I checked my watch, sunrise was in around half an hour. If I was going to get closer to check the place out, I needed to do it under cover of darkness. Whoever lived there was already up. A light had gone on about an hour ago and for a while I’d seen a shadow moving behind the curtains. There was no car on the gravelled driveway, but there was a closed single garage. I had no idea how close we were to civilisation. Neither of us would fare well if we had another day’s trek ahead of us in these cool temperatures. We needed food and water and access to their phone. I looked back at Oliver. I couldn’t go and scope the place out while leaving him here. If he woke up alone, he’d be terrified, and the poor kid had been through far more than someone should at that tender age. I was going to have to wake him up and take him with me, asking him to stay quiet again and hoping that he would. I tucked one of the tranquiliser guns into the back of my suit trousers, as they’d stripped me of my own gun and shoulder holster when they’d taken us. I flicked the pocket knife open, then slipped it into the side of my boot and carefully stood up, using one of the trees for cover as I brushed myself off.
I sincerely hoped that I wasn’t about to freak some old lady out with my appearance. I hadn’t had a wash or shave in days, and a reflection of my face in the water yesterday had shown I had a black eye and my nose was still swollen from where I’d been kicked in the face the day we were taken. I silently cursed myself for allowing that to happen. I should have been faster. I should have checked the route to the car before bringing Mrs. Davenport and Oliver out. If I had, I’d have seen the van and called for backup. If I had, Jenny would still be alive. I shook my head to rid myself of unhelpful thoughts. What was done was done. I’d lost enough friends over the years in the line of duty, I knew it was part of the territory, but a young woman in the prime of her life weighed heavily on me, especially when I’d offered my life to spare hers. I wasn’t sure I’d ever come to terms with that. That’s why I had to honour Mrs. Davenport’s wishes and make sure if she didn’t make it home, her son did, whatever the cost.
‘Oliver, it’s James. Don’t be scared, ok?’
‘James?’ he mumbled, rubbing his eyes with grubby fingers.
‘Yes, did you have a good sleep?’
‘I dreamed about Mummy’ he yawned. ‘Where is she?’
‘She’s safe,’ I lied. ‘I’ll be going back to get her soon. Right now I have another game for us to play, what do you say?’
‘I’m thirsty and I’d really like some sausages,’ he moaned, stretching his little legs. I chuckled.
‘Sausages, eh?’ I knew they were a favourite of his. ‘What if I promise that if you play my game, the next meal we have will be sausages?’
‘Deal,’ he nodded seriously, sounding just like his dad. He sat up and yawned again.
‘Ok, well we’re going to creep up to the house in silence, then play hide and seek. You’re going to hide in that log store on the side of the house and count very quietly to ten, ten times, before I come and look for you. How does that sound?’
‘That’s cheating, Uncle James,’ he giggled. ‘You know where I’m hiding.’
‘I do,’ I chuckled, ‘but it might give me enough time to find some sausages for you.’
‘Ok, let’s play,’ he clapped, a grin all over his dirty face.
‘Lift your arms up, I want to put this jumper on you as it’s cold.’ He did as he was told and I slipped it on. It was more to cover the dirty white of his jumper that would stand out if we were being watched. I had to hope if they’d sent someone out after me, they’d have assumed I’d crossed the river to lose them, or that if I’d followed the track, I’d be much further on by now. Staying here all night had been a calculated risk. I lifted Oliver up and put my fingers to my lips, and he nodded and put his arms around my neck. I thought about my grandchildren as we made our way towards the cottage under cover of the last of the darkness. I missed them like crazy and hoped that they’d never have to go through what Oliver had. I also hoped that he was young enough that one day, he’d forget the nightmare of the last week. I approached the house from the side, treading carefully as I stepped onto the gravel. ‘Remember to count quietly and if you finish and I haven’t found you, it’s because I’m looking for sausages,’ I whispered in his ear. I kissed his forehead before settling him inside an empty section of the open-fronted log store. He looked up at me wide-eyed, so I saluted him and gave him my best attempt at a reassuring smile. Leaving a young and vulnerable child in the dark, alone and scared, didn’t exactly sit well with me, but what choice did I have?
