Leanne and Jessica were laying together, naked, asleep and cuddled together. The duvet they had slept beneath during the night had somehow managed to make its way half down the bed and on to the floor leaving just their feet covered. The clock on the bedside table showed 7:52am and the morning sun was streaming into the loft room, lighting up the muddled pile of bikinis that were strewn across the floor. It was Friday morning and the girls had not only forgotten, but had slept through and missed their early morning swimming practice which was due to have started half an hour ago. Franklin, Leanne's ginger cat, had made his way upstairs and jumped onto the bed. He walked along the full length as Jessica stirred and he started to paw at Leanne.
Leanne woke up as Franklin nuzzled into her, waking Jessica in the process.
"Hey, good morning, you ok now sleepy?" Leanne enquired sleepily.
Jessica responded with a happy grin, "Yeah, last night was great."
"Our secret?" Leanne asked.
"Yeah, we'll keep this to ourselves." Jessica replied pulling up the duvet and close around her naked body so as to keep warm. She snuggled down and tried to get back to sleep.
Leanne got up popped into the bathroom, found a bathrobe and went downstairs with Franklin to give him some breakfast. After about 15 minutes she reappeared with a cup of tea for Jessica.
The girls sat in bed for a while chatting, and Leanne flicked on the wall mounted TV. "...coming up to 8:05am, and here is Carol with the weather...Where are you today Carol? It looks a lovely sunny day today." Naga Munchetty, the BBC Breakfast anchor had appeared on screen talking to weather presenter Carol Kirkwood.
"Shit!" Leanne exclaimed saw the time in the corner of the screen, "Jo and Abi are gonna kill us, we have missed morning practice." She jumped up out of bed, stripped down her bathrobe, opening drawers and threw some clothes over to Jessica. "Here put these on and start getting ready."
Jessica caught the clothing - a stylish rough cropped, blue and white t-shirt and her daisy-duke hot paints she had worn the previous day. She got out of bed and stretched her naked body as Leanne threw her some white lacy thong panties and matching almost see-thru bra. Not her usual style, the clothing was designer labelled, but she put them on.
"Its lucky we share the same size." Jessica called, now fully awake in the commotion, as the weather forecast came to its conclusion in the background.
Leanne was busy searching out her mobile and clothing for herself, having only slipped on a baby pink lace thong. Leanne couldn't find her phone but did manage to piece together a stylish outfit. She found a baby pink back-laced-up cami, which matched her skimpy underwear, and paired it with an extremely short denim skirt. She chose to go braless as the vest offered inbuilt support.
The girls brushed their hair and styled it, Leanne creating two plaits to finish the baby-look and Jessica a single high-tied pony tail.
Suddenly, the girls were stopped in their tracks and both turned to the screen as Charlie Stayt another BBC anchor, started to read the days news headlines, "With the time a little after eight, we have some breaking news." A red ticker tape appeared at the bottom of the screen, starting with the words 'BREAKING' in a big bold font. "We are just hearing that the heir to the Wells sporting group dynasty, Hugo Wells, has been rushed to hospital in a serious condition overnight with severe breathing difficulties. It is understood at this time he is in a stable condition."
The girls looked at each other in shock.
Naga picked up the story, "The 13 year old was swimming yesterday at the McIntyre Wells London Leisure facility, the Centre part-owned by his father, after closing time. It is believed he got into difficulties in one of the pools and was fortunate to be rescued by a local swimming team."
In a carefully orchestrated piece of floor management Charley continued, "Sources have told us that there were no lifeguards on duty at the time and we have been told that it is likely that the incident is partly the cause of his current condition as he, we are led believe, is suffering from secondary drowning. We are joined now by our reporter John Maguire at the Macintyre Wells Leisure Centre in London and Doctor Rishi Khan, an expert in cardiovascular medicine and Head of Accident and Emergency Response at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Good morning to you both. Turning to you first Doctor Khan, can you help explain to our viewers what exactly is secondary drowning?"
The doctor explained that the condition is caused by water accumulating in the lungs. It's similar to what we think of as 'real' drowning because it involves the lungs filling up with water. The water then causes breathing difficulties and bacterial or viral infections. Patients can suffer from secondary drowning days and even up to a week after water has entered their body.
Leanne and Jessica sat silent for a moment and Leanne turned off the television.
"I think we need to catch-up with Abi and Jo." Leanne said to Jessica.
The girls finished drinking their tea which had now become lukewarm and continued getting ready, no longer in the same hurry as before the had seen the news bulletin. They put on a little make-up then ran downstairs. Leanne located her mobile on the kitchen island and Jessica picked up their bags. They made their way out of the house, locked the front door and opened up the garage. "At least I can use the car, we can call Abi and Jo when we are on our way." said Leanne.
