The Olympus Project

by Ted Tayler

  Colin couldn’t see what persuaded these kids to do outdoor stuff like that if he was honest; every Easter the media covered the plight of some poor lads or lasses that were missing on the Ten Tors challenge; thankfully they usually turned up suffering from nothing worse than hypothermia and everyone got on with eating their Easter eggs. Why was it that nobody thought about why anyone other than a bloody idiot would willingly go out in a wilderness to walk fifty five miles and have the cheek to expect the emergency services to risk their necks getting them out of the shit when things inevitably went wrong?

  These days you’ve got a job to get the emergency services to come out for sane people, let alone nutters! Colin had a view about that sort of thing; he could remember telling his first wife Karen that people who went down potholes and got stuck were idiots too. She would ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the TV when they eventually surfaced safe and sound, or sit wiping the tears from her chubby cheeks when a body bag was winched up, but she never grasped Colin’s logic that the money wasted on these adrenalin junkies would have provided more support for her when she had had their beautiful Sharron. Perhaps Karen wouldn’t have suffered her post partum haemorrhage if there had been an older doctor around; maybe she would have been able to have more kids.

  Colin told himself he had to stop thinking about the past. His family days, however dysfunctional they might have been, were behind him. He had to concentrate on the here and now. He checked the activities on the moors scheduled over the next few weeks. The surveillance reports indicated that Sir Godfrey was a creature of habit. There was nothing on the books for this weekend, so he anticipated that the old buffer would drive up to Stowmarket to endure a frosty reception from Penelope.

  Sir Godfrey would have some warm thoughts to keep him going to help get him safely through to Monday morning, when he escaped back to Egerton Gardens; the following weekend would see several hundred youngsters on the moors and Colin would put good money on him being on that train west!

  CHAPTER 16

  Colin had worked on through the evening, putting the finishing touches to the itinerary of his proposed assignment. Once he had completed it, he had saved it on his laptop and crashed out on his bunk, without even bothering to undress.

  He had slept fitfully through the night that followed; he dreamt of Karen and Sharron for the first time in a long time. He had suppressed those memories so well and yet just reading about how Sir Godfrey Penrose had taken advantage of those innocent children for so many years, had caused all those emotional times in his life to come tumbling back.

  He had dragged himself out of bed at six o’clock and gone straight to the pool. He had stripped off, showered and put on a pair of trunks; he dived into the water and swam until he couldn’t raise his arms or kick his legs any longer. He had clambered out of the pool and sat on the edge with his feet dangling in the water. Tears were close, but not that close. Gradually, he fought against the feelings that sought to overwhelm him and regained control. Colin Bailey, the stone cold killer was back.

  He had looked up when he heard someone else enter the building; it was Athena.

  “Good morning Phoenix” she said.

  Colin had watched her as she slowly stepped out of her tracksuit bottoms and peeled her sweatshirt top over her head to reveal her one piece grey swimsuit. She looked incredible.

  “Do you come here often?” he managed to ask, eventually. His tongue seemed to have stuck to the roof of his mouth.

  “Is that the best you can do?” she had mocked and slipped into the pool. She set off with long smooth rhythmical strokes and tumble turned at the end of the lane; she looked so graceful that Colin had sat and watched her for a few minutes mesmerised. He knew he had to get up and get dry before he got cold; but he wanted to stay just a little while and get his breath back properly. Well, that was his excuse!

  Eventually he had managed to tear himself away from the sight of her long powerful back and the grey costume that made her look more like a fish than a human; although when she had removed her outer clothes Colin was under no illusions, Athena was all woman. He dried himself and dressed quickly; he needed to get back to his quarters and get some clean, warm clothes on. Then he had to get to work; to take his mind off Athena.

  Colin had visited the canteen and eaten breakfast, wondering if Athena would come in to get something too; of course, she wouldn’t eat with the hired help, what was he thinking! It didn’t stop him from looking up every time the door opened. He took his time over his second cup of coffee to no avail. He strolled back to his quarters; he needed to contact Erebus and set up a meeting in the orangery to go through his proposed plan for direct action against Penrose. He walked through the door and saw that he had another ‘post-it’ note on his laptop.

  “I’m going to have to teach Erebus how to use a mobile phone or email” he thought and picked up the note. Surprise, surprise it wasn’t from Erebus!

  ‘I dropped by but you weren’t here? A.’ it read. There was a ‘sad face’ emoticon under the A.

  Colin smiled to himself; the ice maiden has a softer side after all. It was a shame he had to put all his energies into his new assignment. He was summoned to the orangery to meet Erebus at two o’clock. The message was delivered by one of the transport guys. Colin had asked what was going on this morning. Erebus and the others had been in some heavy duty meeting all morning; all the guy knew for sure was that Athena was going to London shortly and the government had just escalated the terrorist threat on the streets of the UK from ‘moderate’ to ‘severe’.

  When the two men met in the orangery Erebus was a little distant; Colin was running through his proposed itinerary and he knew damn well that the old man was only half listening. When he had finished, Colin waited for a response.

