With the Commander now having taken up his new post as Divisional Commander of the Metropolitan Division of the National Security & Police Service, it is not long before things start to go awry.
A fairly routine operation at a container terminal leads to an unexpected incident which in turn sets of a whole chain of events.
Soon a Russian Mafia boss arrives in London and little does anyone expect that he would bring so much death, destruction and chaos to the streets as he ruthlessly seeks to eliminate his main opponents, the Security Service and the local organised crime bosses.
As things get desperate and mortal danger becomes an everyday hazard, it falls to the City's finest officers to use every trick in the book firstly to stay alive and secondly to defeat this new deadly enemy before he either wins or goes to ground.
'Victoria' was the second part of what by accident rather than design became the 'District Line' quadrology which would be completed by 'Embankment' and then 'Earl's Court'.
This entry in the series ran parallel with the redevelopment of much of Victoria Street, the main thoroughfare that links Westminster, New Scotland Yard and Victoria Station and would feature prominently at points in several entries in the series.
Excerpt:
It was an unusual location to find the Division Commander of the Security Department's Metropolitan Division. The Commander's general dislike of boats meant that a large sea container port would normally have been the last place anyone that knew him would expect to find him, more so you considering how far outside his jurisdiction of Greater London it was, situated on the south east corner of the Kent coast.
The Commander was sat in the second man's seat in the lead cab of a Freightliner Class 66/5 heavy freight locomotive and watching the unloading of a large container vessel nearby with the aid of binoculars.
"Refresh my memory" the Commander asked his colleague from the Customs & Excise Division who was sat alongside him in the drivers seat "Exactly why am I sitting in a locomotive watching lots of metal boxes move backwards and forwards?"
"Don't worry Sir" the officer confirmed "The container we are after is on this ship and should be unloaded any minute."
"Where did intelligence say this container came in from?" the Commander asked as he resumed his observations.
"Somewhere in the Balkans apparently" the officer confirmed "via the Mediterranean and then Portugal."
"The scenic route then" the Commander commented but then paused and leaned forward as he saw something in particular that caught his eye.
"Is that the one?" he asked as he passed the binoculars back to the officer alongside him.
Taking the binoculars, the officer concentrated them on a red container that was currently suspended in mid air from the crane which was in the process of winching it from the ship's hold down to the dockside where a team of Customs Officers were already waiting.
"Yep, that's the one" the officer confirmed and with that both he and the Commander exited the locomotive cab, clambering down the side access steps onto the hard wet concrete surface of the dock area itself.
With precision manoeuvring, the container was landed inch perfect onto a waiting empty container flat wagon and once the dock master had released the haulage chains, the Commander and the waiting customs officers clambered on board and made straight for the end access doors.
After a bit of manhandling, they managed collectively to remove the security seal on the lock. It then only took a few seconds with a pair of bolt croppers to remove the lock before the doors were opened.
The Commander, dressed in his best gold braided uniform and the yellow day-glo jacketed Customs & Excise division officers looked inside the container, whereupon the Commander's expression turned from one of triumph to one of puzzlement.
"Davis!" the Commander called over to the operation commander, beckoning him over with a wave of the finger.
"Yes Sir?" Davis responded as he went over to his superior officer.
"Refresh my memory" the Commander enquired "If I recall I approved this joint operation on the basis that we were about to seize, and I quote, a considerable amount of dangerous material."
"Err yes Sir" Davis responded.
Davis looked across into the container at the contents the Commander was pointing at and scratched his head in equal puzzlement.
"I would say Sir" Davis responded with clear bewilderment at this latest development "that our intelligence may have been a bit duff."
"You don't say!" the Commander retorted with a bit of a wry giggle.
The Commander contemplated the container momentarily before turning smartly away on his heels. He clambered back down from the wagon onto the dock and began to head back towards the main dock master's office.
With the majority of the Customs & Excise officers having now been stood down just leaving a token couple of officers guarding the seized container, the Commander casually started to walk away but stopped when he detected a scrabbling sound coming from somewhere behind him.
Turning around, he took his gun from its holster and looked back at the wagon and its container where, initially he could see nothing untoward.
"You're imagining things" he told himself as a large seagull flew low overhead causing him to look up for a few moments. As he was distracted however, a man suddenly appeared from beneath the wagon where he had been hiding and made a run for it.
"What the.....?" the Commander exclaimed as he suddenly realised something was not right and proceeded to give chase after the escaping stranger.
"Lima Mike Zero One from Lima Tango Zero One" the Commander's radio suddenly came alive with the sound of his wife Tracy's voice calling.
"Morning love" the Commander responded as he continued to run after the stranger "Can I call you back only I am a bit busy at the moment!"
"Well I am just outside the main Customs & Excise building" Tracy confirmed "Is their anything I can help you out with?"
"There is a chap in a black leather jacket legging it in your general direction" the Commander responded, already beginning to run out of breath "Could you possibly do me a favour and head him off?"
"On the way!" Tracy responded before jogging back over to a nearby red patrol car parked nearby. Quickly she was in the driver's seat with the door closed whereupon she started the engine and accelerated away.
The escaping stranger only narrowly avoided being run down by a dockside crane and a slow moving Freightliner train as he ran, seemingly fearing for his life. By the time he had reached the far side of the ferry port though, the Commander had fallen some considerable distance behind.
Looking around, the running man saw that it appeared he had managed to shake off his pursuer and began to slow down, entering the adjacent main public ferry terminal building and trying to blend in with the crowds inside.
He made his way through the building, past the various shops and enquiry desks towards the main exit and as he stepped out into the sunshine, he felt confident that he had managed to successfully escape his pursuer.
Proceeding towards the shuttle bus area to catch a ferry bus into Dover itself, the stranger suddenly found himself confronted with Tracy, standing in front of him, gun drawn.
"Hold it right there matey" she called.
"Or what?" the stranger defiantly enquired with a menacing scowl in an Eastern Europe or maybe even Russian accent.
"Then I would just have to shoot you" Tracy responded as a matter of fact with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I really wouldn't try it you know" the Commander, who had crept up behind the stranger advised, backed up by his gun placed in the stranger's back "She's really quite a good shot you know."
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They say that a person's office says a lot about its owner. This was more than true of the office of Vladisov Barkov, a Russian business man with a lot of prominent if rather dubious connections.