Holy Island Trilogy 03 - The Final Countdown (7 page)

Millar was tall, dark-skinned and handsome, and he knew it. He had a fancy for black suits and crisp white shirts. Vain though he was, he was a good man. Tonight he had been on the door and, feet apart with his hands behind his back, he had watched as, the meeting finally over, most of the families were either wandering into the bar to continue whatever petty grievances they had, or storming up the stairs to bed.

He’d been recruited into the agency seven years ago by Tony, and spent the first six months in permanent shock as things were slowly revealed to him. Five weeks ago, he’d found the agency within the agency, and thank God for that. He didn’t know that Tony had been watching him for years, and had told him about the inner agency just before he reached melting point. It was what had saved his life.

Tony knew a good man when he saw one. He had also decided it was time that Josh was brought fully into the loop. They needed all the good men fully on board. Unknown to Josh though, that was the real reason for this conversation.

‘Shall we have a stroll round the garden?’ Without waiting for Josh to say yes or no, Tony headed towards the French doors. Knowing an order when he got one, Josh followed him and stood discreetly by when Tony spoke to a few family members on the way.

‘Basically, what it boils down to is...’ Tony shrugged. They reached the rose garden. ’As you heard in there…cutting the world population down. They’ve actually bought into their own hype about global warming.’

‘But they started the rumour themselves.’

‘Yep just one of their many ploys, that wasn’t really thought out back then. Something for them to fall back on, and boy, have they fallen back on it big time.’

‘Haven’t the people suffered enough? Generations of secret family rule, and what do we have? Starving people and kids living in squalor all over the world, mostly in countries that have their own wealth but are ruled by a family member. Surely it would have been easier to stop all this centuries ago.’

‘Think about it Josh. Realise just how easy it was to not stop it. Countries were separated from each other for a long, long time. Your ordinary man in the street didn’t know what was going on half a mile away, never mind across the world.’

Josh nodded. ‘I suppose.’

‘They had plenty of time to dig their feet in and carve their ways on the rest of us. What do you think was the real reason behind the Roman push around the world? The families were behind it - that, and just about every invasion since. And a few before then. Ordinary people, or 'peasants', as they like to call them...us...have no desires on anyone’s property in the next county, never mind country. Why would they? Too busy feeding their own flaming family. But they are, and always have been, made to go to war, time and time again. All in the name of greed and power. Think how much the arms dealers make, all of them family owned. And there are wars going on in corners of the world most of the people haven’t even heard of. Think about the pharmaceutical companies, inventing drug after drug, one to make you better from some unknown disease and yet another to make you better from the first drug. Again, all family owned, and on and on. As well as the street drugs, let's not forget them, mostly spin offs from the pharmaceutical companies.’

Josh blinked. This was a long speech from Tony, but as usual it all made sense.

‘Look around you. This is not how it was meant to be. A few living in luxury, while most have nothing. Scrabbling a living from wherever they can. And now they are about to heap more injustice and cruelty on an unsuspecting world.’

‘As well as breeding ignorance.’

Inwardly Tony groaned. He liked Millar, everyone did, but before he’d been recruited Millar had been a librarian. It was still hard to catch him without a book in his hand. He had been outraged at the library cuts, claiming that in a few years there would be no libraries at all, and so the families would be breeding exactly what they wanted. No books to read, no way to learn what was beyond their own village. And once the internet was shut down, and Kindles became obsolete, end of story, They would be truly back in the dark ages.

He hadn’t known just how right he was. The e-book was part of a plan. In a few years, no more paper books that lasted for years, no more libraries left, and then the death of e-books. It was exactly what the families wanted, what had been planned.

First thing to go would be the internet, he was fond of saying, because it had sprung up so unexpectedly and caught everyone by surprise. Agents were already working on a virus that would wipe out all computers forever - except agents' computers, because they needed them to spy on everyone. Mobile phones were on the list, but it would be a while before they disappeared. Basically, what the families wanted was everyone back in the fifteenth century.

But first the human virus?

