Mastering The Virgin 5

James

Charlotte’s signals vanish from the screen and my gut twists. For brief endless seconds, the three of us; myself, Richard and Michael, sit silently. I stare at my screen, trying to will the signal back into existence.

Jade….

What have you done?

Richard won’t meet my eye….

It’s his wife she’s trying to rescue….

Recovering from my paralysis, I stand. “Time to go. We’ve done as much as we can from here.”

Michael rises with me. “Yes. Which car?”

“Yours. It’s more rugged than mine. We may need to go cross-country, or on poor trails.”

“Okay. I’ll drive. You handle the computers and concentrate on finding the signal again. You’re better at the tech stuff than me.”

“Fair enough… Francis…” I yell out for Richard’s PA, briefly glancing at Richard himself who simply waves his hands with a Get on with it… gesture.

She must have been waiting outside the door, which opens almost as the words spill from my mouth. “Yes, James?”

My mind racing as to the possibilities; what could happen, what equipment to take, “We need connectivity while we’re on the move… We could end up God-knows-where. I want you to get dongles for the laptops…”

Grabbing the nearest piece of paper, I struggle to keep my handwriting legible in my haste to get the words down. “Here’s the spec,” I say, thrusting the sheet at her. “I want you to get all different types and networks. If one network doesn’t work in a given area, another might.”

Francis is tapping into her mobile as I speak and write.

“Does GPS need an internet connection?” asks Michael.

“No,” I say, “but the mapping apps it works with, do. There’s no point having the signal, without the data to map it to.”

Richard is throwing on a heavy overcoat. “I’m coming too. Francis, send out Ross, and whoever else is to hand, to get whatever James needs. Tell them I want them back here, with the equipment, within twenty minutes.” He pulls at his chin with thumb and forefinger. “Do you think we want the police in on this?”

Do we?

He has a point…

I exchange a glance with Michael. “We should have them available,” he says, “But if the area is suddenly flooded with police vehicles, someone’s going to start asking how they know to look there. If Charlotte still has her tracers, we don’t want them being taken away from her.”

“Fair point,” Richard nods. “I’ll have a word with Will and ask him to keep any police presence discreet for the moment.”

Richard still won’t meet my eye, or I think, Michael’s….

Guilt?

*****

Richard

Feeling like a spare part, I sit in the back of the car, staying live on my mobile with Will Stanton, the Police Commissioner, giving a moment by moment account of where we are.

In the front, Michael driving, James navigating, the two barely exchange a word. Nonetheless, they clearly understand each other very well, operating as a smooth team, with James giving only the barest of nods for instructions to take a turnoff or follow a road, whilst Michael drives at breakneck speed out of the City and then on the highway,

A blue light appears behind us, headlights flashing us to pull over. Michael curses under his breath, but shows no signs of stopping or even slowing, simply glancing back into the mirror, catching my eyes as he does so.

But I’m already speaking into my mobile. “Will, there’s one of your patrol cars behind us. It’s trying to pull us for speeding.”

On the other end of the line there is a brief expletive, then, “Sorry, Richard. I should have thought of that. I’ll call it off. You drive. I’ll put the word out to let you through.”

Leaning forward between the front seats, “Michael,” I say, “Just keep driving. Will’s arranging a clear passage through for us.”

He nods acknowledgement and half a minute later, the pursuing vehicle swerves away, leaving us to travel unencumbered.

At length, following the route laid out by Charlotte’s tracers before they blinked off, we turn off the highway. This is a side-road which leads into the deep wilds. Here, the landscape is broadly open, populated only by scrub and boulders. Further up the mountain, it melds to pine forest. Charlotte, finding herself here in this isolated spot, would have had little to no chance of any rescuer passing by.

Only a few miles further along, James points a long finger into a pull-in by the roadside. “There,” he says. “This is where we lost the signal.”

Michael slows, but there is nothing to be seen other than several sets of tyre tracks. Charlotte’s car was taken by her abductors, and the police, we know, have already searched and found her bag and what was left of her phone.

“You think we should just circle first?” asks Michael. He glances at James but also casts an eye back to me in the mirror. “Try different areas to try to catch the signal?”

James’ reply is strained, but, “Yes, you just drive. I’ll keep an eye on the trace.… Wait!” With a jerk, he rears up in his seat, stabbing a finger at his screen. “There.… It’s back again….”

The engine roars to life as Michael slams down onto the gas. “Which way?”

James simply points, his eyes fixed on his screen. Then, only a few seconds later, “Damn! It’s off again…” Hope curdles in my gut as he scrabbles through a collection of dongles and connections, trying one after the other, jabbing at his keyboard as he tries to recover the signal, but to no avail.

Michael cruises in the direction we were already following, up into the mountains and the pine forests. “Perhaps they’re taking her out of a car and into a building?”

“Seems plausible,” James nods.

“Did you see enough to get us there?”

“I think so, yes. Certainly, we can get closer. Keep driving. We’re losing the light.”

*****