by John Booth
Han No looked across the room, “No doubt you think this room is bugged by your Establishment, but it has been swept by experts and no one has been in it since your mother left. Make sure word gets to them.”
“Believe me, when I say they’ll know exactly what they have to do.”
Han No bowed his head and left the room with Sal’s father close behind. Peter went over to Sal and helped her to her feet. He went to the sink and filled the kettle to brew some tea.
“Well, aren’t you going to contact the Establishment?” Sal asked as she dried her face and watched Peter warming the teapot with boiling water before emptying it again and putting in tea bags.
“They already know,” Peter waved his arms around generally. “I expect even the toilet has a video camera in it.”
“But Han No…”
“Knows nothing about the Establishment. This is a mission, which means this place was bugged long before Mum got here. Probably every room in this building is bugged. Besides which, Mum’s a field agent and would have bugged the flat if necessary. The Establishment uses state of the art technology. Even the intelligence services are years behind them.”
Sal came close to Peter and snuggled into his chest as he leant against the kitchen sink. She looked him in the eyes. “Peter…,” Sal's eyes flicked to the side of the room as if she saw something and Peter’s eyes followed automatically, looking for danger. In the second he was distracted, Sal brought her knee viciously into his groin before stepping calmly away from him.
Peter looked at Sal in shock in the half second he had before the pain struck. He bent over retching as the room spun around in front of him. He collapsed onto his knees and his head fell hard against the seat of the sofa. He heard Sal’s voice coming from a great distance.
“That’s for not telling me my father was alive.”
As the room went dark and he collapsed into unconsciousness, Peter heard the flat door open and slam shut. Then the world faded.
Chapter Thirty
Hospital
Peter was barely conscious when he heard the door to the flat smash open. A man with a combat rifle in full anti-terrorist gear leaned over him and checked his pulse.
“You’re going to be all right, Peter. The ambulance and paramedics will be here soon. I’m giving you an injection to help with the pain. Relax, it’s over.”
Those were the last words Peter heard for a long time. The world faded out. He vaguely remembered being in an ambulance because the siren was so loud it woke him. A friendly face smiled at him, and then the world went away again. Later, he lay inside a tube of shiny metal that hummed and made his teeth ache, and then the darkness came again.
* * *
An unknown time later he opened his eyes. He lay in a hospital bed in a private room. As soon as he opened his eyes he knew he was back in the Establishment. There was nothing about the antiseptic white room that gave it away, but still he knew. It was the aesthetic and the no-expenses-spared utilitarianism that gave it away. Far too expensive in equipment terms to be a National Health bed, but with none of the humanising frills that would characterise a private hospital. It had Establishment written all over it.
Mike Conner walked into the room less than a minute after his eyes opened even though there were no surveillance cameras in sight.
“Peter, glad to see you’re awake again. How are you feeling?” Mike spoke cheerfully as he pulled a chair alongside the bed.
“I feel like I’ve been drugged for a month. What happened?” His throat was sore in a way suggesting a feeding tube had been down it and he felt as weak as a kitten. There was a substantial ache in his groin that increased when he breathed in.
“You’ve only been out of it for a week or so. The medico’s thought it would be best for your treatment. You’ll be glad to know they saved your left testical, though it was touch and go for a while. That young lady of yours doesn’t know her own strength.”
Peter tried to rise and the pain in his groin increased to a point where he gave up. “Was it really the doctors who decided to keep me drugged or did the Establishment want me out of play?” He wondered how honest Mike’s answer would be. Rule Three was ‘Discover the local politics’ and it was as true of the Establishment as it was in the field.
“A bit of both, to be absolutely honest,” Mike said in a dismissive tone. “We knew you’d want to carry on with the mission and the Operations Council wanted to review the whole thing to be able to give you a clear answer.” Mike paused. The Establishment believed he was theirs to use as they saw fit. His role was that of a foot soldier following orders. “You’re off the mission, Peter.”
Peter tried to rise again but Mike gently pushed him back onto the bed. “You’ve done a great job and put us in a fantastic position, but you’ve let your personal feeling jeopardise the mission. You had no need to reveal the identity of Grant Dark in that meeting. You did it so you could carry on screwing the girl with a clear conscience. That wasn’t for the good of the mission. You’re off the mission and that’s final.
“I’m the Lord Cragus, leader of the Vampires. You can’t just dismiss me from Hellogon. They need me.”
“It’s already been done, Peter. You’re home in the Establishment, and you’re going to stay.” Mike stood up and smiled. “Peter, you’ll be one of our greatest agents when you grow up. We can’t afford to lose you on this mission, there will be many others.” Mike turned to leave.
“The Dragon eggs, how many have you retrieved?” Peter said to Mike’s back.
Mike turned. “I thought you’d ask about your girlfriend first. She’s missing, assumed to be back on Hellogon. She’ll be arrested if she dares to come back. To answer your question, we’ve located four hundred plus eggs so far. They’re being collected together in England as we speak. How many of them are viable after two hundred and fifty years is a question we can’t answer.”
