Escaping the Cradle

by Karen Page

Part 22

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Part 22
DATE:FC+70

"Okay, who does Clive work for?" asked Ashleigh as they entered Becky's house.

"GCHQ."

"Oh. Security services are going to be all over this."

Becky snorted. "With two dead committee members in London, they already are."

"What about Kelly's great aunt?"

"You heard that? I've no idea who she is, but overwatch seems to. I've other worries at the moment."

"Yes, Jenny."

"I wonder how much of a coincidence it is that we're supposed to be flying out to the Rohastin Council in the morning. It is important so the world knows what choice to make. Without our ship, they can't go. Is the kidnapping to try and get us to abort or do something else?"

Becky had sat on the settee, perched on the edge. Ashleigh joined her and put her head on Becky's shoulder. Becky leaned in.

"She's my only remaining child," whispered Becky in agony.

Ashleigh didn't know what to say. Her stomach was churning. She might have only known Jenny for under a year, and this was tearing her up. She couldn't imagine what it was doing to Becky.

The ringing of the doorbell startled them both, and they went together to the front door. There were two people standing there. A woman who looked to be in her thirties, and an older male.

"We're Counter Terrorism officers," stated the man kindly. They both produced warrant cards.

Ashleigh leaned forward and took them. "Wait here," she said and shut the door.

"What are you doing?" asked Becky bewildered.

"Checking."

Ashleigh took out her phone and with shaking fingers dialled 101. She explained the situation before being put through to the control room.

"Sorry, but my daughter's been kidnapped. I've got two people out of uniform at the door. I want to make sure they are who they say they are."

"No problem," the man said. "Give me their names and badge numbers." Ashleigh read them out.

A moment later he responded, his tone more serious than before. "We've nobody with those names. There is a team of three Counter Terrorism officers on the way to you, but they are ten minutes away. Please don't open the door but do stay on the phone. There are still units at the school. I'm putting you on hold for a minute while I contact them."

Becky had her head next to Ashleigh's and heard what was happening. Her fear was dissipating, being replaced by a growing anger.

The control room officer came back. "Inspector Johnson who you met earlier is enroute with five other officers. Stay on the phone with me. I'll let you know when they get there, so you can open the door safely."

Becky and Ashleigh shared a glance. Becky breathed a sigh of relief that someone they'd met was coming. Ashleigh went to the door and put the safety chain on before peering through the peephole.

"The imposters seem to have gone," said Ashleigh to the control room.

"They probably went as soon as you rang us. Don't open the door just in case. Wait for the police. You probably can hear the sirens already."

Not only could they hear them, but the flashing lights were soon visible. Four vehicles came to a screeching halt in front of their house, and police bailed out. Two of them were ARV, and two armed officers rushed around towards the back of the house to make sure it was all clear.

"Inspector Johnson is approaching your door. You can open it safely. Can you confirm you're happy it is the person you met earlier?"

"It is," said Ashleigh after Becky had looked through the peephole. "Thank you so much."

"Glad to help. I hope they find your daughter soon."

They opened the door to Inspector Johnson. "There's no sign of them. We're going to stay around until the Counter Terrorism team arrive. I notice you've got a few CCTV cameras. Do you have photographs of them? Perhaps what car they drove?"

"This was the warrant badges they gave," said Ashleigh, handing them across. "Their likeness seems accurate."

"Impressive," the inspector murmured to himself as he looked them over. "So realistic."

Becky pulled a section of the recording from the front of the house and created an MP4. "I've created an MP4 with the timeframe. Where do you want it?"

"If you go to the police.uk website, you'll find a link to upload digital evidence. It will ask you to provide an incident number."

He showed his phone with a code on it and in a few deft movements of her finger, the data was uploaded.

"So, what now?" asked Becky.

"We will patrol the area, until SO15 arrive. This is a lot bigger than a normal kidnapping with links to governmental agencies. We have the local manpower, and are searching the area for your daughter, but any answers to questions will come from others. Local police are focused on finding Jenny and Kelly safe and well."

Becky nodded. That is what she wanted too.

"All that is being reported is that two children have been kidnapped. Nothing more. Police in the area who were not scheduled to be working have been turning up at police headquarters demanding to help. Nothing like this has happened since the Cromwell Street killings."

