Chapter 4

Cathy Douglas

Sir Timothy read the report and shook his head, how could she have done that! She could have been killed! "Why is it Baxter? Anywhere I send that girl she finds trouble of one kind or another!" He said to his butler.

Baxter nodded, "Indeed sir. One could almost think that she attracts problems, but if I might say she always gets out of the situations in a better state than she entered them." He said in his normal tone.

Sir Timothy snorted, "Until she's finds something that's worse than she can cope with, then what happens?" He asked.

Baxter thought for a moment, "I think that's why she has Miss's Sharon, Charlotte and Kathy; they provide her support when they are needed. If I might point out sir they are a team in their own right!"

Sir Timothy nodded, "Yes indeed, even when they snipe at each other it's all in jest, I mean she's never convinced Kathy to change her name yet!" He said.

Baxter covered his mouth for a moment, but then he was back to normal. "And I don't think she really wants to, it's just something to keep them on their toes." He said, "And what is Miss Cathy going to be doing next?" Baxter asked him.

Sir Timothy shook his head. "You know I've no idea, she's an expert on driving, she's got command and direction down to a 'T', and from these reports she's one of the best parachutist they've seen — as are the others ... What would you suggest?" He asked looking at the man who'd been with him nearly all his life.

Baxter gave a small cough, "Well, if I might suggest, perhaps a few months in the communications section, she cannot really get into trouble there can she?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

Sir Timothy thought for a moment, "That sounds perfect Baxter, remind me to give you a raise." He said.

"Yes Sir, I'll do so at the next available time." Baxter said with a slight bow.

Cathy was back in the plane, but this was three days after the incident with Billy Myers, she was alone in the plane, it was something she asked for. The base commander had shaken his head when she requested it, "But why? You won't have anyone there to help you should anything happen?" He had said.

Cathy had nodded her head, "That's true; I'll be responsible for myself! I'm sorry Commander Stanton, but I have to do this." She said and her tone brooked no argument.

And so he reluctantly agreed, which is why she was alone in the plane, apart from the Corporal who was watching her.

"Are you alright Miss Coleman?" He asked her for the umpteenth time during the flight.

"Relax Tom; I'm the one doing the jump." She said smiling, and it was strange, she was relaxed! The butterflies that had almost ripped her stomach apart the first time were missing. She checked the parachute pack again and then put on her helmet, just as the red light came on.

"Okay Miss, if you're..." Tom said and then looked again, he was going to ask her to put on her helmet, and then he tapped the microphone on his headset. "Radio check?" He said.

Cathy smiled, "Check okay, I hear you loud and clear" She said.

Tom noticed how she had stood up; it was almost like a professional soldier, ready for action. "Very well Miss Douglas" he said and stood by the door waiting for the green.

Once the light came on he opened the door, placed his hand on Cathy's shoulder and then tapped it. She smiled at him and then stepped out of the doorway.

This time she took notice of the surroundings, blue sky with a few clouds, the wind pulling at her face and clothing as she fell from the plane.

She was so relaxed up here, she moved her arm and began rotating in the air, moving the other arm slowed the rotation down and then stopped it. She could stay up here forever. But knew that it was impossible! She checked her altimeter 12,000 ft — was that all?

She thought back to her last jump, speeding down like a missile to almost certain death. Why did she do that? There was no way she could have known she'd survive? But then a flash of green showed the pond where she had landed, she had seen it the last time and knew it wasn't ground — somehow she had a map of the area in her head and the pond was shown on that! - So maybe she did know!

'You've realised that there is more than you know about yourself', the voice came into her mind without using her ears. She knew it wasn't the twins.

'Who are you?' She called out with her mind.

"You know me, you called on me once.' There was a giggle in the voice showing the speaker's age.

'Jeanne? But Bemalin... ' She couldn't do it, couldn't bear to say the word.

'How could I die? You created me and so I merely returned to your mind. We are one and will always be so. Isn't it lovely up here, how can you fly?' Jeanne said with a giggle.

Cathy giggled as well, "I'm not, I'm falling!" She said.

"Cathy? Base Command. Did you say something?" The man's voice sounded concerned and Cathy knew had spoken out loud!

"Base Command? Cathy. Sorry just woolgathering, height 9,800! Deploying parachute, sorry Sir, didn't realise." She said as she pulled the ripcord.

"Cathy, Base Command. That's okay; you're just giving some of us heart attacks down here!" She could hear the relieved laughter in his voice though.

