Once A Pilgrim: a breathtaking, pulse-pounding SAS thriller

8.

MIDDAY. SICK SEAN and Gerard were sitting around the Casey family kitchen table with Ciaran O’Brien, a thickset man who smelt of sweat and old beer.

The third team member, O’Brien was another hardened Republican from a long line of hardened Republicans stretching back to the 1600s, the Eleven Years’ War, and beyond.

It was a way of life for some people.

The three of them spoke in hushed voices, as if the breadbin might be bugged.

Which, actually, it might be. You literally never knew, until the fuckers kicked the door in one day and dragged you away.

The hard work, the reconnaissance and the planning, had been done.

The weapons had been removed from the cache in Milltown Cemetery off the Falls by the hide custodian the previous night. He’d stripped, oiled and reassembled them, and moved them into a temporary location in the Poleglass, over Derriaghy way.

The final weapons-move to the forming-up point – McKill’s, a well-known Republican bar on the Suffolk Road, out on the south-western outskirts of the city – would not take place until just before the Active Service Unit arrived to collect them. The less time the guns were in play, the better. To be caught with them was effectively a death sentence: many a good man had been killed by those murdering Brit bastards, even when he’d known the game was up and was trying to surrender.

They’d collect their vehicle at McKill’s, too. A red Ford Sierra – the most common car, and the most common colour of that car, in the city. Stolen to order three weeks earlier, hidden away and fitted with ringer plates that went to an identical vehicle, so that it would at least pass any casual check by the peelers.

If any of them got a little more nosey, all bets were off.

Gerard Casey couldn’t sit still.

He stood up and went out into the back garden to smoke the last of his twenty Red Band.

‘That’s a filthy habit,’ said Sick Sean, after him. ‘It’ll kill you.’

He burst out laughing, but he was half serious: Sean Casey was a muscle nut gym monkey who lived on grilled chicken, salad, and handfuls of parabolin, winstrol, halotestin, and whatever other anabolic steroids he could get his hands on. Plus an occasional amphet sharpener.

‘Is he gonna be alright?’ said Ciaran O’Brien. ‘Your wee man?’

He pronounced it ‘marn’.

‘He’ll be fine,’ said Sean, dismissively. ‘It’s a piece of piss.’

They sat in easy silence for a few moments. The kitchen smelled of the stale chip pan, and O’Brien’s Blue Stratos aftershave. The only sound was the relentless tick of the plastic clock on the wall behind Sick Sean’s head.

Ma Casey stuck her head in and said she was off to the Co-Op.

Sean frowned and nodded curtly.

She meant the pub. An hour or so, and she’d be drunk; two hours, and she’d be oblivious.

Gerard came back into the warmth of the kitchen, rubbing his freezing hands together.

‘Let’s have another go through the plan,’ said Sean.

‘I know the plan,’ said his younger brother, sharply.

‘I didn’t fucking ask if you knew it, boy,’ spat Sean. His body had tightened and his fists were suddenly bunched. ‘I said let’s go through the fucking plan.’

Gerard stopped in his tracks. When his brother was in this mood, you didn’t push his buttons unless you liked hospital food.

‘Listen, Gerard,’ said Sean. His voice was a little calmer, but his teeth were gritted. ‘Sitting here and talking about it, that’s the easy bit. The next easiest bit is killing the fucker. D’you know the hard bit?’

Gerard nodded.

‘The hard bit’s not getting fucking caught and spending the next thirty years in Long Kesh. So let’s go over the fucking plan one more fucking time.’

The younger man nodded again, a mental image of Billy Jones Jnr entering his head. The three of them had spent hours and hours over the last two months in surveilling their target, and by now he knew Billy’s face and his movements better than the back of his own hand. A week earlier, he’d even stood at the bar in Robinson’s and made sure to be served by Billy, so that he could see his face right up close, and really know the detail.

He’d looked into the lad’s eyes, and had seen his own reflection.

Seemed a nice enough guy, no different to himself.

Don’t think like that.

‘He leaves Robinson’s at the end of his shift between six and six-thirty,’ he said. ‘He takes about ten minutes to get to the car park.’

‘What’s he wearing?’

‘Black trousers, white shirt, and he always has that red adi jacket on.’

‘Car’s he driving?’

‘Dark green Austin Allegro. W reg.’

‘Where will we be parked?’

