Where were you?

John Jacobs

I had been attending an auction in Norwich, and was driving back to the store when I heard the report on the BBC over my car radio. At first, I'm ashamed to say I thought it was a small accident, a small plane that had crashed, but when I returned to the store I could see people gathered around the electronics shop and looking in the window.

I opened up the store, and went into the back office to catch up on some paperwork when the telephone rang. To my surprise, it was former DCI James Drummond, and he told me exactly what was going on. Naturally, I turned on the radio, and within five minutes I knew that the world had changed.

I am of an age where the memories of those who served in World War 2, and the horrors they witnessed, were stories fresh in my elders' minds, and they were bad enough. To hear what happened that day, however, live and as it happened – well, as with any sane person it gave me cause for thought, reflection, and thanksgiving. Even those of us who walk on the right side of the law had to question what would drive someone to do something like that.

I fear we will never truly know the answer.


Mister Tall

Me? I was working for a small organisation in Italy, specialising in obtaining rare items for discerning clients. No, I will not mention names or places – Italy is sufficient for now.

At any rate, it would have been early afternoon when I surprised the young lady in her apartment. She was obviously dressing to go out for the afternoon – a large straw hat was perched on the chair back, while she was pulling a dark red shrug jacket over her arms to complement the light pink knee length dress that she was wearing.

It only took a few moments with me placing my hand over her mouth and a few words to make her situation clear to her, especially the part about not raising the alarm. With my help, she sat down in the chair and offered no resistance as I pulled her bare arms behind her back and tied her wrists together with some soft cord which I used at the time. She just kept whispering quietly in Italian as I quickly secured he rankles together, lashing them to the front leg of the chair, and then some rope around her waist.

She asked if she could watch some television if she was not going to be going anywhere, so I switched her set on and turned her chair so that she could see, before smoothing a length of micro foam tape over her lips. Satisfied she was going to be all right, I left her watching some interminable soap opera while I opened her safe and started to remove her jewellery.

It was her muffled screams that told me something was wrong, so I pocketed what I had found and walked back in. As I did so, I heard her starting to cough, and it was obvious she was in some distress. At first I thought it was an asthmatic attack, but then I saw the pictures on the television set, the black smoke plumes rising above the building.

I removed the tape and wiped her mouth, as the tears started to slow down her cheeks. She told me she had family there, and that they may be in the building. I looked at her, at the screen, and then left, promising to call for someone to release her as soon as I was far enough away.

I actually called as soon as I left the building – and walked away, hearing the screams and crying from the open windows as I did so. As a younger child I had seen the stories of other attacks, and always thought of it as something remote.

Never again – not after that.



Penelope

I was in Chinatown, helping my friends with a raid on a townhouse owned by a certain restaurant owner. We had already secured him and his wife when his daughter returned home unexpectedly – a nice looking young girl, with long black hair, wearing a white blouse with a bow at her neck, tartan pleated skirt and dark blue jacket.

Anyway, I was applying the ropes around her arms and chest, maintaining our modus operandi, when the news bulletin attracted the attention of all three of us. The owner and wife could not say anything – the knotted cotton bandanas in their mouths had taken care of that – but as I tied the rope off and sat the young girl down next to them we could see the second crash taking place.

We were, and are, professionals, so my first priority was to bind the youngster's legs together at her ankles and knees, and then gag her as her parents had been silenced. As my friends raided the apartment, however, I stayed and watched them and the reports as they came in.

As the story unfolded, I saw the two women just lean over and place their heads on the man's shoulders, as they stared at the unfolding horror. The youngster then turned and looked at me, and I could see – not fear, not anger, but an infinite sadness as I watched her face.

I could understand that sadness – such an event happens so rarely, and affects people so profoundly, that even those such as I feel the pain. We left them, alone, and returned home to watch for ourselves.



Madame X


I remember that day all too clearly, as it was during my first visit to the United States. I had recently, under circumstances I do not wish to discuss here, taken ownership of certain business interests sited on the West coast of the country, and I had travelled there with Madeline to review the businesses and come to some decisions as to their future directions.

We had been in a business meeting until about one in the morning, so I literally had – what, three hours sleep before there was a knock on the door of my room. Madeline came in, visibly shaken, and simply said "You need to see what is happening." She turned on the television, and as I viewed the smoke columns rising any thought of sleep was driven away.

I operate in a business, and in an environment, which may be considered by most people evil and wrong. In my brief life, I have also seen some of the depths to which mankind will stoop if they feel it will get them what they desire. What happened that day, however, opened the eyes of many to where true evil, true depravity lay, and as we watched the horrific story unfold I am not ashamed to say that I cried.

The perpetrators may have believed they were acting in the name of God, but this was not true love – this was a twisted, hate-filled version of faith that all too sadly has a place in this world.

Do not for one moment believe that I am not aware that some people do get hurt in the course of our work – this is part of the life we lead. Never, ever, however do I continue the deliberate harming of those we visit – and for those on the planes, as well as those on the ground, this was cold blooded murder.

We had planned to return that week, but for obvious reasons that was not to be. There were, however, other advantages of our enforced stay – but that is a tale for another, less reflective time.



Lily Harmon

I was at school, and had just gone in for double maths (ugh) when the teacher said that something had happened in the US, and he turned the radio on.

It seemed so remote, so different from what we were experiencing. I don't think the true horror of what had happened hit me until I went home, and with my family we watched the pictures of the jumpers. They faced the ultimate devil's deal – die in the inferno or die in freefall. Would I have had the courage to do that? I don't know, I don't know...



Me

It was the lunch hour, and I was chatting on-line with a friend in Australia when he sent the following message – "Did I just see a plane crash into one of the Twin Towers on the television?"

It took me less than a minute to try and access the BBC website, but by then it was too late – the server at my offices was jammed with people trying to find out what was happening on-line. Instead, I sent an e-mail to those people who I knew in the US, many of whom lived in and around New York, to see what was happening, and that was how I found out the true horror of the day as it unfolded.

At the time, I remember thinking "If one nation had done this, they just declared war on the US," but it wasn't one nation – it was an ideology, a way of thinking and a twisted faith that led to the murder of so many innocents. I know people have done incredible evil in the name of Christianity, and I have never tried to justify those people. This was much the same, but on a scale never ever witnessed before.

I still mourn with those who lost loved ones, and those who still suffer ten years on. The world is a very different place now than that September day – take a moment to remember and pray to whatever God you serve that this never happens again.