Survival Instinct

by Declan Conner

  Finding a small cropping of rocks Jamie sat down to take in the beauty of it all. Fascinated, he watched a colony of worker ants scurrying about. At first, they seemed to have no purpose, but as he trained his eyes on them, he saw they were working with a sense of purpose foraging for food. He thought it incredible that they could carry sections of leaves that were almost twice their size. He spotted one ant that seemed to have bitten off more than it could carry. To his surprise, a fellow ant came to its rescue, helping him out and he was transfixed at the incident. Looks a bit like me and Bill.

  His concentration was broken when he thought he heard a twig snap behind him and he spun around, but there was nothing odd to be seen. Bears? He decided to return to the beach when he heard the sound again.

  “Who’s there?” he called out, but there was no answer.

  Must be an animal. He strained his eyes in all directions, but failed to see anything and was about to set off, when he was sure he saw someone dart between two trees. Jamie crouched down in some undergrowth and kept still, with only the sound of his heart beating. Why the hell didn’t they shout back? Remaining motionless, he waited for ten minutes and then made his way back to Bill.

  Carefully moving from tree to tree and surveying the woods, he stumbled onto a camouflaged hide. Jamie took a quick look inside but it was empty save for a book about the occults on top of a sleeping bag. Outside there was evidence of a fire, recently doused, the embers still warm. Jamie kept his head down and continued to make his way back to Bill.

  “Jesus, Bill, did you know you’ve got someone camping out there?”

  “Well, it can’t be a hunter. There’s no hunting allowed. Maybe it’s a vagrant. I’ll give the park rangers a call tomorrow.”

  “I don’t mind saying, it scared the hell out of me. I thought it was one of your bears?”

  “Bears? Hell there ain’t no bears around these parts,” he said laughing.

  “Damn, I’ve cut my finger on the undergrowth. Do you have any band-aids?” Jamie asked.

  “Yeah, back in the cabin, first bedroom on the right. You’ll find some in the bedside drawer. I’m putting the food on so don’t be long.”

  Jamie made his way to the log cabin, waving toward Ellie and Steve from the deck, but failing to catch their attention. Jamie entered the first bedroom, opened the drawer and rummaged around.

  “What’s this? Handcuffs? What’s he doing with knickers and a hunting knife in his drawer?” he said aloud and counting out three pairs. Maybe, that’s why he’s into Gina. Then realising he was in the wrong bedroom, he left and soon found the band-aids in the other.

  As Jamie made his way down to the mooring area, Steve and Ellie were climbing out of the boat.

  “You should see the size of the fish we caught, dad,” said Ellie, excited.

  “Go on then show me, maybe Bill can barbecue it,” said Jamie.

  “No chance of that, Ellie made me put it back,” said Steve.

  Jamie laughed at the thought of Ellie insisting he release the fish, as they made their way back to the beach and the wonderful aroma of Bill’s cooking.

  “You’ve not dropped the steaks in the sand have you Bill?”

  “No, just a few sausages. But I washed them off in the lake,” said Bill jokingly. “Three second rule, we call it.”

  His culinary skills were admirable as they devoured their food.

  “All this food and fresh air has made me tired Uncle Bill. Do you mind if I go to the cabin for a nap?” asked Ellie.

  “No problem. Treat it like your own home.”

  “I think I’ll go back on the lake, dad, if you don’t mind,” said Steve.

  “Go ahead; just make sure you stay where we can see you.”

  As they disappeared, Bill pulled out a couple of cans of beer and tossed one to Jamie.

  “You’ve got two great kids there.”

  “Yeah, I can’t fault them. I was a little worried about Ellie the other day and that stalker business. It’s as though she was craving attention. I’ve got to say though, much as I appreciate your concern, it was a little stupid of you not to have told me you intended looking out for her. That was weird.”

