The FO Officer Ch. 03

The conversation between Hassan and Curtis lasted an hour, if it hadn't been the king he was talking to, Curtis would have slammed the phone down on this conversation and cut all ties with him. But over the time they had met and known each other, a form of respect had grown between them. The king's wife and son were always coming over to the club and true to his word, he did buy her her own canal boat. She was damn good at cruising as well, this woman was never afraid of getting her hands dirty and between her son and her, they made a good team.

Curtis watched from the window as the car left, then picked up his cell and dialed another number from memory. "Halo, I'm sorry to bother you but I need to talk to you before I take this higher, when can you get here?"

*******

The Unit was now at full strength and we had all watched Sharon walk across the room without the aid of a cane, the smile never left her lips while she did her impromptu catwalk like walk towards the chair. Kitten stayed for a week and Halo brought the family with him.

The wives threw a party when Sharon got back, she was bronzed and carried a heck of a lot more muscle than when she left. Kitten had been working hard on her, yet when I cornered Kitten, she did actually say that Sharon was the motivational force and on a few occasions, it came down to Kitten to tone down her charge's enthusiasm. Kitten had lived and breathed Unit through her association with Rick, her husband. So understood Sharon's enthusiasm. It was that close contact they had that was the bond that kept them going and the end result was a smiling Sergeant Sharon Macalister.

JoJo had a quiet word with Maggie, she in return persuaded her husband that she deserved a treat, so the weekend in London, dinner and a couple of theatre tickets later: a weekend break was born. Only Maggie knew that JoJo was throwing Sharon onto the street on a surveillance weekend and they were her target. JoJo backed her up and Ashley was fallback.

Monday morning Maggie read Sharon Macalister's report of the weekend and admitted that everything in the report was totally true and not once did she or Freddy feel they were being watched.

The rest of us went back to minding our own business, at least until the next drama, of course.

*******

The very next day ...

Ruth put Halo, Kitten plus the girls up at the boat club and a notice went on the boat club board.

'Just for the hell of it, this weekend, we're having a party. All members of the boat club are invited and the entry fee is bringing food. Drinks are on us. Start time is Saturday at seven thirty, the lights go out when the last drunk leaves the building.'

The committee wives got into organization mode to make sure the food didn't clash. The food actually took up three tables, no one who came that night was going to leave hungry.

It was close to ten o'clock when a figure at least ten of us knew, stood by the exit door; it threw us that he was in civilian clothes. General Brownlow still looked every inch an officer, even disguised as a civilian.

Freddy spotted him first, then walked over to JoJo, as she turned to look at Freddy, she too noticed the figure standing in the doorway. He turned and waited outside when JoJo walked towards him.

Elizabeth followed me when I walked over to Freddy. "This is unusual." left Freddy's lips, he couldn't hide the worry in his eyes either.

Freddy nodded. "In all the years I've known that man, I've never seen him in civilian. I've got a really bad feeling about this."

It was then he seemed to shake his head, then look at Elizabeth. "At the moment I'm as much in the dark about this as you both are, but I plan to authorize your permit, it will be on your boss's desk when he gets in."

The General shook JoJo's hand, then turned and got back into his car, we watched him and his driver leave the boat club and then JoJo came back. She knew the whole Unit was watching, she used sign language twice, once to spell Morning. Then to show the number forty. One by one, the members of the Unit went to the bathroom.

Elizabeth held onto my arm and whispered into my ear. "What's going on?"

As the members of the Unit returned, they only drank juice, water or soda for the rest of the evening.

When it was my turn, I leant into her ear and said. "Will be back in a moment, just getting rid of some alcohol." The confused look lasted but a moment.

The appearance of General Brownlow didn't dull the evening for the wives or children for that matter. But Freddy's comments to Elizabeth still haunted my thoughts, even on the way home.

Elizabeth was on my wavelength, she proved it as well when she said, "I know what you're thinking. Please be patient, I will explain when we get back to the cottage."

I squeezed her leg in reply and she placed her hand over mine when I did.

