by AFN CLARKE
“Actually come to think of it, I found a similar encryption. Again I'll have to get this back to my office.”
Then the hairs on the back of my neck prickled as I thought I heard a sound downstairs. I thought it strange that Mary would be still up at this time.
“Pack up, I'll be back in a minute. I need to check on Mary.” The upstairs landing was quiet. Mary was not in her room, so I went downstairs where I could see a light shining from beneath the door of the sitting room and the front door was open. In the distance I heard the sound of a car accelerating down the driveway. Whoever had broken into the hall probably had heard us moving around upstairs and had made a quick getaway. I opened the sitting room door slowly, Glock in hand. There inside, sitting in one of the high backed wing armchairs next to the fire was Mary, unconscious, the sleeve of her right arm rolled up and a tourniquet still wrapped above her elbow. On the floor next to the armchair were an empty syringe and a jar of Orange Moon Body Butter, but there was no body butter in it, just pure heroin. Whoever had administered the dose didn't have time to loosen the tourniquet, which was why she was still alive. I checked her pulse. It was low and slow, then called the emergency services telling them I was an employee and had found Mary who seemed to have overdosed, ringing off before the emergency operator could ask any questions. I looked towards the door and saw Milly the housekeeper's body crumpled in the corner.
I waited with her, long enough so that Oldfield came looking for me.
“Is she okay?” he said on entering the sitting room.
“She will be. But Milly isn't.” I pointed over to the corner and thought for a moment Oldfield would throw-up, but he took a deep breath, and stepped out into the hallway. In the distance I could hear a siren wailing. It would be here in four minutes. “Let's go,” I said, picking up the jar of Orange Moon and walking to the front door, leaving it open with the porch lights on, and ran with Oldfield quickly to the Folly. Whoever had done this to Mary probably figured that she wouldn't be found until morning.
Once Oldfield was safely on his way and I was sure nobody was following him, I returned to the Folly, called Ron who like everyone else thought I was dead, told him what had happened to Mary and asked him to get over to the Hall with the Mini-Cooper, I'd meet him later.
“Not a word to anyone that I'm still alive. Call Henderson and ask him to stay with Mary at the hospital.”
“Mum's the word, Thomas. Don't worry I'll take care of everything. See you later,” he said and I sat in the darkness waiting for Danny's call.
Returning to the Hall was a strange experience, especially with Julie's presence so strong in the flat. The smell of her shampoo lingered in my imagination and once again I heard her bright laugh and saw her perfect naked body diving into the clean blue waters of Gozo so long ago. My cheeks felt wet and I realised I was crying. Somewhere in my black soul she stirred the emotions I had driven so far down I didn't know if I would ever feel love and compassion again. Those were dangerous feelings I could not afford right now. Later maybe, when this was all over and I had reached the end of this deadly journey, but not now.
We left Capri in a blow; Julie giggling excitedly as the catamaran easily shook the waves aside and headed for our first destination, Cyprus.
“ Enough adventure for you?”
“It beats the hell out of standing in front a damn camera all day.”
“I can imagine. Keep on this course and I'll rustle up some lunch for us. Any requests?”
“Surprise me.”
I seemed to spend a lot of my time on that cruise making exotic meals. Julie surprised me more than I surprised her. She was smart, funny, self assured and down to earth, the antithesis of a typical super-model. Money hadn't spoiled her, simply given her the freedom to be independent and pursue her dreams. Quite what those dreams were I had yet to find out. We had a lot in common, not our backgrounds, but how we viewed the world. Hers was a simple philosophy of enjoying every moment of her life. She was not constrained by any religious dogma and yet was the most compassionate and unselfish person I had ever met. It was no wonder I fell in love with her.
And now she was gone, and all I felt was complete emptiness where my heart should be.
