The Peace by Force Conspiracy

By Jack Cartwright

The main character of the story is an industrialist whose outlook had been affected by the death of his wife to an Islamic terrorist's bomb, and the assault and attempted rape of his housekeeper by a gang of thugs, in addition to other items always appearing in the media.

He befriends and helps a group of aliens who have discovered by means of their powerful sensors, deposits of a mineral on his property which is essential for their existence. In gratitude for this they leave him with some of their advanced technology,and one of their heavily armed spaceships when they learn that his attitude to evil is the same as theirs, with their blessing for him to use it in an attempt to eradicate all forms of evil from the world wherever he can find it and by whatever means necessary.

The story is about him and his dedicated team of like minded friends in his attempts to keep faith with the leader of the aliens, a little love interest on the way, and a twist in the story right at the end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468582499

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© 2012 by Jack Cartwright. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/08/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8248-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8249-9 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 1

Sitting outside on the deck of a rather large chalet type building on the side of a rather small mountain, glass in hand, I found myself, much more so than usual, in a highly contemplative state. The rather large chalet belongs to me, and so does the rather small mountain. It is my retreat on the shore of Loch Ness, and a long way from any form of habitation. It has a helicopter pad, which is just as well because the only efficient way of approach is by helicopter, there being no access from the lake because of the vertical cliffs at the foot of the mountain, and no roads through the heavily wooded area surrounding the property. I am my own helicopter pilot. I own a few acres of woodland some 15 miles west along the edge of the lake, where I have been able to build a landing stage, a helicopter pad and a boat house where I keep my motor cruiser which I use for the occasional sail on the lake.

My name is John Trevor, 45 years old, and I own a company, Supersteels Ltd, in Sheffield making special steels, amongst which is what I like to think is one of the strongest steels in the world. The company was established 84 years ago by my grandfather, and developed by my father, whose wish it was that I should continue in the business after him, to which end I went to University and managed to obtain a PhD in metallurgy. I joined the company when I left University and when my father died 12 years ago I took over and managed to develop it further to a substantial size with a turnover of £285 million last year. Unfortunately I lost my mother a year later. You will no doubt have gathered by now that I am not disadvantaged in the area of personal fortune, to the extent that I am sufficiently well heeled to enjoy my present life style for the rest of my life without ever having to work again.

Unfortunately I was not enjoying my present life style, because I lost my beloved wife Anne five years ago in a terrorist attack. She was visiting London with a friend, incidentally the wife of one of my oldest friends, when they both became victims of a bomb attack by one of those suicide bombers who thought that by killing a few infidels, along with sundry innocent women and children, he would get to Paradise where he would collect his 72 virgins and whatever else is in the going rate for that sort of heroism. If there is anything going on in the hereafter I like to think that he will rot in Hell! I hope so anyway. My cook and housekeeper, Sarah, looks after me and she has been a great source of help and companionship since I lost Anne. The only way I managed to carry on was to immerse myself more and more in the business, which had recently been causing concern, so much so that the reason for my present visit was to give me time to get my thoughts together, with possibly some very serious decisions to be taken.

The fact is, I was getting a bad feeling about the prospects of the Company because in the last few months the order book had plummeted, and it wasn’t too difficult to see why. In the first place the present economic situation made it hard for anybody to sell their products, so naturally the demand for raw material was down. More sinister however was the fact that we had also lost orders because the demand for our special steels was down, partly because they are expensive, and manufacturers were finding other materials with which to make their products, and of course there is the ever present threat from the Far East, where they have been developing their own special steels.

As I said earlier, my personal situation is that I can walk away without a financial worry in the world, but there are others to think of, and I needed to consider options with the purpose of achieving what might be best for them. Loyal workers, many of whom were working for my family before I ever thought of joining the company. Never the hint of a strike, and even in the present situation, although they are aware of difficulties ahead, I believe that they know that I shall always do my best for them.

One option to consider was selling the company, but I feared that the only likely buyer would be a big steelmaker, maybe Asian, who would quickly get into the asset stripping routine, taking the best of the technology and plant, and then closing down. Another possibility would be to carry on with diminishing orders, hoping for an upturn, but in the absence of that there would be a continuing programme of redundancies and a continuous fight for survival. I could consider a Management buy-out on favourable terms to the purchasers; I have an excellent deputy in James Woodward, and if anyone could make a success of it, it would be he. I was thinking that maybe I would talk to him about that before going any further in the process.

