Screen Savers

Chapter 53

I don’t know how long I spent leaning against the wall of that corridor, hyperventilating, staring at the ghostly green roof through the night glasses which I had neglected to remove, and wondering if I’d pissed myself inside that wetsuit. I’ve no idea how long Miles spent framed in the doorway, head bowed, shoulders shaking, gun hanging limply from his fingers. I’ve no idea how long it took Dawn to recover her senses, and stir from her faint.

I only know that if Stephen Donn had come bursting out of the wardroom or one of the cabins with a blazing Uzi, we could all have been goners.

But he didn’t. Ardley resumed command, and as Miles and I got a grip on ourselves, he and Roper checked the accommodation module, room by room, in case he had heard us, heard the muffled gunshots, guessed the game plan and was hiding for his life. There was no doubt, though; the five of us were alone on the rig.

I went back to the kitchen; Dawn was sitting on the floor, crying quietly. I noticed for the first time that she was still wearing the clothes which Miles had reported missing from her wardrobe, a day and a half earlier; except that they were green. As, finally, I tore off the night glasses, Miles lifted her gently to her feet. ‘It’s all right, honey, it’s all right,’ he soothed her, as her sobs grew louder. ‘I’m sorry we gave you such a scare. We were expecting to find Stephen Donn.’

‘Who?’ she mumbled, bewildered. ‘Who’s he? Stu Queen, the sparks, kidnapped me from the mansion; he was the only one here.’

‘Stu Queen was a phoney,’ I told her, as I blinked my eyes to help them readjust to the world of colour. ‘Stephen Donn is the guy who’s been tracking me all along, making it look as if he was pursuing a vendetta against me, through my family and friends. Stephen Donn snatched you.’

I was beginning to recover my reason. ‘Mr Grayson,’ said Ardley from the doorway. ‘It’s time to call the cavalry.’ He took the radio from his belt, switched it on and held down the ‘transmit’ button.

‘This is the recovery team,’ he called into the mike. ‘Beta Platform is secure, Mrs Grayson is safe, we have no casualties. There’s no one else here.’

He let the button go I heard a disembodied voice come crackling through a curtain of static. ‘Understood, sir; we’re on our way. Please check the helideck is clear and report back.’

‘I’ll do that,’ I said, anxious, suddenly, to breathe fresh air again. A stairway at the far end of the corridor led to the deck of the platform. I ran up the steps; the door at the top opened easily and silently, and I burst out into a calm, cold, suddenly bright morning, on a steel island, surrounded by grey waters. The deck was clear, okay; it wasn’t huge, but big enough to accommodate at least one large helicopter. Opposite the accommodation hatch, by which I stood, there was a wide, open-fronted shelter; the hangar, I guessed. It was empty too. I walked across and looked inside; there were tyre-marks on the oil-streaked floor, and what looked like fuel canisters stacked again the wall. I pick one or two up and shook them; they were empty.

I walked back out of the big garage and across to the doorway. ‘The helideck’s clear,’ I called down to Ardley. ‘Donn was here, but he’s split.’

‘Thanks,’ the marine replied. ‘He must have panicked.’ I heard him as he radioed the back-up unit, giving them the all-clear to fly in.

I leaned against the wall of the superstructure for a few seconds, trying to imagine Stephen Donn panicking. I couldn’t.

Ardley and Roper came up on deck together to await their squad. I went back below, to find the dayroom light on. Miles and Dawn were sitting at its table, on which were three mugs of coffee, and one plate of well-cooked bacon and a hard fried egg. The food and its smell drew me like a magnet. ‘Who’s this for?’ I asked.

‘We don’t fancy it, mate,’ Miles grunted. ‘It’s all yours if you want it.’

‘TFR.’ I sat down. ‘So the boy Donn was expecting to be here for breakfast,’ I murmured as I picked up the cutlery beside my plate. ‘D’you want to tell us what happened, Dawn?’

It would have taken a lot of slap to make up Prim’s sister that morning. She was white as a sheet, apart from the patches under her eyes. She smiled at me though. ‘I was quietly cooking breakfast,’ she replied, ‘and this Navy Seal burst in and shot the shit out of my kitchen.’ I grinned back at her, relieved that she really was okay. Between us, Miles still seemed to be in a state of shock. ‘How did you manage to get in on the act?’ she asked.

‘Miles has a friend in high places,’ I told her, in my matter-of-fact voice. ‘He lent us a couple of his boys They’ll be here in a few minutes.’ I took a mouthful of egg; it tasted okay but had the consistency of a stick-on nylon sole. ‘When did he leave?’

‘It must have been about three hours ago. He kept me in here, with my wrists held in sort of plastic handcuff things; then all of a sudden, he just got up from his chair and cut them. He told me to sit still, and to wait; that I was a lucky lady — that was the first time he’d spoken to me since we left the mansion — and that someone would be along for me by the end of today.

‘I was terrified, all the time; I did what he said; sat here, scared even to step out into the corridor. And then I heard the helicopter take off. Once I was certain he was gone, I took a look around for a radio, or anything that I could use to call for help, but there was nothing. I went into one of the cabins and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t, so eventually I got up and looked around again, till I found the food he’d left.’

Miles looked as if he wanted to speak, but had lost the power. So he simply reached out and squeezed her hand.

‘What happened back at the house?’ I asked her.

‘When I got back from the studio, I was up in our room, getting ready to take a shower, and he just came in. I thought I was seeing things at first, then I was going to yell, until he showed me his gun and I knew it was for real. He told me to get dressed and come with him; he took me down the fire escape, and out through a back gate I didn’t know was there. He had a van outside.

‘He put me inside, tied and gagged me and warned me not to move or try to make any sort of sound. We travelled for a bit, then he stopped, opened the van and I saw where we were.’

‘Before he split, Dawn, can you remember what he was doing?’

She frowned, then nodded. ‘Yes. He had one of these superduper mobile phone things, with a mini-computer inside; a palm-top, I think they’re called. Every so often he’d take it out and fiddle with it; I think he was checking e-mail.

‘Just before he left, he switched it on, and looked at it.’ She hesitated. ‘Then, I think, he sent a couple of messages, and maybe received another. It was after that that he got up and left.’

‘Can you remember what the time was?’

‘No, only that it was hours ago.’

As she spoke, a roaring noise of which we had been aware for some time became too loud to be ignored. A lot of people have gone deaf in later life through flying military helicopters; I understand why. After a couple of minutes, the sound died down. There was a noise above our heads, feet on metal. I got up, went to the dayroom door, and waved Ardley inside as he came downstairs.

‘Dawn,’ I announced, ‘you haven’t been introduced. This is Neville Ardley, our CO.’

‘Very pleased to see you safe and well, ma’am,’ the young man said. ‘These guys did well,’ he added. ‘The ideal search and rescue mission is the one which ends with no shots fired and the captive recovered safely. Ours rarely do, of course. This one was no exception, but no damage done.

‘Come on; my men will stay on station here, to wait for the police. Let’s get all of you back on shore and into a change of clothes, then we’ll fly you back to Surrey. You’d better get all the rest you can, for once the press get hold of this story, we’re all going to be busy.’

‘No press,’ I snapped, so quickly that I surprised myself. ‘This thing’s not over. Stephen Donn’s still out there.’

‘Sure,’ Miles drawled; he sounded mentally and physically exhausted. ‘But where? He could be anywhere. The important thing is that we’ve got Dawn back and that we’ve beaten the deadline for sending the access code word.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ I countered. ‘What if he had another means of activating the account? Let’s get off this junkyard and find out. A fiver says I’m right; and if I am, I’m not going back to Surrey. I’m staying in Holland for a while.’