Scotland Hard (Book 2 in the Tom & Laura Series) (41 page)

“Heal me, Healer,” Clerkes pleaded with Tom, “Before I bleed to death.”

Tom had gone to first to Rhona finding her beyond his skills and then to Blane to check that he was dead. He ignored Clerkes’ pleading as he looked down at the man who had saved their lives.

“He did the right thing in the end,” Laura said as she took Tom’s hand. “He said he wanted to die with honor and I believe he has been granted his wish.”

“If you do not heal me, you are all going to die,” Clerkes shouted in anguish.

“Shut up ,Clerkes,” Lord McBride shouted as he continued to struggle to free himself. “Tell them nothing.”

“What do you have to tell us?”
Cam
asked belligerently.
Arnold
held Clerkes kneeling on the floor and
Cam
looked like she was about to kick him.

“Heal me first,” Clerkes demanded.

“It does not work like that,”
Cam
told him emotionlessly. She looked up at
Arnold
. “Tie him up and leave him here. If he bleeds to death, it will be no great loss.”

“Do not tell them,” Lord McBride repeated, spitting in his anger. “Dougal, come here and help me to get free of this infernal concrete.”

Tom threw
Arnold
the rope he had been bound with and
Arnold
started to tie up Clerkes. Dougal began to walk towards his father, still holding onto Daisy’s hand. She stayed where she was and he stopped when their arms stretched tight.

“He triggered the bomb,” Clerkes shouted. “It will explode in two hours time.”

“I doubt the mechanism is still working now the water has returned to concrete, stone and earth,”
Arnold
suggested

“I designed it to work even when immersed in water. It will work just as well buried in the earth. The Spellbinder must retrieve the bomb so we can switch it off.”

The team turned towards Laura who shook her head.

“I would need to cast two binds using the very finest materials, one to turn the ground back to water the other to make the Bomb lighter than water. I do not believe the second bind is even possible, given the bomb is made mainly of iron and dantium. Who knows how deep the bomb is below us? I used a lot of desperation when I cast that bind.”

“Heal me, please,” Clerkes begged. He had lost a lot of blood while they had been talking and his face looked white. Tom looked at Cam expressionlessly and
Cam
nodded her approval with some reluctance. Tom walked over to Clerkes and put his hand upon the man’s forehead. A few seconds later Clerkes was healed, the wound had done little damage to him and Tom found the man miraculously free of the cellular damage that the dantium had done to Laura.

“Rescue my father,” Dougal said as he turned to Laura. “That is well within your powers.”

Lord McBride roared like a wounded animal. “I would rather die than be rescued by that bitch. I shall kill her just like Rhona as soon as I get out of here.”

“He does make it difficult for me to find the motivation,” Laura said to Dougal. “I regret that I have neither paper nor ink and I must admit that I am not inclined to search for either while his bomb continues to tick.”

“Ignoring the question of Lord McBride’s fate for just one moment,”
Cam
asked her team, “What do we do now?”

52.
      
Tic Toc

The train carrying the troops arrived into a silent Glen Russell station. Its lights were blazing and its air warm as neither cost Lord McBride anything to provide. The next train was not due until ten that morning and the station was deserted. Trelawney and his secretary stepped out onto the immaculate marble platform and looked at the glass and ironwork around them in wonder.

“He may be a traitor, but one is forced to admit he has a certain style,” Belinda said appreciatively. Their contemplation of the architecture was cut short as soldiers swarmed out of the carriages and began lowering field cannons onto the platform. Sergeants yelled instructions and their commanding officer approached Trelawney.

“Permission to start the mission, sir?” he asked, saluting Trelawney.

“If you would be so kind, Captain Pierson.”

“I am leaving eight men with you under Sergeant Taggart. Will that be sufficient?”

“More than enough, Captain. We are going to enter the factory directly from the station, following the line. I suggest that your team enters by the front gate.”

“Perhaps my team should go with you, sir?” Captain Pierson asked. He was well aware how his commanding officer would react if he got the Director of MM3 killed.

“We will be fine and your men will draw off any hotheads who might want to make a fight of it,” Trelawney explained patiently.

“Sir, I should stay with you,” Michael Jenkins said as he pushed his way through the soldiers.

“Ah, Jenkins isn’t it?” Trelawney replied. “You do not plan to lead an MM1 team?”

