Strikers Instinct

by A. D. Rogers

“Of course.” Basil answered seriously. “We met many years ago at university – but even back then Luke was always in trouble. He threatened me personally several times and was on the verge of being thrown out. We always wondered why he was allowed to stay on. We did wonder if it was something to do with his background.”

  “Could you elaborate?”

  “Certainly.” Basil replied. “Luke and his family were Socialist anarchists – virtually communists. Linden had a nickname at university – we called him Lefty!”

  Both Basil and Jackie smiled before he continued.

  “Sadly his father also had rather a violent past. He attacked a policeman whilst leading an illegal strike and was sentenced to rather a long jail term.”

  Around the country there were several gasps as this was revealed – back at the training camp, Luke gripped his chair in anger.

  “He’ll pay for that.” Luke whispered with quiet menace.

  Back at the interview, Basil had begun to talk about the last time he and Luke had met.

  “I was very surprised to see him doing so well.” he said with raised eyebrows. “He wasn’t particularly clever at University but he now seems to be very well-off.”

  “What did that suggest to you?” Jackie asked innocently.

  “Well I’m sorry to say that I immediately thought that he must have been up to something illegal – I mean given his family background and all…….”

  Jackie nodded and then indicated for Basil to continue. “What happened next?”

  Basil looked pained. “I’m afraid to say that Luke and his friends robbed me of £10,000!”

  Once again Basil paused for effect and once again gasps were heard around the country – and further. Basil went on to explain how he been tricked into parting with a large sum of his hard-earned money. He added that he was always happy to help with charity but he felt that he had been threatened and placed in an untenable situation. He talked for a few moments longer but Jackie had heard enough.

  “Mr. Jeffers – would it surprise you to discover that Luke Linden has allegedly been taking illegal, performance enhancing stimulants?”

  “I’m afraid not my dear. Nothing that man does would surprise me.”

  “Mr. Jeffers – once again – thanks for giving up your valuable time to help with this extremely important story.”

  Basil nodded his head graciously and the interview came to an end. Jackie smiled to herself – this was going well. She turned back to the camera with a serious expression.

  “Unfortunately, we have heard from at least one source within the club that Mr. Linden needs to take a certain drink to help him get through each game. We will be asking why this substance has not been picked up by the regular drugs tests? But now we move on from that pre-recorded interview to a live guest. Mrs Fran Lafferty and I have spoken several times over the last few weeks and I’m delighted she has agreed to come here today to clarify a few issues.”

  Jackie would have been more delighted if she could have actually recorded the conversation that she and Fran had a few weeks ago. Mysteriously the state of the art equipment had been playing up over the last few weeks. They also had only managed to get snatches of Jessica’s conversation with Harry but they didn’t manage to record anything at all from Fran. They had decided to go ahead anyway – Fran had confidentially confirmed to Jackie that the competition had been fixed.

  Jackie turned to face the person to her left.

  “Fran Lafferty,” she announced, “Chairperson of Wishton Clough Supporters club – I’m so glad that you were able to join us today.” Fran had been kept in another room during the previous interview so knew nothing of what Basil had said.

  “It’s good to be here in what is a very exciting week for Wishton Clough and our supporters.” Fran replied.

  “OK Fran, can we begin by explaining about the competition you organised for the supporters club at the beginning of the season?”

  Fran spent a few minutes explaining exactly what the competition was about and how thrilled they were about how successful it had been – Luke had done them proud.

  Jackie was slightly confused but hid her concern and turned seriously to the camera. “That’s all very well, Fran but you revealed to me last week that this competition was rigged so that only Luke Linden could win.”

  The colour drained from Fran’s face. “I beg your pardon?” she said calmly.

  Jackie thought perhaps she had misheard her.

  “I’m saying that you admitted that the competition was fixed.” Jackie said.

  “I hope this is some kind of joke,” Fran said coldly, “or you are in a whole lot of trouble.”

  Jackie began to panic. “There must be some kind of misunderstanding,” she blustered, “last week you sat in front of me and claimed that the whole thing was a set-up!”

  Fran turned to face the camera. “I would like to see the evidence that you have to back up such a wild claim.”

  Jackie panicked and looked for some way to end the interview. “I think there may have been some technical issues,” she stammered, “we’ll have to leave it there for the moment.”

  Before the cameras could move away from the interview the viewers could pick out Fran’s voice, “you’ll be hearing from my solicitors!”

  Jackie was sweating but needed to pull herself together quickly – she had got out of worse spots than this – she just needed to wind Jake Pryce up and let him go. During the hastily arranged ad break she signalled to a runner to bring Pryce through. She despised the odious footballer but she really needed him now.

  Jake had been kept in a similar room to Fran so he knew nothing of what was going on. When QGNews had contacted him, he had snatched at their invitation like a drowning man reaching for a lifejacket. Following the hacking incident he had been charged by the police and had been ostracised by virtually everyone. His current club in Italy had severed all ties with him – the only slight silver lining was that they had to pay his wages up to the end of the season. That meant that so far there had been no financial loss – if he could just wriggle out of these charges then he could start again.

