The Whitehall Syndicate: A time travel conspiracy thriller (24 page)

If she had left any sort of clue in any of the safes, then she knew they would find her. Finishing up the last decay experiment, she went back to her desk and collected up some observations. Looking up she saw a dark figure entering the lab, with a photograph in his hand that she couldn't make out.

Her stomach sank in fear and her skin immediately began to blotch red as her fear stricken heart gushed hot blood around her body. Steadying herself with a few deep breaths she slowly crept out of the office and immediately headed for the back exit of the lab.

There was only one reason they would be here: they knew it was her. Entering the empty corridor she jogged up to the end, making her way to the exit. Seeing some people approaching she slowed down and flashed a friendly smile.

She was breathing hard now, walking quickly. She didn't want to run because that would just draw more attention to her, but she was so close to the door that temptation threatened to take over at any second. All of a sudden another black figure swooped out in front of the exit and she panicked, taking the first turn she could find.

As she journeyed down the corridor she was practically jogging. Her delicate ears detected a thudding of boots behind her and it was her cue to break into an all out run.

She was toned and in fairly good shape but the corridor was a long one, and after a few minutes down the small, claustrophobic passageways, her chest throbbed as if something was gnawing at her insides.

Reaching the end of the corridor she tried the doorknob furiously. Realising it was locked she turned around and saw a large, near expressionless, man approaching, gun in hand. She couldn’t hear anything anymore; the sound of her heartbeat having become deafening.

Spotting another door that was open she ran into it, her heart threatening to smash out of her ribcage. Running in she saw it was a small lab with no other way out and her heart sank. Stuck, with no way out, she froze: her body giving up and preparing for her inevitable death. In an instant, the thug burst in.

Jack pulled up outside Kim's lab in the ambulance. He had a new plan that he wanted to run past her, but he'd probably just missed her lunch break. Whistling along he walked up to the entrance and stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a deafening gunshot.

Juleen chatted nervously, looking around as she did. So big was this event that there was a small queue outside the door already, and she was at the tail end. The night was frosty and she was shivering slightly, with her open back being lashed at by the cold.

Her dark mauve dress looked perfect though and it was clear she was out to get noticed. As the group of bodies in front of her finally shuffled along she reached the doorway and was greeted by a well polished Green, pristinely shaven and wearing just the right amount of cologne. Smiling he kissed her on both cheeks and invited her in.

Passing through, the guard in the black suit and white shirt standing by the landing nodded to her. There was already something of a crowd gathered inside and, like practically everyone else who had arrived; she had with her a bottle of wine. Placing the ninety-one
Montage on the table, she looked around and spotted Moira.

In a big room of equally big political players, she was glad to see a friend and went over to say hello. The spacious living room was been exquisitely transformed and the food had been laid out in tables surrounding a central place to stand and talk. The sofa was already occupied and so were the sparsely littered chairs, so she walked into the middle and simultaneously straight into the heart of the party.

Anisha walked up the road in between Jack and Pete. Pete had a duffel bag in his hand, full of the equipment they needed, and the rough blue bag clashed with his elegant tuxedo. As he walked along, the collar of his ruffled shirt itched and he cursed Green for requesting such ridiculously formal attire.

Anisha was wearing a burgundy dress with a lacy black shawl and Jack couldn't help but admire how amazing she looked. As they approached the house they began to slow down and check around. There were only a few people left at the door and Anisha spotted the guard they were expecting on the north side.

All three of them took up their positions and Jack walked up to him.

“Excuse me mate, We're looking for Mr. Green's house. We haven't been here in a long time, do you know where it is?”

“Are you here for the party?” came the gruff reply.

“Oh this is it. Excellent.” As he talked, Anisha snuck around behind him, Pete helping to block his view of anything.

The guard watched Pete carefully, and eying down the pair, began to get suspicious. His curiosity reaching its peak, he turned around just in time to see a huge length of metal pipe crash down onto his face.

Watching the man fall in amidst the blood spatter, Pete tasted a small sliver of vomit in the back of his mouth, but kept himself under control. Anisha grabbed a plastic bag from the duffel bag and put the pipe into it, sealing it up. At the same time Jack reached into the guard’s blood-spattered jacket and pulled out a communication device, taking it along with the guard's earpiece. So far everything was going as planned.

