[Sticks]

Prologue

Note may contains spoilers from previous stories in the Mystical Realms franchise

It is said that “those who ignore history are destined to repeat it”, it is also said that “The more things change, the more they stay the same”

In essence, people forget

Fads, crazes and scandals fade into history and are but a distant memory if that.

For a while the world was shocked to learn that there was another world, in a parallel universe whose inhabitants had formed some pact with the United States of America. One of these inhabitants was even paraded on television and declared an American spy!

But many were sceptical and in time the footage of the creature paraded by the Venezuelan government in Caracas came to be regarded as an elaborate and well done hoax, just like the alleged film of an autopsy of an alien that supposedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. It was thought the hoax was designed to humiliate western TV stations and those local ones who did not toe the party line.

But in time this too was relegated to history and forgotten.

There were the claims of some so-called psychics that the times we were living in were not part of what originally happened, and that something terrible had happened instead.

They were ignored and easily forgotten.

People got on with life in all it’s humdrum glory.

But not everyone forgets.

Sometimes records of events long ago can lie hidden from view in some deep recess of a filing cabinet or obsolete computer system, forgotten and waiting for someone to one day stumble upon them and bring them back into the light.

Sometimes these records may still be kept secret by watchers who guard them closely even when their existence has passed from memory of those who once placed them in safe keeping.

However to quote from the ancient Roman poet Juvenal

”Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”

Who watches the watchers? Especially when those who keep watch, themselves have been forgotten.

But what if these long forgotten guardians of long forgotten secrets are remembered by someone also long forgotten?

A long forgotten someone who can use and manipulate the implements of the state….

Theme tune that came to mind

Youtube video

[Sticks]

Episode I – An unwelcome homecoming surprise

Spoiler:

The Village of Tottington
Outside the market town of Bury
North of Manchester

Sarah Bentley came down from her bedroom into the hallway. On the table in the hallway she saw a letter with the word “bailiff” on it. She did not dare pick it up.

Just then Sarah noticed that her elder brother was in the living room working on his laptop computer. He had just about given up on trying to find work, there just weren’t the jobs around, so it would have to be up to Sarah to try and save their house.

Sarah poked her head round the door of the living room

“Trev” Sarah said from the living room door, “I’m off out now, I’m going to Ruby’s in Manchester with some mates”

Trevor grunted an “ok” as he poured over his laptop

“Don’t wait up for me Trev” she persisted sarcastically trying to get a reaction as her brother seemed unresponsive
“Whatever” Trevor replied. Then Trevor stopped and turned around in his seat and looked at his sister. “Sarah, you do realise what date it is today?” he asked

Sarah rolled her eyes, “I know Trev it would have been their twenty fifth anniversary if they were still alive” Sarah stopped a moment paused and then continued, “and they never did find the b*****d who ran that stolen car into them that night.” She added angrily

“I just wondered if we should mark it somehow” Trevor said sadly, “Could you call your friends and say you have something else on?”

“No I can’t Trev” Sarah insisted, “We’ve been planning this night out for months, I even paid the deposit on the outing, I can’t back out now” Sarah went on, “Besides if Mum and Dad were around don’t you think they would have wanted us out the way while they celebrated?”

“I suppose you have a point” Trevor backed down, “I miss them too” he added in a sad voice and turned back to stare at his laptop.

Just then Sarah caught sight of a number of video tapes and she came in to the room and picked one up and read the label. It read “Big Brother Two, Paul and Helen’s dinner date twenty oh one”. Then she looked at another tape, it said “Big Brother Eight Brian and Amanda”

The tapes had been resting on her father’s motoring atlas, which was open at the area of Kent. Trevor for some reason had marked a spot in the Kent countryside with a red felt tip pen. For a moment she wondered if her brother was going to go on one of those UFO hunting trips he would talk about.

Now that really would take the biscuit, they were being threatened with the bailiffs and her brother was thinking about trips to the other end of the country

Sarah did not want a row with her brother, not tonight anyway with what she was planning and wearing that evening, so she decided not to pursue it, it might never come to anything, like his other ideas for trips he had never done.

Sarah glanced up at the screen of the laptop, it was some kind of internet forum called “This is Big Brother dot com” and so for the moment Sarah forgot about the motoring atlas

“You’re not into that Big Brother rubbish” Sarah sneered, “Besides” she went on, “That show’s been over for about two or three years now and I thought all the fan sites were all closed down by now”

“This forum is still active though” her brother replied as he continued staring at the screen, “For instance I have been corresponding with one poster called GipsyGoth. She joined when Big Brother was still being shown. Some posters have even joined it since Big Brother ended after Channel Four gave it the boot. I’m hoping there may be some posters amongst the old guard who still remember it especially the second series” he added with an air of excitement.

“What about this GipsyGoth?” Sarah asked teasingly, “Maybe we could meet?”

“I doubt it” Trevor responded, “I’m afraid she joined well after the two series that I’m interested in. I did look at some other forums and I tried Digital Spy but they did not seem interested over there just referred me to back here”

Sarah then spotted a notepad by the laptop. Her brother had written Doctor H followed by a question mark.

“Who’s Doctor H?” Sarah asked, “Is he another member of that forum?”

Trevor looked at the notepad, removed the pen from it and turned it over. It was obviously something private that Sarah was not supposed to see, probably part of his obsession with conspiracy theories.
“No” Trevor replied abruptly, “They aren’t a member of this forum” he added in a strange unconvincing tone.

It was probably one of his contacts on Twitter

“Anyway Trev, why the sudden interest in this crappy game show?” Sarah asked, “You were never interested in it whilst is was on”
“I think I may have come across something the government is hiding from us and there seems to be a connection to the Channel four programme Big Brother Two and also to Big Brother Eight one of the later ones Sarah, It even looks like there’s a connection to an old press report about an old abandoned world war two base down in Kent which was torched by arsonists a few years back.”

“You and your stupid conspiracy theories Trev?” Sarah went on contemptuously, “how can a stupid and mindless reality TV show be involved in some government conspiracy? And anyway that show was never filmed in Kent, it was done at some film studio called Elstree, where…”

“But Sarah” her brother interrupted “I really I think I’m on to something” he said excitedly, “And if I’m right, this could mean the biggest cover up since Roswell.”

“Yeah whatever” Sarah retorted, “I’m out of here and like I said don’t wait up”

Then Sarah stopped and noticed a square metal rectangular device next to a newspaper on the table behind her brother.

It was an Iron key, an encrypted memory stick. Both Sarah and her brother had one each, each inscribed with their initials. Sarah could not believe she had almost forgotten her memory stick, which was critical to her plans for the evening. She stored important documents and photographs on hers and heaven knows what strange stuff her brother stored on his.

This one had to be hers , no doubt about it, because, although she could not see the back of the laptop, that was where Trevor usually stuck his when he used it, which usually seemed to be most of the time. Sarah had left hers on the table earlier after using the laptop when her brother was out signing on.

A rare time when Trevor was not hogging it!!

If only Sarah could afford to get her own laptop, but the two of them barely had enough to pay the bills, ever since the death of their parents. Sarah was so glad her brother had turned eighteen when they had died as she was afraid they would have taken her into care. Luckily cutbacks in the social services department meant she was allowed to live with her brother in the village of Tottington where they both grew up.

“I need this tonight” Sarah announced as she grabbed the memory stick, “Vicky is bringing her note book and I wanted to show her what I have done for our assignment at Bury College.”

Sarah then quickly went of the door before Trevor saw what she was wearing, or to be more accurate what she was not wearing and walked out into the early evening air and put the memory stick in her handbag.

+

Trevor heard the door slam and turned around and reached for his memory stick and found it missing. “Huh?” he grunted.

Then he noticed an identical memory stick on the table covered by the free paper he had collected that morning when he had gone into Bury to sign on at the job centre.

Trevor picked it up and put it in the back of his laptop.

As it booted up, Trevor noticed that it was not his, it was Sarah’s.

What had she said? She needed it to show off some course work to her best friend on a night out in Manchester? Something didn’t ring true there.

Trevor stared at the screen for a few seconds, should he see what was on it?

It was encrypted, but then he suspected his sister probably had not changed the default password on the memory stick like he had on his, which obviously she had taken by mistake

Trevor for whatever reason he could not be sure, tapped in the default password and gained access to his sister’s memory stick

Then he wished he hadn’t as he looked at the photographs she had loaded onto her stick.

This was definitely not coursework and it made Trevor feel sick looking at them. Trevor reached for his mobile and switched it on.

For some reason it was saying his SIM was not valid.

”That’s odd” he thought, ”I thought I had loads of credit on it”

+

Sarah walked through the back streets of Tottington and headed for Market Street to catch the Four six nine bus into Bury. From there she would catch the Metrolink to Manchester, but it was not to Ruby’s she was going to.

As she reached the terminus she saw that the bus was in and so she started to cross the road, hoping she could get across before the bus left. She was obviously later than she thought.

Suddenly she had to leap out of the way as three people on motorbikes almost ran her over. The motor cyclists were all in black, even down to the motorcycle helmets with heavily tinted visors that hid their faces.

Sarah swore at the motor cyclists as they sped off back the way she came.

She was tempted to take the guys numbers so her brother could hack into the DVLA but they were driving so fast and for some reason none of the motor cyclists had a number plate, besides the bus driver looked like she was about to pull out, so Sarah raced for the bus and showed her student bus pass through the closed doors of the bus.

Mercifully the driver took pity on her and opened the doors to let her get on the bus.

“You see those motorcyclists?” Sarah complained to the female bus driver
“Yes love” the bus driver sympathised, “Some of them think they own the road”
“They didn’t even have their headlights on” Sarah added
“Probably one of those gang initiation things” the bus driver went on, “I remember hearing about”
“I must have missed that one” Sarah admitted
“From what I heard love” the driver went on as she drove out onto the main road, “they drive around with their lights off and if anyone flashes their lights at them, then the bikers target that vehicle to shoot dead everyone in it”

“Yikes” Sarah interjected, “I hope they don’t come after me”

The bus driver looked in her rear view mirror, “It looks like you’re ok love, they’re not following us”

Sarah went further inside the bus and found a seat as it drove on into Bury.

Sarah closed her eyes and winced at what she was going to do that evening and shuddered. It would be horrid and degrading, but as they needed to pay the bills she did not think she had any choice.

Sarah was not going for a night out with her mates; she was going to audition as what was euphemistically called an exotic dancer. Sarah was headed for at least one of the many strip clubs in Manchester, because she had heard that lap dancers and strippers could earn quite a lot of money, which she needed desperately. She had even managed, through one of her friends to arrange to see someone at the first of the strip clubs she was going to try. According to her friend, this man had asked her to bring a port folio of work, either printed or in electronic form.

That port folio was what was on her memory stick. Sarah had managed to persuade her best friend Vicky to take what was euphemistically called glamour shots of her and placed on the memory stick.

If she was asked or expected to strip completely naked that evening, she would have to, even though the thought revolted her.

Again the issue was money

Vicky had told her that she had heard that the business Sarah was trying to break into was very cutthroat, and that Sarah had to do something radical to get noticed above all the other girls who might be trying for a job at the club. To that end Sarah, on Vicky’s suggestion, had even gone out not wearing a bra or even a tee-shirt under her sleeveless denim jacket so she could show them her assets. Vicky was adamant that she had heard that if a girl turned up outside some of the strip clubs in Manchester and showed that they had come to them not wearing any top on under their coat they may have on, then that would show gumption and it was a dead cert they would get hired on the spot.

It was a suggestion, that in her heart of hearts Sarah was not happy with, but she needed to find a job and an income to pay those bills and try and save the house she shared with her brother. As a sort of comfort blanket, Sarah had found a bikini top and had stuffed it into her handbag, just to be on the “safe side” but she still did not feel comfortable going out like this, but if as Vicky had said that was definitely the way to secure a job at one of those clubs, she would have to put up with it.

Her friend Vicky had even said she had heard of one girl who arrived at the very strip club she was going to try first, completely naked under a full length coat, and she got into the club that night!. Unfortunately or was it fortunately, Sarah did not have a full length coat, and neither did Vicky so she could not go to that extreme. She would have to settle for not wearing anything under her sleeveless denim jacket. Needless to say, it did not feel comfortable going out like that Sarah had even contemplated going out wearing a mini skirt and no panties, but she chickened out of that one and put on a pair of panties and her favourite jeans to match the jacket,

That evening the traffic seemed light, but then most of it was heading up the Brandelshome road or along Bolton Road as commuters went home for the evening.

Sarah pulled out of her handbag her mobile phone to text her friend Vicky in case she was able to come with her to the club after all, as a sort of moral support. In the process of taking out the mobile this pulled out the bikini top, but Sarah was too preoccupied to care at that time.

The phone was still switched off.

Sarah had asked earlier that morning if Vicky could come with her to the club as they had agreed, but Vicky had said she may not be able to make it as she might have to baby sit for her younger brother. Vicky had told Sarah how frustrating it was that her parents kept imposing this chore on her at the last minute.

Sarah did not have the heart to tell her that she was lucky that her parents were still alive.

Sarah was just about to switch the phone on when a drunken man in his thirties just sat down next to her.

She hastily picked up the bikini top and stuffed it back into her hand bag and put the phone away in the bag, still switched off.

The bus continued on it’s journey into Bury while the drunk began singing tunelessly at the top of his voice. Then the drunk somehow spotted that Sarah was not wearing anything under her jacket and started leering down her front, telling her it was too hot to have her jacket zipped up the way it was and it was a crime to “Keep those puppies cooped up”.

Then the drunk began trying to put one arm around Sarah while he tried to reach for the zip on her jacket as Sarah desperately pushed his hand away. Nobody on the bus was interested in coming to her aid and hid in their books or newspapers. They were only too glad that this drunk was not molesting them.

Sarah found this drunken man terrifying and there was no way could Sarah risk texting with him sitting next to him. She wanted to call out to the driver, but would that make him turn violent?

Going out dressed the way she was, was probably not one of Vicky’s better ideas and now Sarah was paying the price.

+

The bus finally pulled into the bus station part of the Bury Interchange

Sarah asked the drunk to move, but he just stretched his legs, sat there grinning and scratching his nose and not budging.

“It’s my stop” Sarah pleaded
“Not mine” the drunk replied
“I have to get up” Sarah went on.

The drunk just pulled another can of larger from his bag and opened it. “Shtay with me love and I will show you a good time” the drunk just grinned

“I’ve got to go” Sarah pleaded
“I’m not moving until you show us your tits” the drunk went on and then tried to kiss her. “Go on” the drunk insisted, “Be a good girl and show us your tits, you know you want to”.

Just then a man in the uniform of one of the bus company inspectors came up to him, “Causing trouble again Joe” the inspector said sternly

“Keep out of it” the drunk replied, “This is between me and my girlie friend here”

“So you want to be banned from all of First buses then?” the inspector replied, “Now hand over that can, you know the rules about alcohol, you’ve been told before and let this young woman get off”

“Get your own” the drunk retorted, “And besides, this little girl was going to show us her tits, now p**s off”

“JOE” The bus inspector replied, “This bus is not moving until you give me that can and let that young woman off. Any further trouble from you and we call the police like last time and you will be banned”

This seemed to infuriate the drunk further from what Sarah could see and he threw the contents at the inspector’s face and while the inspector stepped back apparently in shock, the drunk pulled himself out of the seat to finish off this meddlesome inspector.

At this time Sarah noticed how the other passengers were still hiding their faces, not wanting to get involved.

“I’ll teach you” the drunk shouted and clumsily lunged at the bus inspector.

The inspector easily parried the lunge and in an instant pinned the drunk to the floor in the area where the prams and the wheelchairs would go. “You forget Joe” the inspector told the drunk on the floor, “I used to be in the army” then the inspector called to the bus driver, who by now had switched the bus engine off, to summon the police.

“Do you need me” Sarah piped up to the inspector as she walked up to the inspector and showed her bus pass, “I need to catch a train”

“I think they may want you to give a statement” the inspector replied.
“But isn’t it on the CCTV?” Sarah objected

“Just leave your details with the driver” the inspector replied as he continued to keep the drunk pinned to the floor.

Sarah went up to the driver as directed and offered to her name and mobile number to the driver, but the driver put up her hand and shook her head.
“I doubt they will do anything with this guy, they never seem to” the driver went on, “Besides I don’t have anything on me to write with, so just call in the office tomorrow

“Right” Sarah replied in a non committal manner and left the bus

She was now almost too late for the train.

She opened her purse and found she only had enough cash on her for the train, she had hoped to go to a cash machine before catching the train, but the incident on the bus meant she did not have time.

Sarah went to the ticket machine and purchased a return to Manchester Victoria and rushed down to the platform.

She only just made it onto the train.

Sarah got onto the train and nervously looked around.

She briefly hoped that the carriage could be empty, as she was contemplating of forgetting what Vicky said and putting on her bikini top, especially after experience with the drunk on the bus, but no such luck.

In the carriage with her were several guys about her age, in their late teens, talking with one another and one elderly gentleman. She seemed to be the only female in the carriage which made her feel nervous. The only saving grace was that there were no drunks so far, thank goodness.

Sarah sat down and tried top make herself as insignificant as possible, Again she thought about texting Vicky, but her experience of this service was that there was never that much of a good signal, and besides, what if the guys, like the drunk saw the bikini top in her bag and guessed what she was or not wearing under her jacket like that drunk had done.

The handbag stayed closed and Sarah remained tense and nervous about the men as the train got under way

Once they reached Besses o’th’ Barn the guys got of, but the elderly gentleman remained .

Maybe if she managed to get a seat between her and him, Sarah could get changed

No such luck! a hen party got on and a family with three children.

Sarah settled back into her seat again, although this time as she was not the only female in the carriage she was a bit more relaxed.

As for the mobile, Vicky would probably have met her at Bury if she had been able to go!

Sarah would have to apply for the job at the strip club alone and meet that other contact with the port folio on the memory stick. That meeting was the one that made her nervous, and it had been arranged to be in the strip club where she hoped to audition first.

The rest of the train trip was uneventful, with people getting on and off.

There was a scare at Crumpsall when another drunk got on, but this one did not come near Sarah. Even so she could not help watching him in terrified fascination.

The train arrived at Manchester Victoria and Sarah got off.

Sarah headed for a cash machine in the station to get some spare cash. By her reckoning she should have twenty pounds left before her next Education Maintenance Allowance cheque cleared into her bank account.

Sarah placed the card in the machine expecting it to ask for her pin, but instead the ATM went blank as if it was shutting down.

Then after what seemed like an age the display on the machine read, “Account suspended. Please contact your bank” and then it gave a telephone number she did not recognise.

Sarah hit the wall of the cash machine in frustration; she had not even had a chance to enter her PIN number so why was her account suspended?

She never went overdrawn, as being under eighteen she was not allowed to have an overdraught facility.

As Sarah continued to stare in disbelief at the cash machine, she did not notice that high above in the station a CCTV camera was slowly turning to look in her direction.

Sarah was tempted to switch her phone on and call the number on the screen, but glancing at the station clock, she thought better of it. One she did not have the time, she needed to get to the strip club to audition and meet the guy with her portfolio of work on the memory stick, secondly, calling banks notoriously took a while and she did not have the credit on her phone for that. She would have to try and go into Bury the next day to find out what was wrong with her bank account

Sarah headed on out of the station, still unaware of other CCTV cameras turning to follow her as she left.

Sarah headed out to get to Victoria’s strip bar; this was the closest one to Manchester Victoria and the first one on her list, where she was also meeting that guy Vicky had told her about.

Sarah as she hurried along tried to psyche herself up so she was prepared to strip there and then if they wanted her, whatever it took to get work, especially if something was wrong with her bank account.

After five minutes she found the small alley up to the club, opposite the Arndale centre.

Then she was outside the strip club

Sarah swallowed heavily and approached the entrance, only to be met by a bouncer blocking her way.

“Who are you luvie?” the bouncer asked in a gruff voice
“I’m here to apply for a job” Sarah nervously replied

“What as?” the bouncer replied
“A stripper?” Sarah nervously replied, closed her eyes and unzipped her jacket halfway so the bouncer could see she was not wearing anything underneath it. A tear trickled down Sarah’s left cheek, this was so humiliating.

The bouncer narrowed his eyes at Sarah unsympathetically and then spoke into a two way radio. Sarah could not make out what he was saying but it did not sound good

“Zip your jacket up darling and wait over there” the bouncer ordered pointing to a spot away from the door so she was not in the way of visitors to the club, “the duty manager and his deputy will be out in a moment to see you”

Sarah nervously waited. In her right hand she held her handbag after slipping it off her shoulder and fingered the zip on her jacket with her left hand. If that was what it took, as her friend Vicky had told her, Sarah was still psyching herself up to pull down the zip and show her bare breasts on demand to whoever came out to interview her, even if the thought made her sick. She did not feel she had any other choice

After about five minutes a man in a suit came out of the door accompanied by a tall lady in a smart blue suit. The bouncer pointed at where Sarah was standing.

“What’s you name love” the lady asked

“Sarah miss” Sarah replied, “Sarah Bentley” she added before continuing “I’ve come to audition as a stripper” At that Sarah closed her eyes briefly and quickly unzipped her jacket and slipped it off and dropped it to the ground behind her, just like she had practiced with Vicky. Sarah then went on, “I can start right now if you need me”.

The cold air played on her body and made her shiver, but she forced herself to endure it.
“I really need this job sir” Sarah pleaded as she stood topless in the cold night air, not daring to try and cover herself with her hands so they could assess her assets and hooking her thumbs into her jeans so she could pull them down if they asked her to.

For an instant Sarah regretted the fact she had her jeans on and wished she had not been such a wimp and followed Vicky’s advice about wearing a skirt with nothing on underneath as well, because she could have gone all the way more easily and clinched that badly needed job just like Vicky said she had heard.

“Put your jacket back on” the manager said curtly, shattering Sarah’s thoughts
“Yes sir” Sarah replied and quickly picked up the jacket and put it back on but left it unzipped and open still baring all as she was to some extent in an obvious state of shock at what she had forced herself to do.

The lady quickly walked up to her and pulled Sarah’s coat closed, “Do yourself up love” she whispered to Sarah
“Sorry Miss” Sarah replied and joined the bottom ends of the jacket together and zipped it up. Another tear trickled down Sarah’s face

“How old are you?” the manager asked Sarah as he approached her once Sarah was as near as “decent” as possible
“Nineteen?” Sarah ventured
“How old are you really Sarah” the woman in the suit asked sternly.

It was obvious that they had seen through Sarah’s lie. She never was good at lying

Nervously Sarah spoke up, “Seventeen” then as if to anticipate the obvious objection that she suddenly expected to hear, “But I turn eighteen in three months time” she pleaded

“Come back then love” the manager replied bluntly
“And we might consider you for waitressing or bar work, but not stripping” the woman added

“Please” Sarah replied, breaking down into tears, “My brother and I live on our own, our parents were killed last year and we’re getting bills we can’t pay and my brother can’t find a job, we’ve got the bailiffs coming. It looks like we are going to lose our house. Please I’m willing to work for you naked doing anything you want”

The lady in the suit gently put her hand on Sarah’s shoulder, “I’m sorry love, there is no way you can become a stripper or as we say exotic dancer at this club. One, it’s the law” she explained.
“And even if we wanted to” the manager interrupted, “we’re not allowed to, because you are classed as under aged and we don’t want to loose our licence do we”

“What do you mean wanted to? And what do you mean I can’t be a stripper” Sarah questioned through her tears and instinctively made to pull the zip of her jacket down again, “I don’t understand? Do I need a boob job? Is that it? Are these not big enough?” Sarah whined as she started to pull her zip back down to open her jacket.

The lady in the suit gently grabbed Sarah’s hand to stop her opening her jacket any more as the bouncer and the manager looked on shaking their heads.

“You don’t need to show us anymore love, we’ve seen enough,” The lady in the suit told Sarah as she pulled the zip on the jacket up, “and you definitely do not need any surgery of any kind” the lady added gently, “You have a wonderful figure and you should be proud of it”

“But why can’t I be a stripper” Sarah insisted
“Like we said” the lady went on, “You’re too young so it would be illegal and also I have auditioned many girls who work here and in other clubs and I can tell that you are not really comfortable with this are you?”
“But I’m prepared to learn” Sarah sobbed
“Sarah” the lady went on with a bit more force, “In this business unless you are totally comfortable doing this, you won’t make it. I’ve seen it happen to girls like you who were pushed into it by boyfriends and they hated it, the customers didn’t like it and were never any good”

Sarah looked into the eyes of the lady, they were like steel.
“Any way” the manager chipped in, “As well as not being allowed to work as a stripper, you are also not allowed in the club anyway as you are under age”

“Now I am concerned” the lady went on, “That you have come out with nothing on underneath your jacket”
“My friend told me to” Sarah admitted, “She said if I could show my boobs like this it would help me pass the audition”
“Well she’s wrong love” the lady replied, “And I wouldn’t go around trying the other strip clubs, because you will get the same result. It’s not worth loosing their licence to employ a minor and I wouldn’t try going on the game either”

Sarah knew what “on the game meant”, that was a euphemism for prostitution, and that revolted her even more than becoming a stripper had done

“But the bailiffs” Sarah asked in a panic

“I think it would be better if you or your brother saw Citizen’s Advice” the lady told Sarah, Now do you have anything else to put on love”
“Only this” Sarah replied as she opened her handbag and pulled out the bikini top

“That’s not enough” the lady said sternly, “There’s a pub nearby who know us, we’ll give you an old promotional tee-shirt to put on as well and then I’ll accompany you their toilet where you can put that bikini top on and the tee-shirt”

At this the manager spoke into a small two way radio.

“Now after you have got dressed love, we’ll call you a taxi to take you home”
“But I haven’t got any money miss” Sarah protested, “The cash machine at the station said my account was suspended and swallowed my card”
“That’s not a problem, we have an account with a local firm” the manager told Sarah, “We’ll pick up the tab this time since you made all the effort to come out here”

Then Sarah remembered the man she was meant to be meeting with the “portfolio” she had on the memory stick.

“But I was meant to be meeting someone here” Sarah ventured, “I was told to bring a memory stick with pictures”

“Him again” the manager interrupted in an annoyed tone, “Thanks for letting us know that he’s back and still up to his old tricks, we’ll deal with him” the manager added and then spoke to the bouncer who then entered the club.
“You definitely do not want to get mixed up with that man” the lady in the suit added, “What he does is unethical and probably illegal”

Sarah shook her head, she had inadvertently got the one other person who might help her deal with the financial difficulties she and her brother had, in to trouble

A young woman came out of the club carrying a tee-shirt and handed it to the lady in the suit who passed it to Sarah. The lady in the suit then escorted Sarah to the pub she had mentioned. As they went to the pub the lady asked where Sarah lived. Sarah gave her address in Tottington, expecting that they would baulk at paying for a taxi ride all the way there, but the lady said a taxi ride to her village was not a problem, as they regularly used that taxi firm to the various towns and suburbs around Manchester for some of their staff and they got a discounted rate. Sarah had tried to say she could take the train and the bus home, but they were not having it as it seemed the lady in the suit did not trust Sarah to not try at another strip club. The lady was probably right.

As they entered the pub, the lady had a quick word with the main person at the bar and quickly Sarah found herself shown to the ladies lavatory. There in privacy Sarah removed her jacket, put on the bikini top and then the tee shirt. After that she put her jacket back on. It felt good to be more properly dressed, what was Vicky thinking, and what was she thinking going along with what Vicky had told her.

Sarah took her jacket off again and used the toilet; it was going to be a long ride home back by taxi after all

As Sarah was washing her hands, she remembered the man she had meant to be meeting. It had become obvious that what he was doing was not sanctioned by the strip club and they even hinted that the man was breaking the law somehow. That club seemed paranoid about keeping on the right side of the law, so perhaps that may have been a lucky escape if he was not supposed to be doing what Vicky said he was doing.

It seemed so ironic that the staff at the strip club had shown more responsibility than either her or her friend Vicky.

Sarah would have to have a word with Vicky, after all she recommended that man she was to show the “portfolio” to, maybe her friend Vicky was getting involved in something she shouldn’t. This reminded Sarah of the memory stick with the topless and nude pictures Vicky had took of her to try and impress that man she was supposed to have met. Sarah pulled the memory stick out, of her handbag, it had been a dumb idea all along and thankfully nobody was going to see those pictures after all.

Then to her horror she noticed an inscribed letter “T”, not a letter “S” on the base of the memory stick

Sarah had taken the wrong memory stick!!

She had got Trevor’s and left her one back at home

What if Trevor had found hers?

“Oh crap” Sarah swore, put the memory stick back in her purse and pulled out her mobile and switched it on.

There was no signal! The walls of the building must be blocking it.

Sarah instinctively switched off her mobile, if Trevor had her memory stick and found it, knowing him it would probably be too late. She would have to admit to him that she was trying to save the house by what ever means she could think of.

Sarah leaned against the wall of the bathroom and swore

“Are you ok in there?” Sarah heard the lady in the suit call out.

Sarah closed her handbag, put her jacket over her arm and left the toilet

The lady in the suit handed Sarah a business card, “Your taxi is outside love it will take you all the way home to Tottington. Here’s my card, when you turn eighteen we may be able to use you as a waitress or behind the bar, but as I said outside, I’ve had a lot of experience in the adult entertainment industry and I can tell that at the moment you are not cut out to be a stripper or a lap dancer. There’s no shame in that as not many people can do it well enough to make money Sarah and I would rather turn those people away rather than give them false hopes”

Then the lady in the suit handed Sarah four crisp ten pound notes, “Here is some money for your trouble and we are flattered you thought of us first. Now I know it is not a lot, but I think the best thing you can do about your financial situation is to go and see your local Citizen’s Advice centre tomorrow”

“Thank you” Sarah uttered and she was ushered outside to a green mini-cab. To her surprise the taxi driver was female. This was probably why they used this service for their girls. Sarah put the jacket on the back seat and sat in the front passenger seat.

“Tottington eh” the female taxi driver said as Sarah strapped her self in.

“Yes” Sarah replied

“I see you got one of their promotional tee-shirts” the female taxi driver said to make conversation
“Yes” Sarah replied, still in some sense of shock

“Let me guess love” the taxi driver went on, “You thought if you wore nothing on under your jacket you would get hired”

Sarah uttered a tearful “yes”, “My friend said it would guarantee me a job as a stripper if I did that”

“You’re the sixth teenager this year to swallow that one my dear” the female taxi driver told her in as kindly manner as she could, “It seems to be an urban legend that has been doing the rounds in this area”

“What?” Sarah asked

“Apparently they have been told that if they just show up wearing a jacket with nothing on underneath, then they will get hired immediately” the female taxi driver went on

“And my friend bought into that?” Sarah asked

“Must have” the female taxi driver replied as she drove through the streets of Manchester, “The third girl to try it actually was completely naked under her coat and she was just fifteen”
“My friend heard about that one” Sarah replied in a shocked tone, “She says she was admitted into the club immediately” she added with incredulity. Sarah thought for a moment “Did you take her home as well?” Sarah asked
“No my dear, they did actually take her into the club, but only to the manager’s office while they got some spare clothes from one of the lap dancers, but none of us took her home. In fact they called the police and social services on that one my dear” the female taxi driver said with some venom, “Her step father forced her to do it, we heard she was terrified of him and she was bruised all over her back because that b*****d beat that child with some kind of improvised whip”

Sarah gulped at this news, no wonder the club acted as they did, after all who would want to be seen condoning that sort of abusive behaviour

“If you want my opinion my dear” the taxi driver then went on, “I know the management have behaved responsibly all along, but you’re better off out of it, it’s just degrading watching all those men and some women leering at you, treating you like a piece of meat”

“But I need the money” Sarah sobbed

“They all do” the taxi driver replied

For the most part of the ride home Sarah and the taxi driver talked about their childhood, schools and taste in fashion and music.

As they reached the outskirts of the town of Bury the taxi driver suggested that Sarah ring her parents because it was getting quite late. It was then that Sarah told the taxi driver that they had been killed in a hit and run accident.

“Who do you live with?” The taxi driver asked
“My brother was classed as an adult when they were killed so I got to stay with him” Sarah explained
“Do you want to ring him?” The taxi driver asked
“Knowing Trev” Sarah went on, “He will probably still be up writing on one of those conspiracy theory forums he goes on a lot”
“What does he do for a living?” the taxi driver asked
“Nothing” Sarah sighed, “He’s just about given up on trying to find a job”
“So that was why you tried to apply for a job as a stripper then?” the taxi driver asked

Sarah just nodded.

“Just phone him anyway” the taxi driver pressed as they got onto the ring road, the Angouleme Way and passed Bury Market.

Sarah pulled out her mobile and switched it on. For some reason it took longer to register a signal, maybe because she was in a taxi and moving between cell towers or something like that. Trevor would probably know.

Sarah dialled the house phone from her contacts list, but got an announcement saying that the number she had dialled was not recognised.

Sarah frowned. Had they been cut off without Trevor telling her? She tried Trevor’s mobile. Even if he was always out of credit, he should still be able to receive incoming calls.

Sarah dreaded what Trevor would say to her, especially if he had found her memory stick with the pictures Vicky had taken of her.

The mobile just went to voice mail.

Sarah had a bad feeling

Trevor must have found her memory stick and seen the pictures on it and was probably livid. ”Well at least I have a defence” Sarah thought, ”At least I was getting off my back side and trying to earn some money”

“I can’t get through” Sarah told the taxi driver
“Have you got a key to get in?” the taxi driver asked
Sarah grunted in the affirmative

“Maybe he’s gone to bed or gone out” the taxi driver suggested as they reached the bottom of Tottington Road.

Sarah remained silent, something was not right

As the taxi drove nearer to her village she had an overwhelming sense of dread.

Why was the land line not working, was it really because they had been disconnected of non payment of bills? But Sarah had not seen any bills in recently

What had happened to Trevor’s mobile, he never switched it off

The taxi eventually turned into the street where Sarah lived. Sarah was so wound up about why she could not get through to Trevor that she did not notice the solitary motorcyclist in black peering out from behind a wall a few doors down.

Sarah signed a form for the taxi driver as this ride had been on an account and got out of the taxi cab, forgetting her jacket on the back seat and walked to her front door while the taxi waited to make sure she got in ok.

As Sarah opened the front door she waved at the taxi cab, and then the taxi pulled out and started to drive off.

Sarah closed the front door, put down her handbag and called out to her brother

Silence!

Sarah crept up to the door to the lounge which still had a light on and peered in.

The table had been knocked over and one of the chairs was smashed and there slumped in the middle of the floor was the body of her brother.

Sarah rushed over to him and turned him over.

He was stone cold dead

Sarah felt nauseous and wanted to throw up. She threw her head back and screamed a loud “no”

Then she noticed her brother’s laptop computer had gone.

It must have been a robbery gone bad – somebody had broken in to rob them and murdered her brother because they did not expect anyone to be in, that had to be it

Sarah went back into the hall and grabbed at her handbag and pulled out her mobile phone to call the police, but for some reason her mobile was saying that her SIM was invalid.

She switched her phone off and then on again in case this was a glitch.

It wasn’t

There was a loud knock on the door

Sarah was startled.

”Were the robbers back for her?” she thought in her confusion.

“Who, who is it?” Sarah shouted out in a frightened voice

“The taxi driver” yelled a familiar voice from behind the door, “You left your jacket on the back seat”

Sarah ran to the door and opened it; there was the female taxi driver with her jacket

The female taxi driver noticed something was wrong in Sarah’s demeanour, “Is every thing all right?” she asked

Sarah shook her head, “It’s my brother” Sarah squeaked out before breaking down, “He’s dead” Sarah sobbed, “My brother’s been murdered”
“WHAT?” the female taxi driver said in surprise
“He’s in there” Sarah sobbed as she pointed to the living room door
The female taxi driver handed Sarah her jacket and pushed past so she could look into the room.

The taxi driver came back looking grim, “Have you called the police yet”

Sarah shook her head, “My mobile won’t work” she continued to sob as she showed her mobile to the woman.

The female taxi driver pulled out her mobile and switched it on then dialled the emergency service number, requesting the police.

It took an agonising five minutes while the taxi driver explained what had happened

“They have a car in the area” the taxi driver told Sarah as she finished the call to the emergency service line and then told her that she would call dispatch and that Sarah should quickly use the bathroom and then come and wait in taxi.

Sarah winced as she crept past the living room closing her eyes and then ran up the stairs to the bathroom where she tried to be sick down the toilet.

But nothing was coming as she had hardly eaten all day because she had been so wound up about going to that strip club in Manchester.

Sarah used the toilet quickly, although doing so at the behest of the taxi driver seemed like when she was a little girl again being told to go, because they were going on some long trip.

Then she nervously came down the stairs, not daring to look into the living room where Trevor’s body lay, picked up her handbag and put it over her shoulder and then she ran into the arms of the female taxi driver.

“Let’s go to the car dear” the female taxi driver told Sarah and the two of them walked out into the cold night air.

Out of the corner of her eye Sarah spotted a figure in black on a motorcycle across the other side of the road. He looked like one of those motorcyclists who had almost ran her over earlier that evening and it looked like he was reaching for something.

Just then the night was shattered by the sound of a siren. Sarah instinctively looked round to see where that noise was coming from. It was a police car arriving with two male officers.

The motorcyclist seemed to realise he had somewhere to be and roared off into the night.

The police car parked behind the taxi and the male police officer in the front passenger seat got out.

“Are you the one’s reporting a break in and a murder” the officer asked the taxi driver.
“My fare found their brother dead when I dropped her off” the female taxi driver replied.

“Have you touched anything miss” the police officer asked Sarah

“I turned Trevor over and I used the bathroom” Sarah replied in a state of shocked confusion.
“I told her to use the bathroom” the taxi driver ventured, “I figured you would want her out of the house and I did not know for how long that would be”
“Well I wish you hadn’t” the police officer retorted angrily, “You may have compromised evidence in using the bathroom”

The other male police officer got out of the car and came over, “We’re going to have to secure the crime scene so we can’t allow you to go back in”
“Do you have someone you can stay with?” The Taxi driver asked Sarah.
Before Sarah could reply the first police officer interrupted, “Sorry but we need her to stay here so we can question her about this especially as by her own admission evidence has been compromised”
“Why?” the taxi driver protested, “She’s been out all evening”
“Did she discover the body?” the second police officer asked the taxi driver
“Yes” the taxi driver replied
“Did you see her discover the body?” the second police officer pressed.
“No” the taxi driver said in a confused voice, “I came back because she left her jacket in the car and as her phone wasn’t working I…”
“Then” the second police officer interrupted “as she claims to have found the body first and evidence has been compromised already we have to consider her as the primary suspect and hold her for questioning” the second officer continued as he took hold of Sarah’s upper arm with a painfully firm grip.

This was like another thunder bolt, not only had someone murdered her brother, but the police were accusing her!

“It wasn’t me” Sarah said weakly through her sobbing, “I didn’t kill Trevor”

“That’s ridiculous” the taxi driver protested, “Compromise evidence? All she did was turn over the body and use the toilet in her own house”
“It is our standard operating procedure now” the first police officer replied unsympathetically, and then turned to Sarah, “Sarah Bentley I’m placing you under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Trevor Bentley. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
“We need you to wait in the police car miss” the first police officer then told Sarah

The second police officer grabbed Sarah’s other arm and then placed handcuffs on Sarah and marched her to the police car.

All the while Sarah was in tears pleading to no avail that she had not killed her own brother.

“What are you doing” Sarah heard the taxi driver call out, “She’s been out all evening”

Sarah did not hear the reply as she was shoved handcuffed into the back left seat of the police car and the door closed.

Through her tears Sarah looked on as the female taxi driver remonstrated with the police officers who then pointed their fingers at her.

Then the female taxi driver put her hands up in submission, backed off and got in her car and drove off.

Sarah was alone in the police car, with only what she had been wearing and her handbag. For some reason they had not taken that off of her, but with the handcuffs she could not reach it.

Sarah could see various neighbours looking out of their windows down at her, obviously they would be thinking she was guilty.

After an eternity more police vehicles arrived, obviously the forensic teams similar to the ones on the CSI shows her brother used to watch. Also there was a man in a long grey coat that came up to the house

Sarah spotted that one of the uniformed officers was handing something in a transparent bag to him that had been found in the house. This new man opened the bag and appeared to sniff it. Then he closed it and went in to the house. He was obviously a detective.

After about five minutes the detective came out of the house and walked over to the police car. His face was like thunder.

The detective opened the door on Sarah’s side and presented the bag to her. It seemed to contain a load of smaller packets of some blue compound and a hypodermic syringe.

“Who’s your supplier?” the detective said angrily
Sarah shook her head in confusion, “I don’t understand” she whispered, “I’ve never seen that before”

“Don’t play little miss innocent with me darling” the detective retorted, “We found this stash of yours in your bedroom in your top drawer. You hadn’t gone out of your way to hide it, so where did you get it love”

“But I’ve never seen it before” Sarah protested through her tears

“Dry up the waterworks darling” the detective sneered, “I’ve seen it all before. This looks like Crystal Meth, and you’ve been caught bang to rights dealing in it. It’s obvious what type of low life you are, especially as you’re wearing a tee-shirt from a known strip club. Now I’ll ask you again, who is your supplier?”