Michael turned to look at the MM1 men mingling with the soldiers. Their orders had been to protect Trelawney until the soldiers took over. They had brought maps of Glen Russell and seemed to be sharing them with the soldiers. At the rear of the train, he glimpsed Annelise and her team slip out of the station along the rails, they had their missions too.

“No sir, they know exactly how to help the soldiers as they have brought detailed maps of Glen Russell as well as personnel records on who is here. I would only hinder them if I tried to direct them.”

Trelawney considered the situation before replying.

“Very well, if that is how you feel, you may accompany me. However, I should warn you that there is only one person in command of this particular team and I expect my orders followed instantly and to the letter.”

Cam
looked up at the clock on the wall and noted that the time was now five past two. That meant that the bomb was going to go off at four in the morning, give or take a few minutes either way. Her earlier question to the team had resulted in a deafening silence. Nobody was sure what to do, so it was up to her to make a plan.

“We have to evacuate the whole of Glen Russell,” she said confidently. “All we have to do is get the population clear of here by four in the morning. How difficult can it be?”

Dougal turned away from his father, who still struggled to escape from the floor.

“There are nearly four hundred people in Glen Russell. How can we possibly evacuate all of them in less than two hours?”

“By not being defeatist about it,” Daisy said cheerfully. Her Precog visions had practically guaranteed it would happen. Of course, not everything a Precog dreamed actually came true.

“Not bein’ what about what?” a voice asked from the door. The group turned to see Tricky and Ebb standing smirking. “We ‘as brought you some ‘elp.”

Giles, Kemp, Glyn and the girls walked into the room behind the two boys. Glyn saw Lord McBride trapped in the concrete and ran over to give assistance. The other men approached Cam and
Arnold
almost belligerently.

“You are not really an engineer?” Kemp asked
Arnold
angrily

“If making tea is the main skill involved, as it appears to be, then I can suffice,”
Arnold
replied, “However, my profession is working for MM3.”

“What has happened to the bomb?” Giles asked. He noted Hans Clerkes prisoner status and the fact that Lord McBride was embedded in the floor. He wondered if he was about to be arrested.

“A slight miscalculation has rendered it beyond our reach,”
Cam
said as she nodded towards Lord McBride. “It is now at an unknown way below ground over there.”

“Good riddance to it,” Giles said vehemently. “At least if it is there, it cannot be set off.”

“That was the miscalculation that was involved,”
Cam
admitted, “Lord McBride triggered the bomb as it fell through the floor and Mister Clerkes over there assures us that it will explode in two hours time. Well, more in the region of one hour and fifty minutes now, if truth be told.”

“We can use the train in the factory to get away,” Ebb said suddenly. Daisy looked dumbfounded and slightly upset. She glared at Ebb who grinned back at her. “It was Daisy’s idea, but I wanted to say it first,” he admitted.

“You cannot get four hundred people into four coaches,” Dougal told them. “Perhaps two hundred and fifty at most, if the people are squeezed in tight.”

“It is a start,” Tom said, “And we will never find out until we try.”

“Right,”
Cam
said as she took command. “We need to get everyone in the castle and the village up from their beds and onto the train. We should break into teams to get the word out.”
Cam
looked around her.

“You, the man with Lord McBride,” Glyn stood up and turned towards her.

“We must help the Laird to get out of this concrete,” Glyn said impatiently.

“We have one hour and forty seven minutes to evacuate everyone from Glen Russell and to get clear of this bomb,”
Cam
explained. “We can tie you up here and, if we find the time later, we will collect you. One the other hand you can help us evacuate the village. It is entirely your choice.”

Glyn saw the determination in
Cam
’s face and noted the way that everyone was obeying her.

“Very well, I will help you,” Glyn said quietly.

“Go with Daisy and the children and wake everybody up in the village. Tell them that they must get to the railway station right away as Lord McBride engines have triggered a volcano beneath the castle.”

“That is scientific nonsense,” Kemp protested.

“It will be easier for them to believe than a dantium bomb,” Daisy replied “Use any means needed to get them to the station as quickly as possible.”

“You two men,”
Cam
said, looking at Giles and Kemp. “You go and wake everyone up in the castle and tell them the same thing. They will believe you, as they know you. Tell them whatever you want, but get them out of their beds and over to the railway station. We have almost no time left.”

“Dougal, can you drive one of these dantium steam engines?”

“Yes, but I must first rescue my father,” Dougal said with determination.

