Lucifer's Abbey Read online

  After thirty minutes the car turned off the busy road and onto a farm track which led it not to a farm but to a small private airfield. There was an aeroplane parked at the end of the small runway but the car did not drive up to it, instead it parked under the trees at the top of the farm track hidden from the road and the passengers settled down to wait for darkness.

  In the rear the woman checked that the girl was not suffering any ill effects from the chloroform they had drugged her with. She was awake but unable to struggle because of her bonds and unable to speak because they had taped her mouth with plastic tape. The fear in her eyes was lost on the woman. She had her own fears and couldn't handle anyone else's as well. Satisfied that the girl was comfortable she sat back to wait.

  When darkness fell the car went directly to the open hatchway of the parked Cessna Citation Bravo aircraft. The internal lights were not switched on. The seven seat executive aircraft was far from new and the interior was faded and used but it was perfect for a fast flight to Exeter and it had also been cleverly modified to allow for the transportation of a hidden passenger.

  Cherie Leclerc was tucked into the tiny space and the panel reattached to cover her. None of them spoke to her. She was treated like baggage to be stored prior to take off.

  The flight was uneventful and the aeroplane landed on time at Exeter airport and taxied to a reserved parking place in front of a warehouse that bore the name Hainsley Executive Air. An hour later it was taxied inside of the hanger and Cherie Leclerc heard the doors being closed and several voices calling to each other.

  The next time that Cherie Leclerc saw light was when the panel was opened and she was half lifted, half pushed back into the passenger area of the small plane. Two men half carried her along the fuselage between the seats and then lifted her down the steps to be put into a white transit van where she was laid on a mattress and a rough blanket was thrown over her.

  She heard the warehouse doors being opened and then felt the van move off. She was helpless and frightened but she wasn't too scared to think any more. In the darkness she had been struggling for hours to break the rope that bound her wrists behind her and slowly but surely she had managed to find the smallest amount of movement and then worry at it until it started to become looser.

  She didn't know if she could break free or how she would escape her captors if she did, but the only alternative was to acquiesce to their abduction of her and she was not about to do that. Her fear had left her on the aeroplane. Her tears had quickly turn into anger and desperation. She recalled many things that her Uncle Leon had taught her. Firstly as there was no one to help her she had to help herself. At some point she had lost the capacity to be terrified any longer. She had decided to pretend that her Uncle Leon was with her and this was happening to both of them. What would he do?

  On the flight through the thin metal panel she had heard them chanting. Some form of ritualised chant that they repeated over and over until she couldn't listen to it anymore and had commenced to try to untie herself. Were they some sort of religious fanatics? What could religious fanatics possibly want from a fifteen year old girl? Every answer she could think of was bad news.

  She wanted to go to the bathroom desperately and she also wanted to untie her feet which had been tied so tightly that the circulation was restricted. They were hurting now, aching and uncomfortable.

  What was it Uncle Leon had said? “You must fight back all the time; never let them win a single round undisputed. Never allow them complete control.” As the van drove along she struggled and slowly found enough give in the rope to be able to bend one wrist and then eventually, using the other wrist she was able to force the rope down over her hand. She was free!

  Her first elation was short lived as the van started to slow and she thought the journey was over whilst her feet were still tied, but then it accelerated away again and quickly she tore the plastic tape from her mouth and was able at last to breathe freely. That made a real difference! Quickly she reached down and began to untie her feet and ankles. The knots were difficult in the darkness but after a struggle they were free and the circulation rushed back into her feet bringing a measure of pain which she tried to ignore.

  She crawled to the doors and examined the lock in the pale light. She could not see any handle that would open them only a vertical bar that entered the lock and would not move when she tried to make it go upwards. She struggled with it wishing she could see clearly and trying everything she could think of but she could find no way out. She was trapped!

  She sat down, her feet hurting and her heart beating with new fear. She was keenly aware that they intended something very bad for her. She had to get away! What would Uncle Leon do? He wouldn't sit here crying that's for sure! “Keep moving, be active, do what they least expect.” She could almost see him. Handsome and smiling. If only he were here!

  He would know she was gone though! That thought brought her head up and she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. Yes he would know very quickly. That was his job. Finding the missing children. She had overheard the complete conversation between Leon and her Father, the new job, the responsibility, the political difficulties.

  He had talked about it with her and her younger brother, the dangers of being alone on the streets, the need to make sure someone knew where they were at all times. The gentle voice telling them it was not a game and then the games made up to teach them how to be safe and failing that, how to get free! A summer week of family fun, strange new games and good food. When she didn't turn up to get ready for her party they would look for her and the first thing her Father did would be telephone Uncle Leon.

