Josie was looking for a quiet spot beyond Strontian, on the last stretch of the road to Salen. She wanted a recently used track that opened on to the road, without a gate or any other barrier. One more set of smudged tracks would pass unnoticed, but a fresh set on an undisturbed patch of soil would. She found what she was looking for and slowed the Range Rover, easing the car past the opening to see what the ground was like, then satisfied it would do she dropped the transmission into reverse and deftly swung it off the road and back into the trees. Twenty yards back the gate was a light patch in the trees and only a direct glance up the track would reveal their presence to passing traffic. There had been little of that since they crossed the junction that took the road over the hills to Lochaline and the small vehicle ferry to Fishnish on Mull. She parked, switched off the engine and turned to Steel. "I'm not sure about my new job, when Jardine offered me the post of Personal Assistant I never realised my first job would be chauffeuring the most wanted man in the western highlands and frankly if it was anyone else, I probably wouldn't do it."
"If who was anyone else, Jardine or me?" Was Steel's quick reply. Josie unclipped her seat belt. "I'll let you work that one out," She said, "So what do we do next."
Steel was already out of his seat and stepping on to the thick mat of needles carpeting the floor of the plantation. The golden brown pins had softened the line of the ruts, but there were enough recent disturbances for him to be happy that their visit would not be obvious once they had moved on. "We unpack the back; then I need to get the floor panel up." She didn't argue, or ask why; no doubt the explanation would arrive in due course, either when the floor panel lifted and she saw what was revealed, or later on when things were quieter, maybe on the boat tonight. Steel opened the tailgate and began to lift out the luggage, unfolding a ground sheet from the top of his own rucksack first and piling everything on top. Josie lent a hand and the rear of the car was empty in no time. Next, he rolled up the protective rubber matting and the carpet, then, with a screwdriver from the tool-kit unscrewed a section of the floor. Five minutes later he lifted the panel and laid it aside. Under the floor were two boxes, a snug fit for the hole, held in place by a spring-loaded plate. He used the screwdriver as a lever to draw the plate back and hold it in position and then easing the end of each box in turn he drew it from the hole. "More insurance?" Josie asked blithely.
Steel nodded and lifted the boxes out. He turned his attention to the cover plate and flipped it over, a spare set of registration plates were slotted on to the back. He pulled them off and removed the plates on the Range Rover and replaced them with the second set. The vehicle had aged instantly by three years. "The premium went up this morning, so the cover got better."
"That's not normal for insurance." She said.
"This is hardly normal insurance and the premium, well, the cover is better, but we'll have to hope it is good enough."
Josie sat on the edge of the load-bed while Steel attached the rear plate and clipped the original set onto the cover plate. "Jardine, Bill, did say to expect trouble, but I don't think I was expecting to expect this much trouble." She said.
"I was hoping we wouldn't have any at all, but it looks like there are people who don't like the idea of me being around." He said, "And that worries me I just wish I knew why. Besides, this isn't trouble, not for us anyway."
"Hopefully, we won't need it, but if we do it's there."
"That's the general idea and personally I would rather have it than be without it." Steel agreed.
"Dare I ask what we have?" Josie inquired.
"No reason why not," Steel answered and tapped one of the boxes with the screwdriver, "there's a couple of machine pistols, handguns and ammunition."
Josie frowned, her forehead furrowing deeply and said. "Not planning a small war by any chance are you?"
"Me," Steel said, "No, just being pessimistic. Prepare for the worst and then when it doesn't happen, you're OK."
"Typical Yorkshireman, if it's not raining don't worry it will be soon."
Steel grinned up at her, "The one you're thinking of is that it will either rain or get dark before morning."
"Whatever, but what exactly are you going to do with these?" She indicated the boxes. We can hardly march them on to Charlie's boat in broad daylight."
"It would arouse far less attention than marching them aboard at the dead of night." Steel countered her argument. "If you have nothing to hide, then why hide it. Bold as brass and we'll pull it off. Come on Josie, there are enough ex-surplus ammo crates in the highlands of Scotland, a couple more will be neither here nor there."
"Sounds right enough, I'll not argue, so how do we get ourselves into a position where we can walk on with the not-very suspicious boxes?"
