SCOUT WARRIOR

1 The New Unit The storm had just got naughtier. The skies over England were black and filled with darkness, with no bright prospects for the future. Only lightning, thunder and rain. The Boeing 737 hovered above the city of London. Heathrow was not far away, its lights were dimly visible. The plane was descending gradually, making its way through the thunder and the storm valiantly. The lights on its tail and wings shimmered. A flash of lightning lit up the black sky momentarily, and for a second it seemed it was going to be a bright day after all. But then, all went dark again. The plane landed smoothly on the runway. The door opened slowly and the passengers started coming out after a moment. Sir Allen Maguire of the SO15 walked down the stairs holding a black briefcase. He had black hair that had a few wisps of grey. There were wrinkles under his eyes, which were brown and intelligent. His nose was flat and thin, and his chin, long. He looked somewhat absurd in his overcoat, which fitted him excellently, but made him look overdressed in a lightly dressed crowd. After all it was summers in London. He walked to the gate of the airport; a man was waiting for him. Leonard wished him and hurriedly took over his luggage. “How was your flight, sir?” He asked. Sir Allen gave him a wry smile.”Pretty comfortable.” He said. Leonard nodded and ran towards the black limousine. He opened the back door and Sir Allen got in and made himself comfortable, his briefcase at his side. He closed his eyes. The car stopped after an hour in front of the gates of a huge building on Wapping High Street. It was gleaming and on top of it was a billboard saying THE GRANDE. It was a hotel for normal people, but for some special people, it was the headquarters of the SO15. A scanner scanned the whole car as it entered the basement. If any vehicle carried a bomb or any other object that could be lethal, it would be detected immediately and the car would be taken over by a group of trained men who knew how to handle it. But the scanner showed that everything was safe in the car except for a small pistol. The head of SO15 was permitted to carry his personal weapon. A Beretta sub compact semi- automatic. The car was parked in the basement among other cars, but at a special place. As Sir Allen got out, Leonard quickly pressed a blue coloured button in the car which sent a signal to the server room. Suddenly, the platform sank into the ground and as Sir Allen watched with utter boredom, the car went down and the ground closed again. No other car would be allowed to enter until this process was complete. Sir Allen then turned around and walked to the elevator, which led him up to the seventy-second floor, the head office. The guests at the hotel did not know that such a thing existed in their premises. The elevator went up slowly and then stopped at the seventy-second floor. The doors opened and Sir Allen stepped out. Leonard was there before Sir Allen .Leonard was not only his chauffeur but also a logistics handler of SO15. Sir Allen went into his office. It was a large room, which had a big desk, a chair and a huge window with an excellent view of Central London. He closed the door and sat down. Soon someone was there to meet him. “It won’t do, it just won’t do, you know.”Sir Allen shook his head firmly, to the person standing in front of him. Usually, he was a pleasant man but this time he seemed a bit off. Scotland Yard was again being asked to get their best team for a petty crime. The man who stood in front of him was fair, with blond hair which hung upon his forehead. “We have to do something, John.” said Sir Allen. John nodded. “This can’t go on.” “Very well, sir.” John replied. “What do you intend to do?” Sir Allen pushed back his head, and thought for a while before giving a twisted smile. “I intend to quit...” he paused. John’s eyes widened slowly. “...looking upon those small matters that this city plentifully presents.” John narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, sir?” he asked. Sir Allen shook his head and broke into an ugly laugh. “Get me Charles, John.” He said. “I don’t understand...” he began, but Sir Allen cut in. “GO!” John nodded and scrambled out of the room, closing the glass door behind him. Sir Allen sighed. This was bad. Too many things were happening. Murders, small thefts, petty inter gang conflicts. The Scotland Yard could not take care of all such matters, many of them trivial. The price of devoting time and resources to these issues had to be paid somewhere else. Though this idea looked mad, he hoped it was going to work. It sounded ridiculous, but now, Sir Allen had actually obtained permission to form an Official Detective Force, called RED - Royal Executive Detachment - which would employ handpicked enthusiastic and motivated teenagers, who had time and who went mostly unsuspected and had the potential of turning into high class detectives. If all went well, they could even join Scotland Yard as regulars in due course. An official volunteer detective force under SO15 to act as informers and amateur detectives who will help SO15 bring petty criminals to justice. First of its kind in the whole world. Her Majesty’s government had asked Sir Allen to first try this out on an experimental basis. If it was successful, then RED would become a reality. It would save precious time and money for SO15. This experiment was to be conducted with a young trainee to be called ‘Scout Warrior.’ The door opened and a rather elegant man entered, with short fair hair and a black moustache. He straightened his tie and cleared his throat. “You sent for me, sir?” he asked. Sir Allen had his back towards him. “Yes, Charles. I need you to do something for me,” said he, his face gleaming in the light from the lamp above. Charles nodded. “Yes, sir?” he said. “Is it a field job?” “Sort of.” Charles nodded. “All right, sir, what is it?” he asked. Sir Allen raised a hand. “Look here, Charles, this is what I need...” he paused, looking for another word. “Your instructions, pray listen to them carefully, you have to form a detective force, headed by you, to get petty criminals to justice.””Can you do that?” “If I have the authority, yes, of course, why not?” “It will be called RED, which stands for Royal Executive Detachment.””The first step in creation of this force is an experiment with a greenhorn who will be called Scout Warrior; this Scout Warrior has to be carefully selected, trained and then launched into field ops. Based on the success we achieve through this Scout Warrior, we will get sanction to raise RED. So you see, creation of RED depends on this Scout Warrior.”” Go ahead, find a fit and motivated lad, and lelet’s hope for the best.” Sir Allen smiled. “You will have no reason to be disappointed, sir, I assure you.” Charles had already homed on to his Scout Warrior.