The Audi A1 sitting in the garage showed a showroom sparkle as it had been valeted during its service the previous day. It was an Arrow-grey colour with a contrast colour roof in a dark Manhattan Grey. The shine was even greater due to the pearlescent effect in the paint. The number plate read L3 ANN35, naturally personalised for the driver. Leanne jumped into the drivers seat and Jessica sat beside her on the passenger side throwing their bags onto the backseat. The engine started and Leanne revved and pulled out of the garage onto the gravel driveway and out onto the road.
Jessica looked at her phone and about to call Abi, "This can't be right - My service has been barred!"
"Here take my phone." Leanne replied, taking one hand from the flat bottomed Audi sports steering wheel, and passing the pink coloured phone to Jess.
"Hey, you have so many missed calls and more voice messages." Jessica informed her friend, "but you do have service and...wait a minute, two new WhatsApp messages. They are from Abi and Jo."
Leanne swerved to avoid a squirrel that had run into the road and Jess was thrown to one side as she continued, "Jo says 'meet at the old V and to avoid town' - that's a bit cryptic! Abi says 'training cancelled this morning', hmmm just as well, and 'watch for press'. What's that meant to mean?"
Leanne's, sparkling blue eyes looked into the rear view mirror, "I think I have an idea of what she means, since we left home we have had three cars following and every turn we make they do the same. It's really odd particularly down the side streets - its too much of a coincidence. I think the press know we are the swim team that rescued Hugo yesterday. We're being papped!"
"We've got to lose them!" responded Jessica sounding like a bad guy from a gangster movie.
Leanne pushed her foot to the floor and the Audi engine revved with a beautiful clean sound as the 2.0 litre engine opened up. The speed increased and she moved her way up from third gear, through four, five and into sixth. The three pursuing vehicles increased their speed and the chase began.
"Main road, left, amber lights...45, 50, 55 60..." Leanne muttered. "70...80...c'mon!"
The traffic lights changed just as Leanne passed through. Two of the pursuing vehicles, a black BMW 5-series and navy blue Mercedes C-Class jumped the red light. The other car, a red VW Passat had to stop when it nearly hit a waste collection lorry that had started across the junction.
"That's one down," said Jessica turning to look through the back window to see what was happening behind them, "just two to go."
"About to get interesting..." Leanne responded, "hold on."
The Audi A1 approached a roundabout at speed, Leanne turned the wheel without signalling and speed around the entire circle heading back the way they had came. She pulled right at the next side road, then left. The speed hit 85 as the car passed through a 20mph zone. The two pursuing vehicles were relentless.
Suddenly sirens could be heard as a Police pursuit vehicle pulled out of a side road having clearly seen the dangerous speeding Audi pass them. There was a large crashing sound from behind and Jessica turned to see the Mercedes plough into the side of the now crumpled emergency response vehicle, its blue lights still flashing. The BMW swerved around the incident not caring about the carnage and continued its pursuit of the girls.
"Hopefully, if I got this right we should come out at a parade of shops and the service road will lead to the dual carriageway," Leanne said hopefully. "Yes! I'm right..." The Audi slowed and turned onto the narrow service road, reached the 'Give Way' junction at the end then accelerated into flowing traffic. The BMW appeared to gain but then dropped back as it also joined the carriageway.
Hitting speeds upward of 110mph the Audi continued along the road but the BMW simply would not give-up the chase. "Ooops - speed camera! Looks like I'll be attending an awareness course." Leanne quipped as the car raced along triggering a flashing gatso camera.
The pursuit continued along the dual carriageway for about ten minutes, the Audi and BMW swerving around the traffic changing speed and lanes at a constant rate. Another roundabout and another 180 degree turn and still the game of cat and mouse continued.
"Perfect..." Leanne said to herself, spotting a huge lorry ahead and looking into the rear view mirror to observe a slow moving LandRover Discovery pulling a caravan entering into the lane behind her. The road had changed from two lanes to three as a set of traffic lights came up. The lorry was positioned in lane two, the centre lane, to the left of the Audi which Leanne had carefully located in lane three. With the Land Rover behind Leanne saw an opportunity.
Leanne hit the brakes hard throwing both herself and Jessica forward. She knew, or at the very least hoped, the gap between her car and the LandRover was big enough to avoid a collision. The Audi slowed suddenly. She was right the LandRover came to a stop too. The BMW with no place to go swerved across the lanes and into lane one to avoid the LandRover and its attached caravan as well as lorry in the lane next to it. It continued through the traffic lights and straight ahead. The Audi was hidden by the lorry when it came to a stop. Leanne, for the first time since the chase began, used her indicators and signalled right with a wry smile. "Goodbye papps!"
