by Stan Mason
I drove nearly half a mile past the nightclub. I parked the car and walked back at a steady pace. The nightclub was a triumph of modern architecture. Shaped like a mediaeval castle, with towers and turrets on each side, it comprised a complex of offices, a dance hall, a conference room, a gaming room, a number of ante rooms, a high-grade restaurant and a number of hotel rooms. It was owned by an international conglomerate whose principal activities related to hotel management and gambling. The façade reflected layer upon layer of blocks of stone designed to make the location an authentic piece of history. There was even a dummy frieze around the turrets which was also adorned with stone gargoyles and grotesques. Several people were waiting at the reception desk when I entered. Casually, I sat down on one of the comfortable seats to pick up some literature about the hotel and its accommodation.
‘The castle stands on it own extensive grounds,’ I read. ‘With ninety-five bedrooms, this four-star hotel ensures its service is maintained at the highest level by over one hundred professional staff. The restaurant is considered to be one of the finest in the county boasting French, Italian and English cuisine. The classic menus and silver service are perfectly complimented by its own superb and high individual surroundings. The Forum Room caters for every kind of function and can be quickly adapted for weddings, trade shows and banquets. Guest rooms are appointed to a high standard every one en-suite. Each room has a television colour television, direct dial telephones, central heating and tea and coffee-making facilities. The Health and Leisure spa offers an all-year round centrally heated pool and guests can also enjoy the sauna Jacuzzi and a range of health treatments. There is also a gaming room where guests can play roulette, black jack and enjoy the use of numerous amusement machines.’
There was no doubt that The Golden Peacock was a first-class hotel although I was somewhat concerned that they employed so many staff. Hopefully, most of them were instructed to come on duty in the evening rather than during the daytime. I had to keep a low profile at all times and I rose slowly to make my way to the gaming room. I opened the door cautiously to find it was vacant and almost in darkness as an element of natural light filtered in from a few very high windows. However it was sufficient for my purpose. I went over to the roulette wheel allowing my eyes to scan the room, listening hard for any noises which might assist me in finding Jan. It was silent. The only sounds which did emanate were those of the clatter of cups on trolleys as they travelled down the adjoining hallway to the restaurant. I was particularly comforted by the gun in my holster. The problem was I had adopted a nervous habit of touching it regularly to check that it was still there.
After a while I realised that I had to cease random activities and embark on a proper plan of campaign. Jan was probably a prisoner being held in one of the hotel rooms. If so, the room was likely to be near the roof where any noise would go unnoticed. Alternatively, the other place was the basement. I decided to advance to the top floor and work my way downwards. As I left through the side door, I discovered a cupboard with a number of white coats inside. Donning one of them, I took the stairs to the top floor and began knocking on each door systematically pretend- ing to be a waiter to take an order for a meal. There were ninety-five bedrooms on five floors! It was a dauntless task! I listened carefully at each door before knocking but most of them were unoccupied and no one answered. It took over ten minutes to deal with the rooms on the top floor and I was disappointed at the end of it. If Jan had been in any of them, I’m sure she would have made some sounds to alert me. I stopped at an open window at the end of the hallways and looked outside. A window cleaner’s cradle, secured by ropes attached to the roof, swung idly in the breeze. It was as though fate had prepared the vacant vehicle for my use. I climbed out of the window, leaning out dangerously to catch the rope of the cradle, and swung on to the platform. The search had turned significantly in my favour from my new vantage point. Within a short while I discovered how to manoeuvre the cradle and removed a white handkerchief from my pocket pretending to clean the windows. By this method I could swiftly look into all the room on this side of the hotel by lowering the cradle at each floor and moving it across the façade. I inched my way across the hotel but jubilation soon turned to disappointment. Jan was nowhere to be seen. One didn’t need to be a Sherlock
Holmes to realise that she wasn’t being held prisoner on the top floor. There was no point in searching the rooms on the lower floors. Her captors would never keep her where she might be discovered by the hotel guests. Following that logic, I presumed it was more likely that she was being held in the basement. I made my way back towards the open window swinging the cradle so that I could climb back through it. As I scrambled into the hallway, a chambermaid carrying an armful of bed linen came around the corner and almost screamed with fright as I landed on my feet. I silenced her by placing the index finger of my left hand to my lips.
‘Don’t take any notice of me, young lady,’ I lied blatantly. ‘I’m a kissogram man... coming to sing a romantic rhyme to a woman in room 412. She was going to bump into me in the hallway and I didn’t want to spoil it for her so I dodged up here.’
