‘…Very strange month if you ask me and talking about strange, guess who was in the crowd?’
‘No, you’re kidding! Not our lovely Madeline?’
‘Yep, the one and only, as you can see on the playback footage,’ said Berny.
‘O-M-G, red and orange! Actually, it looks okay - she looks gorgeous,’ said Carol.
‘It certainly looks like she was enjoying the game – her mouth’s wide open – must have been giving the players a piece of her mind!’
Chapter 37: On the move again
Back in the hotel room, Madeline decided to check her text messages. A perfectly safe thing to do even if it was potentially in full view of Nuttall’s communication device built into her. One in particular, caught her eye:
“Best for shops including world famous butchers. You’ll LOVE the nearby parking. Tuxbon town, ready for all your shopping.”
She’d never heard of Tuxbon but rearrange the T and B and the message was clear. Adam (love) was parked near to Barton’s meats (butchers) and was ready to act. She had a little plan and it began by covertly removing her laser lens tube – the end section of her laser finger. Now she deliberately looked at her laser finger, pretending to be surprised that the end of her finger was missing.
‘Damn, where’s the laser tube? Must be in the back of the van,’ she said out loud for the benefit of Nuttall or whoever was listening.
The van with the screened interior was down on the car park. She climbed in through the back doors into privacy, isolated from Nuttall’s prying ears and eyes. It was a satisfying short term relief – she called Adam on her internal phone.
‘Hi sweetheart… missing you. Got your cryptic text,’ said Madeline.
‘Are you… with others?’
‘No, don’t worry, I’m in the back of your van.’
‘Thank god for that! Hope you’re looking after it. It’s only borrowed you know! I’m parked across from Barton’s Meats.’
‘Seen any one go in or come out?’
‘No, no one at all.’
‘If Barton isn’t there, he needs to be,’ said Madeline.
‘Agreed,’ said Adam.
‘Leave it to me… What’s your plan?’
‘Oh, I’ll come up with something,’ said Adam, overly sure of himself.
‘Sweetheart… be careful.’
‘I will – love you babe.’
‘Love you too.’
With Adam’s past results ‘come up with something’ could mean just about anything: Bullet holes in his own legs, being beaten up and stripped naked, finding himself in the completely wrong country or even unlocked up somewhere. However, recently, it has to be said, he was proving to be quite proficient. He had rescued Madeline twice although the shining armour had yet to be tested.
Perhaps Madeline was expecting too much from him, after all it all started many moons ago when Madeline was desperately hungry and had no one else to turn to. Of course, she didn’t want anyone else to turn to, she just wanted an excuse to see her lovely Adam and dying of hunger seemed as good a reason as any. Now things had moved on and he was flying around the world at the drop of a hat.
Back in her room and back under the unwelcomed surveillance of Nuttall and his team, she plugged her laser lens tube back in.
‘Nuttall… Nuttall, are you there?’
‘Yes, yes, what do you want?’
‘Haven’t you got a family to go home to?’
‘No, this is my home! What do you want!?’ As usual, Nuttall didn’t sound in a particularly good mood.
‘Okay, bit of civility please. Something’s up with my left arm, it’s sluggish. I need Barton to have a look at my sensors.’
‘Leave it to me. Be ready for you next mission tomorrow, it’s the big one, what everything has being leading up to,’ said Nuttall almost trying to be civil.
Within thirty minutes, a black car pulled up outside ‘Barton’s meats’. It was now dark and the shoppers had gone home but Adam could clearly make out Barton and another man get out of the car. The man held Barton by the arm and ushered him quickly into the shop. Adam had no idea how many were inside – at least two and the only bit of good news was that one was definitely Barton. If he brazenly went in the front way, he knew he would certainly come off worst so he wisely decided to find a way around to the back of the shop. It was a maze of alley ways, carpeted in dead rats, bags of rubbish and ugly weeds that eventually led him to the rear of the shop. It didn’t help that it was pitch dark but the torch app on Adam’s phone adequately lit up the way. It was unclear if all the windows to the rear of the shop were filthy or had obscure glass fitted but the effect was fortunately the same. Yes the lights were on and people were inside but it was unclear exactly how many there were, there could have been ten or two. Adam knew he had to act now or never, he picked up a piece of discarded two by three timber lying in the slimy mud and banged repeatedly on the rear steel reinforced door. He knew he would only get one chance - it always looked so easy in the movies. He turned off the phone light and waited for the moment. After a few seconds, the sound of bolts sliding and keys turning disturbed the eerie silence of the backyard.
