The Olympus Project

by Ted Tayler

  “Terrific” thought Colin “if I had a chance to explore this town on my own, I bet I could find a place with a live band playing hard rock. This stuff just doesn’t do it for me!”

  It did it for Therese of course! She wanted Colin to dance with her all bloody night. He joined in as best he could, but his heart wasn’t in it; no matter how long she was on her feet he knew damn well her appetite for more exercise in the hotel bedroom when they got back wouldn’t be affected.

  As he was being dragged to his feet for yet another disco track that he hated, he imagined himself falling asleep during his first meeting with Erebus when he got back to Larcombe.

  “Thought you were recharging the batteries old chap?” he could hear him saying as Donna Summer let it rip.

  When they got back to the hotel after another late night, drifting from bar to bar, they fell into bed; Therese was insatiable as Colin had forecast. She fell asleep on top of him just as the sun was coming up. He was too shattered to try to move her. The best day of their holiday and he was in no position to enjoy it.

  Colin woke Therese up with his laughter; he had realised that what he had been thinking was ludicrous given his current situation and he cracked up. He laughed until the tears were rolling down his cheeks.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Therese annoyed at having her sleep disturbed.

  “Sorry; it wasn’t your fault; I just thought of something and it set me off. You get back to sleep Therese; I’ll have a shower and take a walk, get some fresh air.”

  “I sometimes wonder if all you want from me is the sex” she said, throwing a pillow at his back as he walked away from the bed.

  “You get as good as you give sweetheart” chided Colin “we both came into this with our eyes wide open.”

  Therese sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the floor.

  “Look, I don’t really know who you are, not really. I don’t understand how you were dead, but now you’re not. How did that happen? You said you had a couple of days holiday owed you; who do you work for? Do they know who you are? How come you’re entitled to holiday when you can’t have been working with them for more than a couple of months? What sort of job is it anyway?”

  “That’s a lot of questions Therese” said Colin “just give me five minutes and I’ll be back. I’ll try to explain as much as I can.”

  As he stood in the shower Colin knew this was the turning point. Either he walked back into that bedroom and told Therese some of the truth and they moved on with their relationship for as long as it lasted; or he went back, told her there was nothing to tell and he took her somewhere quiet, killed her and disposed of her body. By the time he had showered, dried himself and dressed he needed to have come to a decision. No pressure then!

  Colin found Therese exactly where he had left her sat on the bed; she looked up at him with those beautiful dark brown eyes looking unusually sad, almost on the verge of tears. She stood up and he studied her naked body; those breasts were still the best he’d ever seen! What was he thinking? She linked her hands behind his neck and laid her head on his shoulder.

  “Talk to me” she said.

  “When you look as incredible as this, the last thing I want to do is talk” Colin replied. Their lovemaking was more tender and sensual than ever before. Later that morning as they lay in each other’s arms Colin began to tell her a story.

  “Things went wrong in Bath back in July” he said “I got careless. I’d taken the wife of that copper you met as hostage, to try to keep him off my back long enough to let me finish the jobs I had planned. They found her while I was away in London for the day.

  On my way back to Bath I took a quick detour to visit my daughter’s grave, for the first time in almost ten years. I’d returned to England earlier in the year after living abroad for all that time. Going to the grave was a mistake. It delayed me; I could have been at the house when the coppers turned up and maybe used his wife to work out a deal.

  They were closing in and I hadn’t a clue. All my plans were falling apart. I had to get out of the city and as far away from the West Country as possible. I was running back to the car park where I’d left my van and suddenly there were police everywhere.

  The next thing I know is the bloody copper bundles me over a wall and into the river; he’s trying to overpower me and no way am I going down without a fight. We both reckoned without the strength of the waters around the weir. How either of us escaped heaven only knows; it was a miracle. I thought I was a goner.

  As darkness fell I made my way downstream and escaped. They had given up on me making it out alive and had gone home for the night; I guess they dragged the weir and the surrounding area first thing in the morning. Even though they didn’t find me they always believed my body would turn up eventually somewhere along the river. It’s been four months and hopefully they’ll stop looking sometime soon.”

  “Where did you hide out though?” asked Therese.

  Colin was tap dancing, thinking on his feet.

  “There’s a lot of countryside out there Therese; I roughed it for a while. It was the summer after all. A few weeks ago I was in a pub and heard some blokes chatting about this organization that was looking for people. I got in touch and after an interview they took me on. They wanted people who liked hard work, didn’t mind getting their hands dirty and were prepared to travel around the country chasing up clients. They weren’t interested in my background; they just offered me the job no questions asked.

  As you can imagine it suited me; the money’s good and as long as I hit my quotas I think they’ll keep employing me.”

  Colin was quite pleased with that explanation; it was close to the truth in many ways. He just omitted to tell Therese what sort of employers he had and where they were based.

  It seemed to have done the trick at least. Therese had only one more question.

  “This lovely holiday is nearly over, when will I see you again?”

