by Hatchett
“YOU’RE OK JIMMY.”
He eventually opened his eyes and turned back to face the others.
“WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS.”
“You’re right,” Sam agreed. “Damian told us your story…well part of it anyway. Perhaps you can now go through the full version in your own words and we can decide what to do from there?”
Jess smiled and went through her story.
“You’d all better stay here the night,” Sam suggested once she had finished. “We’ve got a lot to do and I’ve got calls to make, but we all need to get some sleep first. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
24
It was late-evening and Mason was still fuming. He was pacing from one side of his sitting room to the other while his colleagues sat in their chairs and watched him.
The phone had been ringing all afternoon and evening; the police had so far managed to pick up the Transporter on CCTV and followed it to the A31 Hog’s Back heading in the direction of Farnham. The problem with Farnham was that it had a number of roundabouts like the massive ‘Shepherd and Flock’ roundabout which had a number of exits and various directions in which they could continue their journey. The police were searching cameras on all the exits and further down the various branches trying to pick them up again, but it was time consuming. The only bit of good news was that there would be a ‘piece’ on the local TV news after the main ‘News at Ten’ about an injured girl who had disappeared from the hospital. The spin would suggest that she was mentally unstable and dangerous, and that the public should contact the police immediately if she was spotted. They had managed to find a picture of Jess pre-crash but had nothing post-crash, so Mason was not sure the picture would do any good. From what he’d seen, the girl in the two pictures looked nothing alike so he’d suggested that they use the CCTV footage from the hospital. The story would be replicated in the following day’s press and more TV updates would be given throughout the day.
Mason had been in contact with the Mothership to update them on events and they had confirmed that they’d feed the news around to others of their kind on the planet and send a ‘clean up’ team for when the girl was found.
The way Mason was feeling, he wanted to do the ‘clean up’ himself.
25
Jess and the others had seen the news bulletin the previous night and had begun to realise what they might be up against.
Sam had suggested that Jess stay indoors and out of sight for the time being as there were CCTVs everywhere and spotting a girl in a wheelchair wouldn’t be too difficult if the aliens knew where to look. He thought that they’d all be safe for the next day or so but eventually they would be tracked down. Therefore, he needed to get in touch with the ‘Underground’ and arrange for them all to be moved covertly to a long-term safe place. In the meantime, it had been decided that John would pick up the Viano and drive off somewhere and hide it in a multi-storey car park far away. There’d be no going back to the hotel in Dogmersfield nor their homes for the foreseeable future.
By late morning, John arrived back at the shop carrying his duffle bag. The shop’s door had the ‘closed’ sign showing, as it would until further notice. He knocked three times before being let in and after making a drink updated them on where he’d been.
“I decided that the best place to hide the van and cause as much confusion as possible was to dump it at the airport. I paid cash for the valet service and they assured me that it would be kept securely under cover for the duration of my month-long business trip.”
“Brilliant, but how did you get back here?” Sam asked.
“Caught the train, or three trains to be exact. Paid in cash so there’s no trace.” John replied.
“You’re getting the hang of this,” Pete commented before Sam provided his update.
“I’ve been in touch with the Underground, and I must say, news of you, Jess, has already gone viral,” Sam said. “We need to stay here until it gets dark tonight. Then we’ll be picked up at the back of the shop and moved. Don’t worry, the licence plates won’t be readable, and the guys have arranged for us to go to a large logistics warehouse where we’ll switch to a new van undercover and leave at the same time as dozens of others. We’ll then go to another couple of locations and switch vehicles again to make absolutely sure no one can track us. As for that other thing we spoke about yesterday, it’s being organised as we speak.”
26
Mason was not the only one who was annoyed. Joshua had been trying to contact him all through the night but his calls and messages had been summarily ignored. Fucking prick.
Joshua had been due back at the hospital that morning, but he’d phoned in sick, only the second time it had happened since he’d worked there, so twice in over ten years wasn’t a bad record. And he hadn’t been ill the last time either; a few years ago, one of his female companions had been a dominatrix and the bitch had tied him up and wouldn’t let him go despite the dire threats and abuse he’d screamed at her. He had to smile now; the bitch had been good, and he felt himself becoming aroused as he remembered just what they had got up to. It had been a while since he’d tasted that particular brand of sex and perhaps it was time to delve into it again. He remembered the chaffing and soreness on his neck, wrists and ankles but, God, his orgasm, when it came, was absolutely mind-blowing.
Joshua was brought out of his reverie by the doorbell sounding ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. That was a laugh in itself. He strode in the direction of the door humming along to the tune and opened it. Before he knew what was happening, he was forcibly pushed backwards by two strong looking men. A gag was forced into his mouth, a bag of some sort pulled over his head and his hands and ankles were quickly secured. He was then wrapped in something and hauled out of the house, the door being closed behind him.
Joshua was roughly thrown into the back of a van, or something similar, and the doors were slammed shut. Someone in there put a foot on his chest and told him to keep quiet and not to move, then the van was pulling away and was bumping up and down over uneven terrain. The smell of chloroform assailed him and his last thought before he descended into darkness was that he should have had his drive repaved years ago.
