Vortex (12 page)

There were hundreds of them - at least that was what it looked like. He tried not to look at the tails - long, thick, glossy whips at least the same length as the rats' bodies, the very thought of which made him shiver. As he shone the torch down onto the floor, they parted like the Red Sea, but they soon grew used to the new sensation of the light, and started to swarm around the trio. Annie clutched onto Ben's arm so tightly it hurt. 'I think we should get out of here,' she said, her voice tight.

'Yeah,' Ben replied tensely. 'And fast. Come on, Joseph.'

But as he turned, Annie started screaming. Loudly. Hysterically. 'Get it off !' she yelled.
'It's on me. Get it off!'

Ben spun round and shone the torch in her direction. Annie was looking, aghast, down at her legs, where a large black rat, its thick greasy tail writhing behind it, had attached itself by its claws to the material of her combat trousers. Several other rodents were gathered around by her boots. 'Get it off me!' she screamed again.

Every inch of Ben's body was repelled by the sight of the rat, but he knew he had to do something. The torch was still in his hand, and it felt like a good weight, so he struck the rat a solid blow on the side of its body. The rodent squealed, and fell with a heavy thump to the floor, where its sudden arrival dispersed its companions.

But not for long.

Ben felt the unmistakable scratching of tiny claws up his legs and the horrible heaviness of something on his trousers. He knocked the rat down: as he did so, he felt his skin brush against the fur of the rodent that was scampering up him, and once more he found himself unable to restrain a shudder. Horrific memories of the rats he had encountered during the London floods came to his mind. He hated these creatures - why did they always seem to like him so much?

From somewhere deep inside his horror he became aware that Annie was screaming again; and even Joseph now appeared to be moving. 'The rats are more frightened than us,' he heard himself saying tersely, more to calm himself down than anything else. It wasn't much comfort, and the three of them started hurrying back towards the stairs, their feet occasionally knocking against a squeaking rat and the skin on their faces brushing against the cobwebs.

Ben couldn't tell whose feet it was he tripped over, but somewhere along the corridor he fell. He shouted out hoarsely, and tried to ignore the fact that the floor seemed to be undulating with shuffling furry bodies. There was a sudden troubled squeaking, and he pulled his hand quickly up off the ground when he realized it was resting on a strong, thick rat's tail. He shouted out again, his head suddenly swimming with panic as he tried to stumble to his feet. All strength seemed to have left him, however, and as the rats continued to swarm round his body, the walls started closing in on him. Claustrophobic. Surrounded by a sea of whip-like tails and stinking fur.

And then there was a hand on his arm. It was Joseph, pulling him up. 'On your feet, lad,' he said sternly, and that was all the instruction Ben needed. He pushed the panic from his mind and thrust himself up.

'Let's go,' he said with determination.

It was with unspeakable relief that Ben saw the dim light from the trap door illuminate the steps; and with even more relief that he heard no planes overhead. He stepped to one side to let the terrified Annie pass. Once she was on the steps, it was Joseph's turn. 'You go first, lad,' he said breathlessly, and Ben nodded, emerging back into the concrete hut with an explosive breath of air.

Annie's whole body was shuddering, and she was breathing in short, sudden gasps that would have been cries if there had been tears in her eyes. 'I - I don't care what's happening out there,' she stammered. 'There's no way I'm going back down those stairs.'

Ben's teeth were chattering as he nodded his head. He started drawing deep breaths to calm himself down, and for a few seconds the three of them stood by the trap door in silence.

It was Annie who spoke first. 'Er, do you mind if we close that thing? I'm sure I can still hear those horrible rats.'

Ben nodded curtly, stepped round to the side of the opening and slammed the door shut. It echoed round the hut like a gunshot, and again the trio fell silent.

'So,' Ben said finally, more for the sake of putting the thought of the rats from his mind, 'fifty years, eh, Joseph? Can't think why you didn't go back there sooner.'

The old man turned to look at him. His grizzled face was serious, and he ignored Ben's ill-judged attempt at humour - an attempt that he instantly regretted the moment he caught that glance.

'Rattus norvegicus,'
he said. 'The brown rat. Coarse hair, average body weight of three hundred and fifty grams. Acute hearing, sensitive to ultrasound. Selectively bred as laboratory rats for medical experimentation, which means that their presence down there is more apt than you could ever imagine.' Joseph's lip curled into a frown. 'You don't understand, lad,' he continued in a low voice. 'It's OK - there's no reason why you should. But what happened down there fifty years ago was far worse than anything you've seen today.' His green eyes fixed themselves on Ben, who found that he was unable to look away, so commanding was that gaze.

