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The Company
Time: June 25, 2010 (wee hours).
Place: Belfast, Northern Ireland, U.K.
Last Event: Attack on Vinnie's place.
With Anabel warning of sirens in the distance, the Agents know that they have about five minutes before the police arrive in response to the shootout at Vinnie's house and the ensuing fight in the street. Anabel, Jili, Qoqa, Vinnie, and Wen hastily message each other via Company phone to coordinate their exit. The plan is to consolidate the team, tell Paul a credible story about how they all know each other, and convince him to leave with them. All six can then depart in Paul and Vinnie's cars, which Vinnie has kept tuned up. The cops aren't the biggest problem, though – highest priority is evading the intelligence or security professionals who were operating the surveillance van and helicopter that Paul and Vinnie noticed, the likes of whom could doubtless manipulate the local police.
An obstacle to all this is convincing Paul to go along with the plan. Fortunately, the Agents dreamed up something the day they were assigned to the surveillance operation: They're officers of a new global investigative bureau that works in parallel with Interpol – "Interpol for the field," "UN police force," or something similar – and that's backed by powerful people worldwide who feel that such a thing is necessary because Interpol often identifies criminals that nobody's police are willing or able to collar. This agency, being a secret from most of the world's police services, recruits on the sly. Now it's Paul's turn.
In short, the plan is to tell Paul something close to the truth, leaving out only the Company's name and specifics.
Given that Paul seems to trust Vinnie the most, Vinnie gets tapped to do the talking. He puts away his phone, turns to Paul, and gives him the 30-second version that starts with "It's a long story . . .," continues with ". . . we want you . . .," and ends with ". . . but right now, it's time to move." Paul listens and then agrees to go along with the group for at least as long as it takes to lose the sirens and the helicopter – and to get the longer version of the story. He warns Vinnie that he hasn't agreed to anything more; the situation as Paul sees it is that since he has to leave town anyway, he might as well help out people who've helped him.
With that, the Agents explode into action:
• Anabel grabs clothing and makeup enough for a few simple disguises, as well as her phone, folding knife, and false identity papers. She's no expert at packing quickly or at "cleaning," so she simply focuses on gathering up what she needs as quickly as possible.
• Jili calls Paul right on cue to ask him to help her get ready to leave. Paul's feelings for her trump his shock at the situation, and he agrees. When Paul pulls up at her flat and hops out, she's already tossing cases and laptop bags out the front door. Paul is taken aback at the sight of what's obviously a pile of surveillance gear . . . but the spectacle probably does a lot to sell Vinnie's story.
• Qoqa's place is already "clean" – it's a bit of a compulsion for her. She has her first aid kit, phone, folding knife, and fake ID on her, so she doesn't need to go back for anything. Instead, she drags the unconscious man on Vinnie's front stoop indoors, tosses his pistol in there with him, and then hastily cleans the area where he fell outside. She also wipes down Vinnie's revolver and puts it in the lap of the thug who's out cold in the car parked in front of the house.
• Vinnie leaves his house alone. It's a bloody mess, and "cleaning" it would take a lot longer than a few minutes – and in any event, Qoqa is the pro. After handing his revolver to Qoqa to dispose of, and verifying that he has his phone and falsified documents, he works on getting his car ready. By the time the others arrive, the engine is running, the doors are open, and the boot is empty and ready for bags.
• Wen has a rucksack already packed – she tends to be prepared that way. She tosses her phone and fake documents into the bag, and then does her hasty best to make a mess of her room so that any investigator who checks it out will have difficulty finding useful clues. When Vinnie yells from the street to get moving, she grabs her pack and her spotting scope, and dashes for the car.
As flashing police lights speed into sight a few blocks away, Paul rolls up with Jili. Anabel hops in with them, while Qoqa and Vinnie pop both boots, slam the remaining bags in there, and then slide into Vinnie's car. Wen comes running out and dives into Vinnie's car, too. Even as the police pull up, Paul is racing from the scene with Jili beside him and Anabel in the back seat. Vinnie follows Paul, with both Qoqa and Wen in his back seat.
