Escape from Gore by John Ayres Smith

Story Outline: Pope Francis pays for and organises (in the middle of the night) a long-range helicopter (an EH101) to collect Julian Assange (Wikileaks co-founder) from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and fly the 900 miles to The Vatican City (which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.). The Italian-made helicopter has an exceptional 1,100 mile range. Note: manufactured in Vergiate – Italy.

“Some bloke wants to know if we could make up a bulletproof coffin”.

This was the extraordinary words of a metal worker shouting across to the owner of a metal fabrication works in Deptford, south London at half past eight on a rainy Friday morning in the summer of 2018. As promised by the enquirer, just before noon on June 15^th. the email arrived with an odd-looking bland header showing a Gmail address and only a one word name: Frank

The works was always noisy with the sound of metal on metal – crashing power hammers, rotating lathes, screaming metal saws and indistinct human voices barely communicating as yelled words were exchanged between workbenches in an all-male factory environment.

John Richardson, Managing Director of South London Fabrications Ltd. couldn’t catch all the words which he misheard as something to do with a roof and that some bloke was coughing. His foreman was walking rapidly towards him with a mobile phone in his hand but by the time those bizarre words were repeated at close range, the caller had rung off and the foreman said an email would come in with the spec.

The oppressive atmosphere was never conducive to any conversations even when keen curiosity was sparked by humour - for it did sound like a joke didn’t it? – Well that is if somebody wanted the firm to construct a bulletproof coffin. Why would you? Mr. Richardson grinned at his foreman and said, “people are dead inside coffins, aren’t they? Why would a coffin have to be bulletproof for Christ’s sake? This is a wind-up.” His foreman just chuckled dismissively and returned to his workbench shrugging his shoulders.

This was no wind-up. The email contained not only very detailed specifications and dimensions but also details of the bank transfer for a £1,000 notional deposit on the cost of the finished ‘contraption’ for it was a contraption that had no specified use or purpose – simply a detailed spec. Despite the mysterious nature of this unique job, once the bank check confirmed the deposit that in, that was all the impetus that John Richardson needed to undertake the work.

He held the scanned drawing up and peered curiously at the artist’s impression of what the finished article would look like and yes it was coffin-shaped, had a six-layered shell of 50 mil thick steel which undoubtedly would stop even a high velocity bullet from passing through the six skins. John deduced that whatever this weird box’s purpose was, it would certainly be having a live, not dead human being inside it. Furthermore he guessed that it was going to be used for some kind of dare devil Houdini-style act maybe for some reality or adventure show.

Mr Richardson had carefully costed the project and it would be invoiced out at three and a half thousand pounds making him a hundred per cent profit and he was not even going to start the work until he had got the payment up front. The invoice was emailed back and within twenty four hours the remaining 2.5 grand had shown-up in the firm’s bank account, transferred from an Italian account, which intrigued Mr. Richardson.

Another email came in expanding on the brief wording of the first one that gave the spec for the job:

Dear Mr. Richardson we advise that this work is confidential and we would appreciate your company and its employees maintaining the confidentiality of this order. We appreciate that it is an unusual requirement but we would ask you not to speculate on what this metal fabrication is to be used for. Full payment has been made in advance and you will kindly deliver the finished product in a fully-concealed and crated condition to the address already supplied and no later than Friday June 29^th. 2018. The address was as follows: FAO Luciano Episcipo, Romano Air Services, London Heliport, Bridges Court, Battersea London SW11 3BE.

So, as one might imagine, Mr. Richardson was curious to say the least and he spent part of his Saturday morning at home, Googling the Italian-sounding name but it just came up with a load of Latin stuff that meant nothing. The Air Services company too gave no useful Google results. Finally he rang the Battersea Heliport and asked to speak to Mr. Episcipo and was put through to what was obviously a call-handling agent who simply said that Mr. Episcipo was out of the country at present. All very mysterious, he thought, but a job was a job and it was very profitable and as far as he could establish there was nothing illegal going on, so he tried to put it to the back of his mind. This didn’t stop several of his workers asking why they were building a bulletproof box and one of them came up with a rather compelling thought.

This young man was only seventeen and a fairly new apprentice but he was bright. He reckoned that the box was going to be used in an upright position and that the sliding rungs inside were probably a little ladder, so he concluded like the rest of us that this kit was going to be used in some reality TV programme and that some dare devil would be escaping from the box, maybe even underwater, although it hadn’t been designed to be air or watertight.

Mr. Richardson was smart enough, given the suppressed real purpose of the product, to insist that the invoicee/designer sign a waiver absolving the manufacturer of any liability concerning the use of the equipment as the company was uninvolved with the design (except the bullet-proofing aspect). Therefore the company could not incorporate any safety features. The client’s signature was as odd as the job itself and consisted of an emailed scanned copy of what appeared to simply be the word Frank scrawled into a dubious signature. It was probably worthless, or would be, in a court of law, Richardson, thought. He was curious as to whether he might ever spot his company’s creation ever turn up on TV, but he guessed that when the item left his factory, it would never be seen again by him or any of his employees.

... to be continued