Cam
shook her head.

“You must save the people on your estate. That is your primary responsibility. If you do not do that, you will be just as bad as your father. There are many maids up in the castle that will die in a more horrible way than Rhona. You have a Laird’s duty to protect them.”

Dougal stiffened as he looked down at Rhona’s body. Then he nodded his head.

“Take Tom and Laura with you to the train and move it to the platform in the station,”
Cam
ordered.

“But I want to help you,” Laura said, almost, but not quite stamping her foot on the floor in frustration.

“I have to get you away safely, whatever happens here,”
Cam
said softly. “Tom, look after her. She is more important to
Britain
than the rest of us put together.”

“I will protect her with my life,” Tom said fervently.

“Arnold and I will take Mister Clerkes for a walk around the factory to tell anyone working to go to the station.”

“I would rather wait on the train,” Clerkes said nervously. “We should leave at once. We have to get at least ten miles away from the blast to be safe, possibly further.”

“You know the factory and we need to clear it. The quicker you help us to do that, the faster we can get to the station,”
Cam
explained coldly. “Or, alternatively, we can leave you tied up here.”

“Come on people. Time is passing!”
Cam
shouted when nobody moved.

The motley assortment of people began to move out. Dougal went over to speak to his father, who spat at his boots as soon as he was close enough.

“You would put the nobodies in the village above your Laird and Father?”

“They have a right to live, Father,” Dougal said with tears forming in his eyes.

Lord McBride grew red in the face and when he spoke; his words were spat like daggers.

“I disown you. You will not inherit this castle, the lands, or my title. I disown you now and forever. Get out of my sight, traitor.”

Dougal walked from his father as if he had been stung. Laura took his hand and she and Tom led him from the room. Lord McBride continued to struggle in the floor, still far from defeated.

 
“This door appears to be locked,” Trelawney told Sergeant Taggart as they reached the building at the rear end of the railway station. The sergeant shouted orders at his men who promptly battered the door down.

Trelawney nodded his approval and walked carefully over the remnants of the door.

“My men should go out in front, sir,” Sergeant Taggart suggested.

“I will tell you when I need them,” Trelawney replied imperturbably. “We shall be fine.”

Trelawney was following the Precog vision he experienced while he slept. He felt absolutely safe and had not the slightest worry of being killed. That possibility lay an hour or so in the future, though he still did not know what the threat might be. He did know that he had to hurry though.

He led the soldiers at a brisk pace down the passageway leading to the factory. It was much colder than it had been when
Cam
had been there, but Trelawney did not seem to be affected by the cold. Michael Jenkins however, was shivering as he wore only a light coat.

“You organize a trip to
Scotland
in winter and bring that,” Belinda chided from behind him. “I brought this,” she said referring to her thick fur coat, “And must admit to feeling rather snug in it.”

When Trelawney entered the factory where the train was, he could barely see the engine for the clouds of steam billowing around it.

“Sorry!” a voice he recognized shouted from somewhere within the cloud of steam. “I thought you said pull the second lever.”

Sergeant Taggart quickly lined up his men. They dropped to their knees and took up firing positions, every rifle pointing into the cloud.

“Tell your men to stand down at once,” Trelawney ordered in a voice that brooked no argument. Sergeant Taggart waved his arm and his men relaxed, but kept their positions and their rifles raised.

“Trelawney, is that you? I mean, Ernest…, I mean, Sir,” Tom blathered in a state of shock, his voice floating out of the immense cloud of steam. “I am afraid I have no one to stand down, sir, except for Laura and Dougal.”

A few seconds later Tom and Laura walked out of the cloud of steam and promptly put their hands into the air when they saw the soldiers.

Belinda ran over to Laura and hugged her in delight.

“We thought we had lost you,” she whispered as Laura returned the hug.

“I have not even managed to lose my virginity, worse luck,” Laura whispered back.

“How are you, Tom?” Trelawney asked in a formal way, sticking out his hand to him. The two men shook hands stiffly.

“We have to get this train started and into the station. Dougal claimed he knew how to drive it, but he has been having problems,” Tom explained.

“Dougal?”

“Dougal McBride. He is helping us to escape.”

“And what of his father?”

“Buried up to his waist in concrete, sir. There is a bomb buried a few hundred feet below him, which is going to explode in less than two hours.
Cam
is organizing an evacuation, sir, which is why we need to get this train moving.”