Tears welled up in Becky's eyes. She wasn't aware how seriously the locals were taking the kidnapping. To hear that police were volunteering like that was something else.

The inspectors radio spat to life, and he listened to the message via his earpiece. "It seems Counter Terrorism has arrived. I'll leave you in their capable hands and get back to searching for your daughter."

The two men and a woman came in, and Inspector Johnson gave one of them a high five, before walking out. The resemblance made it obvious that they were related. The woman carried a large case.

"I'm DI Steve Johnson," said the man, holding out his hand to shake Becky's and then Ashleigh's. "With me is DC Raj Singh and DS Amy Ellis."

"I'm Becky Head," said Becky. "And this is my fiancée, Ashleigh Thompson. Jenny is my daughter from my first marriage."

"And the location of your ex?" asked DI Johnson.

"She and my son died a few years ago."

"Ah. Okay. Well, the first thing to get going is to scan your phone for anything untoward that might give us some clues. It's surprising what traces criminals leave on victim's phones."

"It won't damage my phone, will it?" asked Becky, nervously fiddling with her phone. "It has photographs of my son and dead wife on it."

"No, Ma'am," said DS Ellis. She opened up the case she'd carried in. "You unlock your device, and we connect it to the machine. It then can search for relevant information. It is self-contained. The device is shielded, so there is no chance of interference with it during the scan."

"I work on a project. When my boss gave it to me, she said it was secured."

"Our device bypasses that," said DS Ellis with a reassuring smile.

Becky unlocked the phone and handed it across.

"Thank you," she said connecting it and lowering the shield unit. "It will take about five minutes."

"While it processes, lets discuss what's happened," said DI Johnson. "Your daughter was at school and was removed by armed individuals. A pair of people pretended to be us turned up at your door. What do you think they wanted?"

An expletive came from DS Ellis, followed by some rapid typing on her laptop. Everybody looked at her, but she was too busy on the laptop to notice. She stopped typing and dropped her head. A few more expletives were uttered, mostly under her breath.

"My phone?" asked Becky sharply.

"It wiped itself."

"That's —" DI Johnson paused and refocused. Trying to assign blame wouldn't help. "Unfortunate."

"I understand you're doing your job," said Becky. "Just please don't make me feel like I'm the one who caused this."

"I'm so sorry," said DS Ellis, biting her lip. "We'll do everything we can to recover the data."

"Knowing the security team who gave me the phone, I doubt you will get anything," said Becky sadly.

"We'll still get the logs from the network operator," said the detective constable, speaking for the first time. "I should have them soon. Was your device backed up to the cloud?"

"No. I was working on a confidential project. I'm not going to backup to the public internet. Can I have my sim-card back?"

Becky took it, and went to her office, where she took a shrink-wrapped simple Nokia device. It was a dumb device, so she was quickly back ready to receive a call from the kidnappers.

"You were asking why?" asked Becky, trying to get things back on track.

"Yes," said DI Johnson, brightening up a bit that the confrontation appeared no longer to be the focus.

"I don't know. Why was the factory attacked in January? Nobody has been able to explain that either."

"Just for completeness, so there is no confusion. Can you confirm the location of your factory?"

"Just past Berkeley towards the river. Not quite as far as the old power station."

"DC Singh was one of the people who attended that. Can you confirm, again just for completeness, what you make at the factory."

"We built the spaceship Aurora there and recently finished on Eos."

DC Singh passed his tablet to his boss. "This is the call log from the network operator."

"I see a few calls between you and the Prime Minister's office."

"Yes. We are supposed to be shuttling the Prime Minister to meet with the aliens tomorrow."

"Do you think it could be something to do with that?"

"Probably, based on the two deaths in London earlier today."

"How do you know about that? It hasn't been reported."

"A phone call. Look, we are just making the ship. It's a leap in technology. We've kept ourselves out of the way and quiet. You are making it sound like we're to blame for Jenny's disappearance."

"Not at all. You aren't to blame. We are just trying to understand the picture. Yes, your project has been very discrete, but some people have got to know where you are. You have assisted the government, so either you reached out or they found you. Either way, you aren't as hidden as you hoped."

"I hoped it wouldn't come to this. I just wanted Jenny to live as normal a life as she could. Make friends and have some normalcy. I didn't want to live behind security walls, and guards constantly patrolling."

