Four Wheeled Hero (6 page)

‘This is
great’, said Smithy looking around the car at his leisure, seeing
the row upon row of switches each marked with their own
function.

‘Don’t touch’,
said Tommy. ‘You don’t know what any of them will do, and we don’t
want to give ourselves away, do we’.

Smithy resisted
temptation to give just one a quick push, especially the one that
read ‘Ray of Doom’ He was overcome to think there he was sitting in
his hero’s car, opening his hero’s glove box and pulling down his
hero’s sun visor, which didn’t have a mirror on the passengers
side. He sat there thinking that this is what dreams are made off,
almost in a world of his own when Tommy suddenly sat bolt
upright.

‘Here they
come’, Tommy whispered in a low voice as if the crooks could hear
them.

The car stopped
at the entrance for a few seconds before turning and heading
towards Broadacre. As they passed both of the boys dipped low in
their seat so as not to be seen even though the car had black
windows which could not be seen through by outsiders.

‘Follow that
car’, Tommy said. But stay back far enough so they don’t see us
following’, he added.

The ‘Dynocar’
started up, it’s engine growling with power but this time it turned
and moved off slowly after horrible Uncle Frank’s car which had now
gone out of sight.

‘Don’t loose
them’, Tommy ordered.

‘The target car
is on automatic tracking’, came a metallic voice from the cars
speaker.

At the same
time a door at the front of the cars dash board slid open to show a
road map with a blipping green light moving on it.

‘Cool’, said
Smithy in admiration.

Although
horrible Uncle Frank’s car was out of site, the ‘Dynocar’ kept the
same distance between them. Only when the vehicle came to a
complete stop did the ‘Dynocar’ move nearer. Horrible Uncle Frank
had

been watching
too many films when he planned this job as he had already
anticipated the possibility of being followed, so nearly an hour
was wasted while they drove up one street and down an other. By the
end they had nearly covered every road in Broadacre before they
finally headed towards their hideout.

‘Vehicle has
come to a dead stop’, said the speaker nearly frightening the boys
out of their skins. ‘Occupants have left the vehicle’.

‘OK’, said
Tommy. ‘Move in, but park a little way down the road from the
vehicle’, he added.

The car turned
into a large industrial site where there was row upon row of
factories and warehouses. It finally came to a stop in a side road
outside a factory with a high wire fence surrounding it. The
industrial site was deserted, it being Saturday, and it felt very
weird as Tommy told the car to go and they were left in the roadway
in absolute silence. They made their way to the front of the
building to see where the crooks had left their car.

It was parked
inside the fence by a large door where lorries would unload their
materials for the factory. Smithy had picked up a stick and was
running it along the fence until he looked up and saw a large sign
situated over the main entrance of the factory: GOODNIGHT
MATTRESSES LTD, it said, ESTABLISHED 1897. Smithy’s heart sank as
the words struck home.

‘Granddad is
involved’, he said. ‘They’re using his factory as a base. He’s
probably in there with a machine gun pointing at your Dad right
now. I even bet that Granny is sat there with a cigarette sticking
out of her mouth drinking whisky and telling Granddad to finish him
off’.

‘I can’t
believe that’, replied Tommy. ‘I like your Grandparents, and they
don’t seem the type that would hurt anyone’.

Smithy stood
there shaking his head from side to side looking most miserable.
They crept along the fence using the flowering shrubs that

were growing
the other side of the fence as cover until they reached the main
gate.

‘Dam’, said
Tommy. ‘They’re locked’.

The gates had a
large chain wrapped around the handles of the two gate doors which
was fastened tightly together with a large brass padlock.

‘We can’t go in
that way’, said Tommy. ‘We’ll have to go around the back to see if
there’s a way in’.

The two boys
retraced their footsteps and headed around the back of the factory.
There was no door in the wire fence along the back of the building
and the concrete yard was strewn with wooden pallets, old trolleys
and large industrial waste bins.

‘We’ll make our
way through here’, said Tommy. This pile of pallets will hide us
from view of the building so no one will see us enter’.

Smithy caught
hold of the fence and was about to start climbing when Tommy told
him to stop.

‘I have a
better way’, said Tommy. ‘Stand back’.

No sooner had
Tommy spoken than a great big pair of arms appeared each with a
wire cutter attached to the end. They each started cutting from the
bottom about a metre apart and cut straight up for about one and a
half metres before turning to meet each other at the top. On
finishing the cutters disappeared. Tommy moved forward and gave a
slight push sending the cut out section falling to the ground.

‘Your door
Sir’, he said with a look of satisfaction on his face.

‘Excellent’,
replied Smithy. ‘Your really getting into this now aren’t you. I’ll
leave it to you to tell my Granddad you’ve ruined his fence’.

Chapter 5

The Fight For
Freedom

The boys
entered the yard through the fence and looked around to see if they
had been heard. There were no windows in the back of the factory to
worry about as they crept from piles of pallets and waste bins to
the back of the building. They moved along the building wall until
they came to the only door there was at this side which had a sign
above it: KEEP CLEAR - FIRE DOOR, the sign read. There was no
handle on the outside of the door and it was flush with the
surrounding frame.

‘It’s locked’,
said Smithy. ‘And there’s no key hole’.

Tommy moved
forward to have a look at the door.

‘Well at least
it’s made of wood’, Tommy said as he produced the largest drill
Smithy had ever seen, and proceeded to drill a hole in the door
where he expected the handle to be on the other side. The drill
moved slowly making hardly any noise at all. When it finished it
left a hole large enough to get your hand through.