  Just as he was contemplating coming out on top once again, his phone buzzed. This new phone had been registered by one of his few remaining friends and only a very small number of people knew the number so he instantly opened the message. Suddenly it was his turn to go pale and start to panic. The message read:

  “We warned you. If you go ahead with your interview then within one hour we will release these photos on the internet.”

  With an increasingly sinking heart Jake began to flick through the photographs. Although not illegal they were extremely incriminating and if certain people saw them then Jake knew that the least he could expect was extreme violence. He switched off the phone and walked calmly to the door. Stationed outside was a large member of QGNews staff.

  “Can I help you?” he asked. “Just a few more minutes before they are ready for you Mr. Pryce.”

  Jake tried to smile. “I don’t feel too well – I need the bathroom before I go on.”

  The security man noticed how pale Jake was and ushered him along the corridor.

  “There you go”

  Jake thanked him and walked inside. Once through the second door he didn’t hesitate – he went straight to one of the opaque windows at the far side of the room and opened it as far as possible. Thanking his luck that the room was on the ground floor, Jake quickly slipped through the window and within seconds he was in his car and driving away. He smiled – his backup plan had been to set off the fire alarm – this way was much more discreet.

  Back inside Jackie shouted at the runner. “Were is he?”

  The runner just shook her head. “Gone.” was the only word she uttered. Jackie didn’t see the grin on the girl’s face as she turned away.

  CHAPTER 53

  Sandy and Luke stared at each other as the interviews were brought to an abrupt ending.

  “I’m sorry,” the announce
r said, “but sadly Mr. Jake Pryce has been taken ill and won’t be able to appear today. Instead we will be taking a look at some women’s volleyball.”

  “What do you make of that?” Sandy asked.

  “I’m more interested in what Harry’s reply is going to be.” Luke replied tersely. In fact he knew exactly what had happened to Jake Pryce. Album staff had tracked down his new phone number and Luke had then arranged for someone to send him the text message. Harry and Luke had agreed that this would be the easiest way to prevent Pryce from spreading further poison in front of the cameras. However, they had decided to leave the warning until the last minute to cause maximum embarrassment to QGNews.

  As soon as Harry had heard about the QGNews schedule he had set up a press conference in a large meeting room in a London hotel. The conference had been well-publicised and as Harry glanced into the room he was pleased to see that all the major papers seemed to be represented – in addition there were cameras from all the main networks. The QGNews interviews had unexpectedly finished early so there was another 30 minutes before Harry was due to respond. Harry spent the remaining minutes checking and double-checking his notes and speaking to his assistants to make sure that everything else he needed was available. Finally he was ready and he walked confidently into the packed room.

  “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “I’m very pleased that you could spare the time to join me today – hopefully you will be suitably rewarded.” Harry smiled but in return he received a barrage of questions which he simply brushed aside.

  “This conference is in response to the unexpected attack earlier today from the QGNews corporation on Wishton Clough and its employees. If you would be kind enough to refrain from asking questions until we get to the end then I think we will get through this fairly quickly.”

  Harry paused for effect then looked straight into the cameras.

  “This morning, the QGNews corporation tried to deliver what they laughingly described as a series of interviews designed to smear Wishton Clough. At this moment we do not know the full reasons behind the attack but I am here today to deliver our response. Normally our Chairman would deliver such a message but as part of the attack concerns allegedly illegal substances then I, as Chief Medical Officer and Board Member, asked if I could be the person to talk to you. Also – we would normally take a few days to consider our response to such an attack but we believe the main thrust of this nonsense is to de-stabilise the team before our important game tomorrow – so we felt that we needed to clear the air as soon as possible.”

  Harry glanced down at his notes before he continued.

  “I will deal with the allegations in the order that they were presented this morning, starting with the Right Honourable Basil Jeffers.” Harry spat out the name as if it was a bad taste.

  “I don’t intend to dwell upon the personal attack on Luke Linden – but I will touch on it before I finish – however, I would like to address the claims made by the Right Honourable gentleman that he was somehow tricked into parting with his hard-earned money. I’d like to begin by showing you a recording of part of the Charity Ball at which the alleged robbery took place.”

  Harry signalled to one of assistants and a large screen behind Harry started to show sound and pictures from the social gathering. Luke Linden stood up and announced that he and Basil Jeffers had agreed to give £10,000 each to the charity – the camera captured Basil standing alongside Luke, clearly smiling and basking in the applause from the audience. The recording stopped and Harry continued to speak.

  “Mr. Jeffers doesn’t seem too unhappy for someone who has just lost £10,000 pounds does he? In fact he seemed to be smiling and lapping up the applause. I’m sure that he could have spoken up if he wanted to – I was there alongside him and he didn’t utter a word. But that’s not the strangest part of his wild allegation. Mr. Jeffers didn’t actually send his £10,000 to us.”

  A ripple of anticipation ran around the room.

  “In fact,” Harry continued, “the Charity administrators were ready to send him a reminder when suddenly last week we received a personal cheque from Mr. Jeffers. We were very pleased but the next day we received another letter which threw us into some confusion.”

