Denouement

Elizabeth at War Ch. 10 - Dénouement

Breakfast was waiting at the ranch house. Maria looked in on Jessica, still sleeping off the heavy sedative that Linda had administered on take-off. Clifford, likewise, was still sleeping from a non-Scottish additive to his whiskey.

General Charteris had a second helping of bacon, then asked Ramon: "So how did it go, young man?"

He looked at his plate. "

Mon General

, I would hesitate to tell much until the rest are here, I believe they will be arriving tomorrow or the day after. But I can assure you the look on the young man's face, when he expected to be welcomes by cartel members in Bogota, and instead found himself at an airforce base surrounded by Marines with rifles, was priceless. He had an instant conversion to patriotism."

***

Mrs Smythe nodded towards the three men who were talking to Barry. Berman, as he was known here, smiled. Despite the upset last night things were looking good. By now Brown's cleanup team should be at the house. Everyone there would have been killed and would soon be under the ice in a trawler hold, on their way to the depths of the ocean.

"Coffee please, Mrs Smythe."

She nodded. "Mr Berman..."

He frowned. Something about her facial expression snagged at his mind. He dismissed it as she said: "There's a girl who wanted to see you. She is waiting in your office."

He opened the door. A strawberry blonde, sitting before his desk. She was apprehensive, her body language defensive. Her face was somehow familiar.

His first reaction was one of fury. White in the face he thundered at her: "Who are you and what are you doing here? I will..."

He moved to subdue her, to dominate her. Instead of cringing she smiled. "Is that how you did it with Sondra, André? How you subdued Renate, Jessica, all the others? It won't work anymore, you know."

He made to turn, but two men were behind him, hands under their jackets. Another one, a geeky type, peered from behind them. She continued:

"No funny business, please. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Elizabeth Durr. We met once at an event arranged by the dear departed Sondra. You see, you killed me. Except that you failed. In a sense I am an avenging angel. So please sit where we can keep an eye on your hands, or you might lose them. Charles here is known to be exceptionally fast with a knife and we would not want to ruin your priceless Afghan carpet. Stan served there, you know, but he is not the killing type, he is much more devious.

"I have some bad news for you, Monsieur André. Poor Sergei's shipment was intercepted and his cleanup crew did not arrive at your mansion this morning. Your associates are singing like the proverbial canaries as we speak."

André felt the blood gushing to his face. He deflated as if he had been kicked in the gut. She kept the pressure on him.

"We have a DNA sample from Renate's corpse to tie you in to her murder, and now the same from Jessica, just to be sure. We have evidence that ties you in to several drug-related deaths. But more importantly, we can now tie you in to espionage in a number of companies. And we have enough circumstantial evidence to tie you in to the death of Sondra, for a start."

He frowned. "But you will have great difficulty proving that in court."

She grinned. "Exactly. It would embarrass your principals for years to come. Just think how well they'd like that."

His eyes darted from side to side, looking for a way out. He thought again of threatening her, but the smile in her eyes told him it would not work. She continued:

"Or you could work with us. That way you could avoid dreary years in re-education camps in insalubrious climes. Of course you will be working under close supervision in a government establishment. You will do what we tell you to do, you will report what we give you to report. And, yes, we know you were in charge of the recruitment side of things, but don't worry, we are on to the rest of the network. So what do you decide?"

He gave a dry swallow or two. She kept him off balance. "Come, you had Sondra kill my colleagues and friends, how much sympathy do you want me to have for you? If I let my emotions run away I would take your paper knife here and dissect you, monsieur André. Or maybe I should let Jessica and the others loose on you? Imagine what they would do if you were tied up, or running on a treadmill, and they had the whip? Do you think that sounds good? We might even get one of your associated to do other things to you like you did to the girls. Let me think. Perhaps that would be more fitting. Think about the possibilities."

André shook his head. "I need time..."

She smiled again. "Time, like you gave Jessica? I think there was a cord around her neck. Should we try that on you? How much time did you give Sondra, with the drug flowing into her system like it flowed into mine, André? It's your luck that I am in a good mood. But your luck and time has run out exactly now. So open the computer, give Pete here the passwords and the decryption keys, now. And give me the code to call your colleague, now. Time's up. Pete is our computer expert, he will take it from here."

