Nine of Wands

by Mark Hayden

  When a family from out of the village arrived, Scout lost interest in me and went to pester them. I think the Spirit that became Scout must have been an actor in a previous life: he schmoozed that family like a West End veteran.

  I left them to it and opened my case. I took out Ordnance Survey map 185 for north Hampshire and spread it over the table. A very rough pair of lines in pencil showed the radius of half an hour’s drive from Lilac Cottage and the likely zone for Eilidh Haigh’s forge.

  I know that area very well, because just east of map 185 is where my second home used to be – 7 Squadron at RAF Odiham. I lit a cigarette and did some calculations until Hannah rang.

  ‘Can you talk?’

  ‘Yes, he was only here long enough to wet his whistle and disappoint me. I’ve had longer and more fulfilling speed dates.’

  ‘Hashem give me strength. I do not want to know about your love-life. So?’

  I told her what he’d had to say, and she finished by asking my thoughts.

  ‘I have a plan, ma’am. You won’t like it.’

  ‘I know I won’t like it. I also know that it will be insane and that it will be our only option. Which bit will I like least?’

  ‘The bit where we call up the reserves. I need Desirée as well as Vicky, Saffron and Xavi. We should all fit nicely in a Puma.’

  ‘Don’t tell me that’s a helicopter. Do not tell me you want to fly in a bunch of Mages.’

  ‘Of course not, ma’am. I won’t be flying, I’ll be a passenger.’

  ‘Why? Why not go in on the ground? Like normal people?’

  ‘Because I know that area. Eilidh has had a base there for over a year. She knows the net is closing in. She’ll be ready to run, and if we go in over the ground, she’ll know we’re coming in plenty to time to get out. This time, she’ll leave the bodyguards behind, and if she takes her Range Rover over the fields, we’ll never catch her. I don’t want her to get away a third time. If we go in by air, at night, we can hit them hard.’

  I heard her sigh. That meant she’d given in on the principle. After that, it was just a question of details. I lit another fag and outlined my plan.

  ‘My god it’s huge. How do you handle something that size?’

  ‘Please tell me we’re not going in one of those.’

  The Chinook helicopter is big. Very big. As tall as Lilac Cottage and much, much longer. Seeing a row of them is even more impressive. The only one not to be thoroughly impressed was Desirée. She was still getting over the issue of her combat uniform and the fact that people really do salute each other on an RAF base.

  ‘Ours is round the back. Much smaller,’ I said.

  ‘Not that much,’ said Vicky. ‘You know, I swore I’d only ever get in a helicopter with you if Hannah ordered me.’

  ‘I remember. Just be thankful I’m not the pilot.’

  ‘At least we won’t have to worry about getting decapitated by the rotors,’ said Xavi. ‘Just the teargas and the toxic weapons.’ He does have a good line in morbid humour.

  ‘And I still don’t see why we’re practising this,’ said Saffron. ‘How hard can it be to get out of a helicopter?’

  ‘Let’s find out, shall we?’

  As we got closer, they realised that the step-bar to get in is quite high off the ground, and the cargo space is a lot higher. Troops in full kit are not allowed to jump out unless ordered.

  ‘Oh,’ said Saffron. ‘Fair enough. Who’s going to be first out?’

  ‘Who do you think?’

  She turned to Vicky. ‘Please tell me he did this to you as well. I hate it when he puts me on the spot.’

  ‘Aye, he did do it. Not usually in public, though.’

  Saffron looked at me until she realised, yet again, that I was serious. She rubbed her chin and took her red beret off for the hundredth time. ‘The fastest.’

  ‘Correct. In the real drop, I will go last because my bad leg might slow you down. Now watch me.’ I got in and out a couple of times, pointing out the hand holds and where to put your feet. ‘Your turn.’

  I made Saffron do it twelve times before she cracked and said, ‘What am I doing wrong?’

  ‘You didn’t listen when I explained it. If you had, you’d know that you’re an inch too short to do it that way. You need to put both feet on the rail.’

  ‘But I can do it easily!’