Ben heard his own heart beating as the two of them stared intently at each other.

'I'm sorry,' Ben said finally. 'I didn't mean to--'

'Just go,' Joseph interrupted. 'Get out. Get away.' He turned, releasing Ben from his fearsome gaze.

Ben nodded, then looked towards Annie. 'Come on,' he said. 'I think we should go home.'

'That's the most sensible thing you've said all day,' she replied. They turned their back on Joseph and walked towards the door. Ben gave the old man one last glance over his shoulder. He was looking around the hut again, that same inscrutable expression on his face.

Ben's eyes, unused to the brightness of the outside, smarted slightly as he walked into the daylight, so he covered them briefly with his hand. So it was that Annie saw them first - Ben heard her gasp even before he noticed them, and he felt her grasp his arm. But when he removed his hands from over his eyes, he stopped dead in his tracks.

There must have been five or six of them, grim-faced RAF men in combat fatigues and military berets, surrounding the hut. They were all heavily armed with ugly, black service rifles, and each of the guns was pointed directly at Ben and Annie.

'Hit the floor!' one of the soldiers barked. 'Lie on the floor with your hands on your head! Get down! Get down or we shoot!'

Chapter Ten

Ben hit the dirt. Next to him, he sensed Annie doing the same.

'Get your hands on your head!' he heard the soldier shout, and he did as he was told. He felt his rucksack being grabbed from him, then his wrists being roughly seized and pulled down behind his back, where one of their captors clunked a pair of metal handcuffs on him.

'Who else was in there with you?' a voice barked.

'Only one person,' Ben replied through gritted teeth. The gravel-strewn ground scratched against his cheek as he spoke. 'He's an old man. His name's Joseph and he's pretty frail. Go easy on him.' He watched as three sets of heavy-booted feet rushed past his field of vision. 'He's not armed,' Ben shouted. 'He's harmless--'

But the soldiers were already shouting, 'Get to the floor! Get to the floor!'

From inside the hut, Ben heard Joseph's distinctive voice. 'I'm an old man,' he said calmly. 'You are three heavily armed soldiers. It's unlikely I'm going to overcome you with my bare hands, don't you think?'

Instantly there was a sickening thump, like the butt of a rifle against skin and bone, and then the unmistakable sound of Joseph groaning and falling to the floor. 'Leave him alone!' Ben shouted, before being unceremoniously pulled to his feet, as was Annie. They watched as the old man, a large welt already visible on the side of his face, was dragged out of the hut. One of the soldiers struck him harshly in the pit of his stomach. He fell to his knees before his arms were grabbed behind his back and he too was restrained with cuffs.

Nearby there was a military vehicle - a large, canvas-covered four by four. Wordlessly they were pushed towards the truck and bundled into the back, while three soldiers, their weapons still firmly in their fists, joined them to keep guard. The back of the truck was pulled closed, and it started moving slowly along the rough dirt track.

The atmosphere was tense. The bruise on Joseph's face seemed to be getting darker by the minute; Annie kept looking at it, and then furiously back at the soldiers. Ben could tell that she was fuming that an RAF soldier should have inflicted such a wound on an unarmed old man. Finally one of the soldiers - a burly man with a nose that looked like it had been broken at some stage in the past - spoke. 'Pretty stupid place for a couple of kids to be hanging out,' he told them. He directed his attention towards Joseph. 'But I might have expected something a bit more sensible from an old boy like you.'

Joseph's face remained stony. 'Stupidity isn't just for young people,' he said quietly, touching his fingers to his bruised face as if to illustrate his point.

The soldier sneered.

'Where are you taking us?' Annie demanded.

'Same place we take everyone caught interfering in military operations,' he replied dismissively. 'To a holding cell, while we evaluate whether or not you're a threat to national security.'

'National security!' Annie blustered. 'That's ridiculous.'

The soldier stretched out his arm and grabbed Annie firmly by the face, pinching her cheeks. 'I'll tell you what,' he said in a low growl. 'How about you shut up, and I'll see to it that you don't end up like your old friend there.'

The other two soldiers sniggered at his comment.

Annie's lips thinned; Ben prayed that she would just keep quiet, but he knew how likely that was. 'You should be ashamed of yourself,' she spat at the soldier. 'You're a disgrace to the uniform, and when I next speak to my father--'

'Annie, no!' Ben interrupted her.

'Shut up, Ben. When I next speak to my father, he's going to hear about this.'

The soldier grinned at his colleagues. 'Any particular reason why we should be running scared from your daddy?'

'Well,' Annie replied. 'That all depends on your rank, doesn't it?'

The soldier's eyes narrowed. 'Flight lieutenant,' he said cautiously.

