Everything to Lose

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Everything to Lose Page 19

by Gordon Bickerstaff


  He had been in the factory only ten minutes and already he worried that going along with the scam was a bad idea. He had no choice given the fabricated evidence the McVickins had and the fact that Zoe want to know if any University staff were involved in illegal steroids. He looked up to see a friendly face looking down at him.

  "Hi I'm to show you the ropes," the man said.

  "I'm Gavin."

  "You're the chemist. I'm the Manager," the man said.

  "Okay."

  "Do what you're told. You won't get hurt and we'll all get along," the Manager said.

  "Can I have some food and water?"

  "Follow me. Do you have the methods?"

  Gavin Shawlens handed over the USB stick to the Manager. He led Gavin to the steroid bay and they met Tokai. The Manager said he would print out the methods so they could start to gather the materials required.

  For a few seconds Tokai and Gavin stared as they sized each other up. Gavin wandered around to see what equipment and chemicals were available. Everything needed to start production was there and ready to go. Gavin told Tokai he had done a good job getting things ready.

  The first production run would be oxandrolone tablets. Steroid tablets are popular and from Gavin's perspective much easier to produce from the raw material DHEA that Tokai had in plenty supply.

  Oliver Mansole had left a twenty-five-litre drum of DHEA. Gavin had no idea how pure the DHEA was but he was thankful it was there. The hard part of the synthesis was cholesterol to DHEA. The second step DHEA to oxandrolone was easier. Gavin started to relax a little as he felt this production would be easy enough to deliver.

  The Manager returned from the office and handed Gavin the printed methods and he took them back to his bunk bed to review the procedures. He made notes and did calculations at each the stage when chemicals and equipment were required. He thought about the harm the drugs could do on the street. Some ideas ran through his mind on how he could make them harmless. He dismissed them in case Tokai was smarter than he looked.

  When he stretched his neck and looked around he noticed that the Manager had a bed at the end of the row. It was his personal space between his crib and the wall. He had a makeshift table and bookshelf. He had a three-drawer cabinet for his clothes with a small table lamp on top. Everyone else had carrier bags or old backpack bags under their bed.

  Gavin Shawlens didn't sleep much that night. There was too much noise in the factory and too many people moving around the beds in the early hours. At six a.m. the Manager took Gavin to the kitchen area for breakfast. He sat Gavin at a long wooden table with bench seats of the type used in beer gardens.

  The open plan kitchen had no hobs, ovens or hotplates. It did have a fridge, a large freezer, three microwave ovens, two kettles and two bread toasters. All of the food in the fridge and freezer was microwave food. The only drinks were tea, coffee or bottled water. Some fruit was stored in the fridge.

  Gavin browsed the freezer and found a microwave meal he liked and while the microwave droned he made himself a cup of coffee. Beside the freezer was a large washing machine tumble drier. The Manager said he operated a strict rota for the machine. Missing your allocated slot for doing your clothes was a major incident certain to cause distress and pain.

  As Gavin sat on the bench with his quick meal he saw a queue of women waiting outside the one and only toilet that had a shower. The Manager told him men had priority for the shower and that if a female occupied it he could tell her to get out. He warned Gavin to shower regularly and keep his clothes clean. If Lisa smelled body odour from him he would feel her anger. No one was allowed to offend Lisa's nose. Gavin thought about smelly Tyler for a minute. Either he was insanely stupid or very smart to keep his body odour on full blast.

  The Manager asked him if he had all the ingredients and equipment he needed for a production run. Gavin told him he did. The Manager told him Lisa would arrive around eight in the evening. He warned Gavin that he'd better have the production up and running if he didn't want a beating.

  Gavin watched the Manager cut all of the meat on his plate into regular sized cubes before eating one of them. He discarded a couple of small pieces that would not cut into neat cubes.

  "Does that taste better?" Gavin asked.

  "What?" The Manager asked.

  "The cubes?"

  "Yes it does."

  "My sister cuts her food into rectangular strips. She says it tastes better. I think she's kidding me on."