Elizabeth got changed while I made us both coffee, her version of getting changed into something comfortable around the cottage consisted of boy shorts and a tee shirt, watching her movements while she walked around the room never got old, the kiss on the cheek as a thank you for the coffee was always welcome. The silence as we both headed for the couch just seemed to ramp up the mystery.

True to her word, my girlfriend took a breath and then said. "We both know the history of the Unit; we also know what happened at Kenton Barracks. One of the things that Freddy did when the Unit became active again was to make sure that history never repeated itself. There is a strategy in place to protect the families of the Unit now."

Elizabeth paused while she sipped her coffee, placed it back on the table and continued. "Then, enter stage left came me. Brendan, I'm a serving member of the police force, I can't just up and leave. So Freddy and I had a sit down with my boss, when that notice hits his desk in the morning I will be armed until any threat to the Unit or it's families is over."

Freddy always was the forward thinker in the Unit, he would have got JoJo on board before he even went to see Elizabeth's boss.

When I took her hand in mine, her eyes looked to mine, I asked "Are you okay with this?"

She smiled, a cute tinge of pink came to her cheeks. "I fell in love with a man who kills for a living. That man just happened to save my life, so I could love him in person, even Freddy found a way to protect me and keep my job at the same time. We both knew I could never be a Units wife the way the others are, because of my job."

I nodded and said the only word that made sense "Balance."

Elizabeth nodded, then smiled. "We're not keeping secrets from you Brendan, I promise we're not. We both truly believed that this moment would never come again, hell we don't even know if it has, but please remember to thank Freddy. It was him that was keeping us all safe, while you're out there doing, stuff."

*******

We were all sat in our makeshift conference room. Curtis and Halo wandered in and sat at the back. JoJo came in and sat on the edge of the desk facing us.

"As you may have noticed, General Brownlow came to see us last night. A week ago a diplomat, his wife and child were kidnapped on their way to the airport. The police at their end are." This was when she did that air comments with her fingers. "Doing all they can. No ransom notice, nothing but silence. The general has asked the Prime Minister if he could activate the Unit, the PM readily agreed. You see the wife of the diplomat is his daughter, I will also remind you that his grandchild is also missing."

JoJo then looked out at the gathered members of the Unit, and said. "Go home hug the children and kiss the wife, your own preferably. Final briefing will be in the morning; we fly out directly after that."

She watched as they left. Two men remained seated, Freddy closed the door as he made sure everyone of the Unit left the building.

Joan Carmichael walked over to the two remaining men, scooping a chair into her hand on the way, then sat across from them, no more than three feet of space was between them.

Her smile was genuine, even when she said "You're both supposed to be retired."

Both nodded.

"I'm so glad you answered my call, thank you."

Rick rested his elbows onto his knees. "What do you need us to do?"

Joan automatically pulled her chair closer to her two friends and all three heads went into a huddle. Her friends at the intel regiment asked to speak to her, she was tight on time but made the appointment anyway. Brownlow's son-in-law Peter Fenwick was nothing more than a blow hard, he talked a good job, but stole the original ideas from others and offered them as his own. His venture in the world of the diplomatic service fared no better, he would take credit for other people hard work and then dismiss them once the work was done.

He may have been Brownlow's son-in-law but even the diplomatic service runs out of patience with its people in the end.

Still seated Joan looked at both men, she trusted both with her life. Yet she was faced with such a monumental decision right now.

Joan looked at him and said. "Are you sure Curtis? This is a serious accusation you're tossing onto the table."

It was the slight shrug of his shoulders that confused her, even after her statement. "I'm not making the accusation Joan. King Hassan is, he took an interest in this case since in a roundabout way, it involves the Unit."

"His spies have listened and only talked to the king, the spies are more afraid of the king than the diplomat, so they aren't likely to cross the king."

"All I can do is repeat what I was allowed to tell you Joan. The king watched this case knowing that you, the Unit would become involved. He told me to tell you that at first he refused to believe it when his spies were telling him, his double and triple checked everything."

