“My mind is already made up. I think for the first time, I’m beginning to see things clearly now, and this is something I need to do. I need to contribute, but thank you for your concern.” They waited for darkness. The sun seemed to glow for an age behind the white clouds, spreading across the horizon and then it was time for Andrew to take his leave. He made his way along a path and down to a rocky outcrop at the edge of the bay. Andrew waited, gazing at the lights on the ship until darkness was complete. He dropped into the sea and began to swim. Through infrared binoculars Inwë watched his progress as he swam through the water. Then Andrew drifted out of sight. Inwë’s heart began to race when he saw a military gunboat come into view.
At first, Andrew had powered his way through the cold sea, then half way to the ship his arms and legs began to tire. He was unusually breathless and he wondered if the fatigue was a result of all the punishment his body had taken recently. As the darkness settled around him he became swallowed up by a feeling of loneliness. He began to doubt his own courage, but when he passed the damaged Mother Earth and the destroyed Green Movement speedboat, he was given a fresh impetus. He was drawing closer and he could even make out the name of the ship, The HMS Cumberland. He made his way round to the stern of the ship, keeping an eye out for marines, and then, from behind, he heard the sound of a jet propulsion engine coming closer. Andrew’s body went rigid with terror. The first bullet whizzed over his head. It was a sound he had become familiar with since an early age, hunting deer and grouse on his grandfather’s estate. He arched his body to dive under the surface of the sea for cover.
Andrew plunged his body deeper into the darkness, his arms pulling himself under and his legs kicking back with all the force he could muster but the dry suit hampered his descent. The second bullet found its target. Hot metal burst through his ribcage, penetrated his lung and exited the other side. Andrew’s body went into a violent shock. He waited for a blinding pain to follow but nothing. Still holding his breath, he tried to dive deeper but another bullet hit him in the back and Andrew was paralysed. Numbness engulfed him but he could detect the sensation of cold sea water flooding his survival suit. His body turned and rose upwards and through his flickering eyes, he could detect the spot lights of the gunboat darting around on the surface of the ocean.
Curiously, no panic beset his mind and the last few seconds of consciousness were spent in a feeling of serenity the like he had never experienced before. He thought of his children and Ashley and in his minds eye, he could see himself pushing the children on the garden swing and her broad smile when he failed to notice the swing return and hit him on the head. That day the sun had been shining, it had been warm and for a change it hadn’t been raining. Andrew saw a powerful light shine from above and his weightless body rose towards it. He closed his eyes and his mind went blank.
On the island, the Elfs gathered at the edge of the cleit to watch one of the Prophylaxis Trident spy satellites catch the reflection of the sun on the illuminated side of the Earth. It appeared like a distant star in the night time sky. Inwë came rushing towards them.
“Anything from Andrew?” said Itaridlë.
“Nothing. He hasn’t attached the magnetic laser marker to the ship’s hull. A gunboat was heading directly for him. Worse still, the satellites are coming back online, any time now. There was activity in the bay. They are preparing to attack,” replied Inwë catching his breath. Lúthien grabbed Itaridlë by the arm and said,
“We can’t wait any longer. We’re exposed and escape will be impossible. We need to make a move back to the boats on the north side of the island while we can. We have done all we can here.”
Itaridlë flashing with a curious sentiment. She beckoned all the Elfs to their feet. She said,
“The game’s up and we don’t have much time. We need to get off this island and get Professor Burke’s story exposed to the world or they will cover all this up. This is now our sole objective.” Inwë spat on the ground and looking up from the notepad, he shook his head mournfully,
“The satellites are back online. We’re too late. They’re going to find us and kill us.”
Itaridlë commanded the Elfs to put on their night vision goggles and take a path that led to Loch Ghlinne where McIntyre would be waiting with one of their boats. She and Lúthien would create a diversion so they could make their escape. Inwë and Erurainon led the remaining Elfs from the cleit and into the darkness. From above, they became aware of a pulsating humming noise. A sensation of rising pressure was detected in their chests and the movement of air around them became noticeable. When they looked up they were blinded by lights beaming down from the undercarriage of a drone hovering over their heads. They ran for the path and then found cover behind the rock outcrop and waited to open fire.
They could see the silhouette of marines dropping from the drone and heading towards them. The marines stopped and doubled back when they heard the sound of gunfire coming from the direction of the cleit. Inwë motioned to the Elfs to be still and they crouched close to the ground waiting for four attack drones to fly over. They scrambled around in the dark, trying to find the path for a few minutes, but at long last they reached the other side of the island where they stopped to catch their breath. The bay was silent and in the moonlight they could see McIntyre sitting on a log sharing a rolled cigarette with a captured marine. They panted heavily and drunk water from their bottles as they approached the jetty.
“You alright? What’s happening, I could hear gunfire in the distance. Where are the others?” exclaimed McIntyre. Inwë exchanged glances with McIntyre and still panting said,
“The satellites came back online. Then the Marines attacked. There was fighting. I don’t know what happened. We need to escape before the wave arrives.” Inwë gestured towards the captured marines, “what about this bunch? What do we do with them?”
