Retribution - An Eye for an Eye

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1

The Mediterranean Sea

One mile of the coast of Tripoli

Libya.

Lat = 33 degrees, 33.6 minutes North

Long = 13 degrees, 10.7 minutes East

Wednesday 5th July 1989

Zero three twenty hour’s local time.

Same time zone as UK

A pair of black coloured eyes was looking through a pair of night vision Zenith 10 x 50 light weight binoculars; that were observing the one hundred and ninety Eight foot long yacht named Sunrise,

Two Rigid raiding crafts (R’R’s) were static riding the one foot sea swell with a full moon above, the temperature was sixty five degrees along with a four mile per hour westerly wind.

The voice behind the binoculars spoke into his Comms unit, Eagle 3 to ICIS come in over?

A female virtual voice replied good morning eagle 3, I have you on satellite?

"Good morning GAIL, I have eyes on the yacht can you give me a SITREP, over?"

Located back at ICIS, the Intelligence Collating Information Services, near Biggin hill in Kent UK. Existed GAIL, Global Analysis Information Link, a six-foot diameter three-dimensional hologram containing a beautiful female face created by Vince Edwards head of ICIS.

GAIL had the capability to tap into and access any computer system in the world; she does this covertly without the host knowing anything about it, FBI, CIA, Israeli, French and many more intelligence networks.

GAIL is also linked to all the CCTV systems at all the world’s major airports, shipping ports, and other transportation areas, together with access to British immigration and passport services.

At this moment GAIL was in communication with the OSC’s designated satellite Eagle eye; she replied, Eagle 3 infrared is showing the following, twenty three heat signatures, fifteen are the crew, four are the guests and the remaining four are hostiles over.

Anybody on deck over?

GAIL replied, Infrared is showing one at the bow one at the aft and one on either side, these two are moving, over.

"GAIL can you confirm sunrise as Zero five fifty-eight hours, over?"

Affirmative eagle 3, sunrise is at Zero five-fifty eight hours, over.

Roger that, we are going in, eagle 3 out.

2

Four days earlier

The Mediterranean Sea

Fifteen miles northeast of Tripoli

Libya.

Lat = 33 degrees, 31.7 minutes North

Long = 15 degrees, 58.4 minutes East

Saturday 1st July 1989

Thirteen eleven hour’s Local time.

The luxury yacht named Sunrise had left Agios Nickolas in Crete seventy-eight hours previously, and had maintained a steady cruising speed of 15 knots heading for Sfax on the east coast of Tunisia.

She was 198 feet long with a 37-foot beam, with a crew of fifteen and was owned by Maxwell Stanton the British multi-millionaire media tycoon of the UK’s bestselling morning tabloid named Sunrise.

The yacht was flying the Union Jack flag of England.

When the ‘Union Jack’ was first introduced in 1606, it was known simply as ‘the British flag’ or ‘the flag of Britain’, and was ordered to be flown at the main masthead of all ships, warships and merchant ships, of both England and Scotland.

The first use of the name ‘Union’ appears in 1625. There are various theories as how it became known as the ‘Union Jack’, but most of the evidence points to the name being derived from the use of the word ‘jack’ as a diminutive.

This word was in use before 1600 to describe a small flag flown from the small mast mounted on the bowsprit.

From early in its life the English Admiralty frequently referred to the flag as the Union Jack.

Maxwell Stanton had his wife and two children with him. The skies were clear and the temperature was eighty-one degrees Fahrenheit with a gentle breeze.

Stanton was on the forward deck with his family enjoying the sunshine.

The Captain Andrew Wheeler was seated on the curved seating area on the bridge, when a red light on the console began flashing; the ship immediately began to lose speed, the warning light was linked to the twin CAT 3516B DI-TA engines that produced 1600 rpm.

Captain Wheeler ordered a full stop and within five minutes, the yacht had come to a standstill.

Maxwell Stanton had made his way to the bridge and said to the Captain, What’s the problem Captain?

The engines have gone into shut down; we need to check it out sir.

Okay Captain keep me posted.

That I will sir.

Stanton made his way back to the forward deck where his wife was waiting, What’s up dear?

Stanton replied, The Captains not sure honey, they have to run some checks, not to worry we have a gorgeous day and we have no deadlines to keep, let’s sit back and relax.

They both sat down and Stanton looked out to a land mass just visible to the port side, which he knew was Libya.

Stanton remembered his piece of history about the Mediterranean as a Sea, it connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Straits of Gibraltar in the west and to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, by the Dardanelles and the Bosporus respectively, in the east.

The Sea of Marmara is often considered a part of the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the Black Sea is generally not.

Forty minutes later the Captain came to the forward deck and said to Stanton we have found the problem sir; the propellers have snagged on some what looks like heavy fishing net, that’s why the engines cut power as a safety precaution.

