BlindFire (13 page)

  His  pistol   was  in  his  hand  but  he  didn't  remember  drawing  it.  The injured  Sergeant  crawled  painfully  to  the  nearest  body  and  hauled  it over. "Davies..."   He whispered and looked to where the firing had come from.  Men appeared from behind the bushes, there seemed to be dozens of them.

  The Serge
ant
  struggled  to  his  feet  and  swaying  unsteadily  he  cocked  his  pistol,  "You bastards."  His whole body trembled.  "Why...  Why,   they were nothing but boys."

  Suddenly his left knee
cap
exploded.  The  Sarge  stumbled  forward  then fell  to  the  ground  screaming  in  pain.

  The killers closed around him silence fell over the group then
a shot rang out and one of the
P
rovos
fell dead.

  Then one more shot rang out....

***

77

BlindFire

                  
                    
CHAPTER 7

The
Major  scanned  the  area  through
  a  pair  of binos,  having  alread
y made  a  note  of  all  the  boat  and  vehicle  numbers  on  the  quay 
side  there  wasn't  much  to  do  now  but  sit  and  wait.

  "This isn’t good enough."   He complained.   "We need to get closer."

  "No we don't." Gunter lovingly stroked the telescopic camera which he had just finished assembling. "I can watch a rat masturbating five kilometers  away,  and  catch  the  twinkle  in  his  eye  on  film."

  The Major sniffed at the painfully cold night air. "Suppose I’d better not take a piss then."

  "Wait a minute."   Gunter  raised  his  right  hand  beckoning  the Major to  look  down  the  view  finder,  then  set  the  camera  on auto. Click, click,  click  every  two  seconds  the  camera  took  an  high  resolution photograph.

  Click, click.....  Click, click

  "For fucksake."  He almost knocked o
ver the tripod.  "...It's Stone
....  How the hell did he get here?"

  "Well, he’s here now....
Let me see."

Taking  a  tape  recorder  from  his  pocket  he  moved  to take up position over  the camera. "Target now on
Regina
."  He held the mic closer to his mouth. "Speaking with three.... No, four other persons unknown."
The Major
said and
rubbed his tired eyes. "I just don’t get it."

   Suddenly there was an explosion, which shook the building and hurt their ears.

The Major hit the floor
hard.  "Get down."  He screamed.

  Gunter laughed.  "Thi
s guy is great.  Your man
just pulled the Iraqi super gun out of a sports bag and blew away a family of sea gulls."

  "Oh my   god, what’s he doing now?"

  "The  girl  on  the  left  is  covered  in  blood,  I  don't  think  he  shot her though."

  The Major stood up.  "Come on let’s go and arrest him then."

  "What with? ... Bird degree murder? Anyway, they've disappeared below decks."

  "If  we  don't  get  him  now,  maybe  we  will  never  get  him."

Gunter began disassembling the camera.  "I  can't  touch  him,  for  gods  sake  we  aren't  even  meant  to  be  here."

  "
What a
nightmare.
This is turning into a real mess
"

  "Look,  we  know  where  they  are  going,  we  know  roughly  how long  it  will  take  them  and  I'm  overdue  three  weeks  leave.  Ireland  is  beautiful  this  time  of  year,  especially  on  the  coast."

***

  She had run, spurred on by terror, muted with fright. The bad man right behind. She  had  run  until  she  could  run  no  more  an
d  then  huddled  in  a  secluded
doorway. Slowly  rocking  backwards  and  forwards  muttering  incoherently, tears  streaming  down  her
little
face.
Then
it had started
to rain and it was getting dark, and Sahra was afraid of the dark…

***

    "Ladies and Gentleman this is your Captain speaking, we will be arriving at our destination in approximately two hours, have a pleasant journey."

  "Taking off is the part I don’t like.”  Whispered  Gunter,  not wanting  the  pretty  woman  in  the  seat  behind to hear. He glanced at her again
,
her features somehow familiar to him.

