Chapter 7 as it appeared

Malton +47

"Come on Cat! Don't blank out on us now!" Jim urged. He was pulling her down the alleyway. Tarrok was running behind them, covering their retreat.

"How many?" asked Cat. Her heart was racing, the real possibility that she would be returned to Simon clouding her ability to think.

"Not many," said Tarrok. "We take down a couple more, they'll probably run."

They rounded a corner. Jim and Tarrok stopped dead, sharing a look of mutual understanding. Jim pushed Cat against the wall and signalled for quiet. Running footsteps approached and then the two men stepped out once more. There were several shots and a heartfelt "fuck!" from Jim.

"Looks like that was all of them," said Tarrok.

Jim nodded. He was bleeding from one shoulder.

"Jim!" whispered Cat.

"I'll be fine. It's only a flesh wound!"

"Literally," said Tarrok, "with the nanites he'll not even go into shock. You two had better go. This lot were barely operating legally. I'll be able to pass this off as another terrorist attack."

Jim nodded and caught hold of Cat's hand. "Come on Cat! Let's get you somewhere safe."

Tarrok watched them go. He was going to have to tell his associates there was no hope of placing her back with Simon. It was obvious she wasn't up to it. He cursed the man for turning a good officer into a trembling wreck.

"Are you sure about staying with Gabby?"

Cat shook her head. "No, but I figure I need to hang around Vicky for a while longer, if only in case I need to go back on the anti-depressants."

BD gave her a hug. "Look after yourself, Sis. I'd stay but I'd end up putting a bullet through Gabby's brains. The man can't take anything seriously."

"Now that's not true and you know it. He grew up in Malton. They all did. Can't blame them if they treat everything as if it might be gone tomorrow."

BD sighed. "It's going to end badly."

Cat smiled. "You always say that. We'll be fine. Take care."

They hugged once more. Then BD got into the waiting truck and he was gone.

Malton + 48

"What are you doing?" asked Vicky curiously. Cat was cutting something from a print out.

"Janine's had another baby." Cat showed her the print out. Simon stood next to his daughter and her family on the steps of his New York residence.

"Where did you find the picture?"

Cat gestured at the media screen. "It's one of the gossip feeds. Focuses on the presidential family. Almost as good as being there really." There was a catch in her voice.

Vicky gave her a hug. "It'll all be over soon Cat. Then you'll be able to see your grandchildren in person."

"Yeah," said Cat, but she didn't sound convinced.

Malton +49

"What are we doing here, exactly?" Sam demanded.

"Well, this building is supposed to be the power-source for some government building or other. Or maybe it's the police building. Fuck it, I dunno. Anyway. There's some form of transformer or generator in the basement here - if we take it out at 8pm, we'll plunge something into chaos and then ETA will strike," Gabby said vaguely.

"Is there not a back-up? and why can't ETA do this?"

"Possibly. They asked nicely and we need to show willing to get them on-side."

"So we're breaking into a heavily-guarded complex for a separatist organisation which may, or may not, help us out afterwards?"

"Erm. Well, yes and no. It's got one of those automated security systems, so no guards. And at worst, it'll inconvenience the security forces."

"You mean, at worst, we'll die horribly?"

"Well. Yeah."

"Why am I here again?"

"You were the only one daft enough to accept a mission I planned at the last minute."

"Wait. You planned this?"

Gabby smirked and snuck towards the window he had marked on his map as their entry-point. Sam sighed and followed him. The two men slipped in through the open window, murmuring something about "incompetent fuckers". They landed in a corridor that appeared to be completely empty - not even a security camera.

"Well this is easy," Sam remarked, and stepped forward. Gabby shot out a hand and clutched him by the shoulder, holding him back.

"Not that easy. This corridor has a laser-field thing."

"Ah, fucking hell, Gabby, did you have to pick this place?"

