Scorpion's Vengeance

by Lawrence Hebb

  “That might be summat we can use” Joey’s northern accent came out, as it did when he was getting frustrated, he was starting to, “If we ever catch up with him that is”

  Sandy stepped forward and sat down, the laptop was open and running, “Photos are where?” she asked.

  “Here” Smithy leaned over and clicked the mouse, the screen changed and the photos on the hard drive came up, she selected the one she wanted and minimized the screen, next she took out a flash drive and plugged it in, the screen changed, fifteen seconds later they saw the screen change as the insignia of Her Majesty’s government came up, the lion on the left and the unicorn on the right, holding up the shield with the four emblems of the United Kingdom came up, “We’re in” she said as the screen changed, “Might take me some time to get the information through”

  Just at that moment, their phones pinged a message, it simply read, “Code blue, London. Tower Bridge, ASAP”

  “Shit” Smithy looked at Joey, “we’re supposed to wait for Jacko and Mac, What ya reckon?”

  “Code blue’s a code for a kidnapping” Sandy replied, “Who?” they sent the reply.

  “Don’t piss me around” the reply came back, “How soon can you get here”, they recognised the number, it was Chamber’s number, did that mean?

  “Sir Michael safe” the next message came back alleviating their fears, “will explain when you arrive, assistance required urgent, How soon?”

  Confused was an understatement, then a message came from another number, it was Jacko, simply said: “Haul ass, GO!!”

  “How far is London?” Joey asked, they were in Reading, a large town outside the M25 motorway ring road, about two junctions along the M4 motorway heading towards Wales and the West Country, “about an hour” Sandy was the one that replied, “at this time, you can do it in forty-five minutes, maybe a bit less, get moving you two, I’ll stay here and sort through the information we’ve got!”

  Joey and Smithy ran for the car like to kids let loose in their favourite playground as Sandy texted “Scorpion three and four on the route, ETA 45”

  Chapter 20

  BJ still felt uncomfortable, she’d taken the Uber knowing they’d be next to impossible to follow, but something just wasn’t right! She wasn’t sure if it was the stuff she’d been given or the fact that she just felt like she was being watched.

  Investigations follow the evidence, a copper follows the evidence wherever it leads, but there are times when there’s none, and the cops have a choice, either wait and see what ‘breaks’ or take a chance and see if they can force their enemy’s hand, knowing when to do that took what every copper called ‘going with their gut’, but something just wasn't right. Ask her and she wouldn't be able to tell you anything, ‘just doesn't feel right’.

  She checked the street, nothing out of the ordinary, everything seemed quiet, almost too quiet. Just a scooter in the street, she opened the car door and headed for the front door of her apartment building, what Brits affectionately call ‘flats’

  The lights were out in the passageway, nothing major really as they were out when she went to work that morning, ‘wish he’d get a damn move on and fix the bloody things’ she thought, about the local caretaker‘ it's only a sodding fluorescent light after all!

  Reaching for her keys she let herself in, she stepped through the door relieved to be home, but something wasn't right, the wrong light was on. Before she could back away a hand reached out and yanked her inside.

  “Come here bitch” a harsh voice rasped as she hit the wall, another shove sent her flying into the lounge, ‘Gang?’ her brain started to try and guess what was going on, she still had hold of her bag, swinging it she caught one of them square in the face, he didn't even flinch, “got some fight have we bitch?” the voice had a cockney accent, “gonna be fun this”.

  She landed on the coffee table, it was Teac, a hardwood on a bone usually means broken bones, the pain was almost unbearable, but she wasn't going down without a fight, another swing but the assailants easily dodged even in the confined space.

  She had a pepper spray canister on her belt, on her left-hand side, she went for it, the pepper spray would blind them if she could just get to it. She was quick, but the assailant was quicker, as soon as she reached it he reached for her arm.

