by Asher, Adele
Nick ran his hand through my hair and kissed my forehead.
“Don’t be. Some things are worth more than loyalty to Queen and Country.”
I smiled at Nick.
“We’ll be okay. We’ll get my money back, find a nice quiet island somewhere in a corner of the world where nobody knows us and buy a nice beach house. Two point two children and a dog.”
“I like the sound of that,” Nick smiled.
We slept late into the morning, much later than we had expected but I didn’t want to wake Nick up given the pain he was in. We showered and headed over to the autoroute services, bought breakfast and found a table in a quiet corner overlooking the car park.
“Are you sure you are okay? Maybe we should find you a doctor?” I asked Nick. He shook his head.
“I’ll live.”
I buttered Nick’s croissant and cut it in half for him.
“Why is Roy buying guns Nick? More to the point who is he buying them for?”
“Somalians,” Nick told me somewhat reluctantly. “There is supposedly a cargo ship leaving Dubai in two weeks. Charlotte’s dad and his cohorts are working both ends of the deal. They’ve insured the cargo which is basically worthless scrap metal and the ship. They are paying off the pirates to hijack it.”
“All this, for an insurance fraud?”
“It’s a bit more elaborate than that.It’s a diversion. While the naval patrols are chasing the cargo ship they are planning to hit an oil tanker. They are going to sail it bang into the middle of a UNESCO protected wildlife reef and scuttle it. The cost of the cleanup would run into hundreds of millions. They are shorting the marine insurance companies stock. They’ll make a killing when the market cap drops to the floor.”
“So how did you figure into this?”
“Vladimir was brokering the deal. We were following him when you killed him.”
“Sorry about that.”
“What troubles us, rather what troubles me is why you killed him.”
“Because Roy told me to.”
“That’s what I still don’t understand. Roy had no reason to kill him.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“He’s an electrician from Luton. Who knows what goes on in that guys head.”
Nick stared at me with suspicion.
“I don’t buy your story at all. You’d have to be pretty dumb to fall for Roy’s bullshit and do the things you did. Unless you had a reason to.”
I drank my coffee innocently.
“Maybe I was in love. People are blinded to all manner of faults and realities when they are love. It’s a form of madness.”
“You are smarter than that.”
“I fell for you…”
“Did you?”
I put my coffee down in annoyance.
“Look Nick. Let’s just skip through all the soft interrogation bullshit. Why don’t you cut to the chase and ask me what you really want to ask me?”
“I don’t want to ask you. I’d rather you just told me.”
We stared at each other for several seconds. I took his hand in mine and squeezed it.
“I love you. What else matters?”
“But who are you? Really?”
“What difference does it make? I accepted you for who you are.” I said. Nick nodded reluctantly. “I’m going to put this down to the fact you broke your ribs and are in a lot of pain right now. We have enough problems to deal with Nick. We don’t need to start beating each other up as well.”
I leant over and kissed him with a long slow tender kiss.
“I love you. That’s all you have to worry about. I just want us to get my money back so we can go and live a life somewhere. It’s you’re spy paranoia that makes you think this is something more than it is. The truth just isn’t that complicated.”
Nick turned to look out the window. I turned to see what had caught his attention. Two Italian police cars were parked next to the Porsche. A police officer was stood taking details of the car while two more police officers spoke to the hotel manager who was pointing in the direction of the café we were sat in. They started walking over.
“We’re blown,” Nick told me and looked around for the exit.
“Shit,” I replied.
The motel we were at was in the middle of the countryside.
“We need to get out of here.”
“How?” I asked.
“I’ll distract them. Go to the hotel and get our bags then get the car. Pick me up on the slip road.”
“And if you don’t make it?”
“Then keep driving.”
“I’m not leaving without you Nick.”
“There’s no point in us both getting caught.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. We should just make a run for it out the back and find another car.”
“We don’t have time for that. It’ll be okay.” Nick checked his pistol under the table and got up. “Wait here. As soon as it’s clear then go.”
“Be careful.”
I got up and hugged Nick tightly. He gazed in my eyes.
“I’m sorry about what I said. You’re right. It’s the job. Old habits die hard.”
I smiled at him.
“It’s okay. You are right, it doesn’t make any sense but what in life does?”
We kissed. Nick headed for the exit.
I watched nervously as Nick headed across the car park keeping his head down. He walked straight in the direction of the Porsche, the two police officers walked straight past at him looked but kept going. As he past them the hotel manager pointed at him. The other police officer shouted at his colleagues who stopped on their heels and turned around. They called after Nick who stopped but didn’t turn around. As they approached him and put a hand on his shoulder Nick grabbed it and pistol-whipped the first policeman before knocking him to the ground then he quickly grabbed the second police officer and used him as a shield against the police officer with the hotel manager who now had a pistol drawn. Nick disarmed the police officer he had hostage and put his gun to his head. Reluctantly the other police officer put down his gun and kicked it away. Nick let the police officer go and grabbed the pistol from the officer on the ground. He then shot the second police officer in the leg before sprinting across the car park into the cover of several trucks. The police officer with the hotel manager ran across and picked his gun up and ran over to his stricken colleagues radioing for help.
