Thursday 17th September — Gregor Abercrombie Kinross Farm MRC, The Cairngorms, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Gregor ended the call with McGill, trying to quell the fury bubbling up from his guts. How dare Cody and his team point their weapons at his people? He was angry enough to cuss, but would never resort to such behaviour. The pastor would never condone swearing, and the pastor was right. Swearing was the last refuge of the ill-educated and the feeble-minded. Until receiving McGill’s call, Gregor had been feeling rather pleased with the way things had been going, but the call had changed everything. He tried to see it from the police point of view. After all, they were chasing a man charged with heinous crimes. But no, hang on, that wasn’t right. Ryan Kaine hadn’t been charged with anything—hadn’t even been arrested. Officially, the police had only identified him as a so-called person of interest. They wanted Kaine to “help them with their enquiries” into the crash of Flight BE1555. It was the media who’d added the “wanted terrorist” label, no doubt to spice up their copy. Gregor was starting to smell conspiracy and, with a bunch of uniformed police running around his mountain, waving their guns in the air, he sensed disaster around the corner. Before their arrival at Craed’s Fist, he’d assumed that Cody’s men didn’t know their way around the place. At one point, Gregor had allowed himself to wallow in the imagined, but delicious irony, of receiving a call for help from the lost posse. But they clearly had their own satnav system so that particular situation would probably not arise. Gregor nodded to Gillian.
“Call Kaine for me, lass. He needs to know what’s going on.” She hit a button and Gregor’s headphones clicked to a different channel. “ST9, this is Gregor Abercrombie. Are you receiving me? Over,” he called, keeping his voice below the level of the room’s background hum. Kaine answered instantly. “I hear you, strength five, Base. Do you have an ETA for the rescue team? Over.” “ST3 should be with you within the next half hour or so. How’s the lad? Over.” “In pain, but conscious and looking forward to seeing his parents. Over.” “That’s excellent news, ST9. I’ll pass that message along, but if he’s out of danger, you need to get away from there. Over.” “Why? Over.” “The armed police unit are closing in on your position. I think they’re following ST3, and I don’t think they’re expecting you to surrender, if you take my meaning. Over.” “I do, but I’m not leaving the lad. He’s been alone for three days, and he needs my company. I’ll wait for ST3 and offer whatever help I can. Over.”
The main doors flew open and the oily-smooth Superintendent Ingram-Howe strode into the room, with a face like thunder on the mountain. Two of his lackeys—a sergeant and a particularly beefy uniformed constable—stood on either flank, but slightly behind the insufferable man. Uh-oh, what’s this now? “ST9, standby for an update. Base, out.” Gregor gave Craig the pre-determined signal to blank out all the screens and turned to face the senior police officer. “Mr Abercrombie, a word, if you please!” Ingram-Howe barked, his anger barely under control. Take one step closer, and you’ll see anger, you damnable pipsqueak. Gregor held up an index finger. “One moment while I sort out this mess.” Slowing his breathing in a deliberate attempt to cool the fire raging through his belly, Gregor turned his back on the sputtering policeman and strolled slowly to the comms enclave. He took a spare chair and sat between Craig and Gillian, delighted to take the weight off his aching feet at last. He leaned forwards and kept his voice low. “Thanks for killing the screens, Craig. Now, power them back up, but do it slowly, and make sure to hide Kaine’s locator signal. I don’t want that arrogant, jumped-up clown giving the cowboy any directions. Assuming he can read a satellite map.” Gillian snorted, and Craig played his fingers over the keyboard. One by one, the screens started flickering. Somehow, Craig made it look like they were having trouble with a weak signal. The young man mightn’t be able to find his way around his own back garden, but give him a communications desk and a satellite hook-up, and he’d be an integral part of any rescue operation. The same was true of his diminutive partner-in-comms, Gillian. “ST9, this is Base,” Gregor said, hiding his mouth behind his hand and speaking quietly. “Are you still reading me? Over.” “Affirmative. Over.” “Sorry for the break in transmission, annoying interference on this end. You maybe don’t understand what I was telling you earlier. I’m worried the ARU are trigger happy. They’ll not give you a chance to surrender. More to the point, I don’t want my people anywhere near you if the shooting starts. Do you understand now? Over.” The line fell silent for a few seconds before Kaine replied. “Yes, I understand. I’ll leave the moment ST3 arrives. Over.” “Thank you. And if it means anything, I don’t believe what the media says about you being a terrorist. None of my people think so either. We just wanted you to know. Over.” “I appreciate that, Gregor. ST9, out.” “Good luck, Kaine. You’ll need it,” Gregor said under his breath. He gave Craig the nod. The screens stopped flickering, and the images once again became pinprick clear—minus the ST9 indicator. Gregor removed his headset and put on his game face before swivelling his chair to smile at the near-apoplectic police officer. “Well now, Superintendent Ingram-Howe, what can I do for you this fine afternoon?”
