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POLICE and officials in reflective jackets were still milling around the grounds when they returned to the hotel. The old storeroom and surrounding area was entirely cordoned off.
As they entered reception, Laura’s mother saw them, an intense look of relief in her face.
“What happened to you?” she rushed over and hugged her daughter. She looked tearful. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“It’s okay,” Laura reassured, “they took us to London. The authorities were interested to know what we found in the old bunker.”
“And what did you find?” Mr Hoskin had appeared on hearing their voices.
Laura hesitated, remembering the death threat Boyd Vallance had issued.
“Oh, nothing much, just an old wartime map and some rifles. Otherwise the place was empty.” Laura felt compelled to say no more, and not only to protect her own and Gary’s life. She was fearful that if she told her parents about the find of banknotes and the printing press, their own lives might become jeopardised at some point.
“Well we’ve had the local press, TV and radio stations calling to ask all about it,” said Mr Hoskin.
“And we’ve also had lots of calls from people wanting to book rooms here,” Mrs Hoskin added. “The publicity has put us well and truly on the map.”
They entered the living room. Gary and Laura slumped exhausted on the sofa.
“I’ve been talking to some of the officials here,” Mr Hoskin seated himself on the armchair. “They say they’ll have to fill the tunnels and the bunker rooms with concrete. There’s a danger all the voids could cause the area to subside. Pity really, they would have made a great local attraction.”
Laura and Gary weren’t convinced by that reason. They thought it more likely there was something the authorities wanted to bury, never to be found again. Though it did seem a bit extreme to go to those lengths just to hide some wartime banknotes and an old printing press. Perhaps there was another reason.
******
Next day they woke to a beautiful, sunlit autumn morning. After breakfast Laura suggested they go for a walk. Most of the area was cordoned off, but Laura knew a coastal path nearby which was still open.
Should they dig deeper into their discovery they wondered? They knew it would be risky, but were annoyed at the sense of being gagged in what they thought was a free land. Perhaps the local historian Philip Longstaff could shed more light?
A firm decision on their next move evaded them as they returned to the hotel, but fate had already intervened to make that decision for them.
They entered the living room, where Laura’s mother was talking to a woman dressed in a black trouser suit, holding a laptop and a dark red folder.
“Ah, here they are now,” announced Mrs Hoskin.
“This lady is from the government,” she explained. “She said she’d like to speak to you for a moment.”
The woman stepped forward extending her hand in greeting. Laura guessed her to be around the same age as herself. She had short, cropped chestnut hair and an attractive oval face with a soft, healthy complexion.
“I’m Nikki Lane,” she presented herself. “I’m from the British government and I’d like to ask you a few questions about what you discovered in the old military bunker.”
Gary and Laura looked grim. Had she been sent by Boyd Vallance? Was she here to make further threats? Her manner, however, was friendly not threatening.
The woman turned to Mrs Hoskin.
“Would you mind if we chatted in private?”
Laura’s mother appeared a little put out, but then smiled and agreed to the request. She left the room and their visitor asked if it was okay for them to sit down together. She placed the laptop and the file on a coffee table as they seated themselves.
“I’m from the government’s intelligence operations department and I know you’ve been interviewed by Boyd Vallance,” she began. “I also know you’ve been threatened by him.”
Laura and Gary started to wonder what can of worms they’d opened by their discovery of the contents in the bunker, and were beginning to think they may have done better never to have found it.
“What I’m about to tell you is absolutely top secret, but you will understand why I am telling you and hope you will help me to bring about some justice and truth,” Nikki looked at them searchingly.
“How can an old wartime bunker be causing so much fuss with the authorities now?” Laura was genuinely puzzled.
The government agent inclined her head for a moment, considering her next words.
“You can both do a lot of good for your country. I’m going to trust you and I will support you all the way. But please help me to do the right thing,” she pleaded.
Laura was about to reply when Gary, sitting beside her on the sofa, placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s listen,” he said quietly.
Nikki began: “The old wartime British banknotes in the bunker were forgeries. They were produced on the printing machinery you discovered in there. The notes were printed in order to flood the country with counterfeit money, and undermine its already suffering wartime economy.”
The intelligence officer opened the laptop on the coffee table.
