Wanted (Flick Carter Book 1) (36 page)

‘This gives me an idea,’ said Shea. ‘This track runs around the south side of the old aerodrome, and it goes into a cutting and through a tunnel. It’s pretty well hidden by trees, and it’ll give us some shelter too.’

So they turned and followed the track bed to the cutting. They unloaded their gear and stashed it inside the mouth of the tunnel.

‘How far does it go?’ Flick asked, ‘I can’t see light at the other end.’

‘Well it is starting to get dark,’ Shea said, ‘but it’s quite short, and it’s blocked. So we don’t need to worry about being surprised from both ends. Let’s get a look at the lie of the land before it’s too dark to see.’

They climbed to the top of the embankment. A vast area had been cleared of trees and ruined buildings, and a large chain-link and barbed wire fence had been erected. It appeared to go for at least a mile in each direction.

‘That fence wasn’t here last time,’ Shea muttered. ‘There must be more going on than I imagined…’

‘Last time?’ Flick wondered why he’d been here before, and who’s side he was really on.

‘Maybe it was… I dunno. I was too busy being shot at.’

‘Wait a minute, you were being shot at?’

‘Don’t sound so surprised, Shea said, ‘It’s not like I haven’t been shot at before. Remember when you found me?’

‘You said you crashed.’ Flick said.

‘No,
You
said I crashed.
I
said I was shot down.’

‘And this was the same?’

‘Yes–No. I was shot
at
. With guns. Well,
we
were shot at. Bryan was flying, I was in the back.’ Shea turned to look at her. ‘Look, if we get out of this thing alive tomorrow, I’ll take you up myself and show you how safe it really is. Looking down at the ground, just like a bird; imagine that.’

Flick imagined, and she didn’t much like it. But reluctantly she agreed. It was not like she would actually have to do it, after all, what were their chances of surviving tomorrow?

‘Anyhow, that’s how I discovered Griffin was here–I wanted to find out who’d been shooting at us,’ Shea said.

‘So they’ve definitely got real guns,’ Flick said, studying Shea’s face for any sign that he might not be serious, and finding none. ‘Where do you suppose they’ve got the others?’

‘See those buildings across the far side? I imagine they are there. We’re going to have to get across the field without being seen–that could be tricky. But if they are expecting us to come in the front gate, they might not look at the back fence.’

While Shea talked, Flick had been poking at the ground at the foot of the fence with her hunting knife. She stopped, shaking her head. ‘This ground is as hard as rock. I thought maybe we could dig under the fence, but it looks like we’ll have to go over.’

They looked up at the barbed wire on the top of the fence in dismay.

Shea grunted.

‘Maybe there’s a better way in further along,’ he said. ‘Come on, let’s look.’

It didn’t take them long to determine that the barbed wire was unbroken for as far as the eye could see.

‘Looks like pretty serious stuff,’ Flick said. ‘If we sling all our blankets and the horse blanket and the saddle onto one of the posts, we might get over though.’

She rattled the fence for a moment then turned and slid back down the bank. ‘Come on, we’d better turn in,’ she called, ‘we’ve got an early start tomorrow.’

They laid out their bedding inside the mouth of the tunnel and settled down for the night. Flick lay under her blanket, still fully clothed, staring up at the roof of the tunnel.

‘Shea?’

‘Yes?’

‘Is Hannah really your girlfriend?’

‘No.’

‘So why did she say she was?’

‘Dunno. We grew up together, maybe she just assumed. Didn’t like the idea I might be with someone else.’

‘And are you?’

‘Am I what?’

‘With someone else?’

‘I don’t know. Am I?’

There was the briefest pause.
 

‘Shea?’

‘Yes?’

‘Kiss me.’

He rolled over and reached out to her, then he pulled her closer and kissed her, tentatively at first, but as she responded, more and more passionately.
 

‘Do you suppose this really is our last night on earth?’ Flick said after they’d broken off.

‘I don’t know, but I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend it with.’

Flick kissed him again, ‘Good answer,’ she whispered.

‘Of course we must survive, or you won’t get your plane ride,’ Shea added.

Shea?’ Flick said.

‘Yes?’

‘Shut up.’

‘Stay there kid, and don’t move. I’ve got my eye on you. Understand?’ Kingsman North gestured at Adam with his fingers.