The policemen are no slouches – they spot two vehicles tearing away from a possible crime scene and decide to give chase. Within the space of a block, a second police car joins the first. In the lead, Paul picks a careful route through the empty Belfast streets. Vinnie follows close behind. The question becomes whether Paul's knowledge of his turf, and his and Vinnie's skills at high-speed driving, are up to the challenge of shaking their dogged pursuers.
The car chase spirals through Belfast, with Paul circling to avoid telegraphing his destination, constantly taking sudden turns to lose the police. Vinnie clings to Paul like glue – but the police seem to be doing a superb job of sticking to Vinnie. Several times, just when it looks as if the Agents have escaped, a police car peels out of some side street or alleyway and resumes the pursuit. Things are extremely tense for several minutes!
Seated in the back of the Vinnie's car, Qoqa and Wen decide to do what they can to discourage pursuit. Their initial attempt involves hurling Wen's garden gnome, which is ineffective. Next, Qoqa starts pulling bottles of vodka and cleaning supplies out of her shoulder bag, handing anything flammable to Wen, whose skills at setting fires are legendary. Wen rigs and chucks various Molotov-cocktail-style incendiaries into the street, distracting the police and briefly setting the bonnet of a police car aflame!
Eventually, the distractions and skillful driving pay off. The flashing police lights fade back and finally drop out of sight. Paul doesn't assume that he's home free, however. He picks a careful route out of the city, calculated to avoid likely police roadblocks. Sure enough, he manages to avoid more police positioned to cut him off.
Paul's destination is at first unclear, but looking at GPS on phones and watching road signs, it soon becomes apparent – especially to Anabel and Qoqa – that he's headed for O'Carroll's pig farm. The Agents are extremely leery of this, reasoning that if any of their pursuers have been keeping tabs on Paul, they might know about the farm, making it unsafe. When confronted with this, Paul simply declares, "They're family. They've been through worse than this with me before." He won't be swayed from his course. Wen calls Chaturvedi to apprise him of the situation, but only reaches his answering machine.
Reluctantly, the Agents agree to go along with Paul's plan. They ask him to call ahead, at least, to make sure that everything is okay and – if possible – to warn the people at the farm that there might be trouble coming. Paul agrees, and after a short-but-cordial-sounding call, simply says, "Right. Now they're expecting us."
A few minutes later, Paul pulls off the highway toward the O'Carroll farm, with Vinnie right behind him. A pipe-smoking, shotgun-toting man in his late 60s waves them through and then shuts the gate behind the cars. Paul mentions that the man is his uncle but doesn't name names. He drives around the farmhouse and past the barn, stopping next to a large shed. In the lights of the shed is an older woman toting a vintage Lanchester submachine gun! Apparently, this is Paul's aunt, also nameless.
Paul indicates that despite the guns, the farm is friendly territory. Everybody gets out, whereupon Paul is greeted with a hug by his aunt and then quickly introduces the Agents as simply "my friends." He goes on to explain that there has been new trouble in Belfast with his "old enemies." At this point, his uncle saunters over, slaps him on the back, and asks Paul what he needs. Paul replies with, "My stuff, a new vehicle, and these two cars disposed of." His uncle and aunt seem to know what he means, and don't react as though his request were any big deal.
Without further ado, Paul heads into the shed, pries up a floorboard, and asks Vinnie to help him lift out a heavy footlocker. The container proves to be filled with shotguns, shells, and maps . . . and a couple of packets of expensive cigarettes, which Paul says he put there on the logic that if he ever needed this junk, he'd take up smoking again and might as well have a good last cigarette. Paul hands around guns and ammo, while his aunt provides food and whiskey to those who want it. When Qoqa and Vinnie ask for knives as well, auntie points them to a collection of old Lee-Enfield bayonets and a sharpening stone.
Once everybody is suitably armed and fortified, talk turns to the next step of the plan. Paul seems entirely fine with leaving Northern Ireland, at least for now, and offers two options: Procuring an antique plane he knows about nearby and flying across the North Channel to Scotland, or simply finding a friendly boat and making the trip that way. While the others discuss this, Wen pulls out her spotting gear and watches the area, while Jili sweeps everybody's possessions and both cars for tracking devices. Jili has no luck – her gear was knocked out of calibration during the car chase. Wen sees nothing of note.
