Bacchus and Sanderson (Deceased) (46 page)

***

              “Helena.” Charles Cortez said as he watched the débâcle at the companies warehouse unfold.

“Yes, what?”

“Freddie has just been caught by Bacchus and his security team.”

Helena swore under her breath and then said to Charles,

“I’m at The Palace of Westminster. Thrasher’s thugs have broken in, found the safe empty and left. Except it’s not empty. Juanita is ingenious and cunning. She’s put a false front onto the safe’s interior so that with a cursory inspection it appears empty. No matter, I’ve looked at the ‘evidence’ Jonathan Andrews claims to have and it amounts to nothing. You need to let Felicity know that.”

Charles continued to watch what was happening at the warehouse, listening with half an ear to Helena.

“Freddie is out of the game for good. Bacchus has some ex-military types helping him. They look good though.”

“Hello Charles.”

“Hello,” he answered without thinking and then stopped. He looked around trying to see where the voice had come from.

“Helena? Where are you? We haven’t got time for this”

The voice spoke to him again, closer than before and it was a voice he thought he ought to know. As the first word was uttered a body materialised in front of him.

“Hello Charles. I’m afraid you’re out of the game now as well.”

Ernest motioned to Juanita to join him and then he said to Charles,

“This is Juanita; my guide.”

Before Ernest could continue Charles vanished and he heard a voice say to him.

”I’m Helena, Charles’s guide. You’re going to need to be a lot slicker to pull off a snatch.”

The voice continued, but talking to Juanita and ignoring Ernest.

“In life he was a nobody, in limbo he’s still an amateur. I know you can’t choose who you guide on your side of the fence; come over to mine and you could have whoever you wanted.”

Juanita smiled, amused by the clumsy offer.

“You chose Charles Cortez? If he’s the quality of choice on offer, I’ll stay where I am.”

***

              “This is bigger than can be handled by a few enthusiastic soldiers and a car load of cripples and geeks.” Tiny’s brutal assertion was accurate if not complimentary.

“We need the drug squad, armed police, NDRT. To stop these drugs, we need help. I know the head of the National Deep Rummage Team here in Southampton. We were in the army together many years ago. Can I call him?” The question was directed at Jemima and not William.

“Do we have any choice? No. Felicity has to be stopped. CHC is a company developing new fuel technology and producing biofuel. It is not a criminal enterprise run by a Mr or Ms Big to earn money for themselves and risk the futures of everyone who works there. Ben where are the ships now?”

              Ben opened his MacBook Pro and clicked on the browser.

“They’ve split up. It happened as they approached the west coast of Ireland. The ship bound for Felixstowe sped up by twenty per cent as it has the largest distance to travel and is passing Margate. The Liverpool ship skirted the tip of Ireland and is heading up the Irish Sea passing Holyhead as of two minutes ago. The ship bound for Southampton is steaming up the English Channel off Portland Bill. Estimated arrival time for each of these ships is identical. They will all dock at three o’clock this afternoon; six hours time. The container vessels will also be docking at three o'clock this afternoon and looking at the map they seem to be shadowing the cargo ships. According to the manifests each container vessel will dock at the same ports, but at different container handling facilities. I still haven't managed to get any concrete information on the contents of the containers. So I guess we go with the timber vessels.”

Tiny looked at Jemima again and cocked his head. The look said it all. She hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

“One proviso,” Jemima said. Tiny stopped dialling the number into his phone and waited.

“Here in Southampton, we’re all involved. I had a call from Thrasher while you were releasing Annabel and stopping Freddie doing any further damage. He’s seen the light and quit. Felicity was Felicity once too often. He says he had a message from Pablo’s office in Colombia. Pablo has flown to Paris and will join Felicity here in Southampton. He wants to meet his biggest customer in person so they can, ‘plan their world domination.’ Pablo has no idea what Felicity looks like now, he hasn’t seen her in twenty years, not since they were teenagers. He’s never met me. Felicity has no idea Pablo is arriving this afternoon. Thrasher forgot to tell her.”

Turning to her bodyguards she asked,

“Eric, Ernie; fancy a chance to say hello to the biggest cocaine trafficker the world has ever known?” Their grins said, ‘Yes.’ Jemima smiled at Tiny and said,

“Is that ok?” In reply Tiny shrugged with no enthusiasm, but said to her bodyguards,

“She’s your problem. Keep her safe.”

“I rushed without thinking. Stupid, stupid, stupid.” Ernest groaned.

“Waiting an extra minute would have been enough. What?” Ernest asked, having missed Juanita’s reply whilst berating himself.

“If we had captured Charles it would have dented their confidence and left them with an additional problem to deal with. However, we would have had to put him somewhere secure and remote guarded him. Limbo would be crawling with demons searching for one of their own and Helena with dented pride would have been a more dangerous adversary. Charles slipping away was a blessing. We also have bigger spooks to keep us occupied. We need to meet with William, Ben, Annabel and Jemima altogether. With all of them surrounded by SAS guards, face to face will be hazardous. So we’re going to organise an omnipresent meeting.”

              Ernest nodded not understanding what she’d said or how it was to be achieved, but desperate to look as if he knew what he was doing. Reasonableness overcame his dented ego and his nod became a tentative shake of the head. Jonas looked at Juanita and shrugged with a confused expression. Ignoring their obtuseness, Juanita took Ernest’s hand on one side and Jonas on the other, and then nodded twice.

