Hard Knocks tcfs-3

by Zoe Sharp

  Gilby checked behind him twice, coming to a standstill and revolving slowly, listening as well as watching for any sign of movement, of something out of place. I kept motionless and tried to think like a tree.

  Eventually, seeming satisfied, he covered the last few metres to the indoor range, took a key out of his pocket, and let himself in. I watched the door swing shut and in the stillness of the night I heard the lock click behind him.

  I felt my shoulders drop a little. I had my Swiss Army knife in my pocket, as always, but I couldn’t pick a lock to save my life. Even if I had ventured after him, I would have needed to be right on his heels to stand any chance of getting in. Not a move that was likely to pass unnoticed.

  I realised too, that if I made my way back to the Manor now, Gilby was likely to spot my footprints across the grass when he came back. I checked my watch. It was edging towards ten. I thought regretfully of my lost beauty sleep and decided to wait him out.

  The Major was only inside the range for a quarter of an hour, which was more than enough time for me to have lost most of the sensation in my toes. I watched the lights in the Manor start to blink out as people called it a night.

  When he reappeared, locking the door behind him, Gilby walked quickly straight back along the path, not bothering to check who might be following. He reached one of the sets of French windows on the ground floor and let himself in.

  I wondered briefly if they went round locking all the exterior doors at night. In which case I was going to have fun getting back in myself. Perhaps it would be a good idea not to find out. I started forwards, but a movement over to my left stopped me in my tracks.

  I wasn’t the only watcher in the woods, it seemed.

  Another figure emerged into the moonlight about thirty metres away and made for the range doorway that the Major had just come out of. I was suddenly thankful that I hadn’t been whistling to myself to pass the time.

  Apart from the fact that the figure was clearly a man, I was too far away to recognise who it might be. He was bulked up in heavy clothing, a wool hat pulled down low around his face. Now why didn’t I think of that? My own ears were pulsing with the cold.

  Whoever he was, the man also had a key to the range. Did that mean he was one of the instructors, or a light-fingered pupil?

  This time, though, as the man entered, the range door didn’t fully close behind him. I hesitated for a moment, briefly remembered my other promise to Sean, that I wouldn’t confront anyone else, then hurried across the frigid grass before my nerve failed me. It was a stupid manoeuvre, I knew, but too good an opportunity to miss.

  I couldn’t remember for the life of me if the door squeaked. I pushed it open very carefully with my fingertips, like that was going to make a difference. It swung silently aside and I slipped through the gap, making sure it didn’t latch behind me.

  There were no windows in the indoor range. There wasn’t any need for them and the lack of glass enabled the interior to be almost completely soundproofed.

  I discovered when I got inside that the lights in the cramped vestibule had been switched on, too. After the clean silver blue of the moon outside, the ceiling tubes threw out a dull harsh glare the colour of stagnant pond water onto the blockwork walls.

  The range area itself, off to my right, was still in darkness. I bypassed that and crept through to the room next to the armoury, where we’d been shown how to strip and clean the SIGs. It was very dark in there. I had to pause long enough just inside the doorway for my eyes to adapt.

  I moved cautiously across the floor, trying to recall the exact layout of the room. There was a large table in the centre, its dirty plywood top ingrained with burnt powder and gun oil. Even though it was so dark, I crouched below the level and crabbed my way across the room. Where was he?

  Beyond me was the armoury section. Normally this area was blocked off by a steel door, held shut with a selection of locks and padlocks that would have had Harry Houdini muttering nervously about not realising that was the time.

  But not any more.

  The locks were disengaged and the padlocks hung open to one side. I slunk through the open doorway, trying to blend into the paintwork on the jamb. Across in the corner was the weapons’ store, a secure caged area. The lights in the cage were on, bleeding out across the floor, but because the sides were stacked high with gun cases, it was difficult to tell if my mystery man was inside.

