Takedown by Heather Atkinson (latest books to read txt) 📕

“They cut the power, incapacitating the alarms and cameras, only they didn’t know about the two cameras we had installed that work independently of the rest of the system, which is why we’ve got this footage. They used a hydraulic door breacher to get in.”

“A what?”

“It exerts seven tons of force to open the door. They’re most commonly used by the emergency services and military personnel. I’m a bit behind the times in door breaching technology but I believe they can now be operated remotely from a few metres away. The big advantage with this method is that it’s totally silent.”

“How much would something like that cost?”

“Ten grand give or take. I don’t even know if you can buy them in this country. Naturally the police don’t want Joe Public getting their hands on a piece of kit like that.”

“You said most of the product was taken. How much is left?”

“Thirty five grand’s worth.”

“Why didn’t they take it all?”

Vance rewound the footage. “You see him,” he said, pointing to one of the men. “He seems to be the leader and he’s holding a stopwatch. They gave themselves a certain amount of time to grab as much as they could. They wanted to be in and out. They didn’t know when the next shift was coming to relieve our men because we constantly change the routine. It takes twenty seconds to drive from the top of the drive to the outside of the vault. They wanted to leave that amount of time to get out in case someone else came along.”

“Professionals,” she murmured. “These are aren’t daft kids.”

“Definitely professionals.”

“What I want to know,” said a scowling Jason. “Is how the bastards found the vault in the first place?”

“Me too,” spat Kevin, face puce with fury. “It’s out in the countryside in the middle of fucking nowhere. I say we round up every git who works for us and batter them until one of them admits they grassed.”

“Not a very good way to earn loyalty from our employees,” said Faith.

“Fuck loyalty. We’ve got a traitor and we need to find out who it is before they fuck us over again.”

“No one betrayed us Kev,” said Faith. “They found the location through me.”

They all gaped at her.

“What?” rasped Kevin.

“They followed me there. It seems I wasn’t imagining someone watching me.”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence I’ve been feeling this way and then this happens. This is my fault. If I’d acted on it sooner we might have avoided this.”

“Kev could be right and we have a traitor,” said Caleb. “It could have been one of the men we hired to guard the place. Other than the five of us no one else knows the location, not even Abi and I’m damn sure it’s not one of us.”

“Too right it’s not,” yelled Kevin. “What are you trying to say?”

“That it’s not one of us, like I just said. Simmer down Kev.”

“Sorry,” he said, taking a deep, calming breath.

“We shouldn’t make assumptions either way,” said Vance. “We do need to question the people who work for us and look back over the footage recorded by the new security equipment we installed.”

“If someone is following us they’ll know we’re here right now,” said Faith.

The five of them all looked at each other, Caleb grabbing Kevin by the back of his jacket when he stormed for the door.

“Get off me,” he yelled, tearing himself free of his brother’s grip.

“Don’t run off and do something stupid,” Vance told him. “We need to discuss how we’re going to tackle this and don’t come out with something about twatting everyone in Blackpool until we find the right people.”

Kevin pouted and folded his arms across his chest but he remained silent, to all their relief.

“We need to keep this as quiet as we can,” said Faith. “If word spreads that we were done over we’ll be seen as weak and targeted again.”

“Are you going to tell the Maguires?” said Jason.

“I have to,” she sighed.

“They’re not going to be happy,” said Caleb.

“Definitely not but I’ve no choice. It’s not like it’s a hundred quid’s worth we lost. Four hundred grand’s worth,” she murmured, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “And that’s only what the Maguires paid for it. The street value was much higher.”

“They’ll understand,” he said, not sounding very convinced. “That amount of cash is nothing to them.”

“We can but hope. This is a huge fuck up though and they’re going to want results, namely the culprit’s head on a plate.”

“Not a problem,” glowered Kevin. “Where should we start? It might take the sting out of it if we can show them we’re on it.”

“You’re right Kev. The fact that the people responsible are obviously professionals works in our favour. This isn’t down to some of the meathead gangs around here.”

“It could be an organised gang,” said Caleb. “Maybe one from out of town who heard about our family and want what we have.”

“We need to speak to our men who were guarding the vault,” said Faith. “They might have noticed or heard something that could give us a clue. We also need to speak to people in the know in the town who can be discreet. Caleb, talk to Lil. Vance, go back and speak to Kingsley and I’ll talk to the Fairweathers.”

“What about us?” said Jason, gesturing from himself to Kevin.

“You can find a new place to stash the product.”

“On it,” said Jason.

“And arrange a meeting with Tariq. He needs to know what’s happened.”

“What if he grassed?” said Kevin.

“It’s not him. He didn’t know the location of the vault and