by Ted Tayler
“Fine words and easy to say,” said Phoenix, “but random strikes such as these are hard to stop.”
“Anything further, Thanatos?” asked Athena.
“It is rumoured that with both attacks on their doorstep the royal couple from Highgrove will be wheeled out for a visit sometime today.”
Phoenix read through Rusty’s brief report and as Thanatos had exhausted his contribution for the day he started to look through his mate’s primary findings.
‘I interviewed a family who wished to move to a new house in Southall. While they viewed a property. in one room they discovered a young mother with two kids. They saw mattresses on the floor as there was no space to put in proper beds. Another family in a bedroom upstairs were in a similar position. This is what is happening across the boroughs. When I walked around the streets near where they hoped to buy later that morning, I saw derelict outbuildings and a labyrinth of alleyways. I managed to scale a padlocked gate and follow one of the alleyways that led to three rundown garages. Each garage showed signs of being occupied, although, at that time of day, there was nobody home.’
“I won’t say I’m looking forward to Rusty’s final report,” said Athena. “But there’s enough there in this first draft to justify Olympus taking direct action against a few of the absent landlords. No doubt they’re raking in the money while these poor souls are living in squalid conditions. The risk of disease must be high; the safety aspect is clearly not causing these landlords any sleepless nights. The chance of a fire breaking out in these overcrowded and dilapidated properties has to be huge. This is another situation that cannot be allowed to continue. We’ve got time to fit in a couple more items gentlemen. What news from the ice-house?”
Giles Burke sat forward and appeared somewhat happier than earlier in the week.
“We found something of interest at last. I’ve lost count of the number of hours we’ve spent gazing at CCTV pictures of vehicles on the M4 and M5, plus any other main roads that adjoin them that may be relevant. We followed up on the suggestion that Phoenix made of the possible link between the ram-raid gang and the East European thugs; these two images might hold the answer.”
Giles passed copies around the table.
“The first image is of a BMW 7 Series with a number plate issued at the end of the first quarter of last year. It is travelling on the M4 close to Junction 15 on Wednesday, September the twelfth, at around a quarter to five in the morning. The second image is that of a Lexus CT 200h travelling westward near Junction 10 on Monday, July the eighth, at eight thirty-two a.m. The dates are significant because a BMW of this description was thought to have been involved in a ram-raid last September and the Clevedon attack last week included a Lexus. As you may be able to make out despite the grainy image, both cars are carrying the same number plate. It isn’t possible because of the quality of the picture to identify the driver and front-seat passengers. What I would say is that the Lexus is carrying white males of the larger variety. The BMW has a short, male driver with a large male passenger beside him with what looks like dreadlocks.”
Phoenix was more than interested in this development.
“Brilliant, Giles. This confirms what I feared. The ram-raid gang were based somewhere this side of London and operating with an endless stream of cars they swapped around as they wished to cut the chance of detection. In the past six weeks, this Eastern European mob has taken control. God knows what they did with them. The two attacks show they won’t have left any loose ends. Surely someone missed them. Families, friends, even the local police, especially if they were career criminals as suggested. Can we follow up on that angle? I doubt that it brings us any closer to naming the foreign gang, but if bodies are out there somewhere, then finding them will, at least, bring closure to their relatives. When we get back from this London trip I want to go into this in more detail Athena.”
“We’ll see, Phoenix,” she replied, glancing at the clock on the mantelpiece. “We may have other more important things to follow up on after the meeting later today.”
“It will need to be mind-blowing stuff to rank higher than wiping out this bunch of murdering scum,” grunted Phoenix.
“We have very little time remaining,” said Athena. “Alastor, we haven’t heard from you yet this morning. Do you have any insight into the men who might be behind these latest violent attacks?”
“The raids suggest a high degree of detailed planning and were executed precisely and with zero compassion. That suggests a leader who is a sociopath or a psychopath. One cannot decide which with so little data, but my hunch is that he is the latter. The rest of his gang will be merely puppets who will do whatever he asks of them. One interesting point I spotted on both occasions. Only one attacker was responsible for most of the gunfire in each theatre. This indicates their leader has several foot soldiers that have worked for him in other areas where violence is not the norm. Then for these attacks, they bring in extra ‘hit-men’ who have a long history of being paid assassins. This might help us to isolate the nationality of the group and to piece together potential gang members from immigration records since 2011.”
“There are definitely a few things to follow up on from that, Alastor,” said Athena. “Henry and Giles will add that to the list we’re giving them.”
“We’ll cope, Athena,” said Henry Case, “just to bring you up to speed, I shall be receiving guests over the weekend. The men involved do not know they’re coming to visit me yet. We’ve selected a couple of dodgy car traders that may have dealt with our dearly departed ram-raid gang members. They will be able to shed light on the set-up; give us a clue when the ram-raiders disappeared, and with luck what brand of Eurotrash we’re facing here.”
“You said ‘will’ not ‘might’, Henry,” said Phoenix.
“Of course, Phoenix. I have total confidence in my powers of persuasion.”