It was a very foolish thing to do, opening the door into darkness with a light behind him. He couldn’t see a thing but Adam could clearly see him.
‘Who’s there?’ shouted the man.
‘Me!’ replied Adam as he swished the piece of wood down on the back of his neck.
‘In one!’ loudly whispered Adam proudly. The man was out cold.
Adam banged the now open door again. Just as before, another man poked his head out into the darkness.
‘Jim! Are you there,’ said the man.
‘No but I am,’ said Adam as the piece of wood came down again.
Two men were now out cold lying in the slimy cold mud between the dead rats. Once more Adam banged on the steel door. After a few seconds another man popped his head bravely out. Adam was just about to give him the same treatment but just in time, he recognised the profile.
‘Barton!’
‘Adam?’
‘Anybody else in there?’
‘Yes, Poppy!’
Being a butchers shop meant there were plenty of meat hooks and rope at hand, ideal for fastening up two men with severely bruised necks and imminent headaches.
To Adam’s surprise more than anyone else’s, he had been completely successful. He was naturally proud of him self. Quite possibly he could have killed either one of the men and then he would have been wanted for murder regardless of the situation but, as it happened, he hadn’t – he hoped. Even Barton complimented him – praise indeed. What was disturbing were the four jerry cans containing something highly inflammable lined up ready to be used if Madeline didn’t do as she was told. Adam’s first job was to flush the contents down the toilet. This totally illegal and inconsiderate act would certainly be deplored by many but flushing the toilet several times, in Adam’s eyes would redress any wrong doing.
‘Okay what do we do now?’ asked Adam.
‘Well as I see it… we have to move Poppy again - can’t think of a way around it... And we have to do it before Nuttall suspects anything.’
It was always confusing. Madeline was somewhere in the USA – many thousands of miles away but Poppy was right beside them. It was easy to forget this. This tank where she floated was up in the corner of the room, almost overlooked and gathering a faint covering of dust.
‘Hang on… surely I can talk to poppy directly can’t I?’
‘No problem, I’ll divert her audio interface to my laptop,’ said Barton.
Barton type a few commands into his laptop and the job was done.
‘Hi Babe, You and Barton are now safe.’
‘Hello sweetie, that’s good to hear,’ said Madeline, voice coming through the laptop speakers.
‘You’re patched directly through to his laptop. Nuttall can’t hear you,’
‘Thanks, both of you. What now?’
&nb
sp; ‘God this is so hard to get my head around, you’re only a few feet away from me but you’re in America, 3000 miles away. Apparently Nuttall was serious with his threat, there were four jerry cans of petrol all lined up read for any disobedience... We’re going to have move you… again, it’s the only way,’ said Adam.
‘Motion sickness is always better than being cooked alive… again.’
‘Where are you?’ asked Adam.
‘Right next to you…’
‘No, I mean where are you?’
‘Back in my hotel room,’
‘Good, best that you’re sleep through it.’
‘It’s only five in the afternoon!’
‘Well, take a nap or something,’ said Adam.
‘I think I will. Nuttall says it’s the big one tomorrow.’
Barton tapped a few more keys and Poppy was reunited with Madeline.
The fact that she had been moved three times before had made the process a little more practiced but moving the equipment that controls the Madeline Bull android would never be a walk in the park. Several pieces of equipment that used to be cumbersome and individual were now condensed, miniaturised or combined but there was still an awful lot to do.