Steel screwed down the cover plate and repacked the rear of the car, replacing the carpet and the mat before sliding the boxes in first and piling the rucksacks around them, then covering the whole heap with the ground-sheet, mucky side up. "Where are the binoculars, then we'll go and find out how we do it. If we can see the approaches to Salen from here, then all we need to do is keep an eye out for Charlie's boat to sail into view, then take the Range for the last few miles and arrive shortly before he does."
Josie Burke rummaged through the clutter under the driving seat and found a pair of ten by fifty binoculars. Steel had finished at the back of the car when she handed them to him and they set off down the track towards the sliver of silver water visible through the trees. "I don't suppose we could just ring them up and find out when they are expected to arrive?" Josie said casually.
"We could, but working on the premise that we don't know who or what level the opposition is working at, we may as well assume the worst, that if we use anything with a radio frequency some bugger is going to be listening. As it is, we know where we need to be, so we simply proceed to that point without making further contact unless something goes drastically wrong, then any message, however short, can be taken to be an alarm and the receiver will respond accordingly. Either by staying well clear, or be making a claim on the insurance and upping the premium."
"It all seems very old fashioned and more than a bit cloak and dagger."
"Sometimes the old ways are the best, because they’re tried and tested. It isn't easy to track a radio that's switched off and whatever you want to call it, cell-phone, sat-phone, mobile, it is still a radio. If it sends a signal, you can bet that some clever bastard somewhere will have already worked out how to track the signal back to source." Steel remarked and Josie nodded in agreement as they picked their way along the ruts. She slipped her arm through Steel's as they stepped from the trees and emerged on to the road and they were just a couple enjoying the scenery. Josie slipped into the part, sliding close to him and resting her head on his shoulder, so close that Steel raised the binoculars with some difficulty. He turned his head and found his mouth close to her hair and the clean bright smell of it filled his head and his grumble was stifled in his throat, he said gently. "Nice touch."
"No problem," she whispered. "You know something you have a very comfortable shoulder."
He focused the binoculars and swept the lenses along the length of the loch, it would be a couple of hours before Westering Home would appear, but a quick sweep of the loch gave him an idea of potential problems. Josie carried on playing her part and her sense of humour was doing its bit, hamming it up. Her head stayed firmly on his shoulder and her hand found its way snugly into the back pocket of his jeans. Her remaining hand began to slide around his waist. "OK," Steel whispered, "take it steady will you, careful you don't squeeze so tight."
"I won't, I promise." She murmured, her face pressed against his shoulder. He lowered the binoculars and stood for a moment; wishing things were different, uncertain whether he was running away from shadows, or really in danger of his life. The warmth of the sun and the bright water sparkling before them and the feel of her against him, whether it was her fingers, her head on his shoulder or the way the press o
f her breasts moulded themselves to him, all this was real. It was here and now and the shadows of his recent past couldn't break that realisation, but they tainted what he saw and it saddened him that those circumstances had brought them to this place.
"I'm glad too and glad that you're glad." Josie heard the warmth in his voice, but a glance into his eyes revealed a guarded look. This was her friend speaking and there was no room for anything else at the moment. There was work to be done. She wrapped her arms around him and he squeezed her shoulder and planted a friendly kiss on her head, tasting her hair as he brushed it with his lips. He groaned inwardly, he had breathed in a scent of her, the unbridled woman and a subtle base to the freshness of her hair and the gentle perfume she wore. The potency enhanced by perspiration. Steel sighed, sucking in a lungful of the clean air, drawing the tang of the sea loch and the mountains deep into his lungs. In a sane world there would be only one thing on his mind and right now it was about as far away as he could drive it, where they should lie down by the sun dappled water and pass the afternoon. Instead they played a charade. "Come on," he said quietly, "back to the car, we'll give them an hour and a half and check again." She nodded and said nothing, but leaned a little more heavily on his shoulder, there was no reason for the charade to continue, the road was completely clear of traffic and had been all the time. She stayed close to him as they passed into the shade of the trees and Steel heard her sniff. He stopped and eased himself from her grasp. He faced her squarely and took her chin in his fingertips and tilted her head upwards so he could look into her eyes. The first thing he saw was the sparkle of a tear as it rolled down her cheek. He tilted his head, "Hey come on," he said encouragingly, "What is it, what's the matter?"