  “Yeah, I know that now, but you need to cut her some slack. Most of the women in the neighbourhood must be terrified with that crazy guy on the loose.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  Contents

  Jamie lays his ghost to rest

  Jamie poked at the dying embers in the barbecue. “You know what we were talking about earlier, about me putting my ghosts to rest. I’ve made a start. I’ve left a message for my sister to see if we can’t kiss and make up.”

  “Good for you, JJ, but if she doesn’t return you call, don’t dwell on it. Now you’ve made a start, why don’t you tell me about Afghanistan?”

  Jamie continued to poke at the embers and contemplating if he could confide in Bill. He made the decision to go ahead and took a deep breath.

  “It was a nightmare, and it still haunts me. I was part of a special services four-man team. It was one of those ‘deniable’ operations.” Jamie raised his fingers in quotes. “We had to take out Boris Baranski. He was trading guns for heroin with the Taliban. The trouble was he was ex Russian Special Forces along with the rest of his gang. It was never going to be easy. We dug in and set up an ambush position with a kill zone, taking the high ground. I set up a series of roadside bombs to take out his convoy. After that, it was just a question of waiting a long time, months. We were isolated with basic rations. Supplies could only reach us on foot. Flying in supplies would have given our position away. We made contact with locals to gather intelligence, and that was a big mistake. The trouble was, you couldn’t tell if they were citizens by day and Taliban by night.”

  “Did you manage to get him?”

  “Try not to interrupt. It’s hard enough for me to talk about it.”

  “Okay, sorry.”

  “It took twelve months before we had word he was on his way. We could see the convoy in the distance. Word reached us he’d be travelling in a gold Lexus and that was to be our primary target. Everything went to plan; I timed the detonation to perfection and the series of bombs took out almost all the convoy. There was some resistance, but the kill zone finished them off.”

  “So that’s it? Mission accomplished. What’s the big deal?”

  “Because it didn’t end there. We were ambushed.”

  “Oh.”

  “My friend Harry checked the first two vehicles and arrived at the Lexus. He dropped to the ground after looking inside, staying alert and looking around for cover. I saw him flick his palm open twice to signal the target wasn’t in the Lexus. Then I turned the binoculars to the goats. They were almost on Harry, and I noticed one with a yellow dye patch on its back. Panning the binoculars, I was horrified to see the young herder with a staff in one hand and a detonator in the other. As the goat with the yellow dye came up at the side of Harry, it exploded in a mist of blood. Joe took out the boy, but it was too late. I sent out a burst on the emergency frequency satellite phone for back up, and then all hell broke loose.”

  “Holy shit,” Bill said, wide-eyed.

  “Some men dressed as women following the heard pulled out rifles from under their garments. Joe down in the valley was shot with a burst from a Kalashnikov and died instantly. We laid down fire and took out the rest of the gunmen and the entire herd of goats, until it all went quiet. Then a helicopter appeared, and I thought, Thank God, our boys have come to the rescue. Not quite. Instead, the Damn thing fired rockets on Grant’s position and took him out. I just dropped inside my dug out and pulled over a cover I’d fashioned, using gun oil to adhere stones and sand together. I waited and hoped they’d not discovered my position.”

  “Well, seems to me they didn’t, or you wouldn’t be here.”

  “I wish. I heard the helicopter’s engine wind down as it landed. I’ve never crapped myself so much in my life. I heard the unmistakable sou
nd of rocks being disturbed and knew they were onto me. I thought, what the hell, I may as well go down like a man. I pushed the cover off and aimed forward to where I had heard the sound coming from. Then in an instant, I was grabbed from behind and pulled out of the hole. I lost my machine gun and started to fight. The guy was an animal! He could have shot me, but pulled out his combat knife. I pulled mine and we circled like a couple of scorpions. He cut me a few times on the arms, then I out maneuvered him and slashed his face from his ear to the corner of his mouth. The long and the short of it was, I had him on the ground to go in for the kill when I was knocked out from behind, probably with the butt of a rifle.”

  “Jesus! How did you get out of that mess?”

