The Phoenix Series Box Set 2

by Ted Tayler

  Brad ordered his two crew members to remove the body. He collapsed the wheelchair and carried it back towards the street. The first car moved into position. Brad and Chris Rathbone were soon in the rear seats. Phoenix and the other agents stood on the pavement, looking relaxed. The second car slowed up to collect them.

  “Thank you for your co-operation,” Rusty said to the guards, “this exercise was to test your security systems. No doubt your superiors received the e-mail. Don’t worry about the man in the chair. My colleague was firing blanks. You’ll be receiving our full report in the coming weeks.”

  He left the guards looking dumbfounded. On Abingdon Street, there was now no sign of any army personnel. After a little more than three minutes, everything was back to normal.

  Inside the House of Commons, it was noon, the Prime Minister was set to answer the first question of the day.

  Demeter and Poseidon stood in the pod, looking out towards the House of Commons. They slowly rose into the overcast sky. The clouds threatened rain later. At twelve-fifteen, they were one hundred and thirty-five metres above the South Bank. Demeter held her breath. Poseidon showed little emotion as ever; there was a brief twitch below his left eye; nothing more.

  “It’s time,” whispered Demeter. “Failure was not an option.”

  The pod had passed the zenith and was beginning the twelve-minute descent.

  “The Larcombe mole has failed us. We must meet with our son and his companion straight away. We need to regroup, to plan our next move, and continue the fight,” said Poseidon.

  Below them on the South Bank, there was activity.

  Artemis had continued to monitor CCTV in and around Kensington and Chelsea, and the City of Westminster. She had been tasked with informing the car drivers of any potential traffic hold-ups which would delay their arrival to pick up their passengers.

  After the cars had moved away into traffic, her attention was drawn to the film of foot traffic on the South Bank fifteen minutes earlier. It had been captured as part of the whole operation but left unreviewed as the action developed on the other side of the river.

  She saw two people fall into step beside one another one hundred yards from the Eye. There was something in the manner it was done that unsettled Artemis. Her policewoman’s brain told her it was ‘wrong’. They knew one another, for certain. Yet they showed no acknowledgement. There was no greeting, no embrace. She closed in on the faces of the couple. It was Demeter and Poseidon.

  Artemis called Giles across to help them.

  “Can you get us into the CCTV on the Eye itself?”

  “It might take too long; we’ll use the webcam that covers the Eye; let me see how close in I can get,” said Giles, tapping keys furiously. “What did you catch?”

  “Demeter and Poseidon. I think they might be travelling on the Eye,”

  “Front-row seats for the expected bombing, I wouldn’t wonder,”

  “Can we get Phoenix and Rusty there in time?”

  “We can try,” said Giles.

  He left Artemis watching the Eye descending. She switched cameras and waited for the batches of sightseers to emerge from the pods and spill out onto the concourse.

  Giles called Phoenix and diverted them to the South Bank.

  “They have just stepped back onto the South Bank,” said Artemis.

  Phoenix and Rusty were running. Demeter and Poseidon were heading away from them. The other agents were waiting nearby.

  The Queen of the Titans and her former lover were unaware of any danger.

  “This way,” said Phoenix, grabbing hold of Demeter’s arm. Rusty persuaded Poseidon to join them, as they guided them towards Belvedere Road. Once inside the cars, they set off back to Bath.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” hissed Demeter, struggling against the ties that secured her hands.

  “I’m afraid we have bad news for you,” said Phoenix, turning towards the woman next to him. “Your dreams of a coup will have to be shelved. Your son Dominic, and Lady Primrose were killed late on Monday evening. As for the traitor from Larcombe, who you imagined would blow up part of the Commons chamber today, I’m afraid he’s dead too.”

  “Dominic can’t be dead; I’ve heard from him every day.”

  “Last orders at the bar? Erebus left a huge legacy behind him. He even passed on his skills as a cruciverbalist to those of us who admired him so much.”

  “Damn you,” spat Demeter.

  “I always vowed I would take my revenge on those responsible for his death,” said Phoenix. “My colleague is putting Poseidon in the picture in the other car. The game’s up, Demeter. We are returning you to Larcombe Manor. I’m sure you always wanted to take a tour around the facilities.”

  Everyone at Larcombe awaited their arrival. The Titans had been defeated; the threat to democracy removed.

  Athena was still in the ice-house. By three o’clock this afternoon, her partner would be home. Artemis and Rusty would be reunited. They could look forward to a brighter future.

  Demeter and Poseidon would arrive here too. Their future was secure. Henry Case was going to take them deeper into the ice-house.

  There they would discover the price of treachery.

  EPILOGUE

  On the eighteenth of October, a small detail of men from Larcombe left the ice-house just after sunrise. They buried five bodies in the pet cemetery. Three men and two women who had plotted to change the face of Britain for their own ends.

  The next morning, Henry Case had a final session with Phil Hounsell. If he could forget ever having set foot on the estate, then Olympus were prepared to let him return to his family. One hint of any loose talk would mean there would be a price to pay.

