Where the Action Is

Chapter 19 - The Suspicions of John Adams

When darkness fell, a small boat came to Fort Madeleine; it showed no lights, and as there was no moon, was almost invisible. Robin Scott-Gibson and his men took Terry and descended the ladder from the hatch in Shore Tower into the boat, and they were whisked off to White Sands. There the boat stopped below a tower, and Terry was taken up the ladder onto the fort. Scott-Gibson and his men led Terry off, to the central tower, and upon entering he saw his staff were there, in two largish rooms, under the surveillance of the other boarders. He was shoved over towards where some of his party sat dejectedly; Adrian, Alan, James, Yale, Jon, Chuck the engineer, Marty and Johann.

‘How long have you been here?’ he asked.

‘Since early this morning, replied Yale. ‘They must have been preparing for this.’

‘Yes,’ said Johann, ‘They had supplies enough for everyone, and water too. They made me cook them some breakfast on an oil stove, while we had biscuits.’

‘At least they won’t starve us to death,’ said Alan.

‘I’m afraid they have other ideas and they’re working them out now,’ said Terry.

Two men with guns came over.

‘Get up, you let, get in the other room,’ growled one, and he made them go and join the others next door. The room was large enough to take them all. He left them a lantern for light, and then he went out; the others of his gang who had been in that room left with him. The door was locked; they must have found a key or had one made.

‘Now what?’ demanded Angus McDuncan.

‘Now I guess they discuss how to dispose of us,’ Alan answered him. ‘Why do they take so long? I wish they’d get it over with!’

Time passed, and no-one in the locked room said much. One or two chain-smoked until they ran out of cigarettes and then borrowed some from the others. Everyone was terrified, even the bravest. After nearly an hour or perhaps more of sitting awaiting his fate, Terry Regan sprang up, and seized the lantern in his hand, and walked over to the window.

‘What will you do, Terry?’ asked Jan Neilson.

‘I am going to shine this out of the window. It is possible that someone may see it. It’s our only chance.’

‘OK, but I hope that lot outside don’t see it.’

‘They’ll kill us anyway, so we’ve nothing to lose.’

Terry flashed the light at the window for a while, then returned to his seat. After a while a key was heard in the lock, and the door was opened. A man came in, Alec, with the inevitable gun.

‘Come over here, all of you, to the door. Some of you come out, you’re wanted.’

They went to the door, slowly. Then came two more of Scott-Gibson’s men and made some of them enter the next room; Adrian, Alan and Marty went first, they were the nearest. The others stood in the doorway; not all of them could see through.

When they entered the room, Adrian saw to his horror that the men had the long skewer things that Johann had seen earlier. Terror struck at his heart, he looked at Alan, who was green and covered in sweat. He looked extremely ill. Marty and Adrian looked at him and at each other. And then Scott-Gibson laughed and fingered a dagger. Adrian felt sick, very sick. Scott-Gibson made a signal, said ‘Fetch the young one,’ and two men came forward, Alec and Jack, and seized Alan. Alan went greener than ever, and Adrian ignored their guns and tried to stop them. It was no use, though. Alec raised his hand with the gun in it, caught Adrian on the side of the head, and Adrian fell.

Alan was dragged off towards Scott-Gibson, protesting, horrified. Marty was frozen for a moment, then, ignoring the guns, he sprang forward and tried to knock down one ofAlan’s captors. Scott-Gibson yelled ‘Get him!’ and there was a shot. Marty fell to the ground. Everyone standing in the doorway shrank back automatically. Alan cried out, and tried to fight, but he could not fight them. And they dragged him to where Scott-Gibson was and cast him to the ground. They seized his wrists and held him down, he struggled, the others in the doorway tried to come through, but were thrust back. Adrian moved, and tried to get up, but fell on his face. Marty did not move.

Scott-Gibson fingered his dagger, and knelt down beside Alan, who was now held fast by the two men. He put a hand to feel for Alan’s heart to guide his knife. Alan turned away his head, closed his eyes and waited. The others at the door tried to get through. Scott-Gibson raised the dagger.

