Max & Olivia Box Set

by Mark A Biggs

  Claudia looked from the box then back to me.

  ‘What is this phone doing on the front?’ she said in an angry voice.

  ‘I have just triggered a mercury tilt switch,’ I said coolly. ‘It’s attached to explosives for which you can thank Inspector Axel. He, along with some of his men, is waiting outside. ‘This—sweetie—is how it’s going to work. You will release Olivia to Inspector Axel and, once I have proof that she is okay, I will open the box and the Janus Machine is yours. It’s all up to you now. We are willing to die along with Olivia but—if you want it—give her to Axel and I will open it. It will be yours! You still have to get away, but I assume you have made contingency plans for that.’

  ‘Sweetie, I have truly underestimated your tenacity. She’s in Elie. Do you have Inspector Axel’s number?’

  ‘I do,’ said Jana with some urgency. Reaching for his mobile phone and finding it missing he remembered it had been taken during the pat down. ‘One of your baboons has my phone.’

  Calmly, as if unfazed by the dwindling seconds, Claudia commanded, ‘Give him the phone.’

  Vladimir, who had remained standing beside Claudia, threw the phone to Jana who caught it and dialled Inspector Axel.

  ‘It’s Jana; there’s been a development. Hold the line.’ He handed the phone across to Claudia. She described the house where Olivia was and told him how to find and then disarm the ignition system.

  ‘You have less than eighteen minutes and don’t forget, Inspector, wave to the camera.’ After a short pause Claudia laughed before handing Jana back his phone.

  * * *

  Inspector Axel

  ‘I’ll do more than wave. If anything happens to either of them, no matter where you are or where you go, I will hunt you down.’

  She had already hung up with a laugh before I could finish my empty threats.

  ‘Colleen,’ I called to a young detective who was working with me. ‘You need to drive while I use the phone and radio. You have seventeen minutes to get us to Elie. ‘Come on; run.’

  She looked at me in mild confusion, as if unsure what to do.

  ‘Run to the car,’ I yelled.

  From our observation spot, where we had been watching the house, even sprinting, it took over a minute to reach the car. From the passenger seat I looked at my watch for the first time—by my best estimate, there were fifteen minutes and thirty seconds remaining.

  The car accelerated from where it had been hidden and jumped onto the road before speeding away. With Colleen driving furiously, I made a series of frantic phone calls. ‘She’s in a white house in Ferry Road,’ I shouted down the phone. ‘What do you mean it will take twenty minutes to get a car there? We don’t have twenty minutes. Think man, think, there must be something else you can do—’ were my last words before hanging up the phone. Watching out of the windscreen as the scenery sped past, we came up behind a slow moving truck.

  ‘Come on, come on—go round,’ I said aloud but more to myself. ‘Put the lights and bells on,’ I said heatedly.

  ‘You don’t have lights and sirens in this car,’ came Colleen’s edgy reply.

  ‘Toot the horn and flash your lights then, try and get past.’

  Colleen obliged but this seemed only to raise the ire of the occupant and the truck slowed even more. The road straightened but although it was two way, the width of the truck made seeing and passing difficult. Colleen stuck the nose of the car out from behind the truck, only to bring it swinging rapidly back in order to miss an oncoming vehicle. On the third attempt she pulled onto the wrong side of the road and accelerated our little buzz box, a 1.6 litre non turbo sedan. As the passenger side of the car cleared the truck, I could see that the road was clear but that the overtaking distance before the next corner was limited. Colleen changed down a gear and the engine screamed as we inched past. About halfway through the risky manoeuvre, a car appeared from around the corner. At the speed we were fast approaching each other it was closing rapidly; too late to brake—we were committed. Changing up gears, the car lurched forward and I could see Colleen desperately flashing the headlights as we careered towards the oncoming car. The approaching vehicle responded by flashing its lights, as if it were in a game of chicken. Colleen kept her foot buried into the foot well and we continued to increase speed as the distance between us and the approaching car narrowed. With less than a metre to go before impact, the truck moved rapidly to the left and our nemesis to the right. Colleen, without lifting her foot from the accelerator, went down the middle and the vehicles passed three abreast to the sound of our passenger side mirror being torn off by the truck.

