by Derek Fee
He removed his jeans and tee shirt and put on his overalls. The noise of a car’s engine in the distance was added to the animal noises of the night. He had assumed that Safardi would arrive early and he felt the first pangs of fear grabbing at his insides. He was preparing for a fight and the inevitable conclusion of a fight with Safardi and his men might be his own and Morweena’s deaths. The police might have been the better option but he couldn’t trust them to get Morweena out alive. It was too late for such thoughts. The die was already cast. He was sure that whatever the outcome, the best chance for Morweena would be if he could go it alone. He mixed water with the earth and applied the paste to his hands and face then checked each of the twenty-five-round magazines for the Uzi before slipping three into his pockets and one into the Uzi. The gun felt comfortable in his hand. A copper with an Uzi, one hundred rounds, and a combat knife against whatever Safardi had in store for him. The bookies wouldn’t offer odds on his chances of success.
He left the hut and slipped into the darkness. He must think of the future and Morweena.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Safardi looked in the mirror and saw Morweena sitting slumped away from Pedro in the rear seat. Hackett sat in the passenger seat cradling an automatic weapon. Their convoy consisted of three Range Rovers. He was throwing all his resources into the expedition leaving the normally well-guarded villa denuded of men. He had underestimated Kane once and he was not about to make the same mistake again. They travelled the same route they had taken the previous day only now the coast road was deserted in the evening gloom.
Everything in Safardi’s future depended on the one hundred and fifty kilograms of pure Colombian cocaine currently in Kane’s possession. He wondered why Kane has selected the glade in the Doñana as the exchange location. It didn’t matter. He could have chosen a busy street in Seville and the result would have been the same. There was no way either he or his girlfriend would walk away from this encounter. Pedro and his guards could commence their little party with her after they’d dealt with Kane. There would be a terrible and bloody retribution for the death of Jaime. Pedro was poised and ready to strike. Safardi reached the turn-off for Los Palacios y Villafranca. They would soon be there.
Kane peered through the descending darkness at the pool. Dark silhouetted seabirds dipped their beaks into the water in search of food, breaking the perfect glasslike surface. The face of a deer peered through a gap in the tall grass covering the shore of the lagoon. He waited, all his concentration on the clearing ahead.
Safardi’s man was waiting beside the gate to the Doñana Reserve when the three cars arrived. Pedro slipped out of the rear seat and walked forward to speak to him while he undid the chain which held the gates.
“He’s here,” Pedro said simply when he re-joined the lead car.
“Good.” Safardi glanced again at the woman’s face. Her head was leaning against the side of the vehicle and her eyes were closed. The strain was telling on her. “Let’s get rid of this arrogant policeman.”
“Don’t kill him fast,” Hackett said stroking his Uzi. “He needs to die slow.”
Safardi drove along the rutted track leading to the lagoon and the pine glade beyond. “And when we have the drugs the real fun will begin.” Safardi wondered how Kane would look with his tongue hanging from a gash in his throat.
The sound of the car engines increased. The cacophony of grinding gears told him there were at least two and possibly more vehicles travelling towards him. After a few minutes, the three light-green vehicles appeared, crawling along the rough track which led to the glade. They stopped and the car door of the lead vehicle opened. The interior light illuminated the passengers. Veeral Hackett was sitting in the front seat beside Safardi. The Jamaican was supposed to be in jail in England. What the hell was he doing in the south of Spain? He picked out Pedro sitting in the rear seat. Beside the Colombian, Morweena sat slumped sideways away from him. A pang of fear immediately gripped his stomach. Safardi couldn’t have been stupid enough to have damaged his only trading asset. It was more likely that she had been doped. Kane looked beyond the first car and saw that both the second and third vehicles contained their full complement of passengers. There were eleven men in all. The odds were not exactly auspicious if Safardi decided to make a fight of it.
“Get her outside,” Safardi said harshly as he stopped beside the birdwatcher’s hut and switched off the engine.
Hackett slid out of the passenger seat and peered around the glade.
Pedro shook Morweena awake roughly. “Outside, puta.” He shoved her through the open door. Morweena tumbled out of the car landing awkwardly on the parched brown earth.
“Where are we?” she asked groggily.
“You are at the gates of Hell, puta.” Pedro’s lips retracted in a sneer exposing a top row of brown-stained teeth. “And the devil himself has come to greet you.”
She stayed on her hands and knees with the Colombian standing over her.
“It is about to start, puta,” he said through his bared teeth. “But when we are finished it will be sweet.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.