“But I’ve never seen it before” Sarah insisted, “I’ve never done drugs”

“Don’t give me that” the detective shouted, “It’s obvious what happened, your brother found out you were dealing and was going to shop you, so you caught him by surprise injected him with a lethal dose of this little lot in the back of his neck and went out to establish an alibi”

“No” Sarah sobbed, “He was alive when I left”

“Save it!” the detective countered, “We found the bailiff’s letter and while I was in the house I checked with your bank and surprise, surprise, this evening a deposit of forty grand was placed in your bank account, about what this stash could fetch if you know where to sell it. That would certainly buy you sometime with the bailiffs, wouldn’t it love. A pity your brother got in the way isn’t it”

“But” Sarah began

“Just don’t” the detective insisted, “We’ve got motive, a murder weapon and opportunity and we know you’ve been dealing. I know what kind of scum you are. We are going to find out who your supplier is, whether you tell us or not. If you’re smart you’ll give him up down at the station”

The detective closed the car door and walked away, leaving Sarah in a state of utter shock.

Whoever the killer was had obviously planted the evidence on her to frame her, but how could someone have planted that money in her account when the bank machine had said her account was suspended and swallowed her card.

Was that why her card was swallowed?

What was going on?

The first two police officers got into the police car and the police officer in the front passenger seat operated the radio. They were going to take Sarah to the main police station in Bury.

The car then headed out and got onto Market Street. Thy drove past the bus terminus and then passed Laurel Street, where until recently Sarah had gone to school at the local High School.

Then they reached the junction with Booth Street and the police car carried on onto Bury Road.

As they were passing New Street, just passed the junction Sarah spotted two motorcyclists both in black, one on the north entrance and the other on the south entrance.

As the police car passed them, the bikers pulled out and started to follow close behind, one behind the other.

Sarah suddenly realised she recognised the bikes; they were the ones that had almost run her over earlier that evening.
“Those bikes” Sarah spoke up, “I saw them earlier” she insisted, “They almost ran me over when I was going out, they were…”

“Quiet in the back” the police officer in the passenger seat reprimanded Sarah.

“They are getting a bit close Derek” the police officer who was driving spoke up.
“We’re not exactly in a hurry” the police officer in the front passenger seat told his colleague, “pull over and let them get passed.”

The police car slowed a bit and moved over to the side of the road as if to let the motorcyclists over take, but the motor cyclists seemed to be showing no interest in over taking the police car.

“What are they up to” the police officer who was in the passenger seat asked to nobody in particular. He picked up the radio mike and tried to radio in.

The radio seemed to just give out a static hiss.

“The radio’s out” the police officer told his colleague who was driving, “I don’t like this”

Sarah strained to try and turn round to see what the motorcyclists were doing which was not easy with the handcuffs and the seat belt. Then out of the corner of her eye she spotted the biker in front pulling out something metallic from his jacket.

“They’ve got guns” Sarah wanted to scream but was paralysed with fear, she was transfixed as the motorcyclist pointed the item right at the back window of the police car and right at her.

Now she could recognise what it was. She had seen one on a website her brother once showed her. The item this motorcyclist was pointing was a machine pistol.

Sarah managed to quickly turn around to facing front again. She did her best to lean forward and to the side in the rear passenger seat so her head was below the top of the seat and the bottom of the rear window.

Just as she did so, she heard a single burst of gunfire from the motorcyclist’s machine pistol and the back window of the police car shattering behind her.


To be continued…

[GypsyGoth]

Intriguing.

[Sticks]

Episode II – Nothing is ever as it seems

Spoiler:

Sometimes it is just not your day.

For seventeen year old Sarah Bentley from the sleepy village of Tottington north of Manchester this is tragically true. Her plan to pay the bills by auditioning to be a stripper in a Manchester night club came to nothing when she was rejected for being underage sent home in a taxi. On her return home she has found her brother murdered and suspicion placed on her with planted drugs and a large some of money placed in her bank account.

To add to this, one of two motorcyclists following the police car she is in has opened fire on it with a machine pistol

The sound of the shattering back windscreen behind her had been deafening. Now with it gone the gunman now had a clear uninterrupted shot of Sarah and the police officers.

Sarah heard the police officer who was driving swear and suddenly felt herself flung to her left as the police officer executed a sharp right hand turn.

There was the deafening sound almost like an explosion as the motorcyclist with the gun slammed into the side of the police car.

This was obviously the police officer’s plan to take him out, but what about the second one behind

Sarah heard it as it screeched to a halt behind the now immobilised police car. He was now about to finish what his colleague had started and they were sitting ducks.…

Suddenly Sarah heard more shouting from outside, coming from ahead of her outside the police car.

A number of people who were either customers or staff from the Golden Eagle Takeaway had heard the crash and come out to investigate.

Sarah heard another burst of gunfire, this time from some other kind of handgun coming from the second motorcyclist but no bullets seemed to be coming into the car. From what she could see the shots were aimed in the direction of the people from the takeaway.

In the distance another police siren started up approaching.

Sarah could just about see the first motorcyclist get up and rush around the back of the police car. As she turned her head to the left she saw him jumping onto the second motorcyclist’s bike as a pillion passenger.

The to motorcyclists then roared off through the gap between the takeaway and one of the houses, scattering and staff and customers and turning left before the fence that surrounded the park area escaping into the darkness of the night.

“Derek” the police officer who was driving called out

There was no answer.

Sarah looked at the police officer sitting in the front passenger seat. He seemed slumped forward and as she peered past the front seat as best she could, she noticed blood seeping from his head.

The other police car screeched to a halt on the left of the police car Sarah was in. Two officers got out very quickly and a female officer ran to the left hand side of the car. The other officer seemed to run over to just outside the takeaway. Sarah could not see properly but he must have done so because someone had been hit.

What had this all to do with her why her brother had been murdered and why the people who killed him had framed her?

The female office banged on the front passenger window while Sarah could see the male officer outside rushing back to their car, presumably to call in on the radio.

The driver of the police car Sarah was in tried his door.

It just about opened. The motorcycle had impacted on the back door.

The police officer ran round the front of the car and pulled open the front passenger door and reached in and checked on the police officer in the front passenger seat.

“Damn!” the officer swore and hit the roof of the car with his hand in anger.

It was becoming obvious to Sarah that this officer had been fatally it in the initial gun attack, and now she was scared that they would blame her for this death as well.

There was the sound of another siren, this time from the other side of the crashed police car. Through the broken glass of the rear passenger seat Sarah saw that this car had the police detective that had first accused her of dealing in drugs. To say he did not look too happy was an understatement.

The detective got out of the car and walked over to the police officer who had been driving and spoke with him for a minute or so. Then the detective headed over to the crashed police car and came round to the left rear passenger door, opened it, leaned over, undid Sarah’s seat belt and then he pulled himself out of the car and grabbed Sarah by her upper arm.

His grip was like a vice and hurt

“RIGHT YOU, OUT!!” the detective ordered Sarah, and angrily pulled her.

Sarah tried to get her feet to move in time, but she stumbled. The detective let go and Sarah fell to the ground. With her hands cuffed behind her back she could not break her fall properly and her left shoulder took the full force of hitting the ground followed by her head.

Sarah wanted to cry, but she was terrified and in pain.

She was right, the detective was blaming her for the death of this police officer, yet she was the one being shot at.

For a split second she thought she saw the detective lifting on of his feet as if to kick her while she lay on the ground.

“Sir!” the female police officer called out.

“Pick this wretch up and place her in my car” the detective ordered, “I’ll stay on to secure this crime scene while you take this worthless piece of scum down to the station for booking. One count of murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one of possession with intent to supply for starters”

The female officer pulled at Sarah’s right upper arm and helped her to her feet, then she grabbed her arm and frog marched her over to the detective’s car. Opened the rear left door and pushed her in and buckled her up. Then the female officer got in the front passenger seat and this car started off and turned around in the road and headed back up Bury road to the junction with Booth Street. The police car then turned left and headed down on Booth Street until it got to the junction with Rhode Street, whereupon the police car cut through Rhode Street to get back on to Bury Road.

All the while Sarah cried quietly.

What was the use of protesting her innocence?

They wouldn’t believe her anyway.

For much of the journey down, it was uneventful, although when the police car got onto Bolton Street Sarah though she spotted the headlamp of another motor cycle. In the darkness it was hard to tell if they were the same as the one who had attacked earlier.

The police car drove to the Bury police station on Irwell Street and parked in the compound.

The female police officer got out of the car and pulled Sarah out of the car and frog marched her into the station and up to the charge desk.

“Evening Sarge” the female said to the officer on the charge desk, “This is the Bentley girl”

“So she’s the one who has indirectly caused the death of inspector Franks” the desk sergeant said angrily.

Sarah just shook her head weakly

“Right personal possessions here” the desk sergeant angrily ordered pointing down at the desk.

The female police officer tried to remove Sarah’s hand bag, but she could not get it off because of the handcuffs.

“Have you got a key?” the female police officer asked

The desk officer sighed in an irritated tone and went on about how he would have to go into the back to get the spare key

“I never killed anyone” Sarah said tearfully

“Save it” the female police officer snapped back, “That officer who was killed tonight because of you had a wife and three children” she added icily.

They were definitely holding her responsible for his death!

“THIS IS A STICH UP!!” a shout came from behind Sarah. Instinctively she turned her head to see some man in his twenties being manhandled by two male officers.

“Not Hargreaves again” the desk officer growled. “Oi Hargreaves” Yelled the desk officer “Shut it” he added.

“SHUT IT YOURSELF PIG” the man screamed back

Suddenly the man kicked out at one of the officers knocking the officer off balance and then tried to rush at the desk.

The male officer who had driven the car with Sarah in ran to assist his colleagues in subduing the man, which was hard because the man, though obviously drunk was very strong and very violent

“Just put this one in the cells” the desk said to the female officer, “We’ll get her stuff later when I have a chance to find the key. Let’s deal with Hargreaves first”

The female officer frogmarched Sarah away from the charge desk down to the cells.

There Sarah was pushed into a cold cell and the door locked.

There Sarah was

Locked in a police cell with her hands cuffed behind her back

Her brother, her only other relative had been murdered and the police were blaming her

Somebody had even planted drugs on her and the police were convinced they were hers and that she had murdered her own brother because he was going to expose her as a master drug dealer???

To cap it all, someone had shot at the police car she was in, murdered a police officer and now they were eager to pin that on her as well

She ached from the fall earlier and was convinced that had the female officer not intervened that detective would have kicked her in the head as further punishment for the crimes he was convinced she was guilty of.

Could it get any worse?

Sarah lent against the wall and cried quietly until she fell asleep.

+ + +

CLANG

Sarah woke with a start

Somebody was opening the cell door.

Groggily Sarah realised she was still handcuffed with he hands behind her back, and she felt stiff.

It was the detective and another police officer.

“I hope you are feeling really sore and awful” the detective growled, “I see you have a large bruise where you hit the pavement on your face. Good! You bloody deserve it after the trouble you have caused. I just wish we still had the death penalty for scum like you”

The detective then turned to the police officer, “Take that b***h to the interview room, no need to un-cuff her and don’t be too gentle with her” he ordered

“With that bruise sir” the police officer spoke up, “She needs to see a police surgeon”
“No she **********g doesn’t” the detective countered
“It’s procedure sir” the police officer insisted.

The detective looked at the police officer and then at Sarah in disgust, “No way!” the detective retorted, “This b***h has been dealing in hard Meth, has murdered her brother and because of her drug dealing activities we have lost inspector Derek Thompson a very good friend of mine”

“They’re saying that was a gang hit sir, there is no way the CPS will charge her with that murder” the police officer replied back,
“If it wasn’t for her and her drug dealing activities he wouldn’t be laying in the morgue right now” retaliated the detective, “Now I want that b***h up in the interview room now and b****r what it says in PACE

“We have to follow procedure Sir” the police officer insisted and then continued “whether you like it or not we still have to abide by PACE Sir”

“PACE” the detective swore, “Bl**dy PACE, When I joined the force we never had to put up with that crap and we got the job done”

“We do now Sir” the police officer replied forcefully.

“Fine” the detective countered, “Get the bl***y surgeon then and send that b***h up to the interview room” with that the detective marched out in a foul mood.

Sarah wanted to plead that she had never killed her brother, but it was obvious that the police officer who had been killed when the motorcyclist attacked was a popular officer. It just seemed all to hopeless

She just looked at the ground as tears welled up in her eyes. She loved her brother even if he had irritated her with his daft conspiracy theories, and now he was dead. Worse of all, if it could get any worse, Someone had framed her for his murder, planted drugs on her and somehow placed forty thousand pounds in her bank account

Sarah just wanted to die.

If they gave her a rope and left her to it, she would hang herself and that would make everyone happy and for all she knew make the world a better place.

“I’m sorry we took a while miss” the police officer told Sarah, “I can remove the handcuffs now, but I will have to take your hand bag, your watch and the contents of your pockets and your clothes for forensics”

Sarah looked up at him, “But this is all I have?” she said weakly.

So now they wanted her to strip naked as well?

“It’s procedure” the police officer insisted and bent over and undid the handcuffs.

The police officer removed the handcuffs and then took Sarah’s handbag, and watch and placed them in a large clear zip lock bag.

Sarah in a daze without warning pulled off the shirt she had been given by the night club, wincing in pain as she did so and dropped it on the floor, then with her aching arms went to remove her bikini top.

“Before you take anything else off” the police officer interrupted, “If you wait a moment miss I think it is best if get a female police officer to come in and collect your clothes”

Sarah did not hear and unclipped her bikini top, pulled it off and dropped it on the Tee-shirt

“I said STOP” the police officer repeated.

Sarah almost jumped out of her skin put her hands down on the bench she was sitting on, not daring to cover her modesty “Sorry sir” she said

“I’ll take your bag and these clothes to evidence lock up, contact the police surgeon and send a female officer to collect the rest of your clothes and bring you a replacement jumpsuit”

“Yes sir” Sarah replied, still not daring to cover self with her hands lest she get into more trouble

“On second thoughts” the police officer told Sarah, “It’s a bit chilly in this cell so put these back on for the moment as well” and tossed the shirt and the bikini top back at her.

Sarah immediately put them back on

The police officer then left with her handbag and closed and locked the cell door again.

Sarah took the opportunity to use the toilet in the cell and then went back to the bench and lent against the corner and closed her eyes.

“Why Trevor” Sarah cried out and then broke down again.

+ + +

Sarah heard the sound of the cell door being opened.

She looked up and to her horror in the doorway was one of the motorcyclists, all in black and wearing his dark helmet so she could not see her face.

Without saying a word the motorcyclist raised a gun and pointed it at her.

The gun had a silencer

“No, no” Sarah cried out in horror

The motorcyclist showed no pity and fired the gun at her

+ + +

Sarah woke up with a start

The cell door was still firmly closed.

She had just had a nightmare, but was still living in another one

There was the sound of keys in a lock. The cell door was being opened.

Sarah brought her legs up to sit in the foetal position, shaking her head, crying out the word “no”

It was a female police officer accompanied by another man in civilian dress who looked like he was in his late fifties.

“This is the police surgeon” the female police officer explained, “Our usual one is unavailable and so you are lucky to get this one. He’s here to examine you, and I am here to collect your clothes and get you to put on a jumpsuit after the examination.

The police surgeon came in, knelt down and looked at the bruise on Sarah’s face, and felt the side of Sarah’s face with his gloved hands and asked how she got it. The female police officer replied before Sarah could answer giving an explanation that was at complete variance with what happened, giving the impression it had been caused because she had been trying to escape when the car door was opened.

The police surgeon turned and looked up at the female police officer

“That’s not true” Sarah protested. “I fell on the floor when I was asked to get out of the police car. Nobody helped me”
“I wouldn’t believe a word she said Doctor” the female police officer retorted, “She’s being detained on suspicion of murder and possession with intent to supply a class A substance, scum like this will say anything”

The police surgeon frowned and then looked at Sarah’s elbows and wrists and then stood up to speak to the female police officer. “Do I understand that a police officer was killed this evening bringing in this young woman” the police surgeon asked.

“That’s right doctor” the female police officer confirmed, “Because of her we lost Inspector Derek Franks”
“Did she kill him?” the police surgeon asked the female police officer
“No sir” the female police officer answered, “It looks like a gang hit meant for her by two motorcyclists in a drive by shooting. The round meant for her” the female police officer went on, pointing at Sarah, “missed her and hit Franks in the back of the head”
“I see” the police surgeon responded, “And suppose you had arrested a burglar and someone took a pot shot at him while in your custody, hit one of your officers instead, would you hold the burglar responsible for that”

“Sir?” the female police officer replied
“Since I arrived, your detective has made it quite clear that he does not appreciate my presence and referred to this young woman as little more than a cop killer. Can I remind you that I also have a legal duty to perform here, and can I ask why you have not appointed a legal guardian for this suspect?”

“Sir?” the female police officer repeated.

The police surgeon then turned back to Sarah, “What is your date of birth”

Sarah immediately gave the information required

“That means” the police surgeon went on, “She is under eighteen and therefore in the eyes of the law still considered a minor and therefore entitled to other safeguards”

“She’s being held for an adult crime sir” the female police officer replied.
“Never the less” the police surgeon insisted, “by failing to follow the established protocols for this police service, you could run the risk of undermining any conviction you hope might be made at least and possibly be making this force liable to a claim under the human rights act. Meanwhile, I am not happy with this head wound and I want her taken to hospital and examined properly. Can you arrange that?”

“Detective Inspector Halsall” the female police officer began

“In terms of medical matters” the police surgeon interrupted, “I outrank the detective inspector and the fact you had this woman kept in handcuffs longer than standard practice”
“There were extenuating circumstances” the female police officer tried to interrupt

The police surgeon was having none of it, “This station breached it’s duty of care of a suspect who is also a minor. The detective inspector will have to wait until I pronounce her fit to be interviewed and you have arranged for a legal guardian to be present”

The police surgeon turned back to Sarah, “Have your parents been informed you are here?” he asked

“They were killed last year in a hit and run” Sarah sobbed and then added, “I didn’t kill my brother”

“Yeah right” interjected the female police officer.

“If you please” the police surgeon objected, “I still believe that in this country a person is considered innocent until proven guilty, now go and arrange for this young woman to be taken to the hospital so she can be examined properly”

The female police officer glowered at the police surgeon, “Detective inspector Halsall will not be happy”
“I don’t care, do it” the police surgeon replied, “I will stay here until it is arranged, and as for the story about trying to escape, the wounds on her elbows and the bruises on her arm are not consistent with that account, and are more consistent with someone falling over. You can tell Halsall that, if he objects, since he was in charge when I believe your prisoner was transferred to another vehicle.

“I will have to lock you in with the prisoner while I arrange this” the female police officer said icily to the police surgeon.

“I don’t think that’s official procedure either constable” the police surgeon replied

The female police officer removed a walkie talkie from her belt and spoke into it to pass on the police surgeon’s request in an irritated manner.

Was this surgeon right that her human rights had been violated?

“OK we will be taking the prisoner to the Fairfield General Hospital so I will have to cuff her again.

“Is that really necessary constable” the police surgeon questioned, “in the state she is in, in my professional opinion that hardly seems justified, and may I remind you she is a minor”

Sarah just looked at the floor, all this discussion seemed as if it was happening in the distance. Just then she felt woozy and everything started to spin. Through the strange experience of echo-like voices she thought she heard the detective come into the cell and angrily remonstrating with the police surgeon.

And then it went black.

+ + +

Sarah slowly came too and slowly opened her eyes. She was in an ambulance so it seemed, and her right wrist was handcuffed to the bed. In the ambulance with her were the paramedic, the police surgeon and the detective

“What happened?” Sarah mumbled

“You’re awake then” the detective retorted, “You can answer questions then”

“No she can’t” interrupted the police surgeon, “Not until she has been given the all clear by the hospital”
“Over a tiny bruise like that” the detective remonstrated, “I’ve seen worse than that from chucking out time in Ramsbottom”
“Look detective Halsall we are dealing with a head injury here, and being the police surgeon on call I am not taking any chances” the police surgeon replied in an irritated manner, “Your constable saw how she just keeled over in the police cell. You were very lucky we were there otherwise you would be having to explain to the IPCC about a possible dead prisoner”
“And like anyone will loose sleep over the death of the likes of this scum” the detective sneered pointing at Sarah.
“I must say” replied the police surgeon, “I find your attitude very unprofessional”
“Unprofessional” the detective shouted back, “I have one dead nineteen year old in suspicious circs and one dead copper who was a very good friend of mine, courtesy of this oik’s drug dealing activities, I’ve waited long enough and I’m going to get this cow to confess and give me her supplier”
“You will” the police surgeon tried to reply

“Enough, the pair of you” said the paramedic, “In this ambulance, back here I am in charge. There will be no interrogations, period”

After what seemed like an age, the ambulance came to a stop and the doors opened into the night air.

What time it was, Sarah had no way of knowing, especially since they had confiscated her watch along with just about everything else she had. Were it not for her suddenly passing out like that, they would have taken her clothes as well.

As Sarah was wheeled out of the ambulance there outside was the female police officer who had been in the car that took Sarah to the police station and for some reason she was carrying a see-through bag with Sarah’s stuff that had been confiscated from her.

“Why have you got that” the detective asked the police officer

“We received orders that her property had to go with her as she is to be transferred to Chester House HQ as soon as she have been given the all clear” the female police officer responded, “I suspect with the way Inspector Franks was killed they probably want that specialised gangs unit to handle this investigation along with narcotics”

“THEY CAN’T DO THAT” the detective shouted, “THAT B***H IS MY COLLAR”

“Sorry sir but those are the orders sir” the female police officer replied, “It came through the email just after you left, we couldn’t phone you because we were told you had to switch your mobile off”
“News to me that” the detective said in a manner that sounded to Sarah that he was suspicious of something. “You stay with Miss Bentley here while I go back to Irwell Street to see what else they have dug up on her”
“Yes sir” the female police officer replied as the detective walked away indignantly.

“We’ll take it from here” the paramedic told the police surgeon
“I’m afraid I need to be with Miss Bentley here when we see the consultant” the police surgeon replied, “It how we do things”
“Fair enough sir” the paramedic replied and wheeled Sarah into the entrance of the accident and emergency section.

“Don’t forget to turn off your mobiles” the paramedic then told both the police officer and the police surgeon

Sarah still felt woozy, she could not understand why she would faint like that, and maybe she was hungry after all it had been several hours since she had eaten.

Eaten??? How could she think of food at a time like this, with her brother in the morgue, an attempt on her life and a police officer dead and a detective convinced that she of all people is a master drugs dealer

Sarah was wheeled to some bay or side room, she did not know where.

“We need to release her from the handcuffs so we can take the bed back to the ambulance” the paramedic told the police officer.

“Ok” the female police officer replied and undid the end of the handcuffs that was anchored to the bed.

Sarah was then transferred to the hospital bed.

“I’ll have to handcuff her to the bed” the female police officer then told the police surgeon, acting as if Sarah was not there

“I really don’t think that’s necessary constable” the police surgeon objected, “She’s not in much of a condition to go anywhere, and besides you and I could easily restrain her should we have to”

“I suppose you’re right sir” the female police officer replied and then removed the handcuffs from Sarah’s right wrist and sat down on one of the chairs by the bed holding the bag with Sarah’s confiscated property.

After while Sarah weakly asked “What time is it?”

“Quiet” the female police ordered
“Now now” the police surgeon chided, “A little courtesy never hurt anyone” and then to Sarah, “It is about three fifteen in the morning my dear”

“I’m sorry about the inspector” Sarah responded trying to show some contrition

“Sorry doesn’t cut it” the female police officer snapped back, “If you and your mates were not involved in some kind of gang feud he would not have been killed. Now shut it”

“Easy now” the police surgeon reprimanded the police officer, “like I told your colleague you can not hold her accountable for the actions of others”

After another few minutes, the police surgeon spoke up, “Constable, any chance you could go and find out what is keeping them?”
“I’m afraid not sir” the female police officer replied, “It’s not protocol, but you can go if you wish”

“I need to stay with the patient” the police surgeon insisted

“I expect their busy” the police officer replied

“I really would like someone to find out why they are taking so long, after all this is a head injury case we have” the police surgeon insisted

Somehow to Sarah, something did not feel right, it was as if the police surgeon was purposely trying to send away the police officer, but why?

No!

It must be her imagination, she had hit her head in the fall, and she had passed out in the police cell when the police surgeon had looked at her.

But why was she attacked?

Why was her brother murdered and why was she framed for it?”

Just then the police officer’s mobile went off, indicating a text message had been received

“Sorry I thought I had turned this off” the female police officer apologised and pulled out the phone to look at the incoming text.

Sarah turned to look at the female police officer as she read the text message and start frowning.

“It seems another police surgeon has turned up back at Irwell Street” the police officer announced,
“There must be some kind of mix up” the police surgeon said with no tone of concern or surprise, “Obviously a breakdown in communications somewhere”
“Can I see some ID” the female police officer asked the police surgeon

“Of course my dear” the police surgeon responded with a wry smile and reached into his coat.

To Sarah’s horror the police surgeon quickly pulled out a gun with a silencer, pointed it at the female police officer and shot her dead, once in the head.

Slowly the elderly man aimed the gun at Sarah, “I believe you have something my employer wants”

“What?” Sarah said quietly in horror.

Slowly the elderly man moved around the bed and past the body of the police officer as he headed for the chair and the bag of Sarah’s belonging

“Why?” Sarah whined

“That’s not for you to know my dear, national security and all that” the elderly man smiled, “It will be obvious what happened here, a teenage drug dealer got arrested and the rest of her gang followed her, and believing she talked or was about to, silenced her along with another fine police officer. I think using the ammo normally used by the Russian Mafia is a nice touch, don’t you”

“Sorry for the delay” an unexpected voice interrupted the room.

It was the consultant, who had just barged in.

“What’s going on here?” the consultant asked and instinctively grabbed at the elderly mans arm with the gun.

Sarah saw her chance and rolled off the bed, grabbed the bag with her property and headed out the door while the two men were struggling.

She emerged into a corridor that seemed deserted as it was still the small hours of the morning.

As she headed down the corridor to the entrance her horror in the distance Sarah thought she heard the dull thudding noise of the gun with the silencer going off.

She had no choice but to run.

If the elderly man had won the fight she was his next target, if the consultant had, then they would probably pin the death of that police officer on her as well, and the way that detective was, to be in his clutches was unthinkable.

Sarah turned a corner into a main section, as she did she heard a bullet whiz by her and impact in the wall

Sarah was near the entrance and could see that two ladies, one heavily pregnant were getting out of a taxi just outside.

Without thinking Sarah just tunnelled in on the taxi and headed outside as fast as she could.

One of the ladies was just about to close the back door of the taxi when Sarah reached it.

“May I have this one please” she panted as she climbed in the back.

“I’m sorry miss” the taxi driver said to her, “This is a mini-cab not a black cab, you’ll have to get out and order one by telephone”
“Please I’m in a hurry” Sarah pleaded, “There’s someone there trying to kill me”
“I’m sorry miss” insisted the driver, “It’s the law, I’m not allowed to pick up fares like this and I could lose my licence. You’ll have to get out”

Sarah moved across the seat and opened the door on the other side of the cab, got out and quickly pushed the car door so it slammed shut. Sarah dashed out into the roadway outside the accident and emergency entrance and down a flight of steps on the other side of the road, to the main roadway below the entrance

Out here she was a sitting duck

Sarah ran as fast as she could following along some brick like structure as the road curved and then headed across the road to a clump of trees that were on a small hill in the hospital grounds.

As she got into the trees she turned and noticed that the taxi that refused to pick her up was driving along the side of the hospital, followed by a lone figure in black on a motorcycle.

Whoever this person was, who was impersonating the police surgeon had not been working alone.

Sarah passed through the trees to lie down on a bank to try and hide, just in case that man was still following her.

Who were they and what did they want with her?

After what seemed like ages but was in reality about two minutes, Sarah stirred from where she was hiding. In the distance was the sound of a police siren, maybe they had found the bodies of the police officer and the consultant and were already blaming her.

Sarah took her property from out of the clear plastic bag, and put her watch back on.

She inched her way down to the car park, which, as it was still quite early was quite empty. Sarah quickly crossed over it down to a gap in the fence on a patch of grass on the other side onto a housing estate near the hospital.

If only she could get back to Tottington.

Sarah thought about what the taxi driver said about ordering a taxi and took out her mobile and hesitated about switching it on. What was the point if the SIM had somehow been cancelled and she did not know any taxi companies as she could never afford to pay for one. Sarah checked her purse. She still had the money that the lady outside the night club in Manchester had given her, but what use was it if she could not find a taxi.

Now if only there was a pay phone on this housing estate, which seemed unlikely as even in Tottington they were being phased out as most people had mobiles.

Sarah headed along road called Fairfield Road and then on to Primrose Drive, which was up hill and in the direction of a main road.

Where she would go after that she did not know, as it was still the early hours of the morning and there was no telling how long before they discovered she was not in the taxi and come looking for her, whoever they were. Plus there was the issue of now being on the police’s most wanted list, since they were all convinced she had been dealing in hard drugs and had murdered her brother and was now responsible for the deaths of two police officers and most likely a hospital consultant.

After ten minutes Sarah reached the Rochdale Old Road. Up the hill a short way in the distance, Sarah spotted a bus stop to her right and headed up, just in case there was an early morning bus to anywhere.

To her surprise, one of the bus numbers at the stop was the bus to Tottington, the Four-Six-Nine

Sarah hoped that there might be an early bus to her home village

No such luck!

The first bus was not until just after six thirty in the morning and that was just over two and a half hours away.

Suddenly Sarah heard the sound of more police sirens approaching from down the road

Sarah did as best as she could and hid behind the bus shelter as two police cars came screaming down and turned just up the hill into the main entrance of the hospital.

What could she do?

Just after the last police car had turned into the hospital, Sarah heard another car approaching, this time from the opposite direction.

It was another taxi

Sarah waved her arms at it, expecting it to drive past, but instead it slowed to a stop outside the bus stop.

Inside the taxi was a man of Asian origin, obviously not afraid to pick a fare up from the side of the road.

“Too early for the bus then Miss?” the taxi driver asked
Sarah just nodded and got in beside him in the front and just hoped she had enough money for the taxi.

“Where to Miss” the Asian taxi driver asked

Sarah had to think for a moment, all she wanted to do was go to her home, but for all she knew her brother’s body may still be there, and the police might still be there as well. There was only one place she could go for now, to her friend Vicky’s house and hope that they would believe her and not turn her in.

Sarah gave Vicky’s address and asked how much that would cost, explaining she only had forty pounds and that her cash card had been swallowed the previous night. She left out the part where the police had said someone had deposited forty thousand pounds into it.

The taxi driver smiled and said he could run this off the books for ten pounds. Sarah agreed and reached into her purse and pulled out a ten pound note and handed it over. Then for a brief moment wondered if that had been the right move, but this concern proved unfounded as the taxi driver pulled out into traffic and headed down the road.

About half a mile down the road another police car passed the taxi with it’s sirens screaming.

Instinctively Sarah tried to hide her face.

Luckily the driver did not pick up on it, instead he turned on the radio to a local commercial radio station which seemed to have music playing on it.

Then there was a news report, saying how a police officer had been murdered on Bury Road driving from the village of Tottington in a drive by gang shooting as he was transporting a seventeen year old youth accused of drug running and murdering her brother.

Sarah swallowed hard; they had not yet released the news about the death of the female police officer and her subsequent escape from custody.

The news report then went on to other news items.

“Don’t worry my dear” the taxi driver smiled

Sarah’s blood went cold, He must have guessed who she was

“We can go by Walshaw if the police have blocked up Bury Road, no extra charge”

Sarah was so relieved; the driver had not connected the news report to her, however in the back of her mind she was terrified that a further news report would mention what had happened at the hospital causing him to realise who she was. The only thing she could do was engage him in talking about himself, something he seemed to like doing.

Within fifteen minutes the taxi was driving along Angouleme Way, just like Sarah had been in that other taxi several hours earlier as she returned from her abortive attempt to become a stripper for a night club in Manchester.

The radio played music, but Sarah was paranoid that it would give some news update that would mean this driver would identify her.

Also deep down, Sarah was nervous about this taxi driver, as she had heard many lurid tails from her best friend Vicky about drivers attacking lone female passengers. It seemed so wrong to think that as he was being nice in working off the meter, probably because he was not supposed to have picked her up without a prior booking as the taxi driver at the hospital had insisted.

The taxi reached the bottom of Tottington road, but this time went up Walshaw road. This seemed to be the route of one of the school buses to Tottington high School used to go to from what she recalled.

Round about the Victoria Hotel in Walshaw on the radio there was a repeat of the news story of the police officer who had been shot dead by the motorcyclist carrying a suspect who had been arrested over a death in suspicious circumstances and drug running.

The Asian Taxi driver did not seem to be taking notice of it from what Sarah could see.

Then there was another news report on the radio that made Sarah’s blood run cold.

“We are getting reports of the death of two adults, a teenager and a young child who were all related in the village of Tottington. Police are not linking this to earlier reports of another suspicious death in the village of Tottington which was reported last night. The victims are not being named at this time until other relatives have been informed, but according to anonymous sources it seems like a tragic case where the father has killed his wife and two children before committing suicide, possibly over financial problems. Police are not hunting for anyone else in this tragedy”

“No!” Sarah groaned, she had a bad feeling

The radio then reported how they believed this family were slain at approximately the same time Sarah had been arriving at Manchester Victoria the previous evening

“What is it about this village of yours?” the driver asked casually, six deaths in one night, “It sounds worse than some parts of Moss Side.”

Sarah felt very sick, as she feared the worse

Soon the taxi was approaching Vicky’s address in Tottington, but as the taxi turned into the road, it seemed all Sarah’s nightmares were coming true, there in the distance by Vicky’s house was a police car, blue tape and a number of forensic police officers.

It was Vicky and her family that had been slain.

“No, No” Sarah started repeating.

The taxi pulled to a stop by the side of the road

“That was where you wanted to go” The taxi driver questioned

Sarah nodded as tears streamed down her face, “It was my best friend’s house” she squeaked out.

Oh my G_d!” The taxi driver exclaimed “I better take you home” the taxi driver offered, “Where do you live?”

“A few streets away” Sarah replied, “But I can’t go back their”
“Come, come Miss” the taxi driver answered back, “I know it probably seems that way to you just now, but take it from me, whatever the problem with your family I sure it can be worked out, me and my sisters” the taxi driver went on.

“My brother was killed last night” Sarah interrupted

“Oh my G_d!” The taxi driver exclaimed, “You are that girl on the news, aren’t you”
“I didn’t kill my brother” Sarah insisted, “I was out when it happened, but the police wouldn’t listen”
“What about those drugs?” the taxi driver pressed
“I never saw them before” Sarah insisted,
“And that drive by shooting?” the taxi driver asked
“I’ve no idea who they were” Sarah replied, “I think I saw them earlier in the evening, I don’t know why they were trying to kill me”
“Maybe your brother was involved with some very bad drug gang”
“But neither of us do drugs” Sarah responded angrily
“Believe me miss” The taxi driver replied, “Sometimes those closest to us can be capable of hiding things from us and we are always the last to know”
“He never did drugs” Sarah insisted
“Maybe he never took them himself”
“He never sold drugs” Sarah repeated, “All he ever did was play about on that stupid laptop of his”
“Maybe he was some kind of broker on the” the taxi driver tried to suggest
“NO!” Sarah asserted and then said, “I better go or they” and unclipped her seatbelt
“Don’t be silly Miss” the taxi driver told her, “Where are you going to go. Maybe they planted the drugs to close the case quickly” the taxi driver accused as he pointed to the police who were still going in and out of Vicky’s house, “Our lot are always being harassed by them even though they try and say it doesn’t happen. A lot of them are lazy and racist and want to pin things on us all the time”

“You believe me?” Sarah tearfully asked
“I am very good judge of character so my sisters tell me and at telling who is being truthful” the taxi driver reassured Sarah, “They have not spotted us so if we just drive past slowly they will not be suspicious” the taxi driver told Sarah and started the car up and then drove nonchalantly passed the police and Vicky’s house.

The taxi driver was right; the police were more concerned with investigating a crime scene, which presumably they were going to write off as a triple murder and suicide.

This scenario that had been released to the news was bogus. Sarah knew Vicky and her family well; they were comfortably off and had no financial worries. Vicky’s parents had even offered to take Sarah in when her parents died, before Social Services relented and allowed her to stay with her brother. Vicky’s father would never kill his family and commit suicide like they had said he had done on the radio.

It was becoming obvious to Sarah, whoever killed her brother, framed her and tried to kill her, had for some reason killed Vicky and her family, but why?

The taxi pulled out of the street where Vicky had lived and turned right.

Immediately they left the street, a black mini started up and pulled out of the street from between two parked cars. In it was a single man in his late fifties. The mini also turned right and began following the taxi cab at a distance…

To Be Continued

[Sticks]

Episode III – Enemies and Allies

Spoiler:

Sometimes it is just one thing after another. Sometimes we have a catalogue of disasters which wind us up and overwhelm us.

This seems to be the case for one Sarah Bentley, a teenager from the northern village of Tottington. Accused of the murder of her brother and drug running crystal meth and even blamed for the death of a police officer, shot by assassins on motorbikes

Sarah has managed to escape from police custody, only because a police surgeon who insisted she be examined at hospital turned out to be another assassin. Sarah by the skin of her teeth has evaded him and returned to Tottington in a taxi only to find that her best friend Vicky and the rest of her family have been slain, with the police calling it a murder – suicide, a scenario which to Sarah seems far from the truth.

As the sympathetic Asian taxi driver takes her away from the scene to avoid the police, unknown to Sarah, her taxi is being followed…

Sarah had no idea where to go now, her best friend and her family must have been murdered shortly after her brother had been killed by the assassins who were looking for her, but why? It was obvious even to Sarah, that the killers were after her for a reason, but again why kill Vicky and her family?

If they had left it with her brother, maybe that could be understood, he was forever trying to hack into other people’s computer hoping to uncover some big conspiracy, and if he had found something he should not have done, well that would explain a hit, as would the taxi driver’s theory that her brother had been some kind of internet drug dealer, but why her and her friend?

A sudden sinking feeling hit her.

Sarah had other friends, not as close as Vicky had been, but maybe they could be in danger.

“We can drive past your house and see if the police are still there” the taxi driver suggested, “Then maybe you can get a change of clothes”

“Ok” Sarah replied tearfully.

The taxi drove to the opening of the road, but for some reason the taxi driver was not indicating he was due to turn into it.

Then Sarah saw why, there were still police officers outside her house and the taxi driver did not want to draw attention by driving into the street.

“It was worth a shot” the taxi driver sighed, “Do you have any other friends?” he asked as he piloted the taxi on to Market Street, the main road and told Sarah he was headed towards Greenmount away from the police activity

“Won’t they go after them?” Sarah whined

“I never thought of that” the taxi driver replied, “Do you think you should warn them”
“I can’t, my SIM card doesn’t work”

“Did you store their numbers on the SIM or the phone” the taxi driver asked

The taxi driver then asked Sarah who her provider was and Sarah told him. The taxi driver opened his glove compartment which had a number of SIM cards, “My stupid cousin thought I ought to promote his business in cloned SIM cards, I only took this little lot to shut him up. If you ask me his little scheme plays into the hands of the racists”

The taxi driver found a SIM card pack that matched Sarah’s provider and handed it to Sarah. “Try this one Miss” he told her, “Maybe you will be lucky and their numbers will be on the phone and not the SIM”

Sarah took the SIM card pack and took her phone from her handbag. She opened the phone and removed the useless SIM and extracted the new SIM card and placed it in her phone.

She turned it on and held her breath.

She got a signal!

Sarah went into the contacts list, although it was smaller there were still some contacts there, but not the number of contacts she had before. Some of them were obviously on the old SIM.

Sarah ran through the list of her friends and found the number for Jessica, another close friend after Vicky.

Sarah selected the number and rang it.

The number rang and rang and then went to voice mail

Jessica always picked up!

Sarah swallowed hard

Were the killers somehow trying to hunt her down by going after her friends?

“Excuse me Miss” the taxi driver interrupted, “I have no idea what is going on and why people are after you, but we are being followed by a black mini and who ever is doing it is a real pro since he is doing it quite some distance away.

“I’m sorry” Sarah said in a pathetic tone of voice, “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’ll get out if you want me to”

“There is no need for that Miss” the taxi driver chided her, “I once drove on the streets of Rawalpindi in Pakistan when I was there for two months when our grandfather passed away, we had to learn how to loose a tail, especially as we were near the Kashmir border and we had to avoid some of the terrorists over there.”

“But there aren’t many places we can turn in to loose a tail” Sarah complained, “Not on the way to Greenmount or Holcombe”

“But I can make a sudden turn onto that small road that will take us to the Brandelshome Road we are coming up to and make another double back manoeuvre back towards Tottington Miss” the taxi driver explained.

Immediately he turned the taxi a hard right, almost hitting another car in the process and entered a narrow country lane and accelerated.

