Red Dragons

by K W Frost

  Slipping back behind the corner, Child stood up and casually walked around the corner into the light. Pretending to be surprised at the sight of the bikes, he yelled ‘Shit!’ and turned to race behind the corner again.

  The bikie turned at the sound of Child’s sharp yell and glimpsed him fleeing the scene. The bikie immediately started to chase Child.

  As soon as Child had turned the corner, he stepped sharply along the wall.

  Kicking over the old container of oil he had found, it spread the grease he had previously placed on the ground. Picking up a length of discarded pipe, Child swung it out behind him. Thanks to the bright forecourt lights, he saw the shadow of the bikie a full half second before he appeared.

  ‘Over here, mug,’ Child called, calmly. As the bikie spun around, trying to locate the sound of Child’s voice, his legs slipped out from under him and he sprawled flat on his face. Child swung the pipe bar down hard over his shoulder. The bikie screamed as the pipe struck the back his left knee, smashing it down onto the concrete and shattering the patella into pieces.

  Incredibly, the bikie lunged out at Child’s feet. Child swung the bar again and this time he connected with the back of the bikies head and then down across the shoulders. The bikie collapsed on ground without a sound. Blood ran down from the bikies head and pooled on the oily surface of the ground.

  Child flattened himself against the wall, pushing back into the deep shadow. He counted slowly. He was going to give the other bikie ten seconds to show himself, or he would have to chance it out in the open. He had just reached five seconds when the shadows betrayed the next bikies approach.

  ‘Hey Tai, you got the bastard?’ the bikie called out.

  The bikie had heard a sharp scream as he had exited the garage shop. He had no doubt who had been doing the screaming. As he stepped around the corner, he saw a dark shape laying on the ground. It took him all of two seconds to realise that it was Tai on the ground.

  Vaguely, out of the corner of his eye, the bikie saw the swinging pipe. He thrust out his arm to block the blow but it was too late. The pipe broke his forearm bones with a dull squish, like hitting a lump of plasticine. His right leg slipped out from under him as his feet slipped on the oil. As he fell backwards, Child stepped forward and broke the bikie’s left lower leg with a hard-vertical shot. Gasping in agony, the bikie shuddered and tried to remain motionless to lessen the pain.

  Child reached forward with the pipe end and lifted the bikies chin so that he could see him clearly.

  ‘Not such an easy job after all, am I? Pass on a message to Jake and Snake. Tell them that I’m coming after them, and they’re dead meat.’

  Child turned and walked into the bright lights of the service station. The service attendant looked up as Child approached the desk. A strange look appeared on the young man’s face.

  ‘You better get an ambulance,’ Child demanded coolly, ‘those boys over there have had a bit of an accident.’

  The service attendant nodded slowly, taking in Child’s beaten face and the blood dripping off the metal pipe still clasped in his hand. He reached for the phone behind the desk.

  Child went outside again and walked up to the two Harley-Davidson bikes parked side-by-side. He admired the gleaming paintwork, the jet-black tanks with high rider handle bars and the polished chrome exhausts. Each bike was a valued possession.

  Child took the pipe that he had used so effectively on two bikies and preceded to smash both bikes to bits. A minute later they were both lumps of scrap. Child tossed the pipe aside and casually walked over to Samantha waiting in his Toyota.

  ‘We better get out of here,’ he muttered as he climbed into the passenger seat.

  Five minutes later as they speed along the road towards west Auckland, Samantha finally broke the silence.

  ‘Are you alright, Simon?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’

  ‘You are a complete mess and you’re hurt again,’ she insisted, glancing at his dirty, bloodied clothes.

  Funnily enough, Child had forgotten about his injured ribs amid the chaos. Only now did the dull ache begin to return.

  Pulling down the small mirror behind the sun guard, Child could see why the service attendant had looked so strangely at him. He had a river of blood down one side of his face, stemming from a cut just under his left eye. It had dried to a dull crimson colour. His hair was splattered flat on his head, and his clothes were covered in dirt.

