MERCURY'S SECRET

by Tobias Roote

I was dressed all in black, and as I slipped the balaclava over my head I had flashbacks to the days when I did this for a living. The guys down there were amateurs compared to my training, but it didn't mean they weren't as dangerous as a stepped on rattlesnake.

  At least two vehicles meant as many as ten operatives. The odds weren't good either. I raced off silently back up the trail, but kept well above the track. I wanted to see if I had been observed coming in. I would pick them up hopefully as they moved on the cars’ location.

  Picking my way carefully through the woods using the night vision glasses, I traversed the area. Seeing no-one around, I quartered the area moving towards the cottage. I was desperate to know if Alice was all right, but my professional training kicked in and overrode everything else. Now I was just a predator on the hunt. Would they still have satellite overhead? Doubtful, I thought to myself, I might be game, but not big enough for that kind of stunt.

  A good fifteen minutes went by and I saw nothing. I was now close to the cottage and I hadn't even seen de Glaite's boys. Either the visitors were hanging back or something else was going on. The view of the front was clear now. I could only see one vehicle, it was parked just past the gate which was now open, it looked buckled, forced entry using one of the vehicles, I decided.

  It was then that I noticed him, he was pretty good. He had taken up a position where the light cast a natural shadow and he had slipped into it and hunkered down. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to take account of the shifting light of the coming dawn which had greyed out his surroundings, but left him fully blackened; I crept as close as I could. Pulling out the dart gun that I had loaded with fast acting tranquillisers that would drop a horse where it stood, and taking careful aim, I waited until he had begun to turn his head as he scanned the surrounding area so that I could clearly see his throat area.

  “PHUT” the quiet air compressed sound which I could hear because it was next to my ear, but would be almost soundless a few yards away, sent the dart across the black divide between us almost as fast as a bullet.

  The black-clad figure smacked his hand to his neck just as the drug hit his system via his carotid artery and he dropped in a slump ending up in a sitting position. Textbook case.

  Running silently to him I checked his pulse. Yep! All good, then flipped him over onto his front and cable-tied his wrists back to back making it harder for him to exert himself if he came around before I was through. I put a foam ball in his mouth and taped it leaving his nose clear and then moved onto his legs, tying them and then looping them to his wrists. Now completely helpless he was unlikely to pose a problem even when he recovered consciousness.

  Retrieving the dart which he had pulled out, but not quickly enough, I put it back in the plastic box so I couldn't accidentally stab myself and put myself out. Textbook error that had got there through the personal experience of one of my predecessors.

  I resumed surveillance of the cottage knowing where to position myself to get the best view through windows, and watching the shadows around the shed and outhouses I could judge if anyone was hidden in their depths. It looked empty.

  Only one person on outside surveillance meant they were on watch, but not ambush. This led me to think I was too late and either Alice was dead and the hunt had moved on, or more complex, they had taken Alice and left a welcoming committee to lead me in. I favoured the latter, only because I didn't want to think of Alice being dead.

  I moved in knowing exactly what doors would give in terms of internal views and chose instead the window in the scullery. I had a very long time ago gone through every possible scenario with attacks on the building from inside and outside and as a result I had learned a few things.

  I reached the window and dropped to the ground looking for something that would be slightly buried. I found it after a few seconds, a long Allen key from an old furniture self build packet. I then prised out a piece of the concrete around the metal window frame and felt below for the hole I knew would be there and fed the end of the Allen key into it.

  The catch popped up giving me room to get a finger under the window, then holding the metal brace so it wouldn’t hit the frame I pulled the window towards me. As it silently came open I mentally thanked the makers of WD-40 and moved to brace the window while I climbed over the vegetable rack that was under the sill. I lifted my night vision glasses and accustomed my eyes to the dark room. Within a few moments I could discern grey outlines and a line of light under the door.

  I had brought my silenced Glock, but my dart gun would be my weapon of choice, I wouldn't kill my countrymen unless they gave me no alternative. I removed the small telescopic sights; it took six darts. I estimated three targets, in the lounge probably, possibly one upstairs. I would have to work quickly, even with the element of surprise I would be unlikely to get all of them before they moved on me. I hoped a gun in each hand would give me an edge.

  Opening the pantry door a crack, I could see the kitchen was lit by the lights in the lounge and all looked as it did when I was outside. I slipped into the kitchen briefly wondering where Mercury was. His bowl was empty, looked clean. He had not eaten, or was already dead. They wouldn't think twice about taking out a dog. I took out my dog whistle and gave it two high frequency quick bursts. Outside of human hearing it would nonetheless sound out to Mercury if he was around.

  I heard the patter of paws on the upstairs landing where there was no carpet, just wood flooring. I called him with a single long blast. I knew he would come tearing down the stairs and fly past the lounge towards me. I banked on them seeing the quick flash and one, maybe two coming through to the kitchen. I was ready.

  I saw the small shadow flying down the stairs, then soundlessly across the carpeted hallway towards me.

