Bacchus and Sanderson (Deceased) (43 page)

He looked at her bored, irritated.

“I expect you’re going to tell me. Please make it quick, I have a very low boredom threshold and you’re about to breach it.”

“Your assistant, Helena told me. You can’t do anything down here on any scale. Scaring the shit out of a body here and there.” She shrugged with disdain,

“Who care’s? But, if you were down here amongst the people, the possibilities would be endless.”

He appeared intrigued and gestured for her to continue.

              Felicity considered what would say next. How he reacted would determine her and her family’s future, good or not.

“I’ve often wondered why you have never attempted to place an offspring on earth. Why is that?”

He smiled,

“Oh, I have had a few successes. Hitler was one of mine. Control is the issue. He was doing so well, but he didn’t take a long term view. So, he ended up dead. If he had had the guidance, he might still be causing problems today. I also need procreators. A good size family of offsprin
g’
s can in a few generations be a significant force. Careers in governments, industry, financial institutions. I could wrest control from that woman upstairs.”

              Felicity’s pulse quickened and she had to take a couple of controlled breaths to regain her composure.

“You can have your dynasty if you want it. With me. I can provide the child with the guidance and the money is there for education and training. The top jobs are ours for the taking. You can offer,” she paused unsure how best to phrase it.

“Spiritual guidance. I assume this child would have access to the powers they would need? In next to no time, you could have your children, lining up to rule the world.”

“And the quid pro quo?”

Gotcha! Felicity kept her face neutral, shrugging.

“If this is to work, this mess needs to be dealt with. I appreciate time cannot be reversed, but you need to ensure that I am wealthy, free and successful so that our future rulers can be guided.”

“I’ll talk to Helena and arrange whatever needs to be arranged. Be aware that we are not talking about a pain free extraction. Your solicitor: your father, maybe your Uncle? Would they matter?”

Felicity paused, seeming to consider his question. Then she said,

“No, not at all. Now lets discuss consummation.”

***

              William sat on his sofa, catatonic with worry and fear. He wasn't afraid for himself, but his friends and family. His brother Ben, locked in a cell in Yeovil police station. Annabel, kidnapped, alone and scared and Jemima seriously injured and held together with titanium rods because of him. How would he be able to protect his friends in the future if he was unable to prove that CHC Industries imported the cocaine or to even find their cocaine? Deep in thought, he didn't register that his iPhone was ringing. He blankly stared at the phones screen for a few seconds before he registered that it was Sanjay Khan-Lewis calling. He grabbed at the vibrating phone and answered it before it stopped ringing.

"Sanjay, what's happening?" Before Sanjay could answer William continued,

“Is Ben okay? How long until they will release him? Has Penny called? Have you seen Jemima?" Sanjay laughed at Williams stream of questions and said,

“Ben’s fine. The police are completing the paperwork so that he can be released immediately. Penny called and confirmed he had been in Cambridge yesterday and so it was impossible for him to have planted the Semtex at the Houses of Parliament. The police have reviewed the CCTV and it was apparent that the person on the video looked completely different to Ben. Matt and John, Jemima's security people have let the police know that they are waiting for Ben in the car park." Sanjay heard William sob with relief into the telephone.

              Eric and Ernie pushed Jemima through Williams’s front door and into the small hallway. As she was pushed into the front room, Ben followed her a couple of steps behind. Jemima said,

“Welcome home.” She gestured around the room at William, Ernest, Jonas and Juanita and said,

“We’ve all missed you.” Ben smiled and said to her bodyguards that they needed some time in private. Once they had gone, he said to all of them,

“It’s good to be back. That was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Oddly, it was also fascinating. It seemed that as soon as the police saw me they realised they had the wrong person. They showed me the CCTV footage from the Houses of Parliament and the person who left the backpack in the cleaning cupboard looked completely different to me. If Felicity had been a little more careful in matching my double to how I look I would still be in custody." Ben sank into armchair and asked,

