If you were following my novel “Train Wreck” as part of the AtoZ 2021 Challenge, you will know that, due to other pressures such as my day job, I didn’t get beyond Chapter 14 in my attempt to finish the novel during April. There are a couple of extra paragraphs added to the end of this chapter and then another Chapter follows in the next post…
(Author)
When Stig and Alex returned a while later, they found Jack assisting Katie to prepare a meal by peeling potatoes whilst she made a sauce. There was a comfortable atmosphere between them. Katie moved the saucepan off the heat and took Alex off into another room for a moment saying she had something she really needed to tell him. They were gone a while and Stig and Jack stayed in the kitchen watching over the potatoes which Jack had set to boil.
“Did you find Gervald?” Jack asked.
“We did! And it proved useful, not just about him and his story, but it may have some implications for your story too…”
“Do tell!” said Jack – they were sitting at the kitchen table sipping cans of beer.
“Alex took us to the place he thought the stranger who might be Gervald was and he was right. We snuck up on it – not easy in near desert country, but it was the right approach – Gervald was on the back veranda and he took off inside and locked the doors as soon as we showed. If we hadn’t seen him first, we wouldn’t have known he was inside. He wouldn’t answer so Alex went round the front and I picked the lock.”
“Really Stig? I’ve always wanted to know how to do that! Not that many people lock their doors here but still – maybe you could give me a lesson!”
“Easy Tiger! We’ll find time one day! Anyway, I go inside but no sign of Gervald so I let Alex in and he says that Gervald hasn’t come out so we start looking round for him. I call out to him – tell him who we are and that we mean him no harm. I tell him about you and your connection to Clem and everything I know about his story as Clem told it. I ask him if he is hiding out because he is afraid of someone and I tell him we can help – that if we could find him, then someone else could do so just as easily…”
Stig goes to the fridge and fetches another bottle of beer but Jack declines the offer of one.
“Finally, at this, Gervald emerges from behind a panel in the wall – a hiding place he has constructed. He is very scared, looks out of all the windows to see if we are alone before sitting down and talking to us.”
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
“What Clem said about me is true. I was more interested in the recreational drugs to begin with. I liked hanging out with him in his lab – which he allowed me to do once I knew him well enough. He told me his story and he encouraged me also, to go to college and study pharmacology. Gradually, I became more able to be of help to him and although I was still into getting high, I started to develop an interest in the more medical research Clem was doing.”
Gervald had calmed down a bit since he realised he wasn’t in any immediate danger and had started to tell his tale, but only after going over who Stig was – Stig had just said – “a member of the Rangers…”
“Then one day, I was in a bar one evening, Clem was away for a couple of weeks – I think he may actually have been on a trip to Hawaii 1. He didn’t share everything with me and he certainly didn’t allow me to be at his place and his lab when he wasn’t there.
These guys started talking to me, asking what I did and when I said I worked for this genius chemist, they said ‘Clem? We know all about Clem!’
I was surprised and alarm bells started ringing but they went on affably enough to say they had some business connections with Clem – were disappointed to find he was away as they had hoped to see him whilst they were passing through.
I asked them where they were from and they said Hawaii 1 and I was impressed but also surprised since I had this inkling that was where Clem had gone anyway. They asked what I was working on and said I must be busy with Clem away. I said no to the latter I explained that Clem didn’t allow me to work whilst he was away and we were never really what you’d call busy – not since Clem works at his own pace on his own projects. They seemed quite envious of that – ‘Must be nice! Where we come from, you work as hard and fast as you can because unless you’re one of the very rich, everybody is on the clock…’ Then they changed the subject for a bit.”
Clem jumped up and had another look out through all the windows as if he still wasn’t convinced that his visitors were kosher then he came and sat down and continued his story.
“It wasn’t long before they asked what I did, exactly, for Clem. I told them I was a student now and so I was more useful to Clem – to be honest, I was boasting a bit at that stage, I had downed a few drinks before these guys showed up and they kept buying… They didn’t propose anything that night , but a few weeks later, just before Clem came home, they ‘happened to be passing by’ and we had another evening drinking, I asked them about life on Hawaii 1. They said I should come and see for myself – of course – I told them there was no way I could afford a trip like that. They said I shouldn’t rule it out – they might have some work for a bright guy like me, perhaps I could set up a lab on my own and make something for them. Like a fool I asked what? They told me that they knew Clem had a new drug with no come down but that he wasn’t interested in making it for them – if I could do it, then they would buy and import the equipment needed. Of course, I knew they were talking about Sunset. I said I didn’t have the complete formula but I had done some of the testing on it. ‘But you could get the details if you wanted to…’ I told them I could and asked how much they needed, they asked how much I thought I could make. – I told them I would have to work out some figures and what equipment I would need. They gave me a mail contact to reach them – and that’s how it began.
