MERCURY'S SECRET

by Tobias Roote

  The boot area was pristine and empty. Fumbling at the edge of the thin carpet, I lifted it exposing the well underneath which, instead of a spare tyre, housed a lock-box welded to the metal of the floor. The key from the jacket fitted perfectly. I turned it and pulled at the lid. Well oiled, it lifted soundlessly.

  The interior was separated into two sections. One side, hand guns, ammunition, silencers and some small packs of explosive C4, detonators and a pair of grenades. The other, and of more interest, two passports, a wad of Euros and papers for both cars in the name of the passport holders.

  I sat on the edge of the trunk, tapping the passports against my hand. John, or someone, had gone to great lengths to set all this up.

  Alice appeared in the doorway, “Dan...?” she said as she first looked at me, then at the cars, eyes widened, eyebrows arching with surprise.

  “Nice! I will take the Merc, you can have that other thing,“ she waved dismissively at the Citroen.

  I chuckled, turned to shut and lock the box, dropping the carpet. Closing the boot I took her hand, placing her new passport in it, then pulling the switch light plunging the garage back into darkness, we returned to the house.

  Dinner was not at all bad. What you can do with tins and frozen food in a short time with a microwave these days, is quite passable. It was better than on the boat.

  After eating we remained at the table, with candles that Alice had lit, drinking a very nice table wine from the kitchen larder. The dishes had been shoved to one side while Alice fingered her new passport. Alison Simpson, it said, her picture staring out from the inside cover.

  I watched her thinking something through and expected a question just about....now!

  “When did Dad have the time to organise all of this?” she asked tapping the passport with her finger and looking at me, the suspicion in her voice and manner not directed at me, but at the situation we found ourselves in. “The safe house, cars, money, arms, boat, escape routes ...everything! It must have taken him days to organise all of this...” she stopped suddenly bewildered.

  “Unless?” I said giving her an opening for her surfacing thoughts.

  “Unless........? “ she paused, “Unless, he had help from someone else.” She clicked her fingers as the realisation filled her mind coming to the same answer that I had concluded while in the garage.

  John, or Abbey had an accomplice. At least one.

  This opened up a lot of questions, one or two of which I didn't like the sound of, but put them to one side for later consideration. Alice kept thinking this through, talking her way from one step to the next, putting it together. She had a gifted intellect so while she worked her way through it, I pondered on a few troubling thoughts and just as Alice was winding down her Dad's possible actions that put all this together, the doorbell 'clanged'.

  I shot for the back door switching out the kitchen cooker light as I went. Alice had spooned the candles, quick as a flash when the bell went. Boy! Was she quick, I thought proudly as I inched the back door open. Mercury had materialised at my side, silent but on high alert.

  Finding it clear I ran out to the edge of the boundary wall where I would have some cover in the darkness. To go around close to the house would be too obvious and I needed to see what was going on from a distance. I had pulled my gun out and was screwing the silencer on as I ran keeping low around the shadowed edge. I rounded the property just in time to see the gate down the drive silently open, then close and a shadow vanish up the road.

  Quickly making a decision I leapt the wall nearest to me landing silently out in the street. Keeping close to minimise shadow if someone looked back down the road, I passed the corner of the property by the gate and checked it was still clear.

  Continuing to run in a half crouch to where the shadow should have been, I found nothing, they had vanished. I searched quietly for a further ten minutes in case they had gone to ground, then deciding that I had been too slow while they were obviously very fast I walked cautiously, but quickly back to the house, this time using the gate instead of the wall.

  I approached the entrance where the visitor had been a few minutes previously. A small light brown package sat leaned up against the wooden door, a jiffy bag.

  CHAPTER 17

  Walking back to the house, I opened the back door to utter blackness and total silence. Heart hammering, the possibility of the visitor being a distraction and the real objective being a snatch, hit me. Alice! My ears strained for any sound of her. Nothing!

  Mercury was poised at my side, waiting for instructions. I sent him on Silent Patrol and giving him a head start, followed. Professional training kicked in, took over my body's reactions; my mind was something else entirely. Quite, quite different when someone you cared about was in danger!

  Immediately relieved at the quiet ‘whuff’ Mercury reappeared, tail wagging an all clear and a wide-eyed Alice wriggled out from her hiding place. Coming downstairs looking past and around me she looked to see if anyone was there, then not seeing anyone, spied the jiffy bag in my hand.

  “Oh! A courier delivery this time of night?”

  “It would seem so, and one who didn't want to hang around for a tip!” I said jokingly and told her what had transpired outside.

  We sat back at the table with the half finished bottle of wine and the package. Putting the gun on the table, I took out my knife and carefully slit open the side of the bag. The grey pulped paper stuffing fell out over the tablecloth as I sliced open the inner membrane.

  Pushing up the top with the edge of the knife I could clearly see a small black rectangular device inside. I put in my fingers and pulled out a mobile phone, wrapped in a plastic bag which also contained a number of SIM cards. I counted six in all.

  I checked the rest of the bag, there was nothing else. No message, unless you classed the phone as the message. To me it said someone wanted to get in touch.

