K2 book 1

by Geoff Wolak

  * * *

  ‘No self respecting skinhead should be hung from an autobahn bridge with his trousers down.’

  ‘What is that thing some people do with the choking of the neck, in sex?’

  ‘Ah, auto-eroticism.’

  ‘Well, that is what he was doing, no?’

  ‘He was a skinhead weighing a hundred kilos, jumping off a twenty-metre bridge with a ten-metre rope with his pants down. I think the police will not suspect auto-eroticism.’

  A loud horn had been followed by loud thud, then the body landed back on the bridge. They stood and stared at it. They stared at each other. They stared at the body again and the truck slowing down.

  ‘I am not telling the boss about this.’

  They both shook their heads, quickly tipping the body back over the side.

  2

  ‘Going to plan,’ Johno stated as he entered Beesely’s office.

  ‘What about Bavaria?’ Beesely asked as Otto joined them.

  ‘Like the frigging end of World War II,’ Johno reported. ‘German TV is jumping up and down like crazy. So far it’s one Nazi gang fighting another. But even their Chancellor is questioning how thirty-six book stores went up in flames on the same night with no witnesses or suspects.’

  ‘Austria?’

  ‘Twenty odd bookstores,’ Johno reported.

  ‘England?’

  ‘Handful. Lot of stuff is bought over the Internet,’ Johno explained.

  ‘Good point.’ Beesely faced Otto. ‘Ask the technology guys to start attacking right-wing web sites. After all, we wish to be thorough … in our attack on these people.’

  With Otto out of the room Beesely eased back into his chair, swivelling to face Johno. ‘Noticed anything … odd, about Otto’s behaviour over all this?’

  Johno consider the question. He shrugged. ‘Keen to get back at them – definitely takes it all personally. He’s taken it worse than you!’

  Beesely lifted his eyebrows for emphasis and nodded.

  ‘So what you getting at?’

  ‘Otto, has been very keen to … send a message, to whom it may concern. A very clear message – mess with K2 and we track down your ancestors!’

  ‘They are Swiss, thorough little buggers!’

  ‘This is all … way beyond thorough. Getting back at Rudenson and those responsible is one thing, attacking those who share the same … loose political allegiances is another matter.’

  ‘So K2 made a statement,’ Johno considered. ‘So did Gunter with the chair.’

  ‘Yes, but to whom? And why? My lust for vengeance, what it was, ended with Rudenson. That is, of course, assuming that no one else was pulling Rudenson’s strings.’

  Johno cocked a teasing eyebrow. ‘Upset anyone … over the past fifty, sixty years?’

  ‘A couple,’ Beesely conceded.

  ‘And with you landing on your feet here, all this money…’

  ‘May well have caused some concern in distant parts. Unfortunately, it’s a long list.’

  Johno expression suggested that that was the understatement of the century.

  ‘Let’s work on the assumption that –’

  ‘You’ve fucked off a few people. Governments, husbands, intelligence agencies…’

  ‘You overlook one fact,’ Beesely toyed.

  Johno rested a cigarette on his lip without lighting it. ‘The timer.’

  Beesely nodded. ‘Could have been anything from a week … to six weeks. If it was beyond a week or two -’

  ‘Then mister shiny shoes and straight tie was the target,’ Johno finished off.

  ‘You see the person … as the target. I think maybe –’

  ‘The organisation was the target,’ Johno finished off. ‘Someone Gunter fucked off, wanting to take it out in one go by cutting off the head.’

  ‘There are more effective ways of doing that,’ Beesely suggested. ‘Nerve gas is … extraordinary.’

  ‘Would have made the papers.’

  ‘And made our new home uninhabitable … in normal circumstances,’ Beesely pointed out. ‘Without the American and Israeli decon’ teams it would be just that.’

  ‘Lot of whatifs in there,’ Johno pointed out.

  ‘I take some solace in the fact that my being here, and my … connection with those who could decontaminate this place, has created a double negative.’

  ‘Come again?’ Johno curtly asked.

  ‘If that bomb had gone off without us here the castle would be uninhabitable. If my arrival here caused the bomb, it also caused the solution to it - hence the double negative. Bit like inviting a fireman to your house when the neighbours are planning arson.’

  Johno stood, shaking his head. ‘I’ll leave the thinking to you.’