  "No she's not."

  "How long have you been here?"

  "None of your business."

  "Oh shit it's that little witch," Gavin said.

  Lexy walked into the kitchen and started to rummage through the freezer. She gave Gavin an icy stare as she waited for the microwave to heat her food. She sat at the opposite end of the bench on her own. The Manager saw their exchange.

  "How do you know Lexy?" The Manager asked.

  "That little McVickin witch helped force me into this mess."

  "Lexy isn't a McVickin so don't hold it against her. Whatever she did, she did because that's what Lisa told her to do."

  "I thought she was Lisa's daughter," Gavin said.

  The Manager looked at Gavin as if he had two heads. Gavin was thinking Lexy might be Lisa's adopted daughter and the Manager was thinking Gavin had no idea what Lisa was like.

  "Lexy is Vietnamese, she's a victim like the rest of us here," the Manager said.

  "What do you mean a victim?"

  "She's a traffic casualty."

  Over breakfast the Manager told Gavin Lexy's story. It was a story familiar to the other girls in Lisa's business.

  Lexy wasn't her real name. Lisa didn't like her Vietnamese name so when she arrived at the factory Lisa re-named her. Lexy was head gardener and supervisor of five other young girls who tended the cannabis plants. They were in their early teens and unable to speak much English.

  He said they had all been trafficked from Vietnam on the promise of well-paid work so they could send money home to support their families. Lexy's family took out a loan to pay for a six-month course at a nail academy in Vietnam for her to train as a nail technician. An agent promised a well-paid job at a nail bar in a top beauty salon in London. She started out with dreams of living in London and making enough money to send home for her family to pay off the loan and help them to break out of poverty.

  The McVickins paid the agent in Vietnam to organise a flight from Vietnam to Russia and lorry transport from Russia to France. The McVickins took possession of their purchases in France and smuggled them into the UK.

  The journey took two months and girls were raped by Vietnamese men travelling with them and brutalised by each set of hands they passed through. When they arrived in the UK they were traumatised, pregnant and suffering ill health from sexually transmitted diseases. All hopes and dreams and their childhoods stolen from them.

  When Lexy started working for Lisa tending the cannabis plants one of the Vietnamese prostitutes told Lexy that her cannabis farm had been busted by police and she faced drugs charges and jail.

  She told Lexy if police raided this place they would all be sent to jail. She said she'd been lucky because Jim McVickin helped her to disappear from police and jail. The Vietnamese girls were told that jail in the UK was worse than jail back home, which they knew was a cruel place for young people.

  The only mention of home for the Vietnamese girls was a regular reminder that if they didn't comply with every one of Lisa's demands then the agent in Vietnam would use his machete to hack feet off their sisters and brothers. Lisa had posted a photo of a decapitated child's foot near the kitchen as a reminder of the threat to their brothers and sisters. No one working in the building, including the Manager had been outside in the fresh air since they arrived.

  The Manager said tending cannabis plants was hard, backbreaking and lonely work with a pair of gardeners doing two four-hour shifts every day. Working under blazing lights that roast your hair, head
and arms and standing against air conditioning units that blast cold air through your legs was hard on the body.

  Unbelievably Lexy looked forward to the time when she would move over to 'the beds' as the previous head gardener had done. At least she would have contact with other humans and the shifts were easier. She longingly watched the pole dancers practise their routines. One of them promised to teach Lexy the best moves to keep the sai nghia happy.

  Lexy had one comfort, the same vivid dream every night. A tornado sent from Vietnam by her father makes a big hole in the wall so everyone can escape into the sunshine and fresh air. She decided that jail would be a better life for her because jail terms end then she would be free.

  Gavin pushed the remainder of his food away. His face contorted with anguish. He felt sick with despair as he looked along the bench at frail and lonely Lexy. He could have choked the life out of her when he first saw her. His rage melted. Now he wanted to pick up and take her out of this place. She noticed him staring at her. She saw a very different expression on his face this time. She saw kindness in his eyes, his face showed empathy and the beginning of a friendly smile.