She looked at me suspiciously and then turned away in disgust muttering expletives about kissogram people. I inhaled deeply as she entered one of the bedrooms to change the bed linen without calling for security. I made my way down the stairs until I reached the ground floor. The while coat not became unnecessary so I discarded it and descended a flight of steps to the basement. I came to a large room filled with furniture and junk. Jan wasn’t being held there but I noticed four doors leading off the room. The first led back to the stairs from which I had just come. The second bore the sign ‘BAR’ which was the most unlikely place for anyone to hold a prisoner. The third led to the gaming room while the fourth related to the kitchen. There had to be somewhere else! I tried each door in turn to check they were authentic. The bar was the main bar in the hotel with a mezzanine cellar where barrels of beer were kept. I recognised the gaming room having been there earlier. The kitchen could not be mistaken for any other room. I sat on a stool in the basement and let thoughts drift through my mind for a while undecided on the next step. There was little point in returning upstairs to search the hotel rooms. In a castle of this kind there could be secret passages and hidden rooms but to find them was well beyond my control. The sound of footsteps echoed a short distance away and I crept into one of the murky corners of the room, hiding behind a large armchair. A man descended the steps and went into the kitchen area closing the door behind him. It was then that I discovered an awkward piece of metal sticking into my back and turned to find I was leaning against a fifth door. It was faced with a sheet of steel that had been painted black to hide its identity. There were no signs or markings but I knew before I opened it that it would lead down to the cellar. I pulled the handle, opening it cautiously and listened carefully but all was silent. The entrance heralded another set of steps leading to another door which sported a chink of light at the bottom. I went down the steps and stood outside the door. Taking my gun from the holster, I inhaled deeply and rushed into the room brandishing the weapon dangerously.
‘Okay!’ I shouted furiously. ‘Everyone stay exactly where you are!’ I blinked twice in the light to adjust my vision. The room was an ordinary office. There was nothing to cause an eyebrow to be raised in suspicion. Two men inside the room sat in comfortable armchairs and they froze in the midst of their discussion as a result of my rude intervention. One looked as though he was the manager of the hotel, the other may have been his assistant or the accountant. They stared at me blankly as I took up a menacing position.
‘May I help you?’ began the manager in a situation that certainly had never been included in his training manual.
‘Where’s my wife?’ I demanded angrily, determined to make my presence felt. ‘I know she’s here! Where is she?’
‘Your wife,’ he replied coolly, although his eyes never lef
t the wavering barrel of the Beretta. He obviously considered me to be an enraged husband whose wife had gone off with a lover. ‘What is her name?’
‘Janice Scott! I want to know where she is and I want to know now! Do you hear me? Now!’ I was amazed at how forceful I could be when the chips were down.
He opened the book in front of him. ‘This is the hotel register. I’m just checking it.’ I waited as his eyes ran over the entries and then he looked up. ‘She was in room 418 but she checked out of the hotel early this morning.’
‘Is this for real? Or are you conning me?’
‘This is a reputable hotel, sir. Of course it’s real!’
‘Was she on her own?’
‘Room 418 is a single room,’ he replied calmly. ‘I suggest you hire a private detective if you want further information.’
‘Did she leave a forwarding address?’ My argument was getting weaker by the second.
‘Guests never leave forwarding addresses.’
I lowered the gun much to the relief of the two men and replaced it into its holster with some difficulty. ‘Can I get out of the hotel through this door?’ I asked sheepishly, pointing to another door.
‘You can,’ related the manager. ‘Walk up the slope to the fire-door ahead. It leads to Reception.’
On leaving the hotel, I felt an absolute chump. I had made a complete fool of myself. From the start I should have approached the Reception desk to ask whether Jan was staying there. How stupid I was to have donned on a white coat, swung to and fro on a window-cleaner’s cradle and threatened to shoot the manager and his assistant in the cellar. In addition, I had frightened a young chambermaid. So Jan had stayed there, clearly of her own free will, until early that morning. What was she doing in that hotel all by herself? None of it seemed to make any sense. Someone was using me like a pawn again and I didn’t like it!
I returned to London pretty frustrated and went to the restaurant where Penny and I had enjoyed so many precious evenings. This time it was different. I sat alone at our favourite table working out a plan of campaign on a white serviette. I didn’t want to repeat the farce which had taken place at The Golden Peacock. The weaponry division at Dandy Advanced Electronics would allow no quarter in terms of its security systems. Any mistake there would end in disaster!
Chapter Thirteen
It was early evening when I visited Chris Devon for the assault on the weaponry division. There was a strong feeling of malaise in my bones and I felt considerably reluctant to undertake the task. In my opinion, everything was riding on Devon and I still thought of him as an ugly, unshaven, untidy, filthy individual with a special talent for electronics which were as yet unproven. I had already discounted his efforts in relation to Jan’s message on the recording tape from the answering machine, especially as he had caused the original tape to become corrupted.
I parked the car outside his house and paused to allow the events of the past few days to filter through my mind. I didn’t really have to go through with this caper but I could imagine what would happen if I didn’t. Schmuel Musaphia would set the wolves on me. That much would be certain. I had a job to do and it had to be done otherwise Jan’s life would be in danger too. I had a gut feeling that the Heavens would fall in on my if I took fright now and ran. But why had the theft of the plans suddenly become so urgent? It was a shame that no one trusted me sufficiently to tell me. ‘Into each life some rain must fall,’ I sang the old tune to myself, ‘But too much is falling in mine!’ I had to face up to reality and hope that Chris Devon was the right person to support me!