“Here’s the copy of a document detailing the illicit operation and submitted by an agent on the ground during World War Two,” Nikki displayed images of the brown, discoloured typed pages on the screen.
“I’m sorry to say, British army officers were involved in the plot,” she revealed.
“The underground coastal bunker was also a base that received coded radio messages from resistance fighters, who were launching attacks on the other side of the North Sea against the Nazis in German occupied Europe.
Gary and Laura could hardly believe the secret history they had stumbled across in the underground caverns.
“The same British army officers involved in the counterfeit money plot, were also passing messages from the resistance fighters back to the Nazis, enabling them to track down the networks and kill anyone involved. It was a shameful episode in our wartime history,” Nikki looked grim.
She glanced at Gary. “It was your grandmother Florence Morrison and her husband, Robert, your grandfather, who uncovered this ring of traitors.”
Gary’s jaw dropped, his eyes widened as pieces of the jigsaw in his mind began to assemble.
“Both of them worked in the government’s military intelligence service,” Nikki continued. “They rented a cottage, East Winds in Marswell, next door to a man called William Colson, a local businessman involved with running the counterfeit money operation.
“He was a go-between, linking traitorous figures in the British establishment, who thought Britain would fall to the Nazis, with the activities of the disloyal army officers.”
The couple sat on the sofa spellbound by Nikki’s narrative. Gary began to marvel at the undercover life his grandparents had lived. The old, sick woman Florence he’d only briefly known as a boy. It was hard to believe she was once an intelligence officer risking her life for her country. The family had never spoken of her having any active involvement in the war.
“Your grandparents befriended William Colson. Grandfather Robert took the undercover pretext of being a rich, city investment broker who had suffered heart problems and was renting the cottage next door with his wife for six months to convalesce.”
Nikki displayed head and shoulders photos of Florence and Robert on the laptop. Gary had no idea of how his grandfather had looked as a young man, but the photo of Florence stunned him. Her hair was styled slightly differently to the photo he’d seen of her as a young woman, shorter, but still wavy. Distinctly it was her. And it was the likeness he’d encountered in the apparitions. There was no longer any remote doubt that Nikki may have been talking about another woman.
“Your grandfather had worked in finance before the war,” Nikki continued, “so he was able to convince William Colson that he was an investment broker.
“Colson confided in Robert and Florence, hoping they would be able to contribute towards the funding he was also getting from the Nazis, and help him to widen the counterfeit operation. They believed there was a tunnel at the back of Colson’s cottage West Winds next door, which connected to the bunker and avoided any prying eyes getting sight of his access to the money printing operation.”
There was a knock on the living room door. Mrs Hoskin entered.
“I was wondering if you’d all like a cup of tea or coffee.”
Nikki stopped, closing the laptop.
“Mum!” Laura was annoyed by the interruption. “We’ll be finished in a minute, okay.”
Mrs Hoskin looked a little hurt. Laura realised she’d been abrupt. “Sorry mum. In a minute, we’ll have a drink in a minute. Thanks.”
Her mother gave a forgiving smile and left.
“Of course,” Nikki continued, “when Colson discovered through enquiries that Robert was not who he purported to be, that he was not an investment broker, he was furious. He never discovered they were undercover agents working for the government, but he feared his operation would be blown. It was then a case of who eliminated who first.”
As Nikki described how his grandparents killed Colson, a chill ran through Gary. It matched exactly the scenes of the apparitions fighting in his hotel room that night and his grandmother fatally stabbing Colson.
He told Nikki what he had witnessed. She listened with interest, but didn’t dismiss it as nonsense. The letter he had found among Florence’s possessions in the attic now also made more sense. Her description of the awful time she’d had at Marswell.
Nikki continued: “William Colson was ‘disappeared’. I believe he was disposed at sea with heavy weights attached to him, but there’s no official record. All his assets were seized by the government.”
“And his family suffered as a result,” Gary interrupted. “I know first hand.” He explained his encounter with the Sullivan brothers.
Nikki opened the laptop, searching through files.
“Sullivan. Yes, his daughter married William Sullivan, a farmer. They had three sons,” she read the file.
“Well they nearly got their revenge on me,” Gary observed wryly. “The locals think my grandmother had an affair with Colson as well.”
“That’s not in the record,” Nikki replied.
“I’m surprised his grandparents didn’t use an alias,” Laura spoke.
