Submersion (21 page)

‘Others might be tempted by access to all this,’ I said, voicing my thoughts, before taking another sip.

‘It would take more than a pint of cider – no matter how desirable – and a few bright lights to put me off course,’ Jessie responded, just so there was no doubt. He sat down, just across the table from me. ‘He knows we’re here, so this is just to pass the time. And it’s not a sweetener, either. I paid with my own money.’

‘In that case, I won’t waste it then.’

We were about two-thirds through our pints, when a man dressed in what was clearly the uniform at
Breakers
– black t-shirt, black slacks and black pumps – approached the table and spoke quietly in Jessie’s ear.

‘He’s on the third floor,’ Jessie said, standing, indicating with a nod that I should bring my drink along. ‘He’s happy to see us both.’

The third floor was occupied, like the second, with games tables. There was a small bar as well, with the trademark neon signage. The room was pretty much empty apart from around one pool table, where a match was going on. And that’s where we saw Monty. Leaning against the table behind, watching a game, surrounded by a mix of terrified sycophants and paid heavies.

From the minute you clapped eyes on Monty Harrison, you could see why he had got where he had. He was big in character, big in swagger and nerve, big in voice and a big physical presence too. Monty was huge man, with swept back, short black hair and a thick beard to match, and big arms that looked as if they would hurt you, rather than muscles for show. This night, his loud, bellowing laugh drew you in as much as his bright orange, florid shirt, which accentuated his equally large gut. In fact, his presence was almost comical. Almost. There was an underlying sense of menace – something in every word spoken, every look thrown. And, no matter how far ahead you thought you were, Monty was always ahead of you, by several steps.

Noticing our appearance, Monty signaled us over.

‘So tell me how the job is going,’ he insisted, once the obligatory handshakes were done with. ‘Desmond tells me you’ve salvaged some things of great value.’

Desmond was Jessie’s usual contact on Monty’s team, the guy he signed the goods over to, and from whom he collected payment. All this I discovered during a crash course on how to conduct business with our shady associate on the way to the club that night.

As Monty spoke, he held our eyes, as if his look alone was drilling deeper. And his choice of words –
salvaged some things of great value
– left me no less suspicious that he knew exactly what had triggered our impromptu visit.

‘We have, it’s been good business for us both,’ Jessie confirmed, the clack of balls smacking into each other in the background. The game came to an end and the players placed their cues across the green felt of the table and walked away. ‘But today we found something unexpected, Monty. Something I couldn’t remove from the site and something we decided couldn’t wait another day.’

‘We?’ Monty echoed, a thread of amusement in his voice, as if the
we
was comical, represented something different altogether. Seeing no reflection of this amusement in our faces, he signaled for the remainder of his companions to leave. Then it was just us, Monty and one of his henchmen, guarding the exit. ‘Go on.’ His tone was shed of any hint of humour.

‘We found a mass grave of dogs, at the very rear of the property, under rotten floorboards. But these weren’t necessarily old graves, Monty. The bodies were still intact.’

Monty pondered Jessie’s words for a minute or so.

‘But that place was old, abandoned, right?’ he questioned, those drilling eyes penetrating into Jessie’s head again. ‘You confirmed that, right, when you did the original recky for me?’

I wondered where this was going. The words confirmed something I hadn’t realised: that Jessie had been the original source of this deal. He had approached Monty, not the other way round.

‘I’d been watching it for a long time, Monty. Had never seen anyone so much as approach it. It’s one of several abandoned government buildings out that way. No one bothers with them. And the external state of the place confirmed without any doubt that no one had put so much as a foot in that place in years.’

Jessie’s voice remained serious throughout and measured. I could tell he was watching his words – they were rounded, carefully pronounced and he had slowed down the pace, so as not to betray his passion with speed.

‘How do you think they got there?’ Monty asked next.

