Going Viral

by Andrew Puckett

  ‘I’d bloody better be. Can you stay?’

  ‘Sure, for a while. There’s a job I’ve got to do later, but I’ll be back after that.’ I hope to God, I thought… Then I thought, I’ve fucking well got to be…

  I stayed there, holding her hand. ‘My boobs hurt,’ she said. ‘Make sure Grace is fed, won’t you?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘So much for good intentions, eh?’

  I stayed there till my phone went at ten past five. Told Brigg I’d be along, kissed her, showered, went to see Grace, drove to the Police Station.

  Chapter 36

  It was still light. I didn’t feel anything as I drove. Couldn’t.

  My wife was lying in hospital with smallpox and I was heading for a… an uncomfortable liaison – at best.

  What if something happened to me? Oh, I know Sarah’d be all right financially, but she, they, needed more than that…

  Or so I flattered myself.

  What if it happened to them? What if they were to…?

  An abyss opened in front of me and only a hoot from the car behind kept me out of it. I forced my mind to a blank and drove on.

  The police station. Parked, went in, was directed to Brigg.

  They, six of them, were in a windowless room with a large screen against the wall depicting a map of Exeter. Rebecca told me the others were Josh, Dan, Greg and Stella. Brigg showed me how the four bugs worked – one for me, one for the backpack, one for the container, and the last, the false diamond. They were lit on the screen, and they could follow them individually if they were split.

  ‘With regard to an alarm,’ he went on, ‘we’ve decided to wire you.’

  He showed me where the miniature microphone and transmitter would stick to my chest. ‘Anyone who speaks within a few feet of you, we’ll hear them. And you, of course.’

  ‘What about from behind?’

  ‘That too, we’ll stick another on your back.’

  ‘What if something does happen, how far away will you be?’

  ‘Bex?’

  She said, ‘Josh and I are going to follow you, but keep well back, out of sight. We’ll put a bug in your car so that we’ll know where you are. We’ll all be able to hear you: me, Josh and the Commander. If you need us, shout. If we hear something that makes us think you need us, we’ll come.’

  I asked if she’d be able to talk to me. She shook her head.

  ‘They’d spot that immediately. They might find it anyway, but we’re hoping they’ll be in too much of a hurry to bother.’

  ‘Is there anything you want me to say – to let you know I’ve seen them.’

  ‘No,’ said Brigg. ‘It’ll be dark, they’ll have to speak to you, so we’ll know they’re there.’

  He asked me if I had plenty of fuel in the car and I said Yes. ‘D’you think it’ll be a long way, then?’

  ‘I doubt it, but you never know. Let’s start getting you ready – they might phone early, just to put us off balance.’

  As they stuck the wires to my chest and back, he told me how when they phoned, they’d probably give me very little time to get to where they wanted me. ‘We’ve told the local patrol cars not to stop you for speeding – although don’t, if you can help it.’

  ‘I’ll be too bloody nervous.’

  ‘Probably not, once you get started.’

  They attached one of the bugs inside the waist of my underpants – ‘In case they make you take your trousers off…’ then showed me where the others were in the backpack and container.

  ‘Do I get to take a look at the diamonds, since I’ll be carrying them?’

  He smiled. ‘I don’t see why not.’

  He prised the lid off and tilted the container towards me. I wish I could say they flashed with a mysterious inner light, but they didn’t. They looked like the photos of diamonds I’d seen. I said so.

  Josh said, ‘I think you’ve got to look through them to see that.’

  ‘Which one’s the bug?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ Brigg said. ‘Which means, I hope, that they won’t.’

  He squeezed the lid back on and returned the container to the backpack. This, as they’d stipulated, was a bright yellow.

  ‘So they can spot you from a distance,’ Brigg said.

  After that, there was just the waiting. Rebecca offered me a coffee, which I accepted, despite Brigg’s warning that it might make me want to pee. I said I’d go before seven.

  ‘Go now,’ he said, ‘in case they ring early.’