I hammered on his door and waited impatiently for him to come. It wasn’t long before I could hear his footsteps on the stairs.
‘Oh it’s you again man,’ he greeted casually as he opened the door. ‘I can see by your face that this is the moment, man.’
‘Yes,’ I confirmed. ‘This is the moment.’ I followed him up the stairs to his room. ‘You’d better get your things together. I’ll tell you all about it on the way to the complex.’
‘Not in a million years!’ he reacted, taking a stance which intimated that he was refusing to go. ‘What do you think this is, man? Boy’s Own magazine! We’re going to break into a place that’s bristling with the latest security equipment and armed guards and you wanna tell me about it on the way in your car. I don’t think so, man!’ How do I know what kind of equipment I need. If we cut the caper as you suggest, we’d have to keep coming back here for more stuff! If you think I’m going with you on that kind of deal you must come from Mars!’
‘All right... all right!’ I conceded. ‘You don’t have to get excited! I’ll brief you on the layout of the place.’ I took some papers provided for me by Penny from my pocket and handed them to him. He surprised me by sitting down at the table before examining the drawings, pushing the cups away on the table to lay the pages flat, and running his fingers over them as a guide.
‘The first hurdle is the electrified fence. We’ll have to short-circuit part of it and cut our way in,’ I advanced, having worked out the schedule on the serviette in the restaurant.
‘Are you crazy, man!’ he spat angrily as a shocked expression appeared at the top of his beard. ‘You’ve been seeing too many films about World War Two! The minute you short-circuit the fence, everyone in security is going to know that someone’s breakin’ in. The faults show up immediately on the circuit system. monitors will also show the exact point of the short-circuit the second it occurs. Within two minutes, the place will be crawling with security officers. You’d be caught there and then.’
I was stunned at his revelation and annoyed at my own ignorance. ‘Then how do we get into the complex?’ I was mystified to know the answer.
‘We fly in there, man!’ he riposted.
‘I don’t get you,’ I told him puzzled by his remark.
‘Aint you heard of trampolines?’
‘Trampolines? The kind you jump on?’
‘What other kinds are there, man? We take two miniature trampolines. One of us jumps over the fence on it. The other one throws his trampoline over the top so we have a way of gettin’ out. The second on then makes the jump.’
‘You realise this is a ten foot electrified fence.’
‘You’ll just have to make sure you jump high enough,’ he said insolently.
‘Where do we get these trampolines? My principal advises me we have to do the job tonight.’
‘I’ve got two of them in my garage downstairs,’ replied Devon casually. ‘They always come in handy. Providin’ you get your arse high enough, we shouldn’t have any problem with the fence.’
‘There’s the scanner at the sentry station. After they checked my pass, the sentry lifted the barrier manually to let my car through.
Devon chewed thoughtfully on his beard for a moment pressing the hair into the corners of his mouth ‘Hm..we might have trouble there. We won’t need a plastic entry card for identification but the security system will operate a whole range of electronic beams at night. You can’t see them. They’re invisible to the naked eye. If you touch any one of them, the place will light up like a Christmas tree. Everything will go crazy.’
‘How do we overcome that?’
‘Leave it to me. I’ll sort it out.’
‘After that, I drove to a small building and was taken by jeep to the research area about a mile south.’
‘Jesus’’ muttered Devon with anguish showing on his face. ‘A mile south! Do you realise what that does?’
I racked my brains to try and find an answer. ‘What does it do?’
‘It reduces the chances of escape if anything goes wrong. If we trip off one of the alarms, we have to run a mile northwards to get back to the trampoline. We’d be shot down or captured before we got that far. Did you notice whether the electrified fence was close to the research area a mile s
outh?’
I thought hard for a moment trying to remember the layout of the place. ‘I think so. I really can’t remember.’
‘You’d better remember, man! Your life may depend on it!’
‘I don’t understand what difference it makes.’
He pointed to the drawings on the table. ‘If the fence runs along here, we take the trampoline with us. If we trigger an alarm, we can exit quickly. I’d rather chase the mile to the car outside the complex than to try to outpace the security guards on the inside. It’s a pity you can’t define where the research area’s located because it might be possible to drive the car nearby and trampoline straight to it.’
‘Can’t we work it out from these plans?’ I asked pointing to the designs. ‘If that’s the entrance then there’s the building I drove to. The jeep took me along this route to here. Look... there’s the fence... about two hundred yards away. We could park the car outside the fence here so we wouldn’t have to chase back to the entrance if something went wrong and we would avoid all the security at the main gate.’
‘That’s providing they don’t have any close-circuit cameras on the perimeter. If they do, the infra-red rays will pick up our parked car.’
I had always considered Chris Devon to be the lowest form of life. However his review of the situation was so concise and so expertly assessed I was forced to review my opinion of him. I knew one thing for sure. The security guards would have caught me within two minutes of cutting the wire of that ten foot high electrified fence.
‘Okay, man! Read me what happens next!’ he continued with interest. I could see that he was welcoming the challenge despite the fact that if he were caught he would be incarcerated in prison for many more years.