He lost count of the cars that he hit as he hurtled along. He really hoped that he hadn’t injured anyone. He was also concerned about how stable the explosives were. But then they had driven across a continent in a car packed with them. He shuddered at the thought.
He didn’t know exactly where he was going, or what he was planning. He just knew that he had to get away from the One World Trade Center. The Brooklyn Bridge was approaching rapidly now. It looked busy though, cars and people everywhere. He had to keep going.
Then, right in front of him, a small boy was running across the road. He must have been around five or six years old. He turned and saw the huge car trailer bearing down on him, and the youngster froze.
‘Keep running,’ shouted Hedge. ‘You need to get out of my way.’
The boy just stood still. A young woman, presumably his mother, had now also appeared on the road. She was reaching out to the boy.
Hedge pulled hard on the steering wheel, and the trailer lurched to the left. Miraculously, it missed the boy by inches, but now it was completely out of control. Hedge tried to correct the movement, but instead of turning right, the vehicle started to flip over. He was close to the river now, but the vehicle was off the road, and about to land on its side. As it did so, the dark grey Mustang on the back of the trailer broke free of the chains securing it, and it was sent hurtling through the air. It would have hit the water about thirty yards up from the bridge, but it didn’t. That small section of river was unfortunately occupied by a river boat. It was a cruiser, and plied the river taking passengers on pleasure trips. It could hold about fifty people normally, but today was a quiet day. There were eleven souls on board. Fourteen if you included the crew. One minute, several of them looked in amazement as a dark grey Mustang was flying through the air towards them. A second later, they saw nothing. They couldn’t, as all fourteen of them had been instantly vaporised by the explosion caused when the car smashed into their boat.
The damage caused by the exploding Mustang was shocking. The river cruiser had disappeared entirely. Several dozen people on both banks of the river had been seriously injured by flying shrapnel, or falling debris. Many of the buildings within a two hundred yard range of the explosion were badly damaged. A large warehouse on the north side of the river had completely collapsed. Luckily, the water had absorbed most of the blast, otherwise the casualties and damage would have been far worse.
Hedge didn’t see any of this though.
He was staring out of the side window of the tractor unit, screaming with fright. The massive car transporter was hurtling down the bank of the river. It had rolled onto its side. Then, everything went dark as it hit the water, and the whole thing was immediately submerged. The tractor unit instantly started to fill with ice cold river water. It was coming in slowly from a gap in the shattered window on the driver’s side. Unfortunately, while the small space between the opening and the river bed allowed water to flow in, there was not enough room for a person to escape from.
Realisation dawned. Hedge had to get out quickly or he would drown. Instinctively, he kicked both feet at the front cab window. It didn’t move, or break. He tried again, but all he felt was his ankle twist. It was painful, but he had no time to dwell on that.
He pulled himself up to the passenger side, and tried banging on the window. Again nothing happened. It wouldn’t give. In desperation, he pushed the electric window down button. The window made a gentle whirring noise as it started to wind down.
‘Thank fuck for that,’ he said to himself.
Then, more of the cold water started pouring in to the tractor unit from the newly opened window. Hedge had to wait patiently for the flow to slow before he could fight against the pressure.
The space he was in was almost full of water. Hedge was shivering, but he finally made his move. He took a large gulp of what little air remained, and slid his body out through the window. He swam upwards as hard as he could. By the time he reached the surface, his lungs were bursting, and he was shivering violently from the cold water.
He heard a loud whistle nearby. Then a uniformed man was shouting.
‘There’s someone in the river there. Fish him out quickly.’
The next thing he knew he was being hauled out of the water. Two sets of hands were gripping onto his soaking clothes. He tried to speak, but couldn’t. His teeth were chattering too much. He tried to lift his arms up to grab his rescuers, but they didn’t respond.
Then, one of the men was saying something.
‘You picked a great time to go swimming mister. Don’t you know we have a major emergency alert in the area? There are explosions going off everywhere. We need to get you out of here.’
Hedge couldn’t comprehend fully what the man was saying. He was too cold, and in a state of shock. He tried to speak again, but his mouth wasn’t responding. Then the man was saying something again.
‘My god, will you look at that.’
He was staring down the river, at the warehouse that had been wrecked by the exploding Mustang. It lay in a huge pile, with a cloud of dust swirling all around it.
‘The whole fucking building has collapsed.’
Hedge turned and stared at the man. Realisation dawned on him. The building had been brought down. He had failed. His eyes filled with tears.
Then he passed out.
Chapter Forty Three
JFK airport was busy.