“Do you have any idea of the penalties for interfering with a police investigation?” the man bellowed. Gregor crossed his arms and leaned against the back of the chair. “No, I’m afraid not. I’m a Scottish sheep farmer during the day, not a solicitor. What about you, Craig? Gillian?” The two IT specialists shook their heads. “No, I thought not.” Gregor stood and addressed the room. “Anyone else know the answer to that legal question?” When no one offered a response, Gregor smiled. “What’s this about?” he asked to stir the pot a little more. Ingram-Howe eased his weight forwards and the heels of his highly polished shoes lifted from the floor. The leather squeaked loud in the near-silence. “Are you responsible for those unfounded media accusations?” “What accusations might they be?” Gregor asked, frowning, genuinely confused by the question. “You know full well what I mean. Sky News is claiming that Police Scotland is running a shoot-to-kill policy. One online source is accusing me of putting a bounty on Ryan Kaine’s head, damn it. Me! They referred to me by name. Did you leak that story?” “Me? Don’t be ridiculous, man. I’ve been in here all day.” Craig stared at the big screen, his expression wide-eyed and innocent, and no melting butter anywhere in sight. Gillian stared straight ahead, stone-faced.
~~~
Cold weather is not something that works for me, so I was happy to be reading this exciting and informative novel by Kerry Donovan rather than participating--even though I'm grateful that there are many individuals who routinely work on or near the mountains to help those who enjoy skiing, hiking and mountain climbing... This is my first book in the series, but I've read another series that took readers to all of the well-known mountains - a wonderful series you might want to do a search on in the right column of this blog...
Readers have the opportunity to visit and read about a well-known Scotland area where one thankful parent whose child was saved had repaid the crew by providing technological advances that were the best available. These advantages, along with a well-trained local group of residents was now more efficiently and quickly helping visitors to their area. And, so as soon as they learned that a young boy had been lost from a group of students with two teaching leaders, they were on the search immediately.
And, joining this effort was our hero, Ryan Kaine, who immediately came to offer his help and, after proving to the locals that he had extensive knowledge of the area from his past, he set off to where he thought the boy would possibly be... This could have been a dramatic novel about the search and rescue activities, if Ryan Kaine was not an individual who was wanted by law enforcement... Kaine became aware that there might be a bigger story than a "lost boy" that he had to deal with!
We are at a time like what happens in the book. Who do we believe?
Readers do not learn much about why Kaine is wanted. What we do know is that nearly 3000 people died during the incident, but he was never charged. Kaine came in to help using a different name and soon becomes a significant addition to the regular crew... and ultimately becomes aware of exactly who and why the young boy became lost!
Intrigue is the key word as more and more people get involved. And we soon learn that somebody called in to name Kaine was there and an armed team was sent in to find Kaine, while making it more difficult for finding the lost and possibly hurt boy...
Readers learn that, while Kaine might not be to blame for the major accident, his involvement was so traumatic to him, that he has taken it upon himself to save lives of others to atone for those who had died...
I hope I get the chance to go back to read the first book and catch up on the series. Kaine is a character who downplays his role, leaving readers to make up our minds. He's a hero in this book and, right now, especially, we need heros who work for what is right. Highly recommended!
GABixlerReviews
No comments:
Post a Comment