How long are we looking at to free them Captain?

The engineering chief reckons one to two hours to cut it free, and then we will resume our journey sir.

Thank you Captain, replied Stanton.

The Captain walked back to the bridge.

3

The Port of Tripoli

Libya

Lat = 32 degrees, 54.8 minutes North

Long = 13 degrees, 11.5 minutes East

Saturday 1st July 1989 (Same day).

Fourteen twenty hour’s Local time.

The Port of Tripoli is the principal seaport in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, and one of the oldest ports in the Mediterranean; it consists of a Coastal Breakwater harbour.

The port covers an approximate area of one point two square miles with a water area of zero point eight five square miles.

Steaming out of the port was a Libyan Navy Assad class Corvette named Al Kalij.

With a standard displacement of 600 tons and a length at 204 feet with a 31-foot beam and a draft of 9.2 feet, the ship moved gracefully out into the Mediterranean propelled by its four shaft MTU diesel engines producing 24,400-horse power, capable of a top speed of 37.5 knots. (23.3 mph).

The ship was armed with a variety of weapons from torpedoes, Surface to air missiles, Otomat anti-ship missiles and 40 mm Breda Dardo guns.

The Captain named Embarek Maziq had received instructions to intercept a vessel that was within the twelve-mile territorial water zone of Libya, the vessel appeared to be drifting towards the coastline, and all efforts to communicate with the vessel had proved negative.

Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, are a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles from the coastline of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state.

4

The Mediterranean Sea

Nine miles northeast of Tripoli

Libya.

Lat = 33 degrees, 31.7 minutes North

Long = 15 degrees, 58.4 minutes East

Saturday 1st July 1989 (Same day).

Fourteen forty hour’s Local time.

The ship’s crew had finally managed to cut away the obstruction around the propellers and cleared it away; the Captain had been supervising the procedure and had left one of the crew on the bridge.

As three of the men came out of the water back on deck he looked to the port side and noticed a ship heading directly towards them, his years on the sea quickly identified it as a naval vessel.

Captain Wheeler made his way back to the bridge and found the man he had left had fallen asleep on the chair, he moved forward and quickly nudged him causing him to fall to the floor.

The crewmember looked up at the Captain startled. The Captain looked down at him and said, this is your last trip with me sailor.

He quickly looked down at the instruments and quickly realised they were in Libyan coastal waters nine miles of the coast.

Maxwell Stanton had also seen the ship heading towards them and had gone directly to the bridge, he noticed one of the crew on the floor and the Captain looking at the instruments, what’s going on here Captain, and why have we a ship heading directly towards us?

The Captain looked down at the crewmember, this incompetent fool fell asleep on the bridge, and we have drifted into Libyan territorial waters, I would presume the ship on our port side is a Libyan naval ship.

Maxwell Stanton looked out of the port side bridge window and watched as the Libyan naval ship approached becoming larger every second, he turned to the Captain, where do we stand Captain?

A good question sir; it looks like we may be guests of Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Christ Captain; I have my family with me, Gaddafi is nothing but a bloody dictator; can you get a message out to the UK and advise them of our situation?

I’ll do it now sir, replied Captain Wheeler.

Five minutes later the Libyan Navy Assad class Corvette named Al Kalij, had come to a full stop of the yachts port bow and a small powered boat was heading towards them.

Captain Wheeler had made contact and appraised his office in London of their predicament; he was now watching the small craft through his binoculars and could see several armed men on board and the vessel was flying the Libyan flag.

The small boat came alongside at the aft end of the Sunrise and the armed men boarded the boat from the stern’s lower deck.

Captain Wheeler and Maxwell Stanton were waiting, one of the men came forward as the others stood back, and he was dressed in a two-piece camouflage uniform the shirt and trousers were camouflaged in blue-green, light green and dark brown.

The soldier was showing the insignia rank of a senior officer on his beret. It was red with a winged bird at the top above crossed sabres with a half circular configuration of laurel leaves.

He saluted Captain Wheeler who returned the salute he spoke in good English.

Captain we have been trying to raise you, are you aware you are in Libyan territorial waters?

I have just found out, my man on the bridge fell asleep whilst we were untangling our propellers from an obstruction.

I have been ordered to escort you into the Port of Tripoli Captain.

Maxwell Stanton said, Officer; is this really necessary, we are tourists on our way to Tunisia.

I am afraid I have my orders sir, replied the Libyan officer.

Maxwell Stanton turned to Captain Wheeler and said, Can they do this Captain?

They are quite within their rights to make this request sir, replied Captain Wheeler.

Captain Wheeler turned to the Libyan officer and said, very well we will make for the Port, I presume you will be staying on board?

That is correct Captain, I will instruct the launch to return to the ship, my men and me will stay on board.