Then I got to thinking about James—how he came to join me in the company, and what I had learned over time about his background and his early days.

There is a great difference in backgrounds between James and me; being the son of a very successful business man, I had grown up in a privileged environment, and there must have been something in the genes which made it possible for me to enjoy a very successful academic career in the area of metallurgy, and then discover that I had a natural business ability which saw me able to take control of a large company and make it much larger.

James on the other hand came from a very poor area of Sheffield where he grew up as the youngest son of a father whose main form of recreation was in imbibing as much alcohol as he could, and a hardworking mother who fought bravely against the odds to teach her sons—( James had four brothers)—what was right and wrong, and as a result of her many sacrifices they all emerged as decent young men, a credit to their mother and well regarded by all decent people in the neighbourhood. All of his four brothers, being of a non-academic nature, left school as soon as they could, and decided that it was now payback time for their mother. As soon as the oldest started work he handed her all his pay, and asked her to give him an allowance sufficient to support a modest social life and buy his clothes, in which area he had few demands. As the others left school they adopted the same procedure, and were very pleased to see the stress falling away from their mother. As for their father, to whom they were now becoming physically superior, they laid down the law and told him that he would henceforth contribute half of his dole money to the household, and he could drink the rest, but they would not tolerate any bad behaviour such as they had seen in the past. This regime worked very well, and so far had not been complicated by any romantic attachments of the boys. Amy Woodward realised of course that the time would come when she had to release her grip on their financial affairs, and she accepted this without any question in her mind.

James was five years younger than his nearest brother, and at the age of fifteen he naturally assumed that he would be leaving school and taking his share of the load, until he was approached one day by his form master, who asked him what plans he had for the direction in which his further education would go. James confessed that he had had no thoughts on the matter—in their household there was never any thought of further education. You went to school, left when you could, and got a job to earn some money.

But you must realise that your grades are so much better than anyone else in your form, said the teacher, don’t your parents ever congratulate you on how well you are doing?

They’ve got a lot of other things on their mind, said James, I don’t think they even look at the reports when I bring them back.

OK James—I think you’d better leave this with me.

A few days later the teacher turned up at the house and asked if he could have a word with his parents. Amy was brought to the door, and told him that it would be difficult for him to speak to her husband, whose return from the pub was unpredictable, but if there was a problem at school she would do her best to help.

There is no problem Mrs James, but I am distressed to learn that James wants to leave school as soon as possible. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that age for age he is probably the cleverest pupil at the school, and a gold plated University entrant. It would be a crime to waste what he has, when he could be getting a good degree and making a successful career. I have such confidence in him.

After much talk and persuasion from the teacher, Amy promised to discuss the matter with the rest of the family, and when she put it to the boys they all agreed that James should have his chance at a top education. The teacher was delighted, and in due course he went right through and obtained a first class degree in engineering.

After leaving University he obtained a position with a local company whose owner and Managing Director was a friend of mine. He had inherited the business from his father, but unfortunately he had not kept up with the times, and had ultimately decided to go into Voluntary Liquidation before the company was put into Receivership by his creditors. By this time he was not sorry to lose the business, which had caused him a great deal of grief, but he felt sad for his employees who would be out of work.

We were creditors in a fairly small way, and he had the decency to call and apologise to me over the loss we should have to suffer. I assured him that it was all part of business life, and there would be no hard feelings. Whilst talking, he asked if I might have a position for a brilliant engineer, and that was the first occasion on which I had any knowledge of James Woodward.

I agreed to see him, and was greatly impressed, but I had to tell him that I did not have a position suitable for a man of his qualifications. He was not disappointed at this—he told me that he had in fact already decided that he would invest his redundancy payment and whatever savings he had, in himself. To this end he managed to enrol at Yale University for a business course, the better to equip himself for a career in engineering and management.

He wrote to me on his return and I agreed to see him. I still had no position in which he could use his pure engineering abilities, but I was impressed by his results from Yale and his mature presence, and I saw in him a possible replacement for my Number Two on the board, who would be due to retire before long. That was when he joined the company, and I have since come to realise that taking him on was one of the best decisions I ever made.

I had come very much to like and admire James, and I hated the thought that if the worst came to the worst, he could again be amongst the unemployed through no fault of his own.