“I wouldn’t know for sure,” Nikki replied, “but it’s possible they thought their cover would be blown sooner if Colson couldn’t get a trace to an authentic marriage certificate. Things were moving fast then. They didn’t have access to James Bond style technology and resources. This was skin of your teeth stuff for real.” She looked at Gary. “You should be proud of them.”
“I am believe me, I am,” he was genuinely humbled.
They were silent for a moment, reflecting on the heroism of a past generation.
“And now you both have the chance to serve your country too,” Nikki announced. It was a role for which Gary and Laura were entirely unprepared. They looked at her in amazement.
“How?” Gary asked falteringly. The agent stared at the couple sitting on the sofa with a penetrating, unnerving gaze.
“You must swear to me, what I have already told you and what I am about to reveal, you will never tell anyone the information came from the British Intelligence Service.”
Gary and Laura were unsure of what they were letting themselves in for, but nodded agreement.
Nikki picked up the file from the coffee table and opened it.
“What your grandmother also discovered was something that could endanger the lives of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people even today,” Nikki turned over some of the pages in the file.
“Florence became aware of deeper underground caverns beneath the military bunker. She filed a report saying she was concerned at the activity going on down there. But the government of the day forbade her from pursuing her concerns any further.”
As Nikki spoke, Gary’s mind wandered to another part of his grandmother’s letter written to her friend Doris.
‘I deeply fear for our future and the dreadful thing they are doing here. No-one knows if it’s safe.’
“Florence found out that the deeper caverns were being used in the early development of the atomic bomb,” Nikki showed Laura and Gary a diagram on one of the file pages. They listened, completely shocked by the revelation.
“The Americans were the first, but British scientists were also working on nuclear fission in developing an atomic bomb, and the radioactive waste from their early experiments was being stored in secure caverns beneath the bunker,” Nikki pointed them out in the diagram. She paused.
“The fact is, the waste is still there today. The caverns are encased in concrete, but it is old and unstable material. It could hold for perhaps another 100 years, or it could collapse tomorrow, contaminating a huge area all around with radiation. It could be a national disaster.”
The couple digested the news with a growing sense of horror.
“Why haven’t the authorities done anything about it?” Gary was angry. Laura nodded with the same amazed fury.
“Because successive governments have all known about it. Initially not wanting to reveal details of secret research, and today fearful of the embarrassment it would cause them if they were to admit they knew about it, but had done nothing,” Nikki sounded equally outraged. “It’s a conspiracy of silence. They hope it will hold and that someone else will take the wrap when it’s no longer on their watch. Deny ever knowing.”
Gary and Laura could hardly believe the cynicism of the very people who were meant to be protecting the country’s welfare and interests.
“What can we do about it?” asked Gary, feeling powerless against the forces of government.
“Release the files in this folder to the media,” Nikki held it out. “It details the layout of the radioactive storage tanks. Say you found them in the underground bunker.”
“But we were rescued from the sea. They’d have been ruined,” Gary indicated the flaw in Nikki’s plan.
“Say you found them in an airtight tin. Just get the message out. Thousands of lives are potentially at risk.”
“Why can’t you release it?” Laura was puzzled.
“I would love to, but I can’t because....” Nikki’s phone rang. She answered, listening for a moment.
“Okay. I can meet you at four,” she hung up.
“I know I’m asking a lot,” she looked at the quizzical Laura. “I will explain to you, but I have to leave now. This needs to be done.” She handed the folder to Gary.
The couple couldn’t disagree over the urgency, but didn’t feel they knew the whole story.
Nikki stood up. “When the media get this information, they’ll be on to it like wild animals and more interested in grilling the government than you. But I suggest a short break abroad, France maybe might be a good idea until it dies down a bit.” She made her way towards the door then stopped.
“Oh, and if any of my people from the intelligence service start to give you a hard time, tell them you have a copy of file number 1369B/D. I’ve written it down on a note with the bunker file. That should stop them.”
Gary and Laura guessed she was referring to the unpleasant Boyd Vallance.
“I’ll be in touch with you again.” Nikki smiled and left.
The couple sat silently for a moment or two, their minds grappling with the enormity of what they’d heard and of the mission Nikki had set them. Lives were at risk, including those Laura held most dearly, her own parents. They had no choice other than to accept. The veiled warning ‘if my people start to give you a hard time’ also echoed in their thoughts. What in heaven’s name were they about to encounter now?