I checked the garage first, but it was locked, so I circled the house, checking each window as I went, finding them all locked too, with the curtains drawn tightly. There was no back or side door either. I stepped up onto the decking at the front of the house and quickly looked at the window. There was a chink in the curtain. I blinked at the bright light that was coming through it and moved my head back, repeating a few times until I’d adjusted to the light. I could see a guy in his late twenties sitting at a dining table, drinking some coffee as he read a newspaper. He had dark, slightly wavy hair and was wearing a white shirt, open at the neck. I could see a grey suit jacket hanging on the back of his chair. To all intents and purposes, he looked like any regular guy getting ready for work. Oliver was probably going to have finished his countdown by now and I didn’t want to leave him alone for any longer than was necessary. I took a deep breath, walked to the front door, and knocked on it. I heard the scraping of a chair and the sound of footsteps on wooden floorboards, then the door being unlocked.
‘Jesus, Gavin, you’re actually early for once,’ came a male voice, laughing as the door opened. He swung it back, and surprise and shock registered on his face as he scanned me.
‘I’m so sorry to trouble you, but I had an accident and my car left the track last night. I woke up an hour or so ago in this state, only to find my mobile battery had died. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of using your phone? My wife will be worried sick,’ I smiled, holding up my hand to show him my ring finger.
‘Yeah, yeah of course. Are you hurt?’
‘Other than my face and my pride, no.’
‘Well, come on in. We’re in the middle of nowhere here, it will take a while for anyone to come out. You can have a shower and I’ll leave some fresh clothes out for you and make you a hot coffee, you look like you need one.’ He stepped back and gestured me in. I looked down as I entered and walked some distance inside.
‘That’s really kind of you, thanks.’ I heard him closing the door and immediately spun around, grabbing the gun from the back of my trousers and aiming it at him, only to find him pointing one at me with a grin on his face.
‘Did you know before you knocked on the door?’ Charlie asked.
‘I wasn’t sure,’ I replied, being honest. The possibility of one of them waiting at the first house on my route out of here had crossed my mind, but seeing him through the window, dressed in a suit, without the usual short military haircut had made me question my judgement. ‘I take it the real owner of the house is dead?’
‘Of course, needs must. I’m curious, I thought I was nothing but polite and welcoming, what gave me away?’
‘I never forget a voice, Charlie, and you might have tried to fool me with that suit and shirt, but you forgot to change your army boots, which still have your friends’ blood on them, dipshit.’
‘Dipshit,’ he scoffed. ‘I’m the dipshit? You probably spent ages covering your tracks, doubling back, pretending to cross the river. But I knew all along you’d follow the track here. I didn’t even bother trying to catch up to you. I took the car, drove past the house, and parked up on the main road, then ran back. I’ve been waiting here forever. Warm, comfortable, and well fed, while you were out there in the cold. I spotted you in the tree line last night, courtesy of infrared binoculars, and I’ve been waiting for you to make your move. Not as skilled or covert as you thought, old man,’ he chuckled.
&n
bsp; ‘Why don’t you ask Bravo or Delta how old and out of touch I am?’ I asked, moving to my right as he moved to his left, our eyes never leaving each other’s, guns still aimed.
‘They deserved better than that,’ he hissed, his eyes narrowing in anger. ‘They were Royal fucking Marines.’
‘They were a disgrace to the uniform, all of you are. You think an innocent child, mother, and young woman deserved what you did to them? Death is too easy a punishment for scum like you.’
‘I served my fucking country, put my life on the line time after time,’ he yelled, his face changing from the friendly one that had answered the door, to one full of anger. ‘I made one small mistake and was kicked out on a dishonourable discharge. Don’t make out like you’re better than me.’
‘I am better than you and I’m happy to prove it, which I think is exactly what you want, or you’d have shot me last night, or the minute you opened the door just now. So, am I right? Are you man enough to put down that gun and show me what you’re made of hand-to-hand, or are you too scared to take on an “old man?” I bet the only reason you didn’t shoot me earlier was that you don’t have the balls to face me like a man as you kill me, you’d rather do it from behind, like you did to my friend.’
