by Olly Jarvis
It was 4 a.m. Simon Carter looked ashen. ‘Are you all OK?’ he asked, checking the faces around the room.
‘We’re fine,’ said Ella, giving him a hug. ‘Thanks for coming.’
His eyes rested on the bags piled up in the middle of the room. ‘Going somewhere?’
There was no easy way for Ella to say it. ‘We’re leaving Cambridge.’
He grimaced. ‘Is that wise?’ He glanced over at Lizzie.
Her face tense, she said nothing.
After a moment, seemingly resigned, he said, ‘OK, where are you going?’
Ella shrugged. ‘We need your help.’ She looked straight into his eyes. ‘To drive my van, as a decoy.’
Simon looked skywards and closed his eyes, then at Ella. ‘Tell me you’re joking?’ He grabbed her shoulders as if trying to shake some sense into her. ‘You know there’s a police car out the front, and what about the guy outside the door?’
‘I’ve thought of that,’ Ella replied, trying to sound measured. ‘Will you do it?’
He gave her a lingering stare, as if weighing up his options. Eventually, a reluctant dip of the head.
She handed him a piece of paper with a number on. ‘Text me on this if you need to talk and I’ll call you back.’
He put it in his pocket.
She hugged him again. ‘Thank you.’ She turned her attention to the others. ‘Put the bags behind the door.’ She watched Lizzie and Jay pick them up. ‘Where’s Broady’s?’
Jay held it up.
She scanned the other holdalls. ‘Where’s his telescope?’
Jay cast an eye over the bags then went into Broady’s room and brought out the case. ‘Sorry,’ he said, putting it with the others.
They all stood, adrenalin pumping, waiting for Ella’s next orders.
‘Right, let’s do it,’ she said, opening the front door.
The uniformed officer outside in a stab vest looked up, grateful for a break in the monotony. ‘All right?’
‘Quick, I think someone’s been on our balcony,’ she shouted.
An alarmed expression swept across his face as he followed Ella into the flat. She pulled back the curtain to allow room for the policeman to creep outside. She quickly shut the door behind him and locked it, pulling the curtain closed. On cue, the others picked up the bags and filed out through the door.
Ella could hear him rattling the balcony door as she locked up.
Their feet clattered down the stairwell, echoing off the walls, as they ran down to the car park in the basement.
A battered old white ambulance was parked next to Ella’s van. She groaned inwardly at the huge flowers and a large CND sign painted on the bonnet. The grille had been made to look like a shark’s mouth.
Jay swiped the key from under the wheel arch.
‘Wait,’ said Ella. ‘CCTV. Everyone into mine first.’
Ella handed her key to Simon who got into the driver’s side.
The others got in the passenger side and crept towards the back doors.
Jay and Lizzie got out of the back and hovered impatiently as
Ella pulled a cardboard box out from under the table and began taking books from the shelves, at first placing them inside and then just throwing them in.
‘Hurry up, Mum,’ hissed Lizzie.
‘We might need them,’ she snapped back, managing to lift the box and pass it to Jay before climbing out.
‘Where am I going?’ said Simon, turning on the ignition.
‘Anywhere,’ she replied as she shut the boot behind her.
Ella discreetly opened the back of the ambulance and they crept in, gently pulling the door shut behind them. They could hear Ella’s van begin to move off, the clutch grinding as Simon tried to grapple with the gears. It stalled. Ella winced. It started again, this time slowly pulling away.
Ella took a moment to take in their new surroundings. The vehicle was basic. Two seats at the front with a central, narrow galley at the back with two thin metal bunkbeds, screwed in on either side.
The three of them crouched down between the bunks, hearts in their mouths, listening for the slightest noise.
Waiting.
They heard a sound getting louder – footsteps running across the concrete floor. It stopped, then whoever it was began running again, up the ramp and away.
Ella gave it five minutes, then slipped into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Lizzie climbed into the passenger seat. ‘Out of the car park, then left.’