Adam nodded. He looked at the sea of Kingsmen in the large room, and a big grin came over his face. He was wearing black in a sea of black. Every Kingsman in the city must be in this room. Okay, his was the only uniform without the gold embroidered crown on it, and he only got to stand at the back, but one day soon…

Something was happening at the front of the room, where the top brass sat on a small stage. Adam strained to see. Someone stood up. Adam could see him now, head and shoulders above the crowd. It was Brigadier Humphries. The room came to order.

The brigadier had a flip chart with him on the stage and he turned over the cover. Adam saw the features of a man, familiar yet at the same time striking fear into the core of his being: Mayor George Griffin. What on earth did the Kingsmen want with Griffin, here in Bristol of all places? Adam hoped fervently that it wasn’t anything nice. Not after the things he’d seen him do.

The brigadier spoke. ‘This man…’ he hit the picture with his swagger stick. ‘…is George Griffin. At present mayor of Faringdon. But also an upstart with a private army and ambitions for power that must be stopped.’ He paused and looked around the room.

‘Normally this would be a job for Oxford, and if he was still in Faringdon, they’d deal with it. But he’s in Bristol, and so he is now our problem. Lieutenant Dixon will go over the details.’ He waited as Dixon stood to address the assembly.

‘Griffin is a cruel and evil man. Kidnapper, murderer, extortionist. He’s prepared to go to any lengths to get what he wants, and will go out of his way to harm or kill anyone that gets in his way. He even killed his own son in cold blood for aiding the escape of a prisoner, a girl who he’d accused of two murders that he himself had committed.’

Adam winced at the memory, and appreciated the groans of disgust that now permeated the room.

Dixon continued, ‘The brother of that girl is a cadet in this room, and will be observing the operation.’

‘The reason that Griffin is here in Bristol is to buy arms. Some of you are aware that a Scav ship arrived in the harbour recently carrying a great deal of munitions. Not just guns and bullets, but mortars, grenades, explosives sufficient to go against the king and possibly even pull off a successful coup.’ There were gasps around the room as they grasped the seriousness of it.

‘Yesterday I had a high level meeting with Tomas Bradbury and the Scav Grand Council, requesting that the munitions be directed to our armoury where they could be kept out of harm’s way. This request was denied and Griffin has paid a large sum of money and gold for them.’

‘But the munitions are still in the warehouse awaiting collection. And it is our job to see that doesn’t happen. Bradbury has promised there will be no Scav interference, so long as our efforts are directed against Griffin and not against any known Scav installation. Intelligence suggests he has approximately a hundred men, armed with light machine guns and pistols, and so our work will be cut out for us.’

Adam listened intently as the rest of the briefing was taken up with details of the upcoming mission. He was relieved to discover that his squad, the one he’d arrived from Oxford with, would remain intact under the command of Lieutenant Dixon. If anyone could save the day, it was Dixon, and he, Adam Carter, cadet, with just three weeks training and one operational mission under his belt, was going to make damn sure she did.

IT WAS STILL dark outside when the convoy of six Armoured Personnel Carriers rolled out of the Kingsmen’s compound. Adam and the rest of Lieutenant Dixon’s squad were in the back of truck number six. They all wore body armour, and everyone apart from Adam was armed with an SA120-A9 light assault rifle. Adam sat, eyes fixed on the side wall of the APC, gritting his teeth so that he didn’t tremble, hoping against hope that the Kingsmen seated opposite him couldn’t see the fear, no, the
terror
in his eyes. What was he doing? He was just a kid from a small town in the middle of nowhere. A month ago, he was still in school, and now he was on his second operational mission. Beads of sweat trickled down his back and he struggled to fight off the urge to scratch, knowing that whatever he did wouldn’t satisfy the itch and would only draw attention.

‘You all right son?’

It was Lieutenant Dixon. The
Kingsman Princess
, he’d learned. He’d heard her being called other things too, behind her back.
Warrior Bitch
was one. He remembered back to his first day, when he’d told Socko about his encounter in the museum. Doomed he’d called him. Adam had thought at the time that he was only joking. But now perhaps he was right.
Doomed
. Socko was in the APC with him, two places down, looking straight ahead. Maybe they were all doomed.

‘Son?’

