The Hypogeum Ch. 10-11

The giant sank back and placed an arm around the still protesting Loki, "He's right. We don't know enough yet."

And so, they continued to wait and watch. The following morning, Ranulf had been watching the display, he saw Jonathon Baines rush out for work and a short time later watched as a police car pulled up at the Baines residence. He barked, "Something's wrong!"

Again, all three were watching the screen and could see Alma invite the policemen into the house. A short while after that, they heard the wail of a Siren and could see an ambulance screech to a halt behind the police car. Ranulf was horrified a couple of minutes later as he could only sit and watch impotently as Alma was wheeled from the house on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance. He could see that there was something large embedded in her side. He directed the Watcher to follow the ambulance as it raced away, but it was out of range of the Watcher in just a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Aloysius was furiously kicking the trunk of the tree where they were settled and swearing.

Loki just sat in silence.

They had failed.

They had missed their opportunity to act and had failed before they had even begun. A breeze blew up, rustling the leaves of the trees and they heard voices in the wind, "Be not downcast, the Lady lives. She is in pain and troubled deeply, but she lives. What you saw needed to happen. She is destined for great things. The Lady will walk in the light with gladness in her heart, but she needs to walk in the halls of despair before her journey can truly begin."

Angrily Ranulf shouted, "Fuck! Why didn't you warn us? We could have done something!"

The voices answered in melancholy tones, "Her sadness and loss can not be avoided. It is fated to be. "

The breeze died down and the voices were gone.

Ranulf was raging. The trees had not answered his question. Also, she may have been alive, but she was badly hurt and he could feel daggers of pain in his own heart. He barked out some orders, "Aloysius find out why the police called, although I suspect it's something to do with her husband and his car. Loki, find out where she's been taken."

Both men nodded and then activated their travel stones in order to begin their investigations. Ranulf sat down to wait until their return. He pondered the poor choice of campsite. They had been too far from the house to do anything except wait and watch. They needed to be closer. They needed to be able to take action. But how? They couldn't just take up stations outside the house... Unless... Unless they had a good reason to be there.

A short time later, Loki popped back into view and made his report, "She's gone to Salisbury General Hospital. I stole a cleaner's uniform and a mop and bucket so I could get around. She was taken into theatre," he paused briefly and his eyes were damp, "I overheard the A & E doctors talking. The operation she needs is quite a simple one apparently, so they don't seem overly worried about her getting through it..."

"Well? What is it?"

"I'm afraid, she lost her baby."

Ranulf raised a hand to his mouth, "Oh my God!"

It was at this point that Aloysius returned and completed his report. The Lady's husband was dead. Killed in a road traffic accident on the outskirts of Salisbury. That was why the police had turned up. Ranulf took in all the information and then outlined his thoughts, "Right! We need to keep an eye on her in the hospital. Loki, you know what to do there. Aloysius, you and I are going to check out the council work yard. We need to get some supplies and store that at our place until the Lady's ready to come home."

Loki didn't wait any longer and returned to the Hospital. Aloysius asked, "What do we need?"

"Some shovels, picks and a tent like workmen use when they're digging up the road."

"Okay... Why?"

"Because we're too far away to protect the Lady here, we need to be closer and remain unnoticed," he noticed Aloysius' quizzical expression and continued, "How much notice do you take of council workers digging a hole in the street?"

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Guilt is the source of sorrow, 'tis the fiend, Th' avenging fiend, that follows us behind, With whips and stings." - Nicholas Rowe

Alma came to and blinked. She looked around at her surroundings and it took her a long moment to remember where she was. Taika, who had been watching her declared, "Now you know as much as we do, child."

Alma asked, "No I don't. Why am I so special? What is it about me? I still don't understand why Jonathon and my baby had to die," again she felt a stab of pain in her abdomen.

The old woman noticed the wince of pain and the motion of Alma's hand to her stomach. She sighed, "You have the right of it. Perhaps I should have said that you know all that is needful for you to know right now. Still, the pain you're feeling is not yours, you should at least understand that by now."

