Belgian / French border
The scenery changed over time from the wide-open spaces of the autobahns in Germany to the more closed in forested roads of Belgium and France. Christina looked out the front passenger side window of the big German car as it smoothly made its way across the tarmac with Natascha behind the wheel. In the back was Charlotte beside a bound and gagged Emily St Clare. Now, Christina hadn’t really wanted to keep Emily in bondage but after thinking it through she thought it was for the best. After getting an early breakfast they had packed up and prepared to leave before releasing Emily St Clare from her bindings. Their disgruntled guest, and Christina did consider her willing participant rather than a captive, in this venture had taken a shower whilst the group had attempted to find her some clothes to wear. With Emily’s height and build that wasn’t possible with the options before Gayle had the brilliant idea of just ordering some clothes, a nice knee length skirt, turtle neck sweater, boots and a suede jacket from the store that was in the hotel. The best bit was that they could charge it to the room and Elizabeth Crawford would pick up the bill. When the clothes were delivered Emily St Clare was actually was actually happy with their choices until Christina informed Emily that she would have to put a diaper on. “There is no way that I am letting you anywhere near a public restroom,” Christina explained.
“You can’t be serious!” Emily exclaimed.
“I think she is deadly serious,” Natalie chipped in and tossed a diaper at Emily who caught it.
“Well, I am not putting this on myself,” Emily said indignantly, some of her old confidence and attitude coming back.
“Come into this bedroom and I will put it on,” Charlotte offered and the two of them disappeared off into the bedroom that Natalie and Charlotte had shared.
“Wonder if those sheets will be clean enough for Little Miss Haughty?” Natascha commented, Christina chuckled and Natalie blushed.
“We had better get going if we are going to meet Victoria and catch the train,” Natalie stated as she and Gabriela picked up their bags and headed for the door. Charlotte and Emily had just emerged from the bedroom when there was a knock at the door. Gayle opened it to find Rhiannon standing there with a bag in each hand.
“Nice to see you all,” Rhiannon called. It had had a quick round of hugs and introductions before turning straight back around and heading back to the airport with Gayle to jump onto a flight to Copenhagen. Danielle had left with them but wasn’t going to Denmark. Instead, Danielle was flying to England to pick up Natascha’s contact and bring her to meet them in France. Natascha didn’t want to say too much over the telephone so had actually written a note that Danielle was going to deliver in person that would hopefully convince her contact to make the journey and assist them. Having checked her watched five minutes ago Christina knew that both flights would still be in the air. “Have you made that call yet?” Natascha asked as she smoothly pulled them into the fast lane and around a slow-moving heavy goods vehicle. Once they had left the Christina swept the suite for anything that they had left lying around before taking a firm grip of Emily’s St Clare’s upper left arm.
“No funny business,” Christina said as she marched Emily toward the door.
“I promise to be on my best behaviour,” Emily said with a smile. To be fair to the woman she was that, not even complaining when Christina bound her wrists together before putting her in the car, until about half an hour into the journey when Emily started talking, asking questions, and then talking some more. Eventually Christina snapped.
“Gag or chloroform?” Christina asked swivelling around in her seat.
“What?” Emily asked.
“Do you wish to be gagged or knocked out for the remainder of the journey?”
“Are you serious?” Emily replied.
“Deadly,” Christina.
“Gag then,” Emily decided. Always prepared Christina went into her pocket and came out with a handkerchief and a silk scarf both of which she handed to Charlotte.
“I will let you do the honours.” Charlotte wadded up the handkerchief and stuffed it into Emily’s mouth before adding one of her own.
“MMMMOOONN UUNN,” Emily moaned into the stuffing.
“They are clean,” Charlotte added as she folded the silk scarf and tied it over Emily’s mouth. Now that Emily had been made quiet for the remainder of the trip the rest of the occupants could enjoy the ride in silence. The continued with just the sound of the radio for another half an hour until Natascha asked Christina a question.
“Have you spoke with Monique yet?” Natascha asked.
“Not yet, but I suppose I can’t keep putting it off forever,” Christina replied ass he pulled out her mobile, found the number that she needed and pressed the button to make the call.
“Monique, I need to ask a favour of you,” Christina said into the phone.
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Ninety minutes earlier, outside the hotel “Boss,” Horace began once the call was picked up. “There may be an issue.” Horace had taken up station earlier that morning in a coffee across the street from the hotel entrance on order to check on who came and went. It hadn’t been the most exciting job of his career but he did what Elizabeth Crawford wanted him to do. Initially he had been watching Emily St Clare, which was almost as boring but then he was switched to Gayle Hutton. He would never have guessed that the two would cross paths.
“What is that?” Elizabeth replied knowing that Horace would not have called unless something serious had happened. Although something had obviously happened Elizabeth couldn’t help but smile to herself, she couldn’t believe that they had been so sloppy as to not think that having placed Gayle Hutton in a specific hotel that she would not have set up some kind of surveillance to see who turned up and what happened.
