Storymania - It Wasn't The Bullet by Iain Young

It Wasn't The Bullet (25)
Iain Young

Charlie pulled out his battered pack of Marlboros and tossed a single cigarette to Simon, taking his eyes off the street for a moment he picked it up and lit it. Charlie was filled with tension. He knew he should force his muscles to relax to stave off cramping, but all he could concentrate on was Samantha’s ordeal to come. He carefully un-holstered his Browning and laid it on the ledge. Simon must have caught the subtle movement from his peripheral view.
“Put it away Charles.” It was a statement, the short sentence left no room for manoeuvre. “Samantha has chosen to do this, her way. Let her be, what happens next, will happen and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. She wants to prove herself, let her.” Charlie watched Simon turn back to his vigil. Charlie hesitated very briefly and returned the weapon back under his shoulder. Suddenly they heard Samantha’s voice. She was drunkenly singing ‘California Dreaming’, she wasn’t loud but with enough volume that a passer by would recognise her for what she wanted to be taken for. She came into their line of sight; she appeared to be splendidly drunk. A slight falter to her walk, she brandished her bottle like a flag and when she took and drink, staggered ever so slightly. She reached the low garden wall of the house next door to Hamilton. There she stopped. Carefully placing the bottle at her feet, she placed both hands on the moss-covered brick and gave a very theatrical ‘Huuurrogh’, her shoulders hunched up as she convulsed again.
“Fucking brilliant sweetheart” said Charlie at the same time as Simon remarked,
“Absolutely splendid!” They both found time to chuckle at themselves, and the bubble of anxiety burst. Samantha was on!
She had turned herself around and now was seated, bottle in hand, wiping her mouth with the dog eared sleeve of the woollen cardigan she had somehow found in one of the wardrobes in the house. Then very carefully placing the paper sack and its contents between her knees, she produced a tatty cigarette and began to smoke it. They could her singing again and the three of them waited for their target to arrive.
It was not a long wait. Three pairs of eyes turned as the sound of the Jaguar came into earshot. Samantha did not move, she just took another swig of her bottle and watched as the car drew up to the same place as it had stopped every single time in the tapes that they had seen. The passenger door swung open and the body guard clambered out, it was then Samantha made her move.
She shouted, “Heeey! Heeey! Yeah you, with the tea cosy.” The man turned round angrily, and Samantha pushed herself off the wall and walked toward him. Charlie could see her lips moving but could not make out what she was saying, suddenly Simons voice interceded in a monotone.
“Samantha ‘Come on, give me a fucking fag.’
Body guard ‘Fuck off, you drunken witch’’ Charlie took his eyes off Samantha and turned to Simon. In his hand he held a small pair of binoculars, he was lip reading. ‘Fuck,’ thought Charlie briefly, ‘Is there nothing this cunt don’t know’
“Samantha ‘Who the fuck are you calling drunk? You fuck! Give me a fag!!’
Body guard ‘Get lost, bitch’
As this exchange was taking place and Samantha was encroaching neared and nearer to the man, Hamilton had also got out of the vehicle and had a big grin on his face as he watched the show. Samantha was now close enough to touch him, she reared up, her index finger pointed out as if to lecture the man and promptly lost her balance and fell. She careened into his body, knocking slightly backwards and the sound of breaking glass travelled across the road and through the window. Samantha struggled to her feet and yelled
“You fucking cunt! You fuck! You broke my fucking bottle. You owe me a bottle of fucking Smirnoff.” Her voice lowered,
“Samantha ‘Come on, pay up. Be a man about it.’
Body guard ‘Just fuck off woman. You’re not getting fuck all from me’
Hamilton ‘Toby, calm down. Here you are lady. Here’s a fiver. Just piss off.’
Once again, Samantha raised her voice to that of a banshee,
“Are you a poofter? Got to get yer boyfriend to pay everything for you. Go on, you are, in’t yer. You’re a fucking nancy boy.” That did it. Toby grabbed hold of Samantha arm and pulled her to him. His hand came back to strike and Hamilton bellowed,
“Inside now! Leave her alone. Don’t you know where we are?!”
“Hamilton ‘Come on, inside. You want everybody in the fucking street outside looking at us. You, no fiver, no nothing. Fuck off’ ”
Samantha staggered backward as Toby pushed her away. She scrambled on the ground to pick up the dog end she had dropped. She straightened up, and swaying slightly, said,
“ Samantha ‘You’re lucky I’m in a good mood, otherwise I’d have kicked yer fairy balls off.’”
Toby lunged at her again, but Samantha was too quick, she ran drunkenly down the street cursing. Toby and Hamilton made their way to their front door and the driver steered the Jag to wherever he parked it for the night.
“Wow,” said Charlie as he turned himself around and sat with his back against the striped wallpaper, legs out in front of him. “What a performance. She had me fooled a couple of times.”
“Yes indeed. Remarkable. She does seem to have an enormous talent for assuming a character. I must admit, she rather scared me at one point!” They both grinned and slowly made the crawl back to the kitchen.