Phoenix prayed he never had to descend to Level Three in the ice-house for interrogation. He shuddered every time he recalled his first visit there with Erebus three years ago. He remembered that the dim lights dotted in the ceiling died and flared with every metre he walked along the corridor that led to Hotel California. Stood at the end of the corridor with the old man by the final door, while behind him, everything remained in total darkness. Phoenix would have gladly told Erebus whatever he asked. There and then, without Erebus needing to reveal the horrors that lay within.
“Time for us to go, Phoenix,” said Athena, bringing him back to the bright sunlit room and a safe haven. “Many thanks, gentlemen. Apologies yet again for having to cut things short but needs must.”
Athena and Phoenix went to their apartment and prepared for their London visit.
“Will we be staying overnight, Athena?” asked Phoenix.
“Mummy and Daddy are enjoying the sun in the south of France as usual at this time of the year, so we can use the family home as our base. We can clean up there, get changed and take a taxi to Curzon Street for the meeting; then perhaps we can relax and enjoy ourselves over the weekend if there's no objection? I can get the transport people to pick us up on Sunday evening. I want to be back at Larcombe before Rusty and Zara move in together. It would be nice to welcome her personally and it will give us a chance to debrief Rusty after his investigative mission.”
“I have no objections to a day or two’s quality time away with you, Athena; just be aware that I know very well you’re trying to occupy my mind to stop me pining for proper action. Zara won’t be getting the full tour when she arrives. Her key pass will only allow her access to the stable block, to Level One in the ice-house for her work in the intelligence section and the cottages that contain the canteen, and the swimming pool. As for Rusty’s debrief, I should prefer to do that if I may; I think we should meet in the orangery where the old gentleman and I met. It’s where we bonded and I always thought of it as a special place.”
“Certainly, darling, whatever you say. Yes, I agree totally with your thoughts about Zara. We c
an review her access restrictions in due course. As for the itch you need to scratch, please be patient. I am trying to identify a proper mission, but you must appreciate that I can’t risk losing you.”
“We’d better get moving; any more of that talk and we won’t be out of bed in time for the meeting tomorrow, let alone today,” said Phoenix.
Within minutes, they were packed and ready to leave. The car waited for them outside the front door of the old manor house when they descended the stairs with their bags. As they drove smoothly along the long curved driveway towards the gates, they began to relax and sat in companionable silence. Both were anticipating their first Olympus meeting and what it meant for those that lived and worked at Larcombe.
Phoenix broke the spell first.
“What did you make of Alastor’s interpretation of the leader of this foreign mob? With your security services background, no doubt you are more equipped to understand these things than a simple man such as me.”
Athens laughed.
“Let me see if I can answer that without upsetting you too much, my darling. A psychopath has a disregard for laws and social mores; a disregard for the rights of others. They fail to experience remorse or guilt and tend to display violent behaviour. Psychopaths cannot form emotional attachments or experience real empathy with others although they often display a charming personality. They are manipulative and can easily gain people’s trust. On the face of it, they appear normal to unsuspecting people and are often well educated employed in steady jobs. When committing crimes, they carefully plan out every detail in advance and often have contingency plans in place.”
“What are you trying to say?” said Phoenix.
“Clearly, you share personality traits in common, but we can agree that you can form emotional attachments. Just because you are cool, calm and meticulous in your preparation for a mission, thinking of every eventuality, leaving few clues for the authorities to pursue, that does not mean you are cut from the same cloth.”
“Thank goodness for that,” said Phoenix.
As they travelled on towards the M4 and London, Athena could not prevent her thoughts straying to Alastor’s other choice for the East European gang leader’s classification. Was he a sociopath? How did that fit with Phoenix and what she knew of him? She understood that sociopathy is more likely the product of childhood trauma and physical/emotional abuse. A product of nurture rather than nature. Because sociopathy appears to be learned as opposed to being innate, sociopaths are capable of empathy in certain limited circumstances but not in others, and with a few individuals but not others.
What if the cocoon which Olympus provided for Phoenix enabled him to form their relationship and develop a strong friendship with Rusty? Did he have any strong bonds that he shared with others at Larcombe? Not really; at times he was dismissive of The Three Stooges or Three Amigos as he referred to them. She now found herself thinking of them in those terms; something she never dreamed of doing before Phoenix arrived.
There was no doubt that Erebus had penetrated that tough outer shell and the two of them formed an unbreakable bond of mutual respect. Perhaps she worried unnecessarily. Something else more personal had troubled her lately too; her period was late.
That was why she had suggested they stay over in town this weekend. She needed to break the news to Phoenix. She had no idea how whether he would welcome becoming a father again in his mid-forties; especially after the trauma that surrounded the death of his daughter Sharron.
Athena didn’t know for sure how she felt about becoming a mother for the first time in her late thirties herself. Until she started comparing those classifications for Phoenix that Alastor ascribed to the foreign gang leader, she hadn’t remotely considered whether Phoenix might have the defective genetic makeup that a son or daughter of theirs might inherit. Her mind was in turmoil. This vitally important first meeting later today couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Phoenix sat beside her with his own thoughts. He didn’t disregard the law; he believed in the rule of law. His problem lay with those people that broke the law and then didn’t get punished with what he considered the right level of severity. He didn’t feel guilty killing any of the people he killed. Every single one of them deserved it. He took no pleasure in it; it needed to be done. As for the meticulous planning; that was just common sense. If he planned his direct actions correctly, then he guaranteed a one hundred per cent success rate. He wasn’t prepared to accept less.
