Chapter 22

Lionel sat at the table a smug look on his face as dust and plaster chips fell around them. The rumbling had stopped and to Alex's bewilderment Lionel began to count out loud. He reached ten and smirked then a look of bafflement appeared. Alex stood up, brushed the dust from his hair and left the room locking the door behind him. There was no-one in the outer room so he made his way to the staircase as he opened the door at the top a shower of cold water from the overhead sprinklers doused him, he gritted his teeth and stomped towards his office. He hadn't got far when he came across Jason carrying a large tool box.

"Well?" he demanded. Jason passed the box to one of 'The People' with instructions to take it to Will then led the way to Alex's sanctum. Once inside he began to explain.

"Lionel had rigged this place up with some very crude explosives," he said, furiously. "We looked at the cameras like you said. It should have taken hours but Will has developed a program that can search for specific people which saved us a boat load of time. We found a shot of Lionel talking to one of the 'waiters'. The helpful one, you know the one who told us Dessa was heading to the station?" Alex nodded, he needed to talk to that one he was being way too helpful. "Well he was really helpful again and showed us where he had put all the explosives. Thankfully, Will is trained in bomb disposal and he managed to get them all. Well apart from the last one, the kitchen corridor is a bit of a mess but luckily no-one was hurt. They were timed to go off at thirty second intervals and if they had all gone off then the house would have been destroyed!"

"And us with it," remarked Alex grimly.

"Well not quite, don't forget that the cellars are bomb proof. Lionel probably hoped to overpower you and make his escape," Jason snorted. "I didn't realise he had such a chip on his shoulder when it came to you."

"Neither did I," replied Alex. "I had no idea that he was so resentful of what we have here, and yes I include you. You may not have inherited the house but you did have the childhood he wanted. You know he accused me of leaving him by himself when he came to visit as a child?"

"But you didn't, you always tried to include him in everything we did, until the cat incident that is!" exclaimed Jason. "He spent hours looking for the tunnels with us, do you think that when he continued to visit as an adult and did the same?"

"He must have," Alex poured them both brandy and Jason gave him an enquiring look. "I need to get my senses back before I face Lionel again."

"Leave him to stew for a bit and go and talk to the 'helpful waiter'," suggested Jason. "You might learn a lot more about Dessa and his plans. I don't think Lionel actually knows that much he seemed to have had another agenda entirely."

"Good idea," said Alex. "Have you seen the others recently?"

"Sue's in the kitchen soothing Mrs Roseveare and Mrs Henderson with tea. Will is examining the explosives, Ana is talking to 'The People' trying to down play everything and Jack is contacting Washington to let them know what has happened."

"Right everyone is busy, let's go and talk to our helpful friend," he put down his glass and they went back down into the cellars.

It was beginning to go dark and they had just eaten a hastily put together meal when Alex told them what he had found out. It turned out that the helpful waiter, whose name was Samir, was the older brother to one of the terrorists. He had been horrified at what his brother was about to do and had wanted to protect his sibling. He in turn, was a devout believer in everything Dessa said or did and was determined to make his own mark on the world in any way he could even if it meant death to hundreds or thousands of people. Samir had hoped to persuade his brother that what he was doing was wrong and that nothing good would come of working for Dessa. The men had been chosen specifically because there was no record of them in any terror database meaning that they could move around without attraction any official attention. Dessa was to supervise from a central location in London alongside two of his most trusted recruits and the others were to work in pairs in various city locations around the country. Once in place, they had instructions to disrupt the transport systems, shopping centres and stadia. They were to hurt as many people as possible and create an atmosphere of fear amongst the general public. As to Dessa's motives Samir was less certain, they would have to interrogate Dessa to find that out. However, that wasn't to be their responsibility. Dessa was to be removed to a military installation and interrogated by others.