Alma thought about it. She thought about everything that the trees and this old woman had shown her. Baphomet and his schemes over the past few thousand years of human history. The men who had murdered her husband. The accident when she lost her baby. The trees. Taika. The three men who were out there now working on her behalf. The pain in her stomach grew even stronger when she thought of the men, and it was especially painful when she pictured the solemn Ranulf in her mind.

Alma had an epiphany.

Taika was entirely correct. She knew what the pain in her stomach was.

It was guilt.

Guilt over the death of her husband. Guilt at the loss of her unborn son. Guilt at the emotions she had felt when she had seen Ranulf swimming in the river. Guilt at her own lack of inhibition when she had joined him in the water. Guilt that even in the face of the loss she had suffered and the attack in her house, she could still think, she could still function. She could go on.

And she thought about the demon Baphomet's schemes, his interference in her life and that of all the humans in the world over the past few thousand years. She thought about what he had done, what he had cost her. Alma never lost the grief in her heart, but another emotion joined it there. Fury! Yes, Alma could think, grieve and function. She could also fight! Baphomet had picked her for an enemy, not the other way around and she was determined to make him rue the day he had.

Taika had been watching Alma and then whispered quietly, "I see you're beginning to understand. The guilt in you should not be there. T'is not your burden, and t'was blinding you to the strength you have inside. The strength that will be the end of Baphomet and all his evil designs."

Alma didn't speak, she just continued to think about everything she had learned and also wondered what else it was that Taika and the Forest had not told her.

The three men were back at their temporary camp just outside Morton Abbas. They had returned there to pick up the signal from the GPS on the car. Loki looked up from the screen of the GPS unit and informed Ranulf and Aloysius, "He's parked up in Mayfield Road in Salisbury."

"What's there?" asked Ranulf, "Do they have a safe house?"

Aloysius just looked mystified and Loki just shrugged, "Only one way to find out."

He pulled out his travel stone and activated it and was surprised to see that he had not moved. Loki pressed the stone again with the same result, before looking in askance at his friends as he shook the stone next to his ear.

"Where did you try to go?" asked Ranulf.

"Salisbury."

"Hmm. Try going to our house and back."

Loki pressed the stone, disappeared and then returned a few seconds later, "Well the stone ain't broke."

Aloysius voiced the question that all were thinking, "So, why couldn't Loki go to Salisbury?"

Ranulf blew out heavily and answered, "Dunno, but I suspect Taika will. Best we head back and see her," he looked around at their camp and continued, "But first, we need to pack up this kit and get it back to our house. No point keeping a watch on the village anymore."

Aloysius immediately started throwing their kit together in a pile ready for transportation back to the New Forest. Loki groaned as he joined in. The giant grinned at Loki's sour face, "You want to play with the toys, you put them away when you're finished."

A short time later, all three men popped into existence at Taika's house in the glade and went inside. They found Taika busy preparing lunch with Alma trying to help, but getting in the way. They were welcomed and told to sit down for food before they got down to business. Taika noted, "Men are always easier to deal with when they have full bellies, child. That be a tip and you might want to make a note of it."

Alma grinned, "I'll be sure to write it down."

The men were amazed at the change in Alma, the last they had seen her, she had been unhappy and in pain and they were gladdened, Ranulf especially, to find her in a lighter mood. Ranulf noted that the grin she gave Taika was lighter than any he had seen previously and the melancholy tinge was gone from her demeanour.

Food finished, they got down to business. Aloysius was the last to finish as usual clearing all of the remaining food from the table... and then he burped loudly, turning bright red with embarrassment.

Everyone laughed at his discomfort and Taika said, "T'is the song sung when the food be good. A compliment it is and I thank you young Aloysius," then she pulled out her pipe, lit it and said in more serious tones, "All right, tell us what you know."

All the detail that they had discovered was laid out, including the inability of the travel stones to take them to Salisbury. "Ah. That be an easy one," the old woman announced, "They've put the wards up."

Alma asked, "The what?"

"Wards, child. Mystical defences," she could see the confusion in Alma's face, "Look, you want to travel to Salisbury in your car and I want to keep you out, so I put a barrier across the road like a tree. But if your travelling by travel stone and I want to keep you out, I'll be using wards. They must have put them in place during the past few weeks, so they obviously know our usual means of getting about."

