Antibodies 13

© Copyright BG Taff

Characters.
Verna Spiro Type one Virus
Nana Bev, Interplanetary prospector.
Jamie, Bev’s younger prospecting Partner.
Dennis Potter Freight manager and old friend of Beverly’s.
Jack Godfrey Yard foreman and walking boss.
Charlotte and Lucy - Jamie’s younger dancing & clubbing friends.
Rose and Violet. Cis-girl friends of Jamie.
Dr Williams Virologist
Jennifer Jamie’s girlfriend. (Sleeping partner.)

Chapter 13

While waiting for Dr Williams to show her face, I turned to the security guard and because the police had not yet arrived, we were alone in the reception foyer. Firstly, I managed to persuade him to run through any security material he had for the whole site and not just the laboratory block. Eventually we managed to get a view of a craft that was definitely suspect. It had been parked at the far end of the parking area and we estimated it had moved towards the block at approximately when Jamie had been kidnapped.

When it moved towards the laboratory block we managed to get a vague image of the only driver at the control console then the craft disappeared out of sight from the camera. It had obviously located outside the entrance where the kidnappers had attacked the weekend guard and tied him up as they stretchered the unconscious Jamie out of the main front door.

I could not believe they had been so quick and so brazen but the building was virtually deserted at an early time on a Sunday morning. The guard tried adjusting the remote car-park camera and eventually got a better image of the rear of the craft and we were fairly certain we might have had half of the registration plate. I turned to the guard and advised him.

“When the police arrive, don’t tell them that I’ve got the registration call sign. I’m not staying around here until they turn up. Just tell them I’ve gone searching for them.”

I gave the guard my address but I wasn’t going home, I was going to Dennis’s freight depot to use Digger. There was no knowing where the gang had gone but my suspicions were confirmed when I decided to narrow my search down to the local mosques.

The kidnappers of the UN volunteers were known to be a jihadist organisation so the obvious place to start was their local ‘command-and-control’ centres. This was usually, well almost invariably, a mosque but the city had about a dozen mosques and I had no idea which ones were the radical ones.

One of the benefits of being a spaceship captain and an owner-commander of my own ship meant that I was licensed to travel freely to all parts of any country where I had visa permissions and license validity.
Ordinary citizens were bound by strict traffic and altitude controls rather like the old days when private aircraft were restricted to zones in the sky where they would not interfere with commercial or military traffic.

In my home country, these limits were an altitude of one thousand metres and in the free flight zones and no more than 50 kilometres outside national sea borders. It meant that any ordinary private craft was quite severely restricted and those restrictions were rigidly enforced be the vast majority of responsible countries.

The jihadist kidnappers were a rogue state in central Africa that was on the verge of being taken to task concerning its piratical behaviour. The fanatics who had hijacked the government were not open to negotiation.

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Having now taken to the sky in Digger I had to deploy my powerful minerology cameras to locate the mosques and examine the traffic immediately close to their locations. I was looking for white hover vans of the same make as the one we had seen leaving the carpark. Patience was the name of the game but I did at least have a programmable identikit that when programmed to spot a certain type and make, could scan and recognise infinitely faster than the human eye and brain.

Normally I used the scanner to identify likely rock formations or crystal structures from a high altitude then if something looked likely I would zoom in and zoom down to examine a likely prospect.

The same camera was used by various authorities and loaded accordingly to suit each authority’s agendas. Military used them to locate bodies, farmers used them to locate and identify cattle, police used them to locate traffic offenders or getaway cars and so on. All it needed was to load a different programme into the camera.

Normally I used my camera to identify rocks or for centring on cargo loading or landing positions. All I had to do was download a traffic authority programme and as an interplanetary spaceship I automatically had clearance to do so. Within minutes of ascending, I had a programmed, look-down capability and I started cautiously quartering the city.

Call it a nose for stuff, possibly developed from my prospecting activities; but I soon spotted a white craft with registration markings that contained the partial registration of the craft the cameras had detected in the parking lot of the hospital where Jamie was kidnapped. On closing in with my high-res camera I confirmed to myself that this was the likely culprit. I kept my camera tightly focused while phoning Dr Williams at the hospital to report my find.

“Where the hell are you?!” She almost screeched as I heard police sirens wailing discordantly in the background.

“I’m where your bloody security guards should be!”

“You’re required to give a report to the police! You discovered the crime!”

“Never mind that. I think I’ve located the kidnappers.”

“Where?” She almost screamed.

I was about to tell her when some men emerged from the mosque and to my delight, I recognised one as the security guard from the hospital. Immediately I confirmed my find.

“Yes! I’ve definitely located the gang. The security guard was in on it! What sort of security setup are you operating in that bloody hospital?”

“Where!” She screeched again. “Where are you?”

“They’ve just emerged from the Ibrahim Noor mosque on the corner of Dale street and Princess Road.”

“Have they got Jamie?”

I was about to say no when two more men emerged carrying what looked like a long box capable of holding a body.

“It looks like it, two big men have come out struggling with a coffin sized box. The craft has backed up to them and they’re in a high-walled yard, loading it!”

