Alien Virus (10 page)

“That’s fine by me,” replied Audrey.

“Fantastic. So if Sandi could stay with you
tonight, Gareth can come with me. We’ll be back here at nine
tomorrow morning, and make our way up to Orkney then.”

Everyone kissed and hugged, and Tony and
Gareth headed off to Tony’s flat, leaving Sandi wondering what was
going to happen when they got to Orkney.

***

Thirteen

We had several hours to kill in Kirkwall
before taking our ferry to the Isle of Eday, so we found a café
with wifi so I could check my email. The night before, I’d emailed
Frida Stronson in Sweden to ask about helping us to set up a
Swedish-registered website. I was hoping for a reply – and I was in
luck.

“
Hi Kevin – good to hear from yo
u.
H
ow’s Sandi?

No problem with the website,
very
happy
to help. Just give me an idea of what you want and
I’ll start putting something together for you. Any idea of a domain
name? It would be good to arrange that asap. Best Regards,
Frida.”

I looked at Kate.

“What do you think about a name?”

“How about, alienvirus.org? Or alienvirus.se
if you want a Swedish domain.”

“Both sound great! Let’s do it.”

*

Tony and Gareth picked up Sandi just after
nine the next morning and the three began their journey up to
Thurso. None of them had been that far North before, and they were
looking forward to the adventure. Plus it was a relief to get away
from Edinburgh now the authorities were looking for them.

The road was pretty clear up to Inverness,
and they reached the city just after midday, where they stopped off
for fuel and food. Tony tried to phone Kevin and Kate for the
second time that day, but again there was no reply. He added to the
message he’d left the night before and put away his phone.

“Probably no signal where they are,” he
said. “I’ll keep checking my mobile for messages from Kevin.” They
got back on the road and followed the signs to Thurso. About a mile
out of Inverness, Tony noticed a police car in his rear-view
window. It was indicating for them to pull over.

“Oh, shit” he said under his breath.

“What is it?” Sandi asked.

“Police,” replied Gareth, looking back.

They pulled over and waited. Two officers,
having run a check on Tony’s car, walked over to the driver’s
window.

“Everything all right?” Tony asked.

“Just routine sir,” the smaller of the
officers said. “Can I see your
driver’s
licence
and vehicle documents please?”
Tony nodded and reached across Gareth to the glove compartment for
the documents. He glanced back at Sandi to make sure she was all
right. He hardly recognized her in the wig that Audrey had
suggested she wore for the trip. She nodded. The first officer
handed the documents to the second, then turned back to Tony.

“Can I ask where you’re heading sir?”

“To John O’Groats – bit of a vacation.” The
second policeman handed the documents back to the first, nodding to
him. They were then returned to Tony.

“Have a safe journey, sir – and enjoy your
holiday.”

“Thank you,” replied Tony with a thin
smile.

They drove off thinking that had been a
close call.

“I don’t think they recognized you,” Tony
said to Sandi.

“How about some music?” Gareth suggested,
wanting to lighten the mood.

“Fine – as long as it’s nothing by
T
he Police
,” quipped Tony.

*

As Kate and I sailed out of Kirkwall
Harbour
en route to Eday, I suddenly felt
so much more relaxed. Edinburgh was better than London, but Orkney
was something else again. I smiled at Kate as we stood on deck,
surveying the view from our second ferry in as many days. Ahead of
us the blue water was relatively flat. Quite a contrast to the
rough seas of the Pentland Firth the day before. Kate took out her
Ordnance Survey map of the Northern Orkney Islands and traced her
finger along our route from Kirkwall, To starboard was first
Shapinsay then Stronsay, whilst on the port side stood the small
islands of Gairsay, Wyre and Egilsay, with the imposing and
mountainous Rousay behind.

I checked my mobile. Since arriving in
Orkney, the phone signal had been patchy at best.

“Ah, a signal!” I exclaimed with delight.
“And a text message from Tony.”

“What’s he saying?” Kate asked excitedly. I
was quiet for a second. “Kevin?”

“He’s on his way up.”

