Live Fire

by Stephen Leather

  A man was standing by the crates at the left of the door. He was in his late forties with grey hair cut short and thin, unsmiling lips. He was wearing a weathered leather bomber jacket, beige trousers and dark brown loafers with tassels. He heard Shepherd’s footsteps, and as he turned, he pulled a Glock semi-automatic from a shoulder holster. Shepherd froze and his jaw dropped. It was Richard Yokely, an American who had once worked for the CIA but who was now employed by a black-ops group called Grey Fox, which Shepherd knew was nothing less than a presidential assassination squad. They had met in London, Iraq and Northern Ireland. Yokely was a government-sanctioned killer and one of the most dangerous men he had ever met, the last person he’d expected to see in an arms warehouse in Sarajevo.

  Yokely grinned but he kept the gun aimed at Shepherd’s chest. ‘Spider Shepherd, as I live and breathe,’ he said.

  At the far end of the warehouse two men were standing over Kleintank. They were both in their mid-thirties with hard eyes, close-cropped haircuts, denim shirts, jeans and heavy workboots. One had a broken nose, the other a scarred lip. They were in the process of stripping Kleintank of his clothes but they had stopped when they heard Shepherd walk in. Broken Nose straightened up and took a silenced semi-automatic from a shoulder holster. Shepherd realised it was the man he’d seen sitting outside in the Toyota during his first visit to the warehouse, the man he’d assumed was Kleintank’s lookout. Broken Nose and Scarred Lip both gazed at Yokely, waiting to find out what he wanted them to do. ‘It’s okay, I know him,’ said Yokely. The two men relaxed and Broken Nose put away his gun. They went back to stripping off Kleintan’s clothing. Shepherd couldn’t see if the Dutchman was dead or unconscious.

  Yokely walked towards Shepherd with an amused smile. ‘You do turn up at the most inconvenient times, don’t you?’ he asked.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here, Richard?’

  ‘Tidying up some loose ends,’ said the American. ‘I’m going to have to ask you to go now, Spider.’

  ‘I can’t do that,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘Yes, you can. You turn around, you walk away and you don’t look back.’

  ‘Is he dead?’

  ‘Not yet,’ said Yokely.

  ‘You’re going to kill him, right?’

  ‘Not your business, old friend.’

  ‘We’re not friends, Richard. We’re just guys whose paths cross from time to time.’

  ‘You owe me.’ Yokely’s finger was still on the trigger of his Glock but the barrel was now pointing at the floor.

  ‘I owe you a favour. I don’t owe you a man’s life.’

  ‘Not just any man,’ said Yokely. ‘But that’s not the point. You owe me. You owe me big-time. So turn around and walk away. You’re right, we don’t have to be friends but I’m going to do what I have to do, no matter what.’

  ‘You did me a big favour, I’m not denying it. But there’s a hell of a gap between a debt of honour and being an accomplice to a cold-blooded murder.’

  ‘I don’t need your complicity,’ said Yokely. ‘I just need you to go.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I don’t want you here.’

  ‘I mean, why do you want to kill him? What’s he done?’

  The gun moved. Now it was pointing at Shepherd’s knee and the American’s finger was still on the trigger. ‘You’re making this very difficult for me, Spider.’

  ‘You think murder is easy?’

  Yokely snorted. ‘If it was anyone else but you …’

  ‘What, Richard? What would you do? Would you shoot me, is that what you’re saying?’

  The gun didn’t move but the finger tightened on the trigger. Yokely shook his head slowly. ‘I’ve got a job to do. And you’re in my way.’

  ‘This is Sarajevo, way out of your jurisdiction.’

  Yokely grinned savagely. ‘I represent the United States of America, which means the whole Goddamned world is my jurisdiction. And it’s like George W said – you’re either with us or you’re against us.’ He gestured at Kleintank with the gun. ‘Him, he’s against us. What about you, Spider? Which side are you on?’

  ‘There’s no sides in this,’ said Shepherd. ‘There’s just you and me and the guy you’re threatening to kill.’

  Yokely took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. He stared at Shepherd, his lips a tight line. The barrel of the gun moved slowly until it was aimed at Shepherd’s stomach. ‘You heard about the plane that crashed leaving JFK?’

