The Creator

by Neil Carstairs

  Pete could find no answer to that. He leant over and kissed her cheek. ‘If I can, I’ll come back and see you.’

  She nodded. ‘Best go. Them soldier boys’ll leave without you otherwise.’

  Pete joined Jane and Emily on the RV. He looked back and saw Ma lift a hand in farewell. The vehicle turned in the space available. He lost sight of the cabin and wondered if he would ever see it again.

  ***

  Ben swapped seats with Kramer at a crossroads. He drove now. They scouted the area as they waited for Dawson to come back with information on Peter Walsh’s credit card records. Kramer sat beside him. Her fingers drummed on the centre console. She hadn’t spoken a word to him in the last half hour and with each minute that passed Ben expected her to lash out. Either at him or the dashboard. Another intersection approached. Ben slowed. Every turn he’d made recently had been at random and but for the sat-nav display he would be lost by now. This time he had to stop as a red Chrysler followed by a big RV came out of the side road. Ben glanced into the car, female driving, male passenger. The RV had three men sitting in the front, one looked down at him with unsmiling eyes. Ben watched the RV retreat in his mirror.

  ‘Are we moving or what?’ Kramer said.

  Ben sighed. He chose straight on and ignored the lane the vehicles had come out of. Another mile ticked over on the digital display. Ben looked at the time. Kramer’s phone rang. She put it on loudspeaker and Dawson spoke first. ‘We have reports of automatic gunfire in your area. Local police are mobilising.’

  Kramer at up straight. ‘Location?’

  ‘Best reports put it on Fox Lane, Lake County.’

  Ben stopped the SUV. He grabbed the sat-nav off its console and searched for the address. As he did, he heard Dawson say, ‘Feedback from credit card payments show Walsh in that area a couple of times a year.’

  ‘Got it,’ Ben said. He frowned as he expanded the display and turned to look back down the road. ‘We just passed it.’

  Kramer relayed the information to Dawson as Ben turned the SUV around. He accelerated to the junction and took it fast, feeling the rear end slide out.

  ‘Slow down,’ Kramer snapped. ‘I want to get there in one piece.’

  Ben didn’t apologise but he did ease off the gas pedal. The lane snaked along the valley floor. A lake to their right and woodland to the left. The woodland ended and the open frontage of a cabin appeared. Ben slowed. He could see someone sitting up on the veranda. All looked peaceful until Kramer said, ‘Stop. Stop.’

  Ben braked hard. She pointed up. ‘Body on the ground.’

  Ben saw it now. They bailed out of the SUV. Kramer going left and Ben right. Scooting up the sloping grass lawn with guns drawn. As they closed, Ben saw the figure was an old woman armed with a pump action shotgun. He kept his gun trained on her as he ran past the body only slowing as he got to within fifteen paces.

  The woman gave him a long, cool stare and said, ‘Best point that thing away from me, son, or I might have to aim this shotgun your way.’

  Ben lowered his hands. Kramer walked up. She looked at the shattered windows and bullet-scarred front of the cabin and said, ‘Ma’am, I’m Agent Kramer and this is Agent Scarrett. We’re from Homeland Security.’

  ‘You’re late,’ the woman said.

  Kramer nodded. ‘I know. I’m sorry.’

  Kramer pointed for Ben to go into the house. He got as far as the threshold and stopped. Smoke still hung heavy on the air but did nothing to hide the bodies and carpet of cartridge casings. When he didn’t go any further Kramer stepped up onto the veranda to see why. She stopped alongside him and whispered, ‘Jesus.’

  They went back down to stand next to the woman. Kramer asked her name.

  ‘Jacobs,’ she said.

  ‘Ms Jacobs.’ Kramer squatted down in front of her. ‘What happened?’

  ‘We got attacked. Don’t know where they came from. Just saw a bubble of light that popped out of nothing and next thing there’s a dozen men with guns shooting at us.’

  ‘Were they after a girl called Emily?’

  ‘Yup. She’s gone.’

  Ben felt his legs go weak. All this way to lose Emily. ‘They killed her?’ he asked.

  ‘No.’ She looked up. ‘The British soldiers took her.’

  ‘What?’ Ben and Kramer said together.