Simon had stopped partway on their return journey to liberate another bottle from the tacky drinks cabinet saying ‘I rather feel like a tipple myself after watching such a masterful thespian at work’
They had emptied a couple of glasses before either of them spoke. Charlie broke the silence,
“Where did you learn to lip read? Was it a special forces thing?”
“No, not at all. Although our training was extremely diverse, lip reading was not one of the talents they expressed a desire for us to learn. It was Terrence’s idea after a particularly tense time abroad. We could have avoided a lot of excitement if we had had the ability to know what our targets had been saying. So young Terrance hit upon the idea of attending a deaf teachers school on our down time from active service. We had a colleague falsify some credentials and spent, oh I would say, nigh on two years, on and off, learning this discipline. Terrence, of course, was far more competent at it than I. He could read German and French too.”
“Terry could speak French and German?” said Charlie incredulously.
“Oh Charles.” Simon laughed, “Terry could speak Spanish and Portuguese also. He loved people to perceive him as the loutish oaf. He wasn’t hiding things from you Charles,” he said noticing the frown on Charlie’s face, “One of the things we were taught in the psyche school was that, and I believe I am paraphrasing a smidgen, ‘There is no need to tell anyone how good you are until they need to know, and by then, it will probably be to late for them to appreciate it.’ No, Terrance was a good and loyal friend. I miss him a lot.”
Charlie poured Simon another glass of whiskey, and they sat back in their respective chairs waiting for Samantha to return.

