2021 (11 page)

2
^nd
January 2021

Little Compton,

Surrey, England.

T
he Vatican investigator into any reported miracles in Great Britain and Ireland, Mr Joseph Raines, after receiving orders from Cardinal Greco to have Tom destroyed, had taken the unusual action of contacting a rather hardened criminal from a well known Mafia gang in Italy, a man known as Afredo Beaks.

Raines had simply done exactly as
Cardinal Greco had ordered him and hadn’t asked anymore questions about it.

He had originally investigated Tom and had very quickly realised how the miracle he had made happen was very different from the usual weeping statues or the reports of crowds flocking to a site somewhere of a rather unlikely miracle.

Tom’s miracle
by comparison seemed to have been done in complete secrecy and by stark contrast seemed entirely genuine.

Raines instantly felt
he was onto something, but Cardinal Greco’s claim that he was in fact the Anti-Christ had shocked him to the very core. It had made him even more determined to carry out the orders he had been given to have Tom secretly executed.

Gangland killer Alfredo Beaks had by this time already reached England from Italy through a series of small planes and boats to secretly land on the shores of the quiet seaside town of New Romney, near Dungeness Lighthouse in Kent. He had then quickly headed for London and had already staked out the best vantage point from which to carry out his deadly deed.

After obtaining more details of Tom’s habits through various contacts he had, Beaks
decided it was best to pick Tom off on his way to work, when he could guarantee he would be at a certain place at a certain time. The heavy noise of the rush hour traffic would both make it harder for anyone to hear his shots, but also make it harder for the police to get there quickly, and also make it easier for Beaks himself to escape.

After leaving school, both Tom and Alec worked in Alec’s father’s car workshop
five days a week and a fellow mechanic picked them up in his car at the same spot every day to take them into work.

Unbeknown to them, the gunman ha
d set up camp on the roof of a building opposite. So Beaks now lay in wait for the two teenage boys to meet up on the pavement where they both waited for their daily lift into work as usual.

From the moment he arrived
though, Tom could just ‘sense’ that something wasn’t quite right, but he had no idea what it was.

‘Hi Mate!’ Alec greeted him cheerfully.

Then he noticed Tom
looked a little on edge.

‘What
’s up, Tom, you look a little nervous about something?’ queried Alec.

‘I don’t know
’ puzzled Tom as he looked all around him ‘I’ve just got a funny feeling this morning’ he explained.

‘Well never mind, don’t scratch it or you’ll make it worse’ joked Alec.

High above them, the gunman had sprung into action the m
oment he had spotted Tom arrive. He quickly adjusted the sights of his high powered rifle as he lined them up with the very centre of Tom’s head.

‘Ah, now I have you
’ Beaks smiled to himself.

Just as he pulled the trigger though, a white dove inexplicably flew down a
nd struck Beaks on the back of the head!

‘What the..?’
uttered Beaks in surprise as the annoying bird instantly made his shot miss its target!

‘PING!’ went the bullet as it deflected clean off a lamppost right next to
where Alec and Tom were now both standing.

‘Damn
that bird! It made me
miss
!’ cursed gunman Beaks waving his fist at the white dove before he immediately focussed in on his target once again.

‘What the hell
was
that
?’ asked Alec looking all around him, having heard the sudden noise.

‘I don’t know, Alec, but I’
ve a very bad feeling about standing here this morning’ uttered Tom as they both looked all around them for an explanation for the strange sound they’d both just heard.

Just then
, another shot rang out, but just as Beaks had pulled the trigger this time, a large lorry had pulled up right in front of him, completely blocking his view!

It hadn’t stopped the bullet though, as it went clear through the large truck’s roof and out through its side, leaving a very sizable hole as it then went onto take a large lump out of the pavement right at the two boy’s feet!

‘CHRIST, ALEC!
SOMEONE’S ONLY FIRING BLOODY SHOTS AT US!’ screamed Tom as he immediately dragged Alec down to take cover behind a metal telephone junction box.

