The Ringer

by Greg Hunt

  With that, all the eyes of the room watched carefully as Natalia confidently left the room, as discreetly and swiftly as she had arrived. Betts quickly made his excuses and dashed out behind her and all those within the meeting returned to the multitude of queries regarding how the supply routes would work and when each of them would receive their proportion of the stock.

  Chapter 79

  The meeting drew to a close and David was impressed by how the Tower Captain had run the operation. All of the members of their small and select group knew what they were doing. Secrecy had been maintained. There did not appear to be any signs of issues with the authorities. David had taken care of Archie, and Emma had been taken care of by Betts and the Woodcutter, albeit David did not want to know what had happened to her.

  David had been surprised by how quickly the Spanish lady had come and gone but reflected that was how she functioned. Efficient, clinical, unemotional and ruthless. Betts had clearly fallen for her, and had not been able to disguise his need to chase after her. It was clear to David that Betts wanted to get to know her much better prior to her return to South America.

  After all of the other representatives had left, the Tower Captain went to a small cupboard that was discreetly located behind the top table. The Woodcutter and David had not noticed it during the meeting. Soon the chinking and clinking sound and the wry smile on the Tower Captain’s face indicated that he was about to offer something special. The cupboard door opened to reveal an old Wade Bell’s Scotch whisky decanter full of the spirit distilled and blended in Perth, Scotland. He proffered the Bell’s whisky to Mavis, David, and the Woodcutter, and sat back in his chair, savouring the taste from his own beautiful cut glass tumbler.

  The Woodcutter was congratulated on his management of the operation in the Alps, even though it was clear that the authorities were on their tails. His swift departure and evacuation of the chalet and the successful infiltration of the government mission by Betts, had meant that all was still on track.

  The Woodcutter had not drunk any of his whisky and instead was pointedly staring directly into the eyes of the Tower Captain. He could not keep his silence any longer. “Where is my family?” he spoke calmly. “I have to see my wife and daughter now. You have paid me for what I have done for the survival of your operation, but I need to be reunited with my family.”

  The Tower Captain took the Woodcutter to one side and started to explain that he had one last mission for him and then the Tower Captain would reveal exactly where his wife and daughter were. He threw two sets of keys towards the Woodcutter, who looked confused. Clearly, the Woodcutter did not know that the keys had the power to open the solid wooden door to the underground chamber and also open the locks connecting the ankle chains to the bed frames occupied by his wife and daughter.

  The Tower Captain and the Woodcutter heatedly discussed whatever this last mission was, with Mavis and David looking on. It appeared to David that whatever the Tower Captain was saying, it was causing the Woodcutter difficulty. Both of the men were gesticulating and, whilst trying to keep their voices low, rapid sentences were flying from each of their mouths.

  Finally, they appeared to come to some form of agreement with the Tower Captain giving the Woodcutter some form of directions. The Tower Captain gave the Woodcutter a hard slap on his back and then said, “So long, I will hear from you within the next hour when you have done the deed. The event will be clear enough from the tower roof so that I can direct you to your family who are in perfect health, isn’t that right David?” the Tower Captain called over.

  David dropped his head towards the floor as he could not look at the Woodcutter. The Tower Captain had told him to have some form of protection if the Woodcutter caused trouble, but David was not bothered with that. He could take care of himself.

  David at last raised his gaze, “Yes,” David replied. “They are both in perfect health.”

  Chapter 80

  Betts had raced out of the tower after Natalia. Running as quickly as he could down the never ending curving tower steps, along the organ balcony and then hopping over the wider steps that took him into the body of the Cathedral and through to the main doors, the sunlight suddenly streamed into his eyes. He had not appreciated the relative darkness within the building itself. There she was, dark hair bobbing along and nearly back on the road that led to Southsea Common.

  Betts quickened his pace. It was not time to lose her now. Out of breath he caught up with Natalia. She turned towards him as he tapped her on the shoulder and looked deeply into those unfathomable auburn eyes, the stubborn yet beautiful face, the perfectly presented figure in the neat trouser suit.

  Natalia did not want to be stopped or held up. She needed to return to her remaining family in Lima as the Tower Captain would confirm completion of the deal electronically, once the stock had been tested. “What do you want?” she snarled at Betts.

  “I’ll give you a lift to your hotel, and then to the airport for your flight,” he said, as noncommittally as possible. “OK,” she said, surprisingly without any hesitation. Natalia used people and was used to using people. This would save her a little time, she thought.

  Natalia and Betts jumped into his rickety second-hand white van, in which he had originally picked her up. He crunched the gears, attempted a three point turn on the too narrow street, and on the fourth turn whisked them both towards Natalia’s grand, seafront hotel. It was a short journey in the van and Natalia did not need long to freshen up, change and grab her things. After checking out of her hotel, Betts would then drive her to Heathrow airport for the flight to Lima in Peru, which stopped en-route at Rio de Janeiro.

