The Clinic

by Ray Carole

  Decker was recalling this vividly as he remembered almost having a fight that night if it wasn’t for the landlord saving his ass.

  ‘You remember Harry?’ Alex teased.

  ‘Oh I remember alright you piece of shit so start cutting to the chase’

  ‘So that’s when it all really started for me, that’s when the project began getting interesting. When I started to push the right buttons and find out if you were the one exceptional case that could beat my manipulation program. It wasn’t pretty to watch as you know the details better than anyone.’

  Decker was deep in thought as he knew what was coming.

  ‘We had some crazy moments Harry, and I thought I may have pushed you too far on a couple of occasions—’

  ‘You mean those 3 men on the Swanage chain ferry looking for me that day?’

  ‘No that was all in your mind, just like the night you stormed out the pub thinking 2 men were watching you. That drunken car chase to avoid those two renegades nearly ended with you shooting two policemen’

  Decker smirked, nodding his head as this ad hoc courtroom now had him on the stand.

  ‘That would have killed this project’ Alex continued ‘Lucky they hit the blues and twos, that allowed you the time to throw your pistol when they cornered you in that dead end farm complex’

  Sully and Gerry were looking at Decker. Momentarily he was lost in thought that confirmed to them both Alex had him on the ropes. Shaking his head and walking closer to the phone Decker responded ‘and the doctor? I knew that fucker was a part of this program when he mentioned neuro-hijacking’s—’

  ‘No he wasn’t. He had nothing to do with this. You went to him after you knew you needed help. Then you flipped out with paranoia, went back to your place then ripped anything technical that could possibly transmit or radiate stuff. When you didn’t find anything you drunk a bottle of vodka, picked up another bottle then headed for the rocks,’ Alex pausing waiting for a response.

  ‘I was right though?’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘How you manipulated my mind, how you actually did it?’

  ‘Yes you knew a few ways, but not all of them. You could never decide whether you were a paranoid delusional wreck or it was us’

  ‘How did you stop me jumping?’ Decker picked up the phone, wanting to reach his hand down it and rip Alex’ throat clean out.

  ‘I didn’t stop you and thank god you didn’t jump, as it would have wasted the last 6 months of work, or should I say Phase 4. I knew you wouldn’t take your own life as you knew something was going on, and you proved me right’

  Sully remembered Old Harry Rocks too just as Alex cut back in ‘See Sully this was the reason we didn’t take your option that day. This is why I said I could take care of it and let Harry get back to normality finally, without repercussions.’

  Decker sensed straight away Sully had lied to him minutes ago about the last time he saw him was leaving his office. But too much was happening now, he needed to focus.

  ‘Even that night we watched the video at HQ Sully, you wouldn’t let me explain, you just palmed me off for two weeks so you could get back into your ego driven world of running front line operations on the ground.’

  Sully didn’t rise to the jibe, he knew Alex was about to play his own ace card.

  ‘Phase 4? Project 8? Call this what you want, but it’s time to end this all. I will blow their brains out shortly mate if you keep speaking to me like I’m a complete retard, some sort of experimental candidate that went sideways.’

  ‘I’m sorry you didn’t complete the journey Harry.’ Alex said.

  ‘You what? Are you serious?’ This comment was random and threw Decker slightly as he scrunched up his eyes.

  Sully’s blank expression showed he had no idea where Alex was heading with this. He was feeling more nervous than before.

  ‘Yes after 1400 miles and 85 days you had imagined your Union Jack draped over your pulk as you walked the final few metres towards the press reception. First man in history to do it…’

  Decker caught Gerry and Sully looking at him. They glanced away.

  ‘Yes, and let’s not forget the song you would play over and over again in your head as you walked that final mile?’

  Where was Alex going with this was everyone’s thinking.

  ‘We all listen to songs in our head Alex.’ Decker said.

  ‘Yes, and yours was the soundtrack to the Gladiator film, it’s an inspiring soundtrack, good choice.’