Leanne drove a few more miles to ensure there were no more press chasing them down and pulled into the country park car-park to take stock of the situation and to consult the sat-nav system. The girls got out of the car having spotted a caravan selling food, and walked over to the food shack to get some breakfast. They both ate an unhealthy sausage sandwich covered in a rich red tomato sauce as they made their way back to the vehicle.
"Any ideas what and where old V will be?" Leanne quizzed Jessica.
"I've been thinking about that since we pulled off our escape," Jessica replied with a laugh, "I wonder if she means the old Victorian swimming pool we used to go to as kids? I tried to reply to the message and wrote to Abi too but WhatsApp is showing my responses as not read."
"Well, I guess its worth a try - we have no place else to go and I am sure if we were to go to either of our homes the press will be waiting." Leanne punched the address into the sat-nav and set-off along the route but making changes so as to avoid the centre of town, this time driving sensibly and within the limits of the law.
The journey was unremarkable taking the girls across country, down narrow country lanes and then onto suburban side roads. The Audi A1 was fun to drive and the last thirty minutes was more relaxing and enjoyable than anytime since they had left home earlier in the morning. As they made their way up the final street Jessica spotted the familiar red hair of Abigail waiting anxiously by some heavy iron gates. Abi spotted the Audi and opened the gates wider to allow the car into the car park. Leanne drove around the back of the building and pulled up their so the car couldn't be spotted from the street. The number plate of the car, although cleverly spelling her name and looking stylish, was somewhat conspicuous and it would be obvious to any member of the press who the car belonged to.
"You made it! You were ages." Abi said excitedly as her two friends made their way out the car. "Jo wondered if you would work out what and where V was. Quick, lets get inside. This is so exciting... we can forget the swim coaching and training... we were given for free yesterday something sort of amazing is happening to us. Oh, by the way Hugo will be fine - you've heard about him?"
"Thought you'd know about him..." Leanne said with a smirk winking toward Jessica, "Have you called him yet?"
"I, err, no, its just, it was on the news, you know we're not, I mean I..."
Leanne laughed and Jessica started giggling as Abi took the bait. "Oh - piss off!" she said as she suddenly realised Leanne was joking. The three girls made their way inside the old building through a crumbling doorway. They quietly closed the battered weather worn blue door. It's timber rotting and missing in places.
The group walked quickly through the antiquated metallic turnstile entry system that contrasted significantly to those at the refurbished centre they had visited the previous afternoon, and made their way poolside. Although empty of water the main swimming pool area still had a lingering smell of chlorine in the air. This was mixed with a musty dampness. Rubbish, broken glass and wood was now in the 25 metre pool. The glass celling had clearly seen better days and rust and peeling white paint rolled off the metallic open-cross construction of the roof. Pigeons had made their home at the many joins in the metal work, their cooing echoing in the empty space.
At what would have been the deep end of the pool in its heyday, Jo was standing poolside talking to Paul. 'Why is he here?' wondered Jessica. Another man wearing a black suit and shades stood beside them, his arms folded, he looked guarded. As the girls got closer they could see he was wearing an ear-piece, their was a bulge in his suit to the side - was he carrying a firearm? He somewhat resembled a cross between Will Smith from the Men Black film franchise and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
As they approached, the stranger greeted them, "Good morning ladies. I'm glad you made it here safely." The man spoke with a deep voice and had a strong US Californian accent. "I have to say, the driving skills getting you here were exceptional - better than some of the best defence and pursuit specialists I've worked with. Sadly you managed to write-off my teams Merc when they hit that police vehicle. Took some explaining. If only you had stopped they would have escorted you away from the press pack."
Leanne gave a smile.
"I should introduce myself, I'm Aaron Brooks, ex-US Special Forces, CIA and Secret Service. I now work for Mr Wells and Mr MacIntrye as Head of Security and Intelligence. I've been asked to look after you since you young ladies did such a good job pulling Hugo from the pool yesterday. Hugo is doing fine right now - the secondary drowning a rather unfortunate occurrence." The booming voice echoed around the empty abandoned building.
"Why exactly is Paul here?" Leanne asked rather directly.
"Ah, yes, Mr MacIntrye is here as he has a rather special interest in the leisure centre project."
"Mr MacIntrye?" questioned Jessica, "Paul MacIntrye?"
"Errm, well yeah, I'm David MacIntyre's son. Its kinda awkward when your father is a billionaire business person and you just wanna do a job so I don't really mention it." Paul chipped in. Leanne's flirty smile grew wide as her eyes met Pauls.
Aaron Brooks continued, "I guess you want to know what's going on. Unfortunately, I don't think here is the best place. I'll debrief you. Follow me." Aaron spoke into his sleeve, presumably to get a team outside ready to allow everyone to leave and led the way out of a side door to a fleet of waiting black Mercedes SUVs with blackout windows. The girls got into one on the SUVs whilst Paul and Aaron went to another.