They set off, fully aware that they couldn’t have chosen a more conspicuous mode of transport. As the vehicle got up to the road, Ella nudged the nose out, checking all around. It looked clear. The ground was still wet from the last downpour. She turned left and off towards Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
They made their way to Nightingale Avenue in no time. There was nothing on the roads at that time of night. Jay crouched behind the seats, swaying with the movement of the vehicle, holding the seats to steady himself. Ella slowed as they went past the recreation ground, straining to see anything in the darkness.
Lizzie scanned the shadows under the treeline. ‘Nothing.’
‘He’s not here,’ said Jay as they reached the end of the road.
Ella swung the van into a three-point turn. ‘Let’s go back.’
‘Mum?’ Lizzie gave her an anxious glance, then took up position as they went back up along the road. She leaned forward, squinting out through the widescreen. ‘What’s that?’ A silhouette, stepping out onto the pavement. ‘It’s him,’ she yelled.
Jay opened up a door at the back as Ella came to a stop.
Broady staggered up the step and into the galley.
Ella looked over her shoulder.
Their eyes met in a brief, intense moment. Within seconds they were on their way.
Jay helped Broady carefully onto one of the lower bunks so that he was lying flat on his back.
‘Where now?’ asked Lizzie, taking a road atlas off the parcel shelf.
‘Anywhere,’ said Ella. ‘East, Norfolk. We need to avoid the motorways – ANPR.’
Lizzie’s nose crumpled up. ‘What’s that?’
‘Automatic Number Plate Recognition.’ Ella knew better than anyone how criminals got caught. ‘Roadside cameras will send them a signal if we pass.’
‘But they don’t know what we’re driving?’
She shot her daughter a pensive look. ‘They’ll work it out soon enough.’
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Ella pulled into a layby not far from King’s Lynn. She was exhausted. ‘We’ll rest here for a bit.’ She rubbed her bloodshot eyes and extricated herself from the seat, stretching out her back.
Jay was lying on his side on one of the bottom bunks, typing away on his laptop.
Ella squatted down to check on Broady who was waking up. ‘How are you?’ she asked.
He lifted his sweatshirt to reveal a bandage, worn around his waist like a sash. ‘Is it bleeding?’ he asked in a groggy voice.
‘No,’ she replied. ‘It’s clean.’
He let out a satisfied grunt and re-covered it.
‘Did anyone see you leave – the copper on the door?’
Broady slowly moved his head from side to side. ‘Pass me one of those pills,’ he said, gesturing towards his jacket.
Ella picked up the coat at the bottom of the bunk and started going through the pockets. She took out a box of penicillin and handed it to him.
He took out a packet and pressed one of the tablets out of the blister.
‘Where did you get those?’ she asked, helping him put the pack back in the box.
Broady ignored her.
She had a sinking feeling. ‘I asked you where you got them?’
‘The hospital,’ Broady murmured.
Ella stood up straight, still looking down at the patient. ‘That’s bullshit.’ She turned the box in her hand. ‘There’s no prescription on this. The NHS don’t hand out boxes of antibiotics.
‘If you’d sneaked out you wouldn’t have any meds?’
Lizzie and Jay had stopped what they were doing.
Broady eased his legs off the bed onto the floor, pushing up his body so that he was perched on the edge of the bunk. His breathing was laboured. ‘I was going to tell you.’
Ella’s head dropped. ‘Tell me what?’
‘I first got to thinking about it when I came to England.’ He put an arm across his stomach and adjusted his posture. ‘My boss is a mean old son-of-a-bitch.’ He looked up at Ella. ‘But he had no problem me coming over on some wild goose chase. He was all for it.’
‘He wanted you to come?’
‘I think someone wanted me to – someone high up.’
Ella couldn’t work out where this was going.
‘You got any water?’ Broady asked, holding the top bunk to support himself.
Lizzie took a bottle out of the holder and went back with it.
Broady unscrewed the top and took a swig, then handed it back. ‘That guy Stone, from the US Embassy. He gave me the pills. Told me to stick to you guys like glue.’
‘You’re saying he helped you sneak off?’ Ella barked, sceptical about the whole thing – about Broady.
A slow nod. ‘He wanted eyes on the ground. That’s the truth, and I ain’t no liar.’
