Silent Warpath (Sean Quinlan Book 1)

by Dominic Conlon

  Lomax could not bear to think about the black days that followed. The drinking got out of hand. He was rescued from his own living nightmare by the imminent death of his only surviving relative. His sister lived in Wales and a neighbour had written to say she had cancer. Something shook Lomax out of his stupor enough to make the journey to the place where he had grown up - the small market town of Conway on the north coast of Wales.

  He was surprised to find her so weak from the tumour. He went every day, sometimes taking her for short walks and helping around the house where he could. Sometimes he would have to send for the doctor and he would fetch the prescriptions and make sure she took her medicine.

  He stayed at the pub above the bar and used to meet some of the locals who worked at a nearby woodland plantation. One or two of the older generation remembered him as a boy.

  It was during this time that he began to realise how important his family was. He had a lot of time on his hands and the slow pace of life in the town and the people’s friendliness made a big impression. Lomax was able to re-frame his life against the backdrop of some of the most beautiful scenery in Wales.

  He guessed that the Service would come checking if he stayed too long. Being such a small and tight-knit community he would know if any stranger came snooping.

  Sure enough, they did. They were quite clever about it, sending a young student and his girlfriend in a beat up car on the pretext of touring the area.

  One evening, as the student climbed into his battered mini, he received the biggest shock of his life. Lomax reached out from behind with a fisherman's hook which he embedded in the student's neck to a depth of quarter of an inch - not enough to inflict any real damage, but enough to show that Lomax meant business.

  'Don't move and don't look around', Lomax urged the young man in a low voice. 'Go back to your masters and tell them not to send a boy.'

  The young couple left that night and Lomax knew the sub-text of his message would be understood: 'leave me alone'.

  A month later his sister died and for a while Lomax was destitute. He became a labourer for some of the farmers he knew at the pub. After a while he settled down and began to feel more positive about the future.

  That’s when he received the call from London.

  ‘Oh my God, Sean. What are you doing?’ Natasha’s hand covered her mouth.

  Sean stopped and turned round. ‘Go back to the cabin and I’ll come up later.’

  Natasha shook her head. ‘Later - why?’

  Sean turned back to the man tied to the tree. ‘Meet Schaeffer. He’s the man that’s been trying to kill you these last few days. Right now I need some information from him.’

  ‘No, not while I’m here.’

  Hesitantly Sean held her shoulders. ‘Natasha, you’ve been through a lot recently. God knows you’ve every right to be left alone. But as long as guys like the one behind me are around, you won’t have any peace. You’re lucky to be alive this evening.’

  Sean let his arms drop and said quietly: ‘what you saw here is not as bad as it looks, but guys like this would not stop to think about your life if you got in their way. Now please, go up to the cabin and I promise I will be back inside ten minutes.’

  ‘I’m not going and leaving you alone with him.’

  Sean sighed. ‘At least let me make sure they won’t come after us. Five minutes.’

  Natasha reached over and grabbed his sleeve. ‘I don’t feel I can trust you Sean. I’ll stay while you tie him up and we’ll both go back to the cabin together.’

  Sean turned back to Schaeffer. Lomax would expect some return for the pains he’d taken, but clearly Natasha didn’t want any more violence. A new thought popped into his head. What would he do if he were left to his own devices? He thought for a few seconds, but couldn’t immediately find an answer.

  Sean checked Schaeffer’s bindings and they made their way up the path to the cabin.

  As soon as Sean opened the door he knew there was trouble. The two men had moved towards each other and one was busy trying to untie the other’s hands. They both looked up as soon as Sean entered and the first guy began frantically trying to break the thick plastic cuff. Sean dragged him across the room to the radiator, using another plastic cuff to secure him to it. He dragged the other man to the main bedroom, tying him to the radiator in there. Before he left he collected the men’s guns, emptied their pockets and added their mobile phones to the pile. He carried the lot out to the ridge, throwing the hardware far out into the woods below.

  ‘Grab your coat, we’re going’, he said when he returned.

  Natasha quickly collected her coat and followed him out.

  ‘What about the men inside?’ she asked, trying hurriedly to catch up with Sean.

  ‘They’ll be fine’ said Sean without stopping.

  They made their way to her car, parked in a clearing not far from the cabin. Sean offered to drive and she handed him the keys. Once they were seated Sean started the engine and turned the car down the track. ‘Are you all right?’

  Natasha bit her lip.

  ‘Natasha?’ enquired Sean.

  ‘I came here to get away from it all, but if you really want to know, no, I’m not alright. I want an end to all this. I won’t be right until it all stops!’

  Sean found the metalled road at the bottom of the hill and turned along it. ‘So what do you want to do?’

  ‘Do?’ Natasha almost spat out the word. ‘Do? - I want to go somewhere where I can have some peace and quiet’.

  ‘They followed you here - what makes you think they won’t follow you wherever you go?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Natasha clenched and unclenched her hands in her lap. ‘I know what I want. I want you to go. I don’t want you to follow me around anymore.’

  ‘What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t arrived? And if there is a next time, God forbid, what would you do if I didn’t show up?’ Sean’s voice was reasonableness itself. ‘But you’re right. I can’t go on protecting you forever.’