Then the door of the tower opened taking everyone by surprise. The room suddenly seemed to swarm with people. Even Scott-Gibson was frozen to the spot for a few vital seconds, and Ed Muldoon seized his arm and pulled him off Alan. Andy Esmond, with the police party, came to his aid, and Scott-Gibson fought, viciously. A shot was fired, but hit the roof harmlessly as a constable knocked the gunman’s hand up. There was a vicious wrestling match and the room was swarming with people. The disk jockeys and crew from the station knocked aside the men who had tried to stop them pass the doorway, and Terry and Jon Konrad seized Adrian, who was still dazed, while Chuck and Orson dragged Marty away from the struggle that was going on between boarders and police.

Alan had escaped from the men who had him and the others put him into the other room with Adrian and Marty. Then they went into battle, and as soon as they joined in the boarders had no chance. One tried to run out of the door, but Yale Ross brought him down in a rugby tackle on the catwalk. Terry Regan came to aid him and they managed to overpower him. A policeman appeared from the general mêlée with some handcuffs, and the fugitive was handcuffed and put into a smaller room which opened off the large room in the tower. Soon Robin Scott-Gibson and the rest of his boarding party were dealt with in a similar way, and the door was shut on them, with a PC on guard.

The victorious party counted its casualties, which were surprisingly few, considering, amounting to some bruises and Jacky della Faro who was slightly dazed. When that was sorted out Andy Esmond was sent down to the police launch, where they had a radio, to call for more boats to ferry everyone ashore (for there were, unbelievably, thirty-five people there) and for an ambulance for Marty, who was still alive and appeared not to be too seriously wounded. He was unconscious, though.

Adrian and Jacky soon recovered, and Alan got over his shock after a while. Johann the cook repaired the paraffin stove and managed to make some tea somehow, but the police didn’t want any. Having assured that boats would soon be out (for the sea had calmed a little), Ed and John decided to take their prisoners off in the police launch. They took with them two more men and Marty, getting him, now slightly conscious, down the terrifying ladder. They found a special stretcher in the launch; they strapped him to it and let it down on ropes, with someone to guide it down. The handcuffed prisoners were also a problem; but they managed, and finally set off, to take the prisoners to the police station and to put Marty in the ambulance which should be waiting. Before they left they left Andy and the other behind with Jones to await the arrival of the two other launches which had been sent for.

Not long after this, the two large, fast boats arrived, and everyone on the fort began to go down to them. Just as he was preparing to leave, Noel Llewellyn remembered that the boat which had taken away the transmitter crystals had come to this fort. He seemed to remember seeing what looked like them in one of the rooms he had been in, but he had been too preoccupied to worry about them before. He went therefore to where he thought he’d seen them, and there they were, so he took them with him.

When the boats docked at Felix Pier and everyone came ashore, Jones counted them and then told some of them to go home, for it was late and they must be tired. With him to the police station he took Terry Regan, James Dennis, Adrian Leslie, Alan Love, Noel Llewellyn, Jon Konrad and Johann.

It was nearly midnight when there came a knock at the back door of the inn at Dana. Jack was not in bed, she wasn’t tired, she was in the kitchen listening to Radio Luxembourg on the mains-radio. When the knock came she turned the sound down to hear what it was; she lived in hope of news from the fort. She heard a voice say: ‘I’m from the police, Mrs Ibbotson.’ Jack tried to get up so that she could go to the kitchen door and hear better, but she knocked the radio, which let out an earsplitting shriek and started to mutter in Russian, so she heard no more from the man at the door.

Then Mrs Ibbotson came in.

‘Jack,’ she said, ‘that man was from the police. They have founded up the people they wanted, or something, and although it’s late they want to sort things out now. The officer wants to take you and Juliett to the station. He thinks you will be able to help. He wanted the other two as well but I said it was too late for them and …’

‘Alright, Mrs Ibbotson,’ said Jack, ‘I’ll go and fetch Juliett and we had better go. Will I be glad when this is over!’

When they arrived at the police station it seemed to be crowded. Then Jack saw a familiar face, Alan Love! At the same time Juliett saw Adrian. She ran to him and kissed him.

‘Oh, Adrian, you’re safe! What happened to you?’

Jack was asking Alan the same question.

