Tested by Fire by David Costa (brene brown rising strong .txt) 📕

When he dropped off Mary, he could see the tiredness in her eyes.  He kissed her on the cheek and watched her walk slowly into the hotel, she’d turned to wave goodbye, but Reece was already gone.  When he got back to the hanger the comms team were doing the same getting some rest leaving only one at the desk to cover the team out on the ground. All was quiet, so Reece and Harrison headed to the team section of the hanger. But as usual when he was in the middle of an operation, Reece found sleep hard to come by the different scenarios would constantly swirl around his head the questions he needed to ask the answers he needed but didn’t know yet.

Chapter Forty-six

Tuesday 1st Oct

The dawn light had started to come through the bedroom window where Mohammad was sleeping at the front of the house. Stretching, he got out of bed and looked out through the net curtains to the street below. It was 5.30 a.m. and the street, like the rest of the house, was quiet. There was a slight drizzle of rain with hardly any wind and the sky was a miserable grey hinting at more rain to come. After he’d showered and dressed, he went down to the kitchen and made himself scrambled egg and toast. Sitting at the table he checked his phone, no messages. He sent a text to Lyndsey.

Up and ready heading into town about eight.

A reply came back almost immediately:

See you later.

He switched on the TV, keeping the sound down, to get the early morning news from Sky. Alongside worldwide events, it dedicated lots of airtime to the Conference. They were speculating on what would be in the Prime Minister’s speech on Wednesday. As he watched, he could hear footsteps above him; someone was awake. A short while later, Waheed came into the room.

‘Good morning, brother, did you sleep well?’ he asked Waheed.

‘Yes, soundly thank you. I’m going to make a coffee; do you want one?’

‘Yes, that would be great white no sugar.’

When he returned with the coffee, they watched the Sky reporters speaking to people attending the Conference yesterday. It was too early to speak to any of today’s delegates as the doors wouldn’t be open until around 8 a.m.

‘Are you nervous, brother?’ asked Waheed.

‘Not really. I’ve already sent a text to Sharon and she is also awake. Today we move toward to the completion of our plan. On Wednesday we’ll make the world shake with our Jihad. We just have to believe in Allah, and all will be well.’

‘I agree, brother, my heart is set now that the end is near. When are you leaving?’

‘I’ll set off early to get there for eight.’

‘I still don’t trust that infidel. His agenda is not ours; his God is not ours.’

‘He has his own agenda if he is successful and it suits Allah’s purpose, then it will be in Allah’s name that the word will go around the world. The false God he worships will be of nothing compared to Allah.’

They could hear Imtaz as he started to move about upstairs. Waheed looked at the ceiling. ‘When he comes down, I think we should pray to Allah together,’ he said.

April Grey had slept a little before the radio mike in her ear sounded the voice of David Reece waking her from her slumber.

‘This is Alpha One, we’ll be taking over the watch. Alpha Three, we’ll be parking up close to you about 07.30, anything to report?’

‘No,’ said Grey. ‘The world here is starting to awake. The road has been getting busy, it’s coming up to rush hour. But nothing significant from Kings Road.’

‘Roger that, we’ll be with you shortly then you both get back and get some shut-eye for a few hours.’

Twenty minutes later, Reece and Cousins pulled into the parking space behind Grey and Harrison. When Harrison pulled away, Reece moved his BMW into the space they’d vacated as it provided a better view of the entrance to Kings Road and two of the streets adjoining it.

Turning off the engine, they watched the traffic and the pedestrians moving about, starting their working day. The registration numbers taken down by Cousins earlier had shown all the cars belonged to residents who had lived in the streets around Kings Road for many years. But that didn’t mean they were all clear.

One of them could be a long-time sleeper but the names had also been checked for criminal and terrorist links and apart from some with minor traffic violations nothing flashed up to show there was reason to investigate further. In the first few minutes they’d been there two cars had come out of Kings Road the occupants elderly grey haired and white skinned. After two hours it was beginning to look like a long day. It was as Reece was looking down Kings Road, he saw a man come out of Henley Avenue and turning right, he walked towards the top of Kings Road. Reece fired up the wiper blades to clear the slight rain sitting on the windshield. Yes, the man was definitely Asian, with a slight beard and glasses, he walked with his head down he was wearing a suit with a shirt and tie but what was more interesting was that he was also wearing a jacket over the suit with a hood pulled up over his head. Not only to protect him from the rain, Reece thought but also to protect his identification. Now Cousins could see the man. Both held their breath, straining their eyes to make sure, afraid to speak in case the figure disappeared.

‘I think we have a hot one,’ said Reece. ‘He’s not carrying any bags and he looks like he’s going to