Strikers Instinct (29 page)

“There you go”

Jake thanked him and walked inside. Once through the second door he didn't hesitate – he went straight to one of the opaque windows at the far side of the room and opened it as far as possible. Thanking his luck that the room was on the ground floor, Jake quickly slipped through the window and within seconds he was in his car and driving away. He smiled – his backup plan had been to set off the fire alarm – this way was much more discreet.

Back inside Jackie shouted at the runner. “Were is he?”

The runner just shook her head. “Gone.” was the only word she uttered. Jackie didn't see the grin on the girl's face as she turned away.

Sandy and Luke stared at each other as the interviews were brought to an abrupt ending.

“I'm sorry,” the announcer said, “but sadly Mr. Jake Pryce has been taken ill and won't be able to appear today. Instead we will be taking a look at some women's volleyball.”

“What do you make of that?” Sandy asked.

“I'm more interested in what Harry's reply is going to be.” Luke replied tersely. In fact he knew exactly what had happened to Jake Pryce. Album staff had tracked down his new phone number and Luke had then arranged for someone to send him the text message. Harry and Luke had agreed that this would be the easiest way to prevent Pryce from spreading further poison in front of the cameras. However, they had decided to leave the warning until the last minute to cause maximum embarrassment to QGNews.

As soon as Harry had heard about the QGNews schedule he had set up a press conference in a large meeting room in a London hotel. The conference had been well-publicised and as Harry glanced into the room he was pleased to see that all the major papers seemed to be represented – in addition there were cameras from all the main networks. The QGNews interviews had unexpectedly finished early so there was another 30 minutes before Harry was due to respond. Harry spent the remaining minutes checking and double-checking his notes and speaking to his assistants to make sure that everything else he needed was available. Finally he was ready and he walked confidently into the packed room.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “I'm very pleased that you could spare the time to join me today – hopefully you will be suitably rewarded.” Harry smiled but in return he received a barrage of questions which he simply brushed aside.

“This conference is in response to the unexpected attack earlier today from the QGNews corporation on Wishton Clough and its employees. If you would be kind enough to refrain from asking questions until we get to the end then I think we will get through this fairly quickly.”

Harry paused for effect then looked straight into the cameras.

“This morning, the QGNews corporation tried to deliver what they laughingly described as a series of interviews designed to smear Wishton Clough. At this moment we do not know the full reasons behind the attack but I am here today to deliver our response. Normally our Chairman would deliver such a message but as part of the attack concerns allegedly illegal substances then I, as Chief Medical Officer and Board Member, asked if I could be the person to talk to you. Also – we would normally take a few days to consider our response to such an attack but we believe the main thrust of this nonsense is to de-stabilise the team before our important game tomorrow – so we felt that we needed to clear the air as soon as possible.”

Harry glanced down at his notes before he continued.

“I will deal with the allegations in the order that they were presented this morning, starting with the Right Honourable Basil Jeffers.” Harry spat out the name as if it was a bad taste.

“I don't intend to dwell upon the personal attack on Luke Linden – but I will touch on it before I finish – however, I would like to address the claims made by the Right Honourable gentleman that he was somehow tricked into parting with his hard-earned money. I'd like to begin by showing you a recording of part of the Charity Ball at which the alleged robbery took place.”

Harry signalled to one of assistants and a large screen behind Harry started to show sound and pictures from the social gathering. Luke Linden stood up and announced that he and Basil Jeffers had agreed to give £10,000 each to the charity – the camera captured Basil standing alongside Luke, clearly smiling and basking in the applause from the audience. The recording stopped and Harry continued to speak.

“Mr. Jeffers doesn't seem too unhappy for someone who has just lost £10,000 pounds does he? In fact he seemed to be smiling and lapping up the applause. I'm sure that he could have spoken up if he wanted to – I was there alongside him and he didn't utter a word. But that's not the strangest part of his wild allegation. Mr. Jeffers didn't actually send his £10,000 to us.”

A ripple of anticipation ran around the room.

“In fact,” Harry continued, “the Charity administrators were ready to send him a reminder when suddenly last week we received a personal cheque from Mr. Jeffers. We were very pleased but the next day we received another letter which threw us into some confusion.”

Harry signalled again and this time a sheet of paper appeared on the large screen – this was obviously part of a bank statement.

“We didn't know what to make of this at the time but then when we began to hear rumours about Mr. Jeffers' accusation – it began to make more sense. Someone – obviously a Wishton sympathiser – seems to have sent us part of Mr. Jeffers bank statement. We have tried to have this verified but this is obviously a very sensitive document. However, if I could draw your attention to the line in the middle of the sheet which has been highlighted. There is a payment from someone to Mr. Jeffers for £10,000. Ladies and gentlemen – apparently that person works for QGNews.”

Harry paused as the shock waves bounced around the room. It was obvious to everyone present what this revelation meant.