The living room door opened and in came Laura’s mother and father.
“What did the lady want?” Mrs Hoskin quizzed.
“She just wanted to ask us what we’d found in the bunker,” Laura replied as she and Gary rose from the sofa. “Just someone from the government. We couldn’t tell her anything much.”
“What’s that on the coffee table?” Mrs Hoskin was curious.
“Oh, it’s just a folder with the history of the bunker that she gave to us,” Laura reached for it, clutching it closely to her side.
“I’d love to see that,” Arthur Hoskin approached her, but Laura held it firmly.
“Me first!” she made a joke of it, terrified of her parents knowing what she and Gary knew, in case any knowledge could put their lives at risk too from threatening interrogators.
“Well that was a long meeting to talk about nothing much,” Mrs Hoskin observed. Laura knew her parents were unconvinced, but what else could she do.
“Is it all right if I take a few days holiday from tomorrow? “Laura asked her mother, thinking about Nikki’s advice to lie-low when they’d released the files to the media.
Mrs Hoskin looked thoughtful, considering.
“It’s a bit sudden, but I think Ronnie would be grateful for some overtime.”
Laura thanked her mother. Mr and Mrs Hoskin were not entirely comfortable with their daughter’s explanations about meetings with government officials. But since she’d met Gary, she seemed brighter and happier. That was more important to them.
******
The couple looked through the files in the privacy of Laura’s room. They were marked Top Secret and dated March 1944. It detailed the underground caverns in which the radioactive material was stored, buried deep beneath the rooms where they had made their own discoveries in the bunker.
They scanned the papers and prepared them in a folder on Laura’s computer for email delivery to the national papers and broadcast media. The couple were planning to take Nikki’s advice and had booked a stay in a bed and breakfast guest house at Bayeux in the Normandy region of France. They would email the file early next morning after getting a good night’s rest, then head off to Dover to catch the channel ferry to Calais.
Sooner or later the media would no doubt catch up with them, but for now they intended to stay out of the spotlight. And a few days away would do them good they hoped.
Laura delivered the emails at six o’clock next morning. As she and Gary were leaving the hotel carrying their travel bags, she met her mother coming out of the kitchen.
“Off to somewhere nice?” Mrs Hoskin enquired, slightly offended that her daughter hadn’t told her she was obviously leaving to stay somewhere else for a while.
“I was going to ring you when we arrived,” Laura replied defensively. “We’re not quite sure where we’re going to stay. Just taking a short drive until we find somewhere.” She didn’t want to reveal their plan, because if the papers and media called, her mother might unwittingly give away their location. Laura felt guilty about the deceit, but she wanted to protect her parents from the pressure of government agents if they thought for one moment her parents might be holding any secret information. She recalled the threat from Boyd Vallance.
“Well you have a good time and ring me when you arrive,” Mrs Hoskin hugged her daughter.
The early start enabled them to beat most of the rush hour traffic and within two hours they were nearing the ferry. Music was playing on the radio when the programme was suddenly interrupted for a newsflash.
“Government officials are being quizzed about a secret atomic waste site hidden beneath an old military bunker at Marswell in Suffolk.
“The radioactive material, buried in deep underground caverns, dates from the Second World War and is said to pose a huge risk to thousands of people in the area, with the old storage facility liable to collapse at any time. We’ll keep you updated with the latest news on this shocking discovery,” the report concluded.
Until now, the events which had befallen Gary and Laura didn’t seem entirely real, almost like a fiction that didn’t happen to ordinary people. For some reason, hearing the results of what they had done announced on the radio, left them in no doubt about the reality of their situation.
Gary drove the car into the ferry terminal and towards the frontier office checkpoint. A security officer reached out through the window to check their passports. He glanced at them with an emotionless face, then handed the passports back. Gary drove on, relieved they were now about to embark on the ferry and hopefully enjoy a few days peace.
Suddenly a car pulled sharply in front of him. He slammed on the brakes, narrowly missing a collision, his heart racing. Two men in suits jumped out of the blocking vehicle brandishing guns.
“Get out!” they shouted, pointing the weapons.
The couple looked at each other bemused, terrified. What in God’s name was going to happen to them? Was this the end?
