When the two men met in the orangery Erebus was a little distant; Colin was running through his proposed itinerary and he knew damn well that the old man was only half listening. When he had finished, Colin waited for a response.
“Are you happy that you’ve covered all eventualities Phoenix?” asked Erebus.
“Yes” replied Colin “but..”
The old man cut him off. “Then I’m happy. It’s cleared for direct action. We have bigger fish to catch.”
With that Erebus slowly levered himself out of his chair and left; Colin watched him go and thought he’d aged considerably since last night. This must be serious!
The rest of the day was taken up with ordering supplies; not food and drink but clothing and equipment for next weekend’s trip to Dartmoor. This assignment didn’t require a weapon Colin had decided; he had a far more appropriate exit strategy for Sir Godfrey in mind.
The next seven days passed slowly. Colin spent time in the gym and the pool, but his sessions never seemed to coincide with those of Athena. He was unsure whether that was a good thing or not. He put in a few hours in the shooting range to sharpen his skills. New data was passed to him from the surveillance section on Donald MacDonald and he did some preliminary work on his plans for that gentleman.
As for the people in the ‘big house’ they were conspicuous by their absence. Whatever type of threat this terrorist cell promised, it was clearly occupying all of their time and resources. Colin had been given a green light for the Dartmoor job and he was just left to get on with it. When he went to bed on the following Thursday evening he was cool, calm and ready to do just that.
Colin was awake early; he showered, dressed and collected together all the kit he had ordered. For this trip he had acquired his own rucksack; Rusty had given him hell when he returned his to him after the Lewes assignment.
“I’ve had that since Kuwait mate” he had snarled. Colin hadn’t had the nerve to ask to borrow it again.
Colin jogged over to the canteen for breakfast; as he was going in he saw Athena striding away from the swimming pool entrance. He turned back to speak to her; he even toyed with the idea of asking her to join him but although he was certain she had spotted him, she turned her head and walked away more quickly. She looked to have a lot on her mind.
After he had eaten his full English breakfast alone, Colin headed back to his quarters. He double checked the contents of his rucksack and satisfied himself he had everything he needed. He looked at his watch; it was still only half past seven. His transport wasn’t due for another hour. He decided to use his laptop to see what he could discover about the threat levels of ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’ and why it had become necessary to move to the higher level. Perhaps then he would be more able to participate in the Olympus Project’s bigger assignments. At the moment he felt like an odd job man, getting rid of minor irritations. Preserving the safety of the nation was reserved for agents a lot further up the ladder than him it appeared; he wondered how he could find his way off the bottom rung!
Colin’s search gave him food for thought. He hadn’t realised that there was a step between ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’!
“Blimey; it must have been something substantial to jump past ‘substantial’ and straight to severe” he exclaimed “thank goodness it hasn’t got to the ‘critical’ stage yet.”
He learned that in effect, the situation had moved from ‘possible but not likely’ to ‘highly likely’ in a heartbeat; the intelligence on these people must have flagged up a suicide bomb plot or something of the same magnitude that was moving forward far quicker than expected. People might have been fooled into thinking that with the Games opening in London next July, factions planning something to make the world sit up and take notice, would still be months away from following through on their plans. This was something that could escalate into a major problem in weeks, if not days. No wonder Erebus and the others were so preoccupied.
Before he knew it, the clock had ticked around to half past eight. His minicab was outside the old stable block. He collected his gear and went outside and jumped in.
“Here we go again then Phoenix” said his driver.
“Same old, same old; a few days of fresh country air; what could be nicer?”
They pulled up outside Bath Spa station and Colin got out of the cab, bought his ticket and waited for the Plymouth train. Once on board he knew it was a three hour trip via Temple Meads in Bristol; so he bought a newspaper to give him something to do and to use to help ward off any fellow passengers who had the urge to engage him in conversation. He managed to achieve that with ease as his carriage wasn’t overly full.
He was surprised at the number of platforms at the station when he arrived; he had always thought places in Devon and Cornwall were mostly quaint picturesque villages, with roses round the door; he hadn’t been prepared for a city. At least he was relieved when he got outside the station that he only had a five minute walk to the town centre.
He found a pub that looked as if it served a reasonable pint and a pie and stayed there an hour or so discovering that it was far better than that. He wasn’t in any rush to go outside anyway, it was a miserable day; wet and windy, typical for an autumn day in this part of the world. Colin had checked the weather forecast and knew that this was pretty much what he could expect all weekend and the overnight temperatures would drop to freezing or thereabouts.
All in all, it was perfect.
At a little after half past two, he set off; Colin was walking towards Plympton, and then heading for the south west corner of the national park and a village called Shaugh Prior; He wanted to get about half of the journey to Princeton done tonight. The walking route was sign posted most of the way and when it got too dark to use his map and compass, he had a torch to help him stay on the right track.
The weather helped keep most of the dog walkers at home and the minor roads didn’t contain a lot of traffic. If anything did come towards him Colin ducked under cover in the trees by the side of the road when he spotted their headlights.
At last he arrived at the tiny village and made his way into the fields behind the old church; he found a sheltered spot and erected his one man tent. The training sessions he had endured with Rusty and his colleagues were now going to pay off! The former SAS men had schooled him in living rough for long periods of time and if necessary Colin could have waited until next weekend for Sir Godfrey to turn up. He knew how to hole up in the woods without anyone knowing he was there; except the small animals that he would have killed to sustain him.
Colin was happy in the knowledge that he would meet up with his target tomorrow, so he had brought enough tinned grub and a spirit burner and stand to cook up a meal tonight and in the morning. He had a few bars of chocolate to keep hunger at bay while he waited up during the day tomorrow for the opportunity to deal with Sir Godfrey.
He survived the cooking with alcohol episode and a night in the tent; not without a disturbed sleep, as a fox paid a brief visit to see what was new in the neighbourhood.
Before dawn had broken in the morning he had packed away his kit, tidied the area where he had been pitched as well as he could, and then set off to walk the eight miles or so to Princeton. Colin stuck to the tracks and minor roads initially as there wasn’t much chance of any traffic that early; then he set out across country as he got closer to the village.