The Gilgamesh Conspiracy (37 page)

‘I’m sorry Dan; my back’s hurt more badly than I thought. Maybe you could take a look at it.’ She quickly took off her jacket and handed it to him and then tugged her shirt over her head. She stood in front of him for a moment in her bra before turning round. A moment later he felt his fingers gently touching her back. ‘You’ve a big bruise over your ribs; try taking some deep breaths to check nothing’s broken.’

She had already done that but still she turned to face him and took huge breaths that lifted her breasts and she saw him glance down quickly and then take care to look her in the eyes.

‘How does that feel?’

‘I’m ok.’ She pulled her shirt on and when he held out her jacket she stepped forward and kissed him quickly on the cheek. ‘Come on; let’s get back to the road. We need a ride. I think we should drive up to Billings in Montana, and then continue up to Saskatchewan. We’ll need a good off-roader; we don’t want to use a border crossing point.’

Dan looked at her, somewhat resentful of her assumption of command. Suddenly she grinned at him. ‘It’ll be like old times,’ she said.

His mind swept back years to the two of them crossing the border into Fujairah. ‘Yuh, sounds like a plan,’ he smiled and shrugged. ‘Well I expect all the crossing points will be closed to us, so we’ve no choice.’ He paused. ‘But I guess my passport’s going to ring alarm bells even across the border, so how are we going to get a flight out of Canada?’

‘We’ll make contact with my boss Cornwall,’ Gerry replied. ‘He can send a UK passport for you by FedEx or something, and then we’ll get back to London. After that we’ll make our way to Baghdad and find this Gilgamesh document.’

‘Hell, Gerry, you’re making it sound easy,’ Dan protested.

‘It’s straightforward,’ Gerry replied, ‘but it might not be easy. First of all we need a car.’

‘My guess is that they’ll head north to the Canadian border sir,’ Neil Samms said to General Robert Bruckner.

‘Your guess?’ Bruckner sneered.

‘My analysis, sir. We found their motor bike abandoned in the woods. The front tyre split.’

‘I would agree with that,’ said Jasper White. He turned round and stared at Samms for a moment who tried to avoid looking grateful. ‘Tate knows that you can order a full ports and airports in the States, but you can’t do the same in Canada. What we need to do is try and work out their intentions and plan to pick them up wherever they’re heading.’

‘Ok Jasper, so we nearly had the two of them,’ said Bruckner. ‘Now let’s see if you can find them for us again. Where’s Parker?’

‘He’s at the hospital, having his fingers stitched up.’

‘Bloody idiot. Is he ok?’

‘His little finger’s not working; damaged tendon, but otherwise he’s good to go.’

‘Post-traumatic stress disorder, triggered by the motorcycle crash,’ Gerry said to herself in self-analysis of her emotional outburst in the forest as she sat in the passenger seat while Dan drove towards Billings in Montana.

After walking slowly down to the roadside she had flagged down a four door pick-up. The owners had willingly stopped and given them a ride to the nearest big camp site when they explained that one of their trail bikes had broken down and as they were only single seaters they had decided to leave them hidden in the woods and get a ride. After saying goodbye to the couple they had begun to search for a suitable vehicle and found an unlocked GMC Sierra in which the owners had carelessly left the key ill-concealed on top of the sun visor.

Sharing the driving had enabled them to cover the eight hundred odd miles to Saskatoon, capital of the province of Saskatchewan, in twenty hours. After crossing the border they had abandoned the Sierra in the town of Swift Current and continued their journey in an old Toyota Corolla stolen from the airport car park. On the outskirts of the city they checked into one of the chain hotels used by the less well financed business travellers adjacent to a shopping mall.

‘Not too put too fine a point on it, we could both do with a shower and some new clothes,’ Gerry declared when they were alone in the hotel elevator. ‘We’d better go shopping.’

‘Have you got any cash?’ Dan asked. ‘I’ve got about seven hundred dollars left.’

‘I’ve got about a thousand,’ said Gerry. ‘I suggest we each buy a cheap wheelie bag, the size that they let you take on as hand baggage and a pre-paid cell phone. There’s a laundromat in the hotel basement, so we can wash what we’re wearing. Shall we meet in the lobby in half an hour?’

‘Are you sure your guy Cornwall will come through with the passports and more money?’ Dan asked.

‘Well if he doesn’t, then we’re screwed,’ Gerry replied. ‘That reminds me, first thing tomorrow morning I need to go downtown to the main post office and lease a post office box.’

