by Ian Chapman
Daniel eased himself up and dusted twigs off his jumper with the back of his hand. He still held the grenades.
‘You all right?’ I said.
‘Yep.’
I tapped one of the grenades. ‘You know what this is?’
‘No.’
‘It’s dangerous but it’s going to help us. Help Casper and Becky.’ I talked him through how to take the pin out and throw it. We practised twice before I sent him off into the trees. I told him to count to a hundred then set them both off.
There was still no movement from the hotel.
I went round towards the back of the building, grabbing up a large branch on the way. Then I waited near the kitchen. Daniel was to set off his grenades and that would be the signal for me to go in. He was the distraction and I was the main act.
I held the gun in one hand and the branch in the other. The grenades were in my pockets. The only sound was a crackle from the van as it burned. No grenades going off.
I tried the kitchen door. It was locked and when I put pressure on the bottom of it there was no movement. Nico had probably jammed something up against it.
There was a smell of burning paint and rubber and black smoke showed over the building.
No sound of grenades. Could Daniel actually count to a hundred? I hadn’t thought of that. Or had he lost count? Forgotten what I’d said?
I went over to the kitchen window and had a look in. There was an unknown fella next to the cupboards, peering out into the hallway. He hadn’t seen me so I leant back against the wall.
Still nothing from Daniel.
I put the branch and gun down and took out one of my grenades. The metal was warm, smooth. I slid my finger through the pin. I’d have to break the glass then throw it in.
There was a dull thud from the front of the building. Daniel had done it. I swung the branch and smashed a pane in the window. There was another explosion at the front and I pulled my grenade’s pin and threw it in.
I ducked down and turned aside. A couple of seconds later there was a blast from the kitchen. The door creaked against its frame and glass sprayed out as windows burst.
For a few seconds I waited then went to the back door, kicked it. It held so I tried again. It cracked and split and with one more kick I burst in.
The room was full of smoke and debris. A man was curled up on the floor and I went over to him and swung the stick. Hit him hard on the head with a crack. He didn’t move after that. Maybe he was unconscious, or dead. There wasn’t time to worry.
The door to the dining room hung off its hinges and I shoved it out the way and went through. Bricks lay scattered across the carpet and the bedding where Casper and Daniel had slept. The bags were turned upside down and contents strewn across the floor.
Where there had been a door to reception there was now an open space. The front wall had gone right the way up to the first floor where exposed joists hung down. There was a great pile of rubble where the rocket had struck. A leg stuck out of it at an odd angle. The door to the lounge was shut with debris piled in front of it.
Two shots cracked off from the front window. Gregg and Nico were probably less than a metre away, armed and angry.
There was a shout before the shooting started again. I moved up to the door, pushed it. The bricks leant against it shifted and made a noise so I stopped. Waited for a second then eased it open a few centimetres.
Gregg knelt and fired through the bust window at the front, a semi-automatic pistol in his bruised hand. Shots sounded from the other end of the room as well. I shoved the door further open and saw Becky tied up in a sitting position against the wall with Casper stretched out on the ground before her. Nico was at the far end by the back window, firing an assault rifle into the vegetation. The back of his coat was marked with bullet holes and material showed through, presumably from a bulletproof jacket. The kind of thing he’d had lying around in Round Up central.
Gregg was fixed on the Transit. This was my one chance to get him. I raised the pistol, aimed at his head, then lowered it. This wasn’t going to work: Nico would hear the shot. He’d swing round and spray me with bullets. There was no chance I’d take out the two of them.
But I still had the stick. I pocketed the pistol and took a swing at Gregg. Hit him over the head. He slumped down like a pile of laundry, face down onto the burnt carpet.
I whipped out the pistol and swung round. Aimed it at the back of Nico’s head. Pulled the trigger. There was no messing around this time: he was conscious and armed and had driven me off the road. Tried to drown me. Now it was his time.
The gun clicked. I pulled the trigger again, and once more. Nothing.