  "Entschuldigen sie, aber kenne ich Sie nicht irgendwo her?” Asked Gunter.

  Beth froze. She had only just boarded the flight to
Ireland
and was already being recognised.

  "Excuse me?"  She replied in perfect English.

  "Oh I am sorry."   Said Gunter.  "I thought that
you were German."

  "No, I ‘m not."

  Gunter apologised, smiled politely and turned in his seat. "John." He whispered.

  "What now?"

  He jerked his head bac
kward toward Beth.  "That’s her!
"

  "That’s who?"

  "Elizabeth Kaelin."

  “Yes, of course it is, now can you stop messing around and let me read?"

  Bad thieves get caught; good ones develop a third eye in the depths of their subconscious. This eye is paranoid and never stops looking for trouble.  Beth had this eye extremely well developed and it sensed trouble. She saw something in the Germans eyes when
he had spoken to her, a kind of knowingness
.

  The flight seemed to take forever. As time passed Beth became more and more worried. Searching her mind for a way to lose these two men in the next row.

  "Ladies and Gentlemen." Said the Captain. "Please extinguish all cigarettes and fasten your seat-belts. We will be landing in approximately   five minutes."

  Beth panicked; worry had been replaced by paranoia. She quickly half  rose  in  her  seat  and  scanned  around  the  interior  of  the  aircraft,
and
then  stood  up.  No one
seemed to be paying her a
  blind  bi
t  of  notice, whilst
giving  both  men  the  once  ove
r she quickly
  took  her  handbag  from  t
he  overhead  compartment
.  One
of the men was gazing
out
of
the window
listening   to   some   music and tapping   his finger on   the arm rest, t
he other   was   fast   asleep.

  It was now or never.  In  one  fluid motion she took
a Chloroform spray canister, which had been disguised as a deodorant,
from  he
r  bag and took  a  step  forward. Leaning over the back of their chairs as if she was talking to them she
sprayed both the men’s faces.  The  man  nearest  the  isle  who  had  spoken  to Beth simply  continued  to  sleep,  but  the  other  ripped  his  he
adset  off  and glared  at her
  for  a  second  then  slumped  forward  unconscious.
Beth immediately pulled him back and replaced his headphones.

  As  soon  as  the  aircraft  landed  she  was  at  the door waiting to be first  off.  She only  stopped  twice, once at  passport  control  and  then  at  the  conveyor  to  collect  her  luggage.

 
"Excuse me.....  Sirs....  Sirs." Said the stewardess.  "Time to get off." Sh
e looked closer then screamed.
"Oh my god, somebody please help me."

  Soon  there  was  a  gathering crowd as some of the passengers reboarded  the  aircraft  to  see  what  all  the  commotion  was  about.

  "What’s going on here?"  Cried one man as he rushed from the front of the aircraft. “Ladies and gentlemen.” He said loudly. “I’m the Captain, now I’m going to need you all to disembark immediately!”

   "Could everyone please calm down and clear this area.
..! I’
m a Doctor."
Another man said and pushed his way through the small crowd.

  A third man, one of the stewards,
  took  hold  of  the   hysterical Stewardess  as  the  Doctor
concentrated on checking
  the  vital  signs  of  both  casualties.

  "They aren’t dead, I think they are asleep."
He said and shrugged.

   Some of the crowd began
tittering and others were laughing. B
efore long the two
men
were waking to
loud
applause.

  "What happened, did we crash?"  Gunter
a
sked.

  "I thin
k I was saved by my head."  Cried
the Major, slowly rubbing his eyes.

 
O
nce more
t
he Doctor checked their pulses and blood pressure.

  "I remember a woman spraying something in to my eyes, and then... then nothing."

  "I can’t remember a single thing." Said Gunter.

  "Well, I have been a Doctor fo
r nearly thirty years and I’ve
never see
n
flight affect anyone like this."