  “No you don’t”he shouted as he slammed her arm down into the table, the pain was unreal, but she wasn’t letting go of her only chance, she tried again, the canister bounced across the floor, frantically reaching for the face she tried clawing at the eyes, both men were wearing some kind of mask, one of them kicked her hand hard.

  “Where’s the hard drive?” He shouted at her as he punched her in the mouth

  “Piss off” she screamed back struggling to kick him between the legs, it was a feeble attempt, she was fast losing the fight, but that didn't mean she was giving up, she’d go down fighting.

  Still trying to reach the canister, she reached out, but another fist caught her square in the temple almost knocking her unconscious, but that when her world started to do strange things.

  Later, when the police took her statement, she described it as “the bloody door just flew open, some guy in a ski mask stepped in and beat the crap out of the first two!”

  “Did you get a good look at the assailant?” it was a dumb question, but they knew it had to be asked. The cop interviewing her looked pretty sheepish asking the questions, he was a ‘plain clothes copper, from the local ‘nick’ as police stations in the UK are known, BJ vaguely knew the guy, she was pretty sure they’d been on the same courses a couple of times, but couldn't for the life if her remember his name.

  “Which one?” She replied holding the ice pack she’d been given against one side of her face, she knew it was going to be an absolute ‘shiner’ of a black eye on that side. “they all wore ski masks!”

  “Were they carrying weapons?”

  “The first two, those that attacked me” she screwed her face up as if trying hard to remember, “they had knuckle dusters, and I think they might have had other stuff, but they only used the dusters”

  “What about the other one?” from the question it sounded as if he wasn’t totally buying the idea that some dude in a ski mask had come to her help.

  “Didn’t see any” she replied truthfully, “he was so fast, then again” she paused, reached over wincing with pain, but finally reached the glass of water that was on the small hospital table that fitted on the bed, she took a sip before continuing, “I was pretty out of it by then you know Frank” she wasn’t sure what his damned name was, but at least trying to remember might change things a bit.

  “Actually it’s Peter” the cop began, sounding almost apologetic, he’d really fancied her on the course, and it kind of deflated the ego to think she’d forgotten him, “it’s just there are a few things that don’t make much sense, we didn’t find any evidence of anyone else in the flat!”

  “You think I clocked ‘em one?” she chuckled, it sounded ridiculous, the words were hard to piece together, and she wasn’t shouting, but the whole idea sounded too much, “How the hell am I going to do that with what, a broken wrist, dislocated shoulder, and God know what else.

  “We found three of ‘em in your flat” the cop replied cutting her off, “and you were the only other one there, we figured maybe you used the coffee table or something” he shrugged, he clearly had no answers, “do you have any idea what they were after?”

  “No” she lied, she’d known something was amiss as soon as she got to the flats, the hard drive was hidden, there was no sodding way they were getting their hands on it, not even the cops, not until she’d seen what was on the damn thing.

  Joey and Smithy had tossed a coin to decide who went in, Smithy had won, “You deal with the prick on lookout” he nudged Joey as he got out of their car, they were a couple of streets away, but knew exactly what was going down, Sandy had managed to activate Billie’s phone remotely, they had sound of the beating sh
e was getting, and the protector in them wanted to jump in an kill the swine slowly, they needed some things to happen for the plan to work, granted the cop getting beaten hadn’t been part of that plan, but they needed to cut all lines of communication before taking them out, and that meant Joey was ‘up first’

  The scooter was a ‘nifty fifty’ on the street under a streetlight, thinking that he was safe, the street wasn’t busy, but only an idiot would try and approach when he had three hundred and sixty degrees vision, but he didn’t count on the shadows, and Joey knew all about them.

  It took Joey about two minutes along the street using shadows, he was about ten feet behind the guy when he saw the phone he’d been using, he was texting, no idea what was coming next.

  Crash helmets are great for protecting you against accidents on a bike, but they’re useless when the assailant is coming for you from behind, and even worse than that, they give your attacker a dangerous advantage, they hinder your sight as well as hearing.

