by Andy McNab
'Little shit!' Then Blubber Man's free hand was reaching into the back pocket of his jeans for the pliers.
Danny didn't know if it was his survival instinct or training – it was as though he was on auto mode. He opened his mouth and sank his teeth into Blubber Man's stubbly face. The huge guy growled and Danny felt the skin break as his teeth sank into the flesh and scraped against cheekbone.
Metallic-tasting blood poured from the wound: Blubber Man screamed and pulled himself free, ripping his face from Danny's teeth. He drew back one massive clenched fist, intending to land a punch that would splatter Danny's brains across the floor.
It gave Danny enough room to move his arm and zap Blubber Man in the chest. But the 100,000 watts crackling into his body wasn't enough. Perhaps it was all those protective, insulating layers of fat, or maybe Danny just didn't ram home the Taser into his chest firmly enough. But as he pulled it away, Blubber Man got up and staggered back, looking stunned and bewildered, then growled like a wounded bear and came back at him.
Danny leaped to his feet, adrenalin driving away the pain and fear as he ducked under the giant's flailing arms, brought the Taser up hard into his guts and gave him a long burst. This time the fat man went down, crashing on top of the prone body of Mr Muscles, who was sprawled out on the landing.
Danny suddenly realized that Lee must have managed to down his target too – he had been aware of nothing but his struggle with Blubber Man.
Lee gave Mr Muscles another burst as he hissed at Danny, 'Give him some more! Keep him down!'
Danny gave the fat man another five seconds and then staggered back against the wall, sucking in air. He became aware of something in his mouth and almost gagged as he spat out a piece of Blubber Man's flesh. He leaned against the wall, gasping, fighting back the vomit that was rising in his throat.
Lee grabbed Danny's shoulders and pulled him upright. He knew exactly what he was going through; everyone has a first time.
He stared into Danny's eyes. 'You'll dream about it for a while but you just have to deal with it. OK?'
Danny took two deep breaths and then nodded. 'Yeah.'
'You did good, mate. Well done. Now clean yourself up.'
13
Danny nodded at his grandfather as he entered the apartment, confirming that Siddie's three thugs had been dealt with successfully. Teddy had managed to haul himself up onto one of the bloodstained sofas and was sitting clutching his damaged ribs with one hand and dabbing his bloodied nose and mouth with pieces of tissue with the other.
Danny's face was still red as the blood pumped around his body. He thought he'd wiped his face clean but there was still a little blood on his neck.
Fergus pointed towards it. 'Yours? You OK?'
Danny wiped his neck and shook his head. 'Theirs. I'm OK.'
But Fergus wasn't convinced. 'Bit of a drama down there?'
'I'll deal with it,' said Danny firmly.
Then he caught sight of the prone body of Siddie; his face had shattered where the bullet entered, and for an instant Danny had an image of Elena, lying dead on the ground in Central Park. He forced the thought away – he couldn't allow himself to dwell on it; it was too painful. He had to focus on the job; concentrate; stay professional.
Instead, he watched his grandfather. Fergus had his own game plan completely worked out. He'd given Teddy long enough to take in the enormity of what had happened in his apartment. Teddy was deliberately not looking at Siddie's body, which lay like a beached whale on the carpet, the blood soaking into the weave. Violence was something he could ask of others; he couldn't cope with it himself.
Fergus sat down next to him on the sofa. Now it was time to get the information he wanted.
'All right. As I've just saved your life, I think it's time I knew exactly what's going on, don't you, Teddy?' He nodded towards the body on the floor. 'And don't give me any crap about him wanting to take over your coach firm. Blokes like that aren't interested in executive travel.'
Teddy hesitated, dabbing at his nose again as he tried to think what to say. 'I . . . I don't know. I honestly don't. I can't imagine why someone like that—'
'Forget it.' Fergus was on his feet. 'Listen, Teddy, you're not paying me nearly enough to get involved in something like this. Consider our contract terminated. Come on, Danny.'
They headed for the door.
'Wait! Please!' Teddy couldn't stop himself from taking another look at Siddie's body.
Fergus stopped, looked back and waited for Teddy to continue.
'What do I do? About . . . that?'
Fergus didn't reply immediately. He was playing a part, appearing to consider whether or not he would help Teddy. It was all an act, and Danny knew it. But his grandfather was good at acting; he knew that too.
'I'll tell you what I'll do, Teddy,' Fergus said at last. 'As a gesture of goodwill. I'll get rid of it for you.'