"They're standard-issue in government buildings these days, Sam, not much choice. But this one's a bit crappy. I brought infrared goggles, so we'll be able to navigate through the field." Gabby rummaged in his bag for a moment and brought out one set of goggles. He rummaged a bit more, then looked guiltily up at Sam. "Well. I brought one pair, anyway."

"Gabby, you daft fuck! Now what are we going to do?"

"One sec. There's some form of deactivation unit round the corner. If one of us can get through to that, he can turn off the laser-field."

"What's the catch?"

"Well, if you trip the laser-field, you'll lose bits of your body. And there's one of those gun-turrets around the corner."

"Fucking hell. So who's going?"

"Erm. We're the same size, so no chance of us deciding like that. It's probably best if the person staying keeps the goggles."

"The hell? So they have to fly blind?"

"Well, they're not very good with close-ups. So you would be blind anyway. I'll guide you."

"Fuck off, I'm not going. You do it."

"Oh what, and trust you with my life?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

Gabby shrugged, opened his mouth to answer, then thought better of it. He had been about to mention Vicky, but he had a small hope Sam had forgotten about it

"Fine. I'll go. But wait. Let's just do a little practice," Gabby suggested, throwing the goggles at Sam. Sam ran through a little series of directions. When he reached "up", Gabby stopped him.

"No. You have to pronounce it properly, bloody Geordie. I'm not putting my life in the hands of your accent."

"Fussy git. At least I pronounce `t's."

"Piss off. C'mon, let's do this. Wait. Sam, you don't mind about me and Vicky, do you?"

"You what?"

"It doesn't bother you anymore?"

"Where's this coming from?"

"Just wondering. We're cool, right?" Gabby said, eyeing the lasers nervously.

"Oh, right. You're worried I'm going to misdirect you and get you killed so you're out of the way?"

"Well, I wouldn't have said that, per se." Gabby was nodding all the same.

"You'll just have to trust me, I'm afraid, Gabby."

"Great."

Gabby turned to the laser-field, and Sam started directing him. Despite their arguments, the two men had been friends for almost fifty years, and it showed. Sam masterfully resisted the temptation to send Gabby straight into a head-height laser beam and he even managed to tame his accent for a while. Within five minutes, Gabby was at the end of the corridor.

"Alright. Just gonna go and switch off the lasers. You know, there's no need for this corridor? It's just a little death-trap with a button. I could just sod off and do the job, then come back."

"Don't leave me here alone, prick!"

"Fine," Gabby grumbled, and disappeared around a corner. There were a few gunshots, a curse, and then a muffled explosion. Moments later, the lasers faded. Gabby's head appeared around the corner.

"You coming?"

"You have no idea who these people are!"

"Sam vouches for them."

"No he doesn't! He said they had put out feelers. That he didn't know who they were and that they were as shady as hell. It's not the same thing."

"Well what would you have me do, Kulko? Sam's right, we can't keep moving Bryn around with us, much as I might like to."

Kulko spat. "Face up to the truth BD. She isn't coming back. It's been fifty years. There is no secret research going on into finding a cure. She's the only incurable left. Why bother?"

"So you'd have me incinerate the body? Keep burning her until she stops regenerating?"

"If you won't, I will. Let her go BD."

"Fuck off Kulko. I don't remember putting you in charge of this outfit."

"I don't recall anyone putting you in charge either."

Gabby stirred his cocktail absent-mindedly, his eyes roving across the beach-side bar. On his first pass, he had counted two "definites", three "possibles" and a handful of "last resorts". Next to him was his definite of the hour, Vicky. She was saying something, Gabby knew that much. Something about a journal she had read about abuse victims. Kate. Gabby's mind drifted away yet again. The barmaid brought him a refill, leaning over the bar to pour it out. Gabby must have been grinning because Vicky promptly pinched him.

"Eyes off, Gabby! And can you stop bloody oggling while I talk to you? Fuck me, next trip is going to be to an ugly country, I'm sick of this!"

"I hear Brazil is full of ugly women," Gabby lied.

