Sabre Six : File 51 (5 page)

“Come on mate, let’s show you the area.” Hopefully, I’d be able to find something to eat around here, for lunch later on. I was starving.

We walked first, but then Smithy decided to jump in his car, as it would be a lot quicker.

“So come on, tell me! What’s this arsehole like then, Smithy? What have I let myself in for?”

He turned
to face me. “He’s a married man – for the third time, I might add. He has two kids, a girl and a boy. The girl is fourteen and the boy is eight. Your job will be to babysit the young fella, take him to school etc. Just keep a tight rope around his neck, Michael, and don’t let anyone near him.”

“Do we know anything about the crew?”

“Well, they’re possibly Al-Qaeda. Our top Intel is telling us that the cash is for guns etc. For the ‘cause’ and all that.”

“Tell me
about this lad. What does he do; what does he like to do; what are his hobbies?”

“He goes to
a Catholic school in a tiny village outside Paris. His class only holds about eleven children, and most of them are from upper-class families. It’s very private, as you can imagine. He’s in the junior rugby classes a lot, so he’s not a fat lay-about, like most kids of today. He is also a bit of a shy lad at first. Once he gets to know you, he’ll break out of it; you just need to gain his trust first.”

“I’ll buy him an ice cream then.” We both crack up.

Smithy pulled up outside a café, and I jumped out of the car and went in.

“What are you having then
, Smithy?”

“Get us three brews
, mate.”

“Three?”

“Yeah, our Ken is joining us. He’ll be here in two minutes.” I turned to the woman at the counter. My French is not particularly good.

I stuck
three fingers in the air and started waving my hand to and fro from my mouth, showing a cup sign. “Tea, love!  Tea, yeah? Do you get me, darling? Tea!” She looked right in my face.

“I am not your darling; I speak English
and I will get you some tea,” came the rather blunt reply.

On cu
e, two minutes later Ken arrived. I walked over to the table with our brews to greet him, and he was pleased to see us. He told us how his job went tits up and how he had to head back to the UK. He said it was a fuck up from the start, that “those tossers in Arras could not even plan a day trip to the zoo without screwing it up.” He was not happy. The Police commissioner was a right know-it-all bastard. Ken had asked those above to keep his kid protected at school, and they fucked it up. The kid was nearly snatched by the mafia and after a terrific row with the Commissioner, Ken got the boy back home safely. He wasn’t happy! The barrister and the boy were evacuated to a safe house 100 miles away.

We finished off our brews, and Ken left for the UK with a smile on his face.

“Come on then, let’s get you back to your glamorous hotel for a spa, you camp bastard!”

“Now that sounds good, Smithy. Come on
, let’s go then!”

He dropped
me off just before the spa closed. The only other option was to give our Hannah a phone call and then get pissed in the bar. Well, I couldn’t let the side down, now could I!

Monday Morning

05:45hrs (Security Office)

Smithy had lent
me a motor for the week. I arrived at the front gate. “He wasn’t wrong. You really do live in the middle of bloody nowhere, mate, don’t you!” I went on muttering to myself. It was most probably the nerves kicking in.

Three security guards were standing at the main gate waiting to meet me. A dog barked constantly, sniffing about the place, and I showed one of the three m
y papers. Another of them phoned through to the main office, checking me out. He hung up the phone.

“Come with me
, Mr Fox.” One of the guards jumped in the passenger seat and I drove the car in through the narrow gate and up the driveway. With trees on either side, it looked like something from a horror movie. I could see a large house up front and said to myself, “You’d have thought a man with his money would have had better cars than that. What a cheap bastard!” It looked like an old Datsun Cherry on the front drive.

“Follow me
, Mr Fox.” We walked inside, with me feeling a little tense, but that was only to be expected. I was told to take a seat in the living quarters; I was then given a cup of coffee and a small wafer biscuit.

Soon after anoth
er man entered the room and walked up to me.

“I have been waiting for you
, Mr Fox.” We shook hands.

“Please
Sir, call me Michael.”

“I hope you have enjoyed your stay with us so far?”

“Yes Sir, I have. The hotel I’m staying at is superb Sir, the best, especially the bar.” He giggled like a child. I thought that Claude would have been a lot taller!

His son ra
n into the room and grabbed hold of his father.

“This is my son Pierre. Say hello
, Pierre.” He stood nervously by his father’s side, his little head drooping, and greeted me. Pierre was about as nervous as they came. He had short brown hair, blue eyes and was missing a finger on his left hand. It was a birth defect.

“‘Allo
!” Then he hid behind his father once again. He was quite cute actually.

Pierre suddenly darted
out from behind his dad and walked cautiously over to me.

“Excuse me, Sir! A
re you going to look after me?” I crouched down and looked straight into his eyes.

“I give you my word, Pierre
, I give you my word.” He smiled timidly and then ran out of the room.

“Claude seems happy enoug
h. Let’s get cracking on then, mate.”

“Would you care for a little light lunch, Michael?”

“Well, yes Sir, I would please, that would be awfully kind of you.” This was the life, hey! I had a great morning. The Lady of the House escorted me about the place. She was a grand and calm woman. She had her head on her shoulders all right and was very protective of her family and so she should be.

“
Mr Fox, Pierre needs this with him always, ok?” She passed me an inhaler for his asthma, and I was rigorously reminded of any medical disorders in the family, and what she wanted me to do in an emergency. I could not blame her for being so protective; she was protecting her only son.

“I promise no harm will come to your son
, ma’am.” She smiled at me.

