Go Out With A Bang! (11 page)

'No,'
said Sandra, busy choking Hank Andrews. 'That'll kill him. Lower
down, about an inch, like I told you.'

'Sorry.
Here we go.' A slight move with his hand and the thumb and finger
pressed onto the neck and the man was out for the count.

It took
thirty nine seconds, but eight men were rendered unconscious and
Ducket and Sandra were unmarked.

* *
*

It was
the final few seconds of the match. It was a standard set play.
Twenty four men were beating the hell out of each other and two
were racing to the goal. He was a Blue with a Red on his heels.
There were seventeen seconds on the clock. Blue almost got to the
line, Red made a dive. Ankle's were grabbed, two huge men fell to
the ground. It was only an arms length away. Blue kicked his
opponent in the face, then dragged both of them over the line. Blue
had scored and his team had won by one point. Ref blew his whistle.
Blue's had won.

'That's
it,' said Morris to Crowe. 'Hold on tight.'

'Maybe
not,' said Crowe. 'Look over there.'

The
electronic scoreboard lit up. “WELL DONE BLUE'S. ALL OK NOW.
GOODNIGHT. PS. LOVE TO POPPY. F.”

Chapter 32

'So glad
we brought food,' said Sandra.

'Like
the dressing I put on the salad?' said, Ducket.

'Not
bad. A little less pepper next time. I think they're waking
up.'

'I
refuse to enter into serious dialogue on an empty stomach. Is the
cheese okay? I like the mature, but I know you're not
keen.'

Sandra
said. 'Okay in small doses. I say we ignore them for at least ten
minutes; eat the apple pie, have a coffee. Go to the toilet. Just
ignore them.'

'Right.
Remind me to bring cream for the pie next time.'

The
eight men woke up finding themselves chained together, to their
chairs and with their mouths taped up.

Sandra
wiped her mouth with a napkin, went over to Steve Telford and
pulled the tape off his mouth. 'Have a nice nap?'

'My
heads a little fuzzy, but yeah. So. Congratulations. You've got the
lot of us. Well done.'

Sandra
chuckled. 'To be honest, we could have done without the
distraction. We've been following you lot since before the Petrolex
building. I must admit, you pretending to screw things up like that
was a masterstroke.'

'You got
that?'

'Of course. Brilliant. And your
electronics. Ferret.
You
were impressed, right?'

'Oh,
yeah. The intricate removal of each trace code on every component.
The delicate soldering. The fine tuning of frequencies.'

'Calm
down, tiger,' said Sandra. 'Actually Steve, I love the way you
played the police. All you had to do was to plant a token explosive
in the Darlington factory. We know there are no explosives at the
stadium. The police just needed to believe there was. Nobody would
be hurt; you'd get very rich.'

Telford
shrugged. 'What can I say? I'm a people person. It was just about
the money.'

'Look.
Steve. You're good. But let's face it. We're better. You still have
a whole heap of explosives directly underneath your best features.
And guess what? We have a neat little timing device. Nice job by
the way, Ferret.'

'One
tries to please.'

'Anyhow.
We'll set the timer to four minutes. We'll let you think about your
future for two minutes. We'll come back and ask you one question.
We hear no, we go, and don't come back, with the timer still turned
on. Got that?'

'You are
crazy.'

'We all
have a cross to bear.' She re-taped Telford's mouth and she and
Ducket left the room. An excruciatingly long two minutes later,
they returned. 'Steve. I'm going to remove the tape. But before I
do, I'll ask one question. Will you and your gang work with us?
Taking the tape off now.'

Steve
Telford chuckled. 'Not sure why, but I find you strangely
attractive.'

'You
have excellent taste, but in your dreams. Will you lot join forces
with us?'

'If we
don't?

'You all
die. Boom. Ironic, yes?'

'And if
we do?'

'You
live and don't end up behind bars. Ferret. How much time left on
the timer?'

'Eighty
two seconds. We should go. They had their chance.'

'Okay. I
am so disappointed in you, Steve. Have a nice death.'

'Turn
the timer off. Let's talk.'

Chapter 33

'What
just happened?' The Chief asked.

Andersen
said, 'The Ferret happened. Him and your sister. It's all
over.'

'They
sorted it out?'

'Yes.
And Fred sends Poppy his love.'

The
Chief put those words into his mind, trying to make sense of them.
'No. Dale. It isn't all over. Maybe the explosives and the
extortion. No. It hasn't ended. It's just begun. But I tell you
this. My sister and the Ferret came through for us. While we were
all scratching our backsides, wondering what the hell to do next,
those two were actually doing it. They saved the hotel. They saved
a factory and over three hundred jobs. They saved possibly hundreds
from being killed and injured at the stadium. Think about that for
a moment. Two people. My sister and the Ferret, did all that. We
owe them big time.'

'I can
see that,' acknowledged Andersen. 'Where do we go from
here?'

'If they
need us, we will be there for them. We hear their call, we are
there for them like they were here for us.'

'We'll
be ready. Goodnight, Chief.'

* * *

Hank
Andrews flew at Sandra Mitchell, and his Uncle Steve's strong arm
held him back.

'She'd
kill you in a heartbeat. There's an old song that says you gotta
know when to fold 'em. Fold 'em, Hank.'

'They
robbed us of millions.'

'There'll be another time. What's this really
about?'

'You lot
have been a bit of a side issue for us, to be honest,' said Sandra.
'We were in two minds whether or not just to turn you in. We could
still do that, by the way, if you wish to push your
luck.'

Steve
Telford grinned at the most exciting woman he had met since the
death of his wife four years before. 'You said you want our
help?'

'You
might be useful.'

