“Get off the road!” She said, grabbing me and pulling me back the way we’d come.
I complied without thought, following her as she raced for a stand of trees, the trunks tucked behind the hedge that lined the road.
We forced our way through the hedge and made for the trees, throwing ourselves flat on the ground as a faint rumble reached my ears.
“What is it?” I asked, gasping to get my breath back after the sudden run.
“Army convoy,” she whispered, despite the noise coming from the road. “Eight trucks, several hundred soldiers and a couple of Landrovers at the front with .50 cal machine guns. Looks more like an invading force than a rescue mission.
“Where the hell are they all coming from?” I whispered back.
She shrugged and peered around the tree, trying to see the road through the thick hedge with little success.
The sound of engines grew louder, and then the faint sound of marching feet joined it. Joining Emily in looking around the tree, I could just make out a forest of legs in the same camo we were wearing marching past on the road.
As I watched, the trucks pulled to a halt and a voice called out, telling the men to break ranks and have chow.
“Shit,” Emily breathed, “that means they’ll put out sentries and they’ll push out at least this far. We need to move, now.”
Without waiting to see if I followed she moved back from the trees, turning and hurrying across the field, horribly exposed as she made for the hedge on the far side. Seeing no other option I followed her, but I hadn’t made it more than a few feet when I heard a shout from the road and a dozen soldiers pushed through the hedge, rifles to their shoulders.
“Halt or we fire!” The voice rang out from just the other side of the trees, and I saw Emily stiffen, then stop and raise her hands, turning back to face them.
I thought for a minute they hadn’t seen me, but then the voice called again.
“And you, behind the trees. Put the weapon down and step to your right.”
I exchanged an anguished look with Emily. There was nothing we could do but comply, anything else and I had no doubt we’d be fired upon, and there was no way that all twelve of them could miss.
I put the shotgun down carefully and raised my hands, stepping slowly to my right as I turned to look at the soldiers.
Twelve men knelt in a firing line, half with their rifles trained on me and the others on Emily, while a thirteenth man stood slightly behind them, a tab with sergeant’s stripes in the centre of his chest.
“You, the man, step forward and walk to your left until you reach the end of the line,” he said, and I did as instructed, stopping as I came within a few feet of the end soldier.
At a nod from his sergeant, this soldier slung his rifle and pushed me roughly onto my front, removing the Bergen and my belt, including the knife, before pulling out a set of large cable ties and binding my wrists together uncomfortably tight.
I gasped in pain but he ignored me, instead going through my pockets and clothing until he was sure I had nothing else that might be a threat.
As he took my wallet, I turned my head to look at him.
“Please,” I said, “there’s a picture of my little girl in there, don’t take it.”
The young soldier glanced at the sergeant, who shrugged.
“All personal effects to be retained by us until everything has been processed. Now shut up.” He turned back to Emily. “You, approach slowly, hands behind your head. If I see anything I don’t like, you get shot.”
I couldn’t see her approach, held down as I was in the grass, but I heard her hit the ground as two soldiers left the line, one returning to hand her pistol to the sergeant while the other searched her.
“Hey, I’m a sergeant in the Royal Electro… ugh!” I tried to turn my head to see what was happening but the soldier was ready for me, planting a knee in my spine and forcing me into the earth so hard I chewed mud.
“The prisoner will not speak unless ordered to!” The sergeant shouted, “whoever they think they might be!”
A few moments later the sergeant barked another order and the line broke, two soldiers hauling me to my feet while another pair took hold of Emily, marching us back through the hedge and onto the road to the curious stares of the rest of the soldiers.
It was an impressive convoy. The road fairly teemed with soldiers, and as we were pushed towards one of the trucks a man with two golden pips on his chest walked over and motioned for the men walking us to stop.
“What have we here?” He said, looking me up and down and then switching his gaze to Emily.
“They were trying to run away,” the sergeant said, “but when we caught them, this one claimed to be a sergeant, REME I think.”
He pointed at Emily and the officer strode over to stand in front of her.
“Is that correct?”
She nodded. “Sergeant Emily Morris, 1st Battalion REME. Service number 25095611, sir.”
He looked at her for a long while before speaking.
“So why is it, sergeant, that you were trying to make off rather than identify yourself?”
“Seen a lot of strange things sir, wasn’t sure what was going on, and I, uh, I’m attending to a family matter sir.”
She glanced over at me as she spoke and I saw the hopelessness in her expression. Now we were caught up in whatever great machine these people worked for, there was little hope of us getting free to find Melody unless we were very lucky.
“A family matter? That doesn’t explain why you were trying to avoid us. Still, you can explain all that to the Colonel.”
He signalled to the sergeant. “Detail four men and take them back to base in one of the Landrovers.”
“Sir.”
Arms seized us again and we were hustled into the back of one of the vehicles, wedged onto metal benches in the back while our gear was placed safely out of reach. Four soldiers climbed in with us and the Landrover pulled a U-turn, heading northwest along the M40.
“I don’t suppose you can tell us where we’re going, can you?” I asked the soldier next to me.
He elbowed me in the ribs hard enough to hurt. “No talking.”
I winced and looked over at Emily, hoping to see something in her expression, confidence perhaps, but instead I could only see a worry that mirrored my own as we were driven in silence to whatever fate now awaited us.
Chapter 32
We were on the M40 for about thirty minutes before the driver pulled off and headed west, first taking a main road and then cutting through country lanes that twisted and turned and had me thoroughly lost in minutes.
Although any attempt to speak was dealt with aggressively, our escort seemed to have no problems with letting me lean forward so that I could see where we were going.
I was more than a little nervous of our silent, too-young looking guards, their eyes hard under their Kevlar helmets and their rifles always within easy reach. It was enough to convince me that trying anything other than doing exactly what they told us to would be a mistake.
Until, that is, we crested a hill and I looked out over the valley below, and the strangest sight met my eyes.
To our right was a small town with rows of pretty-looking houses and neat gardens, seemingly untouched by what had happened. Just to the west of the town was what could only be a military base, with high fences, squat, soulless buildings and a large field with a long airstrip.
In a huge perimeter around that, however, someone had strung out barbed and razor wire, with hastily erected guard towers dotted along the fence, the glint of sunlight on rifle barrels and machine guns telling me that they were manned.