The Great Heist

Chapter Four

“Thirty minutes after an explosion and a smoke incident here at the Lusail Arena, the World Cup Trophy is still nowhere to be found.” Liam was saying into the microphone before the wails of sirens speared through the air around the stadium.

Acting out of pure curiosity like the true journalist that he was, he removed his gaze fastened on the camera’s focus and turned around to the source of the recent explosion of sound in time to notice the motorcade arriving in the distance.

“It appears we have new arrivals on the scene now,” when his voice returned over the microphone, the camera’s focus had tilted away from him, and now covered the procession of vehicles arriving in the stadium’s parking lot. “There’s a higher chance that one of the concerned officials in the Qatari law enforcement agencies just arrived in a motorcade. But, the big question remains; who amongst these men just arrived in that motorcade? The city’s Commissioner of Police, or perhaps the Qatari Inspector General of police himself? Could be anyone really. For now, we’re as good as guessing. But I think we wouldn’t have to wait much longer to find out.”

The camera which was removed from him for a considerable length, swept farther away into the distance; picking up the face of the dashing young man in a custom-made plaid suit flocked around by a handful of cops.

“Oh, you ain’t really gonna believe this,” Liam's voice returned yet again over the microphone with a thrill. “The face of the man who just stepped out of the Porsche Cayenne in the entourage does not belong to any of the names I mentioned earlier. Nor does it belong to anyone from any law enforcement agencies here in Qatar. But rather, it belongs to one of the top boys from Intelligence. And that’s none other than the Director of the Qatar State Security. Commander Ali Daei.”

The camera zoomed in as the Director progressed toward the Gate Four entrance with a covey of cops trailing behind him.

“The thirty-year-old Director, who was a Pilot Officer in his two years’ service at the British RAF is one of the new crops of youngsters in the corridor of power in the new era ushered in within the state of Qatar.” Liam effused in the grand fashion customary to all pressmen. “Normally, it isn’t really a thing of surprise seeing the young Director here, given that the situation of things around here concerned him as much as it does the Inspector General of police and every other top person charged with security and law enforcement across the country. The surprising thing, however, is, seeing him as the first top law enforcement official to report here at the scene.”

“Trust me, if this means anything at all, it’s to show us the amplitude of the situation we have at hand at the moment at the Lusail Arena.” He droned on in the background as the camera zoomed further out, to capture the scene of the Director speaking with one of his inferiors.

“I think it’s already set then. The Director just walked into the stadium through the entrance Gate Four with a handful of cops at his wake.” Liam was saying just as the camera cut across from the distance back to him.

Within a few minutes of that, another wave of sirens' wails crackled through the Lusail air as troupes of police and Al Fazaa cruisers ripped away from the stadium’s parking lots into the Al Khor coastal road.

The camera darted away from Liam that instant, veering wildly sideways to cover a longitudinal shot of the cruisers zooming off in the distance.

Liam’s face came over the camera once more just as the last wisp of the cruisers’ shrilly wails died down in the distance. His voice, on the other hand, came over the microphone a bit later.

“It gets no realer than this,” he began flatly this time, “Believe me, from what we have witnessed just now, I think it’s safe enough to revert to my earlier statement that; ‘the hunt for the World Cup Trophy has just begun.’”                               
                           
                                                              ***
Commander Ali hunched over the large console. His coal-tar eyes roved owlishly over the footage displayed across the grid of colored CCTV monitors in the expansive control room.