  I went. It wouldn’t come at first, although I knew there was one there. Nerves, I suppose. Then I went back and sipped at the coffee, not wanting to tempt fate.

  6.30. I wasn’t the only one suffering – Rebecca muttered something and slipped out.

  ‘If it’s for a fag,’ Brigg snarled after her, ‘get a move on.’ He turned to me. ‘Reminds me, have you got a mobile on you?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Keep it in your pocket, you never know.’

  6.37. Rebecca came back in.

  6.45. Rebecca, Josh and I put our coats on, although it was hot. The phone went at 6.49. Brigg snatched it up –

  ‘This is John Amend-all for Commander Brigg.’ It was on loudspeaker, so we could all hear it.

  ‘Commander Brigg speaking.’

  ‘Do you have the goods ready?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Can Dr Smith hear this?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Dr Smith, drive to the Brunel Trading Estate. Go to Hawksworth Way and stop outside the main gate of Enterprise Plumbing –’ The accent was West of England, maybe Bristol – ‘Get out of the car and wait. You have twenty minutes.’ The phone clicked off.

  ‘Here it is,’ Brigg said, pointing to the south-west corner of the city on the map. He moved his finger. ‘We’re here. Go left outside the station down Union Street, keep following the road, cross the river here, keep going half a mile, turn off here, Collett Way. Bex?’

  She was using a fluorescent felt tip to trace the route on two A-Z sheets. She handed one of them to me.

  ‘Got it?’ Brigg said.

  I nodded.

  ‘Off you go, all of you. Good luck.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said dryly – which was easy, since my mouth was dry.

  We hurried out to the car park.

  ‘I’ll follow in half a minute,’ Rebecca called to me as I got into my car. ‘Good luck.’

  I slammed the door, belted up, started the engine. Drove out.

  I was trembling violently – so much for what Brigg said …

  I knew more or less where I was going. The A-Z sheet was on the seat beside me. Down Union Street, left round the one way, right over the river bridge … I could see the river glinting in the lights and suddenly remembered Sarah painting it upstream…

  Keep going… half a mile… look out for the turning…

  Progress Road… Armitage Road… Collett Way – I turned left into it. Glanced at the dash clock – 7.10, I had five minutes.

  Drove down a wide, empty road past business premises great and small, all shiny drab in the sodium glare… not a soul about – why should there be? Glanced in the mirror – nothing – nor should there be.

  Churchward Way… Dean Way… Hawksworth Way – I turned into it.

  Sites behind chain link fencing, desolate pavements, weeds… Enterprise Plumbers. I stopped outside the gate. Swallowed.

  Nothing. Were these the main gates? Were there others, round the corner maybe…? Glanced at the clock – 7.15.

  Got out and wriggled into the backpack. Locked the car, felt stupid for even thinking of it…

  Looked up and down. Nothing. No sound, no car lights. No sign of Rebecca.

  Was there another gate? I walked quickly round the corner – no other gates; besides, this road was called Armstrong Way – back to the gates…

  I looked all around, 360 degrees: through the gates, over the road, everywhere… nothing.

  I was shivering. It was co
ld and I thrust my hands into my pockets. I’d stopped trembling, but I was shivering –

  A phone rang – I jumped, fumbled for my mobile, realised it wasn’t my phone ringing… It was coming from the pavement by the gate… I knelt… found it tucked behind some weeds beside the concrete post – found the right button…

  ‘Dr Smith?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When I’ve finished, walk left along Hawksworth Way until you reach Gooch Way, then go left again and follow it until you reach a bridge. Wait in the middle of the bridge.’ The phone clicked off.

  I put it in the other pocket and started walking. A hundred yards. A chill breeze blew at my neck and I turned up the collar of my coat. Went on shivering. Stuffed my hands back into my pockets. Felt the two phones…

  Gooch Way. Turned into it. Chain link, sodium light and desolation, just like all the other ways. Nothing like cricket.

  Darkness ahead. I kept walking. The chain link ended and the road became a rough track. I couldn’t see a bridge. Took a few more paces, stopped and peered…

  Now, away from the sodium glare, I could make it out in the light of the gibbous moon – a bridge, hump-backed, waiting for me.

