Chapter 6

The Honda Civic closed the distance between it and the Mondeo just as the sweep of the tight bend in the road began. The driver's face wore a grim and determined look as he judged the speed, timing and positioning then stamped hard on the accelerator and swung the wheel over to the right. The Civic rammed into the rear of the Mondeo at an angle, forcing the larger car to veer sharply towards the hard-shoulder and the steep embankment on the left.

Flick screamed as she felt the impact and fought to remain in control of the Ford. At sixty-miles and hour everything happened fast but her reflexes were good. The Mondeo slewed across the lane and most of the hard-shoulder safety lane before she managed to straighten and avoid plunging off of the road altogether.

A quick glance in her rear-view mirror revealed the fact that the car that had hit her was intent on having another try. She frantically dropped down the manual gears and pushed the accelerator to the floor in an attempt at putting some distance between her and her attacker.

Over lunch Mark had explained his suspicions about being targeted by the police and his concerns about the number of penalty points he had already amassed on his driver's license. Flick had happily agreed to swap cars for the return journey to Glasgow and now he watched in amazement as someone tried to force the Mondeo into a deadly crash. He knew that Flick's Audi TT was easily able to outrun both his own Ford and the little family saloon that was attacking Felicity so he floored the accelerator and barrelled down the road, rapidly catching up to them both.

The driver in the Civic was focused intently on his intended target and failed to notice the Audi as it overhauled him. Mark switched to the outside lane and brought Flick's car alongside the Honda. When the driver glanced towards him, he could see the look of surprise and recognition on the man's face.

Mark took advantage of the other man's momentary lapse in concentration and wrenched the wheel of the Audi to the left, sideswiping the Honda as hard as he could. He watched as the other car lurched across the hard-shoulder and then flipped as its off-side front wheel clipped the concrete verge.

The Honda rolled as it left the highway, jumping the metal crash barrier before turning through one hundred and eighty degrees as it sailed down the embankment towards a stand of trees. Mark didn't hang around to learn the driver's fate, instead falling in behind Flick and the Mondeo, both of them now doing well over eighty-miles an hour.

The left side indicator light on the Mondeo began flashing to show that Felicity intended to pull over and stop. Mark quickly flicked the full-beam on the Audi's headlights to grab her attention and shook his head at her. Having already been targeted by the police twice (and possibly three times if the broken taillight had anything to do with them) he wasn't taking any chances.

Flick got the message and they drove on until eventually Mark signalled to pull off of the A90. Not far from the exit road there was a service station and he pulled into the car park, stopping the Audi and turning off the engine. Now that the immediate danger had passed, his entire body began to shake at the realisation of just how close they had both come to death or at the very least serious injury.

The passenger door of the Audi jerked open and Flick was suddenly in his face.

"What the fuck have you done to my baby? Look at the fucking damage, what were you thinking of!" she screamed.

Mark recognised immediately that Flick was in shock and her normal thinking processes had shut down on her. In reaching out to grab hold of something to avoid facing up to the danger she had been in, she instead was lashing out at him for the damage to her car. Her brain was trying anything to help her cope with situation.

Mark reached across and put his arms around her, pulling her fully into the passenger seat and hugging her tightly. He felt her shoulders tense up and then relax as Felicity let herself go. Instantly she was shaking and her body was wracked with deep sobbing.

Mark continued to hold her, the act of comforting another pushing back his own reaction to the attack. He rubbed her back and held her head to his shoulder, letting the contact re-assure her subconscious that she was safe.

"I'm sorry for shouting at you, I don't know what I was doing," he heard her mumble into his shoulder.

Mark pulled back so that he could see her face.

"Ssh, it's okay, I understand. That was as close to meeting the almighty as I want to get for a long while," he told her.

"Did someone really try and run me off of the road?" Flick asked.

"He thought you were me. When I pulled up alongside him he recognised me and was clearly surprised that I wasn't driving the Mondeo," Mark replied.

"But why attack either of us?" Flick queried, still somewhat out of it.

"Why was I beaten up last night? Why have I been stopped twice in two days by the police? Why was my car smashed up? To be honest I don't know what the hell is going on.

"I do know that that was a deliberate attempt to kill me but as to who is behind it and why, I'm fucked if I know," said Mark.

"Why didn't you want me to stop?" Flick asked.

"Think about it. For all I know that guy was a policeman. Do you want to take the chance of being framed as if it was all our doing?" Mark replied.

Flick felt that Mark was getting paranoid over this idea that he was being targeted by the police. It was much too much for her to believe that they could somehow be targeting him, much less that they could be responsible for such a violent attack. She shook her head in disbelief.

Mark ignored her gesture and opened the door of the Audi. He made a quick circuit of both cars and decided that the damage was nothing that would stop them from getting back on the road and back to Glasgow. He returned the Audi's keys to Flick.

"Here, it might be better if you drive your own car from now on. I don't want to take a chance that you'll be mistaken for me again," he said.

Felicity handed him the keys to the Ford in return.

"Let's just get back to Glasgow and then we can speak to MacIntosh. At least I know I can trust him and maybe he'll be able to make some sense of all of this."

