On a Mission
By Nico
Part 19
The group had all taken turns, to sit on stag duty, they were cold and stiff, but knew they were much warmer under the snow than they would have been than if they were caught outside in the blizzard that had been raging for the last few hours.
Another couple of hours and it would be dark, and then at last they could get moving.
"Are we still going to get moving if this storm doesn't stop?" Thomas asked
"Yeah, we can't sit around here much longer, it's too cold, and besides as long as we stick together we should be ok. It might actually help us in the long run" Helen pulled a face as she took a mouthful of her food from a ration pack, it tasted awful.
"Surely it's not a good idea to go stumbling about in the snow though?" Dominic piped up.
"Actually, from an evasion point of view, as Helen says it will help. We have the gps, as long as we stay close together, we will be fine". Monica explained
"It conceals us for a lot longer than if the weather is clear, its not a bad thing, and it also drowns out any noise that we might make that otherwise would be heard" Barbara gave her opinion on the matter.
They finished their food and then spent the next couple of hours just going over everything again. They were about to get ready to move, when they heard a noise in the distance, it sounded like the rumble of an engine. They sat perfectly still and strained to listen.
"Shit, I hope they don't drive too close, if they drive over us the whole lot will collapse" Nikki looked above them to the snow.
After a heart stopping few minutes the rumble of engines faded into the distance and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wonder if they were driving to or from the station? I hope its away man" Denny said looking anxious.
Nikki stood up and started to dig a little hole in the roof of the bunker. She slowly stuck her head through; she reappeared a minute later and shook the snow off her head.
"I can't be sure whether they are heading to the station or not, I think they are heading away but it's not easy to tell, the snow is swirling around out there and I can't see a damn thing"
"Lets give it another hour, it will give us a chance to see if they come back" Helen looked at Nikki and she nodded.
They waited for another hour, and there was no sign of them coming back so they collected their gear and began to dig themselves out. The assembled into a group on the surface and struggled to stand up straight in the wind. They decided the best way of keeping together was to tie a rope around them all. They put goggles on to protect their eyes and they set off towards the station.
They were heading in the direction of the station when they saw headlights faintly up ahead, Helen gave the order, and they ran away from the cars and threw themselves flat in the snow. They lay face down breathing heavily, hoping they hadn't been seen.
The cars drove straight past them, without stopping, there was another sigh of relief, and they all wondered how much more of this they could stand without having a heart attack. Finally the station was a few hundred feet up ahead, and it looked completely deserted. There weren't any vehicles outside. They crept up to the building untied themselves, and got the guns ready. They shuffled around the outside of the building until they came to a door, which according to the map, Nikki had, led them down a long corridor and into the storeroom. Finding it locked, the Julies had to get their lock pick kit out and it was soon opened.
"Right break up into two groups" Helen whispered. She led Nikki, the Julies Thomas and Monica to the right, and the others went off to the left.
Lauren lay in bed, thinking about Yvonne, Karen and the others. She knew they would be in Russia by now, and very close to the station, if they hadn't already gained entry. She hoped they would be alright. Earlier on in the evening she had contacted the ministry of defense and spoke to the secretary of the man in charge of investigations.
"If it's possible I'd like to make an appointment to speak with Mr. Richards in the morning, I have some very important matters to discuss with him" Lauren had explained.
"May I ask what it's about? Only Mr. Richards is a very busy man, and I can't give you an appointment without a valid reason" The secretary gave the usual spiel.
"I can't tell you the exact nature but it's very important, I have evidence of something he will be interested in".
"I'm sorry miss, but without a valid reason...." Lauren interrupted her; she was rapidly losing her temper.
"Excuse me but I don't think I have made myself clear enough, I need to talk to Mr. Richards about something which is none of your business. You either give me an appointment with him now, or I will go to the newspapers, and believe me, that's one option you don't want to take, now do I get my bloody appointment or what?"
"Yes of course I'm so sorry, we get a lot of timewasters, please be here at 9:30am in the morning" the secretary quickly backpedaled at the mention of the newspapers.
"Thank you, I will be there" Lauren put the phone down and smiled, the difficult part was done, now all she had to do was show Richards the evidence.
Fenner sat in the living room drinking beer. The TV was on but he was in a world of his own. He sat thinking about the 60 thousand pounds he had just made, Stubberfield and Parr had only received 20 thousand pound each, he had cheated them out of their full share, and he was sitting there feeling smug about it. There was a knock at the front door; he got up to answer it.
"About time you got here, you should have been here an hour ago" he moaned.
"I'm sorry Jim; it won't happen again I swear. I'm here now anyway"
"It better hadn't happen again Shell; otherwise you know what I will do"
Fenner unzipped his trousers, and grabbed shell as she nodded her head obediently.
A figure outside was watching the house, watching and waiting. Jim Fenner would get what was coming to him soon; it was just a matter of time.
Karen led her group, down a long dark corridor and came to a halt outside the door at the end of it, they knew from the map that this was the communications room, there was bound to be people on the other side of it. They listened at the door, but it was quiet. Karen signaled for them all to step to the side, and she got a stun grenade from her belt kit, pulled the pin out and quickly opened the door and lobbed it into the room. It went off, and they stormed inside guns at the ready.
Meanwhile at the other side of the station, they had heard the bang and nearly jumped out of their skin.
