The Phoenix Series Box Set 2

by Ted Tayler

  “Does this mean we can intercept and interpret future messages from Demeter to Hermes?” asked Minos.

  “It does, her UK tour is now over, but we have unscrambled the text messages she sent to Hermes from her mobile. These were straightforward cryptic messages. Provided that method of communication continues then we will know what their plans are.”

  “Were any of the messages telling us anything we didn’t already know,” asked Alastor.

  “Not really,” said Giles. “An early one coincided with when Hermes arrived back in the UK from Ibiza. Others were connected to intelligence Thanatos passed to Hermes. She sent a kill message to Hermes the night you met him on the road home from Lymington.”

  “Has there been any communication between them since the meeting?” asked Athena.

  “Nothing yet,” said Giles. “She has talked with a security firm CEO on three occasions. We understand he was in charge of security on her recent tour. HSS is based here in Bath. They were only set up recently and their CEO is an ex-Detective Superintendent. His name is…”

  “Hounsell,” muttered Phoenix, “aka Orion, the hunter.”

  “That’s him alright,” said Giles impressed, “how did you know?”

  “I bumped into him at Glastonbury,” said Phoenix, “we’d lost touch three years ago. I always knew he’d turn up in my life one day. He and Artemis used to work together.”

  “Is that going to be a problem?” asked Alastor.

  “Not in the slightest,” said Rusty. “She doesn’t recognise Phoenix as the man she hunted for back then. From what she’s told me her ex-boss believes he is dead.”

  “We had better keep an eye on this Hounsell, or Orion as Demeter likes to call him,” said Athena.

  After the meeting ended and the others returned to work, Phoenix and Athena started planning how best to tackle the threats facing them. Athena read a report from Henry Case.

  “We have surveillance outside of each of the four Titans’ properties. Poseidon spent most of yesterday indoors; he walked to a nearby restaurant in Elmbridge, for lunch. In the evening he took a cab to the West End. He returned around midnight, alone.”

  Phoenix looked at the report on Demeter.

  “Since she returned from Nottingham, she is staying at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel; it seems to be her regular pad when she’s in London. The Honey B website says she’s off to the Caribbean on a cruise ship in December for a tour lasting until the end of February. She hasn’t contacted Poseidon, Hermes or Nemesis since Wednesday. Unless there’s another method of communication we haven’t uncovered yet.”

  “What do we have on Nemesis?” asked Athena.

  “Nothing,” said Phoenix. “Agents have stood at the end of the lane by her mews house for a day and a half. There have been no visitors and she hasn’t left the place since returning to London from Nottingham. No wonder they say she’s a recluse.”

  “We’re missing something,” said Athena. “Hermes was in his office yesterday. He had a late start today, which is not unusual. We both imagined there would be action straight after the meeting, yet they appear to have gone to ground.”

  “We haven’t any further sightings of Thanatos either,” said Phoenix. “If he’s in London, then where would he be headed? We’re watching the properties we reckon are involved and he hasn’t turned up there. You’re right we’re missing something here.”

  “Poseidon was adamant the removal of names from the black book had to be sanctioned on Wednesday,” said Athena. “Have any of the targets gone missing?”

  “I’ll get Giles to check for missing persons or suspicious deaths. Although, it could be a waste of time. We know extra names were added after Curzon Street. We never got to see them. Demeter and the others didn’t want us to know who they were going after among those key personnel who would galvanize opposition to their projected coup.”

  Phoenix called Giles Burke in the ice-house. A few minutes later Giles rang back.

  “A care home manager from the Midlands hasn’t been seen for twenty-four hours; Arthur Harman was suspected of abuse at children’s homes in the past, but was never charged. He lived alone. The staff at the care home said he had been under a good deal of stress lately. There are no reports of suspicious deaths with connections to cases of historical abuse or other criminal activity. Sorry.”

  “OK Giles, thanks,” said Phoenix, “keep us posted.”

