when to keep your trap shut??
Viv was rattled and made a pathetic attempt to disguise it.
T can handle myself,?he sneered, sounding like an eight-year-old whor just lost a fight.
*
Zara came off a twenty-minute phone call and wandered out to the back garden. Meatball was allowed outdoors now that her had his vaccinations and was celebrating his newfound freedom by licking bugs off a tree trunk. Lauren sat in a sun lounger reading a book called The Complete Idiott Guide to Beagles.
Eo, whatt the news??Lauren asked.
MI5 identified Jo from your photograph. Her real name is Rhiannon Jules. Shet the daughter of Joe Jules.?
This last name was clearly intended to mean something, but Lauren didn't have a clue.
Before your time, I guess,?Zara grinned. Loe Jules was a singer-songwriter. Shot down by Los Angeles police during a cocaine bust in eighty-two. Rhiannon is his only daughter and his albums still sell, so you can bet shet worth a few bob.?
Enough to fund the AFA??
Definitely,?Zara nodded. 慠emember the EAA??
Lauren twisted up her face as she racked her brain. Extreme Animal Action ?Is that the group Kennet Marcussen was involved with in the eighties??
Zara nodded. Most EAA members were women who lived in a commune. One of our research assistants found out that the commune was situated in a large country house, which once belonged to an American singer-songwriter 厭
Loe Jules,?Lauren grinned.
Nowr you guess??
Lauren shrieked as Meatball reared up and licked the bottom of her foot. That tickles,?she giggled, as she gently nudged him away. Any news about the film studios??
There certainly is,?Zara grinned. Tour hunch was spot on. They typed Jay Buckle into the police computer. Het been arrested twice at animal rights demonstrations, both times with Adelaide Kent. Two weeks ago he was arrested on the set of Wild Ride II and questioned about a Volkswagen Transporter that had disappeared a few days earlier. The charges are still on file, but the police haven't got enough evidence to charge him.
At the time the van was stolen, it was loaded up with three hundred grandt worth of TV cameras, studio lights and other equipment being used to shoot a documentary on the making of Wild Ride II. And the cherry on the cake is that the theft of a respraying rig and a pressurised metal cylinder used in car stunts has also been reported to Avon police.?
Eo, it was worth me hiding out and taking those photos,?Lauren grinned.
Zara nodded. Te're starting to put together a really solid picture of the AFA. Theret already enough evidence to move in and make arrests. Just one huge spanner in the works: at this moment James, Kyle and all of the main AFA suspects have headed off to some unknown location with no intention of resurfacing until theyre pulled off some kind of terrorist spectacular.?
Teah,?Lauren said, And I wonder what they want with all that TV equipment.?
*
The van finally arrived at a semi-derelict farmhouse, with a dozen rooms spread over two storeys. The lads were told to dump their stuff in a bare room with sleeping bags and pillows spread over the floor. Down in the kitchen, two men were cooking up a vegan roast to feed at least a dozen.
Jay and Adelaide had equipment to set up inside the house and Viv was asked to join them shortly after they arrived. That left James, Kyle and Tom to stroll the isolated farm and wonder what theyr let themselves in for.
Therever we are, itt a long way from civilisation,?Kyle said.
The sun was setting and he looked out over hills bedded with heather and rocky peaks in the distance.
Bretty though,?James said. That do you reckon, Scotland??
T'll not sure we went that far,?Kyle said. Maybe northern England. Northumberland or somewhere like that.?
As James turned back towards the house he spotted Mark ?a.k.a. Kennet Marcussen ?wading through the long grass and waving his arms.
Aet back here,?he shouted. Everyonet waiting for you.?
Mark led them into a huge dining-hall, with a vaulted ceiling and dark patches on the walls where paintings had hung many years earlier. One end of the room had been set up as a TV studio, complete with cameras on wheeled tripods, bulky studio lights and a video production suite.
The stage set consisted of pale blue background panels with two trendy black chairs and a man-sized cage at its centre. The cage had been designed for show rather than security, with chromed bars and a neck brace dangling inside.
Jo stood at the opposite end of the room, in front of