  She bowed her head so her hair fell forward and hid her little face. A minute later she moved her head back slightly to look at him. Her funny little eyes strained to get a peek. He was still looking. He smiled at her. She tried to smile back but couldn't, instead she gave him a tiny wave with her small hand.

  35

  Southsea, Hampshire

  By early evening Gavin Shawlens had started the next batch of oxandrolone. In another world he would be enjoying himself. Bringing all the ingredients together to produce a complex product was fun. Especially when it works. It's a similar type of satisfaction a chef enjoys when a special dish looks and tastes great. Except Gavin didn't plan to taste his dish.

  Gavin had no idea how pure the ingredients were and didn't care. He knew the final product would have residual methanol and didn't care. The tablets from the first batch looked good and that's all that mattered for now. If the tablets ended up making someone sick then they might think twice next time.

  He didn't worry that one of the inorganic catalysts was carcinogenic and he didn't have the equipment to remove it from the final product. He was content to watch a batch of white powder tumble dry slowly in the drum oven. Tokai would take over and turn two kilos of active oxandrolone into 200,000 tablets worth £1 a pop.

  Just after eight in the evening Lisa got up from her private table in the restaurant. She had enjoyed a sumptuous dinner with fine wine and was in a good mood as she made her way to the factory. She had already been told that Shawlens was busy producing her goods.

  The steroids made her a great deal of money but she knew that growth hormone and the other peptides were high value products with greater profit margins. The opportunity to add this new range was a dream come true. Before dinner she and her accountant brother Sidney projected the profits from the peptides alone to be worth £1.25 million in the first year. Sidney had started work on new pages for their Internet website.

  The only fly in the ointment was Gavin Shawlens. Lisa was not confident that the threat of prison was strong enough. Shawlens was so pivotal to the new peptide business she wanted a stronger hold. She told her brother Jim to track down his family. She wanted additional leverage.

  The whole mood in the factory deadened as it did every evening at this time. Everyone knew the consequences of any failure or displeasure. Living in the dark shadow of Lisa McVickin was the nearest thing to hell that many in the factory had known.

  Gavin Shawlens supervised Tokai as he mixed bulking material with the oxandrolone ready for the tablet-forming machine. With machines making a racket he didn't see or hear Lisa enter the factory. The Manager parted the plastic sheets to allow Lisa inside.

  She walked directly to the large metal tray containing tens of thousands on oxandrolone tablets from the first batch. She picked one tablet and tried to crush it between her fingers. It remained firm. With a big smile she turned to look at Gavin Shawlens.

  Gavin and Tokai took off the respirators they wore to prevent inhalation of dust from the tablet forming machinery. Lisa signalled with her stick that they should follow her outside. The four of them went though the plastic sheets and stood together.

  "Dr Shawlens. I am pleased to see you busy this evening."

  "I've kept my side of the deal."

  "We'll see. Good work Tokai this is excellent," Lisa said holding a tablet between her fingers.

  "He didn't make them, I did," Gavin said.

  Lisa's face grew angry. Her fierce eyes bore down on Tokai. She raised her Banksia ready to strike.

  "Is that RIGHT? You lazy good-for-nothing greasy pig."

  She swung her stick and hit Tokai hard on the top of the shoulder. Tokai was thin so the Banksia hit his shoulder bone and he fell onto his knees. She raised the stick high to strike another blow. Gavin Shawlens moved toward her but the Manager held his arm.

  "WAIT. He's learning the ropes," Gavin said.

  "Can he RUN the process on his own?"

  "No."

  Gavin Shawlens shook his head. Better to tell the truth in case she called his bluff. She swung the Banksia down and it thumped hard against Tokai's arm.

  "I said YOU were to follow HIS instructions," Lisa shouted at Tokai.

  "So sorry, me so sorry, boss," Tokai whimpered and cowered at her feet.

  "He'll do the next batch on his own," Gavin said.

