The Secret

‘There’s a little girl trapped inside the car. I need... volunteer officers to help look for her. If they should come across her, they should report back before they touch anything. She may be wired... She’s my daughter.’

‘Christ almighty...’

‘Get to it.’

Steven turned to Nick, ‘My impulse is to start running round the car parks at a hundred miles an hour like a headless chicken but we haven’t a hope in hell of covering them all... so it has to be best guess time.’

‘I don’t see him using any of the outlying ones,’ said Nick.

‘Agreed,’ said Steven. ‘And I’m going to guess he’s been using a hire car, probably from one of the big boys like Avis or Hertz so that’ll cut out a few makes and models. We can forget Range Rovers, sports cars and top-end marques. We’re looking for an anonymous run-of-the-mill model in... I think he’d go for the nearest car park to the terminal: he had no reason not to. That means the multi-storey across the road. ‘Agreed?’

Nick nodded. ‘I’ll get my guys to start from the top — one floor each. You and I can start from the ground up. How are we doing for time?

‘Nine minutes.’

Steven and Nick ran from the terminal building just as police vans, cars and fire appliances arrived. ‘Maybe you could liaise with the police and bring them up to speed?’ said Steven. ‘I’ve got to look for her myself.’

‘Sure,’ said Nick with an understanding nod. ‘Good luck.’

Steven started running round the deserted ground floor of the multi-storey, the fact that he was now alone allowing a tide of despair to encroach on him. Nick’s final ‘good luck’ wish now seemed to carry the same inflection it would have had he announced that he was going to jump over the moon. ‘C’mon, c’mon,’ he murmured. ‘Give me a break... just one lousy break...’

He had just about completed his circuit of the ground floor when he heard shouting come from somewhere above him. He stopped running and strained to hear what was being said but, at that very moment, a police loud hailer started warning personnel to withdraw from the area surrounding the car parks and drowned everything else out. It was a five minute warning. An explosion was imminent: police on duty outside the car parks were being ordered to withdraw. Jenny had five minutes to live. Steven’s angst was interrupted when Nick called to reveal what the shouting had been about. ‘She’s on level three in a blue Ford Focus.’

Steven sprinted up the winding ramps like a man possessed. There was no need to look for the car: the three SAS men were already there. One was looking under the vehicle, the other two were examining the seams round the doors. One of them gestured to the back of the car and Steven looked in the rear window to see Jenny lying on the floor. Her eyes were closed and she wasn’t moving. The fact that she wasn’t gagged and didn’t appear restrained in any way flagged up the nightmare that she was already dead. This threatened to overwhelm any sense of caution in him, especially when he noticed two electric wires wrapped round her ankle.

One of the SAS men had to stop him pulling the door open. ‘Leave it to Stratocaster, mate. He knows what he’s doing.’

Steven stepped back to be joined by Nick who had now arrived on the scene.’

‘Well done, guys. How are we doing... with three minutes to go?’

‘Door’s okay,’ said the soldier nicknamed Stratocaster, ‘but I’d stand over there if I was you.’

‘Nobody moved. Stratocaster opened the rear door of the Ford slowly, feeling gingerly with his right hand round all the edges. ‘So far so good...’ He opened the door fully and, getting down on his hands and knees, started examining the floor of the interior with the aid of a torch. ‘Here we go...’ The soldier had discovered the explosive device lodged under the front passenger seat. ‘Another offering from IED Central...’

‘There are a couple of wires round Jenny’s ankle,’ said Steven.

‘Got them,’ replied the soldier calmly.

Of course, he’d bloody seen them, Steven admonished himself; he wasn’t helping matters. He should move back but couldn’t take his eyes off Jenny’s lifeless face.

Stratocaster got on with the job while the others were left with their thoughts. ‘Oh, I see... clever bastard...nearly had me there... let’s see, blue for a boy connects to... nope, I tell a lie... it doesn’t! It goes to the fu... Oh, very nice. Some bugger’s been to the Afghan Academy for very naughty boys...’

The others exchanged nervous smiles as they listened to the muttering coming from inside the car until a snipping sound was followed by two others in quick succession and Stratocaster turned over on to his back to slide half out the car and look up at them with a big smile on his face. ‘Bang,’ he said.

‘Oh, you beauty,’ exclaimed Nick as the tension evaporated from everyone bar Steven who was now anxiously bending over Jenny in the rear of the car. He touched her cheek and found it warm, causing him to give silent thanks.

‘How is she?’ asked Nick behind him.