Somewhere Simon had found a cribbage board and cards. It transpired that both men had a passion for the game and were evenly matched. The neon London night began to settle and Charlie’s concentration started to wander from the cards and onto where Samantha had got to. It had been three hours since she had completed the first act of her performance. A street light in the alley was now there only source of illumination and it was casting an eerie amber glow over the table. Simon had excused himself a couple of times to make telephone calls, but he spoke so softly that Charlie could not make out the substance of the conversations. Only Simons ‘…and a pair makes sixteen. Ah ha, my game I believe’, brought Charlie back to the room.
“Damn, I didn’t even see you do that,” was his reply. “Another?” Simon collected the discarded cards and shuffled them while Charlie moved the scoring pegs back to zero.
“Oh, she’ll be along soon enough. I think that she has learned quite a bit through osmosis and is making sure that no one is following her. Don’t fret Charles.” Simon tossed the required number of cards onto the table a placed the stack between them. As he did so the back gate creaked softly open and through the opening walked Samantha.
“Great job Sam!” gushed Charlie and gave her a brotherly hug. She was all smiles as Simon expressed the identical sentiment. Charlie poured another glass and handed it to her, she drank a healthily swallow and sat down at the table.
“Have you got a cigarette please, Charlie? I ran out, and the two shops I went into wouldn’t serve me!” After she had taken a couple of well deserved drags on the smoke she looked at both of them in turn and spoke,
“The garden wall is about two feet away from the base of the rhododendron bushes. I think there is enough room for you both to fit in there without being seen from the pathway of the house. Of course if some one was to lean over like I did, you would be discovered.
Another thing I noticed with our targets,” she paused and reddened slightly after using the terminology that was alien to her, “All three of them were stoned. The smell of grass was like an overpowering cheap perfume. I also saw that the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt. Is there anything else I should tell you about?” Samantha looked as pleased as punch with herself. Charlie and Simon were both grinning too.
“An outstanding job, my dear. One more tiny piece of the puzzle and we will be ready. I am expecting the arrival of a parcel any moment.” Then as if on cue, the gate once again creaked open and just as swiftly closed again. Simon left the room and came back holding a black cotton bag with a drawstring at its top. He placed it on the table and sat with his hands intertwined and folded in front of him. He took a breath, aware of the eyes upon him. He spoke,
“Are we agreed that I am controlling this operation?” Samantha and Charlie nodded their assent. “This is how we are going to execute the plan.” He untied the bag and pulled out the contents. A .38 Smith and Wesson revolver became the centre of attention as it was put next to the set of car keys and three pages of an A to Z with jagged edges. “Now, the gun is for you Samantha, there will be no arguing. I chose a revolver for ease of use. It is loaded with six rounds. You will put in the pocket of your cardigan and when we move you hand will be on it. All you have to do, if it becomes necessary, is point and pull the trigger. It is possible that that Toby character could put two and two together very quickly. If this should happen and he attempts to attack or restrain you, I want your assurance that you will shoot. Even if you do not hit him with a bullet, it should provide you with ample opportunity to make you escape. No matter how much I wish this to succeed, I will not carry on with this until I have your assurance that you will carry out my wishes.” He stopped and stared at Samantha. She met his gaze and reached out her hand and picked up the gun.
“All I have to do is pull the trigger?” her voice came out small and childlike. Simon nodded. She retracted her arm and the small black weapon disappeared into the deep pocket of moth eaten robe.
“Good. Now, when we have snatched our man, you escape route is,” he fiddled with the scraps of paper, “Here. Go to the end of the road and you will see a red Cortina. The curbside rear door will be open, get in, and one of my associates will take you back to our safe house. Please, once again, do not try to engage him in conversation or try to look at him. He will deliver you safely home.” He handed the sheet to Samantha and told her to retain the image of the cars position. “Right, Charles, you and I. We will deploy at 0300 to our primary observation point. I feel that this will be the optimum time of least discovery. Here we will wait until out moment arrives. Samantha, it is critical you keep all three of these men looking your way. That is, down the street away from our position. As soon as you have their undivided attention we shall strike. Charles, you will eliminate the driver, remove him from the vehicle, take his hat, and open the passenger door. I will slide in and cover Hamilton as he gets into the car. I am certain that the angle of vision will not be enough for him to see the driver change until he is actually in the car. By that time it will, of course, be too late for him to react. Then you will drive here.” He handed over another piece of the road atlas to Charlie. Drawn on the page was a black line tracing the route to an address by the railway line. It did not appear to be far from their current location.
“This is the site of one of those workshops you find built into the bridge arches under the railway lines. The doors will be open and once inside, you will jump out and close the gates. I will then begin the interrogation. Whilst this is happening, I do not expect the whole thing to last for more than fifteen minutes, I want you to prep our escape vehicle, which will also be parked inside. We will all rendezvous at the safe house. Are we all clear?”
“I guess there is no fallback plan?” It was a mostly rhetorical question that Charlie had posed.
“All I can say is, we will survive and our three targets will not. If the worst should occur, we do not leave them alive. We will separate and escape and evade the best we can. We will make our way to this address.” He passed the last piece of map to Charlie, who nodded and gave it to Samantha. It showed the directions to a village in the south of England, the exact address written in biro on the top of the page, it was photocopied from an atlas of Britain. Charlie knew approximately where it was and he asked Samantha if she was familiar with this area of the country.
“Yes, I’ve been around that area on holidays with my parents.” At the mention of her family, a cloud crossed her face and Charlie assumed that the gravity of the coming events had suddenly become real.
“Are you still OK with all of this? We can find another way, and Simon and I will do this ourselves.” Simon nodded in agreement.
“I’m fine, let’s go ahead and do it. What time should I ‘deploy’ myself?”
“I think you should stay here until 0930 and just make you way into position. I think it would suit your cover to hang around in the street until they make their appearance.” Simon checked the hands on his watch and said,
“I think we should try and get a two or three hours of shut eye. The hallway carpet has the most appeal to me.” With that he got up and tossed back the remaining liquid in his glass and headed for his chosen bed.
Samantha and Charlie remained at the table. Charlie could think of no words to say, and they sat kitty corner to each other in silence until Samantha said,

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