  Decker was rattled. He could see Sully twitching to know what the fuck was going on. Alex’s posh voice and cock-sure attitude made Decker squeeze the phone tight, imagining it was his scrawny neck.

  ‘You can’t mess with me Alex, I’ve beaten it and have your boss at gunpoint so stop talking shit. I chose to stay alive, fight the good fight and here I am, about to create history until you lot ruined my life again’

  ‘It’s true though isn’t it about the soundtrack, about the flag draped sled? How did you come up with the South Pole idea? That return to former greatness to create a mental masterclass and rid this poison in your head?’

  ‘I created the FEAR and you need to be FEARING me Alex.’

  ‘No I’m the last person who should be fearing you,’ Alex said calmly.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes I created the FEAR Harry, I implanted the concept when I knew you had beaten the Phase 4 intrusions. I had taken you to within an inch of your life by breaking you down but you didn’t do it.’

  Silence.

  WHITEOUT started digesting a few things that were appearing hard to swallow, as he walked around the room deliberating before Alex spoke again.

  ‘The next part of this program was then manipulating high value terrorists with the same manipulative intrusions that had almost killed you off. But once we got them to Phase 4 we could then re-pattern them with a number of strategies that ranged from ideological change, extreme paranoia about their own cell members, combined with a physical program run by Sully to confirm their paranoid delusions by orchestrating compromising situations. Ultimately a tit-for-tat killing spree would start infecting cells across different areas as rumors started to spread. No secret MI6 or SAS war on our own turf, just the maniac extremists killing each other over through fear of infiltration or defections—’

  ‘Yeah I get it,’ Decker interrupted, ‘and I’m the one guy you had to destroy to get it to this point?’

  ‘So my question was this,’ Alex was talking again. ‘Can I manipulate this man to take himself to within an inch of his life again by walking 1,400 miles on his own in Antarctica? So I sent you the link to the South Pole expedition. Can I make a man put his life on the line by ignoring the signs and signals to stop when death looks the likely answer? This was another project in itself to run strategies on you, that could work on terrorists after they went past Phase 3’

  No one said a word.

  Decker didn’t know whether to semi bathe in glory that he was an exceptional person after all, or loose it completely and kill them all. His decision was cut short.

  ‘You did beat it you know. You did work it out, you alone realised the FEAR was us. I didn’t expect that part to happen and was shocked. If I had heard the Dictaphone recording I would have tried counteracting it no doubt, but I haven’t so we both win this one. Both of us together’

  Decker had made his mind up.

  This whole psychological process had exhausted him. Life meant nothing now, all he knew was he hated Sully for his former Commanders betrayal. Gerry? He didn’t know but would be tarred with the same brush. Holding the phone to his lips he makes his play.

  ‘Well Alex any last words for Sully and Gerry? Let’s see if your manipulations can stretch this far in real time? Can you stop me pulling the trigger?’
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  ‘Alex stop it,’ Sully shouted. ‘He’s got a Glock on us. You do realise he will kill us if you don’t start making sense and tell him where this is finally going?’

  Decker looked damaged, an enigma he had uncovered and defeated wasn’t as it appeared. Alex was quiet, they were all quiet or maybe just shell shocked.

  ‘Well call me a bad loser Alex but it ends here for me, you won’t see the guys again.’

  Pistol back up on aim Decker took a second to align his sights. Sully closed his eyes to accept his fate. Gerry remained still on the floor watching him.

  There was complete silence for a second as Decker focused his aim. Hearing static crackle over the phone, he paused knowing that Alex was about to talk.

  ‘You kill them; you will never see Larnaka ever again Harry.’

  Decker looked at the phone and paused.

  Alex, raising his voice, repeated himself ‘You kill them you will never see Larnaka ever again. She is alive, and your time is running out so follow Sully’s plan and get the fuck back here so we can start doing what we are supposed to be doing, eradicating terrorists on UK soil’

  When they all thought the tension in the room couldn’t get any thicker or the room any quieter, they were wrong. This final spanner in the works made Decker turn to Sully, who felt his stare.