‘It’s a long story,’ they were told. ‘There’s nothing to tell you now, but the fort was taken over.’

‘And I was nearly killed!’ said Alan.

‘Oh, Alan!’ cried Jack, and kissed him.

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ said Andy Esmond from behind, ‘but we must talk to you …’

He never got any further, for there was a terrible schemozzle and Richardson came steaming in at full speed. He had arrived late; John Adams had just informed him of developments and he was not very pleased. They had disobeyed his orders. They might have ruined his case!

‘But sir!’ said John, who came behind him, ‘we’ve saved these people. If we had obeyed you they would have been killed!’

‘Nonsense!’ growled the Superintendent, ‘they’re lying. That Terry Regan is the leader of the whole gang. Those he says took him over are in his pay to deceive us!’

John tried to reason with Richardson but could not penetrate the barrier Richardson had somehow put up. Then Richardson went into his office; but he’d be back, he warned.

Then John set to work to sort out everyone in the corridor, which took some doing. They he said to Jack and Juliett:

‘This is very irregular, but I must get this sorted out. We will bring a man in here, and I want you to watch for him.’

Then he sent for Scott-Gibson and his three chief aides. Jack and Juliett examined everyone in the room, then Jack saw someone she though she recognised.

‘Inspector,’ she said, ‘that man, I think I’ve seen him before.’

‘Yes, so have I,’ said Juliett, ‘and … I know where! He was the man at the Folly when … when my brother was shot.’

‘Yes,’ cried Jack, ‘he was the one who asked if … it had been done.’

This was Scott-Gibson.

‘See anyone else you know?’ asked John casually.

‘Yes,’ said Jack, ‘yes, that man’ (who as Ben) he was the one with the gun at the Folly.’

‘He shot my brother!’ cried Juliett and tried to run after him. John stopped her.

‘No,’ he said, ‘don’t! We’ll charge him tomorrow. They’ll get what’s coming to them, have no fear.’

Next he spoke to Adrian, who told him he was sue that the gang had a hideout somewhere in St Felix Bay. He wasn’t sure where, though Terry interrupted: ‘I heard something about a hide in the cliffs. They were going to bury us there after they’d killed us. Horrible thought,’ he added in an undertone.

‘Mr Regan’s right,’ Noel interrupted. ‘I heard them talk of an underground cavern leading from Pine Bay or something when I was in that room they locked us in - I tried listening at the door.’

John left Ed and Andy Esmond taking statements and went off to try and sort some things out. He was tired but his mind was still active. It was obvious, he realised, that Scott-Gibson, vile as he was, was not the leader of the gang. It was someone else, far shrewder, someone who was aware of what the police were doing, someone able to stop them, to hinder them. ‘?????’ and an incredible idea dawned in his mind. ‘Not possible!’ he thought, as he doodled idly on his paper, incredible, and yet …

The door opened and someone looked in.  ‘May I come in?’ said Richardson’s tame sergeant timidly.

‘Of course you may, Sergeant Stein,’ replied John, ‘have you something to tell me?’

‘Well sir, it’s like this sir, well you see sir, what I mean is, sir …’

‘Don’t get scared of me,’ said John, comfortingly, though he was very worried. If his suspicions were right!!

‘Well,’ the sergeant plucked up courage. ‘Inspector Jones and I were discussing the Superintendent’s methods and we didn’t agree with them at all, and when I told him this, he said I must tell you.’

‘Go on!’

And the sergeant told John of Richardson’s harsh interviews, of his refusal to listen to anyone, and of the way he had made the sergeant tear up the notes he had taken, after the interviews with Keith, and the oddness of his manner with the people he interviewed. Also, the sergeant said that he had looked over Richardson’s shoulder when he was writing one of his reports. He had not seen much, because he did not want the Superintendent to see him. The report was very strange, said the sergeant, and the facts seemed to be somewhat twisted.

This confirmed all John’s suspicions and fears. He thanked the sergeant for telling him all this, then he called Ed Muldoon to him, and told him all that he had been told and all he suspected. Ed agreed with his ideas, and he, too, thought something must be done at once.

So John Adams left Ed and went into Richardson’s office.