by Glenn Carter
Everyone was now looking at Rob.
Rob smiled and said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I came straight back and handed it to Esmee. Maybe she did something to it?’
Paul’s face flushed with anger, ‘Our friend Terry is very clever. You see he remotely turned on the mic of my phone and recorded this audio file two minutes before the phone went dead.’ He opened up a laptop in front of him and hit a key. It was Rob’s voice, ‘Make sure nothing can be recovered from this phone. Do you hear me?’ Then another voice, ‘Yes boss.’
Paul said, ‘Two minutes later the phone went dead.’
Rob stood up, ‘This doesn’t prove anything. Someone is trying to frame me.’
Paul also stood up. Raising his voice slightly he said, ‘Rob we didn’t hand you all the paper documents either. The documents we recovered from the house provided more details about ‘Sabre’. It gave us locations, meeting dates, detailed correspondence about where Sabre would be in the lead-up to the previous assassination attempt. It won’t be difficult to link you to these movements and demonstrate that you are Sabre.’
Rob’s face grew red. He placed his right hand near to his left wrist. He laughed manically, ‘You got me. And my plan was so close to working.’
Natalie stood up. ‘Rob, what do you mean? Are you really involved?’
Steward spoke quietly yet firmly, ‘Rob take you hand away from your watch please.’
‘I’m not going to prison for trying to kill that piece of dirt Prime Minister. She deserves to die. She is the one with no moral compass. When she was Foreign Secretary, she refused to rescue my brother from the Russians. My brother who sacrificed so much for his country as a spy. My brother’s life was worth more than that. Way more.’
Rob’s rant was interrupted by Stewart saying, ‘Whole systems shut down.’ Suddenly all the screens in the room switched off, along with everyone’s watches. Rob looked down at his watch and started shaking with fury. He reached down and pulled a gun from his ankle. Sweeping it from left to right, he edged towards the door.
‘What about my Dad?’ asked Paul.
Rob smiled again, ‘You can’t help him now. We thought we could get information out of him, but he didn’t talk. My associates have instructions to kill him if they don’t hear from me by sunrise. Goodbye.’ He turned to go.
Natalie rushed at him and Rob swiftly swung the gun around and shot at her. He looked in shock as she fell to the floor. Then he ran out of the room.
Rob sprinted down the corridor at full speed. As he turned the corner, there was Conor. Rob didn’t have time to raise his gun. Conor swiftly jumped high into the air and landed a two footed kick to Rob’s head. Rob was thrown back with huge force and landed on the floor, out cold.
30
Goodbye Dad
At 08:00am Terry and Sharav were outside St Andrew’s House in the pitch dark, watching Paul pace up and down the street. They all turned as they heard the door open and there was Rachel, followed by Conor. Paul rushed towards Rachel and gave her a long hug. They briefly shared a smile.
Conor sensed their hesitancy towards him and said, ‘Listen you lot, I’m on your side. I’ll explain later. You did so well in uncovering Sabre and saving your sister and the Prime Minister. Well done!’ He handed them all their watches. Terry looked forlorn as he realised there wasn’t one for him. ‘Sure, don’t worry der Terry, I’ll make sure you get one of dose bad boys.’
Terry put his hand over his mouth trying to hide his joy and exclaimed loudly, ‘All righty then!’
Paul started pacing again. ‘Yes, but what about our Dad?’ He looked at his watch. Rob said that he would be dead by sunrise. That’s in 30 minutes.’
Conor put his head down, ‘I’m sorry. We have our best people working flat out to see if de evidence you recovered can give any clues as to where he might be. Dey are also interrogating Rob and de gang as we speak. So far we have nothing.’
Out of the corner of his eye Paul noticed that Terry was sitting down on the pavement studying a map. Paul wondered how he could possibly be looking at a map given everything else that was going on right now.
Then Terry stood up suddenly, rummaged in his pocket and said, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’
Paul approached him as Terry took out a magnifying glass to look at the map of Edinburgh.
‘Where did you get that map Terry?’ asked Sharav.
‘I took it from the incident room,’ replied Terry. ‘There was something odd about it and I couldn’t quite work it out.’
‘But that’s classified, Terry. You can’t take it,’ said Sharav.
