I pictured him congratulating himself, thinking that the atmosphere was down to his excellent leadership skills and the loyalty the men felt for him.
I watched as he moved among them, playing the genial host. One man walked beside him, his huge, powerful frame and his whole demeanour making him look every inch the bodyguard.
“That must be Mike,” I whispered. Again, I was impressed by Mel’s courage. He looked as if he could snap her in two.
Turning to Penny, I asked her to look through the binoculars and confirm who he was.
She looked through, turned a little pale and nodded. It was him.
We all watched as he stuck close to Rick, who was weaving his way like a snake through the drinking men.
By now most of them were well on the way to being drunk, and the women were receiving increasingly amorous attention.
I knew Mel and Louise would have kept their promise not to tell the other women, but the others seemed to have picked up on their mood all the same, and they were all working hard to keep the men happy, allowing themselves to be grabbed and fondled while they handed out more bottles.
Mike matched the description we’d been given perfectly. He stood a good six inches taller than everyone else and his bulging muscles stretched the arms of his coat.
Harry whistled, “He’s a big boy, I think we should let Paul deal with him,” he said, half-jokingly.
Penny spoke up, her voice small and trembling.
“This is when he usually lets them know who’s getting first choice out of the women. Normally it’s the one who’s collected the most food. We dread this part. Apparently, some of them are OK, but there are some really psychos among them. They know they can’t get out of it, but they work hard to be picked by the ones who are at least nice to them.”
Harry and I exchanged furious glances. Rick was just unbelievable: there was no sense of humanity in him and he clearly just used people like pawns to maintain control.
Harry went back to looking through the binoculars and muttered quietly through gritted teeth, “That’s right, you bastards. Just enjoy yourselves while you can. I don’t think tomorrow’s going to end well for you.”
Paul and Captain Digby squeezed back into the OP.
“Right, guys,” said Paul briskly, “Diggers is fully up to speed with the plan. Everyone’s going to spend the next few hours getting eyes on the target and familiarising themselves with layouts and faces. Diggers and I will target each individual and allocate them to a team to take down.”
He looked at Penny. “We think we’ve got a reasonable idea of the layout, but would it be OK if we asked you a few questions?” She nodded, eager to help, and he smiled at her.
“Once everyone is ‘mission ready’ they’ll grab some kip in shifts until zero hour.”
He glanced down to look at his watch and frowned momentarily, before recalling that he hadn’t lost it, but had given it to Mel.
“Anyway,” he continued, “we’re aiming to go at 0400 hours and be ready to execute at 0415 hours. There’ll be more of us than there will be targets, so I’ll overlap the men on the individuals we identify as being likely to give us the most trouble.”
He looked at Penny.
“I want you to help me with that by telling me who the most likely candidates are.”
“Yes, I can do that,” she said firmly, “I know which ones the others are most afraid of.”
Penny spent the next half an hour, lying sandwiched between Paul and Captain Digby, identifying each of the men and helping them understand who was who.
She also helped to identify where the men usually slept and before long, Paul’s hand-drawn target plan was covered in notes, circles and lines, all filled in under the dim glow of a shielded red-lensed torch.
Most of the men had their quarters in the rooms off the courtyard. It was easy to monitor them, as they all had an individual door facing the courtyard, either at ground level or from a balcony that afforded access to the first-floor rooms. Mike and a few of the senior “lieutenants” lived in the hotel, so they would be harder to track. Penny told us their room numbers and gave us a detailed description of the inside of the hotel.
I insisted, and Paul agreed, that I would be on the team that detained Rick. Not being a “fighting man” he would probably be one of the easier ones to subdue.
I was looking forward to it.
As the night wore on, we watched the raucous drink-fuelled “party” in silent fury.
Captain Digby summed it up: “This is one mission I haven’t had to sell to the men. Given the chance, most of them would be down there now and taking them on hand-to-hand. They reckon they can make them suffer more that way, rather than sneaking up on them like thieves in the night.”
As he left to talk to his men, he slapped me on the back and chuckled.
“Most of my men haven’t been in the company of a woman for a long time and they’re all feeling very chivalrous. But afterwards I might have to start putting bromide in their tea to help redirect their attention.”
It was getting late now, and we watched the courtyard, as the men slowly drifted away, dragging their “prizes” with them. Some women appeared a short while later and accompanied a different man to another room. Paul paid close attention, all the while updating his plan, and marking which rooms were occupied.
It was after one o’clock by the time Mike, to a roar of approval from the few drunken men still remaining, swung his fist at Mel and struck her hard in the face. She stood reeling from the blow, and he picked her up, slung her over his shoulder and strode off like a conquering hero.
Paul spoke softly, “He’s mine. No one else is to touch him.”
With no women left to replenish the drinks and provide the entertainment, most of the human detritus that remained, staggered off to their respective rooms. Just a few were left to finish their bottles, and these soon drifted off to sleep.
