The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3172 by Angharad Copyright© 2017 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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Emerging from the toilet, red eyed and queasy, I was led to a seat and cuppa placed in my hand. All I could think was that it was so good that none of the children were with me today.

The police were exultant, they’d caught the whole gang, though two were in hospital, one was dead and the decoy had been caught emerging from the far side of the woodland, the apprehension being assisted by the helicopter.

“Could somebody please tell me just what is going on?” I asked a huddle of senior coppers.

“You don’t know do you?” said the original one in a suit.

I rolled my eyes, how do these men get to senior rank—for stating the obvious? “If I knew, I would not be asking, would I? I’m only a poor professor so don’t have your huge brain,” I said sarcastically, adding, “Don’t tell me, Theresa may is trying to stop me voting against her at the election?”

“We did save your life, you know.”

“And how did you do that? It was all over by the time you arrived, sure shot Amy had popped the leader of the gang and I’d disabled the other two.”

“You didn’t shoot the one did you?”

“With no gun that would have been difficult. He was shot by the boss when I pulled him across in front of me to stop him shooting me. The other bloke ran into a branch, caught him in the face.”

“Don’t tell me, you happened to be holding it at the time, pro-fessor.”

“I might have been, why?”

“They suspect he has a fractured skull.”

“He must have run into it very fast then.”

“Mustn’t he.”

“How come everyone but me knew there was going to be an attempt to kill or abduct me?”

“You obviously read the wrong newspapers.” He said with great satisfaction, “I’d have thought a pro-fessor would have been aware of something going down.”

“How might that be?”

“Your huge brain—you mean it wasn’t aware of all this but me, just a poor copper, underpaid and over worked protecting people like you, was.”

“Yeah, don’t tell me you read PPE at Oxford.”

“Geography actually and it was Birmingham.”

“So you don’t get lost too often then—being a geographer?”

“Not too often. But then as a biologist you don’t seem to know much about life, do you?”

“I’m very good at classification of species—now which one would you fit into...”

“Touché Professor, shall we make a truce as we’re both nominally on the same side?”

“I just want to know what happened today and why I had an undercover agent on my course?”

“That was done quietly, we needed to get them the first time and had we told you, you might have refused to cooperate, or done your own thing and we’d have had three bodies to clear up.”

“Don’t forget the woman.”

“Okay, four bodies.” I smiled an entirely false smile at him by way of reply. “We’ve been shadowing this group for some months. That businessman who was shot in Dorset, was one of their attempts where it went wrong.”

“The police said it was a burglary that went wrong,” I said indignantly.

“We’re hardly going to give the game away are we?”

“So you were supporting the mob up the road then?”

He looked blankly. “I thought you did geography, I seem to have lost you already---MI5—I presume Amy is a spook.”

“I can’t tell you anything about that.”

“Okay, so she is. So they were tracking them and you acted as the cavalry to round up the Indians afterwards. So why were they after me?”

“Ransom, though the last person they took was killed before the demand was received. They got away with two million.”

“It might have been nice to know I was at risk, what about my children?”

“As we know it, you were the primary target, not the children.”

“So they were just gangsters then?”

“Uh not quite...”

“There’s not a Russian connection?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

“So how do I know another squad of bandits doesn’t try again and this time succeed?”

“I’m afraid you don’t so we would advise a minder, it’s not as if you can’t afford it.”

“Can he be armed?”

“You know that isn’t possible.”

“So what’s the point?”

“The bad guys would have to shoot two of you, it takes longer, more noise and so on.”

“Don’t tell me when the seconds count...”

He stood up straight and pushed his chest out.

“You’re only minutes away.”

“Absolutely,” he beamed until he processed what I’d said. “We were here in time.”

“Only because two women disabled the main actors.”

“We had to wait for the signal or it would have warned them off.”

“It cost someone’s life, was it worth it?”

“You can take that attitude because you’re alive. Without our help you could be already dead instead of him.”

I made a statement and was allowed to drive home, a tracking device was removed from my car which the bad guys had put there, hence they knew where I was, which save me asking that question given it wasn’t our first choice site.

I called Diane and told her I wouldn’t be in as an attempt had been made on my life—well the leader tried to shoot me. She was quite upset, presumably because she wouldn’t be able to borrow my villa again. Am I getting a touch cynical? Nah, I’ve always been so. You learn early when you give out signs of being the wrong gender in childhood and those who should be protecting you tease or denigrate you for being different. Be humiliated often enough and you learn to conceal things including your contempt for some people.

I was home an hour later and went in and showered. I so wanted Si here to hold me so I could go all girly and deal with the day. Instead I got a text from him. ‘Cyber attack, won’t be home tonite. S x’ Absolutely bloody typical—ot oh, a text from Diane, what does she want?

‘Keep off the net system under attack by hackers.’

I was to learn later that the NHS also came under attack and so did places all over the world, including Russia—which was from where I thought this usually emanates. I cannot understand the mentality of so many people but especially those who carry out cyber crime. They are simply criminals but the chances of catching them is very slight and when they do, all that happens is they spend a few months in prison, probably learn a few more tricks and start up again.

Personally, I’d let them have a computer—dropped from the top of the Spinnaker Tower on top of them—it would be a fitting tribute to their contempt of the rest of us.