The question was for Jessie, but the big man’s eyes moved to me. As he listened to Jessie’s reply, he was monitoring my response. And it unnerved me, I have to admit. Much as I was fearless in the face of many things – had little choice about that matter in the past – being more or less alone with this calm yet brutal man in the long echo of his dimly lit games room, burning under his silent relentless glare, was beginning to worry me. In a fight, there was at least the certainty of violence; in a chase, the chance you might outrun your enemy. Here, certainty was lacking and its opposite was an invisible fog, choking up the room.

‘I don’t think someone put them there recently, if that’s what you mean, Monty,’ Jessie replied.

‘Is that what you think
I
think?’ The tone was suddenly sharper, the eyes moving back to Jessie.

‘Monty, I have no idea what to think, which is why I’m bringing this to you.’ Jessie had shaped his words into a compliment, without overtly flattering him. A brief smile quivered at Monty’s lips – a motion we were not meant to see – suggesting he approved of Jessie’s approach. ‘The building was practically sealed in undisturbed dust and cobwebs, and yet, underneath it all, we found fresh bodies of creatures supposedly extinct. On government property.’ The three word annex was to signal where Jessie was assuming guilt.

‘Recently dead?’ Monty asked, eyes back on me, but still expecting Jessie to respond. I kept my silence – my pal was evidently in control.

‘We’d have to examine them.’

‘We?’ Again, a flicker of amusement in those cold, penetrating eyes.

‘We didn’t look closely enough, Monty. We checked as much as we felt was safe, adding
up the bodies, and then covered up as best as we could. They did smell bad, though, but not of decay, and nothing about the look of those pale bodies suggested decomposition either.’

Monty mulled over these words for a moment or two, before speaking again.

‘So, Jessie my friend, you find this old building full of treasures, talk me into sponsoring your venture, make a few bucks along the way, aiding and abetting my involvement with stealing from the government, realise you haven’t quite done your homework – whatever you say, it clearly wasn’t quite as abandoned as your analysis suggested – and now, without a clue as to what to do next, but with full awareness that you are over your head in some very dark brown stuff, you come straight to me, doubtless bringing the unbearable stench of your trail with you, expecting me to have the answers.’

A pause this time from Jessie. All the while, throughout every word of Monty Harrison’s speech, his eyes remained on me. Working me out, calculating my fear, my nerve, my defences, my strength and physical ability.

‘That’s exactly what I’m doing, Monty.’

Jessie’s answer activated a sudden, aggressive response I wasn’t expecting. Monty leapt forward in one swift, agile movement I wouldn’t have anticipated from such a big figure. Within seconds, he had Jessie on the pool table behind us, his left hand squeezing Jessie at the throat, the bone of his elbow digging into his ribs, the fat of his large gut pressing against him. Monty’s strength surprised me as much as his speed: Jessie couldn’t move.

‘So you thought you’d just land your ssshit on good on Uncle Monty, did you? Thought you’d bring all your ccrrap back to me to sssift through? You buggerrrup and you just come knocking at good old Monty’s door?’

Monty’s face flushed purple, veins pulsing on his neck and temples. Spit bubbled at his lips, spraying Jessie’s face as he spat out his words. All sense of calm was gone from Monty, but it remained elsewhere in the room. His bodyguard remained by the door, unflinching and mute. Jessie was also strangely composed. His eyes turned to mine: don’t make a move, don’t say a word, they silently instructed; just wait.

‘Ever think I might just get sssick of weak little ssshits like you? Coming to ssscavenge off my sssuccess, coming to sssteal a piece of good old Monty’s glory! You mmmess up and it’s Uncle Monty who has to sssort it all out! You ssstupid fffucking idiotsss!’

And as quickly as the fury had taken hold, it dissipated. After letting Jessie go, Monty appeared instantly calm and picked at his clothes, as if the interaction had left him with loose threads about himself.

Jessie remained in position on the pool table a few moments longer, as if our host still held him in place. Then he pulled himself up and stood beside me again.

‘Did you come in that speed boat of yours?’ Monty asked and I sensed that we were getting a third version of Monty Harrison. We were also going to get one of the things we had come for: help.

