Wild Fiction

‘I said that...’ Rebecca’s sentence was cut off by the ringing phone.
‘Answer it,’ the author said.
‘What am I going to say?’
The author shrugged his shoulders. The phone rang a second and third time before Rebecca plucked it off the base and pressed it to her ear.
‘Ye-es,’ she said. Her voice quavered but her hand held the receiver steady.
‘Speaking...no...I will if you tell me...we’ll find it...11:45pm sharp...we’ll be there...yes I’ll bring them.’
She dropped the phone back onto the base. ‘We have to meet our friend Retir on this remote country lane at 11:45pm on the dot. Not a minute before or after he said. I have the directions in my head.’
The author did not reply. He walked over to the fridge, opened it, and pulled out a box of Milk Tray. ‘They belong to Genevieve. They’re her emergency supply for times of crises,’ he said handing them to her.
Rebecca had finished the chocolates before James and Conrad arrived and the plan was explained to them.

Chapter 53

At exactly 11:20pm they left the house. Rebecca and the author drove the bug and the boys followed behind in the Jaguar. At exactly 11:42pm they were driving down a dark country lane. Conrad had switched off the headlights of the Jaguar and was following the red rear-lights of the bug in front of him. The emergency lights of the bug flashed once before it slowed down just after a lay-by. Conrad pulled the Jaguar into the lay-by and killed the engine. He and James jumped out and padded down the lane behind the slowly moving bug. The brake lights flashed twice before coming on permanently and the bug stopped ahead of them. They pulled themselves up against the hedge.
Conrad pulled a black balaclava, which had been resting on his head like a woolly hat, down over his face and motioned to James to do the same. They were both dressed in black. A thick canvas belt wrapped around his waist and strapped to it was a truncheon. He doubled over and forced his way through the hedge and James followed him.