  Sully opened his eyes.

  Decker was looking at him waiting for something to come out.

  Blowing out hard Sully started talking ‘It’s true, I paid her off with 20 thousand dollars. We knew you were planning to get her out of Iraq so both of you could settle somewhere, leaving it all behind.’

  ‘She was shot Sully. I saw her slipping away that day’ Decker was welling up slightly.

  ‘She made it. It was a perfect opportunity to get her out of the frame so Alex could maintain you on the program and I could get you home. I agreed with Alex and told her you had been flown back to UK. And… said you had a wife and kids too to make sure she never looked for you. I ordered her to never surface again if she wanted to live a full life.’

  Decker threw the phone on the desk and smashed Sully straight in the face. Sully didn’t even try to block it.

  ‘You bastard, you destroyed our lives together, you ended my life!’ Sully was on the floor again. In the background Alex’s voice could be heard but not understood. Decker walked to the wall exhaling hard, trying to compose himself.

  ‘Harry, Harry,’ Alex shouted down the phone in his weak high pitched voice.

  Walking back over to the phone Decker spoke ‘Start telling me how we are going to rectify this whole fucking nightmare.’

  Sully slowly started to get back on his chair, nursing his split nose that was pissing blood again.

  ‘Can everyone hear me?’ Alex asked.

  ‘We can all hear you so get on with it,’ Decker taunted him.

  ‘We all have a chance here to do something incredible, we’ve got this far and you lot need to take the fight back out there again. We’re ready Harry, we are ready for you to lead The Clinic to hell and back.’

  ‘Larnaka?’ Decker replied.

  ‘We can do anything you want us to, to try and find her.’

  ‘Really? I’m finding that a big pill to swallow right now,’ Decker said.

  Gerry and Sully were feeling a slight change of heart now that Larnaka was back in the frame. Decker’s broken body language told them he was in a mood for negotiation and this had all crept up on him. Sully started talking.

  ‘Harry this is what you were destined to lead, forget the rest. This is it, our ticket to fight and kill like we’ve never done before. And we have to go now or it’s over.’ Decker turned away from Sully, whose voice was no longer shaking.

  He felt tears running down his cheeks.

  There was silence from Gerry and Alex.

  ‘Gerry, in your experience where do you think she is?’ He wiped the tears away.

  ‘If she’s still on the grid, the CIA will have her snapped up by now. High grade female operatives in that region are gold dust.’ Gerry wheezed, his shoulder obviously causing him some pain now.

  ‘Syria?’

  ‘Maybe, but we all know she could be anywhere on this planet’

  ‘Yes she could be, but can we find her anywhere Gerry?’ Everything banked on the authenticity of Gerry’s response. He glanced at Sully, who was also looking intently at Gerry, obviously in the knowledge that his answer could get him killed or grant him the chance to live.

  Gerry looked up, and took a deep breath that made him wince with pain again. Decker walked over to him and squatted down next to him. Pretending not to notice the fact that he was obviously in pain, he leant his face right up to his and held it inches away.

  ‘Answer me.’

  Gerry blew out hard.’Of course we can find Larnaka. We’re The fucking Clinic gents.’

  Chapter 1

  ‘Conrad?’ Lisa Trent’s voice spoke excitedly down the phone, not expecting the call to be answered so soon by Decker’s former Arctic mentor.

  ‘Conrad, is that Conrad Dickinson?’ she asked again. The voice at the end of the line was hesitant, either trying to place her voice to identify her from the unknown call sign that she knew would have flashed up on his screen, or he was pondering the thought, with dread of course, that it was a woman wanting to arrange cold-weather training and cringing at the potential pains of that.

  ‘Yes, Conrad speaking dear, sorry but who is this?’ She smiled at the response and also at the warm Geordie accent. It was just such a likeable trait and so far she’d liked everything she’d researched about him. She snapped back to business.

