The Faceless Stratagem (Tombs Book 2)

by Robert Scott-Norton

  Linwood stood on the spot, hands resolutely by her sides. “I’m MI18. The situation is under control.” She had to shout to be heard against the slowing engine of the helicopter.

  “Like hell it is.” A woman’s voice retorted from the back of the group.

  And as the woman stepped in front of the torchlight, Linwood recognised her.

  “Who are you?” Payne asked.

  “Jacqueline Petro, Department 5” she replied. “I’m taking over this site and this investigation.”

  3

  6th May 2013

  “Who is she?” Payne asked, stepping closer to Linwood. Max was on his feet, shielding his eyes from the bright lights beaming from the helicopter.

  Linwood knew the woman. Jacqueline Petro was one of the most highly regarded agents in the security service. Linwood couldn’t help but compare herself to this woman who’d come from a difficult childhood, through the education system with top of her class grades, and landed a prestigious job in the country’s most secretive security agency—Department 5; well, most secretive after her own team.

  Linwood didn’t have time to answer Payne, though, as Jaq approached, followed closely by armed security agents wearing uniforms Linwood didn’t recognise.

  “I’m Jacqueline Petro,” she repeated. “We’re securing this site.”

  “I’ve got that well in hand, Jaq,” Linwood replied. “We need to pay most attention to the Lovell Telescope, but there’s also been some action in the main block behind me. You’ll find an ambulance in the visitor car park that needs impounding and examining, and there are several people in the vicinity that have been affected by tonight’s events. There are also several hostiles. They’ve undergone some kind of transformation and are extremely dangerous.”

  Jaq nodded then smiled and offered a hand to Linwood who shook it after a moment’s hesitation. “I heard it was you here, but I didn’t quite believe it. Alice Linwood as I live and breathe.”

  “It’s been a while.”

  “It’s been too long. How have you got involved in all of this? I thought you went back to a desk job.” Jaq seemed to realise that she was talking in front of civilians and gestured that Linwood should step away from the two men and take a walk with her. Linwood nodded at her comrades. “Don’t go anywhere,” she ordered.

  Payne’s face crumpled at the dismissal but Max shrugged his shoulders. “Got nowhere better to be,” he said. The guards lowered their weapons and all but one of them fanned out to search the area.

  Linwood walked alongside Jaq, heading for the main building.

  “Who are the two men?” Jaq asked.

  “DI Spencer Payne, a detective from Southport CID, and Max Harding, a civilian.”

  “Why are they here? Why are you here?”

  Delicate questions she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer without knowing what Department 5’s intent was. Holding back just enough information was the way of the intelligence agencies. It was pretty much a guessing game between them as to who knew what.

  “They’re under my protection. We were here because of a strange phenomenon occurring around the Lovell Telescope. Max Harding had insider knowledge that proved useful. DI Payne was connected with a case in Southport that might have some bearing on it.”

  Jaq nodded. “Southport? He’s from the same place as your old Tombs facility?”

  “Yes.” The Tombs facility she was referring to had been on Linwood’s mind ever since she’d stepped back inside there only a few hours ago. A place she’d worked with her team of MI18 agents for the best part of two decades, protecting the country from alien incursions and unexplainable phenomena. It was also the place she’d swore she’d never return to and going back inside had taken its toll on her. In her eagerness to resolve the Irulal situation, she’d put on a brave face and naively convinced herself that with a mission to achieve, she’d be able to forget what had happened down there.

  She’d been wrong. Those memories had never been forgotten, only crusted over like old paint in tins. One sharp poke and the crust cracked, exposing the contents.

  “And is that a coincidence?” Jaq asked.

  “That he’s from Southport? Of course it isn’t. This is connected to the Tombs.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  They’d reached the path around the outer buildings now. The emergency services were being directed by the men in uniforms. “Are these soldiers your lot?”

  Jaq shook her head. “Not exactly. I’ve been seconded to work closely with the TALOS Institute. You’ve heard of them?”

  “No. I don’t understand. I thought you were in charge of Department 5.”

  “I still am. I’m just acting as a liaison officer.”

  “For what purpose? What do they do?” Linwood asked.

  “It’s a research facility.”

  “Researching?”

  “Oh, this and that. Look, I’m sorry, but it’s delicate. TALOS isn’t exactly a secret organisation but they don’t want our relationship to be widely known.”

  Linwood resisted the urge to frown and instead dug her hands into her jacket pocket and pulled out her phone. There was no signal strength. Hardly surprising after Irulal’s attempt to take over the phone network had been foiled. Who knew what kind of damage had been done after sending that much signal through the network? And if her early information had been correct, a lot of the country had been affected by the incident. Several million people were likely trying to get in touch with either the emergency services or their families. It was like the worst possible New Years’ Eve.

  “If TALOS is a research facility, why are they ferrying you around in a helicopter with armed guards?”

  “We needed a fast response. I was close. We didn’t know what the situation was and wanted to be careful.”

