Chapter 19: Things can only get better

07:30, 20 August

The choice of the honeymoon suite as their 'home' was obviously appropriate, as brother and sister were as close and attentive as newly weds the next day. Laura was clearly in pain from her defloration and the number of times they had made love, but it was like a badge of honour to her, a sweet pain, a well-earned ache. She had her man and she wouldn't change anything about her first time with him. Every twinge she felt as she walked around reminded her of how he had felt inside her, how her insides had melted and how high her passion had climbed while she was under him. Debbie and Christine giggled at the lovebirds and how they were behaving around each other.

Jamie couldn't stop fussing over his sister. He cuddled her, brought her treats and generally just kept within feet of her for most of the day. Laura enjoyed the attention and the feeling of love and security she got from her brother and never wanted it to end. She was aware however, that he had other responsibilities and eventually she forced herself to remind him of them.

Jamie returned to their room and began to set up some more pick-ups. There weren't many and again he was disappointed in that. One e-mail message to the UK address did perk him up. The e-mail address leapt out at him and he hovered the cursor over the message as quickly as he could.

Hi Highlander, I'm in Fort William. All of the people I was with were murdered, but I hid in a closet and somehow the terrorists missed me. I've never learned to drive but it's amazing what you can do when you're forced into it. I took a car from a garage forecourt and drove it to Fort William, not even sure what gear I was in, but thankfully there was nothing else on the road. I'm sure I've knackered the car, but I'll pick up another one when I move from here.

Hope you're still okay.

Lee Chan

Jamie was delighted that he had been wrong about Lee Chan's fate. He was still cautious, fearing a trap, but he sent a reply right away.

Lee

When are you ever going to learn? You should stay away from big towns and cities, that's where you'll be at most risk. Get out of Fort William and continue to go north, into the wilderness.

I'm glad you made it out and I'm sorry about your friends. You've survived so far, don't be stupid now.

Highlander

Petty officer Stevens had decided it was too risky to try and move the survivors during the night. He had set up a rota so that his own men were patrolling the campus to warn them of anything untoward and had tried to grab some sleep. The teenagers were largely unaware of their changed circumstances and he would deal with that when it was light.

When the youngsters started to wake, he was alerted by his team and told them to bring all of the survivors out onto the lawns. He made sure his men first made it clear who they were and where they had come from and released the store of weapons so that each teenager was armed.

Once they had all gathered he addressed them.

"My name is Petty Officer Trevor Stevens. I'm from the HMS Vengeance one of the UK's nuclear submarines. We came ashore three days ago and hoped the virus would have worked itself out by now. That's not the case and I'm afraid all of my team are on a downhill slope. The captain and men of our boat couldn't stand by and watch what was happening to you, so we volunteered to test out whether the virus was gone and to try to rescue some of you.

"We've dealt with the terrorists on this site, but there are others and myself and my men probably don't have long to live. The best we can do is to try and get you away to somewhere safer. We need to do that quickly while we still can and before other terrorists come to see why their friends are not responding to their calls. Gather up what you need to take with you while my team searches for some suitable transport," he told them.

Stevens sent his men out to a nearby bus depot. That was the most obvious way of transporting the teenagers he thought. It didn't take them long to return with seven single-decker buses capable of taking all of them away from the site.

There were four hundred and seventy six youngsters and Stevens insisted they take their rifles with them.

"You need to keep your weapon with you at all times from now on. If you don't, consider yourself either dead or captured again. I know you have all had some training in using the rifles, as we've watched you drill the past few days. Just make sure you remember to keep the safety on until you need to use them," said Stevens, as they began to file onto the coaches.

Stevens retained one of the naval jeeps at the front of their column and one at the rear, both had GPMGs on pedestal mounts and they would serve to protect the buses - punching through anything coming towards them and stopping anything chasing their tails. The convoy headed out to the M8 Motorway and on towards the Erskine Bridge to make their way northward.

Jamie had dropped in at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness to see how his little band of survivors was getting on. Later he planned on flying south to try and spot Lee Chan and pick him up. Stuart, the teenager who had been an army cadet, brought him up to date on how his attempts to train the others was coming along.

