BlindFire (3 page)

  "
Hold on a minute..!
I think I can see kids in that car......"

  Jack shrugged "I’ve waited ten years for this, I’m taking my revenge and I’m going to enjoy it, he has to pay for what he did!"

  "Jesus H Christ! The war is over Jack, we’re here for him and him alone"

  "He murdered my wife you feck!"

  "...But."

  "Shut it and follow him
…
"
Said Jack and squinted his eyes to try and get a look at the face of the man he had dreamed about killing for so long.

  Both  Ohallern  and  McSheady  looked  at  Jack,  he  was  sweating  and the  shake  of  his  hands  was  clearly  visible.  They  knew  it  was  more from   excitement   than   fear,   his  brothers  in  arms  had  long  since feared  his  psychopathic  tendencies.  How could a man who liked to be known as the Butcher of Belfast be completely sane?

  Jack turned his Icy stare on
McSheady
. "Have you got a problem with this?"

  “
Me.
?"  He  replied  nervously  and  raised  a  hand  to  stop  any intended  slaps.  "
Nah..!
No problems at all."

  "Let’s do this
then."

  "We can’t Jack, it’s wrong.  We don’t kill children....  What if they were your kids...?” 

  Jack exploded.  "My wife wanted babies..! If  you  don't  want  a   hole  in  the  back  of  your fecking  head,  I  suggest  you  shut  up  and  earn  your  keep…"

  "Sorry."  Muttered Ohallern. “Look he’
s pulling into that Burger joint
.”

  "Right here goes!"  Said Jack by now surprisingly calm again. ".... Pull up over there and keep the engine running."

  As  soon  as  the  car  stopped  he  climbed  out, holding
the pistol high in  his  palm, and scanning up and down the street for prying eyes he made his way to his target.
The slightest sign of trouble would mean an immediate abort.

  McSheady  covered  his  eyes  pretending  to  be  asleep,  in  reality  he j
ust  didn't  want to witness this
slaughter
, he didn’t even want to come on this job but they’d made him
.  He  had  promised himself  that
this  would  be  his  last one
  and  then  he  could  give  up the  game  and  settle  down  in  a  nice  little  farm  somewhere.  But not too far from his beloved
Belfast
.

***

  Making  a  mental  note  of  wha
t  everyone  wanted to eat, Danny
  went  inside the  cafe,  it  was  empty.
"What’s up with the Drive thru?" He asked
casually and checked his wallet for money
.

  "Closed." Came the abrupt reply.

  He  looked  at  the  price  list  to  make  s
ure  that  he  had  enough
  and  then  made  his  order  in  fluent  German.

  The  man  beh
ind  the  counter  pressed  Danny’s
  order  in  to  the  till  as he  said  it.  "Would you like drinks with that?"

  "No thanks."

  "That’s Forty seven Deutschmarks please."

***

  The Terrorists plan, like all military operations counts on hundreds of factors.  Everything from the weather to being in the right place at the right time. But the two most important factors must be surprise and audacity.  With  this  in  mind  the  killer  made  straight  for  his  targets.

  "Excuse me."  He shouted, tapping the passenger side window.

  Claudia  jumped  in  her  seat,  she  hadn’t  seen  him  coming . "Yes... What do you want?"  She thought he looked like a tramp
, and his accent sounded strange, he certainly wasn’t German.

  "Are you the wife of Danny Stone."  Jack said and smiled broadly, this was a great day and one he’d waited so long for.

  "Yes, why? Who are you
?"  Claudia said as she
cautiously
wound her window down.

  "My names Jack… Jack Mckay! Did Danny never mention me? Well He shot my beautiful wife a long time ago and now it’s my turn…! I’m going to shoot his beautiful wife!
"

   Suddenly aware of a gun Claudia
screamed.

  "Don’t take this personally!
"

  She screamed again as
he aimed the pistol at her head.  "Kids, get out..... Get out."  Panicking she opened the door slamming it in to her assailants midstream. The  gun  went  off  catapulting  Claudia  on  to  the  driver's seat  with  blood  pouring  from a small  hole just under her left  eye, death was instant.

"Mummy Mummy..."  The little girl on the back seat screamed as she desperately wiped the blood
spatter
from her face.

  "Daddy."  Wailed the boy hysterically, by now on the pavement and running.  "Daddy....  Daddy."

  Danny had seen the man through Café window, had watched him get out of a car and cross the road. He had frowned as the man approached his car and begin talking to his wife. He didn’t know quite what it was; just a feeling in the pit of his stomach, but something compelled him to walk toward the door. In that second the gun had appeared.

  “Claudia..!” Danny screamed and already sprinting for the door heard the report as the gun went off. Then he saw his son running towards him. “Tommy no…! Get down.” He shouted desperately as he went crashing through the door.

    The gunman turned quickly and fired two more rounds which missed their intended target and shattered a window just above the door showering him in glass splinters. Then Jack shifted position and fired again, this time he took a fraction longer aiming. Danny had only one thought in his mind; he dived onto his son, grabbed hold and twisted his body around so that he was between the shooter and his boy.

  The impact of the bullet tearing through flesh and smashing bone spun him around violently. Searing pain burnt through his chest like an inferno as a red patch began to grow on his white t-shirt.

   Looking down at his son Danny
gaspe
d in agony as he noticed another growing red patch on the boys shoulder.

  
A grin cut across Jacks stony complexion.  "You want fries with that?"  He asked sarcastically. "Yo
u know who I am? Don’t you Danny boy
?
And you know why I’m here?
"

  Danny
stared at the gunman’s face which he failed to recognise.

  “My name is Jack Mckay and ten years ago you murdered my wife!”