Cathy felt herself pulled up by the fabric of the chute — she knew it was just the wind resistance on the expanded wing of the parachute, but the effect was just the same — and she pulled on the cords to change the direction, using the currents of the air to bring her towards the landing area, marked out by a large cross.

'I'm sorry Cathy, I'll keep quiet now!' Jeanne said.

'But not for too long I hope.' Cathy said keeping her eyes on the ground below.

The rest of Cathy's descent was quiet and uneventful; she landed exactly on the spot, bent her knees on landing and rolled but remained in the target area. Her three friends were running to her after she landed.

"What happened up there?" Sharon asked.

Cathy looked at their concerned faces and smiled, "Nothing, just got caught up in my thoughts, that's all, I'm sorry but that's all it was." She said which in a way was correct.

Kathy didn't speak but just hugged her friend, "I was so worried!" she said.

Cathy held her, "That's okay Kat, I'm sorry." She said.

Kathy pulled away from her for a second, "That's Kathy!" She said with a smile now on her lips.

"Whatever!" Cathy gave her normal reply which made all four girls laugh.

The rest of the training sessions went without a hitch and all four girls were awarded their parachute badges. Cathy's was golden — which was unusual — and the Base Commander gave her a citation for her actions with Billy Meyers.

All too soon they were back in the Organisation Car, being driven to Alpha 3; they were relaxed and dozing as they travelled.

When they arrived back at Alpha 3, the girls almost swamped Jameson when he opened the door, "Please ladies, I'm happy to see you too, but please remember where you are and who can see you!" he said trying to keep away from their attentions.

Then Cathy saw Sandra near the steps, her face seemed relaxed. Cathy rushed up the steps to her. "Mum, how's Chris?" She asked before anything else.

Sandra was more relaxed; "He's fine, he phoned me yesterday. He's found a job and is just settling down. When he's ready he'll get in touch again." She said.

Cathy felt cold as she heard her mother say that, she didn't know why, "Oh good, where is he?" She asked casually.

Sandra furrowed her brow, "You know ... he never said. And I didn't ask him."

Cathy nodded encouragingly, "That's okay, I suppose it was the relief of hearing his voice, well don't worry mom, he's going to be fine." She said with a smile.

Cathy returned to the dormitory with her friends but her face was troubled again.

"Come on Cathy, spill! What's wrong?" Sharon asked her.

"I don't know, first Chris goes missing and then he phones mum to tell her he's got a job." Cathy said.

Charlotte shook her head, "But that's ridiculous, He's too young to work!" She said.

Kathy shook her head, "I don't know, we're too young to drive, or parachute either, but that didn't stop us!" She said.

"Ah but we're different, we're with Cathy!" Charlotte said smiling at her lover.

"That's the problem, we're able to do thing because Sir Timothy is trying to get us to join the Organisation, but who's working on Chris?" She asked looking directly at the camera, knowing that Sir Timothy would be receiving a copy of this conversation. "This feels wrong, it feels dangerous! I know Chris is in trouble." She added.

"What are you now, one of Macbeth's witches?" Sharon asked her and then cackled. "When shall we four meet again?" She misquoted.

Cathy couldn't help but laugh, "Did you see Jameson's face when we tried that in the English lesson."

"Yes, he couldn't work out which was the extra lines we put in just to give the fourth witch something to say!" Sharon laughed out.

"But I wish I knew what Chris was doing?" Cathy said still troubled.

Sir Timothy was also troubled, he received some reports of a hooded shape in the Dreamtime, and normally this was the shade of a person who was going to do something of great importance in the Dreamtime! Whether good or evil it wasn't easy to decide.

He also received a report of an Association team involved in a bank robbery — it was from an informer within the Association — the team were under the control of a stranger who had challenged the current leader, something that was usually quashed immediately, but for some reason it was allowed.

He shook his head, this was strange! Carl wasn't one to allow anyone to challenge his control, that's why the Association had been so ineffectual in the past. Whenever a strong person rose in the ranks he would be eliminated! So why wasn't this stranger?

Also the fact he was a stranger to the people in the Association pointed to an outsider, one who had some control over Carl, but Timothy didn't know anyone except for Cathy who would be like that, oh possibly Chris might, but his...

Sir Timothy went cold; Chris had been examined by Mary who had reported that on a CAT scan had shown a dark area in Chris's brain - not a tumour but it couldn't be determined what it was either! Her report stated, 'It would appear to be a block inserted in his mind, cutting off some decision making area and memory, There is nothing in our means to break it! But when it's broken I don't know what will happen, either he'll go completely mad or be a genius!"