  The hurt, bewildered expression on her face was almost more than I could bear, and definitely more than Vicky could stomach. ‘Take it easy, pet. He can be a pain at times, but just do it, eh? Sometimes, he really does know what he’s talking about. Conrad brought me back from the dead, remember?’

  ‘Sorry, sir,’ said Saffron. The thirteenth time, she executed the manoeuvre perfectly.

  We left the officers’ mess at 01:30 and jogged across the base to one of the hangars. We didn’t jog for exercise, we jogged because it was starting to rain, and judging from the size of the raindrops against the halogen lights, it was going to be a complete downpour. Desirée had asked what would happen if it rained. She was not impressed when I told her that we’d get wet.

  Vicky pulled me to one side when we reached the shelter of the hangar. ‘Are you sure this guy can fly in the rain?’

  A couple of months ago, she’d have been taking Xanax and been of limited use. Now, she was just very nervous. Definitely progress.

  ‘Dave has flown into much worse. He’s very good, and he rates his co-pilot as being even better. We couldn’t be in safer hands.’

  ‘Aye, well, we’ll see about that.’

  We’d gone in to the hangar via a side entrance. Through one of the main doors at the front, we could see our ride for the night squatting on the tarmac. Dave and Sophie had only just flown in from their base in Oxfordshire, and the chopper was warmed up and ready to go. I wanted this over as fast as possible.

  There was a very limited group of people in on this. The aircrew, an air traffic controller and the 7 Squadron CO were gathered round a bench by the entrance. The ATC had a big laptop open and ready. We’d rehearsed this part a couple of times. As far as we could. We only had one shot to get it right, and now was the time.

  I introduced the aircrew to my team and passed the phone to Saffron. It was her idea, and she could be the one who spoke. She’d been practising, too, and now knew everything there was to know about Laufstrasse. On the nod, she clicked on the Password Reset button and switched to email.

  ‘I hate this bit,’ she said. ‘All I want to do is keep refreshing the screen, even though I know it doesn’t do any … it’s in!’

  Her thumbs moved like lightning as she worked through the screens, and her face creased into a frown until she broke into a grin. ‘We’ve got her! She was out running at 1900 tonight. And there are hundreds of routes all starting and finishing at a place she’s called The Forge. Talk about serving it up on a plate. Right, the co-ordinates are …’

  She reeled off the location, and the ATC typed them into the laptop. He peered at the screen and shook his head. ‘Check those. You’ve put her in the middle of a wood.’

  ‘Damn,’ I said. ‘I’m afraid Lieutenant Hawkins will be right.’

  The ATC wasn’t having it. ‘This satellite overlay is only 48 hours old. That is a solid wood. There must be a mistake.’

  ‘Check it, Hawkins,’ I said. ‘Just to be sure.’

  She did check it, and the screen still showed a wood. Dave and Sophie did not look happy. I wouldn’t have looked happy in their shoes. The CO was holding himself back for now. I pulled my lip and asked for the phone.

  I held it next to the laptop and compared the two. The wood was shaped (appropriately) like a triangle pointing south. All of Eilidhs’ runs started in the lower part and seemingly crossed a field to the narrowest of public roads. I turned to Xavi as the team’s expert on occulting. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, Metcalfe, but I think the upper part of the wood is real enough, with this lower, mini-triangle being screened, and that there’s an access road just the
re.’

  He repeated my comparison. ‘Almost certainly, sir. If you look at the field, those white lines are where the tractor’s been, and they don’t circle round the lower wood. If you join those lines, they go straight through.’

  I pointed to the top of the field on the far side, next to where I reckoned the real wood was located. ‘Drop us there. Unless I see differently, we’ll go through the wood rather than over the fence.’

  ‘The wood’s more likely to be Warded,’ said Vicky.

  ‘And it will give us cover. Unpicking the Wards is your job. Any other thoughts?’

  The Mages in the hangar all shook their heads.

  The CO was looking very dubious. ‘Are you sure about this, Clarke? It seems very unlikely.’

  ‘That’s the plan, sir.’

  ‘Then good luck.’ We shook hands and he stepped back from the table.

