by Paul Rice
If Stevo didn’t know better he would have sworn that Jacko sounded worried, scared almost. Without thinking, he said, “What gun, you mean the nine-milly pistol, Jacko?” His mind raced.
“Don’t facking piss me about you little shite! The MAC-10 is wot I am on about, you know, the bleeding one which you told me was taken care of – you facking little scrote!” Jacko paused and a soft hiss filled the silence in Stevo’s ear. “Just get all the gear wot you and your little mates have. Get the gun, all the guns, and then get your arse down to the warehouse right now, and bring my facking money with you!” With that the line went dead.
Stevo stared at the black mobile and tried to get his head together. “Oh shit!” His legs shook with a sudden release of adrenaline. “Shit, shit, shit!” The weight of the little pistol, which nestled in his pocket, suddenly became a lot heavier. He hit the speed dial and rang the other two – both of them were still in bed but his screamed instructions soon awakened them. Stevo spat the instructions into the mouthpiece: “You know where, just be there; bring all the guns and the fucking gear, all of it, right! I’m going to my place to get the Maccy, don’t be fucking late, Jacko sounds weird – he’s right pissed off he his, just be there!” He hung up and headed for home. His legs were still shaking but he felt better after having taken some of his fear out on the other two.
Once back in the house, he went straight to the hiding place for the weapons and other gear he kept stashed away. He had a panic-filled rummage under the floor boards and also in the secret hole he’d cut into the partition wall downstairs. His labours saw him with a small black holdall, whose contents amounted to the sum total of his life’s work. The bag contained: one bag of cash, mostly belonging to Jacko, one MAC-10 machine-pistol complete with two fully loaded magazines, and one bag of Cocaine that also belonging to Jacko. Stevo jammed a magazine into the machine-pistol and stuffed it into the bag. Picking up the holdall, he zipped it tight, then cocked and slid his .22 pistol back into the pocket of his tracksuit top. He placed another joint in between his dry lips and headed for the door.
Stevo was going to take the long way round, just to calm down a bit, but the hands on his watch forbade him. He was already late. Deciding on the short cut, he turned right, crossed the verge and made his way down to the old underpass; even though it had been closed after the new flyover made it redundant, Stevo knew that going through the old tunnel would be quicker to someone on foot. Even though it was still possible to get a car through the underpass, nobody seemed to bother, these days it was more a place where junkies, winos and other losers hung out. Stevo did a lot of business down there and they all knew who he was. “Yeah, I’m the main man in this neck of the woods!” The thought made him feel slightly better as he leapt over the railings and onto the tarmac below. Hitting the road at the wrong angle made his legs buckle, causing him to stagger forward – the curse was just about to cross his lips, when he saw the woman. Stevo was going to ignore her, he should have because he was in a hurry and Jacko was really pissed, but a sort of madness entered him, maybe it was the weed, he didn’t know, but either way the thought still popped into his head – almost as though someone had put it there. Standing upright, he stood and watched her. Heat rose behind his eyes and he allowed the thoughts to fill his mind: “Fuck Jacko, look at the arse on her!” He flicked his smoke away and stood staring at the woman for a moment.
She was bending over and looking at the map, which was spread across the floor in the back of her van, twiddling a can of deodorant in her hands as she concentrated on the map. The sliding side door of the VW was partially open, Stevo saw her bend forward and he took a long hard look at that arse again. She appeared to be in her late thirties: tight blue jeans, brown cowboy boots, white blouse and dark hair tumbling down over her shoulders. Nice arse, very nice. He couldn’t see the woman’s face. “Don’t need to see the face…” Stevo thought, smiling to himself as he began to walk the thirty yards that lay between them. He managed to get right up to the woman without a sound, when he was about six feet away, he said: “Are you lost, love?” He expected the woman jump out of her skin. He wanted her to be on the back foot, knowing that his sudden appearance would give him an advantage.
Without the slightest trace of surprise on her handsome features, the woman turned and smiled at him. Her almond green eyes, with just a trace of liner on the lower lid, sat above a perfectly formed nose. Bright red, bow shaped lips smiled at him to reveal a row of pearly white teeth. Still smiling, she said: “I most certainly am! Are you from around here – maybe you could put a damsel in distress back on the right course?” Her honey filled voice had some Northern trace to it.
Stevo stepped closer, he couldn’t believe his luck. “Even better, she’s a northerner and that lot up there love it!” That’s we he’d been told about northern birds, anyway. “She’s gagging for it!” The thought of it aroused him, today was indeed a good day... Saying something about the map, the woman moved slightly to one side and gave him room to look. As he brushed past, the smell of the woman’s perfume filled his head. Stevo took a quick look down the old underpass; it was empty save for the empty crisp packet that tumbled slowly across the entrance way. He turned his gaze back to the van with his mind racing. Grasping the little pistol hidden in his pocket, he thought: “One look at this and she’s gonna do exactly what I want…” Dumping his holdall next to her, he bent forward and tried to make a plan. The woman motioned at the map with the small can she was holding in her right hand. Stevo glanced down and saw that she was now pointing the aerosol at him. “What the…” His well honed survival instincts tried to leap into action, but they, like his thoughts, were too late.
