by Andy McNab
Another body came in behind him and got to work with his boots.
I went down.
I felt a hand on the back of my head. It grabbed a clump of my hair and yanked it up. I didn't need to focus big-time to see the box-cutter in his free hand.
He tapped the handle against my forehead. 'Later.'
The English was heavily accented and he wasn't smiling.
Two sets of hands grabbed my arms and dragged me fast along the floor. My chest banged over the threshold and then, agonizingly, my knees and shins.
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I felt the difference in temperature the moment we were out on the red lino. They hauled me through another doorway, over another threshold, and my breath immediately clouded.
Were we outside?
There were lights either side of me, and I could hear the sea.
I could also hear a girl sobbing, and then a woman's shout. 'Bring them over! Bring them over!'
I lifted my head. I was in the cargo hold of a small ship or the cold store of a fishing trawler. Lights ran down two sides of an eight- by six-metre space. The deck was three or four metres above me. It was a small vessel, but you didn't need that much room to cart around a few hundred kilos of white powder.
In the far left-hand corner of the hold, towards the bow, was a huddle of bodies. I could see the back of the head of the one who was crying. Ruby. Holding her, protecting her, was Tallulah. Her eyes were fixed on me. Dom and Siobhan were there too, holding each other. All four were cuddled up, sharing body warmth. All they had on were jumpers.
Mairead stood over them. She turned as I was dropped onto the cold steel floor of the hold. I saw the camcorder in her hand. She came over and shoved it into my face.
'Now's your time, Nick. Now you get to tell everyone what you know. Tell the truth and they all go free. They all get on the boat with me. Everyone else has gone. The crew's gone, the shipment's gone. We're the only ones left. You're staying here – you know that. Accept it. But tell your story, and if I believe it they go free.'
My face rested on the freezing metal. Running along the skin of the hull, I saw four dustbin lids held in place by gaffer tape. Det cord ran up into the lids and back out again.
The ring main.
I moved my head, but I could see no detonator on that side, no TPU. Maybe there wasn't one. Maybe she had a remote control: they'd get on a tender or something and fuck off before pressing the button.
And in that moment, I knew beyond any doubt that none of us were going to get away from here. All five of us were good as dead.
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I lay watching the two Russians' boots pace up and down. I turned my head when Mairead told one of them to rig up some arc lights.
I made eye contact with Tallulah. She had Ruby in her arms, head into her shoulder so she couldn't see me. The little one was shivering and sobbing.
I made myself cut away. I didn't want the Russians to see that we cared for each other. And in any case, I was just too exhausted, and I needed to think.
One. I hadn't seen any weapons apart from the box-cutter.
Two. They must have another boat tied up alongside for Mairead and the two Russians. Or was she so hell-bent on revenge she just wanted to hear me say the magic words and then blow us all to hell?
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The bow end of the hold was soon bathed in light.
I got slowly and painfully to my feet when told to do so.
Mairead turned to Dom. 'You too.'
She filmed us both as we made our way to what had been transformed into a well-lit performance area and stood facing each other.
I saw Tallulah over Dom's shoulder, still trying to console Ruby. She cuddled her, rocked her back and forth in time with the movement of the boat.
I glanced at Dom. His eyes told their own story.
He nodded in the direction of the camera. 'What is it you want me to do?'
I kept my head down, focusing on the position of the two Russians. Their top halves had disappeared into the shadows thrown by the beams of light directed at me and Dom, but I could see their boots.
'You're going to interview Nick. Ask him about the Bahiti.'
'Bahiti? I don't understand—'
'You don't have to. Your man's going to tell you. Nick, I want you to speak to the camera. Dominick, when he's told you, you're going to ask him a direct question. Ask him if he was the man who killed Ben Lesser. And Nick, you're going to say yes.'
'Ben Lesser?'
'My father. Nick murdered my father.'
The camera zoomed in on me.
'Isn't that right, Nick? You're going to tell us the truth for the first time in your sorry little life. If not, everybody dies.'
Tallulah could contain herself no longer. 'I've got a child here, for God's sake! She doesn't have to watch this. Let her go.'
Mairead turned and filmed her. 'Oh but she does. She needs to know. She's the age I was when Nick took my daddy away from me.'
The time had come. I wasn't exactly match-fit, but I was running short of choices.
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I lunged at Mairead, screaming at the top of my voice.
Her face didn't register surprise or fear, just anger. She tried to back away. I grabbed the camcorder with both hands. My eyes were fixed on her face as I swung it down onto her head. She screamed and fell, her body colliding against mine as she went down.