He turned round, waving his gun at me. ‘Trent?’ He laughed. ‘Drop it!’
For a second neither of us moved. Then I dropped the pistol to the ground. He’d heard me try to fire and knew it was a duff. I shouldn’t have been so keen to shoot; should have held my position, tried to get him to back off. Now he had a gun and I was unarmed.
He pointed at Gregg. ‘What did you do to him?’
‘He’s just taking a nap.’
‘Thought you were lying at the bottom of a pool.’
‘Thought you were lying on a riverbank.’
He came close and prodded me with the gun. His face was marked with small cuts, some healing over. There were rips and stains on his suit and his scalp bled where a patch of hair had been burnt off.
‘You’ve caused some mischief,’ he said. ‘Now it’s finale time. Good bye.’ He raised up his rifle. Put it to my face. ‘Kneel down.’
‘Shoot me here,’ I said. I was already dead. No need to play games. His gun smelled of warm gunpowder. Oil.
He laughed. ‘It’s not that easy…’ He walked around me, stepping over Gregg’s body like a piece of furniture, the muzzle of his weapon pushed into my head. ‘Not that easy at all.’ He shoved me towards Becky and Casper.
Casper’s eyes were closed but she stared at me, brow furrowed.
‘See, thing is,’ said Nico, ‘these two have locked up that vehicle of theirs. The tank. And I want to get into it. I’m guessing that you know the way in. Now, that means I don’t have to be so worried about accidentally killing one of them.’ He grinned, his teeth stained with something dark.
Becky shook her head, a tiny movement and Nico went over to her, grabbing her face with one hand in a tight grip, pushing in her cheeks but looking at me. ‘Gregg had plans for this one. Some fun ideas.’ He released her and took went over to Gregg, knelt town and touched his neck, feeling for a pulse. The only sound was the distance crackle and pop from the burning van. Nico never once let go of the gun. Even with one hand he could spray the room with bullets.
He stood up. ‘Lucky for you he’s alive.’
I knew what he’d do now. He’d hurt us. He could indulge his sadistic pleasures. My guess was he’d pick me or Casper to torture and make Becky watch, try to break her. He didn’t know I had no idea how to get into Eblis, so that was something. And he was on his own. He had the gun, and whatever others he had hidden, but there was only him. Until Gregg came round or the fella I’d tied up got free.
The final complication was Daniel. It was hard to say what he’d do now.
‘Right,’ Nico said. ‘Turn round, hands behind your back.’
‘No,’ I said.
He aimed at Casper. ‘Fucking shift around or I shoot him.’
For a moment I did nothing, then I turned round and faced the wall. My hands were gripped behind me, head twisted round to watch Nico. Casper was a pain in the arse but I didn’t want him shot on my account. Nico went over to his bag and dropped onto one knee beside it. With the gun still levelled at us he pulled out a length of cord. He’d struggle to tie me and hold the gun so that was an opportunity. But it was a risky one. He’d expect trouble and be trigger happy. He’d likely hit one of us.
‘Right, Trent. Time to be bound up.’ For some reason he found this funny and laughed as he came over. Ther
e was no sign of him putting the gun down. He wrapped the cord round both of my wrists using one hand. The gun was still in his other hand.
‘Let them go,’ said a voice.
I turned to see Daniel in the doorway. Over his shoulder was the rocket launcher aimed at Nico. It wasn’t loaded but it was there.
Nico stared at him. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ The gun was limp in his hand.
Before Nico had time to respond I elbowed him hard. While he was off balance I pulled the cord off my wrists and grabbed for the gun. Nico swung it out of my range so I hit him in the face, a punch that bust his nose and knocked him back. As he wobbled I hit again, this time in the neck to make him grab for his throat. The gun was still in his grip, ready to be raised up. Fired.