"Most of them are already quite good, only two have got no aptitude for shooting at all," Stuart told him.

"Excellent, if only I could find more. I'm afraid we're not going to do much with thirty against thousands," Jamie replied.

"Listen Jamie, is there any chance we could drop by the barracks today. There are some things that you didn't get when you stocked up on arms for us. We need radios, mines and some anti-tank weapons wouldn't go amiss," Stuart said.

"Sure, I was heading out to look for someone, but we can drop in and pick up what you need," Jamie replied.

It didn't take them long to make the quick hop to the Fort George camp and Jamie helped Stuart load a handcart with the items he wanted. He loaded up six Javelin anti-tank weapons and a stack of H4855 Personal Role Radios (PPR). A second trip was required to load up with spare batteries and HEAT rounds for the Javelins and Stuart changed his mind about the mines when he spotted some 51mm mortars. The claymores could wait for another trip he decided, as he loaded a dozen of the mortars and also added a few cases of different types of ammunition for them.

"Okay, that's enough for now," Stuart said. He was like a kid in a candy store as he looked around at all the ordnance and weaponry.

Jamie could see the other boy looking longingly at a row of Armoured Personnel carriers that were parked neatly.

"I'll bring you back some other time if you want to try and take one of them," Jamie said as the heaved the handcart back to the Lynx.

"Hey Jamie," Stuart said, "how accurate are you with the TOWs?"

Jamie looked at him quizzically.

"The missiles," Stuart explained.

"Oh, I don't know, I've never tried to fire them. To be honest I wouldn't know how," Jamie responded.

"It's pretty easy, I've watched a couple of times when I was allowed up while we were on an exercise. I'll show you," Stuart said excitedly.

Jamie could feel the difference in the helicopter's performance with the heavy load it now carried and he had to make some adjustments to how he flew to accommodate that.

Once they were up, he took them out over the Moray Firth to safely try firing one of the helicopter's missiles. Stuart talked him through the use of the targeting system and how to fire a missile. For his first effort, Jamie wasn't really bothered about aiming at anything; he simply wanted to experience what it felt like to launch, to feel the effect on the Lynx.

He fired the TOW and was surprised that it had no effect on the Lynx at all, not even a slight shudder. He didn't realise that a small charge was used to boost the missile away from the helicopter before the rocket motor ignited, but he realised something was different when the rocket flared and shot forward. He glanced over at Stuart and saw that he was concentrating on the guidance system. The TOW wasn't a 'fire and forget' weapon and needed to be guided to its target, that's what Stuart was doing. As Jamie watched, the missile exploded into the choppy water and Stuart turned with a large grin on his face.

Jamie decided it would be handy to keep Stuart with him as he conducted his search for Lee Chan. He swung westward and headed for the Fort William area. He used the familiar sight of Loch Ness and Loch Lochy to help him navigate - paralleling the A82 road. It was a relatively short journey, only twenty minutes and they would be closing on the town of Fort William. The town sat in an 'elbow' created by confluence of Loch Eil and Loch Linnhe, with the manmade Caledonian Canal connecting them to Loch Lochy.

Just as they reached the foot of Loch Lochy, perhaps seven or eight miles from Fort William, Stuart waved frantically and pointed down to his left. Jamie shifted the Lynx over slightly so he could get a better view of what Stuart was pointing at. He saw a line of coaches with a jeep in front and another at the rear. He brought the Lynx closer so they could see better.

The convoy stopped and they could see men in the jeep at the front pointing up at them. Jamie risked moving closer so they could try and identify who was in the buses. They could both see row upon row of young faces staring up at the helicopter, most of them frightened looking. Stuart pointed out the way the GPMGs on the jeeps were swinging to follow their flight and he indicated to Jamie that he should pull away.

"They don't look like Muslims!" Stuart shouted over the noise of the rotors.

"I don't care, I'm not taking any chances!" Jamie replied.

"Let me set up a pair of the radios and then set me down where they can't see you!" Stuart shouted.

"We can't afford to lose you either!" Jamie shouted back, shaking his head.

"But if they're friendly it will really boost our numbers and our chances!"