  “I need to get back and find out where my next job is” said Colin truthfully “you said you still have the same mobile number, so I’ll put it in my new phone now and I can ring you as soon as I get some more time free. I lost all my numbers when my old phone ended in the river along with yours truly!”

  After grabbing a bite to eat they checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the station. By mid afternoon Colin was seeing Therese back to her place in Runcorn. She wanted him to spend the night there but he told her he had to get back; his bosses might need him to travel over the weekend ready to start a new job first thing Monday morning.

  “It’s been great” he said with a smile as he left her “we must do this again sometime!”

  “Can’t wait!” shouted Therese as he got into the waiting taxi and headed back to the station. It was a slower cross country train that delivered him back to Bath Spa after a couple of changes and he had ample time to get the minicab out from the Manor to pick him up from the station. It was just after seven in the evening when he was dropped off outside his quarters.

  Colin unpacked his things and walked over to the canteen to get a quick snack; no sooner had he returned to his room and started to get stuck into a bacon roll than there was a light knock on his door.

  It was Athena.

  “Hi; you’re back I see” she said and came in and sat on the bed.

  Colin kept munching.

  “We were pleased with the outcome in Dunfermline; it was expertly handled.”

  Colin nodded and put his roll down.

  “How’s your mother?” he asked.

  “She’s recuperating well thanks; but under protest; as you can probably imagine.”

  Colin smiled.

  “Did you enjoy your break?” Athena asked.

  “Plenty of sea air and exercise” Colin replied “glad to get back though. I was missing the old place.”

  “Were you missing me too?”

  “Maybe a little” said Colin smiling “has anything exciting happened since I left?”


  “We had a break through in the ice house.”

  “Oh dear; nothing serious I hope.”

  “No silly; I mean Head Case and his team have got a couple of the boys we brought back from London to start talking. He’s reporting to us on their progress tomorrow morning at our meeting.”

  “Don’t call them boys” said Colin “they were old enough to be prepared to blow themselves and many others up, so when the time comes they will pay the price.”

  “You seem a little touchy tonight Phoenix; I expect you’re tired. Would you like me to go?” Athena asked.

  Colin was tired and he could imagine that if she stayed it might lead to something. He knew he couldn’t do her justice, not tonight, not after the last few days. On the other hand, he didn’t want her to get the hump; so he gritted his teeth and said:-

  “Not at all; stay as long as you like.”

  Athena stood up from the bed, walked to the door and locked it.

  She turned around to face Colin and started to undress.

  “Give me strength” thought Colin to himself.

  Athena started taking off her top ever so slowly. With every passing second he could see more of her body. He couldn’t wait. When she moved her top further off, her lower breasts covered by a red lacy bra came into view. Slowly her cleavage and bust were out and he could feel himself getting harder. And then her top was off completely and she was standing in her bra. It was a magnificent sight. She moved her hands back and unhooked her bra. Slowly she took off her bra straps from her shoulder and let her bra drop to the floor. Colin was simply amazed by her body.

  “Athena” he said “you are truly stunning.”

  “Be gentle with me” she whispered as she went to step out of her skirt.

  Colin stood up and walked towards her. He cupped her breasts in his hands and kissed her lightly on her lips.

  There was a sharp urgent rap on the door.

  “Phoenix! There’s an emergency meeting in the big house mate. Your presence is required. Head Case has got some news that won’t wait until morning. You’d better get up there sharpish!”

  It was Rusty.

  Colin and Athena were face to face; their breathing was ragged. She sighed as her hips moved against Colin’s erection.

  “No close and yet so far” she groaned.

  “There’s no rush” said Colin “I’m not going anywhere. You made sure Erebus would keep me at Larcombe. There’ll be other nights.”

  Athena pulled away from him reluctantly and started to dress herself. Colin waited until both of them were composed and ready to face Erebus and the others. The old man suspected something was going on between them already; no point advertising the fact by pitching up to a meeting with flushed faces and disheveled clothing!

  CHAPTER 24

  Although, of necessity, they had to leave his quarters together, Colin and Athena separated soon after. When Colin entered the drawing room for the emergency meeting Erebus was deep in conversation with Henry Case. The old man just nodded to acknowledge his arrival.

  The others filed into the room very quickly afterwards. Minos and Thanatos walked in together; then followed Athena and just behind her was Alastor. A half dozen of the more senior ex SAS operatives had been invited along too. This must be something big!

  Erebus looked around the room to check that everyone was present. Satisfied that they were, he asked Henry Case to go through the events of the past week. Henry stood up to begin outlining the techniques he and his team had utilized.

  Colin hadn’t seen Henry Case before; after learning his nickname he was keen to find out what it was about this guy that made people think he was unstable. On the face of it, he appeared quite normal. In his late thirties, he was about five foot eight inches tall and of slim yet athletic build. His accent was that of a highly educated upper class man.

  Colin could imagine him having all the right connections that Erebus and the other ex-military people at Larcombe would have been looking for. His interview must have been a breeze! Colin and the others listened to him intently.