I quickly exited the services café and avoiding the scene in the car park cut across to the hotel block on the other side. I went into our room and grabbed our bags and headed outside again. The uninjured police officer had given chase into the line of trucks after Nick.
I dashed across to the Porsche unlocked it and threw the bags in before starting it up and driving quickly to the exit slip road back onto the autoroute. Nick nowhere to be seen.
Leaving the engine running I pulled to the side and honked the horn hoping he would hear it from wherever he was hiding. Seconds went past that felt like minutes as a trio of police cars with blue lights flashing approached from the opposite direction. My heart pounded out of my chest. Where the hell was Nick? It wouldn’t take long for the reinforcements to arrive but I didn’t want to leave without him. I looked in my rearview mirror and my heart leapt with joy. Nick was running as fast as he could across the car park being pursued by the police officer who was firing shots at him as Nick zig-zagged to avoid them. I slammed the gearbox into reverse and floored the throttle to close the gap to Nick and threw open the passenger door to ease his escape. Nick leapt in the car.
“You had me worried there,” I told him as he slammed the door closed.
I floored the throttle and accelerated out of the car park.
“We have to get off the autoroute,” he told me.
“We’re less than thirty minutes to the border with Monaco.”
Nick turned round to check the police hadn’t given chase.
We reached the next autoroute exi
t and I pulled off the exit. Nick checked the sat-nav for directions.
“Take a right at the exit,” he said.
I pulled off the autoroute onto a narrow winding country lane. With five hundred and twenty horsepower and four-wheel drive the Porsche made light work of the getaway.
“We need to get rid of this car,” he said.
I nodded.
“We can dump it in Nice and take the train from there.”
“Good idea,” Nick replied setting the nav system to find a back-route into Nice avoiding the Italian autoroute which by now would be swarming with police.
“Life is never dull with you Nick. I will give you that.”
We reached Nice an hour later and abandoned the car in a small underground car-park near the railway station. I took the bag out as Nick cleaned the car of fingerprints. He left the window open and the keys in the ignition.
“Someone will steal it you know. This is Nice.”
“That’s the idea. They will get the blame for it then won’t they?”
We left the multi-storey through the fire exit careful to ensure there was no CCTV in case the police found the car before an opportunist car thief did.
We headed to the railway station and bought tickets for Monte-Carlo before walking over to the platform and waiting for the train. I was tired and hungry, the motel had been less than comfortable and was probably one of the worst hotels I had ever stayed in but I suffered it because I was with Nick and despite our earlier argument it was preferable to be with him in a run down Italian motel than be alone in a five star suite.
We boarded the train when it arrived and I collapsed into a seat thankful for the rest. As the train made its way slowly through the small picturesque Riviera villages en-route to Monte Carlo I had time to reflect for the first time on what a terrible predicament we were now in.
We had no car, very little money apart from what remained of the stolen Euros seized from the petrol station heist, we had left what was left of the arms cachet in the Aston and had only a couple of pistols between us and since Nick had burnt his bridges any back-up he may had previously been able to call on was now gone. We had just a slim chance to intercept Roy & Charlotte before they disappeared to Switzerland and did a deal with the Russians.
Our only hope was that they had no heavy security and we could catch them off guard. Judging from Nick’s distant stare out of the window he had drawn the same conclusions as to the gravity of the situation that I had.
For the first time he looked tired and worn out with a sense of dejection that the way ahead would only be worse. I got up and sat next to him and put an arm around him and my head on his shoulder in the hope I could at least bring him some emotional comfort and support, he put his arm around me and kissed my head.
We arrived into Monte Carlo just after six.
“The bank will be closed now. We need to find a hotel for the night,” said Nick.
Nick headed for the line of taxis parked outside the station.
“It’s a nice evening. Lets walk,” I called after him.
Given our precarious financial situation and the cost of taxis in Monaco we would need to save every Euro for the inevitably high hotel bill.
We found a small reasonably priced hotel down by the harbour, it was nothing special but it was affordable. The room was cramped with barely enough room to move around the double bed. I counted out the last of the Euros.
“We have just enough for dinner and a cheap breakfast then we’re broke,” I told Nick. “Let’s hope Roy shows up at the bank tomorrow.”
“We need him alive,” Nick reminded me as he checked the Italian police Berettas he had stolen. “He’s the only person who can release your money in Zurich. You understand that?”
“Of course. As much as I want to cut his throat for all this I do want my money back,” I told him.
Nick nodded and handed me one of the pistols. I checked it and smiled at him.
“Do you think this one jams?” I asked.
“No, I’m sure they give the best ones to the Italians.”