Chapter 2

Then, as had been happening regularly in the recent past, my thoughts turned to an incident a few weeks ago which had had a considerable effect on my outlook on the world, and resulted in a change in me from a man with a fairly liberal outlook, who looked for the good in everyone, perhaps even where there was none, to one in favour of complete zero tolerance for the criminal fraternity, particularly those who harmed their fellow citizens. This included people like rapists, drug peddlers, muggers, who took what their victims had worked hard for so that they did not have to work themselves, and worst of all terrorists, particularly of the kind that murdered my wife.

My housekeeper Sarah was due to attend a prize-giving event arranged by the local gardening association. She was not really into growing fine flowers or vegetables to show in the annual competition, she had joined originally because apart from anything else, she took upon herself the responsibility of looking after my very large garden, albeit with the assistance of a regular gardener I employed, and the Association had a buying arrangement by means of which they sold things like seeds, fertilisers, tools etc at an advantageous rate to their members. As a very popular member who always made time to chat to others and help in the shop when help was needed, she had graduated to being a member of the Management Committee, and it was in this capacity that she had certain duties at the show.

I was busy in my office looking over some figures, which were not very encouraging, and after a couple of hours of that I went into the kitchen to make myself an instant coffee. To my surprise, Sarah was pacing the hall, looking very agitated.

I thought you would have gone by now Sarah, wasn’t your meeting supposed to be at 7.30?

Yes it was, and the taxi hasn’t turned up; what am I going to do, it’s already 7.20.

You haven’t got time to phone for another taxi—I think I’d better take you there myself.

Oh thanks Mr John, she said, that would be very kind, and if you were to stay for the event it would take your mind off those figures for a while, and you might be amazed to see some of the stuff they produce. Those top gardeners are so keen to win the awards they look after their marrows and onions better than they treat their kids!

Maybe I’ll do that Sarah, I’m fed up with looking at this stuff anyway.

I rushed out on to the drive, where I had left my car, and I had it started by the time she had gathered up her papers ready to go. It did not take long to get to the hall where the meeting was being held, but the inadequate car park was full and there was no room to park in the nearby streets, so I dropped Sarah off at the door and went off to search for a parking space, telling her I would get in there as soon as I could. Frankly I think I would have preferred to go home at that stage, and phone to tell her to call me when she wanted to be picked up, but a promise is a promise, and I didn’t want to let her down.

I managed to park the car about three streets away, and finally arrived at the hall well after the event had got under way.

Sarah was right—I don’t think I had ever seen such big and beautiful flowers, and the size of some of the vegetables absolutely amazed me, cucumbers and tomatoes, aubergines and melons, potatoes, onions, all beautifully shaped—and the marrows, I couldn’t believe they could grow so big. It was a most interesting evening, and after all the announcements and presentations had been taken care of, I was invited to have coffee with the committee and a number of the prize-winners, by whom I was given lots of tips on how to grow the big stuff, most of which were completely lost on me, but I did my best to look interested because I could see how proud and happy they were with their awards. I discovered that Sarah was very knowledgeable on the subject of horticulture, and this made me realise that my beautiful gardens had not got that way by themselves. She told me how she organised the tasks to be undertaken each week by the gardener I employed, and I felt a little bit ashamed because I had never really shown much interest after I lost Anne, who had been the gardener of the family, and more latterly having been so committed to the task of trying to see the company through its recent difficulties.

I rather lost track of time, until Sarah said: Look at the time—it’s nearly eleven o’clock.

I said: I think we’d better get back, I’ve still got some work to do on those figures before I go in to the office tomorrow.

Oh I’m so sorry, I hadn’t realised I’d taken you away from your important business.

Don’t worry about it, I said, it was great to relax for a while, and I’ve learned enough tonight to make me want to get more interested in my gardens, which you work so hard on.

I think Sarah appreciated that, and we headed out through the door after saying our goodnights to everyone, and my promising that it wouldn’t be my last visit.

How far away is the car? Sarah asked.

Quite a way, it took me ages to find a spot; now I don’t know whether I can find it! Wait a bit—yes, I think we need to go along here a little way until we come to a narrow road on the left which will bring us out opposite the Rugby Club, and then it will be a right turn to where I left the car.