  Betts had kept the engine running. The chugging of the motor and the newspaper he was reading made him oblivious to the Woodcutter’s movements underneath and behind the van. The Woodcutter had easily been able to follow Betts’ movements in the van and had only needed to jog the couple of streets between the Cathedral and the seafront hotel to carry out his work.

  If Betts was thinking anything, it was the thought of how he was to ensure that Natalia had a good send off; a parting that she would never forget. It might even ensure she returned to the UK one day to see how her trusted ally, Petty Officer Betts, was doing.

  Natalia was up in her hotel room and thought that she might as well give Betts one last treat. He had been vital to their operation after all and could be very useful in the future to ensure that the Tower Captain did what he was told. Natalia picked out her belt like skirt and appropriate expensive lingerie. She did what she needed to be noticed, yet she wore it all with an air of sophistication, the distant attitude, the playing hard to get. It all just meant people found her more of a challenge; a special enigma which made it difficult to unravel the outer layers of her bravado.

  Betts was not quite drooling as he loaded Natalia’s two bags into the back of the van and opened the side door for her to hoist herself in, but he was not far from that state. This reaction reinforced Natalia’s contention that men were like dogs. For dogs were creatures that were always after affection, naturally far too obvious with their feelings and generally loyal if you kept them fed and watered and gave them somewhere to stay.

  Once away from the hotel, Betts accelerated and drove straight over the couple of mini-roundabouts that led them past the naval dockyard and the university buildings to the beginning of the M275. The motorway would take the little white van off the Isle of Portsmouth.

  Unfortunately for them, the remains of Betts and Natalia would forever lie on the Isle of Portsmouth. As the van hit fifty miles per hour, it exploded into a spectacular fireball, the debris flying across the road and hitting oncoming vehicles in their path. There was immediate pandemonium within the vicinity.

  As he gazed through his binoculars from the roof of the nearest, highest building, which happened to be a vacant office block, the Woodcutter reflected that Betts and Natalia would not have had time to know what had hit them, or more important
ly, to have felt any pain. They would stay together forever, just as Betts had wanted.

  The Tower Captain took in the scene in the far distance through his own eyes. His organisation had been able to test the quality of the stock immediately after the meeting and provide the Woodcutter his instructions to kill Natalia. The traffic was already backing up, sirens could be heard from vehicles making their way to the scene, and the noise of the explosion had been audible across most of the city. The Tower Captain gave the Woodcutter a call.

  True to his word now that the deed had been done, the Tower Captain disclosed to the Woodcutter the location of his wife and daughter.

  Chapter 81

  The Woodcutter ran to the location that he had been given. He practically threw the surface chamber cover to one side, let himself drop to the bottom of the steel ladder and burst through the huge, wooden door, having used his first set of keys in the main lock.

  He broke down in tears as he was reunited with his loved ones. His crying eyes became inflamed when he saw the ankle chains leading to the bed-frames. His urgency to remove them meant that the Woodcutter had not even noticed the body of the young man lying on the floor. He had almost tripped over the dark shape whilst reaching his family lying on the beds against the hard, cold, rear wall.

  Hugging, touching, kissing his loved ones. They were all experiencing waves of emotion. Relief. They needed to be away, out. To breathe in the fresh air outside and above ground. They would take in the comings and goings of Portsmouth waking up, the people leisurely enjoying their Sunday morning strolls, walking dogs, buying newspapers.

  The hump of the dark shape on the floor shifted, groaned. What was this? The Woodcutter furrowed his brow and scratched the back of his head. Who was this man? Had he been there all along? Where had he come from? The Woodcutter turned him over onto his back. In the pale light, it was not immediately apparent that the Woodcutter had met the Lieutenant before.

  The Woodcutter’s priority was to rescue his family. Having found them and now aware that they were both going to be alright, he wanted them all to be out of this underground pit as quickly as possible. He slapped the man a couple of times on the cheeks and he seemed to respond through further grunts and groans. The teenage daughter indicated the water and cups close to the wall and one of the cups full of water was proffered to Archie’s lips. It only took a few seconds before there was any reaction. The man seemed to come round. He was battered and bruised. The Woodcutter could see that he had been repeatedly punched but he was definitely savouring the liquid. His energy had not diminished. He was presumably just in shock at being knocked out by someone and, it appeared, very recently.

  It dawned on the Woodcutter who had control of this underground cellar, seeing that he had been given the keys from the Tower Captain, and who worked directly for the Tower Captain. The Woodcutter had had no direct contact with David, but from the few hours that he had spent with him during the morning he would not have trusted him as far as he could spit.

  The Woodcutter’s thoughts whirred into action. He realised that David had left this man on the floor in an injured state. The young man was now starting to move forcefully, to stretch out all of his limbs and shakily rise to his feet. Disorientated, on first attempt he careered off in the direction of the solid wall near the entrance and the chamber pot. Pulling himself together and standing still, leaning against the wall, he seemed to come round completely.

