One Last Time

by James Hampson

  ‘What's this place, Southfork?’ James asked rhetorically.

  James and Delinda got out of the cab and grabbed their bags. James paid the driver forty dollars and told him to keep the change, the driver was very grateful as it was only a twenty-five-dollar journey. James and Delinda walked through the gates and up the drive towards the big house, manicured lawns flanked each side of the drive and the plot was surrounded by hedgerows, total privacy from the outside world. There was a silver Mercedes convertible on the drive along with a white Chevrolet Suburban, James made a mental note to buy a Suburban at some point, it was a car that he liked and could see himself in.

  Delinda knocked on the front door, as she did not have keys. The door was bigger than a normal size door and James said to himself A door that a sofa can fit through, all houses should have these.

  The door was answered by a woman who was clearly Delinda’s mother, she stepped out of the house and said.

  ‘My baby, we were not expecting you so soon, what a surprise.’

  She hugged her daughter.

  ‘Hi Mom, this is’ but before she could finish her mum cut in.

  ‘James, so nice to meet you I am Pam, please come in’ she said before kissing both his cheeks.

  ‘How do you do, thank you’ he replied.

  They stepped in and James looked around the hall and was in awe at the sheer size of the place.

  I am in the wrong job he said to himself.

  ‘Leave your bags here, your father is out back by the pool working, he will be so happy to see you’ Pam said.

  James had his new suit on that he had bought in Seville so he took his jacket off before stepping outside back in to the searing sun.

  James had expected Delinda's father to be a J.R Ewing type character and this was reinforced by the house, but sat at the outside table was a man who was about twenty years older than James Shaw, he looked in shape but his hair was greying slightly, he was dressed in a golf shirt and trousers, he looked up from his MacBook then stood out from his chair and walked over to Delinda and gave her a hug and said.

  ’Welcome home baby girl and this here must be James Shaw’ he held his hand out.

  James shook his hand and said.

  ‘How do you do?’

  ‘Very well, Jerry Saint Germain, please take a seat, I want to hear all about your trip.’

  Jerry walked over to an outside fridge and pulled out four cans of soda and handed one each to Pam, Delinda and James before they took a seat.

  Eleven must be too early for a beer here James said to himself.

  They sat and chatted for a few hours, Delinda about her trip and Jerry had been getting to know James and was asking him about the upcoming season for Liverpool Football Club, they were getting along well and Jerry was particularly impressed with James’s position in the military, a bottle of champagne was brought out to celebrate Delinda getting an Interview with Goldstein Sullivan.

  ‘These things are just a formality, to get to know you and see what type of lawyer you will be’ Jerry told his daughter.

  ‘Well I will find out next week Dad.’

  ‘You will be fine’ James said.

  ‘See this guy knows what he is talking about’ Jerry said.

  They sat and chatted for the afternoon and well in to the evening.

  Jerry fired up the barbeque and had James help him with the cooking. Any nerves that Shaw had about meeting Delinda’s parents had disappeared five minutes after meeting them.

  As James and Delinda retired for the evening she said to him.

  ‘My parents love you; this has been a perfect day.’

  ‘I love them too, they are very nice people, now I know where you get it from and I love you.’

  ‘I love you too James.’

  Delinda showed James around the sights of Nashville such as the Country music hall of fame and museum. James got to drive Jerry's Suburban to a mall and he bought himself some new clothes and he and Delinda spent the day walking around hand in hand. Delinda went in to a store and James waited outside for her, in his peripheral vision he spotted one of Ramos’s Argentine soldiers, he chased after him and grabbed the soldier's shoulder to turn him around, it was not one of Ramo’s men. James let out a sigh of relief and headed back to the store where Delinda was outside of looking for him.

  ‘Where did you go?’

  ‘I thought I seen somebody I recognised, my mistake, where to now?’

  ‘Are you hungry?’

  ‘Yes, I am actually. Is there a Chilli’s here? I had one a few years ago in the Middle East.’

  ‘Not in this mall but there is one a short drive away’ Delinda said.

  ‘I will drive if you direct me, I love your Dad’s car.’

  ‘I will use the GPS on my phone.’

  They left the mall happy with their purchases and got into the Suburban and James drove to the Chilli’s restaurant.

  There was no doubt in both of their minds that they were deeply in love with each other. They spent that night in a lakeside cabin at Radnor Lake. That was when they realised that leaving each other was going to be difficult when James had to fly back to the UK in a few days.

  FORTY-SEVEN

  Lying unconscious in her own blood was the long-suffering wife of Javier Ramos. Upon returning home from court, Javier Ramos had accused his long-suffering wife of betraying him to the police, in a fit of rage he punched her square in the mouth, knocking two of her teeth out, before she could react, he struck again, this time breaking her nose causing blood to spray across the sitting room, she dropped to the floor in a heap. Ramos just walked away and left her where she lay unconscious.

  HMS Dauntless was cutting through the waves of the South Atlantic at thirty knots, following her new orders to pick up all persons on the oil platforms and take them to Port Stanley for processing. If fired upon the crew were ordered to return fire. As the destroyer approached the first platform, a message was shouted from the P.A system which said. Prepare to be boarded and do not attempt to fire, or we will fire upon you.