  Once past, the conditions on the other side of the truck were almost perfect for racing; the road was dry and flat with gentle sweeping corners. The overtaking manoeuvre must have taken some of Colleen’s confidence as we slowed notably. Watching our progress I became more and more irritated.

  ‘Come on Colleen, put your foot down.’

  ‘Sorry sir, but we can’t help if we are dead.’ As she said this, another slow vehicle came into sight—another car to pass.

  ‘Okay you’re right—sorry. As fast as you can then.’

  Looking again at my watch I saw that there were only six minutes to go. I knew that we were not going to make it. A sense of nausea swept over me; here I was, helpless in the passenger seat of a car and there was nothing I could do. It was only going to be a matter of minutes; the difference between life and death but we were too far away and the task now impossible.

  * * *

  Max

  ‘Sweeties, eighteen minutes is such a long time when you’re waiting and we still have an agonising ten minutes to go. What shall we talk about next? I know. Tell me, Jana. Why can’t we find anything out about you? Other than going into Bellbird Village not long after Max and Olivia, you’re a mystery to us.’

  ‘Am I now?’ responded Jana. ‘I hope to keep it that way.’

  ‘Come now, if Max blows up the Janus Machine because our intrepid Inspector Axel can’t save Olivia, I may have to kill you. There’s no harm in telling us something. Oh and that name sweetie—Jana. It’s like something out of a B-grade movie. I’m surprised Olivia and Max weren’t onto you straight away. Janus is a Roman God and so is Jana—God of secrets and mysteries, no less. If my memory serves me well, the God was a woman. So, sweetie, a strange name to choose. Come on then, between friends—who are you really?’

  I could see Jana wondering if he should answer but, after a matter of only seconds, he said, ‘That’s the problem with you modern folk, if it’s not on a computer it didn’t happen. I’m there but on some old and dirty archived dossier, down in the bowels of a derelict building. After all of this time the notes have probably been destroyed.’

  ‘Who would have kept a dossier on you, sweetie?’

  ‘Well, that depends on which government you work for.’

  Sweetie, we don’t actually work for the government. We have—how would you describe it—more of a symbiotic relationship, a mutual understanding. For our services we get money laundered and cleaned, information, passports, assistance from time to time and protection. In return they get what it is they want.’

  ‘Which is?’ pressed Jana.

  ‘Sweetie, I see no harm in telling you because there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. We are all playing a part in a much bigger game. A plan to weaken NATO, Britain and the US alliance. No one wants a war because that’s not good for business but, by using some good old fashioned gun boat diplomacy and manipulating opportunities as they arise, the balance of power in Europe will change. There are invisible but well understood lines that are drawn on a map that can’t be crossed. The time is coming, however, to restore the old lines. The Bear is on the move.’

  ‘Russian Mafia working in cahoots with the Russian Government; I should have guessed,’ said Jana.

  ‘For Russia the timing is perfect,’ continued Claudia, ignoring Jana’s comments. ‘Flexing her muscles in this, a period
of unprecedented instability, she will take advantage of the impact of the Global Financial Crisis in Europe, the rise of Isis and the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and the Rise of China in Asia.

  ‘After the Global Financial Crisis, some of the economies in Europe are weak and, in particular, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Greece. If the EU wants to keep its common currency, they will have to lend to those countries; to Greece in particular, massive loans, worth billions, while demanding austerity measures in return. The people of Europe won’t want to loan those sums of money and the people in the receiving countries will think the austerity measures unfair. The first real cracks and, all of their own making, will begin to show in the European Union.