  There was an empty beer bottle in the gutter, it was perfect, the visor on the helmet was up, slowly Joey reached down and took hold of the bottle, he was in the crouch nine feet away, fingers wrapping around the bottle he sprung forward launching himself at the lookout, swinging the bottle for back of the neck as the other hand reached out for the base of the helmet and ripped it up over the guy’s head, the bottle came crashing down on the collarbone, splintering it in one fell swoop.

  The guy went down fast, dropping the phone and screaming in agony, one fist to the mouth soon shut him up, and removed a couple of teeth in the process, “Wanna live?” Joey hissed, “Then shut the hell up and I’ll think about it!” taking something out of his pocket he simply spoke into the device, “One down, rest are all yours buddy”

  As soon as he’d spoken into the device, Joey turned to the guy on the ground, he wasn’t struggling, and looked terrified, “who paid you?”

  “What you on about bro?” the guy replied, trying to pretend like he was innocent, “I’m just dealin’ a little”

  “Cut the crap” Joey punched him hard in the mouth, blood was oozing out, “We both know what you’re doing, so who sodding well paid you?”

  “Dunno what”

  Thwack, he hit him again, this time the nose gave way, “I can do this all night” Joey said, “can you take it? And by the way, don’t count on your friends coming to help, they’re in even worse shit than you are, my buddy’s meaner than I am” he let that sink in, “Now, who paid you?”

  “Dunno, no, stop” the guy tried to hold up his good arm, “I’m serious, I don’t, I got a text to be a lookout, no reason was given, just be here!”

  “And you thought it would be a picnic” Joey got ready to hit the guy again, more out of disgust this time.

  “I don’t ask questions” the guy offered hastily, “you ask them and you die with these people”

  “Well take my word for it” Joey hissed back, “You ever do something like this again, and you can book your place in the cemetery, GET MY MEANING!” he threw the guy onto his stomach and began one of the roughest searches he could manage, the guy did his best not to scream, but from the broken collarbone, busted nose and crushed nuts, he was in agony.

  Finally, after the search Joey flipped him back onto his back, he’d found the mobile, and few other things he’d expected to find, namely how they’d been able to find BJ’s flat, along with a weapon he’d not had time to get to, it was a BB pistol, “Listen shithead” he began again, “You and your mates just tried to kill a copper, they have eyes and ears all over the hospitals and the like here, how do you think you’ll fare when we let them know they’re treating one who tried to kill their own? Go near a hospital and you’re a marked man, go near a Doctors and we’ll know about it, you’re a marked man, try and call your bosses, and we have every number you’ve ever called, we’ll hunt you down, your only hope is to get out of London, and never ever come back, AM I MAKING MYSELF CLEAR?, Now piss off” then he had second thoughts of letting the prick go and king hit him straight in the face knocking him out like a light, he crumpled to the ground, Joey had a plan, he'd debated with Smithy whether they let the guy go, so he could spread the fear of who was coming for them, or well, let's just say Smithy lost the argument, he had a set of zip ties in his pocket, he thought about using them as well, but decided to stick with the plan.

  The guy began coming round, as soon as he was semi conscious he started to get up and made for the scooter, “Not so fast” Joey waited until he was about to put the scooter into gear before yanking him off it, he landed in a heap at Joey’s feet, “that stays with us, Now piss off” he’d already ripped the crash helmet off, next he king hit the guy straight in the face knocking him out like a light, next he pulled the zip chords he was carrying out of his pockets, they were gardening ones, one for the arms, the other for the legs, fifteen seconds later he was trussed up and Joey waited for Smithy’s ‘all clear’ he’d never intended that the guy would go free, but wanted to put the fear of the Good Lord into the creep at the same time as playing a psychological game with him, that way when the cops asked him he’d be more than ready to talk, and do so freely.