‘Moored just outside.’

‘Let’s get going then,’ the big man added, heading for the exit, where the door was opened for him. ‘It’s best you show me exactly what you’ve found.’

And just like that – we were off. It was like the previous minutes, the threat of violence, hadn’t occurred at all.

Monty followed on in a speedboat of his own, with three of his employees on board, whilst Jessie and I led the way. We moved at a slow, steady pace and kept an eye out all the way for signs of police patrolling. The last thing we needed was to be questioned about our late night activities. Granted, we had Monty following up at the rear and he did at least appear to have certain arrangements with the authorities. But still, this was an operation that required as little attention drawn to it as possible.

It was early hours when we reached the old laboratory and, despite the dark and my nerves about what was up ahead for Jessie and me – Monty’s schizophrenic-like snap at the bar had amplified my anxiety levels – I took in the details of the journey I had once been blind to.

With our starting point further north than Jessie’s house, we took a river road that avoided cutting back from the train graveyard and its surrounding landscape of debris. Instead, we sailed around its outskirts, steering away from the residential areas where our friends and family were no doubt sleeping. I prayed that Agnes
was
sleeping, but I had my doubts.

We met up with our usual route at the crossroads at the top of Jessie’s road, turning left from the direction we came and joining the road lined with an endless succession of fir trees, where handcuffs and a blindfold had been traditionally applied for the last three months. The avenue of trees continued without stopping and, the further we rode out, the denser they appeared. The additional impact of nightfall only added to the sense of isolation and inhabitation, as we sailed further and further out.

‘It’s just forest,’ I said to Jessie, raising my voice above the noise of the boat’s engine and exaggerating my mouth movements, in case he needed to lip read.

‘Yes,’ Jessie agreed, as we approached a natural crossroads in the
intense, increasingly claustrophobic river jungle. ‘The perfect location to conduct secret government experiments.’ Some part of my anxiety must have been evident in my face, as he eyed me curiously for a second and then asked: ‘Preferred it with the blindfold on?’

I laughed dryly, but considered he might have had a point.

At the crossroads, we took the road that curved right and were sucked deeper into the suffocating uniformity of the damp, evergreen darkness. All the while, Monty and his men followed our trail, the headlights on their boat twinkling at our rear, an indication their distance was acutely calculated: close enough not to lose us, distant enough to claim no association, should the need arise.

I have no idea how late it was when we finally arrived, but the strength of the night sky had not weakened, and the asphyxiating effect of the environment had not lessened.

‘You okay?’ Jessie asked, as he stalled the engine.

‘Fine,’ I said, not exactly reassuring him, but it was a sign that indicated, whatever my frame of mind, I would cope. I would not let him down.

Minutes later, as Jessie moored the boat, securing it to the trunk of a thick, sturdy tree just off the road, Monty’s boat hummed alongside us and the next step in our tense adventure commenced.

In the dark, it was harder to navigate our way across the marshy path that led us from our boats to the entrance of the old government building. We had the limited beams from two torches to aid us and help us avoid stumbling on the trip-wire roots of the surrounding trees that had made their way through the earth’s surface, like a natural deterrent to intruders. The building itself wasn’t flooded, as it was built on stilts and had a set of steps at the front leading to its main doors. All of the government buildings I had ever encountered were build this way, even though the majority were old, pre-flood in their construction, but future-proofed, all the same. A cynical view would suggest they knew what was coming, had prepared in advance. But maybe the architects just had a penchant for elevation?

This particular building had suffered flooding at some point, however. The rotting floorboards were a clear indication of that. And, as we ascended the short run of steps in the dark that night with Monty, we were reminded of the extent of that decay when the big man himself felt the wooden treads crumble beneath him.

‘Jesus!’ he cried out, as his two henchmen reached out to grab him, pulling him up into the building, one of them dropping his flash-torch and losing it in the marshy jaws of the surrounding swamp.

‘Okay boss?’ one asked and I saw a shadow nod from Monty.