***

The whole team only assembled back at the safe house on the ranch two days later. A debriefing is supposed to take place under controlled circumstances, but instead it was a rolling barbecue with children underfoot and a discreet samba performance by Maria da Silva in one corner, in close proximity to Ramon.

General Charteris tried in vain to calm the crowd down, but only when Elizabeth called for order did they pay attention. She began:

"As you can see I am recovering, guys. My interview with the spider was the best therapy ever. Look, people, I appreciate your support. My mind still has holes in it, somehow I fell into one the other day. But in those holes there are amazing things, ask Terry... Ok, don't ask him. I managed to climb out of it. So, we all want to know what happened. Ramon had given us his report and I want to recommend him for some medal, General. What can you do for someone who faces down foreign agents, get drug lords to pay up for buying out a girl, and kidnap a crime associate in the process?"

Charteris made to answer, but she silenced him. "I'm sure you will find something, General. So I want to ask Sunitra how her side of things went."

Sunitra frowned. "This was not an experience I would wish to repeat. The whole atmosphere that evening was toxic from the start. Nikita turned up, zonked out of her mind on something, so we stashed her in a room. We did what we could, but most people saw us as a sideshow, something to amuse themselves until they could get some serious activity going. I had a few women, one man, who wanted to know more. We just kept on doing what we were doing, until we heard the problems starting. Then Ramon came rushing by and went out. All hell broke loose. There were people screaming, shouting, so we packed up and left, with Jenny and Linda running interference. Nunes was there too, he had been on the catering team somehow. Well, we got out without losing anyone, but things were a little crazy. Now I have to get working on Jessica, she's going to need months of rehabilitation."

Terry asked: "Maria, can you call Nunes? We would like to get his opinion. And Samantha perhaps?"

Samantha was the first to respond to the teleconference call. "Well, Ramon played merry hell, I can tell you. We had Pablo and Sergei at each other's throats, and then they heard that the trawler had been intercepted by the coast guard, with about a ton of drugs aboard. Of course that put paid to our plans to follow up on all the channels, but the Commissioner is having a heart-to-heart talk with Pablo as we speak. If we are going to have a drug problem, it would be better to have it with him, to be honest. Sergei has gone to ground, nobody knows where. Thanks for your help, guys, we will follow up what leads we have now."

Ramon called out: "Before you go, Madame. I know you would have liked to interrogate me, I will let Señora da Silva do that if you allow. An in depth interrogation, I hope. We still have the young Clifford here. What do you think? Shall we squeeze him dry?"

She laughed. "I will leave you and him to her, but if you have any leads please let me know. I imagine we would like to talk to him sooner rather than later."

***

The house was dead silent. Moonlight vanished as the moon set. Tammy heard a soft whimper from one of the dogs and sat up. She shushed the dog and cuddled him under Sammy's blanket, then walked on soft-soled feet to Jenny's room. The girl came awake like the seasoned combat soldier she was. A few words were exchanged, then Tammy left through the window.

Her hands found the safe spots, the places where the gutters were not loosened. The assassin made a soft sound, a curse under his breath as he evaded a loose tile, then swung himself up on to the roof. A patch of deeper darkness behind him moved, followed him as he crept to the cistern. These old houses used a water tank to achieve water pressure and he carefully leant over to loosen the inspection hatch. With infinite care he slipped it aside, reached for a packet in his small backpack. He heard a soft sound, froze. Nothing moved. Carefully he reached for the inspection hatch. One hand started peeling the protective cover off the packet.

A kick swept his feet from under him. The hand that grabbed a support to steady him was grasped, twisted behind his back until the ligaments cracked. A dark, slight figure leant over him. "Such a pity, the roof is not as high as I would have liked. You are going to make it hard for me. Still, there is some concrete at the kitchen patio, and nobody's sleeping that side. Over you go."