As if reading his mind, Josh asked, ‘So is everything already in place to stop them?’

Tony looked at him and nodded. ‘ Don’t worry its all in hand.’

‘Clever of them to use England as the main source, though. I mean, London will be one of the most crowded cities on the planet shortly.’

‘Yes, with the Olympics going on and people from all over the world in one place at the same time, it made a lot of sense. Put the nosocomial Legionnaires virus in the water, the most deadly strain of the disease, add a little extra to it, even though it already has a 30 per cent fatality rate, and bingo - millions of people infected and ready to take it home, right across Britain and the world. Why do you think you were inoculated a month ago?’

Josh shrugged, ‘Thought it was just the ordinary flu jab.’

‘You were supposed to think that.’

Josh nodded. ‘So what’s my job?’

‘You’re to stay here. We need faces that they recognise about the place, in case they become suspicious.’

‘Can’t we just blow the bastards up while we have them en masse?’

‘But we haven’t, have we? What we have here are mostly families, the deluded fools who think they’re still in charge.’

‘So why haven’t the agents got rid of them? It makes sense.’

‘Because a good portion of the agents are family-loyal, and it helps to have a scapegoat if word finally gets out that most of the human race have been slaves for centuries. Imagine what would happen.’

‘Phew, the mind boggles. They would need to invent a new name for chaos.’ Josh bent down and carefully snapped off a snow-white rose. After smelling its perfume, he placed it in his lapel.

‘Exactly,’ Tony said, when he had Josh’s full attention again.

‘It’s still hard to take in that they’ve gotten away with it for so long.’

‘Have they, though?’

Josh raised his eyebrows. Hmm. This is interesting, he thought.

 But just then Tony’s phone rang, Taking it out of his pocket, he looked at caller ID and said, ‘I’ve got to take this call, OK? We’ll talk some more later.’ With a nod he turned and, phone to his ear, walked deeper into the garden, leaving Josh desperate to know the rest of the history of the lives he’d become entangled with.

NORTHUMBERLAND

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Gripping the wheel tightly, Kristina ploughed on. She jumped slightly when spray started hitting the side windows with force, praying that it wasn’t anywhere near the engine. She stared intently in front of her, actually picturing herself battling to swim in the rough sea. A good swimmer she was not, a couple of lengths was about the best she could manage without stopping for a rest. Against these crashing waves she wouldn’t stand a chance.

 With the windscreen wipers on full, she tried to push the images out of her mind as the car gamely moved forward. She tried hard to push the thought away that she was in a situation which made her totally helpless.

Suddenly, she gasped out loud. Is that the end of the causeway coming up?

‘Oh, please God,' she muttered. 'I’m gonna make it.’

Excitement flooded through her veins as suddenly, with no warning, she was clear. The car, free of the restraints of the powerful sea, jumped forward. Kristina slammed on the brakes, but the car just kept on gathering speed. In seconds she went from elation to horror. Heart firmly in her mouth, she rammed the car into second gear and pumped madly on the brake.

At last, after what seemed forever and at breakneck speed, she felt the brakes grip and the car begin to slow down. Trembling, Kristina heaved a sigh of relief as, regaining control, she drove past the car park and down the main street. Turning left, and again left into Sandham Lane, she came to a stop outside Aunt May’s cottage.

For a moment, she hugged the wheel. Taking deep breaths to calm herself, and knowing just how lucky she had been, she slipped out of the car and carefully, still trying to be as quiet as she could, closed the door. Noticing how far up the water had come, she shook her head in disbelief. No wonder the brakes wouldn’t work properly.

Jesus!

She would never be so lucky again.

Going up the path, she could smell Aunt May’s clematis. For a moment it felt as if a little bit of Aunt May was watching over her. She knocked on the door, waited a moment before knocking again although her instinct seemed to be telling her the house was empty.

‘Where are you Aunt May?’ she muttered.

Bending down, and with a bit of a struggle, she moved the third plant pot from the right, which was full of purple pansies. Underneath  was the front door key.

