by Mark Radford
‘You were a hunter Forrester but in the game of justice, you now become the hunted’ he spoke fiercely into the man’s face. ‘First, we have to even the score between hunter and prey.’ Skara nodded to a soldier as he stepped back. A shot was fired into Forrester’s leg. The man screamed pain and fear. The soldiers released him, and Skara said simply, ‘Run!’ They all laughed at Forrester’s attempts to run. The images on the TV stopped. Carl was horrified at what he had just witnessed and wondered how did our once great nation resort to such savagery? More importantly, he recognised the background of a watchtower alongside a perimeter fence and faced a problem. A high ranking officer was implicated in the crime of murder. How was he going to implement the arrest of General Skara, a firm friend and a key man of the President’s hierarchy?
CHAPTER FOUR
It all started in the late 1990s when The Animal Liberation Front waged a campaign of attacks against the Huntingdon Life Sciences group and their customer base using petrol bombs. A member of the British government at the time stated that the ALF tactics were becoming more military like. Was he to know how prophetic his very words were to become? Over the years, as more British troops were sent overseas to fight the battles in Iraq and the Middle East, the governments were fighting their own cause against the rising tide of Islamic terrorists. Under their noses, a radical change was happening. The expansion of the European Union with newer countries joining had allowed battle hardened mercenaries from them to enter Britain as free citizens with no restrictions attached. A secret army was slowly built up with their assistance under the fanatical wing of the emerging Ozone Party that preached Green issues and for the country to become completely environment friendly in the combat against global warming. It became a political party, engaged in local and national elections and took giant strides towards being the main opposition party. One day without warning in 2020, they declared war on democracy, were ready to inflict their own authority and unleashed their army on the country. The government, whose army was primarily stationed overseas, was powerless against them. The people swiftly conquered by the Ozone Party after bloodbath battles. The government was overthrown and the Royal family was banished and forced to live in exile. Overseas troops were too late to return and save their civilian government. Britain had fallen to military rule and Jeffery Masterson, the leader of the Ozone Party declared himself President. The party’s hidden agendas came to the forefront that led to their army being reassigned as the Animals Protection Army. The animal kingdom gained more rights than humans. Laws were passed making the consumption of meat and fish illegal, the citizens of the British Presidency were forced to become instant vegetarians or face harsh penalties. Those who revolted and protested the issues were quickly squashed. Fear gripped the people of the country as the authority of the President took a stronghold with a hard-line rule. The Ozone Party had now been in power for seven years.
Carl switched off the TV, retrieved the disc and put it back in the DVD case. The repulsion over Forrester’s treatment at the hands of a sadist soon turned to anger. He thought of the sacrifice that people like his father had made in trying to save their country from a hostile takeover. His father had paid with his life. The DVD evidence was enough to convince him that the Ozone Party was living beyond the law when regulations were in place to put people like Forrester on trial and imprison him for his crime. He knew that he faced a long battle ahead of him to bring General Skara to justice for the murder of Morgan Forrester. Carl picked up his mobile and dialled his office.
‘Phil, I just received evidence about the mauled victim this morning. His name is Morgan Forrester and he was murdered,’ he relayed his message. ‘I am on my way in with it, so get the briefing room ready.’ He hung up the phone, reached for his car keys and was out the door.
Speeding along towards his office on the motorway, Carl was cut off by a black van swerving sharply across his lane. He jerked the steering wheel and put on the brakes, bleeping the horn at the insane van driver. Another vehicle alongside him in the outside lane edged closer to his car, its windows heavily tinted.
‘Oh Shit’ shouted Treyer, unable to see the driver and knew that he was in trouble. The car bashed into him, forcing him to leave the road. He quickly brought his car to a halt and saw that the van had stopped and APA soldiers were emerging from the back doors like a plague of locusts. The car door was then jerked open and the barrel of a gun thrust into his face.
