by Tobias Roote
There was a stubby antenna no longer than a foot long, nestled into the gable end poking its head out of the rooftop. Wi-Fi, I decided. There would be a box inside the attic area, probably, that would be wirelessly linked to cameras around the house. Sound would be no problem either.
I betted on the place being a film studio. Alice wouldn't be pleased after last nights games, I decided, so that little revelation would have to be kept quiet for the time being.
I needed to think, more than that, I had to wonder what it was they were searching for. They obviously felt they needed time. We had been knocked out twice as I saw it, once with either the wine or the chocolates to get us into a deep sleep so they could get into the house undetected. Then again to keep us out long enough to search everything. So, injections for us and a dart gun for Mercury.
I called him to me and squatted down to fuss him. Feeling around his neck without making it obvious I checked his collar and still attached was a tiny bone-shaped tag the size of my thumbnail.
We then walked to the garage. I noted there was no antenna on the roof there, they probably didn't think it warranted it, or the single one was strong enough to pick up anything inside the garage. I thought not.
I took my time and let Mercury nose around I set him to Silent patrol which would get him to sniff anything and everything. Meanwhile I set about looking for cameras in the roof space and for anything I thought looked out of place.
Firstly, I lifted the bonnets of both cars. I had a good working knowledge of engines so could see anything untoward. I started the Mercedes up and it purred in that rich dulcet tone that is exclusively Mercedes. The slight tinkling of the tappets told me it had done a few miles.
I then attempted to start the Citroen. It turned over, but wouldn't catch. I went back to the engine compartment and looked inside. After about fifteen minutes I saw that one of the electronic relays had been worked loose and was actually not connecting. This was telling the engine there was a fault, but it was not showing on the ignition dash. I closed the bonnets on both cars.
Then getting into the Mercedes and closing the doors I turned on the radio and switched the channels and frequencies.
It took about ten minutes to pin it down, but when I did I could hear the chopping of carrots or something in the kitchen. I left that car and moved to the Citroen. I turned on the car radio and set it to a French music channel.
Returning to the Mercedes and closing the door again, I scanned all the frequencies to try and pick up the music. Nothing.
Next I took the trolley jack that was at the back of the garage along with all the other tools and hoisted the back-end of the Mercedes. Throwing down a dust rug I climbed underneath and rigorously inspected the chassis. I did the same with the front of the car. Eventually I found it buried up between the gearbox and the sump. A state of the art GPS locator.
Turning the music on in the Mercedes, I closed all the windows and then sat in the Citroen and repeated the exercise from the other car. Eventually I picked up music coming from the Mercedes. It took me another ten minutes of searching, but when I returned to the Citroen I couldn't hear music any more. I had three top of the range bugs in my hand.
I put the bugs along with the GPS receiver on the back seat of the Mercedes and went in to have lunch.
That afternoon was spent looking at maps, memorising routes and cooking up snacks to take with us. I had taken Alice for a stroll with Mercury in tow and we had explored the lanes around the house. My reason for taking us out was two fold. The first was I needed to tell Alice what I had discovered away from the possibility of being overheard, and secondly I was looking for a house in the vicinity with an identical or similar antenna that might indicate a receiving station for the signals coming from our roof.
After half an hour of walking around the local roads I found what I was looking for and I understood why the visitor the other night managed to disappear so completely on me. We were practically neighbours.
We were at one of the least populated areas when Alice stopped. I turned to give her my attention. She was clever and bright and patient and I knew she kept her questions to a minimum preferring to work them out, or wait until the answers came through events. If she wanted to ask me something it would be important.
“What do you think we are mixed up in here, Dan? I'm certain that there is more to this than just revenge on my Father. We're involved in something I don't quite understand.”
I decided to give her my considered view based on what we knew.
“I think there are several games in play here. One is your Father and Mother trying to keep us safe while running interference while we get clear. They both seem to still have a wide sphere of influence in the espionage arena which raises questions that I don’t know the answer to yet.
“I believe your Father or your Mother have something in their possession that has been keeping them alive, safe and out of harms way. It wouldn’t be unusual, for Agents such as them to hold some kind of insurance policy in the form of information or records, which if came to the public’s attention would damage governments or powerful people.”
I carefully eyed the area as I spoke, making sure we were still out of range of any possible eavesdroppers.
“However, something to do with this information has changed in the last few weeks and now whatever it is, or was, has increased in importance. Various people now seem keen to get involved, I’m not sure why, but we are now major targets.”
I was actually very sure why, I just felt it important to keep the knowledge to myself for the time being.
“So, you're saying that we have the item or information somehow, and that's why we are being hunted, and why we were drugged and burgled last night,” she surmised, putting the recent events into context.
“Yes, I believe we have it and we are going to be tracked and hunted until its found and/or we are eliminated and whatever it is that represents a danger to these people can be removed from play,” I finished up what I knew she was already thinking.