Sarah held her breath in terror as they tore down the country lane; she hardly dared look behind to see if the black mini was on their tail. She did not see how he could shake them off as the lane was effectively a one track road, and she prayed they did not meet anyone coming the other way.

The taxi driver came up to another junction. On the left was some kind of barn made out of stone, on the right the road went through a courtyard that looked like a small castle. There were some gated opening in the castle on the right which fortunately seemed to be open, and so the taxi driver braked hard and drove through and round into the yard and stopped.

“Hopefully he will drive on through to Brandleshome road or along Mill Lane” the taxi driver told Sarah, “That is the problem with tailing a vehicle from so far behind. Your average westerner would not spot it, but if you want to stay alive near the Kashmir border you need to learn what to look for”

“What do you want me to do?” Sarah asked, “I can’t expect you to risk your life for me, especially as they seem to be killing everyone I know”

Then Sarah broke down

“Why me?” she sobbed, “What have I done?”
“Probably nothing at all” The taxi drive told Sarah, “Unless you are some kind of master criminal”

“No I’m not” Sarah objected “If you think that about me I better go” Sarah said angrily and in tears and undid her seatbelt
“I’m sorry miss” the taxi driver apologised, “That came out all wrong”

Just then they were interrupted by the sound of a car driving past the entrance to the castle complex.

“Buckle up Miss” the taxi driver told Sarah, “The fool has fallen for it. We are going to go back the way” he added as he started the taxi.

Sarah re-attached her seatbelt and just shook her head. Who ever killed Trevor, Vicky and her family and possibly Jessica was trying to find her, but why she still could not fathom.

The taxi driver drove out of the yard and not before time as the owner had just opened the door to see who they were and what they were doing in their private yard. The driver turned left, then headed back to the junction with the small country lane and started driving back to the main road they had left to go down it.

As they drove along, Sarah replaced her phone in her purse, as she did so she noticed a glint of metal.

Her brother’s computer memory stick!

“Oh my G_d” Sarah whispered

Maybe this was it? – Sarah had taken her brother’s memory stick by mistake, so maybe they had originally been targeting her brother all along over something he had hacked into. Maybe they had discovered that he had placed something on his memory stick which they now wanted to retrieve.

Now they were targeting her, as whatever Trevor had stumbled across, the secret was so important that someone thought it was worth killing innocent families for, but what secret file could be that valuable?

Sarah wondered if she could trust the taxi driver with this information, after all he had gone above and beyond the call of duty so far and seemed to be on her side.

“I think they were after this” Sarah ventured holding up the device.

“A memory stick” the taxi driver queried

“It’s my brother’s” Sarah explained, “It looked like mine, so I took it out by mistake when I went out last night”

“So what has he got on there?” the taxi driver asked, “The plans for our missile defences or something like that?”

“I don’t know” Sarah whined, “It’s the only thing I can think of that will explain all this”

“I have a cousin” the taxi driver went on, “She is about your size, so maybe we can get you a change of clothes since you can’t go back home”

“You don’t have to do this” Sarah protested, “It’s my own stupid fault” she said wi****lly as she stared out of the window as the taxi drove along the country lane, “If I had taken the right memory stick or stayed home like he asked as it would have been our parent’s wedding anniversary”

“Then you would be dead too” the taxi driver interrupted, “maybe the fates have willed this, maybe this was meant to be so whatever grubby little secret they are trying to hide you are destined to expose”

“I don’t care what secret they want to hide” Sarah snapped back, “I want my brother back, I want my friends back, and they can keep their secrets”

“I am sorry miss” the taxi driver apologised, “That came out all wrong again”

The taxi turned onto the main road to Greenmount and then on to Holcombe.

“What we will do is drive up passed Ramsbottom, through Edenfield and back down to Rochdale” the taxi driver explained, “It may be a long way around, but it is pretty and avoids the police”

Sarah took out her mobile again and looked through the contacts list, and then she looked at her brother’s memory stick.

How many of her friends would be slaughtered for that small device, assuming that was what they were after and what was her brother in to?

Sarah looked up, they were approaching the settlement of Holcombe, and next it would be Ramsbottom.

Suddenly a thought struck her, she remembered her brother’s geeky friend, he lived this way. “Shaun Chapman” Sarah said out loud

“Who is this Shaun Chapman Miss” The taxi driver asked

“He was a mate of Trevor, my brother” Sarah explained, “He came to our house a few times and was just as much into conspiracy theories as my stupid brother was. He lives in Ramsbottom”

Sarah went quiet, One should never speak ill of the dead she was often told

“So what has this Shaun got to do with this memory stick you have?” the taxi driver pressed.

“Maybe he can work out what is on it, he was good at hacking into systems just like my brother” Sarah explained, “plus he has a sister who is my size. We met in town at the Two Tubs last Christmas, she was just as much fed up with him as I was with Trevor”

“Do you have their number?” the taxi driver asked

“No” Sarah sighed, “He was my brother’s friend, and I only ever met the sister that once, we didn’t even go to the same school. I was at Tottington and she was at Bury Grammar”

“So how do you hope to track down this Shaun if you do not know their number” the taxi driver asked, “Even for a small town, Ramsbottom is a very big place Miss”

“He works in some computer repair place in Ramsbottom” Sarah explained. “His sister usually took the bus into Bury to go to school except recently in the Summer months when that steam train service was running some kind of early morning special, except they were using diesel trains.”

“Do you know which shop this Shaun works in” The taxi driver then asked

Sarah shook her head

The taxi driver brought the taxi to a stop and shut the engine off, “I will see how many there are on my new Iphone” the taxi driver said, “There can not be that many Miss, not in Ramsbottom”

The taxi driver fished from his pocket his Iphone and started tapping away.

“I have found at least two Miss” the taxi driver told Sara excitedly, and then with a sound of surprise in his voice, “It seems my signal has dropped.”

Then the taxi driver angrily exclaimed, “What do you mean my SIM card is not valid, I have a contract and I am fully paid up” he shouted at his Iphone

Sarah had a sudden sinking feeling and looked at her phone.

It too was showing the sign that the SIM card had been declared invalid and was useless. She showed it to the taxi driver.

“Oh my!” The taxi driver exclaimed, “We need to get moving” he added as he started the taxi up again. The taxi driver then stopped and fumbled with his Iphone and opened the back of it, removing the battery.

“Take your battery out of your phone” the taxi driver ordered Sarah, “Those b******ds are tracking us through them some how”

Sarah in a panic nervously removed the back of her mobile and pulled out the battery.

“How can they do that?” Sarah asked

“I do not know, GPS maybe” the taxi driver replied, “But we need to find your brother’s friend before they do. I may already have sealed their fate by my Googling” he added as he accelerated the taxi.

Quickly the taxi sped through the through the village of Greenmount past the houses as people were finally emerging into the morning light

Any moment Sarah expected the gun toting motorcyclists to come after her again

Who on Earth had the power to track mobiles and invalidate the SIM card of not only her phone bat that of the taxi driver

“This may be slightly illegal” the taxi driver said to Sarah in a panicky voice as he flipped a switch on his radio.

Immediately the radio was switched to a police band.

As they drove past the houses coming up to the village of Holcombe, passing Holcombe Brook they heard chatter about the hunt for Sarah, now wanted in connection for the death of not only her brother but the female police officer that the phony police surgeon had shot. According to the police radio, they had decided that she had been in league with this phony police surgeon all along, A lie but who was going to believer her?.

For now they seemed to be focussing the search around the hospital and possibly into Rochdale, at least that was good news of sorts.

There were also reports of looking for the phony police surgeon as well, but from what Sarah heard of the police chatter, he had effectively dropped off the face of the planet.

Some of the chatter referred to the detective Sarah had met, who seemed to be convinced that the death of her friend Vicky and her family might be connected to Sarah’s elicit dealing in methamphetamines - another lie. The detective was adamant, he did not believe in coincidences.

Nobody seemed to believe that Sarah was innocent at all; they had effectively already convicted her of multiple murders.

Sarah glanced nervously at the Asian taxi driver, would he stop believing in her innocence as well.

Sarah got back to scanning for motor cyclists

Then she saw one

He came from down from Longsight Road at speed heading for the taxi.

He ducked in behind the taxi and then started to accelerate to be level with the car.

Sarah found she had stopped breathing as she stared transfixed on this motorcyclist.

But then he continued accelerating and disappeared from sight.

Sarah started breathing again

It was just an innocent motorcyclist

Or was it?

“Knowing Murphy’s Law” the taxi driver began, “I suspect we are still to early for either of those computer stores to be open Miss”

“But I don’t know where he lives” Sarah protested

“I have an idea” the taxi driver told Sarah, “It maybe is a long shot, but does his sister still go into Bury by the train?”

“I don’t know” Sarah answered, “Last I heard was that she dropped out of school or at least did not sign up at Bury College. I think she works”
“Well scratch that idea” the taxi driver responded, “Maybe we should just go to my cousin in Rochdale after all”

“Ok” Sarah relented

The taxi continued to drive past the stone built house on towards the town of Ramsbottom

If only she knew where Shaun worked or where he lived.

If only she could have gone back to her own home!

Still Sarah looked out for motorcyclists and black minis; the atmosphere in the taxi was tense. Someone had tracked them down to the road up to Edenfield, the killers had to be on their way, not to mention the problem of being hunted by police, now angry at her for somehow causing the deaths of two serving officers.

The taxi passed the welcome to Ramsbottom sign and after going over the brow of the hill started descending into the town.

Suddenly Sarah could not believe her eyes, because in the distance as they fast approached it, was Lauren Chapman, Shaun’s younger sister waiting in some kind of uniform outside a hair salon

“That’s her” Sarah yelled

The taxi driver swore and braked hard with the screeching of tyres, as he overshot slightly.

Quickly Sarah undid her seatbelt, grabbed her handbag, opened the door of the taxi and called out to Lauren

The teenager did not seem to recognise Sarah at first; after all it had been a long time since they had briefly met at the Two Tubs in Bury

“It’s me” Sarah called out, “Trevor’s sister”

“Trevor who?” Lauren said icily
“Trevor Bentley” Sarah said nervously, “We met last Christmas in Bury at the Two Tubs?”
“Oh yes” Lauren sneered, “When I was dragged along there by my loser brother because Mam was working late and told me to meet her there so we could get lift home with her. What do you want Sarah?”

“I need to see Shaun?” Sarah pleaded
“And I thought you came to see me” Lauren snapped back, “Surely you can do better than him”

For a moment Sarah was confused then pleaded “Please Lauren, I need to see him, it’s urgent”
“Why?” Lauren asked

“Her brother has been murdered” the taxi driver said from behind Sarah.

Sarah instinctively turned around to look at the taxi driver

“What? When did this happen?” Lauren asked the taxi driver, ignoring Sarah
“Last night” the taxi driver replied, “Miss Bentley here has a memory stick belonging to her brother and was hoping there might be answers on it”
“Why don’t you just take it to the police?” Lauren asked

“They think I killed my brother” Sarah said shaking her head
“Well did you?” Lauren asked
“No Lauren” Sarah whined, “They tried to kill me too. They’ve even killed my friend Vicky and her family”

Lauren’s face went ashen, “That was the lass you were with at the Two Tubs”

Sarah nodded

“And I’m afraid you may be in danger too” the taxi driver chipped in, “Or at least your brother”

“What do you mean?” Lauren asked angrily
“They managed to block my SIM card” Sarah interrupted, “He gave me another one in the car over here, but they blocked that one too”
“So how does that make us in danger?” Lauren asked

“I googled for computer repair shops on my Iphone before they shut that down too” the taxi driver admitted, “For all I know who ever did this may have seen what I was googling”.

Lauren shook her head in disbelief, “I knew Shaun and Trevor’s obsessions would bring us grief” she muttered, “It’s a good job I’m opening up this morning”

“This salon opens this early?” the taxi driver asked pointing at the front door of the hair dressers, “I always thought they opened at ten in morning”

“No silly” Lauren replied and took out her key and opened the door of the dental surgery next door.

Lauren rushed in and cancelled the alarm, whilst Sarah and the taxi driver entered the dental surgery.

“So this is what you’re doing now?” Sarah asked
“Yeah!” Lauren called back, “Since dad decided to go off to London with his bit on the side leaving us and Mam behind, going to college wasn’t an option if we wanted to keep a roof over our heads”

Sarah swallowed hard, Lauren’s life had been just as hard as hers, but at least Sarah had had the chance to continue in education. Lauren was obviously a dental receptionist now.

“Why do you need my brother?” Lauren asked, “If it’s a memory stick as soon as I boot up the computer we could see what’s on it”

“It may be encrypted” Sarah replied, “Trevor had a tendency to do things like that”

The taxi driver closed the door, “If you just tell us which computer shop your brother works in I can take Miss Bentley over there”

“They won’t be open yet” Lauren replied as she switched on the computer at the reception desk, “My sorry excuse of a brother won’t even be out of bed yet” she added with an air of irritation.

“We need to get in touch with him urgently” Sarah pleaded, “We need to warn him about the people who killed my brother and Vicky”
“They could be on their way right now” the taxi driver added

Lauren reached into her handbag and pulled out her mobile and went to switch it on, “I’ll call home, but I doubt he will even hear the damn thing”

“Don’t” Sarah yelled as she placed her hand over the mobile phone, “They can track mobiles”

“Right” Lauren said with irritation, “The boss isn’t in yet so I’ll use the surgery phone”

Lauren picked up the surgery phone and tapped out a number and waited

“Mam” Lauren spoke into the phone, “Can you get Shaun get over here as soon as possible”

Someone talking back on the phone

“No Mam, my mobile hasn’t died and no I haven’t run out of credit” Lauren went on

Some more talking back on the phone

“Can you just kick his lazy a**e out of bed and get him over here”

Some more talking back on the phone

“I can’t really say over the…” Lauren then tried to reply Lauren put the phone back down and frowned, “The phone just died”

A cold shiver went down Sarah’s back, “They’re coming here” she whispered

“What do you mean” Lauren asked

“The people who killed my brother and framed me” Sarah whined, “They seem to be able to do anything”

“She’s right” the taxi driver interrupted, “If they can track her phone, even when the SIM card is swapped and shut it off and mine too, who knows what else they can do”

Lauren shut her eyes for a moment and then went to the window, “A few months back as a crime prevention measure they did something with the CCTV around here”

“Oh my goodness!” the taxi driver exclaimed, “They must have interrogated my Google search and cross checked it with known associates of Miss Bentley’s brother”

“How?” Lauren pressed

“Databases” Sarah suggested
“Miss Bentley is right I am afraid” the taxi driver confirmed, “You pay tax and national insurance do you not?”
“Yeah” Lauren replied sceptically
“Well they can easily track you through such databases by linking several up to find out where you live” the taxi driver said in a worried tone
“But how the hell can they get access to that information” Lauren demanded

“I’m sorry” Sarah apologised and made for the front door, “Maybe if I give them that stupid memory stick they will go away”

The taxi driver grabbed Sarah’s arm, “I do not think that is right. They would still kill you to get rid of loose ends, whatever this is all about”

“He’s right” Lauren reluctantly agreed.

Sarah just stood there staring at them. Somehow whatever mess her brother had got into was drawing these to into as well. It just seemed like an utter nightmare.

“We need to go right now over to your brother’s house Miss Lauren before they do” the taxi driver insisted.

“S**t” Lauren swore, “The other’s are not going to be pleased. It was my turn to open up early today” she protested

“That can not be helped Miss Lauren” The taxi driver retorted, “Just tell us where you’re house is” the Taxi driver went on, “Then lock yourself in here if you have to stay, but I strongly advise against it”

“Please Lauren” Sarah pleaded, “These b*****ds have killed two police officers, Vicky, her brother and her parents, they may have killed another friend of mine as well as Trevor”

Lauren swore again and grabbed a message pad tore a note from it and scribbled a brief message and placed it in an obvious place on the reception desk. “I just hope I don’t loose my job over this” she fumed.

Lauren went back to the alarm and set it and then ushered Sarah and the taxi driver out of the dental surgery.

The taxi driver went across to the taxi first followed by Lauren, who got in the back behind the taxi driver. Sarah followed and went to get in the front passenger seat.

Sarah glanced up and noticed a CCTV camera.

It had just finished moving and was looking straight at her.

Another chill swept through her.

These killers were able to access a CCTV system, even in a remote northern town such as Ramsbottom.

Who were they and what was Trevor into?

Sarah got in the car, “They’ve spotted us” she told the taxi driver, pointing up at the camera”

“Oh my goodness” the taxi driver replied, “We must be up against some kind of government conspiracy here”
“Now you’re sounding like Shaun” Lauren said from the back
“And Trevor” Sarah thought to herself

The taxi driver started the car and accelerated down the road.

As soon as they reached the junction with Bridge Street at Lauren’s instruction the taxi driver turned right and headed down the narrow road.

Still Sarah looked out for motorcycle assassins, but she was now acutely aware of all the CCTV cameras there were on poles or on the sides of building, possibly watching their every move and guiding the killers’ right to her.

The taxi then turned left just before the church in to a road called Crow Lane. This was the road that Lauren lived on with her brother and her mother.

The taxi came to a stop outside the house, just as Shaun was stepping outside.

Sarah got out first and called to Shaun, followed by Lauren

“Sarah? Long time no see” Shaun said with a smile as he saw Sarah approaching.

“Forget it Shaun” Lauren said as she angrily walked over to her brother, “She’s out of your league plus, you and your stupid computer hacking games have got her brother killed”

“What do you mean?” Shaun retorted, “I haven’t done any hacking for a while”

“Yeah, Yeah” Lauren replied, “Well your friend has done, and it has got him killed along with a number of others and according to these two the killers could be on their way here right now”

“You have got to be kidding” Shaun said in disbelieve, “When did this happen?”

“Last night Shaun, while I was out in Manchester” Sarah tearfully told Shaun, “They framed me for it and they also killed my best friend and her family” Sarah added. “I think they were after this” Sarah then said producing the memory stick

“An Iron Key?” Shaun said in confusion

Sarah nodded, “I went out to Manchester last night to audition at a strip club and and meet someone in. I was told could help me break into the glamour modelling industry. We need the money, they were going to take the house away and Trevor was useless at getting a job”

“Ok” Shaun replied, “I understand, but where does that Ion Key come into this?”

“Vicky had taken some photos for me to show on mine, but I took Trevor’s by mistake” Sarah explained

“Trevor must have uncovered the shadow government’s plan to control our lives.” Shaun said in exasperation. “We said this would happen one day, but did anyone believe us?” Shaun sighed, “You lot better get in the house”

“No” interrupted the taxi driver, “You all need to leave now”

“What?” Shaun asked

“The people who did it are in the phones and the cameras apparently” Sarah added

“I was on the phone to Mam from the surgery when the phone went dead. According to these two, it was cut off by whoever killed Trevor” Lauren told Shaun

Shaun shook his head again, “As I said, it’s just like we’ve been saying all along” he muttered, “It’s the shadow government controlling its own citizens, at the behest of the CIA I bet”

“We have to hurry” the taxi driver interrupted

“I need a change of clothes” Sarah found herself saying. Top government assassins were after her and these other people and she was worrying about a change of clothes?

“Lauren” Shaun commanded, “Pack a bag with some of your old things you were going to take to the charity shop”
“Since when do you give orders” Lauren countered
“Just do it” Shaun replied, “I’ll pack some stuff too, if Sarah and I go on the run maybe we can keep a few steps ahead of them and figure this out. Maybe we can finally expose this conspiracy”

“If what they are after is on that Iron thingy, can’t you just go to your shop and see what is on it?” Lauren asked
“That will be the first place they look” Shaun answered back, “I’ll get Mam to pack as well while you’re packing stuff for yourself and Sarah. Go stay with Uncle Patrick, he understands about the secret government and he has a gun and isn’t afraid to use it”

“Uncle Patrick” Lauren said in disgust, “I’m surprised he’s not in the loony bin, let alone allowed to keep a gun”
“At least he was wise enough to keep off the electoral register, so he can’t be tracked”
“Now your being just as paranoid as Uncle Patrick” Lauren spat back

“Lauren” Sarah interjected, “You don’t know these people. I was in a police cell and one of them walked in pretending to be some kind of police doctor. When he made them send me to the hospital he killed the police officer guarding me and would have killed me if it were not for one of the doctors there interrupting him. I think he killed that doctor too”

“We are wasting time” the taxi driver interrupted, “They could be here any moment”

“Ok – Ok” Lauren conceded and beckoned for Sarah to follow as she entered the house.

Sarah followed Lauren up the stairs to her bedroom. Lauren was muttering under her breath, which made Sarah feel even guiltier that she was for disrupting the lives of another group of people, even endangering them.

Lauren grabbed at an overnight bag and opened her draw and grabbed some panties telling Sarah she had just bought new ones and these were going to be thrown anyway

Charming

Then Lauren pulled out a few old tee-shirts and sweatshirts and stuffed them in the overnight bag. Finally she grabbed a couple of skirts.

Sarah did not feel it would be right to mention that she was not really a “Skirt” person like Lauren was.

Lauren then zipped up the bag

There were no bras because one, Lauren was a different size to Sarah in that department and two Lauren told Sarah that she never usually wore any as she thought they contributed to breast cancer, except when she worked at her dental receptionist job and that was only because her boss had insisted that she to wear one to work. Otherwise she would do push-ups against a wall, because she had heard that would make wearing one unnecessary and she advised Sarah to do the same accordingly.

It sounded like too much information to Sarah, so perhaps in spite of Lauren’s bluster against Shaun; they weren’t so much different either. Not like Sarah as far as she knew did not have any obsessions like that, as far as she was aware.

Then Shaun got Lauren to tell Sarah to change out of her old clothes and take a shower while Lauren fixed something for her to wear, as she needed to change her appearance. Sarah was only too happy to get out of them as she had been wearing them since her unsuccessful trip to Manchester.

As she got out, Lauren presented her with what she would be wearing, fresh panties, open toe sandals, (No socks – Lauren did not believe in them either), a skirt and a tight fitting tee-shirt.

Sarah retrieved her bikini top and put it back on, Lauren may want to be Bohemian, but that was not really Sarah. Her experience of going into Manchester with nothing on under her denim jacket, (which she had to give up as well), made that quite clear.

“I think you ought to know something” Lauren said to Sarah quietly
“What?” Sarah asked
“I need to warn you that I think my brother fancies you” Lauren answered
“Nah!” Sarah said dismissively, “It was my brother and his stupid conspiracy theories he was interested in, not me”
“Ok” Lauren replied and held her hands up, “But he always mentioned you when ever he came back from visiting your brother”

Sarah blushed. She had always been a bit of a “plain Jane” and never really had any boyfriends during her time at Tottington High School.

“Are you decent” Shaun called through the bedroom door

Sarah opened the door to the bedroom and looked up at Shaun. He did look sort of handsome, for a nerd that is.

“I’ve got Joe from next door to take you and Mam to Uncle Patrick” He told Lauren.

“But I have a job Shaun” Lauren protested
“They will track you there and kill you” Shaun insisted, “You’re up against the government”
“So I just let them kill my colleagues at work then?” Lauren retaliated

Shaun did not have an answer for that so he turned after a few seconds to Sarah, “I’ve got my notebook, and me and Ali are waiting downstairs for you”

“Ali?” Sarah questioned
“Your taxi driver?” Shaun replied

Sarah felt embarrassed, all this time with the one man who up to now had been her saviour, and she had not bothered to find out his name.

Shaun looked at what Sarah was wearing and for a moment was quiet.
“Is that a bikini top you have on under that?” Shaun asked with what Sarah thought was a slight hint of incredulity
“Doesn’t it go?” Sarah found herself asking, “I don’t have any bras” she added without thinking.

Suddenly she wanted the ground to swallow her up for even discussing such a thing with a man

“Don’t worry about it love” Shaun went on, “You look really good in what you wear, even if some of it came from my sister. You always did”

“Thanks” Sarah blushed, (Nobody had ever paid her a compliment like that) “I’ll be down in a moment” she added closing the bedroom door on Shaun.

Then Sarah removed the tee-shirt, took off the bikini top and put the tee-shirt back on. She could not think why she was doing it; it was so unlike her, maybe because she wanted to do something for Shaun.

At least Lauren seemed to approve, or so she thought, however Sarah did place the bikini top in her handbag, just in case.

Sarah opened the door and went down into the hallway. There was Shaun, his mother and Ali the taxi Asian driver.

Sarah noticed that Shaun’s mother was reluctantly handing over a large sum of cash to Shaun.

“I hope you’re satisfied” Shaun’s mother accused Sarah, “Disrupting our lives like this”

“I’m sorry” Sarah could just squeak out before unexpectedly dissolving into tears.

Shaun embraced Sarah and held her in her arms, “Mam, that’s uncalled for and you know it” he scolded his mother, “You saw the lies they put on the teletext. This is a government conspiracy her brother unearthed and we are going away to uncover the truth while you get to safety, assuming it’s not too late”

“I may be able to take you to Rochdale” Ali said to Shaun and Sarah

“Thanks, but I have another idea” Shaun replied
“What?” the taxi driver asked in a surprised tone
“Take me and Sarah to the railway station” Shaun instructed

“This is ridiculous” Shaun’s mother spoke up, “Why don’t we just go to the police”

“Because, Mam, they’re in on it” Shaun insisted.

“Mrs Chapman” Sarah spoke up, “These people planted drugs on me and managed to place forty grand in my bank account” Sarah then proceeded to give a quick account of the attack on the police car by the motorcycle assassins and how the police officers at the station blamed her for his death.

“In my day” Shaun’s mother began, “people respected the police”

“Not after that bloke was gunned down on the underground and they killed that newspaper seller at the G20 march” Shaun retorted.

“Believe me Mrs Chapman” Ali added, “Some police are really lazy and will do anything to close a case early”

Shaun picked up a holdall, “We need to get to the railway station”

“Don’t forget your mobile this time” Shaun’s mother told him as Shaun opened the front door
“No way” Shaun replied as he took out his mobile from his jacket and placed it on the hallway table, “They can track those things through their GPS chips, that’s probably why they got at Sarah and Ali’s phones even though she changed her SIM card”

Shaun peered through the front door, “No sign of anyone” he called out, and then shouted “Go, go, go”

Sarah and the taxi driver raced to the taxi following Shaun who had beat Sarah to the front passenger door.

Sarah would have to ride in the back this time.

All three of them got into taxi and the taxi driver accelerated down the road, turning into the next right turn.

The taxi driver then sped down through a side street before taking another right and heading out to come out onto Bridge Street and turning left.

“Why the train?” the taxi driver asked

“Because one is about due and it’s old technology and harder to track” Shaun explained.

“Ok” The taxi driver relented, “I will drive on to Rochdale and hopefully act as a decoy to let you get away”
“Thanks that’s much appreciated Ali” Shaun replied

“Where are you headed” The taxi driver pressed

“It’s better all round if you don’t know” Shaun replied

“If you are sure about all this” the taxi driver asked

“Positive” Shaun replied

The taxi came to a stop outside of the Ramsbottom station on the East Lancashire Railway line.

In the station was a diesel train, loading up with passengers.

“Thanks for everything” Sarah told the taxi driver as she grabbed her bag and exited the taxi along with Shaun.

Ali watched as Shaun and Sarah as they rushed into the booking room, bought their tickets, and rushed onto the platform only just boarding the train in time before it left.

Then Ali sat there as he watched the train depart in the direction of Bury

Youtube video

After the train had pulled out of the station the taxi driver pulled out another mobile phone from his jacket pocket and pressed a speed dial button.

Ali was almost oblivious to a red Ford Fiesta parking close behind

“Brigadier General” Ali spoke into the phone, “I regret to report that the Bentley girl is no longer with me. She remembered some friend of her brother’s in Ramsbottom”

Talking from the other phone

“You were right to get me to shadow the Bentley girl as the police took her to that hospital. I can’t believe how she somehow got away from them. I found her on the main road Brigadier General she was trying to catch a bus of all things so I used my cover of being a taxi driver. She did not suspect a thing” Ali said with a grin

More talking from the other phone

“Oh dear Brigadier General, That is so unfortunate” Ali said with concern in his voice, “Anyway this friend of hers has some kind of alternate plan. There was no way I could veto it without raising suspicion. The Bentley girl is now travelling with this friend of her brothers. But do not worry I managed to plant the micro tracker on her, they do not suspect a thing”

More talking from the other phone

“Oh yes I almost forgot to tell you where they are headed” Ali started to say.

Suddenly the side window of the taxi shattered as Ali was shot dead, hit at almost point blank range from a pistol with a silencer carried by an elderly man in his late fifties and hidden by an old newspaper.

+ + +

Lauren was still angry along with her mother as they started to get into their next door neighbours car to go to an uncle she did not really like.

Lauren briefly looked up towards the church and the main road.

There was a motorcyclist in black coming down the road, with a pillion passenger

Lauren did not think much about it and turned to get in the back.

That was the last thing she ever did.

The pillion passenger opened fire on Lauren, her mother and the neighbour with a fully automatic submachine pistol.

Every shot counted

Every shot hit Lauren, her mother or the neighbour

Every shot was a kill shot.

The motorcycle stopped beside the car so the pillion passenger could pull out a grenade, which he removed the pin and tossed into the car, before speeding up.

As they drove away the Pillion passenger spoke into a radio mike in his helmet.

“This is Major F” the pillion passenger said into his radio, “Tertiary targets deep cleaned along with another civilian. Still searching for primary target”

+ + +

Sarah sat down in the carriage and looked nervously out of the window at the passing countryside of the Irwell Valley

The carriage seemed like something from the nineteen sixties; well it was a heritage railway after all

Everything just seemed so unreal about her situation. Sarah should be going into college, not running from the law and from people out to kill her like they had killed her brother and most likely her best friend and her best friend’s family.

“It should be under quarter of an hour to Bury” Shaun interrupted Sarah’s thoughts as he sat opposite her, “So no point trying to hack into Trevor’s iron key”

“Ok” Sarah replied weakly looking briefly at Shaun and then resuming her staring at the passing countryside with tears in her eyes.

There was an awkward silence between the two, as it seemed Shaun wanted to say something, but did not know what. Shaun eyed Sarah up and down, “You ditched the bikini top” he observed

Sarah grinned, “Do you like it?” she asked for a brief moment forgetting all that had gone on.
“Yeah I suppose” Shaun admitted, “But you didn’t have to just for me”
“I wanted to Shaun” Sarah admitted.

Even more insanely Sarah considered lifting up the Tee-shirt to give Shaun a quick flash but just then the train stopped at a station

It was the halt at Summerseat,. The two of them returned to the reality of their situation and there was a tense time as the two of them eyes all the passengers getting on, just in case the assassins had tracked them down.

The train started up again

It looked like their trick of using an old form of transport had paid off and for now they were safe.

“When we get to Bury Sarah” Shaun told Sarah, “We will take the Metrolink to Piccadilly Gardens and then get a coach either South or North. The train is too expensive and too well policed. I always prefer the coach to trains”

“Ok” Sarah said in a non committal manner

“Any preferences Sarah?” Shaun asked, “of where to go?”.

Sarah shook her head, what kind of question was that?

Shaun seemed to think for a moment, and then asked, “Did Trevor mention visiting any place recently? My last email from him was that he wanted me to go with him on some trip, but I was working”

Sarah suddenly remembered her dead father’s motoring atlas and the red felt tip mark Trevor had made.

“He seemed to be planning some trip to Kent Shaun” Sarah replied, “He said he had found some kind of link as he put it, to an old press report about an old abandoned world war two base down in Kent which was torched by arsonists a few years back, if that makes any sense.”

Shaun nodded, “In my last email he mentioned a place near Leeds, I thought he was talking about across the Pennines, obviously not”

“That’s all I know Shaun” Sarah replied, “That plus he was on about someone called Doctor H, when I mentioned it Trevor became quite secretive”

Shaun blew out through his teeth, “It looks like we may have to find this Doctor H and the best place I can think of is down near that Leeds place in Kent”

“What?” Sarah said with incredulity

“Sarah” Shaun went on, “For all we know this Doctor H could be behind every thing. Maybe Trevor stumbled onto his identity. Maybe this Doctor H is the leader of the Shadow Government of the New World order we have been warning about.”

“You sound just as crazy as my Trevor did” Sarah said as the train pulled into Bolton Street Station.

“Maybe Sarah”, Shaun answered back, “But it’s the best explanation I can think of, especially if they can hack into your bank account, your mobile phone and the CCTV systems”

Sarah grabbed her bags and followed Shaun onto the platform and the pair of them headed out up the stairs.

The reached the stairs and were mingling with the other commuters as they approached the corner to the ticket hall of the Bolton Street Station in Bury

Just as they were coming around the corner, across the barriers and through the doors Sarah caught sight of several blue flashing lights.

Outside the police station there appeared to be a number of police cars

Someone had tipped them off they were coming

To be continued

[Sticks]

Episode IV – Going off Grid

Spoiler:

Sometimes things happen that we are unaware of, things that could come back to bite us.

Sarah Bentley has been falsely accused of involvement in the death of her brother and dealing in hard drugs. She has been shot at by assassins on motor bikes and by an elderly man who pretended to be a police surgeon after murdering a female police officer.

She has discovered that her best friend and her family have been murdered, and possibly one other friend.

She now believes it may have something to do with files on her brother’s encrypted memory stick that she took by mistake the previous evening.

She has now hooked up with Shaun Chapman, a friend of her brothers, unaware that a taxi driver who had appeared to be her saviour was not what he seemed, has planted some kind of tracking device on Sarah and has now been shot dead. She is also unaware that Shaun’s sister, mother and next door neighbour have also been murdered by the motorcycle assassins.

All she is aware of is that as she and her brother’s friend have reached the town of Bury on the East Lancashire Railway, someone has tipped of the police that she was on board...

+ + +

Sarah for a few seconds stood there transfixed and in terror. The police were there to pick her up, and with the deaths of another police officer involved in “her case” it was most likely be blamed on her like the first one, it did not look good.

Even with the high feelings against her from the police officers, there was the realisation that the phoney police surgeon meant that even if she were in police custody, the assassins would be able to get to her with no trouble or hindrance. Such was their reach and there gall

Sarah felt her arm being yanked backwards.

It was Shaun.

He had spotted the danger too and had obviously formulated a plan.

Sarah followed Shaun as he hurried back through the crowds back to the train, telling everyone that he had left something on the train. It was a lie of course but a very plausible one.

Shaun and Sarah reached the train as the last passengers getting of at Bury had left. Shaun pulled open the carriage door and pulled Sarah on to the train.

“Change of plan” Shaun said in a hurried tone, “It’s an orange day Sarah, the train goes all the way to Heywood”

“What about the ticket inspector” Sarah asked, amazed that of all things she might be done for fare dodging as well as murder”

“If it’s the same one we’ll say we got the wrong ticket and the booking hall here was too crowded and I’ll pay for extra tickets on the train” Shaun explained, “They sometimes take fares from those getting on at Summerseat anyway”

Sarah sat down and looked out at the carriage window. Her worry now was that the police would realise that she was not amongst the others passengers emerging upstairs and order the train to stop.

But who could have alerted the police?

The taxi driver? He would have seen the train departing in the direction of Bury so he would have known, but then he was adamant that he believed her and had a distinct lack of trust for the police, but then he did try and persuade them to go to Rochdale...

Shaun’s family? The mother seemed to be angry at Sarah for disrupting their lives, and Sarah felt guilty and silently accusing the mother of her brother’s friend of betrayal.

“Once we get to Heywood” Shaun went on, “we can cut through a housing estate and get a bus from Manchester road into Manchester”

“Ok” Sarah replied in a tense and uptight manner as she stared out of the window at the platform.

The guard blew his whistle and there was the sound of the diesel train starting up. For some reason the police had not realised in time that they were still on the train

The train started to pull out of Bury station. Now they would have to worry about the ticket inspector should he come round.

The train continued through the Lancashire country side, although this part was more urban than the Irwell valley. There were not many passengers on the train, since most people got off at Bury, the other main town on the route.

It seemed good fortune that they had not seen a ticket inspection by the time, a quarter of an hour later when the train finally arrived at Heywood station.

Sarah followed Shaun off onto the long platform. She was still worried that the police might be waiting for them here or worse, the assassins on the motorcycles.

The two of them left the station and climbed up the hill to the top of the road. From there they crossed a small paved area to get to Manchester Street and a bus stop next to an old style payphone.

Shaun peered at the bus time table while Sarah looked around, warily for police cars or motorcycles.

“We want the One six three Shaun announced, “That will take us to Piccadilly Gardens, near the coach station.”

Again Sarah gave a non committal “ok”, Shaun seemed to know what he was doing so she was just going along with whatever he said.

RING, RING

Sarah jumped with fright.

The telephone in phone box next to the bus stop was ringing.

“They’ve found us Shaun, They’ve found us” Sarah found herself shrieking.

Shaun approached the phone box, but before he got there, the phone rang off

“It could have been a wrong number” Shaun observed, “There is no way they should know we are here Sarah”.

Sarah then found herself clutching at Shaun’s arm as tears flowed down her face, due to the stress of the events over the last twenty four hours

Shaun had to be right – how could they know where they were?

For a brief moment Shaun held Sarah in his strong arms and it felt good to Sarah. Shaun may be a nerd just like her brother was, but somehow she found herself attracted to him.

NO! She was just frightened, it was not the time or place for mushy thoughts like that!

Shaun let go of Sarah as bus was coming.

Without thinking Sarah reached for Shaun’s hand, and instinctively they both held hands.

Momentarily Sarah was confused, was she really attracted to Shaun? Lauren, Shaun’s sister had warned her that Shaun fancied her and for some reason Sarah had decided to go braless because she wanted to please him. So maybe, Sarah fancied Shaun, just as much as he fancied her.

She could not help wonder what Trevor would have thought about it

Stop thinking like that!

Shaun hailed for the bus to stop with his free hand, but it was stopping anyway to let passengers off. It was a single decked bus.

The two of them let go of each other’s hand, and for the moment the spell over Sarah was broken. Shaun paid for the tickets in cash, since according to him that was almost difficult to track.

The bus was pretty full with commuters going into Manchester, so Sarah and Shaun stood in the aisle with other commuters as the bus continued into the city.

Neither of them felt like speaking and at Shaun’s insistence, they made sure their faces were turned from the bus’ on board CCTV cameras.

Every time the bus either passed or was passed by a police car or a motorcycle Sarah felt anxious

The bus pulled into Middleton bus station and a large number of passengers got off

Shaun motioned for Sarah to go to the back of the bus and Sarah meekly did as she was directed, again Shaun’s authoritative tone somehow appealed to Sarah, but she did not know why. The two of them sat in the back right corner of the bus; with Shaun insisting that Sarah sat by the window seat.

There were still people getting on, including a woman with a pram, but they seemed to be more to the front of the bus.

Sarah gazed at the woman with the pram, and for an instant wished she too had a baby, maybe a baby with…

NO! Snap out of it! How could she even think about such things with her brother in the morgue along with who knows how many of her friends, murdered at the hands of they motorcycle assassins.

Shaun put an arm around Sarah and leant over to whisper to her, “You do realise we are going to have to go off grid”
“What?” Sarah asked in puzzlement
“You’ve never heard that term before?” Shaun asked with incredulity
“Is it something to do with the electricity supply?” Sarah asked in all innocence.

Shaun shook his head and gave a small moan

Sarah immediately felt bad, it was obviously something she should know, but she had never heard the term, not even from Trevor.

“You know how they tracked you down via your mobile?” Shaun asked

Sarah nodded

“And how they cut Lauren off at the dentists?” Shaun went on
“Yeah”

“Every aspect of our lives is controlled and monitored by various computers and databases some owned by the government and some owned by private corporations. Our government and the American government have the ability to link all these together to track anyone, anywhere” Shaun explained in a menacing tone to underline the gravity of what he was saying

Sarah had heard this mentioned in passing before, but then it had been a So what issue then

Shaun continued “You switch on a mobile phone and you send out a signal to say where you are. Even if your phone does not have a GPS chip, they can triangulate where you are from known cell towers. Every time you use a debit or a credit card in a shop, online or in a hole in the wall, you let the powers that be know where you are and what you are doing. Every time you use a store loyalty card like Nectar you let the powers that be know where you are and what you are buying. Tie that in with CCTV and other means of tracking like those Oyster Cards in London say and the government can use these as implements of the state to carry out covert surveillance and control all of our lives”

Sarah felt shocked by what Shaun was saying. He sounded almost as paranoid as Trevor with his talk of conspiracies, but what was terrifying was that whoever the killers were, it seemed that what Shaun was talking about, these implements of the state as he put it was right and these killers were controlling them.”

Were these killers government assassins?

What had her brother stumbled across

“So” Shaun went on, “The only way to defeat these people is by what we call going off grid”

Sarah shook her head slightly in puzzlement

“It means Sarah” Shaun explained further “We avoid doing anything that might trigger an entry in any database. We only use cash and we never use any ATMs. You do not use any mobiles and if you have to make a phone call, you use a payphone in the street and don’t stay on longer than a minute and then you get as far away from it as possible. You do not sign any document, petition or register. Effectively we have to be ghosts. We have to disappear from the system so they can not detect or track you in any way shape or form. That is going off Grid”

Sarah gulped and the magnitude of such a venture. It seemed impossible to her.