‘Do not try anything foolish, Mr Treyer,’ the voice commanded him. It confirmed his instinct that the altercation with the car was staged. ‘Get out of the car.’
Carl did as he was told. No sooner had he got out, he was handcuffed by a soldier and a blindfold cast across his eyes. He felt himself pulled away from his vehicle and struck the hard floor of the van as he was bundled inside before the vehicle drove off. For the first time in years, Carl felt fear creep up on him. Was his life in danger at the hands of the APA?
CHAPTER FIVE
A few hours had passed since his abduction by the APA. The van had pulled to a stop. The doors opened and he was taken into custody. In his blindfolded state, Carl took care to make a mental recollection of the surroundings around him. He walked up some stairs and then heard the pound of feet from his captors and himself on what sounded like a marble floor, several turns in direction made. Wherever they were, it was a large place. The footsteps became fewer as the men trailed off by numbers and he was finally brought to a halt. The handcuffs and blindfold removed from him. He was standing beside a large swimming pool in a room that represented a replica of a Roman bath with its columns and archway and he was facing General Skara. Soldiers were positioned at the doorway.
‘Mr Treyer, do accept my apology for the harsh treatment that brought you here.’ he spoke humbly, acting the golden ambassador.
‘I should not have been accosted like this at all in my authority as an MCO.’ Carl complained strongly.
‘Quite right but it’s a question of national security Mr Treyer.’ Skara remarked with ease.
‘Do tell me, in what way?’ He demanded of Skara.
‘You have greatly upset Captain Bridger this morning with your persistence to know what the military commitments were last night before the unfortunate man’s death. You should know that we can’t divulge classified information.’
‘I was merely following a line of investigation that is my rightful duty.’ Carl fired back the broadside. ‘Why was I was refused permission to speak with the night sentry?’ He enquired further, already knowing the answer.
‘Captain Bridger was within his right on what is clearly an open and shut case. A drunken man wanders into the lion’s enclosure and…’ The General’s words got halted by a sudden entry to the pool room by a senior soldier who had waved for his urgent attention. He walked up to Skara and whispered something into his ear before handing him a palm held computer. The General pressed a key on it and a DVD started to play.
It mortified Carl as he recognised the sounds of the mini disk that he had watched earlier. He had it with him in the car and it’s been intercepted by the APA soldiers that kidnapped him. The evidence that linked Skara to Forrester’s murder was now out of his hands.
‘Who handed you this DVD?’ Skara sternly asked Carl after viewing its contents and passed the laptop back to the soldier that brought it in.
‘I don’t know. It was delivered to me by courier this morning in a package.’ He answered.
‘You are very sure about that.’ Skara spoke and watched Carl’s reaction closely.
‘Yes, it was a motorcycle courier. If your men had me watched, you would have picked up on that.’ He responded, fearful of the new implication.
‘We will check that out Mr Treyer. This changes everything.’ Skara replied and summoned the soldier closer. He whispered instructions into his ear that the soldier acknowledged and who started to walk away from the two men. ‘Destroy the evidence.’ The General called out after him.
‘I have
a duplicate copy in a safe place.’ Carl said instantly and soldiers began to move in on him.
Skara smiled and waved the men back to their positions.
‘Do you now?’ He responded with interest. ‘You see, these men are prepared to protect me with their lives Mr Treyer. Do you really think you can arrest me?’ He spoke smugly. ‘At what Cost?’
A man was promptly escorted into the room by guards, dressed only in his underpants.
‘Please join me.’ Skara indicated the patio kind of chairs facing the pool and he sat down in one of them. Carl obediently followed suit.
‘Let the entertainment begin!’ The General gleefully announced and made a signal to the guards who took the man to the edge of the pool and retreated away. ‘Please take a swim while you still have the freedom. That is an order.’ Skara called out to the man who then jumped into the pool and started to swim. Skara turned to Carl.
‘Humour me, Mr Treyer. What crime has this man committed?’ He pointed to the swimmer.