“We kill them of course,” replied McIntyre, picking up a rifle. Inwë’s face turned ashen white and then McIntyre smiled and added,
“I’m only joking. We let them go. They were told a number of their comrades were killed by the ELF. I’ve put them straight and told them that no one died. It was all lies.” McIntyre returned their weapons which he had decommissioned and the marines were set free. McIntyre suggested that they reached high ground and then he watched as they melted away into the darkness. He asked about Bull and Inwë told him the last time he was spotted, he was walking towards the Radar Station and hopefully out of harms way of the impending wave. McIntyre was eventually persuaded to leave Bull behind and board the Elf boat. Finally, they sped off into the open sea and to the mainland.
…………………………………………….
Bull stopped. He gazed up towards the grass covered hill towards the summit of Conachair. The island glowed red in the sunset. He said,
“I can’t believe the military tried to trash this place. It’s beautiful here isn’t it?” Wasn’t it a UNESCO World Heritage Site?”
“It was and then the fracking industry and the military fucked it up and it lost its status, but it’s still beautiful.”
“From the sea these islands put the shits up you, but when you are on the land, the tranquillity is overpowering.” Saffron retraced several steps and stood in front of him.
“You haven’t lost your ability to wax lyrical have you? You’re the John Cooper Clarke of St Kilda.”
“He was from Salford, like me.”
“Yes, I know. That’s why I said it.” Bull took a deep breath.
“This beauty is worth protecting. I’m just sorry that it has taken so long to open my eyes. Away from this wilderness you become consumed with all life’s arcane problems and our hearts have detached from what really matters. There comes a time when we have to make a stand for something which is worth saving. We can’t allow everything we hold dear to be destroyed by mankind’s insatiable greed.” Bull congratulated himself for remembering an interview on the Discovery channel with a Cree tribal leader fr
om Alberta whose community had been devastated by the shale oil industry. Saffron looked into Bull’s eyes and said,
“You got that speech from the Discovery channel didn’t you? I watched that too.” Bull nodded his head sheepishly and then said,
“So much has happened recently and it’s confusing, but my eyes have been opened. I’ve had time to consider my beliefs and feelings while being marooned on a raft. I realise how fragile we are and how easy it is to get caught up in the small and insignificant problems when there are more crucial things at stake.” Saffron smiled thinly. She sat down and picked a blue liverwort flower and rotated it between her thumb and forefinger. Bull’s eyes were transfixed by the spinning flower to a point where he almost felt hypnotised. Saffron broke the spell by saying,
“It’s better when you say it in your own words rather than reciting another, but I understand. We all follow our own path but along the line we come to a junction and need to make a decision.”
“I’ve missed your metaphors Saffron.”
“I’ve missed your bullshit!” Bull smiled nervously and then swallowed deeply. His voice became brittle.
“I’m sorry about your father, Saffron. One of the Elves told me he was on the Andrea Starlight when it sunk and that he was the unconscious man we couldn’t identify on the life raft. We thought his name was Malcolm…”
“Of course,” said Saffron interrupting, “It wasn’t your fault. You’ve been through so much lately. Not to sound heartless, but my natural father was never part of my life. I never really knew him.” Bull stretched his hand out to comfort Saffron, but she pulled away, but Saffron continued to smile. Bull said,
“I understand you’re still upset about me lying to you. I want to explain. I want to tell you everything.
“All in good time, come on we need to keep moving.”
Bull contemplated how his actions, single mindedness and warped logic had brought his life to a standstill, and brought pain to others. He desperately wanted to explain his feelings to Saffron, how he had been blind and had led a self-absorbed existence, but ultimately he had unravelled the complexity of his life after coming to terms with his faults. He wanted to explain to her that doors in his mind had been opened and she had shone a light in. She had helped him conquer his myopic view of the world. He wanted to describe the revolution and subsequent coup d’etat that had occurred within his mind. He would declare that his brain was under new management. Saffron started walking again and Bull followed. She said,
“The beard really suits you. It makes you appear more…”
“Intellectual?” offered Bull rubbing his chin and grinning.
“I was going to say masculine. And you’ve lost weight since I last saw you. What’s your secret?”
“I discovered this new diet where you get marooned on a life raft for a week and eat only raw fish and dried prunes.” Saffron’s emerging smile quickly faded. She studied his appearance and said,
“You poor thing, this must be awful for you.”
“I’ve had better weeks. It’s been a strange old time. I think I’ve developed narcolepsy. I sleep a lot these days. It comes on all of a sudden and when I wake I’m unsure if I’m still dreaming or not.”
Saffron stared at him curiously. “You do seem different,” she said, “calmer, at one with yourself.” Bull wanted to look into her eyes again, but all he could see was his own reflection against her sunglasses. He continued to follow her until they reached the Radar complex. There were several cabins dotted around the site but Saffron headed along a gravel path and towards the largest one. Before darkness descended, Bull stopped to take in the view. He breathed in the salt air and studied the green island sloping towards the cliff and the island of Boreray in the distance. Finally, he picked up Saffron’s trail towards the cabin.