‘Behind his vehicle – not directly behind, but somewhere we can cover all approaches, and enough distance so’s I’ve time to react when we see him.’

‘Good,’ said Sick Sean, unclenching his fists and relaxing slightly. ‘Okay, we see him walking up. What then?’

‘When he’s near the driver’s door, I get out the car, walk straight towards him. Ciaran gets out and covers my back with his AK. You get ready to start the engine.’

‘You missed something.’

Gerard Casey thought for a moment. Then he said, ‘Sorry. When we see him we all pull our balaclavas down.’

‘Bingo. Carry on.’

‘I walk straight to him, slow and steady, take my time, no running. I get to just beyond arms’ length, and stop before I fire. I put two rounds in the middle of his back. When he goes to the ground I put the barrel to his head and put another round into him. Then I turn around and walk back to the car, with the gun down by my side.’

Sean nodded. ‘You never run,’ he said. ‘Never. Nice and steady. Remember that. Okay?’

Gerard nodded. ‘I get in the car, and Ciaran gets in after me. Then we drive slowly out the car park and head back.’

‘Balaclava?’

‘We lift them when we’re in the car and away from the area.’

‘Some hero gets in your way on the way back to the car?’

Gerard Casey hesitated. Had they discussed that possibility? He couldn’t remember.

‘What you going to do, son? Fucking think.’

‘Show them the pistol and tell them to fuck off.’

Sick Sean shook his head. ‘You kill them, Gerard,’ he said, emphatically. ‘Stone cold. Man, woman or child, I don’t give a shit. Got it? I’m not doing that kind of time for no-one, understand?’

Gerard nodded.

‘We’re going to give his old man an early Christmas present, alright,’ said O’Brien, with a big grin.

‘He’s definitely not a player?’ said Gerard.

‘No,’ barked Sean, ‘but that doesn’t fucking matter. Don’t go fucking thinking about it too much. He’s guilty by association.’

There was a heavy silence in the kitchen.

A dog barked outside.

Gerard Casey got up and patted his pocket.

‘I need to go and get some more fags,’ he said. ‘I’ll be back in half an hour.’

‘Fifteen minutes,’ said Sean. ‘And Ciaran’s going with you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I fucking say so, that’s why. This is a military operation, and we have procedures. I’m not having you phoning your handler and warning off the Special Branch.’

Gerard gawped at him. Eventually he blurted out, ‘I’m no fucking tout.’

‘I know you’re not, son,’ said Sean, flatly. ‘It was a joke. If you was, sure you’d be dead by now, brother or not. Now go and get your fags, and then we’ll go over the plan again.’

9.

LESS THAN HALF a mile away, LCpl John Carr’s Land Rover led the three-vehicle Parachute Regiment/RUC patrol in through the big steel gates to Woodbourne police station, and parked up.

It was just before 13:00hrs, and within a matter of minutes the ravenous Toms were wolfing down police canteen sausage and chips, full of cackling and abuse.

Lt Guy de Vere carried his metal tray to the table and sat down opposite Scouse Parry and John Carr.

‘Not the sort of scoff you’re used to in the Officers’ Mess, boss,’ said Parry, shovelling a forkful of chips into his face, and winking at Carr. ‘But I bet you’re hungry.’

Carr chuckled. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘All that nervous energy, eh, Scouse?’

De Vere smiled: after a morning in their company, he was just starting to get used to the soldiers’ gentle piss-taking.

‘I was more scared of Private Keogh’s driving than the PIRA,’ he said, cutting into a fat sausage.

‘Fucking hell, boss,’ said Keogh, next to him. ‘I’m the best driver in the battalion!’

The other driver – Morris – shouted something abusive from the other end of the table. They all dissolved into raucous laughter, and de Vere started eating.

When they’d all finished, Parry disappeared off and John Carr wandered over to the hatch and fetched them both a huge mug of steaming tea.

‘We’ve got five minutes, boss,’ he said. ‘Get your laughing gear round that.’

‘Thanks, Corp’l Carr.’

They sat there, the tall, blond, well-bred Englishman and the dark, hard-faced Scot from the sprawling Edinburgh council estate: wildly different in many ways, but brought together by the uniform and pride in their work.