It was true he found it difficult to love someone after his experiences in his early years when love towards him had been denied him by his parents, but he adored Sharron, his murdered daughter. He had loved Sue Owens his second wife and cared for her when she got cancer until she died in his arms. He loved Athena now without question.
If someone asked him why he continued to want to risk being killed when he had the love of a beautiful woman, he would grudgingly admit that it was because every person he had ever truly loved had died and left him. He kept putting his life on the line because he couldn’t face that happening again.
CHAPTER 8
“We’ve arrived, Phoenix,” said Athena, nudging her partner as he dozed quietly beside her. The car had arrived outside her parents’ home in Vincent Gardens, Belgravia.
It wasn’t the first time that Phoenix had seen the exterior of this house. He’d been sent by Erebus to keep an eye over Athena just before a group of radicalised students had orchestrated a suicide bomb attack on Oxford Circus tube station.
Phoenix remembered only too well seeing Athena striding across the concourse and heading for a walkway that put her in imminent danger of being killed. She had been buying a few things to take to the hospital where her mother was recovering from a major heart operation.
He hoped that this London visit would be more pleasant.
The Olympus driver carried their bags to the door and Athena told him of their plans for the weekend. He merely nodded and made a note to return to collect them at four o’clock on Sunday afternoon. With that, he set off on his way back to Larcombe Manor.
Athena and Phoenix freshened up and changed into their smart clothes.
“This collar’s tight,” moaned Phoenix, “are you sure I need to wear a tie?”
“I don’t know why you complain so much,” Athena replied, “just look at yourself in the mirror. You’re terrific. I’ll have to keep an eye on the other female Olympians and make sure they realise you’re off-limits.”
“Oh, there are other women in the hierarchy then? I imagined it as a mainly male domain,” said Phoenix. He knew as soon as he had opened his mouth he was in trouble.
“Why on earth do you imagine this was a boy’s only club? When Erebus made that first contact via the advert in the personal column of The Times, he focused on finding people with the same aims and ambitions as him. People who wanted Britain to be Great again. The men and women who came forward were largely from families who could trace their ancestry back centuries and who understood exactly what Erebus sought. A few of the men who became our early financial backers have passed away and their widows now hold the purse strings, the steel will that is required to regain the ground we have lost is as strong as ever, despite the change in gender. A few of our number are those whom Erebus called the nouveau riche, I expect you to recognise their faces, but please don’t ask for an autograph; that would appear crass. These people have amassed sizeable fortunes through the sporting or entertainment industry and unknown to the public they share the ideals of the Olympus Project. Erebus frowned on them somewhat, but the money they added to the coffers swayed his opinion over time.”
“What makes Curzon Street so special?” asked Phoenix. “Why do Olympus go out of their way to get somewhere in a prestigious location if secrecy is paramount? I thought we would hide away in a gloomy old country house, miles from anywhere so that nobody suspected a thing.”
“The London Executive Offices building is ideal for our purpose,” replied Athena. “It�
�s easily accessible for the vast majority of our leaders. Apart from one person who has to fly himself by helicopter from Scotland, I believe that we two have the farthest distance to travel. Remember too that to the outside world the Project is ostensibly a registered charity. For a member of the public or a nosy journalist looking for a story, what more appropriate place could there be to see a national charity organisation holding their half-yearly meetings but in London?”
“We need to call for that taxi Athena if we don’t want to be late,” said Phoenix, consulting his watch.
“Yes, let’s get over there and face the music. I’m nervous. I’m glad you’re with me. Erebus gave me an insight into what to expect; how these affairs are run and who the other members are. But this is new territory for both of us and it’s scary.”
“Did Erebus warn you of any potential enemies?” asked Phoenix.
“Why do you ask that?” Athena replied, looking puzzled.
“When we had those get-togethers in his rooms at Larcombe just before he retired, I sensed that he was implying there was opposition to us being chosen to replace him. That could have pointed to separate factions within the leadership. Perhaps not everyone around the table is singing from the same hymn sheet. I know you want me to be on my best behaviour today Athena. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to disappoint. my role is merely to people-watch. I’ll check for any discord between certain parties and try to work out who might be for us and who might be against us. More than that, in my opinion, Erebus subtly tried to point us towards the possibility that not everyone around the table still has the original Olympus goals at heart. I will look for evidence of that. We need to be on our guard.”
Athena called for a taxi and as they waited, she reflected on her thoughts as they had been travelling up from the West Country. Her life was changing, in more ways than one if her suspicions regarding the pregnancy proved correct. She had hoped for a smooth transition from second-in-command at Larcombe and taking her place at the top table of the organisation. If Phoenix was right, then intrigue and division might be what her future held; thank goodness she had Phoenix by her side to steer her through the stormy waters.