"What the hell was that?" Monica exclaimed
"That would be Karen, she loves those stun grenades, she must have found the communications room already" Nikki grinned.
They waited for somebody to come running but surprisingly nobody did. Helen was starting to get a funny feeling they were alone in the building, which didn't sit well with her, it couldn't be this easy surely?
"Nik, there doesn't seem to be a soul around, is it just me or does something feel wrong here?"
"I think you're right sweetheart, I know something has been going on here for the last few weeks but now the place seems empty, I agree it feels wrong. Nikki replied with a worried look on her face.
Back on the other side of the station in the communication room the other group was having more or less the same conversation.
"Something's not right here, where is everybody? This place has been busy for weeks now and suddenly everybody disappears? Am I talking sense or a load of bollocks?" Karen said.
"Yeah something ain't right; we better keep an eye out. Right come on lets get started" Yvonne moved towards a filing cabinet.
Fenner laid back sweating and breathing harshly. He lit a cigarette and drew on it heavily as Shell got her clothing back together.
The figure was now at the back door, it was unlocked, the door opened and then closed again quietly as the figure slowly crept through the dark kitchen.
"Where the fuck do you think you're going Shell?" Jim snarled
"I'm going home, its getting late, I'm on parade tomorrow morning" Shell whined.
"You don't leave till I say you can leave you bitch!" Jim grabbed her by the wrist and twisted it, leaving her crying out in pain.
"I'd do as he says Shell, I don't want you to miss out on the fun after all" said the figure smiling, Shell and Jim just stared back in shock.
Helen and the rest of the group had now gotten to the computer room, only to find it also was completely empty. The computers glowed eerily in the dark. Nikki stepped up to one and sat down at it trying to log in, the password prompt came up and she slipped a disk into the computer so she could disable it.
"Bingo!" Nikki said as she typed in the command and the prompt was disabled.
She began looking through files, but they were all written in Russian. She didn't have any knowledge of the Russian language, and therefore was at a dead-end.
"Bollocks!"
"What's the matter babe?" Helen walked over to Nikki's side
"It's all in Russian, I had hoped it may be in English but its all in sodding foreign, and I cant read it" Nikki sighed in frustration.
"I can help out there, I can speak a bit of Russian" said Monica quietly.
"Do you Mon? I've always fancied learning a foreign language, so how did you learn?" said Thomas getting into full conversation mode.
"I once was friends with a gentleman who was half Russian, he taught me how to speak it, and then taught me how to read and write a little" said Monica smiling as she replied to Thomas.
"When you two have finished! We aren't on holiday, I need this translating now!" Nikki shook her head and rolled her eyes at Helen who though feeling on edge could see the humor in the situation and smiled.
Yvonne was rifling through the filing cabinet, there were no files just rows of compact discs that contained data of some sort, she couldn't tell what because the labels were in Russian. She decided to grab the lot and flung them into a bag she had brought with her.
"Karen, I've got a load of stuff here, don't know what it is, assuming its copies of transmissions and things then it should be able to tell our lot what they need to know"
"Good thinking love should be worth something to the intelligence lads back home at least" Karen said as she surveyed the bag full of discs.
"Oh twatting hell!" Zandra shouted.
"What's the matter Zan?" Karen rushed over towards her, stopping dead when she realized what Zandra was getting worked up over.
"Oh shit" was all Karen could manage to say.
Monica translated as Nikki needed and they were quickly making copies of the all the files they needed from the hard drive. It seemed Fenner had been very busy indeed; he had been selling them nuclear weapons secrets. The blueprints for a nuclear bomb were stored on the computer, and they were all horrified.
"That slimy bastard!" Helen exclaimed with a look of disgust on his face.
"He's done more than sell weapons and government secrets then, we didn't see any of this on his computer but it's no wonder, this is something he wouldn't want anybody finding out, bastard!" Nikki said as her anger built up.
Their earpieces crackled into life.
"Helen, for god sake get over to the communication room now!" Karen shouted down the earpiece
"Ok Karen, on our way" said Helen as she grabbed her gun and ran out of the room with everybody hot on her heels.
They burst in through the door to be met with anxious looks.
"What's going on?"
"Over there in the corner is a bloody big bomb, big enough to blow this place and us to shit" Karen said breathlessly.
"Oh Jesus" Helen was agape at the bomb
"What are we going to do now?" Shaz asked
There was silence
"Helen?" Nikki spoke
There was no answer
"Helen!" Nikki grabbed Helen by the shoulders
She was met with a blank stare, Nikki was starting to get worried, and she hoped Helen hadn't lost it.
"Helen, what are we going to do now?" she asked again
Helen seemed to suddenly come round and her thoughts cleared.
"Go back to the computer room, gather the rest of the stuff up, Thomas Monica, Shaz go with her. Everybody else, gather everything else up in here, I'm going to see if I can do something about the bomb"
"Helen are you nuts? We need to get out of here now! We need to get far away enough through the tunnel, before this thing goes off" Nikki couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Don't argue, just fucking do it!" Helen shouted
Nikki seeing it would be pointless to argue ran off to the computer room to finish off what she had to do so she could get back to Helen, and drag her the hell out of there.