The men slid the body into the back of the small alleyway, and then Anisha pulled out a homemade rope ladder from the bag. Flinging it up, it caught the gutter and locked into place.

This was it, the part they hadn't been sure about. Would the gutter support this much weight? Anisha scrambled up the ladder as fast as she could and as soon as she got the chance, rested her foot on a small window ledge to take the weight off of the ropes.

She reached inside her considerable cleavage and pulled out two high strength binding clamps, sticking one on either side of the ladder to secure it to the wall. Getting back onto the ladder now, she climbed up until she reached another, larger window.

With a small heave and grunt she swung it open the whole way and messily stumbled into the upstairs bedroom. Jack followed behind her and finally Pete, who pulled up the ladder with him. If the computer virus Anisha had installed at the security office had worked, then as of ten minutes ago all of the cameras throughout the block were looping the same few frames. It would look as if the security guard was still pacing up and down the alley.

Inside the room they prepared for phase two; getting rid of the second guard. Jack began fiddling with the speaker and hit CHANNEL2. Suddenly a loud crackling sound came out of it, with the faint background sound of people schmoozing. A voice quickly asked if everything was all right and everybody in the bedroom stopped breathing. After a few seconds of tense silence, Jack dropped the device on the floor and stamped on it. With a loud crack the sound of static died.

In an instant Anisha was stood behind the door, with Jack and Pete stood next to each other in the bedroom. Everyone was deathly quiet and they could hear the thumping sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. A splintering came from the far wall and they could make out someone running into the room next door. Putting all doubt out of their minds, the trio prepared themselves.

A beat went by. Then another. The door was smacked open and a large brutish bald man thundered into the room. With a menacing gleam to his eyes he slowly walked up to the men, while reaching into his pocket. Realising what he was doing, Jack shouted out at Anisha and she jumped out from behind the door to try and shock him with her stun gun.

The guard whipped his body around, grabbed her, and spun back around while he flung her across the room. As she stumbled into Jack, Anisha let out a short yelp before hitting the floor. There was a burn on the man’s jacket pocket but if he felt any pain, he didn’t show it.

Not a single word was said as he stared into Jack's eyes, then Pete's. Reaching into his pocket he said softly “Come in. Come in.” There was no reply. Jack began to shuffle slightly from left to right and watching him, Pete did the same. The man trained his eyes on the both of them; then let out a roar as he ran straight ahead.

Chuck was bored already: he didn't care much for these parties. As usual, he didn't know most of the guests and he wasn't much for mingling.  A middle-aged man with a thinning patch of hair sat on his
crown came up to him and said hello, shaking his hand. With a smile he told him it had been too long since they last caught up and Chuck nodded along absently as he talked about what he'd been doing for the past few months.

Painting, studying Roman architecture, polishing up his vintage Ferrari and planning a cruise with his young blonde wife. All the cliché's of a mid-life crisis. As he got called away, Chuck wondered who on earth he was. The thought was quickly displaced as he spotted Dwight, Green's political advisor, with a tall woman.

“Come on babe, just show me it!”

“Dwight man, is that the best line you can up with these days?”

He smiled as he saw his friend approaching and they shook hands. Attempting to diffuse the resulting awkwardness, he introduced Chuck to Green's accountant. She was lively character, slightly short and portly but full of mirth.

As Dwight persisted, trying to persuade her to divulge how she could save him a thousand pounds by changing his books, Chuck thought he heard a dull scream. Looking around, nobody else seemed to notice. He was probably so bored his mind was playing tricks on him.

He grabbed a glass of wine from the table next to him and began gulping it down quickly. How long would he have to stay at this party and swig cheap wine before it was no longer considered impolite to leave?

The guard heaved his head off the floor and clawed his way across the carpet, his face still burning from the scratches across his right eye. His windpipe was crushed from Pete's sharp kick a few minutes ago and blood was dripping from his knuckles, scraped and raw from a punch to Anisha's skull. His body was battered and there was no doubt a rainbow of bruises lay beneath his shirt.

Pulling out his hand he reached for the communication device and just as his fingers neared it he felt the bones in his hand splinter as Jack stamped on them. His eyes blurry with pain, his body tired and short of breath, he turned in time to see the Taser ram into his neck.

Pete turned away as he began undulating violently, gargling in pain and unable to manage a scream. A paralysing pulse tore its way through his body, the shocks tearing apart his muscles from the inside. As he began coughing up blood he felt his head getting lighter before he finally blacked out.