  I walked towards it. Stones rattled under my feet and the bridge grew clearer…

  It was an old bridge, a canal bridge, and the moon reflected in the still water below. I stood in the middle and peered into the dark in front of me and as my eyes adjusted, the ground became clearer in the moonlight: a wasteland of humps, tracks, puddles, the odd derelict shack and rough, tussocky grass…

  The phone trilled, I snatched it, pushed the button –

  ‘Dr Smith?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do you see a light on the skyline dead ahead of you?’

  I peered… the only one I could see must have been well over a mile away… ‘You mean the one on top of the building?’

  ‘Walk towards it. Keep walking until I tell you to stop.’ Click.

  I started walking, looking alternately at the ground and the light. The ground grew rougher – I dodged a puddle, skirted some rubble, found a sort of track, tripped on a brick –

  Fell, hand thrusting into some kind of foliage…

  Nettles. They do still sting in winter.

  Got to my feet, focused on the light, stumbled on. Absently rubbed my hand…

  There was a thick copse ahead, but to one side of it, a gleam… must be the river…

  That’s where they are, the trees… I walked towards them. The tops were bare, but the underground impenetrable. Kept walking. Stopped at the edge of the trees. Peered. Swallowed –

  ‘Over here, Dr Smith.’

  A quiet voice, my head jerked up – shadow to my right –

  ‘Over here,’ it said again. I walked slowly, reluctantly, towards it.

  ‘Follow me.’ It vanished into the undergrowth.

  A path, with the shadow moving ahead. I followed – heard a noise behind me, turned, caught the glint of a gun in the moonlight –

  ‘Keep going.’ Another voice, rougher.

  I kept going. The undergrowth rustled dryly, then without warning ended in a clearing beside the river.

  ‘Stop there.’ The first voice. ‘You have something for us?’

  ‘In here –’ I started to take the backpack off –

  ‘Slowly!’

  I took it off and held it out in slow motion.

  ‘Throw it to me.’

  I threw it to his feet. He picked it up, pulled it open, drew out the container… got the lid off and shone a pencil torch inside.

  ‘Good.’ He put the container into another pack and then looked up at me. I couldn’t make out his face but I knew somehow that they were the same two who’d attacked me in the hospital. He took a few paces back.

  ‘Come over here.’

  ‘Why?’ My voice quavered.

  ‘So that we can tie you up.’ He spoke like a schoolteacher to a dim child. ‘Jase?’

  The other prodded his gun into my back. I walked, my legs trembling. A rowing boat was half pulled up onto the bank. The river chuckled and rippled in the moonlight.

  ‘Here.’ He beckoned to me and pointed. ‘Jase?’

  The other came into my view. I could see him grinning at me.

  ‘Sucker,’ he said, raising the gun and pointing it at my head –

  ‘Ah – !’ My hands went up to my face –

  The gun flared – both guns – went phut! over and over –

  Jase jerked –

  My head seared, Jase crumpled, then I was falling –

  A splash, a burning shock of cold, water in my lungs… I coughed, feebly splashed, felt myself sinking… my hands closed round something… then nothing.

  Chapter 37

  Rebecca kept Herry in sight until they’d crossed the river, then let the distance between them increase. Josh was driving and Dan and Stella were two minutes behind. Rebecca saw Herry’s indicator light winking as he turned left into Collett Way. A few moments later, they followed, and then stopped. Rebecca glanced at the map, then turned to Josh –

  ‘Take the second right, Dean Way, then stop and let me out.’

  He did so. She opened the door. ‘Turn round and wait for me here.’

  She got out and turned right, back into Collett Way. Ran lightly to the junction with Hawksworth Way, looked behind, then went down on her knees and peered cautiously round the corner…

  There was Herry’s car, about a hundred yards away. She watched as he got out, looked around, walked a little way along the road away from her, came back and looked around again.

