MERCENARY a gripping, action-packed thriller (Johnny Silver Thriller Book 1)

by PAUL BENNETT

  ‘Don’t we all sometimes?’ he said.

  I looked across the table to the empty chair and nodded my agreement.

  ‘More wine,’ Gus said to the waitress, sensing the change of mood and trying to move on.

  Stan, ever vigilant, sensed the mood, too.

  ‘Did you hear about the Russian who had a paper shop?’ he said. ‘It blew away.’

  There was a chorus of groans. And the sound of a crash. The waitress, carrying desserts on a tray, saw it fly out of her hand and on to the floor. A figure behind her, unrepentant and unsteady on his feet, appeared out of the shadows and approached our table.

  ‘Well, if it isn’t little Gianni,’ Roberto said. ‘You’re not a hard guy to track down. If you want to stay alive, you’ve got to be less predictable. Gus’s favourite restaurant. Where else would you go for your triumphal procession?’

  He was red-faced – through anger and booze, I suspected – unshaven as if he’d jumped on the first plane east. He was out of his depth here and didn’t realize it. Or didn’t care. He’d been too long bossing everyone around that it was hard to break the habit.

  ‘You’re drunk, Roberto,’ I said. ‘Let me get you a cab and take you to a hotel. Sleep it off. Go home.’

  ‘Go home?’ he said. ‘What for? I’ve been sacked. No job, no prospects. And all because of you. It took me a while to figure out, then it came to me. You arrive in Amsterdam and all hell breaks loose. Why couldn’t you leave well enough alone?’

  ‘Because it’s a bad world out there and someone has to do something about it.’

  ‘Even if it means ruining your brother?’

  ‘Stop exaggerating,’ I said, ‘and show some sense. You stick to the prepared story – Silvers ran a sting operation on the Bellinis – and none of the blame will be put down to you.’ I thought about it some more. ‘And what are you doing being so sanctimonious about everything? It was all your fault. You were the one who succumbed to the Bellinis. Took the profit out of greed. Now you’ve got to live with the consequences.’

  ‘You had to stick your nose in, didn’t you?’ he said, swaying a little. ‘All you had to do was find Carlo and get our money back. But you had to go another step further. And look where you’ve landed up. A crap little place for crap little people.’

  Bull go up from the table and faced Roberto.

  ‘Time to move on, friend. This is a private party and you weren’t invited.’

  The restaurant was quiet now. The other diners were conscious that something was going to happen and didn’t want to be involved. It wasn’t just our evening that Roberto was spoiling.

  ‘We had a good operation,’ Roberto said, ‘and you had to spoil it.’

  Pieter was the next to stand up. There was both him and Bull in front of Roberto now. Still he didn’t take the hint.

  ‘Come and face me, Johnny’ he said. ‘Don’t hide behind the Neanderthals.’

  How to win friends and influence people.

  ‘I have you know that I am a Comanche brave, not a Neanderthal,’ Red said. ‘May Manitou rain his wrath on you.’

  ‘You’re not just facing one man,’ Stan said, standing up. ‘All for one and one for all.’

  The candles flickered.

  ‘Back off, Roberto,’ I said. ‘This is a fight you can’t win. You can’t bully your way through life anymore.’

  ‘I’ll second that,’ said Carlo, standing up.

  ‘Et tu, Brute,’ he said. ‘Mummy’s little boy found some courage at last? You don’t frighten me. None of you.’

  ‘How about me, then?’ a voice said.

  Someone tapped Roberto on the shoulder. Whoever it was I couldn’t see because the figure was blocked from my view by Roberto’s bulk.

  As he turned around a right hook hit him on the nose and he was sent reeling backwards. Bull caught him and laid him down on the floor. There was a round of applause from the other diners.

  ‘Drinks for everyone,’ shouted Gus.

  ‘Sorry I’m late,’ Anna said. ‘But it seems I was just in time.’

  ‘Now we are eleven,’ I said.

  I got up from my seat, walked around the table, stepping over Roberto in the process, and wrapped her in my arms. She hugged me tight.

  ‘Sorry I was such a fool,’ she said.

