Alan Richards
Geminae
First published by Basset Publishing 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Alan Richards
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
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Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty One
Twenty Two
Twelve Months Later
August
November
March
April
Thank you for reading Geminae
About the Author
Also by Alan Richards
One
Vladimir hadn’t enjoyed the flight, he never enjoyed flying. He had been sent to the United Kingdom to deliver a speech at a conference in London on gene therapy. The conference would host scientists from around the world and as the worlds leading authority on the subject he had been encouraged to attend by the authorities in his home country of Russia. He didn’t really have a choice. The plane taxied around the airport until it reached it’s final resting place. Once the seatbelt lights were extinguished he collected his cabin luggage and waited for the doors to be opened.
Once off the plane he cleared security, collected his luggage and exited the customs area into the arrivals hall. He looked along the row of people standing holding cards with the names of people on them. He had been told he would be collected. He finally spotted his name and walked in the direction of the young lady who was holding the card.
“I am Vladimir Sokolov.”
“Hello Mr Sokolov. My name is Lyndsey.”
“Hello. You are here to collect me?”
“Yes. I will be looking after you during your stay in London. I am sure you would like to freshen up so if we head out of here we can get you to your hotel. After that I will be available to take you to the conference centre tomorrow.”
“Thank you, yes I would like to get to the hotel.”
Lyndsey beckoned him in the direction of the exits and they started to walk with the flow of people trying to find their way out of the bustling mini city that was Heathrow airport.
“Have you been to London before Mr Sokolov?” asked Lyndsey.
“Yes. I lived here for a while but it was a long time ago.”
“It’s probably changed a lot since you were last here.”
“Yes, probably.”
“Once you have freshened up I can take you anywhere you would like to go. Sightseeing or something to eat maybe.”
“It is fine. I can find my way around London.”
“I am afraid I will need to accompany you on any trips away from the hotel.”
“May I ask why?”
Lyndsey didn’t answer, she just turned and smiled at him. Vladimir knew that it would be pointless to keep asking the question. He kept quiet, followed Lyndsey out of the terminal building and towards a blue car that was parked in front of it. The man sat in the drivers side got out as they approached and opened the boot. He took Vladimir’s luggage and placed it in the boot. Lyndsey opened the rear passenger door for him to get in, closed it after he had made himself comfortable and made her way around the rear of the car. Opening the passenger door opposite where Vladimir was sat she climbed in next to him.
* * *
Lyndsey watched as the queues slowly made their way along the motorway that led from Heathrow airport into the centre of London.
“How long will it take to get to the hotel?” Vladimir asked.
“With all this traffic about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I would sit back and relax.” she said with a smile.
She watched as Vladimir sat back in his seat and tried to make himself comfortable, he had already been sat on a plane for hours and now he would be sat for a few more hours.
“Try and get some sleep if you like,” Lyndsey said.
“Yes I might try that.”
She couldn’t help but smile as she watched him close his eyes and start to sleep, at least it would stop him asking awkward questions. Lyndsey and Adrian had been charged with protecting Vladimir during his stay in London. He was a well known figure in the world of gene therapy and some of his opinions attracted wild criticism and threats from activists and church groups that believed any gene research should be banned.
“Do you think we are still being punished for losing Alexa?” asked Adrian.
“It’s been a year, so no. Anyway he’s a nice man and it should be an easy week.”
“Oh great, you saying that is bound to mean the opposite will be the case.”
“Just drive and get us back to the hotel.”
Lyndsey looked around the cars that were on either side of their’s as the queue of traffic moved a little quicker. Someone singing along to whatever was on the radio, a family obviously out on a trip; video screens in the back seats keeping the children occupied. They both disappeared into the distance as the lanes on either side of them started to pick up pace. A black Range Rover appeared next to them, the front of the car level with the drivers door. It kept pace with them, even though the outside lane was still moving faster than their’s She looked over, the inside lane was now moving faster, the middle lane appeared to be blocked and was moving very slowly compared to the other lanes. The Range Rover was still keeping pace with them.
“Adrian, get in the inside lane.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
“But it filters to the M25 further down and will slow us down.”
“Just fucking move to the inside lane,” she shouted.
Lyndsey shouting combined with the sudden movement of the car as Adrian jerked the steering wheel to the left and moved the car over to the inside lane jolted Vladimir from his slumber.
“What was the point of that?” he asked.
“Wait.”
“For...”
