Chapter 10

Act 3, Scene 3: Action stations!

I was standing beside my car close to Pat’s flat, when David signaled that he had heard something on the open connection that she had managed to establish.

“Someone else has arrived. Peter went to the door, and I can’t make out what they’re saying but it sounds like a woman,” he whispered.

Ralph was waiting for me in the shadow of the communal wheely bins, with a little more information. From his description the new arrival was Kate; the man who had arrived with Peter was out of his car and was now standing looking up at the third floor flat where my family was being held captive. I wanted to burst in, but Ralph dissuaded me. There were two of us and, although there were three of them, one was a woman and I backed Pat in a fight with Kate, especially as she would be protecting her children.

Ralph’s argument was that we knew next to nothing of the enemy. They might well be armed and desperate enough to use weapons if we attacked. As we spoke, Jimmy was loading a chopper that would bring reinforcements to Marshall’s the private airfield outside Cambridge. The clinching argument was that we had no means of knowing what would happen to the children if we broke in.

I was about to retire far enough to safely call Jimmy when the man we had been watching briefly spoke into his phone and went up to the flat. As he approached the door, it opened and Peter appeared thrusting something at the new arrival; when he withdrew, Kate appeared carrying Brian. It was only then that I realized that the bundle was Alice. Both children seemed to be drugged. There was a brief commotion from inside the flat until Peter went inside closing the door behind him.

When I tried to move towards them, I found Ralph’s hand on my chest preventing me.

“You follow them, and I’ll wait here watching the flat,” he whispered in my ear.

I hated to admit it, but I knew he was right. It was of the first importance that we kept the two groups in our sights until reinforcements arrived. Pat seemed to be safe enough for the moment, although it was a wrench to leave her to Ralph’s care. It was the sensible option, however: I know Cambridge which improved the chances of us being able to follow the kids to wherever the enemy was taking them. I sprinted back to the car doing a U-turn without lights when Kate sped past.

David had lost the signal, probably because the battery was exhausted, he thought. There had certainly been no indication that the transmission had been detected. The only new information he had was confirmation that the visitor was Kate. It was hard to persuade him that it was the same Kate who had been the human face of the lab for as long as anyone could remember.

I was concentrating hard on keeping her car in sight without alerting them to our presence. It was just after nine on a pleasant summer evening and there was enough traffic about to give us reasonable cover, although I did have to hide behind a bus when Kate was held up at an intersection. What with that and answering David’s questions, we were almost at Audrey’s house before I realized where we were going.

Parking the car, I ran to the corner in time to see the passenger, still carrying Alice, enter the house and Audrey closing the door behind them. I had no idea why Kate had brought the kids here, but I had formed an action plan by the time I ran back to the car. David was trembling, whether with fear or excitement, I could not tell, by the time I outlined his part in my plan. We solemnly synchronized our watches, then I left him in the car while I ran to the lane that gave access to my bijoux apartment.

I let myself in, groping on the wall just inside the door until I felt the key that hung there. The flat had no washing machine, but Audrey allowed the tenants to use hers and had provided a backdoor key, so we had access when she was out. It was a simple Yale so I was sure that I could gain entry without alerting the kidnappers, especially if David played his part. Checking my watch, I still had three minutes to wait, so I hunted around the porch until I found the old, wooden tennis racquet that the kids and I had used for French cricket.

There was no light in the kitchen, and I could see that there was no one in the room by light spilling into it from the hall. I softly turned the key and eased the door open, positioning myself behind the curtain that separated me from the living room. No sooner was I in position, than there was a loud bang on the front door. Whatever his misgivings, David had done his bit. I could hear a burst of angry discussion from beyond the curtain. Then a second equally loud knock, brought a decision. Cutting through the chatter, a deep male voice ordered Kate to answer the door.

I had almost forgotten the adrenalin rush when the action starts, and I was smiling when I eased the curtain aside and entered the room with the heavy wooden racquet raised. My target had his back to me intent on what was happening in the hall; his instruction to Kate had given me his location and my arm was swinging down as I stepped up behind him. I used my full strength, determined to disable him, caring little if he survived the blow; the racquet certainly did not, since it was now matchwood held together by sagging strings.

Audrey had been turned towards the door but now she turned towards me standing behind my fallen foe. Her face registered incredulity, probably the last and greatest surprise of her evening. Kate was standing in the doorway with David right behind her. She had been about to shut the door in his face when she was distracted by the noise of the body falling. The children were lying together on the settee in a drugged sleep undisturbed by the commotion. It was less than a minute since I had stepped into the kitchen.

