Chapter 26: Smugglers Cove
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Graham sailed the boat steadily down the river. He was under the speed limits as here and there river police checked out passing boatmen. He didn’t want to get pulled heading out to sea with a bound and gagged man aboard, even with his MI6 badge. Who can you trust theses days? He thought sadly.
Chloe and Josh had taken to the bed for a kip. They would interrogate the Simpathes as soon as they were safely out at sea. Robert was setting up a safe internet connection and was attempting to locate what was left of the others. He knew there had been casualties and he needed to see who was left and how safe they were. Ted was guarding the prisoner while everyone else had a rest. Robert scanned the camp and saw that the bodies of his dead comrades were being moved by unfamiliar troops. Chloe’s people had arrived but too late to help in the battle. He knew then that his friends had either lost completely or withdrawn. Robert started counting the troops. They had left over a hundred men behind. The dead had been conveniently lined up in rows and he counted them meticulously. He counted five times before he reluctantly believed what he was seeing. They were all dead bar two who must have been either lost or captured. He was on his own again and his espionage days were over by the look of this. Chloe’s people identified the dead carefully, photographing and cross referencing them for Robert. The printer spewed out a list of the fallen. Full of sadness he watched as they loaded up their trucks with his comrades’ bodies before driving away in convoy formation. Robert emailed himself which was the easiest way he could keep in communication with Chloe’s people.
The email read:-Chloe and Josh are sleeping. Max and Reg not on dead list so please find them if you can. Chloe will talk to you later, she has a Simpathe to interrogate; any help with interrogation would be great as they usually just die. Good luck and keep safe.
Robert knew that some of Chloe’s people were heading towards the base and if there was any chance of finding even two survivors it would be worth it.
“Are we going somewhere in particular,” Robert asked Graham, lifting his head from the screen and trying to distract himself from the awful truth of what he had just seen.
“Well we are being tracked so the faster we get him interrogated the better,” Graham answered, nodding towards the prisoner. “There’s a smugglers cove and cavern off the coast in the channel.”
“Won’t they know we’re there?” Robert asked.
“Only a few of the merchant navy and fishermen know of it. It’s not the sort of place you take your wife! I imagine Chloe will be done with him anyway by the time we get there,” Graham said.
He was looking closely at Robert, searching his face for clues to what was wrong. He knew Robert well.
“There’s no one left you know,| Robert said, “Only two got away,”
Graham put a hand on Roberts shoulder for a moment, a wordless expression of sympathy before continuing to speak.
“Well we can tie this piece of crap to a buoy! They’ll be following him for a while. Do you know what to do?” Graham asked.
“No,” Robert replied.
“You military intelligence types! Hopeless! Watch and learn,” Graham laughed.
Something clicked into place for Robert suddenly, a light bulb moment. He linked another screen up to his satellite so he could track the Simpathes using their radiation trail. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. The satellite showed him that they driven straight to a warehouse in Manchester which must be their operations base. Via the third satellite he tracked all movements in and out of the building. Chloe’s people identified all the Simpathes entering and leaving. He repeated the process, tracking Simpathes leaving the base and discovered a solid network of movement centred between London and Manchester. They had clearly taken over the Exploratores building as well as several others. Robert suddenly realised that this meant the new MI6 Max had been dealing with were all fake and that the politicians had no idea of this. A beeping sound brought Robert back from his musings. The noise indicated that the global satellite scan which had been running for the last three days was complete. Marcus had set it up before his death. Roberts experienced yet another deep shock when he looked at the completed scan. It showed that Simpathes were moving towards Britain from all over the world. There were streams of Simpathe movements all heading towards the UK from every possible direction. He spent the next hour trying to figure out how many there were and came up with a figure that frightened him: Fifty thousand Simpathes were converging on the country. Robert was still absorbed with the information he had found when Josh emerged from his cabin. It was gone midday and he needed coffee.
“Much happening?” Josh asked sleepily, “we heard anything from the others?”
Robert took a deep breath. He knew he would have to tell Josh immediately.