              At once, they were looking down on the inside of the three Range Rovers; the interiors forming a rough circle with the outer edges of each view blending with the next. Juanita shuffled the views of the Range Rover Interiors so that the four people she needed to talk to were next to each other in the configuration they were looking at. She took Ernest’s and Jonas’s hands again and they sank down to just above the circle enclosing the three Range Rover interiors. Juanita waited a moment and then contacted William and Annabel, appearing in their minds simultaneously.

“Good morning William, Annabel. Please do not react to my voice, just listen to what I have to say. Ernest and I need to talk to you all together as a matter of urgency, but we haven’t time to repeat everything four times. Ben and Jemima have not experienced voices in their heads talking to them before and with the number of other people around them they will need to stay calm. William, please talk to them and explain what will happen. We will be back in two minutes.”

              Ernest and Juanita watched as William went to the other Range Rovers and spoke to Ben and Jemima. They saw them nod and then sit looking out of the car windows while the hubbub of activity continued around them.

“Good morning, sorry for the urgency, but we needed to keep you abreast off events away from here. Helena and Charles are aware the safe wasn’t empty, so Felicity will know too. She’ll also have been told that there is no threat from the material left behind by Jonathan Andrews. As Felicity has gone over to the other side, we have to assume that Satan will become involved. His ‘offspring’ must be protected at all costs. I have begun to feel tremors emanating from below that strengthen, as the ships get closer. Helena has been given huge additional powers to ensure this goes well and that you are all eliminated. Your guards will be unable to deal with the forces that Helena will have from below. When do the police arrive?”

William answered for all of them as he had been talking with Tiny when the calls to the police and Border Agency had been made.

“The ships will be docking around the country at three o’clock this afternoon. Tiny has arranged for help from the National Deep Rummage Teams. They are going to each location to be in place and synchronised at ten minutes to three as the ships are pulling along side. The police have been contacted by the National Deep Rummage Teams and undercover officers will have blanketed the area around each dock in anticipation of their arrival.”

Juanita sat thinking for a moment, then nodded,

“Ok, not much else you can do. Ernest, Jonas and I will keep a close watch on Felicity and Helena. If you need us do not hesitate, call.”

“There is one other thing,” Jemima said.

“Pablo, the head of the cartel supplying the drugs and a cousin to Felicity and I has decided to accompany the Southampton boat for its final few miles. He will be travelling to meet his biggest customer, but Felicity doesn’t know he is coming or that he will be aboard when the boat docks. I’m not even sure if she remembers what he looks like. I want to pretend to be Felicity, be wired and trap the malignant arsehole into incriminating himself. My two bodyguards will go with me for protection and to impress. Colombians love exhibitionism. If you need bodyguards it implies a certain ‘je ne sais quoi,’ you have power you’re dangerous. Can you check he is on the ship and let me know what he looks like?”

Juanita smiled, liking the bravado and spirit.

“Of course. How will you contact him to bring him to you ashore?”

Smiling at Ben she said,

“Ben’s going to hack his computer or phone. Either will also impress him and encourage him to trust me.”

Ben just smiled, tiredness etching his face and began typing.

***

              William paced the room in the CHC warehouse they had commandeered as an operational headquarters. He looked around at the hive of activity and felt impotent. Ben was typing into his MacBook Pro, hacking Pablo’s email and phone accounts. He had already managed to hack the boats control computers and had inserted an undetectable virus that would allow them to control this ship if they needed to.

              Tiny was leaning over large-scale maps of the area around Fawley as well as shipping charts of the approaches to Southampton. William couldn’t hear the conversation he was having with the ex-SAS bodyguards, but he thought they were being briefed on what was going to happen when the ship docked and Jemima met Pablo. He had watched Tiny earlier when he had been coordinating the other teams in Felixstowe and Liverpool and had reco
g
nised the professionalism of the ex-special services soldier. Tiny was wasted as a nightclub doorman, something William would be discussing with him when all of this was over.

              He looked to the other side of the room and saw Annabel help Jemima get comfortable in her wheelchair and then inject her with morphine so she would be able to meet Pablo. It had become apparent to everyone that Jemima was not only far tougher than she had appeared, but was mentally strong enough to be capable of coping with all the shit her sister and her grandfather had thrown at her. Everything he saw in Jemima made him glad that Ben had fallen in love with such a beautiful
,
talented woman.

              “William?” The sound of his own name being called out broke into his day dreaming and hauled him back to the here and now. He turned and realised that the voice had been Ben’s. He walked the short distance to him and said,

“Hi Ben. How’s your journey into the depths of Pablo’s telecommunications?”

“Slow very slow. The man is serious about his security. However;” he smiled as he said this,

“He has a massive ego that has left him with a small gap in his armour. Look.” He turned his MacBook Pro around so William could see the screen.

“He called the ship at thirteen hundred hours; one o’clock requesting permission to land. They knew he was there. He had been tracked since he left the French mainland. I have also managed to hack the ship’s communication system. This is the captain to his number one.” Ben typed and then William heard,

‘He’s on his way. He wanted us to know he was on his way. That we can see him on the radar and have been able to for the past ten minutes is irrelevant, he still needs to announce himself’

Number one replied,

‘And jeopardise all of us with his irreverent behaviour. A mobile phone. For a security conscious, intelligent leader, he is a fool isn’t he? This is Cartagena Star to Fawley coastguard.’

“Shit, no. The ship he’s meeting is the Teak Trader. Who the hell is the Cartagena Star?” Ben opened the live shipping map he had been referring to constantly and saw that the Cartagena Star was one of the container ships.

***

              “What?”

“The safe isn’t empty.”

“What?”

“Concentrate for fuck’s sake.” Charles’s impatience at his granddaughter’s lack of perception bubbled to the surface. He tried again to get through her distraction and give information he knew she needed.