Chapter 21

Katie was running along the beach alone, totally and gloriously naked early on Sunday morning. She had not had the heart to waken her darling friend, so adorably peaceful had she looked, and thus she had left Angie covered up in bed to continue her recuperation after yesterday's ordeal, which on top of her injuries on Thursday, had almost been fatal.

Katie O'Brien remembered with pleasure, her despatch of the gruesome foursome. Let them come back ANY time, she thought.

Of course, they had almost certainly fled because they had seen Steve's car in the distance - indeed it was probably the possibility of pursuit that had caused them all to be looking back along the road in the first place, thus giving Katie the chance she needed to surprise them.

Yes! She'd still have needed to do a lot more work on those four before she could have stood, posing triumphantly over them in the torrential rain. And all the time her sweet, precious Angie would have been getting colder and colder! They both of them owed Steve & co. a lot!

Not quite a super heroine, Katie!

"How did Steve know who I was and that you were with me and where we both were?" a puzzled Katie had asked the night before, after the two had prepared to go to sleep following their increasingly wild embraces and thorough exploration of each others bodies.

"I have to let my office know my whereabouts at all times, Katie darling love! (Kiss, kiss, kiss). I may only work 9-5 hours, but I'm always on call. I even had to tell them exactly where I was last Thursday (Kiss, Kiss) when we had our lovely out of this world fight, (KISS, KISS, KISS!!!)"

"But I thought you and Steve worked for different departments, Angie, and only met now and again when you sat on the same Committee? You two work together a whole fucking lot more closely than you ever let on, don't you?"

"He must have phoned the Duty Officer made him tell him my whereabouts. You don't argue with Steve! I told them I was going to your holiday cottage in Norfolk, just before we left. They'd soon have worked out exactly where it was. They have their methods. Go to sleep, Katie - you precious, darling, lovely girl! (Stroking her hair) I love you so much that it hurts sometimes."

And so they did fall asleep at last.

Next day...

Katie ran on for miles, her feet sometimes slapping on the firm sand and sometimes splashing in the breaking waves, with that famous East Wind now blowing straight across from the frozen tundra and whipping viciously into her naked body. There was a frost today and the wind chill must be taking the real temperature down to way below freezing. Her hands were starting to cause her agonies and she flexed her fingers and shook those protesting frozen hands wildly up and down in order to try and coax some warmth and feeling back.

"Be mad to get in to the sea today!" she thought, and immediately, with fierce - semi-suicidal exultation - she did just that, dashing through the shallows until it was deep enough for her to dive into to the water. She swam until she was well and truly out of her depth and trod water for a minute, before starting the swim back to shore

When she got back onto the beach, she was beginning to feel ominously, frighteningly faint with the cold. Time to start the long run back for home and Angie.

"If I sprained an ankle out here, I would never get back to the cottage and my sweet darling Angela. I'd freeze to death in minutes. It's so bloody wonderfully fantastic taking these marvellous risks, but it's a bit scary sometimes"

Divorcing herself from the immediate, bitterly cold present, Katie started to think about Steve. Suddenly the blindingly obvious hit her.

"Of course! You daft sod, Katie!! The guy's obviously some sort of spy catcher! I bet he works for MI5 or some such. And maybe, just maybe, SO DOES ANGIE! Bloody hell! I bet she knows a whole lot more about this affair that she's telling me! I wonder if she was told to come and live with me at my place under orders, just to keep an eye on things!"