"Nice try. Am I not enough for you, is that it? Everytime we go out, you're always scanning the crowd, checking out every teenager with big tits that passes by - looking for 'definites'?"

Gabby frowned at her.

"Cat told me, I think. When are you going to be happy with what you've got?" Vicky demanded

"Fucking hell, Vicky, this again?"

"Yes! This again! Just like it happened in London, in Paris, in Sydney! The same problem, the same fight, for two fucking years! This happens every time, Gabby! You haven't fucked a Spaniard yet, but it's coming, I bet!"

Gabby's knuckles whitened around his glass. He knocked back his drink and waved for another.

"Vicky, you knew what you were getting into with me. I acknowledge that I don't devote all of my lust towards you, and I have strayed from your bed. But that's who I am, for fuck's sake! And we've lasted two years - shouldn't that tell you something? I bloody well love you enough to stick with you, even though my best friend hates me for it, even though we argue every few weeks. I can't help my bad habits when it comes to the ladies, but c'mon - you must be pretty proud to have lasted as long as you did?"

"Oh, yes. Lucky me to have been granted two years with the great Gabriel Mallows!" Vicky said coldly. The barmaid, hastily buttoning up her top as she saw Vicky's glare, brought over the drink.

"Te conozco?" she inquired as he nodded gratefully for the drink. Gabby ignored her.

"Fuck off, Vick, I don't need you to make fun of me."

The barmaid retreated into the kitchens. Vicky opened her mouth to answer back, but before she could fire out a retort, Sam had crossed the bar, downing his beer as he moved.

"You've blown our cover, guys, well done - that barmaid with the cleavage is making a call, probably the police," he spat, dragging the couple out of the bar like a pair of arguing children. "I phoned ahead. Cat's packing, Jim's arranging our tickets home - you'd better hope he doesn't stick us on a speedboat to Morocco again!"

"Plane's in two hours. We're going to Geneva," Jim announced, entering Gabby and Vicky's suite, the biggest one the group had booked. Cat was finishing off a suitcase, shooting the occasional reproachful glance in Gabby's direction. Sam had disappeared with a bottle of scotch.

"Well done, Gabby," Vicky hissed, zipping up her jacket. Gabby paled. Cat noticed his hands balling into fists, and ducked into the bathroom. Jim, deciding her escape had been women's intuition, followed her. They found Sam sprawled across the bathtub with a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand.

"You too, huh?" he grunted.

"Safer in here than out there. Especially if their reconciliation comes quickly," Jim said dryly. Cat was silent, listening to the shouts with her eyes screwed shut. Jim shuffled over to her and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders. A glass smashed in the other room as the yells reached a peak. Everything fell silent for a second. Heavy footsteps passed the door, Gabby yelled indistinctly, and the hotel-room door slammed shut. Jim got to his feet and peeked his head outside.

Vicky stood alone, sobbing into her forearms.

"Gabby left. Said he'll meet us in Geneva Airport."

Kulko looked over the shoulders of the engineer at the plans he had spread out. They meant very little to Kulko but the engineer was good. Back when he'd been focusing his energies on disrupting the ration distribution network, he'd linked up with this small group of academics. The engineer had been very useful getting plans of the railway network and advising on weak points. It was the same group who had come up with this plan to disrupt the gas pipelines from Russia into Western Europe. There was an economist who was very excited about the plan and had graphs showing how it would disrupt Simon's economic policies.

As an operation it was more involved than hijacking trains though. They had to dig down to the pipeline. So here they were in some god-forsaken part of the Ukraine with a mixed variety of digging equipment and half a dozen of BD's old mercenary contacts acting as scouts and security. They were through to the pipeline now. It was just a matter of waiting for the explosives expert to lay the charges and they could be out of here.

Next to him the engineer grunted with satisfaction as the man emerged from the hole in the ground.

"OK," Kulko called into his radio, "time to get going."

The engineer grinned. Danny's chopper appeared, over the trees, to airlift them out. The explosives expert ran towards them.

"We've got ten minutes," he shouted over the sound of the rotors.