  Everyone at Larcombe was waiting. It was the calm before the storm. Phoenix was uncomfortable with that scenario. He knew unless they worked ‘smarter rather than harder’ the storm would be upon them before they could prevent it. Many innocent lives would be at risk if that happened.

  *****

  Chris Rathbone arrived in London in the early hours of Friday. He made his way to a street near the mews house. He stood and watched. He spotted the surveillance operative in seconds. He was too experienced to miss him. Chris backed away and found a shop doorway to shelter in until dawn. His handler wouldn’t appreciate his beauty sleep being interrupted.

  A quick call at six o’clock resulted in him meeting his handler for the first time; but not face to face. They met on the tube station platform close to Harrods at nine. He was told to stand by the platform edge. His handler arrived behind him two minutes later.

  “Don’t turn around. Just listen. Make yourself scarce today. Find a hostel for tonight. Text me the address. We’ll collect you before dawn. You’ll be inside the house in minutes with no one being the wiser.”

  With that, Hermes left.

  Chris Rathbone disappeared into the crowds, just another anonymous speck on the streets of the capital. Time was on his side. His role in this coup was still two weeks away. The failed assassinations in the New Forest resulted in him being out in the open earlier than planned. His handler and the other people involved in this operation were more than capable of coping with any slight hiccup. Chris understood the game of ‘risk and reward’.

  Why fret over another day of keeping out of sight of any Olympus agents hunting him? It was only a minor added risk compared to the massive rewards a successful outcome would bring.

  *****

  Artemis was hunting. She was well aware of the lack of contact between the four people they were tracking. She knew Thanatos was still on the run. They had searched everywhere for him without a sighting.

  When she mentioned how frustrating it was not to make progress earlier that evening, Rusty had explained to her: -

  “He was trained at the same place as me. He knows how to avoid being seen. We were lucky to get a glimpse of him at Tidworth. That was probably due to tiredness. He wouldn’t have slept until he got well away from here.”

  “You know Phil Hounsell is working for the singer Honey B?” she asked.

  “We do,” Rusty replied, “we don’t believe he’s directly involved in any of this. He’s in security these days. How do you feel about it?”

  Artemis sat at her computer now and wondered what she felt. She had told Rusty she was fine with things. Her commitment was to him and Olympus. Her former police colleague would only be a concern if he threatened that commitment by joining the Titans.

  She was thinking of the relevance of his nickname, Orion, that Honey B used in the phone calls between them. He had been a mythical hunter too, hadn’t he? Who was he hunting for on the orders of Honey B?

  She scolded herself for daydreaming. She had almost missed something. She was looking into the history of the properties on the lane where Lady Primrose lived. The mews houses were small, low-level terraced cottages originally built for use as stables. They had been built behind a much grander property to which the stables belonged.

  They had a gardenless front. Many of them had no windows at the sides or rear. Wealthy Georgians and Victorians had built small service streets behind their grand villas and constructed stabling for their horses and carriages, with rooms above to house grooms and servants. Most had been converted for residential use, either incorporating
the stable into the house or using it as a garage.

  Artemis hurriedly searched for a detailed street map. She soon found the cobbled lane. What lay behind it? There was no indication of a garage. What happened to the stables on the lower level? If Lady Primrose was an artist, she needed daylight. The first floor would be where she would have her studio, along with a bedroom and bathroom. Her ground floor living accommodation was small but manageable, living alone. What lay beneath?

  She studied the buildings and spaces behind the row of terraced houses. It all seemed so vague. There were several buildings between the houses and the next open space. Henry needed to send an agent to check them out. Were they lock-up garages, storage facilities, or units occupied by small businesses? Was it possible there was a rear entrance to any of the houses in Lady Primrose’s lane?

  Artemis alerted Giles Burke to her discovery. He rang Henry Case and he made the call. The agent watching the front of the property made his way along the main street to find the hidden courtyard shown on the map. There were no street signs to help him.