  Chapter 21

  “Just what were you two doing?” Sandy didn't sound impressed, “I couldn't get hold of you” she went on, “ I turn the radio on” she pointed to the police scanner she’d been using to track what the cops were up to, “and get this crap about masked vigilantes beating the crap out of two guys doing a copper over, Know anything about it?” she asked pointedly, it had Joey’s ‘trademark’ all over it.

  “Three” Smithy replied.

  “What?” Jacko was also in the room, he was enjoying seeing her ‘chew them out’

  “Three” Smithy said again, “there were three of them, one lookout, and two bozos in the flat, Joey did the lookout, I had fun with the others!” He almost looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he’d enjoyed it so much.

  “Leave me out of it!” Joey held up his hands, he’d crossed Sandy before, “apparently the word came from the top.”

  “Why?” Jacko asked, the place they were in was a small one bedroom flat, a small kitchen at the back leading out to the main lounge, the bedroom was on the right as the kitchen was on the left. Sandy had everything set up in the bedroom, the front room or lounge was where Mac positioned himself, to all who looked in it was just someone watching sky sports, the nine millimetres were concealed, but within easy reach.

  “Why what?” Sandy asked.

  “Didn’t MI6 want this thing kept ‘under wraps’ you know, secret?” he made an inverted comma sign, “she was investigating the body in the river, the one he thought we put there” he reminded her, “so why protect her?”

  “Six wanted it under wraps, as you put it, but not Sir Mike!” Sandy replied, she stopped and looked at each of them, looks of confusion on their faces, “six has a mole remember, standard procedure for them keep things under wraps, anything else and the mole would know we’re onto them.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense,” the confusion in the voices said the opposite, it was Joey voiced it though, “but why to leak the information.”

  “What got leaked?” Sandy asked.

  “No idea” Joey replied, “but whatever it was, caused some serious injury to the copper!”

  “Yet we don’t know what it was, and it's got someone spooked!” Mac finished the thought off, “bloody Bugger did it to put pressure on the mole, force a mistake maybe?”

  “And we got the fruits” Sandy looked at Joey and Smithy, “did you get ‘em?”

  “No” Joey replied to her obvious disappointment, “but we cloned them instead” there was an audible sigh of relief as he went on, “if we took the phones they’d know something was up, so we took these and cloned the hard drives, two replicas, we can listen to any call they get, we’ve got the details of every message sent or received, and with a little magic,” he handed the two cloned phones over, “we can get every l
ocation they’ve ever been in.”

  “Then let's get to work” Jacko took over, “Sandy, how long before you’ll have intel we can work with?”

  “We’ve already got some stuff from Smithy’s photos” she replied, “you’re gonna love this” the sarcasm coming through strong, “recognise this one?” she threw the first photo, a slightly fuzzy image, but there was no mistaking the features, a long scar down the right side of the face, running from the temple to the mouth. “Or what about this guy?” the second picture, someone more stocky, yet not an ounce of fat, short black hair.

  “The first rings a bell” Jacko picked the first photo up, brow furrowed, “is that?” he began.

  “Patrick O'Flanagan” Sandy finished off, “one time IRA trigger man, and just about everything else” she turned towards the laptop. “Finished a ten year stretch in France two years ago, for drugs and extortion, and a few kneecaps removed from people.”

  “A nice guy then” Joey chipped in.

  “Keep him off your guest lists, that’s for sure” Mac piped up. “Then again, maybe we need to send him a calling card?” He was hitting his left fist into the palm of the right hand.

  “But first” Sandy spoke again, “we’ve got a bit of a doozy for you, this you’re gonna love” she placed the next photo down so that they could all see it, obviously enjoying the suspense she went on, “O'Flanagan will be next to impossible to find, at least with our resources, and time, “ she handed a piece of paper to each of them, it was a fact sheet for the other guy. ”This boy took the trouble to let us know where his boss works, not just that, you won’t have to kill the swine, just hand him over to the Ukrainians, they’ll do with a smile in their faces” she was actually smiling, it wasn’t often you got carte blanche to send a scumbag down a very deep and very dark hole.