The very bus they were on had CCTV and would have taken a picture of their faces as they boarded the bus.

The streets were full of CCTV cameras, some owned by private companies, some used by the police.

The sheer idea that these items could be implements of control and terror was hitting home, and then Sarah’s mind went back to the night before and her failed trip to Manchester

“I think I did that by accident last night” Sarah whispered
“What do you mean?” Shaun asked quietly

“When I went into Manchester last night,” Sarah continued “I didn’t put my phone on at all Shaun. I only used it when I was in the taxi and we were passing Bury Market on Angouleme Way, as or the ATM I tried to use one at Victoria but it swallowed my card”

“They were waiting for you” Shaun replied

Sarah looked into Shaun’s eyes, “But if I had had my phone one” she started

“They would have caught and killed you last night just like they did to Trevor” Shaun interrupted

“But Vicky?” Sarah protested, “I killed Vicky and her family”
“How do you work that one out Sarah?” Shaun asked, “Because that’s a load of crap”
“Shaun, they obviously thought I was round her house which they probably tracked down because I listed Vicky along with Jessica and others as friends on my Myspace page”

“Sarah” Shaun said with some force, “You have not killed anyone, those b*****ds working for the shadow government have”

“And all because of this stupid thing” Sarah said angrily and in tears as she pulled out her brother’s Ion Key memory stick

“Sarah” Shaun said softly as he took the memory stick, “If they think this is worth killing for, then that’s all the more reason to expose this conspiracy. I mean did Woodward and Bernstein quit?”

“Who?” Sarah asked in a confused tone.
“You never heard of Woodward and Bernstein?” Shaun asked with incredulity

Again Sarah shook her head, “Are they friends of yours?” She asked in all innocence

Shaun slightly shook his head and handed Sarah back the memory stick, “You are so funny sometimes Sarah, that’s what I like about you” he told her, “They were only the reporters on the Washington Post that broke the story of Watergate that brought down Richard Nixon the thirty seventh president of the United states of America”

Then without warning, Shaun kissed Sarah on the lips.

Sarah grasped Shaun’s right shoulder gently with her left hand and closed her eyes.

Sarah had never been kissed before like this, but in the circumstances it seemed all so wrong, so why was she going along with it.

The bell on the bus rang out to indicate it was stopping and once again the moment between the two was broken and the two separated.

“I’m sorry” Shaun apologised
“I liked it” Sarah admitted coyly and then without warning was overcome with the emotion of guilt, “I’m sorry Trevor, I’m sorry Vicky” Sarah whispered before dissolving into tears.

Shaun put his left arm around Sarah, “I don’t think they would mind love” he told Sarah gently, “We will bring to justice those who killed them” he said with determination.

The two of them sat on the back of the bus as it drove through the suburbs into the Manchester City Centre and then finally into Manchester Piccadilly Gardens

Shaun then lead Sarah by the hand to a coffee shop so they could use a toilet, and because Sarah had not eaten since the day before.

Sarah had never been in this chain before, in fact she seldom went into these places as she assumed they were all about beatniks listening to old jazz records wearing black berets.

After Sarah came out from using the coffee stores toilet, she joined Shaun as he was buying a medium latte for himself and for Sarah a hot chocolate and two sausage baps.

The two of them then sat down opposite each other at a table.

Sarah glanced at the receipt, the amount looked huge to her, but then she really only ever ate in the subsidised canteen at the college in Bury to save money.

“Will we have enough for the coach?” Sarah asked

“We should do love” Shaun replied as he tucked into his sausage bap, “I have a dummy email account I haven’t used for a while which I can use to book us on one of those Mega Buses using my notebook and the WiFi they have here”

“Won’t they trace your computer?” Sarah asked, “And how are you going to pay for it if they can track credit cards like you said they could”

“Not really” Shaun replied, “All they would trace back to here is the IP address of this shop’s WiFi, As for paying”

Shaun stopped and swore quietly, and put his hands to his face, “Both I forgot Megabus only use credit cards, not PayPal. Going off Grid is harder then it sounds. Shame, it would only have been a tenner for the pair of us, I see what the cost is on National Express site, given the number of hits on that site, I doubt they will zero in on us”

“How do you know that” Sarah interrupted, “That it would be a tenner”

Shaun stopped eating and looked Sarah in the eye, guilt all over his face. “Trevor emailed me two days ago and asked me to look it up. He didn’t say why. He just wanted the cheapest way to get to London. He said that was not his final destination just that once he got down there, then he would go to wherever he was headed”

“And he never told me” Sarah said angrily, “His own sister” she added raising her voice.

“I didn’t know he hadn’t said anything Sarah” Shaun answered back, “I assumed he was booking your holidays and I could not work out why he did not look that stuff up himself”

Sarah shook her head in disbelief, “Shaun, what was my brother into?” Sarah asked point blank holding up her brother’s memory stick

“I don’t know” Shaun replied, “I’ll have a look at the National express website after we have eaten, so we can get away from here sharpish, just in case”

Sarah just sat there shaking her head in shock and had to be told to eat by Shaun.

As soon as the pair had finished, eating Shaun pulled out his notebook computer and switched it on.

“I just hope they aren’t looking this way” Shaun muttered.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shaun closed down the notebook computer and then looked at his watch.

“We need to go now” He told Sarah as he put his computer in his bag, “There’s a coach down to London at eleven which seems to be only nine pounds”

Sarah looked at her watch; it was not that long to go. She picked up her bag and followed Shaun out of the coffee shop, again looking for motorcyclists just in case the assassins had found her.

Sarah then found herself following Shaun at a quick pace as they headed through the streets of Manchester, finally arriving at Chorlton where the central coach station was.

Sarah followed Shaun into the booking hall as they queued to buy tickets.

Again the queue seemed to move slowly, especially as there was an Indian lady in front who seemed intent on not understanding anything the lady on the booking desk was trying to tell her

Finally another desk opened up and Shaun and Sarah moved over to that desk and Shaun asked for two tickets to London on the eleven o’clock service.

“That will be fifty six pounds” the lady on the desk told Shaun

“But on your website” Shaun began to complain
“That’s on the website if you are booking in advance sir” the lady on the desk told him, “Buying from here you don’t get those deals”

Shaun glowered at the lady at the desk.

Sarah pulled out the last remaining thirty pounds from her purse that she had been given by the lady at the night club the previous evening and offered it to Shaun.

“Put your money away Sarah, I’ve got it” Shaun told Sarah and pulled out his wallet

Sarah put the money back in her purse and felt guilty

“And we need a name and address sir” the lady at the desk said.

“Why?” Shaun asked

“Anti terrorism legislation” the lady said without batting an eye, “It was bought in last year. All cash sales need to be recorded”

“Patrick Brown and this is my girlfriend Emma Tupper” Shaun lied, “We both live together in Tooting” he added
“Address?” The lady at the desk pressed.
“Shaun gave a number on a street
“Postcode?” The lady at the desk asked
Shaun then rolled off a SW17 post code

The lady punched in the details and then printed out the tickets and handed them across.

Shaun took the tickets and lead Sarah out into the concourse where the coaches were loading and unloading

“Is that a real address?” Sarah asked

“Yeah” Shaun smirked, “It’s a kebab shop I once knew when I did a course in London a few years back. I always thought it might be useful should I ever need to give a false address”

“I liked the way you told her I was your girlfriend” Sarah smiled
“Jobs yours if you want it Sarah” Shaun replied

“Really?” Sarah asked in surprise as she stopped walking

Shaun turned around and then put his hands on Sarah’s shoulders, “Sure, why do you think I kept coming round to your place”
“To see Trevor?” Sarah asked cautiously

Shaun shook his head, “That as well” he admitted, “You caught my eye, because you were so different from your brother, but I just never found the courage before to speak to you and you’re only seventeen”
“In some cultures Shaun we would be married with kids” Sarah replied cheekily then just for a tease, “I think you would be an excellent dad”
“And you would be a wonderful mother” Shaun reciprocated and then he kissed Sarah and held her in his arms, and the two hugged each other and kissed.

The two let go of each other and found the bay where their coach was supposed to be, where they joined up with other fellow passengers.

A number of them were students or pensioners. Shaun looked at his watch and told Sarah to wait in the queue whilst he got something from a stall nearby that catered for travelling people.

As Sarah was waiting for Shaun to return could not help but look up at the ceiling at a CCTV camera nearby that seemed to be pointed in her direction and wonder if the killers were already in it, sending the motorcycle assassins to kill her and Shaun.

The camera seemed to grow in menace as she stared transfixed at it. It seemed as if the camera was getting closer and closer ready to devour her

“Sarah” Shaun said sharply

The spell of the camera shattered and Sarah turned around to face Shaun

“I wouldn’t stare at those things if I were you Sarah” Shaun chided Sarah, “You don’t know what facial recognition software is out there examining every feed from every camera”

“Oh sorry” Sarah said, feeling ashamed, “I told them where we are haven’t I”

Shaun hugged Sarah again, “Maybe not, there’s thousands of those things dotted across the region” Shaun said quietly

Shaun released Sarah and then handed her a pair of sunglasses and a green woollen hat. “Put these on” he told her, “It might help disguise your appearance a bit”

Sarah took the items and put them on. Now she really looked the part of a wanted fugitive, something that both thrilled her and sickened her.

Shaun put on an almost identical hat and sunglasses

Then it really hit home that these two were on the run from what could be some covert government agency trying to cover up something that Sarah’s murdered brother had stumbled across. But what?

Then the coach arrived and began loading up. Shaun stowed some of their bags in the luggage bay of the coach but kept onto his notebook computer and then ushered Sarah into the coach.

So far no motorcycle assassins or police officers

Sarah and Shaun sat at the back of the coach next to the onboard toilet and Sarah had the window seat.

Then the doors closed and they were on their way as the coach pulled out of the Chorlton Street coach station.

“The first stop for this coach Sarah is Manchester Airport” Shaun told her as he peered through a time table after the coach had left the coach station, “When we leave there the next stop will be Milton Keynes at half past two, so after we leave the airport I will have a closer look at that memory stick of Trevor’s”

“OK” Sarah nodded as she kept a wary eye out of he window, looking for motorcycle assassins

Maybe they had done enough to shake them off, but who were they?

The coach travelled through the streets on Manchester and headed past Moss Side and Sarah could not help wondering if she would ever see her village of Tottington again, especially as Shaun had bought single tickets and not returns

More to the point, would the people of Tottington will ever accept her back, especially if the police were convinced she was responsible for his death and into dealing with methamphetamine.

As the coach got onto the M56 motorway several motorcyclists came up from behind the coach and started driving passed.

Sarah gasped and looked at them in terror; however they drove off after overtaking the coach.

“You ok?” Shaun asked
“Every time I see a motorcyclist I keep expecting it to be them” Sarah explained in a terrified whisper

“That’s because you were shot at by them?” Shaun asked
“Maybe” Sarah admitted.

The rest of the journey down the motorway was without incident and the two of them sat in relative silence as they held hands.

The coach pulled into Manchester airport and a number of people got off, while some got on.

Sarah stared at the newcomers intently; afraid that either the police might come to arrest her or worse, the assassins may have tracked her down using those “implements of the state” Shaun had referred to and would take her out here in public. Since sending one of them into a police station brazenly posing as a police surgeon showed how ruthless they were

After what seemed like an excruciating wait, the coach started up again and headed from the terminal, leaving Manchester Airport behind.

Next stop would be Milton Keynes

“So will we get another coach to this Leeds Castle when we get into London?” Sarah asked.

“I’m not sure” Shaun replied, “As we are not due into London until twenty past four, given what traffic is like, it may be getting on so I will have to see what the time table is like for coaches there. We may have to take a train to get down there” Shaun then paused, “There is one complication, Mam only had so much cash and I had been counting on getting a cheaper ticket than what we were sold.”

Shaun had a point about the money side of things, and Sarah thought back to her abortive trip to the night club the previous day when she was trying to get money to pay of debts by becoming a stripper.

“Shaun” Sarah ventured, “Maybe we can find a strip club or something down in London” Sarah suggested, “And I could...” she tried to continue

“NO!” Shaun interrupted angrily

“I don’t like it either” Sarah said defensively, “but it’s what I was prepared to do to try and keep the house Shaun, and you say we’re short of cash”

Shaun put an arm around Sarah, “There has to be another way love” he said quietly, “I don’t want all those sleazy men in grey overcoats gawping and leering at you”
“But we need money” Sarah protested, “And you’ve done so much I need to do something to pull my weight”

“I’ll try and come up with something” Shaun said quietly, “Anyway” he went on, “Didn’t you say that strip club in Manchester would not touch you because they said you were under age?”

“I thought in London they would care so much about that” Sarah replied

Shaun gave Sarah a hug and the two rested their heads together.

After a while the coach got onto a motorway and Shaun pulled out his notebook computer and switched it on. Within minutes the small computer was connected up to the internet through the coach’s mobile WiFi connection.

Sarah glanced at it, “Will that give us away?” she nervously asked
“I hope not” Shaun replied, “Not the way I configured it a while back, now pass me that memory stick”

Sarah pulled out the metal memory stick and handed it to Shaun. “I think it’s called an IronKey” Sarah told Shaun

Shaun pulled off the top of the pen drive and examined it. “These are top of the range for encrypted memory sticks Sarah, so you have to be careful with these things” Shaun commented, “These are password protected and on some models like these you only have a certain number of tries before it locks up completely and destroys the data. A few years back a previous government got it’s personnel to use them for transporting data so that if any walked, the tabloids didn’t find out what was on them.”

“But I have no idea what the password is” Sarah told Shaun

Shaun continued to examine the memory stick, “The typical password some tried in the past usually tended to be names of those who were close to them, or birthdates. Any decent hacker who researched their target would have a fighting chance of cracking the password”

“Do you think Trevor would have done that?” Sarah asked

Shaun shook his head, “Trevor was just as hot on password and data security as I am, I don’t think he would have been that stupid”

“He gave me one but I never changed the password” Sarah told Shaun as she looked at the memory stick in his hands.

“I don’t think he would have done that” Shaun replied

“So how do we hack into that? Sarah asked

“With great difficulty” Shaun answered, “Some years ago a number of other encrypted memory sticks that the US government approved we shown to have been hacked due to a vulnerability” Shaun went on, “Unfortunately it is not one that this brand suffered from, which is probably why Trevor went with this brand, although they can cost up to about eighty quid”

“What?” Sarah said angrily, “We were barely able to pay our bills and Trevor was wasting money on memory sticks”

After a moment Sarah then asked, “So we can’t hack in to see what Trevor was working on?”

“That is what the manufacturers would like us to believe” Shaun said cryptically.
“What do you mean?” Sarah enquired

Shaun looked out of the window at the passing cars on the motorway, “The rumour was a few years back, that the National Security Agency in the US insisted that companies using encryption or manufacturing encryption and encrypted devices would not be granted a license unless they put in what used to be called a backdoor. Some say it was part of the US Patriot Act

Shaun put the cap back on the memory stick and showed Sarah the stick close up, “Do you see that number?” he asked

Sarah peered at a barely visible string of letters and numbers engraved on the memory stick. She had never noticed them before.

“That Sarah” Shaun explained, “Is this memory stick’s serial number, and somewhere in either the company’s system or the NSA system will be details of this memory stick’s backdoor”

“And you can hack into them?” Sarah asked with incredulity

“Who do you think taught Trevor to break into remote computers?” Shaun said with pride
“So you’re the one to blame” Sarah retorted and pulled away from him as best she could, “It was his hacking that got him killed along with Vicky, her family and who knows who else?” she said accusingly

“Sarah, it was a long while ago and it was just basic stuff” Shaun protested, “The rest Trevor figured for himself. Initially my hacking was actually at the request of mates who owned the machines we hacked. Originally we were meant to be white hat hackers”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked

“What I used to do along with Trevor was to test the security of systems” Shaun explained, “We looked for weak points in systems and helped those who ran them, mostly charities or pressure groups to improve their data security”

“I find that hard to believe Shaun” Sarah went on, “My brother was always claiming how he was trying to hack into the CIA or MI6 or some other place like that”

“Yeah” Shaun admitted, “Your brother did seem to have some odd ideas after a while, but like I said, I visited him so I could see you Sarah. I left the security system testing when your brother started going off on his bizarre crusades and concentrated on repairing systems. Anyway Sarah, there is no way we could get through the NSA systems nowadays, nor would I even try, it would be too dangerous, but the manufacturer might be another matter. We might even find this Doctor H character”

“But if Trevor had never had got into hacking in the first place” Sarah went on, “none of this would have happened”

“If he hadn’t come to me Sarah” Shaun replied, “He would have gone elsewhere. He was interested in hacking before I gave him those basics and I hoped I would get him to channel it into a security testing business I hoped to set up so we could make some real money and learn about some real cool systems”

“No way he would settle for that” Sarah admitted, “He was always into strange causes and conspiracy theories”
“And he got me into some of those conspiracy theories too” Shaun told Sarah, “It seemed the best way to keep in with your brother”

“I know” Sarah interrupted, “So you had an excuse to see me” she said rolling her eyes, “you could have just said Shaun, I don’t think Trevor would have cared” Sarah went on, “I ended up missing out on our end of Totty High disco because I could not get a date. I had my brother tell them I had the flu”

“I’m sorry” Shaun apologised, “You’re parents were still alive then and…”

“Say no more” Sarah interrupted again, before going quiet.

“I miss them so much” Sarah whispered before bursting out crying, “All I had was Trevor and now he’s gone as well” Sarah sobbed

Shaun put his arm around Sarah and hugged her.

Shaun glanced at his notebook. The Wifi connection from the coach seemed to have gone down and so he commented that it was off.

“Oh no!” Sarah cried out tearfully, “They’re onto us”
“What do you mean?” Shaun asked with concern in his voice

“They have the ability to kill cell phones and land lines” Sarah said, looking at the notebook in terror.

“It’s just the coach’s Wifi” Shaun reassured her, “They are notoriously unreliable sometimes. We’re probably in a dead spot”

Shaun handed Sarah back her brother’s IronKey and closed down his notebook, “I suppose there is not much I can do here Sarah” he told Sarah softly, “I want to be at someplace with a more reliable connection if I want to penetrate a corporate system. They may be easier than the NSA, but it won’t be by much, since they trade on data security”

Shaun put away his notebook in his case and then turned to Sarah, “So what should we do now?” he asked as he turned in his seat to face Sarah as best as he could.

Sarah looked down the coach to make sure the coast was clear, and then had a playful thought.

Sarah gently took Shaun’s free right hand, as his left was around her shoulder, and she pulled his hand under her top and up to her left breast, so she could feel his fingers on her left nipple. Then she guided his hand so it was on her right breast and let go of his hand and pulled her hand out.

“Go on” she whispered, “have a feel. I want you too” she added in a serious tone

Sarah felt his hand lightly caress her right breast before withdrawing his hand from her top and gently pulling the bottom of her top down.

“Do you like them?” Sarah asked cheekily

“Oh Yeah” Shaun admitted,

Forgetting where she was for a moment, Sarah crossed her arms and grabbed at the bottom of her top. For one moment she so wanted to pull it off and hold her body against Shaun’s like that, but Shaun guessed what was on her mind and gently grabbed Sarah’s hands
“I don’t think we could get away with that here” he said before kissing Sarah quickly, before adding, “maybe later” and then he kissed her passionately.

Sarah felt really embarrassed at what she had almost done She was so glad that Shaun was such a gentleman, maybe he was marriage material?

MARRIAGE MATERIAL? – Why was she thinking like that at a time like this– Suddenly Sarah felt guilty at what she had done, and in public too, no matter that fortunately nobody had seen them. What was getting into her?

For much of the journey the two of them sat hand in hand, sometimes in silence.

If only Shaun had been more forthright Sarah kept wishing, then she would have had a boyfriend and not been the butt of some accusations a few of the school bullies had made up about her orientation.

On the odd occasion a motorcycle passed the coach, and Sarah could not help but watch it, just in case.

It seemed all too easy now getting away like this.

Would the police still be searching for her around the Bolton Street railway station, or even in Ramsbottom.

How many more of her friends had been murdered?

Occasionally she would look at her brother’s memory stick and try and guess what her brother would have picked as a password. If Shaun was right, it would not be the obvious ones people chose, so a password of her name or that of their dead parents would definitely be out. Too easy to crack according to Shaun

The coach arrived at Milton Keynes and people got on and off, and still they were ignored.

Again it was all too easy and Sarah kept waiting for “The other shoe to drop”

The coach reached the outskirts of London and it seemed to Sarah that they had go away with this “Going off Grid” Shaun has mentioned.

Shaun made sure Sarah was wearing the sunglasses and the woollen hat as the coach pulled into Victoria coach station.

Sarah also noted that there were several police officers wandering the coach station, some of them armed officers.

“They’re onto us” Sarah whispered to Shaun
“They could be just routine anti-terror police” Shaun whispered back, “This is the principal coach station in London so they are bound to think it might be a target”

Sarah just held her breath as the coach pulled into the bay. She was expecting the police to board the coach as soon as it stopped, but they seemed to be patrolling.

Maybe they were waiting for them to get off before they were arrested.

Nervously Sarah followed and the other passengers as they filed out of the coach. At Shaun’s insistence Sarah looked down and not out at the police officers patrolling outside, as this would attract their attention.

As they got out of the coach, they walked hand in hand to the luggage bays where the driver was unloading the coach. Other passengers were there, looking for their luggage too. Sarah just kept looking at the bags in the coach’s luggage bay, fighting the temptation to look up at the police officers. They had to act as natural as possible and blend in.

Shaun spotted their bags and pointed to them so the driver could see them. The driver handed the bags over and Shaun grabbed them and ushered Sarah away.

Neither of them noticed a man in his late fifties with a short hair cut talking into a cell phone as he watched them, out of site.

The two left the coach station and looked across at the Victoria railway station.

“Is this the station for trains to Kent?” Sarah asked
“I believe so” Shaun replied, “Unfortunately I doubt we have the cash reserves to get down there by train and there next coach is not until tomorrow”

“What about my money?” Sarah asked and pulled out the thirty pounds she still had from the previous evening.

“That may still not be enough” Shaun replied, “Well not for the train anyway. It may help with the coach, but we would have to find somewhere to stay”

“How far is Soho from here?” Sarah asked

“Forget it Sarah” Shaun said sternly, “You’re not becoming a stripper”
“I’ve got a body” Sarah protested, “The least I can do is to use it to…”

“No!” Shaun insisted, “Besides, we need to drop out of site. Parading naked in front of perverts is not the way to do it. Remember that is the essence of going off grid. We drop out of site and out of the radar of whoever killed Trevor and set you up”

“If only I could get hold of my bank account” Sarah said in frustration, then looking Shaun in the eyes reminded him about the forty thousand pounds she had been told had be paid into it.

“Banks have improved their security a bit since I last hacked into one with Trevor” Shaun told her
“Was that one of your client?” Sarah asked

“Not that time” Shaun admitted, “I was looking for a place for a bank account and I wanted to do one of my own security checks and found their security sucked. Needless to say I went with another bank”

“So could you hack into my bank account and get at that money?” Sarah pressed
“If we did that Sarah” Shaun explained, “They would find us on a back trace in no time flat. Like I said, security around bank computers has increased and they are forever on the lookout for cyber attacks.”

“Then there’s only one way for us to make any money so we can stay somewhere for the night” Sarah insisted.

Shaun placed both his hands on her shoulders, “I’m not happy with that Sarah. You’re far too young”

“Shaun I’m almost eighteen” Sarah retorted
“It’s not in this part of London anyway”
“Do we have enough to go there?”

“Sarah why this obsession about being a stripper?” Shaun snapped.

“I went into Manchester last night because my friend Vicky said it was the only way someone like me could get money at the time and we really needed it just like we do now” Sarah whined defensively.

Shaun sighed and to Sarah it seemed that he was finally coming around to the only plan she had for making money so they could try and find out what was in Kent and who this Doctor H was, but that did not mean that he had to like it.

“Yardoz forty nine” Shaun suddenly called out.

“What?” Sarah said with incomprehension

“It’s a contact on Twitter” Shaun replied, “I stayed with him a while back. He lived in London at the time”

“Does he still live down here?” Sarah asked

“I could find out” Shaun smiled, “He’s always on line. Some people told me those who are on Facebook are sad, I sad they ought to think of those on Twitter”

“What about this going off grid thing?” Sarah then asked, “If we are not to leave this electronic trail you mentioned wont they track us down and possibly him?”

“He uses a special proxy server” Shaun replied, “and if I use a cyber café nearby we already have an agreed procedure we worked out should we ever find ourselves in this situation.”

“Oh” was all Sarah could reply. She had no idea what a proxy server was. She just used whatever computer was to hand and had never had to worry about such things before.

Shaun grabbed Sarah’s hand as they headed towards a cybercafé that he knew of.

To Sarah it seemed as if this were a second home to Shaun, but by his own admission had done a course a few years back. What in Shaun never said. To Sarah, this was an alien world. She had never been anywhere more exotic than possibly Bolton. Even when their parents were alive, they never really went away on holiday, as according to her late father there was so much to see and do in their own back yard, so why add to your carbon footprint.

So this was the first time she had ever left the Grater Manchester area and her first time in the capital city of London.

They entered the cybercafé and Shaun paid a sum of money to the person at the counter to look at one of the computers. He wanted to save the battery on his notebook.

Sarah followed behind.

Shaun suddenly stopped in front of the computer terminal and swore

Sarah was confused and was just able to sneak a peek at the screen in front of them.

It was on the BBC News Site and was leading on the slaying of four people in Ramsbottom.

Sarah watched as Shaun clicked the news story and to her horror saw the story.

Shaun’s younger sister and his mother and a neighbour had reportedly been shot dead and the car they were in blown up by a grenade. There was even the report of the execution style murder of a taxi driver.

As Shaun scrolled down through the story there was a picture of Sarah herself. Wanted for murder of her brother and possible involvement in what was obviously the most vicious feud between two warring drug gangs. What was even more shocking was that the picture of Sarah was one of the topless shots Vicky had done, where Sarah had covered her breasts with her hands. That shot had been on her memory stick.

Whoever sent the press that photo had killed not only her brother but Shaun’s remaining family too.

There was no way Shaun would want to help her now, since she was obviously responsible for the deaths of Shaun’s younger sister and mother.

Shaun had been the only real chance of having a decent boyfriend and it had been ruined.

“I’m sorry Shaun, I’ll go” Sarah sobbed, turned and hurried out of the cybercafé leaving Shaun behind

As tears streamed down her face she just wanted to keep walking and she had no idea where she would end up. All she knew was that Shaun would now hate her for the rest of her life for what she and possibly her brother had caused to happen to his family, and rightly so. What ever her brother Trevor had stumbled across, Sarah was now doomed to bring death to those who knew her.

Maybe if she could find this River Thames and throw herself in. Maybe she could jump under a tube train and then it would be over

Suddenly someone gripped her shoulder from behind firmly.

Sarah was terrified

Had the police finally tracked her down to London so quickly? The people at the coach station at Chorlton Street Manchester must have been suspicious.

Sarah turned around and looked up into the steel grey eyes of a man in his late fifties, with cropped grey hair.

“Going somewhere Miss Tupper?” the man said in an American accent, “Or should that be Miss Bentley?”

To be continued…

[Sticks]

Episode V – An American Connection

Spoiler:

Ever wish the ground would swallow you up?

Sarah Bentley from a small village in Lancashire along with her brother’s best friend, Shaun Chapman have gone on the run after Sarah has falsely being accused of involvement in the murder of her brother Trevor. Her best friend and her family have also been slain, possibly others., Shaun has taken Sarah down to London to look for answers, where he has just learned through a news site at a cyber café that his younger sister, mother, a neighbour and a taxi driver who assisted Sarah have also been murdered.

Sarah on learning this decided that Shaun would now hate her for bringing death to his family and has now run out on him, straight into an American man, who knows who she really is.

This is just such a time Sarah would like the ground to swallow her up…

+ + +

Sarah continued to look in terror at the steel grey eyes of a man in his late fifties, with cropped grey hair and shook her head in disbelief, who was this guy, CIA?

“Miss Bentley, we need to talk” The American man told her in his American accent, “We believe you may have something of interest to us”

Sarah did the only thing she could think of and tried to kick the man in the lower left leg, hoping he would let go, but he could see what she was trying to do and suddenly, she was lying facedown on the ground, with her left arm behind her back with the American on top of her.

For an older man, he seemed pretty fast, possibly due to military training. They were the only people she heard of who could do that.

“Like I said Miss Bentley” the American told her as he pinned her to the ground, “We just need to talk”

Sarah looked up hoping someone would intervene, but the passers by seemed to just move away from her.

Did this American have a gun?

Then she heard a metallic sound behind her, and it felt like something was closing around her wrist.

She was being handcuffed - Was this a police officer with an American accent?

“I didn’t kill my brother” Sarah protested, “I never saw those drugs before”

Suddenly before the American could cuff her other hand, she felt the pressure on her arm go, as he was sent flying onto the ground by some other assailant.

Suddenly Sarah found herself yanked to her feet and being dragged along at speed through the crowd, the handcuffs hanging from her left wrist.

It was Shaun!

He had come to her rescue

Sarah only just managed to hold onto her bags with the empty bracelet of the handcuffs hanging from the other cuff around her left hand, while Shaun held tightly onto her right hand

The pair ran through the London streets until Shaun spotted a small alleyway and pulled Sarah into it. The two of them kept running for what seemed like ages.

Sarah could not understand why he would come to her aid again, not after what she and her brother had caused to happen to him, the murder of his sister and mother. She thought she was the last person he would ever want to help after all that.

Shaun dragged Sarah through various streets at speed until they came to a London Underground Station.

It was the Sloan Square tube station

Shaun got to the ticket machine and took out his wallet, finally letting go of Sarah so he could feed the ticket machine with coins.

Sarah was confused; surely he should be having nothing further to do with her

“Why are you doing this after what’s happened to Lauren and your Mam?” Sarah demanded to know, “I don’t understand. They’re dead because of me and you’re still helping me, why?”

Shaun looked up at Sarah with a serious face, “Not here Sarah” he told her sternly, “I’m sending a text to my mate to meet us at a previously agreed location” he added, pulling out a mobile phone from a pocket.

Shaun grabbed the tickets and then to Sarah by the hand and dragged her down to the west bound platform, as he thumbed his phone to prepare and send the text message

Sarah kept quiet; she did not want to antagonise the one person she had hoped would be a boyfriend, but now she knew it was all over. It had to be In his heart he would despise her for bringing the assassins upon his family

A Circle line train was arriving as they got onto the platform.

Youtube video

Shaun pulled Sarah onto the crowded tube train, “I just sent the text so we need to get away from this station fast” he told Sarah.

The seats were all full so Shaun and Sarah stood in the centre of the carriage. Shaun still held on to Sarah’s hand, probably to maintain some pretence they were still a couple.

Again Sarah kept quiet and did as she was told. She no longer felt she could look Shaun in the eye as the thought of his family being slaughtered when she could have just stayed with that taxi driver and kept them out of it was so overwhelming. If it were not for her, they would still be alive, including that neighbour who had got caught in the cross fire.

The announcement on the underground train instructed them all to “stand clear of the doors” and then the train set of on its westbound journey.

Youtube video

“We need to change at either Gloucester Road or High Street Kensington onto the District Line southbound” Shaun told Sarah, with what Sarah thought was an icy tone as he looked distractedly out the window and among the other passengers.

He obviously hated her for bringing about the death of his mother and sister

Sarah found it impossible to speak; maybe she deserved to be killed by the assassins whoever they were. Maybe she should just throw herself under the next underground train and be done with it. She began feeling that she had no right to live. The chaffing of the handcuffs bracelet on her wrist seemed well deserved.

The two of them kept quiet due to the passengers around them as the train headed through the tube to South Kensington. As they approached the station a public address system advised them that this was the station for the Piccadilly line and for the various London museums, a bit pointless as it was probably closing time at them all.

The train came to a stop at South Kensington tube station and a large number of people left the carriage so there were seats left over but Shaun told Sarah that as Gloucester Road was not that far, there was not much point sitting down.

The train doors closed again, and the tube train headed off for the next station.

Again Sarah continued to keep quiet, what could she say to Shaun that would ever make up for the deaths of Lauren and his mother?.

The train came to a stop at Gloucester Road tube station, and the two of them stepped onto the platform, to wait for the west bound District Line train to take them to Earl’s Court where they could, according to Shaun, pick up the District Line South Bound.

There were not many people on this platform, which seemed odd, but then this was not really that much of an interchange station, given that the Piccadilly line went from another platform deeper underground and so Shaun and Sarah had extra space to them selves, but it was not to last as more people came on to the platform.

After five minutes of awkward silence, a district line train came along, and so the two of them got on. Again there was standing room early as it was the early evening rush hour.

The train pulled into Earls Court and Sarah and Shaun left the train and made their way to the platform for the southbound District Line.

Now according to the train information display they had about ten minutes to wait, and the platform was not as full, so again they had space to themselves.

Again Sarah did not feel like speaking to Shaun, after all the heartache she had obviously caused him. She did not even feel comfortable to look him in the eye.

“Sarah, why did you run out on me like that” Shaun asked bluntly

Sarah shook her head, why ask the question, when the answer would be obvious. “I thought you would hate me because it’s my fault they’re dead” Sarah blurted out before dissolving into tears.

Sarah wanted to run away again and leave Shaun, he deserved better than her. Unexpectedly, Shaun held Sarah in his arms and kissed her on the head, “That’s bull crap Sarah” he whispered, “you did not pull the trigger, those b*****ds did”

Sarah was confused to put it mildly. “But I led them to your family Shaun” Sarah protested, “The taxi driver wanted to take me to Rochdale, but I spotted Lauren in the street and got him to stop. I should have listened to him and gone on with him to Rochdale so you would all be kept out of it, but now they’re dead and it’s my fault”

“And you would have been dead too Sarah” Shaun said icily, “They took out the taxi driver outside the railway station. They were tracking him somehow Sarah. If you had stayed with him they would have killed you too in order to cover up what grubby secret they are trying to hide”

“But at least Lauren and your Mam would still be alive” Sarah insisted

“You don’t know that” Shaun replied

“They were after this damn thing” Sarah said angrily as she pulled out her brother’s memory stick from her purse and waved it at Shaun. “It’s only because I stupidly took it by mistake that they came after me. Shaun” Sarah continued “they killed Vicky and her family because I listed them as my friends on Myspace. They killed Lauren because I spoke to her in Ramsbottom and went to your house”

“And for all we know Sarah Lauren, Mam and I could all have been targeted because I am listed elsewhere on the net as Trevor’s friend. For all I know, they could have been coming after us anyway because they thought what ever vile secrets Trevor came across he was sharing with me”

“But I led them to your family” Sarah went on, “I just thought you would no longer want anything to do with me”

Shaun made sure he looked Sarah in the eye, “Why? Sarah, you have not done anything wrong here. Who knows, if you had not taken that memory stick, they still would not have tried to kill you, just to make sure”

“But I have no idea what Trevor was up to” Sarah insisted, “He just seemed to be more into his stupid conspiracy theories because he said he couldn’t find a job. That’s why Shaun I went out last night. I was looking for work as a stripper so I could pay our bills and save our parents house.”

Sarah again dissolved into tears, especially at the shame of admitting to someone that she had tried to get a job in the sex industry, just for the money.

Shaun held Sarah in his arms, “I hate what those b*****ds have done to us Sarah, not you” Shaun whispered, “If they split us up, then they can pick us off and they will have won. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction”

Shaun noticed that the handcuffs were still on her wrists and fished in his pocket for a paper clip.

Shaun opened it out and with the empty bracelet he stuck the paperclip in the lock and bent it towards the long part of the locking mechanism. Then Shaun took the paperclip with the tiny bend and released Sarah’s wrist.

Sarah rubbed her wrist and whispered “thank you”

“It’s a trick I learned from YouTube” Shaun smirked

Shaun pocketed the handcuffs, “They might be handy” he told Sarah, “I might have a go with them myself” he added.

Sarah had heard that some couples used them in their love lives, but she never knew how or why.

“By the way” Sarah spoke up, “The man who cuffed me knew who I was”

Shaun frowned, “How?” he demanded

“I don’t know” Sarah pleaded, “All I know is that he’s an American”

“It’s the CIA” Shaun retorted, “And just like always I bet our government is going along with them”

“So Trevor was right?” Sarah asked
“It’s looking that way” Shaun replied

Just then the train they needed arrived, and the two got on, hand in hand

Just like the other tube trains at this time of day, the southbound district line tube was crowded and it was standing room only.

“I will let you know when we are getting off” Shaun whispered
“Ok” was all Sarah could squeak out.

It still felt so wrong that Shaun seemed to be forgiving Sarah for the calamity she had brought down on Shaun’s family, it felt so wrong. By rights, Shaun should have been turning against her and handing her over to the authorities for all the harm she and her brother had wrought on those around her.

But he still seemed to care about her and possibly love her?

Maybe he still despised her, and after this was over he was going to ditch her. After all, he would have every right.

Sarah found she had one other burning desire, apart from clearing her name and bringing the killers to justice. She wanted to please Shaun.

The train continued on south past a number of stations, even crossing the River Thames.

As the train pulled into Wimbledon Park, Shaun signalled to Sarah it was time to get off, and so both of them left the train and climbed up the stairs past the barriers and out through the booking hall, such as it was.

To the immediate left of the entrance was a small newsagent that was still open and Shaun grabbed a union flag postcard and went into the shop to pay for it.

Sarah was confused by this, but did not dare ask why. She also kept looking around, just in case the assassins had found her or that American who knew who she was.

Shaun came out of the newsagent and directed her to head back up the road towards a zebra crossing.

Sarah meekly did as she was told and they soon came to a small café called Café Du Parc with two tables outside and Shaun ushered Sarah in.

“This place is open for another hour” Shaun told Sarah and ordered two teas and two chocolate muffins and found a table inside. Shaun then slapped the postcard down on the table.

“Now we wait” Shaun told Sarah, “And hope my contact was monitoring his twitter account”

“Were you able to contact him at the Cyber Café then?” Sarah asked

“No” Shaun replied, “I sent it via text message” he explained, “When people register their mobiles with Twitter, it gives out the same number to everyone. Anyone back tracing would have first get access to twitter’s servers and then wade through millions of tweets just to locate the phone.”

Shaun then showed Sarah his mobile. It was an old Nokia 1100

“I had a prepared message in my drafts folder which I sent” Shaun explained , “I then switched it off as soon as I sent it, in theory they would not have had time to track it. Plus” Shaun went on, “As it is just a basic phone, it does not have a GPS chip in it”

Sarah shook her head and looked at the table, “This is just unreal” she muttered, “This time yesterday I was going into Manchester to audition at a strip club”

“I know” Shaun whispered, “And I never thought our own government would ever sanction something like this, but if the guy who tried to cuff you is CIA…”

“Trust you to have the last two muffins” said a male voice approaching their table.

Sarah looked up and saw a man of similar age to Shaun, but he was more rotund.

“I’m sure they have more if you ask” Shaun replied, and then after a few seconds, “But maybe we did you a favour by having these last two”

Sarah felt shocked by Shaun’s sudden rudeness. “I don’t need this” Sarah told the man as she held up her muffin.

The man declined the offer, turning to Shaun, “I still preferred my idea of using something from a Mid Summer Night’s dream” the man told Shaun

Shaun glowered at the man for a few seconds, or so Sarah thought, “But that would have been so obvious Derek”

“Huh?” Sarah said, still holding up the muffin.

“That’s ok” the man Shaun called Derek told Sarah, “I’m not really into muffins”, then he asked Shaun, “Is this your latest girlfriend Shaun?”

Shaun put his arm around Sarah, “It’s Trevor’s sister, Sarah”

“Whatever” Derek replied, “And how is your brother?” Derek asked Sarah.

Sarah felt tears welling up inside her and she looked up at the ceiling of the café and felt unable to answer.

“Are you ok?” Derek asked Sarah

“Can we talk about this in the car?” Shaun said to Derek, “I’d rather not speak out in the open here”

“That bad?” Derek asked.

Shaun muttered an affirmative and nodded.

“You better drink up and eat up quick then” Derek told them, “It say’s I don’t need to pay and display as it’s after three if I read the sign outside correctly, but the Wardens here can be like the Gestapo”

Sarah hurriedly ate her muffin, as did Shaun and drank up the cup of tea Shaun had got. After which Sarah and Shaun picked up their bags and followed Derek outside the café and turned right where a blue two door mini was parked.

Suddenly Derek put his hand out to signal them to stop.

“We just need to check something” Shaun whispered

Derek pulled out his car keys, pointed them at the car and pushed a small button.

There was a chirp of the car alarm.

Sarah went to move forward, but felt her arm being grabbed by Shaun, “Not yet” he whispered.

Derek pulled out another box and pushed the button.

The car’s engine started

“It’s a special feature Derek added” Shaun explained to Sarah, “Some devices are triggered as soon as the engine starts”

“You mean he was checking for car bombs?” Sarah asked in disbelief

“I always do Sarah” Derek called back, “especially when I get tweets like the one Shaun sent”

Derek still beckoned them to stay back, whilst he opened the driver’s door.

