Chapter 31

Serena was allowed out with Bertie and at least one of his thugs, as an additional escort, occasionally. A friend of hers saw her as she walked near her old home and approached. George had gone to meetings held by Bertie and was seen as being on their side. He smiled at Serena and moved to give her a hug. Bertie intercepted him, offering a handshake and asking how he was. Bertie wouldn't let anyone touch Serena.

George managed to have an exchange with Serena despite not being able to get close to her. He could see her frown and he raised an eyebrow in query. She responded with a barely perceptible shake of the head and then, when Bertie was distracted, she was able to mouth the word "help".

"Where are you staying?" George asked Bertie and Serena spoke up.

"The cottage at the end of Mill Lane."

A furious scowl appeared on Bertie's face and he turned to show it to Serena. The old friends parted and they returned to their home. Once inside Bertie delivered a stinging slap across Serena's face.

"Don't speak unless I tell you to." He said before stalking away.

Bertie had stormed out of the room and it gave Serena the precious seconds alone which she needed. She scrawled some words on a scrap of paper and hid it up her sleeve. If George visited, as she hoped he would, she would try to get the note to him. She finally had a moment to think about the fact that Bertie had hit her. She felt tears well up in her eyes, but she was not going to give Bertie the satisfaction of seeing her break down and she fought them back.

She thought back to her first meeting with Bertie. His handsome face with those mesmeric blue eyes had taken her breath away. Her infatuation had waned and she began to see beyond the veneer to Bertie's cold heart. The man who had been her lover, had hit her and had murdered people. And now she was his prisoner. How had she got into such a mess?

The following day they had visitors to the cottage. George had arrived and he had brought his sister Clara with him. She would be able to approach Serena where he could not. There was no hope of rescuing Serena, Bertie and his team of thugs would thwart that, but he might be able to help in some other way.

Clara had her instructions and on seeing her friend she ran to her and embraced her. The piece of paper was passed over without detection. Later Clara and George read its contents before sending it on its way. The main message was for Daniel Ellis who lived in the leadership town in District 31. An addendum at the bottom of the note had said. "Geo, don't get involved."

He was a man with a wife and a young daughter and he could not afford to get on the wrong side of Bertie. George would ensure that the note got into the right hands, but he could do nothing more to help either Serena or Daniel. At least he could do what Serena had asked and warn this man about the threat to his life.

As Dan crossed the car park, he saw the man who had previously passed him a note. He paused to check his pockets as if he had forgotten something and the man and he bumped into each other as Dan resumed his walk to his vehicle. He would not stop on the way home to read the note he had been passed, because he suspected he was still being watched. He would have to go into his home and read it there.

What he saw when he got the chance was a few words rapidly scrawled. "Bertie is going to kill you. Serena x." This was a major problem. He couldn't go to the authorities with the note. He hadn't mentioned Serena to the police or MOD and his whole story could unravel if he changed it now.

Dan realised that he was pretty much on his own. He could not drag Martin into this and risk his life as well. He needed to keep his family safe and he would be working out a strategy to do so. He wanted to be one step ahead of his nemesis and that meant being prepared. That evening he didn't watch the television or sit with Sam in the lounge. He had pen and paper and he was making a list of what he would need for his scheme.

It would most definitely not be a good idea to try to obtain a gun at this stage. Dan wanted to protect his family but he was being monitored by the authorities and that would be a red flag. He had devised a way to alert them to danger and hopefully scare away any would be assassin.

The next day was a Friday and Dan spent his time raiding the stores at the ministry and at the testing centre to get the items he needed. He couldn't go out and buy an intruder alarm or CCTV in this world, so he would have to improvise. Using the principle of a basic circuit he would build his own system.

He constructed a simple platform on small springs. When someone stood on it their weight depressed the springs and allowed a contact to be made which would complete the electrical circuit. Once complete it would trigger a loud alarm. He tested his prototype and it worked. Now he had to make several more.

Dan told Sam he was going to do some gardening, which immediately raised suspicion. He was loathe to do anything other than grudgingly mow the lawn. He was installing his devices under the windows in the flowerbeds. He removed soil and then put it back on top of the alarms he put in place.