‘I think it’s this way,’ said Cole.
‘Are you sure?’ Hedge was nervous. He didn’t like airports. They were too noisy, and there was too much going on. Also, he was acutely aware that Cole still hadn’t disposed of the Sig Sauer.
‘Yes, I’m sure. I can see the British Airways logo on the sign ahead.’
‘And they were okay about changing the flight for us?’
‘What do you think? Your photograph is all over the New York newspapers. You’re a local bloody hero.’
After the incident at the One World Trade Center, Hedge and Cole had to delay their return to England. This was due to the FBI making a polite, but official request for them not to leave the country until advised that they could do so.
They had both endured a series of intense interviews with senior agents from the FBI and the CIA. They were then advised that no charges would be brought against them. Although the insurance company for the wrecked car carrier trailer did try to bring a claim in court for dangerous driving against Hedge. The claim was thrown out.
‘What about the gun?’ Hedge was still nervous about the weapon that Cole was carrying.
‘Stop worrying. I’ll dump it in the trash before we go through security.’ Cole smiled mischievously. ‘Or we could take it back to the UK with us as a souvenir of a wonderful road trip. I’ll get it out and you can stick it in your bag.’
Hedge gave his friend a cold, hard stare.
Cole laughed.
They carried on following the directions to their terminal building. It seemed like a long walk. The taxi driver obviously dropped them at the wrong part of the airport.
‘How’s your headache?’ Cole patted his friend’s head from behind.
‘It’s still throbbing. That Jim Beam is strong stuff. I’m never touching whisky again.’
‘You mean bourbon, not whisky. The proper stuff only comes from Scotland.’
‘Whatever you say,’ replied Hedge. ‘I’m still going to give it a miss from now on.’
Before heading back to the UK, they had been invited to a reception given by the mayor of New York in their honour. The party had lasted well into the night, and Hedge had drunk too much. During the evening several national and international newspapers had asked them for interviews. They politely declined them all. Apart from a small, music focused paper from Nashville, which was doing a spread on the various achievements of Elvis Presley fans. Hedge gave them a short interview. Cole didn’t.
As they walked through the airport terminal, Cole turned his head back a couple of times. Then, when n
o one else was in earshot, he spoke quietly.
‘I hate to say this, but I believe we are being followed.’
‘I do hope you are bloody joking.’
‘No. I’m afraid not. Don’t look now, but the short guy with the blue raincoat. He’s been trying to catch up with us ever since we got out of the taxi.’
Hedge looked exasperated. ‘When will all this shit end?’
‘Don’t worry. Turn left ahead.’ Cole was pointing to a door signposted as a male toilet.
They both entered, and Hedge went over to the basin. He made it look like he was busy washing his hands.
Cole checked around quickly. No one else was in the washroom. He moved to stand near the entrance door and waited. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the man in the blue coat came in. Cole immediately wrapped his left arm around the man’s neck, and dragged him into one of the toilet cubicles. He pulled out the Sig, and thrust it hard up under the man’s jaw.
The man was instantly panic stricken.
‘Please, don’t hurt me. Take my wallet. Take what you want. Please, don’t shoot.’
Cole had a sudden strong smell of urine. Either the washroom hadn’t been cleaned recently, or the guy he was holding had just pissed himself.
‘Why are you following us? Who are you with? Are you FBI?’
‘What are you talking about?’ he blurted out. The man looked totally bemused. ‘I just wanted to give you this.’
He slowly held up his left hand. Between his thumb and forefinger he held a shiny, dark red, British passport.
‘I saw one of you drop this as you got out of the taxi. I was just returning it. I don’t want anything though, please just take it and let me go.’
Cole put the Sig away, and took the passport. He flicked open the photo page, and carefully studied the picture of Hedge.
‘He’s ugly and stupid. That’s an unfortunate combination.’
‘Please, can I go now?’ The guy in the raincoat was looking a bit shell-shocked from his sudden meeting with Cole. The appearance of a handgun had made things a hundred times worse. He was in genuine fear for his life.
‘Look, I’m sorry about this. It’s just been a very bad week for us. Please accept our apologies. And thanks for returning this.’ He held up the passport. ‘That’s very decent of you. It’s much appreciated. Yes, you’re free to go.’
The man said nothing. He just scurried off quickly out of the washroom. Then he was gone.
Cole laughed.
‘That’s the last good deed he’ll be doing for a while.’
Hedge shook his head.
‘Can you get rid of that thing? I mean right now.’