  Shepherd nodded. ‘Engine failure, they’re saying. It crashed into the sea.’

  ‘Yeah, well, they’re saying what they’ve been told to say,’ said Yokely. ‘The real scenario is being kept under wraps. Islamic fundamentalists shot it out of the sky. And they shot it out of the sky with a missile supplied by that piece of shit. So he made his choice and now it’s time for him to pay the piper.’

  ‘What sort of missile?’ asked Shepherd.

  ‘A Stinger.’

  ‘Evidence?’

  ‘This isn’t a court, Spider. And you’re not judging me.’

  ‘You’re sure it was a Stinger? Because if it was a Stinger, it wasn’t Kleintank that supplied it.’

  ‘It was a Stinger, of that there’s no doubt. And my sources tell me it came from the Dutchman.’

  ‘Then I’d check your sources,’ said Shepherd. ‘I’ve just bought a training Grail from him and that was the best he had. Stingers didn’t even enter the equation. He said he had a contact in Nice with Stingers. Maybe someone’s got their lines crossed.’

  ‘He could have sold it weeks ago,’ said Yokely. ‘Just because he didn’t have one for you doesn’t mean he didn’t have them last week. Or last month.’

  ‘And you’d kill him without checking, would you? Because if it wasn’t him, it must have been somebody else. And you’re going to let them get off scot-free.’

  Yokely didn’t say anything but his jaw tightened a fraction.

  ‘Richard, you need to check your source on this.’ He nodded at Kleintank. ‘You wouldn’t want collateral damage, would you?’

  Yokely smiled sardonically. ‘We’re not in a position to check the source,’ he said.

  ‘Aggressive information retrieval?’ asked Shepherd.

  ‘We’re operating under considerable time pressure,’ said Yokely.

  ‘And your source is dead?’

  Yokely sighed and lowered his gun. ‘You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you? To save his skin?’

  ‘First of all, I’m not stupid. I know that if I lie you’ll find out down the line and you’re one man I wouldn’t want mad at me. Second of all, you’re right, of course, I do owe you a favour.’

  Yokely slid his gun into a nylon shoulder holster and adjusted his shirtsleeves. ‘Don’t you just hate it when people lie to you, Spider?’

  ‘Everybody lies,’ said Shepherd, ‘one way or another. Can we go somewhere and talk? I’m getting nervous hanging around here.’

  Yokely glanced at Broken Nose, who was pulling off Kleintank’s underwear now. ‘Keep him on ice,’ he said.

  ‘Like he was in a fridge,’ Broken Nose said.

  Yokely flashed Shepherd an apologetic look. ‘He watches a lot of Tarantino movies,’ he said.

  ‘Don’t we all?’ said Shepherd.

  The young man with a well-tended goatee beard placed the two cups of coffee on the table in front of Shepherd and Yokely. They sat in silence until he was out of earshot. Yokely stirred in two spoonfuls of brown sugar.

  ‘What’s going on, Richard? What the hell are you doing in Sarajevo?’

  ‘Retribution,’ said Yokely. ‘Pure and simple. The people I work for want everyone involved in the bringing down of that jet taken care of in a timely fashion.’ He sipped his coffee and smacked his lips appreciatively.

  Three pretty girls in short dresses and high heels sat down at a neighbouring table, all lip-gloss and painted nails, designer sunglasses perched on their heads, expensive mobile phones in front of them. That
was one of the big differences between modern Sarajevo and the city Shepherd had visited previously – back then there had been no pretty girls. Pretty girls were always the first to leave a war zone.

  ‘I thought revenge was a dish best served cold.’

  ‘Not in this case,’ Yokely said.

  ‘We’re talking about government-sanctioned murder?’

  ‘You might be, Spider, I’m just having a coffee with an old friend while we chew the fat.’ He took another sip. ‘This is good,’ he said. He looked around the market square they were sitting in. ‘Won’t be long before Starbucks sets up here.’

  ‘Is that a good thing or a bad thing, Richard? I would have thought you’d be in favour of American expansionism in all its forms.’

  ‘I don’t like their coffee,’ said Yokely. ‘Best coffee in the world is in Italy. Followed by France.’ He raised his cup. ‘I’d put this a close third.’

  ‘What about London?’

