‘What kind of activity?’ Sean asked.
‘Better you see it for yourself; it looks like they’re setting up for something big,’ John replied.
After about twenty minutes driving through the rolling hills outside Prague, John pulled the car over onto a dirt track, which led up the side of a densely wooded hill. ‘This is as close as we can get. The other side’s crawling with guards. From the top we can get a good view.’
‘Terry,’ Clive said over the concealed radio.
‘Welcome to the 1930s,’ Terry replied.
‘What?’ Clive said.
‘You’ll see.’
Intrigued by Terry’s comment, they ran quickly up the footpath to the top of the hill and linked up with him, as he lay in a prone position, peering through a bush. The activity below drew Sean’s gaze and he quickly looked down, through the trees into the huge factory yard. The area was teeming with people, scurrying around, setting out staging and equipment. Then a lone figure began to test a PA system from the stage.
‘Test ein, zwei, drei,’ the voice sounded out.
From their vantage point they could hear the sound system clearly.
‘Why are they speaking German? Why not Czech?’ Clive asked.
‘Maybe it’s something to do with that,’ Sean said, as two huge vertical blue flags were unfurled on the stage behind the podium. In the centre of each flag a white circle with a black swastika centred in it was surrounded by a ring of gold stars.
‘Fucking hell!’ John commented on the unfurling of the combination of the EU and Nazi flags.
‘Does this remind you of anything?’ Clive said.
‘The Nuremburg rally?’ Sean replied.
‘Precisely, and that flag clearly ties this lot back to whatever’s going on in the EU.’
‘Blom,’ Sean added.
‘Yep, it would seem so.’
Two more hours passed before the daylight started to dwindle and the powerful floodlights were turned on. The surge in the activity level below signified that something was about to happen. It was impossible to count, but at least 2,000 men and women stood in block ranks facing the huge stage. They were all dressed identically in brown Nazi uniforms, bearing blue swastika armbands.
On the stroke of 8 p.m. the hoard fell silent, then, from behind a curtain on the left of the stage, a slight man appeared and walked quickly to the podium. Unlike the crowd, he was dressed in a full-length black leather coat, topped with a leather peaked military cap, curved down at the sides. Sean squinted through the binoculars to see his face, but it wasn’t Wagner.
‘Meine Damen und Herren … ,’ the speaker started, as Sean reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to video the proceedings.
‘Es ist mir eine Ehre, Ihnen Ulrich Wagner, Irren Führer vorzustellen.’ The announcement boomed out and from behind the same curtain, Wagner stepped out wearing full military uniform, complete with lines of medals. The noise that greeted him was cacophonous, as the gathered crowd cheered and clapped.
‘I don’t speak German, but did he say Führer?’ Clive asked.
‘I think so,’ Sean said, concentrating on his filming.
‘Bloody hell!’ Clive said, as the massed ranks performed the Nazi salute and shouted ‘Sieg heil,’ in unison.
Wagner’s speech lasted twenty-two minutes and used up the memory capacity on three phones. Having seen enough, Sean, Clive, Terry and John started to make their way down the hill in the opposite direction from the rally.
‘Wait,’ John said, dropping to one knee and pulling Sean and Clive down with him. ‘I heard something.’
They held their breath listening for another sound. Then it came again: a broken twig under a foot, then footsteps through the woods, as four soldiers carrying machine guns came up the hill from the direction of their car.
‘Sie sind hier,’ one of the soldiers shouted.
‘Shit! I think they’re onto us,’ Terry said. ‘We’d better get out of here.’
‘What about the car?’ Clive asked.
‘I guess they’ve found that and that’s why they’re coming this way.’
Staying low, they scurried down the hill in the opposite direction from the soldiers, getting ever closer to the rally. The noise of their movement had alerted the soldiers to their position and they followed behind, gaining ground all the time. Sean could hear their boots cracking through the branches behind them as he followed Terry’s movement in and out of the trees, so they that couldn’t get a clear shot.