  “Are you happy that you’ve covered all eventualities Phoenix?” asked Erebus.

  “Yes” replied Colin “but..”

  The old man cut him off. “Then I’m happy. It’s cleared for direct action. We have bigger fish to catch.”

  With that Erebus slowly levered himself out of his chair and left; Colin watched him go and thought he’d aged considerably since last night. This must be serious!

  The rest of the day was taken up with ordering supplies; not food and drink but clothing and equipment for next weekend’s trip to Dartmoor. This assignment didn’t require a weapon Colin had decided; he had a far more appropriate exit strategy for Sir Godfrey in mind.

  The next seven days passed slowly. Colin spent time in the gym and the pool, but his sessions never seemed to coincide with those of Athena. He was unsure whether that was a good thing or not. He put in a few hours in the shooting range to sharpen his skills. New data was passed to him from the surveillance section on Donald MacDonald and he did some preliminary work on his plans for that gentleman.

  As for the people in the ‘big house’ they were conspicuous by their absence. Whatever type of threat this terrorist cell promised, it was clearly occupying all of their time and resources. Colin had been given a green light for the Dartmoor job and he was just left to get on with it. When he went to bed on the following Thursday evening he was cool, calm and ready to do just that.

  Colin was awake early; he showered, dressed and collected together all the kit he had ordered. For this trip he had acquired his own rucksack; Rusty had given him hell when he returned his to him after the Lewes assignment.

  “I’ve had that since Kuwait mate” he had snarled. Colin hadn’t had the nerve to ask to borrow it again.

  Colin jogged over to the canteen for breakfast; as he was going in he saw Athena striding away from the swimming pool entrance. He turned back to speak to her; he even toyed with the idea of asking her to join him but although he was certain she had spotted him, she turned her head and walked away more quickly. She looked to have a lot on her mind.

  After he had eaten his full English breakfast alone, Colin headed back to his quarters. He double checked the contents of his rucksack and satisf
ied himself he had everything he needed. He looked at his watch; it was still only half past seven. His transport wasn’t due for another hour. He decided to use his laptop to see what he could discover about the threat levels of ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’ and why it had become necessary to move to the higher level. Perhaps then he would be more able to participate in the Olympus Project’s bigger assignments. At the moment he felt like an odd job man, getting rid of minor irritations. Preserving the safety of the nation was reserved for agents a lot further up the ladder than him it appeared; he wondered how he could find his way off the bottom rung!

  Colin’s search gave him food for thought. He hadn’t realised that there was a step between ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’!

  “Blimey; it must have been something substantial to jump past ‘substantial’ and straight to severe” he exclaimed “thank goodness it hasn’t got to the ‘critical’ stage yet.”

  He learned that in effect, the situation had moved from ‘possible but not likely’ to ‘highly likely’ in a heartbeat; the intelligence on these people must have flagged up a suicide bomb plot or something of the same magnitude that was moving forward far quicker than expected. People might have been fooled into thinking that with the Games opening in London next July, factions planning something to make the world sit up and take notice, would still be months away from following through on their plans. This was something that could escalate into a major problem in weeks, if not days. No wonder Erebus and the others were so preoccupied.

  Before he knew it, the clock had ticked around to half past eight. His minicab was outside the old stable block. He collected his gear and went outside and jumped in.

  “Here we go again then Phoenix” said his driver.

  “Same old, same old; a few days of fresh country air; what could be nicer?”

  They pulled up outside Bath Spa station and Colin got out of the cab, bought his ticket and waited for the Plymouth train. Once on board he knew it was a three hour trip via Temple Meads in Bristol; so he bought a newspaper to give him something to do and to use to help ward off any fellow passengers who had the urge to engage him in conversation. He managed to achieve that with ease as his carriage wasn’t overly full.

  He was surprised at the number of platforms at the station when he arrived; he had always thought places in Devon and Cornwall were mostly quaint picturesque villages, with roses round the door; he hadn’t been prepared for a city. At least he was relieved when he got outside the station that he only had a five minute walk to the town centre.

  He found a pub that looked as if it served a reasonable pint and a pie and stayed there an hour or so discovering that it was far better than that. He wasn’t in any rush to go outside anyway, it was a miserable day; wet and windy, typical for an autumn day in this part of the world. Colin had checked the weather forecast and knew that this was pretty much what he could expect all weekend and the overnight temperatures would drop to freezing or thereabouts.

  All in all, it was perfect.

  At a little after half past two, he set off; Colin was walking towards Plympton, and then heading for the south west corner of the national park and a village called Shaugh Prior; He wanted to get about half of the journey to Princeton done tonight. The walking route was sign posted most of the way and when it got too dark to use his map and compass, he had a torch to help him stay on the right track.

  The weather helped keep most of the dog walkers at home and the minor roads didn’t contain a lot of traffic. If anything did come towards him Colin ducked under cover in the trees by the side of the road when he spotted their headlights.