‘Well, if you
think I’m going to try and squeeze through that’, said Smithy. ‘You
can go run and jump mate’.

Tommy turned
and smile at Smithy as he put his hand through the hole to release
the push bar catch on the other side which allowed the door to
swing open.

‘Dad has one of
these doors in his bank’, said Tommy. ‘But his is made of steel,
but they both open the same way’, he added.

Smithy looking
most impressed followed Tommy as he entered the building. They
found themselves in the warehouse which was very gloomy with only
the light from a few skylight windows to go by. They headed towards
a doorway which they suspected would lead them into the

factory. A sign
above the door said: ‘SPRING ASSEMBLY DEPARTMENT’. There were great
rubber doors which swung open quite easily to allow them access
into the area.

The room was
very big with another door at the other end with a sign that said:
‘STUFFING DEPARTMENT’, written on it. There were a number of very
large machines, each performing a different part of the assembly of
the mattress springs. At the far end there was a large platform
upon which one side of the spring system had been assembled with a
large arm on the right which held the other half of the spring. It
would appear that this machine brought the two made up halves
together to form the whole mattress spring. Once the assembly had
been completed the spring was lifted by one end and hung on a
conveyor track to be transported to the ‘Stuffing Department’.

Looking up the
boys noticed a walkway suspended from the roof which circled the
whole room. On one side of the room there were a number of offices
built on what the boys thought were stilts which had part of the
walkway running down one side allowing anyone working there to look
down on the factory floor. As there was no sign of anyone about,
the boys moved on and entered the ‘Stuffing Department’.

This room was
as large as the first with machines dotted everywhere. The conveyor
track carried the mattress springs throughout the room so that the
springs passed through each of the machines which stuffed the
springs to form the mattress. The light just about allowed the boys
to read the sign over the door at the other end of the ‘Stuffing
Department’ which said: ‘COVERING ROOM’.

In the dim
light the boys noticed a set of stairs that led up to the walkway
which seemed to travel around the whole of the factory. Looking up
they could see that there was a light on in one of the furthest
offices that looked over the ‘Covering Room’ as it threw its
brightness through the glass partition wall to the offices over the
‘Stuffing Room’.

‘Someone’s up
there’, said Tommy in a low voice to Smithy.

‘How are we
going to get you up there’, Smithy asked.

‘I’ll have to
trust the legs’, answered Tommy.

‘You’ve got to
be joking’, Smithy said. ‘They couldn’t keep quiet if you paid
them’, he added.

‘Then I’ll have
to have a word with them, won’t I’, Tommy replied.

Tommy called
for the legs again making sure that he was clear of anything that
could make a noise. As usual they wobbled about not making up their
minds which way they wanted to stand or move in. Tommy commanded
them in a strong whispered voice to stand still and behave
themselves. For once Tommy seemed to win the battle as the legs
immediately stood to attention not moving a centimetre.

‘Right’, Tommy
said. ‘Quietly now lets climb the stairs’.

The legs
responded immediately and started tiptoeing up the stairs followed
by Smithy. It must have seemed a strange sight as even Smithy had a
quick chuckle to himself under his breath. They reached the top of
the stairs and Tommy seeing that they were doing quite well decided
to stick to the legs. The two boys made their way along the walkway
by the side of the offices passing corridors that went off to the
left which split the offices into individual units. They passed
over the ‘Stuffing Room’ heading for the source of light which
seemed to be coming from the office at the furthest end of the
office block.

Things were
going so well that no one seemed to notice the fire extinguisher
that stood on the floor by the wall of one of the offices. One of
the legs on Tommy’s chair gave the extinguisher a mighty kick
sending it rolling down the walkway towards the office that was lit
up. No sooner had it happened than the legs started to panic once
again and started running in the direction they had just come from,
with Smithy heading up the rear. The only saving grace was that
they were still on tiptoe which kept the noise to a minimum. Tommy
just about managed to stop and turn the legs right into the last
corridor just above the ‘Spring Department.

‘God my hearts
thumping like a drum’, Smithy said bent over to try and regain some
composure.

‘They must have
heard that’, Tommy said looking just as worse for wear.

Smithy walked
back to the corner of the office to take a look, just as one of the
doors opened at the far end of the walkway and two of the crooks
walked out.

‘Can you see
anything’, said one crook to the other.

‘No, it’s too
dark’, replied the other.

Since their
arrival dark clouds had gathered over the factory making it even
darker within the building.

‘What’s this
doing here’, one of the crooks said picking up the fire
extinguisher. ‘There must be someone snooping around up here’.

‘Let’s have a
look around’, said one of the crooks.

‘Put some
blinking lights on then’, replied the other pointing to a large
panel on the wall.

Not knowing
what switched what on the crook decided to push all of the switches
down. The building suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree, and to
add to it, all of the machinery started up too. The conveyor
started moving as the factory started into production.

‘Now we’re in
trouble’, said Smithy as he moved to take a second look along the
walkway. ‘I can’t see anyone, they must have gone back into the
office. I’ll go and have a look’, he added, and was gone before
Tommy could tell him to stay.

Smithy had only
gone ten metres when Jimmy the Scar came walking out of the
corridor in front of him. Smithy froze to the spot, and it took the
crook by surprise too.

‘What are you
doing here’, the crook said.

Smithy didn’t
wait to answer as he turned on his heels and ran back in the
direction from which he had come, with the crook close behind.
Tommy had heard the commotion and had turned his wheelchair and was
heading down the corridor trying to make for the nearest office.
Smithy suddenly appeared his face looking in outright panic as the
crook made grab after grab at him.