  ‘Come and sit down,’ I said. ‘Have some champagne.’

  I took a hundred euro note from my wallet and handed it to Bull.

  ‘See if you can get Roberto a cab to the airport,’ I said.

  Bull took his feet and Red took his shoulders and together they carried him outside and laid him on to the pavement while waiting for a passing cab.

  ‘What changed your mind?’ I said to Anna.

  ‘I got to thinking,’ she said. ‘I’ve done some bad things in my time. Most men would treat me like dirt, and maybe they’d be right. But it didn’t matter to you. It was the Anna inside that you saw. If you can forgive, then it seemed like I should too. It’s the Johnny inside that I love. I can see that now.’

  ‘How do you fancy being a waitress at a beach bar in the Caribbean?’

  ‘My previous job as a waitress didn’t go too well.’

  ‘Make that manageress then.’

  ‘I’d do anything for you.’

  ‘Maybe not anything,’ I said.

  ‘Maybe you’re right.’

  Gus blew his nose loudly and wiped his eyes.

  ‘Must be the mustard,’ he said.

  33

  I slept soundly that night. We slept soundly.

  I was tempted to roll over when the alarm went off – I wasn’t looking forward to saying the goodbyes.

  Bull was the first to leave.

  ‘See you in St Jude,’ he said. ‘And thanks for everything you’ve done. We’ll have a party when we all get back from the States. You’ll have given Michael a new life. Deserves a celebration.’

  ‘Reckon so,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, turning his back and walking out of the hotel. ‘Reckon so.’

  Red and Stan were sharing a cab to the airport.

  ‘Let’s all get together for a pow wow every year,’ Red said.

  ‘It’s a date,’ I said. ‘And no more rodeos, eh?’

  ‘Time for Comanche warrior to put on a new pair of moccasins and settle down with a squaw.’

  He shook my hand and turned to Stan. ‘Let’s get out of here,’ he said.

  ‘Remember,’ said Stan to me, ‘expect the unexpected.’

  He grinned.

  That made two jokes in one day. One lifetime, maybe.

  ‘Look after yourself,’ I said. ‘And I’ll want an invite to that house by the sea.’

  He nodded and followed Red out the door. They felt as I did about goodbyes. Get them over quickly and don’t look back.

  Carlo and Natasha left next. They were going to pick up his Lamborghini and head to Italy, first stop Rome.

  ‘Thanks, Brother,’ he said. ‘Don’t forget that promise about the wedding. I’ll invite everyone and we can talk about old times.’

  ‘You sound like you’re married already,’ I said.

  Anna kissed Natasha on the cheek and so did I.

  ‘Look after Carlo,’ I said. ‘He’s your responsibility now. Keep him on a tight rein.’

  ‘You can trust me,’ she said.

  ‘And me too,’ Carlo added. ‘The Carlo of old has gone for good.’

  ‘Keep it that way,’ I said. ‘Now, get going before I forget I’m a grown man.’

  Arnie and Scout had their bags in their hands.

  ‘You’ll get an invite to our wedding too,’ Arnie said. ‘I don’t know what we’ll do for excitement from now on.’

  ‘I’ll handle the excitement,’ Scout said. ‘Thanks, Johnny,’ she said, kissing me.

  ‘One question,’ I said to her. ‘What’s your proper name?’

  ‘You won’t believe it,’ she said, blushing, ‘but it is actually Scout. My dad was a fan of the Lone Ranger
. Was drunk when he registered my birth. If I’d been a boy I would have been called Tonto. Instead I was named after his horse.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with that,’ I said.

  ‘Reckon so,’ she replied.

  That left only Pieter. He wasn’t carrying a bag.

  ‘I think I’ll stick around for a while,’ he said. ‘Get to know the place better.’

  ‘And the waitress,’ I said.

  ‘Good to know the old magic still works,’ he said.

  ‘Stay away from married women,’ I said. ‘Don’t push your luck.’

  I looked at my watch and saw it was time for my meeting with my mother. I kissed Anna goodbye and walked out on to the street. I was having second thoughts – was this a good move or not? Ignorance is bliss, they say. I’d soon see.