Kulko nodded. He didn't know the man, but he seemed competent and had done his part of the job efficiently and without fuss.

As they flew away, they heard the sound of the explosion behind them. "Good work!" said Kulko.

The engineer nodded and shook the hand of the explosives expert. "Yes, well done for your first time out."

"How did you find us?" asked Kulko. He was always curious how people linked up with the various activist groups, if only to find out where any lines of infiltration might be.

"He joined my company a while back," said the engineer. "I gradually realised he was sympathetic to the cause."

The explosives guy shrugged. "I have cousins who supported the opposition. They've been under house arrest for five years now. The ones that haven't disappeared off the face of the map, that is."

Kulko nodded sympathetically.

"I still have a few second cousins in the civil service in Beijing," the man added. "They try to keep their heads down and do what they can."

Kulko's ears pricked up. "Any chance of putting us in touch with one of them?"

The explosives expert looked thoughtful. "I'll ask," he said. "They might be a little cautious, but I'll ask."

Kulko smiled in satisfaction.

"So, what's the plan for getting in again?"

Gabby thought about this, chewing his lip and frowning.

"Is there a plan?" Cat demanded.

"Well, there's a target. And we've got tools. And I have a tube map."

"A tube map?" Cat repeated, staring up at Gabby. He was on tip-toes, craning his neck to see over the crowds milling along Oxford Street.

"Yeah," Gabby said distractedly.

"You know dataglasses have the A-to-Z built in?"

"Really?"

Gabby spent the next minute playing with his new sunglasses.

"Fuck, why couldn't I have had one of these sooner? OK. The surveillance centre is down this street, one right, one... no, just the one right. There's a service door, but that's actually more guarded than the main entrance. So we'll ... hm. I remember my plan! We go through a manhole, and there's a sort of cable tunnel thing that leads straight to their servers."

"A manhole. In broad daylight? Dressed like this?" Cat sighed, eyeing Gabby's flamboyant dress - "hiding in plain sight" as he called it. Gabby looked her up and down.

"You look fine."

"I didn't... I meant... fuck it. OK. We go down there."

"Yeah. Down the manhole, up through the floor. Bam! No data centre. They'll have to cancel the show trials. And, of course, if we can eliminate the cameras on the whole East End, you just know the Cockneys will go wild," Gabby said with a mischievous grin. Cat sighed.

"You love all this, don't you?"

"What, causing chaos? Course. Don't you?" Gabby said over his shoulder as he strolled casually to the manhole and lifted it up. He looked so confident, that even Cat didn't suspect he was up to no good, just for a moment. Then he flashed her another grin and dropped below the street. She rolled her eyes and hurried after him.

As Cat landed in the tunnel, she was struck by the absence of light. In the darkness someone grabbed hold of her. In spite of herself, she whimpered, braced for a blow.

"Hey, it's just me," Gabby said soothingly, squeezing her hand. "Just follow me. I've got night-vision in these things. Deep breaths, babe."

"Forgetting Vicky, are we?"

"Nah. She's first and foremost in my heart always."

They walked in silence for a bit. Cat holding hard onto Gabby's hand as he guided her through the darkness. "Do you remember, Cat? Thirty-odd years ago? We were good friends. I've missed us, PCat," Gabby said, morosely, leading her down the tunnel.

Cat didn't answer for a bit and then she said, "Things changed."

"I fucked up, you mean."

"As Vicky keeps telling me, no one but Simon made him hit me."

"I wasn't talking about that."

"I know you weren't, but the principle's the same. It takes two to tango, you know. If anyone fucked up, it was both of us. And I don't honestly think it was the sex that made the difference."

Gabby stopped. "Hang about! I reckon, we just have to go... here, and up!"

Gabby punched upwards, hoping to open a trap-door.

"Fuck, that hurt," he murmured, groping for a handle with his other hand. Cat sighed.

"Open," she said clearly. A square of light appeared in the ceiling. "Voice-activated. Help me up."

