"Officer Down"- Short Story

Hi,

I'm writing a short story that has grown legs, in my defense I was bored one evening, sat in front of wordpad and started typing. So excuse spelling for the moment. Here' s a couple of paragraphs from Chapter 1.

Opinions?

Chapter 1 - Panic Alarm
"Shots fired, shots fired!!" the control room operator rapidly callls out over his Tetra encrypted Garda radio. Units city wide listened intently for the location, some waiting anxiously for their district callsign to be relayed others hoping to finish their shift quietly for once. "Charlie alpha 1, or any charlie mobile, shots fired, Bank of Ireland, Amiens street, any units to respond?", called the control room operator. Almost immediatly a second more hurried annoucement, "Panic alarm now Bank of Ireland Amiens street, Charlie Alpha one, come in, over". Charlie alpha 1, the patrol car in this district, responded in a similar hurried tone, sirens blaring over the sound of rush hour traffic , and just audible over the radio transmission. "Charlie Alpha 1,we're three minutes away control. Are armed units on route?", interrupted the radio set from the patrol car. Charlie Alpha 1, only minutes away at Custom House quay on a material damage RTA, rush immediatleley into their patrol car to make the short distance to the bank.

Almost as soon as the call was relayed over the North central control set a second radio call was being made to armed response units in the DMA north central division. Sierra Alpha 64 was already racing to the scene, an unmarked dark green Toyota Camry, blue lights flashing frantically as motorists cleared a path for the speeding Garda vehicle. The two armed officers aboard listened intently to their radios for further developments as they made their way from the north suburbs toward the city centre. Each member on board carrying their standard issue UZI sub machine gun, now unlocked from the safe on the back seat and sitting on the oberservers lap, smith and wesson side arm, in their waistband holster. "Charlie Alpha 1 control, at scene", said the obersver from the patrol car first to reach the scene. The control room operator was busy notifying his superiors and following the standard procedure for such incidents and was careful to note Charlie Alpha 1's updated status on his console. By this time he was joined by control room supervisor Superintendent Tony Byrne. Gda Byrne monitored the situation closely as the control operator ensured there were suffucient units heading towards the scene. As the control room operator was updating the 'at scene' status of Charlie Alpha 1 other units from across the district radioed in with their intentions to head towards the bank to assist.

Store Street Garda Station only meters away from the bank, issued its request for more units over the station set and a local sergeant and superintendent headed on foot past the coroners office and up Amiens street, leaving their afternoon coffee, mounting paperwork and duty rosters for more urgent matters. "Sierra Alpha 1 to control at scene", reported the armed mobile unit having arrived at the bank, to what was developing into a very serious incident. The local uniformed units now gathered outside the bank, instructed to await the arrival of the armed unit in incidents such as these, are scanning the road for the arrival of their plain clothes collegues. Detective Sergeant Jim Brown's vehicle comes to a screeching stop outside, sirens still bellowing to the mesmorizing blue leds on the dashboard and in the headlights and instructs his uniformed collegues to set up a cordon. "100 metres", shouts the armed detective pointing back away from the bank. The banks heavy reinforced blue front doors are open, but neither detective can see inside past the single glass panel wooden door laden with advertising and opening hours. Standing either side of the door, trying to get a visual on the situation, they can hear shouting. "Stay down, nobody ****ing move" comes a loud shaken male voice from inside. The two detectives, worriedly look across the doorway at one another, with a look that each detective is all too familar with. Jim reaches for his Motorola handset and requests further assistance. "Sierra Alpha 1 to control.Urgent. Robbery in progress, further armed assistance and local commanders required. Over !"