The doorbell rang, and Ashleigh went to answer it, with DC Singh following alongside. It was Laura Taylor at the door.

"Laura!" cried Ashleigh, so glad to see her. If anybody could steer this, it was her. She wasn't alone. She never really was. Two of her bodyguards positioned themselves outside the front of the house.

"Who's this?" asked the DC.

"Laura Taylor," she said introducing herself and walking straight through to the lounge as if she owned the place.

"Laura, how did you get here?" asked Becky, incredulously. Genuinely pleased to see her.

"James dropped me off."

She said as she sat down in a spare seat and said to the DI, "Have you found Jenny and Kelly yet?"

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Laura Taylor. I told that to your colleague. And if you don't know who I am, then you haven't done your homework on the way here. I'd have expected more from someone educated at Eaton and Oxford."

"Like you, I never like to show my hand," said DI Johnson, smoothly. "Sometimes asking someone is a nice way to break the ice and move things forward. You are a co-director of Star Bright, with Becky and the two scientists who published the paper the other month. You are also the owner and CEO of GWPP."

"Fantastic. So, you know who I am, and that I'm linked to the situation, so you can carry on. It saves one of your colleagues coming to my house."

"It basically comes down to waiting for the call. See what they want. The search is progressing methodically."

She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a tablet. She clicked a few screens and passed it to the DI. "I have foreign contacts you won't have access to and got my team to access some satellite data that was useful. It's all legitimate."

He pressed play, and his two colleagues crowded around to watch. It showed a 4x4 approaching the canal. The bridge was closed. The vehicle paused for a second, and the door flung open, and the two girls were seen bailing out. Two men jumped after them. Kelly turned and gave one of them a good kick between his legs. He bent in pain but held onto her. They were both dragged back into the vehicle. It went through a gate and down the path that ran alongside. The picture switched to showing it getting to the next bridge, which was down, and they left the area.

The DI didn't hesitate; he took out his phone and dialled his control centre. "I've just been shown confidential evidence. They are in a white SUV which went down the towpath and crossed at Splatt Swing Bridge. They are outside the quarantine zone at 15:11."

He listened for a few before hanging up. "They have them on camera and their reg. Head Office are tracking. Thank you for that."

Due to the introduction of pay-as-you-go road pricing, even minor streets had licence plate recognition. It was very difficult and tedious to get anywhere and not be tracked. Becky and Ashleigh knew this from experience when they'd gone into hiding two months previous.

"Raj," said DI Johnson. "Can you please brief Mrs Head on what to expect when the call comes through."

DC Singh turned to Becky, "When they ring, do not let on what we know. Knowing something they don't is always an advantage. The people ringing will probably not be the ones with your daughter."

"Okay, but what do I say? Do I agree with them?"

"Try to remain calm and try to be non-committal. They will have demands, and you will probably not like them. We will be tracing the call as soon as it comes through. You won't see it, as it is a process between the security services and the network operator."

"What's your higher priority?" suddenly asked Laura, leaning forward. "Is it the rescue of the children, or the apprehension of the gang?"

"What do you mean?" asked the DI.

"Are you planning on tracking the vehicle, so you can find out where they are going, and potentially securing extra information. Or are you planning on stopping the vehicle as soon as you have resources in position?"

"We are just liaison officers," complained DI Johnson. "We feed important information to the centre, where those decisions are made."

"Raj and Amy are liaison. You aren't. You are here just in case important decisions are needed on the ground."

Becky sat there, her eyes screwed up in pain.

"Look at those pictures behind you," said Ashleigh, standing up and glaring. "Go on, turn around. The girl on the right is Jenny. That bright, bubbly, ever curious girl. The boy to her left was her brother, who has already died. Take a good look at them."

Becky's phone rang and the room went quiet. Ashleigh sat down next to her girlfriend and put her arm gently around her waist. "I'm here," she whispered.

The three members of SO15 immediately changed stance. Stiff defensive postures changed. DS Ellis had her tablet out, checking that the systems had picked up the call. She nodded that all was good.

Becky looked at Raj who gave her a thumbs up. Taking a deep breath, she answered, "This is Becky."