“So, do you know...” she started, but I pressed my finger to her lips and shook my head. She nodded understandingly. I took it away after turning it so the back of my hand caressed her cheek lovingly. She pressed into it in response and I thought again how lucky I was.
“So, what now?” she asked quietly beginning to feel totally overwhelmed at our forced circumstances.
“Now, my dearest... now, we begin changing rules and making this our game,” I said, winking at her to cheer her and let her believe we could change events and make the outcome different. I strongly doubted we could achieve that, but I was equally sure we could increase our bargaining power if we could just force the game onto a different set of rules. That might be all it took to get us all out of this mess.
CHAPTER 19
I had checked my intended approach while on our walk, remembering from last night how the light fell only at the bottom of the lane and so long as no traffic made its way up while I was on the road I would be fine. The wall where I lost the visitor last night now became my route into the property, the bushes giving me perfect cover almost up to the house. The person that slipped through here last night must have frozen in these same shrubs while I searched for them. Lucky for me they weren’t the enemy. Lucky for them too if things all went to plan tonight.
The entrance was shrouded in darkness. My earlier observation had shown me there were no external alarms and I shrewdly assessed there would be no internal ones installed in the belief that we would be unaware of their existence.
If they knew who I really was and what I used to do, they would have rethought that strategy. As it was, I entered through the back door within ninety seconds, I was getting slow. Putting my picking tools away in a back pocket I took out my silenced Glock. I hoped I didn't have to use it as the game would become considerably more dangerous than it already was.
Noting the absence of light and unshuttered windows at the front meaning the location of the surveil
lance would probably be in the upper rear rooms I made my way immediately for the staircase. No lights on downstairs and no activity meant the night shift would be ensconced in their respective work areas. I knew from experience the way it went. From their terminals they would be able to physically observe us if needed as well as watch the cameras. The last thing they would be watching for was someone infiltrating them.
I climbed the stairs using the wooden edging boards and the bannisters to avoid creaky stairs and any possible alarms inserted under the stair carpet. I made my way swiftly to the room that had a light showing under and around the edge of the door which had been pulled to, but not closed.
Stopping briefly at the adjoining rooms I flashed my pen torch for any sign of sleepers. I had surmised there would probably be only two of them, one on the cameras and the other on the mikes. I waited until my senses were settled, it had been a long time and as I felt my nerves calm and old fears slot into familiar places, I pressed my outstretched fingers against the door and pushed it slowly open until I could see the interior.
Both the occupants had their backs to me. One on a digital recording array that looked expensive, was idly swivelling to and fro on a typist chair, headphones on his head he could be listening to music instead of anything going on in our Villa. The other on the right had a large monitor with multiple screens showing different parts of the house, including the bedroom. I saw no evidence of guns anywhere. Non-combatants meant non-lethal contact.
I poked my head in to check for others behind the door area. It was clear. Moving into the room quietly, I reversed my gun and holding onto the silencer and barrel I chopped the first one on the back of the head with the gun butt. He dropped instantly deeper into the chair and then slid to the floor.
The other was rising and turning as, moving onto my other foot, I swung around to meet him head on. I chopped him hard in the neck, keeping fingers pressed against the nerves causing temporary paralysis, followed up with the gun butt to put him out. I really wanted them both to have some nasty bumps to remind them of us. I was not at all happy that they had watched Alice and me enjoying each others company last night. They would suffer when they awoke.
Taking the long black cable ties I had found in the garage toolbox I tied and gagged them. Once I had them secured, I quickly double checked there were no other residents on the top floor of the house and went back into the control room to finish the job I had started.
It took me twenty minutes to remove all digital masters of our twenty four hours in the Villa. I smashed the hard drives by lining up the laptops and their internal drives and putting a silenced 9mm shell straight through them then dropping them in the bath leaving the water running.
I destroyed their digital cameras, removed all memory cards and any notes they had made and checked their pockets. There were no ID cards, no passports or driving licenses, no pictures of family in wallets and no credit cards. There were a few Euros, but I left everything, taking only the mobiles. I finished off by checking downstairs using the pencil light finding nothing of interest. Just takeaway wrappers and empty beer cans.
Five minutes later I was slipping back over the wall opening our gates fully to allow us to leave without stopping. I ran back to the house where Alice and Mercury were waiting in the kitchen pretending to be reading a magazine. I pressed the remote on the garage doors running under it as it opened, we jumped into the car, already loaded with everything we needed.
I turned on the ignition and the engine burst into life. Feeling the quiet power of the engine as we crunched gravel down to the small lane, I left off the lights until we got to the junction and then turning the button near my left knee the dash and headlights came on illuminating the road ahead. Using my memorised route, we headed out of Marseilles in the shortest possible time.
I had deliberately avoided all major roads to avoid CCTV and traffic monitoring and by now the Taxi that had been adorned with a brand new GPS just before I visited our non-friends should be giving some excellent data to their monitoring station.