  ‘The Arab uprising, along with Isis, has the potential to destabilise much of the Middle East. Conflict has already flowed over into Syria. Because of fracking, America, in the future, won’t need to import oil from the Gulf; this makes the Middle East less important to them. With its navy facility in Syria at Tartus, Russia is always going to support the Syrian government and will be prepared to use its military assets to protect its interests. The West will be frightened of a direct conflict with Russia over Syria, while Russia pretends to be fighting with the US on a common enemy of Isis, all the while really shoring up its interests in Syria.’

  ‘The Syrian conflict and the fight with Isis has the potential to create the biggest refugee crisis the world has seen since WW2. Millions of refugees will flee to Europe. This will place the Union under extraordinary pressure, to the point where it could collapse.

  ‘Isis, like the Taliban before them, will declare a religious war—Islam against the West. Overwhelmed by immigration and with threats of terrorist attacks, Europe will become increasingly xenophobic and intolerant. Its citizens will demand their governments close the borders and stop the refugees, to stop the foreign invaders from coming in and taking over their country. For those European countries with a high Islamic population like Britain, France and Belgium, internal tensions and threats from home grown terrorists will make them look inwardly even more, further intensifying unrest within its population. The Euro Zone will squabble even more, torn between their individual state interests and that of the Union as a whole. Europe’s and NATO’s capacity to act collectively will be virtually destroyed.

  ‘While this is occurring, Russia will flex its muscles to unnerve Europe. The manoeuvring to redraw the old Cold War lines has begun.

  ‘The Ukraine joining NATO or the EU is out of the question. Russia will use the threat of this to destabilise the Ukraine peninsular; it will not use tanks but, with people fighting for their right to remain a part of Russia, it will then annex the Crimea for peace and security reasons. Russia will never give up Sevastopol, the home of Black Sea Fleet. NATO and the Yanks will jump up and down and squabble amongst themselves but they will do nothing.

  ‘Continuing to flex its muscles, Russia will blatantly tease European, Britain and the Scandinavian countries by sending fighters into their air space and by sailing ships and submarines through their waters. NATO, has dramatically cut its defence spending. This has pissed off the Yanks, who already think NATO is a scam of sponging countries. They will receive no sympathy from the USA.

  ‘As Uncle Sam finds itself drawn more and more towards Asia, with the rise of China and in particular the South China Sea, it will expect Europe to pull its own weight.

  ‘As the tensions between the US and China rise, Russia will increase its pressure by escalating its incursions into Europe. The Scandinavians and the other so-called neutral countries will become the first to capitulate and become more malleable to Russia’s wishes.’

  Rolling my eyes at the utter self-indulgent rubbish, I said. ‘You can’t expect us to believe there’s some big conspiracy going on between Russia, China and who else you mentioned?’

  ‘Sweetie, there are no conspiracies; this is taking advantage of events that are forming, what do you call it? Ah yes—A Perfect Storm.’

  ‘Go on then,’ I said, a little dismissively. ‘What happens next in your fairy tale?’

  ‘Civil unrest, perhaps even armed insurgencies will spring up. When they occur in old Russian satellite states, aided of course by Russian manpower, money and resources, Europe will be too paralysed to respond. Russia will be free to annex Poland, Romania, and Hungary for their own protection. The invisible lines on the map will have been redrawn and no one will do anything about it—except maybe for Britain!

  ‘You may not realise it sweetie, but everybody in Europe, and even the Americans, hate the British. Our friends in the Russian Government don’t want the Brits to feel nostalgic for WW2. Britain, on its own, is no threat to Russia but, if Britain intervened in, say, Poland, the rest of NATO may reluctantly follow and eventually the US. As I said, no one wants a Hot War. This is about redrawing the old lines.

  ‘Russia wants to, let’s say, encourage Britain to mind its own business, which is where we come in. All we are doing is asking Britain to pay an annual insurance premium.’

  ‘Extortion is more like it,’ interrupted Jana, only to be ignored again by Claudia.

