Southend U3A

Writing for Fun

October 2017

Secrets - Bob Wendelkin

‘We can expect more attacks as some of our nationals return from fighting in other parts of the words,’ he continued.

‘Can’t we stop them before they return,’ said one of the officers.

‘In a more totalitarian country perhaps we could, however we live in this country. Not only do we have laws and lawyers earning good living from exploiting the law but we also have the do-gooders who perhaps have done more long term harm to our country from their short term motives,’ replied E.

‘Anyway, gentlemen, there is nothing we can do about that, that is up to the politicians,’ said E.

The group started to leave the room.

‘John, can you stay behind as I have an idea I want to discuss with you.’

After the group left the room the two sat facing one another across the desk.

‘How do you feel we are tackling the terrorist problem?’ asked E.

‘Well they are killing our people now by driving vehicles into crowded areas or they get some deluded youngster to blow themselves up. But it is all too late by then they have succeeded. It is only after the event that the Police can really react. The terrorists are proactive and the Police are reactive, until something in the law changes our people will be murdered,’ was John’s reply.

‘I’ve had my eye on you for some time and in many respects we have similar views. Let the police continue to be reactive but let us create a secret proactive group. Let’s take out the terrorists before they are able to kill. We must treat them as enemy soldiers not criminals. As enemy soldiers we may kill them at every opportunity. Can you imagine if our Fighter Boys in the Battle of Britain had instructions that they were only permitted shoot down an enemy fighter after that fighter had shot down one of our boys,’ said E.

‘You are right, if they hadn’t I expect we would be speaking German; mind you I did like the Hugo Boss uniforms of the SS,’ replied John.

‘Knowing what the problem is, is one thing, doing something about it is another. Well, John, do you have any ideas?’

‘If we do anything it must be buried in complete secrecy. No one outside a very small group of activists must know what we are doing. I mean no one, certainly no politician, police, army – but no one,’ was John’s reply.

‘John I want you to set up a combat group to take the fight to them. I’ve a few names I can give you and we perhaps can have a chat with them to see if they will agree to join us,’ said E.

‘We may get terrorists names from the police, the people they are monitoring and we can take out the most dangerous and work our way down the list. We must also take out the people who are talking the susceptible idiots into becoming terrorists,’ answered John as he began to warm to the idea that we could become Pro-active.

‘John, eventually the do-gooders will find out about our activity and their sympathy will be with the terrorist, not with us. Their belief will be that we have killed innocent terrorists before they have become killers, not that we have saved the lives of innocent people from being killed. Unfortunately, we could end up in prison for our actions. So I want you to think very carefully before you go into this endeavour. I will stay out of it, that way I can give you the maximum protection by causing confusion and doubts should anyone start to become too nosey,’ said E as he filled his pipe with tobacco.

‘I realise that E. Where can we set up this X group?’

* * *

As John began to set up this hit squad the idea of what he was about to do began to grow on him. The concept of hitting these murderers before they killed any of our people attracted him, although the thought of actually killing was not that attractive to him. To assuage his conscience he had to consider it the lesser of two evils.

He knew of at least five of his associates who in the past had expressed frustration that the terrorists had killed. All of these contacts had a military history some had served in the Commandos and SAS and were devoted to protecting the people and the country. The question was where could they set up their operational HQ?

As it transpired that problem wasn’t a major problem as one of his contacts was the owner of quite a large farm house and grounds that wasn’t too far from London.

E was helpful in the background and was able using his police contacts to identify the most dangerous terrorists. The police were most helpful as they wanted the MI to help to keep an eye on them.

E passed John details of a group that was the most dangerous.

* * *

After a time John was called to E’s office for a talk on how things were progressing with the Hit Squad.

‘Well, John could you tell me how you are progressing with our plan?’ asked E as John sat down.

‘Well, E as it is such a nice day shall we go into the park and sit and feed the ducks while I tell you,’ said John as he was well aware that some offices could be bugged and E may eventually throw him to the dogs. He wanted to make sure that anything he told E couldn’t be used against him at some future time.

The two then made their way to the park and John told him of what they had been doing.

‘Our first hit was of a group that we were led to believe were planning to attack with a bomb on a packed train on the underground.’

‘How did you take them out, were they that group’s names I gave you?’ questioned E.

‘They certainly were,’ said John.

‘With the information you gave us we identified the house where the group met. The team’s idea was to attack the group when there was a lot of them in the house. It was fortunate that a house opposite the target came up for rent so we took it and began our observations and plan our attack.’

‘How did you do that?’ asked E.

‘It was simple we waited until there was a gathering in their house then we fired a bomb through their window.’

‘Over a period of time we managed to build a number of home-made bombs and rockets to propel the bomb over some distance. We used the Black Net to find out how to make these weapons, so it would appear that they had suffered from homemade accidents. So when the Police investigated the site they would only find traces of homemade explosives.’

‘So that was you when it happened, the BBC said that the terrorists were killed as a result of an accident with their bomb making. Well done,’ replied E with a smile on his face.

‘Oh, the BBC, least said the soonest mended,’ said John.

‘With some of the names you gave us, they were killed in hit and run car accidents. The one that we were quite pleased with when we used the same technique that the Bulgarian’s used, that of injecting a small pellet containing Ricin. We would creep up on the target and jab him with a special umbrella we had borrowed from the museum, the pellet would do the rest. Unfortunately there would be a charge to the NHS for his care. Still nothing is perfect.

‘We also grabbed one of their propagandist who tried to persuade the misguided to blow themselves up. He was flown out to the middle of the North Sea and given the opportunity of swimming back to shore but I think the weights that were tied to him didn’t help him.

‘Using our contacts with the Americans we were able to obtain details of how to make the sonic devices that the Cubans had been using against the American Embassy.’

‘That’s interesting where did you use these devices?’ asked E.

‘Well you were providing the names of lesser targets, so we thought we would try to make them unwell until we could take them out permanently.’

‘I can tell you we have had some information that the terrorists are concerned that something is going on as some of their groups have disappeared and some of their propagandist have vanished. They suspect that we are attacking them,’ said E.

‘The Police also think that your actions have become known to them,’ continued E.

‘In that case E, I think we should stop our attacks for a few months, continue our attack plans until they become less cautious then we can kill them again. However if we find an attack by them is looming we will act before they kill anyone,’ said John.

‘A good idea. As it has just started to rain let’s go back to the Office.’