So what if it has broken, it could only have happened in the time since Chris went to his father's, but what triggered it? There was only one thing to be done. He picked up a phone.

"Special services, I want to arrange a pickup, yes, this is Alpha, the target is a John Henderson. You have the address! I need to know what happened when his son, Chris left him last, this is urgent!" He added.

The soldier at the other end just looked at the phone after sir Timothy had put his receiver down, this was the first time that the Organisation was given a job without police requesting it or their knowledge.

He checked the computer records and noted down the order, who gave it and the date and time, adding his name as the contact. After a few seconds the confirmation arrived at his screen, he hit a button to alert his commander.

"You're sure it's correct Corporal?" Captain Owens asked him.

"Yessir, computer checked it out and everything." The Corporal said

Captain Owens read and re-read the orders, he then went to his own computer and double checked the entry, the coding was correct. "Sergeant Fielding?" He called out.

The Sergeant walked to the Captain and saluted, unlike the normal Organisation soldiers he was wearing a dark outfit with no markings on it. "Yessir." He responded.

Captain Owens returned the salute, "Special orders, pick-up and question, no damage! Here is the address and this is the target, bring him back here please, earliest!" He said.

The Sergeant nodded and saluted again, he picked four men to accompany him, they got into a Transit van, dark coloured and with a company name on the side - they weren't trying to attract attention.

They arrived at John Henderson's house and, after checking the area was clear, the Sergeant and another man went to the front door, the other two went around to the side, with one man behind the wheel ready to drive off.

John Henderson was wary; ever since Chris ran off he'd been expecting some reaction from the Association! They would be coming after him for allowing Chris to find out about the hypnotism. So when the door bell rang and he could see two men in black standing outside he decided not to meet them and ran out the back door — to be grabbed by the men there — he struggled so much that one of them used a hypodermic needle on him and injected him.

John slumped down immediately and was supported by the two men who dragged him away to the van, the Sergeant shook his head, "He was supposed to be awake!" He said.

"Sorry Sarge. But he wouldn't come with us, like he was scared!" The man said as they put John inside.

The Sergeant swore, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now! Let's get him back and set him up for the interview." He said.

When John came to he was in a darkened room, seated in a chair, he tried to move but found that he was securely tied to the chair. He didn't know where he was but knew that the Leader had finally decided to punish him; well he'd show them what he was made of!

He sat in the chair waiting!

Captain Owens wasn't happy, they'd lost time on this, all Sir Timothy wanted to know was what happened to John's son, all Sergeant Fielding had to do was invite him back to the base and they'd have a little chat.

Now the man was unconscious and, because they didn't want him to fall and had no cots for people here, he had to be tied to the chair. This wasn't how Owens worked at all, but there was nowhere else to place him.

Owens noticed that John was awake and so he went to the room to apologise to him.

When the door opened John saw the large man enter the room, he wasn't going to be tortured for nothing and so he began to verbally attack the man. "So you're here to do the Leader's dirty work! Just because my son went over the top at him!" He said angrily.

Owens was confused, he knew that Sir Timothy hadn't met Chris, and there was nothing about the two arguing? But the Leader was what the Association called their head man! He made a logical step.

"Stop making so much noise, you know the Leader is angry with you! What did you do?" He said, his attitude changed from the mood he had been in.

"You tell the Leader to fuck himself! He's messed up my son with all his hypnotism ... well now it finished! You lot want to kill me? Go ahead, because if you let me loose then I'm going to tell the Organisation everything that happened to Chris, they'll be after you lot so hard you'll never see the light of day!" John said with all the venom he could muster in his position.

Owens was torn now, should he continue or leave John to stew and then come back, he needed more information. "I see, well it's no use talking to you in this state, I'll be back later."

John sneered, "Oh yes, I bet you will. With lots of your friends to help you! Well fuck you and fuck the Association. This is the last time we'll ever help you!" He said as Owen left the room.

Owens went to the central area he looked at the Sergeant, "You recorded that I hope?" He said and received a nod in reply. "Good, have it transmitted to Alpha, this is important." He ordered and picked up a phone. "This is Captain Owens, I need to talk to Alpha, this is urgent!" He said to the operator who answered.

Sir Timothy spoke into the phone, "You're sure those were his exact words, Captain?" He asked.

"Yes sir, he was angry at the Association, as if they're something to do with his son's problems, I'm not sure how to carry on with this. We can't just let him go, he wouldn't understand what happened!" Captain Owens's voice said from the earpiece.