“They’re all dead except maybe Max and Reg who are unaccounted for.” Robert pointed to the screen, “and Armageddon seems to be upon us.” The printer was still churning out pictures and the identities of all Simpathes known to exist. Chloe’s people had been acting as recognition software which was like having a team of four thousand working at high speed. Josh’s face whitened. He had not been expecting anything quite that bad. He looked downwards, closing his eyes in grief for a few minutes. Robert didn’t say anything and allowed him time to come to terms with the news. After a few minutes Josh sat up, surreptitiously wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. He focused on the pictures churning out the printer to give himself a few extra minutes when suddenly his attention was caught by a picture of Max. He picked it up and started to read the information attached to it. Chloe’s people had noted that Max had been captured and he had a Simpathe living in him. A radioactive scan showed the sad truth of this. The information on the screen showed that Max had clearly been a prisoner but had been later released at Derby station. Josh wordlessly passed the photograph to Robert who was devastated. They sat in silence for a few minutes but then Robert came up with a plan. It would be dangerous and he wasn’t sure that it would work. Firstly though he needed to interrogate the Simpathe on board with Chloe.
Chloe was stocking up on food, eating most of the galley’s contents. She felt starved again until Josh explained what had happened. She was terribly upset and Josh had to stop her lunging at the Simpathe in retaliation. Robert came though into the galley to find Chloe weeping noisily with Josh clinging to her for comfort.
“Josh, I want you on the computer. Keep feeding it paper while me and Chloe are on interrogation duty, Ted needs a break, he’s wired.”
Robert focused them on practical matters.
Josh obediently went into the small communications command centre that Robert had created and relayed the information to be stored as print files so they could print them later. They would soon run out of paper if they carried on like this. There was only one ream left. The information was sent straight to an USB card now. He knew what he was handling could be used to round up and exterminate the Simpathes for good. There was something more urgent happening however. The world map of Simpathes showed a huge mass on the American continent. He Googled the location they were massed in and found they were gathered around a large radio telescope, one of the first radio telescopes to be built in the world. There was a huge spike in the area indicating a massive influx of Simpathes. He lowered the sensitivity of the scan as the signals were blurred and ordered the satellite to rescan those coordinates. The satellite responded and gave a completion time of less than an hour. It was then that the printer started churning out some new information from Chloe’s people. It was a list of possible drugs with practical theories of how they could be used in interrogation methods. At the bottom of the page was a handwritten note wishing them good luck. Josh made his way to the hold where the prisoner’s interrogation was taking place.
“Chloe’s people sent this,” Josh passed the paper to Robert who read it and signaled for Chloe to stop.
Chloe was attempti
ng to break the Simpathe down slowly as she had with the last one. She glanced at the paperwork and saw her people were advising them to put the subject to sleep or use heavy tranquilisers together with Chloe’s tried and tested methods to make the Simpathe lose control. It emphasized that the Simpathes body was human and they needed to work on that side of him at the same time. They all realised the importance of the information which had come at the time when they needed it the most. The effort Chloe’s people had put in recently equated to days of work by hundreds of agents. Their superior technology had enabled them to do it in a few hours but they still needed a miracle to avert the threat of a Simpathe nation. Robert left the helicopter pilot guarding the Simpathe whilst Josh and Chloe and searched through the boats limited supplies trying to find any of the drugs on the list.
It didn’t take long to turn up exactly nothing. They thought Graham might have something stashed away. He didn’t but suggested they could probably buy some at the smugglers tavern. He warned them they were being tracked and couldn’t stay too long before heading for the tavern. He needed to restock as well; diesel for the boat and food for everyone. They could buy just about anything if the right people were there. MI6 never touch places like that, they needed them as much as the next man as the black market is used by nearly everyone at some point in their lives. They were still an hour away and he would use the time to make a shopping list and check for trade and money as there wasn’t likely to be any banks or cash points around. Chloe as usual had a few thousand pounds stuffed in her bag and everyone pooled their cash into a big pile. They had five grand which should be enough for a week or twos worth of food and supplies before they would have to dock. The old ship was easily able to manage sea journeys for a few days at a time but if the weather took bad they would be making port.