  Mother had booked herself a suite at the Hilton. She’d spend today in Amsterdam dealing with the police, fly to New York in the morning and do the same and then back to London. Remarkable woman. She should never have passed the reins of the business to Roberto and Carlo – neither had her temperament nor her ability. Doomed to fail from the start.

  The lounge area of the suite was decorated in neutral – nothing stood out, nor would offend. There was a dining table big enough for four and Mother, Gus and I sat around it drinking coffee.

  ‘Went to plan then,’ my mother said.

  ‘A last-minute hitch, but we overcame it.’

  ‘Gus told me Roberto turned up. Made a fool of himself.’

  ‘He did that a long time ago,’ I said.

  She nodded. ‘He and Carlo came close to ruining the business. Someone was bound to find out that the bank was being used to launder money. Then we would have lost everything. Once you lose your reputation you’re finished in this business. I’m grateful to you, Gianni.’

  ‘Glad to be of service.’

  ‘There’ll be a bit of a hiatus,’ she said, ‘while we bed in new staff. But Silvers will go on, although God knows what will happen when I go.’

  ‘That’ll be a while yet, Mother. Plenty of time to work out long-term solutions. And Gus will help. Lean on him and you won’t go far wrong.’

  She finished her coffee. ‘Down to business,’ she said.

  My stomach churned.

  ‘Tell me the truth,’ I said. ‘Don’t hold anything back. I can take it.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I believe you can. Ironic that you should have turned out to be the best of my three sons. The only one who grew up without a father.’

  ‘It made me independent and strong,’ I said. ‘Screwed up, but independent and strong.’

  ‘Like some mythological figure from ancient Greece. Abandoned by the gods, but still becomes a hero and shames them.’ She paused. Stared at the ceiling as if seeing past events projected there. ‘Where to start? It took me a while,’ she said, shaking her head, ‘before I realized I married the wrong man. Roberto takes after Alfredo – they are both bullies and used to getting their own way. Maybe I was looking for someone who would relieve me of some of the pressure, someone who would take some of the burden from my shoulders. It wasn’t easy running the business, especially when you want a normal life – a husband, home and a family.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with that,’ I said.

  ‘Alfredo and me. Maybe doomed to fail from the start. Then there was no way out. The Catholic side disapproved of divorce and the Jewish side dreaded the slur on their family. The sham that the marriage had become had to continue. No way out.’

  ‘So you found a diversion,’ I said.

  ‘No. I found a true love. Someone to bring some joy into my life.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with that either,’ I said. ‘But then you became pregnant with me and something had to give. None of you could ignore the situation any longer.’

  ‘I confessed to Alfredo and told him that I was having the baby, even though there would be complications. He thought he could cope with it, but every time he looked at you he saw the father and the shame. All we could do was keep packing you away to another boarding-school. Hide the shame, hide the blame.’

  Much of this I had guessed already. It was the revelation of the father’s name that I was interested in. But Mother had to tell the story her way and I had to be patient.

  ‘It was agreed that I would break off the relationship and that we would try for another baby to seal our new commitment to each other. That baby was Carlo. That’s why he was always spoilt – like we were spoiling ourselves, telling each other that everything was all right when in reality nothing much had changed.’

  ‘Tell him,’ Gus said. ‘He’s waited long enough.’

  ‘So are you finally going to tell me the name of my father?’

  ‘Better than that. I’m going to let you speak to him.’

  She took out her mobile phone, pressed a couple of buttons and passed it to me.

  ‘Press send,’ she said.

  ‘And that will be my father?’

  ‘That will be your father.’

  I took the phone from her and hesitated. Did I really want to go through with this? Would the voice on the other end of the phone coincide with my fantasy or would it lead to a whole new disappointment in the cards that life had dealt me?

  ‘What do I say?’ I asked.

  ‘How about “Hi Dad”?’ Mother said. ‘He’s waiting for your call.

  Strange that I had been prepared on more occasions than I dared to remember to throw myself into the lion’s den and here was I showing cowardice in the face of a mobile phone. Didn’t make sense, but sometimes that’s the way of life. I pressed the send button.

  There was a silence in the room. I could hear my heart beating. Then that silence was shattered by a strange sound. A tinny ringtone. Gus took a mobile from his pocket.

