Chapter 4: The Cave
Mercer and his team own a warehouse just southeast of London in Southwark Surrey “The Cave” this was their base of operations when they were private contractors, now it’s more like a man cave.
They pull into the warehouse district alongside the waterway, there’s a blanket of dense fog and plenty of noise from the waterway. Mercer and his team chose these old warehouses specifically for this reason, its great cover for the screaming that might slip out during interrogation. They’re moving fast to their warehouse with their lights off, they’ve been here a million times and have even practiced driving with their eyes closed in order to remain stealth.
Drake hits the remote to open the bay door and they slide in without even being noticed. They all get out and mercer signals to Murphy to grab Ethan out of the tactical unit and carry him into a sound proof room. Murphy sets Ethan down in the chair and straps his arms and legs in, Fisher walks over towards Ethan with another syringe but Mercer stops him midway.
“Hold on one second mate let’s take a breather and grab a bitter” everyone smiles, Murphy walks over to the fridge and starts grabbing bottles and throwing them behind his back without even looking, Murphy thinks it’s funny but this is nothing new, he’s been doing it for years. Fisher looks at Murphy “You do understand every time you do that we have to wait to open our bottles!” Murphy has one bottle in each hand, shakes them up, pops the tops, places both bottles in his mouth leans his head back and starts to drink.
The beers going everywhere but into his mouth, the whole team starts to laugh, Murphy knows exactly how to calm everyone down and always knows exactly when it’s needed. Drake’s laughing so hard that beer is coming out of his nose.
Fisher looks over at Mercer “Where’s the Cubans mate?” Mercer points to the humidor on top of the weapons locker “Anyone else?”
Murphy shakes his head to say no, he already has a full lip of chew, Drake and Mercer nod yes, Mercer is cutting the tip of his cigar “Fisher, I want you to go in there and wake Ethan up, but just leave him alone in the room whilst we finish these fine cigars”
Fisher grabs his small leather case and walks into the interrogation room. Murphy spits into his empty beer bottle “Mercer, why the hell would Hunter want anything to do with Ian? Is there any kind of connection?” Mercer takes a puff of his cigar and walks over to look into the interrogation room, pauses for a second and responds.
“You know what Murphy; I’m just as puzzled as you mate”
Murphy stands up and walks over to Mercer and sets his massive hand on Mercer’s shoulder “You know we’ve done this a thousand times but now it’s bloody personal!” Mercer turns and looks up at Murphy with his sideways smile “You just keep your wits about ya big boy remember cool heads prevail” Murphy looks down at Mercer stroking his beard “You’ve always been the calm one, I don’t know how you do it!” Mercer opens the door into the interrogation room “How’s it comin along mate?”
Fisher is on one knee putting his things back into the leather case squinting with one eye because of the smoke from his cigar
“Should come around in a few, think he’s wet himself” Mercer smiles as he shuts the door. Drake is sitting down with his feet up on Mercer’s desk “Let me have a crack at him yea” Murphy starts laughing “Yea like that’s gonna happen!” Drake’s leaning back in the chair and blows his smoke towards the ceiling “Hell it’s worth a try isn’t it” Fisher opens the door, walks back into the room and takes off his latex gloves “Every time I walk into that room and see that blood stain on the floor I get a laugh!” Mercer looks around the room and they all start laughing. Mercer looks over at Drake “He can have a good idea every once in a while!” Drake looks over at Murphy “What the bloody hell you laughing at big boy! It works doesn’t it! “Murphy stands up quickly and starts walking over towards Drake but Fisher stops him “Not now Murph just havin some fun mate you know how Drake gets!” Murphy just smiles and points at Drake, He’s over in the corner smiling and dancing around with his fists out in front of him. Drake knows exactly how to push Murphy’s buttons; they’ve been mates for years.
Drake came up with the idea of putting some animal blood on the floor.
Mercer starts to walk over to the interrogation room and looks through the small window in the door. Ethan’s up but still to groggy to answer any questions. Mercer looks at Fisher “It seems to be taking a bit longer than usual” Fisher walks over and looks in the window “You know these types, smoking that crap I was afraid to give him the normal dose” Mercer puts his hand on Fisher’s shoulder
“Sorry mate just anxious to find Ian, that’s all, no disrespect” Fisher takes a drag of his cigar and looks back through the window
“Ahh no worries mate! We all understand what you’re going through and remember you’re the calm one!” Mercer smiles “I don’t know what I would do without you guys” Fisher looks right into Mercers eyes “And you’ll never have too!”