  ‘We got to the top floor and were being shot to pieces when another bunch turned up and killed the men attacking us.’

  ‘And they were British?’

  ‘Yup.’

  ‘British soldiers?’

  ‘Reckon so. The way they acted and spoke. The guns they carried. There was another couple, a white guy and a black girl, they weren’t soldiers but the others listened to them.’

  ‘And they took Emily away?’

  ‘Well, she went with them. So did her mother and Pete Walsh who owns this place.’

  ‘Did they force them?’ Kramer asked.

  ‘Not so far as I could tell.’

  Ben had a thought, remembering the vehicles he’d seen earlier. ‘Were they in a red Chrysler and a big RV?’

  ‘Saw the RV for sure. Maybe there was a sedan as well, can’t remember rightly.’

  ‘We passed them,’ Ben said to Kramer. ‘Right before Dawson called.’

  ‘Ma’am,’ Kramer said. ‘The police are on their way. We’ll let them know you’re here but best you put the shotgun down in case they get carried away.’

  ‘There paramedics coming as well?’

  ‘Sure to be,’ Kramer said.

  ‘I got m’self shot. The soldiers patched me up some but said I’d need to get to a hospital sooner rather than later.’

  ‘We’ll let them know.’ Kramer stood. ‘We need to go find them. Do you know where they were going?’

  ‘No.’ Ma Jacobs shook her head. ‘But they were in a hurry.’

  ***

  Jane had no idea where they were other than the shores of a large lake. They reached it following a breakneck drive along narrow, unsurfaced roads. Along the way the soldiers stopped off for about thirty seconds to dump all their weapons, ammunition and webbing into a drainage ditch. Now the RV lay half on and half off the road like a beached whale as the British soldiers hustled Jane, Emily and Pete through scrubby grassland. They got a chance to catch their breath as the group stopped about fifty yards from the water’s edge. Emily sank to the grass next to her. The soldiers formed a circle around Jane and Emily, all looking out across the water. Jane looked too, feeling slightly foolish as she had no idea why.

  ‘I see them,’ one of the soldiers said.

  Jane frowned. She could see water and the pine woodland of the rising ground on the opposite shore but nothing else. Then movement caught her eye, or more specifically a rising cloud that grew closer.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked Pete.

  He shielded his eyes. ‘I don’t know.’

  They found out within a matter of seconds. The cloud resolved itself into spray driven up from the surface of the lake by two fast moving helicopters. They flew so low their landing skids were almost touching the water.

  ‘Little Birds,’ Natalie said as she came over to them. ‘Your way out of here.’

  The helicopters crossed over the lake edge and flared for landing. As they touched down the soldiers moved. Jane gave a yelp as two men lifted her in a run towards one Little Bird. The rotors swept above her head at full power in a deafening rush of air. They dumped her on a bench fixed to the side of the chopper and strapped her in. Jane stared at the men in horror as one sat either side of her. Twenty yards away she saw Emily in the same position as her.

  The man on her left leant in close and shouted in an Irish accent, ‘This is the only way to travel!’

  The Little Bird rose and pirouetted. Jane’s stomach got left way behind as the helicopter accelerated out over the lake and a mist of water droplets engulfed her.

  ***

  Delta Five found himself standing next to Natalie. He held
out the spent cartridge he had picked up at the cabin.

  ‘What is it?’ Natalie asked.

  ‘This is from the round that killed the guy trying to kill you. Thought you might want a souvenir.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She took it, turning it in her fingers before she slipped it into her pocket.

  ‘Must be worth a drink or two,’ Delta Five said.

  She looked him up and down. Cropped blonde hair, blue eyes, six foot tall and wide shouldered. She thought the network of scars on his right cheek made him look interesting so she said, ‘Or more than that.’

  ‘So how do I track you down when I’m back home?’ he asked.

  Natalie smiled. ‘I’m a spy,’ she said. ‘I’ll find you.’

  Delta One came over. ‘Are you sure you don’t want a lift. There’s room for the two of you,’ he said.

  ‘We need to stay as legit as possible which means flying back conventionally.’

  ‘Well, good luck,’ Delta One said before he and Five ran towards the remaining helicopter.