“To Orkney?”

“I think so – with Sandi and Gareth. Look.”
I showed the brief message to Kate.

“
SGT on our way
… is that all?” she
asked.

“Seems to be. We’ll just have to wait to
find out what’s happened when they arrive.” The message left us
with a troubled feel, taking the edge of the bliss we’d felt
moments earlier.

“I’m sure everything’s fine,” I said, trying
to convince myself as much as Kate.”

“Yes, must be,” she replied, not believing
it at all.

*

My mind was still on Tony’s message as we
sailed close to Sanday, a low–lying land mass on our right. But I
was more concerned with a different type of Sandi – the one I’d
rescued from the London hospital a few days earlier. God, it seemed
like weeks ago now. I hoped she was okay, that nothing had happened
to her. I still hadn’t worked out why Trevor should have drugged
her in the first place – if it was him. I could only think it was
to cover up Frank’s death. I’d given Frank my work card in the pub,
and they would have found that on his body. Then the doctor in the
hospital met both of us when we were looking for Frank. If I hadn’t
gone away to Edinburgh looking for Frank’s next of kin, it could
have been both of us drugged and mugged. And I wouldn’t be in
Orkney now.

Kate suddenly jogged me out of my day-dream
by pointing towards some rocks close to the Sanday shoreline.

“Look, Kevin!”

What at first seemed to be rocks, were seals
at the water’s edge. We were both very taken with the sight. I’d
seen seals at London Zoo, of course, but seeing them in their
natural habitat was fantastic.

“Amazing!” I said.

Eday was now on our port side, and the boat
was turning towards the pier. I’d read that the population of the
island was around a hundred and twenty – which was less than the
number of people in my street back in London. The ferry took a few
minutes to dock, and then we were soon rolling off the gangway and
up the ramp onto the main road. We later discovered that this was
practically the only road on the island; and it was really nothing
more than a ‘B’ road.

We really hadn’t any idea of where we were
going to start, but thought there must be a village of some sort.
As it turns out, there was nothing like that: just two shops
(general stores), a couple of pubs, and a few houses that provided
bed & breakfast. We were about to ask for directions to one
such guest house, when my mobile rang.

“Tony! Where are you?”

“Just coming into Stromness.”

“Great! Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. Sandi and Gareth are
with me, and they’re looking forward to seeing you both.” I told
Tony where we were. They wouldn’t be able to get over to Eday until
the next day, so I suggested they stayed at the same Guest House in
Stromness where we stopped.

“All right, Tony, we’ll do that. I’ll call
you again tomorrow. Have a good night.”

We got directions to a grey stone house at
the North End of the island. It was pretty basic, but we were glad
to find it. The weather had turned decidedly nippy as the sun went
down. There was only one spare room in the house, so Kate and I
shared. It was what both of us wanted anyway. Before turning in, we
switched on the television for the news. It wasn’t good.

“
In a vote on the new salt bill today,
the government won by a majority of forty–nine. The legislation
means that from the 1
^st
of September,
it will be illegal to buy or sell salt in the UK. The
Prime
Minister and the G
overnment’s Chief Medical Officer,
b
oth welcomed the news.”

Kate looked at me for my reaction.

“All news is good news,” I said, quoting my
old man.

“What does that mean?” asked Kate.

“It means Tony and co have made the right
decision.”

***

Fourteen

The next day, I couldn’t believe that I’d
just spent a whole night in a room with a beautiful young woman
whom I fancied like anything, and nothing had happened. But the
journey to Eday had made us both tired – and there would be plenty
of time for Kate and I to get to know each other.

With a cloudless blue sky and warm sun, we
both felt brighter the next morning and soon began to explore Eday,
driving from one croft building to another, looking for empty
property and getting to know the island. There really was only one
road, with smaller tracks branching off to the west and east. We
were amused to see that despite Eday possessing only two shops, the
island did have an airstrip – which was known as ‘London Airport’.
Nothing to do with Heathrow or Gatwick of course – this one
received its name from being located at London Bay.

