Revolution (35 page)

Megan nodded, but her expression was hard now, her jaw clenched as she spoke.

‘You said that you filmed everything. Where is the camera?’

‘I hid it, before they captured me, on top of the hill at the edge of a clearing. There was a fallen tree. I wrapped it up and hid it inside. It was still running when I put it there.’

Megan nodded, her fists clenched by her side. ‘Who was it? Who did this to you?’

Megan saw the revulsion in Amy’s expression as she spoke a name.

‘The commander of the military police. His name is Alexei Severov.’

*

‘We need to get back to Thessalia, right now.’

Megan strode back into the kitchen with a face like thunder. Callum stood up, as did Bolav. Megan walked toward the translator, who took a step back, his face blanching. He flinched as Megan’s hand flicked out and grabbed the satellite phone from him.

Megan turned away and walked across to the kitchen door, opening it and walking outside into the cold night air. She dialled a number, listening to the ring tone and looking at her watch. Even at this hour, she doubted that the call would be in vain.

‘Sir Wilkin’s office, UK attache,
’ came the prompt and polite voice of Wilkin’s personal assistant.

‘Is Sir Wilkins there?’

‘One moment, may I ask who is calling?’

‘Megan Mitchell.’

There was a click and a pause and then Sir Wilkin’s voice blasted down the line into her ear.

‘Good God above, Megan! You’re alive!’

‘And kicking,’ Megan replied, a grim smile curling from one corner of her mouth. ‘Tom, I need to get the hell out of here.’

‘Don’t we all dear girl, don’t we all. But may I ask just where on earth “there” might be?’

‘We’re at a small farmstead somewhere south of Talyn, maybe ten miles at the most. We need an urgent evacuation. Callum’s injured and needs medical assistance.’

There was a long pause.

‘Megan, I’ll see what I can do, but you obviously have not heard.’

‘Heard what?’

‘Congress in the United States formally authorised military intervention in Thessalia. A carrier–group task force is already making its way here.’

Megan grasped her forehead with one hand.

‘All hell’s going to break loose,’ she said in exasperation.

‘General Rameron’s men will have to advance with maximum speed and force if they’re to secure the capital before the bulk of the American military machine gets here. Megan, they’ll strike by air first.’

‘Is there nothing that you can send here to get us out? General Rameron wanted to initiate a prisoner exchange, ourselves for Martin Sigby.’

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

‘I know. Why does he want Martin Sigby specifically?’

‘I don’t know, we just need to get out of here as soon as we can. And listen to me, Tom: Commander Severov is the man who tried to kill Amy, and the man behind the genocide of the scientists.’

There was another long pause.
‘You’re sure?’

‘One hundred per cent,’ Megan replied. ‘She has video footage of the massacre. We’ve recovered it. Sophie D’Aoust could be in real danger from Severov, Tom. She exposed herself on live television to try to protect me. You need to get her into the US Embassy or out of the country before she’s arrested.’

‘The US Embassy can’t help her,’
Wilkins said.
‘It’s the US that’s hunting for her the most.’

‘What?’

‘They want her silenced, Megan. They’ve got everybody looking for her, along with you.’

‘She must have gone into hiding. Can you find her Tom, and protect her?’ Megan asked, her fists clenched with anxiety. ‘If Severov gets his hands on her before the French or the Americans…’

‘If there’s any way at all Megan, I’ll do it, I promise. You’ll have to wait until daylight for your rescue though.’

‘I understand Tom. Thanks.’

‘I’ll get you out, don’t worry. Just sit tight and keep this line active. It’ll give the rescue teams a signal to locate you.’

‘People can track this signal?’ Megan asked in surprise.

‘I’ll have GCHQ sort it out, they’re our signals intelligence chaps. It all passes through the NSA in Maryland of course, but don’t worry. It’s all part of the surveillance game.’

‘Can they listen too?’

‘Sometimes, perhaps, depending on the equipment they use. Why?’

Megan gripped the handset tighter. ‘Tom, I know where General Rameron is.’

‘
You know where he is
?’ Wilkins echoed down the line.
‘How?’

