Chapter 2
They had the weekend to settle in and explore the farm and surrounding area. There were two pubs in the village; The Three Horseshoes provided them with a very tasty Saturday evening meal and The White Heart supplied their Sunday lunch. Both pubs were old fashioned, oak beamed and full of character and Annie loved them. Ray didn’t seem to notice the décor but readily explored the range of whisky’s on offer at each hostelry.
The local people frequented the pubs and it was too early in the season for them to be over-run with tourists. Annie made conversation with a young couple who lived just outside the village. The husband was called Geraint and had been married to Lowri for six years. They ran a small dairy farm.
“There no money in it.” Said Geraint “But I grew up with it and I wouldn’t know what else to do.” He laughed in an easy way. Annie made a mental note. He was stable, physically strong and clearly loyal to his way of life. From a socio-economic point of view, the couple were clearly used to coping with relative hardship. Throughout their discussion, Annie also made the assessment that Geraint had come to terms with the fact that ‘the government’ couldn’t be relied on to help him so he and Lowri relied on their own resources to survive. A good couple to have around in a crisis. She would start a file on them when she got back to the farm.
Ray had made some small talk on the subject of rugby and football and that clearly sealed the cover story of him and Annie being a typical married couple. Annie did most of the talking and Ray chipped in with the bits he was interested in.
Lowri had demonstrated a high level of organizational skills throughout their conversation and Annie felt that she would certainly be an asset to any emergency team. Once again, a mental note was made ready to type up later.
Back at home, Annie made them both a cup of tea. Ray took his with milk and four sugars. She hadn’t bothered to mention how dangerous this amount of sugar could be to his health. After the argument they had, had over his smoking, she decided to keep shtum. She had, however, noticed that he had taken to smoking outside the back door and the incident had not been mentioned again.
“Did you get any material that you could use for your profiling?” He asked as she handed him his mug of tea.
“Quite a bit, actually.” She replied “Geraint and Lowri could be very useful in a crisis. They have skills that would be of value and they know how to survive. Lowri, in particular, has an organized and logical brain function. She could easily take a role of allocating food and keeping records of stocks. Geraint has a huge amount of practical knowledge of farming practice and food generation. He could easily manage a team of workers.”
Ray looked a little worried. He licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak. Annie knew what he was going to say.
“The secure computer systems are in the safe room. Are we going to go and explore it? You’ll need to work down there to send your reports to headquarters.”
Up until now, Annie had shown no interest in visiting the ‘bunker’, as she called it. Ray suspected that she may be afraid. He knew that, as an agent, she had been confined to laboratories and offices, testing people’s mental states and profiling persons of interest. She hadn’t worked at the rough end of the job and he had been warned that although she had been taught to shoot, she hadn’t any experience of handling a firearm in high pressure situations.
Ray’s stock of guns was stored away in a secure gun cabinet in the safe room. He had brought them in whilst Annie was out exploring the farm. His favourite sidearm was Glock 19. Its polymer frame made it light and easily concealed. It fired 17 rounds and it was a limited edition. He had been allocated it when he worked in Darfur with the SAS and CIA on a duel mission. Although he had been transferred to MI5, he had been allowed to keep his weapons under special license due to the nature of his work.
He had also brought with him two FN10 Tactical rifles that could fire off 15 to 20 rounds per second. Great if you’ve got an angry mob coming at you.
Annie sat sipping her hot, tea. She hadn’t answered him but he could see that she was thinking about what to say.
“It’s quite nice down there.” He ventured. “Comfortable chairs, beds …” before he could get another word out, she interrupted.
“How many beds” her tone was sharp.
“Four” He said, in what he hoped was a reassuring voice. “There’s also a separate sitting area with a two large sofas and an easy chair.” He was getting into his stride now, trying to excite her about the comfortable surroundings she would find herself in if she went down to the safe room.
“Oh and on one wall there’s a big screen that is linked up to a camera outside so that it looks like we’re looking out a window.” He saw her face begin to take on a curious expression.
“Is there a proper bathroom?” She asked, moving forward on her chair and unfolding her arms that had been hugging her body.
“Of course there is. There’s a toilet, wash hand basin and shower.” He stood up and keeping his voice gentle, he said “Come and see it with me.”
Annie gave a sigh and followed him along the corridor between the lounge and the dining room to the solid wooden door. It looked like all of the other doors along the corridor and at first glance, she may have mistaken it for a broom closet. Ray swiftly turned the key in the lock. The open door revealed the stone steps that took them down to what had been the cellar, deep below the farmhouse. A light came on at the bottom of the steps, illuminating a heavy grey, metal door. She was conscious of her training shoes hitting each step as she descended. She felt like she was walking on sandpaper. The steps had been coated with a not slip paint.
The door at the bottom of the stairs was heavy and very thick. The locking mechanism was complicated and consisted of a range of levers and handles. It was obviously a blast door. Annie shuddered. She tried desperately not to think about why they would need such a door.
Just inside the door was an empty corridor with white tiles on the walls, a drain in the center of the floor and two shower heads.
“What’s this? The gas chamber?” Her dark humor belayed her sense of panic at being so deep underground.