  Harry signalled again and this time a sheet of paper appeared on the large screen – this was obviously part of a bank statement.

  “We didn’t know what to make of this at the time but then when we began to hear rumours about Mr. Jeffers’ accusation – it began to make more sense. Someone – obviously a Wishton sympathiser – seems to have sent us part of Mr. Jeffers bank statement. We have tried to have this verified but this is obviously a very sensitive document. However, if I could draw your attention to the line in the middle of the sheet which has been highlighted. There is a payment from someone to Mr. Jeffers for £10,000. Ladies and gentlemen – apparently that person works for QGNews.”

  Harry paused as the shock waves bounced around the room. It was obvious to everyone present what this revelation meant.

  “Please, ladies and gentlemen,” Harry held up his hands for silence, “please allow me to continue. I did say that I would also touch upon the personal attack on Luke Linden. In regard to that matter I have a document here signed by Professor Arkwright who was Mr. Linden’s tutor during his time at Oxford. He paints an entirely different picture to Mr. Jeffers – saying Luke was a popular, considerate and very friendly student. This has been backed up by one of the many friends Luke made at university – Lord Alexander DeCourt. His Lordship is godfather to one of the Linden children – in fact the Lindens named their first child after Lord Alexander. Hardly sounds like something a communist would do…..”

  Again Harry paused. “The final accusation from Basil Jeffers,” he began gravely, “is the one that probably hurt the most. I will leave the cowardly assault on Bob Linden’s character to Mr. Linden’s legal team. The only thing I will say is that the Bob Linden Community Centre in Wishton is fully supported by the local people and authorities alike – and a campaign has been running for many months to get his unsafe conviction overturned.”

  Harry took a sip of water as he let his words sink in.

  “OK,” he said quietly, “let’s move on to the next instalment of this sorry saga. Fran Lafferty warned us a few weeks ago that she was being pressured by QGNews to invent a story about Luke Linden unfairly winning our fans competition. In other words they wanted her to say that the contest was fixed. We asked her to go along with them to see how far they would go – never dreaming they would be so stupid as to bring Fran to an interview without one shred of evidence! Fran is also taking legal advice regarding her next steps.”

  The majority of the room laughed and began to shake their heads.

  “Next,” Harry said, “the non-appearance of Jake Pryce. I have no idea what QGNews were hoping to gain by parading him in front of the cameras but it seems he had second thoughts so now we will never know. He is due to appear in court in the coming weeks so perhaps he may reveal more at that time.”

  “That just leads us with the massive allegation – again without any proof whatsoever – that Luke Linden has been playing this year with the assistance of an illegal substance. We, of course, understand how some people would jump to this conclusion – after all Luke Linden is a 46 year old amateur footballer – it just doesn’t make sense. But Luke is also amazingly fit and happens to be not a bad footballer – but we do have to admit that he has been taking something each day to help him.”

  A collective gasp escaped from the room and from the watching audiences around the country. What was Harry about to reveal?

  Harry laughed. “Please don’t be alarmed,” he said, “everything Luke – and others – have done is strictly above board. Luke has been part of a controlled study to monitor the effects of a new energy drink. The study group has been quite extensive – covering all walks of life – including sportsmen and women. In the last few weeks we have received word from the relevant auth
orities that the drink has passed all the relevant tests and will now be launched across the world next week.”

  Harry sat back. “So if you believe that Luke Linden owes his performances to an energy drink then you may want to buy TxT Plus when it is released next week!”

  At the training Luke shook his head in amazement.

  “Unbelievable – Harry has turned this around and managed to get some free publicity for the new drink!”

  “Don’t knock it.” replied Sandy. “He’s cleared your name and kicked QGNews so hard that they’ll never recover. We can now just concentrate on winning tomorrow.”

  Luke smiled grimly. Hopefully no-one would discover exactly how much Luke had been involved behind the scenes. He had arranged that Jake Pryce would receive a timely reminder and the “Wishton sympathiser” who had released the bank statement actually worked for Album…….

  CHAPTER 54

  The morning of the big game dawned and the weather seemed determined to allow everyone to enjoy themselves with a cloudless sky and not a breath of wind. Luke sat at the back of the hotel gazing out at the tranquil scene – determined to make the most of what he was sure would be one of the few peaceful moments of the day.

  As Luke sipped his tea he scanned through a selection of the various daily newspapers that were on the table before him. It was one of those rare days when both the front and back pages were running with the same story – and Luke was amused to find that he seemed to be at the centre of the media storm.

  “QGNews Meltdown!” seemed to be the general headline. Some of the tabloids had more colourful ideas but on closer inspection all the stories seemed to cover the fact that for some bizarre reason the QGNews corporation had made wild, unproven claims about Wishton Clough and some of its employees and now it was paying the price. The QGNews share price had plummeted overnight, several major advertisers had pulled out and they were facing law suits from many angles. The only statement they had made was to say that they had terminated the contract of Jackie Jenson – claiming she had acted without proper approval – which was obvious nonsense.