Salby Damned (30 page)

They had been about to walk over to the cookhouse when the first of the rounds had been fired at the Land Rover. The report from the rifle inside the base made them stop in their tracks, witnessing what was happening. The Land Rover had bounced over the verge, before knocking over one of the guards, and they could also see someone on the ground just outside the toilets.

Brian ran towards the injured soldier. Seeing the knife protruding from his stomach, he stayed with him, telling him not to remove it and that everything would be alright as he called out to Meriam to go and find help. She burst into the cookhouse, looking for medical staff and found a man in a long, white coat sitting at a table just inside.

“Come quickly! Someone’s been hurt by the washroom, I think he’s been stabbed.” She didn’t wait for a response.

A young doctor grabbed the first aid box from the cookhouse wall; it would help, even if not fully stocked. As he turned, he shouted at one of the crowd to go to the medical centre and get more help, and a lance corporal ran to take the message.

Meriam ran towards the toilet block to help with the injured man, almost colliding with Corporal Simms running full tilt in the direction of the speeding vehicle. As the drama at the gatehouse began to unfold, she saw the car bounce over the kerb and fishtail as the driver fought to keep it under control, heard the first shot hit the back of the vehicle, and witnessed Corporal Simms kneeling to fire off first one, and then another round, before it disappeared through the gate.

“That was him, wasn’t it?” she said, frantically trying to catch her breath. She knew in her gut that he’d actually gone and done it.

“Yes, love, I think it probably was. I also think he did this to this young man.”

“Do you think he made it? Do you think he actually got away?”

“That I don’t know, love, but I’m sure we’ll hear something of it in the coming hours if not days. I only hope he hasn’t killed anyone, that’s all,” Brian added.

The doctor arrived to tend to the wounded young soldier with a group bearing a stretcher close behind. He was taken to the medical facility on the base for immediate surgery. They watched him go and wished him a speedy recovery before finally getting to the cookhouse, now buzzing with the news of the incident that had occurred.

As yet, no one seemed to know the final outcome, except that the Land Rover had finally stopped some way up the main road. By shift change time, the grapevine news would be spread all around the camp though.

***

Corporal Simms made her way to the main offices to report the incident to Major Sower. He took the news very well and enquired first about the injured soldiers, seeming genuinely concerned at their safety. The medical staff had assured her that the wounds were not life threatening and that they would be given the best care possible; she had relayed the same message to him.

“You were right, Corporal, I should have acted sooner.”

“It’s not your fault, Sir, who could tell what was going through his mind? He was evidently a desperate man who wanted to get away at any cost, and thankfully there were no deaths, with the exception of his own.”

“Yes, you’re right, but perhaps I should listen to you better in the future. Thank you, Corporal.”

With a small hint of a smile, she saluted the officer and turned on her heels before leaving. Her next stop would be the medical centre to check on the two injured. The C.O. would undoubtedly ask upon his return, so an up-to-date sit-rep would be forward thinking. After that, she would go and find Steve and Janey Grey as she had been given instructions by Staff Sergeant Stewall after Nathan had been injured, to find them and inform them, but without telling them he’d been infected. She could tell of his leg injury and that he had been transferred to Salby facility for treatment, simply because it had better facilities to deal with his condition.

Chris didn’t want the children to know that Nathan had become one of the “Bad People” that he had heard them mention; it would undoubtedly upset them.

***

For the young Tom and Holly Lloyd it had been a great morning, although Nathan wasn’t there when they woke, which was strange because he usually was, thought Tom. They had gone to breakfast with Steve and Janey and helped to feed baby Grace, as well as having to feed baby Polly for Holly, making them all smile.

After an hour or two at the craft table, resulting in a bead necklace, a loom band, and an almost complete helicopter-landing pad, they played on the adventure playground that had been created by the engineers. It consisted of swings, a slide, rope ladders, and some tyres that had been made into an obstacle course, along with a rope climb, which had Janey worried sick as Tom went all the way to the top.

Holly stayed with Janey, helping to take care of Gracie while Steve took Tom to the football club being held in the gymnasium; he’d heard about it from some of the other children the day before and thought it might be fun for both of them to try. They entered the barn-sized building, noticing first how high the ceiling was, and from the walls, thick anchor ropes hung towards the barred climbing ladders all the way up. Pushed neatly to the sides, to allow room for football or badminton, were gymnasium vault horses, giant blue crash mats, huge canvas balls that someone had called medicine balls for reasons that Tom wasn’t sure of, and a spring board which was almost too good to ignore.

There were people of all ages split into groups, each practising different skills with the footballs, coached by volunteers who looked very young, Steve thought.

“Alright, mate? I’m Baz. You come to play or just droppin’ young un’ off?”

“Hello, Baz, I’m Steve and this is Tom. We thought we’d come take a look and get involved; word is spreading through the camp about the football club.”

“Ahhhhh, Major Sower to thank for that, he … volunteered me to start it.”

“Well, it seems to be doing well, lots of people here. You’ve got a little help I see?”

“Yeah, they’re me mates, come join this group ‘ere ‘n see what ya think to it.” Baz led them over to a group of adults and children passing balls between them, giving them a chance to say hello and watch as they warmed up.

“This is me mate Jen, she’ll be lookin’ after ya, if ya need to pi … ummmmm, use the toilet, it’s to the end and left,” he said, correcting himself due to young Tom.

“Thanks, ready, Tom? Let’s see what you got,” he said, passing the ball to him.

***

Dark clouds loomed on the horizon and it looked like a storm was coming in fast; the turbulent skies and sticky warm air were soon to be forced out by cooler fronts.

