Hunters: A Trilogy (123 page)

Still, he was here now and she knew they would have some good times whilst he was – just having him home was good enough for her. After another ten minutes, she extracted a sheaf from the paper’s interior and slid it across the table top. ‘Have a read of that,’ she murmured, waiting for Ken to look up before nodding in reference to the paper by his elbow. He raised his eyebrows in question. ‘Property section,’ she said, with a wink. ‘And by the looks of things they haven’t been able to sell that lodge we liked…’

Jane grinned at him, eyes twinkling mischievously.

He sniffed in disdain, saying: ‘Oh, you mean
that
lodge, the one that I quite liked, and the one that you
really
loved! That’ll be the lodge we’re talking about here, yeah?’ With a shake of the head, Ken picked up the paper and began to read. Uttering a whistle some short time into his perusal of the large advert, he looked up and said, ‘Bloody hell! They’ve knocked a huge lump of cash off the price – I guess they must really want to emigrate badly!’ Ken smiled at his wife.

The one and only reason they weren’t sitting in the beautiful stone lodge right now was the simple fact that no matter how they had tried, the couple had not been able to make the figures add up, they had simply been unable to afford it.

But now with the price lowered, and another year of savings behind them…

Ken grinned, saying: ‘So, what do you think – should we try for it?’

Jane stared at him, thinking for a while before she spoke.

Then, with a serious expression upon her face, she said, ‘I would do anything to move up there, I’ll get two jobs if that’s what it takes! But, and I’m sticking to the plan here – there is no way should we sell this place, it’s our nest-egg and we’ve worked hard for this!’

Ken nodded in agreement, and then bent down to examine his email once more. Rising from the table, he walked over to the window and looked out across the rooftops of London. The greyness of the city depressed him, not just this city, all cities had the same effect – Ken was more of an outdoors type of guy and he missed the country life. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned away from the window and looked at his wife.

Standing before her, he said, ‘Well, there is just one question…’ He frowned at her, and Jane’s face dropped. Ken, whilst grinning like a Cheshire cat, then said, ‘How’s your Scottish accent doing these days?’

Jane looked at him in surprise, then, and upon seeing that he wasn’t joking, jumped to her feet, ran around the table and leapt into his arms like an excited two year old, smothering his face and neck in big, sloppy kisses.

He let her have her own way for a while, before gently lowering his wife until her feet reached the floor. ‘Right,’ he said, ‘one more piece of good news!’ He motioned his head towards the table where the laptop lay. ‘You know that big job in Afghanistan – the one down south?’ Seeing her nod, he continued. ‘Well, I’ve just received the contract and it’s a good one: really great money, two months in country and one month off, and at least two years’ guaranteed work, so…’ he grinned at her, saying: ‘…I guess you won’t need two jobs after all, and even if it means I’m away again, we both know that no-one is just gonna hand us this on a plate! I don’t mind putting the hard yards in, and if it gets us what we want, then why the hell not?’

Jane reached up and kissed him on the lips, much more seriously this time.

Leaning back from his face, she stared at him and said, ‘If you’re sure, then that’s fine by me, it’s what you do and I’m used to it. You know that I would quite happily sleep on a park bench as long as you were there!’

Ken knew that, without a doubt.

With a wicked grin, he said, ‘Come on then, let’s get busy, you ring the agent, I think they’re open on a Sunday, and book us a viewing, we can go anytime that suits them – the sooner the better!’

Jane skipped away to get all the details, her dark locks bouncing in time to her happy steps. Ken, whilst smiling at the joyful way his wife behaved when she knew they were going on a new adventure, shouted out to her departing figure: ‘I’m just gonna ring ‘pretty-boy’ to see what he knows!’

Hearing Jane tell him to say ‘Hi’ for her, Ken reached for his mobile phone.

Finding the number he required, he pushed the call button and walked over to the window. As he stood there, staring at the burgeoning traffic and listening to the ringing tone of the phone in his ear, Ken was filled with a sudden sense of having done this before, the room almost seemed to wobble. The sensation flooded into his head with a rush, and if he hadn’t heard the cheery tone of his best friend’s voice answering the call, he would most likely have sat down and done some serious thinking for a while.

But he didn’t.

Instead, and with that cheesy grin spread across his face, Ken spoke into the mouthpiece. ‘Mikey, where’ve you been, you lazy bugger?’ he said. ‘Have you seen that email about the contract in Afghanistan? What do you reckon, are you up for it, or what?’ Hearing the Australian’s affirmative reply, Ken’s face broke into a wicked grin.

‘Right, that’s bloody great!’ he said. ‘We’d best get packing – I’ll see you in a couple of weeks! Oh, and bring some decent tea with you this time, Mike!’

Ken rang off and placed his phone back on the table. He stood looking out of the window once more. The itchy feet were back, new adventures awaited.

‘I wonder what this little trip is going to throw in our direction,’ he thought, with a wry smile, ‘I hope it’s something exciting…’

***

And so it begins again. George has plenty of time to try and get it right the next time around. He’s not sure, exactly, who will be required to go back and complete the hunt – one thing is for sure, they will need to be people with experience, because only the chosen may carry battle unto the Darkness.

George also knows that it’s never too late to go back and try again, even if they have to go back over and over. Above all, the old man knows that if he prevails, if they all prevail, then success will be achieved, no matter what.

The Darkness will be defeated, of that the old man has no doubt.

The End

Only the chosen may render battle unto the Darkness…

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