The dying fire, aided by a bright moon and a clear night, gave us a good view of the area. For an hour, everything was quiet and then our attention was caught by movement at the front of the hotel.
It was Mel. And she was carrying a heavy load.
“What a star,” Harry murmured, “she’s gathered up a load of their shotguns, by the look of it.”
We watched tensely as she glanced back at the building, gently lowered the guns to the ground and then proceeded to break them all down, hiding them against the side of the building behind some bushes. Turning in our direction, she tried some exaggerated but easily understood sign language.
Paul translated: “All asleep. Four in hotel. Nineteen in courtyard.”
She crept across the courtyard and knocked quietly on one of the doors. Seconds later, Louise opened it and tiptoed out. She was holding another gun which she passed to Mel who, more practised by now, quickly broke it down and put it to one side.
“I’m sorry, guys, but she is amazing,” said Paul admiringly. “She’s doing all the hard work for us; all we’re going to have to do is go down there and wake ’em up.”
Harry and I glanced at each other in amusement, both struggling not to comment.
Paul interpreted our silence anyway, and glared at us both.
“Don’t even go there, guys!” he said indignantly, at which point Harry snorted.
We recovered ourselves and turned our attention back to Mel and Louise, who were entering more rooms, and emerging from most of them with weapons, but occasionally accompanied by another of the women, wearing nothing more than a blanket and a confused look on her face.
Every time, Mel led the woman away from the building and was clearly telling them what was going to happen. You could follow the conversation by following where she was looking. Always at some point, their heads would turn and they would look towards the woods as she explained the plan. The looks of silent relief and joy on their faces was heartening to see.We watched Mel point and push one of the women gently towards a suitable hiding place. The woman crept obediently
away into the darkness and crouched down behind a wall.
Mel was giving similar instructions to a second woman when…
“Shit!” Paul whispered urgently, “One of the guys by the fire is awake.”
We watched with bated breath, as the man hauled himself up and struggled to collect his drunken, confused senses.
He made his way unsteadily towards the glowing embers of the fire and urinated. Scratching his backside and looking round at the men still asleep behind him, he staggered off towards one of the rooms.
Mel and her companion had spotted him, and were trying to conceal themselves in the shadows, staying as still as possible. The looks of frozen fear on their faces were plain to see through our high-powered binoculars.
The man spotted them and stopped abruptly, swaying on his feet as he prepared to call out to them.
We all half rose, preparing to grab what we needed and execute the plan early. If it was about to go wrong, we needed to improvise.
I threw the binoculars down, getting ready to go.
“Wait!” hissed Harry, and we all froze. He still had his binoculars trained on the target.
Paul and I grabbed ours and did the same.
Mel and the other woman had approached the man and had their arms draped over him.
In his befuddled state, he clearly wasn’t able to deduce that this wasn’t normal behaviour. A stupid smile appeared on his face and the two women led him towards an empty room. I thought about the way she’d handled Paul and I almost felt sorry for the man.
As the door closed behind them, Paul angrily but softly called for everyone to stand down.
“We go as planned!”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
0400 hours.
We all stood ready to go. Everyone carried rifles and ammunition. The only extra items with us were lengths of rope and plastic cable ties to immobilise our enemy quickly and effectively.
Everyone had been allocated rooms and targets and in theory, the plan was so simple it ought to succeed. But we’d all seen straightforward plans go badly wrong before, so I for one, was nervous about going in.
The idea was for everyone to move quietly into position and then wait for a quick short blast on a whistle to coordinate the start of the attack.
Speed and maximum aggression would then be the key to success.
Paul, Harry and I, accompanied by two other soldiers, would be responsible for taking Rick, Lucy, Mike and two other adults, all of whom were based in the main part of the hotel.
As requested, I was to be responsible for detaining Rick and Lucy. The spare soldiers would be responsible for securing them all with the rope and cable ties.
The hotel had a large function room and once this was secured, the prisoners would be brought there and guarded until the whole place had been taken, and order was restored.
With the familiar feeling of adrenaline surging through my veins, we set off down the hill to get into position. As we crept through the hotel, I reflected that it might have been better if we had taken our shoes off. In the dead of night, our footsteps sounded unnaturally loud.
But just as I chose to ignore the loud beating of my heart, I pushed aside my worries. Using the light of the moon that was streaming through the windows, I found the door that led to the suite of rooms Rick and his family were using.
I waited for the signal.
Minutes passed like hours.
Not daring to look at my watch, I waited impatiently, ready to switch on my headtorch, burst into the room and exact revenge on the person who had hurt us all so badly all those months ago.
The shrill short whistle blast came, and even though I’d been expecting it, it made me jump.
I’d experimented with the door handle gently when I’d first got into position, so I knew the door was locked.
Aiming my best kick at the door, I hoped fervently that the lock was as flimsy as it looked.
As the door burst open with a crash, I could hear shouts and screams emanating from other rooms.
Running into the lounge area of the two-bedroom suite Rick had claimed for himself, I screamed, “Everybody stay still! No one move!”
