Cyberstrike by James Barrington (best english books to read .txt) 📗

specifying the target – the Houses of Parliament – and the means by which the attack was to be carried out: a powerboat of some description. He had set two of them to work combing the boatyards and looking for a suitable craft to steal, while the other two men sourced enough ammonium nitrate fertiliser to turn whatever boat they chose into a powerful floating bomb. While that was going on, he had taken personal delivery of a metre-long box made of heavy-duty cardboard from a man who had been vouched for by Rashid, the most senior elder back in Iraq, and who had introduced himself simply as a friend and a brother. Inside the box Sadir had found a somewhat battered but still perfectly serviceable Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle with two spare magazines and a box of a hundred rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, a lump of Semtex wrapped in brown paper and, in a separate bag for security, a blasting cap to act as a detonator.

Sadir had been puzzled by the fact that the two wires on the blasting cap had been twisted together and asked the man who had supplied the equipment the reason for this.

‘Surely they need to be separated to allow them to be connected to the battery?’

‘They do,’ the ‘brother’ had replied, ‘but only when you assemble the weapon. If you leave the wires separate there is a possibility – very slim but nevertheless real – that they could act as an aerial for some of the radiation that surrounds all of us all of the time from things like digital broadcasts, radios and mobile phones. That could allow a current to flow down the wires and trigger the blasting cap. That’s why we twist the wires together until you mount the detonator in the circuit. Linking the two makes a short circuit and prevents them acting as an aerial.’

The blasting cap had come with a page of printed instructions that explained it was to be triggered electrically in accordance with the wiring diagram on the page, and that it was a short period delay – SPD – detonator. Despite the name, which to a layman could have implied a wait of seconds or even minutes, the ‘SPD’ meant it would detonate only a few milliseconds after being triggered. The instructions also included directions for safely turning the ammonium nitrate fertiliser into a viable explosive and where the Semtex booster charge should be positioned within the IED for maximum effectiveness.

And the four men had done well. They’d managed to steal the boat they’d identified without – at least as far as Sadir knew – triggering any alarms at the marina, though undoubtedly the theft would have been detected within a few days, and the combining of the ammonium nitrate with diesel fuel and aluminium powder in a rented garage had been completed without a hitch.

Sadir had checked everything on the vessel before Hassan had steered it away from the derelict boathouse, including the assault rifle and, most importantly, the commitment of the two men who would be aboard it for its final destructive voyage. He had joined them for the salat al-zuhr, the second mandatory prayer performed daily by devout Muslims.

Prayers comprise the second Pillar of Islam, one of the five obligatory actions that Muslims are required to perform according to the conditions and teaching of their religion. The pillars are shahadah, the recitation of the Islamic profession of faith; salat, the five daily ritual prayers; zakat, the giving of an alms tax for the benefit of the poor; sawm, the requirement to fast during Ramadan, and finally the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

All five of the men had already performed the first prayer of the day, the salat al-fajr, which is required to be completed before the sun rises. The second obligatory prayer is the salat al-zuhr, performed after the sun has reached the highest point in the sky at midday, and although when the five of them knelt on their prayer mats it was actually late morning rather than early afternoon they all believed this minor deviation from their daily routine was unimportant to Allah within the scale of the operation they were engaged upon.

As soon as the purloined cabin cruiser had begun its journey towards the heart of London, Sadir had left the other two members of the group to clear up any last traces of their occupation of the boathouse, while he had climbed back into his hire car and driven to West London and one of the airport hotels near Heathrow where he had already booked a room for the night.

He would remain there until it was time to report for his flight to America the next morning. He only expected to receive a single call from Hassan shortly before the culmination of the attack, a final confirmation that the mission was proceeding correctly. After that, he knew he would be able to obtain all the information he needed direct from the news media that would swarm all over London as soon as the explosion had taken place.

He would enjoy a quiet celebration in his hotel room that evening as he watched the events unfold on television. He would also be able to confirm the success of the first part of his mission to the elders in Iraq, though he had no doubt that they would also be watching the news media and expecting to see the results of the detonation and, bearing in mind the proliferation of security cameras throughout the British capital, very probably be able to watch the explosion itself being endlessly replayed and commented on by grim-faced newscasters.

He was certain it was going to be a particularly good evening.

Chapter 18

Metropolitan Police Marine Policing Unit, Wapping High Street, London

‘And you are who, exactly?’

Dave North opened his wallet, extracted his Army ID card, MOD Form 90, and held it up right in front of the police sergeant’s face.

‘As it says, David Charles North, Major, British Army,’ he