Frank
Telford said, 'What's in it for us if we help you?'

'No jail
time. We let you go free. That and doing your country a huge
favour.'

'And if
we refuse?'

'Hmm. We
either kill all of you, or get you locked up. I'm not too bothered
either way myself. But think about it. We have already put a block
on any of you leaving the country. There is also an envelope with
all your details with a certain legal person who will release it if
anything happens to us. Go free or go down. Your
choice.'

Steve
Telford said, 'We help you, we go free?'

'Pretty
much.'

Telford
looked at the others. 'Any objections? Because if there are, I'll
let you debate it with these two. Any takers?'

Nobody
spoke. Telford approached Sandra. 'We could shake on it or, we
could kiss.'

'I'm out
of your league. Shake my hand then impress me. If you are a lucky
boy, I might let you kiss my cheek.'

Telford
took her hand in both of his and looked deeply into her eyes. 'If I
get to kiss your cheek, I'll die happy.'

Chapter 34

'Your
husband, and, let's be honest, my sister, who happens to be your
mother by the way, are heroes.'

For
Poppy, it was a comfort of sorts that her husband, father of the
child she was carrying, and a mother she hadn't seen for a year,
were regarded as heroes. 'Nice. We should invite them over for
Sunday roast.'

'Hello.
A hotel worth millions, a factory with three hundred jobs in the
balance, thousands of people at the stadium. All saved because of
them. That makes me so proud I could burst. Poppy. They have a job
to do. Let them get on with it and know they'll be coming home when
it's over.'

'I can't
kill him then?'

'No. Your aunty had the right
idea. She never killed
me
. If I had been really really bad, I would have things
tipped over my head.'

'Oh,
Uncle Bernie.'

'You
don't believe me? Right. Me forgetting her thirty third birthday.
Irish stew. Ruined a perfectly good shirt. Fifteenth wedding
anniversary. Custard, fortunately cold. Missed a special dinner
with friends. Beer. Another ruined shirt. I reckon I've got through
more shirts from various stuff being poured over me than actually
wearing them out. Can you hear what I'm trying to say
here?

'Don't
kill him when he gets home?'

Bernie
nodded. 'That would be a good thing.'

* * *

Even
Sandra Mitchell felt out numbered. The water in he pool at the
mansion was at the perfect temperature, and she didn't mind the
smell of cigars. She hadn't questioned who the one piece swimming
costume may have belonged to. She wanted to relax to the point
where eight men wouldn't try to kill her. Ducket, feeling a little
self conscious with his skinny body, had fought well but here on
their home turf he had limited use. He was at one end of the pool,
swimming badly. If it got nasty, she knew she was on her own. She
sipped her wine.

'You're
an interesting woman.' Steve Telford had sat next to Sandra and it
hadn't seemed strange.

'I have
my moments.'

'You
work for the government?'

'I
thought all tax payers did that. According to your records, you pay
some. You are self employed. A crop sprayer.'

Telford
chuckled. 'When they start spending the tax dollars wisely, I won't
begrudge what they take off me. Sandra. There's something big, bad
and ugly coming our way, you say. When are you going to tell us
what it is?'

'Tomorrow. Right now I'm just a woman in a heated pool,
sipping wine. Sorry you didn't get your millions.'

'No,
you're not. It doesn't matter. We'll lie low for a while and have
another go. Sandra. We would never hurt those people in the
stadium. Or anywhere else for that matter. That was never our
intention. We are not thugs. We just want lots of money. Nothing
wrong with that.'

Sandra
said,'Every day we hear about wealthy people doing obnoxious things
to get even more money. The lines are blurred. The people I
sometimes defend aren't worth defending. I'd rather put my energy
into people worth saving. We stopped you because there was a
potential for ordinary people to be hurt. We watched your sorry
progress every step of the way. You all thought you were the ones
calling the tune. Not so. We could have stopped you at any time.
There was another reason we didn't.'

The more
she spoke, the more her full lips moved, the more this woman filled
his mind. 'I'm listening.'

'Not
tonight. But your special skills will be useful. Steve. You are a
qualified chopper pilot. Also a good coordinator. Frank. A
consulting mining engineer. You know all there is to know about
explosives and you had access to them. You probably sleep with
explosives you love them so much. Out of interest, what explosives
did you use?'

'Ammonium Nitrate. Nice and stable. Used in blasting. It just
needed an electric current going to the primer, that triggering the
T N T booster, which set off the ammonium nitrate. Easy when you
know how.'

'I'll
bear that in mind. Hank. You wrote the book on electronics.
Actually, three books. Titch. Expert on security systems. Blow on a
lock and it opens for you. Perhaps even as good as me. Gary. If it
has wheels, you can drive it. And you're a very good mechanic.
Chas. The baby of the group. A good all rounder. Nick. Useful on
computers. Nothing like the Ferret here, but you can get in and out
of places. We found out a lot about all of you from your Facebook
page. Thanks for that. Most helpful. Maybe Ferret will teach you a
trick or two. You all have skills. So basically, for men you are
all fairly useful.'

Nick
looked at the scrawny man swimming at the other end of the pool.
'He's that good with computers, is he?'

'Don't
embarrass yourself going up against him. Computers haven't caught
up with him yet. Plus the fact I've been training him how to fight.
He's not up to my standard, but he could take out any four of you
if he wanted to. If I were you, I'd be nice to him.'

'We get
the picture,' said Steve. 'But I'd rather be nice to you than
him.'

Sandra
climbed out of the pool, picked up a towel for her hair and leaned
over close to Steve Telford. 'You still have to impress me. Do that
and I promise you can kiss my cheek.'

'I look
forward to it. Goodnight, Sandra.'