They got out of the car as onlookers stared at the scene in amazement. The two armed men waved them towards their waiting car. Gary and Laura climbed onto the back seats as directed. The two gunmen got into the front of the vehicle.
“Don’t cause any trouble and you’ll be all right,” the man in the passenger seat turned to warn them, the brutal expression on his face even more threatening than the gun he was holding.
The journey progressed in complete silence. Gary recognised they were approaching the M25 motorway and then the outer suburbs of London. The man in the passenger seat turned again to them producing two eyeless balaclava hoods.
“Put these on,” he ordered, “if you take them off, I’ll kill you.” They knew it was no idle threat. They pulled on the hoods and no longer had any idea of location. After several minutes the car pulled up and they were led out of the vehicle, completely disorientated, into what sounded like an echoing open space as their footsteps crossed a hard floor. They were guided into a lift, sensing descent, then along another hard floor surface. A door opened and they were ushered in.
“You can take off your hoods now,” the voice sounded familiar. They removed them to see Boyd Vallance standing beside a bare wooden table with four chairs. The walls of the room were solid steel. It looked like a secure interrogation room cum cell. A CCTV camera pointed at them perched high in the far corner.
“Dear, oh dear, oh dear,” Vallance shook his head. “Back so soon. I didn’t think we’d have the pleasure of meeting again.” His sarcasm was laid on thick. No longer dressed down in shirt sleeves as on their previous meeting, he was wearing a dark suit and the penetration of his eyes in that lean, sinewy face now bore menace.
“We won’t beat around the bush,” Vallance sat on the edge of the table. “Tell me who gave you the files about the radioactive storage facility?”
Laura and Gary made no reply.
Vallance persisted. “You’ve caused a big headache for the government. I know you released the files to the media and things will go a lot more smoothly for you if you just tell me who gave them to you.”
“We found them in the old military bunker,” Gary replied. “They were in an airtight tin.”
Vallance craned his head, a look of patent disbelief in his face. He stood up.
“Take her out,” he ordered the two security officers who’d brought the couple into the room, now flanking them on either side. They led Laura out, closing the steel door behind.
“I think one of our agents gave them to you. Tell me who?”
It would be easy for Gary to just tell him and hopefully get this whole unpleasant episode over. But he doubted it would be that simple. He sensed Vallance wanted revenge. Now Gary was growing worried about what might be happening to Laura. He had what he prayed was the trump card delivered by Nikki.
“I have a copy of file 1369B/D,” Gary spoke.
Vallance had begun pacing the room. He stopped in his tracks.
“Someone’s given that to you as well, have they?” he fired at Gary, looking malevolent. “And what does it tell you?” Vallance played his card.
Gary had no idea what the file contained, but wondered if the contents had some serious implications for his inquisitor. Vallance approached, threateningly, speaking closely into his victim’s face.
“I think you don’t know,” his pungent breath caused Gary to flinch.
Vallance began pacing the room again.
“Don’t think you’re going to blackmail me into letting you both go. You will tell me who is giving you this information.”
“So you plan to torture it out of me, do you?” Gary detected Vallance was worried at mention of the file number. But it was a gamble.
His interrogator was silent for a few moments, deep in thought. Then he spoke as if relishing the words.
“No, I won’t torture you.” He looked up at the CCTV camera in the far corner.
“Bring her back in.”
Gary’s blood ran cold.
In another few moments the door opened and a plain clothes officer led Laura back into the room. She looked at Gary, fear in her eyes.
A man in a white medical gown also entered the room, carrying a briefcase which he placed on the table.
“Come over here my dear,” he invited Laura, peering at her through dark rimmed spectacles beneath a head of swept-back, black hair. He smiled at her and looked not in the least menacing, but the welcome seemed to belie an intent of deep harm. Her escort led her over to the table.
The man opened the briefcase to reveal a set of cutting instruments laid neatly in a row. Laura stared at them in disbelief, pliers, a hacksaw, a breadknife, an electric carving knife and a garden plant pruner. Laura’s disbelief turned to horror as she calculated what lay in store.
“Your friend here,” Vallance nodded towards Gary, “won’t reveal who gave you the files. Perhaps you might both change your minds now.”
Gary lunged at Vallance delivering a blow at his head, but the heavily built security officer grabbed him before the blow could impact.