'You . . . you can do that? But . . . but how?'
'You don't need to know. It'll be done, that's all.'
It would be simple. All Fergus needed to do was put in a call to Dudley and a team of 'cleaners' would come in, remove the body and dispose of it before clearing up the blood in the flat and on the stairs. By midnight the only sign that there had been any sort of disturbance in the apartment would be the smashed-in door. But that didn't matter: it was the top-floor penthouse so no one was going to see it.
'You'd better get yourself down the hospital,' said Fergus to Teddy. 'Check out that damage to your ribs. And by the look of it, you've got a busted nose as well.'
'But what do I tell them? They'll want to know how it happened.'
'Say you were mugged.' It was almost as if he was talking to a child. 'But don't get the police involved. And call your brother. Tell him not to come back here tonight.'
Fergus feigned indifference as he walked over to Siddie's body, but it was a deliberate move; it meant that Teddy couldn't avoid seeing the body yet again as they spoke. Teddy tried not to look down, but then Fergus kneeled to take a closer look at his handiwork.
'Tell your brother to meet you at the hospital and then go to a hotel. By the time you get back here tomorrow the body will be gone. And so will we.'
Teddy struggled to his feet, gasping as a new wave of pain shot through his body. 'Look, there is something more . . .'
Fergus had Teddy exactly where he wanted him; all he needed to do now was reel him in. 'Not interested. I'll call you about where to send the rest of my fee. Whatever's going on here is not our problem any more, mate. It's yours.'
Teddy almost gagged as he spoke – he couldn't help glancing down at Siddie's face, the eyes glazed over now like those of a dead fish. 'I want to tell you about it, I want you to stay involved, but I have to speak to my brother first. I have to convince him that it's the right thing to do. We're partners in this. And . . . and it's . . . what we do . . . it's not exactly . .. legal.'
Fergus stood up before replying, looking Teddy straight in the eye. 'You really think I expected legal?' He glanced down at Siddie. 'Illegal doesn't worry me as long as it's lucrative. Very lucrative. But you'd better be quick, Teddy. We've got plenty of other clients waiting out there. You want Danny to drive you to the hospital?'
Teddy shook his head. 'I'll manage.' He looked over at Danny. 'Perhaps you could help me to my car though?'
'Yeah. No problem.'
'Use the stairs, not the lift,' said Fergus to Danny. 'Best not to let anyone see him in that condition.' He saw his grandson's raised eyebrows and nodded.
Danny helped Teddy up and they started to make their way towards the door, but then Teddy stopped, turned, wincing with pain, and looked at Fergus. 'The other two . . . they might still .. .'
'You don't have to worry about them. Danny's taken care of them.'
Teddy stared at Danny, then at Fergus, and then back at Danny as he struggled to take in what they had done that night.
Danny just nodded and smiled and supported Teddy as he shuffled sl
owly out of the apartment.
As soon as they had gone, Fergus pulled out his mobile and speed-dialled Lee's number. 'Are they still out?'
'Sleeping like babies.'
'Give them another burst and then clear out. Danny's on the way down with Teddy. I want him to see exactly what we've done for him.'
*
Teddy spotted the two sprawled-out bodies the moment Danny eased him around the turn at the landing above.
He froze. 'Are they . . . are they dead?'
Danny shook his head. 'Stunned. They'll be out for quite a while.'
'But when they do come round . . . they might—'
'They'll get out, Teddy, that's what they'll do. And they won't come back.'
They moved slowly down the stairs. When they reached the landing, Teddy stopped by the two bodies.
Mr Muscles was snoring beneath Blubber Man, who still had blood oozing from his face.
Teddy's own face contorted in anger. He leaned on Danny and then viciously kicked Blubber Man in the guts.
'Bastards!'
Blubber Man didn't even stir, and Teddy was ready to get in a few more kicks, but Danny pulled him away.
'Steady on. A few more of those might just wake them,' he told him. 'Let's get you to hospital.'
14
The atmosphere in the office at the coach yard was thick with tension. Will had never before even considered challenging his brother's unspoken leadership and authority. But seeing Teddy's bruised and battered face, and the way he kept flinching as he got another jolt from his cracked ribs, somehow made him seem vulnerable and a little pathetic.
And Will was determined to take advantage of his brother's sudden vulnerability.
'Why should we bring in Watts? He's done his job; he's got rid of the threat. We can pay him off and let him go.'