“We have agents scouring the planet and we should get the number up to a thousand by the end of the month. We’ve also located fifteen gargoyles fitting the Grimms description. Getting them back is going to be tricky as churches get upset when you steal their statues. We have a team of counterfeiters working on making copies so that they never notice.” Mike grinned.
“Never fear, Peter, we received and understood your message. We’ve disabled the bombs in Solly’s shop. Your friend doesn’t know it, but he can take his ladies back to Hellogon whenever he wants. Now, I have to go and do some work. Your mother is waiting to see you.”
Mike gave Peter a wave and walked out of the room. He barely cleared the door before Peter’s Mum rushed in.
Mel spoke in a rush. “I’ve been so worried about you. First, they said they were going to remove a testical and that you might end up sterile. I refused to give them permission for the operation. You surprised them by recovering, but they insisted on keeping you unconscious. I’ve been so worried about you, my love.”
“I know, Mum. I’m sorry I’ve put you through this.” Peter could see his Mother was close to a breakdown.
Mel stood over him and ruffled his hair. Peter always hated when she did that, but this time he smiled.
“I didn’t want the last words we ever had to be in anger. I’ve spent my whole life with the Establishment, Peter. You get so used to treating people as chess pieces you forget they’re sometimes your own flesh and blood. I’m sorry for getting you into this. I should never have agreed to the council’s orders.”
“Mum, I still have some questions, not about the mission but about you and Dad. They might upset you.” Peter looked her in the eyes trying to see if she was up to it. He might be the patient, but his Mother was the vulnerable person in the room.
Mel sat down. “Ask away.”
“You and Dad met in South Africa. Solly was there and he said Dad loved you, but Dad had an affair with Solly when he was younger. Was Dad bisexual?”
Mel winced.
“Your dad loved me and he loved you more than anybody or
anything else. He loved me for my mind. He used to tell me if I’d been born a Vampire, Hellogon would have been ruled by the Vampires. For your father, as the youngest of the Cragus heirs, that was probably the biggest compliment he could give.”
“We did everything that man and wife could do together, but for one thing. He never had sex with me, though we sometimes came close. I artificially inseminated you using a chicken baster. It was your father’s idea, Peter. We both wanted you. He found men were the only gender he could perform for.” Mel lapsed into silence.
“And the Commandant fell in love with him and killed him for not being willing to leave you.” Peter completed the story for her.
“I only found out when the Commandant died. Up to then, I thought your father died on a mission. You’re too young to remember, but in those days the Commandant ran all of the Establishment. The agents staged a revolt after your father died and the government stepped in and revised our charter. Within six months of your father’s death, only a council made up of agents and ex-agents could approve missions. We thought the Commandant was incompetent. We never realised he was a murderer.”
“Did the Council kill the Commandant?” Peter had no doubts at all that they were more than capable of it.
Mel seemed shocked at the suggestion. “I don’t think so. Though now you bring it up, I realise they might have killed him. They told him they were reopening your father’s mission log and would consider any new evidence they found.”
“Knowing he would rush to his safe to destroy the evidence and would find whatever clues they deliberately left in the safe to ensure he knew that they knew,” Peter said.
“Knowing the shame would force him into committing suicide,” Mel concluded. “They knew his psychological profile so they could be sure what action he would take. You’re right, Peter. They may not have put the noose around his neck, but they killed him as surely as if they had.”
“I need to get back to Hellogon, Mum. You have to convince the council to let me go.”
“I don’t have that much influence. My strategy paper suggested your presence to the mission is no longer critical. Han No will end the war to get at the eggs we have. The Grimms can be similarly coerced and, without them, the Vampires won’t have the resources to oppose a peace deal. The Warlocks are still a problem, but with the other species on-side they’ll find it hard to resist.”
“Half the Vampires and lots of Warlocks will die when they fight against the deal you impose on them. That might leave the Vampires close to extinction, Mum. I can bring them in on the deal. For God’s sake, I’m their leader.” Peter shouted in frustration and Mel backed away, taken aback by the depths of his passion.
“That’s an acceptable level of collateral damage to the Establishment. Hellogon’s a whole new planet to exploit. It will make the UK the most successful economic power on Earth when we get exclusive trading rights.”
“That was the mission plan from the start, to find the levers to bring Hellogon under the UK’s economic control. You’ve given the Establishment an incredibly powerful hand to play and they’re so proud of you. With the Dragon eggs and female Grimms as bargaining tools, the UK will be able negotiate rights to minerals and land and God only knows what else.”
Mel paused as she gathered her thoughts. “The Establishment plans to deal with the Warlocks to establish portals to other places on Earth. Do you have any idea how much more powerful we’ll be as a nation if our agents can pop in and out of any country without going through their borders?”
“Do you have any idea what that will do if they find a way to move atomic bombs through those portals?” Peter said and Mel blanched.
“I’ll try and persuade them, Peter.” Mel looked around the room. “They’ll have heard every word spoken, of course, so at least you won’t have to repeat your arguments.”