The ones at the back of the house were trickier as there were not flowerbeds near the windows. Dan went to town and bought doormats which he placed over the ones installed under the windows at the back and at the front and back doors. Sam appeared beside him after he had inadvertently triggered one of his alarms.

"What is that terrible noise? Daniel, what on earth are you doing?"

"It's an invention I'm working on."

It was the easiest way to explain what he was doing without causing Sam any more stress. In reality his mechanisms would alert them if someone was trying to get into the house. Sam was highly suspicious of his excuse, but she didn't say anything. Her nerves were frayed already and it occurred to her that this was not a situation that she wanted to know more about.

"How am I going to get in and out of the house?"

"I'll disconnect the one by the front door during the day. Just don't let the kids go near the other ones."

Dan dragged his wife around the house showing her where they were. He told her not to draw attention to them or tell anybody else. She assured him that she wasn't inclined to tell anyone about his latest madcap scheme.

~~~

Bertie knew where Dan lived. He had thought about using the gas, but there were children, and possibly his mother, in the house. He had given serious thought to just wiping them all out, but some sense of morality reminded him how wrong that would be. He would target Dan and no one else. A bullet or a knife would do the job.

He could easily send one of his men to kill Dan, but he wanted to be there. If at all possible, he wanted to be the one to deliver the coup de grace. Bertie smiled as he thought about the moment when he would silence the man who had told the police about him. He tucked a pistol into his waistband and prepared to go on his mission.

He would, of course, strike at night when his mother had gone home and the children were in bed. Dan would die and he didn't much care about the fate of his wife Samantha, although she wasn't his prime target. In the darkness he and one of his thugs crept closer to the house in the quiet residential area. No one was on the street and they would be in the home before Dan realised what was happening. Then it was simply a case of firing a shot.

Dan was a member of the leadership class. He was clever, but he was also weak. This was Bertie's assessment of the man he had not bothered to learn much about. He had lumped his adversary in with a group of people he thought of as ineffectual toffs. He imagined breaking into his home and then gunning down a man who would be paralysed with fear. It would be easy.

Bertie looked at the front of the house. The front door looked fairly robust so he wouldn't try gaining access by kicking it open. The windows could be opened from the outside without too much trouble and they moved towards the one which looked the most likely to give way. Their stealthy approach was a waste of effort.

The thug let out a scream and leaped back as an alarm blared out. Bertie was momentarily stunned and stood still shocked by the sound. He stepped back and the sound stopped but it was too late. Curtains were twitching in surrounding houses and Dan had surely been alerted to the threat.

He was angry and desperate, so Bertie used his gun to smash the window. He saw a figure through the curtains and he fired. A gun shot had been added to the cacophony and doors were opening. Dan came out of the front door screaming with rage and launched himself at the nearest figure. The thug was thrown to the floor and released an "Oof" as the wind was knocked out of him.

Bertie was in the process of running away, but he stopped and looked back. He was not thinking about helping his ally he was wondering if he could get a shot at Dan. There was no time and he shouted his frustration as he turned and fled. No one tried to stop the man with the gun.

The police had received a call and were on their way. They did not get many emergencies and they were thrilled to have got a call about an attempted burglary and gun shots. They arrived to find a fight taking place on the lawn outside of a house. The thug had regained his feet and was waving a knife at Dan.

Dan was not a violent man and had never really been in a fight beyond the rough and tumble of his early school days. He had, however, gone to a martial arts class as part of a keep fit regime. He launched a frenzied attack on his opponent with a series of kicks and spins. Afterwards Dan thought that the thug was more bemused than anything else, but his hesitation allowed a few of the blows to connect and he was on the floor once more.

The police ran in and this was the first time that Dan had been aware of their presence. Bertie's man was quickly subdued and Dan managed to talk to one of the police officers.

"They shot my wife." He said and an ambulance was summoned.

They were back in the house and Dan was pressing on his wife's wound with a towel as they waited for medical assistance.