‘We were captured outside of Talyn by his troops. They took us to him.’

‘Where is he, Megan?’

‘I can work it out on a map as soon as I get back.’

‘I’ll get someone there Megan, I promise.’

Megan rang off and walked back into the kitchen, closing the door behind her and looking at Alexandre, who was watching her expectantly.

‘The Americans are coming and they mean business.’

‘God damn!’ Lieutenant Cole jubilantly smacked one clenched fist into his palm. ‘Time to bring this charade to a close.’

Alexandre closed his eyes briefly. ‘When?’

‘I don’t know, but imminently. I would expect military action within twenty four hours at the most, presumably opening with an aerial bombardment of General Rameron’s forces. How far are they from here?’

‘Talyn – twelve miles at the most, as the crow flies.’

Megan nodded and glanced at the clock hanging above the fireplace.

‘We need to go out at first light and search the hills above the farm, the place where you found Amy.’

Alexandre nodded. ‘I will be ready. What are we looking for?’

‘Evidence of crimes against humanity,’ Megan replied, and glanced at Callum, ‘by Alexei Severov.’

Callum’s face darkened. ‘That bastard? You mean in the village we found?’

‘The same,’ Megan replied, and then looked again at Alexandre. ‘Amy told me that you and Petra Milosovich were close, that you studied together, drank together.’

‘This is true. Petra was a good friend.’

‘Then you know something of what he was working on?’

Alexandre shifted his feet uncertainly.

‘I wouldn’t really know, it was all such complicated engineering. I am just a farmer.’

Megan smiled and gestured to the lights glowing in the building around them.

‘A smart enough farmer to be generating the only electricity for miles around without a working national grid or a fuel–generator.’

Alexandre sighed softly.

‘I know enough to explain what Petra explained to me.’

‘That’s all I need,’ Megan encouraged. ‘Amy filmed everything and hid the camera on top of the hills before she was captured. Between what you know and what that film will tell us, I think we might just have enough to understand everything else.’

Lieutenant Cole stepped up to them from one side.

‘You appear to have forgotten about
us
,’ he snapped. ‘We are tasked with getting your ass the hell out of this country just as fast as we can, and nothing else matters. Especially not impromptu physics lessons.’

Megan shook her head vehemently.

‘This whole war, lieutenant, is about more than you think and we’re on the cusp of finding out what that something is and bringing it all to an end. Your fellow Americans, soldiers like you, are rushing headlong into another Iraq, another Vietnam. Would you really pass up the chance to let them go home alive to their families?’

Cole regarded her uncertainly. ‘You think you can stop a war?’

Megan smiled.

‘We already found a way to influence one. Stopping it is the next logical step.’

***

‘We found her just up there.’

Alexandre’s voice was only lightly touched with fatigue as he climbed the hillside. In contrast Megan wheezed and felt her face turning purple in the pale dawn light now glowing in the sky above as she laboured along behind the farmer. The hillside seemed to climb almost vertically above the village below.

Alexandre led Megan between clumps of crystalline foliage frozen overnight and past towering pine trees coated with sparkling ice. Megan glanced back down the hill, her chest heaving, and could barely see the village through the mist, a mile away and perhaps five hundred feet below them.

‘Nearly there,’ Alexandre gestured ahead.

Megan followed the farmer until they cleared the brow of the hill and stepped into a broad clearing surrounded by the dense forests. High above them, through the mist, the merest hint of eggshell–blue sky glimmered.

‘The weather is improving,’ Alexandre noted with a practiced eye. ‘Not good news for us if the Americans decide to attack.’

‘Right,’ Megan agreed, then looked about the clearing. ‘Where did you find Amy?’

‘Just here,’ Alexandre pointed to a dense cluster of bushes and ferns. ‘She was lying on the edge of those ferns.’

Megan looked from that position on a trajectory toward the centre of the clearing.

‘In what direction is the village where Petra was working, roughly?’

Alexandre looked around for a moment, getting his bearings, and then pointed confidently toward the south–west.

‘Out there, perhaps five miles away near the river and Anterik.’

