Chapter 4

[chilly658]

It had been raining now for the past six hours when the silver transit van pulled up in Adenmore road and immediately the headlights went out.

Anton Augustin was in charge of the team and was sitting in the passenger seat staring down the road at where the special refuge had been set up next to Catford Bridge train station. "Ca este."  He turned and told the driver.  "That is it"  . As he pointed to the large Victorian house directly next to the station entrance which was completely deserted at this time of the morning but they were already running late after several detours because Anton Augustin had seen a police patrol car and they desperately avoided any contact with it.

He stepped out of the passenger side of the van and walked around to the back and opened the double doors to allow his two other colleagues to step outside. "Mergem." He told them both.  "We go".

The three men walked the fifty or so yards toward the train station before Anton Augustin used a key to quietly gain access through the main front door. 

The three of them crept up the carpeted stairs where there were three bedrooms and three young homeless men slept in beds provided by the borough council.

Anton Augustin pointed to the room furthest along the narrow hall and one of his colleagues crept along and waited outside it while he pointed to a second door and the second man copied it, waiting for instructions to go.

Anton then pulled out his Tazar gun and pressed a black button arming it and his two friends did exactly the same.

His brown eyes studied both of his friends to ensure that nobody was panicking before he held up three fingers for them to see which turned to two, then one and last a clenched fist and they all opened their doors simultaneously and entered.

From the hall the three 'CLACK!' sounds could be heard as the electrodes contacted the three sleeping bodies as the voltage powered through and rendered each of them completely helpless regardless of whether they had woken or not, nobody could move and if anybody was wakened there was no way that they were going to be able to do anything to prevent their own abduction.

Anton Augustin stared down at the motionless man who's body was still violently juddering from the trauma that it was undergoing now.  "Putem fi repede cu aceasta."  He calmly said.  "We can be faster with this."

Because Anton Augustin had served as a Major in the Romanian Army he was a perfectionist who knew full well that his team would need to improve and his biggest fear was that one day one of them would accidentally electrocute themselves when the Tazar gun was sitting in a pocket.

He took out his mobile telephone and pressed a number from his personal directory while his companions began to bind the three men with silver duct tape at the wrists, ankles and over their mouths.  "Deschida usile si acolo conduce aici acum."  He told the transit van driver.  "Open up the doors and drive here now."

The van driver jumped out and opened the back doors of his van before he jumped back into the driver seat and started the engine, leaving his headlights off and then pulled up right outside the safe haven.

Anton's two companions carried first one of the paralysed men out where he was unceremoniously slumped before returning to the house and collected the second.

Anton watched as they carried the third man and placed him in the back and then they both climbed in too and Anton slammed the door shut behind them.

Anton climbed into the passenger side of the van. "Utilizarea traseu trei."  He told the driver. "Use route three"  As they had pre planned routes to avoid detection from the police and more importantly now, the new hidden cameras which had been installed.

Catford Bridge was one of just seven refuges in London which could not be supervised that night and the Romanian team knew it.