“Pedro.” There was steel in Safardi’s voice. “She is not to be harmed until we make the trade.”
“Soon, puta.” The thin copra-coloured face pushed close to Morweena’s. “Soon your man will be forced to watch our little dance of love and death.”
Morweena pulled her arm away from the Colombian and drawing all the spittle from her mouth spat into his face.
Pedro stood with the spittle running off his chin and smiled. “It will be good, puta,” he said, striding away towards his master. “It will be so good.”
“Senorita, por favor.” One of Safardi’s guards ushered her towards the rush hut which stood at the edge of the lagoon. When they reached the hut, he pushed her inside.
Safardi gathered his forces around him and handed each man a walkie-talkie. “Veeral, you stay with me. Pablo and Emilio, circle to the left and come in from the back of the glade. Ignacio and Gonzalo, you go with Pablo and Emilio but work your way towards the centre of the glade from the side. Carlos, go back down the trail and cover our rear.” The four men immediately split from the group and made off in the directions Safardi had indicated.
“What about the woman?” Pedro asked.
“Manuel will keep her in the hut until we need her. If there’s any gunfire, I’ve ordered him to kill her.”
Safardi put his arm around the Jamaican’s shoulder. “You, Veeral, and I will reconnoitre the glade. Kane is out there somewhere.” Safardi turned to his remaining men. “The rest of you stay here until I call you.”
Kane watched Pedro bundle Morweena out of the lead vehicle and then stand menacingly over her. The other two vehicles disgorged their contents. Each man was armed with an Uzi machine gun. The men went and immediately surrounded their leader. Pedro joined them and one of the guards was dispatched to take care of Morweena. He watched Safardi standing in the centre of his men looking every inch the born leader. He focused the binoculars on his face and imagined the orders he was giving to his men. Swivelling to the right he saw Hackett’s face flushed with excitement. Four of the guards broke away from the main bunch and began to make their way towards the glade before wheeling away to his right. Safardi was surrounding the glade. Without thinking, he checked that the Uzi was ready for firing. He looked up in time to see Safardi, Hackett, and Pedro making their way towards his position. It didn’t look like Safardi had come to trade.
A sudden shiver passed along Safardi’s spine. The English had a phrase, something about someone walking over their grave. That was exactly how he felt. As though someone had walked over his grave. Such thoughts were ridiculous. The odds were overwhelmingly in his favour. He turned and looked at Pedro. Having the Colombian so close re-assured him. “Why doesn’t he show himself?”
“Patience, mon,” Hackett said. “He feel death coming.”
Safardi was struck for the first ti
me at the denseness of the trees. The three men pushed on through the pine branches and over the gnarled husks of long-dead cork oaks. The grass on their right parted and as Pedro dropped into a firing stance, a wild boar shot across the path in front of them dripping mud from its hindquarters.
Safardi’s heart was pounding as the boar disappeared into the undergrowth on the far side of the track. He watched the Colombian, marvelling once more at Pedro’s lightning reactions.
Pedro stood up and moved his Uzi into the ready position. He motioned silently towards the clearing ahead. “Something is not good. We must be careful. This man kill Jaime. We must respect.”
From his vantage point behind the tangled roots of the dead cork oak tree, Kane watched the careful approach of Safardi, the Colombian and Hackett. If it came to a fight, the Colombian would not be as easy to take as Jaime. Pedro was ready. He remained immobile as the three men stood facing him on the other side of the glade.
“Good evening, gentlemen.” Kane’s voice carried across the glade.
Pedro immediately dropped onto one knee and brought up his Uzi to cover the other side of the clearing.
Safardi and Hackett stopped in their tracks before dropping to join the Colombian. Safardi withdrew an automatic pistol from the pocket of his bush jacket. “Where is he,” he whispered.
“Other side of the clearing.” Pedro stared into the foliage. “He’s been here all along.”
“What’s the plan?” Hackett said.
“Maybe we should trade the woman for the drugs and forget about them.” Safardi felt a wave of fear spreading through his body.
“No, they die,” Pedro said quietly. “They kill my friend.”
“I’m with Pedro,” Hackett said. “I want Kane’s head.”.
“Answer him,” Pedro ordered.
“Kane!” Safardi shouted. “We have come for the trade as arranged.”
“Come into the open,” Kane said.
“Go,” Pedro said nudging his master with the muzzle of his Uzi.