Megan nodded, trying to guess where Amy would have climbed the other side of the valley with Severov’s men in pursuit, and where she would have emerged into the clearing. As she cast her eyes across the edge of the forest she saw what she was looking for.

A large fallen tree, the trunk half buried in snow and rotting at the edges. Megan quickly strode across the clearing and moved around the edge of the trunk, searching for cavities within. After a few moments she found what she was looking for and reached inside.

A large, stiff piece of fabric brushed her hand. Reaching in with both hands, Megan gently lifted the tightly wrapped package out, unfolding the layers of frozen canvass to reveal a modern and expensive looking digital video camera within. The black casing of the camera sparkled with frozen condensation.

‘The cold will have destroyed the camera lens,’ Alexandre pointed out.

‘Maybe,’ Megan agreed, ‘but the wrapping and the camera case might have been enough to protect the flash memory inside, and that’s all we need. Let’s go.’

The descent back down the valley was equally arduous, and by the time they had reached the farmstead the morning sun was glowing above the misty horizon, a pale ball of light suspended in ethereal veils. Megan might have considered the serene dawn, the isolated farmstead and the winter–wonderland surroundings beautiful were it not for the dread gnawing at her insides.

The farmstead kitchen was warm as Megan followed Alexandre inside. Bolav stood up as they entered and Callum looked at Megan expectantly.

‘Did you find it?’ he asked.

Megan nodded, unwrapping the camera and looking at Bolav.

‘Do you think that you can get this to work?’

The Mordanian looked at the camera for a moment, and then nodded before looking at Alexandre. ‘May I use your computer?’

‘If you think it will help,’ the farmer replied.

‘It will. If I can wire the camera to the computer, I might be able to download whatever is in the camera’s memory direct to the computer, provided they can talk to each other. I’ll need Callum’s camera equipment – the USB cables might be helpful.’

‘I’ll get them for you,’ Callum said.

Megan turned to Alexandre. ‘I need to know what Petra Milosovich was doing to get himself executed by Alexei Severov and his secret police.’

Alexandre reluctantly waved for Megan to follow him.

‘You will need to see this to believe it.’

*

GNN (UK) Ltd, London

Harrison Forbes watched the live feeds coming in from other television stations, as images of Sophie D’Aoust were beamed across the globe, and her story about the massacre in Mordania thoroughly discredited.

‘What the hell is going on out there?’ Harrison uttered to himself.

An aide peeked around the door to his office. ‘Seth Cain’s on the line for you.’

‘Great,’ Harrison grumbled. ‘Any word from Sigby?’

‘Radio silence,’ the aide said. ‘He’s missed his last scheduled report slot since the word got out about that French woman being a fugitive.’

Harrison scowled as he punched a button on his desk phone. ‘Seth?’

‘Harrison. Where is Martin Sigby?!’

Seth Cain’s voice blasted down the line into Harrison’s ear loudly enough for even people outside his office to hear. Forbes kicked the office door shut with one heel.

‘How the hell should I know? He’s in another country, remember?’

‘He shold have been on air an hour ago,
’ Cain hissed down the line.
‘Martin Sigby was to refrain from reporting negatively regarding the Mordanian government, and cover the lies of that French woman. And what the hell was all that crap about an Amy O’Hara?’

‘There has never been any such agreement – you merely asked me who was getting Martin’s reels. If what Martin has discovered since is not in line with your hopes then that’s just tough shit because what he has reported happens to be the truth.’

‘To hell with the truth! This is not about truth, this is about the news!’

Harrison Forbes searched the ceiling with his eyes for a moment. ‘And you think that
I’m
missing something?’

‘GNN has commitments of far greater importance than you could possibly conceive. Your remit is to ensure that Martin Sigby toes the company line. His sloppy reporting has caused incalculable damage to our reputation and his deviation from GNN’s purpose has caused me extreme difficulties at a very sensitive time.’

‘GNN’s purpose?’ Harrison echoed. ‘And what precisely is our purpose, Seth?’

‘To do as you’re damned well told,’
Seth raged.
‘Where is Sigby?’

‘Missing,’ Harrison finally snapped. ‘In a war zone, so forgive me if I have greater concerns that your shareholder’s profits!’