The aftermath took a great deal longer. Kate knelt beside the fallen thug, accusing me of killing him. He was snoring so I knew he was not dead, but he was almost certainly concussed. Audrey was looking from one of us to the other, but I could see that she was slowly recovering from the initial shock. She went and sat beside the children, concerned that they had not stirred despite the noise. I had to ask three times before she understood that I wanted something to securely tie Kate and her friend.

It took almost as long to get Kate to respond when I asked what they had given Alice and Brian. She eventually admitted that it was nothing more sinister than Calpol. She had been unprepared when she got the panic call from Peter and that was the only thing she could find in Pat’s medicine cabinet. Audrey found a dressing-up box with men’s ties and an assortment of scarves. Kate accepted the restraint, sitting quietly on a kitchen chair while I tied her hands and feet, but she strongly objected when I began to bind her unconscious companion.

“He needs an ambulance, Mark,” she insisted.

“And ten years in prison for kidnap,” I countered. “Why are you siding with this thug anyway?” She shrugged and whispered: “Money.”

She began to argue that it was not kidnap since they had brought the children to their granny; in further proof of innocence, she insisted that Calpol was commonly and safely given to sick youngsters. I finally had to threaten to gag her to stop the stream of self-justification. I needed time to think. I had called Ralph as soon as David brought Kate back to the living room.

“I can’t believe there are only three of them involved. I’ll keep watching the flat, but I think you should hide the children somewhere until we know more.”

The problem was that anyone I could think of who could offer sanctuary to the kids would be known to the enemy. I was still confused by the events of the evening, but my best guess was that Peter had jumped the gun, starting the action without proper authority. If Bowen is the brains behind the plot, as I strongly suspected, he would have something more up his sleeve.

I was wearing the same slacks I wore at dinner on the last night of my break with dad and I suddenly had a wild idea. Putting my hand in my hip pocket, I brought out the piece of paper handed to me by the waitress. Sometimes, my ability to think laterally astonishes me!

‘Call me, please, Maisie’, it read, followed by a telephone number.

Audrey had some training in first aid. She had checked the pupils of the children’s eyes and was satisfied that they had not been give an excessive dose. Apparently, the manufacturers ensure that it is virtually impossible to take an overdose of Calpol. Reassured, she had gone to put the kettle on, while David was crouched beside Kate, tied to her chair, quietly asking her what she had been thinking of when she agreed to take part in this crazy plan.

I went into the hall and dialed Maisie’s number. It rang for a long time, and I was already wondering who to call next, when she finally answered.

“Hi Maisie, it’s the docs son. Remember, I was there when he looked at your rash.”

“Oh hi, Mark, I’m really glad you called. The thrush has cleared off and so has my boyfriend.”

I was impressed at her remembering my name, although I was confused when she mentioned a songbird. I explained that my call was to ask for help not for romance and I was stunned over the next few minutes when she gave me a comprehensive grilling. She wanted to know if I was abducting the kids as a result of a broken marriage.

“I’ll have nothing to do with taking kids from their mum however shitty she might have been to you!”

She calmed down when I told her that I wanted a safe place to protect the children while I rescued their mum from an abusive boyfriend. I told them that her mother, the children’s grandmother, would be accompanying her grandkids; Maisie demanded that I put Audrey on the line. When I got the instrument back five minutes later, she was willing to see what she could do; she would call back within ten minutes. I reminded her to have a postcode ready to give us.

Maisie had no reason to trust me, but she did trust my dad. I did not know until later, but she called him as soon as I disconnected. When she rang back, well within ten minutes, she had everything fixed.

“My mum cleans for a couple that are on holiday in Spain. No one will find you there.”

“I won’t be coming. The driver will be David, a friend of mine.”

I had omitted the formality of asking for his help, but the drive to Derbyshire proved to be an inspiration. He dearly wanted to help Pat but was afraid that he would let us down if it came to a fight. He had been badly shaken by my brutality in hitting the thug, who was still not fully conscious after my overhead smash. Driving Audrey and the children would make him feel that he was doing his bit. Audrey handed Brian to him while she helped a groggy Alice into her car seat.

Fortunately, Audrey had a sat-nav fitted so we did not have to swap car seats before I was able to sigh with relief as they drove off. No other cars moved off in the next few minutes, so I relaxed and went around making the house secure and turning off the lights. I removed Kate’s gag before I left although I declined her request to release her – I would not even leave a light on for her. My phone indicated an incoming call as I drove back to Pat’s place. It had gone to voice mail by the time I parked round a couple of corners from the flat. I jumped out, anxious to break in to rescue her.