The next ten minutes was a flurry of activity as they all ran around trying to get things sorted. Helen was looking at the bomb, there were wires everywhere, and the clock was ticking. She took a bag from her belt kit, and got a pair of scissors out. If they had any chance of escaping at all then she would have to try and disarm the bomb
Fenner screamed out in agony, as a boot connected with his ribs, breaking several of them. Shell screamed.
"I'd shut up if I were you shell, otherwise the neighbours might hear and we don't want them crashing the party" Sean smiled cruelly.
"Colonel lets just talk about this, please" Jim whined
"Sorry Jim, too late to talk, I don't like being screwed over. I called Khrushchev this afternoon, and he just happened to mention how much he paid you. You've gotten greedy Jim, and you are a liability I can do without".
"I'm sorry I will give the money back, I swear, please just don't hurt me, I will do anything please!" Jim rolled about on the floor in agony.
Sean took a step towards him, and took a gun from his pocket.
"I told you, it's too late. Say goodnight Jim" Sean aimed the gun at Fenner's head and fired. The bullet killed him instantly and sprayed his blood all over the floor.
Shell Dockley was now cowering on the floor in the corner, Sean turned towards her.
"As for you Shell. I'm not very happy with you, you've screwed me over too, but then I'm not the only person you've been screwing am I? AM I?" he shouted angrily
"No" Shell replied in a terrified whimper
"I didn't think so Shell. Do you know the last woman to piss me off ended up dead? Yeah, I didn't have to kill her but she is dead all the same, remember Helen? All women are the same, they seem so nice at first and then in the end they all end up screwing you, its payback time I'm afraid. Your turn to say goodnight shell" Sean pointed the gun at Shell.
"No please don't, I'm sorry, please don't kill...." She was cut off, as Sean fired the gun. Aiming it at her head, killing her instantly.
Part 20
They all assembled again, after gathering everything up, to find Helen kneeling in front of the bomb, examining the wires. There was 10 minutes left on the clock.
"Helen, we've got everything. Come on let's go there isn't much time" Nikki spoke quickly
"Nikki I can't, I've got to disarm this thing" she replied without turning around.
"Helen! Sod the bomb lets go" Yvonne shouted walking over to Helen.
"You don't understand! A bomb this size is still going to do a lot of damage to you, even if you do have a 10 minute head start" Helen whirled round to face them all.
"10 minutes is better than nothing, we should just take our chances instead of standing here in front of the fucking thing!" Nikki was panicking now
"Nik, if we have any chance of making it out of here alive, I need to try and defuse this thing. You should start making your way towards the tunnel, you haven't got long" Helen's tears started.
Nikki walked over to her, and grabbed hold of her shoulders. Now she was crying too.
"No way Helen, not a chance, I'm not going off and leaving you here, we are in this together" Nikki sobbed.
"Get going now! While you still have a chance, I'll see what I can do with this" Helen said to the rest of the group.
"No way Captain, we came here as a team. If we go, we go together. Besides how stupid do you think I am? You said the first round was on you, I'm not letting you get out of it that easily" Yvonne said with a faint smile.
Helen smiled back and then turned around to face the bomb; she desperately tried to remember the basics she had learnt, about this type of bomb. She knew cutting the wire to the detonator wouldn't do any good on its own; she had to cut all of the wires in sequence to stop the electrical current that would detonate the bomb, because she knew the bomb had a second detonator as backup on the inside. If all the wires were cut in the correct sequence then the second detonator couldn't trigger the bomb, it would be disconnected.
Everybody shuffled from foot to foot urging Helen to silently get on with it, knowing that if they said anything it would distract her. She finally decided on what wire she had to cut first and held her breath, as she cut it with shaking hands. The scissors cut through the wire, and nothing happened. Helen started to breathe again.
She repeated the process over and over again, the clock was now down to 2 minutes, and she had two wires left. She knew one wire was a dummy wire, but didn't know which.
"What's the matter, why have you stopped?" Nikki kneeling down beside Helen
"There are two wires left, one is a dummy wire, I cut one and it disconnects the bomb, I cut the other and it goes off" she said looking back at Nikki. The sweat trickled down Helen's face.
Nikki wiped the sweat from Helen's forehead.
"I trust you sweetheart, you have gotten us this far, just pick one, go with your gut instinct its going to explode in less than 2 minutes anyway, I have complete faith in you" Nikki said squeezing her arm.
Helen was shaking so badly she could hardly hold the scissors. She had a choice between red and black. She chose the red. They all closed their eyes not wanting to see Helen getting ready to cut the wire. Helen took hold of the wire, and a little voice in her head told her not to cut the red one. She quickly took hold of the black wire.
"Fuck it" she thought, and she cut the black one.
Sean had gotten out of Fenner's place and quickly dumped the gun; he knew it couldn't be traced back to him. He got back to his house, and poured himself a large whisky. He lit a cigar, and sat down to relax. Outwardly, he looked like any normal man relaxing after a hard day at work, but inwardly he was losing it quickly. The man had a few screws loose.
He finally thought all his problems were over but little did he know that they were only just beginning.
It was 9:30am and Lauren was shown into Mr. Richards's office.
"Miss Atkins, please sit down, coffee? Tea?"
"Coffee please" she smiled at him
The secretary brought two cups of coffee into the office and then she left quietly closing the door behind her.
