“What did you just call us?” said a few of the Neds looking at Tom.
Tom was beginning to get scared, not of the Neds but of Lela. He had never seen her like that before. As she looked at the Neds, he could see no expression or emotion in her face. Her eyes had become very dark but incredibly alert.
“Tom. Ahmad. Stay behind me.”
They both moved behind her. The tone of the instruction was cold and direct.
The biggest Ned paused to look at the scene in front of him.
“Look at them! They’re pathetic, hiding behind their little girl-friend! Come on, they’re not worth the hassle of getting barred for another month.”
Tom breathed a huge sigh of relief. Although he had stood up to them, there were eight of them and they were all bigger.
“What? You scared of a little girl are you?” taunted Lela. She couldn’t help herself, any mention of her mother stirred a deep and painful emotion within her. This guy was going to pay.
“What the hell are you doing?” said Tom, his relief evaporating as he tried desperately to grab hold of her arm and calm her down. There were eight Neds, what was she playing at?
“I’m going to teach these idiots some manners!” Lela said angrily avoiding his grasp.
”What the f*** do you think you’re doing little girl?!” exclaimed the biggest Ned, looking down at the small girl squaring up to him and his mates.
Lela struggled to control her anger. She had never felt like this before, the Ned had made her snap, insulting her mother and threatening Tom.
“Well, asshole, last chance to apologise?” her eyes blazed with anger. She desperately wanted to make the big Ned feel the pain she felt inside.
Sinead had caught up with Kevin who had managed to see the last of the kids disappear into the cinema as he had drawn up into the car park.
“Did you see them?” she asked hopefully.
“No, they sprinted off the bus and ran straight into the cinema. The little Asian guy’s just standing by the entrance behind me,” replied Kevin, indicating over his shoulder.
“Damn,” she replied watching Saki stand nonchalantly by the door. Sinead was no fool and had met some very experienced people. That level of nonchalance was well practised, the little Asian knew exactly what he was doing.
“Did he make you?” she asked.
“What, the little guy? No way!” replied Kevin insulted at the suggestion. But Sinead was not convinced. Through the corner of her eye, she had seen him look over at them twice. If he had made Kevin, he had now made her. This was not good. She called Conor and explained the situation.
“What do you think we should do?” she asked.
Conor took a second to consider what she had just told him.
“Send in the boys, you and Kevin stay back. If he’s made you, you’ll just blow the whole thing.”
“OK, good idea. I’ll call them and tell them what to do.”
Sinead hung up and called the three crew members waiting in the car.
Tom and Ahmad followed Lela, they had to stop her. She was nearly at the Neds and was staring unblinking into the face of the biggest Ned. As they approached her, she put her hand out behind her back and raised her palm.
“Stop, Tom,” she commanded. “Don’t come any closer.” The tone was such that both Tom and Ahmad involuntarily stopped. Their hearts said keep going but the message delivered to the brain, overwhelmingly overrode them.
The biggest Ned towered over Lela and was becoming increasingly irritated by this girl. He was also beginning to lose face in front of his gang. This was totally unacceptable. He unzipped his white shell-suit jacket and held one side open long enough for Lela to see the handle of his knife.
“Back off and I won’t carve up your boyfriends,” he threatened with a knowing smile. His gang laughed.
Lela snapped and punched the big Ned so quickly that nobody knew why he suddenly winced and grabbed his nose, blood pouring down his face and ruining his best white jacket. She grabbed the knife from his belt, as his hand made towards it, spun it round and holding the blade, threw it with such precision and force into a nearby door frame, it would take a hammer to remove it. The Ned tried to lunge at her but before he had moved an inch, Lela delivered a massive disabling blow to his groin.
Tom, Ahmad, and the gang of Neds all winced as the big Ned gasped and fell to the floor, his face turning white. The other Neds looked at each other; they couldn’t run from a girl so they lunged towards her in unison.
Lela spun round and caught the first Ned with a high kick to the chin, lifting him two feet off of the floor and depositing him against the wall. The next received a kick to the stomach which slammed him through to the female toilets. This was Lela’s first real fight and although she knew every pressure point and nerve ending in the body, she had no idea how hard she should punch or kick. Her hands and feet were used to punching and kicking boards and bags. She realised from the first three blows that she was hitting too hard. She wanted to hurt the Neds, not kill them. She blocked a punch and delivered her own, this one was about half the power she would normally manage against a block of wood but it was still too hard. The Ned lifted two inches from the floor before dropping to the ground, knocked out. The power, speed and accuracy of her movements were astonishing.
The speed with which she had dispatched half the Neds was such that the others had not had the chance to re-evaluate their situation, they just kept coming, their momentum driving them forward to an inevitable beating. Lela took the next two out with a sweeping high kick, leaving only two to deal with, She spun round and caught one with the back of her fist as he tried to come up behind her on her blind side. He dropped to the floor. Lela cursed herself again, she needed to hit more softly. The last Ned stood before her.
“Not so funny now, is it?” she asked menacingly. That Ned had laughed the hardest at the Big Ned’s comments about her mother.