Cole flicked open the top of a large paper towel recycling bin, at the end of the washbasins. He wiped the gun clean with a fresh towel to remove all the fingerprints, and then pushed it into the bin, deep down amongst the used paper towels.
‘Are you happy now?’
‘As happy as I can be when you’re around.’
Now it was Hedge’s turn to laugh.
Epilogue
As it happened, no one from the San Diego police department ever followed Maddie after she had left that city. Once he had searched the hotel opposite the location of his crime, police officer Joe Harper went home and got drunk. His partner had wrestled with his conscience for a while. Contrary to what he had told Joe he had seen, he had in fact regarded the shooting as an unlawful act. Eventually, he had a change of heart, and reported him to a police investigation team a few days later. Joe Harper was charged with murder, and sent for trial. He found out that it wasn’t a lot of fun being an ex police officer in a federal prison.
As soon as he realised that the mission had failed, Pancho panicked and went into hiding. The Columbian was not a person who tolerated failure. Pancho left Mexico and travelled south heading for Argentina. He spent six months living with an old friend of his just outside Buenos Aires. He quickly grew bored though, and decided to go travelling in Europe, while still trying to keep a low profile. After a few pleasant days spent in Paris, he travelled on to Rome, and then decided to hire a motor yacht and cruise around the Mediterranean. All was well, until six days later when the boat was anchored just offshore from the principality of Monaco. At exactly four am that morning, there was a massive explosion and the yacht, along with all of its contents, was completely obliterated. The local police had to call in two experts. The first one, a US army munitions specialist, explained that he couldn’t help as he had never seen that type of explosive before. He believed it must be quite a new product. The second expert was asked to comment on the teeth and jawbone remains that the local police had found. The man confirmed that the fragments belonged to just one victim, so there could only have been one person on the boat at the time of the explosion. He also concluded that the dead man was most likely of Central American origin given the dentistry work that he discovered.
Maddie decided to stay with her aunt and uncle for a while. After all, they had raised her from when she was just a baby, so they felt like her real mum and dad. She caught up with a few of her old friends, and visited some of the places that she had frequented as a young girl. She would return to London and stay with her brother again in the future though.
Baby, the German Shepherd dog, was rewarded with a large, sirloin steak. He devoured it within minutes. After that day, whenever he went out for a walk in the park, he always growled when large, overweight men came too close.
Hedge still insisted that he was a better driver than his friend. He offered him some driving lessons when they returned home. Cole ignored the remark. Hedge was surprised to receive a package in the mail two weeks after arriving back in London. Inside was a card with just one word on it - ‘Enjoy’. Hedge opened the box carefully and found it contained a portable, rechargeable, heavy-duty hacksaw. He laughed out loud before throwing the item into his rubbish bin.
He hoped that he would meet his friend Cole again soon.
He would.
THE END
Look out for these books by Kevin Bradley
The Palindrome Cult
(Hedge & Cole / Book 1)
“A cracking good read, fast and furious, unputdownable”
The Terminate Code
(Hedge & Cole / Book 2)
“A fantastic story, breathtaking and full of intrigue, unforgettable”
The Transamerica Cell
(Hedge & Cole / Book 3)
“A gripping, tense thriller, you’ll be on the edge of your seat”
The Cuba Cage
(Hedge & Cole / Book 4)
Due December 2017
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This book The Transamerica Cell is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual pe
rsons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
The following are the opening three chapters of the 2nd book in the Hedge & Cole series.
The Terminate Code by Kevin Bradley
Chapter One
The Iraqi rebel was holding a long-bladed, steel knife.
He had managed to sneak up behind Oxley without being noticed. Suddenly, he pulled his arm back and lunged forward, aiming the knife at the white man’s head.
Oxley heard a noise, and turned just in time. He dropped his rifle, and managed to deflect the evil looking blade with his forearm. The Arab pulled his arm back again though, readying himself for a second lunge. Oxley was momentarily blinded, as the sun’s rays reflected off the razor sharp blade. Then, in a split second, his mind started to focus. He had to disable his attacker. Just one direct hit from the knife was likely to be lethal.
Oxley fumbled for his weapon, but he couldn’t reach it. The dark, skinned man was bearing down on him again. He was wearing a dirty, black turban, and his face was screwed up in anger. He wore no shirt, so his chest was bare. The man’s left nipple had been pierced, and a large, silver ring had been pushed into the hole under the skin.
The Transamerica Cell: A fast paced, gripping, action adventure, conspiracy thriller, with a superb, breath-taking ending (Hedge & Cole Book 3) Page 17