"So Miss Atkins, what did you need to talk to me about?"
Lauren rifled in her bag and brought out the diskettes and placed them on the desk in front of her.
"This is the evidence that certain members of the army over on the Larkhall base have been selling weapons and government secrets to the Russians. My mother and the rest of her Squadron led by Captain Helen Stewart were sent on a mission to a Russian communications station, the same man who is in command of that station, general Khrushchev, has been buying these weapons and secrets". Lauren explained.
For the next twenty minutes she told him the whole story, he was horrified. He called for somebody to come to his office to inspect the disks, when he saw the proof; he called for his secretary to get his superior on the phone.
He spoke into the phone for the next 5 minutes and then arranged for Fenner, Parr and Stubberfield to be arrested. They found Stubberfield on the golf course, he protested he knew nothing of the situation and that it was a setup, he was cuffed and dragged off irregardless.
Sean was next to be arrested, he went calmly. He was convinced they couldn't pin anything on him, that he had been too clever in getting rid of the gun. Then when they explained the charges he realised it had nothing to do with Fenner's murder at all, and his face drained of all colour.
They went in search of Fenner, only to find somebody had got to him first, and blown his brains out.
Lauren left Mr. Richards office a couple of hours later, she was satisfied it had gone well, and now all she had to do was wait for word from Yvonne, she shuddered involuntarily and hoped to god they were all ok.
The shipment that Fenner had arranged would be arriving in Russia shortly; they would land on the snow and then distribute all the weapons on to the other aircraft, before being flown off to pre-arranged locations. Khrushchev sat in a draughty office just inside the old metal building; he was starting to wonder what had gone wrong because the bomb didn't explode. He had evacuated the station and set the bomb to go off, taking all the evidence of his deals with it. It needed to be destroyed because the Kremlin couldn't afford for any of this to leak out into the wrong hands.
He sighed heavily, he was getting too old for all this, and he knew his career was at an end, he had failed in his task. They would take away his title and all his achievements and carry on like he had never existed. He couldn't go back and blow the place apart, it was too late. He rubbed his hands together to keep them warm while he waited for the plane to arrive.
"Don't know whether I have told you this or not, but I'm so proud of you"
"That makes it about ten times now sweetheart" Helen gave Nikki's hand a quick squeeze
"Yeah I know but I just have to keep telling you, if it wasn't for you we would all be sitting on a cloud by now, you were really brave"
"You lot aren't wimps either, you had the chance to run and you didn't, you stuck it out with me and I'm proud of you all, couldn't have picked a better team if I tried"
They were dragging themselves along the tunnel, they were all exhausted. They had walked for eight miles without stopping and had been on the go since last night, mentally and physically. They had to stop and rest.
"We make a good team don't we?" Nikki said smiling
"The best! You are a dark horse Helen, you didn't tell us you could defuse a bomb" Yvonne looked over at Helen.
"I was never actually taught how to, I just took an interest in one of the classes and sat in on a few of them, good job I was there for the lesson on that particular bomb though wasn't it" she said shaking her head when she thought just how close they had come to being blown to pieces.
"Why didn't you cut the red wire? You were going to what made you change your mind?" Karen asked
"I dunno, a little voice in my head told me not to, so I picked up the black wire instead and I'm glad I did, because none of us would be sitting here now"
They decided to eat and have something to drink before moving on. An hour later they were ready to go, and made good time in getting to the ventilation shaft. Nikki went first and slowly climbed up the ladder, trying not to make a noise. She found herself in a cave, they were behind a bend that led outside and therefore were invisible to anybody who might be lurking about.
They all climbed out, and dropped their bags on the floor glad to get rid of the weight for a while. Nikki told Babs and Monica to follow her and they made their way to the entrance of the cave. They saw a flurry of activity, as a plane became visible on the horizon.
"Just our luck, we end up in the middle of the tourist season" Barbara said quietly.
"What's the best thing to do now?" Nikki asked the two women
"My guess would be to sit it out, just observe this lot for a while, see what they do, if it goes quiet, we can make our move and try and grab one of the planes then". Monica said
"Yes, that's basically our only option, we need to be patient" Monica said before heading off back into the cave.
"Realistically though Nikki, I think we are going to have a fight on our hands, they wouldn't leave a place like this totally unguarded" Barbara had a sinking feeling about it.
"That's what we thought about the station though Babs"
"That was different, they obviously got out of there in a hurry, and we saw them leave remember? I don't think that bomb was meant for us, I think it was meant to destroy the place, getting rid of all the evidence which we are now in possession of"
"So we hang on till its dark then? And fight our way out if we have to?"
"That's about the only option we have" Barbara replied before she and Nikki went back to join the others.
They all decided to try and get their heads down for a few hours since they wouldn't be making a move until that night, Helen offered to take the first stag duty since she still was on an adrenaline high and knew she wouldn't be able to sleep; Nikki didn't hesitate in keeping her company.
The cave was quiet apart from the odd occasional snore. Nikki and Helen talked quietly.
"God I could murder a drink"
"Me too, watching the love of my life messing about with explosives is thirsty work" Nikki put her arm around Helen's shoulders and pulled her close.
"It's not going to be easy getting a plane is it?"