Box-cutter was a metre away, going for a weapon in the waistband of his jeans.
I yelled at Dom: 'Take the other one!' and threw the camcorder at Box-cutter. It bounced off his shoulder.
I dived at him as the weapon came up, slammed into him and made a grab for his arm. His roar echoed around the hull as we hit the deck.
I had two hands on his bicep, trying to force his hand down at the same time as he tried to bend his arm to shoot.
The weapon went off.
I dropped my head and sank my teeth into his cheek.
He screamed and bucked like a wild animal, shook his head left and right. His whole body arched, desperate to throw me off.
His left hand swung round and grabbed my hair and wrenched me off his face.
The weapon clattered onto the steel and spun away into the shadows.
I scrambled towards it, kicking and punching behind me as his arms closed round my leg.
Then Tallulah shouted: 'Run! Run! Run!'
A small pair of legs rushed across my field of view, heading for the door.
The sudden pain was excruciating; sharp, deep, intense; exploding outwards from the top of my thigh.
It got even worse as the Stanley knife plunged in again and this time carved its way down the back of my leg.
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I twisted and thrashed to escape the blade.
I had to get to the pistol.
The blade dug in again. I squirmed and it gouged its way out. I half turned and saw it raised once more.
That blade was my whole world now. I grabbed his wrist with both hands and wrenched it towards my face. I twisted it until the back of his hand was against my mouth. I opened my teeth and bit into taut skin and tendon.
He screamed as he pulled his other hand free and hammered his fist on the back of my neck.
I butted him with the back of my head, again and again, yelling like a madman. I found a bit of extra strength and jerked both my hands clockwise. There was a crack as his wrist snapped.
The blade dropped free.
I let go of his wrist and it flapped like a broken wing. I grabbed the blade and punched hard into the back of his neck, and pulled.
There was a gush of air and a wobbling, rasping sound from the hole in his windpipe.
121
The two women were all over Mairead, fists flailing as anger poured out of them and into her curled-up figure. Primal forces were driving Tallulah; what she was doing was beyond her control.
Dom staggered to his feet. He was a big lad but so was the Russian who now lay motionless on the floor. It must have
been quite a battle.
I took a couple of laboured steps towards them. I was aware of what was happening but the software was taking too long to kick in.
Tallulah looked up. 'Find Ruby! For God's sake find Ruby!'
122
I turned left along the corridor, following the line of det cord. I needed to know how she planned to detonate the Semtex before going on to find Ruby.
The cord ran up the wall next to a set of steep metal steps. I saw what I was looking for: a TPU just like Daddy used to make.
I clambered upwards.
I could hear sobbing. Ruby was on the bridge.
A sliding door opened onto the deck. She was tugging uselessly at the handle in an uncontrolled frenzy. Whether it was because the door was locked or too heavy, she couldn't budge it no matter how frantically she tried.
I ran over to her. 'Ruby! It's me, it's me.'
She was still fumbling at the door.
'Ruby! It's OK. It's me, Nick.'
She wasn't listening; she was in a blind panic.
I put a hand on her shoulder.
Finally, she turned, and the moment she saw me her body went rigid. She screamed at the top of her voice.
'It's me . . . it's Nick . . .'
Then I realized: my head, face and hair were covered in blood. The deck was reddening round my feet.
I didn't know what to do. Did I just pick her up, or what?
'It's OK, Ruby. Everything's going to be all right. Calm down, please, it's all right.'
I started throwing open drawers looking for a first-aid kit. There should be a good one on a boat this size. But all I could find was a sort of wooden shoe box with a couple of bandages and bottle of cough mixture inside. It would have to do.
Looking out of the bridge window, I could see a four-seat fibreglass powerboat bobbing alongside us in the swell. We couldn't be that far out to sea.
The door had a weather latch on the top. I threw it. There was no way she was getting out. 'Just stay there, darling – I'll go and get Tally.'
I hobbled back down the stairs. There was nothing more I could do for her right now.
123
The hold looked like a battlefield.
Mairead lay in the corner where I'd first seen the four of them. There was no movement from her. The two Russians lay where they'd died.
Tallulah ran up to me. 'Where is she?'
My leg hurt big-time. 'Upstairs. Go and talk to her. Go look after her.'
She looked down. 'Oh my God, Nick!' She put her arms out, whether to hold me or help me, I wasn't sure. Her breath clouded around us.
'I'm OK. She's up on the bridge. Keep her up there. I haven't finished down here yet.'