  Danny looked at the
still form of his son and feared the worst. Then he saw the body of his wife slumped against the steering wheel. “No..!” He cried. “What have you done?”

“I ca
me here to kill you!" Jack growled as his finger closed around the trigger.
“But I’ve changed my mind… I’ve decided to let you to suffer for a while like I had to
!”

On this occasion the Terrorist had made his greatest mistake.  He had wasted valuable time.

  "Halt oder ich shiesse." A German Police officer demanded.

Jack now  stunned  at  his  own  stupidity  turned  and  fired  a  sh
ot  off   but missed, giving Danny valuable seconds to bundle his son into cover
.

  The  Irishman  saw  movement  in  the  corner  of  his  eye, turning once again  he  fired  blindly  and
  missed  with  the  first shot  but  the second
was closer and forced Stone to drop down and cover his son
.

  The  Policeman  meanwhile,  had  taken  cover  behind  the  open  door  of  his  own  car.  He  was  speaking  wildly  into  his  radio  and  at  the same  time  trying  to  take  aim  with  his  pistol.

Looking  around  Jack  realised  that  his  original  target  had  escaped, as  he  faced  the  Policeman  he  suddenly  felt  a  searing  pain
in  his  left thigh and realized to his horror that he’d been shot
.

 
He hissed in pain and fell to one knee.

  "Werfen sie ihr waffe weg."

  His weapon was now e
mpty and the escape car was nowhere in sight
.  "Bastards." He screamed
angrily
.  "
You bunch of y
ellow bastards!"

  "Bitte werfen sie ihr waffe weg."

  The pain was unbearable.  Jack fell on to
his side and threw his pistol at the Policeman as hard as he could, but it missed and struck a bench before clattering to the ground.
  His  mind  screamed  hysterically  for  a  way  out,  for  a  miracle. Capture had never before entered into things.
The thought of spending one more hour in some disgusting gaol made Jack’s mind up, he’d rather die there on the street as a free man.
  The  rage  took  hold,  he  began  to  tremble  and  shake  uncontrollably.  "Why don’t you just shoot me.....?  Go on, pull the fecking trigger."  He crawled toward the Officer.  "Go ahead, blow my fecking brains out."

  The Policeman nervously stepped back unsure what to do.  "Halt." He demanded.

  "Go on
and
shoot me you Nazi bastard....."  Jack raged.
“What the feck is wrong with you?”

  The Policeman was pleased. He  didn’t  understand  a  word  the  gunman  was  saying  but  was  sure  he  had  just  captured  a  terrorist.

  Suddenly  Jack  thought  he  saw  a  flicker  of  movement  behind  the  policeman. He  didn’t  dare  look  again, he  wasn’t  even  sure  of  what  he  had  seen.  His  mind  reached  out  and  held  on  to  the  faintest
of
  thought
s
  that  it  could  be  Ohallern  or  McSheady.  If it was they had better hurry up.

  A
  se
cond
  later  sirens  could  be  heard  in  the  distance approaching  at  speed.  The  Policeman  seemed  to  smile  then  he  froze as  if  an  electrical  current  was  being  passed  through  him.  His  stare widened  and  his  face  flushed,  then  a  trickle  of  blood  fell  from  his nose  as  he  held  out  an  hand  to  try  and  stop  himself  from  falling. There seemed to be some hidden power holding him up.

  "N
ext time be more careful."  Spat
  Ohallern  sarcastically  as  he pulled  his  knife out from  the  back  of  the  Policeman’s  neck,  and then  let the body slump to the  ground.
"You’re a fecking idiot!  Get in the car.  This place will be crawling with filth any second."   Ohallern ordered as he gave Jack a shoulder to lean on for the short walk back to the car.

  "You stupid shit!"  McSheady cried from the driver’s seat. "You just killed a woman and kid for nothing.  What are you, insane or something?"

  "It was an accident.” He lied. “T
he bitch opened the door..! And the gun just went off!"

"So  that's  why  you  put  a  bullet  into  the  back  of  a dangerous  six  year  old."

  Jack rolled his eyes skyward.  "So I panicked...
Didn’t I just say that it was an accident
!"
He thought it best to leave out the bit where the Soldier was still
brea
thing. “Let’s get out of here.”

  "Oh God." Shouted McSheady almost in tears. "The pigs will hunt us down for sure now.  No chances just a fecking bullet."

  "Drive."  Jack cried painfully through clenched teeth as he slumped on the back seat.
“Drive this fecking car..!

  Still fearful of the injured Irishman, McSheady stuttered.  "The...  The idea was to
kill the Soldier not his family!
"

  "Enough."  Ohallern screamed
angrily
.  "Just shut up..! We need to get as far away from here as we can!”

  It  took  the  men  several  hours  to  drive  to  France  and  dump  the car  before  boarding the  Regina.  An old fishing vessel now manned and funded by the IRA.  It  was  the  perfect  cover,  on  the  outside  a perfectly  normal  fishing boat  but  on  the  inside  a  warehouse  of guns  and  explosives,  awaiting  use  by  the  Active  service  units.  Money  had  no  place  in  this  evil  market,  all  transactions  were  paid for  in  drugs  or  blood.  The boat was also an effective Taxi. As most Terrorists  were  known  by  the  authorities  and  of course constantly watched,  they  had  little or  no  chance of  leaving  Ireland  by  the conventional  method  to  spread  their  brand  of  misery.  So  they  turned to  the  Regina,  the Real IRA's  best  kept  secret.  The  boat  picked  up  its cargo  anywhere  on  the southern  Irish  coast  and  dropped  off  at  predesignated points  on  the  coasts  of  England,  Holland  but  especially  France  where security  was  lacking.  Men, weapons or drugs.  It didn’t really matter, the
Regina
transported anything...