by Steve Howrie
“We’ve just had a phone call from Audrey,” he said. “She’s in Orkney.”
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Sandi. “Is she alone?”
“Er, no – that’s the point. She’s with Frank.” The room was suddenly quiet.
“How do we know it’s Frank?” Gareth asked. “Does it look like him?”
“She didn’t say. But if he’s changed bodies, that’s rather unlikely.”
“Then how…?” Gareth was obviously concerned; and we all wanted to know how we could be certain it was Frank.
“Well,” said Tony, “for one thing, Audrey would know. She knows Frank better than anybody. They have a connection.”
“But what if he’s holding a gun to her head – shouldn’t we be more suspicious? He could kill us all!” Gareth was clearly upset by this revelation.
“I know this isn’t going to be easy for any of us,” Tony replied.
“What’s his name?” I asked, strangely thinking that if we knew his name, it would be easier to accept.”
“Audrey said it was Steve – Steve Saunders,” Tony replied.
“Well… Steve, Frank – both got five letters… it’s a start. Everyone except Gareth smiled at my attempt to lighten the mood.
“We could test his blood,” suggested Kate. “Even if he’s not Frank, if he’s clear of the virus he’s not going to be a danger.”
“Good thinking!” I exclaimed, turning to Kate. “So you’re not just a pretty face after all,” to which she dug me in the ribs.
“Okay, if that’s what you all want – we’ll do that,” conceded Tony.
“And frisk him,” said Gareth.
“Fine,” replied Tony flatly.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry, isn’t it?” I pointed out. “If he really is Frank, he’ll understand. I remember you employed the same method for one ‘unknown journalist’ who visited Edinburgh.” Even Gareth smiled at that.
“I’ll get the table leg,” he said. Then he remembered the salt. “Hang on, what about our salt – it’s all gone!”
“It’s okay Gareth,” I said, “it was Harry and Jo. They phoned Tony about it. We tried to let you know, but you were out.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Tony confirmed. “They were watching the news this morning: it’s now official – salt is an illegal substance and possession can result in imprisonment. They thought they better tell us because the chalets get regular inspections from the Council and Tourist Board – sometimes unannounced. They’ve put the salt in oat bags in their Byre for safety – no–one will think of checking there. They’ve left us a key.” Gareth was relieved. But Sandi said,
“Sorry to be contrary, but how do we know we can trust Harry and Jo? I know they seem friendly enough, but how do we know they haven’t called the Police? Shouldn’t we test them too?”
“I think that from now on,” said Tony, “we’ve got to be extremely careful about whom we trust. We should assume that everyone we meet is out to get us – until they prove otherwise. So, yes, we should be very cautious about Harry and Jo – though personally I think they’re safe.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“When can we expect Audrey and Frank?” Kate asked.
“They were in Stromness when they phoned, so probably sometime tomorrow,” he replied.
***
Nineteen
The virus was not malicious – and there was nothing personal about its actions. It was just a matter of survival. Not so different from the way humans slaughter and eat animals. What made the alien virus different from any other Earth–born virus or bacteria was its cunning ability to affect the mental state of its victims. It had intelligence. Once affected, the victims would defend its attacker to the hilt. They would claim that they could not survive without the alien organism. In fact, they would not even see the invading virus as alien; rather, it became an integral and necessary part of their being. The virus would reverse the truth, twisting it one hundred and eighty degrees. Black would become white; dark would become light.
Its purpose was simple: divide and multiply. It did this mindlessly, relentlessly. But it hadn’t always been like this.
It started out as a magnificent race, a highly evolved group of beings that could manipulate matter to an incredibly high degree. These beings were not independent: they had a benevolent Controller who lovingly looked after them like a mother caringly tending to her own children. Then one day, something tragic happened. The raw, dross substances of its area of space began to run out. Without these substances, the Controller had nothing to give its beings to process into the finer substances they needed for their survival. It would be like our race running out of coal, oil and gas – and having no alternative sources of power.
In its quest to seek out more and more raw material, the Controller built a machine to probe new, uncharted areas of space. The machine was designed to search out and process substance, and then return the refined material back to their own area. The idea was sound, and the design highly intelligent. But when the huge machine was launched, disaster struck. It went completely out of control from the launch pad, and spiraled in ever increasing circles, destroying everything in its wake – including the Controller. It left behind it a trail of utter devastation – and a race of beings without any guidance.
As a defence mechanism, the Controller had built a default programme for its beings that they would revert to in the event of losing contact with their host. When the Controller was destroyed, every being became manipulated completely and utterly by that default programme. Any other race coming across the Controller’s Beings would never be able to gain control over them – such was the nature of their programme.
For some reason, the beings followed the trail left by the substance–processing machine, which led them into the area of space occupied by Frank’s Universe. Frank and his race were within a hairs–breath of being wiped out by the alien invaders. But at the eleventh hour, they discovered a defence mechanism of their own which would repel the mindless aliens. Soon, that mechanism became a means of immunity; and with no hosts to occupy, the alien virus (as it could now be called) moved swiftly away from their area, onwards and upwards, searching for life in other galaxies.
