“That was an accident.”
He held his hand up for silence. “I saw your face when I walked in that room, the first day we met. You didn’t have a clue who I was. You were... worn. You were scared, lonely, pitiful. Your little friend on the other hand - the one who convinced her aunt to introduce us - your friend knew who I was.” He stepped backwards. “You didn’t.”
Alex shook her head. “No, she wouldn’t bring me here if she knew who you were. I know she didn’t want me dead.”
“Maybe she thought you’d kill me instead.” He shrugged. “It didn’t do her any good, anyway. I knew her game. She’s in custody now.”
“No!” Alex said. “She’s just a kid.”
“She’s a kid who sent someone to kill me.” Simons chastised her. “Besides, she’s just in custody. They might release her when I relocate. I can’t stay here now.”
“She’s just a kid,” Alex repeated softly.
“So are you,” Simons said gravely. “You’re just seventeen.”
Alex shrugged. “I won’t be seventeen for long. I can look after myself.”
Simons nodded. “You’re an expert at jail breaking.”
Alex glared at him. “Is that supposed to be clever?”
He shook his head. “No, but it brings me to my point.”
“What, that I’m all alone and at your mercy.” She felt the weight of it all falling on her.
“I’m the only person between you and the police right now.”
Alex asked, “But why is that? I don’t have any information you could torture out of me.”
Simons shook his head, he gently pushed her back into the chair. “I’m sure that’s not true. Maybe if the circumstances were different.”
He bent down to pick up the memento box and held it out to her.
She looked at it dismissively. “What’s this?”
“What do you know about your mother?”
Alex withdrew her outstretched hand and said, “Defoe asked me that.”
Simons raised an eyebrow, then threw the box on her lap and continued to talk. “Defoe is getting too clever for his own good.” He paused, waiting for her to open the box. “Nineteen years ago, I was sent here to replace the retiring Ambassador. I wasn’t making a good impression over in Tameri, so they sent me away to learn my own twenty-year lesson. I left behind family and friends. Both my boys grew up without me.”
He perched back on the desk. “My identity here was secret, but my secret identity needed a maid to tidy up after it. They gave me a 16-year-old bit of a girl straight out of an orphanage. They told me it was better that way, so if she found out who I was she was disposable. It’s amazing how quickly you can really understand the way this city works.”
Alex interrupted. “But you had twenty years to change that if you wanted to.”
Simons pursed his lips disapprovingly. “You’re so young. Not even a year older than she was when she was a maid here. She was a useless maid and I despised her, mainly because she was a walking talking plate-dropping reminder to me every day that I’m stuck on this broken and twisted island instead of back home with my wife.”
Alex smirked. “You’re telling me a fairy tale?”
“Quiet,” Simons snapped. “After a while she became more confident around the house and she smiled more, she smiled like my wife. A year passed and I was settling into the role, even so I wanted to go home and I wrote constantly to the President and various ministers for a pardon to allow me to return. That was until I got the official letter from my wife’s lawyer telling me we were divorced and my boys had been adopted by my wife’s new partner.”
Alex filled the pause. “You’d left her alone.”
Simons growled, “I was sent away. Don’t you get it? This is like a prison sentence for me.”
Alex was sceptical. “What did you do?”
Simons paused. “I just asked the wrong questions to the wrong people.”
“Questions about the colonies?”
Simon snorted. “You don’t listen at all. Nobody in Tameri knows what goes on here. The press is more controlled there than it is here, and that’s saying something. They think that the colonies were rescued from destitution after internal fighting. I didn’t know - nobody knew. Anyway... where was I?
“The maid was there when the letter arrived. I didn’t tell her what was in it. I was sure she knew my truth by then, but I couldn’t tell her out-loud. When the letter came I was... I was angry. She tried to calm me down and something broke inside me.” His voice twisted.
“You hit her?” Alex asked.
“I kissed her. I kissed her hard. I kissed her so hard that I pushed her up against the wall and I felt her try to push me away. Nothing like this had happened before. I kept her away from me, because I found her irritating. But over the next six months I took all my anger and forced myself onto her. I don’t know how she took it as long as she did.”
Alex pulled away. “Stop. I... why are you telling me this?”
Simons paused, looking anxiously at the memento box. “I needed her. She seemed to like me. We talked a lot then.”
“I don’t want to hear about ... you bastard.” She spat.
“Then let’s talk about someone else for a moment,” he said, irritated. “You know that Hywel Jenkins worked for my predecessor for a good fifteen years?”
She ran her hands across her tightly tied-back hair. “I know he worked for the government.”
“I met him. It was about eighteen months before you were born when I was first introduced to him. He was a hard worker and was introduced as a man of steadfast character,” he smiled mirthlessly.
“That makes me so proud,” she growled.
“I called upon him another handful of times. He was someone to rely on, but was quite socially awkward. A strange solitary man in his youth and early adulthood.” The Ambassador shook his head sadly.
“I can’t tell if you’re lying,” she said.
He smiled. “That’s an honest revelation. I’m not surprised you don’t know about Hywel’s background. He was rich, or from a rich family anyway. His parents still live on Flint Street. His sisters are married and have three children between them. He disowned them all.”