A minute later she was inside and heading for the kitchen. She desperately needed a cup of tea, before she sat down and analysed everything that had happened in the last hour.

While the kettle boiled, and with shaking hands, knowing she was close to exhaustion, she tried to get out of her mind the picture of the man's thumb landing at his feet, shaking her head in amazement at the thought. That sort of thing you could never plan in a lifetime!

Thanks Grandma! she thought, as yet another picture of her grandmother sharpening the blade entered her mind.

‘About time an’ all,’ she sighed a moment later, smacking her lips in anticipation as she dropped a tea bag into a pink mug covered with tiny white daisies. She poured the water in and found the sugar in the top cupboard. Knowing, by the way her hand was still shaking, that she was probably in shock, she put three teaspoons in the mug, and a dash of milk. Then she went through into the sitting room, thinking, at last - a flaming cup of tea.

Switching the light on with her elbow as she passed the switch, she looked around. Nothing at all had changed since that last time she had been in here. There were flowers everywhere. She smiled, remembering the first time she’d met Aunt May. It had been winter, but she had smelled of flowers, and the house had been full of them. With a sigh, Kristina sat down.

She had been staring down at the carpet. When she looked up, and halfway through the cup of tea she had been dying for, for what seemed like ages now, she saw an envelope on the mantelpiece that she hadn’t noticed before, propped up against one of Aunt May’s ornaments. The scrawl on the front looked like her name. Squinting, she tried to make it out, but in the end had to get up.

It
was
addressed to her. Puzzled, she quickly tore it open. Inside there was a single sheet of paper, with ten words on it.

'Go and visit an old friend with a beard. NOW.' The final word had been heavily inked in.

‘What the...?’ It was the capitals that worried her. And what old friend with a beard?

Jesus, Aunt May!

NORWICH

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Fools, nothing but fools, the whole fucking lot of them, Tarasov thought, as he entered the lift and angrily slapped the number that would take him to his floor.

Got a good mind to go home and leave them to it!

He knew, though, that was something he could not do. He had to keep the pretence up a little longer. Make too many waves and the whole barbaric lot would turn on him, and all would be lost.

Lovilla, even though he had half expected it - scratch that, even though he’d known it - had been a big disappointment. Just like her mother had. She’d thrown her lot in with the fools who thought things could go on like they had centuries ago. He would deal with her later. One way or another he would make her see her mistake. But the fool he called son!

By the time the lift stopped, his fury had built to an all-time high. With clenched fists, he stormed along the corridor. As he was passing another lift, the doors opened and a young woman pushed a trolley full of clean towels into the corridor, just missing him.

Ella’s heart jumped into her throat when she realised who she had nearly pushed the trolley into.

Oh my God. She froze for a moment, Please just let him walk on past… please God.

Tarasov glared at Ella and snapped, ‘Clumsy, clumsy fool! I’ll not forget this. Thank your lucky stars, peasant, I’ve got other things on my mind.’

As Ella stared after him, her heart still pounding, he carried on down the corridor, pausing for a moment outside a door close to his. He touched the 'Do Not Disturb' sign, before turning back to Ella, who swallowed hard.

‘Make sure this sign is observed, or it’s you I’ll be looking for, understand?’

She nodded and uttered a meek, ’Yes, sir,’ although inside she was seething and wanted nothing more than to actually kill him.

So what or who the hell is in there? she thought, as she knocked discreetly on number ten, who had asked for fresh towels for the third time today. The door was opened by a scowling young woman with long black hair and a matching black eye, who held out her hands for the towels.

Ella placed a matching pair of powder blue bath towels into the waiting hands, wanting to say, 'There’s help nearby if you want it', but knowing that could quite easily jeopardise everything. Sometimes these women, little more than slaves, had been so brainwashed that they would go running to their masters at the slightest whisper of someone against them. She had seen it again and again. Hadn’t she been in the same position herself? That was, until she woke up and realised that there was a different life, and if she couldn’t live it, well, better be dead than the life she was living. She’d heard the rumour, taken the chance, and here she was.