Nothing happened.

After a few minutes of looking around his car he called out the Shaun and Sarah that the car was “clean”

Sarah nervously approached the car. Her experience with the American had shown her that if the killers had obviously tracked her all the way to London, who knew what else, they were capable of.

Derek put Shaun’s and Sarah’s bags in the small boot and then folded the driver’s seat forward and beckoned for Sarah to get in.

Sarah climbed into the backseat as instructed, still expecting it to be engulfed in flames as a bomb ripped it apart, but still nothing happened.

Shaun got to ride in the front passenger seat.

Derek started the car and headed down past various shops, businesses and office blocks before turning right onto a main road.

“So what’s the situation about Trevor” Derek asked

Before Sarah could answer, Shaun replied, “He was murdered last night while Sarah was out in Manchester and we think it may have been connected to some system Trevor may have hacked into”

“You’re kidding” Derek said in surprise

“And they’ve kill best friend and her family” Sarah called out from the back seat, but as ever with back seat passengers, she felt she was being ignored.

“I wish we were” Shaun replied to Derek, “They tried to kill Sarah as well” he added
“Why?” Derek asked, “And how did they try to kill Sarah?”

“I took my brother’s memory stick by mistake into Manchester” Sarah called out from the back.

Neither Derek nor Shaun seemed to acknowledge Sarah’s answer

Shaun then continued explaining to Derek, “They attacked the police car Sarah was taken to the police station in and killed a cop in the process”

“That would be one hell of a black op” Derek commented

“They even killed my Mam and Sister this morning according to the news” Shaun continued

“And you think I’ll be next” Derek asked with concern in his voice, again seemingly forgetting that Sarah was in the back.

“I hope not” Shun answered, “I did limit how I contacted you, and Trevor did not really know you”

“Ah!” Derek exclaimed in a guilty tone

“What do you mean?” Shaun asked, “You have been contact with Trevor?”

“Yeah, Trevor contacted me a couple of weeks ago” Derek admitted, “It was via Twitter. He wanted me to look up some place in Kent”

“That was on the motoring atlas Trevor had just before he was murdered last night” Sarah called out.

“Great!” Shaun cut in, still ignoring Sarah in the back, “These people are good. According to Sarah they got somebody last night to pose as a police surgeon to try and take Sarah out while she was in custody”

“Custody?” Derek asked

“They framed me” Sarah called out form the back, “They planted drugs in my room”

“Anyway” Shaun went on, as if Sarah was not there, “We travelled under assumed names this morning by coach, and someone from the CIA I assume identified and tried to arrest Sarah near Victoria, I had to rescue her from him before getting on the tube”

“How do you think they tracked you” Derek asked Shaun, still apparently ignoring Sarah in the back.

“All I can think of is that someone identified Sarah at the coach station in Manchester and called the police. I mean if it’s the CIA, they are probably calling the shots”

“They may be posing as FBI” Derek suggested, “They often work with British police in some cases”

“Usually in tracking hackers rather than drugs?” Shaun questioned

“The police were accusing me of being involved in a gang feud” Sarah called out from the back, but again, they did not seem to acknowledge that she was there. It was so frustrating and this was one reason Sarah hated being in the back of a car.

“The only other thing I can think of was that at the coach station in Manchester” Shaun continued, “Sarah got fixated by a CCTV camera”

“Are you sure they got in there?” Derek asked Shaun

“They were able to kill my SIM card and the one the Taxi driver gave me before killing his” Sarah tried calling from the back. They might as well have put tape over her mouth the way they were ignoring her

“If they are tracking SIM Cards then” Derek replied to Sarah, “We could be talking NSA here”

“They’re worse than the CIA” Shaun ventured

“Who?” Sarah asked, but reply came there none

“You got it” Derek said before pulling the car to the side of the road and stopping.

“Why are you stopping?” Shaun asked

“Because there is another alternative.” Derek said cryptically and turned in the car to Face Sarah as best as he could.

“Was there anytime you were not in possession of your stuff that you have on you right now in the last twenty four hours Sarah?” Derek asked
“I was asleep for a bit at the police station Derek. Then they took my bag off of me but I got it back when I got to the hospital, oh when the person who said he was a doctor came in, I think” Sarah went on, “I passed out, it was dead weird”
“Hmm” Derek went, “Before I take you any further, I need to give you a quick scan”
“Why?” Sarah asked
“To be on the safe side” Derek answered, “I mean Shaun may be right that someone in Manchester reported you, but we need to eliminate the possibility that someone has placed a tracking device on you.

“Are you sure?” Shaun questioned.
“Whoever it is Shaun” Derek said to Shaun, “I would rather not lead them back to my place”

With that Derek got out of the car and went round the back, opened the boot, pulled out Sarah’s holdall and started rummaging around in the boot for something else.

After two minutes he came back to the car with Sarah’s holdall and something looking like an old transistor radio

“I made a few modifications to this myself” Derek said proudly as he folded the seat forward and got Sarah to get out of the car and go to the pavement and switched it on.

Shaun also got out of the car.

Derek pulled the aerial out to it’s full extent and waved it over Sarah’s holdall.

Nothing!

Next Derek started waving it over Sarah.

There was a loud and quick beeping sound coming from the device.

“Is that bad?” Shaun asked
“Afraid so” Derek replied

“So they did plant something on me at the police station?” Sarah asked, “No wonder they were able to find your Mam and Sister” she added as her voice started to crack, “I’m sorry Shaun, I led those killers straight to your house”

“You didn’t know Sarah” Shaun responded.

Derek persisted with the device and focused on Sarah’s hand bag. At his request Sarah handed it over to Derek and he opened it onto the front passenger seat. Once it was empty he swept the empty bag.

It was clean.

Then Derek swept the contents of the bag and the scanning device flagged up Sarah’s mobile.

Derek picked up the mobile and showed it to Sarah.

It was still switched off

“This is yours?” Derek asked

Sarah peered at it intently, and sure enough she recognised certain scratches. It was definitely hers

Derek slid the back cover off, scanned it and after it registered as “clean”, he put it on the front passenger seat with the other items from Sarah’s bag.

He pulled out the battery and swept that.

It was clean

Derek dropped that on the front passenger seat and swept the rest of the phone and it now appeared to be clean, which Derek muttered was suspicious so he pulled out the SIM card and examined it. According to Derek something about the SIM card did not seem right.

Derek swept the rest of the phone with out the battery or the SIM card and it was still registering as clean. Then Derek put the battery in, without the SIM card and still the phone was showing it was clean.

Then Derek removed the battery and put the SIM card back in and then the battery

Bingo!

The scanning device sounded, there was a tracking device.

Derek removed the battery and then the SIM card and held it up saying “Voila”

“Is that it?” Shaun asked

Derek nodded and took from a coat pocket some kind of small bag that looked metallic and dropped the SIM card in the bag and closed it.

“That’s confirmed” Derek told Sarah and Shaun, “They have somehow hidden the tracker in a SIM card which is then powered by the phone’s battery even when it is switched off. I’ll have fun seeing how they did that back at the flat”

Sarah shook her head in confusion, “But that’s the SIM card Ali gave me”

“The Taxi driver?” Shaun asked with a puzzled look

Sarah nodded.

“That means the taxi driver was working for them all along” Shaun ventured, “And I bet he was the one who arranged for the murder Mam and Lauren”

“And I led him straight to them” Sarah blurted out; “So it was my fault they were killed so I’ll go and you will never have to see me again” she added and turned and walked away from them, tears streaming down her face.

If she had only gone with the taxi driver to whatever was planned for her in Rochdale, Lauren, Shaun’s mother and that neighbour would not have died.

Shaun ran up to her and grabbed her and spun her around.

Sarah flinched, waiting for Shaun to hit her for what she had caused, but instead he just held her shoulders.

“This is stupid Sarah” Shaun railed at her, “Where do you think you’re going”
“Out of you’re life so I don’t cause you any more damage” Sarah replied, “That taxi driver wanted me to go to Rochdale and I should have gone along with that”

“And he would have either killed you himself or handed you over to those killers” Shaun interrupted angrily

“But at least Lauren and your Mam would still be alive” Sarah shouted through her tears.

“I told you Sarah, you don’t know that” Shaun reiterated firmly, “They could have been coming after me anyway. Let’s not forget, that man wanted me to go to Rochdale with him as well. I had to insist he drop us off at the railway station”

“I’ve led them here haven’t I” Sarah then said quietly, as a cold realisation dawned on her.

“Not totally” Shaun told Sarah, “Derek’s found the tracker and neutralised it. We will go back to his place and we should be relatively safe where he lives” Then after a few moments as Sarah and Shaun looked at each other, Shaun said quietly, “Come back with me Sarah, if they split us up, they win, and I don’t want to give them the satisfaction”

Shaun took Sarah’s hand and led her back to the car where Derek was waiting with her hand bag. “I put everything else back in” Derek told Sarah and folded the passenger seat forward for Sarah to get in the back.

For a moment Sarah hesitated and looked up at Derek, “But why kill the taxi driver, he was working for them”
“Maybe that was the price of failure” Derek replied, “He was supposed to deliver you two to his handlers and he didn’t”

This kind of made sense, but it did seem odd that he kept up the pretence for so long that morning when he seemed to be the only one in the world who believed in her innocence

Sarah got in the car and Derek went to move the seat back, but Shaun insisted on riding in the back with Sarah.

Sarah did not know what to think about this, she still kept thinking she was somehow responsible for the death of his family and yet Shaun was so handsome and attractive.

Derek drove the car for a while along the main road, crossing a bridge over some railway tracks, passed the entrance to an industrial estate and then passed what seemed like normal houses on the right and flats on the left.

All the time she held hands with Shaun, not daring to speak, wondering if there were already assassins on their way to finish the job.

Then they came to a box junction and Derek turned left and for a while they drove along that road, passed Wimbledon Stadium and into the London Borough of Wandworth.

“You will be glad to know” Derek called out “there is no sign of any tail”
“That you can spot” Shaun chipped in.

Derek did not answer

Derek drove to the compound belonging to a one of a number of blocks of flats in the area, and parked the car.

It was getting quite dark now as Sarah and Shaun got out of the car. Derek retrieved Sarah and Shaun’s holdall bags from the boot, along with Shaun’s laptop computer.

“I live on the second from the top floor” Derek told Shaun, “I have one spare bedroom so I can put the two of you up in that.” He went on. “We will have to eat in the kitchen as I turned the living room into my sort of study come laboratory”

Sarah did not make much comment as she followed Derek and Shaun. She just wished she could sleep in her bed, at her Lancashire home in Tottington, but it seemed that was not to be.

At Shaun’s injunction, she made sure she was wearing the dark glasses and the woollen hat as they passed through front door security and headed for the lifts, in an attempt to avoid being recognised, since her picture had been shown on a news webpage and presumably the television news.

Also who knew who had access to the CCTV footage from the cameras in the entrance and the lifts of the tower block

The three of them got in the lift and Derek pressed the button to call the lift. Shaun and Sarah were careful not to look in the direction of the CCTV camera in the corridor outside the lifts.

“I don’t have much in, in the way of food” Derek told Shaun and Sarah, “I could order an Indian takeaway if that’s ok”

“Would that be safe?” Sarah found herself asking

“She has a point Derek” Shaun told Derek, “If they went after Trevor and me, they could be watching you or any credit cards you have. If you depart from a normal spending pattern they will know we are here”

“I don’t use credit cards for takeaways Shaun” Derek replied, “The people who live here are unlikely to be able to get one. I use a local takeaway service that accepts cash”

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea” Sarah voiced, “What if they were mugged.

The lift arrived and Derek ushered Shaun and Sarah into the lift and pressed the button for his floor. Again Shaun and Sarah made sure that the CCTV camera in the lift could not see their faces.

“The people who run that takeaway have friends who have a certain reputation Sarah” Derek explained, “No mugger would dare touch them”

Sarah gulped

She had been accused of being part of some gang involvement up in the Manchester area, and here Shaun’s friend seemed to be doing just that.

“But what about ordering patterns” Sarah asked

“I always tend to over order” Derek smiled, and then with his hands emphasised his shape, “or can’t you tell”

“Oh yeah” Shaun interjected, “I remember from when we did that course together in Tooting”

“But how are you going to ring it in?” Sarah asked, “As soon as I turned my mobile on, even with that dodgy SIM card, they traced it and blocked it, just like my original SIM card”

“I have Secure Voice over Protocol” Derek replied in a tone that assumed Sarah knew what he was on about.

The lift came to a stop and Sarah was about to walk out, but Derek motioned for her to stay in, while he peered round into the corridor.

“It’s safe” He told them and the three of them left the lift.

“I chose this floor” Derek explained, “So if someone is there who should not be, I can go to the top and get the other lift down. Plus it’s high enough to put off most people using the stairs”

Derek went to the flat and opened at least four locks he had put on.

“You can’t have too many locks there Derek” Shaun observed.
“Yeah” Derek replied, “A lot of burglaries in high risers are committed by other residents”

Derek insisted on going in first, one to cancel the alarm and two to make sure all was still well.

Sarah and Shaun then entered the flat. It looked dingy and not well lit and along the hallway were all sorts of items of an electronic nature in varying degrees of construction, along with numerous magazines about computers and electronics.

Derek pointed to a door with dirty white peeling paint, “This is the spare room. I got the bed a couple of years ago from an elderly neighbour who moved out of their flat after their wife died. Don’t worry its clean”

“Did she die in it?” Sarah asked incredulously
“Of course not” Derek replied, “She died in hospital during an operation; well they did say she only had a thirty percent chance with her age and all that”

Derek stopped for a moment and breathed in and out, “She’s very much missed by all of us on this floor” he said after a few moments

Sarah could sense that Derek was still cut up about her death, even though it had been sort of expected and a few years ago. Sarah should have known better even though she had not had time to mourn her own brother, she had been tactless.

“Thanks Derek” Shaun interrupted, “I’m sure it will be ok”

Sarah went quiet as she did not want to put her foot in it again and she was finding it hard to come to terms with what had happened to her in the last twenty four hours. Sarah’s world had been ripped apart by unknown killers, all because of some system her stupid brother had been hacking into on one of his stupid conspiracy theory investigations.

Why oh why could he have not found a job and keep out of trouble

Now Sarah was travelling with Shaun, another geeky hacker her brother had got involved with, even if Sarah did find him attractive, and she was in the London home of yet another geek who had a penchant for paranoia.

What was even scarier was that their paranoia seemed to be well founded, given what had happened.

“I’ll get the main computer on and then I will order dinner” Derek called out, “You make yourselves comfortable in the spare bedroom”

Shaun pushed open the door and Sarah followed him in. The room also had a number of old computer parts and boxes of old magazines, computer and electronic ones presumably. The window was grimy and over looked houses beneath. In the centre was the large old double bed Derek had got from his former neighbour. She looked around to see if there were any other items of furniture. There was only one old wardrobe, which again had computer parts on it and magazines in the bottom

As Sarah looked around the room, it was nothing like the house in Tottington that she grew up in. For a moment she wondered what would happen to it, without her and her brother. Presumably the creditors or the police would seize it.

If only her brother had not got involved in hacking, got a proper job and if only she had been able to work as a stripper, then she could be sleeping in her own bed in her own house

Suddenly Sarah dissolved into tears, “I miss him” she kept repeating, along with “I’m so sorry” while Shaun held her in his arms.

“I think we will all miss them Sarah” he said with emotion in his voice, “And there’s no way those b*****ds are going to get away with this”

It seemed like forever that Sarah and Shaun stood in that bedroom, mutually grieving over the friends and relatives that had been murdered over the last twenty four hours, over some dark secret when there was a knock on the door.

It was Derek.

“It’s on it’s way” Derek announced, “They should be here in twenty minutes”

“Do you think we should wait on the top floor until they have been and gone?” Shaun asked

“Nah” Derek answered back, “If they had spotted you here, I would have assumed they would have raided this place by now”

“It might still be an idea” Shaun pressed, “They could try and pretend to be delivery guy”
“But if you hang around on one of the floors” Derek countered, “One of the residents will report you to the concierge and there is nowhere to hide up there if they shut off the lifts and block the stairs”
“It was just a thought” Shaun said
“Don’t worry Shaun” Derek reassured them, “I have my own security protocols. You just wait in my bedroom when they come. I constructed it as my own panic room”

Again Sarah gulped. This was paranoia in the extreme, and worse of it, it was totally justified.

Sarah and Shaun moved over to Derek’s bedroom where he had a television located. Derek’s computer was in the lounge along with a caged area he called a Faraday Cage. The television was in the bedroom because according to Shaun he wanted his bedroom to be a place to escape from what he called “his work”

Shaun put on the set and tuned it to a news channel as it had Free-View, a decoder to receive free digital television channels.

The main story on the news was still the murders in Ramsbottom because of the savagery of the attack, with automatic weapons and the hand grenade. Also mentioned was the murder of the taxi driver, the two police officers and lastly her brother. No mention of Vicky and her family. The police were obviously convinced that that was an unrelated murder suicide. Sarah just knew differently.

The news report also went on about how Sarah was now wanted by police in connection with the deaths of her brother and the police officers, as it was obvious she was somehow involved in a vicious war between rival Manchester drug gangs. Again the images used had obviously come from her memory stick.

There was no mention of Shaun.

The main spokesman that the TV station was interviewing was Detective Inspector Halsall, again he was indirectly blaming Sarah for the deaths of the two police officers

The only good news was that they still seemed to be convinced she was sheltering in the Manchester area and had no inkling that she had travelled down to London.

Or maybe they knew and this was a bluff given to the media so she would…

WHAT!! – Was Sarah now buying in to the paranoia of her brother, Shaun and now this Derek person?

“This is not good” Shaun commented as he watched the news with her.
“They think I killed all those people Sarah said out loud and burst into tears again.

Shaun hugged Sarah, although Sarah could not understand why, after all, he had lost a sister and his mother because of her.

A phone rang in the hall way

Sarah gasped and put her right hand to her mouth. She listened in as Derek spoke on it. It was the takeaway delivery man; he was now on his way up.

Shaun closed the bedroom door and locked it as per Derek’s instruction.

Shaun and Sarah hugged each other as they waited for Derek to give the agreed coded signal that it was all clear.

It took five agonising minutes, before they heard a knock on the door, and the muffled sounds of Derek answering it.

From what they could tell nothing was untoward and after hearing the sound of the locks being done up on the front door, Derek gave the coded knock to say it was safe.

Nervously, Shaun unlocked the door and opened it up slowly.

It was just Derek along with a selection of curry, rice, chapattis and Irn Bru.

“I didn’t get any alcohol this time” Derek told them, “I don’t normally drink it and I didn’t want to raise suspicions”

“We need to keep clear heads anyway” Shaun replied, “especially if we want to get to Leeds Castle tomorrow”

The three of them then set about eating the takeaway in the kitchen. Sarah was nervous at first, worrying about poison, but Derek was convinced that the people he bought from would never allow that, and they shared his distrust of the state as well.

Sarah was more into Chinese food, but she kept quiet and ate up.

After that Derek went into a cage like structure in his living room which he called a Faraday cage and examined the SIM card the taxi driver had given Sarah.

“This has got to be the most sophisticated device I have seen” Derek called out, “I don’t think that American Sarah saw was CIA, This definitely has to be NSA standard kit”
“Well whoever killed Trevor and my family, the Americans are definitely behind this” Shaun observed with Derek’s agreement.

“Who is the NSA?” Sarah asked

“Officially they’re sort of like our GCHQ in Cheltenham” Shaun explained
“But worse” Derek chipped in
“They are considered even more secret than the CIA” Shaun went on

“What the hell was Trevor into” Sarah said accusingly at both Shaun and Derek
“I wish we knew” Derek spoke up after an awkward silence, “Some of the stuff Trevor said did not make sense, he even claimed he had found a connection to some reality TV show that was aired a few years back”

Sarah thought back to the last time she had seen Trevor alive, “Yeah” she agreed, “He had some stuff relating to that Big Brother Show and he showed me some internet forum devoted to it”

“Do you know which one?” Derek asked
“I think it was this is big brother or something like that” Sarah replied.

“Could they have been using that show to send as some carrier wave to piggy back coded transmissions?” Shaun asked Derek
“That is the only thing that would make sense” Derek mused, “It could also be that because Big Brother was interactive on the web, their agents used the forums to send coded messages. Did Trevor say that was what they were doing with that forum he showed you?”

Sarah shook her head, “He told me he was just using it to find out about two particular series of that show”

“Seems a bit far fetched though Derek to use some fan forum” Shaun interrupted, “I mean there are other ways to send coded communications”
“I don’t know” Derek admitted, “Trevor never said, the only other connection I can think of Shaun is as you suggested, they used some of the transmissions and web traffic as carrier signals”
“But if this NSA is American” Sarah interrupted, “Why use a British TV show?”

Shaun and Derek shrugged their shoulders, it was a total mystery

Just then Derek had an idea, “Phone voting?” he suggested “The American Big Brother did not have phone votes but the British one did. Maybe Trevor hacked in to the company who did Big Brother and found something was amiss with the phone voting system”

“And I bet he triggered something which alerted the NSA to his presence in their system” Shaun suggested
“That’s the only thing that sounds plausible to me” Derek agreed

The evening was now really getting on and Shaun got Sarah to show Derek the Iron Key

“We need to see if we can find a back door to this” Shaun told Derek, “It may have proof as to what this is all about”
“Nice trick if you can do it” Responded Derek, “Those things are incredibly secure”

Shaun then went on to mention how it was rumoured that the US government had demanded the manufacturers put in back doors under the US Patriot Act and they needed to hack in to the manufacturers system so they could find out where the back door was s and then access Trevor’s memory stick.

Derek was uncertain as that was serious hacking, and needed to be done at a cyber café so they could scarper if something went wrong. Shaun was in agreement. As Sarah listened in on their conversation as it got increasingly technical, it went beyond her. If Trevor were still alive, he could possibly keep up with them, but not Sarah.

Then it was time for bed

Sarah looked out across the alien landscape of South London through the living room window while Shaun disappeared into the bedroom she was to share with him.

Again she wished she could be home in Lancashire in her house in Tottington in her own bedroom in her own bed, but it looked like, that was not to be, unless she could clear her name of the accusations of drug involvement and the death of her brother. Even so, there would always be the question of the deaths of her friend Vicky and her family and possibly that of other friends of hers. Even if Shaun was forgiving, she could not guarantee the Tottington community would be.

Derek went into his room and locked his door

Slowly Sarah used the bathroom and then went into the bedroom she was sharing with Shaun.

Shaun had removed his shirt and was sitting on the floor next to the bed with his back against the wall.

“I can sleep on the floor and you can have the bed if you like” Shaun offered.

Sarah could not think why she did this, but quickly removed her top, revealing her bare breasts in front of Shaun, “Don’t be silly” she told Shaun and knelt down in front of Shaun and took his hands.

The two looked into each other’s eyes and then slowly Shaun and Sarah stood up and Sarah wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I don’t think I packed any night things” She whispered
“Neither did I” Shaun whispered back, and then kissed Sarah on the lips and wrapped his arms around her

Sarah extricated her arms, and then slowly hooked her thumbs into the skirt and panties that Lauren had given her, and pushed them down so they fell to the floor and then she kicked them away. She had this desire to share her body with Shaun, she felt she owed him that much.

Shaun continued to kiss her, and Sarah started trying to push down his trousers, but that seemed harder.

Shaun took the hint, released Sarah and soon he too was naked. Then the two of them climbed into the bed, and they proceeded to make love.

For Sarah, this was her first time.

+ + +

Sarah was woken with a start as there was a banging on the door.

“Are you up in there?” she heard Derek yelling through the door, “We need to make an early start if we want to beat the London traffic”

Shaun was still lying there in the bed beside her, just as naked as she was and for a fleeting moment she was resentful that they could not continue to lie in bed together in this fashion.

Suddenly Sarah felt coy, and wanted to use the duvet to cover herself, especially as she would have to leave the room to cross the corridor into the bathroom, but she did not want to pull the cover from Shaun.

This was ridiculous, the two of them had shared the same bed together naked. She would have to just brazen it out, so she grabbed the skirt and the Tee-shirt she had from the previous day, rolled them up and opened the door on a startled Derek.

“I can put those through the washing machine on quick wash” Derek said pointing at the clothes, flustered at the site of a naked seventeen year old girl in front of him.

Without thinking, Sarah thrust the clothes into Derek’s hands, and then went back into the room to collect the used underwear and gave it to Derek as she pushed past him into the bathroom.

“I put out spare towels” Derek called out

Sarah got into what passed off as a bathroom. The shower had obviously been retrofitted in, but the controls were easy to work out. The state of the bathroom was not that great, but then what would you expect from a single guy living alone.

After making use of the facilities and then the shower, Sarah found the towel.

It was probably classed as a bath towel somewhere, but it seemed little more than an oversized tea-towel to her. There was no way she could wrap it around her as she did the large towels back at home, or the one she used the previous day at Shaun’s house.

Sarah thought for a moment. Derek and Shaun had been so nice to her, especially Shaun who had lost family as well, probably because she had come into their lives. Sarah then remembered how gentle Shaun had been with her as they made love as it was her first time. After a moment’s thought Sarah thought she would treat the guys to something she imagined every red blooded male would like to see, and so she just wrapped the towel around her hair and opened the door of the bathroom and went out into the hall, otherwise naked.

Sarah heard sounds in the kitchen, banged on the bedroom door to let Shaun know that the bathroom was free and wandered in to the kitchen. It was still pretty dark outside. There was a cold breeze that played onto her still damp naked body, and she shivered, this was just something she would have to put up with as these two guys had been so accommodating towards her.

Again Derek was shocked and did not know where to look.

“Sorry” Sarah apologised as she sensed Derek’s discomfort, “I looked for the bath towel, but only found this” she added pointing to the towel around her head, “I thought..” she began to add but Derek quickly pushed past Sarah into his own bedroom, and within less than a minute came out with a dark red dressing gown, holding it out for her to put on and looking down at the floor.

Sarah slipped it on, did it up and thanked Derek

“Sorry Sarah, I should have put you this out” Derek told Sarah, “Your clothes will be done in forty minutes, but they will still be damp I’m afraid” he added, “I just hope the neighbours won’t complain about me using the washing machine before eight. If you don’t have anything else to put on I can find some of my clothes for you, but they might be a little too big” he went on in a nervous manner.

“That’s ok” Sarah said quietly, “I have some spare clothes in my holdall”
“Oh yes” Derek responded, still in a state of shock at what he had seen.

Sarah sat at the table while Derek cooked a breakfast of sorts and Shaun went into the bathroom.

Derek told Sarah all about the computing course he and Shaun had been on a few years previously in Tooting and about the takeaway that Shaun had used as a false address in Manchester at the coach station.

Shaun finished in the shower and wandered into the kitchen with a towel tied around his waist. Sarah looked up at his torso, and kept thinking how this was the guy she would want to spend the rest of her life with.

STOP THAT! – What was Sarah thinking, she was probably just one of his many conquests, or was she?]

“Sarah” Shaun spoke up; shattering Sarah’s thought train, “Breakfast is still a while of, would you like to go and get dressed”

It was obvious to Sarah by Shaun’s tone of voice that Shaun wanted to catch up with Derek in private, so Sarah went back into the bedroom and pulled out another skirt, tee-shirt and panties.

Then she had another cheeky thought, maybe she should just give the panties a miss and just put on the tee-shirt and the skirt only. It would save on washing, and if it gave Shaun a thrill that she was not wearing any underwear then he deserved it. What ever would please Shaun, Sarah wanted to do.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING SARAH???

Sarah was finding the voice in her head, telling her off was getting tiresome, but it would not shut up!

Sarah put the panties back in the bag, she would ask Shaun later.

NO! – the voice in her head scolded her

Sarah pulled them out of the bag again and slipped them on under the skirt, closed the bag and ventured into the hall.

That voice in her heard was a right pain

Sarah knocked on the kitchen door.

Shaun and Derek stopped speaking.

This made Sarah feel uncomfortable, but she said nothing.

Derek looked at his watch and switched on the radio and then went to serve breakfast, such as it was.

The radio was still talking about the “manhunt” for Sarah Bentley, for her part in some gang related drug war that had claimed her brother. The police were even relooking at the deaths of Vicky and her family to see if they were connected, along with the killings in Ramsbottom.

Still no word they were widening the search past the Great Manchester area.

Derek turned the radio off

“I don’t do drugs” Sarah said before breaking down in tears.

Shaun put a comforting arm around her, “We know that love” Shaun whispered, “That’s just a big lie the powers that be put out to hide the truth”

“Trevor was obviously on to something” Derek chipped in, “That is why they are trying to frame you especially if the Americans are involved”

The three of them finished the breakfast as the washing machine finished its cycle.

“I’ll hang those up in the bathroom” Derek offered, “They should be dry by the time we get back from Kent” he added as he took the clothes from the machine, leaving Sarah and Shaun alone in the kitchen.

“Derek’s driving us down to that place in Leeds Castle” Shaun told Sarah
“He said he would last night” Sarah reminded Shaun
“After we have visited a certain site” Shaun continued, “We are going to a cyber Café to hack into the manufacture of your brother’s Iron Key, to get that back door in to it. I’m hoping we will find out who this Doctor Aitch is your brother came across as they seem to be behind things.”

“Doctor Aitch” Derek interrupted, “That’s the name your brother mentioned he came across somewhere, but I can not remember where”

“Maybe we will find out at Leeds Castle” Shaun replied.

The three of them packed up and headed out of the flat.

Derek switched on the burglar alarm and locked all the locks on the front door before they headed for the lift.

As they got in, Sarah hit the button for the ground floor, but Derek hit the button for the second.

“We don’t go all the way down Sarah” Derek announced, “We go to the second and walk down, just in case of ambush”

The lift descended and stopped at the second floor. They all got out and walked through the second floor to the far end stairs and slowly walked down them, checking as they went.

They got to the ground floor and again Derek did his procedures to ensure his car had not been tampered with, before they all piled in.

As they drove out, none of them noticed a CCTV camera turning round to track them.

Across the from the tower block in a side street two men sat in a car looking at the Mini Derek was driving on a small monitor.

“It looks like they will be passing this way any minute now” a man in his forties and wearing a grey coat spoke up, “Do we take them out here?”

“No my dear chap” the other man replied. He was older and in his late fifties.

“Oh come one”, the first man said with frustration in his voice, “we travelled all the way down from Manchester Mr Reed to get this job done”
“And we will” the older man replied, “But not here”

“I get it Mr Reed” the younger man spoke up, “Too public”

“You’re learning” the elder man replied and started the car as the mini passed the side road they were in.
“Well your guys up north were not too fussed about being in public” the younger man growled
The elder man chose not to comment

“So when are we going to take them out Mr Reed” the younger man asked

“All in good time my dear chap” the elderly man reprimanded the younger man. “Mr Derek Johnson, the person of interest who is local to these parts is not as cautious as he thinks he is” the elderly man went on, “We have had his flat under surveillance for some time and I believe from what we intercepted in that flat they are heading down to certain former storage facility in Kent”

“And we take them out there?” the younger man asked

“We will only supervise that operation from a far this time” the elderly man chided as he slowly pulled out of the side road in order to follow at a distance the mini with Sarah, Shaun and Derek in, “Sometimes my dear chap, it pays not to get one’s hands dirty and besides” The elderly man pressed further, “I have got Major Eff to bring his team down. We will let them handle this”

“If you think that is wise Mr Reed” the younger man said with irritation, “Do we really have to wait for them when we can do this job ourselves right here and now?”
“To take action so soon like that my dear chap would not be wise” the elderly man insisted, “Really Inspector Halsall if you are going to work for our organisation as our embedded operative in the Greater Manchester Police force, you must learn to be patient”

To be continued..

[Novo]

Very good sticks

[Judas]

Originally Posted by Novo

Very good sticks

"Don't be silly"

No, I read abit of this just then, it looks like alot of work has gone into it sticks! I didn't realise there was a creative writing area! Has anyone else read it? Would you reccomend putting some time aside for it?

[Sticks]

Episode VI – In the Name of National Security

Spoiler:

We always like to think we have our finger on the pulse of life; that we know everything that is going on, but that is not always the case. Sometimes there are dark forces that work against us in secret, biding their time before they strike without warning.

This is no less true for the teenager Sarah Bentley from Lancashire. It has been just two days since she came home and found her brother murdered and herself being accused of involvement in his death, and then that of a serving police officer. She has hooked up with her brother’s best friend in more ways than one and have travelled in search of answers to London to meet another acquaintance of her dead brother who inhabits is world of conspiracy theories and paranoia. Now the three of them are heading out to a place in Kent, unaware they are now being followed by those involved in her brother’s death, including the detective inspector from her own area who first accused her of being involved in her brother’s death

+ + +

Again Sarah was relegated to the back of the Mini while Shaun got to ride next to Derek who was driving. Again it felt like she was being ignored.

“Are we going via Bromley?” Shaun asked Derek
“No” Derek replied, “The most optimum route according to Google is down the A217 via Sutton and then along the M25 and M26. It did offer the Bromley route as an alternative, but that would mean more driving through South London”

“I would have thought you were going to take more back road’s Derek” Shaun replied, “It would make it harder to tail us”
“But this way Shaun” It should make them easier to spot, “Derek countered “And hopefully less likely to try something on a main road”

“That didn’t stop them when they attacked the police car I was in on the Bury Road” Sarah interjected.

It seemed like she needn’t have bothered to open her mouth as her voice did not seem to carry or was not heard by the two guys up front.

Sarah hated being in the back of a car

The mini passed down through Merton and on the way to Sutton.

Derek switched on the radio to a local news station, there was a news broadcast coming up

It was not good!

The news was now reporting that Sarah, now almost classed as Britain’s most wanted criminal, had been sighted getting on a coach to London, and police were investigating sighting s in the nation’s capital.

“That must have been someone from the coach station tipping them off” Shaun remarked.

There was a clip of a police spokesman saying how they had to follow any lead they had, but they were convinced that Sarah was still hiding out in the Greater Manchester Area, and obviously part of a vicious gang feud as just that morning not a few hours previous, two known members of a notorious Moss Side drug gang had been gunned down by assailants matching a similar descriptions to those that had attacked the police car with Sarah in and those who had carried out the murders in Ramsbottom of Shaun’s family.

“Sounds like the powers that be really want to hide what they are doing as a gang feud” Derek spoke up
“Takes hiding in plain sight to a new level” Shaun added.

Again Sarah felt she might as well not be there they way she seemed to be ignored

“I never did drugs” Sarah called out from the back

“We know that Sarah” Shaun replied, “Like I said to Derek, if they knock off a couple of drug dealers to make it look like a drug war, nobody is going to ask awkward questions”

Sarah wanted to ask why they did not just give the powers that be, as Derek put it, the memory stick. Even though the latest people to be murdered were reported to be drug dealers up in Manchester did not make things any easier. Sarah however kept quiet because she expected the answer would be that the powers would not stop until she was dead, after all they tried to kill her twice and possibly a third time with that American who knew who she was.

Derek was driving past the outskirts of Sutton when he announced that he thought they were being tailed and that who ever was doing it was a “real pro”

“Are you sure?” Shaun asked as he turned his head to try and look through the back windscreen.
“Two vehicles seem to have been behind us for some time” Derek replied, “I studied about how to spot tails on a specialised website”
“It could be a coincidence” Shaun suggested, “I mean we are heading towards the M25”
“Maybe” Derek muttered, “But I thought I saw the red one back in Wandsworth, but as you say it could be a coincidence”

”Suppose they are following us Derek, how would they have found us” Shaun asked, “You took out the tracker in Sarah’s mobile before you drove back to the flat, any chance it was still working?”
“No chance” Derek retorted, “the bag I put it in was designed to block transmissions and I did not examine it outside my Faraday cage, which I regularly check. If it is a tail maybe they have been watching me all along” Derek suggested, “After all we all had dealings with Trevor”

“Sorry” Sarah piped up, ashamed at how her own brother had through his obsessions had caused so much death.

“It’s not your fault Sarah” Shaun reassured her, “Assuming they are following us. Trevor was just trying to expose something our government was trying to hide from us. We can’t let them win”

“They’re going to kill us aren’t the” Sarah said nervously, “Derek are they on motor cycles?”

“No Sarah, they seem to be in cars” Derek answered, “one red and another one several car length back from that one which seems to be a black mini like this one”

To Sarah, the description of a black mini sounded familiar but was unable to place it.

Derek drove passed a junction with another road which was the turn off for Sutton and then through a tree lined patch of road towards some bridge.

“It looks like the red car has turned off” Derek announced.
“What about the black car?” Shaun asked.
“It looks like it has turned off as well” Derek replied, “going down the same turning”
“Maybe the black car was tailing the red car” Shaun suggested
“Or possibly a coincidence” Derek added, “but given what has happened in the last two days”

“What about Motor bikes?” Sarah asked, “It was motor bikes that attacked the police car I was in”

“None that I can spot” Derek replied

“Just to be on the safe side Derek, how about stopping somewhere and doing another bug scan” Shaun suggested

“We can’t do that Shaun” Derek replied, “We’re on a red route at the moment, but the bug detector is in the glove compartment if you want to get it out and give a quick scan. If there is anything planted, it should detect it”

Shaun reached for the glove compartment and opened it. Inside with a whole load of maps was the device looking like a transistor radio that had detected the doctored SIM card that had been in Sarah’s mobile

Shaun pulled out the aerial and switched the device on. The indicator light remained green and there was no warning sound indicating that it found no signal indicating any bug or tracking device within the car.

“Nada” Shaun commented
“What if they put a bug on the outside of the car” Sarah asked
“It should still pick it up” Derek called out, “I built that and tested it myself”

Sarah shut up at that point, it seemed to her she had asked a stupid question. Of course Derek would know what he was doing.

“It has to be a coincidence then” Shaun said as he collapsed the aerial and replaced the detector in the glove compartment.
“They do happen” Derek agreed

“Of course they could track us using CCTV” Shaun said in what Sarah thought was a flippant tone
“That depends if the cameras at the junctions are programmed with number plate recognition software” Derek responded
“They don’t need to be” Shaun replied, “They just take the images and someone elsewhere runs the software”
“Assuming the camera has the resolution” Derek countered, “Some of the older cameras were just for monitoring traffic flows. They aren’t even in colour”
“What about speed cameras?” Sarah asked from the back, not believing she was entering into this conversation.

“Those that are still working use film still rather than digital technology Sarah” Derek answered, “And even for those that may be online, I set my number plates at an angle so the face points at the road. Hopefully if they snap them they can’t be read, but to someone in a police car, they won’t see anything wrong with them”

“Satellite tracking?” Shaun asked

“Not likely” Derek replied peering up briefly at the sky as he drove along, “especially on an overcast day like today? I suspect even infrared would find it hard”

Sarah still felt wary, even with Derek’s scepticism that whoever the killers were, that they could track them remotely, and she still had an uneasy feeling. After all, she could not get her head around the fact that one of them had managed to pass himself off as a police surgeon back in Bury.

Sarah gazed out of the window as the mini drove on the road through the suburbia of south London. The red markings along the kerb which according to Derek indicated that stopping was forbidden seemed to go on and on forever. That was until they came to a small roundabout that fed onto a duel carriageway

There was the occasional motorcyclist, but they were either passing, or did not look anything like the motorcycle assassins she had seen two nights ago on the Road out of Tottington or at the hospital near Bury. Even so, their presence did make Sarah’s heart skip a beat.

The traffic started to increase as the morning wore on, mainly due to it being the main time for commuting. A lot of the road seemed to pass through residential areas and more suburbs, but as they pressed on the houses gave way to fields, but still there a lot of traffic.

Derek went on about how with the amount of cars on the road it was unlikely that anyone would try anything. When Sarah was able to get herself heard from the back and pointed out how they were attacked on a main road into the town of Bury, Derek pointed out that at that time the road was probably more devoid of traffic.

Still Sarah felt uneasy.

The news on the radio still kept mentioning how she was wanted for involvement in gangland drug running and the death of her brother, and possibly that of two police officers, her friend Vicky and her family and that of her other friend Jessica. Worse of all they were now confirming that they were looking into reports of a woman possibly matching her description who had been seen near the Victoria coach station with an unidentified male. For some reason, they chose not to name Shaun. The reports even went on to say how they suspected Sarah was also into prostitution because of a number of pornographic images that had come to light.

The killers had obviously leaked the contents of her memory stick to the press to further blacken her name

Sarah did not feel like talking. She just wanted to grieve quietly for her brother and the friends who had been killed, all because they were associated with her.

Sarah switched her gaze to inside the car and noticed a metallic glint near her feet just under the car seat in front; she had not really registered seeing them before. She used her foot to slide it along so she could pick it up; it was an old pair of scissors.

Sarah could not help thinking of all the lives that had been destroyed because of her and her brother. She also wondered if there would be any further lives lost just because of her. Maybe everyone else would be better off if she did not exist

Idly as she contemplated this she opened them and held them in her right hand whilst show pulled the sleeve down on her other wrist and moved the blade of the scissors towards the ready wrist, shaking her head as a tear trickled down her cheek.