Vallance was angry.
“Right, do it now!” he ordered the man in the white gown.
Obeying, he removed a container from the briefcase and took out a surgical wipe. Taking hold of Laura’s right arm, he wiped her thumb with it. Then he removed the garden plant pruner. Laura tried to free herself from his grip, but the man was more powerful than his small build credited. He forced her hand on to the table.
Gary struggled to free himself from the arm hold of the henchman restraining him. Laura had closed her fingers into a fist. The man in the gown flipped back the safety catch on the pruners causing the blades to spring open and reveal their shiny, razor-sharp blades.
“Please extend your thumb,” he requested in the most friendly, inviting tone, as if undertaking a normal medical procedure. Laura refused.
“Well I may have to use the hacksaw to cut your hand off at the wrist,” he warned calmly.
“Last chance to tell me who has given you the secret information,” Vallance offered.
Gary couldn’t let this proceed any further. They’d resisted up to the wire and he was moved by Laura’s demonstration of sheer guts, but he should be the victim, not her. And neither of them had asked to become involved in all this secrecy and subterfuge.
“I’ll tell you!” Gary called out, struggling against the restraining arm.
Vallance nodded towards the officer holding him. He released his grip.
“We’ve no idea what file 1369B/D contains,” Gary admitted. Vallance looked smugly relieved.
“I thought so.” He paused.
“The trouble is, I will never be sure and I don’t like being in that position. Dispose of them!”
The man in the gown wrested Laura’s arm behind her back, the officer did likewise to Gary. The couple attempted to break free, but the searing pain as their arms were forced upwards to near breaking point immobilised them. Vallance walked to the door and opened it. His face dropped in horror. Standing outside was a woman dressed in a dark green, combat suit pointing an automatic rifle at him.
Gary and Laura, restrained behind him saw her too, and thought this was their moment of execution. Then they recognised the woman’s face. It was Nikki!
“Release them!” she waved the rifle nozzle commanding Vallance to step aside. His henchmen freed them.
“Come on,” she called to the couple. They left the room to stand beside her. Vallance looked grim.
“You won’t get away with this,” he threatened.
“Shut up!” Nikki was in no mood for this threats.
“You won’t get far!” Vallance persisted.
She ignored his blustering. “Now close the door,” she ordered. Slowly, reluctantly he obeyed. He knew she wouldn’t hesitate to use the gun. Nikki slammed shut two heavy metal bolts top and bottom of the steel door.
“Follow me,” she instructed the couple. They ran down a long corridor and through another door into an underground car park. Nikki led them to a silver Range Rover. They got in and she drove off. A guard at the exit barrier took her identity card and scanned it. He recognised her but had to carry out procedure. They had to wait a moment. She was impatient. Vallance should be imprisoned for some time, but she didn’t want the building to be locked-down if he’d found a quick way to escape.
“The scanner’s playing up a bit,” the guard explained the delay, as he finally handed back her card. She didn’t stop to exchange niceties. As the barrier lifted, she sped away exiting up a ramp into the streets of London.
Seated behind Nikki, the couple were silent for a while, regaining their composure. One second they were facing death, the next they’d been dramatically rescued.
“I’m taking you to a safe house,” Nikki explained, “but not one that Vallance knows about yet. I expect he’ll trace it sooner or later, but it’ll give us a bit of time. Meanwhile, if you’ve got mobiles turn them off, or he’ll track us even sooner.” The couple obeyed.
“I’m really sorry for what you’ve been through,” the intelligence agent expressed her regret.
“When you released the files about the radioactive waste, I anticipated you might be picked up and interviewed by Vallance again.
“I thought if you mentioned file 1369B/D, which is about the counterfeiting operation that was carried out in the bunker, he’d leave you alone. For some reason he’s very sensitive about it, but I don’t know why. I’m presently making some enquiries. The fact that he was prepared to torture you to discover what you might know about it makes me even more suspicious.”
“Thank God you found us in time,” said Gary.
“Fortunately I was tipped off by one of Vallance’s officers, someone who hates the man, that you were in the building and what he was planning for you.”
“Can’t he be arrested? He threatened to torture and kill us.” Laura sounded outraged.
Nikki gave an ironic smile. “Things don’t work like that in our world,” she explained. “We deal with our bad ones in different ways,” her words carried a deep tone of menace.