How long I sat in the dark I don't know, but finally my phone vibrated. It was Danny. I directed him to the Folly and waited until I saw two shadows. There was a low whistle I instantly recognised as Danny, and answered in kind. The shadows quickly ran to the Folly. I stayed in the darkness as Danny and the other man entered.
“Thomas?”
“Whose your friend,” I answered.
“Paul,” came the reply from the other man. “We met in Dundonald.”
“Last time we met, you gave me the gypsy's warning,” I said quietly keeping my Glock aimed at his head. “What's changed?”
“Not much. I trust Danny. You, I don't know.”
I lowered the gun. “Fair enough.”
“You two done?” Danny asked. “What's with the ambulance?”
“Somebody tried to kill my stepmother with an overdose.”
“Jesus Mother of Mary, these bastards don't give crap who they hurt, do they?”
“No they don't.” I noticed that they were both carrying SAS bergens and were dressed in all black outfits, with the latest light weight bullet proof vests, the same we used on special operations. “You going somewhere?” I asked.
“With you. Orders.”
“Huh. So I work for you now?”
“No. I'm coming along to verify your findings, Paul's back-up.”
“Your Bosses don't trust me?”
“They think you're a loose cannon.”
“And what do you think?”
“That you're my friend and you need me, besides I've always been better at this shit than you.” He grinned, white teeth flashing in the night. “Here.” He tossed me my black outfit as Paul snapped open a small plastic Pelican storm case as I stripped off my suit and shoes and dressed quickly, and showed me the contents. Nestled in shaped foam were two instruments.
“The left hand one is a small Geiger counter for radioactive readings. The right hand one is a Uranium Hexafluoride sampler,” Paul said crisply.
I looked at him, a glimmer of understanding flickering to light in my brain. “You're CBRN (Chemical, Biological Radiological and Nuclear Defence) aren't you?” I asked, to which he nodded. “You bastards know much more than you're letting on. What's in the bergens?”
“Plastique, and firepower. HK MP5SDs and Sig Sauer nine mils. ”
“Planning on obliterating the place?”
“Maybe.”
“I'm surprised your Bosses didn't want a full team on this.”
“I convinced them that if we got bumped, it'd be really difficult explaining to the PSNI exactly what we are doing,” Danny answered. “However they will be informed once we're on the ground and inside the building. We have about twenty minutes to get what we need and get out before they appear. We still don't know what the level of their internal security is and we've been pre-empted before.”
“Good thinking. I wondered how you managed to have a team already in country.”
“Had to pull them out, somebody in high places informed on us.” He looked at me carefully. “Remember? That’s how you got shot down in Nevada. Somebody talked.”
The adrenaline started coursing as I realised I'd missed working with Danny. “Is this like old times, or am I just a spare part?”
“Like old times,” he whispered.
The Ambulance left with siren blaring and within a few minutes, silence descended once more over Calder Hall.
“Let's get going then,” I whispered and led the way to the back of the Hall and the Eurocopter hangar. While Danny and Paul pulled the helicopter onto the helipad, I went into the Hall to find Ron. He was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw me, gun in hand, dressed in black.
“Dear God, I nearly had a heart attack. What's going o
n?”
“More than I can tell you, Ron. Just watch the Hall and give me updates on Mary's condition,” I said tossing him a burn phone. “Use this, not the house phones or your own.”
“Has all this got something to do with your father's murder?”
“Everything. I'll be back late tomorrow night. If you need any help....” I stopped as he held up his hand.
“I'll have some of my lads come over. Don't worry, we maybe local yokels but we know how to handle ourselves, besides I got the keys to the gun room,” he grinned.
“Thanks Ron.”
“Anytime,” he said and I left him pouring a shot of brandy into his coffee. His hand shook a little, but I knew he would lay down his life before he let anything happen to Mary or the Hall.
FIFTEEN
My father had set up a non-profit mercy flight program for all the Gunn Group corporate aircraft ten years ago, collecting organs for transplant, and emergency airlifts of critically injured or ill patients. So it was no surprise to Norwich ATC (air traffic control) that I was requesting to file an emergency flight plan to Sheffield for a transplant organ pick-up.
