People actually care about me.
Wow!
As Smiler dealt with these amazing thoughts, and a buzz bigger than anything he’d ever experienced, Rita turned to Snakes. ‘On your bike, creep.’
‘Fuck off. You’re the fucking creep. Look at you,’ he sniggered, ‘hysterical, how fucking dare you. And that,’ he pointed at Tiny, ‘I’m having that fucking monster. First chance I get.’
‘No, you won’t.’ Bravely Smiler moved forward. ‘No, you won’t, ‘cos if you touch one fucking hair on his head, I’ll have you.’
Backing Smiler up with a stubborn set to her face, Rita stepped closer, and Tiny, as if understanding Snakes' threat, growled deep in his throat. Rita’s fists were clenched tightly, and Smiler had never seen her look so angry. She moved forward again until she was face to face with Snakes, who stared defiantly into her eyes. A moment later his face changed as Rita grabbed a fistful of his hoodie top, yanking him even closer.
Nose to nose, she said, ‘If I ever see you anywhere near Smiler or the dog again, trust me, you’ll regret it. Now move.’
‘He owes me.’ Snakes spat on the ground.
‘He owes you nothing, you lousy scumbag. And I’m not gonna tell you again.’ Roughly she thrust him away from her.
Only just managing to stay on his feet, and with a sneer, Snakes turned and shuffled up the alleyway. When he figured he was far enough away to make a run for it if necessary, he turned back. With his forefinger and middle finger he pointed at his eyes and then at Smiler. ‘This ain’t over, kid.’
Silently Smiler, Rita and the dog stared him down. ‘Bastards,’ he yelled, before heading around the corner back into the street. ‘Fucking bastards.’ His voice echoed behind him.
‘How…how did you find me?’ Smiler asked, still staring at the spot where they had last seen Snakes.
Rita put her hand on Smiler’s shoulder, ignoring his flinch. Pointing to her head, she said, ‘In here, Smiler. Because you’ll always be in here, where ever you are.’
‘Thanks,’ Smiler said, his head down, hiding a smile.
Rita lifted her hand and put her arm around Smiler’s shoulder. ‘Come on, Smiler, let's get you back home.’
Nodding and swallowing hard against the lump growing in his throat, Smiler muttered, ‘Thank you.’
With Rita’s arm across Smiler’s shoulders, and Tiny bringing up the rear, they headed for the safe house.
NORTHUMBERLAND
CHAPTER TWELVE
Grim-faced, Kristina made her way to Holy Island, praying that the tide would be out, her thoughts a hopeless jumble of everything Cox had told her. She felt a brief sense of loss. She hadn’t known Cox for long, but had come to like him. And Mike always spoke highly of the man, and his wife Samantha, who was so definitely the boss. She had even asked, as if sensing that the chemistry was still there between them both, if she and Mike would come for dinner one night. And that had pleased Kristina no end.
It was hard to think of him dead. Knowing that she hadn’t checked properly for life. I should have done more, but surely no one could survive that amount of blood loss.
'It's not really as if Cox is…was…is’, she corrected herself quickly, ‘known for his fitness regime.’
Why? That was the craziness of it all.
Why kill him?
Though he might not be dead, she told herself again. You don’t really know either way, kiddo, he could be alive.
And the reason is because he knew too much!
And now I know too much.
But not enough!
‘Oh, my God,’ she gasped, suddenly realising just what the man with the gun had said as she’d run out of the house. ‘The bastard! He threatened to cut my tongue out!’
Everything fell into place now. The two murdered young people must have known something they had to have. Perhaps they were both in the monastery, either as guards or slaves… Shit!
She gasped. ‘He’s part of a clean-up crew.’
And that’s the reason why that bastard came after me, she told herself, glancing quickly into the rear view mirror.
All clear.
Thank God.
He was going to kill me!
She was heading for Holy Island for two reasons. One was that, a good while back, one night when they had been alone and waiting for Mike to come home from work, Aunt May had told her to, if for whatever reason she found herself in grave difficulty. At the time she had never revealed why, she’d just given her a secretive look and a knowing nod that Kristina hadn’t been able to fathom out. With a smile and a shrug, she’d promised to do that just to please her - then had forgotten all about it until now.
Two - quite simply, she was now in really deep shit and actually had nowhere else to go. Well, nowhere that she could think of that was safe. It seemed as if these people Cox had told her about even had their moles on the main switchboards of most of the police forces in England. Otherwise, how come the sirens, when she’d demanded total silence?
She glanced quickly in the mirror again. Still nothing behind her and, she heaved a sigh, nothing in front of her only emptiness. Not long now before she reached the turn off, only a matter of minutes. The sooner she was off this open road the better. She would feel much calmer when she was safely on the island. In the morning she’d contact her superior, see what he had to say.
Anyhow, I’m probably worrying for nothing.
‘Jesus.’ She thumped the steering wheel. ‘I’ve gone and panicked for nothing jumping to conclusions and now they’ll be worrying about me. The switchboard mustn’t have passed the message on, that’s all, and with everything Cox said, I’ve got the whole police force in the nod with the families. Shit!’