We turned into the narrow road, in which the buildings appeared to be either factories or warehouses, and I was still talking animatedly about the size of the show items when I saw a group of men walking towards us. There were five of them, and they were taking up the whole of the pavement and part of the road, and as they got nearer they made no effort to make way for us, so I took Sarah’s arm and guided her into the road so as to pass them on the outside. They moved to intercept us and we were obliged to stop short of them. My stomach was turning somersaults and I could feel my heart beating wildly in my chest as I realised we might be in some danger.

Look what we got ’ere, said the biggest one of the group, you look like a bit of a toff mate, I bet you’re worth a few quid eh?

Look, I said, if it’s money you want just let us get on our way home and you can have all the money I’ve got in my wallet, which is about two hundred pounds. The rest of the stuff, driving licence and that, is no use to you but it will cause me a hell of a lot of trouble to replace.

I reached into my pocket for the wallet, and as I opened it to remove the cash he said: Just gimme the f—g wallet, and snatched it out of my hand.

OK, I said, take everything—now will you let us go home?

No mate, and he said to the others, grab ’em.

With that, two of the others grabbed me by the arms, and the other two grabbed Sarah. With a lecherous look he got right into Sarah’s face and as she shrank from his beer laden breath he put his fingers just above the neckline of her dress and began moving them around on her bare skin.

This one’s much too good for you to ’ave all to yourself mate, it’s only right that you should share her with the needy—which is us.

With that, he put his fingers inside both sides of her dress, which buttoned all the way down the front, and in two movements tore it completely open. I started to struggle and Sarah screamed, upon which he stuffed his handkerchief into her mouth, and said to the two holding me, hold on to him tight, and if he keeps struggling give him a kick.

He then pulled her bra away from her and pushed it up to a position just underneath her neck, and then concentrated on getting her pants off.

A cold fury was building up inside me, and realising that the more I struggled the tighter they would hold me, I stopped and tried to think of something I could do. I have never thought of myself as brave, and certainly I am nothing of a fighter, but there must be something. The two holding Sarah, seeing her half naked, held on to her with one hand each and began pawing her with the other while the big man was completing his work, and the two holding on to me started to giggle excitedly, no doubt in the expectation that their turn would come in due course.

Help me to get her on the floor, he said to the others, and they stopped their pawing and manhandled Sarah to the ground. She had struggled valiantly, but was rapidly becoming exhausted, and they had little difficulty in forcing her legs apart so that big man could lower himself on to her. By this time my two captors were getting so excited they could hardly contain themselves, and I felt their grip on me loosen. Without thinking, I wrenched as hard as I could and to my surprise, however briefly, I was free. The would-be rapist was working on his trousers, and by the time he looked up he was too late. I just took two steps and kicked him on the side of the head as hard as I could, and he collapsed on to Sarah, completely unconscious.

I had not thought about the consequences of this for me, but I soon began to find out. They came at me with a will, raining blows from all sides. I did my best to cover up in the manner of boxers I had seen, with head bent down, wrists each side of my face and elbows tucked in tight, but of course against four of them there was not much hope. I was trying my hardest to stay on my feet, because I knew that once on the ground the serious kicking would start. I heard a cry of pain as one of them broke a hand on the top of my head, but I realised that I was going down and I was not going to come out alive.

It was then that I heard a shout of Let’s get ’em, and four large shapes appeared out of the darkness. With the advantage of surprise and their superior strength they soon put my attackers out of action, and while two of them were bringing me to my feet, the others were pulling the still unconscious big man off Sarah, who had been too exhausted and shocked to get out by herself.

When he saw the condition Sarah was in, the one who appeared to be the oldest of the group took off his coat and draped it on to her front, while they helped her to her feet and removed the gag. He then turned her away from the others and helped her on with the coat from behind.

He turned to me: How do you feel mate?

I’ve been better, I said.

He gave a little chuckle. Sorry to laugh, I know it ain’t funny, but at least you haven’t quite lost your spirit. Can you tell us what happened?

I don’t know how it came out, because I could hardly talk, but what I tried to say was: We’d been to a gardening show at the Community Hall, and we were coming back to where I had parked the car when we were accosted by these five. The big one took my wallet, and I was hoping he’d settle for that, but then he decided he’d like to rape Sarah here, my housekeeper. You can see what they did to her clothes, and the gag and that, and he was just about ready to start when I managed to break free long enough to give him a good kick in the head. They all started on me then, until you came along. Thank God for you, I thought we were goners.

That’s all right mate, my wife was mugged last year, so I know how you feel, and I’ve been dying to get my hands on some muggers ever since, and here we are—rapists as well—this really is my lucky day! Oh sorry—but you know what I mean.