Once en-route I was going to change the flight plan to Blackpool where I wanted to refuel for the flight to Dundonald. It was a simple way of disguising our true intentions. The weather was in our favour, with a tailwind all the way which would increase our 120 knot cruise by another ten knots and give us just under a two-hour flight time. Allowing thirty minutes to refuel, we could be on the ground in Dundonald by three o'clock in the morning.
As I finished with Norwich ATC and settled into the flight, Paul and Danny closed their eyes and were soon sleeping as if safely tucked up in bed at home, oblivious to the noise and the tension I felt as I flew on into the night. It was strangely comforting, just like Afghanistan when we would sleep as the Apache or Puma helicopters sped us on our way to an LZ in the mountains. Gradually I relaxed as the familiar feeling of flying came back to my mind and muscle memory, and once established at two thousand feet I switched on the autopilot that Scandinavian Avionics had installed along with the EFIS system, and relaxed, thinking about what we were heading into and listening to the en-route frequency.
If I had thought about everything clearly, rationally and logically when I first heard that my father had been killed, I would have figured out that the Government were going to use me for their own ends. But I was blinded by the desire for revenge and filled with my own sense of self-importance. Perhaps I should feel angry and betrayed by Danny, but I didn't. I felt that now I had a fighting chance to accomplish that which I had set out to do and there was time enough to settle accounts with whomever was pulling the strings. The puzzle wasn't going to be solved by me worrying at it, so I just concentrated on flying. As we approached Sheffield I called ATC and told them that I had been diverted to Blackpool, as the Sheffield transplant organ was not available.
Landing at Blackpool in the middle of the night, with a weather front moving in and visibility reducing by the minute was challenging. Danny and Paul were awake and watching without comment as I concentrated on the moving terrain display with obstacle warning indicators. ATC sounded a little bored as they guided me in and I requested fuel as we touched down.
“Piece of cake,” Danny said cheerily. “Wonder if they have any sandwiches in the terminal?” He went off to look while I checked in with the tower, paid for the landing fees and fuel and waited for Danny to return.
Paul was watching me carefully.
“Nice landing,” he said, I guess by way of being friendly. Nobody in our line of work trusted easily, especially as I was technically a civilian and no longer part of the 'inner circle'.
“Thanks, but you might save the congratulations until we land in Dundonald. That's where this mess is coming from,” I said looking at the sky. He nodded, and for the first time grinned.
“Wouldn't be normal if it wasn't raining,” he said as Danny trotted back from the terminal with a fist full of freshly made sandwiches.
“Told the lady we were a mercy flight,” he said cheerfully. “Well we are, officially, sort of.”
Within minutes, ATC cleared us to Belfast and we lifted off into the dark night for the one hour fifteen minute flight. Rain sleeted off the canopy and wind buffeted us as we headed out across the Irish Sea toward the Isle of Man and then Northern Ireland. I'd been told by ATC that we would be out of the worst of it in ten minutes as the front moved through. Thankfully they were right and the small helicopter settled on course with Danny and Paul tucking into their sandwiches. I'd wait until we were back safe and sound before I ate anything.
I contacted Aldergrove while we were still twenty minutes out and was relieved to hear them clear me straight into the Venus Automotive test track. Danny’s contact had obviously been very convincing with the concocted story of a life saving blood delivery for a child with a rare blood type living in Dundonald. The people concerned would meet us and all the details had been arranged with Venus Automotive. Now as I listened to the controller I had to smile. He couldn't have been more helpful, giving me a detailed picture of the weather and wind speeds.
The cloud base was eight hundred feet as we crossed the coast and below me the darkened countryside of Northern Ireland spread out on either side, with glimmers of some house and car lights. I changed course over Strangford Lough and flew towards Dundonald. Landing in these blustery conditions with only the floodlights of the factory to guide me was going to be tricky, but better than nothing. A direct in approach from overhead Ards Airport would avoid power-lines and other obstacles.