  With a dry mouth and damp palms I edged forwards until I was right up against the bars. I peered in through a tiny slot between two cases. Something moved across the other side of the gap, close enough to make me jump and recoil. With a silent curse I glued my eye back to the gap.

  I could just make out part of a work bench against the far wall. It had a vice bolted down to the corner with wall-mounted plastic boxes for nuts and screws above it. On the bench itself was a small wooden crate.

  As I watched, the man moved in front of the bench and began levering the lid off the crate. It was cold enough in there for him to still be wearing his hat, his breath clouding against the light. Because of the position of the bench, his back was towards me. I still couldn’t make out the details of his face.

  When the lid of the crate was off he dumped it to one side and disappeared from view. I tensed, in case he was about to walk out of the cage. The walls of the armoury were bare. There was nothing big enough to hide a rat under. Damn, why did I have to go and think about rats?

  Even if I did find a place of concealment, what the hell did I do if he walked out of the range and locked the door behind him? It wasn’t the kind of place where there was likely to be a convenient fire exit.

  Fortunately, the next moment I heard him dragging something across the floor inside the cage. I couldn’t see what it was, but if his grunt of effort was anything to go by, it was heavy.

  When the man reappeared in my field of vision he was carrying three packages, wrapped in oiled cloth. He carefully placed two straight into the crate, hesitated for a moment, then started to unwrap the other. I had a frustrating few seconds unable to see much more than his back and arms as he worked, then he shifted his position slightly, and it all became chillingly clear.

  The contents of the package was a compact submachine gun. The man slid out the wire stock and tried the weapon for size into his shoulder, ducking his head to squint through the open sights.

  Beyond firing a few during my time in the army, I was no particular expert on submachine guns, but I had no difficulty in recognising the Lucznik PM-98 the man was holding. I’d had one in my own hands only two days ago, when I’d picked up the Peugeot driver’s fallen weapon.

  I’d no difficulty recognising the man who held it now either. As he turned I caught my first proper full view of his face.

  Rebanks.

  Question was, what the hell was Gilby’s weapons’ handler doing with a case-load of machine pistols?

  I didn’t have the chance to expand much on this train of thought. Behind me there was a clatter from the other room, followed by a deafening clamour as somebody punched the fire alarm.

  I flinched back. The alarm bell seemed to be ringing right next to my head, incredibly loud, but it didn’t quite mask the faint slam of the outer door. I didn’t think I’d been followed in, but whoever had done so obviously wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get out again unobserved or unhindered.

  Shit! I jerked to my feet and began to make a dash for the doorway into the darkened room next door. I didn’t stop there, but went full-pelt for the exit, hoping shock had gained me enough of a head start.

  I almost made it.

  I was only half a dozen strides from the outer doorway when I felt Rebanks make a grab for the back of my jacket. His fingers closed down hard, and I was caught. In the darkness my capture took on nightmare proportions. I fought down the spike of panic and tried to rely on cool, logical thought.

  He hadn’t seen my face near the cage, didn’t know it was me. It was dark enough in the outer roo
m so if I could escape now, I could get away with this. I hadn’t zipped my jacket up and, all too briefly, I considered jettisoning it. Pointless to leave it behind. It would lead them straight to me.

  Instead, I braked suddenly and dodged sideways. Rebanks had been at full stretch reaching for me. The additional movement unbalanced him. He stumbled, went down onto his knees, but he didn’t let go.

  Using his hold on my jacket to steady me, I locked down hard on his wrist, pivoted on my right leg and kicked him, twice, with my left foot where I guessed his body would be. The first blow landed square in his diaphragm, in the fleshy vee just beneath his ribcage. I heard the explosive whoosh as his lungs were blasted empty. He floundered for air, his grip slackening.

  Even though I couldn’t see any more than a dim outline, I instinctively understood the size and the shape of him. I could map the vulnerable areas of his body. Before he’d recovered enough to shout, my second kick connected to his throat, straight across his windpipe.