“That,” she replied as the Range Rover pulled over and filled the space that they had left.
“What?”
“The Range Rover, it’s following us.”
Lyndsey turned and looked out of the side window.
“Male driving, female in the passenger seat. None of the faces are on the watch list that I recognise but the female passenger looks familia
r. I can’t work out where I have seen her before.”
Lyndsey found she was staring at the female driver, she knew the face but couldn’t place where she had seen her before... then it came to her, she worked with Alexa. She had been one of the three person team when they worked with Soteria to free Jane Torrance from her captors, why was... she hadn’t seen the Range Rover speeding up the emergency lane of the motorway, she had been distracted by trying to place the female driver in the car beside them. She caught a glint out of the corner of her eye that focused her attention towards the second black Range Rover. The glint was the sunlight reflected off the semi automatic rifle that was now pointing straight at her.
“GET DOWN,” she shouted as she grabbed hold of Vladimir and pulled him to the floor of the car. The side window was shattered by gunfire.
“Get us out of here Adrian.”
Still laying on top of Vladimir on the floor of the car she took her pistol from it’s waist holster, pointed it out of the now shattered side window, wildly shooting, hoping some rounds would do some damage to either the occupants of the Range Rover or the vehicle itself. She lost hold of her pistol as the Range Rover behind them hit the car and it tumbled onto the floor.
“What is happening?”
“Don’t worry Mr Sokolov, we will get you out of here.”
“How?”
“Adrian we need to get away from these two.”
“There’s nowhere to go,” replied Adrian as he tried to find a space to manoeuvre into.
“Isn’t there a services up ahead.”
“Yes, but the two of us against whoever is in those two cars.”
“If we can get into the food hall we can blend in and wait for reinforcements.”
“Okay.”
Adrian looked for a space to move into, he needed to free the car and it’s occupants from the position that the Range Rover’s had put them in. The middle lane started to pick up pace, creating an opening in front of the Range Rover as it still shadowed their right hand side. He hit the accelerator, picked up speed and swerved his car in front of the Range Rover in the middle lane. The Range Rover in the emergency lane moved right filling the space Adrian had left. A passenger in the Range Rover to Lyndsey’s left lowered the window and fired another flurry of gunfire at the car.
“Hold on this may get a bit bumpy.”
Traffic was now flowing at full speed in the middle and outside lane, the inside lane was much slower. He was nearing the exit for the services, there were no gaps as the inside lane was now bumper to bumper. As he pulled level with the services exit he pulled on the steering wheel to move the car left into a gap that was only big enough for a person to walk through. The corner of his car filled the gap quickly, the passenger side of the car slammed into the corner of the stationery car that was filling the space he needed to occupy. The side air bags exploded filling the side of the car. He put his foot harder on the accelerator, pushing the car out of the way. He was through. The car limped along the road to the services. He pulled up in front of the food hall and exited the car. He looked down the road that led from the motorway and saw a black Range Rover speeding towards them.
“We need to get in there,” he shouted as he pulled open the passenger door behind the driver.
Lyndsey was still laying on top of Vladimir. Adrian pulled her up and out of the car followed by Vladimir. Lyndsey went back into the car and retrieved her pistol. Dragging Vladimir along they walked into the food hall and sat down among the throngs of people drinking and eating. They should be safe here while they call it in to operations control and wait for backup.
* * *
Ian Monroe was sat on the train from Derby to London. He enjoyed the Derbyshire countryside and he kept a small home on the edge of the peak district that he visited as often as he could. In his role as head of MI5 he always travelled first class, it allowed him to work on briefing reports in comfort. It had been a year since the mess in London that had ended with numerous dead bodies. The press fallout had been easiest to contain, blackout orders had been slapped on all news outlets. Apart from a few internet conspiracy theories it had been forgotten very quickly; this was London after all, dead bodies appeared daily. The political fallout had been more difficult to handle. He couldn’t tell them everything, he couldn’t tell them about the involvement of Soteria. As far as governments across the world were concerned, Soteria didn’t exist. He had blamed it on rogue elements from external governments and organised crime. They had believed every word. He was reading the latest brief on terror threats in London when his phone rang.
“Monroe.”
“Sir, we have a situation on a transport operation.”
“Do I really need to know about a flat tyre on a car?”
“I wouldn’t bother you sir if it wasn’t important.”
“What is it then?”
“The Sokolov transport has come under attack on the M4.”