Adam snapped out of it. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

Dixon smiled. ‘Worried about your sister? We’ll find her if we can.’

Adam nodded. He hadn’t been. But now he thought about her, and now he regretted being so nasty, so selfish all those years. He hoped at least he’d get a chance to say sorry, whatever else happened.

Dixon called up front, ‘Fletcher, what’s the tracker status?’

Mo Fletcher consulted her board in the front of the truck. ‘Still no signal, ma'am,’ she shouted back. ‘Last known position was south of…’ she kept shouting something but Adam couldn’t make out the words over the noise of the truck.

Dixon cupped her hand to her ear. Evidently she couldn’t hear either.

‘She’s in the tunnel!’ Fletcher shouted slowly and clearly.

Dixon gave a thumbs up.

She turned back to Adam. ‘We know exactly where she is, so don’t worry.’

The convoy tore through the empty streets until it reached the derelict industrial area that abutted the railway line on the south side of the airfield. Here they stopped and waited. Finally Dixon addressed the squad.

‘Now listen up everyone. We’ve briefed this already, but just to be clear. The first group is going to clear and gain access to the facility. Group two, led by us, will penetrate the control centre and locate our target. A reminder: this is a FOFO mission–Fighting On Fortified Objectives–and we can assume there will be stiff resistance. We know the bad guys are armed and dangerous, so keep your eyes open. Carter: You are here as an observer only. Stay out of the way and do not get yourself shot.
 

‘Intel has several people matching the travellers we tagged taken into the compound under guard yesterday. My guess is that Felicity is going after them.’

‘That sounds like Flick,’ Adam interjected.

‘Okay, be alert for civilian interference everyone,’ Dixon announced. ‘Her goals are not incompatible with ours, and she’s not to be regarded as hostile unless necessary.’

Dixon turned to Adam. ‘We will try to retrieve your sister if it is practical, but that is not our objective, and not if it jeopardises the mission. Understood?

Adam nodded.

‘Yes, ma’am!’ the squad chorused.

Soon they heard the boom that signalled the start of group one’s assault. It was followed by sounds of machine gun and small arms fire.

‘Lock and load people! We’re up!’ Dixon shouted. The driver gunned the motor, vainly trying to compete with the sound of magazines being slammed home and bolts being drawn back, and the truck moved in. Adam felt the clatter as they ran over the shattered remains of the gates, and the ramp was already descending as the truck screeched to a halt. His heart thumped hard in his chest. This was it. Now the only sound Adam could hear was his own breathing.

The ramp dropped, opening up the back of the truck and the silence was shattered by the sounds of gunfire. Adam’s nostrils were assaulted by the stink of cordite.

‘Go! Go! Go!’ Sergeant Wailing shouted. The squad piled out and took up positions behind the truck. Steam vented from somewhere beneath, obscuring their position from the enemy. The rat-a-tat of small arms fire was punctuated by a deeper booming dug-a-dug-a-dug-a, and the truck shook under a series of impacts.
 

Someone shouted, ‘Machine gun on the roof!’
 

‘On it!’ another voice answered.

The truck stopped shaking as the machine gunner changed targets, and Adam saw sparks flying as rounds thudded into the plating on another truck. Then there was a whoosh and a boom and the machine gun fell silent.

But the small arms fire continued, with the Kingsmen returning fire. Adam crouched behind one of the wheels, making himself as small as possible. He saw the lieutenant waving at people and they disappeared. Adam’s jaw was slack. Everything was happening so fast. So much noise. So much confusion. His eyes were stinging from the smoke.

Dixon yelled, ‘Sergeant Wailing, five rounds, rapid!’

‘Ma’am’ came a call back, and five shots went off in rapid succession. That appeared to be a signal for something as shots rang out from all around, and booms went off, and lots more smoke started drifting around. He crouched down with his fingers in his ears and shut his eyes.

Eventually someone tapped Adam on the shoulder. He looked up. It was Corporal Barnes. ‘Come on, we’re moving out,’ he shouted. Adam got to his feet and started to follow after him.

‘Keep your head down, for fuck’s sake,’ the corporal hissed. ‘If you get yourself shot, I’m in for a severe bollocking. Now run!’
 

Adam ducked. Barnes pushed him forward and they ran for the shelter of the nearest building. They flattened themselves against the wall and edged along it.