Eventually, everybody agrees that a boat would be simpler and lower-profile. For the short jaunt to the shore, Paul says that it would be best to take one of the old farm trucks. Vinnie checks out the offered vehicle and concludes that while it will do, it won't be winning car chases or pulling stunts. Paul explains that if he and Jili sit in the cab and set out at dawn, with everybody else hidden under feed sacks and similar clutter in the back, nobody will pay it much attention anyway – he and Jili will be just another farm couple heading into town to pick up a few things before their day's work.
The Agents concur, grab their gear, and climb aboard the truck. Paul's aunt and uncle promise that the cars will be permanently disposed of in a crusher run by a friend of theirs, and then conceal Anabel, Qoqa, Vinnie, and Wen under various sacks, tarpaulins, and other junk. With that done, Paul pulls out, Jili sitting next to him in the cab. He stops briefly in the nearest town for Jili to withdraw cash from her Company account at an ATM (the security cameras of which Jili is confident she can easily spot and avoid). After that, Paul drives to a village where he suspects that the group should be able to hitch a ride on a fishing boat.
Paul stops uphill from the wharf so that the Agents can assess the situation. Vinnie doesn't need much time to spot a "fishing boat" that isn't fishing, the crew of which consists of a couple of thuggish-looking fellows passing around a whiskey bottle several hours before noon. He doesn't like the look of them, which makes them prime candidates for bribery and a no-questions-asked charter. Anabel unbuttons her blouse a little and struts over to them. Before long, she has a deal: For £1,700 cash – and a promise that Anabel will sit in the captain's lap – these lads will ferry a group of six over to Scotland on a self-evidently criminal errand.
When Anabel's five friends show up with kitbags full of shotguns and what the fishermen suspect is other contraband – possibly "drugs for some rave in Glasgow" – they're asked to stow the gear out of reach of everybody aboard, so that no one gets shot. The Agents reluctantly agree. After waiting for a few minutes for Qoqa to "clean" the truck, it's time to get under way.
The short voyage is uneventful. Aside from a little groping of Anabel and gawking at the other women, the fishermen aren't all that badly behaved. "No questions asked" proves to be too much to hope for, though – the lads aren't especially professional, and can't resist prying. Anabel simply confirms their suspicions that this is about party drugs, identifying Qoqa as "the chemist." Jili, who always travels prepared for a rave, even has some samples on her. While this is nothing but E, Qoqa terrifies the fishermen by lying that the samples are mephedrone ("meow"), which of course the yellow press has linked to a self-inflicted penis amputation.
On reaching the Scots shore, the fishermen let their passengers off a ways up the coast from a village, out of sight of the locals. Anabel buys their silence with cash, a promise of regular business if all goes well, and a hint that the future holds more than sitting on laps. The lads pull away and head back across.
As soon as the boat is out of sight, Wen calls Chaturvedi and gives a situation report. The handler makes it clear that he's worried, and fears that the Agents' pursuers have nothing to do with Paul but in fact are CIA, FSB, MI6, or Mossad intelligence personnel on the team's trail as a consequence of past operations. When Wen tells Chaturvedi that the group has Paul, he's happy to hear it, but warns her to keep a low profile while he checks in with his superiors on this whole state of affairs.
After Wen ends her call and lets her associates know the situation, the whole gang huddles to discuss the next step. The decision is to go completely low-tech: Weight down the guns and all of Jili's surveillance gear, chuck the lot into the Irish sea, hike over to Stranraer for bikes and camping gear, and then take a few weeks to cycle down to the Channel without using phones, radios, or anything else that can be traced. This should be at least somewhat effective against spooks relying on electronic intercepts and expecting a fast-moving escape plan.
Paul and Qoqa immediately get to work, disassembling and wiping down the group's gear. Wearing gloves, Wen fills cases with stones and gun barrels with sand, and then heaves each item as far out to sea as she can manage. The other three stand watch. However, nobody from the village shows up to witness these deeds.
Once that's done, it's time to leave. The six head for Stranraer on foot. Rather than use the roads, they cut across hill and field, using cover as best they can. By afternoon, the town of Stranraer is in sight. The group waits until there's nobody in sight and then gets on the road, approaching the community in the guise of clueless tourists.