Chapter 14

We went now to the Officers Mess where we were allowed to freshen up. We were then taken into the mess hall where a long table was set for dinner. The Major told us that we would be joined by some of the officers and invited NCO’s that were in the camp at the moment. “Many of these men have served more than one rotation overseas and all had been down that village street so there may be some comments about it later” he said, with a wicked grin on his face.

We made ourselves comfortable and then the doors opened and about twenty of the hunkiest guys you would ever see came in. None had any insignia on their fatigues but one, an older man, came up to the Major and shook his hand, saying “a little bird has whispered that you have something for us that will change our lives forever.” The Major just smiled and told him that he would see what the future holds after dinner.

The dinner was an interesting affair as they were quite taken with having six beauties gracing their table, especially as Wendy and I also graced some of their lockers as pin-ups. When we had eaten the Armourer took to his feet and proposed a toast to the Queen. When we had all sat down again he stayed standing and said “Ladies and Gentlemen. I am about to show you all the film of your little walk in the village today, it will be on this big TV in the corner so I ask you if you could all turn your chairs so you can see it easily.” When we had rearranged ourselves he then said “Colonel, how many targets are there in the village?” The Colonel said there were a hundred and twenty five in total but usually there were only about forty or fifty used in a training session.

The Armourer then said that what he was going to show us may be some sort of record then and the screen lit up with six girls, looking stupid in webbing belts over their dresses; standing at the starting line. The expected sniggers from the hardened soldiers were soon silenced as the film proceeded. We did our thing walking through the village. On occasion I heard muttered oaths from the soldiers. When we reached the finishing line the soldiers all clapped and we looked very embarrassed. The Major then told the soldiers that we had put paid to all of the hundred and twenty five targets that the village had, including the forty five that were civilians. He then told them that we had, between us, expended fifty seven rifle bullets and a hundred and two pistol rounds. Wendy looked a bit sheepish and said that she had set the rifle to three-shot bursts and was sorry she had wasted a few.

The Colonel then asked the one question that needed no answer as far as I was concerned – “Why did you kill the civilians?” The Major answered for us, saying “Five of these girls have all been subject to a very advanced brainwashing regime. Four of them had not seen or handled a military weapon before today and the other two are serving police. The brainwashing has made them into assassins and any target to them is just a target. In that village street there were no second thoughts, no regrets and no hesitation – a target popped up and was shot at. Now, before you ask if we can train our men to be so good I have to say that, so far, all those who have reached this level of competence have had to become female to do so and I am not sure yet if that is a prerequisite for achieving the skills – any volunteers?” There was general, if strained, laughter among the troops at this.

The next day the four girls were going to be taken to Kent with the Major to see if he could come up with any answers about their code words. Before they left we were sitting around the kitchen table and I pulled out a notepad with four boys names on it. I said that there had been four other TG girls who had been operated on and all had been subject to the same training that they had. I said that I would give them each name slowly and asked them if they could recall knowing the boy, or if they knew the boy after they had been made into a girl.

The first name drew blank looks from all. The second had Wanda thinking carefully before saying that he had been at school when she was there but a year ahead. She said that he had always been considered a fag by the other boys but had managed to get to finish the final year. She had seen him at one of the gay clubs she had been to and had called himself Tamsin at that time. The chief was busy writing this down. The third name had Jean lifting her eyebrows and she said the he had been a strong weight-lifter but had disappeared a year or so back. She said that everyone called him two-ton Tess behind his back as most thought he was well gay.

The fourth name made Valerie gasp. When I looked at her she said that she had met him a few times on the streets. He was a convincing girl at the time and she called herself Serena. She had disappeared but Valerie said that two days before she had been approached, she had been in Liverpool and had seen Serenas’ picture in the newspaper. It was a story about a shooting and a fire at an import-export company. She said that the story was that Serena had shot the husband, wife and son who ran the business before setting the place alight and then shooting herself in the head. It was thought to be a murder/suicide due to a love triangle as no other reasons could be found. The chief asked Valerie what the company dealt in and was told that the main imports were sunbeds.