I jumped at him, sending us both to the floor. Nico fought back pushing up with all his weight, unbalancing me when he got a leg raised and twisted. We were both on our sides, hands on each other as blood ran from Nico’s nose, the smell of stale meat on his breath. Then he swung the gun up and caught me on the side of the head. I couldn’t see him anymore and there was some loud sound. I flung my fists out but they landed on the carpet or into free space. He flipped me over so that he was on top of me then his head sunk towards my shoulder. He dug his teeth in, biting hard into my flesh, so painful it was like being burnt. I raised my knees, pushing against him but he was too heavy. Too strong.
There was a thud and his head jerked off to the side. His teeth were wrenched away and the biting stopped. I pushed up so that he fell off to the side. He flopped over and I landed on top of him. I put my full weight on him, slipping my hands around his throat. I dug my fingers in hard, deep into the arteries, the softer tissue. He croaked and gasped but I held on tight.
Only when his body was limp beneath me did I let go.
I sat up, looking down at his bloodied and slack face.
Then I straightened up and rubbed the wound on my shoulder, Nico’s warm body between my knees, his hands still held in claws, the smell of sweat coming off him.
‘Is he dead?’ said Daniel. He held the stick I’d brought in. The one I’d hit Gregg with and that he’d just used on Nico.
‘I hope so,’ I said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Mission
DANIEL HELPED ME RELEASE Becky. He took the gag out of her mouth and she gasped and muttered her thanks. I undid her hands and went to Casper. He seemed to have passed out so I got Daniel to help me move him onto the sofa. He lay there taking deep breaths as the building creaked around us, unstable after what the rocket had done.
‘What happens now?’ said Becky.
‘Be sensible to get away from here.’
Not that the bike was an option anymore. Nor was the van. I stared out at the blackened Transit. I’d not even thought about that when I’d torched it. The flames had died down leaving it a burnt shell. The trees beside it were charred but it hadn’t spread through the woods. I wondered about the man we’d tied up. He’d be all right. Fellas like him always were.
‘Why did you come back?’ Becky gave me one of those looks again. Looks I couldn’t work out. But then a chunk of the ceiling collapsed sending plaster all over us.
‘We need to go,’ I said.
I took Casper under the arms while Becky and Daniel grabbed his feet. We carried him round Nico’s body and over Gregg’s.
‘What about him?’ she said.
‘Leave him.’ I wasn’t going to waste energy on Gregg. We’d already left him for dead once before. One more time wouldn’t matter. We carried on out, over rubble and past what was left of the other man.
We lay Casper by the Eblis. Becky slumped down beside the tank and Daniel put his hand to Casper’s brow.
I went back in to grab some bits and pieces.
The building groaned around me, masonry falling from the outside and chunks of wall dropping off inside. The bags were still at the far end of the dining room, half emptied so I chucked stuff back in before grabbing them and going into the lounge. I went over to Nico and felt through his coat finding another couple of magazines for his gun. I slid them into my pocked and shouldered the rifle, picking up the bags again. A section of the chimney breast fell onto the floor so I made for the doorway. There was a great crack as I left and the far side of the lounge collapsed outwards. I ran out, over to the Eblis, dragging the bags with me. The building fell with a clatter and clonks. Thuds and crashes. A final thump that send out a great cloud of dust.
I looked back at the hotel, now a shapeless pile of wreckage. Nico and Gregg were under the mounds of bricks and wood. As were the other men. It was a better resting place than they deserved.
Becky and Daniel tended to Casper as I retrieved my bag from the tree and checked through the wet contents. I laid out damp banknotes across the warm flank of the Eblis. I still had spares from the bike but I chucked these into the undergrowth.
Becky came over. ‘Thanks for your help.’
I shrugged and stretched Gehenna’s documents on the tank’s hull.
‘What are you planning to do now?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Do you think you’ll come with us?’
‘How’s Casper?’
‘I’ve given him more morphine. He’s resting.’
He looked ropy as hell but he was still alive. We all were. There was a noise from the building. I half expected Nico and Gregg to rise out of the debris. Start shooting at us. But it was only another section of wall falling down.
‘So?’ said Becky.
I had bike or other means of getting around so it seemed I was stuck with them.