Terry ignored him and continued to inspect the map through the magnifying glass. ‘Ah, there!’ Terry pointed at the map.
Paul took a closer look but couldn’t see anything. Terry handed him his magnifying glass and Paul looked carefully. The small green and red symbol came into focus. It was the same symbol they had seen on the fish tank bomb. Paul raised his head, ‘Eh guys, I think Terry might have found something.’ They each took a turn to view the symbol as they formed a circle around the map.
‘Any more of dose symbols on the map Terry?’ asked Conor.
‘Nope, I’ve checked the whole thing. That’s the only one. And it’s right beside the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill.’
‘It’s got to be important. We need to go and have a look,’ Rachel said urgently.
‘Wait der,’ called Conor over his shoulder as he ran off.
2 minutes later the group heard a loud rumble followed by a screech of tyres as Conor came around the corner in a red Alfa Romeo Giulia.
They all jumped into the car and Conor hit the accelerator.
‘Holy moly,’ cackled Terry as they were all thrown back in their seats. ‘I think I have keiched my pants!’
Paul asked his watch, ‘How long until we get to the Royal Observatory?’
‘Good morning,’ said Hugo. ‘It’s about 3 miles to the Observatory. 20 minutes in traffic, but in this car, at this time, you should be there in 5 minutes. Sunrise is at 08:31AM.’
The group stayed silent as Conor sped through the narrow streets at up to 90mph. After what seemed like an age they arrived at the observatory. The observatory was an old 1800s stone building and looked striking with its two green copper domes. The car skidded to a halt and everyone threw open their doors and jumped out.
‘Wait,’ said Rachel. ‘It’s 08:21 and we don’t have much time. This building is huge so we can’t afford to blindly search for the next ten minutes. We need a plan. I’ve been thinking. Why sunrise? Don’t you think it’s a coincidence that this is the Royal Observatory and that they said Dad had until sunrise to live? It’s got to be something to do with light.’
Terry was getting excited, ‘Yep, yep, yep. Both those domes have refurbished telescopes in them. Maybe that’s where we need to look first?’
‘Worth a shot,’ said Paul. ‘Okay let’s split up. Conor and Sharav, you go to the west dome and Rachel, Terry and I will take the east dome. Just then Sharav collapsed to the ground and fell fast asleep. Paul rolled his eyes, ‘Okay change of plan. Terry, you go with Conor. Rachel is with me.’ Each group sprinted off in different directions.
Paul and Rachel slowed to a walk as they approached the blue steel door of the east dome. Paul grabbed the padlock and pulled out his lock picks.
‘Do we have time for this?’ asked Rachel anxiously.
‘No choice,’ replied Paul. ‘Can you run round the tower to see if there are any windows we could break?’
Rachel returned 2 minutes later, ‘They are all locked and have bars on the inside.’ ‘Paul it’s 8:25. Six minutes.’
‘It’s okay, I’m almost there… just, one, more, pin.’ Paul pushed the final pin into place and turned the tension wrench carefully to the right.
The padlock slipped off easily and Paul pulled hard to open the heavy door. They both ran into the dark, cavernous space. Rachel spoke into her watch, ‘full beam’. A strong shaft of light cut throu
gh the darkness to reveal a copper dome 45 feet above them. A solid blue metal structure sat in the middle of the room housing a large telescope which pointed upwards.
‘Dad?’ Rachel’s quiet voice echoed upwards. There was no response.
‘Dad are you here?’ called Paul more loudly, as they walked slowly towards the central metal structure. They walked around the metal frame and scanned the periphery of the room. Nothing.
‘He’s not here,’ said Rachel.
‘Something must be here. Keep looking. 4 minutes.’
They searched the room high and low using their watch lights. Finally Rachel noticed something move halfway up the metal structure. ‘Paul, up there!’
Paul shone his watch to where Rachel was pointing. More movement. They scrambled up the structure as fast as they could. And there was their Dad, his eyes wide open, tears flowing down his face. Paul and Rachel embraced him. His mouth was taped, legs were tied and his arms were handcuffed separately behind him so that he was leaning back facing the roof. Paul pulled back from the embrace and looked at his father’s face. His Dad was trying to say something through the tape. Paul pulled the tape from his mouth and Michael Fox said, ‘Paul, Rachel, I thought I was never going to see you again! What time is it?’