Teddy was on the defensive, but he'd made up his mind on what he wanted, telling his brother he'd decided to bring Fergus in on 'all aspects of the business' so that he could oversee their complete security and protection.
'We don't know that what happened last night was anything to do with the attacks here,' he said. 'They might be totally unconnected.'
'So there are more people out there who know about Meltdown? Is that what you're saying? So who's telling them?'
'I don't know!' Teddy flinched as a stab of pain shot through his ribs. 'Maybe a dealer has got word on us; maybe it's one of our own. I don't know, Will. All I do know is that I want to bring Watts in. We don't need to tell him everything, just enough. And we'll test him out before we say anything.'
'It's a crazy idea, a total non-starter. We've got our own team,' insisted Will. 'They've always looked after us well enough. What happened in the apartment was a one-off; we're safe now.'
'Our team?' said Teddy. 'Albie? And the rest of them? They were OK when we got going but you know Albie's become a liability.' He paused. The medical staff at the A&E department had patched up Teddy's physical wounds, but the image of Siddie Richards with a bullet hole in his face would not fade from his mind. 'Look,' he said, failing to conceal his impatience. 'We're going to need someone like Fergus.'
Will's face was flushed with anger. 'And how do you know you can trust him?'
'Because he killed someone for me last night! He committed murder to keep me alive! Isn't that enough?' Teddy shifted in his chair to ease the pain from his ribs. 'Watts will do whatever we ask of him as long as the money's right. He said as much last night. That's all he's interested in.'
Will was still glaring at him, obviously intent on saying a lot more.
Teddy levered himself to his feet and crossed the room to where his brother was standing.
'Will, you weren't there! I nearly died!'
Danny drove into the yard and parked up. As he got out of the silver Mazda, he saw Storm standing by the stairs to the office. She was frowning but still looked stunning in a designer suit and high-heeled boots.
'If you've come to look at the computers again, you'll have to wait.' She smiled and then glanced up towards the office. 'They're arguing. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but Teddy's in a terrible state – he's in such pain, and his face looks terrible. Whatever happened to him must have been awful.'
Danny closed the car door as he considered his answer. 'He's just not used to trouble. It's probably not as bad as it looks.'
'But what happened? They said you were there.'
Danny wasn't giving away a thing. 'What did they tell you?'
Storm shrugged. 'There was this guy – some sort of gangster – who was trying to take over the travel business. He beat up Teddy but then your granddad came in and scared him off.'
That's about it,' said Danny. 'He won't be back, anyway.'
'Then why is Teddy still so scared?'
'I don't know, Storm. You'd better ask him.'
He could see that Storm was puzzled by his evasion. She stared into his eyes, and frowned, searching for the truth.
He returned the look, realizing as he did so that he was quickly becoming as accomplished as his grandfather at telling lies. It went with the territory.
Storm's searching look suddenly turned into one of her most dazzling smiles and her brow cleared. 'Would you like a cappuccino? The twins want me out of the way for a while and if d be nice to have some company. There's a place down the road that's good. We can walk.'
Danny smiled. 'Yeah, why not.'
As they walked towards the gates, they heard a shout from the workshops.
'Storm!'
They looked back and saw Albie standing in the open doorway.
'Oh, what does he want now?' whispered Storm as he came striding over. She moved closer to Danny, almost as though she was silently looking for his protection.
When he reached them, Albie glared briefly at Danny and then focused on Storm, forcing a smile. 'You all right?'
'Fine, thanks, Albie. You?' Storm's voice quavered a little.
Albie nodded but said nothing more. He just kept smiling at her. The silence went on and on, but Albie had obviously run out of conversation. He just stared at Storm with barely disguised adoration.
Storm glanced at Danny and then turned to head towards the gates again. 'Bye then, Albie.'
'Where you going?'
'We're, er . . . we're going for a quick coffee.'
'I'll come. I'm not doing anything.'
Danny could almost see Storm searching for a plausible excuse to get rid of Albie. But when it came, it sounded pretty lame and a very obvious putdown. 'We . . . we have to talk about business, Albie.'
'What about later then?' insisted Albie. 'Late. When I finish work. A drink? Or a club maybe?'
Storm smiled. 'Another time, eh?'
Albie watched them until they had passed through the gates, his eyes burning into Danny's back. Then he walked slowly back towards the workshop.
Inside, two of the guys who doubled as security and general workers around the yard were leaning against one of the newly cleaned coaches.