  His hands fell away. He dropped backwards and rolled slowly onto his side, making quiet little gasping and gulping sounds that were hideous in their softness.

  I didn’t stop to check how badly I’d hurt him. It was enough to know that I had. At that moment, I really didn’t care.

  I ran.

  I ran out of the building, heedless of who might be waiting in ambush outside, and hared along the concrete path back towards the house. It was the most exposed route, but it was the quickest, too. I’d hoped that the alarm in the range might have been linked to the Manor’s entire system, to add confusion, but there my luck failed me. The only sounds came from behind me.

  I reached the house and flattened against the wall, burying myself into the ivy that clung to the stonework. The alarm was clearly audible across the grounds from there. It must have been wired in to some sort of central control system in any case, because lights had suddenly come on in the centre section of the house. The instructors’ quarters.

  I had to suppress a gasp of shock when a door was thrown open less than four metres from me. Two dark figures rushed out. They pounded back along the path in the direction of the building. The kind of power that sprinters have, born of muscle.

  I waited, silent except for the thunder of my heart, until they’d almost disappeared from view. Then I slipped out of my hiding place and back into the house.

  I resisted the urge to run back to my room. On that floor it would have sounded like a stampede. Mind you, with the amount of noise going on in there anyway, nobody might have noticed.

  I darted up the main staircase, hearing shouting and running feet above and below me. Then I tiptoed along the edges of the corridor until I reached the women’s dormitory. I opened the door as little as I could get away with, and slid through the gap into the room. I closed it quickly and stilled in the darkness that met me. Nothing.

  I crossed to the bathroom, closed the door and stripped down to my T-shirt and knickers. Then I flushed the loo, just in case, washed my hands, and padded back across to my bed, bundling my clothes into my locker as I did so.

  As I lay awake, listening to the far-off noises of panic and disorder, a terrible coldness swept over me. I began to shiver violently, like I was in the grip of a fever. The bedclothes suddenly felt chilled and damp against my skin.

  I told myself, over and over, that I’d only done what I had to. That I’d acted in self defence. I hadn’t hit Rebanks hard enough to do him any real harm. Hadn’t hit him hard enough to kill him . . .

  But I knew I had.

  I went over it again and again in slow-motion replay. The first blow to his solar plexus, I recognised with a sickly taste in the back of my mouth, had winded him, effectively silenced him. It could have been enough to allow me to escape. I should have made it enough. Should have taken that chance.

  The second blow was the killer in every sense of the word. Running down either side of the trachea are the vagus nerves. They control just about everything of importance in the body, from the heart and lungs to the abdominal organs. Hit the vagus nerves hard enough and your victim ceases to breathe, his heartbeat stutters, his nervous system crashes.

  And then he dies.

  I remembered again the dreadful noises Rebanks had made as he’d fallen. I shut my eyes, but it only made the images in my head more vivid.

  I hadn’t hesitated. Not for a second. I was in danger and I’d reacted with potentially deadly force. Perhaps if the army had known what was inside me, what I would eventually turn into, they might not have been so keen to let me go.

  It seemed like I lay there for hours, wrestling with my conscience. According to the red digital figures of my alarm clock, it was actually seven minutes before the door was rammed open and the lights flashed on.

  Elsa sat up almost as a reflex action, with a startled cry. I raised myself up on my elbow and engineered a groggy, just-woken-from-sleep expression onto my face. Jan barely stirred under the blankets.

  Gilby stood in the doorway glaring at the three of us, with O’Neill by his shoulder. They both had faces that should have come with a severe weather warning.

  “All right, let’s have everyone out of their beds and downstairs immediately!” Gilby rapped out.

  With reluctance I didn’t have to feign, I pushed back the covers and swung my legs out of bed, trying to ignore the way O’Neill’s eyes flicked over them.

  “Major, what is the meaning of this, please?” Elsa demanded, her German accent becoming more pronounced as it tended to do, I’d noticed, when she was angry or upset. She groped for her glasses from the bedside table and peered at the clock.