When they reached the bottom of the hill, hundreds of parked cars lined the road in front of them and there were at least twenty more armed guards lurking around the gates to the factory. When he looked up the line of cars, Sean noticed that the vast majority had German plates, even though they were in the Czech Republic.
Indicating to the others to stay still, John quickly crawled out from the edge of the forest and hid behind an old Audi. When he was happy that he’d not been seen, he beckoned for them to follow.
Only a matter of seconds after Sean had crouched down behind the car, the four soldiers that had been following them emerged from the woods, holding their weapons at the ready. They had come out onto the path, roughly 100 metres away from where they were hiding, and were scouring the area, looking for the intruders.
‘What now?’ Sean whispered to Terry.
‘Wait here,’ the reply came.
Terry rolled onto his side and slid along the car, using the shadow cast by the floodlights to hide from the soldiers. He quickly fiddled with the lock and after only a few seconds, he was inside the vehicle, beckoning the others to get in.
Following the same manoeuvre, using the shadow of the car to hide from the soldiers, one by one they climbed into the old Audi. Once inside, Sean was told to stay down in the footwell in the back of the car, but before he could get in position, he saw people moving out of the gates towards their cars. First it was just a trickle of people, then more, until they filled the road. When the first of them reached their cars, they started to change out of their Nazi uniforms.
‘They’re going back to Germany. The swastika’s illegal there,’ Clive said.
After ripping off the plastic cover under the steering wheel, Terry played with some wires that he’d pulled down. Then suddenly there was a small spark and the engine started. The noise made the soldiers turn in their direction and point their weapons, but it was too busy: they couldn’t shoot into the crowd that was filling the area quickly. Taking the opportunity, Terry pulled out into the throng of people and beeped his horn, moving through them as they parted in front of the car. Shouting and pushing people out of the way, the soldiers tried to get to them.
When they were clear enough, Terry accelerated hard, forcing the last few people to dive out of the way. Lifting his head, Sean looked out of the rear window as the soldiers stopped giving chase, and instead commandeered a new looking BMW 5 series from a man dressed in a full brown uniform.
Out on open road, the old Audi’s engine screamed as Terry took the car to its limits, but through the trees, Sean could see the lights of the BMW making up ground quickly. The Audi was just too old.
‘They’re gaining on us,’ he said.
‘We can’t outrun them in this heap of shit,’ Terry said, swerving the car round a tight bend.
Stabilising himself with the door handle, Sean quickly looked behind again. He could still see the lights; they were less than a kilometre behind.
‘Get ready to jump out,’ Terry said suddenly.
‘What?’ Sean started, but stopped when Terry slammed the brakes on and skidded to a halt in a dirt lane, just around a sharp corner.
‘Out!’ Terry shouted.
Without thinking, Clive, John and Sean jumped out of the car and ran into the edge of the dense woodland by the road.
When they stopped, Sean saw that Terry had turned off the lights on the Audi and had spun the vehicle around to face the road. The lights of the BMW were approaching quic
kly through the trees, the engine straining as its tyres screeched around the tight corners at high speed.
Just as the BMW approached their position, the engine revved hard and the tyres spun on the Audi. It shot forward in the direction of the BMW, blocking the road, but still moving forward, as Terry rolled out of the driver’s door and into a ditch.
When the BMW came hurtling at full-pelt around the corner, the driver had no time to react as he saw the Audi coming in his direction with its lights turned off. The crunching collision smashed the Audi clean off the road, with the BMW jammed onto the front of it, in a tangled mess of glass and twisted metal. Two of the soldiers were hurtled forward through the windscreen and onto the road, before a burst of flames spread throughout the two wrecked cars.
Springing to his feet, Terry quickly ran forward and collected the machine guns from the dead soldiers in the road, then joined the others.
‘Fuck me, Terry! This isn’t actually the war you know,’ Clive said, surveying the carnage on the road in front of them.