Thirty minutes later the Sunrise yacht was anchored in Tripoli harbour, the officer had told them to stay on board and requested the passports from everyone on board; he then left four armed guards to watch over them.

Maxwell Stanton spoke with the Captain, This does not look good for us Captain, and relationships between Libya and the UK have been strained over the past several years, what are your thoughts?

I agree sir, there was no need to bring us in they could have easily let us go; I think they have an agenda for us, replied Captain Wheeler.

5

Bab al-Aziziya compound

In Tripoli

Lat = 32 degrees, 52.4 minutes North

Long = 13 degrees, 10.4 minutes East

Saturday 1st July 1989 (Same day).

Fifteen fifty-one hour’s Local time.

The house was built by Gaddafi in the eighties. It looks inconspicuous enough on the outside with an ordinary gate and dun-coloured walls, which blend with the surrounding houses.

On the other side of the gate, it is a step through the looking glass; an inner ring of 30-foot-high walls surround a huge, beautifully manicured garden with trimmed hedges, small ponds, and pink bougainvilleas.

The earthy smell of fresh grass fills the air in the late afternoon.

Nevertheless, the garden is not there only for visual purposes. It is also a labyrinth that hides and separates the various parts of the sprawling compound, including an elaborate 40-foot-deep bunker.

The main house is a Seventies style one-story structure, built in an L-shape around a large pool with a hot tub.

About 40 yards away from the house, in the middle of a large grass lawn, is an ordinary looking rectangular hedge.

What is inside is far from ordinary. A set of stairs go down and down, about 40 feet altogether, into a heavily reinforced bunker with neon lights, along with a fire alarm system and wall-mounted telephones. Light green steel doors about a foot thick separate a complex series of tunnels and rooms.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was seated by the poolside looking at the passports taken from the people on the Sunrise yacht.

At the age of twenty-seven, Gaddafi became the de facto leader of the country on 1st September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan military officers against King Idris I, in a bloodless coup. After the king had fled the country, He took the title of colonel.

Recent events such as the killing of a British woman Police officer outside the Libyan embassy in London and the U.S. Air Force bombings in Tripoli in 1986 that he alleged had killed his adopted daughter, these events and others had resulted in the breakup of Diplomatic relations between Libya the UK and the USA.

Gaddafi had aligned himself more with radical terrorist organisations such as the Red Army faction, Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army.

His gaze stopped on one of the passports, staring at him was a face he knew well from news and media pictures, Maxwell Stanton the British multi-millionaire media tycoon.

He smiled down at the photo and looked up at the officer whom had brought it to him and said, Atia you have done well, keep Stanton his family and crew on the yacht, for the time being. Also I want constant radar coverage in the skies and on the Mediterranean Sea, I would not put it past the British to attempt a rescue, in fact I would welcome it?

The officer whom had boarded the yacht saluted his colonel and replied, It will be done as you say colonel.

6

London 10 Downing Street

Lat = 51 degrees, 30.2 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 7.7 minutes West

Saturday 1st July 1989 (Same day).

Eighteen twenty two hours BST.

The Prime Minister had spent the last twenty minutes speaking with Gadhafi relating to the holding of the Sunrise yacht and her personal.

Colonel Gadhafi had made it quite clear that the yacht had entered into Libyan waters and as such, the only reason for this would be to spy.

The PM had given Gadhafi a firm reply along with a threat, that should any harm befall any of the crew or passengers she would not have any qualms in authorising a military action.

Gadhafi had countered that any such action would have serious consequences and that a Libyan court would decide on the outcome of the yachts intrusion.

Following this conversation, she had phoned Major Strayker the head of the OSC and he was due at Downing Street in ten minutes.

7

Strayker’s Home

Wells road

Bromley

Kent.

Lat = 51 degrees, 24.3 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 3.1 minutes East

Strayker’s home was in Wells road, Bromley, Kent. The property was a five bedroom; two bathroom period home set in stunning grounds of over one acre with a swimming pool and tennis court along with his butler Bentley.

When the PM had phoned him, he had made a call to his driver Corporal Edwards to pick him up.

The thirteen-mile journey to Downing Street, had taken Corporal Edwards forty minutes and he was now turning the maroon coloured Vauxhall 24 valve Senator left into Downing Street, he pulled up outside probably one of the most famous doors in the world.

Mick Strayker had joined the army as a boy soldier at the age of sixteen and had come through the ranks; he was now Forty-six years of age and had never married, although he had, had his fair share of women.

Strayker was a good six-foot three inches tall with wide shoulders and a close-cropped haircut, which was now showing signs of greying around the sides.

He was the youngest Major General in the army; and was a natural soldier having seen service during the Mau-Mau uprising in 1960, the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in 1963, Aden 1965, several tours in Northern Ireland and the Falklands in 1982 along with postings in Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Belize and Brunei.