  “We’ve had an incident, Frau Schmitt,” he said shortly. “One of my staff has been seriously assaulted.”

  Elsa gaped at him. “And you think one of us was responsible?” The incredulity was clear in her voice. “When did this ‘incident’ take place?”

  The Major checked his watch automatically. “About fifteen minutes ago,” he said, but his anger was beginning to dissipate into discomfort. Elsa, I considered, must have been a formidable police officer. Jan had come round by this time and was eyeing the intruders with some malevolence.

  “Then you are wasting your time looking here,” Elsa dismissed contemptuously. “We have all been asleep in our beds, as you can plainly see.”

  “All of you?” the Major said sharply. “None of you has been outside?”

  Elsa glanced briefly in my direction, sending my pulse rate skittering. “Both Jan and Charlie have been to the bathroom,” she said solemnly, “but I hardly feel that counts against them.”

  “Nevertheless,” Gilby said, his face hardening as he recognised her ironic tone, “I must insist that all of you are searched downstairs.”

  That suggestion brought a brief, but to-the-point expletive from Jan. Elsa regarded the Major coldly. “I do not think so, Major,” she said. “And if you insist in this matter I will have no alternative but to press charges for sexual harassment against you and your men. I am sure Charlie and Jan will agree with this.”

  We both nodded. It’s difficult to retain any degree of authority when you’re facing someone who’s fully clothed and standing, and you’re lying down in a flannelette nightie, but Elsa managed it with style. And besides, she knew her law. It would have taken a better man than Gilby to have defied her.

  In the end he gave a frustrated short nod, his neck rigid, and retreated. His control was such that he didn’t even slam the door behind him. For a few moments after they’d gone there was silence.

  “What the fuck was that all about?” Jan demanded.

  Elsa shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure.”

  There was something in her voice that made me glance towards her. I found her watching me thoughtfully. “If you are going to expect us to cover for you in future, Charlie,” she said calmly, “it would be a courtesy if you would explain to us what it is that you are up to.”

  Eighteen

  I fobbed Elsa and Jan off. Of course
I did. Jan in particular scowled as I made excuses about having been outside talking to Sean on the mobile and come rushing back in when I heard the alarm go off. I told them I hadn’t wanted to get into trouble, to get involved.

  If only they knew the kind of trouble I might be in.

  As it was, my lame piece of invention was rewarded by looks of disbelief and even of reproach from both women. Jan would keep asking insistent questions about where exactly I’d been, and what exactly I’d been doing, as if she was deliberately trying to increase Elsa’s suspicion of me. I did my best to ignore them. After all, I had other more pressing things on my mind.

  Eventually we turned out the lights again. I lay awake in the darkness and listened to their breathing soften and slow, but my own sleep didn’t come easy.

  The panic was a trapped beast inside me, thrashing to get out. Keeping it caged took all my concentration as I forced myself to face up to the possibility that I might have killed a man.

  And it wasn’t the first time.

  The first time I’d been under intense pressure, intense threat. It wasn’t so difficult to convince anyone that I’d acted in self defence on the most primitive level. Kill or be killed. I wasn’t quite so optimistic of getting away with the same plea twice. Not in these circumstances.

  The guilt and the sheer weight of what I’d done settled slowly onto me. I could feel it crushing down, layer upon layer. Weight without measure, like rock. I buckled under the force of it.

  The thoughts swam round and round as the digital figures on my alarm clock marched inexorably on, out of one day and into the next. It was only then that I finally surrendered into fitful slumber.

  Hardly surprising then, that I was wasted during the morning run. Mind you, so was everybody else. The ones that hadn’t decided to quit, at any rate. Another two people had taken the night’s events as the last straw. I gathered from a disgruntled Romundstad that Gilby had given them all the third degree in the wee small hours, despite protests somewhat more vehement than Elsa had put forward.