Throughout the short flight, the army captain had informed them that the virus had reached all coastlines and the Royal Navy had been given orders to prevent anyone from leaving the country by use of lethal force if necessary. Remaining coast guard vessels had been armed and put to sea. The entire UK naval fleet had been mobilised, aircraft carriers patrolled the North Sea, and smaller destroyers and frigates guarded the English Channel. Some vessels had been sunk whilst attempting to flee; most of those stopped were people trying to escape infection. Survivors were taken on board the naval vessels to be transported to military bases when they next made port.

They touched down at the base after a half-hour in the air, passing over burning buildings and witnessing clouds of flies laying their larvae as they stopped to gorge on the putrefying flesh of the dead; birds and other creatures joined in the feast, now that man was absent.

The first people the C.O. saw upon leaving the helicopter field were Major Sower and Corporal Simms. They had been given a heads-up by the mobile FFR teams based on the surface at the Salby facility. Fitted-For-Radio, ten-tonne relay trucks, and Land Rovers bounced the signals multiple times, scrambling messages for automatic decoding, ensuring covert communications during times of conflict.

“Welcome back, Richard. What news of the patients? How is Sergeant Cross doing?” The major was the first to speak.

“Thanks, Paul. He’s alive, still. The surgeons removed the bullet and we’ve some progress at the facility. Come, let’s go to my office and I’ll bring you up to speed,” replied the colonel.

“There is much to tell here, Richard. We’ve had an incident that I think you should know about and a breakthrough from the tech lads,” said the major.

They followed the colonel to the main building, climbing the single flight of stairs to his office overlooking the parade square, which was now being utilised for stores. The office, not unlike the major’s, had walls adorned with photographs showing the C.O. on operational duties with former comrades. The many pictures included aircraft, tanks, and armoured personnel carriers set on different terrains and backdrops. There were also a few casual photographs of leisure nights all over the world, one of which depicted the Sydney Opera House. The major had been in this office many times before, but for Corporal Simms, this was a rare opportunity.

Finally, they were seated at the opposite side of the huge oak carved desk with its neatly arranged ink blotter pad and expensive gold pens, placed perfectly parallel to the blotter. The name plaque at the front and centre of the desk was highly polished brass with engraved and coated letters that read, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Connell (Commanding).”

As he sat, he removed his wallet from his back pocket and placed it into the top drawer, then aligned the pens neatly at the top of the blotter pad. Turning a sparkling clean glass the right way up, he poured fresh water from a small glass jug, returning it to the polished silver tray at the top right corner of his desk; Corporal Simms smiled as she had placed it there just fifteen minutes prior to his arrival.

“Thank you, Corporal Simms,” the C.O. said, sipping the water.

“Richard. Earlier today, two of our personnel sustained injury due to an attempt by Colin Snape, the executive of the SGFC. He was trying to escape from the base. Both injured soldiers are doing well and are currently being treated at the base medical facility. They should be back to rights within the week.”

“Well, that is news indeed. Do we know what happened?”

“Corporal Simms, if you would relay the sequence of events to the C.O., please,” the major said, turning to address her.

“Certainly, Sir.”

The corporal relayed the sequence of events back to the officer in great detail, awaiting his reaction when she finished.

“Hmmmmm. Sounds like a tragic miscalculation on Mr. Snape’s part. Any idea why he would need to escape the base, Corporal?” he asked calmly.

“Permit me. Richard? If you have nothing more for the Corporal?” Major Sower interjected.

“Well done, Corporal Simms. Your actions undoubtedly saved more injuries, and I’ll see that it is duly noted in the base log. That’ll be all,” Richard said.

“Thank you, Sir, and Major,” the Corporal said, saluting both officers and closing the door behind her as she left.

“Paul?” Richard said, with raised eyebrows.

“It’s very sensitive, Richard. I didn’t want to discuss it in the presence of our junior non-commissioned officer.”

“Go on,” Richard acknowledged.

“She came to me with what I believed to be the hard drive of a laptop computer, originally from the wellhead site offices. It seems Mr. Snape wanted the laptops quite badly. There were two, one of which we already had, containing personnel files and staff evaluations, including one for Mr. Brin Garrett, the chief wellhead engineer on duty at the time of the explosion. We sent information to MI5 who accessed the financial transactions of Garrett and Snape. Each had made some large purchases within the last few weeks. The hard drive also revealed emails between the two men. They were plotting an attack on the wellhead site to disrupt the operation; sabotage, Richard.”

The C.O. sat visibly straighter in his chair at the revelations, before Paul continued.

“We believe they were bribed by someone outside of the UK but haven't, as yet, traced the source of the money transferred to them, estimated to be around half a million pounds, each. Ghost companies were used to hide identities, and the money was deposited and re-deposited into fictitious accounts; it is difficult to trace the source but they are working on it. In a nutshell, it looks like it was the actions of Garrett and Snape that caused the disaster that surrounds us. It seems they were bought by someone.”

“My, my. I wonder if they envisaged anything quite so catastrophic happening? Did they know of the existence of the base below the town before they acted?”

“Those are questions for the enquiry to ask, Richard, and I am sure there will be many more. The evidence on the hard drive is quite compelling and will be passed over to the authorities if and when the time comes. All credit to Simms; she spotted something odd about Snape long before he tried the escape. I told her to wait before detaining him, thinking that it might lead us to the real perpetrator as you had suggested. The MPs had been sent to place him under arrest minutes before he made his move. If we'd acted a little sooner, Snape might still be alive and able to face the music.”

“Hindsight is great sight, Paul. What about the other two? Do we know if they were involved in any way?”

“Brian and Meriam? There is no mention of them on either computer. We have Brian’s personnel file, which indicates that he’s highly regarded by the company. Meriam’s is held on the company HQ computers in the U.S., but there is no mention of her in communications, and they both check out with MI5 as being clean; only a parking ticket penalty between them.”