“Please, ladies and gentlemen,” Harry held up his hands for silence, “please allow me to continue. I did say that I would also touch upon the personal attack on Luke Linden. In regard to that matter I have a document here signed by Professor Arkwright who was Mr. Linden's tutor during his time at Oxford. He paints an entirely different picture to Mr. Jeffers – saying Luke was a popular, considerate and very friendly student. This has been backed up by one of the many friends Luke made at university – Lord Alexander DeCourt. His Lordship is godfather to one of the Linden children – in fact the Lindens named their first child after Lord Alexander. Hardly sounds like something a communist would do…..”

Again Harry paused. “The final accusation from Basil Jeffers,” he began gravely, “is the one that probably hurt the most. I will leave the cowardly assault on Bob Linden's character to Mr. Linden's legal team. The only thing I will say is that the Bob Linden Community Centre in Wishton is fully supported by the local people and authorities alike – and a campaign has been running for many months to get his unsafe conviction overturned.”

Harry took a sip of water as he let his words sink in.

“OK,” he said quietly, “let's move on to the next instalment of this sorry saga. Fran Lafferty warned us a few weeks ago that she was being pressured by QGNews to invent a story about Luke Linden unfairly winning our fans competition. In other words they wanted her to say that the contest was fixed. We asked her to go along with them to see how far they would go – never dreaming they would be so stupid as to bring Fran to an interview without one shred of evidence! Fran is also taking legal advice regarding her next steps.”

The majority of the room laughed and began to shake their heads.

“Next,” Harry said, “the non-appearance of Jake Pryce. I have no idea what QGNews were hoping to gain by parading him in front of the cameras but it seems he had second thoughts so now we will never know. He is due to appear in court in the coming weeks so perhaps he may reveal more at that time.”

“That just leads us with the massive allegation – again without any proof whatsoever – that Luke Linden has been playing this year with the assistance of an illegal substance. We, of course, understand how some people would jump to this conclusion – after all Luke Linden is a 46 year old amateur footballer – it just doesn't make sense. But Luke is also amazingly fit and happens to be not a bad footballer – but we do have to admit that he has been taking something each day to help him.”

A collective gasp escaped from the room and from the watching audiences around the country. What was Harry about to reveal?

Harry laughed. “Please don't be alarmed,” he said, “everything Luke – and others – have done is strictly above board. Luke has been part of a controlled study to monitor the effects of a new energy drink. The study group has been quite extensive – covering all walks of life – including sportsmen and women. In the last few weeks we have received word from the relevant authorities that the drink has passed all the relevant tests and will now be launched across the world next week.”

Harry sat back. “So if you believe that Luke Linden owes his performances to an energy drink then you may want to buy TxT Plus when it is released next week!”

At the training Luke shook his head in amazement.

“Unbelievable – Harry has turned this around and managed to get some free publicity for the new drink!”

“Don't knock it.” replied Sandy. “He's cleared your name and kicked QGNews so hard that they'll never recover. We can now just concentrate on winning tomorrow.”

Luke smiled grimly. Hopefully no-one would discover exactly how much Luke had been involved behind the scenes. He had arranged that Jake Pryce would receive a timely reminder and the “Wishton sympathiser” who had released the bank statement actually worked for Album…….

The morning of the big game dawned and the weather seemed determined to allow everyone to enjoy themselves with a cloudless sky and not a breath of wind. Luke sat at the back of the hotel gazing out at the tranquil scene – determined to make the most of what he was sure would be one of the few peaceful moments of the day.

As Luke sipped his tea he scanned through a selection of the various daily newspapers that were on the table before him. It was one of those rare days when both the front and back pages were running with the same story – and Luke was amused to find that he seemed to be at the centre of the media storm.

“QGNews Meltdown!” seemed to be the general headline. Some of the tabloids had more colourful ideas but on closer inspection all the stories seemed to cover the fact that for some bizarre reason the QGNews corporation had made wild, unproven claims about Wishton Clough and some of its employees and now it was paying the price. The QGNews share price had plummeted overnight, several major advertisers had pulled out and they were facing law suits from many angles. The only statement they had made was to say that they had terminated the contract of Jackie Jenson – claiming she had acted without proper approval – which was obvious nonsense.

The back pages of the papers tried to deal with the multi-million pound game between Bolton and Wishton but obvious the QGNews story had a big effect in that area too. Several pundits speculated that the whole upheaval may have a detrimental effect on Wishton – but others say that it may have the opposite effect – Wishton and Luke Linden had been cleared so it should be a weight off their shoulders.

A lot of the stories continued inside the newspapers – mainly concerning themselves with Basil Jeffers. Basil was probably the biggest loser in the whole affair. In addition to the slanderous comments thrown at the Linden family, the bank statement had shown that Jeffers had been paid to lie in public by QGNews. Jeffers complained that either his bank account had been hacked or someone had illegally leaked the account information but no-one cared – the proof had been produced for all to see and no-one was really interested in where it came from. To make matters worse, a few of the more eagle-eyed members of the press had noticed some other payments on Basil Jeffers leaked statement. It seemed that he was receiving payments from all sorts of companies that he hadn't revealed to the government or the taxman. Jeffers had gone into hiding – he was a broken man. Everyone expected a resignation in the very near future.