“It won’t stop me doing it,” Peter said grimly as he surveyed the walls and ceiling, all apparently devoid of camera’s and listening devices.
* * *
The next two weeks of Peter’s life were spent in debriefing sessions. Everything Peter knew about Hellogon was extracted from him. They wanted to know the names, body build and faces of all the key players as well as Peter’s assessment of them. They wanted to know the layout of the land around Castle Cragus and the internal layout of the castle down to its fittings and furnishings.
His pleas to be reinstated were ignored. Meanwhile his recovery progressed as he had no less than three physical therapists to help him recover muscle tone. His nether regions were becoming less painful though he was limited in how much he could move about.
Peter lied to the Establishment. He didn’t disclose how important the petrified female Grimms were to their species. He told them it would help the population, but kept to himself the numbers of children a female Grimm could bear.
He exaggerated the number of Vampires left. This was easy as he knew the names of so many extinct clans.
In both sets of lies, his strategy was straightforward: to reduce the bargaining power the Establishment thought it had over Hellogon and make them more cautious in their dealings. Peter felt this was the least he could do for his species and those to whom he had sworn his allegiance.
During the weeks that passed, Peter tried many times to find out what was going on. Mike Conner came to see him only twice and in those meetings disclosed nothing of value. It was clear the council had decided the best way to get Peter over Hellogon was to deny him any role in its future.
Mel proved a better source of information. She told him the Establishment hadn’t made any contact with the species of Hellogon. The warrant out for Saloni’s arrest had been withdrawn after Peter made it clear he wouldn’t testify against her. According to Mel, Sal hadn’t been seen recently in any case.
The pain in Peter’s groin continued to limit his recovery and finally the doctors decided to send him for a magnetic resonance scan in the city. Peter would be sent by ambulance, escorted by two armed bike riders. From the unusual precautions, Peter knew someone must have made an attempt to get into the Village.
They allowed Peter to dress in street clothes, though he wore much baggier trousers than normal. At the last minute, Mike Conner turned up to accompany him and Peter noted that Mike was armed.
* * *
They arrived at the hospital just before noon. Peter stepped out of the ambulance and for the first time in four weeks breathed in the warm sultry air of the city. It tasted like nectar and he stood outside the ambulance savouring it.
“Come on, Peter, move it!” Mike said. His right hand held the handle of his gun in its holster. Peter reluctantly entered the hospital to be assailed by the smell of antiseptic that seemed to permeate the fabric of English hospitals. He could only walk slowly because of his pain, much to Mike’s annoyance. Mike appeared to believe they were going to be attacked, which seemed slightly ridiculous to Peter.
Peter stripped and put on a hospital gown for the scan. He felt more than a little stupid as the gown was adjusted by a nurse to cover up every part of him except his cock and balls. ‘What’s the point in that?’ he wondered. He might as well have gone into the machine naked.
After the scan, he put on his clothes and waited for an hour while the specialist got around to seeing him. Mike persuaded an orderly to get them sandwiches and coffee.
When the specialist called him in and explained what the scan showed it proved a bit of an anticlimax. The specialist told Peter there was no physiological reason for the pains and they would probably go away with time.
Mike and Peter walked back down the corridor to the ambulance. As they sat down in the back waiting for the driver to shut the back doors, Mike grimaced in pain.
“That sandwich must have been a bit off. I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t let the ambulance leave without me.” Mike set off towards the hospital toilets at a run. Peter couldn’t help grinning and hoped the driver wouldn’t notice Mike’s discomfort.
“Are
you ready to get out of here, Peter, my boy?” a familiar voice asked. turned to see Solly about to shut the ambulance doors. Solly wore a paramedic uniform that looked much too large on him. There are probably no short fat paramedics I suppose, Peter thought as Solly sat beside him and gave him a hug.
“Solly, you’ll get caught. The driver and the two motorcyclists are…”
“Well taken care of,” Solly finished off for him. “A sudden outbreak of the trots has overtaken all the Establishment people and they’re currently unable to leave their respective stalls.”
“We can get back to Hellogon?” Peter asked, noticing that the pain in his groin had mysteriously vanished.
“Would I break you out of here for anything less?” Solly laughed as he punched Peter lightly on the shoulder.
“But how?”
“When the armed police turned up at your flat I knew you were in trouble. I followed them to this hospital and called in some favours from a few exiled Warlocks. They got me through the security to see you. They can do minor magics on Earth remember? I could have snatched you then, but you were ill and I couldn’t risk your life.”
“We knew you had recovered, but we couldn’t get at you. We tried three times, but never got closer to the Establishment hospital than the village hall before we had to retreat. I called in some more favours and a group of Warlocks used their powers for me. Acting in combination, they kept your balls aching so the Establishment would bring you here to see a specialist. The rest didn’t require any magic, just laxatives in the right places,” Solly lolled back on his seat as the ambulance started moving.
“Where are we going?”
“We’re going to dump the ambulance where my lorry is parked. I’ll drive that back to the shop with you hidden under a blanket. You’ll have to crouch down when we approach the shop. Lady Ilarna will escort you back to Hellogon.”