  She remembered a scene in the big farm kitchen, Uncle Leon waving a wooden spatula at her Father. “First you call me, then you start to search OK? Not the other way around. The other way could make all the difference.” That meant he was already looking for her! Somehow she had to help him to find her.

  The van's movement made it difficult to move around but she searched it completely seeking something she could use as a weapon. There was nothing anywhere just the blanket and mattress. No tools or pieces of wood, nothing. The only weapon she had was her brain, she had to out think them somehow, take them by surprise.

  When after a journey of about forty minutes the van stopped she was ready as they opened the door and ran at them from the rear of the van and leapt for her freedom. She was gone on fleet feet before they could do anything to prevent it and she took off across a paved courtyard as fast as she could run.

  From the corner of her eye she had glimpsed several people to her right as she travelled through the air. They would all be after her at once. She rounded a high building, a Church maybe and saw a fence facing her and beyond it a field that led to a line of trees.

  She sped across the narrow road and vaulted the fence hearing cries from behind her. Stumbling she almost lost her footing but quickly she was off again running for the trees which were about a hundred yards away. The field was some sort of lawn rather than a natural field and the perfect surface for her to run on without fear of tripping. She could hear them calling behind her. A man's deep voice shouting instructions.

  She didn't look back. Uncle Leon was there in the back of her head. “Don't look back, never look back! Run away not to one side.” She knew instinctively she must get away now or she would never see Uncle Leon again. Her young body surged with adrenalin and she ran like she had never run before, outpacing her pursuers and increasing the distance between them rapidly.

  The trees came towards her and she looked ahead trying to see how she could get into their shelter. There was a wire fence in front of her that was waist high but just strands of thin wire. Beyond it the trees looked to her like natural woodland. Her whole life had been surrounded by natural woodland and now her heart reached out to the sheltering trees, they would hide her if she could just stay ahead that long.

  The wire fence was easy and her fluid movement meant it did not slow her down beyond a quick h
and on the top wire and a clumsy jump over the top. There was a slight bank and then she was into the darkness and amongst the oaks and ashes of a very old wood. She was beginning to gasp for breath now.

  She turned right as it seemed to be slightly downhill and ran for all she was worth but it was more difficult now over rough ground and several times she found herself confronted by bushes or brambles that she could not penetrate. She had to think! Not just run! Think! “Always look ahead Cherie, always know where you want to go.”

  To her right there was definitely a slope now, the ground angling down and an edge to the trees. She would be exposed if she went out of the trees but her legs were tiring and she needed the slope’s assistance. Gathering herself for a final effort she ran between two huge oak trees and making sure to stay within the trees she changed direction and turned left. If anyone was flanking her they would go straight on she hoped. She was thinking ahead now. That was good. He would be proud of her for remembering his words.

  There was a huge rock ahead, almost twenty feet high and surrounded by trees and bushes. To the right of it she could see a path disappearing into the woodland. Could she risk a path? Would they see her? She decided against it, better to stay in the trees and find a place to hide.

  Rounding the huge limestone outcropping she plunged back into the trees and immediately lost her footing. She was on grass now and it was soaking wet. She slithered downwards gathering speed and suddenly her heart was in her mouth, she was careering uncontrollably towards the edge of a cliff. She could see the sea hundreds of feet below!

  Instinctively her hands drove her fingers into the soil as she desperately tried to stop herself from sliding but her momentum was too great. The Moon was staring at her from above the water far below as her feet made the edge of the cliff and struck against a rock edge. She was thrown to one side and her hand clutched wildly at a bush and held on in terror.

  Her breath was gone now, she was too exhausted to do anything but lay there and gasp for air. It was a few minutes before her fear returned sufficiently to make her cast about for a hiding place.

  Above her the slippery slope bore the marks of her passage down over it. They would see that if they had a torch or the moonlight was enough to illuminate it from above. She had to get away, but now she had only one way to go. The high cliffs below had penned her in for them. She was trapped!

  Casting around Cherie saw that fifty yards to the left of her and back up over the steep bank was another outcropping of rock, this one was smaller but was surrounded by brambles that appeared in the moonlight to be quite thick. Perhaps if she could make it underneath them and right up against the rock itself she could hide from them. She couldn't outrun them all she had to use her head.

  Her breath was returning as she started back across the slope watching the top of the bank in case someone should come out of the trees and see her. She didn't know why they had kidnapped her but she knew that her life and not just her freedom was at stake. These people were evil, something beyond merely criminal.

  Whilst they were in the car before they reached the aeroplane the woman's hands had taken advantage of her inability to defend herself. She had been subjected to a constant pawing at her clothes that never amounted to much more than just frightening her and watching her response. A sadistic game watched by the male passenger in the front of the car. The pair of them seemed to get some form of pleasure from her attempts to move herself away.