Two hours later the two of them were sitting in the food court eating variations on the theme of diced chicken in oriental sauce with vegetables, rice and noodles. They had promised each other during the car journey that they would go to a decent restaurant, but having spent a fair proportion of their funds on the essentials, they decided that some economy was needed.

‘Right, I’m going back to get some sleep,’ Gerry announced after they had finished. ‘The prospect of a comfortable bed is too enticing to be put off any longer. I’m going to leave early tomorrow and set up that post office box.’

‘I’ll come with you, if you like,’ Dan suggested.

‘Ok, I’ll see you down at the lobby at 7.00am tomorrow then.’

Back at the hotel Gerry set the clock radio alarm to 6.30am and then sat at the desk with her new cell phone and called Richard Cornwall.

‘Hello, it is I,’ she announced.

‘Are you safe?’

‘Yes but we need to move on as soon as possible. Tomorrow I’ll send you a post office box number for the main office, Saskatoon. Can you send passports for the boy and cash? We need to buy airline tickets.’

‘Yes, I can do that, but listen; I feel so far out on a limb I can hear creaking and cracking; don’t let me down, Gerry.’

‘I owe you Richard, and I won’t forget.’

Gerry broke off the call and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She knew that her feeling of safety was based on the flimsiest grounds; even now her enemies might be surrounding the hotel and tomorrow morning they might be dead or in custody. She stood up and stared out of the window at the darkening skies. She turned on the television, flicked through the channels for a couple of minutes and switched it off. Then she lay down on the bed, but despite her fatigue she stared up at the ceiling and her mind wandered back and forth over the events of the last three weeks.

She got up again. Maybe there was an exercise room with a treadmill where she could run herself to exhaustion. She picked up the house telephone and called reception.

‘I’m sorry ma’am, but our exercise room is closed for renovation. I can give you a pass for the hotel a mile up the road, if you like.’

‘No that’s alright. I’ve just remembered I don’t have any kit.’

Gerry put the phone back and spotted her dirty clothes tossed on to the armchair. She picked them up and took the elevator down to the basement laundry room and found Dan leaning over a machine jiggling a handful of quarters and reading the instructions on the lid. Gerry hesitated in the doorway, wondering whether to stay or scarper back to her room before he saw her, but he spun round.

‘Hi Gerry, come to do your laundry? Sorry silly question, else you wouldn’t be down here.’

‘That was my plan,’ she acknowledged, ‘but I’ve just realised I don’t have any coins.’

‘No problem, I haven’t started mine yet, so add yours.’ He lifted the machine lid. Gerry placed her clothes in the machine and he set it going.

‘It’ll take forty-five minutes, according to the blurb,’ he said. Do you want to go and get a drink while we wait?’

‘Er… I’d rather just go for a walk, if you don’t mind.’ She hesitated. ‘I need to talk to you about one or two things.’

‘Ok then. Hey I thought you were going straight to sleep.’

‘I thought I would, but I started turning over things in my mind. I’ll tell you when we’re outside.’

‘Ok.’

They took the stairs to the lobby and found that a sudden rain shower and arriving guests were hurrying through the revolving doors, cursing the weather.

‘We could go to my room,’ Gerry suggested. ‘There’s some coffee or we could raid the minibar.’

‘Ok, that’s fine,’ Dan replied.

‘So what’s on your mind, Gerry?’ Dan asked, slumping into armchair while Gerry sat on the swivel chair by the desk.

‘Well amongst other things…you are a bit,’ she finished lamely.

He stared at her with a sombre expression. ‘Because I said I loved you back then, you mean.’

‘But I’m totally screwed up,’ she exclaimed. ‘I tell everyone I have a daughter, but the truth is I gave her up for adoption at birth. True my mother suddenly died and I didn’t feel I was the right sort of person to bring up a child. I’ve been assessed as mentally unstable by a prison psychiatrist. When I was alone in that raft, shit scared, I took a good long hard look at myself and I don’t like it much.’

Dan stared at her for a minute while she wiped tears away with her fingers.

‘I knew all that Gerry. I’ve seen the report on you, but I’m stupid enough to think I know you better than those people. Could you stand up a moment?’ he asked, getting to his feet.

‘Why?’ she asked.

‘So I can kiss you.’