‘You’re going to wish I’d shot you and killed you instantly by the time I’m done with you. If you think Bravo and Delta were easy kills, you should know that as well as being the best fucking sniper in the country, I was the one taken onto the team for my skills in close-quarter combat.’
‘I’m confused, it must be my age. Are we fighting, or is your plan to talk me to death?’ I asked, steeling myself for him to try and trick me. If I died now, Oliver could be out there alone for days. No one would find him.
‘Weapons on the floor, release on three and slide them to the right out of reach, no sudden movements,’ Charlie replied, a smug smile on his face. Either he was really confident he’d put me down hand-to-hand, or he was bluffing. He could easily have shot me at any time before I even made it to the cottage, or in the back as I’d walked in. No, he didn’t see Jenny as an equal, probably because she was a woman, he looked down on her. That’s why he’d had no qualms shooting her from behind. With me, he wanted the validation that he was superior to stroke his ego. He’d want to prove he was better than me. We kept our eyes on each other as we bent over and lowered our guns to the ground. My fingers flexed as I took long, slow breaths, trying to prepare myself for a fight to the death. ‘One … two … three,’ he counted slowly. We both pushed our weapons away and my hand flew to my ankle. I pulled out the knife and threw it at him, aiming for his throat, just like I’d done to Delta, but Charlie was fast. He ducked into a roll back towards his gun, but not fast enough to avoid the knife altogether and it lodged in his shoulder. ‘You fucking cheat,’ he yelled, as he sprawled on the floor and yanked it out.
‘You’re more stupid than I gave you credit for. You really thought I’d play fair? I’m virtually a pensioner, pitted against a fitter twenty-something, what the hell did you expect?’ I wasn’t expecting him to recover so fast as I charged at him. He’d made it up onto his knees by the time I kicked the side of his head, and he caught my foot before it hit the floor. He yanked it, throwing me off balance. I crashed down onto the floor, feeling the impact in all of my bones and muscles. He wasn’t wrong, I was getting too old for this shit. If I made it out of this alive, I seriously needed to think about retirement, taking up a nice, calm hobby, like golf. He’d scrambled up in the time I’d caught my breath and cricked his neck as he stepped towards me. I pulled both of my feet back and slammed them forward, straight onto his knees caps. He wobbled, cursed, and staggered backwards, giving me the chance to do a back flip off the floor, landing on my feet. Thank God I still had some moves. We both put our fists up as we squared off against each other, both of us breathing fast, adrenaline pumping through our systems.
‘Not bad, old man. But you just used up your quota of luck for the night,’ he sneered, rolling his injured shoulder. I saw a flicker of pain in his eyes, though he was doing a good job of hiding it in his face and posture. His white shirt had an expanding circle of crimson that was spreading. I’d got him deep, which would only help even out the playing field. We circled each other, waiting to see who’d throw the first punch. He caught me with one to the jaw. Damn it, I’d forgotten he was left-handed. I blocked the next punch and caught him in the ribs, but he stunned me with a head-butt to my nose. If it wasn’t broken before, it sure as hell was now. Blood sprayed everywhere as I tried to regain my focus.
‘I can play dirty, too,’ he laughed, pummelling my unguarded stomach as I tried to protect my face and get my blurred vision back. God, what I wouldn’t give to have a hard six-pack to buffer those blows. Mrs. Smith’s cooking had laid those to waste a long time ago. I swung blindly, hitting a lucky strike, cracking his jaw. I imagined someone knocking on my front door to tell her that I was gone, and it filled me with renewed purpose. She needed me, Oliver needed me, and I needed my family. I needed to spend quality time with them after prioritising my job for years. Everything came back into focus and I jerked backwards as he laid another serious punch to my stomach, winding me. I managed to grasp his shoulder and dig my thumb into his wound, grinding hard. It made him hiss with pain, but he gripped my wrist, twisted it, and moved with the speed of a cat behind me, bending it up behind my back as he wrapped one of his arms around my throat. ‘I’m so going to enjoy making you suffer, even more than I normally enjoy inflicting pain,’ he growled in my ear.