“Well, the person that was initially watching is taking a trip with some people and it doesn’t look voluntary.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The person didn’t look that happy about making this trip. Like they were going to the dentist for a filling.” That didn’t sound good to Elizabeth Crawford.
“Could you be more specific than some people?” Elizabeth Crawford appreciated Horace not wanting to speak directly on an open line but just on this one occasion she wished that he would be precise.
“A former employee of yours, the female James Bond and the one of Europe’s finest financial investigators,” Horace responded. That would be Christina Howard, Natascha Taylor and either Gabriela Vasquez or Charlotte Saltzman.
“Where are the rest of the group?” Elizabeth asked.
“They left separately and went their own way over the last fifteen minutes of so,” Horace responded.
“Boss, speaking of old employees, another of yours made an appearance yesterday. Even had a nice chat over coffee with a former colleague.”
“Who might that have been?” Crawford asked.
“The Giraffe,” Horace responded using his pet name for Victoria. Crawford didn’t reply but thought that was an interesting development. Victoria had worked for her and then had made the decision to go her own way whilst at the same time screwing her over. It would be nice to have an opportunity to get even with Victoria if the chance presented itself.
“Do you think that it would be possible to follow the group that just left?” Elizabeth asked. This was what Horace would good at, he could blend in and not be noticed in any situation. Someone once said of Horace that he could walk across the field at any time during the Superbowl and nobody watching would be any to describe what he looked like accurately.
“I will try,” Horace replied. “I shall have to move n….”
“No, wait,” Elizabeth interrupted having changed her mind, she was now cursing herself for not putting more assets in the field. “Just try and find out where they were all going and call back form a secure location. I am also going to send a team to meet up with you.”
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French Intelligence Safe House, Bergerac, FranceAs they pulled off the main road and into the yard of the old farm building Christina noted the large motorcycle parked up next to the entrance to the main building and relaxed a bit as their contact had already arrived. Natascha stopped the car about twenty yards short of the front door of the main building and killed the engine. Everyone in the car looked around for anything that didn’t seem right and found nothing. There was also no sound, this did slightly unnerve Christina but that might just have been her city girl upbringing. “You wait here whilst I have a look around,” Christina said as she opened the door and got out of the car, slipping on her down jacket over her light black v neck sweater as she did so. Scanning the whole area as she went Christina approached the door, knocked and stepped back. When the door opened Christina found a familiar face staring at her.
“Nice to see you again,” the woman offered by way of a greeting.
“Nice to meet you again Lauren,” Christina said as they hugged and kissed. “Thanks for coming down and setting the place up for us.” As she was having the conversation Christina signalled for the rest of the group to join her. “Lauren, you have meet Natascha Taylor before but probably not Charlotte Saltzman and Emily St Clare.” The introductions completed they group moved inside. Lauren didn’t even blink at the fact that Emily was gagged and had her hands bound.
“I will show you straight to the guest suite,” Lauren said to Charlotte and nodded toward Emily. Christina nodded at Charlotte and she followed Lauren up the stairs nudging Emily in front of her. They followed Lauren up the stairs, turned right before heading along a short corridor toward a door. “Toilet and a couple of bedrooms back there,” Lauren pointed behind them. As they walked toward the door Lauren produced a card and swiped it against a small black box on the wall. There was an electronic buzz and a light appeared on top of the box and Lauren pushed the door open and entered the room, Emily followed after a nudge from Charlotte. As they entered Charlotte took a look around, plain white walls and ceiling, blue carpet with a bed, chest of drawers and small table and chair as it’s only furniture.
“Basic,” Charlotte commented.
“It is designed that way,” Lauren replied. “There have been a few upgrades. The door can only be opened from outside with the card,” which she then handed to Charlotte. “The window is bullet proof glass and us one way, the door over there is to a small toilet and there are cameras in two concerns which are linked to monitors downstairs and the main bedroom.”
“MMUUPPHH,” Emily moaned into her gag, indicated toward her bound wrists.
“Sorry,” Charlotte said before removing the rope wrapped around Emily’s wrists and then untying the scarf and removing the gag.
“That’s better,” Emily commented rubbing her wrists. “What now?”
“You relax in here for the night and we will bring you some food later,” Charlotte replied.
“That’s it?” Emily said. Charlotte nodded; she wasn’t too sure what was next anyway. Better to leave that to Christina and Natascha.
“There will be nightwear and some other items in the drawers,” Lauren said as she headed for the door and beckoned Charlotte to follow her. Once outside they headed straight down the stairs where Christina and Natascha were waiting for them.
“How is Emily?” Christina asked.
“Settling into her new surroundings for the evening,” Charlotte commented as she slipped off her jacket and hung it up on a line of pegs just as Lauren removed her leather jacket from a neighbouring peg.
“I shall leave you ladies to it,” Lauren said picking up the crash helmet from the cabinet in the hallway.
“Leaving so soon?” Christina asked.