“Why couldn’t your department have released the information about the radioactive waste, why have we had to go through this hell?” sounded angry.
“We couldn’t possibly release it. It would ruin our reputation with other intelligence services in the United States and Europe. They’d be jittery we couldn’t be trusted with information they passed on to us. We don’t release secrets to the public.”
Gary and Laura were struggling to comprehend the machinations of the underworld that was supposedly meant to be protecting its citizens.
“My boss in Internal Affairs thought for some time that the atomic waste secret needed to be revealed, because of the public risk. When we heard you’d accessed the old military bunker, we realised this was the perfect opportunity for a member of the public to reveal its location without compromising the secrecy of the intelligence service.”
It all seemed incredibly cynical to Gary and Laura, who were not happy at being used as pawns in the games of international espionage, but they couldn’t deny the secret had needed exposing.
“And what about the counterfeiting operation?” Laura asked. “Why can’t details about that be released? Surely people have a right to know what went on with those traitors, even though it was a long time ago.”
“Details about that certainly couldn’t be released, even now,” Nikki replied, “but I’ll tell you why when we’re at the safe house.”
The Range Rover swerved as Nikki took a sharp right into a residential street. She was heading out of town towards the south London suburbs. She pulled into a space between parked cars.
“Right we’ve got to change vehicles. We’re now out of range of street surveillance cameras so it’ll be harder for Vallance’s people to track us. We’re heading for a place in Kent which Vallance doesn’t know of. We’ll take back routes to avoid CCTV.”
Lifting a rucksack from the back of the vehicle, Nikki led them to a red BMW saloon car parked across the road.
“Right climb in and wait for me,” Nikki opened the rear door for them. “I’ve got to see someone at a house near here. They may have some important information for me. I’ll be back shortly.” Nikki hurried down the street and disappeared through a gate leading to a three-storey terraced house.
Gary and Laura wondered for a moment if they might have been abandoned, or set up in some trap, such was the unsettled state of their nerves. Ten minutes later Nikki returned carrying a folder. She was smiling as she climbed into the front of the car.
“I think we may have the information we need to nail our man Boyd Vallance,” she waved the folder then placed it on the front seat beside her. “One of my people has been doing some excellent delving into the intelligence records.” She started the engine and pulled away. “But we’ve got to get you two out of harm’s way first.”
The journey to the safe house took another couple of hours, the route eventually leading them into deep countryside, travelling down a narrow lane bordered by fields with grazing sheep. The lane ended in a cul-de-sac as they entered a large, gravelled parking area beside an old, attractive country cottage covered in wisteria and set back behind a lawn at the front.
“We should be safe here overnight at least,” said Nikki as they got out of the car.
The inside of the cottage was fairly basic with enough chairs and a sofa to be reasonably comfortable.
“There are two bedrooms upstairs,” Nikki explained the layout as they entered the small kitchen. “I’ll sleep downstairs in the living room to keep guard,” she outlined her strategy, removing a semi-automatic machine gun from her rucksack and laying it on the kitchen table. It had the effect of instilling more fear than security for Laura and Gary.
“What the hell was she expecting to happen next?” they thought.
Nikki read their expressions. “It’s okay, it’s just for insurance purposes,” she reassured.
The kitchen wasn’t well stocked. There was tinned ham, soup and sardines, coffee and crisp bread. An electric cooker served their heating needs. They concocted a meal then relaxed sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee from mugs.
“You were going to tell us something about the wartime counterfeiting operation,” Laura reminded Nikki.
She nodded and reached down into her rucksack beside her on the floor, removing a file and placing it on the table. She opened it.
“What I’m about to tell you is an absolutely top level secret. If you ever disclosed it publicly, I could not vouch for your safety,” Nikki prefaced in the most diplomatic way the inevitable fate that would await them should they betray her trust. They nodded, acknowledging her terms.
“Now the file shows the British army officers, who were involved in the money counterfeiting operation to ruin the wartime economy, have descendants alive today. They currently hold high ranking positions in the British establishment.
“Among them is a government Member of Parliament, Neil Bertram, who we know has a dark and shady background.”
Gary and Laura recognised the name. He was often on television programmes.