  Gunter looking around suddenly realised there was a crowd and became increasingly embarrassed.

  "It wasn't the flight." Demanded the Major
as he tried to force himself from the chair but his legs felt week and slightly wobbly, like he’d been drinking
. "It was that damned woman."

  "Well, you seem well enough to go now."
Smiled the Doctor. “I see no reason to keep you.”

  "Good." Growled Gunter. He stood and forced his way through the crowd, a rather embarrassed Major in tow. Shrieks of laughter followed them down the boarding ramp.

  "
What
happened?" 
T
he Major
s
houted.  "What the
   f..!
"

  "I tell you what happened!” Gunter growled. “That dam woman, that’s what happened… Wait till I get my hands on her!””

   The Major took a breath and physically forced himself to calm down. “It  doesn't  matter  now,
lets  just 
get out of here,
find  an  hotel  and 
get
something  to  eat."

***

  The  low  hum  of  the  engines  sluggishly  carried  the  boat  along.  It lurched  one  way  and  then  the  other,  making  the whole craft creek and  groan  as  if  in  pain.

  The  lights  had  gone  out  during
  the  fight  and  anyway,  Danny
felt secure  in  the  darkness.  He  sat  motionless  staring  at the twitching form  of  the  captain,  sprawled  on  the  floor,  blood  still   pouring from his  almost  surgical  wounds.  He knew he had to move, to get up and do something.

  Struggling  to  his  feet
  he  made  his  way  down  the  steps  leading  to  the  store  rooms,  they  were  all  locked.  On  kicking  the  first  door  in, he  saw  weapons  of  all  types  i
n  large  wooden crates.  There must  have  been  dozens
  of 
nine millimeter
pistols, 
several
AK47's  and 
even a couple of aging Russian
snipe
r
  rifles  not  to mention  the  ones  in  the  sealed  crates.  The  second  room  was  empty, except  for  six  bunk beds  and  a  table
in  the  centre  of  the  room.  T
he next  cabin  contained
shoebox sized wooden crates
which seemed to contain
explosives  and  the  last  held  hu
ndreds  of  small packages. He
  sliced  one  of  them  open  and  a  white  powder  flowed on  to  the  floor,   forming  a  thin  cloud  around  his  knees.

  "Drugs." He spat
and threw the package at the wall where it exploded into a white cloud.

  He  quickly  started  a  fire  in  the  cabin 
which  contained  the drugs
,  and  was  a  little  surprised  by  the  speed  of  which  the  flames took  hold.                                           

  A  short   run  up  some  steps  found  him  on  deck  climbing  into  the dingy  which  was  in  tow  along  side  the  Regina.  Luckily  the  motor started  first  time  and  after  cutting  the  rope 
he
sped  of  into  the  night.
Lights dotted on the distant horizon guided him to land.  The
Regina
had powerful, fast engines to enable her to outrun just about anything, so she had made good time. He hoped that he was looking at
Ireland
and not the coast of west
Cornwall
.

 
The dingy was about quarter of a mile from t
he  Regina
when she
suddenly  exploded  with  a  massive  boom,  lighting  up the  night  sky.  Bullets  and   bombs  exploded  in  all  directions as  the  sea  engulfed  her  burning  broken  hull.  She  slipped  beneath the  waves  noisily  as  if  fighting  to  expel  her  dangerous  cargo  before final  death.

  The  dingy  was  less than
  five  hundred  meters  from  the  land   when  the wind  picked  up  and  the  sea  grew  to  an awesome  unpredictable monster.  Waves  pounded  the  little  boat  repeatedly,  soon  it  was  a full  blown  battle  for  survival.  The  almighty  powerful  sea  in  all  of   its  ferociousness  trying  in  vain  to  separate  a  simple  man  from  his
little
boat. 
A battle, this mortal man and little
boat simply couldn't win. The  dingy  bounced  off  one  rock,  only  to  be  faced  with  another  and then  another.  Capsize was inevitable.