  “As you know, we do not dabble in the dark arts here at Olympus; namely those techniques that are unacceptable under the conventions that apply to the interrogation of terrorists or terrorist suspects. This slows us down somewhat, but we have to have standards.

  Interrogation is a battle of wits with the prisoner, enticing him into talking by building up a relationship, pretending you know things you don’t to dupe him into giving away information.

  Over the past eight days we have been battling with four such prisoners. Initially, we deprived them of sleep. This we find is most effective in breaking the will of our detainees. We subjected them to twenty hours of constant interrogation.

  Almost immediately we saw Irfan Baqri, Arshad Usman and Karim Rivzi start to show signs of distress; by the end of their second session we felt there was nothing to be gained from having them undergo any of the further stages in the process.”

  “Why” asked Athena “what did they tell you?”

  “Everything they knew” replied Henry “unequivocally. I am sure you have been apprised of the core leadership group that exists in this type of terrorist cell; it is a ring network and Habeeb Rehman was the leader of this particular link in the chain. The late Zunairah Jaffri was his second in command.

  All the ring networks overlap and as we know and quite frequently an operational cell can become autonomous; in the case of the Milton Keynes cell Rehman was the link to the other parts of the network. He alone knew the identities of members in sub cells which themselves only had tenuous knowledge of whom or what made up the central core.”

  “So the three men knew their leader, but were aware of nothing material to us of any of the remainder of the whole set up” said Erebus.

  “Exactly sir” replied Henry Case.

  “Decision time then” said Erebus “what do we do with these three little fish?”

  “As they believe the people who picked them up in London were from a secret service branch and have no idea where they were brought to, we could drop them by the side of a road somewhere in the Midlands and allow them to resume their studies” Henry Case suggested “it would seem a little harsh to dispose of them.”

  “A dangerous game Henry” said Erebus “what if they went to the press and complained about their treatment by the authorities? The secret services would be alerted to the fact that there’s another player in the game.”

  “Can’t we turn them?” asked Athena.

  “If they know so little, what value do they represent?” said Colin.

  Henry Case shrugged his shoulders “So be it.”

  Erebus held up his hand.

  “Not so fast Henry; let’s keep these three for a little while longer. I need to confer with my colleagues; we must agree which is the best course for Olympus. All other considerations are secondary to that.”

  Erebus asked Henry to continue.

  “As for Habeeb Rehman he was clearly made of stronger stuff and following up on Phoenix’s point, his value is significant.

  He required us to move on to another tool in our kitbag, namely sensory deprivation. He was left in one of our air-conditioned rooms on Level Three with earmuffs, gloves and goggles. By the end of the second day we would expect the detainee to be on the verge of breakdown; yet Rehman was still only moderately disturbed.

  Our final ploy, as it turned out, was to subject him to noise and lots of it. He was stripped, sat on a stool, shackled hand and foot to the floor, and then we blasted him with strobe lights and excruciatingly loud rap music with the air-con maxed out.

  This was a schoolboy error! He lapped it up. After twenty four hours of that we had to revise our play list. Someone suggested classical music, or country and western might do the trick, in the end it was Giles from the surveillance techies who had the key. He said that while Phoenix was undergoing training he had mentioned a liking for a band called Judas Priest; so we downloaded a few albums and ga
ve it a shot. Rehman was crying like a baby and spilling his guts within six hours.”

  “It’s not to everyone’s taste” said Colin with a smile.

  “I’ve never heard of these people” said Erebus “but if it worked then we should be grateful. Well, Henry what did we learn?”

  “We now have the contacts that Rehman had within the ring they interacted with. A list of names, addresses, land lines and mobile numbers are in a file I handed to Erebus earlier this evening.

  The most important information Rehman gave us was regarding the suicide bomb attack on Oxford Circus station. This was a trial run; Al Qaeda plan to strike the capital during the Olympic Games.

  They have outline plans for co-ordinated attacks on the Olympic Village which involves the taking of hostages, particularly high profile athletes from around the USA and Great Britain; they also plan to target several medal ceremonies on the same day, as they have identified these as a ‘soft’ target. Lots of flags flying, anthems playing and people more relaxed, happy and subsequently less vigilant. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Copies of all this intelligence will be handed to you as you leave. Thank you.”

  The room was silent as the news was taken in. Erebus stood up to indicate that the meeting was at an end. Colin was the only one to speak; it was his final comment on this chapter of his new life at Larcombe Manor:-

  “Gold Silver and Bombs”

  * * *

  You have just finished reading ‘The Olympus Project’

  This was the first book in the series featuring ‘The Phoenix’ who you now know is our old friend Colin Bailey, the anti hero from my first two novels ‘The Final Straw’ and ‘Unfinished Business’. I tried to kill him off, but my wife was adamant that she wanted to read more about him!

  So what do you have to look forward to in the second book ‘Gold Silver & Bombs’?