Smirking, Gabby complied, not being too careful where his hands fell. Cat didn't tell him off, simply turning and frowning at him as he clambered up by himself.

"How come I have to help you up, but I can just wriggle on my own?"

"You're 19, and 6 foot tall, Gabs. I'm pretty sure you're capable of lifting your own weight. Now, can we go, I'm not sure this place is entirely safe."

Footsteps echoed against the blank walls of the corridor. Gabby flattened himself against the wall, and jerked his head to tell Cat to do the same. A security guard rounded the corner, whistling and staring at his feet. Gabby rolled his eyes. As the guard passed, Gabby slammed his elbow into the guard's back, toppling him, and caught him before he fell, covering his mouth with a chloroform rag.

"Help me dump him in the tunnel."

"So, back to your old tricks, eh?"

"What?"

"Lurking in corridors, sneaking up on people, chloroform."

"Oh, ha-fucking-ha," Gabby grumbled, but secretly, he enjoyed seeing Cat smile again - it had been too long. "Right, the server room is two floors up. I figure we fuck that up. Then we find the mainframe, and fuck that up."

"When you say "fuck it up", you just mean run at it with an axe, don't you?"

"Well, duh."

Cat sighed.

"Look, firstly there is no mainframe. You're sounding your age there. What they've got upstairs is a big server farm mostly for holding the security data we want to trash. Downstairs are some dedicated machines on a separate network. If you want to take out the security cameras in the East End, that's the room you want. Down there we'd be better off doing it subtly. Instead of making it obvious it's been fucked with, just snip at loads of wires. They won't know where they are getting errors from. So they'll have to trawl through all the wires. As for the server farm, you won't destroy the data with an axe and, anyway, Hali and I had a better idea."

"Such as?" said Gabby suspiciously.

"Replacing the files, or at least all but the first couple of minutes of footage with one of your speeches about freedom and such like. When they play the evidence at the trial, especially if they run them live, they'll suddenly get a picture of you ranting about democracy."

"I don't rant but, otherwise, that's actually a pretty cool idea."

Cat smiled. "That's what we thought."

"That's why you volunteered to come with me on this one, isn't it? While the other's take out the back-up storage warehouse."

"No, I just came along for the opportunity to hold your hand in a darkened tunnel."

"Bet you enjoyed that bit too though," Gabby smirked.

"A little. Are we going to do this my way?"

"But... it's nowhere near as fun," Gabby muttered, hefting his crowbar.

"I'll let you smash up the screens after we're done, OK?"

"Deal."

"That was fun," Gabby said quietly, sitting next to Cat on a tube train, one of the ones that appeared to have been in service for fifty years - the seats had the horrible pattern that had apparently picked by Boris Johnson. Gabby almost felt nostalgic. In real terms, that was his childhood, fifty years ago. To an outside observer, his childhood was only just over. This irritated him to no end.

"It was. I miss us too, Gabby."

Malton +50

Sam stomped angrily into the kitchen of the apartment. "Why are these safe houses always such dumps?"

Kate looked up from where she was cooking. "It's not too bad. It's clean enough."

"You know what I mean."

"The walls are a little thin," she conceded.

"Why do they always have to have make up sex when we're all cooped up together?"

"I think," said Kate carefully, "it's the being cooped up that prompts the reconciliation."

Sam slammed a hand on the table in frustration. "And next time we get cooped up there'll be another row. It's like a bloody circus."

Kate nodded and turned away. "Can't really blame them, I suppose."

There was a catch in her voice that made Sam look at her closely. "You all right Cat?"

She nodded and waved her hand. "Onions!" she said. There was a sniff.

Sam frowned. "Cat? Does Gabby know how you feel about him?"

He saw her wipe her eyes. "Yeah, he knows."

"Then do you mind me asking why it's Vicky in there and not you?"

"Apart from the fact Vicky and Gabby love each other?"

Sam snorted to convey his opinion of that statement.

"I'm a fucked up mess, basically," said Cat.