Gerry gazed at him in wonder and then stood up uncertainly but Dan grabbed her around the waist with one arm and then gently place a hand behind her head and without the need for any more encouragement she kissed him hungrily and then with sudden desperation she pressed close against him. Suddenly he was pulling away and reaching towards his mouth and at the same time Gerry felt the sensations in her lips had altered. She darted her tongue forward.

‘My tooth’s fallen out,’ she wailed, just as he held out the whitish lump on the palm of his hand. ‘It’s a temporary crown,’ she explained. ‘Maybe I can get it cemented back in tomorrow.’ He handed it to her with a grin.

‘It’s not funny!’

‘I’m sorry, it’s just that you’re trying to talk whilst keeping your lips over your teeth; go on…show me.’  She forced a smile revealing the gap in her teeth.

‘One day perhaps you can tell me how that happened, but for now why don’t you put that somewhere safe and we’ll try that kiss again. Gerry stared at him for a moment.

‘Do you think you still love me then, Dan Hall?’ she asked. He looked back at her seriously, no trace of the grin.

‘I guess I have done ever since I met you in Muscat.’

Gerry shook her head. ‘Back then I was cheerful, optimistic, happy. A lot’s happened to me since then: I’m a different person.’

‘Everybody changes,’ Dan replied. ‘Perhaps I can change you back to being happy, if you give me a chance.’

She took a step towards him and they resumed kissing, and to show that she had no lingering inhibitions she plucked his shirt clear of his waist band and tugged it over his head and then lifted her arms so he could take off hers. She kept still while he fumbled with her bra hooks, then flung it aside and pulled him down on to the bed.

Gerry woke up early in the morning and found that she was alone. Maybe Dan had gone back to his own room. She turned over and hugged a pillow but she was seized with a sudden anxiety. She telephoned his room but there was no reply. Suddenly her door clicked open. She rolled off the side of the bed, snatched up her gun from the bedside table and peered over the rumpled covers. Dan came into the room carrying the bundle of washing they had left in the laundry room and saw her.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

‘Defending myself against a man carrying a bunch of clothes apparently. Please don’t sneak in or out again.’

‘Ok, I won’t,’ he assured her, dumped the clothes on a chair and hobbled off to the bathroom. She climbed back into the bed and pulled the covers over her.

How’s your ankle?’ she asked when he emerged. He twisted his foot back and forth.

‘Still aching, but I can walk normally. She forbore to comment as he walked over to the bed with a set face and then fell on to it beside her. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m fine, thank you,’ she replied giving him a gap toothed smile in return. ‘What’s the time?’ She answered her own question by propping herself on an elbow and reading 6am on the bedside clock.

‘There’s two hours before the post office opens,’ he said.

‘Good,’ she replied, threw aside the covers and rolled over on top of him.

‘Ooof,’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re certainly no lightweight.’

Twenty minutes later he emerged from the shower and found her sitting staring at the mirror with a gloomy expression.

‘What’s on your mind?’ he asked.

‘After many years of anticipation I hope you haven’t become disillusioned with me. And I don’t mean by my performance in bed. I’m mad, bad and dangerous to know.’

‘Hey that sounds like Shakespeare.’

‘It’s actually how Lady Caroline Lamb described the poet Lord Byron when they first met; later they had an affair.’

‘Did it end happily?’ he asked.

‘I’m afraid not.’

He walked over and kissed the top of her head. ‘I don’t think you’re a poet, and I’m certain I’m not a lady, so I won’t let that worry me. Come on let’s get dressed, it’s time for breakfast.’

‘We would like to rent, hire or lease a post office box,’ Gerry announced to the clerk.

‘Yes ma’am. Do you know what size you want? They’re between a hundred and ten and six hundred fifty dollars a year depending on size plus fifteen dollars for two keys.’

‘Oh we only need it for a short time,’ said Gerry.

‘Minimum rental time is three months. Say, are you Vanessa Davies?’

Gerry felt a surge of adrenaline. She stepped back from the counter and spun round scanning the other occupants of the office.

‘Only er…ma’am, there was a guy in here earlier named Richard Cornwall who left a parcel for a Vanessa Davies, who er… said he was British, and that you were as well and that you er… could show a passport to pick it up. Ma’am?’

Gerry slowly turned back to face the man. ‘Yes. I’m Vanessa Davies.’ She reached into her rucksack and pulled out the UK passport that Cornwall had given to her and handed it over.