“Where is Annabel?" William answered,

"Annabel was kidnapped and is on her way to the docks near Southampton. We’re tracking her progress using the find friends app you installed on our iPhones. We think she is going to the CHC industries warehouse in Fawley. Let me tell you what is happening and that will bring you up to speed with the rest of us. I’ve employed Tiny and six of his ex-SAS friends as bodyguards. Two with Jemima, two have gone to find Annabel and two for you. I’ll have Tiny to look after me when he arrives. Juanita, Ernest what’s happening in limbo?” Juanita answered,

“Before I answer, Ben, I'd like you to meet your uncle Jonas." A third figure materialised next to Ernest and Juanita. Ben could immediately see why Penny had been stunned by his similarity to Jonas.

“Hi uncle Jonas it's good to meet you. Your diaries have caused me a lot of problems. Later I need to pick your brain, if that’s okay?” Jonas nodded.

Ernest looked at Juanita with a look that said, ‘do you want to tell him or shall I?’

Ernest said to everyone without softening what he had to say.

“Felicity has committed herself to the devil.” Juanita interrupted continuing from where he had left off.

“I can’t be sure, but I think Helena met with Satan and arranged for Felicity to meet with him. I tried to listen to their conversation, but he had blocked everything within five hundred meters. That could cause significant problems depending on what she has offered him and if he were interested.”

              William had looked amused while Juanita was speaking and as soon as she had paused, interrupted.

“What could Felicity, a nobody, offer the dark lord that would bring him up to the surface for a meeting, very dangerous? His only interest is control. He has only managed to exploit human’s piecemeal, very ineffective. The only way he could have any real impact would be if he had …” William’s colour had gone from his usual ruddy, healthy complexion to ashen, grey. Jemima looked frightened at seeing William’s reaction to his own thoughts and being aware of how dangerous a proposition a cornered Felicity might be. Ben pushed a chair under William as his legs gave way and he sat down heavily. Juanita looked at him and said,

“Now you understand don’t you?”

William nodded still too shocked to speak. Juanita continued talking to William.

“Shall I explain or would you like to?” William sat still silent for a long moment and then indicated that he would and said to Jemima,

“Jemima you know Felicity better than the rest of us here. What is she capable of? To what lengths would she go to come out on top?”

Jemima was unsure how to answer as she didn’t know what William was alluding to. So instead she asked her own question.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say. Are you asking if Felicity has any limits
,
any boundaries?” William nodded.

“Then no, none at all. She is her grandfathers, granddaughter. If someone needs killing she’ll kill them. If someone needs threatening and terrifying she’ll threaten and terrify them. The end always justifies the means.”

William took a deep breath and with a worried expression said,

“I think Felicity has agreed to give the devil, Satan, the one thing he hasn’t got and has never managed to get. She has agreed to be the mother to his children. You see as a spirit, even a powerful and warped one; his ability to affect what happens on earth is very limited. God puts a lot of effort into keeping life safe on this little rock we call home. If he could have a direct connection, control of humans, his humans then the sky’s the limit. Felicity has enough money and influence to educate them and give them all the advantages they would need, he would handle their spiritual and emotional development. In thirty or forty years we could have world leaders, church leaders, influential scientists and business giants all controlled by the devil.”

Jemima was the only one who didn’t look stunned.

“Our most important job is stopping her. Ben was my drugged mumblings enough to help you work out what I discovered?”

“I saw that the Cortez ships we thought would be the carriers could
n’
t be. Wrong places and not enough time to rectify that. The cargo ships you had highlighted belong to Cameron Holdings Corporation, but I can’t see a connection to the Cortez’s with that either. Then William called about Annabel and I left my search and came to help my brother.”