‘But who would be shooting at
us
? And
why
?’ questioned Alec as he now looked very shocked.

‘
Well don’t let’s worry about that now, just keep your bloody head down!’ suggested Tom.

‘PING!’ went another bullet as it struck the other side of the telephone junction box.

‘CHRIST! THERE IT WENT AGAIN!’ shouted Alec ‘BUT SOMEONE CAN’T REALLY BE SHOOTING AT US
, SURELY?’

Tom then notic
ed that one of the rifle bullets had travelled all through the thick cast metal telephone junction box and had lodged just the other side right next to Alec’s head.

‘Bloody hell
, that was a bit close!’ Tom uttered before he then dug the remains of the bullet out using his keys.

‘Still do
ubt someone’s firing at us now do you?’ queried Tom as he showed Alec the bullet as he just shook his head in dismay.

Just then
, there was another sound and Mark, their mechanic friend just casually pulled up in his car right next to them to give them their usual lift into work.

Of course, Mark
was completely unaware anything out of the ordinary was even going on, so he just stared at the two boys as he spotted them hiding behind the telephone junction box.

He wound down his passenger window as he smiled at them both.

‘ALL RIGHT YOU SILLY BUGGERS! I’VE SPOTTED YOU
BOTH THERE!’ he laughed cheerfully.

Just then though, a rifle bullet smashed
right through part of his front windscreen as the two boys just ducked down again, before they then made a sudden dash for it as they quickly clambered into the back seat of Mark’s car!

‘What hell was
that
?’ uttered Mark in shock ‘something’s just smashed part of my flipping windscreen clean off!’

‘
DRIVE
, MARK! JUST BLOODY
DRIVE
!’ shouted Tom just as another bullet hit the car and not wanting anymore convincing Mark just sped away in a loud squeal of tyres as their smoke filled the air behind them!

Mark now just raced his car down the road just as fast as it could go!

G
unman Beaks had already anticipated this, and had positioned himself on both corners of the building. So he now ran to the other corner so he could quickly target them again!

Soon, a hail of
bullets were winging their way towards Mark’s car as the gunman determined not to fail, fired off shot after shot straight at them!

‘PING!’ went another bullet as it went clean through the car
’s roof and then straight through the floor right between Alec’s feet!

‘JESUS BLOODY CHRIST!’ Alec
screamed in panic as he immediately lifted his feet up off the floor.

‘PING! PING! PING!’ went the bullets as Mark continued to race off down the road, followed by the occasional ‘THUD!’ as the gunman managed a direct hit through some part of his car.

‘I thought the metal of the car would keep us safe
, but it isn’t doing anything is it!’ uttered Alec now looking decidedly scared.

‘These bullets are
just going through the car’s metal like a hot knife through butter’ commented Tom.

‘Somehow, you’re not making me feel any better’ complained Alec.

‘Sorry!’ apologised Tom.

Peo
ple were now running for cover, screaming, as bullets struck the ground all around them!

Meanwhile, Mark weaved his car all through the rush hour traffic
just about any way he could.

‘CHRIST YOU TWO, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO NOW?’
he shouted in panic.

‘LOOK OUT!’ screamed the two boys as Mark almost hit a bus he
ad on and just managed to race around it by mounting the kerb on the wrong side of the road!

‘MIND THE PEDESTIANS!’ screamed Alec as he
and Tom could hardly bear to look now, as Mark now just speeded along the pavement!

Pedestrian’s
eyes now all lit up as they suddenly found themselves having to dive out the way of a car driving straight at them at over 90MPH!

‘PING!’ went another rifle shot ‘PING, THUD!’ went two more.

‘TH
IS GUY MUST HAVE SOME POWERFUL RIFLE TO STILL GET CLOSE TO US FROM THAT SORT OF DISTANCE!’ shouted Mark.