He turned to the others: Andy, let’s get these off the street in case anybody else comes along—into that yard there will do. Kev, you look after Sarah and make sure she keeps warm, Brian, keep your eye on these bozos and make sure they don’t get lively again. I just want to have a word with—what’s your name mate? John, I said. OK, I just want to have a word with John. After that I think we should take them back to the Rugby Club so that I can have a look at them in the treatment room. If John agrees with what I want to do, that is.

He helped me to walk to a kind of recess in the nearest building, far enough away so that we couldn’t be heard by the others. My name’s Jim by the way. I’m the trainer at the Rugby Club. We were having a do tonight, and on our way home when we came across you. We knew we were going to have a few, which is why we were walking and not in the car. Lucky for you eh! Anyway, what I want to ask you is whether you and Sarah want to be dragged into court, and have your names all over the front pages, or whether you’d rather leave it to us to settle it our way. You know how it’ll be with the police, all those questions, especially about how you came to be using excessive force by kicking that poor bastard in the head, and then all the smart lawyers in court pulling Sarah apart, and in the end, whatever they get they’ll probably be out in months.

What’s your way?

What do you mean—oh I see. Well, we shan’t kill them or anything, but what I’d like to do is discourage them from mugging anybody else, and do our best to make sure they don’t rape anybody else, if you know what I mean.

OK,’ I said, I think I agree with you Jim, I feel very bitter about the way they treated us tonight, especially Sarah, and I don’t think I ever heard of a victim who was happy with the way the law had dealt with their attacker. I think I can persuade her to go along with what I decide, so let’s do it your way."

Right—I’ll get Andy and Kev to help you and Sarah back to the club house, there won’t be anybody there by now, and Brian and I will meet you there after we have done the business.

I walked to the Rugby Club with considerable difficulty, supported by Andy, and Kev walked with Sarah, one arm tightly round her shoulders, and making sure she was wrapped up tightly in Jim’s coat. I was quite worried about Sarah, despite my own problems, because she had not uttered a word since the attack—she was obviously in a state of shock, and I hoped that Jim might be able to do something to help her out of it.

Jim and Brian were right behind us as we entered the clubhouse, which was not surprising in view of the slow pace we were travelling at. They took us to the treatment room, and Jim had me lie on the treatment couch. Just rest there a while John while I see if I can do anything to help Sarah. By the way here’s your wallet—we wouldn’t want anybody to find that on the big guy after the state you left him in.

He went over to where they had sat Sarah down and began talking quietly to her. Would you like to go into the changing room Sarah? There are electric showers in there and it might do you good to have a good soak and get nicely warmed up. Nobody is going to disturb you, and afterwards you can tidy up your clothing—I’m sure that’ll make you feel a lot better if you can do that.

She rose without saying a word, and Kev guided her to the door of the changing room, closing the door after her once she had gone through.

Jim turned his attention to me, and began to probe gently with his fingers in all the areas where I was showing bruises, Does that hurt? Does that hurt? And so on. Actually I was hurting quite a bit without any probing, and I was as stiff as a board, but there was no acute pain, and after what seemed to be a very thorough examination he pronounced me basically unharmed. I don’t think you need to go to hospital John; a few days rest and you’ll feel a lot better. I’m a bit worried about Sarah though; perhaps you could try her with a bit of TLC; she might come out of it quite naturally, but if she doesn’t, you might have to find a counsellor who can keep his mouth shut. And a cup of hot tea as soon as you get back home!

With that in mind, Andy said he would phone for a taxi, but I managed to say that my car was just down the road.

I suggest you leave it there for the night John, said Kev. I don’t think any of us are likely to be inside the limit yet, and the last thing we want is to be picked up by the police. One look at you and they could easily connect us with what happened back there.

The taxi duly arrived and we all managed to pile into it. I had already given Jim my address, and he gave it to the driver. They managed to get me into the cab, head on my chest, without him seeing my face, and Jim said, You’d think they’d know when they’ve had enough—everybody went home long ago, and we’ve been left trying to get him fit to go home, throwing up all over the place—spoilt our bloody night, he has, I don’t even know who he is—must have been invited by somebody I suppose.

Well if this is his address he comes from a very posh part of town, said the driver. He must be one of those toffs that live round there."

"No wonder then,