  Phil drove back to the city and hugged Erica and the kids. HSS might struggle to survive without their generous benefactor, but sometimes the simple life has its attractions.

  Giles and Artemis were extra-busy in the intelligence section.

  The safe house in St. George’s Field was contacted and the four government advisers released. Their masked captors had treated them well. They were told the brief break in their normal routine had been in the national interest.

  Several clean-up crews were sent to the mews house. Under cover of darkness, they removed a succession of ‘white goods’ and their contents. The rest of Lady Primrose’s belongings were scrapped. Painters and decorators were employed to refurbish the living accommodation.

  Olympus had acquired a new safe house. Lady Prim was a recluse, after all, it wasn’t unusual for her neighbours to go for weeks without seeing her. In time, they would learn she had sold up and moved to Newlyn. The light was better there for her painting.

  The Caribbean cruise for Honey B had to be cancelled. The whereabouts of the singer were unknown. The staff at Chelsea Harbour Hotel celebrated in the West End.

  The restaurant in Elmbridge missed the visits of Leo Andrews for a few days, but then he was soon a forgotten man.

  As for the mobile phone company, it soldiered on, but without its mercurial leader and his TV ads, it was losing ground to the competition.

  The cruise ship on which Honey B should have been entertaining sailed with another fading star. Three days out it passed the wreckage of a small private jet. The captain notified the authorities on shore.

  No bodies were ever discovered, but items found floating on the surface indicated the three passengers on board were family members. The media had a field day. Headlines such as ‘Heartrending end to reconciliation’ and ‘Caribbean catastrophe’ heralded the news that after decades of unhappy relationships, the singer Honey B was planning to get back with the father of her son.

  The paintings found in the bedroom of Hermes’s penthouse were taken into the auction house to raise money for charity. It takes all sorts, doesn’t it? Prices still ranged between six hundred and a thousand pounds and every one of them was sold.

  When each of the deaths had been recorded and ratified, Athena would be able to produc
e similar wills for the Titans and Thanatos as there had been for Erebus. Every penny of their estates was to be left to the Olympus Project.

  Athena had contacted Zeus and the other loyal Olympians to break the news. Everyone was shocked at the degree of treachery and supported the action taken by Athena and Phoenix without exception. They were overjoyed at the injection of funds that were due in the coming months.

  Zeus said he hoped they could make the meeting in Curzon Street on Wednesday, January 8th. They would discuss the appointment of four replacements then.

  In the months that followed, Olympus agents faced other trials. The fight against crime never stops. Phoenix, Rusty and the others continued to mete out their own particular brand of justice.

  At Christmas, when Athena and Phoenix entertained Rusty and Artemis in the manor house, Artemis was invited to join the Larcombe elite. From the first of January, she would replace Thanatos at the morning meetings.

  On New Year’s Eve in the late afternoon, Athena went into labour. Phoenix called the ice-house. Athena was transferred to the medical centre. The baby had decided to arrive two weeks early.

  In the distance, Phoenix could hear a television; the unmistakable sound of Big Ben striking midnight, followed by the firework display. A new year had dawned.

  “Come and see your daughter, Phoenix,” said the Doctor.

  Phoenix walked into the room. Memories came flooding back of when Sharron had been born. Was Athena alright?

  Athena was tired but happy. She was holding their baby.

  “Darling,” she said, “meet your daughter.”

  “We never did get around to choosing a name, did we?” asked Phoenix.

  “Oh, the events of the past few months decided it for us, Phoenix.”

  Athena handed the little mite to him to hold.

  Phoenix cradled his daughter in his arms.

  “What shall we call her?” he asked.

  “Hope.”

  *****

  Book Six

  A New Dawn

  Table Of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  About The Author

  PROLOGUE

  Monday, 3rd March 2014

  “It’s your turn to fetch her,” said Athena.

  Phoenix was swinging his feet out from under the duvet and heading for the nursery next door. Half-asleep was the default mode so far, this year. He had heard Hope’s preliminary sniffles and whimpers as he lay beside his partner. Experience told that by the time he padded along the corridor and into her bedroom, those whimpers would have increased in volume tenfold.

  “Hope screams eternal,” was a phrase adapted for use soon after their daughter arrived on New Year’s Eve.

  Sure enough, as he opened the nursery door the first high-pitched yell greeted him. Hope’s little red-cheeked face pressed up against the side of the cot. Phoenix scooped his daughter up into his arms and held her close.

  “Hello princess,” he said, “I can tell why your mother didn’t name you, Patience. You don’t enjoy being kept hanging around, do you?”

  A few gurgles were all he got in reply. Hope squirmed left and right, trying to see into each corner of the room at once. Phoenix was thankful the winter had turned out to be the mildest he’d known. Just a few precious moments alone with his little girl and he would deliver Hope to her mother. He could afford to let that warm bed wait a while longer.

  Phoenix recalled the early days spent in 36C Meadow Road, on the Westbourne estate with his first wife Karen, and their daughter Sharron. The central heating was forever on the blink. He worked nights at Shaw Park Mines and hadn’t been as involved with the night feeds as on this occasion.