Ralph met me with the bad news that Peter had been reinforced by two new arrivals. One of them sounded like the twin of the man slowly regaining his wits in Audrey’s front room and the other could have been Bowen, although I did not know the man well enough to be sure. Ralph is a great deal more observant than me. We sat in his car, parked beside the bins, while we discussed our next move. He was nervous at first, sighing with relief when I immediately accepted that we should wait for reinforcements of our own.

Back in action for the first time since I was wounded, I found it easy to make coolly considered decisions. Pat had sounded calm enough when she opened the connection but that had been almost an hour before and with only Peter to contend with. What convinced me to wait was the certainty that if the newcomers were prepared to hurt her, they would react violently and precipitately when we attacked. I accepted that I could not prevent Pat from suffering; all I could do was lull her abductors into believing that they were in control.

I called Jimmy to find out how long I would have to wait, learning that they expected to land in Cambridge in twenty minutes. He was bringing men armed with tasers, who would surround the house. The captain from the intelligence unit took the phone at that point to instruct me, as if I was the dimmest recruit. No independent action, no police; we were to sit on our hands until he arrived. He reminded me that it was his operation, disconnecting before I could comment.

Rather than sit on my hands, I used them to scroll through messages on all three of my phones. There was nothing on the number I shared exclusively with Pat, which was hardly surprising since David reported the battery was probably dead. There were dozens of routine messages on the operational phone, none of which required action. It was on my old phone that I struck gold, although I did not suspect it when I first saw eight voicemails from Amber, Molly’s mother.

Since she moved to the South Coast, Amber has called from time to time, asking after my health and making sure that I know that she and her daughter still remember me. The intervals vary and it took me some time to work out that there was a pattern: Amber calls when she is worried about what Molly is getting up to. My interest in Molly is small, although I try to comfort Amber, who has always been kind to me. I was smiling indulgently when I decided to read the messages; I had nothing better to do while I waited the arrival of Jimmy’s team.

I started with the final message, in which Amanda was almost incoherent with worry. Almost the first word I distinguished was ‘Bowen’. I tried to make sense of the rest but all I could understand was that Molly had been on the point of entering an aircraft with Bowen when she backed out. I went back to the first message, finding the patience to listen to all eight of them all the way through.

It seems that Bowen has replaced Witherstaff in Molly’s affections. Amanda was predictably coy about the exact nature of the relationship, constantly reminding me that, despite everything, her daughter loved me and would eventually come seeking my forgiveness. Bowen has filled Molly’s head with promises, including her triumphant return to the lab as deputy director when he ousts Paul. That sounded like a bait she would swallow whole. Recently he has been pressing her to join him on a long holiday in a villa.

What Amanda was failing to see was the extent of her daughter’s ambitions. When Peter was a plausible candidate for the directorship, Molly allowed him to court her. When I arrived at the lab, she was cruelly rejecting him since he had failed to deliver. Witherstaff had been useful to her, first as an undergraduate and later in finding her present job. It seemed clear that she now saw Bowen as the next step on her ladder to success.

So far as I was aware, I was the only suitor who had done nothing to further her scientific career. Perhaps Amanda was right to assert that I was special to Molly. Not that she would consider love a deterrent to her progress. As her husband I could expect to be cuckolded whenever someone came into her life who could help her to the top. We all like to think that we give everything to our work but few of us throw our bodies into the bargain.

According to her mother, Molly was on her way to the airport with Bowen when she changed her mind. Amanda, predictably, represented this as a manifestation of the strong feelings Molly still had for me. Even if I believed that, it left unanswered the reason for her fear, which came through so strongly in the last couple of texts from her mum. Amanda may not understand her only child on an intellectual level, but she has a strong emotional bond. What had Bowen said or done to scare Molly so badly?

There was no sign of activity in the flat we were watching, and Ralph was in touch with Jimmy, who was still five minutes from the little airfield. Bowen, who was inside the flat with Pat, had said or done something that terrified Molly; without further hesitation I dialed Amanda’s number. The call was answered on the second ring: it was Molly who picked up the instrument.

“Oh darling, darling Mark. That bastard Bowen wanted me to defect.” It took some time to extract this much from the sobs that punctuated her outburst.

I made soothing noises until she calmed enough to be coherent. Bowen had first upset her by making his help with her career conditional on her taking the holiday with him. She became uneasy when he was evasive about the location of the villa, finally refusing to board the ‘plane unless he told her the exact address so she could tell her mum where she could be contacted. They had a big argument in the departure lounge; he lost his temper, telling her that she was a fool and that he was offering her a glittering career and untold wealth working for a foreign government.

