Family Affair – Bentley 51

 

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.

For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and more recent Bentley episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Texts had flown in several different directions and Bentley was having difficulty holding onto a sense of reality over any of it. First things first, though, Natalie had stepped forward and sent him a new laptop computer. This one was full of the latest anti-viral anti-sniping anti-everything software. Indeed, the machine was so up tight Bentley wondered if it would actually do anything. 

Bentley was impressed that it was Natalie who has made the first practical move – Natalie who had started off saying she was related to him but in reality was not. The person who had no real vested interested in him family-wise turned out to be the one who knew what to do and to be ready to do it. He wasn’t really notching this up as one for her and one against the others. Not really, honestly.

After all, he appreciated Sheila’s position.

– If you’d just given me the key in the first place… She began at one point.

– Well I didn’t and if you’re going to go off like this in the second place you can be out of the plan. Texted back Bentley.

It worked. She didn’t send anything else to him that could be remotely classified as critical. She fell in line in the way she could, offering access to her network but also noting that her network probably couldn’t reach Aston, wherever he was. Her network was good, but frankly if she could get to Aston then there might not be a need for the key, the box or anything else for that matter. They’d all be just sitting there waiting for the pandemic to go away before they took their next luxurious trip off somewhere.

And then there was Lawrence.

– You know I’ve got connections in the police squad… He began.

– Don’t be daft. Sent back Bentley at once. And that was the very end of that. A day later Lawrence sent him another text asking him if he wanted anything ordered from the supermarket as he was making an order himself and could add things to it and mail them to him or something if that could work? Bentley thanked him for the kind thought but it did serve to reinforce his overall feeling that Lawrence was essentially useless. But maybe useless in an entertaining nice kind of way that might on some odd occasion actually work out. Keep him in the back pocket, thought Bentley. Where you can sit on him, if necessary.

So Natalie was definitely the lynchpin in the plan. Smart, young, energetic and ready for anything, she was keen to revise her ‘Jemima Entwhistle’ role – if nothing else she could use it to travel to get her to the vicinity of Aston, even if this was all it did.

Bentley knew Aston was more than a bit player. He also knew Aston had dealings with people across Hasting, Brighton, Hove and no doubt other places on the South Coast of England. He didn’t know how far the empire spread – if it could indeed one could call it an empire – but maybe the trick would be to send in Natalie to start stirring things up a bit and see if he emerged.

– We can listen in on you and any problem we’ll either stand you down or back you up. Texted Shiela. The surveillance tech she’d deployed for the journey North had been impressive although Bentley wanted to avoid any more squawking for as long as he lived.

– I’ll always be there. Confirmed Lawrence, not really reassuring anyone, but if you needed someone to rush in and be a distraction at least Lawrence could probably pull it off. 

And so some kind of plan, although Bentley hesitated to call it a trap, was set. They’d find Aston, bring him out to daylight, or at the very least discover something he was doing and do something to it so he was annoyed. I love it when a plan comes together, thought Bentley. Even when it’s just a really rough one that sounds nothing at all like a plan. They’re usually the ones that work. Usually. Maybe.

It was only after this that he dared open the laptop box with a view to logging it on and getting it set up. At least the plan was set and fully operational without the laptop so if anything went wrong he’d still be able to operate via the mobile phone. 

Nothing did go wrong with the laptop although that was something of a surprise because it was operating on a more up to date operating system than Bentley’s previous one. This slowed him down somewhat as he felt like he was learning a new language. But at least he couldn’t be hacked, he thought. Although at most it looked like he’d only be able to get the calculator to work.