Blood Money Read Free Page B

months in advance, weeks of painstaking surveillance had led to them to choose this very place and moment for the ‘contact’.
    Yet despite believing that they’d set the perfect trap, they hadn’t bargained on such determination and aggression from Alexis’s chauffeur.
    The BMW doesn’t have time to react to the offensive driving from the Mercedes, one moment they’d been closing-in on their target exactly as planned and the next they’re about to be rammed…with bone-crushing force.
    There is no room in the confined lane for any fancy evasive manoeuvres. The truck ahead is too large to confront and Eddie has to put distance between the Mercedes and those assault rifles. Thankfully, he couldn’t have been in a better protected vehicle. The armour plated composite body panels, the STANAG level II ballistic glass and the run flat tyres meant he was inside a protective shell that would hopefully buy him enough time to extract both himself and his boss from this life-threatening situation. Eddie had made the purchase of the Mercedes S600 Guard almost two years ago, and Alexis hadn’t baulked in the slightest when he’d asked to spend £250k for the highly modified limousine. Now, with hindsight it looks to have been a very wise investment.
    As soon as Eddie reverses, fingers begin to squeeze down on the triggers of the two Kalashnikovs. A vibrating maelstrom of noise and chaos smashes into the front of the limousine as the thugs empty their 30-round magazines into the rapidly retreating Merc. AK-47 fire is so powerful it’s known to have cut down trees in the jungle theatre of the Vietnam War. The 6mm thick armoured-steel bonnet and laminated glass/polycarbonate front windshield are now splattered with white spalling marks the size of apples. But Eddie hasn’t time to consider the damage he can feel being sustained against the front of the car.
    Wham!
The front of BMW crumples like an empty coke-can being stamped on by a fat kid. The smaller, lighter car is pushed downwards as the back of the Mercedes rides up onto its bonnet; its hapless passengers are hurled forward into their instantaneously inflating airbags. The 1½ ton stationary Beamer has just been hit by 4 tonnes of solid mass travelling at close to 20mph. Totally unprepared for this scenario, the men down at the south end of Birchen Lane rush to load fresh magazines into their rifles.
    This buys Eddie enough time to pull forward, getting the Merc free from the crumpled BMW. Now he reverses yet again, controlling his power and speed to shunt the wrecked BMW back up the lane. As this is happening, the stunned assailants struggle to shove their airbags aside only to find that they’re unable to fight back against such an irresistible force.
    Once the wreck of a car has been unceremoniously pushed out onto Cornhill, the Mercedes is once again out in the open. Eddie leaves the area at speed despite struggling to see through the windscreen battered by ten or more bullet strikes.
    When he asks Alexis if he’s ok, a muffled and very shaky voice from somewhere down in the rear foot-well replies “Yeah I think so.”
    Only when he’s sure they’re not being followed does Eddie give his cowering boss the all-clear to get up off the carpet.

2
    Monday 25th April

    It’s 8 am. From a distance the smartly dressed John Gibson walking out of Liverpool Street Station looks just like any other City worker. But this casual observation doesn’t stand up under closer scrutiny. The 5ft 11” thirty one year old with an honest looking face is wearing a poorly fitted suit that can’t possibly be Saville Row. His badly ironed shirt is certainly not Thomas Pink, his well-worn shoes are not even leather and his polyester tie is more River Island than Hermes. John Gibson is clearly no high flying City worker; he’s just a regular guy…a policeman…serving in City of London CID. After