Wendy and I looked at each other thinking the same words –‘Tidy up’. No doubt the main reason for the four deaths was destroying the sales records. The chief got on the phone to a friend in the Liverpool force to ask if he could get all the case notes and records of the event as it may be useful in an on-going national case. The girls all then gave us hugs and said that they were looking forward to living in the flats with us and left with the Major. The chief had a car come for him and he went off, thanking us for an interesting, if frightening, experience and the extra information which may help him track the unknown girls, now just three strong. Wendy and I were picked up in a Land Rover driven by the Armourer who was quite jovial on the drive to the camp, saying that he wished that he could have photographed the looks on the soldier’s faces as they watched the film last night.

Today we were to start our two weeks of unarmed combat training. Wendy was pretty good at it as she had been on plenty of police courses. I had a basic knowledge, or so I thought. I found out that ‘comb’ on my record was more than hairdressing after I had nearly killed the instructor. After this I was only allowed to go up against guys who were so heavily padded it was amazing they could still move around.

After that first day Wendy stayed with the course and I was sent off to the Brecon Beacons with a couple of very experienced soldiers to see if I had picked up any more skills that I did not yet know I had. It was a good few days in the wild, trying to stay out of sight and living off the land. I found out that although I could kill a rabbit with a .22 I had absolutely no idea of how to skin, gut and cook it. On the fourth day the guys told me I was on my own and needed to be back in Hereford in two days. They were then choppered out, leaving me with just the camo fatigues on my back and the instruction that I could do anything except break the law or try to borrow money.

It was an interesting couple of days, but I did walk into the gates of the camp within the time frame. The fact that I did so with my hair perfect and wearing a designer dress and heels after getting out of a vintage Jaguar raised the eyebrows of the guards. I gave the driver a farewell kiss and picked up a plastic bag from behind the seats. I gave the bag to the officer in charge and asked him if he could take care of the fatigues it contained. When he started winding up to give me a blast one of the other guards just said the name of the combat instructor I had sent to hospital and he quickly calmed himself. I just said that us girls have a few survival skills none of the SAS were taught.

I was taken to the unarmed combat building where I was told that Wendy was now very good. After she had finished her session and showered I waited for her to put on her own dress and heels as we were now deemed to have finished our course, some days early. A corporal escorted us to the main administration building where we were shown into the office of the commanding officer. He was a grizzled veteran who we had not met before and was quite charming, in a menacing way. He ordered up tea and we sat in the only easy chairs in the camp while he looked at our records.

Finally he put the stack of files down and said “Ladies, you have given this camp quite a shake up over the last couple of weeks. Wendy, I know you have not been subjected to any brainwashing but you are an exceptional person in that you would qualify for the try-out period to join the Regiment. Your shooting and unarmed combat skills put you in the top twenty percent of our usual recruits. Bethany, I have to say that if I had not been told that all of these results were verified I would have thought that it may be April the first. I have viewed the film of the six of you in the village and I must say that I have never seen such skill and reactions from any soldier I have had the pleasure to command. Should you visit us again, we will issue the two of you with a full kit, including the beret, to wear while you are on site. I thank you for showing us what we may be up against if this brainwashing monster is not apprehended; I don’t think even the Regiment could go up against twenty or thirty of you without resorting to heavy artillery.”

He shook our hands and called up his personal driver to take us back to the house where we packed up our bags and I drove us back to London. When we arrived I phoned the agency to tell them we were back and they said that there was a problem with the shoot. The other models had all been in Spain for a shoot and had all come down with stomach problems and were unable to go off again for a while. I was told that they could do a week of shooting in a studio but needed to come up with four more models as soon as they could and did I know any more good looking girls who would be available on short notice?

I told them I would ring back and the called the chief to see if the TG four were able to be freed to take on a modelling job, perhaps going overseas. An hour later he rang and said that the Major had finished with them, after hopefully working out the code problem and that they would be delivered to the flats in a couple of days, their passports would follow in about a week. I thanked him and rang the agency to tell them I would bring four girls into the studio to do a test shoot in three days time.

I took my master keys and we had a look in the other flats, seeing that all had been cleaned thoroughly and the old refrigerator which had been bullet damaged when Ritchie had been shot had been replaced by a shiny new one. I thought that we had better leave this flat empty for the moment and we made up beds in two of the others. I hoped that the four girls would take to the modelling as it would keep them firmly within our view. I knew that the training they had received would give them the style and grace that I had been given so I thought that all would be well.

Marianne G 2020