Chloe checked on the prisoner and ensured the pilot wouldn’t be sleepy until they all got back. They put extra cuffs on him in case. Everyone was lacking at least one good night sleep and they were all cranky, apart from Chloe who was just hungry. The island they reached an hour later was only tiny and shaped like a horseshoe. The shoe sheltered the ships from the hungry waves of the Atlantic Ocean and had only enough land for the smallest of taverns with a few supply buildings around it. Trade was brisk and everything that could be sold was on show in the outbuildings. They moored up next to the fuel depot which sold the cheapest diesel around; red diesel. Graham started to fill the old warship up with fuel. She always drew a little attention, motor torpedo boats always did, but it was the young girl that caught everyone’s eye this time. Not everyone went to sea from choice; many were running from repressive governments or were criminals on the run. Chloe was being wolf whistled from all along the dock. Everyone ignored this, they already knew they looked totally out of place; Robert looked like a dad with two kids. They all went trooped into the tavern where Robert gratefully ordered a pint. It was early but he wanted one badly and was delighted to find he didn’t have to pay tax so his pint cost only a pound. He supped it slowly while he engaged the barman in conversation, angling to find out whether he could broker a deal with him for the drugs he wanted. Chloe and Josh finished their cokes quickly. The place was giving them the creeps. Locals were staring at them as if they were gold or something. There had been warned by Graham that there were rumours of slave traders and smuggling rings but this was a bit much so they thought they would start the food shopping before something kicked off. They let Robert know where they were going. Robert had, in the limited time he had been in there, acquired the medication from a man sat in the corner who looked for the world just like Ali G’s cousin only with extra bling. He was just paying the man when he saw Chloe and Josh being stopped by a man at the door who seemed to sense their unease with their surroundings. The tavern came suddenly alive, men moving in on the pair much as a pack of wolves would move in on their prey.
“Now den young uns, a bit early for ya leavin,” the man said leaning heavily across the door exposing his side arm indirectly and a thick sheaved bowie knife strapped to his belt. Leaned very close of Chloe’s face, his beer laden breath nearly suffocating her. She could see thick wiry hairs sticking out from both nostrils.
“No just shopping, excuse me,” Chloe answered, moving away from him with a look of distaste.
“I be thinking you havin somin for me?” another man asked, looking speculatively at her arse and reaching toward her.
“You her man? You got no balls boy,” the man at the door provoked Josh.
Josh said nothing; he didn’t need to attract attention. They moved slowly and the two men moved aside contemptuously allowing them to pass. Josh and Chloe didn’t breathe until they were safely out of the tavern.
“Phew! I thought that was going pear shaped,” Josh shuddered.
“I think they were testing us to see if we were easy targets. They think you could be some sheiks bum chum by morning,” Chloe said laughing.
“I was trying not to get in a fight, we’re in enough trouble,” Josh defended himself although he couldn’t help smiling. They had reached the outbuilding by now and were excitedly looking at the produce on show.
“I know, fresh veg, look! I haven’t had nice food for ages, “Josh said happily.
Josh started buying everything healthy and Chloe, of course, bought high energy instant sugar hits. They ended up with several dozen boxes and while Josh started taking the food to the ship Chloe went to get some more money. She was fifty quid short as Robert had taken most of it. Drugs were expensive. It turned out to be a good idea to go back to the tavern. As soon as she went through the door she saw Robert had been pinned up against a post with three men holding him. It seemed his wad of cash was too big.
“Put him down now,” Chloe ordered firmly.
They pointed a gun at her and told her to sit down. They had taken Roberts gun from him. Chloe sat down.
“Dis is what is gonna happen, you is goin to fetch the boy or we takes it out of the girl,” the man from the door told Robert as he held a knife to his throat
“It isn’t fair you keeping the goods to yourself like dat,” his friend agreed.
“We all like to party,”
There was a huge bang as the Browning discharged. The doorman’s friend screamed in agony, his knee cap hanging down and drooping bloodily over the top of his shin. He held his leg and writhed on the floor, crying and screaming. The other man reacted surprisingly quickly. He held Robert up as a shield and kept the knife to his throat. Josh stood in the doorway with a pistol in each hand; one pointed at the bartender who had his hand on a twelve bore and the other on Roberts’s captor.
“Mistake,” Josh said and put a bullet between the doorman’s eyes. The man on the floor went for his weapon but Chloe pulled her pistol and shot him instantly. The barman dropped to the floor as Josh’s pistol fired again. The barman had made his last mistake: going for his gun again. Josh swiveled round, sensing movement but could only see a very tense and scared bunch of people. They left the tavern without any further problems and walked quickly to get the rest of the food.
“Thanks, that’s the first time it’s happened to me like that. I got jumped,” Robert sounded annoyed with himself.