‘It’s 8:29 Dad, we found you in time,’ said Paul.
‘Oh no son, you don’t understand. They injected me with some sort of chemical 12 hours ago. It means that if my skin is exposed to UV rays from the sun, I will have a severe allergic reaction and die. It’s too late my beautiful children. The dome is timed to open at 8:31. But at least…’
Before Mr Fox had finished speaking, Paul was clambering up the structure towards the dome shutters. He climbed with extraordinary speed and agility across the telescope and flung himself towards the shutters. He landed on a ledge and held on precariously to a metal handle. He shuffled away from the central point towards the mechanism that would open the shutter.
‘We need something to jam in these cogs!’ he shouted down.
Rachel was working desperately to pick the handcuffs. She quickly scanned the room and called back, ‘Paul there isn’t anything here.’
Paul considered all his options. Where was the timer? Could he hold the shutters closed himself? Could they move Dad in time? No, there was no time. His stomach lurched as he heard the mechanism grumble into action. It was too late. He checked his watch, 08:31.
‘Rachel, its opening!’
‘I can’t get the handcuffs open Paul,’ she cried. She leant down and kissed her father on the forehead. ‘Goodbye Dad, I love you.’
‘I love you Rachel,’ Michael replied. ‘It’s okay Paul, come down and see me.’
Just then, as Paul had lost all hope, he had an idea. He threw the only thing that he had to hand toward the mechanism. There was a horrible screeching, grinding noise as the mechanism slowed and then stopped.
Conor and Terry ran in through the door and looked up at Paul, who was illuminated by Rachel’s watch. Sharav followed them looking groggy.
‘How did you stop it?’ called Rachel.
I’ve thrown my watch into the cogs,’ said Paul loudly as he started climbing down. ‘It won’t hold for long. Conor climb up and help us.’
Rachel managed to get one of the handcuffs off, while Connor worked on the second one. Paul untied his Dad’s feet. Soon Michael Fox was free and was climbing down to the ground. When they reached the ground, he grabbed both Paul and Rachel and held them close. After a minute, there was a loud crack and they all looked up towards the shutters. The watch had finally succumbed, and the mechanism was slowly pulverising the watch. Rachel pointed at a small office in the corner of the room and Mr Fox was rushed towards it. Paul pulled Sharav’s jacket from him and threw it over the only window of the office just as the shutters finally opened, flooding the observatory with bright morning sunlight.
31
Restored
Three days later Paul, Sharav and Rachel were hanging out in MI2 headquarters on the blue level. Paul and Rachel were swinging on a couple of hammocks, while Sharav was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the pineapple pods. They were spending time recounting some of their adventures and Rachel wanted to hear all about how they tracked down her phone.
She laughed and listened open-mouthed as the boys retold their story, describing Terry’s heroic actions and how he had managed to stay calm, most of the time. Rachel’s favourite part of the story was how the different gang members were affected by the drugs. The boys were busily recounting the house explosion when behind them they heard a familiar Irish accent.
‘How’s it going lads?’
They turned around to see a smiling Conor striding towards them.
‘Howaya? You recovered from all de stuff last week?’
‘We’re okay, I think,’ said Paul, whose head was still full of questions. Paul still wasn’t sure whether they could fully trust Conor. He decided to go for it. ‘Conor, I don’t know where to start. How about, we can’t believe you’re alive! Sharav and I saw you fall into the sea. No one was found. I mean, was that planned?’
‘That, my friend, is a great place to start,’ said Conor pulling himself up into a free hammock. ‘Okay no it wasn’t planned but it was a great opportunity! I didn’t know dat man would be on the ship but falling overboard with him was the only way of keeping you safe, Paul. Anyway, remember the shots dat were fired? Well the bullets didn’t hit me. I think dey hit the other bloke because I didn’t see him come back up again. When you’re in the sea, your top priority is to stay afloat. It was pretty calm out der, so I lay on me back and floated. I was wondering what to do when I remembered my mentor saying to me, ‘The most effective spies are the ones that are invisible.’ I hoped that you would raise the alarm and that a team would come looking for me, but I needed everyone to tink that I was dead. When I was a teenager, I learnt to hold me breath for up to four minutes.’
