TWENTY
Susan and her driver started to catch up on Simon as they raced down the single lane track past several deserted farms. Driving at break neck speeds Susan came up to a large slow moving tractor. It blocked her way. This allowing Simon to pull further away from her pursuing car.
‘Fuck’. Her driver screamed and then hit his steering wheel with his fists.
‘Get that fucking vehicle out of the way and get Simon now’. Ordered Susan
Her driver was going to lose it in a minute if this bitch kept on speaking to him this way.
Ahead of her, she could see Simon drive towards a main road. She watched as he crossed from the small track that was now blocked by the tractor onto the main road. She watches as Simon floored his green Pinzgauer Vehicle. His Pinzgauer swerved out onto the road across a row of vehicles narrowly missing contact.
As he shot across the road, Simon cut off several blameless drivers and careered along a grassy bank bumping the side of the vehicle along the edge of a speed barrier. A few seconds later, he regained control.
Once back in control of his vehicle he began to race south towards Edinburgh using a map of the area he had memorised the previous day to the sound of horns rigging away sounding of their annoyance at him.
He began to pull away. He looked back in his mirror to see no sign of Susan’s vehicle following him. All he saw was a small motor bike less than 100 yards behind him and the darkened skies that looked like they are bringing an almighty storm his way.
As the bike closed in on him, he could hear the roar of its engine as it fastened in on him like a tornado rushing through an American plain.
Then Simon spotted a flash of light in one of his wing mirrors. A smallish man sat on the motorcycle. He wore a black helmet, with back protective gear. A bullet ricocheted off the roof narrowly missing him.
Another wave of pistol fire struck the crash barrier narrowly missing him and the vehicle. Simon was worried.
He knew that his large vehicle could not outrun a motorcycle. Realising this he immediately decided to do something about the motorbike. Steering his vehicle with subtlety, calculating ground speed solely from the engine noise frequency and never sparing a look at the speedometer he took action.
Simon took a long expanding curve around the almost diamond-cross-sectioned hill which the road wrapped around and decided this was the moment to strike.
The bike closed in on him for another shot at Simon. But this time Simon slammed on his breaks.
He reached over to his door handle and opened his door in a quick flash. As the door swung open, it smacked into the driver of the bike bringing him crashing to the ground killing him in an instant.
‘Yes’ screamed Simon. He lifted up his hand in victory. Having survived the attack Simon continued along the road reaching further into the Glen. The road wiggled around large hilltops and then arrowed out along a moor where the road turned on a curve worthy of a traditional Roman Road.
A short time later, Simon grunted, and then cursed before applying his breaks as he began to hit traffic caught behind a Caravan. He immediately switched gear clumsily. The engine protested under the strain and for the slightest fraction of a second, a fatal red light lit up its fatal red sign on the dashboard.
Simon then spotted a side road to his left. He turn his wheel and slid off down the road assured that Susan was not following him.
‘I must get away from all this’. He whispers to himself as he begins to search for somewhere to stop and gather his thoughts.
He taped his shirt pocket happy that his book of notes is still with him. He slowed his car down and finding a hidden forest car park, he drew his vehicle into the pebble ridden car park.
He turning off his engine and sat motionless taking in all that had happened. The sadness of causing Stuart to die consumed him. He stretched his arms in the air and gave out a great moan. Then he started to cry again, sobbing at the loss of his innocent. As he stopped crying, he thought it was strange that you never see spies cry in the films at the loss of their friends or foe. However, he knew that bottling it up only would make it worse and so he let the tears and pair come and go.
He noticed it was getting dark. He must have been crying for hours.
Realising he had drifted away while morning the loss of Stuart he pulled out his mobile devise and began to play with it. Zooming his camera in and out. He looked into his lens looking at the surrounding countryside as he began to pull his thoughts together. It was then that he noticed something in the lens. It was a recording of his face. It stared out from the camera. It was brusque and dark. His straw-blond and wiry hair stood out, and his skin was nut-brown from the sun. The expression on his face was intent and serious.
Realising that his real face was still hidden he began to pull of the prosthetics and the remains of his make-up off his face. Within a few minutes his hair was back to his real colour, his faced thinned and his nose returned to it true shape. He then flicked off his brown contact lenses returning his eyes to his real colour.
Half an hour later, he pulled his vehicle out of the car park and back onto the road. His large vehicle rolled down a large hill towards the coastal road.
A few hours later, he dumped the vehicle in a large car park just outside a large town. He then walked towards a small hotel where he booked himself into the hotel. Once booked in his room he collapsed sleeping a deep sleep until the next morning.