Safardi stood slowly and advanced two yards until he stood inside the clearing. “You brought the drugs?” he said, through lips which were suddenly dry.
“Yes.” The voice hung in the air causing Safardi to squint at the other side of the glade. “I see you brought Morweena. Get her up here.”
“First the drugs.”
“Get Morweena here right away or you’ll never see those drugs.”
Safardi glanced around at Hackett who nodded. He took the walkie-talkie out of his pocket and switched it on. “Manuel.”
“Si, patron.”
“Traer a la mujer.”
“Si, patron.”
“She’s on her way. Now, where are the drugs?”
“When she arrives.”
Kane watched Pedro and Hackett crouching behind some fallen trees five metres behind Safardi. He felt a trickle of sweat channel itself down his forehead and through his eyebrow. He could hear the guard and Morweena making their way towards the clearing but resisted the urge to move. The Colombian would be waiting for the slightest movement to get a sighting on his position. It was also possible that the four guards were present out of sight and could get a bead on him if he wasn’t ultra-careful.
Manuel and Morweena appeared behind Pedro.
“She’s here,” Safardi said. “Now where are the drugs?”
“Not yet,” Kane’s disembodied voice replied. “Let her move to the centre of the clearing. Then I’ll tell you where to find the drugs.”
“Okay,” Safardi said, “but remember any double-cross and she’ll be the first to die.” He motioned to Morweena to move forward.
She dislodged Manuel’s hand from her arm and moved into the clearing.
“Hasta la vista, puta,” the Colombian said from his crouching position as she passed.
She passed Hackett and Safardi and walked the fifteen metres into the clearing.
Kane smiled as she reached the centre of the glade. The next part would be the trickiest.
“The drugs are in the boot of the BMW,” Kane said. “You’ll find the car hidden seventy metres further along the track under a large overhanging tree. Tell your men to look for a circle of stones by the track.”
Safardi raised the walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Carlos.” He relayed the location of the BMW to his guard and sent him to check on the drugs.
Morweena walked towards the other side of the clearing.
“Not yet, puta,” Pedro’s voice was as cold as ice in the steamy heat of the clearing.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
“When you hear an explosion give it the full throttle, Morweena,” Kane whispered from his hiding place. As soon as Safardi had his hands on the drugs, all bets would be off. Kane watched Morweena standing nervously in the centre of the clearing and beyond her the crouching figures of the Colombian and Hackett. The main danger to Morweena would come from Pedro. Morweena’s security would eventually be down to his reactions. He wondered whether they would pass the test and prayed that he would.
The five men and Morweena remained perfectly still as Safardi held the walkie-talkie. Pedro smiled as he motioned Manuel into a firing position across from him.
Kane saw the smile from the other side of the clearing and realised its significance. They wouldn’t be allowed to walk away. His fingers closed around the handgrip of the Uzi.
The walkie-talkie in Safardi’s hand crackled and both Pedro and Manuel turned instinctively towards their leader.
“Down flat, Morweena,” Kane screamed as he brought his Uzi up.
“Hemos las drogas,” Carlos’ voice came over the walkie-talkie.
Pedro swung his Uzi and began firing at Morweena’s back. She was already lying on the ground and the bullets flew uselessly over her head. Before he could re-direct his fire a burst from Kane’s Uzi took the Colombian in the chest and flung him back from his hiding place. The tail end of the burst missed Hackett and he rolled into the undergrowth.
“Kill them!” Safardi screamed as he dived into the foliage for cover.
Kane turned his attention to Manuel. The Spaniard was stunned by the sight of the Colombian being flung backwards; his chest already covered with dark red blood which oozed from the holes torn by the Uzi’s 9mm parabellum shells. He swung around as Kane switched the magazine in the handle of the Uzi. Manuel fired a wild burst in the direction of the shots that had killed the Colombian. Kane brought up the Uzi but his burst was too low and caught the Spaniard in the legs knocking him over like a bowling pin.
Manuel screamed as the shells thudded into his shins and thighs ripping through muscles and shattering bone. He tried to bring up the Uzi to return fire but the world of light disappeared as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Hackett stayed down.
“Get over here quick,” Kane shouted but there was no movement from Morweena. His heart leapt. Maybe a stray bullet from the fusillade in the clearing had caught her. He moved stealthily from his position and a burst of firing broke out from his right sending chips of cork oak flying beside his head. He turned and fired in a wide arc, waist high, sending 9mm shells into both Pablo and Emilio. The two men screamed as the bullets struck home.