“Yes, the boss said that it was better that I not hang around. If there are any problems call Monique and she will let me know. I will not be far away.” Lauren smiled before she put on her helmet so that all you could now see of her was the section of face around her eyes. Slipping in a pair of gloves before leaving Lauren waved without looking around as she exited the house. Natascha, Charlotte and Christina stood in silence until they heard the bike’s engine burst into life and then leave the grounds.
“Let’s see what there is for dinner around here,” Natascha commented before they all made their way into the kitchen.
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The following dayThey had risen early and Natascha had left to pick up Danielle and her fellow passenger from a small local airfield around thirty minutes away. It had been decided that it would be better for them to fly privately rather than commercially and Natascha had been able to call in a favour and get the use of one of the private jets that her agency had on standby for this kind of thing. Christina and Charlotte were sitting having a coffee and tea respectively when they heard the faint engine noise followed by the sound of three car doors opening and closing. They looked at each other with a sense of excitement about what or more accurately who the car would be delivering. When the door opened, they both rose to greet the new arrivals, Danielle was first in carrying a computer case in one hand and her case in the other. There was a broad smile on her face. “I got a new toy,” Danielle said gleefully as she put down both bags and hugged Christina and then Charlotte.
“Made you a space in one of the bedrooms. Top of the stairs, turn right, first door on the left,” Charlotte replied and Danielle hurried up the stairs clutching a bag in each hand. With that reunion completed Christina and Charlotte turned their attention to the new arrival.
“Ladies, please meet doctor Melanie Leonard,” Natascha said introducing a short woman in her early forties with short brown hair and a pair of wire rimmed spectacles. The woman wore a brown cardigan with a matching tweed skirt and jacket. Melanie nodded and offered her right hand which both Christina and Charlotte shook. “She specialises in this kind of thing with the British Secret Service,” Natascha assured the rest of the group after seeing the slight disappointment in the faces of her colleague.
“Natascha’s letter and Danielle filled me in on the details,” Melanie said. “Definitely an interesting case.”
“It is,” Christina commented.
“Well, its been a journey,” Melanie said. “Should we have some tea and a chat.”
“Why not,” Charlotte pointed toward the kitchen. Charlotte filled the kettle and put it on as the others took chairs around the large wooden table that dominated the kitchen. The women made small talk and Christina filled in Melanie on some of the finer details of what had happened as Charlotte waited for the kettle to boil before making the teas and coffees to order. Charlotte noted that Melanie had produced a small notepad and pencil and was making the occasional scribble in it. Then having stowed her things Danielle bounced back into the kitchen with a smile on her face and took a seat at the far end of the table. Charlotte crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen worktop. The conversation stopped and Christina asked the question that had to be asked.
“Is this even possible?”
“The recovery of repressed memory,” Melanie replied. “The short answer is yes, assuming that your assumption is correct and Ms St Clare have been the victim of some form of mind control or alteration technique of process.”
“Could Elizabeth Crawford even have achieved what we have said?” Natascha asked.
“The human mind is a wonderous place,” Melanie replied somewhat cryptically. “Given the right conditions, right techniques and enough time you can program the human mind to do most things,” Melanie replied whilst slipping off her glasses and cleaning them on a handkerchief that she had taken from the pocket of her cardigan. As she slipped her glasses back on Melanie looked around to find blank expressions staring back at her. “There is both the conscious and unconscious mind. Memories can be hidden, locked away but never really fully erased. It is a bit like a computer hard drive when you delete a file. The file can usually be recovered with the right program.”
“Alright, I think that we get that part,” Christina replied. “But how are you going to unlock those memories?”
“I plan to hypnotize the subject and they then try and unlock the supressed memories. That is assuming that you are right in your assumption.” Melanie took a large mouthful of tea. “That is a good cup of tea.”
“Thanks, speciality of mine,” Charlotte commented with a smile.
“What we really need to know if what Elizabeth Crawford got her to do,” Christina said.
“I can only get what I can Christina,” Melanie replied, a serious expression crossing her face. “You have to remember that we cannot go poking around in there too much. It could be dangerous.”
“I understand and apologies if I was being pushy, it’s just that this could really give us a boost with our operation.” Melanie nodded and stood up.
“Where are you going?” Natascha asked.
“I was going to prep my equipment and then get started.”
“So soon?” Christina asked.
“No time like the present. Can’t sit around here all-day drinking tea when there is a job to do.” Melanie said. “Despite how good that cup of tea may be.”
“Alright then,” Christina said also rising to her feet. “Do you need assistance setting up?”
“An extra pair of hands is always useful. Perhaps young Danielle can assist.” Danielle hopped up and almost sprinted for the door. “I must insist that you turn off the monitoring devices. I have my own equipment to record the session and we can go through it later but I need privacy.” Christina nodded to confirm that they equipment would be turned off. “Well then, no point in hanging around. Shall we get started with the introductions.”
Now that Crawford is aware of their actions, there will be another confrontation coming up soon. One question remains: Which Group is Horace following? Christina´s Group or Natalie? Can you clear that up?