"No, Babs and Monica think we are going to have a job getting in and out of there without encountering anyone, but we still have all our ammunition so it shouldn't be a problem"
"If we split up into two groups then we won't present such a big target, if there is anyone in there then we can come at them from either side"
"That would work, personally though I would rather we didn't encounter anyone but the chances of that are slim" Nikki said sighing.
"Hey, don't worry this time tomorrow we will be well out of here, and after that I'm done with the army, can't take anymore of this shit"
"Yeah I know what you mean; I think it's about time we told her majesty, that we quit"
"I wonder who is else is thinking the same thing?" Helen said as she looked at the sleeping forms of the rest of the Squadron.
"After this? I reckon they probably all are"
They changed over stag duty every two hours throughout the day, and had periodically kept an eye on the aircraft hanger; they noticed the planes being loaded up and them taking off at steady intervals. A couple of hours before dark, it all went quiet, and the place looked empty.
Thomas and Dominic knew it was time to get moving, they nudged everybody else awake, and they got ready to go. Barbara and Monica led the way, as they were experts in this sort of thing, they kept a watchful eye over the building and slowly made their way forwards. They eventually got to the building and peered inside, there were half a dozen planes to choose from but no helicopters.
"Shit! No twatting helicopters, means I got to taxi over all this snow" Zandra moaned.
"It's better than fuck all Zan! Stop moaning" Lucy whispered.
They crept into the hanger and then all hell broke loose. The bullets started ricocheting off the aircraft; they split up and threw themselves on the floor. They were being fired at from a gantry above. They heard shouting as Russian soldiers came running in, they cocked and fired their weapons catching the first few in a hail of bullets that dropped them.
They entered into a massive firefight. Thomas screamed out in pain as he was hit in the thigh from a bullet that ricocheted off the concrete floor of the hanger. Dominic dragged him away to safety behind a wheel of a plane.
Karen shot across to see if he was ok, and fired a shot off at a Russian that came running out of a doorway, striking him in the chest, he was dead before he hit the floor.
"Stoppage!" Nikki screamed desperately trying to unarm her gun while the others gave her covering fire. She had just managed to get her gun to work again when a bullet struck her in the shoulder breaking her collarbone.
"Nikki! Are you ok?" Helen was frantic
"I'm ok, just keep firing at the bastards" Nikki said through teeth that were clenched with pain. She then blacked out.
The firefight continued, Helen signaled for Zandra to try and get to a plane, while they gave her covering fire, she dragged Lucy with her and they managed to get into the cockpit of the nearest plane, she flipped on the magnetos and tried to get the plane to start, it refused.
"Twatting planes are all spastics!" she screamed, she tried again and the engines finally throbbed into life.
The gunfire suddenly stopped, they all looked cautiously around and there didn't seem to be anymore Russians.
"Dom, get Thomas on the plane, Yvonne give me a hand with Nikki, everybody on the plane hurry!" Helen gave the order.
Just as they rounded the plane, a Russian soldier jumped up from behind an oil drum and shot at Helen. She shouted in pain as a bullet caught her in the arm, Karen had spotted him and shot him but wasn't fast enough to stop him shooting Helen.
"Get Nikki on the plane, quickly don't worry about me I'm fine" Helen said breathlessly as she clamped her hand down on her upper arm to stem the blood flow.
Karen and Yvonne did as they were told and everybody finally got onto the plane. Zandra moved the plane forward and maneuvered it so that they would have room to taxi.
They were finally getting up some speed when they heard a pinging on the fuselage, Lucy looked out and saw a couple of soldiers shooting at them, but she was sure they hadn't done any damage, Zandra smoothly eased the controls back and they were airborne at last.
"Thank god for that, what a bloody nightmare" Barbara exclaimed
The first aid kits were out and Nikki, Helen and Thomas were being attended to. Nikki had become conscious again, and was thankful for the painkillers Yvonne had given her. A while later they were all more comfortable but they still needed to get to a hospital. Lucy had come into the cabin and told them they were heading for Germany, and going to land at the nearest British base.
Nikki sat up a little straighter and grimaced.
"We made it!" she grinned over at Helen
Helen was lost for words, she couldn't believe it, and she just grinned at Nikki with a stupid grin.
"Hey man, the first drink is on Captain Stewart but the second one is definitely on me!" deny smiled
"If that's what it takes to get you to buy a drink Denny, I'll have to get shot more often" Thomas said laughing.
"Fancy a kebab sweetheart?" said Nikki grinning wickedly in Helen's direction "only the last one looked so sexy on you!"
"Yeah yeah, funny arse. Never going to live that one down am I?" Helen said giggling
Sean now sat in his cell, feeling sick to his stomach. They had questioned him about Fenner and he confessed to Fenner and Dockley's murder. They were going to lock him up and throw away the key; he wished he had never been born.
Stubberfield on the other hand was feeling unperturbed about the whole thing; he had friends in high places and was convinced he was going to get off. Little did he know how wrong he was.
After a few phone calls to his friends, he knew he was in trouble. They could forgive most things but being a traitor wasn't one of them, they all refused his pleas for help and Stubberfield knew he was on his own.
"Oh shit!" Zandra was frantically tapping the fuel gauge in the hopes it was on the blink. She watched it for another couple of minutes and then was resigned to the fact that they were slowly losing fuel.
"Should I tell the others what's going on?" Lucy was nervous, they were still flying over Russia and it was getting more populated as the miles went on.