Early in the morning, he walked out of the hotel to the staff car park. On his way, he forced open the hotels maintenance room. Once in he searched for anything that resembled the hotels maintenance car. Finding the keys her calming walked over to a small white van.
He jump into the vehicle. He sat looking around to see if anyone in the hotel noticed. They never. He placed the keys in the key hole. The vehicle started up and he slowly drove the car away from the hotel.
Pulling out of the car park, he turned left passing several buildings and moved up a blind summit. He decided that he would have to now get to Edinburgh and somehow stop the attack that was going to come in a few days’ time. He drove a few miles further up the road and there he saw the blue and white sign with the statement ‘EDINBURGH 42 Miles’.
As he pulled away from the hotel, a black Range Rover pulled out from its parking spot almost directly across from the hotel.
Seeing the vehicle pull away, he realised that he had been spotted
‘How did you find me’ muttered Simon under his breath.
Unknown to him Susan had directed the airborne Reaper into the area. This aircraft had searched the area following the demise of the motorbike attack under the direction of Susan. It was able to find his vehicle and then follow him all the way to the Hotel he had been staying at. Consequently, the next day she and a small team were in a position to follow him.
As he drove away, Susan and her driver were on watch. Unable to wait for her team to follow she began to follow him towards Edinburgh.
Her vehicle began to follow Simon taking up position several car lengths behind him.
Simon smiled to himself as he spotted her vehicle moving behind him.
Simon decided that he would have to get rid of this danger. He immediately pulled off the Edinburgh road and began to drive up and down a series of countryside roads. After several hours, he drove down a dirt track that became narrower and narrower. At the bottom of the track was a large river.
He wheeled around a hedge and took a small road over the river and then made a left and then right turn before breaking to a halt.
This gave him just enough time to watch the Range Rover pass him by allowing him to catch a glimpse of Susan and her driver driving past his position.
Realising there were only two in the vehicle and no support he set about doing something about his tail.
As Susan turned, her vehicle came under a small tunnel that ran under the river. As she came through the tunnel her vehicle was suddenly hit by the van as, it came crashing down from above onto her Range Rover. In an instant, she was knocked out and the vehicle skewed off the road and into a deserted hedge.
When Susan came around, she was covered in debris. Her arms and legs ached under the pain of the crash.
Her arms and legs felt like there were weights on them. She was battered, bruised, and looked like she was in an A&E ward. However, she managed to unclip her safety belt. She screamed out in pain but was glad to see that the pain was not life threatening.
She pushed herself out of her seat and out of her written off vehicle.
She sat down on the verge and began to draw her thought together and work out what had happened.
A few minutes later Susan took the phone from her inside jacket pocket.
At that, instant Simon pressed the muzzle of a Heckler and Koch P30 semi-automatic pistol to the left of Susan’s right skull. She was wide-eyes and sat agonizingly erect at the edge of her vehicle.
‘Susan I want you to tell me the truth, and then you may live.’ He said with sincerity
‘Now listen and shut up, because I do not want to kill you, I am tired, so tired of causing death and mayhem, I want to be the creator of peace not war.’
‘I know you are want to do the right thing too. So I am going to give you a chance to redeem yourself and honour everything that your dead mother stood for. I need your help and this war between you and me is only going to result in both of us loosing. What our government is doing is too important to be allowed’
‘Your government has agreed to assassinate the Chinese President in three days’ time and we are going to stop it happening.’
He then went on to tell her about the plan that the UK government with the support of her lover Tony and Norman were going to undertake.
What he realised was that he needed her help if he was to stop the Chinese President being killed and the fragile peace that existed between the west and the warlords of the middle east to stand any chance of surviving.
What Susan did not know is that Simon had hacked into her files and could tell from her past that she would support him. He knew that her love and memory of her mom who had been a great supporter of CND and other similar activities of the 80’s would help convince her that she should support him.
Although she was a loyalist he knew that she had a clear understanding of right and wrong and somewhere she knew that Governments were not there to create war but to maintain peace and order and to allow the people to live in peace with each other. He also noticed in her file that she had written her dissertation on Rawls the kingpin in political equality and justice. Anyone that was convinced by Rawls that we were all equal in life would need to honour justice and equality. Therefore he knew she was going to support his moves to stop the British government undermining peace and equality.
He then went onto to tell her his plan to stop the attack and save the world from almost certain war and destruction.
‘So I am going to take my gun away from your head’.
‘I am going to trust someone for the first time in a long time, because I need your help to stop those bastards from destroying our world’
‘So can I count on your support?’
Her head nodded and he knew then that she was on his side.