“Come on. I will show you the gardens.”

Next,
I was introduced to the head of security. With all the diplomatic stuff out the way, it was time to get down to business. I was not going to hold back with some jumped-up security guard.

“Righ
t, mate. My name is Michael. Whatever you were doing before is about to be thrown in the bin. You got me, mate?” Oh, he got me all right. He didn’t look too happy, but he got me.

I located his office and checked his security files, what kit they had and so on. Most of it was binned. “You only have one guard on nights?” He told me about staffing levels.

“Don’t you worry about that; I will get you all the funding you need.”

I held
a meeting with security management that afternoon. We gathered in the boardroom with locked doors.

“Gentlemen
, may I humbly apologise for my lack of French skills on this occasion. I have been welcomed here with open arms and I am sincerely grateful for that. However, I am also here to carry out a job, and that job is to protect young Pierre from a very serious threat. This is no joke, gentlemen. A young person’s life is in danger and we are here to prevent that as from now. Do you understand me?” They nodded in agreement.

“From this
moment life as you once knew it is over.”

“This is the plan.” They listen
ed in carefully.

“I want
funding from you the manager, to replace all the security cameras in the grounds. Is that ok, Sir?”

“Yes, Michael. What else do you need?”

“Sir, I’ve been talking to the head of security this morning and we have only one man on nights. That is just not enough: we need a minimum of two, ideally more. Can we fund this please?” The head of security agreed.

“I also want static and perimeter patrols in and around the g
rounds twenty-four seven. If we have dogs, then why aren’t they being used effectively? Come on, guys, let’s screw the nut.” I walked the grounds with the security manager, looking for weak points that could compromise the house security. I pulled out my personal notebook and briefed the manager as to what I wanted in the near future.

“Right
, boss! We have an acre of ground here. I’ve already seen one hole in the fence down by the duck pond, which isn’t secure at all. The fence is broken in two places by the squash courts and I could run a regiment through that drive way without anyone knowing about it!” He looked rather pathetic! I called the rest of the guys in and briefed them on my findings. Then I got the boss down to listen to what I had to say.

“Than
k you, guys, for coming back.  I’ve been around the grounds and I’m not really happy!” I read out my list of faults. The men agreed with me.

“With your permission
, boss, I would like a little extra funding to correct these faults. I’d like two men permanently stationed at the front entrance, and two guard dogs patrolling the grounds every hour. I would also like the repairs done this week to the exterior fence etc.” The boss was happy, and so was I.

L
ater that afternoon we ended the briefing. I had my dinner and the boss insisted that I stay from this day forwards. Smithy brought my kit over and I retired to my new quarters for the evening. The room was a double, with a small narrow window made of dark pine. I had a great view of the garden and the main gate house. Through the vast tree line, I could see down into a valley where a bunch of sheep stood munching on the grass. I had a small lamp next to my bed with a little glass of water and a couple of chocolate cookies. I felt very welcome.

The following morning I met
a few colleagues downstairs for a full hearty French breakfast: croissants, preserves, and a cup of coffee.

The head of security met
me outside after breakfast. Pierre stood behind me, and I was handed a Browning 9mm pistol with a shoulder holster.

“Have you got your school bag, young man?”

“Yes, Sir. Oh!” He ran back inside, and then came running out again holding his PE kit.

“I nearly forgot this, S
ir.”

“Don’t call me “S
ir”, call me Michael – ok?” He jumped in my car and we drove towards the main gate. I waved over to the guards and smiled, and they waved back. They seemed friendly enough. I’d soon work them into shape, and have them working as a team before the end of the week!

“Are you scared, Pierre?” A bit of a dumb thing to ask, but I could not think of anything else to say.

“A little, but I know I have you and the others looking after me, so I feel safer now.”

“Don’t you worry
, young Pierre; I am the best there is for looking after people.”

“Good! Are you sure
we have to go to school? Can’t we go fishing or something?”

“No, because your dad would have me shot!” We both laughed. It was fun hanging around with a young boy. He seemed quite funny, and he had a great sense of humour.

“You can drop me here, Michael.” We arrived at school. The headmaster soon came running over to us with a few young female teachers by his side, (which I did not mind at all!)

“Good morning, Pierre, and you must be Mr Fox. How lovely to meet you. Please follow me.”

“How is your father, Pierre? Come; mind that step, Mr Fox.” His beauties followed on.

Soon we
arrived in his plush office, full of decorations and old army pictures of himself.

“Right, Headmaster, you obviously know what’s going on. My job is to keep young Pierre here alive, and that I will do. I will shadow him constantly throughout the day. I will be watching his every move. If, and I mean IF something should spook me, then I will be pulling Pierre immediately from school, ok?”

“Yes, that is fine by me, Mr Fox.”

“Good.” I’m offered a cup of tea.

“So tell me, Headmaster, about your days in the forces!” I was intrigued.

“Yes, of course Michael. I was in the French Special Forces for nine years. They were very good times.”

“So why did you leave?”

“Family
, Michael, family! The love of a good woman, who gave me better attention than my Sergeant Major.” I totally agreed.

“Right
, Pierre! It’s time we got you to class. If Madame Pevreall asks of your whereabouts this morning, then tell her to contact me in my office directly. Ok, Pierre?”

I followed Pierre into his classroom, where I met his teacher. She seemed ok; she was safe enough for me. The first lesson today was Maths! I had forgotten how boring maths was. No wonder I failed maths as a kid. I felt so sorry for these poor little sods. Most of the kids looked half asleep.