"That's a little harsh."

"Well Gabby put it a little more tactfully than that. But the bottom line is, if you put Gabby and Simon next to each other and asked me to pick, I'd have to think about it."

"OK, that is pretty fucked up," said Sam. He frowned. "Pretty much whichever way you look at it."

Cat sniffed again and Sam saw her wipe her hand across her face. He looked about for a tissue and, in the end, passed her some kitchen roll. He put his arm round her.

"If you feel like that about Simon, why are you even here?"

Cat shrugged. "Some loyalties run deeper than love. That's what I realised when I saw that list of names but, you know, we had good years, many good years so I can't help wondering if there is some way to put things right."

"That's pretty twisted after what he did to you."

"That's what Vicky says. She keeps finding me stuff to read. I know it all up here." Cat tapped her head. "But I also know that, if you put me in a room with him, I'd find it difficult not to go back."

"OK, now to crack the password." Vicky connected Hali's device up to the computer.

"Before you do that!" Cat opened the top drawer of Simon's desk and felt around on the underside of the cabinet. "Ah ha!" She removed a business card and flipped it over. A string of alphanumerics were printed on one side.

"How did you know that was there?"

"Long familiarity."

Vicky shrugged and took the card. "For Emperor of the World your husband doesn't half have his moments of idiocy." She typed in the numbers and watched as the screens opened up. Then she plugged in Hali's data stick and clicked on execute. "Let's hope Hali knew what he was doing."

Cat, meanwhile, was fiddling with a safe in one wall.

"You'll never get that open," said Vicky.

"Depends if he changed the combination."

"Did he have any security nous at all?" asked Vicky.

"Not really, at least, not when it came to things like passwords. How do you think I got hold of all that information about emergency powers?"

"Ah!" The safe swung open and Cat began leafing through the contents.

"What are you looking for?"

"He kept annual backups of all his data. Here we are." Cat removed a box and took out a couple of data sticks, stuffing them into pouches in her tac vest. Then she started rearranging the other sticks to conceal the gaps.

"What do you want them for?"

"A hunch, that's all. You done?"

Vicky looked at the screen. "Think so." She removed the data stick and glanced at her watch. "Let's get out of here. The men are due to start blowing things up in about five minutes."

Jim sat in the dark watching the back of Simon's residence through night vision goggles. He sighed with relief when he saw Vicky and Cat leaving quickly. They'd obviously got into the computer systems and out again without triggering any alarms. He glanced at his watch. One minute until the first explosives were due to go off. He started to run.

Jim was about 500 yards away when the explosions started. In the dark he was dimly aware of figures ahead of him. Hopefully it was Cat and Vicky, heading for the getaway cars. They'd all agreed to comms silence, so it was hard to tell.

Assuming everyone had kept with the timing, everyone should be well clear. It would look like another showy attack and no one would know they'd got inside the computer systems. According to their best predictions it would be another 10 minutes before any of the police got here.

Suddenly bright lights cut through the darkness. Jim swore, it seemed as if there was a chopper up there. Either the had been wrong about response times or they'd been unlucky with one of the random patrols. He made a quick decision and ran towards the search light.

"Oy!" he shouted.

He pulled his automatic rifle from his pack and opened fire in the general direction of the chopper. He started to run back towards the house.

"Jim!"

It was Cat, right next to him in the dark.

"I'll distract them! Go!"

He turned her round and pushed her back down the hill.

"No Jim!"

"I can survive prison. If you don't want to end up back with Simon, go!"

Thankfully she turned and left.

Jim ran towards the chopper firing wildly. Within seconds a bright search light was upon him.

"You are under arrest. Put down your weapon and place your hands on your head."

"Jim is too Extreme for your puny orders!" shouted Jim and opened fire again.

The fuel tank of the chopper suddenly went up in flames.

"Holy smoke!" said Jim, surprised.

It was about then he realised he was directly underneath the chopper.

"Damn!" he added as it hit him.

There was a rolling explosion and then silence.