Joan's brow creased. "But why? What motive would Peter Fenwick have for even hiring people to kidnap himself and his family. None of this is making any sense Curtis."

Curtis paused, even now not willing to open up the biggest can of worms that were being placed under the Unit.

"Hassan had double checked, as a diplomat his not even rated as a junior. It was Brownlow's influence that got him the job to begin with. I believe it's because of Brownlow's dealings with the Unit that his turned his attention towards you. He plans to muddy the water with you, make you look like you're incapable of doing your job and then re-insert himself back into the army with the aim of taking your job as head of the Unit."

JoJo just stared at Curtis.

"It's the only thing we can come up with, Joan. He was an officer when he met Brownlow's daughter, he retired thinking his life was going to be plain sailing from now on. As an officer he was apparently rated as ok, as a civil servant, his all but useless at it. He wants your job and I suspect that in his head, he can take Brownlow's place later on in life."

Even Joan had to agree with him.

The meeting lasted an hour. Unknown to Joan Carmichael, both men left for the airfield and boarded the waiting private jet. All record of the jet landing and leaving the airfield were expunged from records minutes after the jet left sovereign airspace.

*******

King Hassan allowed the Unit into his country, they were met at one of the private airfields at the outer edge of the capital. Hassan's two personal bodyguards were given express orders, take the foreigners to the private residence and then return to the palace. By ten that evening Hassan was listening to his personal guards telling him just that. From then on the King got constant updates on what the group of foreigners were doing.

They left the residence dressed as locals, even the people sent to watch the foreigners commented to the king that at times they had a hard time following them since they blended into the population really well. The reports were always the same, they were watching and occasionally scouting the area around a walled and very private house some two miles from their own residence.

On the fourth evening, the first evening of the full moon, the foreigners scaled the walls, within an hour of scaling the walls the main gate opened and the foreigners walked out to the vehicles that were parked outside.

Shots rang out, the woman went down and so did the man that followed directly behind her. The few people walking out that evening did notice that when the main gate opened the man was yelling at the woman in English. Calling her names and telling her she was a disgrace. The men around them quickly loaded both wounded people into one of the vehicles. Other shots rang out that evening, none hit the men surrounding the woman holding onto the little girl. The vehicles simply sped away into the night.

*******

We had done the preparations; the moon was full this evening so plans were once again gone over. As everybody moved away to do their own prep work I stood looking at JoJo. She quickly picked up on it and signaled me over to her.

"Ma'am with Two's announcement of retirement, it seems the mouthpiece work is left to me."

Her eyes hardened and I suppose I expected it.

"You have something to say Trapper?"

I pulled air into my lungs, even after all the time I had already spent with the Unit, I still felt like the new guy sometimes, this was most definitely one of them.

"Ma'am, don't sideline Two. Him and Maggie are looking forward to retirement, that's a given. But don't force him to leave because you're leaving him nothing but the safe jobs. As your second he should be by your side in this, not moving our vehicle to the gate ready for our extraction."

The glare was expected; it was also water off this ducks back. Eventually a smile crossed her lips. "I hereby order you never fail in your new job as mouthpiece Trapper. When did you become so smart?"

We still held each other's stare. "Time spent on parade grounds and battlefields watching good people not being able to stand up for themselves and regretting it in later life I guess."

As JoJo walked past me, she slapped the top of my arm and told me to never change, she went and had a sit-down with Freddy. He still kept his job with the transport for this job but JoJo did reassure him that he wasn't being frozen out.

Once masked up and with a final nod from the boss, the wall was easy, having spent so much time over an assault course quickly put that wall behind us in the blink of an eye. Our assault weapons were strapped to our backs; this was going to be close combat. Silenced handguns or knives were the preferred choice of weapons. Chad and Bradley started from the top floor and worked every room. Jackson and I worked the ground floor with JoJo and Ashley behind us ready to take care of the hostages when we found them.