‘Thank you. Just wait here and I’ll fetch it for you’

Gerry stared out into the street. Dan was sitting in the car watching the entrance. She looked up and down but there was nobody who appeared suspicious. Nobody but Cornwall could know where she was, or that she possessed that alias, but how could he have got here so quickly? Had he been following her all this time?’

‘Here it is Miss Davies. You’ll have to sign this receipt.’

Gerry signed and took the large, thick envelope from the curious official. She felt it carefully through the internal bubble wrap. It could easily be passports and a bundle of money. Then she saw the note written on the flap. “Starbucks, Mid Town Plaza. Top of each hour.” 

‘Do you have a photocopier I could use?’ She asked.

‘Over there. You need quarters to operate it.’

Gerry placed the envelope on top of the copier and fed in coins. With the lid up she studied it as the bright light made four passes under it.

‘Hey you’re meant to have the lid down!’ another customer suggested.

‘Bugger off!’ she muttered under her breath. She picked up the parcel and opened it. Inside it was a United Kingdom passport with Dan Hall’s image in the name of James Huntley. In another envelope was three thousand pounds sterling and seven thousand US dollars. ‘Thank you Richard,’ she muttered.

‘Could you tell me where Mid Town Plaza is?’ she asked the customer who had been keen to advise her on the use of a photocopier.

She smiled happily as Dan climbed out the car and lifted his eyebrows. ‘Cornwall’s left an envelope for us to pick up. A UK passport for you and enough cash.’

‘He left it there?’ Dan frowned. ‘How did he get it here already?’

‘I don’t know. He wants us to meet him at Starbucks just south of here in Mid Town Plaza which is a shopping mall with underground parking. It’s just coming up to eight o’clock so I guess the place is open and he should be there.’

Dan ordered two double tall lattes while Gerry looked around the coffee shop and then walked back outside and scanned the area. She checked her watch and sat down next to Dan who had chosen a table from where they could watch the entrance.

‘It doesn’t seem like he’s coming,’ Gerry admitted as she drained her coffee ten minutes later.

‘Should we stay around here?’ Dan asked, ‘or go back to the hotel and come back later.’

‘I guess...shit!’

‘Hi Gerry, hi Dan,’ said a young woman who had appeared beside their table. She took off her sunglasses and then her hat from under which long blonde hair tumbled down.

‘Annie Maddon,’ said Gerry, ‘what a pleasant surprise.’ She looked around once again, wondering if a team of agents was surrounding the coffee shop and going through her options: to flee, to fight, to grab Annie as a hostage. Had Cornwall betrayed her? Had Dan?

‘I expect you’re wondering how I got here,’ Annie suggested.

‘I certainly am,’ said Dan.

‘There’s just the two of us: me and Felix Grainger. Felix told me to come in to see you because he said I was less likely to get my head blown off. Richard Cornwall told us where you were and that you needed stuff. We brought it here.’ She smiled. ‘We’re on your side.’

Gerry and Dan exchanged glances: Gerry shrugged. ‘She seems to be on her own. I don’t see how she could be here if she wasn’t telling the truth.’

‘Yeah I can buy that,’ Dan agreed. ‘Where’s Felix?’ he asked.

‘He’s waiting back at your hotel,’ Annie replied. ‘Shall we go and join him?’

Felix Grainger smiled broadly as he shook Dan and Gerry by the hand.

‘It’s good to see you guys again. Richard Cornwall has briefed me. You don’t have much time. Cornwall asked me to ask you where you’re going in case he needs to find you again.’

‘We’re planning to go to Kuwait via Toronto, and then try and get a flight to Baghdad…’Dan began but Gerry grabbed his arm.

‘Wait! You’ll forgive my suspicions, but I’m not prepared to tell you anything more Felix. Maybe I should trust you but I’ve no idea who you might talk to in your office or in mine. We’re going to leave tonight and anyone I find trailing us will be treated as an enemy.’

‘Fair enough.’ Grainger shrugged. ‘Well I guess I’ve done my bit. Annie and I will take off now.’ He reached into a pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. ‘Here’s some contact details. If you get stuck and you feel you can trust me you can give a call.’ Dan took it from him.

‘Ok Felix; thanks.’

‘We’ll see you around, then.’

‘You bet.’

Grainger and Anne Maddon took a taxi back to the airport and settled down in the Starbucks concession to await their flight.

‘I guess it’s no surprise that Tate doesn’t trust anyone after what she’s been through,’ Maddon said.