She gawped at him. “You’re wrong. Why would you make up something like that?”
“It’s true,” he said. “He did it because I told him to. He did it ten months after I first met him.”
His face looked honest. There was not a single twitch or curl of a lip that would hint at a lie.
“Hywel gave it all up to look after my maid. To keep her safe.” He paced away from the table. “I loved her. As much as I could, I loved her and he did me a great personal favour by hiding her.”
“She got pregnant.”
“Well done. You’ve been a bit slow off the mark so far. I couldn’t have a baby in the house. It would make me vulnerable. The cops had been looking for a hold on me ever since I arrived. The previous Ambassador was wrapped around the Commander’s finger. That hadn’t happened to me, but it would have if I hadn’t sent them away. You understand?” He watched her face closely as the horror started to descend.
“In my employ I have a number of respectable men working in high income areas. All I had to do was promise one of the gentler of them the lap of luxury for my maid’s hand in marriage and a lifetime of silence. Hywel Jenkins took up the offer and she married him without choice. She moved into the flat with Hywel and they lived there until you were six years old.”
“It’s not true,” Alex said, looking for cracks in his facade. “You think you’re my father?”
He tilted his chin high. “I received a letter two weeks after the wedding telling me the baby had been lost.”
“So, you’re not my father?”
“I heard Hywel and your mother were getting on quite well and were pregnant again soon afterward. After that I stopped the intelligence updates. I didn’t want to draw any additional attention to them.”
&
nbsp; Alex was losing track. “So, you’re treating me like the child you could’ve had?”
He shifted off the table. “Shut up and listen. I all but forgot your mother. Years passed. Then one of my spies in the police force sent me an urgent message. My loyal employee, Hywel Jenkins, told the cops that you were mine and that your mother was mistreating you.
“Whether he did it for good reasons or not, he’d revealed to the cops that you were my daughter and had put us both at risk. They told Hywel they needed a DNA sample. The next day he turned up with a lock of your hair,” Simons said.
Alex twirled the edge of her hair remembering a strand that had always seemed shorter than the rest when she was a kid.
“The only way I could intervene was to send the order myself, demanding that your mother be arrested. I sent the police to go and collect you, to put you in a new home. I had a nice family lined up in the café district. That wasn’t what Hywel wanted, he wanted your mother taken away and to be able to bring you up by himself. But I didn’t know who he’d sell you to next.
“The police got the orders wrong, took your mother and executed her. Hywel ran off with you. I’ve been looking for you. The cops held you over my head ever since,” he said.
Alex dismissed it, shaking her head.
Simons continued, “It doesn’t matter if you believe me. I’ve told you now. You’ll understand the actions I have to take. You just need time. From what you said it sounds like Defoe is close to this story already.”
Alex nodded staring vacantly at the box.
“Open it,” he insisted.
She ran her fingers over the rough wooden lid covering hidden secrets. She peeled back the clasp. Most of the contents were documents or loose photographs. Something caught her eye. She delved inside and pulled out rippled pieces of A4 with splatterings of paint on them.
“How did you get this?” She asked.
He nodded at the box. “Keep looking.” She started pulling out other bits and pieces. “When I learnt you were alive I started collecting any pieces of information about you. Some bits were collected by my security forces, others by cops on my payroll.”
“You’ve got my birth certificate. We thought that was lost in the flat fire.” Alex scanned the document carefully. “This says Hywel is my father.”
“Keep looking,” he insisted. “We had a bit of an information dead zone between your sixth birthday and your fourteenth. A lot of the stuff you see there was recovered recently. The first time I had confirmation that Hywel hadn’t just jumped off a bridge and killed you both was when you were eleven and Hywel was identified as a member of the Ackersons.”
“Why have you got photos of me from when I was ten?” She gawped at the pictures.
“They were found in an abandoned base.” Simons shrugged. “Keep looking. Anyway, when you were fourteen we got our first glimpse of you. Then you started participating in the breakouts and I thought soon we could separate you from the Ackersons.”
Alex looked closely at Simons. “You really believe I’m your daughter.”
Simons sighed. “Stop looking at the photos and look at the documents. I’ve done my homework here.”
She glanced back down at the paperwork and started flicking through the sheafs of paper. “This is the DNA report from when I was six.” The hair was still stuck to the paper. She brushed her fingers over the dark strands that curled like hers did.
“Carry on,” he commanded.
She picked up another similar report and checked the date. A slide of blood was attached. “This was earlier this year.”
“The day you cut yourself on the broken rail leading up from the underground.” He nodded.
They’d taken a sample of blood from the railing.
“You have done your homework,” she said.
Her hand went in the box again and felt something small, smooth and cool. It was attached to a thin cord. She pulled it out. “My mother’s necklace?” She ran her thumb over the little dove that sparkled red gold. She laid the chain delicately on top of the DNA reports, smoothing it into a straight line. “The cops gave it to you after I was caught in Central?”