Jack looked down at him and said, “He'll be okay if we get him to a hospital.” The two men scrambled over to Anisha, who lay by the closet and helped her up. Her lip was cut but other than that she was fine. Pete was limping badly but was okay. His hair was fine, and his clothes, though slightly creased, were still passable. Jack was a different story.

His knuckles were pink and torn and his suit was ripped and covered in patches of smeared, cherry red blood. They all collapsed onto the floor and took in some deep breaths. Already, things weren't going quite according to plan. After a second Jack lugged himself up. “We should move.”

“You can't go out looking like that,” said Pete.

He looked around and saw the closet. Jogging over he pulled it open and saw a whole range of suits. After a quick flick through, he found some trousers that were a passable match and told Jack to try them. As Jack changed in front of his friends, embarrassment didn’t even enter his head; he was far too focused on the task at hand. The trousers were slightly tight but it would be okay, as long as Green didn't recognise they was one of his.

Pete sorted out Jack's hair using some products on the bedside table, while Anisha straightened up her dress, and then the three of them slipped out.

As they turned to go down the stairs Jack saw a guard watching the bottom of the staircase and pulled the three of them back into the dark bedroom. “We have another problem. The security was wrong. There's one more guard. He's downstairs right now.” Shock crossed Pete's face

“Then how are we going to get down?”

“I don't know,” replied Anisha, “but we better think of something quickly. When he sees that the other guard hasn't come back down he's going to come up here. That last one was huge. I don’t think there's any more charge left in the stunner.”

Green said goodbye to the tall Chinese man he was speaking with and popped into the study, away from the writhing rabble of bodies competing for space. Closing the door, the loud rumble of men and women engaged in stimulating conversation died down into a soft murmur.

He pulled out his palmtop from his jacket pocket and logged on to the messenger system.

>>>Is the contract verified yet?

There was a short pause, as there usually was with this service.

>>> Contract is yet to be verified.

Green frowned, and started typing again.

>>>What is the delay?

He tapped his foot impatiently while he waited for a reply. As the door to his study swung open, he felt his heart skip a beat and he nearly dropped the palmtop. He looked up and saw it was just two very drunk people looking for a place to be inappropriate.

Apologising, they left and Green closed the palmtop and placed it back in his pocket. If somebody had caught him he might've had some explaining to do. Content to wait for now he took a swig of the whisky he had brought in with him, and walked back out with a smile on his face, locking the door as he left.

The body lay in the corner of the room, tucked behind the bed. The man wasn't stirring or moving, but the small, rhythmic bobbing of his chest told them he was still alive. The third guard would be coming any minute and Pete was sweating a river. Jack paced up and down while staring at his feet, massaging his temples in the hope that a plan would emerge. He looked up and Anisha could see he had something.

He looked at his watch. Gina was only a few minutes away from their position. Without a moment to
lose he turned on his phone and rang her. Speaking quietly, he explained the situation.

“I need your help?”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Get to the house. I want you to erm, oh I know. Get the balaclava from
your handbag and pull it over your head. Walk up to the house and pretend you're expected at a fancy dress party. When they turn you away, start complaining and make Green come out to the front with you.”

“We're a few minutes away.”

“Try and hurry, we don't have much time.”

Jack hung up the phone and looked back at Anisha. In a few minutes Gina would be arriving and they had a small window of opportunity. Jack tried adjusting his hair again while Anisha sat in silence, gently rubbing her throbbing head.

Jack looked down and sighed guiltily for having brought her into this. Now wasn’t the time to lose focus though. He looked back to the time on his phone and watched the seconds count down. When he was convinced they would be arriving any moment, he snuck out of the room, motioning for Anisha and Pete to do the same. They crept across the landing and the trio waited on the edge of the stairs.

As the stood there, Jack checked his phone. Again. Time seemed to be moving slowly, and each second dragged on. He was starting to feel hot and his clothes were becoming itchy. Where were they?

Pete kept watching the seconds count down and took in a long, deep breath. Four minutes had gone by and still nothing. Watching the guard, Pete’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets: he was turning around to walk up the stairs. His body froze and he felt Jack's arm tugging him back and out of the way. They stood there on the landing, looking left and right. There was nothing they could do, nowhere they could go. Thud Thud. The footsteps were getting closer.