‘I know, but they’re rather cutting themselves off.’

‘Cornwall didn’t give you any further clue as to their intentions did he?’ she asked.

Grainger shook his head. ‘No. Whether that means he doesn’t know or if it means he’s just not telling, well you’re guess is as good as mine.’

‘Excuse me Felix, I need to go visit the rest room.’

Boarding starts in ten minutes; I’ll see you at the gate.’

‘Ok.’

Maddon picked her handbag and went to the rest room where she pulled out her cell phone. ‘Uh…General Bruckner? Maddon here. They’re ready to leave…No I’m not going to try and trail them. She and Hall were friendly enough but she gave us a warning that anyone she sees following them would be dealt with…What? Of course she’s serious, she’s a goddam psycho. They’re heading for Kuwait. You should have no trouble picking them up in Toronto.’

As the Boeing 767 climbed out of Halifax airport Gerry twisted about and tried to get comfortable while she considered her last two trans-Atlantic flights. The first had been in the supreme comfort of a Gulfstream corporate jet and in the second one she had been lashed to the seat as a criminal. The best she could hope for now was that the flight would pass off quickly without any incident. Any discomfort she felt would easily be endured in the confident expectation of a safe arrival and in the comfort she felt in the presence of the man sitting next to her. She looked at his profile. He was not especially handsome and his features were spoilt by the dog bite scar that disfigured his cheek, but she had an undeniable urge to reach over and hug him. She tried to analyse when this emotional bonding had begun. She had originally thought that she had seduced him, or allowed him to seduce her as part of a general plan to bend him to her will, but now she felt an undeniable impulse to reveal her innermost secrets to him. She felt she needed to speak to him about her terrifying time on the raft and how she was rescued by Steven Morris, but of course not including her affair with him while she was on board. She wanted to talk to him about her life in prison, the unexpected death of her mother and giving up her baby for adoption. Not her sexual adventures with Angela though. Or maybe that would be a turn on for him? Men were weird that way. No better not risk it. She glanced towards him again. If he had experienced any gay encounters she certainly didn’t want to know. Anyway he was a regular guy in the marines, just like that Jasper White bastard, so no chance. Then she frowned as she thought about him.

‘Do you think Richard Cornwall will be ok,’ she asked Dan after a while, ‘I feel really guilty about leaving him in the lions’ den, so to speak.’

‘I’m sure they’re not going to arrange for his termination, not while we’re alive and loose anyway.’

‘I’ll bloody well be after them if they do,’ she muttered.

‘I hope you’re not considering some kind of death list after all this,’ he said. ‘We need to find out what this Gilgamesh thing is about, and then we can get people arrested.’

‘Don’t worry; I’m not trying to wreak vengeance and I don’t have a hit list,’ she assured him.

Apart from the one with Robert Bruckner, Sir Hugh Fielding, Jasper White, Neil Samms and Vince Parker on it, she thought. She lapsed into silence and stared at the back of the seat in front of her. Dan briefly squeezed her hand. ‘What are you worrying about?’ he asked. She looked across at him.

‘I’m ready to tell you what happened to me after you left me and Ali Hamsin on the aircraft.’

‘Ok good, I was kinda hoping you would.’

She described her fight on the aircraft, how she had fought the two pilots, the crash and her time on the raft with Ali and then his death. The near miracle of her rescue by Steven and the days spent on the yacht.

He listened in silence asking the odd question but generally letting the story and emotion flood out. When she had finished her story she hesitated a moment and then made her admission. ‘Steven and me on the yacht; we had sex. Several times.’

He remained still but she could hear him take a couple of deeper breaths. ‘Was it…was it having sex, or making love?’ he asked.

‘It was sex.’

‘Well I shouldn’t be surprised,’ he said. ‘After all you’d been through, the isolation. And him being alone on the yacht for all those weeks and then suddenly this beautiful women drops into his lap.’

‘So you’re not mad?’ she asked, ‘or disappointed?’

He smiled at her. ‘Why should I be? I’d have no right, though I’m relieved you told me.’

‘What? I don’t get that.’

‘Well for one thing I would have guessed that you did, because I’m sure if I was in a similar situation I would have done the same.’

‘Ok…’

‘And for another, your hesitation in telling me shows that you were concerned about my reaction.  So that means you care about me and my feelings.’

‘You’re right; I do’ she said. She grabbed his hand and then leant over and kissed him.