“Thanks Josh,” Chloe said. It was usually her saving him and she was filled with admiration for his courage. She would have loved to have shown him how impressed she was but there were pressing matters to deal with. They returned to the boat where Graham was laughing so much that Josh began to worry about him. His face was bright red and he was crying with laughter.
“How many did you kill?” Graham asked, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“The young man killed two and the girl one, I was indisposed,” Robert said a little snappishly.
“Same thing happened to me when I first came up here. You don’t get any respect being polite around here,” Graham said.
“Thanks for the heads up, it might have been nice to have had it a bit earlier,” Robert said sarcastically befo
re giving in and smiling back at a still laughing Graham.
The finished loading up the boat and set out to sea. As soon as it was done they sent the pilot the bed and got Ted up for communication detail. Josh, Chloe and Robert all went to interrogate the prisoner. Robert made a cocktail of substances, a small amount of each to help break the simpath defenses. He injected him with it before they removed the gag from his mouth.
“What have you given me? I would have talked,” the Simpathe sounded panic stricken.
“It’s not to make you talk, it’s to help you tell the truth,” Robert said.
“Everyone knows that drugs don’t work and that sodium pentothal is a load of crap,” said the Simpathe.
“Its not sodium pentothal. Ok, who are you would be a start I suppose?” Robert started.
“Just a Simpathe. I’m not denying that,” the Simpathe said.
“You carry a radioisotope not found on earth. Why?” Robert asked.
The Simpathe went quiet, realising bullshit wasn’t going to work. Tears rolled his face as the drug began to kick in. Soon he was weeping like a baby, crying as if he wanted his mum. Chloe’s hands crackled over the top of his head, light sparks touching, testing his strength. There was no resistance, no will left to do anything.
“Haarrr haar haarrrrr, I’m scared, I’m scared” the Simpathe cried.
Chloe sank into the deepest reaches of his mind, shoveling every last bit of information out. She could feel his pain, his anguish. He was terrified and couldn’t deal with the emotions he was feeling. When Simpathes transferred into humans they somehow turned off the pain and emotional centres of the brain and this led to them being unable to cope once the chemical levels were unbalanced. They were defenseless. Chloe was crying with him as she felt everything he did. She finished the interrogation and Josh helped her to the galley for food. She was weak from the experience.
The printer was busy formulating the report of all Chloe’s findings. The experience had worn her out more than fighting did. She had relayed what she had learnt to her people and they would type it up and print it out. It was now only a matter of waiting for the printing to finish. The report read as follows:-
Q: Who are you?
A: A Simpathe.
Q: Where are you from?
A: The first sentient planet after the big bang. It is gone now.
Q: How did you get here?
A: We travel animated as signals in a main frame computer aboard what you would classify as a probe, a small nuclear power probe capable of traveling trillions of miles
Q: Why assimilate or travel to earth?
A: Our planet was dying, the suns are going out. That area of the galaxy will not be habitable again for another million years or more. You are the first compatible people with technology suitable for adaption and humanoid life
Probes went to thousand of possible planets and leap frogged through the universe. Earth was the only suitable planet out of thousands in this galaxy.
Q: Why not stay in digital form?
A: Assimilation was always our goal, to improve the lives of those we met as well as live and experience more ourselves.
Q: Were you in corporeal forms and why not use them?
A There is nothing out there for millions of light years in any direction. Our bodies would not have survived without an immense amount of power. We can live on to the end of time in this fashion. When your sun dies we will move on and assimilate another nation on another planet.
Q: You are just assimilating Britain?
A: Yes
Q: Why Britain?
A: There is advanced technology here and everyone has sacrificed you already for technology. Your comrades sold you out for their freedom and technological advancements. Most planets will accept losses but not annihilation
Q: How many times have you done this before?
A: Ten times successfully
Q: How many not successfully?
A: One
Q: How do we beat you?
A: You don’t, the planet we failed on killed themselves.
Q: How are you here if they killed themselves?
A: We copy ourselves. There are only 400 or so of us in each probe. We replicate to survive, it’s more efficient. The pawns die first as you say.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Build rockets ready to move on, enjoy and collect information, assimilate Britain.
Q: Can Josh destroy you?
A: We have seers. They are only as good as their intent and ours says it’s too late.