She ran back through the security area where she was held by the police who were more amused than concerned, ascribing her distress to fear of flying. Bowen was not permitted to change his mind, and, to the best of her knowledge, he and her baggage went to Turkey. Her first thought was simply to escape but she became worried about Bowen’s reaction. She expected him to catch the first flight back. It was becoming clear to me that he too had avoided the flight and that he had decided to activate an alternative plan that did not involve Molly. I expect it was as much a result of Peter’s hasty actions as Molly’s stubborn reaction. I was certain now that the plan was centered on capturing me, using Pat and the children to force me to acquiesce.

“What will he do to me, Mark? He knows I can ruin him by telling people he’s recruiting for some foreign power – he didn’t even tell me where I would have the wonderful lab he promised me. Not that I would have gone, wherever it was, but it could have been North Korea, yuk.”

“I’ll need a bit of time to fix things, Molly. In the meantime, take your mum and drive to Aldershot.” I gave her Hector’s address.

It took several more minutes to assure her that I was on the case, and it might have gone on longer, straying further into personal reminiscences, but the door of Pat’s flat opened and Bowen furtively emerged to scan the car park and surrounding area. The streetlight shone directly on his face, so I had no difficulty recognizing him. I quickly ended the conversation with Molly and turned to Ralph who handed me his phone saying Jimmy had just landed.

Peter had now exited the flat with Pat held firmly in his arms, and they were followed by the twin of the thug I had clobbered earlier. As they passed the light at the head of the stairs, I could see that Pat’s head was wrapped in a blanket rather like a notorious criminal being taken into a police station. She was walking but it was not clear if she was stumbling because Peter was forcing her to move or because she had been drugged.

“Change of plan, Jimmy. They’re on the move. Make sure you secure all the aircraft where you are. Find out if any have filed a flight plan, especially for a foreign flight. Put the rest of your men on standby. We’ll follow them.”

It was now almost eleven o’clock, but it was a Saturday night so there was still a good deal of traffic on the main roads after we were clear of the estate. Bowen was likely to be a lot more cautious than Kate had been when she took the kids to Audrey’s. The thug was driving, while Pat was in the back sandwiched between Peter and Bowen. I was trying to predict their destination from the route they were following.

For the first couple of minutes, it looked as if they were heading for the airfield, as I expected, but then they turned into a residential area where I supposed, they had a safe house. I was developing the idea that they were concerned that they had not heard from Kate and twin one, when they stopped and did a U-turn. Ralph, who was driving reacted with impressive speed, turning into a side street before they had completed the maneuver.

“The stupid bastards took a wrong turning,” he laughed.

My heart was racing as I joined in the laughter, although there was more than a touch of hysterics in my mirth. I am definitely getting too old for this sort of excitement! It was now clear that we were on the road that led to the airport, so I called Jimmy to instruct him not to let a woman board an aircraft under any pretext.

“Relax Mark, we’re not going to let any harm come to your girl. God knows, it took you long enough to find one! The worst that will happen to her at our hands is bruising to her feet when the colonel dances with her at the next regimental ball. My only regret is that I can’t save her from you. You’re what my old mum used to call ‘a fate worse than death’.”

In other words, I was taking this too personally and I had to trust my allies. Ralph brought me back onto the path of duty by reminding me that I had not called Hector to tell him they Molly and Amanda were going to descend on him. He is still in Catterick, but Morag was happy enough to offer sanctuary. She wanted to be given reasons, making no secret of her skepticism when I said it was operational and nothing personal. She will dismiss that out of hand when she sees how beautiful Molly is, but that is a problem for another day.

Now we were getting further from the center of the town, the roads were getting quieter, so Ralph doused the car lights and we continued the chase by the light of street lamps. We were getting close to the entrance to the field, when flashing blue lights and the blast of a siren alerted us to the presence of the police. Ralph stopped immediately, as much to stop the sound and light show as anything, but I was able to discern the lights of the car carrying Pat turn into the airport.

Jimmy had just confirmed the arrival of the target vehicle when a burly policeman arrived at Ralph’s window. I left the line open while the constable deftly summarized the situation.

“I’m just about to take off after a speeding bullet when a second missile flashes past, this one showing no lights. I say to my mate: it’s Saturday night at the start of long vac but it’s a tad unusual to see not one but two boy racers, one of them driving blind, so to speak.”

He opened the door and gestured for Ralph to get out, leaning forward to ask me to get out too. Once we were standing illuminated by the headlights of the police car, he continued with his monologue.

“We had a call from the duty officer at the airfield, you see, telling us that there were high jinks up there. He normally finds the night shift peaceful but tonight an army helicopter landed with a bunch of soldiers in combat gear. Call me psychic, but I can’t help connecting that snippet of news with you two.”