  Alice seemed about to speak so I put my finger against my lips to warn her to stay silent and was pleased to see that she cottoned on immediately. I was considering the possibility that we could be bugged, in fact the more I thought about it the more I reasoned it would have been a practical precaution. Even a 'friend' might want to know the state of our thoughts before making contact.

  We sat quietly for a few minutes absorbing the questions that the phone's arrival had brought with it. Alice was really cool, she seemed to accept the sudden change in our situation. Her after dinner musings on the possibility of her Father having a partner, had inadvertently prepared her for this.

  As a result she was looking at it as a positive, I could see it in her eyes. She looked up and caught me watching her and without saying anything she peered more closely at my face. I made sure she could see my reservations. I saw the question mark in her visual response and held her eyes until she thought things through.

  Then, as if seeing things differently, she looked back at the table her mind now balancing the positive aspect of our situation with the negative. Her eyebrows rose as it dawned on her.

  Who had just sent us the phone? Friend? Enemy? And more importantly, why?

  I removed it from the bag and switched it on. It took a moment to go into its start-up and then rolling the controls to bring up calls I could see that there was a single number in its memory.

  I returned the missed call, it rang and a man's voice answered.

  “Hello, you must be Dan Parker, please don't be alarmed we have a mutual friend in Abbey.”

  I remained silent.

  “Hello, Dan... Are you still there?”

  “Yes, I'm here. Who am I speaking to?”

  “Ah, that depends, let's just call me Androv for the moment. Names mean nothing these days in this world of electronic identification. I presume you found the keys to the toolbox we left for you?”

  “Yes, thank you. The package was, is, useful.”

  “Good, we were planning to get to you at the Island, but we were delayed. When we arrived you had gone. There was
no evidence of anything untoward. However, a group of birdwatchers we were keeping up with have gone to ground. We are quite sure they didn't migrate, hahaha!”

  He didn't expect me to laugh, so I kept silent.

  “Did you by any chance see them? You couldn't mistake them with their big binoculars and birdwatching equipment.”

  “We did see a group such as you describe, however we couldn't stop to chat. I couldn't say what happened to them after we left. Maybe they went home.” I offered by way of closing the subject.

  “Ah! Yes, we thought as much, perhaps they weren't as committed as we thought and have possibly lost interest, err, permanently maybe?”

  “Possibly,” I answered in a non-committal manner.

  “Good! Good! Well, onto why we have made contact. You are quite welcome to stay there for up to three days, after that we think the heatwave is going to come back. This time it will probably last for a while. You will have to use plenty of sunblock.

  If you want to keep cool we think the climate might be cooler in the East, but eventually the North sounds like its going to be best for a comfortable temperature. If you inadvertently get heatstroke we have a medical advice line available on this number.”

  “Thank you, a reliable weather forecast is always useful, we don't want to be far from the heat, but we don't want to get burnt up. Are our fellow travellers enjoying the sun, or are they keeping in the shade?”

  “Your friends are well, although not enjoying as cool a climate as yourselves. I suspect they will be heading for lower temperatures too, although not for a week, or so.”

  “I understand, I believe I have vouchers for further weather forecasts, is that right?”

  “Yes, you are correct. They are each valid for one forecast. Good luck!“

  “I understand, thank you Androv.“

  The line went dead. I opened the phone back and pulled out the battery. The SIM card was easily accessible so I removed it and used the candlelighter to destroy it. It burnt out in the holder, the acrid smoke drifted across and caught our throats forcing us to leave the table and move to the kitchen.

  Mercury was patiently sitting by the back door where Alice had left his bowl. It was empty and he needed to go outside. I opened the door and he shot out. He hadn't been given a command so he would root around out back for at least half an hour.

  Turning back to Alice I saw she was hovering, she needed to know what I knew. I found a couple of jackets and popped the door open quietly and beckoned her outside. We walked a way off from the house, to where there was scrub land on the other side of the wall in the corner.

  Hugging her tightly to me I explained in a low voice how the conversation went. The weather forecast was just to help disguise the conversation a little. It also ensured that anyone listening on the off-chance didn't gain anything useful or incriminating.

  “Firstly, you need to know your parents seem to be fine, alive, in hot water from what I gather, but coping and anticipating that all being well, they will heading for somewhere safe in a week, or so. We have three days before we need to move on.

  They know we had something to do with the disappearance of the snatch team that attacked the boat, but luckily there's no evidence. I'm not yet convinced these people are playing on our side or will stay that way. Although very interestingly, the guy calling himself Androv says he knows your Mother. He mentioned Abbey, not John. I didn't expect that.”

  What does that mean, then, that Abbey, um, Mother has called in help?”

  “It means,” I said, “your Mothers friends must be the Russians which says to me we need to be extremely careful. We don't know who they are and importantly what their endgame is. The rule of the game has to be, trust no-one,” I warned.

  I knew the Brits would be watching to ensure we kept out of their way. I could get in touch with my own old section, but that would cause shit to fly and I had no idea where it would land. The visitors at the Island obviously weren’t the Russians which explained the poor quality of their people, so that meant there were three players involved, the third probably being Dubianko and we still didn’t even know what the game was, or the rules.

