Everything to Lose by Gordon Bickerstaff

night vision goggles were locked into place. They saw the target yacht anchored 700 metres off Ardwell Point.
    Close to the beach the road adopts an inland forward sloping S-shape. The convoy stopped at the top bend of the road and deployed like a family of mice. Zoe had split her force up into two teams for an attack from two sides.
    Zoe's team would follow the S-shaped road down to the beach at Ardwell Bay. A 400 metre trot along the road down to the south end of Ardwell Bay, four minutes easy-peasy. Their attack would approach the beach from the east.
    Bravo team would head southwest over fields to Base Hole then north up to Doon Hill. Their approach to the beach would be from the south. A 700-metre trot and Zoe allowed them eight minutes to get there. They would have the advantage of higher ground over-looking the beach. To ensure the troopers didn't fire on each other they wore 'high vis' patches that were seen brightly in night vision goggles.
    When Zoe's team arrived at Ardwell Bay they came across a removal van and two MPV's, all doors wide open. Inside the removal van they saw it was kitted out for living quarters. From live feed cameras on the helmets, the MI5 operation commander Alan Cairn saw where Barscadden had been hiding.
    The feed was relayed by GCHQ to an operations room in MI5 headquarters at Thames House, a Grade II listed building at the corner of Millbank and Horseferry Road in central London, which overlooks Lambeth Bridge, a few hundred yards south of the Houses of Parliament on the north bank of the Thames.
    A WRATH lookout spotted the SAS troopers at the removal van and engaged them before retreating back toward the beach. Barscadden's men on the beach took cover in the rocky outcrops known as Mary Wilson's Slunk at the south end of beach.
    An intense firefight on the Slunk lasted eleven minutes. Barscadden's men retreated through the Slunk towards the sea then south toward Doon Castle Broch where they met and were pinned down by the Bravo team approaching from Base Hole.
    The rocks were treacherous in the dark, many at chest height, jutting angles, slippery surfaces with large and small awkward gullies between them. Perfect for tripping and trapping anxiously moving boots.
    The forensics and the medics would find many cuts and bruises on the legs and feet of the bodies where the rocks had taken part in the fight. It wasn't the first time but it has been a long time since so much blood was spilled on Mary Wilson's Slunk. None of them knew that the large pile of stones they used for cover were the remains of Doon Castle Broch. An old Scottish castle dating back to 100 BC.
    Three of Barscadden's men were killed in the Slunk. Two were killed at Ardwell point and one was captured. The remaining two were killed at Doon Castle Broch. One SAS trooper was badly injured but stable and three were slightly injured including Zoe Tampin.
    Zoe's team had flushed Barscadden's men out of Mary Wilson's Skunk and caught up with three of them among the rocks at Ardwell Point. Zoe and her sergeant Antonia (Toni) Bornadetti crashed into their position from behind. One man was already dead. His right foot stuck between two rocks he couldn't move to cover and didn't surrender so he was an easy target.
    Toni got onto the nearest man and knocked him unconscious when she drove the retracted butt stock of her silenced MP5SD Heckler & Koch into the side of his head before he heard her.
    The other man was a bit further away and got off a round at Zoe from his handgun as he turned. She killed him with a headshot. His 9 mm round ripped three inches of flesh from her upper left arm. Toni and Zoe lay low while Toni applied a field dressing to stem Zoe's blood loss. At least they would have one captive to interrogate.
    When it kicked off, Zoe cried 'weapons hot' into the comm headsets and called for the IRC (inflatable raiding craft). The van towing it raced down to Ardwell Bay. Zoe and five troopers took the IRC out to the yacht. As