Ranulf agreed, "Looks like we have to rely on more conventional means from now on. Anyway, we tracked the car to Mayfield road-"

"Mayfield road?" blurted Alma, "But that's where the WinCom offices are. How are they mixed up in this?"

"We don't know." Alma was thoughtful, "I'll bet it has something to do with DataVault."

Her words failed to raise any expressions of understanding, so she filled them in on what she knew about the program. Loki listened and then said, "So we need to steal a copy and see if we can crack it."

Alma laughed, "You make it sound like stealing a bag of sweets. Not that simple. Even if the end product was like a computer game on a CD, you still wouldn't really be able to do much with it. But DataVault is a program that is designed to protect against just the sort of hacking you suggested, Loki. For one thing, it arrives pre-installed on a processing unit that's slotted into a server farm."

"A what?" asked Taika?

Alma waved her hands about, "Doesn't matter. Not important. What is important is that you can't just waltz off with a copy of the commercial program and expect to get anything out of it."

"So what do you suggest we do?" asked Ranulf.

Alma was silent for a moment, "What you need to do, is get a copy of the source code and before anyone asks, source code is the version of the program written in a computer language that is based on English. Much easier to find your way around than the compiled version on the server machine which, even if you get inside it, all you'd see is a collection of binary," she looked around at blank faces, "It's a load of ones and noughts."

"So what you're saying," said Ranulf, "is we need the source code?"

"Yes. And the only place we'll get that is at WinCom."

Ranulf squared his shoulders and then said, "Right. We'll break into WinCom and get it for you."

Alma shook her head, "Not as easy as that. How would you get it out? It'll be stored on the secure server and the only place you can see access that is from a terminal at the WinCom building in the secure area on the third floor."

Ranulf was incredulous, "You want to come, don't you!"

"You're damned right I do! They hurt me and I want to hurt them back!"

The other three remained silent as Ranulf responded, "You can't. Simple as that," and folded his arms.

Alma became just as implacable, "I have to. Who else have you got that could find their way around the programming? You? You'll just have to face it Ranulf, if we want any chance of finding out what they're up to, then I have to get onto the third floor."

Ranulf stood up and stormed from the house, his face a mask of silent fury. The other two men went to follow him, but Taika spoke up, "Leave him be boys, he has much to think of and you two will just cloud his thinking."

Ranulf strode away from the house, how could she be so stupid? For an intelligent woman, she was being a bit dense! He hadn't saved her and brought her here so she could just blithely wander back into the lion's mouth. The thought of putting Alma back in danger made his blood run cold. He was forced to admit, she did have a point. She was the only one who could read the programming. But she hadn't had any of the training that he and the other men had been through. She knew what she was talking about when it came to computers. She was so small and delicate, how could she cope if they came under fire?

The thoughts went round and round in his head, but eventually he was forced to admit, that she had been correct. She had to go with them. Much as he hated the idea of allowing her out of the safety of the Forest, she had to go to Salisbury.

Ranulf arrived back at the house and found the others where he had left them, he couldn't look at Alma as he said, "The Lady's right. She has to come with us."

Alma came to stand in front of him and looked up into his eyes. She said, "You made the right choice. It has to be this way. It'll be fine, I promise," and hugged him. Ranulf felt her shivering warmth against him and opened his mouth once or twice before enveloping her in his arms. Somehow, when she told him it would be fine, he found that he believed her. They disengaged somewhat self-consciously and sat back at the table with the others.

No one spoke and Taika merely sat back in her chair, sucking her pipe with a slight smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eye.

"Right, that's sorted, what do we do?" said Loki.

The group started to make their plans. That night, after the men had travelled back to their own house at the New Forest, Alma lay asleep under her furs across from where Taika gently snored. She found herself walking through the forest, when suddenly a wind picked up. Not the gentle breeze that heralded the trees communicating with her, this was a harsh wind that picked at her clothes with icy fingers. The sky darkened and she felt light spots of water hitting her exposed skin. She came around a tree and found herself face to face with Jonathon. He had been waiting for her. But this time it was different. The trees were gently whispering and Alma was not frightened.