  Mercury flew past the lit doorway, I hand signalled him to heel and he fell in beside me looking up his wagging tail thumping on the carpet. I knelt, both hands aimed at the doorway and waited. A few seconds and a black-clad figure filled the frame of the door. He couldn't see me just out of sight behind the table, but I could see him as he walked carefully and silently into the kitchen. I dropped him with a dart in the throat and caught him under his arms as he fell. Almost too late I saw a second man coming through after him.

  Quickly, I pulled up my arm while letting the drugged man slide down me to the floor. Without having time to fully aim, I shot the second man in the neck, but it was too low to be instantaneous and he pulled out the dart, looked at it quizzically and then dropped it as he suddenly realised what was going to happen. He met my eyes and was in the act of lifting his gun towards me when I saw them glaze over and he dropped with a crash. Damn! No more surprise.

  The third man wasn't coming out, he would wait. I felt around the waists of the two downed men and was rewarded with a small cannister on each of their belts. I checked them, flash bangs, perfect.

  Taking one of the cannisters I signalled Mercury to dash upstairs. First it would distract the last operative in the lounge as he rushed past, and second it would get him out of harms way again. As he flew past the door I saw the wood splinter a good foot above him as the Agent tried to bring his gun down and shoot at what appeared to be a threat, but in a different kill zone to his expectations.

  I removed the pin, waited two seconds, then threw the cannister high into the room bouncing it off the open doorway so it would end up going off high and roughly in the centre of the room.

  Closing my eyes, with my fingers in my ears, I felt the immediate pressure wave as the sound and light display took out the rooms occupant for a split second. We were all trained in managing this form of attack, but it was still down to reaction speed. I was already going through the door, gun raised as the effects of the grenades were still reverberating around the room. The last man was behind the sofa, standing with gun still poised to shoot. I caught him in the left of his throat and before he could pull the trigger, he was dropping to the floor.

  Whipping around the room to cover all the corners I saw
an unexpected fifth man just in time for me to dive out of reach of his gun which was coming up to train on me, his finger tightening on the trigger. He was clearly going to take me out and I would have no chance to use the dart gun.

  As I rolled and came up near the downed man behind the sofa, my other hand had my Glock already trained on the Agent and took him with a single shot to the left shoulder. As he reacted to the non-fatal bullet wound, I decided that if he dropped his gun he would live, if he trained it on me again he would die.

  “Drop it!” I shouted fully expecting him to do just that, but instead he smiled, turned his gun towards me and fired, the shot missing me by a whisker embedding itself into the wooden floorboard with a thwack that I felt through the carpet.

  My second shot went between his eyes. He flew backwards from the impact landing on his back and didn’t move again. I looked for other threats, seeing and hearing none I stood up and walked over to the dead Agent. No regrets; he’d had an opportunity to live, but didn't take it. I was too much the trained killer to give more than a small chance for an opponent to survive an encounter.

  I checked the other Agent, who was sleeping peacefully, removed the dart and then whistled for Mercury, silent patrol I told him. I needed to know if there were others. He shot off on a quick check of the rooms.

  A moment later and he was back, tail straight back and pointing with his nose to the stairs. So, not a threat, but something.

  He led me up the wooden staircase to the end room, the one Alice and I had slept in. Oh! I wasn't sure I liked the idea of this, but crept forward silently while Mercury decided to go straight into the room.

  I followed him in to find de Graite's boys trussed up and out cold.

  They had been smacked on the back of their heads, hard. They would still be out for a while I thought, looking at the egg shaped contusions on their heads. I undid their bonds and told Mercury to stay there on guard. He would warn me when they came around and I could get to them before they tried anything silly like try to rescue themselves.

  The one thing that really worried me though, there was absolutely no sign of Alice. I remembered there had been more than one vehicle track so they had clearly taken her, but where. I needed answers and there were four men downstairs that could give me them. I fought the panic that was trying to surface, if anything had happened to her...

  CHAPTER 26

  It took me half an hour to secure the three men and drag the one in from outside. The dead one I left where he was. He wasn't going to be a problem. I moved him off the carpet though, the blood stains wouldn't come out easily. I was hoping to keep the property when this was all over, if I was still alive.

  I went out and checked the vehicle. As I expected I found the back of the four wheel drive ‘loaded for bear’ with pump actions, snipers and more besides. I would look more closely later, right now I needed to check their comm's units. I looked closely at the tracks of vehicles approaching. There was definitely three sets, two arriving and one leaving, I figured they had taken Alice somewhere, but where?

  Even if they believed Alice didn’t know anything, they probably knew we were involved and felt they could use her to get to me. They weren’t wrong, but I wasn’t about to let them have it all their own way. They must have known our movements all along. My call to Tobler just set things in motion, they must have been in France tracking me, responding quickly after my conversation.

  I hunkered down under the vehicle, the night dew quickly muddying the back of my jacket. Yep, there it was, right where I would have put it. A small box wired into the cars electrics and covered in road dust. The Sections standard fitting for all its vehicles. a GPS Locator.

  I called Brett.He was all business when he answered, sounding harassed, I felt a little guilty as I suspected I was the sole reason.