"Yeah tell them we are slowly losing fuel, a bullet must have hit the fuel tanks, we have about another hour left at the most before we have to land" Zandra couldn't believe they had gotten this far only to dropped in the shit again.
There was silence all round, as everybody let the news sink in. They knew the plane was going to go down hard.The silence continued until Zandra told them all to tighten their seat belts. The aircraft was running on fumes, and they were about to start their descent. The plane angled down and the engines protested loudly until one of them cut out, then the other one coughed and spluttered then it also cut out. The only sound was of the wind rushing past loudly at a few hundred miles an hour outside the plane.
Zandra desperately tried to slow the plane down, and glide but the ground was coming up very quickly and before they knew what happened, the plane hit and rolled over a few times before coming to rest in a twisted heap of metal.
Part 21
Lauren Atkins was pacing up and down waiting for the phone to ring. She knew she should have heard from Yvonne by now and was frantic in case they hadn't made it. She waited another few hours and then decided to contact the only person she knew that might be able to help.
"Dad, its Lauren"
"Ello love! What can I do for you?"
"Mum hasn't gotten in contact dad and I don't know what to do, she should have called by now, and I'm worried she didn't make it" Lauren tried to hold back the tears.
"Right give me all the details love, and then we can figure something out"
Charlie Atkins was a major in a Special Forces squadron, he had been married to Yvonne briefly but it hadn't worked out and it was only a few years later that he discovered it was because Yvonne was gay. They had stayed friends, he was on friendly terms with Karen and he had always been around while Lauren grew up. He knew Yvonne would do anything for him, and the feeling was mutual.
"Ok, I will go and check a few things out love, don't worry, I will find out where she is just try and relax"
"Thanks dad, keep me updated wont you"
"Of course love, I better go and get started on this straight away"
"Bye Dad"
"Bye Sweetheart"
Yvonne slowly rolled onto her side and sat up, her head was thumping. She discovered why when she felt the congealing blood on her forehead. She looked across the twisted fuselage of the plane and saw the rest of the Squadron in various positions, and all looked unconscious. She undid her seat belt and leaned over to Karen and gently shook her. Karen stirred and slowly sat up.
"Bloody hell, my head" Karen rubbed her head as if to try and clear the fogginess away.
"Are you ok love? We better check on the others"
"Yeah I'm fine, you check on the cockpit and I'll check out everyone here" Karen gingerly stood up and climbed over bits of twisted metal to get to the others.
She came across Dom and Thomas who were still breathing, and she let out a sigh of relief, which she repeated each time she checked somebody's pulse. She made it to the back of the plane to check on Nikki and Helen and was also relieved when she felt a pulse from both of them.
Yvonne emerged from the cockpit.
"Both Zan and Lucy are fine; they are coming round, is everybody alright?" Yvonne was desperately worried about the rest of her friends.
"They all have strong pulses, must just have been knocked out, they should start coming round soon".
Yvonne breathed a sigh of relief. They all slowly came round one by one and sat up.
"Nikki sweetheart, are you hurt?" Helen painfully shuffled across to Nikki.
"I'm fine babe, what about you?" Nikki winced as she moved her legs
"I'm ok, just a little bruised like everybody else"
Zandra and Lucy stumbled through from the cockpit and joined the rest of the company.
"Hey Zan, that's the last time I fly Plackett Airways! No movie, no food, and no bastard runway!" Nikki shouted up the plane with a giggle.
"Oi watch it Wade, I'll have you know that my safety record is second to none" Zandra grinned back.
"Certainly is, I've flown with you once and you managed to crash 100% percent of the time!" Nikki bantered back.
"You twat Nikki! At least on my airline there isn't any bitching about where you sit!"
"That's bollocks Zan! You tried to change the seating arrangements by ripping them out of the bloody fuselage!" Helen said as she giggled along with everybody else.
"Zandra are those radios still working?" Karen asked stepping over the fuselage to stand in front of Zandra.
"They should be, the battery should have a bit of life left in it and the radios don't look too bashed up, oi Shaz get your arse over 'ere and try these radios"
Shaz jumped up and climbed into the cockpit. She changed frequencies and lifted the headset and put it on.
"Nah they're buggered" Shaz twiddled but to no avail, the radios were fried.
Since the radios didn't work Shaz couldn't tune into a local frequency to call for help. At least that meant they wouldn't have to take their chances with the Russians. The only option left open to them was to get the comms equipment out and try and raise somebody back in the UK.
"You sure this is safe? Supposing Fenner finds out and sends somebody to finish the job off?" Thomas said looking towards Nikki.
"Yeah, Lauren will have tipped off the MoD by now, and Fenner should be sitting in a cell, Shaz go ahead radio in" Nikki shifted position slightly to get more comfortable.
"Bravo sierra 3, this is alpha Squadron, do you read me over?"
"They are gonna love us man, they get told that we all froze to death and Shaz here is haunting the bloody airwaves!" Denny giggled.
"This is bravo sierra 3; please repeat your call sign, over"
"Bravo sierra 3, this is alpha squadron we request assistance over"
"Alpha Squadron, I thought that's what you said! You lot are supposed to be dead over" the radio operator broke with protocol and seemed happy to have a friendly conversation.