  The Woodcutter appraised the man now that he was on his feet and had to swallow hard. It was more than a likeness. He had seen him before. Most people would not be too concerned if they had seen somebody before, but this was always worrying for the Woodcutter. Fortunately, it came to him where he had seen him previously, and this did not help his position any further. His memory had served him well, but had the man recognised him? If he had not already, it was just a matter of time. Well, he and his family would be out of here and long gone. The Woodcutter thought hard. This was a real opportunity. A chance for payback. He had always believed that what comes around, goes around.

  The Woodcutter went over to Archie. He carefully gave him some more water, some chocolate and looked at him hard in the face, man to man. Archie had to concentrate. He was unable to see anything except this athletic torso of a man with military bearing and his overcoat and hat, which lay on the side of the bed. Oh no, thought Archie at the same instance, for he had clicked exactly who this hulk of a man was.

  The Woodcutter saw the glimmer of recognition in Archie’s eyes and started immediately to explain what he was doing and crucially, what he had been doing out in the Alps. The Woodcutter had his money. More importantly, he had his family. What did he have to lose?

  Chapter 82

  The bells would be ringing out at the close of the Sunday morning service. Archie was at least a fifteen minute jog away and could only concentrate on reaching the Cathedral in time to save Emma.

  The Woodcutter and his family had departed from the underground cellar in haste once his wife and daughter and Archie’s ankle shackles had been unlocked. The family would find a new life for themselves where they could settle down away from his military and special operations past. The money that the Woodcutter had earned promised a trouble-free future existence. In return for his slipping away, Archie had been given the information he needed to pursue the leaders of the operation, now that Betts and the South American lady had been blown away.

  Archie similarly rushed out as quickly as the heavy wooden door, and the modern new metal ladder opening into the bright sunlight of this spring day, would allow.

  This was it. It was his chance to bring to justice all those who had haunted him over the previous months. The departure of the Woodcutter was a small price to pay for the information he had provided. The details would enable Archie to capture the big cheese. The man responsible for the whole set up. The Cathedral was the centre of their drug running operation, and Archie now had the knowledge and power to destroy the entire supply and distribution network. The rug would be pulled from under the feet of the operation and send the participants’ expected rewards toppling back down to earth. He could not believe the circumstances in which he found himself. Having known the Tower Captain and rung the bells so closely with him, the answer to all of his queries, to his previous entire mission, had lain right in front of his eyes.

  Archie picked up his pace. This is what he had trained for. He used his mobile whilst on the run to make a couple of requests and, only slightly out of breath, continued as fast as he could with Emma pervading his every thought.

  Over the next five minutes, his mind lay confused and racked with guilt. If he had not met Emma then she would not be in any danger. If he had not met Emma, he did not think that he would be feeling this concerned for anyone else. Since the chance meeting on the mountain and having talked all through the night after the Student Ball, he felt drawn to Emma in a way that he had never felt about anyone else. He did not like the cliché that they were destined for each other, but however hard it would be, whatever trial Archie had to undertake, he would do everything he could for Emma, even if it was not enough.

  The tower of the Cathedral still lay a few hundred metres further on and Archie’s heart was pounding through his chest. His shirt was clammy and starting to stick to his upper back. He was sweating profusely and his muscles ached.

  Archie felt sick, even slightly dizzy and he started to despair as he heard the six smallest bells being raised in peal. What was going on? The Woodcutter had indicated that Emma had been dumped in an upturned bell and yet Archie was hearing the front six bells starting to ring. Think, Archie, think, he repeated to himself. If the bells had been lowered from a wedding the previous day then all of the bells would need to be rung up. Sometimes, the heaviest four would be left ‘up’, balanced against their stays. It was much more of an effort to ring them up and down and a human being would only fit into the tenor or, at a push, the ninth. The smaller bells were half way through t
he raise and it was a beautiful distinctive sound. Mavis would be on the treble, the Tower Captain would be on the tenor of the six and would soon ring the tenor of the full ring. Oh no, thought Archie, that was it. The Tower Captain himself would be sending Emma to her doom and Archie would not be able to stop it. Unless…

  Archie was running in through the small exterior grounds of the Cathedral. The grappling ropes were in place. Jackie and Jo had already done their work and Jackie raised a hand to Archie from the top of the tower. Archie whisked himself up. He tried to ignore the bells ringing, the incredulous looks of a couple of passers-by as this young man hauled himself up the outside of the Cathedral tower using a couple of climbing ropes. What was he doing? Was this allowed?

  The bells were starting to slow down and audibly separate into a uniform rhythm and speed. This was concerning. There was not long left until the back bells, which did not need ringing up, would start to ring out in glorious peal as part of the full set of ten.

  Jackie and Jo had made light work of the tower hatch and were descending into the bell chamber. Archie had finally reached the top of the tower, hauled himself over the balustrade and dashed to the belfry opening to catch up with his operational team members. The girls had stopped. They did not know what to do. They had never been into a belfry before and were completely deafened. Slightly below them the six smaller bells were continuing to whirl around the space, with the larger four bells balanced upside down immediately to their right. If the larger bells moved even an inch, the girls would be in trouble. Archie made it clear that they needed to stay put. He desperately searched for Emma.