Dom hugged Siobhan under the arc lights. I pointed. 'Go with her, help her. Then wait up there for me, OK?'
I dropped the medical box and I followed it onto the deck. Dom let go of his wife and ran over to me.
'Pressure, mate. I need pressure on the wound.'
He didn't need any second bidding. He knelt down and tipped the contents onto the floor.
I looked over at Mairead. 'She dead?'
'Nearly.' He shook his head. 'But not nearly enough.'
He started bandaging my leg tightly to stop the leaks.
I leant back, my hands flat on the steel. I suddenly became aware of how cold I was. Dom shivered as he tied off the bandage.
I gripped his forearm. 'Check through their gear. They've got to have some clothing here somewhere. Get some warm stuff on. There's a boat parked up next to this thing. Get the girls wrapped up, get them all in it.' I nodded over to Mairead. 'I'm going to sort her out and then let's fuck off. Have a look at the nav gear; find out where land is.'
124
Her legs moved.
'Go – get everything sorted and I'll be up there to meet you.'
He tucked in the last of the bandage just above my knee. 'Are you going to kill her?'
I didn't answer.
He stood up and held out a hand. I pulled myself up.
We grabbed an arm each and started dragging her out, just the same as the Russians had dragged me. She bounced over the threshold and into the corridor, then along the red lino and over the cabin threshold.
I ripped off her duvet jacket, checked the pockets and lobbed it at Dom. 'Get this on Ruby.'
125
I leant down and gave her a couple of slaps to bring her round. 'Come on!' I wanted her to be fully aware.
I felt in her jeans pocket for the knife or whatever it was she'd been going to unscrew the TPU lid with.
I found a stubby flat-head screwdriver.
'Come on, wake up.'
She was sort of there. I sat on the bunk with her at my feet.
Next door, the engines idled. I was getting warm again. My ears and hands stung as they came back to life.
I stared down at her. Her mass of hair glistened with blood and was matted against her head.
I didn't blame her for being pissed off with me. If I'd been close to my dad I'd have felt the same. And I understood, too, why she'd want to know the traitor who gave up the ship to the British in the first place. I didn't even have a problem with the car device, now that I knew that it was just a ploy. In fact, I admired her for not giving up. I'd admired her dad for the same reason. They might have been the enemy, but they were solid.
The only reason I was still sitting here and she was on the floor was that she'd brought the other four into it, and they had nothing to do with the world that she and I moved in. They were real people, and none of them would be safe unless I put an end to this.
She'd also killed Lynn. He died doing his job, even though it wasn't his job any more. He was one of the old school. We needed more like him. I would make a point of contacting his kids and telling them what had happened. They needed to know how the man they despised had met his end.
126
She began to come round.
I eased myself off the bed. The pain in my right thigh had begun to register in my brain. It seemed that these deep, clean cuts really were every bit as painful as any other kind. Blood oozed from the dressings. It was going to be hospital time very soon. I'd have to go in and complain about these drugged-up muggers who not only took all my cash, but also seemed to take pleasure in slicing me up.
I couldn't kneel because of the pain. I had to stoop, one hand on the edge of the steel frame of the bunk as I leant down.
I pulled open an eyelid. The pupil reacted. She could hear me all right.
'It was Richard Isham.'
She took a big, involuntary breath and sobbed.
'Yeah, you know, the one who's always been up for the cause, the local hero, ready to fight to the death. But you know what, he was on the make, just like everybody else.' I leant a bit closer so she didn't miss a word. 'He saw what was coming and made sure he was one of the survivors. What would your dad think of that? But he can't think anything, can he? Because while Richard is sitting behind a big fat desk with an expense account to match, your old man is dead.'
She kicked out her legs.
'It's a fucker, isn't it? But you know what? I agree with you. A traitor is a traitor, in anyone's book, including mine. I have more respect for you than I do for him.'
She was still sobbing but it wasn't from pain or fear of dying. She was a player; she had more bollocks than that. She was grieving.
She should have spent five minutes with me over a brew some time. I could have put her straight: never trust those fuckers, and don't waste your faith in them. They're always in it for their own ends, no matter what side of the fence they're on.
'But the problem is, you're the enemy.' I pushed myself up using the side of the bunk. 'Regardless of what I think of you, we both know what that means.'
I limped into the corridor and locked the door behind me.
127
The TPU box was made of wood and the lid was screwed down tight. Four screws, of course. And there were a good two metres of lo
ose det cord before the detonator was attached, in case it was contaminated. She'd learnt her lessons well.