He pressed the red button on his desk again. “I have three months left before I return to Tameri. Until then you’re going to be hidden away. You’re going to be educated. You’re going to understand. Then you’re coming back with me to Tameri. We’re going back with answers to dangerous questions.”
She leant back from the Ambassador. “You want me to go to Tameri?”
“You said you wanted to leave the city, well think of this as getting what you wished for. It’s not about playing happy families. It’s about making them understand the truth,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You’ll do as you’re told.”
She stood up and his pistol raised.
She scoffed. “You’re the reason both my parents are dead!”
“Listen to me,” he snapped.
“Why should I?”
“You’ll listen and you’ll understand. You don’t have a choice!” He shouted.
“Like you’ll actually shoot me.” She stood up tall, preparing to walk past him. “I will not go.”
The guards were back.
“Get her in the car,” Simons ordered.
Simons stepped away. Alex swung at Frank, catching him in the eye, and kicked out at Charlie. These were not ordinary guards. Both stood their ground and pushed her hard against a wall. She felt herself spun around and her arms wrenched behind her back.
Releasing all her weight, she dropped to the floor. The guards pulled her up by her arms and she swung her legs sideways to try to knock both guards off their feet. They held her high and pushed her back into the wall. Then they were pulling her away, she was being dragged out of the room and into the daylight.
Simons was behind her. “Frank. Get her to Kelly and get me another car. I need to get away from this site ASAP. I’ll meet Kelly this evening to discuss the next step.”
“Yes, sir. The second car has been ordered and is three minutes out. We will wait with you until it arrives.” Frank confirmed as he struggled to control Alex.
“Let me go! Please let go!”
“Shut up,” Simons said. “You’re not helping yourself. You need to disappear, not be dragged off by armed guards.”
“Let me go and I promise I’ll disappear,” she snapped back.
Charlie pinned her against the limousine as Frank configured the child locks on the back doors. She was then roughly thrown on to the back seat. Simons leaned in. “If you damage this car you’ll pay for it. Understand?”
She dived for him, but he slammed the door shut. She rattled the handles and tried opening the windows, but she was trapped. After all the breakouts she had been involved in she let herself be caught by two guards and a physically unfit man in his early fifties who just happened to be the Ambassador. She heard the central locking click on.
Something was going on outside. Someone was trying to open the driver’s door, but it wasn’t responding. Her door handle rattled. Through the tinted window she could just about see Simons pulling at the door. She squinted closer and saw Frank on the outside of the front door.
The car started. Who was in the front of the car? Had she been kidnapped by the Erikssens again? She turned back to the side window and saw Charlie. He was throwing a brick. She dived backwards, but not quickly enough. The brick sailed through the window and caught her on the side of her head. She felt the jolt of the car pulling away and all she could see was blood.
34 - The Medic
“Ian, is that you?”
Emma peeked around the Mock Victorian doorway into the third floor Middle Meadston flat. A cocaine decayed woman tried to block her view, but Emma could still wave over at the four men inside. The eldest guy, in his early forties, waved back flaunting that cocky smile that she loved. Emma beamed at him.
“Well, look at you.” Ian strutted over, indicat
ing for the wheezing woman to let her in. “Emma Paynton. My little protege. I expected you to send a middleman.”
He scowled at her disapprovingly, but then grabbed her into a hug and gave a hearty laugh.
“It’s good to see you too, Ian.” She tugged on his wispy ginger and grey beard. “You’re looking a bit unkept. You used to have a weird little goatee and oiled hair.”
He smoothed down his beard. “I loved that goatee.”
She smiled. “I know.”
He turned to the room. “Let’s introduce everyone. Just so we are clear, everyone here is an Ackerson. You might not recognise a few of us ‘cos we keep deep undercover.”
“I recognise Jack Daniels, there.” She exchanged a smile with a young dark-skinned man. “I patched up your cheek, didn’t I?”
Jack smiled. “It’s Jack Darrow.” He ran his finger over the small scar on his jaw. “That was a good job, Emma.”
“The miser behind Jack, that’s Howie Killian.” Ian pointed at a sour looking man with twisted features. “There is Paul Jared, the best shot in the city.” Paul smiled weakly. “And Elsie is our main contact in Falisans. She’s been mapping the routes of the van.”
The addict waved from the doorway. “Hi,” Elsie said, voice cracking. She bent over with a rattling cough.
“Elsie is not much for talking,” Ian said, his face fell. “Anyway Emma, this is our little gang. We’d hoped you’d send five or six more men from the base.”
Emma’s cheeks reddened, knowing that she was a poor replacement for experienced men like Hywel. “Base just relocated. There’s nobody there to spare.”
Howie snorted from the back of the room. “Nobody spare to help us get them some bloody food? They’re all out looking for Alex Jenkins, aren’t they?”
Emma shrugged dismissively. “Some of them. We’re not sure if she’s been captured.”
“We could’ve done with her here. At least she’s got some experience.”
His words twisted in Emma’s stomach.
“Howie. Enough,” Ian said.
“Can we rearrange? Catch it next time?” Emma asked.
“No, it’s now or never.” Ian looked cautiously at Emma. “Do you have any experience fighting?”
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