“Well, that could be handy,” observed Kate,
scanning the airfield. “A quick escape route if ever we need
it.”

“Yeah – assuming we have an aeroplane, and
you can fly it.”

“My sister flies her own microlite,” she
said matter-of-factly.

So not such a dumb idea after all then.

Great sandy bays flanked the airport east
and west. If the climate was a few degrees warmer, this would be
paradise. But then it would probably be thronging with tourists,
and not be the safe retreat we needed. To the west lay another,
smaller, island called Faray. And at the north end of Eday was The
Calf – a sanctuary for seals and seabirds. The more we got to know
the island, the more we liked it. It was remote, yet had a
homeliness we liked. We wanted to show the others as soon as
possible.

“Yes, it is really peaceful here – and it’s
got something I really can’t put my finger on,” observed Kate. “But
there are other islands to see – this is just the first one in the
alphabet, remember?” She was right of course. So I suggested that
the two of us go over to first Sanday, then Westray, and ask Tony,
Gareth and Sandi to take a look at Shapinsay and Stronsay.

When I finally got through to Tony, he was
very much up for the idea. I asked him if he’d caught the news last
night.

“I did – and it’s just as we expected, don’t
worry about it. Sandi and Gareth picked up supplies of salt just
before we left Edinburgh, so we’ll be fine for the next twelve
months at least. We’re not going down with the virus just yet.”

That news put our minds at rest. We set off
for Sanday, whilst the others took the first available boat from
Kirkwall to Shapinsay. The plan was to meet up in Kirkwall in two
days time.

*

The islands of Orkney are all different.
From the Mountainous Hoy to the dead flat North Ronaldsay, and from
the tiny Calf of Eday to the large main Orkney island (formerly
known as Pomona, but now boringly called ‘Mainland’). Sanday
impressed us. Similar in many ways to Eday, but with a micro
village at Kettletoft. It even had a hotel! On balance, though, we
still preferred the feel of Eday. Next, we headed off to Westray,
the largest of the northern Orkney islands with a population of
over a thousand souls. We’d got so used to small that it just
seemed too and impersonal. Having come from London, I couldn’t
believe I was thinking like that.

Whilst we were on Westray, we couldn’t help
noticing there was an airport with a one minute flight to
neighbouring
Papa Westray, affectionately
known as ‘Papay’. Billed as the shortest scheduled air flight in
the World, we just had to try this out; it was an opportunity to
see another island at the same time. The total duration of the
flight was only two minutes – including taxiing on the runway! From
the Papa Westray airstrip, a taxi took us to the centre of the
island, where we found a Community Centre and a row of holiday
chalets. We’d missed the last ferry back to Kirkwall, and there
wasn’t another flight to Westray for a couple of days, so we stayed
the night on the island. Fortunately, there was plenty of room
available – we were the only guests.

Piping hot, home-made barley soup and bere
bannocks were laid out before us for supper in the little
restaurant in the Community Centre. The bannocks were made from the
local bere wheat – a cross between wheat and barley. They had
certainly been cooked with plenty of salt, which I asked the
landlady about.

“Aye, well – between you and me mind – I
canna understand these government people. We’ve always had salt
through the generations. And it’s never done anyone any harm –
quite the opposite. And my boy was telling me the other day how the
ancient Egyptians, and all these other advanced civilizations, used
plenty of salt. And they were healthy enough.” We nodded in
agreement. I wanted to tell her about the alien virus, but thought
better of it.

“Are you folks staying up here long?”

“Oh, possibly. We’re playing with the idea
of moving up to Orkney.”

“Well, you canna ‘ave picked a better place.
Aye, it’s a grand place to live. I’ve been here all my life, and
I’d never want to move away. Oh, I’ve been down South…”

“To London?” asked Kate.

“Oh no! That’s like going to another
country… to Glasgow. And I can tell you, you can keep it.
Everybody’s in such a hurry, no–one’s got any time for anyone else.
And everyone’s so unhappy. You’d think they’d been hit with a
misery virus.” Kate and I smiled. We thanked the lady for the
supper and asked if we could pay her for our stay.