  Yokely chuckled. ‘Let’s just say that I can see why you’re a nation of tea-drinkers.’ He put down his cup. ‘So, why are you buying a Grail missile?’

  Shepherd looked pained. ‘I’d rather not say.’

  ‘You said it was a training model so that means no guidance system.’

  ‘Which is why your guys couldn’t have used it to shoot down the plane at JFK. One thing Kleintank did tell me was that three Brits were looking to buy a Stinger a few weeks ago. A white guy and two Asians. Don’t suppose your guys in New York were Brits?’

  Yokely shook his head. ‘Saudis.’

  ‘Why am I not surprised?’ said Shepherd. ‘You know, considering that most of the guys behind the nine-eleven attacks were Saudis, I never quite understood why George W decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to go into Saudi Arabia?’

  ‘Only one of the pilots was a Saudi,’ said Yokely. ‘There was an Egyptian, a guy from the United Arab Emirates and a Lebanese. But I know what you mean. No one involved was from Iraq or Afghanistan. But that wasn’t the point.’

  ‘Yeah, well, maybe one day you could explain it to me, but I don’t think this is the time or the place. This job you’re on, it’s revenge, pure and simple, you said.’

  ‘The analogy I was given is that no one fucks with Jews since what they did after Munich. They hit everyone involved, and by making it personal they made sure that the whole world got the message.’

  ‘I think that was an Israeli thing rather than a Jewish thing,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘Semantics,’ said Yokely. ‘But as a strategy there’s no question that it worked.’

  ‘So you’re flying around the world like some sort of government-backed vigilante killing everyone involved?’

  ‘I’m subject to total deniability,’ said Yokely, ‘but I’d say that pretty much sums it up.’

  ‘Sometimes I just don’t understand the world you live in,’ Shepherd said sadly.

  ‘It’s called the real world,’ said Yokely. ‘They murdered three hundred and twelve people. Men, women and children. Christians, Jews, Muslims and probably atheists too. Blew them out of the sky. A totally random attack, lashing out at innocents to cause death and destruction with no thought as to who they were killing. What I’m doing is the total opposite. I’m taking out specific targets, every one of whom deserves exactly what they get. I can justify what I’m doing, Spider, to myself and to others. Do you think the terrorists can do the same?’

  Shepherd didn’t reply. He decided that Yokely’s question was rhetorical but even if it wasn’t, he didn’t have an answer. He had been a soldier for almost ten years, and had killed in the line of duty, but he had always known the nature of the enemy he was up against and, more often than not, that the enemy was trying to kill him. The terrorists killing in the name of Islam chose their targets at random and, more often than not, their victims included women and children. Shepherd had no respect for men who targeted innocents, but that didn’t mean he could condone killing them without trial. There was a world of a difference between despising an enemy and summarily executing them.

  ‘For whatever reason our worlds have collided on this one and we should be sharing what we know instead of guarding our turf,’ said the American. ‘I’ve been a lot more open with you than I should have been and I think I deserve a quid pro quo.’

  ‘I would have thought a dollar pro quo would be more appropriate,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘Wow, the Brit makes Latin jokes,’ said Yokely. ‘And he tries to change the subject again. Spill the beans, Spider.’

  Shepherd stared at Yokely, then nodded slowly. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’ve infiltrated a group of armed robbers who need a missile for the job they’ve got planned. The guy who put the job together gave us Kleintank’s name for the ordnance.’

  ‘And the plan is to point a Grail at the tellers and demand they hand over their takings? Sounds a bit like overkill.’

  ‘There’s a wall involved,’ said Shepherd. ‘We were in the market for a few RPGs but all Kleintank had was the training Grail. I told Kleintank we weren’t interested so we’re going to have a rethink about where to get the RPGs from. But while I was chatting with Kleintank he let slip about the Brits who wanted a Stinger and I came back here for a chat.’

  ‘A chat?’ said Yokely. He grinned malevolently. ‘We’re not too different, you and I, are we?’

  ‘Chalk and cheese,’ said Shepherd. ‘I was just going to talk to him.’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘About the Brits he sold the Grail to. They’ve now got a Grail and a Stinger and that can only mean one thing.’

  ‘You think they’re home-grown fundamentalists who want to bring down a plane? Nasty.’

