had called the minute the first police car had arrived.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her panic.
“Police. One car just arrived but another two undercover ones just pulled in,” she said as she walked out of the rear of the complex. “We’re dumping the car and the bike, we’ll be with you as soon as we can.” She ended the call as one of the crew flagged down a black cab.
“Train station,” she said as she closed the door.
Once at the train station, they used another cab to the next station before using a third to return to a street close to their camp. Conor picked them up where the taxi had dropped them off.
“The place was crawling with cops by the time we left. These guys must have some very powerful friends,” explained Sinead.
“It might not have had anything to do with us, it might have been a drug raid or something, you don’t know,” replied Conor more for the benefit of the crew than anything else.
Sinead didn’t like it, her instincts were seldom wrong.
The SO12 Special Branch “A” squad commander had reacted immediately to Saki’s call. Saki was well known to them having been vetted by them many years earlier when he had first taken responsibility for Tristan during a trip to the Kennedy Estate. Only few ‘civilians’ were entrusted with the safety of the Prime Minister’s children. Within ten minutes, 50 police officers had been on scene and within 15 minutes, they were joined by eight members of the Strathclyde Police Force Special Protection Unit, SPU.
There was no sign of the suspicious individuals other than their abandoned motorbike. Saki had never seen their car and therefore did not know that it had also been abandoned. A scrupulous sweep was made of the entire complex while the kids sat blissfully unaware of the mayhem outside. Sniffer dogs were called in to search for explosives and five special protection officers joined the kids in the theatre to look out for anything suspicious. With five minutes to go before the end of the movie, the all clear was given. The decision of what to do next was left to Saki and the Special Branch Commander in London. Both agreed that the kids should enjoy as normal an evening as possible and decided that the trip to the ten pin bowling should proceed as planned.
A security perimeter was set up outside the complex and a number of undercover officers joined the customers both in the cinema and in the bowling alley. The SPU Officers would be playing on the alley either side of the kids.
Tom, Lela and their friends walked towards the bowling alley, on the other side of the complex, briefly discussing the movie before returning to their earlier tactical discussions on how to win the bowling. They were closely followed by Saki and closely watched by their fifty new guardians.
As they entered the bowling alley, a small group of Neds left hurriedly, pointing at Lela and saying “that’s her.” Tom and Lela’s friends noticed but Tom just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Weirdoes, don’t worry about them.”
Saki, taking a similar position to earlier, watched as the same group of Neds left and began to make calls just beside him at the main door. Within five minutes, their number had doubled and within ten, it had doubled again. Finally, a young man arrived, dressed in his finest white shell-suit and sporting more gold rings than Saki thought would be possible on one hand. He swayed into view and took forever to join the rest of his gang so as to ensure his swagger projected his presence. When he finally arrived, the others excitedly updated him with varying versions of the evening’s events. He was obviously their leader.
Saki looked around and counted at least twenty plain clothes officers taking an interest in the growing gang. Saki spotted the officer in charge and with an almost imperceptible nod suggested he would handle it. The officer had been made aware of Saki’s status by the Special Branch Commander and radioed for his men to hold back.
Saki walked across to the group and spoke in a cheery tone.
“Hi guys.”
“What the f*** do you want?” the leader snapped, stepping towards Saki in an attempt to intimidate him.
“I was going to help you but if you don’t want my help, that’s fine. I’ll just leave you to it.” He moved to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re going, you’ll leave when I say you can,” announced the leader, raising a few sniggers from his gang.
“Oh I’m sorry,” replied Saki. “Do you want my help afterall?”
The leader of the Neds raised his eyes to the heavens, a real showman. “Jesus old man, tell us exactly how you think you can help us?” he taunted.
“I thought I would help you by giving you some options.” Saki was about to be interrupted by one of the Neds but the leader raised his hand, he wanted to hear this. If nothing else, it should make a good story.
Saki continued.
“Option one, this is the best one and I highly recommend it. You walk away and everybody’s fine. Option two, you annoy me more than you have already and I beat on you until the twenty policemen currently surrounding us rescue you. Or, option three, I cannot iterate enough how much I would recommend against this one, you try to attack the children I’m looking after and even the twenty policemen won’t rescue you from that one.”
The Ned leader had been laughing until option two and the mention of the twenty policemen. Like the rest of his gang, he had instantly looked around. He couldn’t see any, there were plenty of people milling around but no coppers that he recognised.
“Old man, the best thing you can do for your kids is call an ambulance. Nobody beats up my gang in my town.”
The leader lifted his arm to push past Saki. He had been warned that option three was not a good option.
Saki had recognised the boy when he had arrived, he and his gang had been terrorising the neighbourhood for a couple of years, always managing to evade the police. It was time they were taught a lesson.
Saki didn’t move, the leader pushed with more force and still Saki would not move. He wasn’t going to assault the Ned in front of twenty policemen, not until he had self defence as his justification.
The Ned lost his temper and threw a punch, quickly followed by a barrage from his gang. However, Saki had already moved and had delivered his own barrage of punches. His fists moved so quickly that the Neds didn’t stand a chance. One after the other, they fell as Saki waded through them, leaving the leader to last. The police were still running towards them as Saki faced the bewildered leader surrounded by his gang writhing and crying around him.
“Who the f*** are you?” the leader asked, still stunned by what he had just seen.
“Payback,” he replied before sweeping the Ned’s legs from under him. The Ned flew up in the air and crashed down onto the concrete landing on his coccyx, the crunch echoed across the car park. Saki knew exactly what he was doing, the pain would last for years and at least now the swagger would be natural.
The police arrived, only 20 seconds after the first punch, quietly congratulating Saki before carting off the Neds whom they arrested for numerous charges, including breach of the peace and attempted assault. The haul of weapons found on the gang led to a number of greater charges, including an attempted murder charge against the leader when his knife was linked to a near fatal stabbing two days earlier.
As the commotion was ending outside, the game was heating up inside. As usual, it was the boys against the girls and the girls were beating them. On top of Lela’s near perfect strikes, one of her friends had a bizarre technique which involved dropping the bowl at her feet and letting it trickle down the alley before scoring a strike. One occurrence would have been a fluke but she was consistent, scoring a strike with nearly every “drop.” Tom threw his second bowl.
“Spare! Yes!”
He had just managed to keep the boys in the game and unable to watch the next drop strike, he excused himself and headed to the toilets.
As he entered the toilets, he noticed two Neds follow quickly behind. They had been playing the arcade machines and had missed the action outside with Saki.
“He was there,” said the smaller Ned pointing at Tom.
“What do you lot think you’re playing at fighting with our gang?” asked the taller one.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t touch any of your gang, it was my sister Lela,” responded Tom. Obviously, the little Ned had not told the complete truth.
“Yeah, right,” he said not believing him.
“Ask him,” said Tom pointing to the little one.
“What?” the Ned turned to the smaller one who shrugged with a sheepish grin and then swiftly received a clout across the head from his larger companion.
“Well, somebody has to pay, so perhaps you’ll control your girlfriend better next time, ” he said as he lunged towards Tom. Tom instinctively blocked the attack and, using his aggressor’s energy just as Lela had taught him, propelled him into the metal urinal creating an almighty bang. The stunned Ned went limp and slid down into the trough mopping up the latest deposits along the length of his body. The smaller Ned took off. He’d seen enough fancy moves to last him a lifetime. The larger Ned lay motionless in the trough.
“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my sister,” said Tom as he straightened his top and left to join the party in time to be humiliated by the girls’ bowling victory.