"Ah, the famous creator of Aurora," sneered a foreign sounding male voice. "We have your daughter, and if you don't do as we say she will be buried next to your son."

"How do I know that you have her?" said Becky, trying to place the accent, and failing.

"Perhaps I'll have some fun with her before killing her," he added, the thought making him excited.

Raj made a calming motion, and Becky took a deep breath.

Amy whispered, "VPN. We need them to call again."

Becky nodded and winked at Raj before bursting out, "That's just sick. I don't think you have her."

Becky hung up and breathed heavily, wondering what made her do that.

"That was great," said Raj.

"What if he doesn't ring back?"

"He will. They want something. Not him. He's just a messenger. A guy who they know who gets kicks from making sick calls. It will be a minute before he rings back. Either because he has to get instructions, or you've confused him."

After a painful few minutes, the phone rang again. "This is Becky."

"We have your daughter," he stated. It was the same guy as last time.

"How do I know?"

He played a message. "Mum, we're good. My tummy is rumbling though." It was Kelly's voice, not Jenny's.

Ashleigh mouthed "Kelly" to the Counter Terrorism officers.

Raj showed his tablet. It had 'Ask what they want'.

"What do you want?" asked Becky, sounding anxious.

"You cancel tomorrow's trip," he demanded.

"Is that it?" asked Becky, failing to hide the incredulity in her voice. "You want me to stay home tomorrow, and you will give her back? You take my daughter because you want me to play hooky for the day?"

"Simple isn't it," and this time it was him who hung up.

"Great job," said Raj. "You kept him talking. A foreign VoIP service via a single hop VPN."

"That was Kelly," said Becky, her voice trembling as she realised what she'd just done. "It sounded like a prearranged code."

"I already sent it to them," reassured DI Johnson. "Now you have the difficult bit. Waiting."

Becky got up quickly and rushed to the toilet. She mustn't have shut the door, as the sound of retching filtered into the room.

"You go look after Becky," suggested Laura to Ashleigh.

When they came back down, the smell of cheese toasties filled the room. Laura, one of the top CEOs in the country was busy in the kitchen.

"There you go," she said, putting plates down in front of Becky and Ashleigh. A few minutes later, a second batch was being served to the three officers. A third batch was for her and the two bodyguards outside.

"Something's happening," said Ashleigh quietly, as she finished off her snack.

"Ah, you noticed?" said Laura, taking note.

DI Johnson had changed position. The other two were talking in low voices, but DI Johnson had his tablet perched on a stand and was listening to something via a discrete earpiece.

They stayed busy. Ashleigh gathered up the used plates, while Becky made cups of tea.

Raj, the lowly detective constable came across. "He's in a meeting. Amy and I aren't authorised for that level of discussion."

"Amy is giving him some items," pointed out Ashleigh.

"Things he needs, but she isn't in the meeting. She won't know what's happening for operational reasons."

There was a minute's silence as everyone tried to hear what was happening, but they couldn't. Raj, being a trained negotiator, and family liaison officer, decided to move things away from what was happening.

"These two ships you've built. Aurora and Eos? How have you done it? At school we were told you couldn't travel faster than the speed of light, but the PM said she'd gone to a space station 150 light years from Earth."

Becky pulled up a world map on Ashleigh's phone. "This is a two-dimensional map of a three-dimensional object."

"Sure, and it's distorted because of that."

"Good, you're ahead of the curve. So, a shortest distance plotted in two-dimensions won't be accurate, as you aren't taking into consideration the curve of the planet."

"Like when you see plane journeys on Flight Radar, it doesn't show them going in straight lines when crossing the Atlantic."

"Exactly. It is a similar thing for what we do. We go via another dimension and take a shortcut. The space station might be 150 light years away, but we don't travel 150 light years to get to it. It appears we're travelling faster than the speed of light, but we aren't."

"So how long did it take them to travel that far?"

"Three seconds," responded Becky casually. This conversation was her thing. All this negotiating and manoeuvring was unsettling.

Raj spat out a mouthful of tea. "Sorry," he said trying to wipe the spillage up. "But that's crazy."

"Never say that word in this house," said Ashleigh instinctively and for the first time that evening Becky smiled.

"Sorry?" asked Raj bewildered.