***

The Agricultural Attaché frowned at his opposite number. "I must apologise, excellency, I am sure we did inform you that my new assistant was going to visit the fertiliser plant there. Such a pity he looked the wrong way when he crossed the road. We will ship the body home for the funeral as soon as you are ready to release it. Again, all our apologies, and thanks for informing us speedily."

Back in his car he looked at the coroner's report and the time of death. A good twelve hours before he was going to carry out the hit. And no mention of any poison. Maybe they would get away with it this time. But he had other worries. There was the meeting with the covert resident to find out what had caused the failure.

***

Mr Brown enjoyed the security of the club, the never-changing faces, the same greetings as always. He sat down at his usual table, then looked up in surprise. The man who sat down opposite him was not the person he had expected.

"Mr Brown, my name is Stan Best. Yes, we will keep the 'Mr Brown' for convenience. No, Monsieur André will not be joining us. He is otherwise detained, explaining his record and cypher system to some of our friends. So you have two choices, Mr Brown. You could choose the hard way, you could keep silent as is your right, and then we will have to get Cecilia, Doreen, Bronwen, Sherry, Donna and the others to testify against you. Imagine the embarrassment to your principals. Yes, André's files are in our hands now. Or you can accept the inevitable. You can keep passing on reports to your principals as if nothing had happened. We will provide you with some interesting facts, some documents they would love, some statistics and other facts that we would like them to believe. You will not have free use of your magnificent mansion, no wild parties anymore, which is a pity. You will choose to live on a military reservation, and you will do as you are told. There is a third choice, of course. We can repatriate you to your spiritual homeland. Failed spies are not that well received, but we can assume that you will have a small pension. So, the choice is yours, Mr Brown."

Brown spread his hands. "But... I was told... how... I thought..."

"There was a fatal flaw in your thinking, Mr Brown. You thought some people were superior to others, had the right to subject, manipulate and demean others. So now it is your turn to choose. What is your decision?"

***

Mrs DeSoto called Timothy to pour more sherry. "Mrs Durr, it is a pleasure to meet you at last. I heard you were not well, so allow me to drink to a speedy and complete recovery. I enjoyed your husband's visits, and had he not been so obviously in love with you I might have considered a small adventure or two. As it is I might do that on a business level."

Elizabeth smiled. "I quite appreciate your frankness, Mrs DeSoto. He also appreciated working with you and looks forward to future business relations. I felt I owe you something for providing us with some valued backup when we needed it. How is your nephew doing?"

The woman thought for a while. "Well, he came back a chastened and wiser boy. I have him on short reins now. He is still falling about, I think someone roughed him up mentally."

Elizabeth nodded. "We did give him a hard time, mostly about the concept of ethics and responsibility. He is a very bright boy and can do a lot of good, but only if he grows up and has someone to look after him. That is why I came to see you. I have a favour to ask."

Mrs DeSoto leant forward, her face expressionless. "Which is?"

"I know you are trying to get out of your holdings at Telsom and I want you to change your mind. I know the CEO is corrupt. His personal assistant is a girl called Donna. She was placed there to act as conduit to a foreign spy operation and as a plaything for the top management. I want you, at the board meeting next week, to get the CEO fired and Clifford appointed in his place. You will have support from two other directors with enough votes to carry the motion. We do not have enough proof to convict the CEO but we want him out. Clifford can rely on Donna. She is bright and efficient and knows the company and the group. And he may just find her interesting enough to keep him busy. We will be watching her and them carefully."

"Why?"

"Two reasons. TELSOM can and will be the core of a new group in which you already have an important shareholding. You know the names of the companies that have ethics problems. Clifford has it in him to be a great manager, but he will need guidance. Secondly we need to weed out the bad people without making major news. The people who ran Donna as an agent will still be getting information from her, information that we will supply, and we do not want to upset them. Can that work?"

Mrs DeSoto frowned. "You want me to get involved in a situation I have little control over?"

Elizabeth was enjoying herself. "Not at all. You and Clifford will have complete management control. In fact you will get help, warning when we are ready to remove others. We are playing a long game and you can have a major part of the action. As we weed out the corrupt and inefficient, you will have opportunities. Your expertise is key for us. Can we count on you?"