  "If he doesn't do the next batch then I don't need him. YOU make sure he can do it or you'll replace him permanently."

  Lisa ordered the Manager to bag a sample of the new tablets.

  "Give these to one of the regulars. Free trial."

  Lisa turned her back and walked away, stopped, turned back and pointed the Banksia at Gavin.

  "If I get any come backs on this product. Your balls are on the cutting line and I mean that most sincerely," she threatened.

  Gavin kept a deadpan face although his mind was in a panic. He knew the tablets were rough and ready. He had no idea of their potency or potential to make someone ill. Gavin helped Tokai onto his feet and they went back inside to finish off their work.

  When the mixture was ready Tokai loaded the tablet-forming machine and switched it on. They felt relieved. Tokai started cleaning equipment to be ready for the next batch.

  Gavin sat down on a chair. He was exhausted physically and mentally. Safety equipment was not in good condition and he knew some of the solvents and ingredients had passed into his body. An escalating headache told him as much.

  Twenty minutes later and the Manager rushed back to speak to Gavin. Lisa had dismissed him and called the doorman Big Eric to accompany her inspection of the prostitutes. Big Eric gave Lisa feedback he received from the customers. It was a powerful control Big Eric had over the prostitutes. One wrong word from Big Eric led to a severe beating from Lisa. Suffice to say Big Eric took full advantage of his power.

  "Look you need to get a few things straight. Don't ever make any of us look inadequate or underperforming. The punishment is harsh. Do you understand?" The Manager emphasised.

  "Okay. Right, I didn't think … I've got it now," Gavin apologised.

  "She was in a great mood when I told her you made the bloody pills. Now she's furious. People are getting hurt because of your stupidity."

  Gavin apologised again and the Manager told him some of the punishments Lisa handed out to him and to others who had offended her or failed to complete a job on time. The Manager flipped up the back of his shirt and Gavin saw rows of angry looking welts on his back from a recent beating.

  A sudden piercing scream in the hall made them jump. The Manager moved a plastic strip flap to look across the hall. The prostitutes had gathered at the beds for inspection. Gavin and the Manager saw Lisa standing over the Vietnamese prostitute known as Betty. It was a name Lisa had given her. Eric was standing beside Lisa. Betty had fallen to the floor after a hit on the
top of the legs from the Banksia. Lisa stood ready like some hockey player about to whack the puck into the middle of next week.

  Lisa was shouting at her and threatening another heavy swipe. Betty held up her hand to protect herself and Lisa smashed the Banksia hard against her raised hand fracturing Betty's wrist.

  During the inspection Big Eric showed Lisa that Betty had a swollen upper lip and bruise on the side of her face. Big Eric said a customer had punched her on the face because she had displeased the customer. Lisa gave Betty four hard whacks of the cane across her bare legs to make sure she would never again displease a customer. In fact, the man had punched Betty because he was frustrated with his own wife and took his anger out on Betty.

  One of the plastic flaps moved aside and Lexy limped inside. Gavin saw her left foot was wrapped in a blood-soaked paper towel. She pointed to the first aid box on the wall. The Manager kept watch on Lisa as she issued more threats and warnings to the group of prostitutes.

  Gavin fetched the box and laid it on a table. He lifted Lexy up in his arms and sat her on the table. For a second their eyes met. He could have been her father. She could have been his daughter. He was shocked how light and frail she was to lift.

  Gavin gently removed the bloodstained paper towel. He foot was stone cold. She rested her hand on his shoulder as he bent down. He revealed a deep two-inch gash on the side of her foot. He didn't need to ask Lexy what happened.

  He wiped the blood with cotton wool and dabbed iodine solution around the wound. With his thumb he eased back a flap of cut skin. He saw the gash was deep and he saw through the soft tissue to the bone. Lexy gripped his shirt a little tighter but didn't flinch much at the stinging iodine. He looked into her eyes and he was reminded of something Zoe had told him about the dead zone in Martin's eyes.

 

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