“SARAH WHAT ARE YOU DOING” Shaun shouted

Sarah snapped out of the daze she had drifted into, realising what she was doing she threw the scissors to the other side of the rear car seat from her.

“Sorry” Sarah mumbled, “I just keep feeling that it’s my fault they’re dead” she sniffed and then broke down again.

“What’s she doing” Derek asked

“Just keep driving Derek” Shaun snapped, “I’ll sort it” he added before twisting round and reaching with one of his hands towards Sarah.

Sarah gently took his hand

“I promise you Sarah” Shaun reassured her, “We will get to the bottom of this and get those b*****ds. Just don’t give them the satisfaction Sarah please”

Sarah leaned over and retrieved the scissors and then handed them to Shaun. Shaun took them and put them in the glove compartment out of harms way.

Derek kept silent, although it seemed obvious he had guessed at what Sarah had been contemplating.

The mini finally came to the turn off for the M25 East bound, and like the rest of the road there were major traffic queues by now.

After all the M25 did have a reputation of being a three lane car park

Still no sign of a tail or the motor cycle assassins that had attacked Sarah and apparently Shaun’s family back in Lancashire.

After what seemed like an agonising time, the mini finally got on to the M25 motorway and joined the heavy morning traffic.

Sarah had by now at Shaun’s insistence put on the woollen hat and dark glasses, just to make sure no passing motorist spotted her and decided to call the police.

As for police cars themselves, for the moment they seemed absent

Derek continued to drive, with all three of them now looking out, should anyone try and intercept them. Derek had now turned off the car radio as it was obvious that the news had been upsetting Sarah, and they travelled along in a tense silence.

They passed yet another junction

Sarah half expected someone to come onto the motorway at this junction, but again nothing, just more traffic.

What Sarah was now more aware of though were the number of CCTV cameras on the various information road signs and lamp posts around the junction.

Could they be tracking them in spite of Derek’s scepticism?

After a while Derek started indicating to turn left off of the motorway as they were approaching Clacket Lane Services.

“I need to top up the car” Derek announced
“And we could probably do with a toilet break” Shaun chipped in

This was something Sarah had been trying not to think about.

Derek drove into the service station area and parked as near as he could the main area that housed the toilets and other shops.

Sarah was released from the back of the mini and the three of them walked into the main section.

Sarah found the ladies and went in to use it.

After about five minutes she emerged and for several seconds could not see either Shaun or Derek.

For a few seconds panic set in.

Could the others have been abducted or worse?

Could they have even abandoned her?

“Shaun will be out in a moment” a voice said behind her

Sarah almost jumped with fright

Sarah turned around, it was Derek

“You ok?” Derek asked

“I don’t know” Sarah whined, “I should be going into Bury College about now Derek. I should be meeting with my friends Vicky and Jessica”

“I know” Derek replied, “We will get who ever is behind what is going on”

“How?” Sarah challenged, “Shaun said they were using what he called the implements of the state against us”

“But we/re white hat hackers” Derek responded

“What do you mean white hat hackers?” Sarah asked
“We test systems” Derek explained, “To make sure they are secure. I tend to make sure certain groups can not be hacked by the state. Your brother was also into the same sort of thing”

“He should have been trying to find a job so we could keep the house” Sarah said accusingly

“He went of the rails a bit” Derek replied defensively, “We warned him to be careful, but he was convinced he was onto something”

“What?” Sarah asked

“Trevor wouldn’t say” Derek replied, “Not until he was face to face in a secure location. He did not trust electronic media to be secure as the state monitors everything that goes through cyber space. If you mention certain key words or phrases in a tweet or email Sarah, GCHQ will be onto you. I hear that some people deliberately use those phrases to try and swamp them”

“Hi” another voice came from behind. It was Shaun

“I was just explaining about GCHQ” Derek said to Shaun, “And about certain phrases”

“There’s a lot that goes on Sarah” Shaun said in agreement, “How the state is snooping on our lives that the general public is not aware of”

“Well I never cared if they knew I was doing” Sarah said angrily, “Why me?”

“Hopefully at Leeds Castle we will find out” Derek interjected
“And if we don’t?” Sarah asked

“We keep looking” Shaun replied, “We find something, we go to the press”
“Assuming they haven’t been got at” Derek chipped in

“Thanks Derek” Shaun sneered
“Sorry” Derek apologised, “Shall we go and get the car filled up?” he then asked

The three of them headed back to the car, and again Derek insisted on using his device to start the car up remotely

He was not taking any chances

After giving the all clear his next task was to use the bug scanner, and again it registered clean, so then it was time to all pile back in.

Derek drove round the roads leading to exit as if heading back on to the motorway, but just as the road was merging with the motorway he turned left into the petrol station and drove up to one of the pumps.

“Do you have cash?” Shaun asked

“A bit?” Derek replied
“We don’t want them tracking us through credit or debit cards Derek” Shaun warned

“I’m not that stupid” Derek retorted and got out of the car and got hold of the petrol pump and started filling the tank

“Will we really find this Doctor H person?” Sarah asked Shaun
“I don’t know Sarah” Shaun replied, “but I suppose we have to do something”
“Trevor mentioned that there was a world war two in Kent that had been torched” Sarah went on.
“I think that’s the same one he mentioned to Derek and I” Shaun answered back
“Well if it’s been torched Shaun, what’s the point going there?” Sarah asked

“We may find something” Shaun replied, “If we don’t, we just find a place with a decent Wi-fi and we hack into the company that makes Iron Keys and get the back door for your brother’s memory stick”

Derek finished filling up and headed into the shop part to pay for the petrol.

“Hurry up Derek” Shaun muttered, “We’re sitting ducks here”

Nervously, Sarah strained to look around as much as she could, but her view was obscured by the petrol pumps.

After what seemed like an eternity Derek emerged and headed back to the car.

“I wish I could have used my nectar card here” he complained, “I could have got quite a few points here”
“They would have been onto us like a shot Derek” Shaun responded

Derek started the car and pulled out of the petrol station and back on to the M25 Motor way.

What none of them spotted was a black mini that had been waiting on the slip road hiding out of sight from the petrol station.

The driver of the black mini, a man in his late fifties with cropped grey hair, finished a conversation on a mobile phone and after the car with Derek, Shaun and Sarah in drove on to the motorway, it followed them at a distance.

+ + +

Derek drove on amongst the increasing traffic which started to lighten as they switched on to the M26 again following the route that Google had given them.

Sarah eyed all the other cars as best she could, looking for motorcycles in particular and then after that any police vehicle that might be in the area, afraid that they might intercept her and have her arrested.

As they merged on to the M20, Derek announced that that was the last bit of motorway on the route and they were nearing Leeds Castle.

And still the occupants seemed oblivious, to the black mini which was still following them, several cat lengths behind as it switched between lanes. Finally it over took them and headed off into the distance

After another prolonged period of driving Derek left the motorway altogether and they came to a roundabout and then drove down a main trunk road along a wooded dual carriageway. Derek turned off the main road passed two square gate houses and started driving along a road past a large set of car parks. There were signs referencing the tourist attraction of Leeds Castle and a golf course

“What’s going on?” Shaun asked “Doesn’t look like an abandoned RAF base to me”
“Well this is what Google gave me” Derek replied looking hurt “Maybe someone knows about it at this Leeds Castle place?” Derek suggested as he pulled into a parking space and stopped

“I wonder if Trevor got the location wrong” Shaun suggested, “This is a place for tourists, not some secret military base”

“I don’t know” Sarah piped up from the back, “All I know was that he was wanting to go to some place in Kent”
“Do we want to try this Leeds Castle then?” Derek asked
“How much is it to go in?” Shaun asked, “The places can cost an absolute fortune just to park”
“No idea” Came Derek’s reply.

“What about looking for this Doctor H at cyber Café” Sarah called out, only to be ignored. Again, to Sarah it seemed that she might as well not exist as she sat in the back of the car

None of them noticed the black mini as it sat parked behind some larger cars out of sight while the driver looked at Derek’s mini through binoculars and spoke to someone on a cell phone.

“I can try and find a pub” Derek proposed, “Maybe someone might know something” “They might have Wi-Fi” Shaun replied, “As Sarah has just said there is always that idea”

Wow! Someone actually taking notice of Sarah? And it was Shaun, handsome wonderful Shaun!

“In a rural place like this Shaun?” Derek questioned, “I would be surprised if they even had broadband in this part of the world, let alone WiFi”
“Well at least Derek they might know the location of this old RAF base which is supposed to be in or around Leeds Castle” Shaun countered
“Ok” Derek relented, “We could try that village of Langley, but I bet it won’t be open this early unlike some city pubs I know”

“Yeah” Sarah called out from the back, “There is this pub on the Rock in Bury that opens up in the morning doing breakfasts. I think it may be a Weatherspoons”
“Yeah” Derek agreed, “I like that chain, especially on Thursday when they have Curry club”

Derek started the car and pulled out of the parking space and slowly turned round to go out the exit

Then they saw a sight that stunned all them

Coming into the entrance were two black clad figures on two motorbikes

Derek stopped the car. Suddenly ne of them started riding towards them. Sarah could see he was carrying a machine pistol and was pointing it at them.

So this is how it would end, shot to death with two other people for a reason she did not know and passed off as part of some feud among warring drug gangs.

Suddenly out of nowhere a small black car smashed into the attacking motor cycle, knocking him over as the car crushed him beneath but that was not before at least one shot left the motorcyclist’s gun and shattered the windscreen in front of them

Then there were sounds of gun shots coming from the black car.

“He’s shooting at us” Sarah Screamed

But something was wrong, Derek was not doing anything and had slumped in his seat

“Derek” Shaun called out in a concerned tone.

There was no answer.

Quickly Shaun undid his seat belt and leaned over and pressed his fingers to Derek’s neck and then swore.

“Stay in the back” Shaun shouted at Sarah and reached across Derek and unlatched the driver side door and then undid Derek’s seat belt.

Shaun opened his door and scrambled out going around the back of the car as shots continued to ring out from the black mini.

Sarah just sat there transfixed as she stared at the still body of Derek shaking her head and mouthing the word “No”, tears running down her face.

Shaun opened the driver side door and pulled Derek from the car and got into the driving seat and slammed the door shut

“What’s happened to Derek” Sarah just managed to force out

“Derek’s dead” Shaun shouted, “That b*****d shot him in the head”

Shaun started the car and lurched backwards leaving Derek’s body behind and then Shaun turned the car around and started heading through the Leeds Castle grounds at speed, scattering people as he drove past.

Sarah could not believe it, yet another person had been killed in front of her, by assassins on motorbikes who were after her! How many more would die? Sarah wanted to hand herself in and let them kill her as she could not stomach anymore people dying because of her, but she held her tongue. She did not want to upset her Shaun anymore than he must be with her already.

Sarah had just lost a brother and two best friends, but Shaun had lost his sister, mother and now his best friend, all because of some mess her brother had got into. Shaun was more fixated on bringing those who did this to justice than she was it seemed, but when you are up against a faceless enemy who can manipulate such things as databases, CCTV and mobile phones, how could you fight that?

Shaun had referred to all the things that were used in the wired up modern society as the implements of the state, a state they were now on the run from and one that was out to kill them.

But who was that black car that took out one of the assassins?

Shaun drove the car in a fury as they passed the castle itself, situated with a moat around it

Again Sarah continued to maintain a silence, for a brief moment she selfishly, so she thought, wondered how Shaun would feel about her now. He had been unbelievably forgiving when he heard about the deaths of his mother and sister, but Derek was murdered right in front of them, he must hate her now, surely.

Sarah thought back to the look on the face of the female police officer back at the hospital in Bury when that man posing as a police surgeon shot her dead. It was ghastly and would haunt her for the rest of her life, now she would be haunted by the death of Derek right in front of her as well.

Shaun drove around the moat, still scattering people as he continued. He came across a wooded road, driving as fast as he dared and came to another main gate with two buildings on either side. Shaun turned left driving to a main road, and then along a road underneath a bridge carrying the M20 Motorway which they had left to come to Leeds Castle.

Derek drove fast along the road for quite away and slowed down as he passed a place on the left called the The Taste of Bengal.

Shaun took the next turning on the left by what, to Sarah looked like a village sign and followed the road around to the left. It was as Shaun quickly explained an attempt to shake off any tale should one be following. Then Shaun drove quickly into the car park of a pub just around the corner and swore.

Shaun turned off the engine and shook his head

Sarah did not know what to say. Anything would just come out wrong. For a brief moment she was frightened of Shaun, would he hit her for what she had caused to happen to his best friend, and if he did, she was not sure if she deserved it or not.

Shaun slowly got out of the car and then pulled the seat forward and helped Sarah get out. Sarah continued to be silent, afraid of angering Shaun more than he must be with her already.

Suddenly a feeling of nausea overcame Sarah and she just wanted to be sick and her legs started to give way.

Shaun spotted Sarah start to go down and grabbed her arm.

“Breathe” Shaun told Sarah in what seemed to her like an unconvincing tone

Sarah was just able to stop herself from being sick just then “I’m so sorry, I can’t go on with this Shaun” Sarah sobbed, “All those” she tried to get out.

Shaun held her in his arms, “It’s not your fault Sarah” Shaun told her and then repeated, after which he kissed the top of her head, “Those b*****ds are going to pay for this” he said angrily.

“How did they find us?” Sarah whined.
“No idea” Shaun answered, “I suspect Derek’s scanner was not a good as he thought it was or they must have been using the CCTV cameras to track us”

The pub looked like it was starting to open, so Shaun led Sarah to the door, “We can’t continue in that car for much longer” he told her, “A broken windscreen like that will attract attention”

As they walked through the door of the pub they saw an elderly lady clearing up. “Sorry, the bar’s not open until twelve” she told Sarah and Shaun. Then the woman stopped and looked at Sarah, “Are you ok? You look as white as a sheet”

“We had a bit of a scare” Shaun interrupted before Sarah could speak, “Our car was hit by some sort of bird. It shattered our windscreen” he lied

“I suppose you can sit down” the lady replied, “Do you need to phone the AA or RAC or something like that then”

“I don’t have cover with any organisation like that” Shaun replied, “I never seemed to be able to get around to it”

“Oh dear, that’s not good” the lady replied as she got Sarah to sit down at a table, “Never mind, I think I can get the number of the local garage for you, they are just along this road in the village, they should be able to sort you out”

“We haven’t got any money on us” Sarah found herself objecting.
“That’s ok” the lady responded, “I’m sure he takes all main credit cards”

“That will be fine” Shaun told the lady, “We put everything on cards these days”

The lady then stopped and looked at Shaun and Sarah, “You’re not from here are you. You sound like you’re from Manchester”

“Tottington” Sarah instinctively replied
“It’s a village north of Manchester” Shaun quickly explained

The lady grunted and turned to leave.
“Do you have Wi-Fi?” Shaun asked
“I don’t know. We never used to have one, but I’ve been off for a while so I’ll go and check” The lady replied, “But if we have I would suspect it will only be for paying guests. What did you need it for?”
“I need to send an email to let someone know we are going to be late because of the accident” Shaun continued to lie

“I’ll go and see if anything is available” the woman replied and then left
“Ok I’ll just go and get my notebook from the car just in case” Shaun said and went outside, leaving Sarah sitting in the pub alone.

“Why Trevor?” Sarah called out in despair. As well as finding the dead body of her brother, she had now seen three people killed in front of her and the body count just kept on rising.

Sarah took out her brother’s memory stick, “What the hell did you do Trevor” she sobbed as she broke down, “Why could you not have just tried looking for a job instead of playing on that stupid computer?”

“Are you ok?” The lady asked her as she came back into the main part of the pub.

“May I use the toilet?” Sarah quickly asked

The woman pointed in the direction, and so Sarah headed off for the toilets with her hand bag. She needed to use them and also she needed to fix her face.

As Sarah got into one of the stalls, an overwhelming feeling of nausea overcame her and she found herself trying to be sick again into the toilet.

This time she was lucky to reach the toilet as she did vomit this time

Obviously the delayed shock at seeing Derek gunned down in front of her

Sarah finished being sick and flushed the chain and then used the toilet. After that, she came out and tried to fix her make up. For some reason, it did not seem that important. If she were trying to please Shaun, what would be the point? His best friend in London was now dead, all because of something her brother Trevor had got mixed up in. She would understand if he wanted to drive away and leave her to her fate.

Maybe he had and saying he was getting his note book from the car was a ruse to give her the elbow

Sarah left the toilets and saw that Shaun had not run out on her after all, even though he had every right to. Sarah then in a daze headed over to where Shaun was, sitting with his notebook and quietly sat down. She did not feel like talking, she did not know what to say plus she was still feeling terrible from being sick.

“That so didn’t work” Shaun grunted and then he looked up at Sarah, “Are you feeling ok?”

Sarah shook her head and broke down into tears, saying how sorry she was about Derek and that he must really hate her now.

Shaun got up from his seat and sat down and put an arm around Sarah and held her to him reassuring her that that he did not blame her for what had happened, that he still loved her and always would

“Anything wrong?” the lady from the pub asked
“Her brother was killed in action recently and they were close” Shaun spoke up, “We were trying to get down to meet his body off of a flight when the windscreen was hit by that bird”

“Oh dear I am sorry to hear that” the lady said sympathetically, “They didn’t fly it to Manchester then?”

Then it seemed like Shaun had an idea, “We were told it was supposed to be coming to an RAF base near Leeds Castle, but we couldn’t find it”

The lady sighed, “There hasn’t been one near there for a good few years”

“But we were told?” Shaun insisted

“There was an RAF signalling station during World War Two nearby, I recall, but it was just some large Nissen Huts and a large transmitter mast, but after the war it got taken over and became a public health laboratory so we were told. I think in later years it was used as some kind of storage facility. I remember there used to be two charming men and an oriental looking girl who used to work there. They used to refer to it as The Annex when ever they came to eat here”

“Do you know where it is?” Shaun asked

“I might be able to give a rough location of where it used to be” The lady offered, “But for some reason it was never shown on the map. No idea why. Would that help?”

“Yeah” Shaun said as Sarah sat up with Shaun resting his arm around her shoulders

“Mind you” The lady went on, “Whoever told you to go down there obviously got all their facts wrong”

“Because it wasn’t actually an airfield?” Shaun asked
“Well that as well, but two or three years ago it got raised to the ground in a fire” The lady sighed, “I think those three people who used to work there may have been killed in it, because after the fire I never saw or heard from them again. It’s a shame, they were very nice people”

“Is there anything left there?” Shaun asked

“I think it was finally demolished last year by the council on safety grounds. I don’t think there’s anything there any more” the lady explained further. “Sorry about the internet” she apologised and then asked, “Did you manage to find a stray signal?”

Shaun shook his head, “There is one low power Wifi signal” he explained, “But where ever it is they have secured it so I can’t log on to it”

“Maybe you might have luck with this” the lady then suggested as she pulled from her pocket a small electronic device.

Even Sarah knew what this was, it was an android phone

“My grandson gave me this when my old mobile packed in” the lady explained, “But I have no idea how you use them. I just prefer a simple phone you can make calls on, none of all this fancy stuff. My grandson says he uses his for email and Facebook all the time, I never even got the hang of this text messaging business. I hope it’s not too complicated”

“That’s ok I have seen them before” Shaun told her as he took the phone out of politeness, “I have an idea how to work these things.

“My grandson wants me to join something called Twitter as well” the lady said in passing as she sat down at another table, “It a complete mystery to me.”

“I’ve been an idiot!” Shaun exclaimed
“What?” Sarah asked, even more confused

“This is a long shot Sarah” Shaun whispered, “But when you saw that note with Doctor Aitch written on it on it, how was it written?”
“What do you mean” Sarah asked, confused by the question

Shaun took on a serious tone, “Sarah, how did he write down doctor aitch?” and then for clarification he asked, “Did Trevor write it down as one word?”

Sarah closed her eyes and tried desperately to visualise how Trevor had written the name down on the notepad before he had hidden it from Sarah’s view. Then she was just able to remember how he had written it. She never thought about it at the time, but it did seem odd how he had written it. “It was one word” Sarah replied, “It was written with a capital Dee for Doctor and a capital aitch all as one word. Why is that significant Shaun”

Shaun nodded and opened up the browser on the android phone and found the twitter home page and then tapped a few further keys on the mobile. Shaun then surreptitiously showed Sarah the phone.

It was Trevor’s Twitter page

“My guess is that this Doctor Aitch is someone Trevor was following on Twitter” Shaun said softly to Sarah, so as not to be heard by the lady who owned the phone. Shaun took the phone away and tapped a few more times on the phone’s flat surface.

“Got him” Shaun announced and then showed Sarah the screen on the phone. On it was a list of names and icons associated with each name, and sure enough way down on the list was a DoctorH.

Again Shaun tapped on the mobile and showed Sarah the result. This mysterious Doctor Aitch was also a twitter follower but the icon they had chosen was just a graphic of some strange symbol and the word CERN on it

Shaun tapped the icon and it opened up a new page on the android phone.

Then Shaun silently swore and showed Sarah the result. On the small screen of the Android Phone was a small biography, which read “A Senior theoretical physicist working with the LHC at CERN”

“What’s CERN?” Sarah asked, “I heard that name somewhere”
“They bill themselves as the European Organization for Nuclear Research and they claim to be have the biggest particle physics laboratory in the world.”

“What?” Sarah said incredulously, “Are they into top secret weapons or something?”
Shaun shook his head, “It’s supposed to be a civilian organisation. It’s located on the Swiss Franco border. They say that the world wide web which we use today for websites was invented there”
“So what is so secret that they’re killing people for” Sarah asked
“No idea” Sun replied, “We have to go there and find this Doctor Aitch” Shaun announced
“To this CERN place?” Sarah asked
“YES” Shaun whispered emphatically, “This Doctor Aitch appears to be working there. Don’t you see that this makes perfect sense Sarah? Trevor was not planning a trip to Leeds Castle, he must have been planning to make a trip to Ashford, but he did not want to say that over what might have been an unsecured line, otherwise this Doctor Aitch may have been tipped off”

“But why Ashford Shaun if this CERN place is on the Swiss Franco border?”
“Because Sarah Asford is where the Eurostar stops before it goes through the Channel Tunnel. He must have thought it would have been easier to get on it there instead of in London for some reason. We have to get on it and get to CERN as soon as we can”
“How?” Sarah whispered, “We don’t have any money and I don’t have a passport and the police are looking for us?”

“Is everything alright?” the lady asked from the table.

Shaun closed down the android phone and handed it back to the lady, “Thanks, we managed to find out where her body has been taken to” he lied

“Where’s that?” the lady enquired
“Somewhere in Ashford” Shaun replied, “This garage you mentioned”

“Yes” The lady replied, “Could it look after our car until we come back to collect it. It’s not in a condition to drive down to Ashford and if he has to track down a new windscreen, that would take ages and we have to get moving so I thought we ought to take the train. We can settle up the bill after the funeral”

“I’m sure that would be fine” the lady replied, “I can get my daughter to run you over to the Harrietsham Railway station”

“That would be great” Shaun told her.

The lady went back into another part of the pub, so Shaun turned to Sarah, “We’ll abandon the car here and travel down to Ashford on the train.”

“But I don’t have a passport” Sarah objected, “you still need one to go to France, let alone Switzerland”
“Did Trevor have a passport?”

Sarah shook her head

“Either he had one he never told you about or he must have found a way around that” Shaun insisted, “Once we get to Ashford, we can find a WiFi outlet and I know a few tricks myself. I can hack into the Eurostar booking system and book us tickets”

“Passports?” Sarah asked again

“I’ll fix it Sarah, trust me” Shaun insisted

Sarah was sceptical that her Shaun could magic passports out of thin air, but being wanted for murder, she did not have too many options. If travelling outside of the UK was the only way to clear her name then it had to be that way.

The lady came back with a younger woman and they all went outside into the pub car park. Shaun took all the cases from the car and handed the keys over to the elderly lady. Then Sarah and Shaun got into a brown range rover and the younger woman drove through the village of Harrietsham to the railway station.

Shaun just had enough cash to pay for two day return tickets to Ashford, singles would have raised suspicion and the two of them got onto the platform.

With in a couple of minutes a train passing through Ashford arrived.

“That’s lucky” Shaun commented, “I was expecting to wait a lot longer than this”

The two of them boarded the train and found a table that they could sit at.

+ + +

The Roebuck Inn
Harrietsham, Kent
(One hour later)

The elderly lady was just about to open up when three large police officers came in accompanied by a plain clothes detective.

“Can I help you?” the lady asked

“Yes” Replied the detective, “I’m Chief Inspector Halsall on loan from the Greater Manchester Police Force and we have reason to believe that a young woman wanted in connection with a number of homicides and involvement with hard drugs and gang activity in that area, was here today”

The elderly lady did a double take “What?”

“We tracked certain activity from them on an internet site and according to the service providers they were accessing the internet from this establishment, in fact from a mobile device owned by your good self” the detective explained,

The elderly lady continued to say “what” in a state of disbelief at what was happening

“Maybe this will enlighten you” the detective sneered, and handed over a photograph to the elderly lady.

“Yes she was here officer” the elderly lady admitted, “She was here with a nice young man, but they said they were heading down to a funeral or something like that when their car got hit by a bird. It’s outside in the car park; the garage was going to look at it and the couple said they were going to collect it when they returned”

“Probably ditched it to do a runner” grunted one of the police officers
“But they seemed so genuine” protested the elderly lady

“Do you have the car keys?” the inspector asked in an irritated manner

The elderly woman hastily grabbed them from behind the bar and handed them over to the detective

The detective turned to one of the other police officers and handed him the keys. The police officer seemed to instinctively know what to do and left the pub for the car park.

“So” the detective sneered again, “Do you know where they went?”

“My daughter dropped them off at the railway station officer” The lady replied, “They were taking the train to Ashford”

“Did they say anything else?” The detective asked
“Only that they were looking for an old RAF base near here”
“Oh really?” the detective intoned, “And which one would that be?”

“I don’t know what it was called but from what I could gather officer they were looking for the one that used to be a public health laboratory, but that was demolished a while back by the council after a fire destroyed it a few years ago”

“That sound like them” the detective sneered, “Where is this mobile device they used while they were here?”

The lady pulled out her android phone, “I lent them this officer. My grandson gave it to me but I have no idea how you use them”

The detective picked up the phone and pulled out a plastic bag from his pocket. “I’m afraid we will have to confiscate this as evidence in an ongoing inquiry. I have to go now, but these officers will take you to the local police station as we need a statement. Plus we will need to speak with your daughter as well. Is she here?”

The elderly lady answered in the affirmative pointing to the back, at which point one of the officers went in to fetch her

“Ok” the elderly lady said nervously as the detective walked out of the pub. The elderly lady came out from behind the bar. At that point the remaining police officer pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

“I don’t understand” she protested, “I haven’t done anything wrong
“You are under arrest on suspicion of harbouring a known criminal and giving aid and comfort to a suspected terrorist” the police office replied as he handcuffed her hands behind her back.

“You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. anything you do say may be given in evidence” the officer told the old lady

Just then the other officer came out with the younger woman, also in handcuffs and protesting her innocence

The two police officers frogmarched the two women out of the pub. A moment later, from outside there was the sound of two gunshots…

+ + +

A Railway station Café
Ashford International Railway Station

“Well that’s the Eurostar tickets sorted” Shaun announced as he closed his notebook and drank his tea up.

Sarah sat quietly opposite him at the table, she found it hard to get out of her mind the scene just after Derek had been shot dead, and here they were, sitting at a café at the railway station in Ashford, Kent

“What about passports?” Sarah asked quietly, afraid she might anger Shaun, especially when he had every right to be angry with her for all the death she and her brother had brought upon him, his family and friends, even though Shaun said he did not hold it against her.
Shaun produced a passport from his jacket. “I always carry mine, just in case”

“But I don’t have one” Sarah insisted

Shaun appeared to sigh “I looked at the architecture plans for this station Sarah and I believe I have found a hole in their security” Shaun told Sarah, “I think we can get passed passport control Sarah. As a back up I have managed to hack into their CCTV system which will just keep looping pictures of empty corridors for about fifteen minutes”
“What about in France?” Sarah asked
“I have created you a virtual passport” Shaun whispered, “We say your passport has been reported as stolen and that it is in the middle of being replaced. If they ask for proof I give them this number and if they check up they will see details of the virtual passport”

Shaun showed Sarah a set of numbers he had written down on a scrap of paper, “The train is almost due and that loop I set up is not going to last much longer so let’s go”

Shaun approached the ticket office and went up to the window and recited some numbers from a piece of paper,

The man at the ticket office wrote them down, tapped them into his computer and handed over two tickets.

Shaun ushered Sarah over towards the security section where they were checking passports and then stopped her as a group of other travellers arrived, Shaun allowed the group to head for the security section, then while they were busy herded Sarah up a small corridor marked staff only, and then quickly led her through a brief maze of corridors before they came out onto a platform as the Eurostar train approached.

“What about crossing into Switzerland? What about money?” Sarah asked
“There’s an entrance to CERN from the French side” Shaun told her, “And as for the money thing, as soon as we are on the train I have a look at that”

Sarah just could not believe what was happening, because of her brother’s hacking activities he had been murdered and she had been framed, but not only that she had had to leave her home in Lancashire, now she had to leave England.

Could things get any worse?

+ + +

Outside the Ashford International Railway Station

A red car pulled up outside the station entrance, driven by an elderly man in his late fifties, with a man in his forties in the front passenger seat.

Together they watched as the Eurostar train left the station on its way to the Channel Tunnel and on to France

“I believe we are a bit too late” said the man in his late fifties, in his Eton accent.
“You don’t say” complained the younger of the two in his Manchester accent, a man in his forties, “I thought your major Eff was going to sort them out” he sneered, “And now we still have two rabbits off and running over to France.

“Yes” the elderly man replied after a long pause, “This is a bit disappointing”
“Disappointing! That’s an understatement Mr Reed” the younger man snapped back.
“Well according to the major” the elderly man went on, “They ran into a little complication and the good major had to deep clean one of his own men to ensure the integrity of the mission”
“In other words Mr Reed he had to kill one of his own men to prevent him talking” the younger man replied, “Anyway I thought they were going down to that old Annexe place you used to run, how come they ended up at Leeds Castle?”

The elderly man frowned for a moment, the only sign of emotion that the younger man had ever seen in this figure that seemed to come out of a cold war spy novel. “We had found a way to monitor Mr Johnson’s browsing activity, and his route planner sent him there. That was why I stopped following him and directed the team to meet them there”

“I thought you wanted this job down out of the public glare Mr Reed” the younger man said sarcastically, “A bl**dy tourist attraction is hardly out of the public gaze”
“It was not at the peak of the season for one thing my dear chap” the elderly man replied, “There were not that many civilians around anyway, and one of Major Ef’s team was a bit quick off the mark. It was most unprofessional of him”

“Well they must of taken out someone” the younger man went on, “The barmaid and her daughter I had deep cleaned as you put it, by the team you leant me said there were only two at the Roebuck, the girl and some other guy.”

“Probably Mr Chapman” the elderly man interrupted, “And by the way, why did you need to deep clean those two, they would not have had much information to disseminate to the wider world? It was so unnecessary”
“I thought that was how we operated Mr Reed” the younger man said in a hurt manner, “Remove all possible security breaches by whatever means in the name of national security. Mind you Mr Reed, those guys you leant me to play coppers were very convincing. They could have fooled me and easily have passed off as members of my own force”

The elderly man tut-tutted, “Well I suppose it was your call inspector, I would not have done that myself”

“If you are worried Mr Reed, there is no way they can trace it back to us” the younger man assured the elder man, “I know what coppers look for so I made sure they left nothing”

“That’s not the point my dear chap” the elderly man remonstrated, “two deaths in that small village will be bound to attract unwelcome attention” the elderly man rebuked the younger man, “You must learn discretion as well as patience”

“Well, sorry I’m just not used to this cloak and dagger stuff, it’s new to me” the younger man retorted, “I’ve seen lags who beat up old grannies walk away scot free because the poor old dears were found too confused to testify. This is the first time I have been able to take direct action to keep us all safe against the scum that knows how to beat the system. This is the first time”

“And there by hangs your problem” the elderly man interrupted, “You have a lot of anger still in you inspector. You need to let it go. In our world we have shifting allegiances; your enemy today can be an ally tomorrow”
“And visa versa I suppose” the younger man snapped back
“Quite” the elder man agreed.
“So now what?” the younger man asked

The elderly man started the car up and pulled back out into traffic. “We head to the nearest airfield and get over to France to intercept that train” the elderly man answered, “Our employer has access to a fast jet will suffice and is on friendly terms with elements in the French government who will give us full co-operation”

“And then we find them and terminate them with extreme prejudice as they say” the younger man growled
“Well the man yes” the elderly man replied, “There has been a change of plan. The girl we need to take alive.”
“If we can!” the younger man sneered
The elderly man ignored this insubordinate interruption, “Our employer” he went on emphatically “has plans for her”

To be continued

[Judas]

Sticks can you spoiler each post else the thread goes on for miles.

[Judas]

In reply to your message sticks I meant this -

I meant so that each post is individually 'spoilered' so you have to click to view each episode... that way to read one episode you don't have to scroll down pages and pages.

[Sticks]

Episode VII – Enter Doctor H

Spoiler:

It is said that the British Prime Minister Howard McMillan was once asked by a journalist a question along the lines of what were the greatest challenges, his reply was “events dear boy, events”

Sometimes things blow up that we never foresee and our lives our changed forever. Such events have been following Sarah Bentley a seventeen year old from the Lancashire village of Tottington, now on the run with her dead brother’s best friend Shaun Chapman, accused of complicity in his death. She has witnessed yet another assassination attempt on her which has resulted in the death of Shaun’s friend Derek Johnson. Now as events unfold, they have discovered that the mysterious Doctor H who might hold the key to what is going on is based at the World famous CERN, Home of the Large Hadron Collider. Sarah is now following Shaun as they stow away, sort of, on board the Eurostar train to head down to CERN and to finally confront this Doctor H.

However, she is being tracked by a mysterious man known as Mr Reed, a chief inspector who is secretly working for the employer of this Mr Reed and a mysterious American

+ + +

On board the Eurostar Train
(Heading for the Channel Tunnel)

Sarah and Shaun had managed to find a table on the Eurostar train, so Sarah sat facing backwards while Shaun faced forwards.

Shaun looked through the tickets he had managed to obtain, “look at the prices on there” he commented, “Good job I knew how to hack into their booking system, there is no way I could have afforded these on what I was paid if we had been getting these legitimately”

Then after a few seconds Shaun swore.

“Now what?” Sarah asked quietly, nervous as they approached the channel tunnel entrance.

“It looks like we have a lay over in Paris” Shaun replied
“I thought we were going all the way to the French side of this CERN place” Sarah asked

“So did I” Shaun answered back, “But there was no train going to the French side, so it looks like we were booked to go via Geneva”

“But I still don’t have a passport” Sarah whispered in a worried tone.
“But like I told you at the station Sarah this should suffice” Shaun said as he waved the scrap of paper with numbers on it, “We tell anybody who asks that your passport was stolen and this is the emergency number you were given.”

“If they ask for ID?” Sarah persisted
“Have you got anything like a student card?” Shaun asked

Sarah checked in her purse and pulled out her student enrolment card, “This is all I have Shaun” she told him as she produced it.

“It will have to do” Shaun sighed, “Anyway, the Eurostar only goes as far as Paris apparently and from there we have to pick up the TGV” Shaun stopped for a moment, “Tomorrow morning”

“You mean we have to spend the night at the railway station?” Sarah asked
“It looks that way” Shaun mumbled, “Looking at the time we get in to Paris, we could visit the British Embassy and see if they will issue an emergency passport based on this number”

Sarah shook her head, “They’ll arrest me Shaun” she whispered, “You saw on the news how they have accused me of killing Trevor and those police officers”

Shaun put his hand to his mouth and sighed, just as the train entered the tunnel, “I was forgetting that” he mumbled that. “Maybe if we get off the train at the station just before the border” Shaun murmured and then shook his head, “It would still be too far to walk”

“Wait a minute” Shaun announced, “How good is your French?”

Sarah was for a moment thrown by the question, “I only got a C in it at GCSE” she replied.
“You’re going to have to try and remember it Sarah” Shaun told her,
“Because we are going to be in France soon?” Sarah asked
“That as well” Shaun replied. Shaun pulled out his notebook computer and opened it up and powered it up, “I need to check something assuming we can still get WiFi down here”

After powering the notebook, Shaun shook his head. “No Wireless on this train” he told Sarah, “I just hope I’m right”
“About what? Sarah asked”
“The Schengen Agreement”
“The what?” Sarah asked
“It was something they passed in Europe some years ago, but Britain stayed out of” Shaun explained, “It meant the removal of border and passport controls for a bunch of European countries. I think Switzerland is part of it. If that is the case, you may not need a passport, if I can pass you off as French”

Sarah gulped; the truth was that C grade she gained on her French GCSE was only a bare pass as French was not really a subject she excelled in.

“I had an idea about spending money” Shaun told Sarah
“Did you manage to hack in and steal money from a bank?” she asked, he eyes wide open in shock.
Shaun shook his head, “I have a bank card on me and as soon as I can get an internet connection I need to make sure the account hasn’t been frozen like yours has”
“And if it has?” Sarah asked

“It’s not in my name” Shaun told Sarah, “I set it up two years ago in the name of a character I used to play in Dungeons and Dragons, but even so there is a chance that the powers that be may have cottoned on, especially during that drive last year against money launderers” he explained

Sarah sat quietly while Shaun tapped away at his computer, all the while looking out in case there were any train conductors checking tickets and travel documents. Sarah was not entirely convinced that the scrap of paper with numbers would carry much weight, even if her Shaun had created for her a “virtual” passport. She expected to be arrested at any moment.

She closed her eyes and rested her head against the window, but all she could see was Derek being shot and killed right in front of her a few hours earlier. This scene also merged into the look on the female police officer that was murdered in front of her by the phoney police surgeon. Finally all these images merged into the scene at her house when she found the body of her brother, murdered. She had seen so much death for a seventeen year old teenager and it horrified her.

Suddenly she was alone in the carriage. Not even Shaun was there and it was dark, probably from the tunnel. Had Shaun run out on her?

Just then she was aware of a presence, someone behind her and someone in front.

The man in front was the American she had ran into the previous day near the Victoria Coach Station in London. He was waving at her, but she could not make out what he was saying

Then the presence behind her said menacingly in a Mancunian accent “Time to die”

She remembered the voice and who this person was. It was the detective who first accused her of murder, Chief Inspector Halsall. She was also aware that he seemed to be holding a gun at her

There was a metallic click by her head as the trigger was cocked.

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Sarah woke up with a jump, there were out of the tunnel and passing and approaching the French town of Callais

Shaun had just closed his notebook computer, which was what probably woke her. “Well I managed to get the money situation hopefully sorted out” he announced.

“What?” Sarah asked, still disorientated after falling asleep

Shaun went quiet for a moment. “I had grabbed Derek’s mobile and used that to access the internet from here. No idea how much they will be trying to bill him on roaming charges. I used it to log into my Mam and sister’s bank accounts” he told her, “They trusted me to look after them when they were alive, but I don’t have their bank cards so I have transferred money across to that bank account I told you about. It still seems to be working, I just hope that if I use it, it will allow me access to the cash”

“Oh” Sarah whispered, “I’m sorry” she apologised, “I keep thinking of all those people who have been killed over this” she added producing her brother’s iron key memory stick.

Shaun seemed to read Sarah like a book, “I told you Sarah” he said softly, “You’re not to blame for all this, you’re not the one going around killing people”

“But it feels that way Shaun” Sarah squeaked out with emotion in her voice “they killed all those I associated with”.

“There’s no guarantee they wouldn’t have done that anyway” Shaun responded, “We are dealing with a possible government conspiracy, possibly involving MI6, the CIA, the NSA. These guys do not like leaving loose ends. That’s all you are to them Sarah, a loose end. They wanted to eliminate your brother and all the evidence he had compiled on that thing” Shaun went on, pointing to the memory stick, “But since by chance you had it, you got into their sites”

“What if we just post it to them?” Sarah asked, “You said the Americans have a back door into it, what if we just hand it over at the American embassy”
“And everyone will have died for nothing” Shaun countered
“But I just don’t want anymore people dying Shaun” Sarah sniffed

Shaun gently took Sarah’s hands across the table, “I know” he whispered, “But what ever is on there, whatever Trevor found, if they are killing to keep it quiet, then it must be something illegal they were up to. If they were legitimate secrets they would have just have had him arrested under the official secrets act or for hacking or something like that. The fact they have murdered people that we know shows that we have to expose what they are doing”

“Right” Sarah replied and looked down at the table.

What Shaun said did kind of make sense but it did not feel right that people were dying because of something her brother had dredged up.

The train arrived at Calais and a number of passengers started getting off while Sarah watched them go.

Then Sarah noticed that there were a number of gendarmes approaching the train with what looked like British police officers and panic started to seep in.

The police were on to her – but how did they know and how did they get here so fast?