Mrs DeSoto frowned. "And who would 'we' be exactly?"

"Me, Terry, military counter-intelligence, to begin with. Do you need more?"

***

Jessica slowly woke from the pleasant relaxation induced by Sunitra's massage. Elizabeth leant over her, a soft towel in her hand.

"Come now, Jess, you need some hydration. And we need to talk."

Jessica slowly rolled over and sat up. Sunitra smiled at her and asked: "Good for you? Happy and relaxed now?"

She nodded. Bill added: "We are sure you are free of all the drugs now. There were some interesting things in your system, but that is all gone. Now you need to work through some complicated psychological things that were done to you. Remember, we are here. Come into the lounge when you feel ready."

Elizabeth held her hand as they settled in the comfortable couch. Sammy greeted her and went to help Terry with the barbecue, but Davie had decided Jessica was his, and came to snuggle in her lap.

Jessica cuddled the little boy, then asked: "Liz, how did this happen? I mean, I was caught in an impossible situation at home and I ran away from it, into a bigger nightmare of thinking I was doing what people wanted from me, only to find things getting worse. André had become like a god to me... No, I may not say that! He was the devil and I was ready to worship him... Oh, I should have killed myself..."

Elizabeth reached over, but Davie was first to hug and kiss her, saying: "Not cry, Jess, I kiss it better."

She hugged the little boy, tears flowing. Elizabeth smiled, caressing her hair, waiting for the emotions to get out. Eventually she said: "It all started with Rick, didn't it?"

Jessica sobbed and nodded. "What could I do? He forced me, then he told the other boys I was a slut, and he made me feel dirty. It was my fault for dressing up in those tight jodhpurs, for leading him on, and then he... he... he forced me, and I enjoyed it after the first pain. At least he wanted me. And then the other boys... they said I was easy, and they wanted me, and so I let them, and the people talked. I know you stood up to him after he... he had you, and they ran him out of town, but people looked at me in that way, and the whispers kept on. And married men..."

Elizabeth held her closer. "My friend, it is all gone now. It was not your fault, it was an injustice that was done to you. Do you know what I did with Rick? He took me out with the riding school, you know that. With your jodhpurs, your boots and your spurs, Ok? And he rode off with me, took me to the same place where he raped you. Yes, he told me, he was proud of it. So I let him fuck me but I had kept the boots on, so I dug the spurs into his backside and made him perform for me, made him bring me to an orgasm. Then when he called me out in public I turned the tables on him. Your boots, your spurs, remember that. You backed me up in church."

Jessica sobbed and laughed at the same time. "I can almost picture that, Liz. I can imagine the surprise on his face. But you could leave, I was trapped in that little town, with all the gossip and the looks and the married men and..."

Elizabeth held her close. "My friend, I found you, and now you are safe. One thing you must know. It is not your fault, it is the fault of people like Rick who raped you, that silver woman who abducted you, André who trapped you in a life of evil. It was not your fault, it was theirs."

Jessica seemed to shrink into herself. "But what I did was evil! Everyone knows, fornication is a sin. And then Renate, she made me do things that... I did evil things with her, André rescued me, he showed me the way out, except that I had to do even more evil things on the way to salvation, and I... Oh, I'm evil, I am damned."

Little Danny kissed her again and hugged her. "No cry, Jess. I love you."

Jessica dissolved into tears, and it was a long time later that Elizabeth wiped her face with a facecloth and shook her head at Bill who stood ready with a tranquilliser. "Jessica, listen to me, please. But really listen. People lied to you. Do you hear me? They lied. Evil is in what you do, not in what others do to you. Rick was evil when he raped you. You were the victim, you were not evil. The men who sought your company even when they were married, they were evil, not you. Do you understand? Whatever their wives, the community said about you, that was evil, you were the victim. The silver woman, Renate? She was evil, she seduced you into seeking pleasure, to control you. She was evil, not you. André was evil, he manipulated you into doing evil things. The evil was with him, not you. Do you understand? You are my friend, you are not evil, you are a good person who recognises evil, who fights against it. Do you hear what I am saying?"