She was not alone.

She was not helpless.

She was furious!

Before the wraith of her husband could speak, Alma shouted, "HOW DARE YOU!"

He bit off the words he was about to say in the face of the tirade that was building, "You're not my husband! I know what you are. You're a liar! You're guilt. Guilt I shouldn't have. I never forgot Jonathon and I didn't murder our son!"

The wraith seemed to shrink with every syllable that Alma spat in his face, growing fainter and fainter. "You caused me pain. Something that Johnny, my husband would never do."

The wraith of her guilt was virtually invisible and she could just make out its mouth opening and closing, Alma had to concentrate on the whispers at the edge of her consciousness, "Murderer... Whore... Worthless..."

Standing straight and proud, she answered, "I am none of those things. I am free of you. Go away! Go away and never come back!"

The wraith slowly vanished and left Alma alone. She could still hear the song of the wind through the leaves high above her, "You are strong... Know that we have never been more proud of you... The trees say yes, the Oak and the Ash and the Elm say yes... You are Alma Baines and you are the Lady... You are the Mother."

A slight smile curled Alma's lips as she slept and she rolled over on to her front and sank into a deep and dreamless sleep. Taika also smiled in her sleep.

Ranulf woke very early the next morning, eager to get underway. He roused Aloysius and a complaining Loki so that they could make a good start on what they needed to do.

After a quick breakfast, Ranulf used his travel stone to get to the London offices of Stowell, Breaker and Randolph, the firm of architects who had designed the interior of the WinCom offices when they had taken over the SaliSoft building, which included all of the extra security measures on the third floor. In the pre-dawn light, he looked up and down the street; the only movement was a homeless person rolling over in their sleep in a nearby doorway and a milk float making its slow way up the street away from him. An examination of the door showed that it was locked with a traditional lock and an electronic key card system. He made sure that the coast was clear and then used his stone to transport himself inside the building. Carefully making his way through each room, he searched for anything that might give him a clue to the location of what he was looking for. The ground floor was broken down into a reception area, a meeting room, a couple of offices and a small kitchen with tea and coffee facilities. The upper floor was open plan and had four large drafting tables, each one set in front of a large plate window. He could see that the windows were made of security glass. The inner corner of the room, well away from the outer wall was a security door. A quick examination showed that it was a metal affair with two locks, both Mersey style that used a non-standard shape of key. Thankfully it wasn't a combination as that might have posed a problem.

Ranulf slipped the small rectangle of polished steel from his pocket and inserted it into the first lock; he turned it with a small click and then inserted another length of steel into the second keyhole with the same effect. He turned the handle and pulled the door open, not for the first time silently thanking Taika for her magic skeleton keys. Behind the door, Ranulf was faced with row after row of wide drawers in metal racks that were bolted into place in the floor and ceiling. He quickly looked along the labels on the front of each drawer until he found the one marked 'Tu-Wo'. He pulled the drawer out and searched through the stack of blueprints until he found one that had the name WinCom printed in neat copperplate in the legend box. He withdrew the sheets he needed and carefully rolled them up. Then he closed the drawer, exited the secure room and relocked the door.

After a quick look around the building to make sure he had left no sign of his intrusion, Ranulf activated his travel stone and returned to the New Forest. He popped into existence just as Aloysius came back and then a moment later, Loki reappeared as well. Each dropped two large backpacks on the ground at their feet. "Got it," said Ranulf.

Loki answered, "We got our shopping done as well."

Ranulf grinned and said, "Okay, stow the gear and then we'll look over these plans."

* * *

Sir Nigel Winthrop's chauffeur driven Daimler was waved into the car park by the guard stationed at the newly installed security gate. His car glided smoothly toward the main entrance and pulled up in his reserved parking space. After his driver had opened his door, Sir Nigel adjusted his camel hair coat and sniffed the carnation he wore in his buttonhole. Passing through the large glass automatic doors, he strode passed the uniformed guard at the security station in the foyer, ignoring the hasty salute from the security man.