"Sorry," She murmured and wiped the tear away with the back of her hand, "Why does it have to be like this. A day like this and we're too wrapped up even to enjoy it as friends, let alone anything else. We should be celebrating, I don't know whether to be really happy that you are here and OK, or terrified that it could all collapse in the most bloody awful nightmare."
Softly brushing the fall of hair back from her face and threading it over her ear, mimicking a gesture he had often seen her do, his hand brushed against her cheek and he felt her instinctively turn towards it, pressing the skin against his. "Dear Josephine, I should send you back to the Grange."
Her voice was urgent, “No, please, don't send me back, I must see this through. I couldn't bear to be there so far away, not knowing again. I know my feelings are strong at the moment, but I don't know what they mean, they may be the old familiar ones, just amplified by the circumstances." Josie met his gaze, the steadiness of her green eyes matching his own. She noticed they had done it again, she'd seen it happen once or twice before, a curious mixture of green and brown, under certain lights they appeared to shift between one and the other. They seemed to be a deep Moorland brown. "It's all right, I'm confused too. Don't worry, I know our friendship is strong enough to get us through this, even if we make a couple of mistakes along the road and think we have something that isn't really there. We're bound to be on a high at the moment, it's the way things are when you realise that you haven't lost something which means a lot, even if you didn't realise how much until you thought it was gone. We'll be OK, everything will be fine." Steel spoke to reassure himself as much as to comfort Josie. His confusion was sufficient trouble; hers would compound the difficulty. There was a strange comfort in the news that she was struggling too, it did make it less of a worry if either of them did or said anything they might regret. In the long hours of the night while he had lain quietly watching the nurses move around the wards he had found time to think, but he still doubted the conclusion. Time would tell and only time. He pulled her close, a little too roughly and winced as her weight fell against his chest and pressed on his wounds. He hoped she didn't notice the slight sharp intake of breath and then she snuggled up. "Get in the car, back seat and we can be more comfortable, OK?" She nodded, her head rubbing against his chest and she allowed herself to be walked back to the Range Rover, he took the keys from her, unlocked the car and she slid into the back seat. Steel closed the door after her and got in through the other side. He settled in the seat, wedged into the corner and Josie moved across, stretching out so her head rested on his chest. Faintly, the sound of his heartbeat came to her ears through his clothing and the dressings and in no time she was sleeping. However strong she may have felt physically, the emotional toll of the day had worn her out and Steel began to question the wisdom of Jardine's decision to send her off-Grange. He felt himself relax, comfortable that to the unlikely passing traveller they would see the charade at face value and go on their way, perhaps with a smile that there were still people who had time for each other. He slept, not well or deeply, but he slept and awoke much later with an acrid taste in his mouth. Josie was still there, head against his chest and she didn't seem to have moved at all. It was darker now and Steel glanced at the dashboard clock, two hours had passed since they had stood watching the loch, the weather must have closed in, clouding the sky. He shook her shoulder and she stirred, her voice blurred with sleep. "Josie," he whispered, "ease up a bit and let me out." She shifted and let him slide out, then settled again, she was asleep before he closed the door and set off down the track. He checked the road, watching and listening. Empty tarmac stretched away in both directions and then jogged across. Steel propped himself against a tree at the water's edge and scanned the loch, a solid sheet of cloud had drifted in from the Atlantic, cloaking the sun and hardening the shadows beneath the trees. The water moved dully with the breeze, dark like oil and the air carried a chill. The haze had disappeared, sharpening the image in the lens. He swept the glass across the landscape and over the water, ending his sweep towards Salen and the anchorage, the picture remained the same, there had been no new arrivals. He lowered the binoculars and picked his way back to the road and returned to the Range Rover. Josie was still curled up asleep on the back seat, with a light travel rug pulled around her shoulders. Steel climbed into the driver's seat and let her be. He rummaged under the seat, dragging the sat-phone from where it had fallen during the journey and the charade would continue, of old friends meeting for a few days sailing.
*****
Chapter Fourteen