  Then, in her earpiece, she heard a phone ring and saw Herry stoop and pick something up from beside the fence and put it to his ear… She heard him say, ‘Yes.’ He listened for a few moments, then put the phone in his pocket, crossed the road and walked away from her about fifty yards before turning left. She took out her transmitter and switched over to Brigg.

  ‘Can you see where he is?’ she asked him.

  Brigg’s voice came clearly into the earpiece: ‘He’s turned into Gooch Way and seems to be walking to the end of it.’

  ‘Where does it go?’

  ‘Uhh… seems to become a track, then go over a canal bridge. After that, there’s just wasteland between the canal and the river.’

  ‘They’ll be somewhere in there, then. I’m going to have to follow him.’

  ‘Careful not to be seen.’

  She switched back to Herry, ran back to the car and studied the map again… ‘Josh – go right into Collett way, then right again into Hawksworth. Slowly…’

  As they approached Herry’s car, she said, ‘Now, left here, Armstrong Way, then take the second right into Hackworth Way – that should bring us to where he went…’

  He stopped just before they got to Gooch Way. She got out, ran swiftly up to the junction, went onto her knees again and peered round…

  The streetlights interfered with her vision, but after a moment, she could make out Herry standing on the bridge - then she heard his phone ring again, and again heard him say, ‘Yes.’ Then, ‘You mean the one of top of the building?’

  On top of the building? What building? The only light she could see was on the skyline… then Herry started walking again, towards it… must be a marker…

  She switched to Brigg and he told her that he seemed to be walking in a straight line across the wasteland.

  She switched back in time to hear Herry fall and swear, then ran to the car.

  ‘I’m going to follow him,’ she told Josh. ‘Keep listening and be ready to come if I call you.’ She told him as much as she could about the terrain, then went back to the junction. Peered round again. Nothing.

  Keeping as close as she could to the chain link fence, she followed the road until it became a track. Once out of the light, she could see the bridge clearly in the moonlight. She realised that with the streetlamps behind her, she’d be seen when she got to the top of the bridge, so as she approached it,
she went down on her belly and crawled across.

  As she reached the shadows on the other side, she faintly heard in the earpiece the words: ‘Over here.’ A moment later, another voice said: ‘Keep going.’

  They’d made contact, their attention would be on Herry now… she slowly got to her feet and started walking across the wasteland... heard the conversation as Herry handed over the diamonds…

  ‘Ahh – ‘ Herry’s cry was followed by the phuts of the silenced handgun… Oh no…

  She started running, ran till she reached the band of trees, stopped, called Brigg –

  ‘Did you hear that?’

  ‘Yes. Not good.’

  ‘Can you see where he is?’

  ‘Let me enlarge it… he’s moving very slowly… seems to be in the river…’

  ‘What about the diamonds?’

  ‘They’ve… crossed to the other bank…’

  She ran along the side of the copse until she reached the river, stopped…

  The moon lit the surface quite clearly, but she couldn’t see anything – wait – a darker shadow, about fifty yards downriver –

  She started running again, pulled up as she came abreast of it and peered… a log…? Then she saw a feeble splash and made out the shape of a head – she snatched at her transmitter –

  ‘Josh – get over here as quickly as you can – he’s in the river and I’m going in to get him.’

  She put it down on the bank, pulled off her coat and pullover and kicked off her shoes… Took a deep breath and stepped into the water –

  Oh my God… the shock of the cold was worse than anything she’d imagined – I can’t do it… but she forced her arms and legs into a clumsy breast stroke towards the shadow… reached it –

  Herry, unconscious, clinging to a piece of wood…

  He wouldn’t let go and she had to prise his hands away before turning and kicking for the bank on her back holding him in front of her…

  He made no sound. She looked behind… still fifteen yards to go – fuck - keep going…

  Please soon… oh please soon… oh please soon…

  At last, she felt her head nudging into the reeds by the bank – she grabbed his collar, turned, felt her feet touch bottom – mud, but fairly firm, thank God – clutched at the sodden reeds and began hauling herself out while still keeping hold of him…