Chapter 27

Penrose and Hammond used binoculars to view the clinic through a gap in the trees, trying to spot any sign of movement. Penrose watched the armed response unit fan out around the perimeter. Several carried Heckler and Koch MP5 carbines, while the rest were armed with either Sig Sauer P226 or the X26 taser.

Hammond had brought his Glock 26, standard issue with the Metropolitan police.

"Nothing yet," Penrose whispered.

"Hopefully we'll catch them napping in their beds." Hammond replied, checking his watch for the fifth time within a minute. "Let's move in from the rear. Make sure everybody keeps close formation."

Snipers maintained a careful eye on the main entrance and rear fire escape.

They proceeded stealthily and swiftly across the rear lawn, pressing their backs against the brickwork and edging around the building until they arrived in front of the large double doors.

Hammond and Penrose signalled their intention to enter the garage and the door creaked opened. Penrose spotted a light switch and several fluorescent strip lights flickered into operation.

The ambulance stood in the middle of the floor. A black stain on the concrete indicated where its crankcase had leaked. Beside that was a black Range Rover.

"Shit!" Penrose exclaimed as he strode over to a small police patrol car, identical to the one that Angela drove. Distracted, Hammond hardly reacted in time as Henry descended on him, armed with a rusty metal bar.

His forearm took the brunt of the blow. He screamed as pain shot up his arm. Henry raised the club again. There was a hiss and the man writhed as the twin electrodes from Penrose's taser attached to his jacket and fifty thousand volts discharged through his body.

As Hammond climbed to his feet, Penrose rushed over to the fallen man and handcuffed his hands behind his back. Several feet away, an open doorway led into the house. They waited for more backup before entering with guns drawn.

The distant sounds of shattering glass announced the second insertion team entering through the main entrance. They met no resistance as they proceeded along the internal corridor before meeting up with them in the foyer. A man with a bandaged nose knelt on the ground with his fingers interlaced behind his neck, looking decidedly unhappy. "Who else is in the building?" Hammond demanded.

The man glared back but said nothing. After securing him in handcuffs, they performed a room by room search. A garbled message over the comm alerted Penrose and he raced up a flight of stairs and along the corridor to where two men in Kevlar body armour waited beside an open doorway.

Inside, Ruth Wells stared at them all in disbelief. She was naked but for a strap on harness around her waist that she was using to penetrate Angela. The policewoman was bound hand and foot to the bed and gagged. Dressed in her regulation uniform, the blouse hung open to reveal her breasts while her skirt was lifted to allow Ruth access to her sex. Angela gurgled around the gag, almost driven out of her mind as the nurse drove the artificial cock into her slick pussy.

"Off! Now!" Penrose commanded, feeling rather silly pointing his pistol at the nude nurse. Ruth crawled off his restrained partner, aiming her prominent projection at them.

Angela mewled and Jim rushed to release her. "Oh God Jim, am I glad to see you?"

"It looked like you were having fun there for a moment."

"They've been torturing me for days. It was all I could do to keep my mind. I won't tell you the things I had to do to convince them that their stupid equipment had warped my brain."

"I can imagine."

Angela buttoned up her blouse and smoothed down her skirt to cover her abused pussy. Without underwear, she still felt exposed and sensed the eyes of the assault team admiring her body. The overwhelming sensation was one of sheer relief that she's avoided the threatened fate of being shipped to some remote outpost to spend years providing sexual pleasure to drunken reprobates. One was enough.

She hugged Jim, taking delight in the comfort of his arms. A certain presence pressed against her and she relished making full use of it at the earliest possible convenience.

"Rest of the house is clear," a heavily armed sergeant announced.

"Where's Morbius?" Penrose mused.

"Nobody else present, sir."

"Make another sweep. He must be here somewhere."

Ruth looked even more confused. "There should be a young girl," she told them. "Pamela. Pamela Hunnicutt."

"What's your name?"

"Ruth Wells."

"You're in a lot of trouble, Ruth."

"Doctor Morbius told me what to do. He always tells me what to do."

"She's been treated too," Angela said. "She's as much a slave as the rest of them."

"Alright. Sergeant, make sure the perimeter is secure. Nobody goes in or out. Bring in the dog handlers, we'll have to do this the hard way."

An hour later, Penrose, Hammond and Angela Grant walked across the rear lawn to a small wooden outbuilding located adjacent to the road.

"It was overgrown, sir," a uniformed officer announced. "We didn't spot it until we had more light."

The building was barely large enough to contain a vehicle, at most perhaps a small hatchback. Both the small access door and the large up and over were unlocked.

"They're gone," Hammond opined.

"Yes."

"Some stupid bastard leaked Hunnicutt's suicide to the press. You can almost imagine the rest."

"He abandoned them all. The nurse, his men. He sneaked off into the night and just left them to their fate."

"Pretty much."

"And they're still not saying anything?"

"Nope."

"Almost like..."

"What?"

"What was the name of our suspect, the one from Bosnia?"

"Henry Wright."

"You've got a good memory, Paul."

"I live and sleep this case."

"He was accused of rape?"

"The Muslim girl, yes.

"And he was saved by medical evidence from a regimental doctor."

"That's right."

"It would kind of put you in his debt wouldn't it? Have we got a name for the doctor?"

"The signature was illegible but the army must have records."

"Lieutenant Percival John Winstanley," Hammond announced. They sat around the conference table, staring at a fax from their contact in the Ministry of Defence.

"Served in Bosnia until 2003, then nothing. He resigned his commission and disappeared without a trace."

"Get them to send over his full service record, anything from his time in Bosnia. Maybe there's something there," Penrose suggested.

"What are you thinking?"

"I seem to remember reading that Bosnia was a crazy place around that time, all kinds of strange shit going on. Ethnic cleansing, massacres."

"A bit like the Nazis."

"The Nazis experimented on their subjects. Maybe our doctor found something and then left to work on it."

"I'll speak to my contact," Hammond replied urgently.

Angela sat beside George and Joanna, hardly daring to speak.

"When can we see her?" Joanna asked hopefully.

"She flies in at lunchtime but they're going to take her straight to a special hospital where they can psychologically evaluate her."

"Where?"

"In Maidenhead."

"Can we visit her?"

"Yes, as often as you like."

"Why can't she just come home?"

"She's been through a horrific ordeal. We have no idea what the long term effects of the treatment will be. It's just a precaution."

"What about the other girls?"

"The same applies to them. They're also shipping in an expert from the States, somebody who's had dealings with similar cases."

"This has happened before?"

"Not in this manner, but there have been cases where children have been brainwashed into thinking things are not what they seem, certain religious cults and a notorious sex offender who was recently apprehended."

"Can they help her?"

"They'll do their best. Amanda has the best chance as she's only been captive for two months. Susan has been there for over three years."

"The poor girl."

"There are loads more like them, just waiting to be found. We're hoping Hunnicutt's computer will give us some leads."

"This is simply awful."

"We'll locate them, but it will take time."