  A narrow street, just wide enough for the single horse and carriage it had been designed to accommodate threaded its way between two grand three-storey townhouses. He found himself in a haven of solitude yards from the hustle and bustle of Knightsbridge. To his right, there was indeed a row of lock-ups. To his left was the entrance to a more modern underground car park. Everything was quiet.

  The agent wandered along the front of the lock-ups. They were mostly garages, others had business signs on the windows, for a shoe repairers and light engineering work. He walked past a doorway, set back from the fronts of the lock-ups. He turned back.

  Why would there be a door here? Where did it lead? He made his way back to his post at the end of the lane and contacted Larcombe to report what he had found.

  CHAPTER 17

  Saturday, October 12th, 2013

  Phoenix and Athena were back in the meeting room for an emergency session. The news from London overnight had opened new lines of enquiry. Giles, Henry, and Rusty had joined them already. Minos and Alastor were on their way.

  “I take it we’re watching both the front and the rear of the mews house now, Henry?” asked Athena.

  “That would prove tricky, Athena. The courtyard is too small and exposed to allow an agent to carry out any covert surveillance. We have someone on the street, opposite the narrow entrance. We can only watch any comings and goings. What happens inside will need something subtle to monitor.”

  “Do any of the surrounding properties afford a view of the courtyard?” asked Phoenix. “Can we get someone inside so we can observe from above?”

  “We’re looking at that possibility,” replied Henry, “but many of these houses are residential and occupied. If we can locate an empty business property among them, we could break in and keep watch the rest of the weekend.”

  “When was your man in the courtyard, Henry?” asked Athena.

  “Late evening,” he replied, “he saw nothing, except for this solitary unexplained doorway.”

  “Artemis tells me it was common for these properties to have a tunnel connecting the original access streets to the stables. Those streets have long disappeared under a century of urban sprawl. She wondered whether the door led to a lower floor or basement in the property belonging to Lady Primrose Charmbury.”

  “The lockups and so on that occupy the edges of the courtyard? Do they have any connection to the Titans?” Athena asked.

  “There’s nothing to suggest that, no,” replied Giles. His phone vibrated.

  “Sorry, may I take this? It’s Artemis,” he said. Athena nodded.

  When he ended the call he thumped the table.

  “At last, a break,” he said. “Artemis has looked into the operation of the car park. There are eight vehicles stored underground. They belong to people who live in the luxury apartments on the nearby block. It’s only a two-minute walk from there to the garage. Dominic Perkins has two spaces reserved in the car park. He keeps a high-performance sports car and a dark-coloured van there.”

  “Well, there we have it then,” said Phoenix, “a definitive link between Hermes and Nemesis. Despite outward appearances, they are near neighbours, with a clandestine method of entering and leaving her property. His van will be the one that rammed us in the New Forest. Henry, your man needs to watch for that van, and confirm whether Hermes has a passenger when he takes it out for a spin.”

  “Will do, Phoenix,” said Henry.

  Minos and Alastor had slipped quietly into the room.

  “Good morning, gentlemen,” said Athena. “I’ll bring you up to speed later, but I need you to start looking into something for us. We’re convinced the Titans will start eliminating opponents in the next few days. Minos, I need a list of potential targets. People who the government would turn to for guidance in a period of national emergency. Alastor, your task is to identify public or private events that might be targeted in the next two to three weeks. Thanatos stole enough explosives from that MoD site to cause serious damage to both property and personnel. Where is the most likely target? Any questions either of you?”

  “No, Athena,” said Minos. “We’re glad to be doing something constructive to help.”

  The Two Stooges left the room. Henry left for the ice-house to brief his surveillance people. Giles and Rusty remained.

  “Did anything odd happen since yesterday, Giles?” asked Phoenix.

  “As I was leaving to come to the meeting, one of my lads shouted out that Lenny James hadn’t turned up to open a budget supermarket this morning.”