Arriving at the Earth’s Solar System, it was drawn to our planet like flies to a light. As it filtered through the atmosphere in its billions upon billions of parts, it dropped into the oceans and onto the land masses. All the parts that fell into the oceans were immediately neutralised, though not destroyed by the salty sea water. But the parts falling on land infiltrated the water supply in many lands and soon found their way into the food chain. Once inside animals – including man – they acted like alien parasites, taking over the organism and eventually eating it alive. Man was easy meat. By eating animals, he took in the virus from the affected meat, and so in turn became infected. All the current diseases of Man could be put down to one cause: the virus. But in ten thousand years, Man had still not discovered that truth.
Frank and others from his race had been telling Man about the virus for centuries – with mixed success. At times, they seem to be making great headway and managed to convert many areas into virus free zones. Then there would be an outbreak in another area, which would spread like wildfire. It was generally a case of one step forward and two back. But they couldn’t give up. For the sake of mankind, and all other races in the Cosmos, they had to keep on task – however small their success.
Over the years, more and more beings from Frank’s Universe had come to Earth to help out. Then races from other areas of space heard about the plight and volunteered their assistance, driven by the thought that this alien virus could threaten their own Universe.
But in the end, if they could not stop the virus, they all knew what they would have to do: completely destroy the Earth and everything on it – the virus included. It was the very last resort, but one they were not afraid to carry through. Audrey hoped it would not come to that.
***
Frank liked Orkney straightaway – and so did Audrey. It had a good feeling for both of them from the moment they landed in Stromness. They admired the narrow cobbled streets, and the old stone buildings. And they loved the proximity to the sea. But most of all, they liked what wasn’t there – the troubled and intimidating atmosphere of the cities. In Orkney, they felt relaxed and very much at home.
But as they approached Kirkwall, Audrey began to think about the others and she started to feel a little concerned about how Frank would be received when they reached Eday. Frank seemed to sense this.
“Everything’s going to be fine – don’t worry. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
“They could kill you,” she answered.
“You know they wouldn’t – it’s not in their nature. The worst thing is they’ll reject us – reject me, I mean. But Tony won’t – he’s seen too much.” Audrey nodded. She knew Tony was dedicated – but she also knew he would rigidly stay true to what he believed was correct. As he did when Frank left for London.
As they drove into Kirkwall, Audrey thought again about their reception on Eday. No, the worst thing that could happen wouldn’t be Frank dying another death on this Earth – it would be to never see Frank again.
*
That morning, a car drove down the narrow track towards Mill Bay, and stopped outside Harry and Jo’s house. Inside, Jo stopped what she was doing, and looked out of a window to see who the visitors were. She got a shock.
“Harry,” she hissed, “It’s the Police.” Harry peered through the window and nodded to himself.
“Okay, stay calm.” We’ve not broken any laws…”
“What about the salt?” The police were already knocking on the door.
“It’ll be all right – they’ll never find it.” The door knocked again, more urgently this time. Police visits were rare. With no policemen on the island, officers had to come over from Kirkwall. And they would only do that if they knew of any suspicious activity. “You go – better if it’s a woman.”
‘Gee, thanks,’ thought Jo as she opened the door. There were two officers. A tall one with his cap hiding any hair he might have, which Jo thought would probably be red, in keeping with his eyebrows and freckled complexion. The other was shorter and harder–looking, with black hair and eyebrows that met in the middle. It was the dark–haired one that spoke first.
“Morning… Mrs Shaw, isn’t it?”
“Yes… what’s the problem?”
“Oh, no problem – just a routine enquiry.” With the Police these days, there was no such thing as a ‘routine enquiry.’ “Can we come in to talk?” To say no would be an open admission of guilt, so she let them in with a smile.
“This is my husband, Harry,” she said. He was going to shake hand, but realized they had no intention of doing so. He kept his hands in his pockets.
“What can we do for you?” Harry asked.
“Are you familiar with the new sodium laws, Mr Shaw?” Harry could feel the tension in the air increasing. He tried to remain calm.
“Yes, yes I have. About time they were brought in.” Jo nodded in agreement. Feigning to side with the enemy seemed the best strategy in this situation.
“Exactly what we think, sir. And in line with the new legislation, we’re required to check all the farms in the area for salt supplies.” The second officer then spoke.
“It’s just precautionary – we don’t want the substance to fall into the wrong hands, you understand.” Harry nodded and said ‘Of course’. The dark–haired policeman then continued.
“Do you own all the outbuildings here sir?”
“Yes, they’re all part of the farm. We’re one hundred per cent organic here, so naturally we wouldn’t have any salt here. But go ahead and check them out for yourself…” The taller officer nodded, as if to say ‘that won’t be necessary, sir.’ But the rat–faced one answered.
“Thank you – it won’t take long. Do we need a key to any of the barns?” Jo reluctantly went to get a set of keys from the kitchen, and handed them over to the taller officer, who accepted them apologetically. When they’d left, Jo turned to Harry.
“Now what do we do?” He looked out of the window, thinking, watching the policemen open the first shed.
