Ian stared at the screen. It was decision time. Did they wait and see if she moved, should they storm in now and grab her, should they ring the bell? This would alarm everyone. Ian was nervous, if he got it wrong an eight year old girl would die and he knew he would never be able to cope with that. He took out his mobile phone and rang the Super.
‘Chief, we have a problem’ Ian explained the situation. There was just silence at the other end of the phone.
‘You still there Chief’
‘Of course I am Carragher, I’m thinking, just shut up will you.’ There was a long pause before the Chief Super spoke ‘Right then, lets see, I’m going to call the armed response unit, we need to get some sort of cover on the little girls room. What are the lines of sight like there?’
‘Hang on, I’ll take a look’. Ian quietly stepped out of the van and looked up. The scaffolding went all the way up. Across the road were more houses. ‘It looks like we have two options we can either scale the scaffolding or knock on one of the houses opposite and get in from there with a line of sight.’
‘Let’s go with the first option, no point scaring all the neighbours at this point. I will have them there in forty minutes, sit tight, but if she moves you better get in there…is that understood.’
‘Yes chief’ responded Ian.
Ian ended the call and climbed into the van. He got a line open to the two cars as well as everyone else so he could relay the message. ‘Okay everyone, armed response will be here in forty minutes. Jacob, Joseph, I need you out of the car and standing near the door under cover of the scaffolding with the ram-rod. If I start yelling you start ramming, get into the house and up the stairs as fast as you can, okay. Doug and Bob if they move I want you two out of the car and in after them as quick as you can. I will stay in the van with the two Steve’s and if she moves an inch I want to know about it.’
There was silence for a while and then Steve pipes up ‘She’s moved an inch boss’; the other Steve got a smile on his face and repeated ‘Boss, she’s moved an inch’. From there it descended into chaos as Doug and Bob joined in a volley of ‘She’s moved an inch Boss’….even Jacob and Joseph joined in.
‘SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU FUCKING COMEDIANS…this is serious, come on, you know the drill now lets just get on with it.
‘Sorry Boss’ was relayed numerous times by the co conspirators. The team settled down then, no words were spoken.