  ‘It looks worse than it is,’ Child muttered, the exhaustion evident in his voice. Samantha remained silent as she drove onwards. Soon, they turned off the main road into Auckland and headed towards Albany.

  Child looked over at Samantha, some curious thoughts in his mind. Samantha caught his appraising look.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ asked Samantha.

  ‘You’re an unusual woman, Sam,’ Child replied, softly.

  ‘Why would you say that?’

  ‘Aren’t you curious about what happened tonight? Most people would be asking a truckload of questions by now.’

  ‘Of course I want to know what happened, but you seemed to be in a rush to get away. I’ve been concentrating on the driving anyway,’ she said with a small smile. ‘Tell me what happened?’

  ‘Well, they tried to kill me…’

  It took Child ten minutes to go over the events of the night. By the time he had finished speaking they were approaching Albany.

  ‘Where to next?’ asked Samantha.

  ‘Find a motel. Somewhere where you can park the car away from the road. Head up East Coast Bays Road, we’ll find something up there, I’m sure.’

  Samantha quickly turned the Toyota.

  ‘What will you do now?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m not sure yet,’ replied Child. ‘There are several things that are puzzling me still… before I think about all that, I just want to say I’m sorry.’

  Samantha turned and looked squarely at Child, seemingly confused.

  ‘Say sorry for what?’ she asked.

  ‘For dragging you into this mess. If I hadn’t asked you to come diving with me then you wouldn’t be out here now.’

  A smile grew on Samantha’s face as she remembered Child’s invitation during the celebration of the successful rescue.

  ‘We both know why you invited me,’ she said, glancing over at Child.

  ‘We do?’

  For the first time since they had met, Child sounded slightly nervous.

  ‘You fancied me,’ she said, her coy smile robbing any possibility of misinterpretation. ‘I’m twenty-four years old, Simon. I’ve seen the look you gave me on the boat many times before. It’s just not often that I return it with one of my own… you see, I’m attracted to you too.’

  As she spoke, Samantha pretended to concentrate on the driving, but she was aware of Child’s steady gaze beside her.

  ‘Simon, nothing that I’ve seen or done since then has changed my first impression of you. I’m here willingly, so you have nothing to be sorry about.’

  There was a moment of silence in the car, as though an important decision had been made between the two of them. Samantha reluctantly broke the silence as she needed to know what Child planned to do next.

  ‘Now, what was puzzling you before we got sidetracked?’ she asked, warmly.

  Child collected his thoughts as he went over the events of the night.

  ‘Firstly, why has removing me from the situation become more important than finding the real computer board?’ he said, thinking out loud.

  ‘You answered that yourself,’ replied Samantha. ‘Remember when you said that he had a replacement coming, so the original was no longer needed?’

  ‘Yeah but why smuggle it into the country in the first place. That would’ve taken a lot of time to set up. In the end, the board was more important than the cocaine. Yet now it seems the boss had sourced a replacement pretty easily. It must be coming in a different way…’

  Child trailed off, knowing that his last st
atement was logical and correct.

  ‘That brings us back to the first question: why work so hard to kill me off?’ Child continued. ‘Why not just pay me off and be done with it. Killing in this country usually creates a big media storm, and I thought they’d want to avoid that now.’

  ‘Maybe he thought he could get away with it,’ suggested Samantha.

  ‘Perhaps… but somehow I don’t think so. The boss wants me dead. What had I seen or done to justify death?’

  Silence settled again as neither of them seemed to have an answer. It took a moment before Child continued speaking.

  ‘Who is the boss anyway? A rich businessman who has contacts in the mob, and has enough control to get them to do his dirty work? Back in the alleyway, the boss seemed confident in his plans, and of his power over the mob. Perhaps he has done this sort of thing before… he must be someone special.’

  ‘Did you recognise him? Seen him on TV or in the news?’ questioned Samantha.

  ‘No… I’d never seen him before, but I’ll definitely recognise him now.’