Once he was unconscious, the two men in the back searched Joshua very thoroughly. They found a small, metallic oval shaped device which could have been the equivalent of a cyanide pill for all they knew. They tried to open it and then break it, but nothing seemed to work. In the end, one of the men passed it to a guy in the passenger seat who wound down his window and threw the device into the air. What they didn’t know at the time was that it was a tracking device and now, no one would know where Joshua was.
27
Jess and the others arrived at their new safe house at just after midnight. They were all tired from the long roundabout journey and the boring day they had spent at the shop. There was only so much card playing and coffee drinking you could suffer before you started to feel a bit stir crazy. Mind, they had a decent selection of music they could listen to, although Sam and Pete’s preference for heavy metal caused a few headaches.
Jess was helped down from the plain white van by John and her father before being gently placed in her new wheelchair. Using her right hand, she immediately pulled away from the van across the concrete surface and turned to watch the others disembark. Next to her van were two others, both white and non-descript, but one was dropping off more members of the Underground and the other was sitting silently.
They were in a barn of some sort, large enough to hold a tennis court, and the row upon row of bright lights on the underside of the corrugated metal roof allowed Jess to see it was lined with various boxes and crates.
Once they had disembarked, Sam invited them to follow him and he led the way to a side door. As they moved along, they heard two of the vans start up and leave before heavy doors were banged closed.
Sam led them through the door, and they found themselves in a large boot room with another door on the far side. Sam
took them to this door and led them into the house proper. They found themselves in a large modern oak kitchen with an island in the centre and a large oak dining table and chairs sitting next to some closed concertina door / windows. Jess tried to see what was on the other side of the glass, but it was pitch black outside and all she could see was a reflection of the kitchen and them all standing around trying to get their bearings.
“This is Hilda,” Sam introduced an older woman with greying hair who must have been in her sixties and was standing next to an urn ready to pour out some hot drinks and hand out some sandwiches. “Hilda and her husband George look after the house and the estate for the owners, people who are part of our organisation and happy to share their facilities when they’re needed, like now.
One by one, they all moved forward to greet Hilda and take away a drink and a sandwich.
“The first thing we’ll do when we’ve had these drinks is allocate rooms for everyone then get some well-earned rest. We can get together in the morning and go from there. Just one thing, don’t leave the house unless we tell you; there are a number of sensors and alarms dotted around and we wouldn’t want you to set them off by accident. Oh, and we wouldn’t want the dogs to find you,” Sam added smiling.
There was very little chatter as everyone ate their sandwiches between sips of their drinks; they were all tired and just wanted to get some sleep.
“WHERE ARE WE?” Jess asked.
“Better you don’t know,” Sam replied.
“I COULD FIND OUT.”
“Yes, Jess, I’m sure you could,” Sam replied with a smile. “Wiltshire.”
“SEE, THAT WASN’T DIFFICULT.”
“Let’s get some sleep.” With that, Sam, Pete, Jimmy and Hilda took their visitors to their rooms. It was a massive house, bigger than anything Jess had ever seen before – that she could remember anyway - and it was clear that there were plenty more bedrooms to go around if needed.
Di and Paula stayed with Jess until she was settled in her bed before they returned to their own rooms. Jess lay awake staring at the ceiling and thinking about the next day before she slowly fell to sleep.
28
Despite being incredibly tired the day before, Jess woke early to find sun trying to breach the lightweight curtains surrounding the windows.
The mobility in her arms and hands had improved significantly over the past couple of days so she was now able to move them fairly freely, although she still struggled to pick up anything of any weight. The most she could manage was to bring a cup or glass up to her mouth, although she was only allowed plastic cups for the time being.
The movement of her head, face and jaw had also improved, so much so that she could now chew and swallow larger pieces of food without help, although her friends and family still needed to break up any food. Her memory had still not returned, and she couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t talk but she realised she couldn’t be too greedy. After what she had been through it was a miracle that she was alive, and the progress she had made since waking up was well beyond the bounds of expectation.
Still lying on her back, Jess reached out for a baby monitoring device which had been left on a side table next to the bed. After a few fumbled attempts, she managed to drag the device onto the bed and press the call button.
Within a few minutes her Mum and Paula knocked on the door before entering the room. It was obvious that Paula had been awake for some time because she was fully dressed and looked like she was going out for the day. Her mum had probably just woken up as her hair was a little out of place and it looked like she’d just thrown on whatever clothes were close at hand.
Between them, her mum and Paula helped get Jess ready for the day, Paula rambling on about the clothes that had been left in the wardrobes for their use. She crossed to the wardrobes in Jess’s room and flung them open to reveal a variety of clothes, all of which looked to be approximately the right size for Jess. It was clear their hosts were very well organised and seriously well-funded, and Jess couldn’t wait to find out more.
