I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 118 : Parade

Greg smashed his fist on the ringing alarm clock on his bedside table and grumbled before turning over, refusing to get up. His partner, who had been awoken as well by the frankly loud and annoying tune chosen as an alarm by the detective ran a gentle finger over the man's cheek and pecked him lightly on the nose.
"Time to get up sleeping beauty ... You are going to be late ... You wouldn't want that, mister the DCI-to-be ?" the elder Holmes whispered, his breath tickling the inspector's neck's skin.
"Hmpf ..." grunted the policeman. "Why have I to get up ?"
"Because you are to monitor one of the biggest event of your career ?" suggested the official. "Come on, tomorrow night you'll be on holiday, you can survive till then no ?"
"Barely ..." retorted the yarder before rejecting the duvet and putting his feet down on the floor.
"Good luck darling ... I'll see you later today." smiled Mycroft before turning back to face the other wall and pulling back the duvet to his shoulders.
As he was trying to get back to sleep he could hear the other man walking around, brushing his teeth and dressing up, even smelling the discreet scent of his aftershave coming from the bathroom. Before exiting the room, Greg leaned toward him and gently kissed him on the forehead.
"I love you." the older man murmured in a breath.
"Mmmm ... Je t'aime." replied the elder Holmes, his voice chocked by the pillow in which his head was sunk.

"How is it even possible they fucking disappeared five fucking minutes before the fucking parade ?" exclaimed the detective, on the verge of a nervous breakdown as the parade was supposed to take off in minutes and they were still missing a complete police squadron and couldn't localise it.
He had spent his morning reviewing the plan he had been elaborating during the last month for the Gay Pride parade and as the event was to take place at any moment, everything that was just slightly out of the plan was making him swear quite extensively. So far those little disagreement were nothing that couldn't be sorted out and even if he had been spending the last six hours being announced that some things weren't going according to plan, he had had the feeling that the plan was still running quite smoothly, those unpleasantness being pretty much compulsory on such a large-scaled action, but the disappearance of an entire squadron was everything but good news.
"How does it happen that we can't even contact them, Goddammit !" he wondered quite rudely.
"Well, we have a little time for them to arrive as they are not needed before the very end of the parade but we are trying everything we can to get in contact with them." a younger officer informed him, faking not to be even slightly offended by the yarder's rude behaviour.
"Alright. If you can't reach them in the next fifteen minutes, we will need to try to find another squadron available and improvise." sighed Gregory. "Try your best."
He sunk into an armchair and grabbed his mug of black coffee, directing his attention to the wall covered of television screen broadcasting in direct live the images from the CCTV and additional camera alongside the path the parade was supposed to follow. For the moment he could only see thousands of people gathering on Regent Street and all along the route that the parade was set to follow.
"Scotland Yard for Alfa Foxtrot three zero, Scotland Yard for Alfa Foxtrot three zero, we are demanding if we can give the signal to the groups to start marching." requested a voice in the speakers displayed on the DI's desk.
The policeman took a look at his watch and consulted the other senior officers in the room before grabbing the radio in front of him.
"Alfa Foxtrot three zero for Scotland Yard, Permission granted. It's 13:04, you can put the first group on the move and make the other follow as smoothly as possible so there is no congestion anywhere." he ordered, not having to wait more than half a minute to see the first dozen of militants starting to march and dance and the first chariot following them, throwing goodies to the public behind the barriers.
"Sir, apparently the seventeenth squadron is caught in the traffic near Canary Warf" the young officer informed Greg.
"And they can't find a way of making their way through that ? Aren't they like, policemen ?" the latter chuckled nervously
"Apparently their vans aren't equipped with blue lights." replied the young man with a sad smile, sharing his superior astonishment over the absurdity of the situation.
"God gracious me ..." sighed the detective. "Alright, could you please send them a couple of patrolling cars to lead them out of there as quickly as possible ?"
"Yes sir." nodded the man, making a new call to a local police station to obtain the two car requested.
"To all units leads, what's the situation where you are standing ? Report please." the inspector than requested in his radio.
The parade was going on over less than a mile and a half but to unsure the security of all the participants and the public, more than a thousand of officer had been called to duty, including more than 300 plain clothes officers and a hundred armed police officers, not to include the more than a hundred and a half detectives and constables that were to take part in the parade and march alongside the other groups.
Greg himself had walked alongside his colleagues for the past two years and would have enjoyed going back this year but of course with the responsibilities that had fell on him, he was forced to spend his entire day since six in the morning and probably until late at night in a windowless over-heated room, only having the opportunity to witness the even on low quality CCTV cameras.