She stared at the dark road in front of her, thinking, but still it’s all very suspicious.
No, it’s me. I’ve added one and one and come up with three.
She saw the car’s headlights coming towards her as it rose over a sudden dip in the road and panicked again.
Please don’t let it be them, she thought, gritting her teeth, as her heartbeat started to race.
Please not now.
Not when I’m so close to the Island.
But thankfully the car sped past her, doing well over the speed limit, and she heaved a sigh of relief. A few minutes later the sign for Holy island appeared. Taking a deep breath, and thanking God she’d made it this far, she slowed down to turn left when she spotted a car coming up behind her in the rear view mirror.
‘Friggin' hell!’ she muttered.
The car passed her as she took the turning and, once more thanking God, she sped quickly through the village of Beal and was soon approaching the causeway.
Her heart sank. Was that water covering the ground in front of her?‘Only one way to find out.’ Stopping the car, she jumped out.
‘Oh God, please, no, don’t let it be flooded!’ She moved forward, and her heart reached her feet. Bitterly disappointed, she stared at the water. The causeway was covered.
How deep though?
Please let it be passable.
Hesitatingly, she slipped her shoe off and put her right foot in. ‘Not even ankle deep,’ she muttered, watching the water swirl over her toes. Breathing a sigh of relief, and deciding to risk it, she quickly shook the sea water off her foot and put her shoe back on, then got back into the car.
Knowing she didn’t have much time, because the causeway was very long, and the North Sea very unforgiving of fools who took chances, she started the car.
At first the car rolled along smoothly and she felt no resistance, so she slightly increased her speed, staring all the time at the rising water. People had been trapped before by not checking the crossing times. Quite frequently actually. It was always in the papers about people having to be rescued from the roof of their cars. She sincerely hoped she was not going to be one of them.
Who knows who will turn up to rescue me?
Who knows who I can trust?
‘Stop
it, just chill,’ she muttered. ‘No point in working myself up into a lather over something that might not happen.’
It’s a calm night, so the weather’s on my side. Should be easy. No problem. What the hell am I worried about? she was thinking, as she passed the refuge, a wooden hut on stilts made for people trapped in their cars, Mike had told her that the night he got stranded, the sea came up to the top step which was above the roof of his car. She prayed she wouldn’t have to use it.
It was only a few minutes later, though, when she felt the car starting to drag. Her heart rate increased again, and she looked wildly around for help, even though she knew that there was no one there. She was on her own with no one to rely on, and real actual help would be a long time coming.
Stupid bloody idiot that I am.
I never should have tried it.
Me against the flaming North Sea.
‘As if!’ she muttered, her heartbeat once more quickening as she started to panic.
Terrified in case she had condemned herself to a watery grave, she pressed the pedal and breathed a bit easier when the car gained a small bit of traction. It gave a sudden lurch, then surged forward. She switched the wipers on and they swished back and forth, at first leaving a few streaks, but the spray soon took care of that.
‘Keep moving…keep moving,’ she muttered.
Careful, though. Agitatedly, she kept tapping the finger of her right hand on the steering wheel.
Slow, slow, keep it slow.
Too much and it might stall.
Just chill and take it steady, she told herself, knowing that she was well past the halfway stage now. It will all be over soon, dry land ahoy and all that.
But staring ahead of her as the waves grew bigger, she knew that, for all her bravado, this was it. There was no turning back.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The sound of sirens woke Danny Wilson up out of a deep sleep. He opened his eyes and blinked. ‘What the?’ he muttered, as he realised the sound assaulting his ears from all sides was not only that of sirens, but of deep heavy snoring. Old men snoring.
And lots of them!
He groaned.
‘Where the fuck?’
‘You’re in hospital, mate,’ a voice close to him said.
Danny got a shock when he heard the voice and quickly swung his head to the right, then felt immediately sick. ’Ohhh,’ he groaned.
‘You’ve been doing plenty of that an’ all,’ the old man said.
‘Plenty of what?’
‘Moaning and groaning. Been going on for hours, it has.’
Suddenly, Danny shot up. Ignoring the dizziness as best he could, he slid out of bed and stepped closer to the old man. ‘Have they been in?’ he whispered.
‘Who?’ the old man whispered back.
‘Them!’
‘Who’s them?'
Danny starred at him. ’You taking the piss, or what?’
‘No, I thought you was.’
Just then a young brown-haired nurse, with the largest green eyes Danny had ever seen, came into the ward. Going over to Danny’s bed, she said, ‘Let's have you back into bed. You know that you really should be resting.’
Warily, Danny let her help him back into bed, wondering if she was one of them.
‘Where am I?’ he asked.
‘In hospital. Now go back to sleep. It’s the middle of the night, and there are other patients to consider.’
I know I’m in a fucking hospital, he wanted to yell, but where, which hospital?
The nurse left the ward, and Danny turned back to the old man. ‘Is she one of them?’
‘One of who?’
‘The fucking frenemy.’
‘What’s a fucking frenemy?’
‘One of them, them who pretend to be your friend, but really the lying, back-stabbing bastards are your enemy.’