The conference was being held in the State Plaza Hotel which was on the campus of George Washington University and Kenny was booked in there for four nights. The delegate list told him that there were eminent educationalists from all around the world - the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and a number of countries from the former Soviet Union, including Russia. The list made his mouth water at the potential it held out for him.

Inside Kenny's suitcase sat six modified Nintendo consoles and he planned to try and set-up some new devotees of the Church of Cyberscience before the week was out. If he could upload his program into the minds of some of these people he would be able to control them. If he also left them with a console of their own to take away, as he planned to, he could open up the prospect of access to the best students around the world. The Church of Cyberscience was on the verge of a major global expansion!

Duping the delegates into using the consoles was ridiculously easy. Naturally curious people, one by one they asked what Kenny was doing when he pulled out the game during coffee breaks.

"I use it to get my students to limber up and get focused at the start of lessons," he explained to a Professor from South Africa.

"Here, give it a try. It's nothing more than a few mental exercises."

Minutes later he saw the telltale movement that confirmed the brain defragmenter program had been uploaded successfully and he knew he would be able to put the Professor under the next day and give him some instructions.

He managed to fill his quota of six within the first two days and could have kicked himself for not bringing more of the consoles. There was no doubt that he could have distributed twice or three-times that number easily.

"Still," he thought, "there will be other conferences in the future."

Once back at his apartment, Mark used the number he had for DI MacIntosh but only reached his messaging service. He asked Drew to get in touch as soon as possible and ended the call. His aches and pains had returned with a vengeance and he decided to run himself a hot bath and soak for a while. Flick had opted to drive to her own apartment to pick up some 'essentials' and to take care of some business before returning.

He hoped an hour or so in the tub would help relieve the pain and soothe his still jangling nerves. Once he had the water running at just the right mix, Mark poured a generous amount of relaxing bath foam. He watched as it bubbled away under the pressure of the water falling form the taps and felt the temperature to make sure it was just how he liked it.

Awkwardly stripping off his clothes, he set his mobile on the floor and lowered himself into the bath, letting his thoughts drift as the heat from the water worked its way deep into his aching muscles. He knew Flick thought he was over-reacting a bit about the incidents with the police. He himself had no doubts however, that the Dundee policeman had known he was driving the Mondeo before pulling him over. He could also picture the look of recognition on the face of the driver of the Honda Civic and he knew the man had been intent on injuring him. He had clearly believed that Mark was still behind the wheel of the Ford and his surprise had helped Mark deal with him.

"Who was that bastard? Is there any connection between the attack today and what happened last night at the Buttery? Is there any connection to the Dundee police? Who the hell have I pissed off enough to warrant them trying to kill me?" he asked himself.

As his body relaxed so did his mind and suddenly the vivid image of the Honda careening off of the road and down the embankment flooded his mind. Mark tried to take some deep breaths to calm himself only to feel the stabbing pain from his damaged ribs. He pulled himself up and snagged two painkillers from the bathroom cabinet and then sat down in the bath once more.

"Well, rather him than me - or even worse, Flick," he thought.

Mark and Felicity scoured the news channels and the newspapers for any reports on the fate of the Honda Civic and its driver. Both were puzzled when they couldn't find any references to what had been a pretty dramatic crash. How could something so significant not make the news?

"I told you. The police are involved in this somehow. How else could something like this be covered up?" Mark asked.

Flick was still sceptical but had to admit to herself that it was difficult to see how the police wouldn't have been at least called to the scene of the crash. After that it should have been inevitable that the 'accident' would have been reported. She had no answer for the riddle and began to think that perhaps Mark wasn't as paranoid as she had first suspected.

The next few days saw Mark's aches and pains ease down significantly. He still looked a little like a Panda with the two black eyes that had resulted from his nose being smashed but otherwise he felt pretty good. He was able to offer his physical strength to help Felicity pack up the things she wanted to move from her apartment. His offer sparked a mini crisis however, as Flick was suddenly seized by feelings of doubt. Now that the crunch had come, now that the time had arrived to take the concrete step of actually physically moving in with him, she revisited all of her negative thoughts about his ability to commit.

The things that she had told herself while waiting two weeks for him to call her returned and she became skittish. An unsuspecting Mark found matters coming to a head and himself in the firing line while they were having a lunch at the spectacular Duck Bay Marina on Loch Lomond side. The sun was beating down and they had an outside table looking down the loch towards Ben Lomond. Pleasure boats and jet-skis zig-zagged across the water and the setting really was idyllic.

"Is there another place as beautiful on god's earth?" Mark asked, ignorant about what was just about to surface.

"Look at that view, isn't it simply stunning? The loch, the islands out there, the mountains framing everything - it's so dramatic!"

Flick's reply wasn't what he was expecting.

"Mark, why did it take you two weeks to phone me after you made the offer for me to move in?"

Mark wasn't stupid. He could hear the undercurrent of something in the tone of voice that Felicity was using and immediately knew something was up.