"Yeah sorry! Top secret and all that, do me a favour get in touch with somebody and give them these co-ordinates over" Shaz rattled off the co-ordinates for their position.
"Roger that alpha company, hold tight and we will get back to you, over and out"
"Roger, over and out"
They waited for another half an hour hoping that they would get some kind of assistance but the radio stayed silent. Their stomachs rumbled loudly and they got out the remaining bit of food they had left, they ate in silence as they continued to worry that they were being ignored. The radio suddenly crackled into life and Shaz jumped to answer it.
"Come in alpha Squadron, do you read me over?"
"This is alpha Squadron, roger that go ahead over" Shaz felt a bit more relieved they now had contact.
"Sit tight alpha Squadron, help will be with you soon. Is there any immediate threat over"
"No it seems fairly quiet; we are in a deserted field. What is your e.t.a? Over"
"E.t.a is 08:42 hours, hold your position help is on its way, over and out".
"Roger that over and out" Shaz ended the transmission but left the radio on.
Lauren jumped as the telephone rang, she shot up to answer it, and it was Charlie.
"Good news sweetheart, your mum and Karen are fine. The rest of the squadron is ok too, they gave their position and they are sending a team out there even as we speak to pick them up.
"Oh dad! Thanks I'm so relieved to know they are ok, when will they be back?"
"Not for a little while, they will be taking them to a base in Germany to get them checked over and let them rest for a little bit then they will fly them back home"
"That's probably best; I bet they've been through a lot".
"Yes they probably have sweetheart, I will let you know when I hear anything else, and I promise I will ring you straight away the minute I know anything"
"Ok dad and thanks again"
"No problem love, see you soon"
"Bye dad, see you soon"
A Squadron were helped from the helicopter and into waiting ambulances on the tarmac at a British airbase in Germany. They were driven to the hospital on the base and were checked over, and had their injuries treated. They kept Nikki, Helen and Thomas in for observation due to the gunshot wounds, Yvonne was also kept in for observation due to the gash on her head.
The rest of the group was given quarters to sleep in, while Nikki, Helen, Yvonne and Thomas were placed in the same ward in adjacent beds. The nurse came in to check on them periodically, and finding Helen in bed with Nikki, ordered her out of it and in to her own bed and told her to rest. They both giggled and as soon as the nurse had disappeared Helen had snuck back into Nikki's bed.
The nurse reappeared a few moments later and again ordered Helen back to bed like a naughty schoolchild. She obeyed, but as soon as the nurse left she again jumped back into bed with Nikki. The nurse once again returned a few minutes later.
"What did I tell you two? I said into bed and rest, its not musical beds you know" the nurse said exasperated with the pair of them.
"Oi Florence Nightingale, leave them alone will you? We're all knackered and need some kip, and you shouting about who is in what bed strangely enough seems to be keeping us awake. Give them a break, they just want to cuddle down together, so do you mind?" Yvonne said getting pissed off at the nurse who wouldn't leave them alone
"Oh do what you want, if the doctor complains then I tried my best" the nurse threw up her hands and flounced out.
"Thank god for that, I thought she was never gonna shut her yap!" Yvonne sighed in contentment and rolled over in bed.
Helen sighed and cuddled further down in to the bed with Nikki; Nikki turned slightly and pulled Helen closer.
"I can't believe it's finally over, the past few days have been a nightmare" Helen whispered not wanting to wake Thomas and Yvonne up.
"Tell me about it, parachuting, massive bombs, getting shot and to top it all off, a bloody plane crash"
"Yeah been plenty going on hasn't there, never a dull moment with this Squadron" Helen quietly giggled from the relief of it all.
"Proves something though, proves that you and I are meant to be together if we survived all that" Nikki looked down at Helen with a smile.
"I'd have to agree with that although deep down I already knew that, I knew that the first moment I set eyes on you" Helen said as she kissed Nikki on the cheek.
"Hmmm me too, Helen I want to ask you something"
"What?"
"Will you marry me?" Nikki's heart thudded hoping Helen would say yes
"Yes, in a heartbeat" Helen reached up to Nikki for a kiss, and Nikki kissed her back leaving Helen in no doubt as to how she felt.
A few days later, Lauren stood on the tarmac with Charlie outside a hangar on little wood airbase, waiting for A Squadron's plane to land. She had gotten a phone call from Yvonne telling her that they were all coming home, and she waited patiently for them to arrive, she felt the excitement building as it got closer to their time of arrival. The information that they had gathered had been sent to intelligence who were now sifting their way through it. The government was horrified to learn that the Russians had the blueprints for a super nuclear bomb and were now desperately trying to find out whether they had gotten around to building one.
The plane came into view as it lined up on final. Nikki sat holding onto Helen's hand smiling. They both never thought they would see England again. There was a big cheer as they bumped down onto the runway.
"Oi Zandra! This is what they call a bloody runway mate" Nikki shouted down the plane to Zandra trying to stifle a giggle.
"Yeah very funny, I know what a twatting runway looks like; I've been on enough of them you spastic!" Zandra shouted back up the plane to Nikki
"Pity you couldn't sodding well find one the last time you were on a plane!" Yvonne called over to her
"Laugh all you want, but next time you'll all be laughing on the wrong side of your face when you see how good I am at landing. Better than that twat up front, he had us all over the show just then!"