He heard her speak: “Thanks for helping, Steven.”
Just as he was about to ask how the fuck she knew his name, the woman squirted him in the face with the perfume. He gasped and tried to step back. His reflexes were too slow and he only half managed to pull the gun from its hiding place before his whole body went into spasm. For the first time in his life, Steven O’Hara knew what real pain felt like. If he had placed his tongue into a live plug socket, the pain would have been less. A wicked jolt of agony ripped through his mouth, Stevo felt as though his head had exploded. The heat ran through his body like molten lead through butter, it was as though his feet had suddenly been dipped in fire, his whole body heated up and he leapt into the air with a thin scream. It was to be the last conscious action he would take for a while. His final sensation was one of being propelled by the weight of the woman into the back of the van. He heard her cry out and then the blackness surrounded him, he could still feel the fire coursing through his veins, could still feel his limbs jerking of their own accord, but he couldn’t seem to move. The last thought he had was one of shame. “I’ve pissed myself.”
Chapter 8 - Gifts and Changes
Ken sat and watched as Mike returned to the subject at hand. He seemed pleased at the way they in which they had reacted to the information that the silver screen had shared with them. Ken looked at his friend’s smile and realised that the story was probably going to get somewhat more complicated. He was right. Suddenly, Mike changed direction. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “Why don’t I take you guys out for a meal, you must have a favourite watering hole somewhere?” Smiling at them, he took out his wallet and waved it in the air. “I have money, people… lots of money!” It was an offer they couldn’t refuse and between them decided upon the Steak House, which lay about five miles away from the Lodge.
“It’s pretty quiet at this time of year and we should be able to get a nice table by the fire, Charlie will be glad to see, too. We haven’t been up there for ages.” Jane rose to her feet, saying that she was going to get scrubbed up. “I’ll drive, you guys have a beer and I’ll be back down in a tick…” There was to be no argument on that point whatsoever.
Ken grabbed a couple of beers from the kitchen and sat them on the coffee table, picking up their drinks the two men had a quick toast: �
��To the future, and to some more adventures eh, Kenny?” Mike raised his glass and took a long swallow. “Ah yes, that’s the very one!” he said with relish, and took another drink. Ken joined him. After finishing most of their first drink, they sat in silence for a while before Mike continued: “Your Missus is some woman, my friend. I just can’t believe she seems to have picked this up straight away, I was worried that she might have started running around the garden screaming, or something?” He shook his head and winked at Ken.
Ken thought for a moment. Then with a nod of his head, he said: “Yeah, she certainly is, I know what you mean, though, I was also a bit concerned that once she’d seen the truth, in black and white, that maybe she might have gone slightly nuts…” He looked at Mike, “But she seems to have grasped it with no dramas, I reckon?” Jane’s abilities made him proud and he was always astonished by her adaptability and resilience. She was an amazing woman who had been through quite a lot in her own life, including a previous relationship where her partner had turned out to be an obsessed lunatic. Jane had endured several severe beatings at his hands before finally leaving. It always saddened Ken as he would never have guessed that a woman like her was capable of tolerating such a thing.
“It’s just the way it was?” She had told him once when Ken had questioned her about it. “It’s not what you planned, but it just turns out that way. It became a battle and the only way for him to satisfy his desire for control, was to beat the shit out of me…” Ken remembered the steel in her eyes when she had looked at him as she spoke. “Then one day I woke up and realised that I was crazy, I didn’t love him and he hated me – he was obsessed by me and he hit me, I was the one allowing it and I would be the one who stopped it!” Whenever she talked about it, Jane always had a look of sheer incredulity on her face. The truth was that in reality she had no idea how she had allowed it to happen in the first place, when she looked back it was though it had happened to someone else. As Ken had stood there, listening in horror to her tale, he had watched as Jane’s face crumpled. She breathed deeply and said: “He took my chance of having kids away from me and for that alone, I will never forgive him. Why did he do that to me?” Her eyes filled with tears as she had remembered that particular kick, one that had been delivered as she lay half conscious on the kitchen floor with blood filling her mouth. His latest assault had been the worst yet, but Jane had simply looked up at her tormentor and then laughed. Her unbreakable spirit only served to enrage him further and his leg had swung back in anger. The impact of the steel toe-capped boot had put paid to her laughter for a while, its well aimed trajectory viciously crushing her lower abdomen. With one spiteful act, Jane had become barren. When she had told Ken the story it had sent him half crazy with anger. He would have been quite happy to go round and drag the bastard into the street… She had wiped her eyes at the time and smiled weakly at him. “Then you came along and my life began. I waited nearly forty years for you, Ken.” That one was her by line and Ken knew she meant it. He also knew that it was very probable he owed her his life. He’d made a right cock up of his previous marriage, too much running around the planet, too much drink and too much stress. He had been a mess and could quite easily have ended up like so many of his old Forces friends – divorced, penniless, and drunk. Jane had put him back on the track, taught him how to slow down a bit and shown him the value of memory building – through her he had learned how to appreciate the colours of his life. “Yeah she’s the one all right.” He smiled at the thought.