“Admit robbery and assault?”
“Harry, this isn’t funny – we could go to jail.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t believe for one minute that this is a ‘routine call’ – someone’s tipped them off.”
“Who would do that?”
“Oh, one or two names come to mind. The thing is, we need to phone Tony to warn him. But I don’t want to do that just yet – they may be able to trace the call.”
“But what do we say if they find the salt? What then?” Jo was clearly very worried.
“Plead ignorance. The salt’s in barley bags, remember? If we’d bought the barley in good faith, how would we know that anything but grain was in it?” This calmed Jo down. Once she knew how to deal with a situation, she was fine – she could give it her all.
“You’re right – I’m sorry for being so neurotic. We don’t even know they’re going to find the salt, and if they do…” She was interrupted by another knock on the door.
“Could you come with us please?” the dark officer was at the door, looking more serious than ever. Harry and Jo followed obediently. In one of the byres, the taller officer was standing over six bags of salt that had been hidden in a Barley sack. “Could you explain this, Mr Shaw?”
“Oh my god!” exclaimed Jo.
“What the…?” Harry burst. “Where’s my Barley? I paid three hundred quid a tonne for that seed!”
“You’ll have to give us the name of our supplier, Mr Shaw.” Harry had no problem with that. The man who had sold him the seed would probably sell his own mother down the river, if the price was right. He’d tried to palm Harry off with inferior grain in the past, and had made ‘mistakes’ in his prices on more than one occasion.
“I’ll get the details,” said Jo, helpfully.
“We’ll have to confiscate this illegal substance, of course…”
“You can keep it, but I want compensation for my grain.” Harry was playing the angry victim now – the unjust seeking vengeance. The taller officer answered him.
“If the matter goes to Court, we would hope to seek a conviction. You may be able to get compensation then – but we would need you to give evidence in Court.”
“ No problem,” replied Harry. “That bastard has cost me a fortune.” Jo gave a copy of their invoice to the taller policemen, who left apologizing for the inconvenience, and promising he would do what he could for them. Jo and Harry watched them drive away, and then turned to each other.
“That was close,” Jo said.
“Mmm… I wonder who grassed on us?”
*
Kate heard the sound of wheels on the gravel pathway leading into the chalets, and stopped what she was doing. Visitors were so rare, anytime they heard a vehicle they was a sharp intake of breath. She looked out of the window to see an old woman being helped out of a car by a young, dark man.
“Audrey!” Kate exclaimed. I looked up from my laptop to see Kate wave out of the window, then throw open the door. I followed her out, intrigued to meet ‘Frank’. As the two females hugged, I looked quizzically at the slim, dark, unshaven figure in front of me.
“Hello, Kevin,” he said with a smile – how’ve you been?” When we heard that Frank was coming up, I’d pondered on how I’d react to seeing him. I’d thought that there would be something about him that would make him instantly recognizable. Some small thing that would convince me, beyond doubt, that this really was Frank Peters – the middle–aged academic I’d met at my local in London. But when I saw him standing there, and heard his voice for the first time, I could honestly say that this idea was bollocks. He looked nothing like Frank – not in any shape or form – and there was nothing in
his voice to indicate it was Frank. Yet Audrey obviously had no doubt about his authenticity; or was this just the wishful thinking of a mother after losing her only son? Inside she knew it wasn’t him, but to have a fake son was better than none – and if he wanted to be her son, why should she deny him a mother?
So I was friendly, without being familiar. And I didn’t call him Frank.
“Steve, isn’t it?” he nodded and smiled again.
“Yes – if you like.”
“Let’s go and find Tony and the others,” I said, wanted to lose myself in the company of people I knew as soon as possible.
“Great,” he said. He didn’t have to look far. Gareth practically flew out of his chalet, then stopped when he saw what I had seen.
“Frank?” he asked. Steve nodded and smiled. Not comfortable with Frank’s appearance, Gareth went to greet Audrey, whom he certainly did recognize. Meanwhile Tony appeared. A huge grin spread across his face, then he held out his arms.
“Frank!” and he proceeded to hug what to me was still a stranger.
Sandi had stayed in the background for a few minutes, presumably not knowing how to react to Steve. While Tony and Steve were talking, she beamed a big smile at Audrey and then gave her a kiss and big hug.
“It’s wonderful to see you Audrey!” We’ve all missed you – especially your cooking, Gareth thinks I’m hopeless – and all he makes is curry.” Audrey was clearly overwhelmed by the occasion.
“It’s lovely to see you all again – I didn’t know it would be so soon. But then Frank came back… Oh, you’ve never met Frank, have you?” Sandi shook her head. “Frank – over here.” Steve excused himself from Tony and came over to meet Sandi.
“We’ve never met – but I’ve heard a lot about you, she said.” Sandi looked nervous, and I could understand why. She was never one to stand on ceremony, and this would be really difficult for her. It was hard enough for me to accept that the young, dark stranger in front of me was the same man I’d met a week ago. How was cynical Sandi going to manage? Steve looked at her closely, almost scrutinizing her, making her more uncomfortable than ever. Then his face broke into a charming smile,