"Next time? No sodding way am I ever getting on another plane with you Plackett, no chance!" Yvonne smirked.
Soon they taxied to a stop, the pilots opened the door, and they all got off the plane. There were various bits of plaster and bandages stuck to them all, and Thomas was on crutches. Nikki and Helen both had their arms in a sling. They greeted Lauren and Charlie, and were then whisked away back to Larkhall army base to be debriefed. After debriefing, they were all ushered into the new field marshals office.
"Good to see you all, I'm field Marshall Forbes. I'm taking over from Stubberfield, who you will be pleased to know is now in jail; the same goes for colonel Parr. Unfortunately by the time we went to arrest sergeant Fenner, he was already dead. Colonel Parr confessed to his murder and also the murder of a Michelle Dockley".
The room fell silent, they were all totally shocked. They couldn't believe it. Helen in particular was shocked to think that her ex was a murderer. She mentally shook herself, and carried on listening to Forbes. Nikki squeezed her hand gently to let her know she understood, and felt a squeeze back in return.
"We have made much sense of the intelligence material you brought back and it has been invaluable in our dealings with the Russian government. We cannot thank you enough for risking your lives in order to do so, even though the circumstances surrounding your mission weren't entirely as they should have been. Unfortunately this has to be kept hush hush and its up to me to formally congratulate you on a job well done, but that's as much as I'm able to do, had it been a normal operation you would have received medals for your bravery but as it is I'm afraid you will receive nothing, and nobody must know of this"
"Bloody typical" Yvonne shook her head in disgust
"I do apologise, out of my hands I'm afraid" Forbes gave a weak smile; they knew he couldn't care less.
"Yeah we get it, we risk our lives and nobody gives a toss, great stuff" Nikki gave Forbes a nasty look.
"So, Captain Stewart its straight back to work I assume then?" Forbes stood with his hands behind his back rocking back and forth on his heels.
"Actually no, its not. I'm here to tell you that we quit".
"What?" Forbes wasn't quite grasping the situation.
"I said, we all quit sir, we have no interest in being in the army anymore, most of us were disillusioned before now, and what you have said today has only served to make us more determined. We all want out of here within a week".
Helen stood up and the rest of the group followed suit. They gave a halfhearted salute and left the room without waiting to be dismissed.
Part 22
3 months later
Nikki and Helen sat on a sun drenched beach in the Caribbean. They lay back on towels in the sand holding hands. Their wedding rings glinted in the sunlight. Nikki and Helen had married a few days after their meeting with Forbes, neither of them saw the point in waiting so they hunted out the chaplain who after a little bit of persuading finally agreed to marry them. It was the last time any of them wore full army uniform; even Scooby was dressed for the occasion with a little bowtie they attached to his collar. They pushed the boat out with a big party in the warehouse that night, and invited everybody they could think of.
They all moved off the base and into houses within 5 minutes walking distance from each other, and Nikki and Helen spent so much time decorating and furnishing the house that they had little time to go on a honeymoon, but when things finally settled down a bit, they booked a holiday and flew off.
Dominic and Thomas laughed as they chased one another up the beach. Yvonne sat up and perched her sunglasses on top of her head while shaking her head at them. She looked over at Nikki and Helen.
"Would you believe those two? Like a couple of bleedin' teenage girls" she said laughing.
"Don't know where they get the energy from, I'm knackered" Nikki said grinning suggestively at Helen.
"It is our honeymoon sweetheart, you can't expect to sleep all night" Helen said as she ran her hand down Nikki's stomach, pleased at watching Nikki's stomach muscles twitch in response.
"Mmmmm fancy going back to the hotel room?" Nikki asked as she stroked Helen's knee
Before Helen had chance to reply, Shaz and Denny came running up.
"Come on you two, get up; we've rented some jet skis. Stop lazing about and come and have a go man!" Denny pulled Helen up, while Shaz pulled Nikki up.
They then ran off towards the water and the jet skis, with Nikki and Helen following.
"Remind me again why we decided to bring this lot on our sodding honeymoon?" Nikki said with annoyance
"I don't know sweetheart, having trouble remembering myself now" Helen said with a trace of amusement.
"Right give it an hour or so, and then we can sneak off to our room, I want to be alone with you" Nikki whispered.
"Mmmmm just try and stop me babe" Helen said as she took hold of Nikki's hand.
They had a go on the Jet Ski's for a while and thoroughly enjoyed themselves but in the end managed to sneak away. They got into their hotel room and took a quick shower, and then lay down on the bed.
Nikki reached over for Helen and began to kiss her, Helen moved over so that she was lying on top of Nikki, things were just starting to get to the breathless part when they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Nikki groaned into the pillow and then shouted.
"WHAT? That better hadn't be you Denny!" Nikki's face was a picture and Helen tried not to giggle.
"Yeah man sorry! We're all going to a club, you two fancy it?"
"NO! We don't, we are having a quiet night in so bugger off" Nikki growled, they heard Denny laughing on the other side of the door.
"Alright man, keep your hair on I get the message"
Nikki turned back to Helen and kissed her softly.
"Now where were we sweetheart?" Nikki's voice was husky with passion
Helen took her hand and guided it down past her bellybutton.
Helen replied in her sexiest voice "Mmmm right about there"
The End