by Nigel Seed
“Stay still!” he hissed. “It’s another grenade and the Lord only knows what shape it’s in.”
He gave it another slow count of thirty before slowly rolling over towards the grenade. The sweat was running down his face and into his eyes. He wiped them quickly and the grenade swam into focus. The pin was missing but the trigger arm was still in place. He reached out slowly and grasped the deadly bomb so that the lever could not fly off and ignite the internal fuse. Clutched in his hand it was now a lot safer, but his whole body felt weak and he trembled from the sheer relief.
“Helen. Would you go out through the tunnel please and send anybody who is there away from the doorway while I get this damn thing out of here.”
She crawled out through the tunnel without a word. He waited, to give her time to get clear. Then crawling on his elbows, so his hands could maintain their grip, he followed her. He emerged into the daylight to find Helen and his two men standing with Peter at the edge of the ridge watching his progress anxiously. He sat down on the bullion boxes, then raising his head he called across to his team.
“Ivan, I could use a grenade instructor right about now.”
Ivan walked forward and Geordie held Helen’s arm to stop her following him. “Not now, Miss, they’re busy. Just be a minute or so.”
As Ivan reached him Jim held the grenade up for inspection. He turned it over in his hands so the Welshman could see all sides of it.
“A Mills 36 Grenade if I remember my basic training correctly. The trigger lever didn’t fly off because it’s corroded in place, by the look of it. If that was free we could just throw it somewhere safe and let it go off, but that isn’t going to work and we can’t have some kiddie finding it. Don’t go away, I’ll be right back.”
Jim smiled weakly and nodded. Sitting in a damp field holding an unstable grenade was not his idea of fun. If this went off it was going to ruin his whole day. Ivan came back holding a large screwdriver and an equally large pair of pliers.
“I picked these up when I was getting the sledge hammer,” he said. “Right, what I am going to do is to unscrew the bottom plate that holds the fuse and detonator in place. Once those are out it will be safe enough to leave inside the old hut until we can come back and blow it up. Just keep that lever from springing off, will you?”
Jim waited as his Sergeant Major took a firm grip of the grenade’s body with the pliers and inserted the screwdriver in the slot in the base plate. Holding one and turning the other he tried to remove the plate. Nothing moved.
“I think it must be corroded in place. What we need is some honest to goodness foul language to persuade it.”
Ivan started to try to unscrew the plate again. He went red in the face from the effort and issued a stream of invective that would make a drill sergeant blush. But it worked and the base plate turned. Once it was moving, it was the work of seconds to open it and remove the fuse and detonator assembly.
“OK, boss. I’ll have that now,” Ivan said, removing the grenade from Jim’s cramped fingers. “I’ll pop it over there in the rocks, just in case.” The Welshman away walked towards the ruined hut.
Helen gave him her sweetest smile as she walked past him towards Jim. “Very instructive Mr Thomas. I’ll have to remember some of those, next time I go to church.”
For the first time in a very long time Ivan blushed.
Chapter 34
With the grenade safely out of the way the team retired to the pub in the village to consider their next move. Once they were sat around the table cradling comforting mugs of strong tea Geordie was the first to speak.
“The people who built this hide seem to have taken things a bit more seriously than the lot who made the hide near Morecambe Bay. Three booby traps so far and we haven’t found the main stash yet.”
Ivan turned to Jim. “Whatever we do, I think we need to be damned careful about pulling on that ring you found. Heaven only knows what surprise that’s linked up to.”
Jim nodded slowly. “I agree. I think we need to run a length of rope down the tunnel and into the chamber. We should be able to pull it from outside. If there is something else, we should be clear of it when it goes off.”
“That hiking shop we got the boots and jackets from had nylon line at the back of the shelves. If I’m quick I should be able to catch them before they close,” Geordie said, rising from the table.
“Hang on. I’ll come with you,” said Ivan, sliding off his chair and standing. He looked down at the other two. “We’ll come back here once we have the rope, unless you want to meet us up at the site?”
“Here will be just fine,” said Jim. “I think we need to eat before we get into the next part. No telling how long it will take.”
Ivan nodded and followed Geordie out of the pub and back into the late afternoon drizzle. Helen reached across the table and took hold of Jim’s hand. It was steady now, the shock of the incident with the grenade had passed. He was his old self again.
“I think that’s the second time you have saved my life on this adventure,” she said.
“And score one for Ivan when Peter opened fire on us. I think it was a mistake to involve you this closely in this search. I can’t risk losing you again.”
“Jim, if you start treating me like some wimpy girl you will lose me anyway. I don’t need to be wrapped in cotton wool. And what happens if I’m not there to find the clues for you? I’m involved and you just lost this argument before it started.”
“I think I’m allowed to be concerned about you, aren’t I?”
“I’ll give you that one. But I am now part of this and don’t you try and push me away.”
“You really are a remarkable woman, you know.”
He was still looking into her eyes when the other two reappeared through the front door of the pub. Geordie had a coil of green line over his shoulder and Ivan was fiddling with a couple of metal snap hooks as he walked.