  Child’s voice had turned hard and flat. He was determined to identify this man.

  Samantha had no doubt that things would not go well for the person who had caused these emotions for Child. She had witnessed Child’s determination and courage before. The survival instinct rang strong in him, even when he recovering from a night of violent ordeals. Although Child wasn’t physically tall, he was proving to be a tough person to cross.

  ‘This guy is obviously big into hard drugs,’ said Samantha. ‘Maybe Ben could help us find him?’

  Child noticed Samantha’s use of the word ‘us.’

  He realised that Samantha was fully embroiled in this situation now. Child wasn’t sure if that was a good idea for either of them.

  ‘Perhaps Ben could help out,’ said Child, not sounding convinced. ‘Something else has just occurred to me though — perhaps I wasn’t the only one targeted to be killed by the mob. Perhaps you were on the list as well… ‘

  ‘Why me?’ asked Samantha, sounding nervous.

  ‘I don’t know why exactly, but Snake said they were going to search my place and torch it. How do they know where I live? I have an unlisted landline number. They didn’t ask me about that so they must’ve already known. The only logical link is that they know because they were importing the yellow container…’

  Child paused, his mind whirring over the possibilities.

  ‘I don’t know why they would target you though, Sam,’ he stated.

  ‘I don’t know either, Simon, I just don’t know. As far as I know, no one has any idea about me… I’m just a university nerd. Why would they want to kill me?’

  ‘That is the question I asked about myself from the start. However, they were willing to kill me with how little I know, so I wouldn’t want to take any chance that they wouldn’t kill you as well.’

  ‘I never thought I could be a victim… but you’re right, perhaps it’s lucky I’m here.’ Samantha’s smile conveyed another connotation to her words. She didn’t seem too upset about being told she might be on a hit list. Maybe she didn’t realise how serious it could be.

  Samantha turned into the driveway of a small motel overlooking Torbay. Its carpark was situated at the back, so anyone looking for the Toyota was unlikely to spot it from the road. A single light showed where the office was in the building. Samantha pulled up a short distance away from it.

  ‘I’ll go get us a room. People will remember you if they see you like this,’ said Samantha.

  ’Okay,’ agreed Child. ‘Have you got your cellphone handy? I want to call Bill and make sure he’s all right. If we’re on their hit list, then he just might be too.’

  Child punched Bill’s phone number into the cellphone by memory. Not only was he going to warn Bill about possible visitors, but there were a couple of other things he wanted to find out as well.

  Samantha was only gone five minutes. The motel unit she had booked them into was down towards one end of a block. Samantha got back into the car and remained seated behind the wheel.

  ‘Go on ahead,’ said Samantha to Child. ‘Have a hot shower or bath. Then I’ll fix up that cut and take a look at those ribs. I’ll park the car in the lower car park.’

  ‘Okay, nurse,’ said Child with a smile.

  ‘You go be a good patient,’ she said, smiling back. The lightness of their exchange helped to relieve the strain for a moment. They both knew that they would have to be on guard from now on.

  ‘Eagle One, report status.’

  ‘Nothing new, all immediate leads are gone. Our local contact Harrison is threatening to raise hell about leaving Child to be killed.’

  ‘Don’t worry about Child, his whereabouts is known now.’

  ‘Is he alive? Harrison is very concerned about his welfare.’

  ‘Alive and well. We will update on you on any developments from that source. Now, what about the principal target? He is the key to this mission.’

  ‘Unfortunately, we lost contact in the inner-city accident. We failed to put a transmitter on the car in time.’

  ‘Principal target will be damaged on the right shoulder, possible dislocation. He has links to Black Power. He is involved in drug smuggling in a big way. The local contact may know something soon, as a lot of cocaine will be coming onto the market. I will get a better physical description tomorrow.’

  In the motel unit, Child let the warm water splash over his head and run down his body. He tentatively moved his muscles in a series of stretches, soothing some of the stiffness and helping their recovery.