  Natasha sighed angrily. ‘I know that. Before I met you, I had a quiet life. OK, it wasn’t the most exciting existence, but it suited me. I’m just not one of these people that crave adventure and excitement.’

  She looked through the side window as houses from the nearby village started to appear. ‘I’ve had the feeling that there is so much you’re not telling me - right from when we first met. I believe in honesty and I need trust in a person.’ She looked at him directly. ‘I know you haven’t been entirely honest with me.’

  They came to a junction and Sean turned right onto a main road.

  ‘I can’t tell you any more than I have already..’.

  ‘Are you working against my government?’ asked Natasha.

  Sean shook his head. ‘No. I told you I work for the UK government and in this case both our government’s interests are similar.’

  ‘Have you come to steal my project’s secrets?’

  Sean looked directly at Natasha. ‘No, I told you I came for Ben. Now he’s dead I want to find out who killed him and why.’ He shifted up a gear. ‘You haven’t told me everything either, have you?’

  For a second, Natasha hesitated. Then she realised that her hesitation was a kind of an answer anyway.

  ‘Can I trust you?’ he asked.

  Natasha hesitated and cleared her throat. ‘Yes’, she managed to say at last. ‘OK, if I was tortured I probably wouldn’t be able to resist revealing things. But short of that, you can trust me.’

  ‘Natasha, listen. I understand why you haven’t been completely truthful with me. I know how these obligations conflict with your own personal codes. Really, I don’t have a problem with that.’

  ‘Then what is your problem?’ Natasha shot back. ‘I know you had to deal with those men the way you did. But I was ashamed that you could torture one of them when he was helpless to defend himself. It’s something that I find ...'. Her voice trailed off.

  ‘I don’t condone to
rture.’ Sean glanced at Natasha. ‘Sometimes people like that don’t deserve anything better, but I don’t torture people.’ He might have applied a little more pressure to the knife than was strictly necessary, but at this stage he felt Natasha wouldn’t appreciate that fact. ‘I just hope we never see Schaeffer again.’

  Lomax glanced in his mirror. There was no doubt the opposition had caught up. His immediate instinct was to corner the chasing car and kill the driver. Then DD groaned in the passenger seat. ‘Hang on DD’ Lomax said grimly. ‘This is going to be a bumpy ride.’

  Lomax’s major concern was alerting the local police. Speeding or any high-speed manoeuvres were likely to attract their attention. Lomax decided the suburbs would provide less chance of interference from the authorities.

  Despite the pain in his side, Lomax was in his element. He shouted to DD to get strapped in tight, but heard only a groan in response. The next set of lights were on red. Lomax slowed down, looking right and left. In the late evening the traffic was light. In his mirror he saw the pursuing car approaching rapidly, headlights blazing. Lomax allowed his car to creep forward. Cars crossing the lights now had to move out of their lane in order to avoid hitting him. Several cars hooted angrily. Lomax saw the pursuing car loom up behind. He kicked the accelerator and wound the wheel right, screeching into a narrow gap between two cars. Lomax heard impotent revving, the pursuers unable to move until the next gap in the traffic. He used the small fraction of time gained to cut in front of oncoming traffic and make the next turn right.

  Several turns later Lomax stopped the car in a narrow alley, estimating he had enough time to check on DD. A feel of the boy’s chest told Lomax enough. He had bruising and a possible broken rib. Lomax kept a look out, expecting the pursuing car to show at any time. He managed to get DD sitting upright and strapped in when he heard them.

  Lomax resumed his seat and strapped in tight. The car flashed across the street before seeing them. The brakes went on and then the car reversed wildly, weaving from right to left.

  Lomax smiled grimly.

  Still in reverse, the car turned. Lomax could hear the brakes screech before the accelerator was floored and the car shot back, reversing down the alleyway. It wasn’t clear what their intention was. Perhaps they wanted to ram his car or possibly just block his exit. Whatever they wanted to do, Lomax had no intention of letting them succeed. He put his car into reverse and stepped on the accelerator.

  DD snapped forward against the straps. Lomax saw the approaching car accelerate towards them as they reversed. Suddenly he was out of the narrow alleyway and into a side road. He gripped the handbrake and yanked the wheel over at the same time and the car pivoted around the rear wheels. When he straightened up he could see the alleyway. Lomax watched as the other car backed out into the road. They reversed and turned quickly to face him, tyres screaming with the friction. Lomax stamped on the throttle, aiming straight at the turning car. He could just imagine the panic they were experiencing. The hunted was turning on the hunter.

  At the last moment the driver of the other car panicked, shooting forward and out of the way. By this time Lomax was already moving fast. He took the next turn past the alleyway and came out onto the same highway he had left earlier. Looking in the mirror he saw the other car execute a wild handbrake turn and start after them.

  Lomax glanced in the mirror at DD, sagging against the seat restraints like a rag doll. Time to lead them into the killing zone he thought.