  ‘I was going to pass on any info to our anti-terrorism people,’ said Shepherd. ‘But that’s a non-starter after what you’ve done to Kleintank.’

  ‘Don’t expect me to apologise for doing my job,’ said Yokely. ‘First I knew you were involved was when you came barging in with a bad attitude.’ He sipped some coffee. ‘Okay, here’s the scoop. You might be right that Kleintank didn’t sell the Saudis the Stinger directly, but we’ve traced it to him. His fingerprints are on the smoking gun, metaphorically speaking. He operates in a small world so he sure as hell will know something. I’ll put him through the wringer and share any intel with you.’

  ‘You could blow my case, Richard. If Kleintank talks to my guys, alarm bells might start ringing.’

  ‘Give me some credit, Spider. We’ll take him well away from here.’

  ‘Rendition?’

  Yokely grinned. ‘Haven’t you heard? We don’t do that any more. We’ll find a place here, somewhere secluded. You let me know when you’re in the clear. Deal?’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘You’ve got that look again,’ said the American.

  ‘What look’s that?’

  ‘The look that says you’re not sure if you can trust me.’

  ‘That’d be right,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘We’re on the same side, Spider,’ said Yokely. ‘Our methods might be different, but we’re the good guys in this fight.’

  ‘I hope so,’ said Shepherd.

  ‘What do you mean, you hope so?’

  ‘I just feel that sometimes what we do in the fight against terrorism turns us into the sort of people we shouldn’t be, that maybe the way we react sort of justifies what the terrorists are doing.’

  Yokely frowned. ‘I don’t get your drift.’

  Shepherd shrugged. ‘Not sure if I can even explain it to myself. But I don’t like the way the world’s changing, especially my country. We regard everyone, no matter who they are, with suspicion.’

  ‘You’re starting to sound like a regular liberal, Spider. You’re not having second thoughts about your career, are you?’

  ‘I do what I do because I enjoy it, and because I feel I’m doing something worthwhile. I make a difference, I really do. I put bad guys behind bars where they can’t hurt people. This case
I’m working on now, they’re armed robbers. They point loaded guns at people and scare the shit out of them. I’ve put drug-dealers away, I’ve investigated murders and arms dealers, and I’ve stopped terrorists, and I know that the world is a better place because of the work I’ve done. Not much better, maybe, but better nonetheless.’

  ‘But the times they are a-changing?’

  ‘I’m part of the system, and I’m not sure that the system is acting in the best interests of its people. Now the system treats us all as if we’re guilty until we prove otherwise. We’ve made even thinking about terrorism a crime now. We’re putting people in prison because they’re visiting the wrong websites or having the wrong files on their computers, and that can’t be right. They say it’s a War Against Terror but it feels to me like we’re becoming the sort of totalitarian society that—’ Shepherd stopped and put up his hands. ‘Don’t get me started on politics.’ He laughed. ‘I’m just a humble civil servant.’

  ‘Yours not to reason why,’ said Yokely.

  ‘When I was a soldier, I followed orders, but I was never given an order I disagreed with. If I was told to put my life on the line, I always knew the reason why. And as a cop I knew that I was risking my life to put the bad guys behind bars. But what’s happening now …’ He was unable to finish the line of thought.

  ‘You know you have a standing offer to come and work with me,’ said Yokely.

  ‘With you, or for you?’

  ‘In this line of work, Spider, you’re your own boss most of the time.’

  ‘You were going to kill Kleintank, weren’t you? If I hadn’t been there, you’d have killed him in cold blood.’

  ‘That’s what I do,’ said Yokely.

  ‘It’s what you do, but I don’t think I could be as callous about the taking of human life.’

  Yokely chuckled. ‘Callous? Is that how I appear to you?’ He lowered his voice. ‘Don’t think for one moment I don’t care about what I do. Don’t think that I don’t have second thoughts. But, like you, I do what I do for the greater good. And I know for a fact that the world is a safer place – and, yes, a better place – because of my actions.’ He sat back and finished his coffee, then put the cup back on its saucer. ‘You’re always a great one for fairness, aren’t you? It’s a word I’ve heard you use a lot over the years. You think life should be fair even though you know it rarely is.’