  Karen had been breastfeeding, at least for a while. Because he slept during part of the day, Karen’s Mum Kath dropped in to help. Both women lavished attention on Sharron, but it had been her father she idolised from the outset.

  When he was in the flat before going to work, and weekends, was when he did his own growing. He and Karen had both been far too young to marry. His own agenda was more about taking people out of this world, not bringing them into it. Their daughter provided someone he could truly love for the first time; a natural response to an infant who loved him unreservedly.

  Back in the present day, Hope was becoming restless. Phoenix walked back to the main bedroom. Athena sat up in bed, wide awake and prepared for battle. A clean, dry Baby-grow, fresh nappy, a bottle of milk and an impressive array of ointments, powders and wipes laid out in readiness. Things had progressed in thirty years.

  Phoenix laid Hope onto her changing tray on the bed and removed her damp clothing. The room felt comfortably warm and Hope kicked out her legs, enjoying the freedom nakedness offered. She grabbed at her toes, missed and rolled over onto her side. Athena moved into action, wiping, dusting, and making unintelligible noises that Hope found amusing.

  Phoenix then dressed the little mite and handed her to Athena, who had Hope’s night feed poised ready to go. As mother and daughter settled into their now familiar positions, Phoenix sat on the edge of the bed and watched.

  “It’s taken a while, but we have got her into a routine,” said Phoenix, stifling a yawn.

  Athena nodded. Hope was fast demolishing the bottle of milk. Athena set the feed to one side and cradled her daughter against her shoulder. She rubbed and patted Hope’s back gently.

  “I wonder what it was like caring for a newborn infant in this old barn of a place for Erebus and Elizabeth?”

  “Helen, their only child, arrived the year after me,” said Phoenix, “the Hunt family money would have protected them. They wouldn’t have faced the problems many other young parents did at the time.”

  “It was forty-five years ago, though; it must have been primitive,” said Athena, with a grin.

  “Cheeky beggar,” said Phoenix.

  Hope gave a long burp. She was ready to return to the bottle.

  “Someone else thinks that was below the belt too, by the sound of it. Do you want me to carry on, darling?” he asked.

  Athena handed Hope over to him and watched as he encouraged their daughter to finish the bottle. She checked the clock on the bedside table. If she settled to sleep straight away, she might get three hours’ sleep before they were due to rise. The nine o’clock meeting the first thing on the agenda as usual. Domestic duties, no matter how pleasurable, took second place to Olympus activities.

  A few minutes later, Hope was snoozing in Phoenix’s arms. He wiped a few milky bubbles from her lips.

  “Say goodnight to your mother, Hope,” he said. Athena kissed their daughter’s forehead and father and daughter headed for the door.

  Athena watched them leave; her heart full of love. How lucky they were. There might be plenty of clouds on the horizon for the Olympus Project, but here at Larcombe, only one matter genuinely troubled her. Since the turn of the year, Phoenix had been the perfect father and partner. How could he return to the fray when the time came?

  He arrived four years ago, a loner, prepared to risk life and limb to bring criminals to justice. Their relationship surprised her and yet fulfilled her in equal measure. Now, she couldn’t imagine life without him.

  Phoenix had expressed concern several times over the dangers faced when tackling missions the Project handled. Only a few short months ago, they both escaped death in the New Forest at the hands of Hermes. The menace of the Titans had since been dealt with, but evil still lurked around every corner.

  Hope’s arrival came as w
onderful news for them both, but the activities the Project involved itself in meant its agents were always at risk. A loner might accept the odds; a family man might understandably have second thoughts about the wisdom of putting himself in the firing line time and time again.

  Athena knew she needed to tread carefully. No matter how much she wanted to protect Phoenix; in the end, any decision to step back into a non-combative role must be his alone. Deep inside she doubted whether he’d ever be content in that capacity.

  As much as he enjoyed the planning and preparation of missions he, Rusty and other agents carried out, she knew he relished being in at the kill. How did the old saying go? ‘It’s not enough for justice to be done, it has to be seen to be done’.

  When Phoenix returned after checking Hope was settled for a brief respite, he found Athena asleep. He marvelled at her ability to focus one hundred per cent on the minutiae of the many tasks she tackled each day. Then switch off and snatch a few precious moments of rest.

  His trusted friend Rusty Scott was just the same. When they first went on missions, he recognised it must be second nature for members of the armed services. They snatched forty-winks whenever an opportunity arose. In the field, they never knew when the next chance would come to relax. Although Phoenix never served in the forces, his skill set made him ideal for the Olympus objectives. He often wished he could ‘switch off’ as easily as his mate and Athena, his partner.

  Phoenix never lost sleep over the people he killed. His conscience was clear in that regard. Only people who deserved to die suffered by his hand. Where was the problem?

  Yet, in the past year, he had faced death at Cropredy and Eton Wick while on Olympus operations. He and Athena had been on a day trip to the coast to visit Erebus’s yacht ‘Elizabeth’. They were attacked by one of the Titans as they returned to Larcombe via the New Forest. Those had each been a close call. If he was a cat, he would be totting up the number of used lives.