  I increasingly felt we were pawns and that we were being played. The only person I knew who could strategically manage an operation like this was John. The problem with that was that Abbey was also a player and Androv was one of her pieces. John put the safe-houses together and possibly the cars. Someone else though, put the guns, passports and money in place.

  Not only did they do so, but they did it extremely quickly, within days, and I had checked those passports, they would pass muster through any border control, they were that good. So, we had professional help and that could only mean other parties were involved. Somehow I had to steer us a safe course. I needed a plan, and soon.

  I started to feel really tired, stress or the change from sea to land, maybe I was too old for this. I looked up at Alice to see her eyes drooping she was barely staying awake. Yep! Time to find some place to hang our heads.

  When we had inspected the bedrooms earlier we decided that we liked the idea of the old antique four poster bed the most. I found a bottle of good claret, a couple of glasses and Alice found a box of what she decided, were delicious chocolates. Giving Mercury a pat on the head and telling him to stay downstairs, we retired to the intimacy of the sumptuous bed, complete with silk sheets and voluminous pillows and duvets.

  CHAPTER 18

  In the morning we awoke late, very late. The shutters had not been opened last night and the sun now streamed in serrated beams through the angled slats telling me it was already high in the sky. I went downstairs, a bit gingerly I thought. Wow! That was a rough night.

  In the kitchen I found the kettle, filled it from the sink and stuck it on the gas to boil, then went looking for my watch. I had left it downstairs on the couch. I looked, it wasn't there. Eventually, I found it on the dining room table, I must have transferred it there before going to bed. Looking at the time, it read eleven twenty. Good Grief! That claret must have been something else. Hungover and you've slept in!

  I heard a scratching at the back door and walked over to open it. I found Mercury outside looking decidedly unhappy. Not surprising, I thought, being left out all night. I put down some fresh water, hunted out his biscuits and tossed them into his food dish, then got the makings of coffee prepared. I definitely wasn't with it this morning. Unusual!

  As I got the toast going from hacking a half dozen slices off a cut loaf from the freezer, Alice walked in, looking as bad as me. Well, not as bad, she was naked and beautiful, I couldn't see her as anything else regardless. Nonetheless, she wasn't too bright.

  “God! If there are any more bottles of that claret in the larder.... leave them there!”

  I chuckled and gave her a hug and a kiss, then plonked her on the kitchen stool with a hot mug of coffee, black, two sugars. I sipped mine waiting for the toast to burst out of the very English toaster that had been kindly provided.

  Butter and jam, followed by another mug of coffee soon got me stirring and I finally felt like taking on the shower. While contemplating the moves required to get there, I idly watched Mercury as he limped out of the kitchen. Something bothering his back leg there, I thought..... hmmh!

  “Come on, slack Alice, you need a shower massage to get your blood circulating and bring you back to life, girl,” I teased and dragged her, rather willingly I noticed, up the stairs to the shower. As we went I took a look again around the rooms as we went past them.

  We had already introduced ourselves to the rather luxurious shower room last night so it was with relish we looked forward to another round in there. With ample room for two and plenty of hot water it was an experience not to be missed, and definitely one to be repeated as often as possible.

  As I worked on Alice's back, massaging out the knots in her muscles and using it as an excuse to explore her heavenly form even more, I slowly worked down until I was kneading the backs of her legs. She flin
ched,

  “Ow! What was that?”

  I looked but couldn't see a bruise, or cut. I turned off the shower for a minute and got her to bend forward a bit, to which she turned around to me while doing so to see if I was about to introduce her to some form of new shower sex. However, I was looking closely at the top of her thigh. Almost on the inside and out of sight was a tiny red spot, a puncture wound. I pressed it and was rewarded with another 'Ow!' and a surprisingly unladylike curse. “Sorry, I think I must have bitten you a bit too hard last night!” I grinned evilly and she rewarded me with an unamused scowl.

  Turning the shower back on I went back under it while I thought. As I did so I was feeling my body, looking for a sore spot. I found it at the back of my leg behind and above the knee. I had my explanation for oversleeping, the Russians.

  Alice was shampooing her hair so I decided it was essential that I helped her. In so doing I managed to get lather all over her body. She, in turn, insisted I needed a good shampooing too so it was a fairly long shower and it was getting on for lunchtime before we finally towelled each other dry.

  While Alice got lunch sorted I took a look at Mercury. He had a small swollen muscle on his thigh and when I peeled back the fur I could just see the sealed up hole from a dart. I realised that I had left him inside last night on patrol downstairs, yet he had been outside this morning. Also, my watch was on the table instead of the couch and there were small signs of disturbance in all the rooms.

  Most people wouldn't have noticed any of this, but I wasn't most people. I had been trained to observe and memorise, so things like positions of objects in a room would jar when seeing them out of the pattern held in my head.

  I walked outside taking Mercury with me, giving the impression I was exercising him. I found a stick to throw to him and he jumped straight in, playfully retrieving it repeatedly. As we did this around the property I used the different positions to take note of things that I couldn't have seen last night.