"I understand Captain, but we can't let this opportunity pass us by. As much as I'm loathed to suggest this we need the information he has, but we can't resort to the Association's methods..." Sir Timothy said but couldn't finish off his words.

"Please sir, don't say anything else, I'll ensure that Mr. Henderson is released in the right frame of mind." Owens said and he hung up.

Sir Timothy looked to where Baxter was standing a disapproving look on his face, "I know Baxter, believe me I know."

"Yes I know you do sir, but can you allow it?" Baxter asked him.

"We need the information, can't you see that!" Sir Timothy said almost begging Baxter to understand.

"I do see that sir, but have you considered the cost? Is this something you want to remember?" Baxter was unmoved.

"It isn't, but there are always things that you have to do, whether you want to or not. Maybe I'm the wrong man for this job." Sir Timothy said as he felt the weight of his order hit him.

Baxter placed his hand on his master's shoulder, "There are many steps we have to take, some we regret and others we cannot change. Does the end result justify the means?" He asked gently.

Sir Timothy shook his head, but didn't countermand his order.

"Sergeant Fielding?" He called out.

Fielding stood up, "Yessir!" He responded.

"There's a Private who's sister was attacked by the Association wasn't there?" Owens asked knowing the answer.

Fielding thought for a moment, "Yes, Private Sperry. He's got something in for anyone associated with the Association." He said.

Owens nodded, "We're going to release Henderson, out on to a street anywhere in London, get a driver and Sperry to take him ... Oh and Sergeant ... tell Sperry about Henderson's friends." He added at the Sergeant's look.

"Are you sure Sir? I mean it's possible that Sperry..." He began.

"We need him to be talkative Sergeant, Tell Sperry that!" Owens said.

At 4 O'clock in the morning a speeding van passed by a hospital, it paused long enough for a form to be thrown out of the passenger side on to the pavement before speeding off — the number plate was obscured by a layer of mud and the van itself was muddy so that it's colour couldn't be seen.

Staff ran out of the doors, attracted by the noise of the van and found a man, moaning in pain, his face bruised and body battered, although he'd been beaten up nothing was broken — 'as if he'd been used as a punch-bag, but by an expert!' the report said.

A few days later John Henderson dialled a number that he never expected he'd have to use. When the operator spoke to him he said simply. "My name is John Henderson, I'd like to see Sir Timothy ... it's about the Association!" as he hung up John smiled, 'told those bastards I'd do it!' he thought to himself.

Mary listened in to what John Henderson had to say about his son to the person known as the Inquisitor, at first she was annoyed that he was at the base in his condition, when she found out that Sir Timothy had practically authorised the assault she turned on him.

"You are a complete bastard! Why did you allow it?" She accused him.

"Are you saying he didn't deserve it? How do you think the Association would act if they did get him? Would he even be able to talk?" Sir Timothy countered, "I didn't actually tell anyone to do anything!" He tried to defend himself.

"Wasn't that what Nixon tried to say? And look what happened to him!" Mary said angrily.

"And if you were still under Bemalin's control? Then what would you think?" Sir Timothy said back

"That was uncalled for!" Mary hissed.

"Yes ... yes it was, I'm sorry. But we had to know what they've been doing; this was the only chance we had!" Sir Timothy said.

"I think I may have made a mistake staying with the Organisation." Mary said in a questioning tone before she went to see to John.

Sir Timothy looked at Baxter who remained silent. "I have to think about my future here I think, Baxter. It's time to consider options."

Baxter was unmoved, "Not yet Sir, the time is not now. You need someone to take over who is best suited for the position, and I don't believe such a person exists at this time." Baxter said.

"I now know what my father meant when he said this was too much for him." Sir Timothy was now showing his emotions.

"I would suggest that you have some time off Sir, visit your father on the island, and let Mrs Coleman take over for a short time." Baxter suggested.

But Sir Timothy shook his head, "Not just yet, there's something big coming up, and she wouldn't be able to cope with it. No I have to remain here." He said.

"But when it's over?" Baxter pressed.

"When it's over then either it won't matter or we won't be here at all!" Sir Timothy said darkly.

The story that John gave was a revelation to the Organisation, they knew that the Association had a link with the Henderson people, but not that it was so deeply ingrained.

It started in the 1800's when Augustus Henderson had gotten into debt with an Association leader, in order to preserve his life he handed his family over to the Association to do with as they wanted!

However this also allowed the family to survive and they had to pledge their lives to the Association. That was the start of the links between the Association and the Henderson clan.