  “I see your applying the first rule of Satanism. Do what thou willst be the whole of the Law. The man had said to the horrible woman, goading her on each time she paused and unaware that Cherie Leclerc spoke English as well as he did. Despite his goading the woman never did anything more than threaten. “Do you think he wouldn't know Jacob? You are so stupid! He will be watching us, he is always watching us. Remember Bartholomew! But he won't mind a little fun as long as the goods are delivered in the correct condition, he knows I like my fun with them.”

  “Well if you want to test his patience go right ahead.” The man turned around and said something in a language she didn't understand to the driver and they both laughed.

  The woman had sat back then, bored by her game, lighting a cigarette and they had spoken of some man who was paying a penance for a mistake as though it was natural amongst them to be physically punished.

  Who were they? What did they want with her? Where were they taking her and why? Already Cherie Leclerc knew that only controlling her fear and using her head could ever set her free.

  Uncle Leon had been in her head again then. “Listen to them, study them, look for their weaknesses, and look for things to use against them. Listen for the clue that can help you get free.” Although her head was still full of the drug they had used, she had forced herself to stay awake and listen.

  She reached the brambles as the Moon disappeared behind a cloud and the light fell to gloom making everything seem grey. Now that she was close they didn't appear to be so thick or concealing and she stood wondering if it was better to run again, to try to put distance between her and them.

  The decision was made when she heard them again. Calling to each other from amongst the trees much closer than she had realised. Quickly she crouched down and began to force her way under the tangled brambles. Immediately, she was badly scratched but such was her fear that she kept going, worming her way further inside until she could also draw her legs in and tuck them along the rock. Then she stopped to listen. She could hear them every now and then and tried to work out where they were in relation to her own position. Close, too close!

  They seemed to be receiving instructions now from a man with a very deep voice. The sort of voice that men had when they were used to being obeyed. Like a military officer used to taking command. There was an unquestionable authority in it that told her he was probably the reason she was there. There wouldn't be two of them with that sort of personality. Whatever was happening to her was happening because of him!

  Slowly she turned her head and examined the rock she was pressed too. It curved away from her to the right and about a metre away it seemed to have a crack in it that ran right up to about six feet above her head. The crack was quite wide further up, maybe two feet. It formed a small cave behind the brambles if she could just slither quietly into it.

  Slowly - trying not to move the brambles - she began to slither along the rock-face. It was difficult because the thorns caught at her clothes all the time but with patience she was able to make progress without moving the brambles until she was at the base of the crevice. Quickly she forced herself over the lip and drew in her feet. Now if they bent to look under the bushes she was hidden. She felt safer at last.

  She slumped back against the stone and tried desperately to think. She didn't know how many people were seeking her. As she had leapt from the back of the van she had seen people to her right but how many? A small group she was sure, four or five plus the two men she had leapt between so that was seven all told. The woman's voice had also been audible amongst the trees so eight perhaps.

  They wouldn't give up of that she could be certain. They had kidnapped her and brought her to another country if she guessed right. They spoke mostly English between themselves so she might be in England. She wasn't still in Belgium; they had been flying for over an hour. They couldn't let her find the Police, they would search all night.

  Her breathing had finally returned to normal at least. Turning, she looked into the crevice, it was deep and the bottom of it looked to be full of decomposing leaves and branches. It was about eighteen inches wide and she could still press herself further back into it if she had too. Maybe she could hide beneath the branches if there were enough of them to cover her completely from their view.

  A sneeze startled her! Her head hit the rock behind her as she straightened involuntarily. It was very close! Right beside where she was sat, just three feet away through the bushes. She froze, she hadn't heard him approaching.

  To add to her alarm the
Moon reappeared and she felt the light burst through her flimsy covering, it seemed transparent to her now.

  Looking out through the bush she could see right over the cliffs below. A wide bay spread before her. Away over to her right there was a lighthouse flashing on the end of a rocky promontory below which the lights of a small town twinkled in the dark shadow of high cliffs. Further along the promontory following the curvature of the bay there were several smaller groups of lights denoting villages perhaps. It was beautiful in the sharp bright light of an almost full moon. Between her and the lighthouse promontory the sea was a flat calm surface with a silver moon path edged across it as straight as a ruler.

  The man who stepped into sight was the car driver, she recognised him at once. He was slim and about five foot eight inches tall. Wiry and dark haired and she knew he had a vicious look about him. A thug, a cheap Parisian style criminal from the back streets of Luxembourg or Paris. Her idea of a pimp who preyed upon helpless people. She knew that his eyes were cold as ice, she had felt them all over her body. Had she been at his mercy she would not have escaped as she had from the awful women in the car. He was a man to be afraid of. She sat totally still.