Ray remained patient. “No, it’s a decontamination room.”
At the end of this short corridor was another solid door with a spy hole in it. The spy hole was made of very thick glass. Once opened, Annie and Ray entered the main area of the underground shelter. She was pleasantly surprised at what she saw.
The room was quite large with bright daylight bulbs, giving a feeling of being above ground rather than below it. Just as Ray had described, there was a flat screen fitted into the wall on one side and she could see the view from the kitchen door, looking across the yard to the animal pens. Ray deftly clicked a computer mouse and now she could see the view from the front of the house, showing the fields and beyond. Another click brought the sight of the entrance to the farm and the farm track. It really was like a real window on the world around them.
“Wow! Said Annie.
A seating area, over to her left consisted on three red leather, Chesterfield sofas, set out in a horseshoe shape. In the center was a large, solid wood coffee table. In the corner stood a large wooden plant holder with an artificial plant in it. The plant was very lifelike and gave the area sense of homeliness.
Behind one of the sofas was a bookcase attached to the wall. It was full of books on survival, medicine, farming and other topics. Annie was drawn to the books.
“Looks like we’re preparing for something big” She pulled a book from the shelf and began to flick through it.
Ray wandered over to her and peeked over her shoulder. Annie was looking at the chapter on the psychological effects of a major disaster.
“I hate it when people read over my shoulder.” She said and Ray quickly moved away.
“Come and look at the bathroom.” Annie snapped the book shut but kept hold of it. She intended to read this later but she followed Ray into a bathroom that was situated just through a door off the main room.
Sand coloured tiles covered the walls and the brilliant white bathroom suite shone in the glare of the overhead light. There was a large shower cubicle, complete with a full glass shelf of toiletries. A unit in the corner held six neatly folded towels and a floor to ceiling cupboard contained a large supply of toilet rolls, soap toothpaste, disinfectant and bleach.
“Someone’s been shopping.” Annie said. She felt like she was in a hotel bathroom. “There’s been a lot of money spent on this set up” She turned to Ray “But how is the power generated for it?”
Ray smiled at her. Clearly he was fully aware of the power source and he enjoyed it when he knew more about things that her. “Typical man.” Thought Annie.
“We have hydroelectric power generated by the stream outside. There are the wind turbines up on the hill and then we have the solar panels on the roof.” He looked pleased with himself. She half expected him to say ‘next question.’
He guided her back into the corridor that led to the bedroom. They passed a cupboard on the left, which he opened with a flourish.
“Here we have our battery bank and if all else fails, we have a generator.” He was well into his pompous flow now. “The generator is powered by bio-diesel which is stored in a separate room by the rear exit.” He marched past her, through the small room which housed four bunk beds, to the very end door. There was a final room that contained barrels of bio-diesel, boxes of dried meals, and at the end, a ladder which lead to a hatch at the top.
“That hatch leads to the outside world. You never have an underground bunker without two exits just in case the main exit is compromised.”
Annie still looked concerned and he could see that her brain was functioning like a computer. Analyzing what she had seen.
“Why go to all of this trouble for only two people? This place could easily house a dozen people. If something happens, how can we sit here safe knowing that there are other people that we could have helped?” Her voice had gone up and octave and Ray began to understand her panic.
He wandered over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. His face showed sympathy for her thoughts.
“It’s normal to feel like this…” The words had hardly left his lips when she shrugged his hands away and rounded on him. Her face was dark with anger.
“Don’t tell me what’s ‘normal’! I know its normal! I’m a damned Psychologist, for Christ’s sake!” Her eyes were blazing. Annie felt like he was patronizing her.
Ray stood completely still with confusion on his face. This damned woman showed vulnerability and then when he went to comfort her, she bit him on the arse.
“Fuck you.” He said and stormed off, out through decontamination area and up the stairs to the house above.
She was hot on his heels, screaming like a banshee.
“Don’t you walk away from me!” She took the steps two at a time. “Come back here!” As she got to the lounge door, she saw his back as he disappeared out of the kitchen door. She was running now, out into the farmyard. She caught up with him by the farm’s Range Rover. He was attempting to unlock the driver side door.
“So you’re running away?” She jeered at him. “Don’t you think we need to talk about this?
He stopped with the keys in the car door. His back was still turned towards her.
“Talk? Yes.” He said “Scream? No” He waited for her to answer before he had any intention of turning around. His wide shoulders were set in a resolute manner and Annie knew that he was angry.
She put her hands up in a defensive manner. She moved her eyes heavenward as though she was dealing with a petulant child.
“Okay, okay. So, let’s talk” Locking the car, Ray turned around and walked past her into the house.
Annie stood for a moment in thought. She had a strange feeling that he had just won something but she wasn’t sure what.
They had talked about their fears and theories of what was going to happen until well after midnight. They had both decided that a pandemic was the most likely outcome. Probably a flu virus that was resistant to current drugs.
Between them, a bottle of Scotch had been drunk and neither of them were too steady on their feet as they crawled up the stairs. Ray had watched from behind as her round bottom had swayed from side to side on her assent up the staircase. He wanted nothing more to reach out and grab it but, even in his drunken state, he knew that it would be a very bad move.