  Natalie watched the second bird disappear into another blossom of spray. ‘Time to go,’ she said to Reuben. They ran for the Chrysler. The RV would be abandoned where it stood. All they had to do now was get to Chicago.

  ***

  Ben saw the Chrysler approaching in disbelief. The first five minutes chasing after it and the RV had made him realise the two vehicles could be anywhere. He stayed on the rural road, slowed at some intersections but did not turn off. He trusted whatever instincts he had to make the right decision. ‘It’s them,’ he said.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Kramer asked.

  Ben’s answer was to slew the SUV across the road. Kramer asked no more questions. She bailed out. By the time Ben ran round the front of the SUV she had one foot on the radiator grille of the Chrysler and her gun pointed at the driver. Ben ran past her, wrenched the driver’s door open and pushed his gun into the side of the female driver’s head.

  ‘Homeland Security,’ he said. ‘Turn the engine off and then very slowly get out.’

  Ben backed away, giving the young woman space to exit. She came out with her hands raised. On the other side of the vehicle her passenger did the same. Ben told her to put her hands on the roof of the car and wait. He tracked round to the other side, swapping places with Kramer. Ben patted the passenger down and then covered Kramer as she did the same to the driver. Kramer told driver and passenger to come round the front of the car and then asked, ‘Do you have identification?’

  ‘Do you?’ the woman asked. ‘You stop us in the middle of nowhere, point guns in our faces and claim to be Homeland Security. How do we know you’re telling the truth?’

  Kramer pulled her ID out and shoved it in the driver’s face. ‘And you?’ she asked.

  ‘In the glove compartment,’ the driver said.

  Ben searched and found two UK passports. He gave them to Kramer and said. ‘Natalie Nti and Reuben Simpson-Brown.’

  ‘What are you doing out here?’ Kramer asked.

  ‘We’re on holiday. We took a wrong turn and got lost,’ Natalie said.

  ‘Try again.’ Kramer shoved the passports into her back pocket.

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  ‘And if we escort you to a cabin about three miles from here and ask an old woman to confirm if you were there thirty minutes ago what do you think she would say?’

  No answer.

  Kramer smiled. ‘Good. So we’re getting somewhere. Now, we are looking for a girl named Emily DeForrest and her mother Jane. Do you know where they are?’

  Natalie seemed to consider her answer before saying, ‘No.’

  Kramer sighed. ‘Don’t start again. We have information that a white male and black female driving a red Chrysler were involved in an incursion by British soldiers into the United States to kidnap a US citizen. Kidnap is a Federal crime and is punishable by twenty years in prison.’

  ‘We can’t help you,’ Natalie said.

  Kramer turned. Ben could see the tightness in her eyes. She said, ‘You try.’

  ‘It will only take a few minutes for us to escort you to the cabin,’ he said. ‘Once we confirm your identity you’ll be arrested. The next time you see freedom will be in two decades. If you survive that long in prison. So at least be honest with us.’

  ‘I understand what you are saying,’ Natalie said. ‘We may be aware of certain facts but at the moment cannot confirm or deny...’

  Kramer pushed past Ben and stuck her face up close to Natalie’s. ‘Listen to me you smug bitch, I want full and open access to Emily and I want it now.’

  Natalie took a half step back. ‘That’s not possible,’ she said.

  Ben saw Kramer’s hand form a fist. He put his hand on her shoulder.

  Kramer eased back and said to Ben, ‘I’m pissed.’ She stalked away again.

  Ben said, ‘Don’t get her really pissed. That’s when she’ll start breaking limbs.’

  ‘I understand,’ Natalie said.

  ‘I don’t think you do,’ Ben told her. ‘Why can’t we have access to Emily.’

  Kramer returned, waiting to hear the answer. Natalie watched her carefully before saying, ‘Emily and her mother are connecting with a military flight that will take them from Canada to the UK.’

  ‘I’m going to hurt you soon,’ Kramer said. Ben stopped her with another touch.

  ‘Is there any way you can contact them?’ he asked. ‘Just so we can confirm they are safe.’

  Natalie thought about that and nodded. ‘We have a phone in the car.’

  ‘Get it,’ Kramer snapped at Reuben. ‘But don’t try to be clever or you’ll wind up dead.’