‘I can’t say without the facts, General,’ he answered uneasily. Skara smiled. Carl sensed that Skara’s idea of entertainment was of the sadistic nature after what happened with Morgan Forrester. He feared for the safety of the swimmer and his own life.
‘Let me give you the facts’ and he rose to his feet.
‘This man was caught fishing.’ Skara spoke while he eyed the swimmer doing strokes. ‘If I mention to you, the game of justice,’ Skara turned to face Carl and seemed pleased to see the look of horror in his face. ‘Guards’ he shouted out his command.
Soldiers marched out. They brandished large steel rods with hooks on lines.
‘General, what is this?! You can’t do this!’ protested Carl, who stood up from his chair in an attempt to intervene. He was forcefully pushed back into his chair and restrained. The swimmer ceased his strokes at seeing the fate in store as the soldiers branched out around the pool.
‘Start fishing,’ ordered Skara and the lines were cast into the pool. The technology of the heat seeking hooks homed in with precision on its target. The soldiers started to tug hard on their rods. The screams started. Flesh being torn apart as the man fought for his life, he was swallowing water as he desperately attempted to escape the hooks. The water slowly turned into shades of red as blood filtered from the body.
‘Why have you done this?’ Carl gazed at the horrific spectacle before him.
‘It is all down to what life throws at you, Mr Treyer.’ The General continued to watch the slow demise of the swimmer. ‘My childhood was wiped out,’ he snapped his fingers, ‘in the blink of an eye. War hardens you…the things that I have seen,’ Skara’s tone was bitter. ‘It’s way beyond your wildest nightmares.’
‘So because you had an unhappy childhood, these people deserve to die like this?’ screeched Carl. ‘What’s wrong with you? What about the laws?’
‘What use are laws? My mother was raped in front of me as a child and shot afterwards by rebel soldiers from the war in my own country. They tossed her aside like a broken puppet so why should I grant anyone else justice?’ He sharply rebuked Carl’s plea for clemency. The screams from the pool had subsided and Skara watched the final moments of the man’s death as the body stopped twitching with life. ‘Clear up this mess’ he calmly ordered his men and turned to Carl. ‘Let this be a lesson to you Mr Treyer, not to darken my path.’
Carl felt a chill creep up his spine at the blatant threat issued.
‘Why? Are you afraid of the law?’
‘No, because you’re hiding the traitor who gave you the disc’ he replied. That threw Carl for a moment.
‘But…I told you I don’t know who sent the disc.’
‘I really do hope for your sake that’s true, Mr Treyer. I would hate for Selena to be harmed.’ Skara ruthlessly laid down his intentions.
‘You leave her out of this!’ he desperately warned the general.
‘She’s my assurance for now that you will hold your tongue.’ Skara held out a hand. The duty soldier next to the General pulled up a mobile from his belt clip and dialled a number before handing it to his leader.
‘General Skara speaking. Put the woman on.’ The mobile was passed to Carl.
‘Hello?’ he asked, cold sweat and terror sending ice up his spine, and then he heard Selena’s cry for help.
CHAPTER SIX
Carl had been returned to the point of his capture to find everything inside the car had been left intact except for the missing DVD case. He was able to drive the car thanks to the invention of impenetrable steel that was used in car manufacture; making car bodywork repairs a thing of the past. His first thought was to get home and see if he could find clues on the package paper itself as to its origin. Selena’s life depended on it.