Jamie thought about that for a second and then he began to look for a likely place to set the helicopter down without the column of buses and jeeps being able to see them.

"Listen, if you wave for me to land I'll take that as a signal they're bad guys. I'll only come down if you make a signal to wave me off. Baddies wouldn't allow you to wave me off, okay? If it looks like there's going to be trouble, run, run as fast as you can and get somewhere the vehicles can't follow so I can pick you up!" Jamie shouted as the Lynx began its descent.

Stuart was hurriedly setting up two of the PPRs, leaning across to jamb a set of headphones onto Jamie's head.

"Can you hear me?" he asked, speaking into his own mic.

"Roger," replied Jamie.

He didn't hang around, but gave Stuart seconds to jump down from the Lynx before he was fighting for altitude again. Stuart hadn't taken any weapons with him. His thinking was that if the people in the coaches were friendly he didn't want to make them nervous and if they were bad guys he didn't want to be slowed down with a weapon. Jamie kept his distance and watched Stuart standing in the middle of the A82 road, waiting for the convoy to approach him.

It only took minutes before the lead jeep appeared round a bend in the road and immediately pulled to a stop. Jamie could see the pedestal mounted machine gun trained on Stuart and he wondered how his new friend was feeling right now.

"Stuart, I don't like it," he said into his mic.

"Negative," came Stuart's reply.

"What have you seen?" Jamie asked.

"The guys in the jeep are wearing naval uniforms. I don't think they're terrorists," replied Stuart.

Jamie could see him begin to walk towards the jeep; his hands held high to show they were empty and in a gesture designed to show he was in no way a threat. One of the jeep's occupants jumped out and trained a weapon on the advancing boy and then walked forward to meet him. Jamie watched as Stuart knelt and then lay face down in the road and the man from the jeep crouched to frisk him. Once the man was satisfied Stuart really didn't have any weapons, he allowed him to stand once more, taking several paces back to ensure the boy couldn't lunge for his weapon.

A conversation was obviously taking place and Jamie nervously kept the Lynx far enough away to make it unlikely the GPMG would be a problem, but close enough to watch what was going on. He checked his fuel and saw that he would need to top up before he returned to Skibo that night. When he looked down again he saw Stuart waving his arms in the universal sign to warn someone off. Jamie bit his lip. He had a big decision to make now. Did he trust Stuart's judgement? Was this a risk worth taking? He decided it was and brought the Lynx round and began to descend towards the road.

He flared the helicopter and let the skids hit the tarmac, but didn't kill the rotors as he watched Stuart, the man beside him and the jeep. The fact that no one had fired on him was a positive point he thought. He held his breath and began to shut the helicopter down.

No one had moved he saw, as he jumped down from the Lynx and began walking forward. He could see the barrel of the large machine gun on the jeep and no longer had to wonder how Stuart had felt with it pointing at him, as he was feeling it now himself.

As he neared the jeep, the man covering Stuart spoke up.

"So, you're Highlander?" he asked.

"Who are you?" Jamie asked, ignoring the other man's question.

"I'm Petty Officer Trevor Stevens from HMS Vengeance I believe you've exchanged messages with my captain, Captain Mexford," Stevens replied.

Jamie breathed a huge sigh of relief. Nothing the man could have said was more guaranteed to convince him that he was amongst friendly forces. There was no way the terrorists could know about his exchange with Captain Mexford.

"How did you get here?" Jamie asked, his tone now more relaxed and friendly.

Stevens began to explain what had happened over the last few days and how they had rescued the teenagers who were on the bus. Jamie's face fell when Stevens told him that all of the shore party seemed to have bird flu and didn't have long to live. His initial joy at realising they now had trained military personnel to help them was now dampened with the knowledge that they were going to be cruelly taken away from them again.

Assam's mobile phone rang and he held it to his ear.

"Hello?" he said.

"Bird Song," said Shafiq from her London base.

"How are things with you?" he asked her.

"It's difficult," she replied. "London is so big and there are a lot of wild teenagers here. A high proportion of the survivors seem to be of Afro-Caribbean origin and they are well armed."