  The ATC shrugged and tapped his laptop. ‘I’ve sent the flight plan through to the Puma. I’ll just do you a manual copy.’ He jotted down the information on a form and passed it to Sophie.

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Dave.

  ‘One kilometre,’ said Sophie over the intercom.

  I was the only Mage who heard her, because I was the only one wearing a helmet. The aircrewman also heard her and shuffled towards the door. I made a sign for the others to get back and got ready to be really stupid.

  The aircrewman pulled back the door and I stuck my head out into the downpour. I barely had time to register the headlights of vehicles on the A34 before we were past it and back into the night. I could see the ground, just, but that was it. I brought up the night vision device and peered around. I also put every ounce of Lux I could muster into penetrating the Glamours surrounding the target.

  ‘Two hundred metres,’ said Sophie.

  The wind was buffeting me, the rain was lashing into the open door, and we were very nearly over our target. Aah, there we go. Who’s been a busy girl, then?

  Eilidh’s forge stood out like a beacon to the near-infrared goggles, and I could see three buildings exactly where the GPS tracker said they should be. And the wood behind them. Sometimes things do work out.

  Which immediately made me worry that something bigger would go wrong. ‘Target located. Land as planned.’

  ‘I don’t have eyeball,’ said Sophie.

  ‘Put us down anyway,’ I replied.

  ‘Sir,’ said Dave. He slowed down and prepared to land. I backed away from the door and urged everyone forward, giving them a thumbs-up to show the plan hadn’t changed. Yet.

  The Puma dropped quickly on to the ground in a textbook landing, and the aircrewman waved Saffron forward. She executed a perfect dismount and disappeared in completely the wrong direction. Marvellous.

  I grabbed Xavi’s shoulder and pointed to where the wood bordered the meadow. He nodded and ducked way too low under the blades, but at least he was on his way. Desirée and Vicky followed him, and I took off the helmet. I chucked it to the aircrewman and swung out of the door.

  Saffron and Xavi were supposed to get to the wood and check it for Wards. Xavi seemed confident that it was clear and had already gathered the other two around him. By the time I limped up, the Puma was back in the air and Saffron had realised her mistake.

  ‘Sorry sir.’

  ‘My fault. I should have briefed you. It’s a lesson for all of us, though. Did any of you feel anything while we were in the air or since?’

  They all said no. The rain was coming straight down in rods, which was deeply unpleasant but would have done a good job of minimising the noise of the chopper. I fished a baseball cap out of my combats and put it on. I wiped the rain off my face and turned to look at the wood. A great hedge of mature hawthorns separated us from the plantation, and the spiky hedge was interlaced with some wire fencing.

  ‘What have we got?’ I said. ‘Xavi?’

  ‘Nothing in the ground or anchored to the trees. Saff, could you look at the fence?’

  She moved up to the wire and hovered her hands over it. She turned back with alarm on her face. ‘There’s an integrity and magick circle running through it. If any of us touch the metal or cut the wire, it will go off like a fire alarm in a gunpowder factory.’

  ‘What about the wooden post holding it up?’

  She checked again. ‘That’s clear.’

  ‘Good. Do you reckon you could do a vault with one hand on the wood?’

  Only Saffron reckoned she could do that. It was a big ask, but I’d seen her on the assault course, and she’d been working out since. I had to trust her.

  ‘We only need one,’ I said. ‘The rest of us can be helped over.’

  We dumped the kit over first, then quickly linked hands and boosted four of us over. Saffron measured out a run-up, and I had a flashback to Mrs Clarke’s folly. ‘Stop!’

  Saffron walked back to the fence. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Don’t run up. Stand to the side, next to the fence, and use the pole as a pivot. If you run up, there’s too much of a risk of missing it in the dark.’

  She nodded and stepped back. She flexed her knees, grabbed the post with her left hand and swung up. With a grunt, her legs cleared the top strand of wire and she flopped into the soaking grass. There were no fireworks. ‘Good work,’ I said. ‘Xavi, Vicky, you two lead. Head off that way and circle gradually to the left. It’s safe enough to use torches in here.’

  Because we weren’t following a path, there was a lot of bramble and undergrowth to clear, and going was much slower than I wanted. It was already 02:45, and there could easily be someone in there with an alarm set for 04:00.