Sarah quickly fished for the woollen hat and dark glasses and put them on and tried to hide in her seat, lest they spot her from the platform.

“It’s the police” Sarah squeaked out.

“Oh great!” Shaun exclaimed and looked around, “go see if you can hide in the toilets” Shaun instructed her.

Sarah was getting ready to get up out of her seat when outside the gendarmes pounced on a number of men wearing England scarves.

There was lots of shouting an anger from the men arrested, but they were all escorted away and the general milling around of other passengers resumed.

“There must be an international football match on tonight then” Shaun remarked, “They must have been here to pick up known football hooligans.

To say Sarah felt relieved was an understatement, but for a moment a wave of nausea swept over here.

“You look white as a sheet” Shaun told her
“I thought” was all that Sarah could get out.

What neither of them saw was a man with a dark complexion who had boarded the train looking at them discretely from the end of the carriage. He opened a mobile phone and pressed a number on speed dial. The phone answered and the man whispered into the phone, “La jeune fille et son compagnon de sexe masculin sont toujours à bord du train. Voulez-vous me les prendre ici ou devons-nous attendre jusqu'à ce qu'ils descendez?”

The man received his reply and quickly closed down his cell phone and stepped off the train on to the platform, but observed the window they were sitting by right up until the train pulled out of the station, after which he pulled out his phone and spoke into it again.

Sarah sat back and watched the countryside fly past after they had left Calais and headed for Paris.

Shaun borrowed the memory stick and for the length of the journey tried to use Derek’s mobile to hack into the company that made the iron key. Eventually he gave up. The signal was too unreliable, and so he disconnected the mobile and closed up the note book. For the rest of the journey, Sarah and Shaun held hands across the table looking at each other and sometimes out the window at the French countryside.

After a while the train stopped at Lille and again she felt anxious at the site of anyone in a uniform approaching the train, but nobody appeared to spot them and the train started again on the final leg of its journey into Paris.

“What are we going to do for tonight?” Sarah asked, breaking an awkward silence

“After I have tried a cash machine I think we need to try and find a low cost B&B” Shaun replied, “Large hotels may be expensive and hanging around the station will be to suspicious”

“Do you know of any?” Sarah asked
“I’ll have to try a tourist information booth” Shaun answered, “I just hope my French is up to it or at least their English is up to it.”

It was the late afternoon come early evening as the train eventually pulled into the Paris railway station and Sarah and Shaun disembarked hand in hand.

For Sarah, this was the first time she had ever stepped on to foreign soil. She could never understand why her parents never went abroad. Maybe it was due to cost, but she was forever hearing her classmates talk of trips to Spain or Ibiza when all she could talk about was Morecombe, Southport or New Brighton.

All around her she could hear people talking in French, only some she could understand, the rest, they went too fast.

Shaun pointed in a particular direction and dragged Sarah over to a cash machine.

Sarah eyed it with trepidation, the last time she had tried one had been two days previous, and it had swallowed her card.

Sarah looked away at the rest of the railway station and the other passengers. She was also mindful of all the police and other officials milling around and hoped that the woollen hat and dark glasses would go someway to disguising her looks, although it had not fooled that American the day before. Even if she were not on the run from police for a crime she did not commit, she had travelled to France without a passport on a ticket that Shaun had obtained by what some might say were nefarious means. What ever way she looked at it, if she were to be challenged by the gendarmes she would be in serious trouble

“I can’t believe that worked!” Shaun exclaimed

Sarah looked back at the cash machine as Shaun was extracting a large wad of Euros, his phoney account had, in spite of her scepticism had paid off and thrown them a life line of sorts.

“Lets go and visit that tourist information desk” Shaun then said and ushered Sarah in the direction of a desk on the station concourse with a large queue forming at it.

While there were queuing Sarah heard some American voices behind her and briefly turned around.

It was an elderly American couple with their grown up daughter who was telling her parents about her course at one of the local universities.

Sarah swallowed hard; the death of her parents the year before in that road traffic accident had robbed her of ever having such an experience. The death of her brother, her last surviving relative had left her all alone in the world, apart from Shaun.

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the front of the queue and immediately Shaun asked the man at the counter “Parlez-vous anglais?”

“Yes I do sir” the man at the desk replied, and at once Shaun got to asking about low cost guest houses in Paris that they could stay at until they caught their train in the morning. The man at the information desk gave Shaun a fold out map and a list, and then Shaun ushered Sarah away.

As they walked to the entranced through the crowd, Shaun whispered to Sarah, “We’re being followed”
“What?” Sarah said instinctively and in a panic
“Don’t say anything or turn around” Shaun insisted, “If they know we’ve made him then they will get someone else to tail us”

A cold chill went down Sarah’s spine. Whatever it was that Trevor had stumbled across it was certainly big, if they were sending agents all the way to Paris to kill her. Whoever was out to kill her seemed so invincible. They had the power to kill a mobile phone, plant drugs on her and even put forty thousand pounds in her bank account. It seemed so unreal that the British or American government had so much power over their lives and were willing to use it to cover any illegal activity they might be engaging in. The use of the implements of the state, as Shaun had call them, to track, control and destroy an individual seemed so complete. She was wondering if they ever stood a chance of remaining alive, let alone expose some secret government conspiracy to the world, but Shaun had become determined to carry out this mission, more so than Sarah.

As they reached the entrance, Shaun yanked Sarah to the side and pulled her at speed for a shot distance before pulling her into the doorway of a shop, out of site.

Carefully Sarah peered out to see a large guy in a white rain coat rushing into the street and looking around.

Shaun pulled Sarah into the shop, out of site lest .

“Puis-je vous aider?” a voice came from inside.

It was the elderly shop keeper.

“We’re trying to elope” Shaun said to the old man, hoping he would understand.

The man looked blankly at them.

Then Shaun replied in stuttering French, “Le père de mon amie ne pas approuver de moi”

“Tu dois aimer cet homme beaucoup si vous êtes prêt à défier votre père” the elderly man said to Sarah and winked

“Il a envoyé un homme à nous suivre et nous avons besoin de sortir” Shaun said to the elderly man

The elderly man nodded and guided them through the old shop, which seemed to be a tailor shop, through to a back door which he opened.

It was a back alley near the station, and Shaun led Sarah through the door into it.

Shaun took out the list and the map he had been given at the railway station and examined it. “We don’t want to go to far away from the station Sarah” he told her, “And we can’t afford too much”

“What about the police?” Sarah asked, “Won’t they be looking for us?”

“Probably” Shaun agreed, “But I don’t see much choice. There are no trains to Geneva tonight and I doubt we could get away with getting onto a flight down there, the way airport security has been heightened since nine eleven”

Sarah felt nervous about this delay, sure to some a night in Paris might be a romantic vision, and that seemed to be what she was getting, but at a terrible cost. To Sarah, every minute delayed meant that those after her could get one step closer. She had already seen that they had tracked her to Paris.

“What about the guy who was following us” Sarah then asked
“I know” Sarah Shaun replied with irritation in his voice, “But there is no way we can get out of Paris tonight and get down to CERN. I just hope that where ever we pick, they won’t trace us there. Just to be on the safe side I will not be going online while we are there.”

“Sorry” Sarah replied as she backed down. She had to trust Shaun’s judgement, after all he had got them this far, hadn’t he?

“We will try this one” Shaun announced and took Sarah by the hand and led her to a Paris Metro station.

Sarah nervously looked around while Shaun got the tickets and they went down to the platform.

It seemed very much like the London Underground, except everything was in French, the signs were different and the police were armed.

Sarah held tightly onto his hand as he led her on to the train amongst the crowd, and soon they were travelling out to the suburbs of Paris.

“Would you like to see the Eifel Tower?” Shaun casually asked while they were standing in the metro carriage.

Sarah shook her head, “It sounds so tempting, but it wouldn’t feel right Shaun” she replied, “We’re only here because Trevor, Lauren, Vicky, your Mam and Derek have been killed. I just want this over Shaun. I just want my life back” she added with emotion in her voice.

Shaun held Sarah in his arms, “I know me too.” He whispered, “If we make it through this we will have to come here and do Paris properly” and then he kissed her on the forehead.

The metro arrived at their appropriate stop and the two of them got off the train and made there way out of the station.

Ideally they would have rung ahead to confirm if there were any vacancies, but in light of what had happened so far, they did not want to risk using any phone that could be traced. According to Shaun, the reach of either GCHQ or the NSA was very long.

After consulting the map, Shaun in his very best efforts at French, which seemed better than Sarah’s, asked a local the way to a particular guest house near by. The local was just about able to understand and gave simple instructions that Shaun was just able to follow.

The two of them walked through the streets following the directions until they came to a small hotel.

Again Shaun did the talking, and as luck would have it, the elderly proprietor spoke English. Again Shaun stuck with the cover story he had devised, that they had eloped from England, and Sarah’s father did not approve of him. The proprietor seemed to buy it or possibly did not care, especially as Shaun could manage cash up front.

They were led up stairs to a small bedroom with a double bed. Shaun and Sarah were going to be sleeping together yet again it seemed.

Shaun then asked the proprietor if he could recommend a low cost restaurant for their evening meal, and as luck again would have it, he invited the pair of them to have dinner with his wife. Without consulting Sarah, Shaun immediately accepted and they were told what time the meal would be ready, and then the proprietor said he would leave them to unpack what meagre belongings they had.

“It makes sense if we can keep out of sight” Shaun told Sarah as the proprietor left.
“Ok” was all that Sarah could say.

Sarah then looked out of the window and in the distance she could see the Eifel tower and other parts of Paris. The city lights were coming on as night was falling.

Shaun came up behind Sarah and gently put his arms around her waist, and somehow it felt so right.

“Oh Shaun” was all that Sarah could get out.
“We will beat this” Shaun whispered, “Don’t worry Sarah, to use an old cliché as long as we have each other, they can’t beat us”
“But how many more are they going to kill Shaun” Sarah asked, “And how are they tracking us”

“I don’t know” Shaun replied, “I tried to take us off grid but they must have been tracking Derek as well somehow”
“These implements of the state you mentioned” Sarah asked, “I thought there were supposed to be safeguards”
“It’s like anything Sarah” Shaun replied, “If you are high enough you start to think that they are there for your own use. Ever heard of the saying, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

Sarah shook her head

“It’s an old saying Sarah” Shaun answered, “There is another old saying, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”

“What?” Sarah asked
“Its Latin” Shaun explained, “It means who shall guard us from our guardians”
“Nobody” Sarah choked out

Shaun spun Sarah around and held her in his arms as she broke down sobbing.

It was about an hour before the meal with the proprietor was ready and Sarah and Shaun went down to the dining room hand in hand. The proprietor’s wife did not have good English, so the proprietor ended up translating.

The dinner was nothing like anything Sarah had ever had. She had heard that the French ate horse meat and was not sure if that was what they were serving, but did not dare say anything lest she cause offence and ate the minimum of the meat she could get away with. Shaun however seemed to have no qualms.

Again Sarah let Shaun do most of the talking, especially as his French was a lot better than hers. He was also a better liar.

And then it was time for bed.

Again Sarah and Shaun removed all their clothing as they had no night things, and again she ended up sharing her body with his as they made love once again, although somewhere at the back of her mind it did seem perverse given that he had lost his best friend that day.

But then again, if there was a possibility that they could be killed any time by whoever the assassins were, then it was as Shaun put it a case of Carpe diem

Through the night Sarah had troubled dreams. She could see the faces of all those who had died and it seemed as if they were accusing her for their untimely deaths. It was a nightmare from which she could not wake.

Then into her dreams came the figure of that American, who kept saying that he needed to talk with her. All she felt like doing was running.

As she ran along a dark passage, there was the phony police surgeon, holding his gun with silencer. Beside the police surgeon was the police detective who first accused her of killing her brother. Sarah changed direction and kept running. Suddenly in front of her was the American.

“Sarah” the American told her sternly, “Stop running, I just want to talk” Suddenly he raised a gun, pointed it in her direction and fired.

Sarah woke up

She looked at Shaun’s watch on the bedside table.

It was three in the morning.

Slowly so as not to wake Shaun she got up and went to sit on the en-suite toilet. Pulled the door shut and wept silently.

After about ten minutes she climbed back into bed and just kept thinking of all those people who had died as a result of knowing her or her brother.

+ + +

The morning sun broke into the room as Sarah was getting dressed while Shaun was in the shower. It seemed almost like a miracle that whoever had been after Sarah had not found them.

Shaun came in, got dressed and then they went down for what the French passed off as breakfast.

In the background was some kind of Parisian commercial radio station and Sarah could only understand a few phrases. Shaun seemed to understand a bit more, or at least gave that appearance.

Then it was time to leave for the railway station and again they were travelling on the Paris Metro. All the while, Sarah and Shaun were looking out for anyone who might be following them and trying to keep their faces away from any CCTV or gendarme who might be present.

They arrived at the station with three quarters of an hour to spare, so Shaun found a small café in the station out of the way to see if he could get a Wi-fi connection, after first ordering two coffees. One for him and one for Sarah.

After a few minutes Shaun seemed to be in and surfing Sarah could not see what he was looking at as he had sat opposite her at the table.

A minute later it seemed that Shaun’s face went white and he swore under his breath. Some thing was wrong

“What is it?” Sarah asked
“You don’t want to know” Shaun insisted and hurriedly closed down his computer, folded it up and put it away.

“They’ve killed someone else, haven’t they” Sarah guessed.

Shaun put his right hand to his mouth and nodded.

“Who?” Sarah asked insistently, “Who else have those b*****ds killed?” she added

Shaun let out a sigh, “That woman at the Roebuck Inn and her daughter” Shaun admitted, “The press are just saying it was a robbery gone bad”

Sarah shook her head and looked upwards as tears filled her eyes

“Sarah” Shaun said pre-emptively, “It’s not your fault”
“Why don’t I feel that way?” Sarah said accusingly, “Everyone I talk to Shaun, everyone I have known is being killed by these b*****ds all because of me. How many more are going to die Shaun?”

Sarah got up, “I’m going to turn myself in” Sarah announced, “If that’s the only way to stop these killing”

Shaun got up quickly and started towards Sarah. Sarah backed away, “I mean it Shaun” she told him, “If I turn myself in maybe they will stop the killings”

“What if they don’t” Shaun said angrily, “They are taking people out because they think we have spoken to them. What makes you think these people will believe you? What makes you think they will stop the killings?”

Sarah just glowered at Shaun

“Sarah” Shaun said firmly, “You do this and all those who have died will have died for nothing”

“But Shaun” Sarah said sobbing, “They killed two innocent people because we just visited their pub”
“Which I drove to” Shaun told Sarah, “If anyone should feel guilty over their deaths it should be me, not you” he continued, “I drove there and I accessed Trevor’s Twitter page from a mobile there. It was me they were tracking, not you, and I don’t know about you but I for one will not let them get away with this”

Suddenly a cold realisation went through Sarah, “Oh Shaun” she said, “The people we stayed with last night, we need to warn them”

Shaun walked up to Sarah and held her in his arms, “We never called them in advance; they were on a list with other names and I paid them in Cash. If we had been followed they would have taken action last night. If we try and contact them to warn them, then that will certainly mark them out”
“But Shaun” Sarah pleaded

“We need to catch that train to Geneva” Shaun said gently

Sarah nodded. She hated the fact that somehow she might be responsible for causing people to be murdered and desperately wanted to warn that French couple, but Shaun had a point, any attempt to warn them could result in a visit being paid to them by another assassination team. It was a classic Catch 22 situation.

They picked up their bags and Shaun lead Sarah into the railway station.

As soon as they had gone a man who had been drinking coffee and apparently reading a copy of Le Monde took out a phone and quickly dialled a number. As soon as the number connected he spoke in an American accent, “Brigadier General, the love birds have just entered the station” he said quietly, “No sign of the other targets at this time”

The man at the table then put the phone away and picked up his newspaper again.

Another man approached him carrying a newspaper in his right hand, it was a man in his late fifties. “Is this seat taken?” he asked in an old Eton accent.

The American looked up, “I’m afraid so buddy” he replied

“Pity” the elderly English man replied.

Immediately two bullets hit the American man in his head, fired from a gun with a silencer that the English man had concealed by his newspaper.

The elderly English man quickly walked away melting into the crowd, where he met with another English man who was in his forties. “Just had to deal with part of that minor complication we had yesterday” the elderly man told the younger English man.
“Is that what you call discreet?” the younger of the Englishman asked the elderly Englishman

“I dare say our French colleagues will come and clear up the mess” the Elderly man replied, “As for the Americans, I’m not sure they will want to admit they were operating on French soil without getting permission from the French government”

With that the two men headed into the station following Shaun and Sarah to their train

+ + +

Sarah and Shaun approached the TGV train that was due to take them to Geneva. It was nothing like the Metro Link trains that Sarah regularly took between Bury and Manchester. For one thing it was quite long, longer than any train Sarah had ever seen back in England.

The two of them got on and found their allocated seats on the train and sat down.

Neither of them spotted the two English men getting on in the next but one carriage

Outside Sarah heard the sound of police sirens that were coming from the entrance. “Oh no” Sarah said quietly, “It sounds like they’re onto us”

“Only if they come here” Shaun said as he started trying to peer towards the entrance of the railway station.

After a while it became obvious that the police activity was confined to something happening outside of the station.

There was the sound of a whistle from outside and the train started to move.

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Shaun took out his notebook computer as soon as the train was underway to see if there was a Wi-Fi signal.

There wasn’t, so Shaun took out Derek’s mobile and plugged that in.

“I seem to get a connection of sort’s” Shaun mumbled and then began typing furiously.

Sarah just kept switching her gaze from outside the window to looking at Shaun to the corridor, nervous that someone would find them and arrest them. The nightmare she had had during the night played on her mind yet she did not dare talk about it with Shaun.

Sarah was certain that Shaun thought of her as a wimp, especially as he seemed more determined than her to bring the real killers to justice and expose what ever conspiracy was being hidden. Sarah just wanted them to know she had no wish to expose anyone and that she did not know anything. She was not even sure she cared about any government conspiracy; she just wanted the killings to stop.

A man in a uniform came up behind her and demanded, “Billets s'il vous plait”

Sarah almost jumped out of her skin, then remembered that billets was French for tickets

Shaun produced the two tickets he had got at Ashford in Kent and handed them over.

It seemed to Sarah that the conductor was taking longer than usual to examine them. “Is there a problem?” she asked

The conductor handed the tickets back to Shaun without answering and then proceeded to check the tickets of the other passengers, but notably faster than he had with theirs.

Sarah waited for the conductor to leave the carriage before whispering her observation to Shaun.
Shaun told her in an unconvincing tone “Maybe it was just because we got it printed at Ashford rather than Paris. Maybe he has never seen such tickets before”

“And maybe they’re onto us Shaun” Sarah said in reply, “remember that man who was following us yesterday?”

Shaun nodded

“I thought I saw him sitting at a table outside the station” Sarah pleaded.

“I never saw anyone Sarah” Shaun replied, “But then I wasn’t looking”
“What if he followed us on to the train” Sarah pressed.
“Then I will have to deal with it” Shaun replied, before adding an unconvincing “Somehow”
“Shaun they’re following us?” Sarah insisted, “I think they want this” she added taking out the encrypted memory stick.

“I was getting to that” Shaun told Sarah and gently took it from her. “I just need to type in the serial number of this memory stick and”

Suddenly Shaun swore

“What’s happened?” Sarah asked

“Just as it was supposed to give me the back door my connection dropped” Shaun explained, then after a pause added “it’s saying it can not find a”

Shaun stopped. “It says on Derek’s mobile replace SIM card?” he said in a puzzled tone

A cold chill went down Sarah’s back, “That happened to my mobile Shaun” she said in a horrified tone, “When they killed it”. After a moment Sarah started shaking her head, “they found us Shaun and they’re coming for us”

Shaun unplugged the mobile, opened it up and took out the SIM card.

“All they had to do was order this done from England” he told Sarah as he showed her the SIM card, “Doesn’t necessarily mean they have someone on our tail, but I suppose we have to be careful”

“They have to know where we are headed” Sarah pressed
“Possibly” Shaun answered, “I wonder if that conductor was making sure where we were on the train”

“That means they will be arresting us off of the train?” Sarah said in a panic
“Which means as soon as we cross the border, we move to another carriage as if we are looking for the buffet car or something like that” Shaun instructed Sarah, “We do not want to be in these seats when we arrive in Geneva”

Sarah nodded, “If we find this Doctor H, what are we going to do” Sarah asked, “Especially if he has sent out all these people to kill everyone we know”

“No idea Sarah” Shaun admitted, “I’m making this up as I go along”

For the next two hours Sarah and Shaun spent a tense time as the train sped on through the French countryside. At any moment they expected someone to arrest them or try and kill them. It was obvious that in spite of Shaun’s best efforts those in control were able track their every move.

Shaun had even briefly switched his simple mobile on, but it was not working, although it did not say anything about the SIM card being disabled, only that it could not log onto a valid network. Since his phone was a simple one, not designed for international travel, there was no way he could work out if like the SIM in Derek’s phone, and earlier in Sarah’s mobile, if it had been disabled. The only thing he could think of would be to try and buy a pay as you go SIM as soon as they arrived in Geneva, but then they might need the money for travelling from Geneva to CERN.

The train arrived in the French city of Le Creusot and both Sarah and Shaun kept looking for any gendarmes who might be coming for them, but none came.

After several nerve wracking minutes the train started off, heading for the Swiss border and on to Geneva.

Sarah and Shaun waited for the conductor to check tickets from Le Creusot, and as soon as he left the carriage, they picked all their belongings up and headed through the carriage in the opposite direction to the conductor. Their aim was to get as far away from where they were known to be sitting as fast as possible.

Shaun led the way while Sarah held onto his hand. As they passed through the first carriage Sarah though she saw someone she recognised, but before she could get another look, he ducked into the toilet.

It was someone who she felt should not be there, but for the moment Sarah was unable to place him. Wearing her dark glasses to hide her face did not give her that clear of a view of the man. Also Shaun was insistent that they keep going, so it slipped from her mind. Maybe she had been to wound up about the nightmare she had the previous night and only just imagined it.

For several minutes they made their way through the carriages of the French train. Some were crowded and some were empty. All the while Sarah would try and look behind her as she got the feeling that they were being followed, but it was not easy with Shaun pulling on her hand as he pressed on through the carriages.

Finally they got to the last carriage, or at least the last one they could walk to. Shaun found a couple of airline style seats facing back the way they had come and so the pair sat down, their bags at the ready to get out as soon as possible.

+ + +

In the carriage next to them, the younger of the two Englishmen dived into a seat by the door and pulled out his cell phone and dialled the number of his elderly companion. “Mr Reed” he said quietly into the phone, “They’ve stopped moving if you want to join me”

The younger man listened to the reply and then carried on whispering, “They’re in the last ruddy coach on this stupid train if you want to come and join me.”

The younger man received another reply

“Oh you don’t? Fair enough, I’ll keep tabs on them, but it won’t be easy as I was the one that made sure the girl was taken into custody. She might recognise me as well”

The elder man then asked him over the phone if he had had problems following them through the train

The younger man shook his head “Nah, but I must say it was a damn close thing though. I was certain the girl would rumble me as she looked right at me at first and then she kept bl**dy looking in my direction as they went through the train”

Then the younger man had a quick think, “Are you sure we don’t just take out both of them, I mean what so special about that girl? If you ask me the, sooner”

The younger man was interrupted by the elder man on the phone as it was reiterated that their mutual employer for the moment wanted her alive.

“Well yeah” the younger man retorted, “That’s all fine and dandy Mr Reed, but to me she’s just another lag we could all do without and I can’t see how National security will be served if the goes on trial”

The elder of the two men started to talk again over the phone, but the younger of the two men closed his mobile down. What was so special about this girl? Nothing he could see, and suppose he were firing at that guy, and she got hit accidentally on purpose, would it be that great a loss?

+ + +

The train finally pulled into the Geneva train station.

Shaun led Sarah off of the train, all the while looking around for who ever might be after them, before quickly mingling with the crowd of other passengers.

“Ok” Shaun announced, “We need to get Tram 16 to Meyrin-Gravière and get off at Vaudagne and then get a bus to the CERN complex” he told Sarah, “I looked it up on the CERN website”

Sarah just followed without saying a word, worried that someone was still following her. She kept wondering if the people who ran the small hotel they stayed at would be killed as well and wished she could have warned them, even though Shaun had a point, an attempt to warn them would probably alert the killers to where they were”

Shaun dragged Sarah to another information desk, where the lady working on the desk also spoke English and they were directed to where to pick up the tram and the machines where they could get the tickets. They then headed off to the automatic ticket machines and Shaun purchased the tickets for the tram, then the two of them raced off to the stop and managed to only just catch the tram, which again Shaun commented was lucky as in his opinion anyone following them on foot would either become immediately obvious or miss it entirely.

They climbed onto the tram and it set off almost immediately. Sarah looked out of the window and to her shock saw the out of breath figure of Detective Inspector Halsall, trying to run after the tram unsuccessfully.

“Shaun” Sarah piped up and pointed to the figure vanishing in the distance as the tram picked up speed, “That’s the police officer that had me arrested”

“What the hell’s he doing here?” Shaun asked
“I don’t know Shaun” Sarah whined, “I think I saw him on the train following us”

“Something’s not right” Shaun commented, “If he was tracking us, why not get Interpol to have us picked up, if he was legit”
“You mean he’s been in on this from the beginning?” Sarah asked

“Well we know in some countries the police do the state’s bidding” Shaun replied
“But that means he had two police officers murdered Shaun” Sarah said with confusion

“Which means that what ever conspiracy Trevor unearthed is, it’s so serious that they are willing to kill their own people to cover it up”
“What are we going to do Shaun?” Sarah whined

Shuan thought for a moment, “We have to continue on Sarah. We have to find and confront this Doctor H”

Sarah thought for a moment, “You said we have to change on to a bus before we get to CERN”

“Yeah” Shaun replied as he seemed to be getting on to Sarah’s wavelength. There was the real possibility that whilst waiting for the bus, they could be intercepted by Detective Inspector Halsall or the other assassins.

Shaun took out his wallet and examined the amount of cash in it. “I’m not sure we have enough for a taxi” he told Sarah, “In fact I’m not sure how expensive they are or if we could get one”

Sarah wanted to say something, but she could not think what. Suppose they did make it to CERN alive and find this Doctor H her brother had mentioned and had been following on this Twitter site, what then? That would not bring back the people killed, she was not even sure if it would help clear her of all the charges mounting against her back in England. It just seemed that this was some conspiracy investigation her brother had started and now her boyfriend, Shaun Chapman had taken over.

All Sarah had wanted to do all along was bring in enough money to save her dead parents house. It seemed so long ago.

The tram arrived at Vaudagne and the two of them got off and headed in the direction they were told where the bus stop was.

It seemed their luck was in as just as they arrived at the stop, the bus was arriving.

“We timed that nicely” Shaun remarked. Sarah kept quiet.

Sarah scanned the road as the bus started, looking for the detective inspector, the mysterious American and even the motor cycle assassins.

The sky was beginning to darken as the bus arrived outside one of the entrances to the CERN complex. On the right across the road from the entrance Sarah could see a huge structure looking like a large ball. The entrance they came to had a small glass booth with a couple of gate guards in it. A large blue sign directed bus visitors to reception.

The two of them approached the glass booth. “Let me do the talking” Shaun instructed Sarah.

Shaun broke into stuttering French for a moment and then they were asked to sign some sheet of paper and then were given plastic visitor passes and allowed onto the site.

As they walked towards the reception Shaun explained to Sarah how he said that he had arrived to pick up some registration documents as he was due to start an internship the following week and was showing his girlfriend where he would be working before they went to the hotel.

“And they bought that?” Sarah asked with incredulity.
“Well seem to have we got passed them” Shaun replied
“How do we find this Doctor H?” Sarah then asked as she saw from the surrounding buildings and the huge car park, “This place is huge”

“I noticed that Sarah” Shaun replied, “I’m guessing that this person probably doesn’t go by the name doctor H here, after all that was a Twitter ID”

“If only we knew the person’s real name” Sarah complained.
“That would help” Shaun agreed, “But we have the twitter name, maybe someone at reception might be able to help”
“And if this conspiracy is about this CERN place and that LHC thing they were all worried about a few years back?” Sarah challenged.

Sarah could vaguely remember some of the people at School had once said that it could bring about the end of the world by creating mini black holes or something called Strangelets which she did not understand. There had even been a rumour that someone had committed suicide because of it.

“I heard those scare stories too” Shaun said with irritation, “There is no way the LHC will destroy the Earth Sarah” he went on, “We are bombarded with cosmic rays all the time which are more energetic than what the LHC produces. This idea that the LHC will kill us all is a load of rubbish!”

Sarah shut up, it was immediately apparent that the idea that the conspiracy was how LHC would destroy the planet was a non starter and she thought it made her look stupid in Shaun’s eyes for even mentioning it.

The two of them reached the glass doors of the CERN reception building and entered.

Sarah was not entirely convinced they would achieve anything, but since Shaun seemed to know what he was doing, she was going along with whatever it was he had in mind.

The lady on the reception desk spoke to them in French; it was a standard greeting that even Sarah could understand. Shaun asked if she could speak English and she shook her head.

“Great!” Shaun mumbled in an irritated tone, “I thought they were all supposed to be bilingual here”

The lady at reception raised her hand and said “un moment s'il vous plait” and then picked up a phone and called someone. After about two minutes a man in a blue shirt and tie came into reception, “Sorry about that sir” the man addressed Shaun in an English accent, “But we have been short staffed and the local temping agency wasn’t able to supply and English speaking receptionist this week. How can I help you?”

“We’re here to see someone who works here who goes by the Twitter ID of Doctor H” Shaun replied

Sarah noticed the man do a slight double take in puzzlement. “I’m not sure who that might be” he told Shaun, “Are you sure they actually work here” the man went on, “If it’s this Twitter thing, they might have been having you on. Did they invite you to come here?”

“Please” Sarah interrupted in an emotional voice, “He was a contact of my brother’s” she pleaded, “This Doctor H may have been in contact with him when somebody killed him”

“We think this Doctor H may either be next or know something” Shaun took over, slightly wrong footed by Sarah’s intervention.

“Well I’m sorry about your brother Miss but even so we have no way of knowing who this Doctor H is or if they actually work here” the man insisted.

“Ok I understand that” Shaun replied, “But is there a possibility that whoever looks after the official CERN Twitter accounts may know something about this Doctor H. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t important”

The man sighed and then said to the lady on reception, “Pouvez-vous me le département informatique, idéalement une personne qui s'occupe de nos sites internet”

The lady picked up a phone and tapped a computer screen, waited a few seconds and then passed the phone up to the man.

The man took the phone and asked into it “Est la personne qui s'occupe de tous les comptes twitter il?”

The man waited for a moment and then asked “Savez-vous quoi que ce soit sur un compte twitter pour un Médecin H?”

The man nodded replying to the voice at the end of the phone, “Donc, c'est elle alors. J'ai un couple de visiteurs d'elle de l'Angleterre”

A frown then went across his face and he turned to Sarah, “Are you Miss Sarah Bentley?” he asked.

A chill went down Sarah’s spine and her face went white. This Doctor H knew she was coming and she had obviously walked into a trap

“Yes” she admitted meekly and then Sarah quickly pulled out her brother’s memory stick, “Please, I’ve no idea what’s on this” she pleaded, much to Shaun’s horror, “I’ve no idea what secrets you have that my brother uncovered, he never told me anything, I promise”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about?” the man said with a puzzled expression, “or what’s going on” he then went back to the phone saying into it. “Oui, c'est la jeune fille Bentley et un ami avec elle. Elle a un bâton de mémoire et de parler de son frère mort découvrir quelque chose. Qu'est-ce qui se passe?”

After a few seconds said in surprise at what he heard on the phone, “Général de brigade qui?”

The man put the phone down, “Apparently you’re expected. Someone is coming to collect you now to take you to see them” He told them, “Please wait here”

The man sighed and then spoke to Sarah, “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but we are not a secret organisation. Everything we do is published on the web. There are no secrets to hide and we certainly would not go about killing anyone”

“So why was my friend in contact with this Doctor H of yours” Shaun said accusingly, “He told Sarah here that he was onto something big and it was somehow connected to this Doctor H”

The man shook his head, “What ever it was sir, it was nothing to do with CERN. All I know is that a few years ago the person you are talking about went on a special secondment to the US as a consultant. I assumed it was on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory”

“That’s the American connection” Shaun commented and then asked the man, “Does this doctor H character have expertise in nuclear weapons then?”

The man briefly looked horrified, “Absolutely not, the RHIC is like us, a peaceful civilian research facility into particle physics”

Just then he was interrupted by a young woman in a similar uniform to the lady behind the desk, “I am here to escort the visitors” she said in a German accent

Nervously Sarah followed the young woman; hand in hand with Shaun as they went passed a non descript building before being invited to get into the back of an electric car. Then they were driven through the CERN complex.

Sarah looked out at all of the buildings, which looked like standard office building to her. Was this really the home of the world famous LHC?

+ + +

A Citron car pulled up at the front gate. In it were four men. The two in the front were in civilian coats while the two men in the back seemed to be in uniforms of British commandos.

The guard left the booth, and walked up to the car. “Avez-vous un monsieur rendez-vous?” he asked

“What?” the man in the front passenger seat asked.
“He’s asking if we have an appointment Detective Inspector” the driver said with faintly disguised irritation.

“Yes that is right” the guard repeated in English, “If you are coming in by car after visiting hours you need an appointment. Do you have such an appointment?”

“Oh yeah” the man in the passenger seat replied, “I’ll just get the letter” The man in the passenger seat reached into his coat, pulled out a gun with a silencer and shot the guard dead.

“That was uncalled for” the elderly man said disapprovingly
“It gets the job done Mr Reed” the Detective Inspector retorted.

The elderly man shook his head, “Major Gee, kindly clear that mess up for our Detective Inspector friend and secure the entrance to this establishment” he said to one of the men in the back seat.

“Yes sir” one of the men replied and got out of the car.

“And be a good chap and let us through the barrier” the elderly man called out

The man known as Major Gee went into the booth. Another guard was there and had been filling in a time sheet and so had not seen his colleague go down. Major Gee made short work of him with a luger and a silencer before raising the barrier to allow the Citron to go through. As it did Major Gee saluted it.

The Citron drove up to the reception and all three men got out and walked into the reception.

The man who had spoken to Sarah and Shaun were still there and had noticed the men park just outside. “Excusez-moi vous n'êtes pas autorisés à y stationer” he told them as the men came in.

A few seconds later he was dead as the detective inspector fired two bullets into him.

The commando produced a machine pistol equipped with a special silencer and used it to take out the CCTV cameras

The lady at the reception desk saw what happened and put her hands up, “S'il vous plaît ne tirez pas, j'ai une famille” she pleaded

The elderly man put a hand up to the detective inspector and the remaining commando and walked over to the frightened lady. He smiled and then asked in perfect French where a certain young woman and a young man had been taken.

Instantly the lady at the reception desk told the elderly man exactly where the two were being taken.

The elderly man smiled and then turned to the commando, “Major Eff Deep clean her” he commanded.

Instantly the commando shot the lady dead. “Shall I take out the reception area?” he then asked the elderly man showing him the explosives he had on him.

“That won’t be necessary major” the elderly man replied, “It will attract too much attention anyway. Just find security and do a deep clean there” the elderly man quickly looked at his watch
“Yes sir” Major Eff replied and headed off.

Just then, there were the sounds of motorbikes arriving outside reception
“Right on time, it sounds like the others members of the squad have arrived in case we need to widen containment” the elderly man commented

“So can we get on with it now Mr Reed?” the detective inspector said with irritation, “and why do we need them anyway, I thought we were supposed to be being discreet” he added sarcastically.

“One good lesson the Americans taught us” the elderly man replied, “is that when you have to go into action you take with you overwhelming force”
“Won’t this extra lot attract the local boys in blue?” the Detective Inspector complained.
“No need to worry about that my dear chap” the elderly man said as a matter of fact, “Our employer will make sure we are not disturbed by the local law enforcement officers”

The elderly man’s mobile phone rang and he answered it. Listened, nodded and then closed it up. “I have further instructions from our employer” he announced

+ + +

Sarah and Shaun were lead into another non descript building along a corridor among a suite of offices until they came to one which had the name plate “Professor Charlene Henshaw Ph.D”

Was this Doctor H a She and not a He?

The young women knocked on the door and a voice called out for them to come in. The young woman opened the door and left to go back the way she came.

Sarah followed Shaun into the office. At the desk was a platinum blonde woman in her mid thirties.

“So you’re Doctor H” Shaun spoke up

“Only on Twitter” the woman at the desk retorted, “In fact I never go on it much, the account was set up because someone thought it would be a good idea after Professor Cox set his one up.”

Suddenly from behind the door stepped the American man Sarah had run into in London, axcept this time he had a holstered side arm on him. “Miss Bentley, Mr Chapman” the American man said firmly, “I’m so glad you could make it”

“Oh S**t” Shaun yelled “it’s a trap” and grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her into the corridor and began to run back the way they had come

As they ran down the corridor they came across the young woman who had escorted them. She was lying dead in the middle of the floor

Over the body was that of one of the motorcycle assassins that first attacked Sarah back in Tottington.

Shaun pushed Sarah into an open doorway to protect her.

The assassin fired his gun and instantly Sarah saw Shaun go down.

He had been shot in the head between the eyes

“No!” Sarah screamed and knelt over Shaun’s lifeless body. Then she looked up at the assassin as he was standing over her. In the back of the corridor coming through the front door she thought she could see the phoney police surgeon and Detective Inspector Halsall.

Sarah looked up at the assassin as he pointed the gun pointed straight at Sarah’s head.

The assassin placed his finger on the trigger and squeezed…

To be concluded

[Sticks]

Episode VIII – Forgotten Virtues

Spoiler:

Sometimes what we thought were certainties are not. People we thought would always be with us leave or pass away. When the Princess of Wales was killed in that tunnel in Paris, the shock was total. The disbelief, over whelming.

Sometimes words in these circumstances fail.

With Sarah Bentley, her world fell apart with the murder of her brother in her home village of Tottington, located north of Manchester. She teamed up with her brother’s best friend, Shaun Chapman, who admitted that he had always fancied her, and she had also fancied him from a far. She has even shared two nights of passion with him. Now he lies dead, shot by one of the assassins sent after her who have mounted an armed attack at CERN. The assassin now stands pointing his gun at Sarah’s head and pulling the trigger…

+ + +

For Sarah time seemed to stop as she stared up at the gun pointed at her head, as the assassin was squeezing the trigger to send her to oblivion once and for all

There was a click and then the assassin swore.

The gun had jammed unexpectedly

Sarah continued to look up at him as she knelt by the lifeless body of Shaun, stunned and in shock at the death of the one human being who she loved enough to share her body with. Someone who seemed to be her soul mate

Suddenly two shots rang out from behind her and the assassin standing over her collapsed.

In the distance Sarah heard the sound of someone running up to her from behind, but it seemed as if she was hearing through water and could not make out what was being said. Even if she could have heard, what did it matter? What did anything matter anymore, her Shaun was dead, and he died because he was protecting her. Sarah was also in shock that she was still alive and it was now the assassin lying dead on the floor in front of her.

She was now waiting for another assassin, or indeed the phoney police surgeon or Detective Inspector Halsall to finish her off once and for all.

As she waited for the end one thought briefly went through her head. ”What went wrong with the assassin’s gun?”

Sarah felt her left upper arm being grabbed from behind and a voice shouting at her, breaking through the wall of silence she had retreated into. It was the voice of Doctor Charlene Henshaw, the mysterious Doctor H whose Twitter ID she had seen on her brother’s notepad before he had been murdered.

“Sarah get up” Doctor Henshaw yelled at her, “We’ve got to get you out of here”
All Sarah could focus on was Shaun lying in a pool of blood, “But Shaun!” Sarah sobbed.
“He’s gone” Doctor Henshaw shouted, “Now get up we’re here to try and save you” and pulled then Doctor Henshaw Sarah to her feet.

Sarah heard footsteps coming from the direction the assassin had come. No doubt more assassins to finish the job.

Doctor Henshaw dragged a stunned and frightened Sarah along the corridor. Sarah then noticed that this platinum blonde woman was holding in her other hand some kind of handgun. It had been Doctor Henshaw who had shot dead the assassin.

Were they really on Sarah’s side?

Shots rang out from behind them, only just missing them as they managed to turn a corner. Then they passed Doctor Henshaw’s room and the American man still holding his nine millimetre automatic handgun in one hand and some kind device in the other.

“Charlene” the American man shouted, “Get her to safety and get this powered up” he added handing doctor Henshaw the strange device.

Doctor Henshaw holstered her gun and took the strange device whilst still holding firmly onto Sarah
“Simon’s idea?” Doctor Henshaw questioned
“Yes, just like you did before in the other timeline” the American man shouted back as he was momentarily fired his gun round the corner at who know who.
“Where do you want to go?” Doctor Henshaw hurriedly asked
The American man pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Doctor Henshaw. Sarah could not quite see what was on it, but it looked like a bunch of numbers.
“These are the co-ordinates” the American man yelled and fired more shots at whoever was coming down the corridor, “Now get her the hell out of her” he added
“I’ll take her down to the Atlas detector, it has a secure door” Doctor Henshaw replied as she started leading Sarah round another corner and along the corridor to another exterior door.