  ‘Hi, Son,’ he said.

  I sat there stunned, speechless, unmoving. Finally I recovered enough to walk round the table and give Gus – Father now – a big bear hug. Now I could feel his heart beat. I brushed away a tear.

  ‘Excuse my sense of humour,’ Mother said.

  ‘Nice to know that someone in this family has one,’ I said.

  I stopped hugging Gus. Pushed him away, stepped back and looked at him deeply.

  ‘But you can’t be,’ I said. ‘You’re—’

  ‘My penance,’ he interrupted. ‘Bad enough for Alfredo to be cuckolded, but to be cuckolded by his brother….’

  ‘I didn’t just marry the wrong man,’ Mother said. ‘I married the wrong brother.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘Do you mean to say all this time I’ve been trying to find out who my father was and there he was right in front of me?’

  ‘There was an agreement with Alfredo,’ Mother said. ‘Because of the state of our marriage he knew the baby couldn’t have been his – we’d been sleeping in separate rooms for a while back then. I owned up as to who your father was, we had a family meeting and Gus agreed to go into exile – just as you would do years later. He left Silvers, was given a generous payoff and told to keep his distance. He was, however, allowed to see you from time to time. That was to be the closest he would come to being a father.’

  Gus broke in. ‘So as to be especially sure that if the truth came out that you were illegitimate no one would suspect me of being your father, I agreed to play the gay role.’

  ‘What about Carlo?’ I asked. I felt like history was being rewritten before my very eyes. ‘He is Alfredo’s son, isn’t he?’

  ‘After you were born,’ Mother said, ‘Alfredo and I tried to make the marriage work. We conceived Carlo as a sealing of our differences and our problems. Carlo was to be our new start. That’s why he’s always been spoilt.’

  ‘I need a drink,’ I said.

  Funny that when I was aiming that bullet at Garanov my hands were steady: now they were shaking. I walked over to the minibar and took out a small bottle of vodka and drank it straight down.

  ‘Should be champagne,’ Gus said. ‘Or are you
disappointed?’

  ‘God, no,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t have wished for more. It’s just there’s now a void. Something I have thought about for so many years has gone. I need to readjust my thinking. What are we going to do?’

  ‘See more of each other for one,’ said Gus.

  ‘But you mustn’t tell anybody,’ said Mother. ‘I promised Alfredo that I would never reveal the truth. I’ve broken that vow and you must now take it up. None outside us three must know.’

  ‘The secret is safe with me. I’m going back to St Jude with Anna. You must both come and visit. We’ve been too long apart.’

  ‘I’ll come when the mess at Silvers is sorted out,’ said Mother. ‘I’ll need a holiday by then.’

  ‘And I’ll come in a month or so,’ said Gus, ‘stay at the hotel. You and Anna need some time together first. And some space. But I promise you we’ll get to know each other properly at last.’

  ‘Reckon so,’ I said, smiling.

  34

  St Jude – six months later

  ‘Sit down,’ I said to Anna.

  ‘It’s a baby,’ she said. ‘Not an unexploded bomb. I don’t need to be kept in cotton wool. Now sit down, the pair of you, and I’ll bring you some coffee and water.’

  Bull and I had just finished our daily run and swim. We sat down outside the rebuilt bar, drying ourselves in the sun. It was twice the size of the old one and had the works – big espresso coffee-maker, machine for squeezing oranges and other fruits into juice, gigantic ice maker, a separate kitchen for a more adventurous menu and a big generator to run it all. We had a house now too. Single-storey, two bedrooms and right by the sea. Views to die for. And on top of all that we were ecstatically happy. There was nothing more I could wish for.

  ‘Kinda quiet,’ Bull said as we sipped our coffee.

  ‘Like going cold turkey from a drug addiction, only in our case the drug is adrenalin.’

  ‘Amsterdam certainly spiced up our lives.’

  ‘Would you do the same sort of thing again?’ I asked.

  ‘Hell, no,’ he said. ‘Leave here, island paradise, Mai Ling and Michael for some cheap hotel and chance to be shot at? What do you think?’