“He’s built a reputation as a strong defender of human rights and a champion against undemocratic regimes,” Nikki continued. “He’s set up an organisation called, Poweraid, raising money to fund charities supplying food and medical aid to many of these countries, particularly in Africa.”
“Well there’s nothing bad about that,” Laura interrupted.
“No,” Nikki agreed, “except that we’ve discovered much of this fund money is being filtered elsewhere into a company called Starmer Investments. But it doesn’t stop there. It is then diverted into three other subsidiary companies.”
“Why?” asked Gary.
“Good question and I wondered why,” Nikki replied, turning a page of the file and looking at it.
“Further investigation shows that the MP, Neil Bertram, is one of the directors of these subsidiary companies called Prosper Assets, but he’s listed using a false name.” She stopped and took a sip of her coffee.
“Now we know Boyd Vallance is a friend of this MP and we have strongly suspected he is another director of this company. That’s why I think he’s taken an interest in the potential exposure of the counterfeiting operation.
“Media questions about who was involved in it, would link the MP Neil Bertram as being the grandson of one of the traitorous military officers helping the Nazis to ruin our wartime economy, and to target resistance fighters. The media might then take a much closer look at Bertram’s fund raising activities.”
“But he’s done nothing wrong,” Laura protested, “He’s helping poor people.”
“We have evidence in this file that Bertram is using Prosper Assets to filter large amounts of money from the fund into his own offshore account. And I believe that Boyd Vallance is the other director who is also profiting from it too. But until today, I’ve had no proof.”
Nikki picked up another file.
“When I stopped off at that house earlier, I visited one of my agents who’s been working on this case. After a great deal of research sifting through company records and collating intelligence reports, he has come up with a link which shows Boyd Vallance as the other director of Prosper Assets, also using a false name. It’s all in here,” she tapped the file.
“So that’s why he’s been so keen to silence us,” Gary began to see the picture. “He was afraid we might have found some information in the bunker relating to the Bertram family name and the media would start asking questions when they connected it with the MP.”
“Exactly,” Nikki confirmed.
“So what happens now?” asked Laura.
“We need to get this file showing Boyd Vallance’s connection with Prosper Assets to my commander. With this and the information we already have about Neil Bertram MP, we’ll be able to stop their criminal pilfering of the fund aid operation.”
“What expose them?” Gary interrupted.
“No.” Nikki was adamant. “I’ve told you if there’s the slightest hint our intelligence operations released sensitive material, it would wreck trust with our partners for years. But Bertram and Vallance wouldn’t dare to continue, because they know the files might be ‘accidentally’ leaked were they to step out of line.”
Laura was depressed by the subterfuge. It didn’t seem just. Nikki read her look.
“I’ve told you Laura. We have our own way of punishing miscreants. They won’t get away Scot free.”
Nikki paused, turning her mind to another matter.
“Now there’s three of us. If we’re attacked there’s a greater chance at least one of us will survive to deliver the file to my commander,” her words spelled a chilling scenario.
“Deliver it where?” asked Laura.
“If I’m no longer with you, call this number and ask for The Gateway.” Nikki took a slip of paper and pen from her rucksack pocket and wrote it down.
“Someone will collect you. But don’t leave your mobile phone on, or you’ll be traced by Vallance’s people,” she warned.
“And only make the call when you’re close to the Houses of Parliament near my Westminster headquarters in London. Any further away, if Vallance gets a trace on the mobile, he might get to you before my people.”
“Can’t you just photograph it on your phone camera and send it to your commander?” Laura was puzzled.
“What, and risk it being intercepted by other agencies and spread across the internet in hours? Certainly not!”
Gary and Laura were growing more and more uneasy with the dangerous situation they now found themselves in, but were stuck with this plan as their only hope of finding a way out.
“Now it’s ten thirty and we have to make an early start tomorrow. Vallance is no doubt busily trying to track our location even now. We’ll get some rest then set off for London,” Nikki stood up, taking hold of her rucksack.
“There are two bedrooms upstairs, unless you want to share one?”
From Gary and Laura’s looks, Nikki realised they may have shared a lot, but a bed wasn’t one of them.
“I’ll sleep on the sofa down here,” Gary offered. “You have a bedroom.”
“No thanks,” said Nikki, taking hold of the semi-automatic.
“I’ll rest on the sofa. We may have some unwelcome visitors.”