"Flick, hold on, calm down. I promise you I spent those two weeks picking up the phone and putting it back down again. My hands were sweating, I couldn't think about anything else but I was just too scared to call. The morning I did call I realised that I had to, I couldn't let the chance we could be together pass just because I was so nervous you might turn me down. It took most of the nerve I had to make that call; the Hamilton thing was just an excuse. Please be gentle with me?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that I'm getting cold feet about this whole move. I know you. You've not got a good record in terms of making long term commitments," Flick replied.

"That's changed, baby. I'm sitting here looking out across Loch Lomond and I realise that the loch, god, the world, looks a much better place with you sitting beside me to share the view," Mark said.

"Mark, how much have you been drinking?" she asked.

"I'm drunk baby, but only with thoughts of you and how much I love you."

Flick was stunned. Mark had just told her he loved her! This had to be another of his childish jokes.

"Mark, quit fooling around. What are you looking for?"

"This is serious, baby. I'm looking for you."

"Oh Mark! Do you mean it? Why did you think I'd turn you down if you called me? Oh god, Mark, why did you take so long to ask me?!"

Mark sighed with relief at Felicity's change in tone and she in turn realised that Mark really had been nervous about how she would respond.

"This really is a magical place with the sun shimmering on the loch. I meant what I said, the thing that makes it perfect is you," Mark managed to get out.

"Oh Mark! Do you really love me? You just said a moment ago that you love me!" Flick squealed, her doubts all vanishing once more.

"I guess I've known that I love you for ages now but just haven't admitted it to myself. The times I've spent with you are the happiest memories I've got," Mark replied.

That got him a resounding kiss and he decided he could certainly live with such attention.

"So, what's changed? Why ask me to move in with you and tell me you love me now?" she asked.

Mark paused for a heartbeat as he considered what to tell her. He decided telling her the truth seemed to have been working well so far and opted to open up as he never had before.

"When I asked you to move in with me I thought it was an impulsive thing but the more I thought about it, the more I knew my subconscious was trying to tell me something," he started.

"What do you mean?" Flick asked, a slight frown of worry appearing at his use of the word 'impulsive'.

"Well, I realised that for all the night-clubs and parties I seem to go to I'm really pretty much a loner. If I had a pound for every woman that's told me I'm too frightened of commitment to ever have a serious relationship, I'd be a millionaire.

"I started asking myself what I wanted out of life, thinking about where I was going.

"When I look back I find it difficult to even remember the names of some of the girls I've dated and all of the happy memories I have are times I've spent with you."

Flick's expression relaxed as Mark was talking, his words were music to her ears and she wondered how far he was going to go.

"I don't want you to panic and I hope I'm not going too far, too soon but I started seeing images in my head of the two of us together in ten years time and it made me feel really happy," he said.

"The other day when I was beaten up at the Buttery and when the car was trying to drive you off of the road I thought my heart was going to burst. I knew I loved you, my thoughts were all about you and the fear of losing you," he added.

Flick took his hand in hers and squeezed it encouragingly, letting him know that nothing he had said so far was making her panic - the exact opposite was true, she was getting happier with each passing minute.

"Uh hmm, when I think about us together I see what we look like in ten, twenty years time. I even see babies," Mark added nervously and glanced at her face to quickly gauge her reaction.

What he saw there surprised him. Flick's expression ran from surprise, shock even, to extreme happiness in an instant and the next thing he new she squealed and threw herself onto his lap.

"Are you serious?" she demanded.

"You're not put off by the idea? You don't think I'm maybe going a little too far, too fast?" he asked.

Flick was not to be deflected from getting the answer she wanted.

"Are you serious, you've been thinking about us together and with kids?" she repeated her question.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but promise me you'll at least think about it?" Mark replied.

"Mark MacGhee, answer me. Are you being serious?!" Flick now demanded.

With typical male insensitivity and the absence of any emotional radar, Mark couldn't understand why she was repeating her question. To him it was clear what he was saying and he didn't need to spell it out.

"What?" he asked now.

For Flick, she needed to hear him actually say the words. He didn't understand that the words were all important to the girl.

"I just need you to tell me that you're really serious about us having a life together, a life that includes having children," she said quietly but intensely.

Mark at last got the hint and replied accordingly.

"Flick, I love you. I want us to try and make a life together and I would like nothing better than to plan a family with you," he said.

He watched as the biggest, brightest smile lit up Flick's face. He had been worried that his thinking would alarm her, frighten her off, but he could see that certainly wasn't the case. He saw her lips twitch and a renewed, teasing sparkle gleamed in her eyes.

"Isn't there something missing here?" she asked.

Mark looked at her dumbly, racking his brain for a clue as to what she meant. His expression made it clear he needed some further help from her and she decided to nudge him in the right direction.

"You're suggesting we live together and have kids. Isn't there something that comes before that?" she asked.

The light went on in Mark's head and he was stunned. His thinking hadn't really got this far as he was sure Flick would have been overwhelmed by his drastic change in attitude to life, in particular to life with her.

Flick watched his expression and knew that he had got her message. Now she was suddenly very anxious, waiting for his reaction.