Aggy and the Dinos

Chapter 4

Two months later, after the last person had departed from the building for the weekend, Evergreen turned off all the CCTV. He walked back through the corridor like a fugitive, and exited though a side door to the car park. An articulated lorry was parked there. It was an inconspicuous blue, and bore no markings to betray where it had come from or who it was owned by. Another car pulled up, out of which got five men. The lorry driver also alighted onto the tarmac. He looked rough, a scarred face with bright eyes under a blue beanie hat. All the men wore bomber jackets. They too were specialists in their field, being involved in the exotic animal trade – they built secure enclosures quickly and illegally. The cost was high, but it was worth it. The foreman nodded at Evergreen, and the sides of the artic were put up. It contained sheets of what looked like glass, except it was completely unbreakable, and long thick metal poles. There were dark sacks that contained other equipment, as well as a small vehicle which would take the materials from the lorry to the lab.

The team already knew what Evergreen wanted done, and they asked no questions apart from how big were the animals that he wanted housed. The foreman had walked through the lab with him, discussing points of access and structural limitations as if they were planning a domestic extension. He had been pleasant and professional. The work would take the whole weekend, and once it was done, the lab would be transformed. The men worked non-stop, with a quietness that was a credit to them. Apart from the initial 'structural redesign' – apparently that's what one called taking out the floor of an entire room – the majority of the work was done in silence. After all the materials were delivered, the lorry was driven and parked somewhere secret, and the car was parked a couple of streets away – if anyone popped in over the weekend, they wouldn't have known that anything was going on.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Evergreen now lived at I.Q unltd full time. He had his little loves now, and they and their appetite were growing by the day. It was refreshing to be able to walk through the lab with a whole pig carcass and not even draw a surprised look from the men who were working just next door . He could wait to let his loves free in their new home. He wondered what they thought he was keeping – big cats, probably. He enjoyed the power that he had over them, because he knew and they didn't, and they never would.

The foreman, a largely, surly looking man whose given name was now obsolete, as he was constantly and permanently known as Gazza, had reservations about Evergreen.

"I don't like 'im," he muttered one day to his co-worker Ginger, named for obvious reasons.

"Neeva do I," Ginger replied. "Walkin' araand like 'e knows su'ink we don't. 'E's a fuckin nutta." Ginger gestured at his own head with his screwdriver, to further make the point.

"Wot djoo fink 'e's got in'neyah?" Asked Gazza conspiratorially.

"Big cats innit. S'obvious."

"Yeah. Prat."

As time went on, Gazza's feeling of unease about the job grew. Evergreen did indeed have the look of a man who knew something that he, Gazza, didn't, and that didn't suit him too well at all. You should never try and scam a scammer.

"Finish 'at job quick'zjucan, and let's get aat of 'ere," he said to Ginger on the last day.

''Sa fiddly job, boss," replied Ginger, who was working on the electrics that opened the door of the enclosure.

"Don' matta – if 'e gets locked in wiv 'is moggies thass 'is problem."

"Is it?" asked a rather plumier voice. Gazza looked around. Evergreen was standing behind Ginger, and he had a small handgun pointed at the back of Ginger's head.

"Wheyah dju get a gun like that?" Gazza asked.

"Same place I got your number, Gazza old man." Said Evergreen, and he shot Ginger.