  “Who’s Lenny James?” asked Athena.

  “He’s an old comedian,” said Phoenix, “opening supermarkets is all he gets offered these days. He’s so out of the loop, he can’t even get on Celebrity Big Brother. It could be something, though; Giles, did Arthur Harman ever reappear?”

  “Not a whisper, Phoenix,” replied Giles. “If this James chap has been taken too, then it could well be linked to the original Yewtree black book.”

  “Is there any CCTV in Knightsbridge, near this side street, that would pick up the van if it was on the roads last night?”

  “I’ll start looking straight away, Phoenix,” said Giles and with a nod to Athena, he was gone.

  “We’re moving quicker now,” Athena said. “We’ve been running through treacle for a day or two. It seems as if we’ve got tabs on two of the Titans. We need to up our surveillance on Demeter and Poseidon to get a tighter grip. The first person I wish to find is Thanatos. Those explosives worry me. We have to neutralise the threat they pose. The consequences of allowing him to plant bombs in public places and murder perhaps hundreds of innocent people don't bear contemplating.”

  “Don’t worry, Athena,” said Rusty. “I’m sure Phoenix and I will do everything we can to see that nothing momentous happens on our watch.”

  *****

  While the emergency meeting was going on at Larcombe, two people were settling into the mews house. Chris Rathbone and Lenny James had arrived just before five this morning. Chris had received a text message from his handler and told to get in the back of the dark van parked around the corner from the hostel. He had scrambled inside, slammed the door behind him and the van pulled away.

  “Sorry about the mess and the smell,” his handler had said. The rest of the journey was completed in silence.

  Nemesis had opened the rear doors when they arrived in the courtyard. She didn’t speak. Hermes had reversed the van up to the doorway. Nemesis let herself in and beckoned to Chris to follow her. They walked through a long tunnel, up a slight incline. A door at the end gave access to a basement. The fixtures and fittings were odd, but Chris Rathbone was just glad to be off the streets and in the warm.

  Nemesis climbed the stairs to the top floor. She showed Chris into her studio. A sleeping bag was on the floor. She pointed to the bathroom next door and then rejoined Hermes in the basement. Lenny James was wheeled in next. He only w
ent as far as the basement, where he took the place formerly occupied by Arthur Harman. Arthur was still around, here and there.

  Hermes and Nemesis climbed the stairs to the living quarters.

  “A nice cup of tea would be welcome; don’t you think?” said Hermes. He walked to the stairs and called up to Chris Rathbone.

  “We’re having tea, would you care to join us, then we can get properly acquainted.”

  *****

  On Saturday evening, Honey B was relaxing in her rooms at Chelsea Harbour Hotel.

  The elimination of two of the original names on the list had already been carried out. On Monday, they would start on the real targets. The minor criminals they had chosen were a smokescreen; something to pacify Zeus and the others.

  Poseidon was staying out of sight as they had agreed. His talents were better suited in other areas. Socialising and murder weren’t really in his skill set. He was more of a schemer and financial guru. Those talents would be needed in time.

  Honey B checked her phone. Nothing from Orion as yet.

  She had kept him on a short leash since Wednesday. There was no question Phoenix and Athena were well protected behind the barricades at Larcombe. A frontal assault was out of the question.

  They had to be persuaded to come out into the open; in order for Hermes and Nemesis to kill them. She had devised a plan.

  Orion had been sent home to Bath to begin the first stage. Each piece of information she had squeezed out of him during her tour was now brought into play. He was to reassume his role as a police Superintendent and visit Larcombe. It was a follow-up to his colleague’s visit last September. His superiors were still concerned about the whereabouts of Garry Burns.

  They weren’t happy Olympus had told them the truth. Orion had a copy of the photograph taken of Phoenix and Athena in Curzon Street. He was going to use it to suggest Garry Burns was alive and well and living at Larcombe.