At breakfast, Hilda was in the kitchen cooking and dishing out food like it was going out of fashion.
Damian had carried Jess down the long flowing staircase to her chair which waited at the bottom. She then steered herself into the kitchen, a low hum from the chair as it moved and the odd squeak where one of the tyres slid across the polished floor. In the kitchen they found Sam, Pete and Jimmy and a few new faces sitting around the table. They all turned, and the conversation stopped as Jess came into the room, the new faces staring at her in wonderment.
“I GUESS MY FAME PRECEEDS ME,” Jess said as she moved across the kitchen towards the table. There was a gap which had been purposely left next to Sam and Pete and Jess drove into it. The men and women around the table all helped her to get what she wanted.
“This is Hannah, Jason, Kate and Andy,” Sam introduced the new faces as John, Paula, Damian and Di sat down in one of the vacant spaces and started tucking into the food.
“WHO’S HOUSE IS THIS?”
“It belongs to Harry and Harriet – the ‘Two Harrys’ as we call them. They’re not here at the moment but I think they will be joining us a bit later. They’ve got a bit of business to attend to,” Sam explained.
The chatter around the table started up again with the various people getting to know each other. The two new women, Hannah and Kate appeared to be in their thirties, and it turned out they were sisters. They didn’t look at all alike; Hannah was about five feet nine tall with red hair and green eyes, taking after their Scottish father by all accounts, and Kate was shorter at around five feet five with light brown hair and brown eyes, taking after their mother. The two men, Jason and Andy looked like they’d just come in after guarding the door at some nightclub; tall, big and brutish was the best way to describe them, both with black hair, dark eyes, broken noses, huge necks and biceps which were bigger than many people’s thighs. They looked so similar that you’d think they were related but this was not the case. Still, they seemed nice enough…so far at least.
Once breakfast was over and everyone had helped Hilda clear the table, they all went into a large sitting room where they could discuss business.
“Just to put your minds at ease,” Sam began, “we should be perfectly safe here, but it’s best if you don’t wander outside too often. Everyone here are part of the Underground, and I guess, you five are also now part of the family,” he said, indicating Jess, Damian, John, Paula and Di. There was a brief smattering of applause.
“HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THERE?”
Sam turned to look at Jess. “Not sure exactly, but we’re talking hundreds if not thousands in the UK and more overseas. The ones overseas are different groups, but we all share the same interests and work together wherever we can. I can tell you that our overseas friends are very interested in what’s going on here and a couple of their senior people are on their way here as we speak. This could be huge; the start of something we’ve all been expecting for a very, very long time.”
“ARE YOU SURE IT WASN’T WISHFUL THINKING?”
“No Jess, we’ve known about aliens for decades. As I told you, we have the proof. The only problem has been catching them. We don’t know when they come, where they come from, what they look like, what they want, and the list of questions goes on and on and on. But today, hopefully, we’re going to get some answers to those questions. Are we all ready?”
“Ready for what?” Damian asked.
“We have a little surprise, but before we reveal it, I need to make it clear that we are probably at war and have been for years without really knowing who or what the enemy was. That means we may need to do things which we normally wouldn’t consider. There is no Geneva convention around here, not where non-friendly aliens are concerned.” Sam let the message sink in before continuing. “You do not have to be party to what goes on, but at the same time, you must not get in the way. Does everyone understand?”
There were nods aroun
d the table.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to protect Jess,” Damian said.
“You won’t be alone in that,” Pete pointed out.
“Right, let’s start.”
Sam rose from his seat and headed for the door back to the hallway. The others rose and followed, Jess driving along next to John.
“I think I’d rather stay in the kitchen,” Paula said, and Di quickly nodded her agreement. “We’ll go give Hilda a hand,” and they squeezed Jess’s hand before they crossed the hallway and went back into the kitchen.
“Anyone else?” Sam enquired. There were no more takers. “Right, follow me.”
He walked along the corridor, passing doors on either side and after thirty or forty yards came to a brick wall. He took what looked like a key fob out of his pocket and pressed a button. As section of the wall moved to one side to reveal a double sized lift. Sam entered and waited for the others to follow before he pressed ‘B’ and waited for the doors to close and the lift descend.
Less than a minute later the doors opened again, and Sam stepped out into the basement; a cavernous space which seemed to stretch the entire length of the house above them but sectioned off into different areas and rooms.
“This is our main base or control centre,” Sam explained, “thanks to the Harrys’ deep pockets. Over there,” Sam pointed, “is the communications room, next to it is a kitchen, then a meeting room, a couple of cells with one-way mirrors, a storage room. On the other side we have a firing range. Everything is soundproofed so no one upstairs would ever know what was down here.
“Ok, Jason and Andy with me, the rest of you through that door,” Sam ordered, pointing at one of the strong-looking metal doors with a glass panel in the centre.
They moved across the space and entered the room Sam had pointed out and found themselves in a room about five metres by five metres with stadium type seating which faced a window into the room next door. Jess manoeuvred her chair next to the window as the others found a seat.
