The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2828 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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“Mummy, you’re on the news,” called Danielle from the kitchen.

I rushed out to see and it showed the whole incident on the internet, “Security services foiled an attempt to assassinate an Israeli peace negotiator at Waterloo Station. The unidentified male and female officers prevented the attempt to push negotiator Iacov Levi in front of a train and detained the attacker who is thought to be a member of a right wing Zionist group opposed to any form of Palestinian state.”

It was from ITN news, so far so good, had it been the BBC they could have recognised me. For most of the action I was facing away from the camera. Why do people have to film everything? I suppose they then sell it for a quick buck. We live in a society which is incredibly sick as far as money is concerned, a large percentage of them would do almost anything for money.

The other two arrived. “At least they haven’t identified me,” I said with relief.

“Don’t bet on it,” said Brown.

I felt a coldness run down my spine. “Why should my name come up—they thought it was two Special Branch officers.”

“Because sooner or later someone will recognise you and sell it to the tabloids. Let’s face it, ‘Scottish noblewoman and haggis farmer foils international assassin,’ has a nice ring about it.”

“Haggis farmer?” said Simon with eyebrows looking to go into orbit round his head.

“I’ll tell you later,” I blushed. Brown laughed, the bastard.

“So what do we do?”

“Lie low for a few days, don’t talk to strangers, that sort of thing.”

“But it’s Christmas in a week’s time,” I complained.

“Shouldn’t have got involved then, should you?”

“What and let some poor old chap be pushed to his death?”

He shrugged. “Everything has consequences.”

They seem to for me. “So how long before you identify the other members of the gang and arrest them?”

“How long’s a piece of string?”

“You’re a lot of help.”

“Sorry, just doing my job and it’s not like they’ll be stood around waiting for us to grab them.”

Trust my luck, I do something good, or I thought so as doubtless did Mr Levi, and now I’m being punished for it.

“Won’t they be looking for me in London, not Portsmouth?”

“If your real iden’ity comes up, they won’t.”

“But why should they be looking to hunt her down? This is Great Britain, we don’t go round murdering each other every five minutes and most of us would intervene if we saw someone about to push someone else in front of a train. A bunch of fanatics can’t kill sixty million of us.”

Simon was doing his best to make things sound less horrible.

“They don’t need to Mist—um—Lord Cameron, just your wife.”

“But if they think she’s a policewoman they won’t will they?”

“I thought we just considered that, if someone from the university recognises her and sees a chance to make some money; who knows what could happen.”

“Bloody hell, can’t you control anything?” said Simon loudly. “Most powerful nation on earth can’t stop...”

“We’re operating here with the courtesy of your government so can only do certain things—there are protocols for these things ya know.”

“I’m sure there are, Mr Brown, useless but there all the same.”

“Hey, this a free country...”

I fell about laughing.

“What’s so funny?” asked our visitor.

“Free country—compared to Saudi Arabia, it probably is, but nowhere is free, Mr Brown.”

“That’s the price of having a secure freedom, you have to make sacrifices.”

“I don’t see that as a trade off for surrendering our rights, it may not be as bad as America, but these days most places are like police states.”

“Lady Cameron, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

“Platitudes by eighteenth century Irish politicians mean very little.”

“Hang on, Thomas Jefferson said it.”

“No he didn’t, it was said by every Tom, Dick and Harry but the original is based on something by some Irishman called John Philpott Curran about 1790.”

“I think I’m more likely to know about US history than you, with respect.”

“With or without respect, you’d still be wrong.” Mind you, the only reason I knew it was because it came up in one of Danielle’s homework exercises and I had to help her find it. She didn’t realise you could do searches for quotations. You can google just about anything.

He glared at me. “Danielle, d’you remember the quotation about liberty and eternal vigilance?”

She stopped and thought for a moment, “Some Irish politician yonks ago, can’t like, remember his name.

“Philpott Curran or something similar.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

Brown glared again. I should have put some money on it but all that would do would be to embarrass him further and although he shouldn’t be operating at all in what is a foreign country, he might be the only chance of catching the rest of the gang. So I need to keep him on board. I hope his spying activities are better than his history studies.

“So what do we do next?” I said appearing to hand the initiative back to him.

“You sure you’ve not had any training in this business?”

“No, course not.” I blushed again.

“She’s a natural born killer,” threw in Simon.

“I’d have said she saves more lives than takes them, Mr Levi being the latest in a long line of them.” He didn’t find Simon’s comment very helpful. Then again, neither did I.

“You’re gonna need to be extra vigilant about everyone who comes near here, especially if you don’t know them.”

“It’s Christmas, half of Amazon’s worldwide output will be coming here in the next week, plus Tesco, Waitrose and various other supermarket deliveries. I have twelve children, Mr Brown.”

“Don’t do anything by halves do ya?”

“Meaning?”

“Well one or two kids are enough for most people.”

“All of mine needed homes or help or both.”

“You’re a regular girl scout, ain’tcha?”

“Is that a criticism?”

“Hell no, it’s a compliment, shows you’re ready for anything.”

“I have things to do Mr Brown, so if you don’t mind I’d like to get on with them.”

“Okay, I’ll be in touch if we apprehend any of them.”

“Mummy, they know it’s you—the papers,” Danni called again.

“It’s hit the environmental oscillator, has it?” said Brown.

“Looks like.”

“Okay, keep a low profile and consider a hidey hole if you have one.”

“A castle in Scotland any good?” I replied as a throwaway, it was the last place I’d want to go in December.”

“Didn’t you have some trouble there before?”

“That was against someone more organised than few loonies from the Middle East.”

“Don’t underestimate them, they call themselves the Siqariqim after the first century fanatics who carried daggers and stabbed Romans or their friends when they got a chance. These days they carry more than daggers in their cloaks.”

“I’ll be careful.” I promised thinking to forget it as soon as he’s gone.

We stood talking at the door for a few moments I saw a flash in the distance and Brown fell back into the house bleeding from the chest.