‘Where are we going to move her to, got anywhere in mind?’ asked Adam.
‘Well there is one place,’ said Barton.
‘Scotland? - Somewhere in Wales? - Down south?’
‘Next door,’ said Barton.
‘Next door? Didn’t see that coming,’ said Adam.
‘It’s the last place they’ll never think of looking… if we do it right. Barton’s meats was going to expand so my Father bought next door, Needless to say, it never came to pass, it’s been empty for over twenty years.’
This wasn’t the first time Madeline had been moved to somewhere very close; then it happened to be the floor below.
The first job was to dispose of Nuttall’s two stooges. Barton and Adam carried them out into the back alley - the long way round to the Volvo. The going was arduous and slippery, it had started to rain and didn’t seem as though it was going to stop any time soon. They loaded them into the boot and Adam drove them to an isolated quarry. By now they had both regained conscious and were making a substantial amount of noise. Gaffer tape across their mouths effectively solved the problem and also helped deaden the screams as they rolled down the steep slope to the bottom of the quarry.
Meanwhile back in the rear of the shop, Barton started the process of unplugging the many cables and slackening off the jubilee clips on the tubes. When Adam returned, Barton set him on, unbolting the hydraulic rams. Without these parts, the tank was just narrow enough to fit through a normal door way.
The tank was heavy, very heavy. Not just because of Poppy but because of the solidity of the tank and all it technical contents. They moved the tank on wheels – four old skateboards to be precise. After all, it was only a question of out the back door, along the alleyway for a few feet and in another door. Many dead rats and strange insects got squashed under the tiny wheels of the skateboards but things went well. After only two hours the tank was in its new home and plugs were beginning to be plugged in and jubilee clips tightened. After three hours the job was almost complete. As the new location had been empty for twenty or so years it was very drab and in desperate need of a lick of paint but it would suffice. There was electricity, it was dry and above all, it was secure. All traces of the move now had to be eradicated. The wheel tracks of the skateboards had to be scrubbed away or disguised especially along the rear alleyway. Bits of squashed dead rat had to be disposed of and new dead rats put back where the old ones used to lay. Then it had to look as though the tank had been taken out of the front entrance so new wheel tracks were purposely laid.
By five o’clock in the morning the moving process was complete. Madeline was reconnected to Poppy, all the hydraulic rams were bolted back and the food tubes were primed.
It was now down to Adam for the convincer. Barton’s father’s meat van was used in the previous move, it was parked a distance away on some waste ground. Adam fetched it and reversed it up to the front door. It was dark but the council street cameras would still register the dark shape of the van. After thirty minutes Adam set off. There was enough diesel for one hundred miles, so that’s as far as he drove. The van was abandoned at the side of the road on the outskirts of Worcester. Adam was now on his own and for obvious reasons, he had to lie low and disappear off the radar once more.
A few clicks and swipes and Poppy’s audio circuits were diverted to Barton’s Laptop.
‘Wakey, wakey sleepy head, you’ve been moved,’ said a very tired Barton.
‘Where am I now? I was quite getting used to Buxton.’
‘Not telling you. Nuttall will be aware that you’ve been moved pretty soon… once his men have been rescued from the bottom of a quarry.’
‘Bottom of a quarry, that’s good!’
‘Not my doing, Adam’s. He’s getting quite determined.’
‘I’ve noticed. Where is he?’
‘Don’t know. Told him not to call, we don’t know if Nuttall can trace mobiles.’
‘Okay… understand. Will go with the flow now just for curiosity. Apparently, got a big day ahead of me – what everything has been leading up to. I’m quite looking forward to it!’
‘We all are,’ said Barton profoundly.
Chapter 38: Even higher than Everest
Madeline opened her eyes; she was in bed in her hotel room, three thousand miles away from where she just was - she had travelled as fast as light. All manner of things had happened throughout the night but Madeline peacefully slept through it even if no one else did. She slid out of bed and stood at the window naked. She was definitely still in Cincinnati, not Buxton or somewhere else in England, Wales or Scotland. Obviously it was Cincinnati as it was still pitch dark and only two o’clock in the morning – she went back to bed for another four hours.