  A squad of eight Royal Marine Commandos were lowered into the ocean on a dingy and they sped towards one of the platforms, they could make out about fifty people coming out of the various cabins that had been lifted on to the platform, shots were fired towards the dingy, the Commandos did not return fire, but HMS Dauntless fired a shell from its main gun two meters to the left of the platform, which was enough of a warning for the Argentines to surrender.

  Another two squads of Royal Marines followed the first crew out to speed up the process of getting the Argentines aboard HMS Dauntless, as they had other platforms to pick up from. Two hours later and with no resistance, all of the oil platforms had been cleared of Argentine Forces and HMS Dauntless set a course for Port Stanley with its new prisoners aboard.

  Flying at seven-hundred miles per hour and five-hundred feet above sea level were two RAF Typhoons out of Mount Pleasant airfield. Eight minutes after departure they arrived at their target and fired guided Paveway bombs at each of the platforms before performing a vertical loop and returning back to Mount Pleasant.

  The Prime Minister had been informed of the situation, he was a relieved man as a major crisis had been averted, he was not at all happy with the under-hand tactics of the Argentines, but he would not take any more action against them, a warning had been sent to Argentina that Britain will always be ready and the PM hoped that they would take notice of that.

  Having spent a great few days in Nashville with Delinda and her parents, James Shaw was sat in the departure lounge at New York's JFK airport waiting to board his flight to Manchester. Delinda had flown back to Nashville after her interview which she had passed, she had been asked to start in two weeks, James had promised her that he would come over to visit in a few weeks, once he had completed the handover at RAF Waddington.

  James Shaw and Delinda Saint Germain had really fallen for each other as they spent so much time together in Nashville. It was difficult sayin
g goodbye to each other that morning but they knew they would see each other soon, working out a long-distance relationship would come later.

  Shaw scrolled through his phone as he waited and he went on to BBC news to check the headlines.

  Head of Espoil arrested in a case of mistaken Identity.

  James clicked on the headline and read through the article which said that Javier Ramos had mistakenly been arrested just over a week ago but had been released without charge after the police admitted they had arrested the wrong man.

  Why do we bother he said to himself, angry that Ramos had been allowed to get away with murder again, two weeks ago he had never heard of his name, now he could not stand to hear it and would be glad if he never did hear it again. On a positive note, he read that RAF Typhoons had destroyed illegally built oil platforms in the South Atlantic.

  It wasn’t all for nothing then he said to himself.

  His flight was now boarding, he stayed seated as everybody else jumped to their feet, eager to board the aircraft, he was in no rush to leave the USA, he was missing Delinda already.

  FORTY-EIGHT

  Six weeks later, Group Captain James Shaw was sat at his desk in the station commander's office at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, he had often sat in these offices before but not as the man behind the desk. It had been two weeks since he was officially unveiled as the station commander for RAF Waddington, after completing the handover process.

  James put his cap on his head, as he had to deal with a charge for a young SAC (Senior Aircraftsman) who was being charged with assaulting his corporal.

  Why is this shit coming to me? he said as there was a knock on his door.

  ‘Come in’ James said.

  And in marched the young SAC who saluted James, who saluted him back, he was followed in by the corporal that he had assaulted, he was also the one bringing the charges. Shaw smiled inside as he saw the blackeye and cut lip on the corporal. As Shaw read out the charges, his computer pinged with the sound of an incoming email. The SAC accepted the charges and punishment and was polite and respectful throughout the hearing. Shaw sent the corporal on his way and invited the SAC to sit down in the visitor's chair, James too sat down, he noted the notification on his screen to inform him of a new e-mail.

  ‘Look son, people like him go about their day winding people up, thinking that they are the big man, striking fear in to the juniors like yourself, well not anymore because you taught him a lesson. If you do it again make sure nobody sees you do it, that is how you ended up here because of witnesses, do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, Sir’ he replied.

  ‘Good, now off with you, get back to work and don’t worry about this, the paperwork won't be getting filed’ James said as he ripped the charge sheets in two and threw them in to the bin. The SAC stood up, saluted and left the room.

  Group Captain Shaw opened his computer after it had locked itself out, the e-mail was from Lawrence Sharif using the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) encryption system. James unlocked the attachment with a password the two of them had agreed on a number of years ago.

  The attachment was a video, as it downloaded James got up and walked over to the side unit and poured himself a cup of coffee from the percolator. When he sat back down the video had downloaded, he clicked play and a four-way split screen appeared of a car park and some slip roads, it was closed circuit television footage.

  ‘What's this he has sent me?’ he said out loud as he watched and nothing happened, after a minute and a half, Will Ramsey's Volvo come onto the screen after leaving the motorway. A few minutes passed, then on the small screen bottom left he watched as Will got boxed in and tried to Ram his way through, he could see the shots being fired by the muzzle flashes on the screen, he felt sick at what he was watching and closed the video down, he could not watch anymore. Shaw picked his mobile up and dialled Lawrence Sharif's number and he picked up after about twenty seconds, he answered James’s question before he even asked it.