Carr watched him sip the hot, sweet tea. He looked knackered, but then the special stresses and strains of walking the streets of Belfast in a British Army uniform did take it out of you, and it was worse when you were the FNG and trying to catch up. Young Guy de Vere would have learned more in this half-day than in his entire Army career to date. The episode with Conor Gilfillan… they didn’t teach you stuff like that at Sandhurst, thought Carr.

It was as though de Vere had read his thoughts.

‘At least there’ll be no junior Gilfillans,’ he said. ‘After what you did to his bollocks.’

Carr grinned. ‘There’s about a dozen of the little fuckers already, sadly,’ he said. ‘But the greasy wanker will remember you, alright, boss. Nasty wee shite.’

‘All those tricolour-painted kerbstones and murals,’ he said, leaning back and looking at Carr. ‘And the graffiti. Fuck the Brits. Troops Out. It’s not the most salubrious city, is it?’

‘Come again?’ said Carr.

‘Belfast. It’s a bit rough.’

Carr picked at his teeth with a match. ‘Where are you from?’ he said.

‘Marlborough,’ said de Vere. ‘Well, a village not far from. My family has a farm there.’

‘Nice part of the world,’ said Carr, laconically. ‘I can see why you’d think Belfast was not very salubrious.’ He picked a bit of sausage out of his teeth, looked at it and put it back in his mouth. ‘But Belfast is better than where I’m from. See these semi-detacheds and nice rows of terraces?’ he said. ‘We dinnae have too many of them. Where I’m from, it’s all fucking tenements.’ He chuckled. ‘And we dinnae have the polis and the Army keeping order, neither. It’s dog eat fuckin’ dog.’

He watched in amusement as de Vere blushed slightly.

‘So where are you from?’ said the young officer.

‘Niddrie, boss. East Edinburgh.’

‘I don’t think I know it.’

‘You wouldnae. Shitehole. Good for heroin, stabbings, single mums, and dogshite. That’s about it.’

‘Family all up there?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Girlfriend?’

‘Nah. I mean, I’ve got a bird, like, but I met her over here.’

‘Planning to get married?’

‘To Stella?’ Carr laughed, and then was serious. ‘Tell you the truth, I’ve not thought about it.’

‘Father in the Army?’

‘In the war. But he left as soon as he could, like. He didnae like being fucked about by posh English bastards. No offence.’

It was de Vere’s turn to laugh. ‘I’m certainly English,’ he said, ‘and some might say I was posh, but my parents were married and I promise not to fuck you about any more than I absolutely have to.’ He paused for a moment. ‘So what made you join?’

Carr thought for a moment. ‘Always wanted to be a soldier,’ he said. ‘Since I was a boy.’ He grinned. ‘I like a good scrap, boss, and there’s no better way to get yourself into a scrap than join the Paras.’

‘And what are your plans?’

‘Selection.’

‘The SAS?’

‘Aye. I’m down for the next course.’

‘Good luck.’

‘No such thing. Hard work and mental strength, that’s what’ll get me through.’

De Vere polished off his tea and looked round the room.

His eye fell on Mick Parry, deep in conversation with the two RUC men.

‘Corporal Parry seems an impressive guy,’ he said.

‘Sound as a pound,’ said Carr. ‘Hard fucker, like. But fair. The blokes love him. Officers, not so much.’

De Vere nodded.

‘Brave, as well,’ said Carr. ‘Where we met Gilfillan, down on Ballygomartin? We were there three weeks back. Friday night. Drizzly, it was. Road was wet. Fucking joyriders come down there at seventy, maybe eighty. Stolen XR2i.’

He paused.

‘You know we lost one of the guys to a joyrider at the start of the tour? Never stopped. Hit him on the white line in Andytown. Good mate of mine. Fucking tragic.’

De Vere said, ‘Yes, I know about the incident.’

‘Ever since that, the blokes are fucking twitchy about joyriders,’ said Carr. ‘And the joyriders know it. So this XR2i comes down the road, sees us, and the driver jams on the anchors. Greasy road, shit tyres, the driver was only fifteen. No idea how to get out of the skid. He rolled the car and it hit a lamp-post fifty metres from our position. Set on fire. The lad was fucked up and dead, but there was three other kids trapped in the car – his mate and two wee girls. Mick run straight up the road and dragged them kids out of that car. Knowing it could have gone up at any minute. Or that some PIRA wanker might see him and have a pop.’ Carr finished his own drink. ‘He should get an award for it, really.’