“We called in on Peter’s dad on the way back down,” Ivan said. “Peter was in there and had told him what we’d encountered. I think he was a bit shaken by finding his old dad had not told him about all the booby traps.”
“Maybe he didn’t know either?”
“That’s what they think. Apparently one of the original team had two sons serving in 9th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. They were both killed in France in 1940. They think he was pretty bitter about that and they guess he went back in and ‘improved’ the hide to try and get some revenge on the Germans. I’m guessing he wasn’t thinking too clearly about ‘own goals.’”
“Interesting, but that doesn’t help much. We still don’t know what else this character has installed in there. We need to be even more careful from now on. Let’s eat and then go back up to the site. We’d better let the security team get something to eat while we’re there.”
The food was the usual plain nourishing, comfort food served in pubs across the north of England. But it was well made and certainly filled a hole. They set off back through the rain to the site of the hide. Walking up the quiet streets between the grey stone cottages, Jim realized he needed a new jacket soon. The slices cut across the back by the flying shrapnel were allowing water to enter and run down the back of his legs.
Once back at the site, they called in the security team and arranged for them to go into the village in twos to get something to eat, leaving the second team of two on watch. Ivan had secured one of his snap hooks at the end of the line and handed it to Geordie who had been nominated to climb back into the hide to secure the line to the ring in the chamber wall. As Geordie disappeared in to the tunnel, Ivan paid out the line behind him. It took only a few minutes for the line to be snapped onto the ring and for Geordie to crawl carefully back out. They all moved out of the direct line to the tunnel and Ivan started to pull on the line. He increased the pressure steadily, waiting to feel the ‘give’ as the ring pulled back towards him. Feeling nothing, he dug his boot heels into the turf, wrapped the line around his back and leane
d into the pull. After two minutes of this tug of war, the line went slack and Ivan fell back onto the wet grass. He reeled in the line until the snap hook appeared, still looped through the iron ring. A length of metal cable was trailing that with a stout steel pin at the end.
“Well, it looks like the mechanism was fairly simple and this looks complete” said Jim, indicating the assembly at the end of the line. “Do we have a volunteer to be the first back in to see what we achieved?”
”That’ll be me boss,” said Geordie, “I’m still the best miner you’ve got.”
He walked back to the tunnel entrance with Ivan, who said, “Remember mate, check everywhere, this group could have left more traps in there.”
“I know. Believe me, I’m not going to forget that in a hurry.”
He dropped to his knees and started the slow crawl into the tunnel, checking as he went. He reached the entrance to the chamber and looked in. Nothing seemed to have changed. Whatever the ring and pin had been attached to had no effect. He crawled in to the chamber to examine the corner where the ring had been. All he could see was a hole drilled at the back of the stone recess. He sat in the middle of the chamber and shone his flashlight around the walls, looking for any further clues. Nothing.
Geordie sighed heavily and turned to crawl back out of the tunnel. As he did so he heard the sound of rock grinding on rock and felt a tremor through his hands and knees. As he looked round to identify the source of the sound the floor below him swung down and to one side as the hidden trap door opened. He was dropped the four feet down into another chamber. He managed to break his fall and to land without smashing his knees onto the granite below. It was still a painful landing. He checked himself for damage as the rock dust settled around him. The flashlight was still illuminated and showed that in front of him the floor fell away in a rough-hewn slope to create a larger chamber with standing headroom. At the end he could see the stack of sturdy wooden boxes that the Bank of England had used to pack their gold bars.
Chapter 35
Geordie struggled to his feet. He was pretty sure no bones were broken, but he was also sure he was going to have a fine array of deep bruises after his fall onto the granite floor. He stood in the well that the opening hatch had exposed and yelled for the others to come in.
The first face to appear in the tunnel doorway was Jim’s. He stopped and looked around the chamber where the floor had fallen away.
“Are you alright?” Jim said, tasting the gritty dust that was still circulating, as it ground between his teeth.
“I’ll live, boss. The drop into here was a bit much, but, bottom line, we’ve found it. There’s a ruddy big pile of those gold crates in here and some interesting boxes over to one side. I haven’t checked for booby traps yet, but I think it might be a damn good idea.”
“You look a bit battered. Might be a better idea if you climbed out and I’ll go in and make the safety checks. Once you get out, will you ask Ivan to round up the Lieutenant from the SAS team? I need to speak to him about getting this place emptied.”
Geordie climbed slowly and painfully back out of the hole and Jim backed out of the tunnel to let him through. As soon as the big ex-miner was clear of the entrance way, Jim climbed back in and went carefully down into the new, larger chamber. Using his flashlight, he very slowly and carefully checked the whole area for booby traps, but found no sign. He lifted one of the top crates and moved it across to the raised area below the trap door. Leaving it there, he moved across to where the larger boxes stood against the left hand wall. He carefully opened the first one, checking for hidden trigger cables. Finding nothing suspicious, he opened the box fully and stared down at the gleaming golden guineas inside. He could not guess how many there were, but the box felt damned heavy.