Penny had given me a good description of the layout of the suite.
As I ran towards the master bedroom, the door began to open. Kicking it as hard as I could, I heard a high-pitched scream and the sound of someone falling backwards as the door rebounded off a body.
I recognised the slightly nasal tones as the person called out for Mike to come and help him.
I stepped round the door and into the room and my torch showed Rick, sprawled across the bed, with his hands over his face, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood from his nose. The door had clearly hit his face when I’d kicked it.
Shame, I thought sarcastically, and stepped forward.
Lucy was sitting up in bed, whimpering in fear. Realising that the light from my headtorch was effectively blinding them and they couldn’t see who was attacking them, I shouted at them to get off the bed and lie face down on the floor. It took a few kicks to get Rick to obey; he seemed to be finding it difficult to understand what was going on.
Looking at the mess I’d made of his nose I wondered if he had concussion, and then decided I didn’t care.
I heard another door open and one of their children stuck their head out. At a bellow from me the door slammed shut again and I heard them both shrieking in terror in their room.
I pushed the thought of them aside. We’d have to deal with them later. My main objective was sobbing with fear on the floor at my feet.
I watched in disgust as a pool of urine spread across the carpet. The Emperor had wet himself.
The soldier arrived and quickly tied their hands behind their backs.
Before getting them to stand, I quickly secured the door handles to the children’s room, more to keep them safe in one location than to imprison them.
It’s not easy to stand up when you’re lying face down on the floor, but after some shouts, threats and a couple of kicks of encouragement from me, they both managed it.
As they stood in front of me, snivelling and cowering, I couldn’t help myself. The rage that had been building in me all this time came boiling to the surface.
“This is for Ian, you bastard.” I stepped forward and punched him as hard as I could. The satisfaction it gave me made up for the sensation of bones cracking in my hand.
The blow knocked him over backwards. As he lay dazed on the floor, he realised what I had said.
Through his bleeding mouth he mumbled, “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”
Part of me was tempted to prolong the process but I knew there wasn’t any point. As far as I was concerned, he was already condemned for all his actions. It was about time he knew how much trouble he was in.
“It’s Tom, your old neighbour.”
I could see his brain ticking over, processing what I’d said and trying desperately to turn the situation to his advantage.
“Tom! Christ! Thank God you’re here!” he whined. “We’ve been prisoners here for months. What were you saying about Ian? I mean, I’m sorry I stole the car obviously. It was a moment of madness. I panicked. Look, we’ll straighten this all out. I guess there must be some misunderstanding. I’ll come back with you and I’ll make a full apology for everything and then we’ll carry on as before.”
I lost it again. Forgetting all about the pain in my hand, I punched him a second time.
“You absolute bastard!” I screamed, half in anger, half in pain this time. “Ian is dead! You ran him over. Don’t even try to deny it; plenty of people saw you do it. And if you think I’m going to believe anything else you tell me, DON’T BOTHER!
We’ve been watching you for days. We know exactly what you’ve been up to. Mel and Louise told us everything yesterday. Young Penny is sheltering in our OP in the woods, so your tame gorilla Mike can’t get hold of her.
The country’s got a plan for dealing with low life
scum like you, and let me tell you, you’ve done more than enough to ensure you’ll receive the maximum penalty.”
He stared at me, his mouth opening and closing, and then fell to his knees.
“Please don’t! I can explain everything. It’s not my fault! I can’t go to prison, I just can’t.”
I laughed, which made him stop sobbing and look at me with a confused expression on his face.
“Prison? No Rick. We don’t have prisons anymore. For scum like you the death penalty’s been reintroduced.”
He looked at me in shocked silence.
Lucy started to scream.
I backed out of the room as the stench of his voiding bowels filled the air.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
I stood at a distance from them, bathing Rick and Lucy in the light of my headlamp. Their pathetic behaviour sickened me, so I stood silently, the glare from my headtorch keeping them blind and confused.
Shouts and screams echoed through the building and from outside. I strained my ears to try to work out what was going on.
From what I could make out, the shouts were all commands and the screams were pleas for help or to be set free. We seemed to have the situation under control, but I wouldn’t know for sure until someone arrived to escort the prisoners to the function room.
I shouted to Harry and Paul to check on their status. Harry replied that he was fine and was on his way to the function room with his prisoner. Then he’d be back to help.
Paul responded to say that Mike was being a bit “difficult”, and he would wait for backup before he moved him.
Harry and another soldier arrived to help me transfer Rick and Lucy. They were still immobilised by panic and it took the three of us to manhandle them down the stairs and deposit them on the floor of the function room.
After a quick count, they were all present apart from one. It had to be Mike.
Captain Digby was in the middle of the room, making sure there were enough guards and that they were sufficiently distributed to cover the twenty two sorry excuses for human beings who were currently occupying the space. None of them was offering any resistance and most had lapsed into a sullen silence.
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