‘I don’t get it, why would he care what we’re doing?’ Ella looked up and puffed out her cheeks. She fixed on Broady again. ‘We’ve just risked everything to get away from bloody politics.’
He turned to her with child-like eyes. ‘You kicking me out?’
She looked around at the others.
‘I believe you,’ said Jay, sitting up. ‘I think you’re being straight, but that doesn’t solve the problem.’
Ella could see what he was driving at.
‘We’re all here for Cambridge, for knowledge.’ Jay slid off the bunk so that he was sitting face-to-face with Broady. ‘Who are you here for?’
Broady took in a laboured breath. ‘I ain’t going to lie, I love my country.’ There was emotion in his voice. ‘I fought for it, my boy died for it.’ He paused. ‘But maybe the Broadys have given enough.’
‘If you want to stay,’ said Ella, ‘I need your word nothing goes back to your people. Nothing?’
Broady bowed his head. ‘You have it.’ He manoeuvred his upper body back down onto the bed, growling at the pain.
Ella lifted his legs off the floor and slid them onto the bunk.
‘I don’t know about Cambridge,’ he said. ‘But I’m a hundred percent for you guys.’ A faint trace of his old grin showed up in the corners of his mouth.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Ella woke with a start and banged her head on the roof of the van. It wasn’t the dream, she hadn’t had it for a couple of days now.
Jay was saying something. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.’
She could see the sun was still up. ‘What is it?’ she said, getting her bearings. She peered over the bunk to see Jay and Lizzie on the laptop.
‘We might have something,’ Jay said with a trace of excitement.
Ella climbed down backwards, finding her footing on Broady’s bunk, then stepped carefully down to the floor. Broady was awake. ‘You’ve got more colour in your cheeks,’ she observed.
‘Feeling better,’ he replied, rolling onto his good side so he could see Jay and Lizzie.
‘Jay’s a genius, Mum,’ said Lizzie, turning the screen towards her. ‘He’s made a grid.’
‘I’ve overlaid horizonal and vertical lines onto the file,’ Jay explained. ‘So that every dot is in its own box.’
Ella stared at the screen.
Jay pointed to the top of the page. ‘When you look at the vertical lines you can see that there are only twelve columns.’
Ella was still trying to understand.
‘There are only twelve set positions across the page that the dots sit,’ he said in a louder voice.
‘We think,’ said Lizzie, ‘that the horizontal axis could represent the twelve months of the year.’
The penny dropped. Ella’s eyes widened. ‘And the vertical would be—’
Lizzie couldn’t contain her excitement. ‘The year.’
Ella marvelled at their ingenuity. ‘It’s a timeline?’
‘We reckon,’ said Jay, failing to hide his pride at their discovery. ‘Every dot pinpoints a month and year in time.’
‘So how do we work out what dot represents which year?’
‘That’s the problem,’ said Jay. ‘We need to know what date one dot represents to calculate the others.’
Ella sat on Broady’s bunk and contemplated the dilemma.
‘What about your chronicle?’ offered Broady.
They all stared at him.
‘Of course,’ said Ella. ‘We know he was studying that period for a reason.’ Her mind was clicking into gear. ‘What’s the most important date in the Chronicle?’
‘1066?’ suggested Lizzie. ‘The Norman invasion?’
‘Yes,’ Ella replied. ‘That was the end of the Anglo-Saxons.’ She looked at Jay. ‘Can you go through and see if 1066 is there?’
‘I could run a programme,’ he replied. ‘Run every dot as 1066, but how would I know if I got it right?’
‘You wouldn’t,’ said Ella. ‘Unless the other dates seemed familiar, you know, important dates.’
‘OK,’ he said, sounding unsure. ‘That could work.’
He started banging away at the keys, then stopped. ‘Please don’t watch me work,’ he chided, glancing up at Ella.
‘Sorry. I’ll drive on a bit, try and find somewhere to eat.’
She got into the driver’s seat, feeling energised.
Ella pulled into a truck stop that had a makeshift café in a portacabin to avoid any cameras. Broady, who was moving more freely, was able to get up the steps unaided.