  At last he arrived at the tiny village and made his way into the fields behind the old church; he found a sheltered spot and erected his one man tent. The training sessions he had endured with Rusty and his colleagues were now going to pay off! The former SAS men had schooled him in living rough for long periods of time and if necessary Colin could have waited until next weekend for Sir Godfrey to turn up. He knew how to hole up in the woods without anyone knowing he was there; except the small animals that he would have killed to sustain him.

  Colin was happy in the knowledge that he would meet up with his target tomorrow, so he had brought enough tinned grub and a spirit burner and stand to cook up a meal tonight and in the morning. He had a few bars of chocolate to keep hunger at bay while he waited up during the day tomorrow for the opportunity to deal with Sir Godfrey.

  He survived the cooking with alcohol episode and a night in the tent; not without a disturbed sleep, as a fox paid a brief visit to see what was new in the neighbourhood.

  Before dawn had broken in the morning he had packed away his kit, tidied the area where he had been pitched as well as he could, and then set off to walk the eight miles or so to Princeton. Colin stuck to the tracks and minor roads initially as there wasn’t much chance of any traffic that early; then he set out across country as he got closer to the village.

  Colin took a pair of field glasses from his rucksack and scanned the area around him. He could see North Hessary Tor to his left; the prison was straight in front of him. He moved swiftly on with his search; he didn’t want to think too much about that place. To his right he could make out the small cluster of buildings that included Sir Godfrey’s weekend retreat.

  He moved across the rough terrain towards the village. He looked through the glasses again. The Range Rover was parked outside the cottage, but there was no sign of anyone being up and about yet. He checked his watch; it was almost half past nine. Sir Godfrey was having a lie in it would appear!

  Suddenly there was activity outside the cottage. Colin recognised his target. He was wearing a familiar brand waxed jacket; some faded red cord trousers and a flat cap. Sir Godfrey threw a large blanket and a holdall into the back of the vehicle and carefully placed a sizeable wicker hamper in the passenger seat. With a glance left and right to see if his near neighbours were watching him, he jumped into the driver’s seat and sped off.

  Colin watched as the Range Rover headed towards Tor Royal Lane and set off on foot in the same direction. Colin’s map showed that the village was surrounded by moorland. Several footpaths across the moor passed through the village, including one leading west to Sampford Spiney and one leading south to Nun's Cross and Erme Head.

  Tor Royal Lane itself appeared to lead down from the village to a disused tin mine, about two miles to the south-east. If Penrose was headed there it would take Colin thirty minutes minimum to catch up with him. He tried not to think about what the old sod would be getting up to while he was trudging across country. He looked again at his map; then he scanned the surrounding fields for signs of life. All over the moorlands he could see dots of colour.

  “Anoraks!” he whispered, not being derogatory; they were anoraks, highly coloured ones, with boys and girls aged fourteen to nineteen inside them, walking from what his map informed him was the National Park Visitor Centre which was an activity hub based where an old hotel had once stood.

  “What is he up to?” thought Colin. His look at the map showed that further on from the tin mine were the Fox Tor Mires. He had read somewhere that this sometime boggy area was what the Grimpen Mire had been based on in that Sherlock Holmes story. All a load of tosh though, according to the picture they had put in the book he had read. That showed a herd of sheep grazing slap bang in the middle of it without a care in the world. There wasn’t much chance of the Mires swallowing Sir Godfrey up!

  The distance between the walker and the Range Rover was closing. Colin could see the rear door was open. As he continued his steady yomp across the wet moorland he finally worked out what the old man was up to!

  “The crafty bastard; he’s posing as a volunteer. In an hour or so the first bunch of kids will start arriving near the Mires, and then they still have around an hour’s walking; probably more as they’ll be knackered. The hamper has got lots of food and hot drinks I’ll bet, and the blanket in the back would give them a comfortable dry place to res
t up for a while if they’re struggling. Sir Godfrey will be the perfect host for groups of two or three as they stumble across his unscheduled pit stop; the ones that are in danger are the poor souls that get detached from the group and are soldiering on alone. The first sign of a blister or a touch of cramp and he’ll have them in the back of the Range Rover and could take them somewhere they don’t want to go! What could he have had in that holdall he threw in the back with the blanket? Shit! It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

  With the weather closing in even more, Colin got as near as he dared. There wasn’t a lot of cover out here, but the kit he had selected on the advice of Rusty gave him as much camouflage as he was going to get. He had baulked at the idea of wearing the hat that look like a clod of earth; that was fine in the movies but walking along the side of a B road, he would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

  Colin was prone now; watching the scene unfold through his glasses. Here they come! Penrose is sat on the tail gate of the Range Rover and holding a thermos flask up high in his left hand. A couple of kids are stopping to chat. Others are walking on; good for you, keep going! The pattern continues. The hours tick by. Colin has a couple of squares of his chocolate to keep him going. It’s cold and wet out here; but he knows he has to keep watching and waiting. Gradually, the anoraks start to thin out and the gaps between them get longer and longer. It won’t be long now!