  “When I came round, I found I was staked out on the ground, with chains. I knew my legs were broken and my face was beaten to a pulp. The pain was incredible. My top lip was so swollen; I could see it in my vision. The guy I’d been fighting stood over me, and I recognized him from the intelligence photo.” After staring at the ground, Jamie looked right into Bill’s eyes. “It was Boris Baranski! God knows how he managed to speak to me with the gaping hole in his cheek, but he did. ‘So you’d dare to kill me? I’ll teach you a lesson and see that you die slowly in agony, as a lesson to all those who would dare to try and assassinate me,’ he sneered, in a sort of a weird, American accent. He didn’t seem to care I’d disfigured him for life.”

  “Shit, man, what happened then?”

  “He took out my water ration and emptied it in front of me in the heat of the day. Then one of his minions came up with a big sack and dropped the heads of my colleagues next to me slapping the ground like ham hocks. Then he kicked me in the face and that’s all I can remember, until our boys picked me up almost dead. It took three months in a hospital before I was back to some semblance of normal. I was in the hospital when I received the letter from my sister about June.”

  “God, I am sorry I asked now. I’m not surprised you’re screwed up about it.”

  “I spent the rest of my time there with another team, but we never managed to get near him to avenge my mates. We came close a few times but the bastard was always one-step ahead. He knew I was after him; he even left me a note once. He must have taken my ID card when I was unconscious.”

  As he finished with his story, Jamie felt some relief. Since his debriefing, this was the first time he’d been able to tell anyone.

  ***

  Back in the cabin, Ellie had drifted off to sleep, suddenly awoken by a noise from the kitchen.

  “Steve, is that you? Dad? Bill?”

  There was no answer, as she looked around the room. She was sure she had closed the kitchen door, but now it was ajar. Peering around the kitchen door, she could see nothing and closing the door, she went to sit down. Turning the sound down on the television, she felt nervous and then she heard an almighty crash coming from the kitchen. Ellie screamed at the top of her lungs, her cries echoing across the lake in the stillness of the day.

  ***

  Bill turned to face the cabin. “Did you hear that scream, JJ?”

  “Yeah, it came from the cabin. Quick, Ellie’s in there.”

  Jamie was already making for the cabin.

  ***

  Ellie was frantically trying to make her way out of the patio door. But failing to find the handle in her panic, she saw the trap door open and a figure appeared in the half-light. She freaked out screaming even more and rushed to pick up the log poker from the fireplace.

  She aimed a blow as the figure came through the door. Just then, Jamie arrived and the figure fell to the floor. Jamie moved swiftly and wrestled the poker from her. Ellie fell to the floor in hysterics.

  “For God’s sake Ellie, what’s going on? You’ve just knocked Steve out.”

  Bill followed, puffing and panting, clearly out of condition.

  “Holy. . .what the hell is going on here?” Bill asked, seeing Ellie hyperventilating, sobbing and sucking for air.

  “Bill, do you have a paper bag?” Jamie asked, checking Steve as he came round, holding his head.

  “You okay, Steve?” asked Jamie.

  “I’m fine. It’s crazy girl over there you want to worry about.”

  “Here, a paper bag,” said Bill.

  Jamie put it to Ellie’s mouth and had her breathe into it until her rapid breathing subsided and returned to normal. Ellie, sobbing, pointed to the kitchen, but was still unable to get the words out of her mouth.

  “Bill, check the kitchen out,” ordered Jamie.

  Bill scurried off to the kitchen and quickly returned to report back.

  “The window’s open and there’s a pan on the floor, but except for that, nothing. Maybe it was a cat or a squirrel.”

  “But the window was closed, Uncle Bill, and earlier, I closed the kitchen door, but when I awoke, it was ajar,” sobbed Ellie, her eyes wide open in fear.

  “Maybe I didn’t close the window properly; those squirrels can squeeze into anywhere,” said Bill.

  “She almost killed me, dad. Look at the lump. She needs locking up.”