In response, Terry just smiled and passed John a machine gun. ‘Captain Hook here can’t handle one anymore,’ he said winking. ‘Now let’s get the hell out of here before One Ball back there misses his friends.’
It took them over two hours to reach the outer suburbs of Prague on foot, staying away from the roads. When they arrived, they dumped the guns in a river and found a taxi to take them to the airport.
None of them had spoken about what they’d seen; their time taken by moving quietly through dense woodland to avoid discovery.
‘What the hell did we just see?’ Sean said.
‘I don’t know, but it’s terrifying to think that kind of thing goes on today,’ Clive said.
‘We need to get Anna to translate exactly what he was saying,’ Sean added.
‘I think we should head back to London to regroup anyway. It’s moving too quickly and we’re not keeping up,’ Clive suggested, to unanimous agreement.
Author's Note
Nazi symbols and uniforms are illegal in Germany, but are openly displayed in many other countries, particularly in the former communist eastern states.
Because of this, German Nazis often hold meetings in bordering EU countries, where they can wear their uniforms without fear of arrest.
The Schengen Agreement, which removed physical borders between most EU countries, ensures that they are not at risk of being caught when returning to Germany.
Chapter Fourteen
Thursday, 1st September. London, England.
When Sean arrived home late at night, Anna greeted him like a long-lost friend, hugging him tightly; a little too tightly. As he pulled away, Liz backed off into the bedroom and slammed the door. Shit! He quickly made his apologies to Anna, who just shrugged and blew him a kiss, then went into the bedroom to join Liz.
‘I don’t know why she did that,’ he said, climbing onto the bed and putting his arm on Liz’s side.
Liz turned away from him and pretended to be asleep. A few minutes later, when he climbed into bed, he thought he could hear the sniffle of tears and tried again to console her. But she just pushed his hand away roughly.
‘I’m sorry, Liz, but there’s nothing between us,’ he said to her back, before giving up and falling asleep himself.
In the morning they both took Praew to school and managed to put on a happy act until she walked through the school gates. She beamed a beautiful smile, so proud of her achievements so far.
As soon as she disappeared into the playground, Liz turned to Sean, her smile gone. ‘You slept with her, didn’t you,’ she said.
‘No, I didn’t,’ Sean responded, looking straight at her.
‘I can tell… the way she looks at you.’
‘I think she has a crush on me, but it’s not reciprocated… honestly,’ Sean pleaded.
‘Promise me that you haven’t even kissed her.’
‘I promise. I wouldn’t cheat on you,’ Sean said honestly. Even though Anna had tried to tempt him, the one thing that stopped him was the thought of cheating on Liz. She’d been so good to him and he loved her so much. He just wished he could make her understand, but he couldn’t find the right words.
‘I want her out of the flat,’ Liz said, rubbing her tongue against her teeth.
‘We agreed one week. She’s scared. Somebody tried to kill her.’
‘Which is another reason I don’t want her there. What about Praew? What if they come after her? What about the Home Office? We can’t be considered good carers if we put her life at risk. I want her out tomorrow, or you go with her.’
Liz’s ultimatum took Sean by surprise. He’d known that the discussion about Praew or him was coming and he’d been dreading the moment, but this wasn’t how he’d expected it to come about.
‘Is this about Praew and the things your lawyer said?’ he asked in a more reconciliatory tone.
Tears started streaming down Liz’s face as she turned to face him again. ‘I don’t know what to do. It’s awful. I thought if I got angry with you it’d be easier for you to leave me,’ she said.
‘Liz, I love you, and seeing you like this is killing me. Praew’s as much my responsibility as she is yours. We have to face it together and find a solution that we can both live with,’ Sean said, pulling her into his shoulder.
‘I know. I’m an idiot. Sorry. I just don’t know what to do.’
Seeing Liz in this state churned Sean’s stomach. She was the most together person that he knew and she’d been reduced to a blubbering wreck by this ludicrous situation. ‘Promise me that you’ll just be open about everything in the future. Then we can decide together,’ he said, stroking her hair.
