The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3480 by Angharad Copyright© 2024/2025 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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It seemed as though the wonderful summer we had had this year was over, we'd already had a few storms in September so a bigger one on October seemed no surprise, even if it was 50+mph winds and heavy rain. I was supposed to be leading a reptile survey. We checked ten refugia, which are metal sheets laid on the heathland and under which reptiles like to congregate, so do ants, and those were all we found.

Most reptiles and insects are exothermic, which means they raise their body heat from external sources, usually the sun, but we know that several lizards and snakes also use compost heaps for incubating their eggs or simply getting through the cold of winter. I think I envy them except I'm not so envious of the smelly places they choose and don't think I'd like to be ponging of faeces or dead plants which are being broken down by invertebrates and bacteria which together with fungi, breakdown all organic matter eventually, otherwise we'd be knee-deep in it. By their use of things we no longer require as foodstuff, they liberate the nutrients for use by those other creatures and organisms that would otherwise be unable to share in the bounty and help us keep the natural systems going.

We all know if you put vegetation waste into a compost bin with either chemicals or some animal waste to get it going, you end up with finely powdered compost, which can then be used for growing plants. All good gardeners tend to have compost heaps or bins for the purpose of creating the peaty looking stuff which growing plants need, helped by woodlice, loads of smaller crustaceans, molluscs and fungi. It contains only natural substances and is very useful for starting off seedlings and larger plants. This can be regulated by adding sand or other soil elements depending upon what sort of compost you want or the plants need. It's big business and at one time lots of peat bogs were stripped of their peat to make commercial composts for gardeners. They like farmers have contributed to the biodiversity decline by using pesticides and other chemicals seeing their hobby as more important than the health of the planet.

We all do it to some extent, those of us who drive cars, have heating for their homes or eat imported food out of season. Raising livestock is another that reduces biodiversity and monoculture for silage is deadly to nature. There are many ways in which food production could be improved but it is either costly or less profitable, so as humans worry more about money than anything else, they will soon see why scientists have been complaining about global climate change. It is killing ever larger numbers of the two legged maggot and before long it will be killing large numbers, do we care? We won't until it affects us, then it will be everyone else's fault. People have been warned, they just choose to ignore it but many of them will die, probably the innocents while American oil companies continue raking in billions and telling everyone, climate change is a hoax. Sadly their money will probably mean they survive longer than the rest of them, but they have raped and despoiled this planet for a hundred years. Man has been doing it for thousands of years but now it has been industrialised it is changing things faster than ever.

I had survived the bad weather of the survey and was back in my office at the university when Diane brought me cuppa and Delia had added a cake as it was her birthday. I busy munching through my ill-gotten gains when the phone rang. We were still dealing with last minute admissions, so I half expected it to be about that, it wasn't. Suddenly, tea and cakes were unimportant, it was the Swiss police. Now that could be about my student, the one distantly related to the royal family who had taken flight there while we dealt with those stupid women who wanted to destroy her. They are now trying to persecute the rest of us but Switzerland and police was something more serious.

"Professor Watts, we have to inform you of an accident involving you daughter, we have moved her to hospital."

"How is she?"

"It is serious."

"What happened?"

"We are still investigating, but she is asking for her mother." Oh my god, Trish has been in an accident. Oh shit, shit, shit, shit!

"Please email me details of the hospital, I shall be there as soon as I can."

"Certainly, professor, I shall let her know." I thanked him and dropped the bombshell to Diane and Delia. They said they would deal with things and to just get there as quickly as possible.

Diane got me on the first available flight to the land of cuckoo-clocks, I told Simon what I knew and then dashed home to pack. David and Emily were such a help promising to look after things at home, I called daddy and told him he told me to get there and see what was happening and let him know, he wished his granddaughter love and asked me why I wasn't at an airport already.

Diane had got me a flight from Gatwick. I ordered a taxi to take me there, it got me there with minimal waiting time and as I was travelling first class they didn't seem as worried about my arriving so close to take off time. Did that mean wealthy terrorists were less likely to be caught? My answer was probably so because they get others to do it for them. Cannon fodder is another term for it. I've never been so wealthy or important that I could pay someone else to die for me, well, except our regular armed forces. It was a sobering thought.