‘Wow,’ said Sharav smiling.
‘Anyway, I saw the rescue craft coming for me, so I dived under the surface. I needed to be careful dat I didn’t get chopped to pieces by de propellers and I just managed to grab on to de underside of de boat as it went past. Every couple of minutes or so I would risk putting me head above de surface to get some air. I was so close to de boat but dey didn’t tink about looking over the sides. I was freezing by den but tankfully after 45 minutes dey headed back to the ship. I managed to cling on to de boat as it was pulled out of de water. It’s a long story but I stowed away in de rescue vessel and got off de ship when we docked in Pembroke.
Rachel stared at him, ‘But why did you not want to be found?’
Conor sat up in the hammock and looked at her. ‘I took de chance to use de best ever cover. You know, death.’
‘But why did you need the cover?’ asked Sharav.
‘Ah good question. Well you know, Irish Intelligence have been working with de UK security services for years. Me included. I had my suspicions dat MI5 and MI2 had a mole. In fact, my suspicions were pretty specific. I had worked with Rob on a couple of missions in Ireland and although I couldn’t put me finger on it at first, tings weren’t quite right. I’m not used to missions failing, but when I worked with Rob, dey went wrong all de time. Both missions failed. Really important ones. Der was nothing concrete, but sure I knew it in my bones. So when I got off de boat at Pembroke, I contacted me boss Mary O’Connell and told her what was going on. She was fine with de plan. Mary put a trace on all Rob’s calls and der was one number we couldn’t identify. Dat number was tracked to North Berwick. So off I went, and with the help of some of my dodgy contacts I was recommended to Ronnie, you know de bald gang leader.’ Conor continued, ‘Ronnie takes a while to trust people. He had his inner circle and I had only just shown up. I was just beginning to find out some information and work out a bit more about Rob’s treachery. I had heard de name ‘Sabre’ and was wondering if dat was Rob. You lot got to it first. A more direct route I suppose!’
&nbs
p; Rachel looked up, ‘So that gang were the ones blackmailing me?’
‘Afraid so,’ said Conor. ‘From what I’ve worked out dis particular cell wanted to cause as much disruption to de country as possible. To totally destabilise it in fact. Dey had two missions. Dey wanted to get top secret information out of a very senior spy, so dey kidnapped your Dad. However, when dey realised dat he wasn’t going to talk dey decided to capture one of his children. Dat would have been de best way to make him talk. Dey didn’t manage to do dat, so dey continued with der other mission. To kill de Prime Minister. And to be fair dey quite cleverly used your Dad to blackmail you into doing der bidding.’
Rachel put her head down, ‘I know. That was close!’
Paul said, ‘Yeah but Rachel, I would have done the same thing in your shoes. Anyway, I can’t believe they used a thirteen-year-old!’
‘I know but dese men are ruthless,’ said Conor. ‘Dey used Rob’s hate of de Prime Minister. Rob blames her personally for de death of his brother. But de PM wouldn’t have risked a war with Russia for de sake of rescuing one agent. Probably de right decision.’
Conor turned to Paul and Rachel, ‘Oh yeah Paul and Rachel, your Dad said he wanted a quick chat. One at a time if possible.’
Paul looked at Rachel, who nodded. He jumped down from the hammock and walked towards the moonstone office. As he entered, he saw that a new ceiling had been installed that blocked out the light.
They sat on either side of the oak desk, on which a new watch lay. It was turned off.
‘How are you Dad?’
‘Much better son. The UV light thing is still a problem, but we have some great scientists trying to come up with a drug to reverse the condition. I’m hopeful. But in the meantime, I’m spending a lot of time in here. I can move around at night so that’s not too bad.’
‘Oh, that’s good,’ replied Paul. ‘You’re looking better.’
Michael Fox smiled. ‘Paul, I’m proud of you. You’ve been through a lot over the last couple of years. And despite all that, you’ve shown amazing levels of character and resilience. No matter what happens, no matter what choices you make, I want you to know that I love you and want to be a better Dad. I’m sorry for failing you, Rachel and your Mum.’