Read Enemy Within Online

Authors: William David

Enemy Within (2 page)

At the door I stand and look to see if it is alarmed. It appears to be wedged open. As I open the door and move on to the balcony steps outside I can see why. This is smoko's corner, where everyone comes for an illicit cigarette; there are butts everywhere.  I am on the third floor and below me through the gloomy wet night I can see that I am overlooking the car park, the main entrance to the building appears to be on the other side. It takes me 20 minutes of stop-start effort to get down 6 flights of stairs to the ground. The exercise is gradually loosening the muscles and by the time I reach the bottom I can walk nearly normally providing I hold my chest rigid to avoid the shooting pains. There is no one around and as I pass the other floors I can see that all lights have been dimmed for the night. I wish it would stop raining! At the base of the steps I look around and wonder what to do. I am not exactly mobile so I need transport. I have no skills related to breaking in to and starting a car in the car park and it would be pushing my luck too far to hope someone has left their keys in the car.

I move around towards the front of the building. Here the entrance is a blaze of light making the concrete of the driveway and entrance porch to the Accident and Emergency unit glisten in the incessant rain. I slump down just out of sight behind a hedge, glad of the rest, and contemplate what to do. Above all I have to get out of here quickly, but plainly I cannot walk out and I am getting soaked! While I am sitting there an ambulance enters the driveway, lights flashing and pulls up outside the doors. The driver gets out and together with a colleague from inside the vehicle they quickly push a stretcher inside. Could I steal the ambulance? Did the driver leave the keys? Before I could answer the question the crew return. Opportunity gone. The ambulance moves off and it is quiet again.

Suddenly a car screams in through the gate, gets the bend wrong on the drive and takes a whole strip of carefully nurtured roses with it. It navigates back on to the drive and screeches to a halt outside the entrance. A man jumps out of the drivers’ door and runs round to the rear passenger door shouting as he goes. The door opens and a woman can be seen sitting there nursing someone or something on her lap. The man runs in to the doorway yelling as he goes and seconds later reappears with two staff and a stretcher trolley. What looks like a young girl is loaded on to the stretcher and all disappear inside with the man gesticulating and talking at the top of his voice.

In the meantime, there is a car, engine running. Miracle three?

I feel guilty but I am in the drivers seat quickly and off down the drive at a rate of knots. I quickly get on to the by-pass and then on to the motorway. I now need to find somewhere to rest up. A hotel and some shoes! 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 4

 

Gerry Dawson, a balding middle-aged, anonymous looking and apparently innocuous civil servant has had a bad day. Beneath his calm exterior he is absolutely bristling with rage. The target had nearly been killed and then he had disappeared and there was no clue as to his whereabouts.  An icy call a few minutes ago had made it clear that they did not approve of failures like that and he felt worried!

Earlier he had learnt that Martin Lever had been in
a car smash the previous night;
the vehicles had caught fire and the police and ambulance called. One man was dead, (possibly his contractor), and Lever in hospital. The police involvement would make things difficult. Now he had just heard that before they could get to him, Lever had disappeared from the hospital. It seemed he might have stolen a visitor’s car.

His PA knocked on the door and entered with a sheaf of papers and photos.  Included are Images of a shadowy figure, (presumably Lever), outside the hospital. Pity that security staff were not looking at the monitors! He told Anne to find out where Naismith was and tell him to get in as soon as possible. In the meantime leave him and close the door. His demeanour made it clear that despite the hour she should stay until he said she could go.

He took a
‘‘‘phone
out of his pocket and sent off a text message. Five minutes later and his
‘‘‘phone
buzzed with the reply. He closed the Lever file he was reviewing, grabbed his jacket, and left.

Down
stairs in the car park he got in to his car and drove out in to the evening gloom. It was raining, and the reflection of the street lights gleamed from the wet road surface. In 10 minutes he was down at the city wharf and in to an open space used as a car park. At this time of the day it was nearly empty with one car at the far end and another standing isolated in the centre.  

He drove over to o
ne end that overlooked where a
lock linked the canal to the harbour, and got out. It had stopped raining and it felt fresh. He took a deep breath and looked at his watch, 10.30pm. As he looked up a set of headlights entered the other end of the car park and moved towards him, pulling up next to his car. He got in to the passenger seat. The car was full of cigarette smoke and he coughed violently before getting the window open and cursing the driver

The driver looked like your typical 1950's East End villain stereotype. Late forties early fifties, thin faced and balding with his remaining hair left long and plastered across to conceal it, oversize jacket hanging on a spare frame, and a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth.
Could have been one of the Krays!
“For gods sake put that out!” and, “what the hell went wrong Reg,” said Dawson in a raised voice. “This was a simple straight forward job. You were to hurt him a little as a warning, not try and kill him!”

Reg wound down his window and threw his cigarette out. “Don't know what happened Guv. Haven't got to the bottom of it yet.”

“Well you need to get a grip on this. First you need to find him and keep track of him and it needs to happen quickly! If we find him first I will let you know but keep me updated. Don't touch him unless I say so.”

“OK Guv.”

With that, Dawson got out of the car slamming the door, and drove off in his own car, tyres screeching.

 

 

 

 

Back at the office, Naismith had returned as ordered and sat talking to Anne while waiting for Dawson to return. “Watch out, he is in one hell of a mood” said Anne.  “Something seems to have gone wrong. After he had a call this evening I thought he was going to implode! I have never seen him so angry. He thinks he hides it, but after 5 years I know all the signs, and he was looking as mean as I have ever seen him.”