"Scotland Yard for Zulu Lima Four Nine, Scotland Yard for Zulu Lima Four Nine." a voice called out in the speakers.
"Zulu Lima Four Nine for Scotland Yard, we are listening." responded the detective.
"Have you got a visual on Regent Street, about a hundred meters away from the beginning point of the parade, there is some movement in the crowd and a couple of odd looking lads in the public, can you spot them ?"
"On which side of the road please ?" questioned the policeman while selecting the footages from Regent Street through all those he had access to and enlarging it, looking for anything unusual in the crowd
"On the left if you go down with the parade." responded the female officer in the speakers.
"I have a group of around ten lads dressed in black with scarves and backpacks trying to make their way to the barriers, is that what you are looking for ?" spotted the inspector. "It looks like they are being joined by other guys as they are getting closer. How many of you are available for an extraction ?"
"We are only two uniform officers and two plain clothes officers here sir." retorted the woman.
"All right, position yourselves between the group and the barriers to forbid them from approaching to close of the parade whilst I'm sending an extraction team to take them out." indicated Greg, nodding to one of his colleague to contact the riot team on standby in one of the nearby street and send them in.
"All right sir. Over." agreed the officer.
"Over." confirmed the DI, keeping an eye on the group of lads that were getting closer and closer to the parade, shoving people out of their way to do so.
The riot team was removing the dozen of trouble markers from the crowd when the door of the windowless room opened and someone stepped in. Focused on the operation on the way, Greg didn't turned around to check who had entered, barely acknowledging that someone had actually stepped in, only because he felt a cold draught of air coming from the corridor. He waited two more minutes until the operation was smoothly completed and the suspicious-looking boys were ended to another group of policeman before putting the footage of the four CCTV camera that were showing the scene back to their normal scale and finally turning around.
"Good afternoon Gregory." his partner greeted him with a little grin, his umbrella hooked one of his arm, a hand elegantly resting on the back of an armchair.
"I'm sorry sir, but visitors aren't allowed in the room." remarked the young officer that had found the missing squadron earlier.
"I am no visitor, sergeant." replied the auburn with one of the half-mocking, half-nasty smile only he had the secret of. "I happen to have a professional interest in this operation and the familiarity I may show toward your commanding officer have nothing to do with it."
"Mycroft. The showing off ?" the detective tutted him.
"Hmm." coughed the elder Holmes. "So, how is it going so far ?"
"I would say not to bad. We've lost an entire squadron earlier but we find it back around Canary Warf waiting at a red light" grinned the yarder. "Only one major event so far, a bunch of young man acting suspiciously that had to be removed from the crowd but it went quite smoothly so I suppose we can say that so far this event is quite a success."
"Perfect. Have you heard from the MI5 yet or are they playing on their own standards as always ?"
"They must have lost our business card apparently." denied the DI, shaking his head slightly while he had his look hooked to the different footages on the screens in front of him, trying to see if anything suspicious was happening.
As Mycroft was to answer him, the door opened once again, letting Chief SuperIntendant Jameson and Scotland Yard's Commissioner in.
"Mr Holmes. What a surprise to see you here." the Commissioner exclaimed, shaking the auburn's hand.
"I'm updating myself on what is going on so I can convince the MI5 to share a little what they are observing." explained the official, shaking Jameson's hand.
"If you succeed on this task I swear I'll invite you around for a pint. Twenty-seven years I've been working for the Yard and they never had shared with us if they could avoid it." the head of Scotland Yard laughed. "Well, everything seems to be going perfectly well as far as I see. Good job Mr Lestrade, very good job indeed."
"Thank you sir." the policeman replied shyly.
"Well, apparently the communication team of the Yard think it could be a good idea if I join our forces in the parade so I'd better be off." nodded the Commissioner. "Keep up the good work Mr Lestrade !"
"He knows my name ..." smiled Greg after the departure of his superiors. "It's probably Jameson who told him a minute before he entered the room but still ..."
"You've already meet each other, may I remind you ?" chuckled his partner. "That said, I have a pint to win. Is there anywhere I can settle myself to have a phone call without being interrupted ?"
"My office." the older man proposed, handling him his keys. "No need to explain you were it is ?"
"I shall find it for myself or die in the maze of the New Scotland Yard's building." winked the elder Holmes, grabbing the keys, letting his fingers trail a little longer than requested over his lover's.