Inside, with just the light from one remaining torch, held by Jessie, we moved gingerly towards the room at the back where we had discovered the bodies earlier that day. As the boards continued to creak beneath us, I sensed a nervousness from Monty and just hoped that this emotion didn’t trigger any further unexpected behaviour from him. This operation required calm and control and clear heads; the decisions we made and the actions we took would have consequences, and we needed to ensure they were the most favourable.

‘In here,’ Jessie instructed, as we reached the room at the back of the building. ‘Careful, the floor’s worse in here,’ he added, and all five of us moved into the room inch by inch, darkness and decay fuelling us all with nauseous caution.

But once inside, the swirl of Jessie’s flashlight around the room revealed a different scene altogether than the one we were expecting. In place of the spongy, sodden flooring we found sturdy, dry boards beneath their feet. They looked aged and dirty, like the rest of the abandoned laboratory. Monty stamped his feet heavily on the floor, as if he didn’t quite believe it, expecting it to give beneath him.

‘Rip them up!’ he hissed through his protective mask, which we all kept on in spite of the fact we were indoors, taking no chances at all for once. ‘Rip them up!’

His two men appeared with crowbars and were quickly splitting the floorboards, as they cracked the floor open. Yet, there was nothing in the chasm below. Moving us towards the room’s exit, they broke nearly every board apart, in a hopeless search that revealed not a single body. Snatching Jessie’s lone torch in frustration, Monty swished it quickly across the foundation’s open wound, slowing the movement eventually, taking in the detail. But there was nothing to be seen. No bodies, no evidence at all.

He turned and spat viciously in Jessie’s direction.

‘What are you playing at boy? Why did you bring me here? There’s nothing here! NOTHING!’

‘I don’t understand,’ Jessie muttered, and I broke in with: ‘The place was packed with them, Monty. Packed in tight. Over a hundred.’

The man glared at me, a glare distorted as steam blurred the visor on his face mask. In that moment, we both recognised that this was the first time that I had addressed him.

‘
Monty,
eh?’ he questioned after a second or so, as if addressing him by his first name was the worst of crimes.

With no clear idea how to handle this man, I decided to go with my instincts.

‘Yes,
Monty,
’ I stressed, innocently enough, suggesting I hadn’t heard the objection in his tone. ‘Maybe even two hundred - or more. That’s why we came to see you immediately. It was your commission after all. So, we aren’t playing at anything, Monty, or Mr Harrison, if you prefer.’

There was a pause before he laughed – a pause long enough to make me wonder if my bold gamble had failed to pay dividends. Jessie threw me a daggered glare that suggested my move was lethal, suicidal. But when the laugh came, it was hearty and genuine, a bellyful.

‘Not used to people being that unafraid!’ he chortled and actually slapped me on the back. ‘Fearless are we?’

I shrugged. ‘I felt like I had nothing to lose, Monty. Assuming you don’t mind me calling you-.’

‘Call me Monty. Tristan, dear lad, you still have everything to lose. We all do. We’re playing a dangerous game here, tonight. And someone is clearly one step ahead. Eh, Jessie?’

Jessie still had a scowl on his face. No longer cross with me for taking chances with Monty, he now seemed fractious that I’d been successful.

‘Something is definitely wrong, Monty. I swear they were here before-.’

Monty held up a hand.

‘This is definitely it, isn’t it?’ The question came from one of Monty’s nameless henchmen who’d accompanied him.

‘What do you mean?’ Jessie answered with his own question.

‘Exactly that. This is the same place, right? And it’s dark, too. Sure you went the right way?’

‘Yes,’ Jessie replied, confident, certain. ‘I’ve been coming here for months and I could do the trip blindfolded.’

It would have explained the absence of the bodies, but something in Jessie’s tone told me not to add to the questioning.
I could do the trip blindfolded.

‘So, what do you want us to do?’ I asked, wanting to move away from the enquiries and take some action.