No sooner had he opened the front door of home than he saw the destruction that greeted him. Paperwork was strewn across the floor, opened drawers dumped on the ground and furniture upturned. The place had been ransacked. Carl’s immediate suspicion fell on Skara’s men, of course. They had a lot to lose should a duplicate DVD disk materialise, incriminating their leader further. The scale of the job on his home showed their desperation to eliminate the opposition or rather, as Skara put it, the traitor who was apparently out to expose General Skara for the sadist and madman he really was. Carl knew that he must have been chosen by this anonymous ally to receive the DVD in his capacity as a MCO. Was he possibly the only man with the power to bring Skara down? He doubted his chances after the events of the day so far. Selena was held hostage and Skara had been shrewd enough to cover his tracks. The very thought of Selena in peril spurred him into action. Carl rushed over to the wastepaper basket where he had discarded the package paper. It was gone. No surprise, after the thorough going-over that had occurred in the rest of the lounge. Nevertheless, he screamed in frustration and kicked the basket across the room. He practically panicked at the thought of losing Selena. There had to be something he could do to save her. ‘Think, think!’ Carl tried to picture the motorcycle courier, in the hopes of remembering some small iota of information. He could almost see his face and it was a lifeline. Maybe there was an off-chance that he could do a photo fit of him with the bureau’s sketch artist. It was unlikely, but Carl had nothing to lose and left the house.
‘Where the bloody hell was you?’ demanded his colleague Phil, a portly man, face fattened with a thick brown moustache to even out the features of thinning hair on top, when Carl entered the station. ‘We got the debriefing team together as you requested and you never showed up.’
‘Something came up that became a priority.’
‘It had better be good as the chief is doing his nut over your disappearance. We found your car abandoned.’ Carl was grateful that they had attempted to find him.
‘I’ll go and see the chief this instant. Do me a favour, mate. Get Gavin up here for a portrait sketch.’
‘Sure, no problem,’ Phil responded. Carl walked on towards the chief’s office. He knocked on the door.
‘Come in!’ the call came out sharply. Carl entered the room. ‘Thank God you are safe, Carl!’ Chief Fletcher exclaimed with relief. ‘I had telephone calls from people reporting a kidnapping and the vehicle we found abandoned at the scene was your car. Eyewitnesses claimed the APA was responsible.’ The chief gave him the story.
‘They were, sir but it was a case of mistaken identity,’ Carl acknowledged.
‘Where’s the new evidence of this morning’s investigation? A Morgan Forrester I am told.’
It reminded Carl of the call he had put in to Phil.
‘I was mistaken on that.’ He replied.
‘Don’t be a damn fool Carl. We checked it out and Forrester didn’t make it home last night? His wife admitted that he went hunting and fears the APA had taken him.’ Fletcher laid into him. ‘Did they take the evidence you were bringing in?’
Carl turned away and put his hand to his mouth, the fingers pressed firmly on the jaw, eyes rolling up towards heaven. He
’s been put on the spot and it showed.
‘Don’t make me have to reprimand you Carl. Will you stop being evasive.’ The chief bluntly warned him. ‘What was it?’
‘I really can’t say as Selena’s life is in jeopardy here’ he hesitated.
‘What?!’ The chief scowled, and then thought for a moment. ‘Jesus Christ, Carl! Who’s involved?’
‘General Osti Skara and a DVD mini disk had a recording of the whole murder.’ Carl came clean and conceded with a heavy heart. ‘It’s been destroyed.’
‘You are not bullshitting me.’ Fletcher said taken aback in alarm but saw that Carl was serious. ‘Who filmed it? How did you get it?’
‘Judging from the DVD, it seems there’s a mole inside Skara’s camp…someone who wants to oust him publicly. It was sent to me by courier this morning and I need to track him down quickly because the General thinks I know who the mole is, the reason he’s holding Selena.’
‘What do you propose to do?’ The Chief asked.
‘I want to see if I can trace the motorcycle courier who delivered the DVD package for a lead and Gavin should be waiting for me…for a photo fit sketch.’
‘Good thinking, Carl. Keep this strictly among those who need to know and inform me when you get any new information’. Carl nodded and left Chief Fletcher’s office.
A sketch was drawn up from Carl’s description to Gavin and scanned into the profile database where the photo fit search was made. It found a match! Details were taken and Carl called on Phil and Matt for assistance. They left the building quickly. The chase was on to find the courier.