He was a keen collector of antique handguns and had amassed some very rare pistols.

Number 10 is one of the most famous addresses in the United Kingdom and the world. Almost three hundred years old, the building contains about one hundred rooms. There is a private residence on the third floor and a kitchen in the basement.

Number 10’s famous door is the product of the renovations Townsend ordered in 1766; it was probably not completed until 1772. Executed in the Georgian style by the architect Kenton Couse, it is unassuming and narrow, consisting of a single white stone step leading to a modest brick front.

The small, six-panelled door, originally made of black oak, is surrounded by cream-coloured casing and adorned with a semi-circular fanlight window. Painted in white, between the top and middle sets of panels, is the number 10.

The zero of the number 10 is set at a slight angle as a nod to the original number, which had a badly fixed zero. A black iron knocker in the shape of a lion’s head is between the two middle panels; below the knocker is a brass letterbox with the inscription First Lord of the Treasury.

A black ironwork fence with spiked newel posts runs along the front of the house and up each side of the step to the door. The fence rises above the step into a double-swirled archway, supporting an iron gas lamp surmounted by a crown.

Strayker stepped out of the car and walked to the door a Police officer checked his ID and then opened the door. Strayker stepped inside and noticed the famous black and white marble tiles in the entrance hall installed by Kenton Couse.

A Chippendale guard’s chair sits in one corner. Once used when police officers sat on watch outside in the street, it has an unusual hood designed to protect them from the wind and cold and a drawer underneath where hot coals were placed to provide warmth. Scratches on the right arm were caused by their pistols rubbing up against the leather.

He was greeted by the Prime ministers secretary Miss Douglas a middle-aged woman, she led him out onto the Terrace and garden, where the PM was seated.

The terrace, extending across the back, providing a full view of St. James’s Park.

An open lawn of 0.5 acres (2,000 m2) that wraps around Numbers 10 and 11 in an L-shape dominates the garden.

With a centrally located flowerbed around a holly tree surrounded by seats. Tubs of flowers line the steps from the terrace; around the walls are rose beds with flowering and evergreen shrubs.

The Prime Minister looked up as Strayker walked over to her, good evening Major, please take a seat.

Strayker replied "good evening Ma’am.

The evening was warm and the air still, the summer had so far been a good old English one.

The PM poured Strayker a cup of Earl grey tea.

Strayker spoke first, how can I help you Ma’am?

The Prime Minister spent the next five minutes appraising Strayker of the situation in Libya, when she finished she said, What are our options Major?

Strayker had been listening intently and replied, well Ma’am, Gadhafi is a law unto his own, I do not put the chances of our people receiving any sort of fair hearing anywhere near good. He will use this situation as propaganda to enhance his status and an example to his enemies.

Are you suggesting we go in and rescue them Major?

That would be are best option; unless you want a long drawn out political affair Ma’am?

I would not give the man the time of day Major, meet me back here tomorrow morning with the Everest team at nine with a plan of action.

It will be my pleasure Ma’am; Gadhafi needs to be taught a lesson.

8

Home of Max Storm

Datchet village

Windsor

Lat = 51 degrees, 29.0 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 35.1 minutes West

Saturday 1st July 1989 (Same day).

Twenty zero nine hours BST.

Datchet village is situated on the banks of the river Thames near Windsor castle, written evidence of this village appears in the Ten Eighty-Six Doomsday survey, it is situated Twenty-one miles from central London.

During World War 2, vital secret works on the development of radar took place here.

Tucked away behind a stock brick wall with electronically operated gates in Gables close and backing onto Datchet golf course is the home of Max Storm, the house was comprised of four bedrooms, three receptions two bathrooms and a double garage.

Code name eagle three Lieutenant Colonel Max Storm is a member of the OSC, Operational Strike Command.

Max was twenty-five and six-foot tall weighing in at one hundred and eight-two pounds; his hair was jet black and swept back.

His eyes were black an inheritance from his mother whom had been a native of Puerto Rico, at the age of seventeen Max’s mother had died tragically in a car crash, just at the time he had left school.

This had affected him and with his father in the military and often away he had no direction in life; drifting from one job to another, he had found it hard to settle anywhere and after a time got those itchy feet; time to move on.

Seven years previously in 1982, his father Jack had died in the Falklands war and had been posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross; Strayker had been Jack’s commanding officer on the mission.

Max had approached Major General Mick Strayker after his father’s funeral and asked to join his father’s regiment.

Max had earned his coveted green beret by completing the thirty-two weeks training, covering the thirteen training modules from skill at arms to Helicopter operations.

He had also won the Commando medal, awarded to one recruit in each troop who shows throughout training that he possesses the following qualities to an outstanding degree, Courage, Unselfishness, Cheerfulness under adversity and Determination.

Max went onto serve