  We did find a path, and Vicky pulled on Xavi’s sleeve before he could step on it. ‘You should look at this, Conrad. I think there may be a Ley line under here. Just a feeling, like.’

  I took off my pack and dug out my dowsing rod. I hadn’t used it in a while, mostly because I didn’t want another face-to-face encounter with the Spirit of Madeleine. The last time we’d met was during the Wings over Water trip to the East Riding. I now had a lot of unanswered questions about Maddy that worried me a lot. I edged towards the path and closed my eyes. I gripped the rod and sank into its weird world of water. For once, the rain was an advantage.

  Whenever I use the rod, I get a sense of Maddy. Sometimes it’s just a feeling – like being in a lift in the dark, and knowing that someone else is in there with you. Sometimes, like tonight, it’s a full-on illusion.

  The skies cleared, the sun rose, the trees disappeared and the dowsing rod in my hand turned into a punt pole. I looked down, and there was Maddy, sitting in the love seat of a punt in all her Edwardian finery. Today’s outfit was a very fetching cream muslin gown with a broad-brimmed sun hat. It was very hot here. I moved the punt pole, and she shook her head violently, waving her hand in a warning. I stopped and looked where she was pointing.

  Our punt wasn’t on the water, it was still on the bank, and now I knew why: there was no peaceful water to launch into. If I’d punted forward, we’d have launched on to a river of molten lava. I jerked back and opened my eyes. ‘Good call, Vic. That path has a booby-trap of epic proportions.’

  ‘What now?’ said Vicky.

  I backed away from the path until the sensation of heat died down. ‘Keep going parallel to the path and don’t get any closer. We’re not far from their compound now.’

  Another twenty metres took us to the edge of the wood and a much more imposing fence. We could also now see the target properly.

  With the naked eye, they were just black shapes. I brought up the night vision goggles and scanned the yard. We’d arrived nearest the forge itself. Eilidh hadn’t adapted a farm building, she’d had one built specially using a steel skeleton and prefabricated panels. It would do the job, though. Our end of the forge had the chimney, also of steel. No wonder I could see it from the air.

  I scanned right. Nearest the fence was a small building that could have been a lambing shed or fertiliser store. The doors were
closed and padlocked. In front of it stood the familiar Range Rover Sport, last seen bouncing over the meadow in Stockcross. That left the old farmhouse.

  It must be very crowded in there. Instead of a rambling stone building, the heart of the compound was two traditional stone cottages knocked into one, with barely any height to the upper storey and dormer windows. Tricky, but I saw no reason to change the plan. Provided we could get through the fence.

  ‘This is serious,’ said Xavi. ‘We’re not going to be vaulting that.’

  He was right. The fence around the compound was made of ten feet high wire squares, and full of magick. Even I could feel it. I looked along the line of the fence and saw a gate where it met the path through the wood. That would be even worse. ‘Any chance of de-activating it?’ I asked.

  Vicky, Xavi and Saff conferred for a second. ‘Not in less than two or three hours,’ concluded Vicky.

  I looked at the fence again. There was a six inch gap underneath, presumably to let the local wildlife have a free passage without triggering false alarms. Scout would love that, if I hadn’t left him at Elvenham. He’s not ready for field work yet, but he did give me an idea. Sort of.

  ‘Vicky, what about the posts? Could we cut through them at the base?’

  She checked it out. ‘Aye. Reckon so. Then what? The fence would break, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Not if we did three posts. The sections are wide enough for the central one to lie flat if we’re careful. Desi, can you sing a song and put pressure on the fence if the other three weaken the posts?’

  She stood up straight. ‘I can try.’

  ‘Good. When the fence falls down, we play hopscout.’

  ‘You what?’ said Vicky.

  ‘You’re mad,’ said Saffron. ‘Those squares are only big enough for me. With your bad leg, you’ll get your enormous feet trapped and trigger the alarm.’

  ‘Worst case scenario, you’re all through and I trigger the alarm. We’re still inside, aren’t we? I’m open to alternatives.’ No one had anything better to hand, so we split up and got ready.