              Jemima smiled and said,

“Good as far as it goes and I’m sure you would have got there, but this is what I’ve got. Grandfather and Felicity have been clever. Did you notice the carg
os
? No? It’s timber from the Colombian rain forest that they harvest as a by-product of their palm oil plantations which they use to produce biodiesel. Rosewood, Teak, Mahogany all used in high-end furniture production. Cameron Holdings Corporation as you saw is a shell, well almost; they are a minor shareholder in two other companies. Timber importation to the UK, specifically hardwoods and a composite polymer manufacturer who specialises in the production of materials used in lead free aprons for radiologists. Now the next part is a bit of a leap of faith, but what I think is that in larger trees, of which there are many, a hollow of about thirty centimetres in diameter is drilled out along three quarters of the length of the tree. This has a composite tube inserted filled with the cocaine in solution. The tube fills around half of the length of the tree. A cap of the original tree is placed in the hole and it is then invisible. The tubes will be forty feet long. This will give you a lot of cocaine in solution, almost nine hundred litres per tree. These freighters carry thousands of trees. Do the maths. When I visited the family in Colombia, I saw a large number of these tubes, I asked what they were for, the man said with a smile for putting into trees to make them ‘high.’ I didn’t understand and thought he was teasing me. He was telling the truth.”

Ben nodded before speaking,

“There’s a lot of supposition in there isn’t there?”

Jonas interrupted before Jemima could reply.

“Yes, and no,” he said.

“In December nineteen seventy two, I was able to get a look at files in the research directors office. He was a sloppy man who had risen further than his ability should have allowed. He had left drawings of aluminium tubes and also plastic tubes that could be sealed and are airtight. I only realised what they would use the tubes for by chance. Then, Cameron Holdings was still a subsidiary of CHC, but was called Cortez timber. Cortez timber had a small stake in an engineering company that manufactured precision metal parts. He had left an order for a drill thirty feet long and with a diameter of six inches on his desk. Why would CHC need those? Cortez timber was sold to a Colombian logging company, who sold it to a Peruvian hardwood exporter. They renamed the company and absorbed it into their operation. Cameron Holdings was incorporated in the Cayman Islands in January nineteen seventy three. As soon as incorporation was completed it bought a ten per cent holding in the Peruvian hardwood exportation company and invested a similar amount in a materials research company. Back to the research directors office. His biggest error and the one that forced them to kill me was an obscure research paper on the solubility of
benzoyl-methyl-ecgonine.[2,3] in an aqueous solution that he had left open on his desk. As a chemist, they knew I would recognise benzoyl-methyl-ecgonine.[2,3] as cocaine. Combined that with the drawings of Aluminium and plastic tubes I had seen and an order for drill bits. They were terrified that I would put it all together. In fact, I hadn’t made the leap that Jemima has made. I was concerned that CHC had begun experimenting with cocaine, which was illegal. I hadn’t recognised that they were the exporters and this was an early iteration of the transportation method they would eventually use. They killed me too quickly to allow me to finish connecting the dots.”

Jemima looked at Jonas with gratitude and relief and then replied to Ben’s original question.

“No, not as much supposition as you thought. Jonas has filled a lot of the holes in my research. Also, the two subsidiaries of Cameron Holdings, hardwood exporters and materials research both have Uncle Freddie as a non-executive director. Frederick Aldhelm, no connection to CHC or the Cortez family. I struggled to start with, until I realised he was the only Cortez who’s hands were clean. Obvious choice and a direct line connection to Cortez holdings in Colombia. Where do you think Freddie holidays?”

“Colombia, Cartagena?” said Ben.

“No, of course not. He vacations on the yacht of our revered Uncle Juan off the coast of Bermuda. He of the hot tubs and hookers. The Cortez family looks after its own.” Ben still looked troubled as he thought back to the map of the Caribbean and Atlantic ocean he had been looking at in Jemima's hospital room. Reaching into his backpack he pulled out his computer and refreshed the page showing the position of the ships. He turned the computer around so that everybody could see the screen. Ben said to Jemima,