‘And what…’ said the young lieutenant, but he was interrupted by the tramp of Mick Parry’s German para boots on the green lino.

‘Right, John,’ he said, to Carr. ‘Time to get the lads sparking.’ He looked at the lieutenant. ‘You too, boss. Can’t sit around all day chin-wagging with this idle fucker.’

10.

AT AROUND THAT moment, a call was being made from a secure line at 10 Downing Street in London.

The man making the call was a major in the Royal Anglians who was on military liaison attachment to Mrs Thatcher’s personal staff.

The man receiving the call was the 3 Para adjutant in Belfast.

The call was to confirm final arrangements for an event which the two men had been discussing over the previous three days – an unannounced flying visit to Belfast by the PM.

The previous Thursday, gunmen from the Provisional IRA’s Belfast Brigade had shot three off-duty RUC men in a pub off the Shankill Road, killing two and seriously injuring the third. It came hot on the heels of the deaths of three members of the Parachute Regiment in the Mayobridge bombing, and together they demanded a political response.

At some time after 6pm that evening, Mrs Thatcher would be flying in for a secret visit to Knock, to meet grieving family members, and to rally the troops.

A pre-Christmas morale booster.

And, because of that, the city would be crawling with extra Army patrols, cars full of Special Branch, undercover members of 14th Intelligence Company – the surveillance specialists known as ‘the Det’, whose job it was to infiltrate both the Republican and Loyalist communities – and various other watchers, followers and shooters.

11.

AT A QUARTER-TO-FIVE, as the winter darkness fell, the Casey brothers and Ciaran O’Brien finally left the house in Lenadoon Avenue.

Gerard felt simultaneously light and heavy, terrified and excited.

It was weird how the other two looked so relaxed; he tried to copy them.

Well-practised in counter-surveillance, they moved on foot – you spotted a tail much quicker that way – and headed across Lenadoon Park, a nice, wide-open space with enough ambient light to see if you were being followed. They walked out onto Derryveagh Drive, and then down to the Suffolk Road, which was long and straight enough to give good views in either direction.

They turned north.

Almost immediately, Sean said, ‘Shit!’ and dropped his head into his collar.

On the opposite side of the road, a joint Army–RUC mobile patrol was approaching, moving between one exercise in fucking up people’s lives and another. The front driver slowed, and the top-cover in the tail vehicle gave them a long stare, his SA80 rifle held at the ready. A tall, slim officer, he was new in the Province, but he was a diligent man, and he’d spent hours poring over mugshots of the main players. He might well have recognised Sean Casey and Ciaran O’Brien, had the light been better, and that would have been enough to get them a tug. Worse still for the IRA team, the soldiers were Paras, which quite possibly meant hours of being pissed about, and the job off for that night.

But in the gloaming and the drizzle the top-cover couldn’t make them out, and the Land Rovers rumbled and trundled on their way.

A few minutes later, the three of them walked in to McKill’s. It was early and empty, and the barman was polishing glasses. One man sat nursing a pint at a table by the wall – a low-level player who nodded respectfully to Sean and Ciaran. Gerard Casey, his stomach light and queasy, threw a strained half-smile at the barman, and got a quizzical look in return before the fellow went back to his polishing; something was clearly up, but he knew better than to see or ask anything.

They headed straight through to the office at the rear of the building.

The door was locked.

Sean rapped on the flaking green paint with his knuckles.

It was opened – slightly, at first, then wide – by a dark-haired man in his mid-thirties who was wearing dungarees and a thick jumper.

Gerard realised to his surprise that he knew the guy – his name was Martin Thompson, and he coached a kids’ Sunday football team down on the Rec there.

Gerard had had no idea that he was a member of the RA.

The cell structure, in action.

They stepped past Thompson, and the door was locked behind them.

The room was empty apart from an old table, a few chairs, a sports holdall, and a telephone.

Sitting on the table was another man, late twenties, a ginger bog brush on his head, and a face full of freckles – Brian ‘Freckles’ Keogh, Gerard knew his rep alright.

Next to Freckles was what Gerard recognised in the glare of the single bare lightbulb as a folding stock AK47, with two of its distinctive curved magazines lying beside it. There were also two pistols – he couldn’t have named them, but one was a modern-looking thing and the other an old revolver. Next to the revolver was a mug which bore the Celtic FC crest and contained a magazine for the automatic and six rounds for the revolver.