'Right,' Annie smiled with satisfaction. 'Then he outranks you by four rungs.'

The soldier looked like he was working that out in his head. 'Your dad's an air commodore?' he asked.

'Yeah,' said Annie, 'and I think he'll have something to say about the way you treated Joseph, don't you?'

But the flight lieutenant didn't seem to be listening. Instead he stood up and, keeping his free hand against the side of the truck to steady himself as they continued down the bumpy road, he knocked the butt of his rifle against the cab. Three times. A clear, measured signal, and the truck trundled to a halt. The three soldiers sat exchanging nervous glances while they waited for the two in the front to open the back.

'What is it?' the soldier who seemed to be in charge asked impatiently.

'The girl,' replied the flight lieutenant. 'She says her father's an air commodore.'

The soldiers fell silent, clearly digesting this information. As they did, Ben found himself looking from face to face. When his gaze finally fell on the other soldier standing outside the truck, he blinked.

He recognized that face. He had seen him somewhere before.

'Change of plan,' the leader barked, interrupting Ben's thoughts. 'We'll take them to the doc.'

The flight lieutenant looked troubled. 'The doc? Are you sure that's a good idea, sir.'

'We haven't got any choice. He can decide what to do next. And this thing will be over in twenty-four hours, and by that time we'll all be out of the country.'

'But, sir--'

'It's an order, soldier,' the leader barked, and he slammed the back of the truck shut. From outside, Ben heard the leader talk to the soldier he recognized. 'Take us there,' he said. 'And make sure we're not followed.' Seconds later, they were moving again.

'Where are we going?' Annie asked the soldiers. She was unable to hide the nervousness in her voice.

The soldiers didn't answer - the arrogance seemed to have been kicked out of them by the curt words of their superior officer. Instead, they sat there quietly, exchanging the occasional nervous glance that did nothing for Ben's confidence in where all this was leading.

As they travelled, Ben did his best to pay attention to the twists and turns of their route. Why he did so he couldn't have said. They were in the custody of armed RAF soldiers, so any thoughts they might have of trying to escape and weave their way back to the outskirts of the base would be pretty ill-advised. But there was something about these guys that didn't ring true. 'What did he mean?' He asked the question out loud, but it was more to himself than anything else.

'Who?' the flight lieutenant said.

'Back then, when he said you'd all be out of the country.'

'Shut up,' he was told for the second time in the past few minutes.

They endured about twenty minutes of uncomfortable driving. Ben and Annie looked at each other nervously, and then over at Joseph, who was simply staring impassively against the opposite wall. As they drove, Ben found himself remembering the stark warning the old man had given the previous night. 'Strange things going on at Spadeadam.'

Too right, he thought to himself. Too right.

They came to a sudden stop: the doors opened and the three soldiers jumped down. 'Get out,' the leader barked. Slowly, the handcuffed trio stood up and made their way down from the truck. The five soldiers were standing outside an old building - more of a shack really, made of wood stained dark with creosote. As they stood there brandishing their weapons, Ben sought out the face he recognized. There was no doubt about it - he had only caught a fleeting glimpse of the man, and even then from a distance, but he was absolutely sure he knew where he had seen him before. As if to confirm his suspicion, he saw that the man was carrying a rifle, unlike any of the other RAF soldiers he had seen.

'Shot any rare birds lately?' he asked the soldier, one eyebrow raised in ironic questioning.

The man's eyes narrowed. 'How--?' he started to say, but the commanding officer interrupted him.

'Quiet, all of you.' He pointed at Joseph, Ben and Annie. 'You three, inside.'

Ben gave the soldiers a disparaging look, and they were hustled through the door, which was closed and locked behind them.

'This isn't right,' Annie let out explosively as soon as they were alone. 'They're up to something. They'd never--'

'I know,' interrupted Ben sharply. And then, more soothingly, 'I know.'

Annie breathed in deeply. 'You sure that was him - the one who shot the hen harrier?'

'Positive,' Ben replied. 'Absolutely positive.'

The shack was dark, the only source of light being a small window in the side that was covered in a thick layer of greasy dust. Joseph stood at the window, looking out emotionlessly. He did not seem even remotely bothered by the bruising on his face - it was as though he didn't even feel it. 'Joseph,' Ben said, trying to get his attention.

The old man continued to stare out of the window.

'Joseph,' Ben repeated. 'You have to listen to me. Do you remember when we spoke last night?'

Slowly Joseph turned to look at him.

'You told me it was obvious why someone had been shooting birds round here. It's to keep
us
away, isn't it? People
like
us, I mean. There's something going on here and they don't want anyone snooping around.'