Monty thought for a moment longer. He stood in the door of the room where earlier we had uncovered corpse after sterile corpse. Whoever had been here since had worked quickly. They had resources too. And the people that had those resources were split into two camps: gangsters and government. Since we’d come with the gangsters, that left the latter most likely responsible – at times, they were more shadowy, more fearful than their shifty counterparts.

‘Here goes. Check the rest of this place over and then keep following the river road east. Whatever has been moved, can’t have been moved far. I want you to keep looking, Jessie.’

‘And what if we are caught? It’s a big enough risk coming out this far, but I know this part of the land. I checked it out for weeks before I took any chances. I don’t know what’s further up river. And now that someone’s been here, and possibly knows what we’ve been up to, I don’t want to.’

But it only took a small, cold look from Monty for Jessie to fall silent and concede.

‘Are you following, Monty?’ I asked.

‘Not when I’ve got men like you who’ll do this for me. I’ve got some spare bits in the boat – fuel, bit of food and drink I keep for emergencies. The extra fuel will get you a bit further than you’ve gone before. Dominic will fetch that for you and then we’ll be on our way.’ He nodded at the heavy who had questioned the legitimacy of our location and he disappeared back to the boat, cursing as he went in the darkness, tripping on roots and sinking in marshy pools. ‘Let’s say you travel out for another two days. I’ll see you both in four days with your report. Least you can do for wasting my time tonight. Can’t say fairer than that.’

You could say a lot fairer,
I thought and I saw in Jessie’s face he was thinking the same.

After we had checked every dark corner of the lab, we stumbled our way back to our boats. Jessie took the supplies Monty had offered us from Dominic and we parted company with the others five minutes later. Monty Harrison backed away in his speedboat, facing us, his cocky gangster’s grin in place, slowly getting smaller and smaller, then vanishing, yet still we felt his eyes on us.

When he was finally so distant that the spark of his boat lights had all but faded, I asked Jessie a question that had been preying on my mind ever since our new friend Dominic first posed it:

‘This isn’t the place we came to, is it?’

Jessie kept his face still, his emotions in check for a moment or two and then let a small, yet cautious smile curve his mouth.
You bugger,
I mouthed, in admiration of his ingenuity and in despair of his risk-taking.

‘What gave it away?’

‘Not much to start with. It
looks
very much the same, identical almost, especially in the dark. The entrance, the layout, and fact that most rooms are trashed, bare, suggests someone has looted it recently. I didn’t realise at first, until we reached the far room. The damage we caused, Jessie… There’s no way someone got here in time to clear it out and cover it up. Not even some government whizz kids. No way. Plus, you gave it away with what you said.’

‘Eh?’

‘
I could do the trip blindfolded,
you said, but it wasn’t you who had – it was me. Only you know exactly where the old lab is. I didn’t pay much attention on our way back earlier, so the route is still a blur to me. And to be honest, you could have driven me anywhere tonight and I wouldn’t have questioned the way.’

Jessie chuckled dryly and held his hands up. ‘You got it all sussed.’

‘Which means it won’t take Monty long to figure that out.’

‘Worth taking that chance. Worse that he finds those bodies.’

‘Is it?’

‘Yes,’ Jessie answered, his voice devoid of humour, deathly serious. ‘You don’t want Monty near anything like that. He’s unpredictable and there’s too much I don’t know about him. I don’t know what he’d actually do with those bodies, but it’s best he doesn’t find them. I couldn’t risk telling you that I’d planned to mislead him earlier. Couldn’t risk him seeing it in your face. As it is, you’ve made a good first impression. He likes you, I can tell.’

A pause fell between us, whilst we both considered our next words or move. I went first.

‘So, what is this place?’ I asked, nodding towards the building he had brought us to that night.

‘My back-up plan,’ he answered. ‘I always check out a few buildings whenever I take on work like this for Monty. I scoured the area and found this and a couple of others. There are four in all, equally distanced from each other. Clearly all government-owned and abandoned. The one we’ve been raiding is north-east. I directed us south-east to here instead.’