“Let’s hope so,” I replied as I looked around the room. “It’s kind of romantic in a rustic charming way.’’
“That’s one way to describe it.”
“How would you describe it?”
“Shit.”
“Doesn’t quite have the same ring in the brochure does it? I’m hungry. Do you think we can get anything to eat in Monte Carlo for thirty-two Euros and twenty-six cents?”
“I’m sure there must be something.”
“Come on then. I’ll treat you to a takeaway pizza and a cheap bottle of beer.”
We headed out of the hotel to the old part of town and found a small Italian pizza takeaway and ordered a large pepperoni pizza to share and two bottles of Peroni lager. The total came to twenty-five Euros leaving us enough for a croissant and orange juice in the morning. We took the pizza and walked down to the harbour wall where a vast array of substantial super-yachts lay at anchor.
“We’re a long way from drinking Vintage D.P at The Ivy now,” I told Nick.
“It’s not so bad. At least it’s Monte Carlo,” he replied.
“I think that makes it worse.”
“You know the best things in life are free.”
“Not in Monte Carlo.”
“Maybe not in Monte Carlo,” Nick replied with a nod.
“I never really valued anything that much before now. Even something simple like a pizza and a bottle of beer is special when you know you can’t afford to buy it. Everything was just so easy. I think that’s why I got in this mess. I was so bored by it all.”
“Maybe you’ll learn something from it.”
“I already have,” I told him with a soft smile.
“And what’s that?”
“Here we are in the worse position we could possibly be in. All we can afford is a pizza and two beers but being sat here, with you…none of that matters. I’m still happy. Bloody miserable obviously. But happy.”
Nick laughed.
“I think I understand what you mean.” Nick toasted his bottle against mine. “Welcome to the real world.”
We returned to our small hotel and made love in our creaky little bed. Lying in Nick’s arms I felt utterly content for the first time in my life.
Chapter 16
MORNING COMES with the certainty that each day that passes your life will never be the same again. In the brief waking hours before dawn you lie and wait for what fate will bring. As the early break of dawn crept through the shabby hotel curtains I wondered how this day would end and if Roy or Charlotte had any expectation of how different their day would end to how they envisaged it would - if they had even considered it at all, for most of us wander blindly through life oblivious to how our entire direction and best-laid plans can be changed in a heartbeat by the actions of others.
We woke early and showered in the cramped badly worn bathroom. The shower was just a little too short for Nick to fit under comfortably. We didn’t speak much as we dressed for today was a day of affirmative, preplanned action. Unlike the chance encounters with the police or Russians we both knew exactly what had to be done and the consequences for us if we got it wrong.
Nick gave his Beretta a final check and stowed it beneath his jacket. I could tell he was nervous.
“You ready?” he asked quietly.
I nodded and zipped my bag closed.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Nick took my face between his hands and kissed my lips softly.
“Whatever happens…I love you so very much.”
“I love you too,” I replied and hugged him tightly.
We left the hotel at just past eight in the morning. The bank would not be open for another forty-five minutes. We didn’t know what time Roy and Charlotte if she was still with him would arrive only that they would be at the Credit-Suisse branch in Monte Carlo today.
We found a small pavement café directly across the entrance fro
m the bank. I ordered an orange juice. As much as I wanted a coffee we had to make the drinks last as long as possible so it was better to order something cold. We both sat with our back to the café window facing the bank holding hands as bored lovers might to prevent suspicion that we were about to hijack a bank customer in possession of four million Euros of stolen money.
My money.
I tried to distract myself from the anger I felt welling inside me that I was finally coming face to face with Roy. Having not seen him since the Hackney incident it was all I could do to restrain myself from shooting him on sight. But Nick was right, we would still need him alive. Whether he would co-operate was another matter entirely. Nick checked his Omega Planet Ocean watch impatiently as the guards came to unlock the doors to the bank. He looked at me. I just nodded to signify my readiness. We could be here all day or ten minutes. Every second dragged like an hour.
“Tell me a story Nick,” I asked to distract us both and break the building tension.
“What sort of story?” he replied.
“About your life before all this. Tell me anything.”
“Well…” he said turning to face me no doubt equally relieved to be distracted from the constant waiting.
“Before I was in six…”
‘So you are in six? I thought you were five?”
“No, six. Before that I was in the army. Parachute regiment then Special Forces.”
“The SAS? What was that like?”
“Tough. Most days you didn’t expect to live until lunch.”
“And you survived.”
“Lucky I guess. Most weren’t.”
“Then?”
“I came out and didn’t really know what to do. They approached me. Thought I had a natural aptitude for certain activities requiring moral latitude.”
“Killing people?”
“Killing people.” affirmed Nick.
“And how’s that working out for you?”
“In retrospect I wish I’d been something else.”
“What would you do? If you had a choice and weren’t doing this?”
“I don’t know. It’s so long since I had any dreams of another life.”