With that, another voice broke through to interrupt my conversation with Dr Williams.

“Who’s that?” I demanded.

“We’re the police. Sit rep please.”

Being a spaceship captain I knew the universal English shorthand that security and armed forces used and I promptly entered their professional nomenclature.

“What callsign?”

“Golf, Bravo, Sierra; Nine, Nine, Nine, Seven, Seven, Zulu.

“Good!” I exclaimed. They’re in a White Lev-craft Reg “; – and I gave the number before recording my own status.

“I am above them in my spacecraft observing them speeding down Princess Road. It looks as though they are not flying yet to avoid attracting attention.”

“Good, stay with them please we are on our way.”

“Are you armed?” I asked.

“Of course. This is deemed a terrorist incident.”

I typed in my co-ordinates and the police craft soon appeared below me. I decided to ignore Dr William’s advice to return to the laboratories and follow the pursuit instead. Keeping in touch with the activities below was a simple task. An interplanetary spaceship has vast spare capacity. Then a dark thought struck me and I called the police again.

“Yes.” They replied promptly.

“Don’t shoot into the Craft.” I advised. “It’s believed to be carrying the kidnap victim.”

“We know. Have you any idea as to why the victim was kidnapped?”

A bone-chilling realisation ran through my mind. The police were not aware who or what Jamie was. I double checked.

“Has the laboratory explained who the victim is?”

There was no time for niceties, now the police had to be told and I explained quickly.

“The kidnap victim is currently one of only two suppliers of medical material to combat the Verna Spiro Virus. Her blood is priceless.”

The silence was deafening as I heard the police digesting the news. Then they spoke.

“We were not advised of that.”

“Fuck!” I cursed audibly before contacting Dr Williams.

“Why weren’t they told?” I demanded to know.

“Communications are not keeping up with developments,” she confessed defensively.

“Did you get that?” I asked the police craft.

A somewhat brittle, angry “Yes!” confirmed their acknowledgement and I could hardly blame the officers. They were heading into what was almost certainly a gunfight and information was vital.

The next communique confirmed that they were leaving the coast and heading over the sea. The police craft confirmed that they had limited jurisdiction and I listened to them calling up the border security patrols. I could detect uncertainty creeping into their voices as they contemplated the kidnapper’s plans. They were checking with the border security about detection ranges and radar performance. Here I was able to help and I enlightened the police.

“Until you have a naval craft on the scene, my lookdown capacity will track the pursuit. There is no ground clutter now and targets are fewer. I’m coming down lower so you can see me.”
There was notable sense of relief in the police reply as they offered their thanks.

“Thanks for your assistance, we are assuming you are a spaceship of some type.”

“Correct; I’m an interplanetary, geological exploration craft. Virtually unlimited range and I note the fugitive is heading west out over the Atlantic. He’s not taking a direct course to central Africa if that’s were we think he might be bound. I can easily keep track of him but I have no entrapment capability.”

“Okay. Please just keep track of the target until we get some decent backup.”

“Any idea when?” I pressed.

“There are two military craft within ten minutes.” They confirmed

This news lifted a weight off my mind and I settled down to an easy pursuit. Then his course became erratic. I could see no reason for the frequent course and speed changes for he could not escape my surveillance. I could only assume he had hopes of somehow shaking me off. It wasn’t going to happen. I was high above him looking down and I now had a radar lock and profile analysis.

I settled down to follow the kidnappers until my comms burst into life again as a naval craft hailed me. After a quick sit-rep he advised me to stay available while they tackled the situation. They wanted me to confirm Jamie’s identity, if or when they rescued her. Relieved to be released of immediate responsibility, I fell back about a nautical mile as the second naval craft appeared and the two military spaceships immediately discussed a recovery plan. I was not made a party to their deliberations except to obey their orders and remain handy.

By now, we had left the coast behind and we were heading out over the open ocean. I began to realise that the kidnappers had obviously planned to rendezvous with some other party because their small domestic hover-van certainly did not have the range to cross the ocean westwards or reach central Africa going south. The naval craft had also realised this and I received a message warning me to look out for any likely craft capable of receiving the fugitive craft.

To this end, I ascended to a much higher altitude and utilised my specialised ‘look-down’ mineral analysis camera to latch onto radar targets that appeared on my radar.

Within another ten minutes, a likely target quickly approached and revealed itself to have an obvious interest in our quarry.

The naval craft instructed me to descend close to the fugitive and keep myself between the fugitive and the interested visitor. Then they advised me of their plan.

“We believe he’s going to try and recover the fugitive craft and hustle it to central Africa.”

“Then why don’t you shoot him down?” I demanded.

“We are not at war.”

“No! But it’s a police action to prevent a kidnapping; an act of piracy even?” I countered.

“Diplomacy is the watchword Captain. There’s still the delicate matter of any surviving UN hostages.”

This sent a stab of hot anger through my guts. My sole interest was Jamie and her safe recovery. I almost swore at the commander of the lead warship but eventually managed to control my anger and slowly descended again to create the obstruction the commander had requested.
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