He hauled the coin box to one side. It felt like it would need two men to lift it out of the lower chamber and manhandle it through the tunnel. He could see that this was going to be harder work than emptying the Morecambe hide. He returned to the pile of larger boxes and equally carefully opened the next one. This too was full of gold coins, but of a type he had never seen before. He stood up and stretched to ease his back. This was really going to be hard labor and then he had to plan how to get it all away from here. He tore himself away from the treasure chamber and climbed back into the access tunnel, then out into the open air.
It was full dark as he emerged to find his team and the lieutenant waiting for him.
“Well, boss,” said Ivan, “what’s the verdict?”
“Geordie was right. We’ve found it and it’s going to be bloody hard labor to get it out of there. And then we have another issue. That track up the side of the ridge seems to have eroded over the years and I am pretty sure a conventional vehicle will not get up there anymore. We need a heavy duty four wheel drive truck. Something that can take the rough ground, but also carry the load.”
“Then what we need is an Army cargo truck,” said Geordie. “I´ve got the driving license for one of those. Do we go and get one, or have one brought here?”
“Or do we call in the Bank people with their security trucks?” said Ivan.
“I think it’s best if we go and pick one up, then less people are involved. The same reason we don’t use the Bank people, it would get us too much attention having all those trucks around in a small village. Ivan, can you take the hire car and drive Geordie down to the barracks at Sutton Coldfield to pick up a vehicle. Unless there are problems you should be able to get back here before dawn so we can park it up here, hidden from the village by the ridge line.”
“Can do, boss. But I think I’ll take him down to the pub for a shower and a change of clothes first. Nobody is going to hand over Army equipment to someone who looks like that.”
Jim looked at Geordie and was forced to agree. His sergeant did look worse for wear with torn clothes, his dark skin covered and his hair full of dust with a trickle of blood running down from the cut on his forehead.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Helen, smiling, “I think he looks rather dashing if a little worn round the edges.”
“Thank you, Bonny Lass. At least someone appreciates masculine beauty. Away then, Ivan, we have a ways to go to find this truck.” And with that the two men turned and walked away towards the village.
Jim watched them go then turned to the Special Forces Officer who stood quietly by, waiting for his instructions.
“Did your lads manage to get something to eat?”
“They did, sir. Thank you. What do you need from us now?”
“I need to make sure the site stays secure. Your men can go into the tunnel for shelter if they wish to, but don’t let them go into the chamber beyond. There is still a very real possibility of further booby traps. They need to get as much sleep as they can since, once the truck gets back, I will have to use them for labor to shift the bullion out of there. They will also need to be awake as a guard detail on the truck as we drive it south.”
“That’s fine, sir and where will you be?”
“I’m going to get some sleep too. It’s going to be a long day for me as well tomorrow.”
The young lieutenant looked at Helen and smiled. “Yes sir.”
Chapter 36
Jim came half awake. He vaguely knew that something had happened, but in his drowsy state he didn’t know what. His watch was on the bedside table just in front of his face and the illuminated hands showed him it was a little after two o’clock in the morning. He listened but heard nothing. He turned over gently so as not to wake Helen. The dim glow of the streetlights through the curtains let him see that half of the bed was empty. He stretched out his hand and felt the sheet. Still warm.
He lifted his head to look at the bathroom door. It was open and there was no light inside. The heavy dressing gown that the room was equipped with was gone from the back of the main door. He sat up and looked around, still slightly dazed with sleep. The room was empty, but Helen’s clothes from the day before were still on the wooden ch
air by the radiator.
Worried now, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He pressed the wall switch and the dim bedside light flickered into life as he found his trousers and slipped them on. He grabbed a shirt as he passed the wardrobe then opened the door to the passage. He slipped into the shirt as he followed the dimly lit hallway between the bedrooms.
At the top of the staircase he could smell the stale beer from the bar and see the dim light from the residents’ lounge. He walked slowly down the stairs taking care to keep to the edge so the old wooden boards would not creak. Now why am I bothered about that, he thought?
Reaching the bottom of the staircase he turned and walked quietly thorough the reception area towards the dim light. He reached the open door and looked in. At the far end of the room he saw Helen, sitting in one of the tired old chairs with a phone to her ear. In front of her on a small table he could see the light reflecting on the small bar of gold as she slowly spun it round with her finger. He could see that her eyes were fixed on the gold as she spoke softly into the phone.
“Helen, are you alright’”
Her head jerked towards him and her mouth fell open in surprise as she rapidly ended the call and slipped the phone into the pocket of the dressing gown. She recovered quickly and smiled at him.
“You startled me.”
“Who was on the phone?”
“Just Granddad, I like to check on him when I am away.”
“At two in the morning?”
“Oh yes. He’s always up around now, prowling round the bungalow and staring out of the windows. I think he hopes to see the badgers wandering about, but he never does.”
“Is he alright?”
“He’s fine.”
She stood and picked up the bar of gold and slipped it into her pocket with the phone. She walked towards him and put her arms around his neck, pulling his head down into a kiss.