"Jenny's really gotten to you, hasn't she?" Becky asked Ashleigh. Becky turned to Raj. "It's something Jenny says. Hilda was a psychiatrist. Crazy wasn't a word we were ever allowed to use."

"So, what does Jenny call you? Are you both Mum?"

"Hilda was Mummy. She died before Jenny got to shortening it to Mum. I'm Ma and a few months ago Jenny decided that Ashleigh was Mum."

DI Johnson had got up and was now looking out of the window, or pacing. Raj went across and said something to him. He nodded and went back to sitting down and Raj came back.

"What's going on?" asked Becky.

"The biggest pain in our job. Waiting. I told DI Johnson his pacing was making us anxious. It was making me anxious, so I'm sure it wasn't doing you any good."

DI Johnson signalled to Amy, who took a box out of her case and came across to the others. "Take a headphone each and put it on."

They did. "Jenny parents on channel five," they heard DI Johnson say.

They heard over the earphones. "You're safe now. You're safe. I'm Ellie. Jenny, you're safe ... Put on these. Your Ma and Mum are on the other end."

Ashleigh realised that Raj had passed details of what Jenny called them. An instant comfort for her.

"Ma," she screamed into the headphones.

"Hi baby," choked out Becky between sobs.

"I'm not a baby," responded Jenny indignantly.

"We'll see you soon," said Becky.

"We love you," added Ashleigh.

Laura tore off her headphones, she hadn't said anything, but she was deeply upset. "Is there space near where they are? Room for Eos to land."

"Yes, but—"

"No buts. Jenny wants to see her parents, and I'm sure Kelly wants to see hers. Make sure the road is clear near Willow cottage. I will need the coordinates where they are. Sam will translate that to the ship vectors."

"Yes, Ma'am," he uttered. He didn't want to mess with a woman like her, not when she was radiating power like a star about to go supernova.

"James, we're ready now," she said via her phone.

Becky and Ashleigh followed her to the door. "You three come along. You've helped too and you might not often see a reunion."

As they went through the door, Eos was there. But there was also ten other people. They joined them at the door and formed a defensive shield as they were ushered to the ship.

"Flip," muttered Amy as she was swept along, having never been in a position like this before.

Two of the security team stayed behind to keep the house safe.

The ship didn't wait, once the doors were closed, they transitioned to outside Willow House. Grace and Clive were in shock as they went into the ship. They'd barely sat down when they were underway again. Sam's fingers deftly putting in the next set of coordinates as soon as they arrived somewhere.

When they arrived, the scene was a sea of flashing blue lights. Hastily arranged floodlights were bathing the area making it look brighter than daylight. The onsite squads had been informed they were on the way, as there was no sign of guns being pointed at them.

"With me," said DI Johnson, having received instructions via his earpiece.

To the left was the white SUV, but to the right was the sea of flashing lights, and that is where they headed. As they got closer, they were able to make out an ambulance and Becky took off. The other three parents got the hint and were racing along.

Becky saw her before she heard her. A small figure wrapped in a police-issued blanket. Eos had landed in the shadows, so Jenny would have had no inkling that she was coming. The movement of running figures must have caught her eye as she saw the two most important people in her life running towards her.

"Ma," squealed Jenny, as she saw them. Jumping off the ambulance she rushed to shorten the distance.

"Ma!"

Becky's legs wobbled and she dropped to her knees as Jenny collided with her, them both falling into an embrace. And then Ashleigh was there too, joining them on the dirty, greasy road.

"You're safe," said Becky. "We're here."

"I knew you'd come," said Jenny. "I told Kelly you'd come."

Ashleigh didn't say anything but just rocked along and occasionally kissed Jenny's forehead. Becky's heart lightened for the first time.

Raj, Amy and Steve watched on. "You did that," said Laura quietly. "You brought them back together."

"It was too easy," said DI Steve Johnson, watching on. "This is far from over. The kidnappers' demands were nonsensical. It's like it was a test to see how we'd react. The two people impersonating police officers got away. The two gunmen in the car were probably just paid to do this. Probably the same for the person who made the call. We'll see as they're interviewed. But I doubt this is the end. It was just too well planned for the outcome."

Laura just nodded. She was glad someone else had the same thoughts she had. But at the moment, she couldn't take her eyes off the two reunions. That was the main thing.