“Did you say under attack?”
“Yes sir.”
“Details.”
“The two officers have evaded the initial attack and have based themselves in a motorway services. Their car is not drivable. We have sent rapid response teams to their location. Attackers are on site as well.”
“Do we know who the attackers are?”
“Yes sir, one of the officers reported knowing one of the attackers.”
“And...”
“It’s Soteria.”
Ian paused, why would Soteria... why would Letitia be ordering attacks on his people.
“Sir?”
“I’m still here.”
“Do you just want an extraction?”
“No, I want all attackers extinguished.”
Ian ended the call and pressed the quick dial combination for Letitia.
“Hello Ian, how are you?” she answered.
“What the fuck are you playing at?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about Ian.”
“Your operatives attacking two of my people.”
“Are they yours, I am sorry. We just want their package.”
“He is under our protection, call them off.”
“Thats not going to happen I’m afraid.”
“I have sent a rapid response team with orders to kill. Call them off or they die.”
“Ian... I don’t work for you, Soteria doesn’t work for you.”
“But...”
“Ian, you may have had an arrangement with my father, but Soteria has changed. We have our own agenda and Vladimir Sokolov is part of that agenda.”
“Your father would never have taken this course of action.”
“My father was weak. He pandered to governments. I am going to run governments. Soteria will run the world and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
“You’ve gone mad.”
“No Ian, I am realising my potential.”
The line went dead. Ian watched as the fields and towns flew past on his journey to London. This was not going to end well, Soteria had agents in all the developed countries and could easily exert force on some of the weaker governments around the world. He realised he could be about to oversee a world war fought in the shadows and he had no idea who he would be able to trust.
Two
Alexa watched as the sea rolled onto the beach, the sound of the gentle tide lapping the beach and then sliding back out to sea made her feel at ease. It had been a year since she killed Giles Trent after finding out that he had killed her father. He had covered up the murder by making it look like a suicide. As a child the suicide of her father had followed closely the death of her sister. Over the last year she had not only had to deal with discovering that her father had been murdered she had also discovered the reason for his murder; he had been experimenting on herself and her sister. He had wanted to come clean but forces within the secret organisation he was the leader of couldn’t let that happen. A year had not helped her sort through her differing emotions, on one hand she loved her fat
her and her killing of Giles went some way to resolving that emotion, but she was also repulsed by her father, in particular that he could experiment on his own children.
“Alexa, look.”
She looked along the beach to see Sofia and Rosarita playing. They loved running around the beach with Copper, they had hardly been off it during the last year and had fallen in love with the dog Alexa had rescued when she killed Rusudan.
“You be careful,” she shouted across the beach to them.
It was the same every day, they just ran around and she told them to be careful. During her time with Soteria, the organisation her father used to run, she had rescued Sofia from a child trafficker in Georgia, Rosarita from another child trafficker in London.
“Your consistent. If I ever need to find you and the girls, I know exactly where you will be,” said Jane as she sat down beside Alexa and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“They love running around here, you’d think after a year they would have got bored of it.”
“I don’t think they ever will. We do need to start thinking about what we do next though.”
“I know.”
“It’s been a year. Do you have any idea what you want to do. The girls should really start school this September, but the school will ask for birth certificates, passports. All the stuff we haven’t got.”
“I know, I just don’t know what to do for the best.”
“I would have thought between us we could find someone to help.”
“We could ask Frank, he is bound to know people. I’ll ring him.”
“Good, now get those girls and the dog in and let’s get something to eat.”
Alexa shouted Sofia and Rosarita to come in and they all left the beach to head back to the cottage for some lunch.
* * *
Detective Chief Inspector Frank Trainer was sat in one of those boring management meetings that he had to attend since his promotion. He had never been a career minded person, he was happy as a Detective but ever since Alexa had gone rogue to kill Felicia Fenner the subsequent years had been a whirlwind of high profile cases and arrests that had been attributed to him; despite the fact that the unorthodox methods of Alexa Blake had ensured the people could be arrested. The Assistant Chief Commissioner was talking as a mobile phone started to ring. He glared at the assembled police officers. Frank was amused that it had interrupted the self indulgent speech he was giving. As everyone turned to look at him he realised it was his phone. He shot up from his chair, apologised and left the room. He took his phone from his inside pocket, the screen was locked, the phone wasn’t ringing. It was then he realised it was his other phone, the phone he had been given by Alexa.
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