He opened his mouth to reply but Lela wasn’t interested. She spun round, threw out her leg and caught his midriff. He flew across the foyer and slammed into a bin, emptying the contents all over himself.
Less than ten seconds had passed from throwing her first punch to when she turned back towards Tom and Ahmed. Both stood open jawed at what they had just witnessed. Lela hadn’t even broken sweat as she smiled at them. She had very much enjoyed her first fight and most importantly had learned a lot from it.
By the time the security guard had been alerted to the commotion, Lela, Tom and Ahmad were peacefully queuing at the kiosk. Tom and Ahmad were still in shock and left Lela to place the order. The guard laughed at suggestions that the little girl at the kiosk had beaten up the Neds. He banned the Neds for six months for fighting amongst themselves. The Big Ned, however, was in no condition to leave. Having thrown up from the pain numerous times, an ambulance had been called.
Saki came running into the foyer just as Tom, Lela and Ahmad were heading back into the cinema.
“Lela? Tom?”
“Yes Dad?” replied Lela. Tom and Ahmad were in no condition to talk.
“Are you OK?”
“Yes, fine thanks. What’s wrong?”
“I just saw some boys being escorted out, as though they’d been in a fight?”
“It was nothing, just some Neds, you know what they’re like, fighting each other all the time,” replied Lela casually.
“Are you sure that was all?” he asked knowingly, looking straight into her eyes.
“Yep,” she said winking, they would talk about it later.
“OK,” he winked back and smiled, laughing to himself as he made his way back to the door at how unfair the fight had been. Eight boys against his Lela, they hadn’t stood a chance. She was the best student he had ever taught and certainly better than he was at her age.
The three had just begun to make their way towards the front door when the little Asian man had bolted inside. They had no idea why, but whatever it was, it had him moving very quickly. They paused and l
ooked for Sinead. She was nowhere in sight. She had moved around to the back with Kevin after being spotted. One of them gave her a call and explained what had happened.
“Follow him you idiots, see if you can spot the kids,” she ordered.
By the time they had made it into the foyer, the little Asian man was making his way back outside, laughing to himself. However, his face changed the minute he spotted them.
Saki had been imagining his little Lela’s first fight and was wishing he had been there when he suddenly caught sight of three pairs of eyes looking at him. He recognised two of the faces. He scanned his memory and recalled both faces. They had been jogging outside the estate within the last two weeks but not together, separately. He had put his earlier concerns about the motorcyclist and the woman down to paranoia. It may be coincidence. However, Saki didn’t believe in coincidence. On the other hand, he didn’t want to spoil Tom’s birthday party unnecessarily. He took his mobile from his pocket and dialled a number.
Sinead called Conor.
“I’ve just heard from my guys, they’ve just been made by the Asian guy.”
“Jesus, you’ve only been there five minutes and he’s made all five of you, you’d think you were a bunch of amateurs,” fumed Conor.
“Conor, I’ve told you this job is bad news. I have a really bad feeling about it. We have no idea what we’re up against. We should just get the hell out of here while we still can.”
“You don’t understand…” Conor caught himself, Sinead didn’t need to know about the deal. She just needed to do her job. “Have you even confirmed if the kids are there yet?”
“No but I’m fairly certain they are.”
“OK, hang around. If you get an opportunity, take them. Otherwise, we’ll take them at the house later.”
Conor hung up, Sinead’s bad feeling was contagious, a knot was developing in the pit of his stomach.
The three took their seats as though nothing had happened. Ahmad had been sworn to secrecy as they had entered the dark theatre. The trailers were already running.
Ahmad whispered to Tom as they sat down.
“Did we really just witness Lela kicking those guys’ arses or am I dreaming?”
“I think we both must be,” replied Tom. He knew Lela’s training was special but had no idea just how amazing it was until then.
Ahmad had always had a soft spot for Lela, most of Tom’s friends did, but Ahmad was now completely smitten.
“You really have one wicked sister!” he exclaimed as he replayed the scene in his mind. “I’ve never seen anything like that, not ever, not even in the movies.”
Tom was also reliving the moment. However, the memory for him was slightly tainted. He had stood helpless while his sister did the fighting, it just seemed wrong somehow. But then you couldn’t argue with the result, she really had kicked their arses well and truly. You definitely couldn’t argue with the result. Ahmad was right, he really did have one seriously wicked sister. He smiled.
Chapter 17
“Conor, we’re pulling out right now.” Sinead had called the minute the first police car had arrived.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her panic.
“Police. One car just arrived but another two undercover ones just pulled in,” she said as she walked out of the rear of the complex. “We’re dumping the car and the bike, we’ll be with you as soon as we can.” She ended the call as one of the crew flagged down a black cab.
“Train station,” she said as she closed the door.
Once at the train station, they used another cab to the next station before using a third to return to a street close to their camp. Conor picked them up where the taxi had dropped them off.
“The place was crawling with cops by the time we left. These guys must have some very powerful friends,” explained Sinead.
“It might not have had anything to do with us, it might have been a drug raid or something, you don’t know,” replied Conor more for the benefit of the crew than anything else.
Sinead didn’t like it, her instincts were seldom wrong.