  He took stock of his numerous injuries. The cut under his eye had stopped bleeding. It had bled intensely at first, which made it worse than it really was. Child knew that a couple of butterfly bandages should hold the cut together.

  His worst injury seemed to be the ribs on his left side. While they did not feel broken to the touch, they were most likely fractured. Rest was the only real cure for broken ribs, but that was unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.

  Child heard the outside door close as Samantha came into the unit. As he dried himself off, Child listened as Samantha ordered a pizza to be delivered. This girl knew how to look after a bloke.

  Samantha glanced around as Child walked into the unit from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. His body was lean and well defined rather than bulky, it had strength and endurance. It complimented his face well. His facial features had character but you had to look closely to notice them. It was not a handsome face — it was kind of ordinary on first meeting. If you looked deep into the eyes, the light blue-grey colour seemed very cold or conveyed humour, depending on his mood.

  Seeing Child shirtless brought Samantha the familiar rush of attraction.

  ‘Let me fix that cut,’ she said, gently. ‘I’ve brought in the car’s first aid kit.’

  ‘It’s not too bad,’ replied Child. ‘A couple of butterflies should do it.’

  Child sat on the double bed and let Samantha fix the tapes to his face. After she was done, she just stood there in front him, looking down at his face. Then, slowly, she took his face in her hands and turned it upwards and kissed Child lightly on the lips. Their lips meet and explored each other, and when Samantha withdrew Child stood up with her. His towel fell to the floor, but it was of no concern, as their kiss became stronger, hungry for each other.

  ‘Wow,’ whispered Samantha as they broke apart.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Child.

  It seemed an adequate reply.

  Child pulled Samantha t-shirt over her head. Her hands went behind her to release her bra. Her firm breasts needed little support and her nipples were hardening with desire. They came together again, kissing forcefully, running their hands over each other’s naked bodies.

  Child’s arousal was obvious and he reached for the zipper of Samantha’s jeans.

  Then the doorbell rang, and an unfamiliar voice called out.

  ‘Pizza Haven deli
very.’

  ‘Blast that pizza man,’ Samantha said softly, breaking away. ‘Do you have any money?’

  ‘Yeah, in the front pocket of the pack. I keep some in there for emergencies.’

  Child couldn’t help but smile at the situation as he watched Sam quickly pulling on her t-shirt again.

  ‘I’ll be right there!’ Samantha called out when the deliveryman rang the bell again. She grabbed the pizza money and opened the door just enough to exchange it for the pizzas. Closing the door behind her again, she placed the pizza boxes on the bed.

  ‘Let’s eat,’ said Child. ‘I’m starved… and I think that I am going to need my energy.’

  He smiled up at Samantha, totally unembarrassed by his nudity.

  ‘You better eat plenty because I know you’ll need as much energy as possible,’ she agreed. ‘Damn pizza delivery men,’ she added, laughing.

  It was ten minutes before they spoke again. One and half family-size pizzas had been eaten, although mainly by Child. Clearing the boxes from the bed, Samantha turned to Child.

  ‘Now, where were we before that rude interruption?’

  Samantha reached down and took off her t-shirt again. Then, without saying a word, she unzipped and took off her jeans. Her underwear went with it.

  Naked, she stepped forward and knelt down between Child’s knees. Her fingers ran gently over his firm chest. Child leant down and kissed her upturned lips…

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Waking at dawn, Child playfully teased Samantha awake and enjoyed the satisfying love making that followed.

  It was after breakfast that Child went to the Toyota to retrieve his two packs and the other gear. He also contacted Bill on Sam’s phone and got the information that he had requested the night before.

  Carrying the packs back up to the motel unit, he dumped their contents out onto the bed. He carried both of them with ease, yet Samantha had struggled with just one the previous night.

  ‘Those things were heavy,’ said Samantha, gesturing at the packs. ‘What’ve you got in there?’

  ‘Mainly camping and climbing gear, plus a few other things that may be useful,’ said Child, looking up at Samantha. ‘You still sure you want to help? It’d be easier and safer for you if you pulled out now.’