  ‘Hi Conrad, I’m Lisa Trent.’ As soon as she knew that Conrad would start processing the name, Trent was straight back at him with a line of questioning which was the only form of communication she lived by.

  Direct and intrusive but well disguised by her seductive voice.

  So it should be. This was a woman that worked on the Serious Organised Crime Agency for ten years after spending the previous five on Murder Squad and finished up in Special Branch before freelancing herself as an investigative journalist.

  Putting people behind bars had become a routine habit to her, she was now busy crafting her art form of turning them into informants to open networks up in order to crush them. Now?

  She knew that others saw her as a women with her own agenda, her own curiosities and paranoias. But to her, a case never closed in her mind until the perpetrator confessed, killed himself or was found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Sometimes that doubt had a little edge of circumstantial evidence miraculously appearing or disappearing.

  She had read the final conclusions drawn from the Ilyushin catastrophe that lost three Russian Crew, four members of the Trans-Antarctic Expeditionary Team, two journalists and Harry Decker.

  Most tabloids had followed it closely but the concluding verdict was catastrophic engine failure or a fracture of the exterior skin. Even a bird strike wasn’t ruled out, even at thirty odd thousand in minus 60.

  ‘Hi Lisa, you say?’ Conrad asked.

  ‘Yes Lisa Trent or Trenty.’

  ‘Okay how can I help Lisa?’

  ‘Harry Decker.’

  The line went quiet. Names always conjured up images and she could just imagine what was racing through Decker’s former coach’s head right now. Damn she needed to get inside it.

  ‘Conrad are you still there?’ Lisa swiftly back to her probing ways.

  ‘Yes, yes sorry I’m on the road.’

  ‘I can hear that, Conrad I need to see you, where are you?’

  Direct. Being intrusive was a figure of speech not adopted by Trent.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ he asked. ‘Are you another journalist?’

  ‘No, I knew Harr
y a number of years back as a friend, sort of. I was in Special Branch but I am now a freelance investigative journalist, stroke Private Eye. This whole thing doesn’t make sense to me and I want to follow up on a few possible leads or theories I have.’ Theories was a polite and professional way of saying, ‘I smell a rat.’

  ‘What doesn’t make sense? Conrad seemed confused.

  ‘I followed all his blogs, knew the kind of guy he was and I’m suspicious of a few things. I just want to meet you as I know you saw him just before he left, and I wanted to know when you last spoke to him?’

  ‘I haven’t spoken to him since day 16 of his expedition.’

  ‘How often did he call you on his satellite phone, I saw he mentioned you in a few blogs?’

  ‘Every 2 degrees or 120 nautical miles, but what are you getting at?’

  ‘I have lots of questions but don’t you find it strange that he didn’t call his mentor to explain his failure once the Trans-Ant team picked him up? Surely he would want to explain?’

  ‘Look I’m driving at the moment and you’ve caught me off guard with what you’re asking. In all honesty I’m pretty upset about his death and I don’t even know who the hell you are woman.’

  Trent realised she had hit a nerve but her thick skin continued to probe a little deeper, she softened her tone to soothe his nerves.

  ‘Look me up, Lisa Trent, I’m legitimate and appreciate that this may seem weird Conrad but please let me call you back as soon as possible. In fact I will text you my number and email address, where are you at the moment? Norway still I take it from the ringtone connection?’

  ‘Yes I am driving back from my Norway training camp, I’ve been here since November, I’ll be back late tomorrow.’

  ‘Okay has anyone else tried contacting you about Harry?’

  ‘Just a local paper, I did an article about him before he left.’

  ‘Conrad, can I ask that you please do not speak to anyone until I see you? You have to trust me. If anything happens, or something you remember pops into your mind before we meet, use the phone, text or email. If after we meet you don’t understand my possible theory then I will not bother you again, you have my word.’ That wasn’t strictly true. Trent could be as bent as they came to glean the truth of a situation, she knew she was a solid detective who used her slim frame and well-rounded particulars when necessary to turn many a hardened criminal to inform.