  DD reached consciousness slowly. He glimpsed low rise houses and shopping malls out of the window. Soon they began to peter out and he briefly saw open spaces between agricultural shops and the odd petrol station. He was being thrown around in his seat as Lomax shot the car through a series of bends. DD sensed the skill and professionalism as Lomax rapidly manoeuvred the car.

  ‘Where are we going?’ DD was surprised at how weak and husky his voice sounded.

  Lomax didn’t answer. When DD looked up, he could see Lomax was too busy to talk. Then without warning, DD was flung sideways against the straps as Lomax used the handbrake again to execute a sharp turn. He braked hard after twenty metres, then used the handbrake again to turn the car in its own length, ending up facing back towards the main strip.

  DD saw Lomax’s shoulders hunch with the effort as Lomax pulled the car into the side and crept forward in first gear. Through the side window DD had a good view of the street ahead. He saw Lomax turn his lights off and heard him rev the engine a few times. He was about to speak again, when Lomax held his hand up, anticipating the interruption. ‘Brace yourself.’

  DD felt the cold night air steal over his face as Lomax wound the window down a fraction. He stared in the direction Lomax was looking. DD heard the sound of a car engine, then saw it as it edged forward along the main street.

  Almost without looking, DD knew this was the car that had been following them. It had slowed, possibly to check the exits to the main strip. In less than a minute it would be checking the road they were on. DD couldn’t understand why Lomax wasn’t responding - why was he sitting there like a stone statue?

  DD soon found out. In one fluid movement Lomax released the handbrake and accelerated the car smoothly up through the gears.

  Then the realisation hit. Lomax had no intention of continuing to evade the chasing car. A single emotion leapt to the forefront of DD’s brain - fear.

  He grabbed the arm rests as the car flew forward to its fate. Some last minute safety mechanism switched on in DD’s mind and he covered his face with his arms in the brace position. In the last few seconds before they hit, out of the corner of his eye he saw the other car growing rapidly larger, and then the grim almost calm expression on Lomax’s face as he gauged the combined trajectories of both cars, pushing the accelerator to the floor, matching the physical equations that would bring the two steel cages with their living occupants into intimate contact with each other, their destiny sealed by a final deft touch of the wheel.

  Chapter 25

  Captain Sheering watched his first officer count down the seconds.

  ‘Three, two, one, mark!’

  ‘Fire control, launch sequence initiated.’

  The USS Cheyenne lurched as a cloud of compressed air was released from the capsule launch system.

  ’Missile away from VLS’ intoned the Weapons Officer as the missile left its vertical launch tube in the centre of the boat. ‘Transiting water-air barrier’ he continued; ‘solid fuel booster ignited.’

  The Tomahawk was already above the sea, accelerating rapidly to cruising speed. A few seconds later with its solid fuel expended, the turbofan engine cut in. It started to descend towards the water, levelling out 50 metres above the waves.

  ‘Con, sonar. We’ve lost the target – it just disappeared!’

  ‘Fire control, re-program last known position of target.’

  ‘Fire control, re-programming.’

  The Captain caught his Executive Officer’s worried look again. Tomahawks were expensive but at least they were able to be re-programmed in mid-flight. When this was all over he intended to have a quiet word with his XO – he needed to start thinking like a Captain if he ever wanted to be one.

  ‘Thermal layer thinning!’ The sonar operator’s message was almost a shriek.

  ‘Right full rudder, try to get back into it’ said Sheering calmly.

  As the sub heaved to starboard the noise and vibration increased enormously. Without the protection of the thermal layer the Captain knew they would be exposed to the full force of the energy being beamed at them. Unfortunately this would take them closer to the point where the cruise missile was due to arrive with its warhead of 450kg of high explosive.

  Above the waves the cruise missile was halfway through its short flight. It began to curve back, constantly comparing its position obtained from its GPS to the spot it had been programmed to seek out. Less than ten seconds later it found it and changed the angle of its stubby wings to plunge into the sea.


  Moments later the sonar operator reported. ‘Missile has re-entered the water.’

  The submarine began to shake up and down its length. A loud hollow booming noise caromed around the enclosed spaces, forcing men to protect their ears with their hands.

  The vibration was making it difficult for men to stand. Rather than fall over in front of his crew the Captain sat in the nearest chair, grabbing the arms for support.

  There was one more thing he could do. For a split second the Captain wondered if his Executive Officer had had the same thought. A quick glimpse confirmed that his XO was too engrossed in what was going on around him. It didn’t look like he was thinking about alternative strategies to get them out of a very difficult situation.

  Suddenly the vibration ceased and the loud booming stopped.

  Captain Sheering was surprised – what had caused the bastard to break off the attack? Before we go down I want to give that bastard something from me, he thought grimly.

  ‘Fire control, launch torpedoes from tubes 2 and 4!’

  The order momentarily caught Fire Control napping. ‘Fire control, launching torpedoes from tubes 2 and 4!’

  ‘Thank you fire control. Let’s make it more snappy next time!’

  ‘Everyone, standby to surface. Blow all ballast for emergency surface!’

  ‘Three seconds to detonation!’ yelled the technician in fire control.

  The Captain’s voice rose in pitch. ‘Hold on men!’

  They felt the force of an enormous underwater explosion.