  Nicely dodging the question but Linwood didn’t press her. As soon as she debriefed the Director General, she’d be able to ask these questions of him and shape an understanding of what was going on.

  She looked back to the field. The rotor blades were still spinning but slowing. The search lights of the various teams were edging out along the periphery of the main site’s boundary. “Your people need to be careful,” Linwood suggested. “Those hostiles are unpredictable.”

  “They know what they’re doing.” Jaq hugged herself tighter in her long coat, bracing herself from the wind that had picked up. “Why did you steal some of our equipment?”

  “Come again.”

  “Three days ago, you stole several laptops and cases of field equipment from a Department 5 office.”

  “I stole nothing. I was authorised to use that equipment.”

  “If you’re an active field agent, working with a dotted line to me, then perhaps yes, you’re right. But it’s been years since you’ve been out in the field. I’m assuming it’s all connected to why you’re here with two strangers. If I’m to offer you any kind of protection, it would help me if I knew what you were playing at.” Jaq’s tone suggested her patience with Linwood had come to an end but Linwood was damned if she would explain herself to Jaq.

  “I can get you your equipment back. It’s still in one piece,” Linwood said.

  “I’m not worried about that. I am concerned that you saw fit to disable the inbuilt tracking systems. It’s like you didn’t want to be found.”

  “If I didn’t want to be found, I’d hardly have shown up here, where your lot were bound to turn up sooner or later.”

  “Hey!” A cry from Max drew her attention once again to her associates on the field. One of the TALOS agents was moving towards Max with a pair of handcuffs whilst another was gripping his arms behind his back. Payne was getting a similar treatment.

  Linwood shook her head at Jaq and sprinted across the field just in time for the cuffs to be snapped on Max, and for the agents to start man-handling them towards the helicopter. She blocked the lead agent’s path and pushed a hand onto his chest. “Enough,” she said. “Let them go.”

  W
ith minimal effort, the agent knocked her hand aside and continued leading Payne and Max towards the helicopter. The rotor had started spinning up once again.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “They said they’re taking us to a holding facility,” Payne replied. “Who are this lot? Can’t you stop them?”

  Max suddenly grunted and shook his captor free, running towards the treeline where there was currently no sign of any agents. “Wait, Max,” she called, but it was no use. The agent he’d evaded was already in pursuit and with Max’s hands tied behind him, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. Max stumbled, and the delay allowed his hunter to catch him. A swift punch in the kidneys and the agent brought Max to his knees.

  Linwood turned angrily at Jaq, getting close so her meaning was clear. “There’s no need for that kind of assault.”

  “He was resisting arrest,” she said calmly.

  Payne shook his head. “You didn’t arrest him. You just decided to cuff us.”

  “You might not like it, but dealing with threats like this is what we’re best at.”

  “We’ve got rights.”

  “Of course, you’ve got rights. And I’m got laws to uphold and right now you and your colleague have proven yourselves to be threats to this country. I’m doing what is necessary to contain that threat.”

  The agent was dragging Max back to them now. Max was back to taking most of his own weight on his feet but his face showed he was still in a lot of pain. Linwood pushed aside the security agent who glanced at Jaq to check what he could do in retaliation. Jaq swiftly shook her head, and he stood down. There was no sign of the handcuffs being removed though.

  “Take these off him,” Linwood demanded.

  “No. It’s in everyone’s best interests.”

  “It’s not in his best interests,” Payne observed. “Or mine come to that.”

  “I’m sorry, but you’ve got to see things from our point of view. At the least, you’re all trespassing on private property. That’s an arrestable offence right there.”

  “You’re not about to take us away in your helicopter because you’ve caught us wandering around a university site.”

  Jaq smirked. “This is a matter of national security and you three are all in my custody until I deem otherwise.”

  Payne glanced at Linwood, his eyes narrowed. “What’s she talking about? Who are these people? Are they your lot?”

  Linwood dismissed the question with a gentle shake of her head. “No. Jaq works for Department 5. We’d better work with her.”

  Payne nodded reluctantly. The detective was in his fifties and was probably just about done burning through the adrenaline the night’s activities had generated. A murder detective, he had suddenly been thrown into the deep end of an investigation that MI18 would ordinarily have taken off their hands.

  Max looked forlorn. The knock to his back was uncalled for, and she’d make sure that he got the necessary medical examination to check him over. She’d known him for less than two hours and in that time he’d been fighting for his own survival. Taking off to Jodrell Bank to take on an alien invader by himself was one of the bravest feats she’d ever seen, and she had the utmost respect for him.

  But, there was something else about him that she’d noticed. Linwood had always been an observant child. It had caused her parents no end of trouble through her school years, and later when the cracks in their marriage appeared.

  Max wasn’t himself.

  A bold statement considering she’d known him for such a short space of time, but she knew in her heart she was right. Something had happened to him up there on the top of the Lovell Telescope and she needed an opportunity to press him further about it.

  Plus, there was his watch. She’d noticed it. She wondered if anyone else had.