Two hours or so after boarding a plane, I was being paged by the Swiss police at Basel airport, this is the one where you have to be careful to leave by the correct exit or you end up in France. I presumed the copper knew his way, and a little later we were on route to the hospital where my daughter was asking for me. The policeman spoke English well enough for us to converse awkwardly, but he said he knew nothing of Trish's condition or what happened to have her in hospital. It seemed to take forever but we eventually got to one outside Berne, the Inselspital or university hospital a huge modern building. I was led into reception along with my luggage where the young copper asked for a manager and my cases were secured and I was led off through a maze of corridors and lifts until we stopped outside a single room. "Your daughter is in here, Professor Watts."

"Before we go in could you please tell me what happened to her?"

"We are not sure but it seems she has been shot."

"Shot, who did it and why? She's a scientist not a terrorist or other gun carrying lunatic."

"I am well aware that she is working at CERN, but she was airlifted to this hospital because we have a specialist who deal with gunshots. You will have speak to the police, but it seems she was walking to her apartment in Meyrin, when she was shot by someone who then escaped on a moped. It was thought he said a few word in Russian, but no one is certain. Shall we go and see her?"

I entered the room and she was lying in bed surrounded by machines of all sorts, some bleeping quietly, others flashing displays of various types, she looked smaller than ever. I reached for her hand and she smiled saying 'Mummy'. She opened her eyes and smiled weakly at me.

"Have you brought any blue-stuff?" she asked and seemed exhausted, drifting off a few minutes later.

"What is this blue-stuff?" asked the manager.

"It's a family joke," I told him, "It means everything will be alright."

"That is a new one on me," said the manager, "I shall leave you to sit quietly with her. Do you require anything?"

"Only a cup of tea or coffee, if that's possible."

"I shall make it possible, Professor." He smiled and left me moving a chair so I could sit next to my daughter. I held her hand and felt the power jump down my arm and up hers. Somehow I wasn't feeling quite as worried about her, although at the back of my mind was why she was targeted, by whom and will they try again? I half decided as soon as she was well enough, we'd fly home. I could better protect her there.

Tea arrived about twenty minutes later and I asked the blue energy to keep itself hidden, so no one was any the wiser. I spent an hour at her side until the energy told me she'd had enough and was going to get better and to deal with other things, not least the police and finding my hotel, then ringing home and informing everyone how she was.

On my way to the police HQ I received a text from Danielle, she was on her way and would see me at the hotel. It was the first I knew about it and wasn't sure if I was pleased or not. I would be glad of the company and we could spread the hospital visiting between us, and she has been useful in such adventures before, but, and this was the worrying bit, have we just given the bad guys another target or was Trish's shooting concerned with her work, or with the family, especially if it is a Russian. At times if I had a nice lethal virus, I'd send it to all those nice people in Russia and get them off my back for good an' all.

I don't like thinking like that but circumstances have shown that the Russians have been a pain in the arse for some time. I have never started anything with them just reacted to it. So far, they have come off worse, but I still see Stella after they'd had her for a few days and swore not to let them get any of the rest of the family, and if that meant terminating the odd one, I would. If I found the guy who shot Trish, I would allow the forces of law and order to do their job, but wouldn't hesitate to kill him if the occasion demanded because I'm sure he'd kill me without breaking a sweat.

After speaking not one but three people in reception, I eventually found someone who could speak to me about the assault on Trish. He told me they were baffled by it. Shootings weren't that common in Switzerland and CERN tends to have heavy security anyway. If the examples of the police I saw in the HQ were typical, it seems that heavy is the operative word and some of them looked like losing some weight would be very helpful, unlike the senior officer I spoke to.

Danni arrived at the hotel soon after I got there and like I had she wanted a cuppa. We made one in the room, using the teabags she brought with her, though neither of us had been to Yorkshire lately, so how we had their tea, goodness knows.

When Danni asked about Trish, I told her that she had been shot by someone who was possibly speaking Russian. She agreed we had nothing in terms of more than hearsay, and the Russian element could be deliberately designed to mislead us. So to sum up, we don't know why she was shot or by whom. In short we knew bugger all.