Tested by Fire by David Costa (the little red hen read aloud TXT) 📗

Rules, we take them out before they take us out. So, let’s hit the armoury, get what we need… from weapons to surveillance equipment and report back here in one hour.’

‘The code name for this operation is Longshot,’ Broad said. ‘Which I think is very appropriate. There’s a Puma chopper ready to transport you to a secure location just outside the city. There’ll be an SAS team allocated to you so if you need heavy weapons backup, they’ll take care of it. Your job is to find these people and if needs be, take them out yourselves. Good luck and good hunting.’

 

 

Chapter Eighteen

When Costello left the café, he turned left and walked in the opposite direction with the Midland Hotel behind him. Now he walked into the main square in front of the Town Hall. The rain kept people off the street even though it had now stopped. Costello would have liked to sit at one of the outside tables in front of the cafés and restaurants facing the Town Hall and observe the whole area for a while, but the chairs were still too wet, so he walked on. At the rear of the Town Hall he passed a small group waving coloured flags protesting about something, but he didn’t get close enough to find out what in case they were being observed by the local police. He walked alongside the tram lines that dissected St Peter’s Square, passing the Manchester Library on his right. He turned at the end of the building and crossing the road, he entered the Midland Hotel through the front revolving doors.

Inside, the large open lobby was busy with customers. The main seated public area had been closed for what appeared to be a conference group having tea and coffee. Costello decided to keep walking through the reception area and down the corridor which led to the rear door out of the building. He stepped outside, stopped, and looked around from left to right. This was the exact route his target would take. He could look straight across at the Manchester Conference Centre steps and main entrance door. He estimated it would take fifteen seconds to get off his shots, no more than two accurately, as the target would be moving and a line of small trees would protect the target from view for a few seconds during the walk.

Costello kept his head down as once more his eyes, below the line of the peak of his baseball cap, scanned the ground from left to right and back again. He took in the outline of the many tall buildings surrounding the background to the square patch of land with its concrete path and walkways where the target would cross in those few seconds. Two buildings caught his attention. At the rear of the Conference Centre he could see the large outline of the Hilton Hotel towering in the distance; too far away to make it a viable prospect for Costello’s needs. To hit his target from one of its high-up windows would be a supreme effort and too far for the accuracy he needed being almost a mile away. At that distance and height, the shot would be too shallow and with possible windage, too much could go wrong. As he looked to his right, a building of what appeared to be apartments with balconies looked more promising.

Costello set off at a casual pace in the direction of this building. As he walked towards it, the possibilities firmed up in his mind. Walking alongside the building down Windmill Street he crossed to the front of the building on Great Northern Square. Looking back the way he’d come, he could just make out the rear door of the Midland about three hundred yards away.

A few more steps took him to the front of the building with a sign that said Great Northern Tower Apartments. Access was via a button keypad and all the apartments numbers were on a metal plate with a button next to them, allowing a visitor to press and speak for access. Costello discreetly took a photo of all this and then the building from a distance across the square. He looked at his watch. He still had an hour to use up before his meeting with Sharon in the Hilton, plenty of time for a little more thinking over a cup of coffee in one of the cafés on Deansgate.

Finding one, and as he usually did, took a seat near the back so he could watch the door and people passing by outside. Ordering a black coffee, he took out his notebook and made a few notes with a crudely drawn sketch showing where he’d walked. He then looked at the tourist map provided by Mohammad. Now he could feel a sense of relaxation come over him; the satisfied calm that always came when he’d completed a profitable recognisance of the ground where he would operate. The next time he’d cover this ground would be with the whole team – each with a different task to complete. Each one of them would have to be sure of the part they would play and where they would be operating.

 

 

Chapter Nineteen

When Costello entered the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, he could see the White Widow seated on a settee in the café to his right. The café at the front of the building had large glass windows from the floor to the ceiling looking out onto Deansgate. The windows were slightly tinted to make it difficult to see into the building from the outside but easy to see out from the inside.

Lyndsey was almost alone in the lounge area with only a man and woman sitting in the furthest corner from where she now sat. On seeing Costello, she stood to greet him, kissing him on both cheeks. Costello sat in one of the large armchairs facing her.