Once they had my lab set up, they came round regularly and gradually they started to press me for odd bits of information from Clem’s computers – some of it probably wasn’t important – it just got me used to doing stuff for them. They paid generously – mostly into an account they said was ‘waiting for me on Hawaii 1’. They started to push for more information about stuff I knew Clem was more circumspect about – medical stuff – and I started to get cold feet. They didn’t get nasty, not then, in fact, they said they were going to take me to a party! I would get to meet some important people from both Hawaii 1 and 2.”
Stig had been taking notes as Gervald told his story and asking the odd question – could Gervald describe the men, what was the contact number they had given him, could he remember any specific dates he had seen them… Gervald cooperated fully, he seemed relieved to let it all out finally. He went on.
“The party was on an island, we went on the biggest private boat I had ever seen and as well as the guy’s I knew, there were some women – very smartly dressed but I thought later, that they were – you know – professional… We all went ashore and into a side room off the main living space I was introduced to someone from Hawaii 1- a Mr Jensen – who seemed to be quite important – the guys were very deferential to him. He said that ‘they were very pleased with my work, that Sunset was the way forward, a good, clean drug with less side effects – just what they needed to keep the workers happy!’ Then the guys and I went out into the main room where we joined the girls. Later they pointed out the President – you know Widnes! He was talking to Jensen – they seemed to be friendly, but there was some sort of struggle going on – like Jensen was pushing for something – it reminded me of how it was when the guys came to talk to me! But then one of the women started coming on to me and it wasn’t long before we were headed back to the boat because she said we would have it to ourselves. She poured me a drink and we sat on a couch and she kissed me, I know that much, but after that I remember nothing. Next time I woke, I was in bed in one of the cabins – naked, but what else had happened I couldn’t tell you.
I’ve had a lot of time here to think about what happened and I realised I was well played at that party – I saw some luxury, got complimented by someone who could have been anyone, saw the President but never got to talk to him – or anyone else come to that. I got kissed but that was literally the only taste of the high life I had before being whisked back to normality. Smoke and mirrors! After that, the guys started to get really pushy and downright nasty and I started to realise more and more that I was out of my depth – I owed them more for the equipment than I could possibly afford and they could tell Clem what I had done too, not that I thought that likely. I was on the hook so I decided to just disappear and hope they wouldn’t come after me – tell me! Do you think they will, Stig?”
“I really can’t say Gervald, but I think we will get you moved somewhere safer, just in case. After all, you didn’t really take much finding, did you? Said Stig.
“I guess not!” – Gervald looked very uncomfortable again.
“Look! I’ll make a call straight away and get someone to pick you up tonight. We’ll get your camper taken in the opposite direction as a decoy, okay?”
“Okay!”
“I will arrange for someone to take a more formal statement too before you disappear into what we might call a ‘witness protection program’ although that is a bit grand for Hawaii 2 – we certainly don’t have a program as such – you will be the first and only member of it if we did!”
“Thank you Stig, I have been terrified, I won’t lie to you…”
“That’s okay Gervald – you have been foolish not to mention disloyal – but we on Hawaii 2 look after our own.”
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
“It certainly sounds like the same island I was taken to!” said Jack to Stig.
“Indeed! I guess it suggests a possible connection with your abductors but for me, it doesn’t quite add up. If Gervald’s guys were really interested in Clem’s medical drugs – and the whole Sunset production lab was just a front to get Gervald to spy on Clem, then two things occur to me. Firstly, these guys are well connected – they hobnob with the President at a party and they are able to import pharmaceutical manufactur-ing equipment easily enough – and something tells me we don’t find import records for that. Secondly, how does that connect to your train wreck? I mean, if they got the secrets of Clem’s drugs, they wouldn’t be making them here – so easier access to the planet isn’t relevant to them one way or another! Still the connection to the President needs looking at, I am surprised that he should have been in such company, though he may not have known what they were really up to, it will need careful handling…”. Stig said thoughtfully.
At that moment, Alex and Katie came back into the kitchen holding hands. Katie looked as if she had been crying but was smiling now.
“Let’s eat – I’m starving!” said Alex, who also looked, if not happy, then relieved.
“Sure” said Stig, “I must just make a few phone calls while you finish up cooking – I’m afraid we will have to get off first thing in the morning – sorry it’s been such a fly-ing visit but it’s been most productive and we will catch up properly soon!”.