‘NEVER MIND
ADMIRING THE GUNMAN’S GUN, JUST GET US BACK ONTO THE BLOODY ROAD AGAIN WILL YOU?’ shouted Tom as he cowered down with Alec on the car’s back seat.

Mark then drove straight at a news stand where
a man selling a newspaper to a customer just looked up in time to just throw it up into the air as both he and his customer now just quickly dived out of the way!

‘MIND THE NEWS STAND!’ shouted Alec in alarm and Mark went to go around it
, but just as he did so a dustcart came around the corner and blocked the road!

‘BRACE YOURSELVES!’ shouted Mark as only seconds later they completely demolished the
wooden News Stand and tore out the other side with a newspaper with a front page headline reading ‘
The Government Gets Tough On Bad Motorists!
’ now completely blocking Mark’s view of anything!

Now unaware of where he was even heading, Mark quickly drove straight across a zebra crossing scattering pedestrians in all directions, before the newspaper finally blew away and Mark finally managed to get back on the right side of the road again.

Now though, the bullet
s came raining in as the gunman mounted a powerful tripod mounted automatic submachine gun.

‘PING! PING! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!’ the bullets went in rapid succession as they began hitting the car
all over its bodywork!

‘CAN YOU TRY AVOIDING AT LEAST
SOME
OF THE BLOODY BULLETS FOR CHRIST’S SAKE!’ screamed Alec from the car’s back seat.

‘HOLD ON!’ shouted Mark as he came to a
sharp left turn and skidded rapidly around it until he lost all control of the his car and ended up smashing backwards straight into a lamp post!

They finally finished up at a point where some fireman had been doing some routine maintenance servicing a fire hydrant
, and after sending the fireman scattering in all directions Mark’s car finally came to sudden and very abrupt halt!

‘Thank the Lord we’re still alive’ uttered Alec as he blew a
huge sigh of relief.

‘Is everyone OK?’ asked Tom
, now looking very concerned.

‘Yeah, I’m fine’ nodded Mark.

‘Yeah,
me too, apart from my nerves being completely shattered’ complained Alec.

Then he looked puzzled.

‘Hang on
, what’s that funny noise coming from underneath us?’

‘Oh shit! We’v
e finished up over an open fire hydrant!’ uttered Mark ‘OUT EVERYONE!
OUT
! AND THEN RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!’ he screamed.

They
all almost fell out of the car just in time before the built up pressure from the opened water hydrant underneath them suddenly threw Mark’s car up into the air as it flipped it clean onto its roof where it then landed with a loud ‘CRASH!’

They
now ran for cover to avoid getting a complete soaking as the water shot high into the air
!

Mark then just stood there looking at the remains of his car as he just shook his head in dismay.

‘Oh, will you look at
the state of my car, it looks like very wet, sliced Swiss cheese, it’s bloody totalled!’ he just groaned.

‘Still, the insurance claim will
make for interesting reading’ joked Alec.

Then upon seeing Mark glaring at him Alec
immediately apologised.

‘I’m sorry, Mark, t
hat was a bad joke’ he admitted.

‘Thanks, Mark’ add
ed Tom ‘you saved our lives!’

‘But why the hell does anyone want to kill you
two is what I want to know?’ puzzled Mark ‘as that gunman was definitely targeting you two, there’s no doubt about it.’

‘We’ve really no
idea’ the two teenage boys replied as they both just shrugged their shoulders.

‘Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity?’ suggested Mark as they just left the scene of flooding
and the now endless sound of emergency vehicle sirens as they just filled the air. ‘All I know is you two had better watch your step in case this guy tries it again.’

*

Back in the Vatican
meanwhile, Cardinal Greco had got hold of Raines in a desperate attempt to call off the whole thing, but of course, Raines had failed to contact the Mafia hit man Beaks as he had turned off his mobile phone so he couldn’t be traced through it.

It was sometime
later therefore, that Raines finally managed to contact the Mafia man as he travelled aboard a small fishing boat towards France on his way back to Italy.