Chuckling as I thought of how twice now we had changed the game and caught the opposition wrong-footed, I saw Alice catch the sound and seeing my mischievous smile in the reflection of street lights she put her hand on my leg and squeezed it gently. It felt almost as good as the engine drumming quietly through the bodywork. I do so love Mercedes!
I decided to forego any more of John's safe-houses on the basis of they were likely compromised in similar fashion, as although that would take a tremendous amount of resources, I was still not sure yet with whom we were dealing.
So far I decided we had MI5 sitting in the background, the group trying to kill us and I couldn't yet figure where they fitted into this, and Abbey’s Russian friends, who I suspected were Russian Intelligence of some description. Maybe they were running interference on the Brits or this other group while they looked for the information we were supposedly carrying. Either way, they had their agenda. We had ours.
CHAPTER 20
I drove all night, while Alice slept with the front seat reclined. I enjoyed the driving through countryside avoiding big towns and cities; taking a meandering route to the suburbs of Paris gave me time to think. The quiet unpopulated roads also enabled us to safely sidestep the nationally linked traffic cameras.
As day broke I stopped in the unlit end of a car park attached to an all-night diner and looked across at Alice sleeping. Seeing the glow of her features dimly illuminated by the glaring windows of the distant restaurant I wondered at us; an unlikely couple thrown together by unseen forces that controlled governments.
The fact her parents were both Heads of Station from opposing teams meant Alice was at risk from all sides seeking to gain the upper hand in something way over both of our heads. I thought again of the information on the memory card, it was time I got a better understanding of what it contained that was worth our lives.
We had inadvertently become bait, drawing out interested players and running like rabbits in a zigzag across the field, forcing the dogs to reveal themselves as they relentlessly homed in on us. After two years of retirement I was also severely short on options. If the Section thought I was active and working for someone else, I would be considered hostile and probably terminated, but I needed help and there was only one person I could turn to.
I left her sleeping and, taking Mercury for his constitutional, eventually made my way over to the Diner, where there were telephones booths outside the entrance. Picking one on the end in virtual shadow, I tucked myself into its small privacy cover noting the variety of coloured cards tucked into the booths’ edging strip offering everything from taxis to masseuse.
Picking up the phone I dialled an unlisted free to call international number. It answered within three rings. A woman's automated voice went through the options. Ignoring them I put in a six numbered code hoping it would still work and was rewarded with an immediate click as it transferred the call to an extension.
A young bored sounding male voice answered, “Brett's Salvage, how can I help you?”
“I need to speak to Penelope Masters on the fourth floor, tell her it’s Charlie calling,” I replied knowing full well that the phrase and my callsign would be enough to over-ride any argument from the now, not so bored, young man. It was not often the coded Emergency button was pressed. I would even hazard it had been quiet of late.
Another click. I heard a buzz as the call was manually rung by the operator. It clicked again, and I heard heavy breathing.
“I think I got someone out of bed,” I said.
“Who's that?” The voice at the other end, gravelly and rough from a night of vintage port and card playing if I knew him, asked.
“It's Charlie, Brett. Are you able to talk or shall I ring back?”
There was a pause as Brett awoke and digested my callsign and the time of the call. I guessed he would quickly assimilate everything and be on the ball in a second, or so. I wasn’t wrong.
“Nope, its o
kay, give me a second to get to my desk..... You're an early bugger, Charlie, not sleeping well?” his breath heaving unhealthily as he sat down. I listened to the creak of stressed furniture as he reclined in his favoured polished leather and olive wood chair that had over the long years become moulded to his heavy frame.
“Life is currently too short for sleep, Brett. I have fallen in the middle of something.” I paused, giving him time to get his computer out of sleep mode. “I need you to tell me what it is I am involved in and if there is anything on the circuit that might relate to me.”
I knew I was being cryptic, but had learned Brett really loved the self discovery aspect of his work. He would investigate quickly and efficiently allowing his brain to track what he saw and heard as opposed to me directing his efforts. He already knew from what I had told him everything he needed, the rest he would figure out along the way.
“I thought you had retired, Old Bean? You have certainly been very quiet the last couple of years.” I could hear typing going on while he held the phone to his ear with his shoulder. I could practically visualise him in that tip he called an office. The stagnant pong of his bed that he lived in and the piles of DVD's and printouts that would be strewn over the floor and desks. I added a three day old pizza to the visual as I waited for him to catch up.
The only important things to him were the six monitors that were tied into his personal home-built, state of the art equipment. Brett was a computer nerd, and one of the best for what I needed. He was also completely off the grid in that he was non affiliated and also an old school chum. I could count on him when I needed to stay dark.
“Hmmh!” he murmured “What on earth are you into, old friend? You're coming up on chatter everywhere. You're into something that's got the whole of the network in a tizz. Oh! You have a girlfriend? Ooh! she's nice. Mossad? CIA?.. Lovely picture of you two canoodling on a boat!” he said admiringly.