  ‘I am at Stansted already, see you in a few hours.’

  ‘OK, I will fly down from here, see you soon’ James replied.

  Group Captain Shaw asked his driver to take him to the operations room of 51 squadron who operated the Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft. As he walked in to the operations room everybody stood to attention, Shaw waved at them to remain seated, he had been uncomfortable with this ceremony ever since he had become a Squadron Leader but he accepted it was part of the way things are in the military. Shaw found the officer commanding the squadron, James followed him in to his office which was away from the main room.

  ‘How fast can you have an aircraft ready to fly to Seville?’

  ‘Thirty minutes Sir, can I ask what for?’ the Wing Commander asked in return.

  ‘Good, make it happen, navigation checks, test flight, put down whatever you wish.’

  ‘Understood Sir, I will speak to my staff and arrange fuel and flight plans, I will fly myself I need the hours, with the young Flight Lieutenant you seen on the way in, go and get ready sir and meet you back here in half an hour.’

  ‘Thanks Steve’ Shaw said.

  He left the operations room and was driven back to his office on the other side of the station. Shaw got changed out of his blue uniform and into the green flying suit in his office, one of the perks of being station commander was having your own flying suit, even though he was not a pilot. He asked his driver to take him to his house so that he could pack a bag. In the station commanders house, James Shaw packed a pair of jeans and a polo shirt that was already ironed, he had a new pair of Clarks desert boots already on his feet after getting changed in to his flying suit, he went in to his bedside drawer and pulled out something heavy and metal which he put on top of his clothes. It was two Glock 17 pistols, one for him and one for Lawrence Sharif, all packed and ready he got back in to the car and was taken back to 51 Squadron, where he met Wing Commander Steve Jones and Flight Lieutenant Dave Smythe.

  They walked across the aircraft servicing platform to the Rivet Joint aircraft which still had the fuel tanker underneath it, the operator was winding up the hose after fuelling the aircraft. The three men boarded the aircraft and took their seats. James Shaw sat in the engineer's seat behind the two pilots. Ten minutes later they were airborne and on a southerly heading towards Andalucia.

  After landing at Seville airport, the Rivet Joint taxied over to the cargo side of the aerodrome and came to a stop. The Spanish Air Force had been informed of the flight and they were happy to allow the aircraft to land at Seville. Group Captain Shaw climbed down the small ladder first, followed by the pilots.

  ‘Thanks Steve, Dave, do you mind waiting here for a few hours, I will give you a call when I am on my way back’ James said.

  ‘No problem Sir, we will go and get something to eat, we have got jackets to cover our insignia’ Wing Commander Jones replied.

  ‘Very well, thanks again, see you soon.’

  The afternoon sun hit James as soon as he stepped out of the shadow of the aircraft, he walked over to the entrance to the cargo area and could see that Lawrence Sharif was stood waiting next to a white Ford Transit, that was obviously hired because it was clean and not covered in grime and dirt like most vans.

  ‘When did you get here?’ James asked.

  ‘About an hour ago, did you bring the goods?’

  ‘I did, they are in the bag with my flying suit, I got changed just before we landed, how did you know I would be coming this way?’

  ‘How else would you get here, being the station commander has its perks, that is why I sent you the email from my phone, so that I would have a head start on you, getting here.’

  James threw his bag onto the centre seat and climbed in to the van and Lawrence drove off towards the eastern suburbs of the city. James reached in to his bag and pulled out a packet of cigarettes, he put one in Lawrence's mouth and lit it for him, as he was focused on the traffic which was getting busier as they drove through the new t
own, past Hotel Ayre where they had been a few weeks earlier and past the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium the home of Sevilla Football Club. Ten minutes later they arrived at Javier Ramos’s street, Lawrence stopped the van about a hundred yards short of Ramos’s house. He was not home as there was no activity or any cars on the drive.

  An hour later, James spotted a Ferrari coming towards them, it stopped a hundred yards away and turned in to Javier Ramos’s drive, the two men grabbed their Glock pistols and jumped out the van and ran towards the house, nobody seen them as the houses were set to far back from the road for anybody to be a nosey neighbour.

  ‘Let him get to the front door’ James said.

  They ran up the drive past the Ferrari California and Ramos was insight just about to open his front door.

  ‘Excuse me, is that your car?’ Shaw asked Ramos.

  ‘Shit, it is you, what do you want?’

  ‘Open the door and go inside’ Shaw replied.

  Ramos opened the door with his key and stepped over the threshold followed by Shaw and Sharif who closed the door behind him.

  ‘What do you want, I have done nothing to you’ Ramos pleaded as he could see the pistols Shaw and Sharif were carrying.

  ‘Your men killed my friend in cold blood on your orders’ Shaw answered.

  ‘They were acting alone; I did not order them to.’

  James Shaw punched Ramos in the mouth before he could finish his sentence and sent him to the floor in a heap, Ramos looked up at Shaw, who then kicked him under the chin, sending him flying back across the hall followed by three of his teeth and a spray of blood. Ramos was struggling for breath, as he turned to look at Shaw with his eyes begging for Mercy, Sharif left the house to go and get the van, leaving Shaw and Ramos alone.