The vehicles sped their way through the town and out into the English countryside.
"My car?" questioned Leanne.
"Taken care of..." was the simple response from the driver.
There was an awkward silence until the vehicles reached their destination, a private airfield someway out of town. A black Augusta Westland 109 Power Grand helicopter was sited on the runway being prepared for service. The SUVs parked up in a vacant hanger and the passengers were let out.
The girls and Paul gathered around Aaron who explained what was going on and about to happen. "Mr Wells has decided that you need to be taken care of. You have saved his son Hugo and he wants to repay the favour. He knows all about all of you. After you saved his son we learnt that a leak at the centre had passed you details to the local press. This information went international and unfortunately we could only get our teams out to Abigail and Joanne before the press pack intervened. We are trying to keep the incident and everything that happened under wraps until we investigate it fully. At the moment the pool remains closed. We just showed up as you were leaving this morning and that's why you were chased down. Had we got to you sooner that could have been avoided.
Mr Wells has contacted your respective families and has agreed to have one of our agents with them at all times. The press are not interested in them - they are interested in YOU! We are offering you an escape from the intrusion until things die down. Our aim is to take you off grid in the UK and move you to our facilities stateside. This is all expenses paid. You will not be prisoners and will be able to come and go as you please, but we will ensure that you are protected by offering you personal alarms and trackers. Rest assured our teams are the best at what they do. They will do everything they can to protect you and keep the press away if they locate you. You WILL be safe. Questions?"
"My cat Franklin?"
"Taken care of. Our team have taken him to what can only be described as a hotel of cat luxury."
"Your guys put him in a cat crate?" Leanne questioned.
"Eventually, yes - take a look at this." Aaron passed his phone over to Leanne and played a video. Three tough looking agents appeared to be having their arses kicked by a small ginger cat. There was significant swearing and lots of blood - but the cat finally found itself in the cat carrier. The video ended with "We've got 'im sir..." The agent in question, breathing heavily as if he had run a marathon mumbled an almost inaudible "...the bastard!" beneath his breath. He showed his arms, that looked as though he had been self harming for years, to the camera. Blood was oozing from the cuts and flowing down the length of his sleeves, dripping from his fingers at the end. Leanne could not help by offer up a chuckle.
"What about clothes and stuff?" Abi asked.
"You will be taken care of. We can get you what you need when you arrive in the US. Things are already being prepared and will be available on arrival." Aaron replied.
"College?" It was Jessica's turn to ask a question.
"Taken care of. Mr Wells is already in the process of agreeing results with your college. You will not have to sit the exams and you will graded according to your course work and mock exams taken earlier. You will be given the option of deferring the results if they are not what you expected and will be given personal tuition in all subjects to make these grades if this is required." It seemed that Aaron had an answer for everything.
"Boyfriends?" Jo asked - Abi, Leanne and Jessica all suddenly turned their heads as one and stared looking perplexed as the question was asked.
"But none of us are..." Abi started to say before Aaron cut her off.
"You can contact your boyfriend via encrypted call. He is has been briefed and in receipt of an encrypted sat phone. You should not tell him your location."
Abi looked at Jo and simply mouthed silently, "Joanne - Boyfriend? You didn't tell me!" Jo simply shook her head.
Aaron addressed the group "If that is all, and you agree to stay with us, please follow me to the helo outside."
"Abi I bet you wish you'd given Hugo your number now and arranged that date!" Leanne joked as the girls bundled aboard the helicopter.
The helicopter was fitted out with comfortable leather seats. The pilot instructed everyone to wear noise cancelling headphones and strap in. Paul leaned over to assist Jessica with her belt. Their eyes met, made a connection and she turned away shyly. Leanne sitting opposite saw what had happened and felt both annoyed because Jessica had some kind of connection with Paul that she had failed to make, despite her best efforts, and happy for her friend, who she had learned last night was in need of a boyfriend and some experience. In the back of her mind she felt the need to hatch a plan to somehow get them together - if she couldn't have him Jessica sure would!
The giant rotor blades roared to life spinning up quickly as the engines came to life. The pilot pulled up the collective leaver and the aircraft started to move upward, he pushed the stick down to move its nose to a forward tilt. This action caused the helicopter to gain speed moving from a still hover and then onto straight flight. The journey lasted no more than twenty minutes when the Augusta 109 was ready yo touched down at another private airfield. From the air the girls could see from the window this airfield had a significantly longer runway than the one they had left and was home to countless private passenger jets.
The group were ushered to a ready and waiting Gulfstream G650 painted in the same black corporate colour as the Augusta helicopter they had just left. A MacIntrye group logo adorned the tail. As everyone boarded they were greeted by the crew. They settled into their seats and America beckoned.