  Reuben came back with the phone. Natalie took it and paged to the contacts. She held the phone to her ear and when the call was answered said, ‘Are you still with the family? Can I speak to the mother?’ Natalie waited. ‘Jane? This is Natalie, I have someone with me who wants to talk to you.’

  Kramer took the phone. ‘Jane, it’s Joanne Kramer. I need to know if you and Emily are safe...Good. Are you there of your own free will or were you forced?... Okay. No, it’s fine. I’ll speak to you again. Give my love to Emily.’

  Kramer handed the phone back. She walked away but Ben could tell she still seethed with anger. Natalie smiled like she had won a victory.

  ‘We still want access to Emily,’ Ben said.

  Natalie nodded. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ She moved around the side of the Chrysler as she prepared to make another call.

  Ben looked at Reuben. ‘So who would have won if it came to a fight?’

  Reuben almost laughed. ‘I’d call it a tie after ten rounds.’

  Ben nodded. ‘Yeah.’ He walked over to Kramer and said, ‘Smug bitch?’

  ‘She is.’ Kramer sent a look of loathing Natalie’s way. ‘What’s she doing?’

  ‘Making a call,’ Ben said.

  ‘No shit, Sherlock.’ Kramer transferred her anger from Natalie to Ben. ‘Who’s she calling?’

  Ben thought it best not to tell Kramer she should have asked that question first. ‘Someone higher up the food chain about us getting access to Emily.’

  They waited in silence. Kramer tapped her foot, arms folded across her chest, still angry. Ben thought of a hundred things to say and then discarded them.

  When Natalie finished her call she came over to them and said, ‘You can have the access to Emily that you want but it will have to be in the UK.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Ben said before Kramer could interrupt. ‘We appreciate that. Do we need to make any arrangements?’

  ‘Just give Reuben your names. We’ll keep an eye on passenger manifests and will have someone meet you at Heathrow. Now, we need to be going, can we have our passports back?’

  Ben thought he might have to reach into Kramer’s pocket until she relented, pulled the passports out and threw them at Reuben. Ben eased her back enough that he could get to the SUV and reverse it before Kramer and Natalie started fighting. The Chrysler drove
away. Ben remained in the SUV for five minutes until Kramer got in.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked.

  ‘They invade our fucking country and you ask me if I’m okay?’ she stared hard at him.

  Ben put the SUV in drive. ‘I guess the answer’s no,’ he said.

  Chapter 12

  ‘Kind of impressive for a safe house,’ Ben said as the limousine drove up the half-mile long driveway to Sheddlestone Hall.

  ‘It’s not just a safe house.’ Douglas Congrave sat facing Ben and Kramer. ‘It’s also used for training and conferences.’

  ‘Still impressive.’

  ‘One of our smaller properties,’ Congrave said of the 60-bedroom stately home sitting in 88 acres of garden and woodland.

  Ben and Kramer exchanged a glance. ‘I would have thought if you wanted to keep people safe somewhere like this would be a difficult place to guard.’

  ‘We have layered defences. Heat and motion sensors. Video and good old-fashioned guard dogs, plus air defence systems located in part of the grounds.’

  ‘He’s just showing off,’ Kramer said.

  Ben smiled. Kramer started to thaw about halfway through their red-eye flight from Chicago to London-Heathrow. It was about the time she kicked him awake as she got up to go for a comfort break. All things considered Ben preferred a Kramer who could kick him and smile about it to the Kramer who had sat and fumed in silence ever since British Special Forces had lifted Emily out of the U.S.

  ‘So your organisation owns this place?’ Ben asked as the limo took the final curve of the approach to the Georgian house.

  ‘The government does. At the moment we finance part of it from our budget. An organisation called English Heritage pays for the rest.’

  ‘So did the government buy it?’

  ‘No, it came into their possession at the end of the Second World War. The family who owned it couldn’t afford the Inheritance Tax they owed. They did some negotiating with what was the Inland Revenue at the time and handed it over in lieu of death duties.’

  The limousine came to a gentle stop and men in dark suits opened the rear passenger doors. Ben stretched as he stood next to the car. An avenue of lime trees lined the driveway. Other than that he had a clear view across mown grass to the hedgerow that bordered the grounds and separated the house from the main road they had turned in off.