JoJo's concern was the little girl, women approaching her stood a better chance of her not falling to bits, even in her mother's arms. The sound of silenced gunfire from upstairs meant the boys were busy, when we entered the last room on the ground floor we were busy as well. Four men reached for their weapons four shots rang out and they slumped to the ground, I checked on them while Jackson covered me.

"You took you damn time getting here."

Even tied to a chair he still thought he had the right to be indignant. Ashley slowly approached the mother and child, the daughter was clinging to her mother with her eyes tightly shut, screaming in fear into her mother's chest.

Ashley looked towards me and I nodded that it was safe for her to remove her face cover. The nod back was all I got as she once again turned to the little girl desperately clinging to her mother.

"Philippa, it's okay, we are here to take you all home."

At the sound of an English voice she suddenly stopped and looked over at the woman now kneeling not two feet from her.

"Get away from my daughter, untie me and move away from my family."

His glare was then towards JoJo. "Call your dog's off. That's if you even have any control over them, call them off now."

Jackson went to move towards the man tied to the chair, a wave of my hand stood him down, we could now hear Chad and Bradley doing another sweep through the upper floor and not needing to be too quiet about it, closet doors were being flung open, I assumed it was beds that were being tossed over as well.

Jackson was doing something similar on the ground floor, I had to cover him as he did so, all I got to hear was the shithead still tied to the chair screaming at both JoJo and Ashley and the lack of speed it was taking them to untie him. Someone must have untied him because the volume went up on him, not to mention the threats to have her removed as leader of the Unit and 'Do you even know who my father-in-law is?' got a mention as well.

By the time the boys came downstairs, the woman was trying to calm her husband and stop her daughter from freaking out at her daddy shouting at the woman who has come to save them.

JoJo for her part was past caring about him, her attention was on the wife and child. I sent two of the guys out the front door, they opened the gate and waved the transport over, as we emerged from the villa.

That's when it all went to hell. A single shot rang out from somewhere in the shadows of the building opposite. JoJo folded spun and fell to the floor, another shot was heard and a blood stain appeared in shitheads' chest.

I screamed at the guys to protect the women as more shots were hitting the ground around us at an increased rate, suddenly the women were surrounded by a wall of body armour. I lifted JoJo over my shoulder and dragged shitheads lifeless body towards the rapidly backing up escape vehicle.

There didn't seem any point in checking shithead's vitals, I'd seen dead people before, this was one of them. We loaded everyone onto the vehicle and got the hell out of dodge as fast as Freddy could drive us out of here and to the airport.

I got Ashley to get the woman and child to the front of the vehicle, then got the guys to act as cover while I worked on JoJo's wound. She was losing blood but the round had gone through her and for that I was extremely grateful.

*******

Two private jets left the airfield an hour apart that night, one took the slightly longer route but both planes got back to England. Captain Carmichael was admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds, but after tests and a few stiches, she was allowed out and into the arms of her wife.

The notice of the death of Peter Fenwick was published in the Times newspaper three days later. His career in the armed forces and the Civil Service were mentioned, how he died and the fact that the father-in-law insisted on his cremation wasn't mentioned.

*******

Chequers. The Prime Ministers country residence, a week later...

The Prime Minister was seated, watching those invited take their own seats.

His gaze rested on one person at the moment. "Major Carmichael, how are you doing?"

The blush to her cheeks amused him.

"I'm fine sir, the doctors say its minor, I even get to keep the scar in a place I won't ever be able to wear a bikini again without people commenting on it."

It was the Prime Ministers turn to blush. His gaze then went to General Brownlow. "How are your daughter and granddaughter holding up General?"

Both held the stare between them for a moment.

"Both are well Sir. The funeral service was nice and now that both are surrounded by familiar faces, they do seem to be easing back into normalcy once again."

This time the Prime Minister looked at both of them, he rested his elbows on the table. "Before I close the file on this incident. Do any of you wish to say anything?"

He watched as they both looked at each other, confused as to the question. Some visual communication went on between them, he also watched as both shrugged their shoulders.