  “I'm at the Safe House, a five man team in situ, now neutralised, one down. I need to know the whereabouts of the second team. I have one vehicle here with a tracker, I need to locate another one somewhere in France heading away from here, or stationery, probably two hours drive from here by now.”

  Brett took time to check things out. He would be hacking into the Section’s operations centre, something he did ten times a day. Their security was appalling and very prone to attack from the inside. It hadn’t got any tighter since I left I was sure. He would need to use the Section’s own locator software to find this vehicle, then look for others that might be related to the teams.

  I let him get on with it while I checked out the state of the men I had taken down with darts. They would be out for another thirty minutes I reckoned.

  I went and fed Mercury and put some water down for him. I also filled up some bottles, we would be on the road soon and I didn't want to stop. I heard a thud from upstairs and ran up the staircase just as one of the boys was bursting through the doorway on what would have been a mission to suicide if he had still been under the teams control.

  He saw me and checked himself before he ran full tilt into me. We both turned and went to see his brother who was just coming around as well.

  In pigeon French I managed to ascertain that they had been concentrating on two cars coming up the track, but hadn't realised there was an advance team running interference. They had been taken from behind and dropped just as the front gates were crashed.

  When they asked after Alice I shook my head. They were despondent, as was I, but I let them know as best I could that it wasn't their fault. When I had asked them to guard the place it was really only as a sense of security for me, and not ever intended as a bodyguard to set against trained teams.

  After another twenty minutes I decided they were well enough to go home. I sent them on their way telling them to stay away for a few days. I had found their shotguns downstairs and handed them back, still loaded. They weren’t happy when they saw the black garbed men trussed up in the rooms downstairs.

  They were bug-eyed when they glanced into the lounge and saw the dead Agent. I knew that had them worried, it was one thing to go around with guns and act the part, it was another to carry it through and shoot someone. They wouldn’t be back around here anytime soon. I idly wondered if my friendship with de Graite had just ended there and sighed, there was nothing to be done about it now.

  After they left I checked out the doors and windows; I didn’t want any surprises. I had to interrogate the team who were now all awake and in different rooms. They might know what had happened to Alice and where they had gone.

  I chose the one I was pretty sure was the leader. I took off his gag and removed the foam ball from his mouth. He yawed his jaw as he tried to get everything back in place and as I gave him a swig of water from one of the bottles, he nodded in gratitude.

  We might be enemies, but we served the same mistress and under different circumstances might have worked together. I would treat them with respect and fairness unless they gave me cause to do otherwise. We were in the lounge, he was the one I had dropped behind the sofa.

  He glanced over at his dead colleague. Then looked at me, and I could see him assessing me as he took in the fact that all his agents were down. He didn't know how many lived, but I had taken them all out.

  “First, will you tell me your name?”

  “It's Fletcher, John Fletcher,” he answered with no animosity in his manner. He appeared relaxed.

  “Tobler sent you,” I said matter of factly.He nodded.

  “Were you sent to kill us or just put us out of play?” I nodded towards the dead man who had been intent on putting me down.

  “You were expendable if we couldn't bring you in. The word was you had retired and gone rogue.”

  “What did you do with the girl who was here?”

  “They decided she was a bargaining chip. If you were held they would use her to get you to give them what they wanted.”

  “And if I'm not held?”

  He shrugged.

  “What is it you have done that's so important that the whole Department got c
alled in?”

  “Where have they taken her?” I demanded, deliberately ignoring his question.

  He sighed, and wiggled into a better position.

  “I was told to tell you, that given the chance,” he nodded again at the dead agent, “you need to contact Tobler to negotiate her release. He has her.”

  “Are you saying Tobler's actually in France?” I was surprised at that. Section Heads rarely went into the field. He wasn’t a trained operative. He would be a liability if things went pear shaped.

  “Yes, that's why I wondered what you had, that has bought him out of his fortress,” he tried once more to get some kind of information from me.

  “How many are there in the other team that left here?”

  “There were three of my team plus Tobler. Are my other men dead?”

  “They are all fine, except for him. He could have lived, but when I gave him a chance he made the wrong choice.”

  Fletcher's shoulders relaxed, he may well not die today, was probably what he was thinking.

  “Thanks, he was always a bit Gung-Ho! I do appreciate the fact you used the dart gun, he wouldn't have given you that chance,” he admitted. He was looking puzzled, something was bothering him.

  “Why did you use the dart gun? You must have known you were STK and we would only go after you again until you were neutralised.”

  “Would you?” I queried “I'm not on the wrong side here, I'm caught in the middle with an innocent girl I am charged to protect. I understood the Department were to keep out of this and just watch from the sidelines. What changed?”

  “I don’t honestly know, the order came from above Tobler, possibly Butler.” I nodded, I knew how the section worked and could guess the scenario but, Butler? I immediately wondered where he fitted into this. I motioned for him to continue without giving him cause to think I was concerned at what he had just said.

  “We had been informed you were back in the field and were told ‘hands-off’, but then something changed. The gossip was,” he dipped his head towards the dead Agent, “that you were pedalling State Secrets and had gone rogue.” I wondered at the acknowledgement to the dead guy, but let it slide for the moment.