  “Listen, Steve, you’re still alive, so act like a man. Ellie must have thought someone had entered the house. Try standing in her shoes with this crazy killer about. Some self-defense instructor you make,” said Jamie, annoyed at the situation.

  “Let’s not get hot under the collar everyone. We’re all together now, so we can all calm down. It’s getting dark now, I’ll make us all a coffee, then we can all go together to your house,” said Bill. He walked over to Ellie to comfort her as Jamie inspected the damage to Steve’s head.

  “You’ll live, son, don’t worry,” said Jamie and gave him a hug.

  Jamie was concerned; this was the second time Ellie had cried wolf.

  Could be she had forgotten that she had opened the window and a squirrel had entered. Maybe it was a cry for attention. Then he thought back to his experience in the woods, but thought it better to keep quiet. After coffee, they loaded up the car and headed home. Bill kept everyone’s spirits up on the drive back, with his jokes. At first, he bombed like a ham comedian on stage, but Bill persevered until he overcame everyone’s reserve. Soon even Ellie was laughing.

  Once they returned home, everyone was back to normal and the kids went to bed, exhausted from their day out.

  “JJ, don’t be hard on Ellie, I couldn’t say anything back at the cabin, but that window was definitely closed, and there were marks on the window as if it had been forced.”

  “Why didn’t you say something? We could have phoned the police.”

  “It would have only made things worse for Ellie. Better she thinks it was a squirrel, and I can phone the police tomorrow to check that guy out in the woods. Nothing has ever happened like that up there before, and I don’t want her to be put off visiting again.”

  “Yeah, I can see that, you’re a good buddy, thanks for today.”

  “Christ, you’ll want to give me a good night kiss next.”

  “No seriously, I appreciate your friendship. Thanks for listening today. It’s the first time I’ve told anyone, and it helped to get it off my chest.”

  “I just hope so. Better get going. Gina will be on the net soon. Maybe we can have some cybersex,” he laughed.

  Jamie checked his answer phone, but his sister had not returned his call. Checking all the doors and windows were firmly locked, he left the hall light on, drew the curtains and went to bed.

  Contents

  Finger of suspicion

  Nine o’ clock and it was mayhem in the ops room at police headquarters. Madge had briefed Hogan on the results of the county hall records. He was surprised there were only eighty-nine separations and divorces in the last eighteen months. Sixty of them had no criminal record and nine had minor traffic offences. Five of them with domestic violence included three with restraining orders. Two had drug offenses and nine a general record of violence. There was one pedophile and three of them were charged with soliciting prostitutes.
Nothing jumped out at him, but at least it gave the detectives something to work on. Hogan answered his telephone.

  “Agent Hammond here, FBI. Sorry, I should have been with you today, but my last case just needs some loose ends tied up.”

  “No problem, take as long as you like, we're on top of things here.”

  “Yeah well, we will see. I’ll be there on Wednesday.”

  “Fine, I’ll see you Wednesday,” said Hogan. Placing the handset down, he grunted. The last thing he wanted was the FBI crawling all over his case. Making his way to the ops room, he strode up to the podium and switched on the microphone.

  “All right you rabble, listen up; we got work to do. There are eighty-nine males that you need to investigate, and I want to know all their backgrounds and whereabouts at the time of the murders. Check discreetly with neighbors. You all know what we’re looking for. Madge has put all the records into categories, so pass them out equally and make the ones with records a priority. Joe how did you and Frank do with the last victim’s computer?”

  “We got a good lead, and we’re following it up. She had a friend. She’s on vacation, but we found her movements on that night,” said Joe.

  “Jesus, why didn’t you knuckleheads phone me? See me in my office right now. If anyone else has any firm information for Christ’s sake, keep me in the loop.”

  Making his way back to his office with Frank and Joe, the entrance was crowded with volunteers for DNA samples.

  “Chief, help us out here, we’re running out of DNA kits,” bawled the desk sergeant.

  “Yeah, I’m on it.”

  “Madge, contact supplies and get them over here fast.”

  Hogan closed his door on the pandemonium.