He realised with a jolt that both of the men were wearing pink washing-up gloves. In his state of controlled panic, the incongruity made him want to giggle, but he fought it back and kept his silence.

‘Alright, fellas,’ said Thompson.

‘Alright, Tommo,’ said Sean.

He nodded at Freckles.

‘Evening, Freck.’

‘Ready?’ said Freckles.

‘As always.’

Martin Thompson picked up the holdall and opened it. ‘Here’s your change of clothes for later,’ he said, indicating a Tesco carrier bag. ‘And you’ll need these.’

He picked out three other carrier bags and handed them over. Each contained a pair of pink Marigolds, still in their plastic packets, and three new balaclavas.

‘You know the drill,’ said Martin. ‘Get yourselves gloved up before you touch the weapons.’

Each of the three pulled on a pair of the gloves.

‘Over the bottom of your sleeves,’ said Sick Sean to his brother, holding out a wrist. ‘Like I showed you.’

Once the gloves were on and the sleeves tucked in, Freckles produced a roll of duct tape and went from one to the other, taping the gloves in place.

‘That’s great, Sean,’ said Gerard, as casually as he could. He felt oddly talkative, and blurted out, ‘Feels a bit weird.’

His voice sounded as though it was coming out of someone else’s mouth, and for some reason a vision came to his mind: a trip to Barry’s in Portrush… What had he been? Seven? Eight? He’d got on the roller coaster, full of bravado, and then they’d locked the lap belt on, and there was no way off, and he’d pure near shit himself, and there was nothing to do but sit there and go with it and hope it wasn’t going to be too bad and just wait until it was all over because you can’t get off can’t get off can’t get off

‘You’ll get used to it,’ said Ciaran O’Brien, calmly. ‘It’ll keep the forensics off your hands. Unless you like the look of the H Blocks?’

The two new men chuckled. ‘Ah, leave him be,’ said Martin.

Nothing to do but go with it, and hope it’s not too bad.

Satisfied, Freckles stood to one side and the three men walked to the table. O’Brien picked up the AK, cleared it, then loaded a magazine and made it ready. He put the spare magazine into the inside pocket of his leather jacket. Gerard went to pick up the semi-automatic – it was a 9mm Browning Hi-Power – but Sean slapped his hand away. ‘Fuck off, that’s mine,’ he said, grabbing it, loading it and putting it into his waistband.

Gerard Casey picked up the revolver, and looked at it in disbelief.

It was a late-model Webley, liberated from an unfortunate British Army officer at some point in the previous half century.

Its wooden handle polished smooth by many hands.

Bad hands.

‘This looks like a fucking antique, so it does,’ he said. ‘You sure it’ll be okay?’

‘Better than an automatic,’ said his brother. ‘No chance of it jamming. Sure, it’ll blow that prod fucker’s brains out, I know that much. Make a hell of a fucking bang.’

O’Brien smiled wolfishly. ‘And a hell of a fucking hole in his head,’ he said. He pushed the Celtic mug across the old table. ‘You’d better load it.’

‘Is that all the bullets I get?’

‘If you need any more than that you’re a dead man,’ said O’Brien, flatly. ‘We’ll not be hanging around.’

Gerard Casey broke the pistol open and emptied the half-dozen shiny .38 brass cartridges into his gloved palm.

Trying and failing to hide the shaking of his hands, he slotted them slowly into the cylinder.

‘Where’s the car?’ said Sick Sean.

Martin picked up the phone and dialled a number; it rang once and was immediately answered.

‘Car,’ he said, and put the phone down. He turned to the three. ‘Be out front in five minutes, boys.’

Gerard looked at the pistol in his hands, and then slipped it into his waist band. He stared at the floor, not wanting to look around.

There was a knock on the door and then a voice through the wood: ‘Car’s out front, Marty.’

Gerard brought his head up.

Sean was staring straight into his eyes, and now he smiled.

‘Showtime,’ he said, his grin widening into a leer.

Gerard shivered. He had never until that moment realised just how evil his brother looked.

But there was no going back now.

12.

AT 18:00HRS, THE PARAS had conducted the shift change for the RUC crew, and now they were sitting in Springfield Road police station, drinking yet another round of Tetley teas.