The place was deserted. A sullen, twenty-something girl in stonewashed jeans, chewing on gum, ambled over and took a pad and pen out of her back pocket. ‘Nice motor,’ she said, ogling the motley group.
‘Thanks,’ Ella replied. ‘I’ll have a coffee and the full English.’
Jay and Ella opted for the same.
‘Me too, I guess,’ said Broady.
Still chewing, the waitress made a note. ‘Eggs fried or scrambled?’
‘Fried,’ said Ella, checking the others agreed.
‘Over easy,’ said Broady.
‘She gave him a blank stare.
‘Sorry,’ said Ella, coming to the rescue. ‘Fried both sides.’
After the woman had mooched off, Jay got the laptop out and carried on working. Every time he ran the programme using a particular dot as the year 1066, Lizzie studied the dates the other dots would represent, each time shaking her head.
The waitress came back with a tray and plonked the drinks on the table, causing them to spill so that each cup sat in a saucer of coffee.
After what seemed like an age, she came back with the breakfasts, shoving them nonchalantly onto the table, saving Broady’s until last. ‘Eggs, over easy,’ she said with a pointed expression.
Ella noticed he didn’t have the strength for a witty retort.
Once they’d eaten, Jay got back to work, going through the dots, glancing at Lizzie each time, then, on seeing a shake of the head, moving on. The process continued for some time, until, about to move on to the next one, Lizzie suddenly shouted, ‘Stop.’ She ran a finger down the screen. ‘1812, Napoleonic Wars.’
‘And what about the other war of 1812, between America and the UK?’ added Broady.
‘Yeah, big year,’ Lizzie agreed.
‘1222?’ Jay asked, glancing up from the screen.
‘Genghis Khan,’ exclaimed Lizzie. ‘He went west, conquering most of Europe?’ She looked across at Ella, who bowed her head in confirmation.
‘They go right back,’ said Jay. ‘451?’
‘The defeat of Attila the Hun by the Romans,’ suggested Ella.
‘Yeah,’ Lizzie replied, leaning back for a moment to take it all in. ‘After he crossed the Rhine.’
‘AD 66?’ said Jay.
No one had an answer, then Lizzie suggested: ‘The Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans?’ She looked at the others. ‘Led to the destruction of Jerusalem.’
Ella held her breath, in awe of their discovery. The others seemed shocked into silence.
‘Any other dates from the Chronicle?’ asked Ella, half-turning the screen towards her.
Lizzie tracked back up. She stopped. ‘Mum, 793 is on there.’
‘Had to be!’ Ella shouted, then realised what she’d done and scanned the portacabin, checking no one was listening in. In a whisper she said, ‘Of all the dates in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Matthew has picked the two most important – the first Viking invasion, then the Normans in 1066.’
‘They’re all invasions,’ said Broady.
‘Genesis,’ said Lizzie. ‘It’s a chronicle of humanity.’
Jay stared at the screen. ‘Of man’s inhumanity to man, more like.’
A hush descended.
‘But what are the curves on the wallpaper,’ said Ella, ‘that join the dots?’ She picked up her phone and scrolled through the photos she’d taken. ‘And why would they form a pattern – there has to be a link between these dates?’
No one had an answer.
‘And why these invasions?’ said Lizzie. Not every conflict in history is recorded here.’
The waitress came back over. ‘Anything else?’ she asked, staring into the middle distance.
‘Just the bill,’ said Ella.
The woman wandered off again.
‘So, what now?’ asked Broady.
Ella’s head was still spinning from the discovery. ‘We go north, to Lindisfarne.’ She gave a firm nod, trying to convince herself. ‘We need to work out why Matthew chose 793.’ She stared out of the window. ‘Why that invasion?’ She could feel Genesis drawing her further in. The same pull she’d always felt towards Lindisfarne, towards history itself. Was it really possible that there was some great explanation? An answer that linked everything? She felt as if there was just a thin curtain shrouding her mind from a great revelation. Ella muttered to herself, ‘We need to see the bigger picture.’