‘Right back at you,’ I replied, lifting my foot and slamming my heel down on the end of his toes. He didn’t even flinch.
‘Leather lace-ups against reinforced toe-cap army boots, dipshit,’ he chuckled, tightening his hold around my throat. I pulled my hips forward, then thrust back, forcing him off balance enough to catapult him over my head and onto the floor, though not without suffering the searing pain of a dislocated shoulder. I spat blood out of my mouth, it was still trickling from my nose, and went to stamp on his windpipe, but he rolled to the side and my foot hit wood instead. My eyes darted around, trying to place where the two guns were. I wasn’t sure if his had bullets or tranquiliser darts like mine, but I was forced to refocus on him when I couldn’t find them fast enough. ‘Credit where credit’s due, you’ve got some moves, but that shoulder’s got to be killing you right now,’ he grinned as he bounced back up onto his feet, looking like he was ready to start a marathon, whereas I felt that I’d already done one.
‘It’s hurting about as much as yours.’ I moved in to take another couple of jabs at him, but he was like a kickboxing ninja, and I was assaulted with a battery of elbows, fists, knees, and feet on my body, bruising every last inch of me and making it hard for me to even stay on my feet, let alone fight back. Before I knew what was happening, he had his hand around my throat and had slammed me down, pressing me back onto the wooden dining table. Age, combined with lack of food and water, had my strength and endurance running on fumes. He was going to beat me if I couldn’t find a way to outsmart him in the next few minutes.
‘Getting slow, starting to feel the pain? How about I make you really feel it?’ A smile spread across his face as he held my gaze and his fingers tightened. I roared with agony as I heard a sickening crack and felt an intense fire scorching every nerve in my body, as he slammed his heavy boot under my kneecap. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d just broken my leg. I scrabbled with my free hand, trying to find anything on the table that I could use before I passed out from pain, as well as lack of oxygen as he continued to choke me. My fingers curled around his hot cup of coffee and I flung it up at him, the black liquid splattering his face. ‘Fuck,’ he screamed, immediately releasing me, staggering backwards as he covered his face with his hands.
I gasped for air and tried to stand up, but I slid off the table and collapsed in a puddle on the floor. I was screwed unless I got that gun before he recovered. I could feel the room spin
ning and pushed myself upright with my good hand, grimacing to see a bone splinter sticking out of a gash in my suit trousers. I looked around and through my fuzzy vision saw what looked like a gun to my right. I lay back down on my side and started to drag myself towards it. If I didn’t make it in time, it was game over. It was either too far away, or I was much too slow, but my hand reaching out for it shattered as he stamped his boot down onto it and ground it into the floor, then kicked my ribs, forcing me onto my back. I lay there gasping for breath. This was quite possibly the most broken bones, and pain, that I’d ever experienced. I could make him out, towering above me, holding his hand over one of his eyes as he pointed his gun at me and much as I hated to admit defeat, right now the prospect of him killing me was a welcome relief.
‘You’re going to pay for that coffee burn,’ he hissed, spitting on me as I lay there totally out of moves and energy. ‘Did you know that if you shoot a man in just the right place in his abdomen, he’ll bleed out, slowly and painfully? Personally I prefer cutting someone’s throat, watching their blood gush like a waterfall, watching the life leaving their body, that or blowing the back of their head out and seeing their brain explode, just like I did to Jenny. But for you, you don’t deserve fast.’
I braced myself for the shot, saying a final silent apology to everyone for letting them down. My family, Oliver, Ellie, and Dan. I jerked as the sound of the bullet rang out and waited for the pain to register in my stomach, but oddly I didn’t feel any more than I was already in. I looked back up at Charlie and saw his shoulders jerking as he gasped for breath. Blood was bubbling and spewing out of his mouth and throat and his gun clattered as it left his fingers and hit the floor. Seconds later he fell, planking face first onto the ground next to me. We lay looking at each other. Usually seeing a man die didn’t bring me any pleasure, but watching the light in his eyes slowly being extinguished was the most gratifying experience of my life. I’d no idea what had just happened and frankly, I didn’t care. Jenny had justice.
31 Days of Autumn Page 28