The Darkness Below

Chapter Forty One - 1970

Grace came out of John's bedroom into the lounge and found him hurriedly putting on his trousers. The sudden sound of Grace opening the bedroom door had panicked John and made him rush which had perversely actually slowed down the progress of pulling up his trousers.

John finally pulled up his trousers and they faced each other and both looked embarrassed. After the incident the night before when in error John had jumped into bed with Grace they both felt increasingly awkward around each other. This coupled with the fear and tension over the murder John had witnessed and uncovering the fact that they had inadvertently passed top secret documents to a Soviet spy, Vince Taft, meant they were keen to do something to take their minds of their worry.

John and Grace were now swimming in the realm of Mi5, the KGB and accusations of treason and betrayal of their country. They hoped to keep both their heads above water.

The night before Grace had told John about her experiences in the town of Bletchley as a World War Two evacuee. Specifically about a woman she had met whilst she was there who worked for a top secret military department dealing with intercepting Nazi transmissions. The woman, who Grace knew as Tel, had said all those years ago that if Grace ever needed help she would help. John was sceptical about what help this Tel woman could provide, even if she still worked for the military. He also raised the concern that Tel might be part of the faction aligned with the British Establishment bent on starting World War Three by blowing up the Centre Point Tower.

John had told Grace in response of a guy who knew from supporting his local football team, a guy who he knew from down the pub they all went to before the match. His name was Robbie the Tout and he was said to have his fingers in many pies.

Robbie was the ultimate middle man and he achieved this by not focussing solely on making money but cultivating favours. The only thing more powerful than money was if someone owed you a favour, people's guilt over owing you a favour often overcome any obstacle they may have in paying back a favour.

Robbie's extensive network of contacts spanned from the British Establishment, Aristocracy and on to working families and football thugs. They all respected and valued Robbie's friendship due to his ability to get among a variety of things sought after sports, music or theatre tickets or by putting people together in order to make a business or planning deal a better chance of success.

Robbie had cultivated this network and respect in large part due to his ability to be a social chameleon. Robbie was as comfortable taking to Royalty as he was to a bloke down the pub and more importantly they were as comfortable talking to him. This skill or personality trait had been honed and developed by going to a fancy Public School then spending his summer holidays working at an East End rubbish company, literally a company which collected rubbish on big lorries and dustcarts. The secret Robbie learned from years mixing with people of all different levels of status and financial means was that people were all essentially the same. Robbie had men who drove dustcarts who he felt certain that with a different start in life could have gone on to become millionaires and by the same token met Lords who if they had not inherited a vast fortune would have been lucky to get a job picking litter.

Robbie had two normal jobs and depending on the day of the week would determine where he was to be found. He had these jobs in order to provide him with an official income and also it gave him an excuse for a variety of people to come and see him without raising suspicion. Robbie sometimes sails close to the wind as it were and therefore he sometimes came to the attention of the Police which meant he had to have a legitimate reason for meeting certain people.

Robbie's first job was at a second hand car dealership called Dan's Motors where Robbie would show people around cars when he wasn't busy and strike deals with punters. His other job was working back office at the Weighbridge Office at the rubbish tip he used to work at in his summer holidays.