Sarah was now totally confused. It was obvious that this Doctor Henshaw and the American man were working together. It also seemed like the American man was in command, but she had thought all along that he was in league with those who had killed her brother. Now it seemed that they were on her side trying to protect her. What was going on?

Then she remembered back to when Derek was shot in front of her. The driver of the black mini who had knocked over that motorcycle assassin. It had not been a normal crash – it had been a deliberate act to save her

Sarah had so many questions, but with people shooting at her, they would have to wait.

Just as they reached the other external door Sarah saw two other men approaching it. Both were wearing black motorcycle helmets and carrying machine pistols.

“S**t” Doctor Henshaw swore and pulled Sarah back the way they came.

Sarah heard a large bang and there seemed to be a blinding flash, followed by gunfire, both from the American man’s pistol and full automatic fire from the assassins.

They reached the corner where the American man was. “I thought I told you to get her to safety” he yelled at Doctor Henshaw
“There’s another clean up squad coming in the other door” Doctor Henshaw retorted, “Can we get through the other way”
“I sent down a flash grenade” the American shouted back, “but that won’t hold them off”

“So this was it”, Sarah thought. The only two exits from this building were blocked by the motor cycle assassins who were closing in on them.

“My office sir” Doctor Henshaw shouted.

“They will be here before the generator is working” the American man shouted back
“Trust me Sam” Doctor Henshaw said with determination, “I have a little souvenir from Karam Tag Chou I never thought I would use up”

Doctor Henshaw pushed Sarah into her office and let go of her while the American man changed the clip on his automatic pistol. The sound of automatic gunfire was getting closer. Sarah wondered how many people were being murdered by these assassins.

“Got it” Doctor Henshaw announced and produced a strange disk of some green crystal. It was inscribed with strange writing Sarah had never seen before.

“A disc of dimension door?” the American man said with surprise as he looked at it.

Sarah had no idea what they were talking about, how could such an insignificant piece of jewellery help them?

Doctor Henshaw whispered, “I just hope this still works” and then chanted something in a language Sarah had never heard before.

The disc in Doctor Henshaw’s hand crumbled to ash, there was a sound of rushing wind and suddenly in front of them a swirling vortex appeared just in front of the wall.

“What the hell is that” Sarah screamed

“Our way out” Doctor Henshaw shouted at Sarah, then turning to the American man, “Are you coming sir”
“Take her” the American man instructed Doctor Henshaw, “Send her to the co-ordinates and if I don’t make it tell her about this” At this the American man tossed over to Doctor Henshaw a strange talisman that Sarah had never seen before.

“What about you sir” Doctor Henshaw asked
“I have to try and deactivate this clean up squad” he yelled, “I just hope whoever reactivated them did not change the finger on trigger stand down codes”

Again this conversation went over Sarah’s head, but she was more worried about the strange swirling vortex in front of her. Was this a new weapon her brother had discovered? Was this vortex the secret that people were being killed for?

Suddenly Doctor Henshaw grabbed Sarah and pushed her through this swirling vortex.

As Sarah fell through what ever it was it seemed like she was going through a swirling tunnel of light, she also noticed that doctor Henshaw was coming through this tunnel with her

Sarah then looked back in the direction she was falling and it looked like another vortex similar to the one she had been pushed through, but this had a light in the middle

Then Sarah tumbled onto a floor as she landed in front of yet another swirling vortex. Doctor Henshaw came out of the vortex but unlike Sarah, she seemed to have the knack of travelling through them and so was able to end up on her feet, still carrying the strange device the American man had given her.

The vortex subsided into nothing and Sarah was alone with this Doctor Henshaw.
For a moment Sarah was stunned, shocked by how she had travelled from an office under siege, to where ever this place was

Doctor Henshaw reached down a hand to Sarah to help her get up. Sarah grabbed it and Doctor Henshaw pulled Sarah to her feet.

For the first time Sarah looked up at where she had landed, and was in awe at the sight that greeted her. She seemed to be at the bottom of some giant cavern looking up at a massive machine that looked like a giant disc on its side with what appeared to be pipes and walkways around it.

Doctor Henshaw let go of Sarah’s hand and Sarah continued to stare up at the massive machine this filled the enormous cavern.

“What is this?” Sarah was only just able to get out.
“Sarah Bentley, Welcome to the Atlas detector for the LHC” Doctor Henshaw replied, “It’s where we collide protons and other things, looking for the Higgs boson”

“Is this why my brother died” Sarah asked accusingly pointing up at the machine, “Or was it that thing we came through, what ever that was”

“Sarah” Doctor Henshaw said firmly, “the Atlas detector here is well documented and publicised all over the world wide web. There’s no big secret about it, you can even take a virtual tour of this facility on the web. As for how we got here, well that was just a dimension door spell” Doctor Henshaw continued “I used a one shot relic I picked up from” Just then Doctor Henshaw stopped, paused and then went on, “I think I better let the Colonel, sorry Brigadier General, explain that one to you. I’m not sure how much we are allowed to tell minor spirits of their true origins”

“What?” Sarah repeated and then thought for a moment, “My brother had your twitter ID written down and someone murdered him, why”

Before Doctor Henshaw could reply there was the same rushing wind as when the vortex formed a few moments ago in doctor Henshaw’s office

Sarah saw Doctor Henshaw shake her head and saying how she did not believe what she was seeing, before turning to Sarah and yelling, “RUN!” and pointing in the direction of some steps up to another level

Sarah turned and ran as best as she could and ran up the metal staircase got to the top and turned left. There was a short tunnel with metal cabinets on the right hand side and red cupboards on the left.

“Get to the main lift” Doctor Henshaw shouted.

Sarah headed down the tunnel at speed passing more cabinets on the left and metal bins on the right, and came to a dark heavy door.

Sarah tried the handle but it seemed stiff.

Doctor Henshaw caught up and opened the door and pushed Sarah through it before going through herself. It was another well lit tunnel and Doctor Henshaw led Sarah through under a blue rectangular archway right up to an old style industrial lift.

Doctor Henshaw hit the lift call button and started repeating, “Come on”, but the lift did not seem to be responding

“What wrong with this thing” Doctor Henshaw said in disbelief as she kept hitting the lift button
“What’s going on?” Sarah demanded to know

“This is the lift to the surface” Doctor Henshaw explained, “It’s beginning to look like they’ve disabled it to trap us down here or something like that”

Then they heard someone opening the heavy door they had come through. Sarah tried the handle of a door next to the lift but it was locked so Doctor Henshaw pulled Sarah over to a wall of a short corridor to the right of the lift so they were not in the line of any fire, and handed Sarah the talisman that the American man had given her. “This is yours” she told Sarah, “You would have had it three and a half years ago if we had been able to find you”. Doctor Henshaw then took out her handgun and cocked it ready for firing.

Sarah took the talisman and put it on. Somebody had definitely been withholding information from her but what?

Doctor Henshaw leaned around the corner and fired her gun in the direction of the Detective inspector and then ducked back behind the wall as they heard the sound of full automatic fire coming back at them

The firing ceased and the voice of Detective Inspector Halsall shouted out “Doctor Henshaw, Throw down your weapons and surrender. You’re not the only one with access to what Mr Reed calls Reversed engineered Eye-Dee-Double-you oh one artefacts, whatever they are. We have you out gunned and we have this entire site under lockdown. If you don’t surrender we are prepared to deep clean the entire complex if we have to”

“So you would kill everybody at CERN then” Doctor Henshaw shouted back
“If National Security demanded it I would kill my own mother Doctor Henshaw” the voice of Detective Inspector shouted, “Now toss out your gun and come out here both of you with your hands up. I’m not a patient man, and if I don’t have you in my custody, when the other clean up crew arrives down here in that lift, well you get the picture Doctor Henshaw”

“S**t” Doctor Henshaw swore again
“I’m going to give myself up” Sarah announced; “Please I don’t want anymore people to die” she sobbed.

“If you do that Sarah, they will either kill you or experiment on you” Doctor Henshaw said to Sarah firmly grabbing her arm.
“But why?” Sarah asked, “What’s going on?”
“All I can tell you” Doctor Henshaw whispered, “Is that your parents were not your biological parents Sarah. You were adopted by them when you were a baby”

Sarah shook her head in disbelief, “No” she repeated

“I’m afraid so” Doctor Henshaw went on, “After your parents had your brother, your adopted mother was told that if she had any more children it would kill her so they adopted you. Obviously they never got to tell you or your brother as he was three at the time and his memory was erased to protect you”
“No! No! Sarah repeated, “I don’t believe it”
“It’s true Sarah, your parents were protecting you” Doctor Henshaw went on, “That’s why they probably never told you or your brother. They wanted you to live a normal life as if you were fully human”

“We’re waiting” Shouted Detective Inspector Halsall, “That other team are on their way down in the lift as we speak”
“Go out there and think of their guns” Doctor Henshaw instructed Sarah
“What do you mean fully human?” Sarah asked
“GO!” Doctor Henshaw said emphatically, ignoring Sarah’s question
“Ok” Sarah replied and crept round the corner to face her initial nemesis, Detective Inspector Halsall with her hands raised.

Beside him stood one of the motorcycle assassins, holding a machine pistol

“So there you are you little piece of S**t” the detective growled, “As far as everyone is concerned your just a gangster moll, a drug dealer who bumped off her own waster junkie brother”
“I never did drugs” Sarah said tearfully, “Neither did Trevor”
“I don’t care” the detective sneered
Sarah took out the memory stick she had been carrying, “Please take this” she offered, “I don’t know what my brother found”
“Not interested love” Halsall sneered and lifted up his gun, “My employer thinks your something. Personally I think you and your brother are scum” Then the detective took on a sarcastic tone “It’s such a pity but I tried to take you alive, but you know how these things go, maybe it was that other clean up squad who took you out, fog of war and all that cr*p. As they say Miss Bentley, these things happen”

Sarah stared at Detective Inspector Halsall’s gun as he pointed it at Sarah’s head and for a moment time went into slow motion.

Detective Inspector Halsall pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire. Like the assassin’s gun several moments ago, it jammed!

“What the” Halsall said angrily as he instinctively examined his gun to try and un-jam it

Just then two shots rang out from behind her and Detective Inspector Halsall collapsed onto the floor dead.
The other assassin aimed his submachine pistol at Sarah, but his gun jammed as well. Another shot rang out and he too fell down dead.

Sarah turned round and saw Doctor Henshaw holstering her gun and coming towards her.

“What happened?” Sarah asked weakly, “Their guns?”

Doctor Henshaw seemed to ignore her and went straight to the dead assassin and removed something from his body before picking up his machine pistol, next she went to the dead police officer and removed something from his body.
“We need to get their ID so they can’t be identified” Doctor Henshaw told Sarah, “We have to maintain containment”

Sarah wanted to ask this Doctor Henshaw what was going on, but somehow the shock at what she had witnessed somehow stopped her from speaking.

Doctor Henshaw went back to the lift where she had put the strange device retrieved it and came back to Sarah. “You are going to have to trust me Sarah” Doctor Henshaw told Sarah
“What do you mean not fully human?” Sarah squeaked out, but before Doctor Henshaw could answer there was the sound of the lift moving and again

Doctor Henshaw swore. “We have to get out of here” Doctor Henshaw told Sarah as she thrust the strange device into Sarah’s hand. “Carry this” Doctor Henshaw ordered and ushered Sarah away past the dead bodies of the assassin and the detective inspector back to the heavy door.

As they got through the door, Sarah heard the lift door open in the distance and as Doctor Henshaw pulled the door shut, there was the sound of bullets hitting the other side of the door.

Sarah and Doctor Henshaw continued to run back along the short tunnel into the main chamber where the Atlas detector was.

“Over there” Doctor Henshaw screamed and pointed round the corner to another lift Sarah ran along the walkway dodging over hanging wires as Doctor Henshaw followed behind. Sarah reached the lift and pressed the lift button hoping it would be called.

Sarah turned back the way to see Doctor Henshaw following her and firing at the entrance to the side tunnel with the submachine pistol she had taken from the assassin. Somehow the gun was no longer jammed.

Sarah heard the doors of the lift open and she turned back to look at it.

It was empty.

Doctor Henshaw shoved Sarah into the lift hit the button for level four, before turning and releasing another burst of gunfire out of the lift door in the direction of what seemed to be two armed figures in commando uniforms and balaclavas.

As soon as the doors of the lift closed Doctor Henshaw made Sarah get onto the floor of the lift and she did likewise. Next Sarah heard the sounds of bullets hitting the closed lift door, with some penetrating and hitting where she had just been standing.

“After we get out the lift we need to head for the exit from the detector hall” Doctor Henshaw instructed Sarah hurriedly
“Who are they?” Sarah whined, “What did I do?”

“It’s a clean up squad” Doctor Henshaw replied
“A what?” Sarah bleated

“It’s a special black ops unit” Doctor Henshaw explained, “recruited from the cream of Special Forces their job was to ensure certain things don’t leak out and clean up when other black ops go pear shaped”

“What’s a black ops?” Sarah asked, she had briefly heard Trevor once use the term, but had never understood it.

“Highly secret and possibly illegal military operations” Doctor Henshaw gabbled out, “which our governments carry out from time to time”

“So my brother’s murder was done by one of these black-ops” Sarah said in disbelief

“Not an officially sanctioned one” Doctor Henshaw muttered as the door to the lift opened.

Doctor Henshaw then guided Sarah along the catwalks a short distance, passed a diagram of the Atlas detector until they came to what looked like a blue fire door. In the near distance Sarah heard the sound of people climbing up metal stairs, presumably the clean up squad as Doctor Henshaw had termed it.

Sarah still wanted to know why Doctor Henshaw had said she was not fully human, but somehow when you are running for your life; it probably would not be classed as important in the grand scheme of things.

The pair of them went through the blue door into a white tunnel which had wires and fluorescent lights in the middle of the ceiling. They ran along the tunnel and took a sharp right as the tunnel turned ninety degrees.

They passed a red metal gate style door, which Doctor Henshaw slammed shut and they came into what looked like some factory floor, with blue cages containing cylinders on the left and in front a green set of stairs and another white tunnel similar to the one they had just ran through.

Doctor Henshaw held up her arm to stop Sarah just as she reached a red cylinder on the wall that held a fire hose, whilst Doctor Henshaw peeked round the corner.

“Clear” she shouted and dragged Sarah towards and through a black door to a lift door.

Doctor Henshaw pressed a button and again started repeating the words “Come on” as the lift this time started into life.

“Get to the side” Doctor Henshaw instructed Sarah and trained the machine pistol at the lift door.

Sarah moved to one side, so she was not in the immediate arc of fire should the lift be occupied.

The lift doors opened.

It was empty

Doctor Henshaw ushered Sarah into the lift and once again ordered her to get on the floor of it and she hit the button to go to the surface.

The lift doors closed agonisingly slowly, and just as they finally closed Sarah thought she heard the arrival of the clean up squad, but she could not be sure.

The lift door opened and Doctor Henshaw pulled Sarah to her feet and they came across a set of blue double doors. Doctor Henshaw used some white card which she waved near a sensor and the door opened so the two of them went through into what looked like a large shed, with the main door open

There standing in the middle of the floor was the phoney police surgeon, wearing a tweed jacket and a fedora hat accompanied by another man in commando uniform, carrying a submachine gun.

The two men turned around to face Sarah and Doctor Henshaw. The commando tried to raise his weapon, but Doctor Henshaw was quicker on the draw and he fell to the floor dead.

The phoney police surgeon stood there and raised his hands, “I believe you have me at a disadvantage Doctor Henshaw” the phoney police surgeon said in his Etonian accent.

“You” Doctor Henshaw said angrily, “We should have known it was you Mr Reed”

“But, he was the man who got me out of Bury Police Station” Sarah spoke up, “and then he shot a female police officer”
“Yeah, well Sarah, he was once head of Containment Services when the British ran what we called Inter-Dimensional Entity Control from London”

“What was that?” Sarah asked

“So you have not explained everything to Lucy here” the phoney police surgeon said in a matter of fact manner.

“My name’s Sarah, not Lucy” Sarah said with confusion in her voice

The phoney police surgeon for a moment looked surprised, “So you haven’t told her that either”, very remiss of you Doctor Henshaw”
“Told me what” Sarah demanded to know

“It’s simple really” the phoney police surgeon went on, “When you were born, your human mother named you Lucy before she was deep cleaned by my section. But before we got to her, she had had you adopted out and it seems your name was changed. No wonder we could never find you until now, otherwise you would have been deep cleaned then as well”

Sarah shook her head, “I don’t understand. Has my life been one big lie?”

“These are mind games Sarah” Doctor Henshaw told Sarah angrily, “So your parents adopted you, so what? Your life has been no more of a lie than any other child that has been adopted by another family” Then Doctor Henshaw walked towards the police surgeon with her machine pistol raised, “You never did get over the fact that the British had to cede authority to the Americans did you”

“Why did you want to kill me as a baby?” Sarah then asked, “And why did you say human mother. Doctor Henshaw what did you mean I’m not fully human?”

“It was policy back then” the phoney police surgeon replied, again in a chilling matter of fact manner, “All inter dimensional entities and half breeds were to be subject to incarceration, interrogation and extermination. It was a policy that kept us safe. It was a policy that would never have allowed your own mentor Professor Frank Graves from siding with that Magnus Timor cult, or had you forgotten that Doctor Henshaw” he added pointedly

Sarah saw Doctor Henshaw shake her head in disgust, “Don’t throw that at me you b*****d, had I known what my supervisor was doing I would have stopped him earlier than I did”

“It’s all immaterial anyway” the phoney police surgeon went on, “My employer”

“Your employer?” Doctor Henshaw interrupted

“My employer” the phoney police surgeon persisted, “Has plans for you”

Just then from behind them came three men in commando style uniforms armed with Kalashnikov rifles which they pointed at Doctor Henshaw and Sarah

The clean up squad had arrived

“Drop it Doctor” the lead commando of the clean up squad ordered.

“You are out gunned Doctor Henshaw” the phoney police surgeon told her, again with no emotion in his voice, “I suggest you do as he says”

“Why?” Doctor Henshaw challenged, “You’re going to kill us anyway, it’s what scum like you get off on isn’t it”

There was the sound of three guns being made ready to fire.

Doctor Henshaw shook her head and dropped the machine pistol on the floor with a clang.

“And if you would be so kind as to give me your side arm” the phoney police surgeon pressed

Doctor Henshaw glowered at the police surgeon and handed over her hand gun.

“How do you want us to do this sir” one of the commandos asked
“How do you normally execute a deep clean on a target at close quarters like this” the phoney police surgeon
“A number of ways sir” the commando replied “In set ups like this; we can shoot them or use garrottes”
“What would you prefer?” the phoney police surgeon asked
“Garrottes sir” the commando replied, “less blood to clear up and to me it makes it more real sir”
“I see you enjoy killing don’t you” the commando replied

Sarah saw the man nod

“Garrottes it is then” the police surgeon replied, “Guns can be so messy”
“You B******ds” Doctor Henshaw swore

The commandos walked up to Sarah and Doctor Henshaw and forced them to their knees and tied their hands behind their backs with plastic ties.

“It’s nothing personal mam” one of the commandos told Doctor Henshaw
“It never is with you b*****ds” Doctor Henshaw replied

All Sarah could do was cry. All her running had been for nothing. All the people who had been murdered had been for nothing. She would now die at the hands of some one from Special Forces, strangled to death on the orders of the government.

Sarah felt a loop of some material looped around her neck, by the commando behind her.

“Get ready men” one of the commandoes ordered

Sarah felt the garrotte tighten, but not yet enough to choke her. She closed her eyes, ready to have her life extinguished

“On a count of three” the commando continued

“One”

BANG
BANG
BANG

The garrottes fell loose as the three commandos fell down dead.

Sarah looked up. The phoney police surgeon had shot all three remaining members of the clean up squad dead, just as they were about to be executed.

Was this why he had asked them to use garrottes, so they would not be holding their guns

“You murdered your own clean up squad, why?” Doctor Henshaw said accusingly

“My employer had specific instructions, and anyway if you look you your right” the phoney police surgeon said in response, “You will see his change of plan”

As Sarah looked to her right she could see a red dot appear in thin air and move towards them. As it moved it grew in size, until it was a swirling mass of red.

“What the?” Doctor Henshaw began.
“It’s simple Doctor” the phoney police surgeon shouted above the sound of the vortex, “Minor spirits of virtue if you know how, can be quite easy to track and lock onto”

What did he mean minor spirit of virtue

The swirling vortex got closer and closer

“Get to your feet fast and run” Doctor Henshaw whispered to Sarah, “We’ve seen this before”

Sarah spotted that the Phoney police surgeon’s attention was distracted by the vortex.

Sarah decided to take the chance and moved one of her feet forward from how she was kneeling, and got to her feet and started to run as best as she could.

“STOP” Yelled the phoney police surgeon.

Sarah turned around. The phoney police surgeon was pointing a gun right at Sarah. Just then while the phoney police surgeon was distracted, Doctor Henshaw got to her feet and ran into the phoney police surgeon knocking him over.

Sarah noticed that the red swirling vortex coming towards her and tried to shout a warning, but it was too late, the vortex swallowed Doctor Henshaw whole and then a moment later; it was gone.

For a moment Sarah stood there transfixed.

Yet another person who had tried to help her had ended up dead!

The police surgeon rolled over and regained his gun and got to his feet and walked towards Sarah, “You my little lady are now surplus to requirement, now my employer has captured the good doctor” he told Sarah, “Sometimes I think the old ways are best. Incarcerate, Interrogate and best of all”

The phoney police surgeon brought his gun up and pointed it at Sarah’s head and cocked the gun, “exterminate” he said with venom

BANG!!

The phoney police surgeon dropped the gun and then fell forward. Sarah was just able to get out of his way.

In from the main front door came the American man still holding his gun accompanied by two armed men in commando uniforms identical to the clean up squad members that the phoney police surgeon had killed.
“Where’s Doctor Henshaw”?” The American man asked
“Please” Sarah pleaded, “I don’t know. This swirling red whirlpool thing came along and took her”
“Damn” the American swore. He holstered his gun and pulled out a knife and approached Sarah.

Sarah was terrified of this American as he looked angry and looked like her was going to stab her with the knife and so she sank to her knees again pleading for him to not kill her, but instead he just cut the cable tie from her hands, and gently helped her to her feet and asked if she was ok.

Sarah reached into her purse, which by luck she was still carrying and pulled out the memory stick and offered it to the American, “Please, I swear I don’t know what’s on this” she wept, “I have no idea what my brother found”

The American took the memory stick and placed it in his pocket, “Probably nothing that we couldn’t have debunked or discredited” the American replied, “From what we were able to monitor your brother came across files saying that something a lot of people thought was a hoax may not have been. Like most conspiracy theorists your brother probably missed the story by a wide mark.”

“So why did you have him killed” Sarah sobbed, “Why were you trying to kill me? We were only trying to keep our house from being repossessed. We weren’t a threat to anyone”

The American shook his head, “Miss Bentley, it wasn’t us that ordered the hit. Sarah some months ago we got intel, that certain members of a specialist unit”

“Doctor Henshaw said they were some kind of deep clean squad thing” Sarah interrupted briefly

“Yeah ok” the American continued, “Well we got this intel that persons unknown had reactivated a clean up squad for their own purposes. It took us a while to get some form of intercept to monitor what they were doing in a hope of finding out who was pulling their strings. Luckily the ones here that came into the surface still responded to the finger on trigger stand down codes”

Sarah looked down at the dead bodies and in particular the one of the phoney police surgeon.

“Yeah” the American spoke up, “I wish I hadn’t had to shoot him. I don’t think he was the one pulling the strings, but he could have led me to whoever was”

“So what was this big secret” Sarah persisted, “What did my brother find?”

“Like I said” the American went on, “It wasn’t anything he thought he found, as I said we have enough dis-info operatives that would have undermined any so-called secret he found. No, the real big secret, which we don’t believe he found, but was why the clean up squad came to your house, was you”

“Me?” Sarah asked still confused, “I don’t understand” she said in a state of shock, “First Doctor Henshaw said I was adopted, and my name is not Sarah but Lucy”

“Lucy Sanders to be precise” The American interrupted, “After your birth mother Tracy Sanders”

Sarah continued, “Well Doctor Henshaw and this b*****d”, she went on, pointing at the body of the phoney police surgeon, “said I wasn’t even human, like I’m some kind of alien”

Sarah looked up at the American man, and his expression seemed to indicate that he believed this as well.

“You’re mostly human” The American replied after a long pause.
“What?” Sarah repeated in disbelief.

The belief by these people that she was not a human being made her feel that they thought she was some second class citizen if that. Someone to be looked down upon with revulsion and possible killed.

“So does this mean I’m subhuman?” Sarah demanded to know

The American sighed and shook his head, “No Sarah, it doesn’t” then he went on, “Your biological father was what some might call an alien”

Sarah shook her head, “No, your wrong, my father was as human as you are. He was a kind and”
“No Sarah” the American man interrupted, “That was your adoptive father. Your biological father was what we called a major spirit of virtue or the essence of a human virtue that has taken on human form.”
“And my mother?” Sarah asked with disbelief, “was she one of these spirit things too?”
“No Sarah, She was definitely human” The American man continued, “I’m not sure if she even knew your father was not human, a lot of these major spirits of virtue posed as humans and never told their partners”
“So was that why they wanted to kill me?” Sarah asked, “Because I’m some kind of half breed alien freak?”

The American man nodded, “Sarah, you are what we call a minor spirit of virtue, which means you have human DNA as you have a human parent”

“So why am I only partly human then” Sarah objected

“You don’t have a human soul Sarah. That would make you fully human” The American man explained, “instead you have an innate special ability related to the virtue you represent which works at a low grade level. Most minor spirits are rarely able to control them, even if they are aware of them, which most like you aren’t”

Sarah shook her head again. Her brother was in a morgue, somewhere back in England, her soul mate Shaun was lying dead, and they were now denying her humanity. It was getting more than she could get her head around.

“So if I am one of these minor spirits” Sarah asked as she looked up at the American man with tears in her eyes, “what spirit of virtue am I”

“Luck” the American man replied
“What does that mean?” Sarah asked

“Sarah” The American man went on, “You have the ability to affect probability, mostly in your favour”

Sarah turned away from the American and walked a few steps away from him, thinking back to her childhood, she remembered something that made sense and turned back to the American man. “When I was a child” she began, “My brother never liked to play snakes and ladders with me because I always won. In fact we never really played any board games because he accused me of cheating, when I didn’t”

“If you pardon the expression Sarah, you probably affected the dice by altering probability” the American man replied

“And that clean up squad member’s gun in the corridor which jammed just after he killed Shaun” Sarah challenged, her voice cracking with emotion, ”Was that me?”

The American man looked at the ground and then back at Sarah, “That would have been your power, affecting probability so his gun jammed just at the right time”
“Down there” Sarah then said pointing back towards the lift, “Doctor Henshaw got me to think of the guns of the other clean up squad member and that police officer, and they jammed too”

“She probably guessed that would happen” The American man replied

Sarah thought for the moment, as she thought about how her life had been and of the last few days. Was it sheer chance that she had gone into Manchester that night the clean-up squad killed her brother? Was it sheer chance that she had seen Lauren on the streets of Ramsbottom or come to think of it, the fact she got a taxi driver at all? Shaun had said that in coming to CERN from Geneva that getting the public transport to line up just so was lucky. Was that her all along?

But as she thought about it, this ability seemed to be double edged; it had cost so many lives thanks to the relentless clean up squad trying to eliminate her.

Why could she not be normal?

“I don’t want this power” Sarah announced, “Is there anyway I can get rid of it? I don’t want to hurt anyone sir. Even if it means you have to kill me or lock me up” at this she broke down at the thought that she might be a danger to all she knew because of some ability she never asked for or wanted.

The American man came over and held Sarah in his arms, as if her were a father comforting a child. “You can” he whispered. Then he removed the talisman that Sarah was wearing around her neck.

“Hold this in your hand Sarah and wish to be fully human” he instructed as he presented it back to her, “And if that is truly your hearts desire, you will be stripped of your powers, gain your human soul and become fully human”

Sarah took the talisman in her hand and looked at. It looked like something you could buy in one of the New Age shops she had seen in Bury or Manchester.

“Just a word of warning” the American man interrupted, “It will make you pass out for a few moments, but don’t worry, I won’t let you fall”

For a moment Sarah was alarmed at this news. Did she or should she trust this American man? Then she looked into his eyes, in there, she could almost discern pain and loss, just like her, although she had no idea why. Sarah got the feeling, that this man could be trusted, and anyway, he had saved her life on more than one occasion.

Sarah held the talisman firmly in her right hand and said out loud, “I wish to be fully human, I do not want to be some alien spirit thing”

Before she could continue from the talisman a ball of yellow light erupted and then expanded quickly engulfing her.

For a moment a brief wave of panic went over her, but then the base of large yellow ball of light slowly lifted and it became a ring of light which lifted above Sarah, and a feeling of calmness swept over her as she found herself fixated by the sight.

Suddenly the yellow ring fragmented into a ring of yellow stars which dispersed.

A white ball of light the size of a football formed in mid air above her and started to descend towards Sarah.

Suddenly Sarah noticed another white ball of light coming down towards her, but this other ball of light seemed to be the size of a tennis ball.

“Two souls?” Sarah thought she heard the American man say in disbelief

The larger ball stalled in mid air whilst the smaller ball raced down towards her and entered her abdomen. Something like a very mild electric shock quickly played over her whole body and then it was gone.

The larger white ball slowly descended upon Sarah, and then for Sarah everything went black…

+ + +

The Reflecting Pool
Washington DC
United States of America


(One Week later)

A woman in her late forties stood looking across the Reflecting pool as a man in his late fifties with a close cut haircut approached her. Both were wearing thick coats as it was cold that day in Washington.

“Glad you made it back from Europe Samuel” the woman opened with, “Did you have any problems getting Sarah out of Switzerland? I understand the British have an international arrest warrant out for her, not to mention all those CERN employees killed on Swiss soil”
“Well it would have been nice if the current assistant director of the NSA could have arranged for Miss Bentley to be cleared with the British authorities Kathryn”
“You know we can’t do that Samuel” the lady countered, “The new administration in Britain has not been read in to our dealings with IDW01, and since we can not longer go there, nor they come here, there did not seem a lot of point in doing that”
“That’s BS and you know it Kathryn” The man said with mild anger in his voice, “It’s just like three years ago when they closed us down over night citing budget cuts. You rolled over on that one pretty fast Kathryn, was that because your mentor had this NSA job lined up for you?”
“That’s unfair Samuel,” the lady snapped back, “The problem was that as we lost access to IDW01, the joint chiefs did not see any point in us going on, and I’m afraid to say that your account of the other timeline gave our enemies all the ammunition they needed. You were lucky that none of you were arrested as some asked, especially Celeste”
“Short sited if you ask me Kathryn” the man retaliated, “We saved Earth then and Celeste was key to that victory”

“Well it’s all ancient history now Samuel” the woman sighed “Anyway, so how did you get Sarah out of Switzerland?”
“I called in an old favour in the State Department Kathryn” the man replied, “They gave us diplomatic passage, the CERN deaths will be blamed on Al-Qaida”
“Really Samuel, That’s inventive, and I thought you were going to use the wormhole generator you borrowed as a transporter” the woman challenged, “Just like you claimed you did in that alternate timeline”
“Well I had hoped Charlene would have helped set it up” the man sighed, “But whoever was pulling the strings got to her first”

“From your report Samuel” the lady went on, “It sounds very much like whomever it was, is running an artificial parallel universe just like Sir Sidney did three years ago”

“Except he’s long gone” the man countered, “Mark made sure that his empire was broken up and placed in the hands of British and American security agencies, and all notes and specs sent to IDEC headquarters in Washington”
“Are you saying this could have been an inside job Samuel?” the woman asked with some concern
“Well someone must have access to those files since neither of us don’t” the man answered
“Since you and Mark both retired from the Marine corps”
“Like we had a choice Kathryn?” the man asked, “Even Mark’s job at the Pentagon was so people could keep an eye on him, they put him in an impossible position so he was forced out, that’s some thanks that is”

“I’m sorry that it did not quite pan out for Colonel Johnston” the lady said with a determined voice, “Getting back to the matter in hand it looks like we have to wait for them to make the first move if we hope to find out what happened to Charlene” the lady observed.

“Assuming she’s still alive” the man remarked

A number of tourists came up to where they were standing so the lady and the man started to walk around the Reflecting Pool to avoid their conversation being overheard.

“Getting back to the girl, I saw your preliminary report Samuel about that second ball of light during her ensoulment ” the lady went on, “Is it confirmed?” she asked
The man seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, “Yes Kathryn, Sarah is in the early stages of pregnancy”

“And the father?” the lady asked
“Human, the late Shaun Chapman” the man replied, “My guess is that the luck power she had increased the chance of conception beyond normal. She says she and Shaun Chapman only had sex twice”
“Although theoretically Samuel” the lady interrupted, “Once can be enough”

“But not that probable” the man countered
“Touché Samuel” the lady replied, “I trust you are arranging for that to be fixed”

The man stopped and gave a steely gaze at the lady in her forties, “No Kathryn, that’s not gonna happen”
“You can’t seriously expect that we will allow her to keep it” the woman said with a tone of annoyance in her voice.

“I thought you believed in a woman’s right to chose Kathryn” the man said with determination
“I do Samuel?” she asked
“Well as soon as she found out she was pregnant she chose to keep it Kathryn” the man went on, “It’s Shaun Chapman’s child and she wants to keep it as that’s all she has left of him. Kathryn, she’s seen enough death and she just wants to bring a new life into this world. Plus Kathryn, it’s only fair as I was told to use her as bait to try and get hold of whoever was behind the clean-up squad reactivations”
“You didn’t tell her that did you?” the lady asked
“Give me a break Kathryn” the man answered back

The lady shook her head, “But she’s not even eighteen Samuel” the lady protested

“She’s keeping it” the man persisted.

The lady glowered at the man before relenting, “Very well Samuel, although I don’t think it’s a good idea, even for normal people being a single mother is hard”

“Well she will get help Kathryn” the man replied, “I’ve made sure of that”
“I bet you have Samuel, but she’s not Andrea” The lady snapped back

The lady then stopped walking after she realised how she had invoked the name of the man’s long dead daughter, who had been killed by a drunk driver way back in 1998. “Sorry Samuel, that was uncalled for” she apologised, “Ok, so where have you sent her?” the lady asked

“Somewhere safe Kathryn” the man replied
“And you’re not going to let me know where they are?” The lady asked
“With all due respect Kathryn” the man went on, “The less people know the safer she is until we get the dirt-bag who was behind this all and that’s all you need to know. If anyone from Homeland Security asks Kathryn, she’s fully human now, she no longer has any special abilities and she, and her baby do not pose any risk to national security, and if that is not enough for them tell them to speak to me”
“I think they probably will Samuel” the lady responded
“Tell them I’m waiting Kathryn” the man said icily

The lady started walking around the reflecting pool again as more tourists approached where she had been standing. “Samuel, do you think the person who had her brother killed will come after her again?” the lady asked
“I doubt it somehow Kathryn, why would whoever activated that clean-up squad have any interest in her now? She no longer has any abilities and doesn’t know anything about the IDW01, I was careful to avoid mentioning it to her. Her biological father is dead as far as we know”
“Was he one of those executed by the Lord Low Troll?”
“I think he was killed in their civil war” the man answered, “But does it really matter, I think I managed to encourage her to despise him for what he did to her and her biological mother”

“Even so Samuel” the woman went on, “If it was still my call, I would be recommending a termination of that pregnancy. It makes things simpler”
“Well it’s not your call Kathryn” the man said assertively, “I believe she will be a good mother Kathryn, just like Andrea would have done”

The lady cringed, her reference to the man’s dead daughter had hit a nerve, and he was now using it to retaliate. Anyway, maybe he had a point, there were many single moms across the US where the father was long gone, but this mother was once the offspring of an entity from a parallel universe, surely that must make a difference, but she knew that this man could be stubborn, just like her, which was why they had worked well together all those years ago.

The lady turned round to face the man and both stopped walking, “Well I hope you are right Samuel for her sake” the lady replied, “From what I hear she is quite a decent if somewhat naïve girl”
“No more naïve than you or I at her age” the man countered.

The lady sighed, “Well thank yop Samuel for coming out of retirement to do this one off covert assignment. If you are ever at a loose end, we could always do with good agents like you at the NSA”

“Nah” the man replied, “I think most of my time will be taken up as a surrogate grandfather”, with that man turned round and walked away.

The lady waited until he was out of sight and then pulled out her mobile and turned around and started walking. She dialled a number and started walking

The mobile was answered

“Sorry sir” the lady said into the phone, “He didn’t say where the girl is”

Someone responded on the phone

“No sir, I really don’t think she’s a threat to national security.” She said into the phone, “I have experience of former minor spirits of virtue sir, especially with Mazy Schneider and Rebecca Sands. Even your own people have assessed them as minimal risk if that.”

A further reply came over the mobile

“Well if you want to put a tail on the Brigadier General, that of course is your prerogative but I think you are wasting your time, plus I have to point out that whoever you pick has to be damn good. He can spot a tail a mile off.”

A further reply came over the mobile

“Yes sir” the lady replied and closed her phone, shaking her head as she headed for a black sedan that was waiting for her.

+ + +

Somewhere in the American Midwest

Sarah sat in a SUV listening to some local music station as she was being driven to what Brigadier General Samuel Peters had promised would be a new life in America, since returning to her home village of Tottington was no longer an option.

They had told her she could not return home, as she would still be wanted for the death of her brother. The only way out would be to somehow fake her death. Everyone in England would have to believe that she was murdered in some gang shootout in Moss Side, until it was safe to come home. Even then, people from her home village may still hold her responsible.

It seemed so unfair, but it was better than rotting in prison for s crime she did not commit because someone somewhere needed to keep the fact that a government agency hit squad had been hijacked a secret from the British government.

Brigadier General Samuel Peters had promised that they would get her personal effects shipped from her home in Tottington and arrange for all debts to be cleared, but it was not the same.

The SUV was being driven by some secret service person that hardly spoke to Sarah as she sat in the back. All she had been told was that as part of this new life, she would be staying for a while with a family who had experience of former spirits of minor virtues.

The radio station played a track by the pop star Dido. It was “My Lover’s Gone”

Youtube video

The song really hit home on Sarah and tear trickled down her cheek as she remembered her brother and her friends, who had been murdered by the Clean-up squad looking for her

She also thought of Shaun and wished she could have died with him just like in Romeo and Juliet, but no! Sarah would have to be strong, somehow after all someday she would want to tell his son or daughter what a brave kind and decent man their father was.

Sarah rubber her stomach and briefly a small smile crept over her face, she was looking forward to being a mother. Having a baby had to be one of the luckiest things to happen to her, considering all that had happened.

Sarah saw the house she would be staying in, come into view. It was huge. The SUV drove up to it and stopped outside. The driver got out and opened Sarah’s door.

“I’ll get your things mam” the driver told Sarah as she went blinking into the light out of the SUV.

A woman in her late twenties was coming down the path with a young boy of about three, who was following his mother. The woman was also pregnant and almost near to term. Maybe this was why Sarah was coming to stay with them. The one thing they would have in common was babies.

The woman approached Sarah and gave her a big hug, and then to Sarah surprise spoke in a Geordie accent, “Hello Sarah I’m Jenny, Jenny Johnston” she told Sarah, “My husband’s still at work at the moment. It’s going to be great having another Brit to talk to, even if you are a MANU fan”
The little boy waved his hand at Sarah, which for a moment made Sarah smile as she looked forward to being a mother herself. “Hello” Sarah said to the child and waved back

The woman took the little boy’s hand, “This is Jason, our son” she said with pride, and then patted her own stomach, “And this is the next one. Maybe in a year or so time we will try for a third child since Mark and I want a big family”

+ + +

A dark plane in an unknown artificial universe

Charlene Henshaw sat alone in her glass cell. It had everything for her physical needs including an en-suite bathroom. Periodically food would be delivered by a red wormhole.

She had lost track of how long she had been there. She had not been told why she was being detained and by whom

Suddenly just outside the cell she saw the tell tale sign of a red wormhole developing. Someone was coming into this artificial universe she was being held prisoner.

The wormhole grew and became full size.

Charlene saw a man in a suit coming through to speak to her.

As Charlene looked at him, a cold chill went down her spine. She had seen a photograph of this man. He was the nearest she had heard in recent times of evil personified and there was no way he should be here.

“Greetings Doctor Henshaw” the man said to Charlene in a British accent, “Sorry for the delay, but I was busy running my new empire on the QT. I do hope we can come to some accommodation”

Charlene looked straight at this man, “But you’re supposed to be dead” she said with horror

End of Implements of the State

This story arc be continued in
Season Eleven of the Mystical Realms Sagas
Sometime in the New Year

Assuming I get to do Season Eleven