Luke's thoughts were gradually interrupted by other players who were starting to appear from the restaurant. Most were in high spirits but one or two, Rae amongst them, seemed in more contemplative mood.

“Morning Rae,” said Luke cheerfully, “sleep well?”

“Not really.” Rae admitted. “I think the occasion has finally got to me.”

“Rubbish.” Luke snorted. “It's just another game. Have you had any breakfast?”

Rae shook his head. “Couldn't eat a thing.” he said mournfully.

“Come on,” said Luke as he rose from the table, “I can't have my daughter's favourite player having a bad game because he didn't eat his breakfast!”

Rae grinned and reluctantly followed Luke back into the restaurant. Sandy had been watching and smiled to Craig.

“Luke knows how to handle people – it's a rare gift.”

“I hope he's still smiling tonight!” said Craig.

“I think that's what I admire most about him.” Sandy replied. “Because it won't matter if we win or lose – Luke will still be smiling tonight. He's seen a lot in his life and he knows that when we strip away all the rubbish – at the end of the day it really is only a game, despite what Bill Shankly said!”

Craig thought that Sandy had lost his mind but decided to keep his thoughts to himself.

“Give them another 15 minutes Craig and then have a warm-up – a few laps of the hotel grounds. Then we need to get ready for the coach.” Sandy instructed.

Soon the players were ready to get on the coach – all dressed in smart, matching club suits. Insults flew thick and fast.

“Did they have to get an expandable waist for those trousers Nobby?” some wag shouted from the back of the coach.

“No but I was told that they had to find some slip-on shoes for you because you still can't tie your laces!” Nobby retorted.

Sandy was happy to hear the banter. It seemed that the team was in good spirits. They may just pull this off after all! As they got closer to the ground they were amazed how many people from Lancashire were thronging the streets. Both clubs had been given 40,000 tickets for the game and both clubs had completely sold out. There had been an article on the news that morning that some joker had put a banner on the M6 motorway, just before the Thelwall Viaduct.

“Good luck to Wishton Clough and Bolton Wanderers – will the last one to leave please make sure that the door is locked!”

This was a jokey reference to the fact that both towns would be deserted. Those who couldn't get a ticket would be watching the game on TV. Some people had started travelling down to London a couple of days before the game but the vast majority had left in a mass exodus on the morning of the game. They had already been rewarding with sunny conditions but everyone knew that only half of them would be returning home happy.

The Wishton players arrived at the national stadium and were immediately taken out to have a look at the pitch. Both teams had actually been allowed to train on the pitch for an hour each – at separate times – on the previous day but the atmosphere seemed totally different today. As they walked around the ground, Luke took the opportunity to speak with Sandy.

“Listen boss,” he began “I don't know if you are planning to name me in the squad or not today but if possible I don't want to play.”

Sandy stood back in shock. “What the hell do you mean?”

“I keep saying that I don't want to turn this into a circus – for you and the team,” said Luke, “and today would be a great time to prove that this team doesn't need me in order to win this game.”

Sandy thought for a moment. “There's some merit in what you say son,” he agreed, “but there's also another way of looking at it. If we don't name you in the squad then QGNews and Basil Jeffers have won – they have robbed you of the biggest day in your life. And then there's also another matter to consider.”

Luke waited for Sandy to continue.

“This team needs you Luke.” he said simply. “You've all been through too much together this year – they want you with them. Even if you are only sat upon the bench it helps the team. So this is what I'm going to do. I'm naming you as one of the substitutes but if we can get comfortably in front then I'll keep you on the bench. Is that fair?”

Luke nodded and the two men shook hands. Luke had taken Harry's news about being in the placebo group in his stride. There was nothing he could do about the situation – if he had to play then he would simply give 100% and hope for the best.

All too soon the players were getting changed for the game and for some the nerves began to bite. Luke, as always sat in silent contemplation – to all around him he seemed an oasis of calm in a desert of nerves. As the players were making their final preparations, Andy called a halt to all conversation.

“Lads, quiet for a minute,” he shouted, “I just wanted to tell you all before we go out there how proud I am of you and I expect to be even prouder in a couple of hours when we win.”

The players began to cheer but Andy again asked for quiet.

“I know this is unusual – I know we have different faiths and creeds here today – and I also know that some of you don't actually follow any religion but I want to ask someone to lead us in a prayer before we go out. Luke – would you do the honours please.”

Luke was very surprised but as usual his face gave nothing away. He rose.

“We live in a troubled world but we are all lucky enough to have food to eat each day and a roof over our heads at night. For a few hours today we can help people in Wishton – and beyond – forget their problems. We are the fortunate few. I pray that we play with honesty and dignity, with pride and strength. I pray that we play like men.”

For a few seconds there was a hushed silence throughout the room then the place erupted in a guttural roar that could be heard in the Bolton changing room. Sandy had tears in his eyes as he turned to the team and said simply.

“I have nothing further to add. Captain – lead your team out.”