  ‘An insurance premium makes it more difficult for Britain to afford its new Successor Class submarines and will encourage it to scale back its defence spending even further,’ she continued. ‘As I have already told you, we don’t want to harm the economy, otherwise how will you pay? I see us a bit like a central bank; we can raise and lower the premium to help your economy along. In the end, it will come down to a matter of priorities for the government. It won’t be us who dictates how you spend your money but I know what your citizens will say. If it comes down to a choice between submarines and hospitals—how do you think they will vote?’ Then, if it came to intervening in Poland or schools—how will they vote? I do so much love democracy.’

  ‘It’s a perfect symbiotic relationship—Russia gets a weakened Britain and we get money.’

  ‘I thought you said the US has already paid up?’

  ‘Max, everybody has to pay; the US, Canada, Brazil—it’s all a matter of how much!’

  ‘Doing what you are doing will force Britain to spend more on security, not less,’ said Jana.

  ‘Exactly, sweeties. Homeland security and not armies, ships and planes. Britain will isolate itself more and more from Europe, which is what we want.’

  ‘Russians will eventually turn against you,’ I said.

  ‘Max, sweetie, of course they will but, by then, we will have amassed trillions and own pharmaceuticals, weapons and telecommunication companies. We will be whatever the next Google or Facebook is and won’t care about the government. We will be pulling the strings because money talks. Biological weapons and even Janus will become yesterday’s news. It’s all a matter of economics.’

  Jana looked to Claudia and said, ‘You could make millions by using the Janus Machine to cure cancer, malaria or AIDS and that’s just a start.’

  ‘Jana,’ replied Claudia, her voice filled with cynicism. ‘Hope and fear Jana—it’s about hope and fear: if you cure something there’s no fear—people are willing to pay for hope.

  ‘But Jana, I’ve digressed, it’s your turn in our little game of show and tell.’

  Jana again thought for a second before deciding he should continue speaking. ‘Until a couple of years ago, when they needed an old person to keep an eye on Max and Olivia, I was just a discarded relic, a leftover from the cold war. Then, out of nowhere, a call came from MI6 and I found myself stuck in a home watching Max and Olivia. Over time, I was forgotten again.

  ‘For a while, I thought I was going to die of old age myself in that home before anything happened. You,’ he said looking across to me, ‘got frailer and frailer and, although I saw you check the newspaper every morning, I watched as your life slowly slipped away. When the message to retrieve Janus did finally come, I didn’t think you could do it and that the secret would die with you.

  ‘Here we are and, by God,’ he said, with
a slight chuckle in his voice, ‘did you take some following!’

  ‘If we are all to die today—for you and Olivia—it’s better here than in a home. For me… I know it’s the wrong thing to say, considering London and everything else that’s happening, but the last three weeks have put meaning back into my aging bones and I won’t forget it.’

  ‘Oh forgive me sweeties; I’m almost feeling sick. Can I remind you that, no matter what happens, you have lost? What a waste! If you had just given me the box, Olivia would live and none of this would be happening.’

  The final minutes were taken in agonising silence. Watching the computer monitor, I saw Olivia seated motionless, her eyes staring straight ahead. I didn’t know whether to watch the screen or to look away.

  With two minutes to go I couldn’t control myself any longer. ‘Jana, ring Axel…I need to know.’

  ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea Max? You may slow him up.’

  ‘Go on; do it,’ I persisted.

  Taking the phone from his pocket, Jana dialled Axel and almost instantaneously the phone was answered. I listened as Jana asked, where are you? Following what seemed the longest wait in my life, Jana shook his head – no. He hung up.

  Time had run out, 5-4-3-2-1(BOOM). But, the explosion I was anticipating didn’t happen. There was no boom and Olivia stayed seated, staring straight ahead and alive. We watched as a man I didn’t recognise untied her. She waved to the camera before being rushed from view.

  ‘Now that was a surprise, sweeties.’ Claudia’s words were cut short by the ringing of Jana’s phone. I can only think that Claudia was as curious as the rest of us to know what had happened—she waited patiently for the call to end.

  ‘An off-duty police man living in Elie. They rang him at home and Olivia is safe.’

  ‘Excellent. The Janus Machine if you please Max,’ said Claudia.