I took the plans out of my bag and set them out on the ground. The waxed surface had resisted the water reasonably well. There were charts of the lochs and waterways around the coast of western Scotland. And the sub itself with all those decks and cabins. The great engines that could run for decades; weapons that could wipe out city after city.
‘When you get to Gehenna, what are you going to do.’
She leant back against the Eblis, tapped it. ‘Blow it. With this.’
‘Serious?’
‘At least, that’s the plan.’
‘Why?’
She laughed. ‘Why?’
‘Why should you care?’
‘Look, are you coming or not?’
‘What makes you think the sub is still there?’
‘If it’s anywhere, it’s there.’
I laughed. ‘Jesus.’
For a moment neither of us spoke. As more bricks clunked off the hotel.
‘Well?’ she said. ‘Are you coming with us?’
‘Why should I trust you?’
‘You know it all now.’
‘Really?’
She nodded.
‘I don’t know.’
‘What else would you do, Trent?’
‘I suppose.’
’So you’re in?’
‘Seems that way.’
‘Good. An extra pair of hands will be useful.’ Maybe she smiled at this. If she did it was soon gone.
We hefted Casper into the Eblis, loaded in our gear and set off.
As we headed along the track the hotel fell in on itself again, now a wreck of tumbled stone and bust window frames. Beside the burnt out Transit the other man stood up with an untied rope in his hand. He stared at us as we drove out onto the road.
We went further into the highlands. The roads were no more than gravel tracks, the tarmac broken in hard winters. Becky focussed on the route, checking a map now and then. Casper lay asleep in the bottom of the vehicle and Daniel sat back in his seat, relaxed.
We were going north west now, towards the coast and the loch where Gehenna was supposed to be. I was curious about the sub, what it looked like in the metal. It seemed hard to believe it was still there after all these years.
We drove along the road through the mountains as the light faded. The engines droned and the shadows darkened around us. The cab smelled of sweat and sm
oke. Dried blood and pine needles.
Sections of the road had been washed away leaving loose stones. The tank pitched over the surface and slowed but didn’t stop.
We took a left fork and a soon dark expanse of water appeared.
‘Is this it?’ I said.
‘No,’ said Becky. ‘This is Loch Lomond. The top end. Loch Fyne is what we are after.’
Loch Lomond went on for miles and miles. Dark water with trees at side. Then we turned off to the right and soon passed another stretch of water.
‘And this?’ I said.
‘This is the sea, Trent.’
It was at our side for a few miles. After that we drove on through featureless hills. Dark shapes that hemmed us in. There was no sign of anyone. It seemed hard to believe that the sub would still be up here. In this wasteland.
Then we came to a sign on the roadside, recent, homemade. It said BEWARE. No more than that. More signs appeared in the Eblis’ lamps, some bright coloured, welcoming, others as warnings. Becky slowed the vehicle and stopped at one. It was a tall post with cockeyed writing on the board saying TURN BACK SINNERS.
‘What’s up?’ This didn’t look like reivers, just the usual stuff from cranks and crackpots.
‘I’m not sure. Just a feeling.’ She clambered up and opened the hatch, stepping out. I grabbed Nico’s gun and joined her.
‘Where we going?’ said Daniel.
‘Just stay here,’ I said.
The air was still, with a cool dampness that came down from the treeless hills. The road wound off into the distance, lit by the Eblis’ lights. Becky went over to the sign, reading it and running her fingers over it. I joined her, keeping an eye on the hills for signs of movement, in case the people who’d written it were nearby.
‘You all right?’ I said.
She raised her hand. ‘Listen.’
There was a low throb from the tank but little else. ‘I can’t hear anything —’
‘Shush.’ She put her finger to my lips, the first time she’d come near me in the last day.
Then I heard it, way off, faint, drumming sound and voices, cheers and shouts. Laughter.
Becky got back into the Eblis. She turned the headlamps off. I saw the light in the distance, at the end of the road and over a hill. A glow on the horizon of reds and yellows.