‘So, Nuttall, what games do you want me to play today?’
‘Ah Madeline… you are an eager beaver. Today you’ll find out what all this has been leading up to. So far a few harmless games but now it’s time to get serious.’
‘Harmless!?’ shouted Madeline.
‘Yes, no lives lost.’
Madeline had to think if indeed he was right. Certainly no one lost their lives at the ballpark. No lives were jeopardised in stealing – destroying the gold. The invasion fleet didn’t reach the shores of the US, so no live lost their.
‘Your four men were killed at your South Pole base!’ said Madeline with an element of satisfaction.
‘That shouldn’t have happened. The ultrasound emitters were scheduled to be shut down two days before the fleet reached the eastern shores. Didn’t you notice the countdown time on the panel? Damn trigger happy Americans - lost four good men.’
‘Good men? You didn’t hear what they were going to do to me.’
If he was a Wardate member he was certainly atypical. Wardate associated people usually revelled in killing people. She had never actually established if Nuttall was a Resident of Wardate, she had just assumed it. But he had killed Coley, mercilessly and coldly – proving he could kill easily if he wanted to.
‘You’ll need your thermals again, you’re going to Ecuador,’ said Nuttall, changing the subject.
‘Ecuador? It’s baking hot there!’
‘I’ve laid a jet on to take you there. There’s an airstrip twenty miles north west near New Baltimore. Be there in two hours.’
‘And what if I say no?’ asked Madeline delicately.
‘You’ll go.’
Nuttall said no more than that.
Of course she’d go, she wanted to know - she needed to know what all the crazy events that had happened over the last few weeks were leading up to. Nuttall didn’t have to threaten her anymore, he knew her curiously would do the rest. Now, however there was a difference; with no hold over her, if at any point Madeline was unhappy about anything, s
he would just refuse to do it.
Apparently her next mission was going to be the mission of all missions. She wondered what could possibly top almost starting World War 3, emptying Fort Knox and corrupting major league baseball. For some obscure reason, most of the people in the world now had had their subconsciouses conditionally programmed – what was the true reason for that? Surely not just for the occasional billion dollar robbery and causing mayhem in sporting circles. What ever it was, everything was about to culminate somewhere in Ecuador.
It was a bit of a mystery exactly how Nuttall could just lay on a fighter jet, complete with pilot at a drop of a hat - and how he managed to have permission granted to fly over certain air spaces.
The jet was waiting with its engines warmed up and screaming on an isolated airstrip within a forest. Madeline wasn’t particularly late, no more than half an hour. After all, she had to get dressed, checkout of her hotel, buy a new set of colour coordinated thermals, put fuel in the van and then find the airstrip – which wasn’t the easiest place to find. She was really pleased that she had done all that in two and a half hours but the ground grew of one, was not. He threw the flight suit at her.
‘Put that on!’ he yelled, angrily in some foreign language.
The anger didn’t last long though. Madeline had to strip down to her underwear but being in such a rush, she had forgotten to put any on.
‘Knew there was something I forgot to do,’ she said nonchalantly.
Her colour coordinated thermals, dark puce and light puce, went on first. They were tight fitting and revealed her incredible figure even more so than being naked. And then she put her flight suit on which, even though several sizes too big, somehow still didn’t disappoint.
The ground crew of one had transformed from being a bad tempered bossy boots into a lecherous, overly tactile octopus as he helped her into the cockpit.
The three thousand mile flight gave her plenty of time to charge herself up, watch an in-flight movie and have her breakfast. True, it was the afternoon now, but with all the goings on, she had entirely forgotten to eat. This is surprisingly easy to do when you are an android and the only means of eating and drinking is through a narrow tube.
Return to Wardate Page 19