Fisher turns and starts to walk away “Give it about ten more minutes mate, come on have another beer he’s not going anywhere!” Murphy opens the fridge and grabs a beer and walks over to Mercer who’s still standing by the door and hands it to him. Everybody has always treated Mercer with respect, he’s always been a great friend and a great leader “Go relax I’ll let you know when he’s conscious” Mercer nods and walks into the other room to be alone. He can’t help but feel anxious but he would never reveal that to his men he knows he has to appear calm and think things through. He looks at his watch and it’s only been a couple of minutes but it seems like hours have past. All of a sudden total chaos breaks out, the interrogation room door is open and Ethan is on his back, Murphy is pummeling him as the others are trying to pull him off. “Oye Oye! What the hell is going on?” Mercer grabs Murphy by the back of his shirt; Murphy still in a rage turns around with a cocked fist until he notices that it’s Mercer and stops immediately. Mercer points for everyone to leave, helps Ethan back up in the chair and then leaves the room.
Murphy’s pacing in circles with blood dripping from the bridge of his nose “Sit down big boy” Mercer points at the chair by the fridge, Murphy has his fists clenched at his sides and starts growling while looking up at the ceiling.
“I said sit down big boy!” Murphy looks around the room and notices that Fisher is pointing his Glock 17 at him; Murphy gives Fisher a death stare but sits down. Mercer asks everyone to leave the room, walks over to the fridge opens a beer and hands it to Murphy “What the bloody hell happened in their Murph?”
Murphy slugs down half of the beer then takes a deep breath
“I was looking through the window and saw Ethan gagging and convulsing so I ran in there to see what the hell was going on and the little wanker head butted me real good and ….. Mercer starts laughing “No need to explain any more Murph I got it!” Murphy starts feeling his nose “I think the little wanker broke it!” Mercer is bent over still laughing when the rest of the guys walk back into the room.
With a genuine look of concern on his face Drake walks over to Murphy “You ok Brotha?” everyone is quite, Murphy looks up at Drake with his bloodied nose and cocky smile “No one says a bloody word about this!” Drake does the whole key locking the mouth thing and everyone starts to laugh including Murph.
Fisher looks at Murphy, still in tears from laughing “Oh how I hope I had the camera on!” Murphy gets up and starts chasing Fisher around the room, everyone’s bent over in tears.
Chapter 5: Darkness Falls
“Were taking fire!” “What’s your position Sabre Squadron?” “Two klicks west outside target zone” “Hold your position and ……..Static…………..
Mercer’s team consists of four of the best SAS soldiers the military has to offer, Fisher; Intelligence specialists, Drake; Weapons & Explosives,
Murphy; Sniper and last but not least Hunter; Combat specialist.
An HC2 Helo has been arranged to land in a clearing just below a m
ountain range outside of Afghanistan that has previously taken fire. Mercer’s team is sanctioned to take out this sniper.
It’s late afternoon but much cooler in the mountains but still very hot and humid, Mercer’s team began taking fire two klicks shy of their target and are held up in an abandoned cliff fortification without radio contact.
“Hey Murph take a look through that scope and tell me what’s going on” Murphy finds a large enough hole in the wall and lays down on the cool dirt floor to get a better angle on the shooter. “Can’t see anything until he fires” Hunter smiles and sticks his head just outside of the door, just at that moment a shot is fired and misses Hunter’s head by a few inches, Fisher grabs Hunter by the sleeve and pulls him in “What the bloody hells wrong with you Hunter You got a death wish or something?” Hunter just smiles and in his southern draw “Just tryin to see if the old boy can shoot, guess not, Fisher you know I love ya like a brother but if you ever grab me like that again you’ll be eating your next meal through a straw” Fisher is trying to check reception on the com but there’s no signal, he glances over at mercer who’s looking at the gps to check coordinates “Oy Mercer! why do they need to land an HC2, kinda big don’t ya think? Mercer puts the com back in his back pack “You know we have a good thing going, I don’t ask questions I just take orders, you think I like dressing like this?” Mercer and his team were advised to dress in local attire. Drake is sitting in the corner reloading his mag “Yea Mercer howda get the SAS to keep us on payroll mate and hire us as freelancers?”
Mercer walks over and sits down next to Drake “You know curiosity killed the bloody cat yea” Drake smiling turns his head and looks at Mercer
“Ya know I bloody hate cats!” Mercer puts his hand on Drake’s knee “Always the cheeky one yea! Put it this way, someone high up owed me a big favor”“Hey I aint complaining! Nice to have a pension and a steady paycheck”
Murphy is still on the ground looking through his scope “Like any of us will live long enough to collect a bloody pension!”
The SAS is landing the large HC2 Helo full of combat soldiers; they have received Intel that there are several hundred POW’s and a local Taliban alliance being held captive in a cave on the other side of the mountain range.
Calvin Blake NeuroCorp Book 1 Page 4