Nodding her agreement, Liz continued to cry. ‘It’s just not fair,’ she said.
‘I know, but we’ll find a way through.’
After a few minutes Liz pulled herself together and stopped crying, lifting her head from Sean’s shoulder. ‘I still don’t like her,’ she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
‘Okay, tomorrow,’ Sean agreed.
‘Good. You know she hinted that you’d been intimate with her to me before you came home, and then I saw you hugging her like that, what was I supposed to think?’
Sean was taken aback briefly. Why would Anna hint to Liz that they’d been intimate? Besides some brief flirting, nothing had happened. ‘Liz, I swear nothing happened between us. I’d never do anything to hurt you.’
‘Then why would she say it had?’
‘I really don’t know. I think she’s recently divorced and lonely.’
‘Well, she’s not having you,’ Liz said, reaching out and pulling Sean into her again.
Clinging onto her waist, Sean looked into Liz’s dark eyes. ‘I love you,’ he whispered.
*
Back at the flat, Sean made a point of sitting as far away from Anna as possible and of making open gestures of affection towards Liz, who returned the same. By the time Clive and Terry arrived, the tension between Liz and Anna was palpable and Sean hastily gathered the group around the dining table to watch the video clips of the rally from the previous evening.
Watching the proceeding again made what they’d seen the previous night seem somehow more real. But Sean still found it hard to believe that this kind of thing still went on in Europe. All but Anna were overtly disturbed by the Nazi show of strength.
‘What was he saying?’ Clive turned to Anna.
‘Just the usual Nazi rhetoric: blaming the Jews, the Romas and the Muslims for the problems in Europe, and saying that the time is coming; that they’ll soon be in power; and they’ll be able to right the Jew-led wrongs of the last 100 years.’
‘Aren’t there laws against that? Isn’t it inciting racial hatred?’ Sean asked.
Anna shook her head. ‘In Germany, yes, but in the Czech Republic, no. That’s why they have the rallies there. Most of the people attending were probably German though.’
‘Yes, there were a lot of German plates
and the people were getting changed before driving back,’ Sean said.
‘So Wagner can do this and just get away with it? What about all the armed militia there?’ Clive asked.
‘As long as they’re used for private security, it’s allowed.’
‘What if we released the video on YouTube?’ Sean asked.
‘You could, but it’d just be one of many. Wagner doesn’t hide from his Nazi ideology; he actively promotes it,’ Anna responded.
‘It’s true. There’s stuff all over the Internet on him, including videos at rallies like this one,’ Liz added, not looking at Anna.
‘What about that flag? The combination of the EU and Nazi symbols,’ Clive asked.
‘It’s nothing new and people will just write them off as cranks,’ Anna countered.
‘So we’re no closer to finding out who killed Phil and Allsop, and who tried to kill Anna and us. And we don’t have a thing we can write about.’ Sean exhaled loudly.
‘I wouldn’t say that. You’ve got pictures of Blom getting into Wagner’s car in a quiet car park at night in Brussels, carrying an envelope, then leaving later without it. That should be enough to stop Blom,’ Anna said.
‘Yes, but as far as a story goes, and without more detail, it’s a bit circumspect,’ Sean said. ‘It’s more like a paparazzi job.’
‘Really? It’d be big news in Sweden and the mainstay EU countries. People in Britain may not be so interested, but they’re not the target market,’ Anna said.
Momentarily, Sean crossed eyes with her. She was staring straight at him and he immediately wished he hadn’t, as she took the opportunity to raise her eyebrows provocatively. Acting instinctively, he looked away and stroked Liz’s hand, but he knew that the brief interchange hadn’t gone unnoticed. ‘It’ll probably pay well, but I don’t feel good about destroying somebody’s life. Not without doing more checking,’ Sean said.
‘He’s definitely involved. He has to be, and he did meet with Wagner. That couldn’t be innocent,’ Anna said.
sThe Quiet Wart Page 8