The old man thought it over. After a moment, he scratched his chin and said, ‘Oh. One of them. I think you better go to sleep, son. Don’t worry, I’ll keep me eye out for the frenemy.’
‘Will you?’
‘Oh, aye.’
Danny heaved a sigh of relief. At long last, a friend.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep, to dreams of them. Whichever way he turned, they were there.
He did not hear the old man nearly choke with laughing.
NORWICH
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘So tell me,’ Agent Josh Millar said to Tony Driver, ’what the fuck do the elite bastards want us to do for them now?’
Millar was tall, dark-skinned and handsome, and he knew it. He had a fancy for black suits and crisp white shirts. Vain though he was, he was a good man. Tonight he had been on the door and, feet apart with his hands behind his back, he had watched as, the meeting finally over, most of the families were either wandering into the bar to continue whatever petty grievances they had, or storming up the stairs to bed.
He’d been recruited into the agency seven years ago by Tony, and spent the first six months in permanent shock as things were slowly revealed to him. Five weeks ago, he’d found the agency within the agency, and thank God for that. He didn’t know that Tony had been watching him for years, and had told him about the inner agency just before he reached melting point. It was what had saved his life.
Tony knew a good man when he saw one. He had also decided it was time that Josh was brought fully into the loop. They needed all the good men fully on board. Unknown to Josh though, that was the real reason for this conversation.
‘Shall we have a stroll round the garden?’ Without waiting for Josh to say yes or no, Tony headed towards the French doors. Knowing an order when he got one, Josh followed him and stood discreetly by when Tony spoke to a few family members on the way.
‘Basically, what it boils down to is...’ Tony shrugged. They reached the rose garden. ’As you heard in there…cutting the world population down. They’ve actually bought into their own hype about global warming.’
‘But they started the rumour themselves.’
‘Yep just one of their many ploys, that wasn’t really thought out back then. Something for them to fall back on, and boy, have they fallen back on it big time.’
‘Haven’t the people suffered enough? Generations of secret family rule, and what do we have? Starving people and kids living in squalor all over the world, mostly in countries that have their own wealth but are ruled by a family member. Surely it would have been easier to stop all this centuries ago.’
‘Think about it Josh. Realise just how easy it was to not stop it. Countries were separated from each other for a long, long time. Your ordinary man in the street didn’t know what was going on half a mile away, never mind across the world.’
Josh nodded. ‘I suppose.’
‘They had plenty of time to dig their feet in and carve their ways on the rest of us. What do you think was the real reason behind the Roman push around the world? The families were behind it - that, and just about every invasion since. And a few before then. Ordinary people, or 'peasants', as they like to call them...us...have no desires on anyone’s property in the next county, never mind country. Why would they? Too busy feeding their own flaming family. But they are, and always have been, made to go to war, time and time again. All in the name of greed and power. Think how much the arms dealers make, all of them family owned. And there are wars going on in corners of the world most of the people haven’t even heard of. Think about the pharmaceutical companies, inventing drug after drug, one to make you better from some unknown disease and yet another to make you better from the first drug. Again, all family owned, and on and on. As well as the street drugs, let's not forget them, mostly spin offs from the pharmaceutical companies.’
Josh blinked. This was a long speech from Tony, but as usual it all made sense.
‘Look around you. This is not how it was meant to be. A few living in luxury, while most have nothing. Scrabbling a living from wherever they can. And now they are about
to heap more injustice and cruelty on an unsuspecting world.’
‘As well as breeding ignorance.’
Inwardly Tony groaned. He liked Millar, everyone did, but before he’d been recruited Millar had been a librarian. It was still hard to catch him without a book in his hand. He had been outraged at the library cuts, claiming that in a few years there would be no libraries at all, and so the families would be breeding exactly what they wanted. No books to read, no way to learn what was beyond their own village. And once the internet was shut down, and Kindles became obsolete, end of story, They would be truly back in the dark ages.
He hadn’t known just how right he was. The e-book was part of a plan. In a few years, no more paper books that lasted for years, no more libraries left, and then the death of e-books. It was exactly what the families wanted, what had been planned.
First thing to go would be the internet, he was fond of saying, because it had sprung up so unexpectedly and caught everyone by surprise. Agents were already working on a virus that would wipe out all computers forever - except agents' computers, because they needed them to spy on everyone. Mobile phones were on the list, but it would be a while before they disappeared. Basically, what the families wanted was everyone back in the fifteenth century.
But first the human virus?
As if reading his mind, Josh asked, ‘So is everything already in place to stop them?’
Tony looked at him and nodded. ‘ Don’t worry its all in hand.’
‘Clever of them to use England as the main source, though. I mean, London will be one of the most crowded cities on the planet shortly.’
‘Yes, with the Olympics going on and people from all over the world in one place at the same time, it made a lot of sense. Put the nosocomial Legionnaires virus in the water, the most deadly strain of the disease, add a little extra to it, even though it already has a 30 per cent fatality rate, and bingo - millions of people infected and ready to take it home, right across Britain and the world. Why do you think you were inoculated a month ago?’
Holy Island Trilogy 03 - The Final Countdown Page 5