“Five minutes to landing,” I told Danny and Paul, who were checking their gear, loading the Heckler-Koch MP5SDs and slipping on ear buds and throat mikes. Danny prepared mine for me. It was the familiar routine that calmed the nerves and prepared the body for the fight ahead.
“Just get us down in one piece, Thomas,” Danny grinned, enjoying the adventure.
Over Ards Airport, I turned onto a bearing of 295° and saw the lights of Venus Automotive factory right on the nose. There was a surreal quality to the approach to the darkened factory, the noise of the helicopter seeming to disappear as I concentrated on the landing.
That was when I started to sweat.
The memory of the flight from Mojave flooding back, and it took all my will power to calm down, steady my hands and feet on the controls and gently nurse the aircraft towards the ground. I felt Danny glance at me.
“Two minutes. And relax.”
“I guess there'll be Venus Automotive security on the ground as a welcoming party,” Paul asked.
“Sure to be. I'm hoping just the normal guards and not De Costas' men.”
“We'll find out soon enough,” Danny said quietly as I slowly dropped the collective and pulled back a little on the cyclic. The helicopter slowed and we headed down toward the test track close behind the testing bay where the helicopter would be shielded from view. I could see one of the security vehicles already driving toward our landing point from the main gate, stopping just as we touched down. Two men got out, one I recognised as Martin.
It was the best night landing I have ever done and Danny and Paul were out and running before Martin and his colleague knew what was happening. By the time I had shut down and joined them, Danny and Paul had them trussed up with zip ties and sitting with their backs to the testing bay wall.
Martin looked at me incredulously. “Tom Nelson? We were told you were dead.”
“As you can see, not so, Martin. And the name's Thomas Gunn,” I said gruffly. “Are any of De Costas' men here?”
“Been coming and going all night. The last van is due in twenty minutes. De Costas was in the main office block earlier, with a woman. That's all I know.”
“What do they know about us flying in here?”
“Nothing. We only got the call a minute before you landed.”
“Sorry mate, have to do this,” Danny as he injected him in the neck with a sedative. Paul had already de
alt with the other guard. Watching Martin and his friend slump over, I have to confess I felt nothing. We had a job to do and that was all that mattered.
“Looks like we have company, there's movement at the main gates.” Paul said.
“Better get in there before they do,” I said. Having checked my weapons, I slipped in the ear bud and strapped on the throat mike, then led the way quickly to the door behind the dumpster. It looked exactly as I had left it, and the door opened easily. We slipped through into the main assembly plant, which was lit with low-level security lights. Almost immediately alarm bells started clanging in my head and that gut instinct clawed away telling me something was not right.
“Boys, this is not good,” I whispered. “The security lights were never on.”
“You sure?” Paul said softly.
“I'm sure.”
“Then we are going to have to do this the hard way,” Danny said, covering me as I moved forward between the robots.
“This place is wired, Danny,” I whispered looking straight at several pounds of Semtex strapped to one of the robot welders.
“Crap,” he replied. “See anyone?”
“No.”
“Keep moving, we'll deal with that on the way back.”
What surprised me was that we made it to the control room office without mishap.
Slumped in the chair behind the desk lay Samuel De Costas, his chest a bloody mess and surprised look on his face. There was no time to get sentimental, but I felt angry that somebody had got to him before me. I crossed to the cabinets and within fifteen seconds we were through into 'The Lab'. The re-enrichment device was almost completely dismantled, but Paul set to work with his equipment as Danny and I walked to the far wall and opened the loading bay air lock.
The uranium hexafluoride tanks were gone as were most of the ammunition boxes. Just then, we heard the sound of vehicles pulling up outside the loading bay. Danny followed me quickly back to the airlock and into 'The Lab' where Paul was packing up his equipment.