“He's always mean and nasty,” said Naismith. I don't know how you could have stayed with him so long, and working these hours!”

“Money's good!” she replied.

At that point Dawson walked in and called Naismith to follow him in to his office and shut the door. He threw a set of photo's and background notes on to the desk in front of Naismith and said. “Drop everything else. Whatever it takes we have to find this man and quickly, so tell your team no more lazing around and get to work. When you've found him, don't go near him, just set up a tail and let me know immediately.” Dawson filled in the details of the last known location of Martin Lever and without another glance started working on his computer. Naismith picked up the papers and left, shrugging his shoulders as he passed Anne.

CHAPTER 5

 

In the meantime I was in a hotel out at the airport. There had been a pair of walking boots in the car boot, and while they were a little small and were not smart they looked a lot better and less noticeable than the white hospital slippers. They would do for now. I had dumped the car in the long-term car park, caught the courtesy bus in to the terminal and then a hotel courtesy bus to the Hilton. Checking in had seemed to take forever and I had paid cash which all hotels hate, as they like the flexibility of getting and logging the plastic details. To explain the lack of luggage I had told the reception that the airline had lost it and to let me know if the airline rang with any news of it.

In the shop in the foyer I had purchased a range of painkillers and then gone to my room. I was seriously hurting. There did not seem to be any part of my body that did not ache, even my feet were protesting at
being crippled by the
undersized boots! I hung the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the outside of the door, locked it and then closed the room curtains. In the bathroom I opened my pills, got some water and taking what I guessed would not be a fatal overdose, stripped off my clothes as I walked back in to the bedroom and collapsed on the bed. I hoped I had bought some time as I needed to sleep, and I did.

CHAPTER 6

 

In down
town
Bristol
Alec
Bell
paced his office. It was late, everyone else had gone for the day and he also needed to get home and get some sleep. It had been a long day, not unusual at the moment, but a day that had started early with the news of the car crash and that Martin was in hospital. Martin was his technical director and a good friend. He was a key part of the company's future and a vital part of the team, particularly at the present time.

Visiting the hospital he had found Martin unconscious or asleep but a doctor had told him that he was not seriously injured, concussion, severely bruised ribs and some severe skin abrasions was the likely verdict. They would know for sure later when he'd had some rest and came round from the sedative. Alec had been surprised to see that the police were still at the hospital, and while they would not say anything specific it appeared that the car smash might not have been a straightforward accident.

Bell
was CEO of Control Networks Ltd., and as he paced his executive office on the 25th floor of the Control Networks building he wondered if this was just an accident or whether something much more sinister was going on. This niggling thought just added to the tension in his gut. For once he was oblivious to the magnificent view from his office looking down over the sprawling city lights of Bristol, with the harbour and the SS Great Britain a marvellous spectacle below him, and
in the distance
the Clifton Gorge and the illuminated Brunel's Suspension Bridge
clearly visible
despite the rain.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 7

 

As I opened my eyes I could not, for a moment, remember where I was. Then it came flooding back. The sun
light
was doing its best to get round and through the clos
ed curtains,
a nice day perhaps? I rolled over and a pain shot up my side. After a few moments I tried again and slowly put my legs over the side of the bed, grabbed some pills and staggered to the bathroom. In the bathroom I splashed water over my face and washed the pills down with water. I felt groggy, so I stuck my head under the shower and let it run. After a while I lathered those areas not covered by my chest bandage and washed my hair. It never failed, a hair wash always wakes me up and gets me thinking at normal speed,
and I
almost felt human again. Drying myself as I stepped back in to the room I took a further dose of pills; providing I was careful the ribs seemed to be under control.  Sitting on the bed I started to draw up a list of things to do. 

In the short term I needed a pair of shoes. Then I needed to get out of the hotel. I had been careful not to use a credit card but the airport and surrounds were bristling with CCTV cameras so presumably I would be traced before long. Which led me to another thought. If they, whoever they were, were able to trace my card use then I had to use cash that meant I needed more than I was currently carrying and could get from an ATM. I had better get to the bank.

I dressed, went down stairs, settled the bill, and caught the courtesy bus back out to the airport where in a shoe shop I bought a pair of trainers. Further along the airport mall I bought some underwear and socks, shirts, a pair of Jeans and a corduroy jacket. Next door I bought a cheap travel bag and in the gents bathroom dressed in fresh clothes. I had to get a move on. There had been no alternative but to use a credit card so if and when they did get on to that I did not want to be around.

I caught the bus in to Bristol and walked to the bank just round the corner from the office. I filled in a withdrawal form for 5,000 cash and after extensive identity checks the cashier disappeared, possibly to check with higher authority; a nerve racking few minutes in the semi paranoid state I was in. After what seemed an age the cashier returned with additional cash from the safe, logged it in to her till and then counted out my
£
5,000. At my request it was mostly
tens
and
twentys
, although they did top it up with fifties. Apparently the short notice made that necessary. The cashier looked on as I stuffed a thousand in tens and twenties in to my jacket pocket and put the rest in to the travel bag.

Outside the sun was shining and it was a lovely day. The bank was at one end of a shopping mall and I wandered down the pedestrian precinct until I found a coffee shop.  Inside I queued up and ordered a large latte, but in a mug; I hated latte in a glass. It was not on the menu but I established that they could do me a bacon sandwich and picking up a sachet of HP sauce on the way went and found a table in the gloom at the back of the shop.

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