  4

  6th May 2013

  Jacob woke with a head that felt like it had been smashed into his dashboard, then realised that was very possibly exactly what had happened. When the pain had struck his face, it had started like that tooth in his lower jaw had become infected again, but within seconds his nerves felt like they were being stretched and twisted across naked flames.

  None of this was made any easier by the passenger in the back screaming for the pain to stop. What should have been a simple run from the Promenade in Southport, back through Ainsdale to the dual carriageway, had turned into a living nightmare. He knew it was a cliché, but he thought it all the same.

  He’d done his best to pull the car over to the side of the road and almost managed it without damage.

  Almost, he thought wistfully, as he stepped out of the taxi and glared at the steam rising from the bonnet.

  The back door opened and a young figure, hunched and clutching onto the door got out. “I think I’m going to be...”

  The night clubber puked all over the tarmac and Jacob could only think himself lucky that she’d saved it for outside and not the back of his cab.

  “Are you OK?”

  Another bout of retching. Jesus, how much had she had to drink? The fumes from the vomit could probably set alight if caught with a naked flame.

  A moment later, a petite young face peeked around the door. “Fine, I guess.”

  “Stay there. Take a moment. Get some air. Just don’t puke in the back of the car.”

  It was then he noticed another vehicle, further down the coastal road. This one hadn’t thought to pull over to the side like he had and was reaching into the wrong lane. The stretch behind that car, at least to the roundabout, about as far as he could see, was clear of traffic.

  “I feel terrible,” his passenger said.

  “You’re still drunk,” Jacob replied, but strangely, he felt the same way. That slightly drunk feeling when you lie in bed at night and the room begins its carousel around you. “Did you black out in the back?”

  She moaned a response that could have been a ‘yes’. His mobile vibrated on the dash. Jacob leant in to retrieve it and was about to accept the call when the mobile went dead. It had been his wife, Jude, but now he couldn’t get his phone to come on at all.

  “Damn,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  “Missed my wife. She should be asleep.”

  Jacob was thinking bad thoughts. He directed his attention to his passenger. “What’s your name?”

  “Katie.”

  “You screamed on the back seat. Why?” Jacob was remembering.

  “I don’t know,” she said meekly, her face scrunched in concentration.

  “I’ll tell you what I think then. Something was wrong with your face,” Jacob said, the memories suddenly there in front of him. “For a few seconds, it felt like your face was on fire, alive with something crawling under the skin. And then, for the tiniest moment, you experienced blackness—a nothingness.” He stared at her, studying her reaction. He knew he’d been right. She’d experienced the same as him.

  “What does this have to do with your wife?”

  “What if it wasn’t just you and me this happened to?” He pointed at the car still not moving a hundred metres behind them. “What if this was an...” he stumbled for the right words, “an attack.”

  “What are you going on about? Just take me home.”

  Well, of course, she didn’t understand, she was drunk.

  Jacob glanced at the car on the road and considered doing what his passenger asked. He wanted to get home and see his wife. And yet, he couldn’t drive off and wonder whether he was leaving another driver stranded.

  “Get in, lay down on the back seat. Close the door. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “Where are you going? Is the meter still running?” She was slurring, but it was as much tiredness as alcohol.

  Jacob helped the young passenger back into the car, praying that when his daughter grew up, she would never allow herself to get into such a vulnerable position as this. After slamming the door, he glanced again down the road. The other car’s headlights were o
n, but he couldn’t see any sign of life.

  He pulled his jacket from the passenger seat, did up the zipper half way, felt in the pocket for his phone, then remembered that he wasn’t getting any signal anyway and ignored it. He held his car keys in his hand, the ignition key bunched under his knuckles, so the two-inch spike of metal protruded. The hair on the back of his neck was bristling, and he didn’t think it was solely down to the sea breeze coming in from the Irish Sea.

  He took his time walking along the tarmac, and no other cars approached. He strained his hearing to try to pick up any signs of life from farther afield. Although they were some distance away from any houses, a large car park and public park lay between him and them, there was a caravan park closer by than that. If this thing that had happened had affected more people, perhaps they would be up and might help if he needed it.

  The thought this driver had been unluckier than he had also crossed his mind. In the last ten years driving the taxi, he’d been involved in three accidents. One of which had seen the car he’d been driving hit on its flank by a young idiot streaking out of a junction without checking for traffic. Jacob had survived that knock with a bruised rib and a slight knock to the head. His passenger, an older gent who’d preferred to travel up front, hadn’t been so lucky. The impacting car had smashed into his door and broke an arm. The airbag inflating had knocked into the old gent’s face and broken his nose, blood had streamed uncontrollably for many minutes. It was enough of a close call to make Jacob reconsider leaving the taxi firm and going into a different career. But, at his age, and with his lack of qualifications, there was hardly a raft of options to choose from.

  He prayed the guy driving the car wasn’t seriously hurt.

  As Jacob approached, he could see behind the dazzling headlights into the empty car beyond. His heart slowed, and he took a deep breath as he realised he wasn’t about to have to give emergency first aid. It was a BMW. A 5 series. Charcoal grey with a dark leather interior.