Saffron switched on a light and a laboratory illuminated. Bull said,
“Why did you stay on the island? Why didn’t you escape?”
“When we were hit by the wave, I got off the ship just in time, but I couldn’t convince anyone else to join me. It was hell and everyone was in the panic. Three members of our crew died, the rest that survived were picked up by the Coast Guard, but when the MoDs showed up even they were taken into custody. I managed to escape, with some assistance from the local islanders. They wanted to smuggle me back to the mainland on a Lobster boat, but I decided to stay on the island, and with their help I’ve been hiding out in cleits and abandoned cottages. Eventually, I decided to give myself up so I walked up to the military communications installation and found it abandoned. And then I came across this laboratory.”
“Why have you put yourself in so much danger?”
“I couldn’t leave when I found out they were planning another wave. I couldn’t let them get away with it again. I need to upload all this data. It’s almost done. Then I will leave.”
“You can’t stop them on your own Saffron. I’ve met some people on the island, they’re just like you and they are also trying to end this. Why not come and meet them?” Saffron ignored his question. She was engrossed with the markings on a control panel. She said,
“Before he was taken, my father was working on a computer virus that can disable the prophylaxis trident satellites. The authorities have been trying to acquire the virus, but it’s been under their nose all this time.”
“Before you say anymore Saffron, there’s something I need to tell you. I need to explain some things, things that might come as a shock.” Saffron swallowed hard and then said,
“I know what you are going to say, let me make it easier for you. You are a MoDs Filter. Three years ago, you were sent to spy on me because of the Government project my father was working on.” Bull’s eyebrows narrowed and then he buried his head in his hands. Eventually, he found the strength to look at Saffron. He said,
“It’s true, but I didn’t know about your father. I didn’t even know he existed. I don’t work for them anymore, you do know that don’t you? They threatened my family, they said they would destroy them if I didn't cooperate. They said that all I needed to do get to know you, nothing more. I think they believed you were involved with an eco-terrorist group, but the deeper I got the more I realised that it was all lies. You helped me see that. I didn’t mean to hurt you, or lead you on. How long have you known?”
“I’ve always known.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“The ELF hacked into the MoDs mainframe about three years ago and extracted a list of Filters. You were on that list. I was asked to make you an object of desire and feed you useless information.”
Bull put his head back in his hands and thought back to when he had met Saffron at Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow, and how the process had coalesced so swiftly. Initially, his intentions were to locate Saffron and join her environmental group, and over time, try to get to know her intimately. Paradoxically, it was he who had been cursively written into her plans, and not the other way round. Hadn't Deirdre even suspected something, he thought, that he and Saffron were a mismatch. Bull said,
“Why didn’t we have this conversation three years ago? We could have worked things out.” Saffron cast her mind back to the day she had volunteered for the job, thinking she could handle the pressure and keep up the charade, but she had got lost along the way. Finally, she said,
“You’re right, if only we had this conversation sooner, Faerrleah.”
“Even though you knew who I worked for?”
“It was hard at first. To be honest, at first I couldn't bear to touch you. Having sex with you made me wretch, but only because of who I thought you were. It became obvious that your heart wasn’t in it. Before our Filters inside the MoDs were exposed and arrested, they were telling us that no information was coming in from you. I did grow to love you once I fully understood.”
“I don’t think you do fully understand, I wasn’t supposed to send information to the MoDs. That’s not how it worked. You get sieved.”
“I know th
at now. They conduct a brain scan - a FMRI, a functioning magnetic resonance imager. It scans the hippocampus and produces neural-images that you have collected over the years.”
“I don’t think what’s left in my brain would be much use to them - it went to mush after you left me. I still can’t figure out why you left. I thought it was because of Maurice, but Aisha told me…”
“Aisha? When did you see Aisha?” Saffron refocused and her voice was cold and unemotional. Bull said,
“It was about a year after you left. She came round to the narrowboat for dinner.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing happened. Well, I think I might have tried to…”
“That’s not what I mean. Aisha is a Filter like you, she’s also on that list. If she was on the narrowboat then…”
“What?”
“How long did she stay and what did you do? I need to know everything.”
“We drank, well I drank and she sniffed vodka and some herb from a glass bowl and then she left after I tried to kiss her.”
“ “And then what happened?”
“Later, I tried to find the empty glass bowl which was rolling around on deck, but I ended up falling into the canal.”
“Were you ill?”
Not to my knowledge, but I banged my head and I might have lost a couple of days somewhere. That reminds me, I finally met your mother, the following day, I told her about it.” Saffron shook her head and said,
“You've never met my mother, Faerrleah.”
“I did, she came round to the narrowboat, the next day, or the following day. I can't remember exactly.” Saffron became reacquainted with their predicament. She was momentarily distracted when the control panel sparked into life. She started reading a digital file on the visual display. Eventually, she said,
We Float Upon a Painted Sea Page 30