The SO12 Special Branch “A” squad commander had reacted immediately to Saki’s call. Saki was well known to them having been vetted by them many years earlier when he had first taken responsibility for Tristan during a trip to the Kennedy Estate. Only few ‘civilians’ were entrusted with the safety of the Prime Minister’s children. Within ten minutes, 50 police officers had been on scene and within 15 minutes, they were joined by eight members of the Strathclyde Police Force Special Protection Unit, SPU.
There was no sign of the suspicious individuals other than their abandoned motorbike. Saki had never seen their car and therefore did not know that it had also been abandoned. A scrupulous sweep was made of the entire complex while the kids sat blissfully unaware of the mayhem outside. Sniffer dogs were called in to search for explosives and five special protection officers joined the kids in the theatre to look out for anything suspicious. With five minutes to go before the end of the movie, the all clear was given. The decision of what to do next was left to Saki and the Special Branch Commander in London. Both agreed that the kids should enjoy as normal an evening as possible and decided that the trip to the ten pin bowling should proceed as planned.
A security perimeter was set up outside the complex and a number of undercover officers joined the customers both in the cinema and in the bowling alley. The SPU Officers would be playing on the alley either side of the kids.
Tom, Lela and their friends walked towards the bowling alley, on the other side of the complex, briefly discussing the movie before returning to their earlier tactical discussions on how to win the bowling. They were closely followed by Saki and closely watched by their fifty new guardians.
As they entered the bowling alley, a small group of Neds left hurriedly, pointing at Lela and saying “that’s her.” Tom and Lela’s friends noticed but Tom just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Weirdoes, don’t worry about them.”
Saki, taking a similar position to earlier, watched as the same group of Neds left and began to make calls just beside him at the main door. Within five minutes, their number had doubled and within ten, it had doubled again. Finally, a young man arrived, dressed in his finest white shell-suit and sporting more gold rings than Saki thought would be possible on one hand. He swayed into view and took forever to join the rest of his gang so as to ensure his swagger projected his presence. When he finally arrived, the others excitedly updated him with varying versions of the evening’s events. He was obviously their leader.
Saki looked around and counted at least twenty plain clothes officers taking an interest in the growing gang. Saki spotted the officer in charge and with an almost imperceptible nod suggested he would handle it. The officer had been made aware of Saki’s status by the Special Branch Commander and radioed for his men to hold back.
Saki walked across to the group and spoke in a cheery tone.
“Hi guys.”
“What the f*** do you want?” the leader snapped, stepping towards Saki in an attempt to intimidate him.
“I was going to help you but if you don’t want my help, that’s fine. I’ll just leave you to it.” He moved to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re going, you’ll leave when I say you can,” announced the leader, raising a few sniggers from his gang.
“Oh I’m sorry,” replied Saki. “Do you want my help afterall?”
The leader of the Neds raised his eyes to the heavens, a real showman. “Jesus old man, tell us exactly how you think you can help us?” he taunted.
“I thought I would help you by giving you some options.” Saki was about to be interrupted by one of the Neds but the leader raised his hand, he wanted to hear this. If nothing else, it should make a good story.
Saki continued.
“Option one, this is the best one and I highly recommend it. You walk away and everybody’s fine. Option two, you annoy me more than you have already and I beat on yo
u until the twenty policemen currently surrounding us rescue you. Or, option three, I cannot iterate enough how much I would recommend against this one, you try to attack the children I’m looking after and even the twenty policemen won’t rescue you from that one.”
The Ned leader had been laughing until option two and the mention of the twenty policemen. Like the rest of his gang, he had instantly looked around. He couldn’t see any, there were plenty of people milling around but no coppers that he recognised.
“Old man, the best thing you can do for your kids is call an ambulance. Nobody beats up my gang in my town.”
The leader lifted his arm to push past Saki. He had been warned that option three was not a good option.
Saki had recognised the boy when he had arrived, he and his gang had been terrorising the neighbourhood for a couple of years, always managing to evade the police. It was time they were taught a lesson.
Saki didn’t move, the leader pushed with more force and still Saki would not move. He wasn’t going to assault the Ned in front of twenty policemen, not until he had self defence as his justification.
The Ned lost his temper and threw a punch, quickly followed by a barrage from his gang. However, Saki had already moved and had delivered his own barrage of punches. His fists moved so quickly that the Neds didn’t stand a chance. One after the other, they fell as Saki waded through them, leaving the leader to last. The police were still running towards them as Saki faced the bewildered leader surrounded by his gang writhing and crying around him.
“Who the f*** are you?” the leader asked, still stunned by what he had just seen.
“Payback,” he replied before sweeping the Ned’s legs from under him. The Ned flew up in the air and crashed down onto the concrete landing on his coccyx, the crunch echoed across the car park. Saki knew exactly what he was doing, the pain would last for years and at least now the swagger would be natural.
The police arrived, only 20 seconds after the first punch, quietly congratulating Saki before carting off the Neds whom they arrested for numerous charges, including breach of the peace and attempted assault. The haul of weapons found on the gang led to a number of greater charges, including an attempted murder charge against the leader when his knife was linked to a near fatal stabbing two days earlier.
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