“What the hell are you grinning at?”
The humour in Mike’s question focused Ken’s thoughts back into the present. “Ah, I was just thinking that I’m a lucky guy, is all?” He grinned at Mike.
“Yeah, you have a good ‘un on your hands with Jane, that’s for sure!” Mike raised his glass again and they both laughed at each other. Right on cue, Jane came down the stairs; she had changed into clean blue jeans and a black, roll-necked jumper. With her hair tied back and just a trace of makeup on, she looked absolutely ravishing.
With a twinkle in her eye, she looked at both of them. “I hope that you boys aren’t talking behind my back?” Their sheepish grins gave the game away. “Come on then,” she said, grinning at their embarrassment, “I’m starving!” The men polished off their drinks and then all three picked up their coats and headed for the door.
Hearing the commotion, the dogs lolloped onto the drive and had a quick sniff of Mike’s car. “Don’t you pair be pissing on that wheel now will you, ya bloody heathens!” He gave Leon a playful cuff around the head and then climbed into the back seat of the old brown Range Rover.
“Stay you two, stay!” Ken gave the dogs their orders and clambered into the front passenger seat next to his wife. “Let’s go babe, your right, I’m bloody famished!” The well worn engine rattled as she drove up the driveway and turned left onto the stone track. After about five minutes, they left the track and pushed onto the smooth tarmac road that circled the Loch. They only passed a few cars along the way, their headlights illuminating the almost dazzling blackness of the Loch’s surface as it rushed past in the darkness. Ken stared at the cotton wool clouds overhead, smiling in satisfaction as he watched their shadows casting onto the liquid façade of the black Loch, the way in which they changed the appearance of the water, as they played hide and seek with the brilliant moon above, had always fascinated him. He turned away and watched the cat’s eyes running into the darkness ahead of the car. Soon they reached the turning for the large Pub-cum-Steakhouse, as they trundled onto the car park the trio were relieved to see that there were only four other vehicles parked up.
“Baggsy I sit nearest the fire!” Jane said, and then laughed as she spun the Range Rover into a sharp turn before reversing into the parking space. With the last door clunking shut behind them, the trio headed for the cosy lights of the Pub. After a couple of drinks at the bar and a friendly chat with Charlie the Landlord, he was genuinely pleased to see them, they ordered something to eat and made for one of the old oak tables that sat either side of an enormous granite fireplace with two large logs glowing in its cast iron grate. Bon Jovi crooned from the juke box, whilst soft voices and the odd clinking of glasses created a warm, welcoming, atmosphere.
Once they had finished their meal, the trio found themselves sitting and gazing into the flames. The feeling of closeness covered them; they all felt warmth in the moment and embraced it. The unspoken words hung in the air and they let it absorb them. Mike broke the spell. “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I could stay here forever, jeez it’s a nice place this?” He stretched and then opened his palms towards the flames. “I’m nearly falling asleep here…”
“Yeah, me too, I’m going to have a coffee, would you two like another beer?” Jane gave Charlie a wave and moments later they were re-supplied with drinks.
“That one’s on the House, Jane!” Charlie said, as he smiled and wiped the bar down with his cloth. They raised their drinks in thanks to him and then, after checking they were not within anyone’s earshot, Mike continued.
“So, here we are then. In that particular dimension the Rip will be fixed, Red will be gone and the Ship’s cargo can be returned and released. Things will basically be back to normal.”
Ken quizzed: “So what now then, why did George see me in a dream the other night, what is it he wants with us, I mean, if this is all squared away then surely we’re quits, aren’t we?” He took a long swallow of his cold lager and looked squarely at Mike.
The Australian nodded in understanding. “He gave you the dream as a test, not for you but for them, they wanted to see if you still had those inner feelings about the market, about the people who caused such misery?”
Ken was totally shocked – he had never even so much as mentioned the market to Mike. “Jesus!” He said, and shook his head in disbelief. It’s all he could come up with, besides, he also had a feeling that Mike had been waiting, checking them out, before he told them the whole story. He wasn’
t wrong in the assumption, either.
His friend spoke: “Right then, this is where it gets interesting.” Mike looked over his shoulder once more and then plunged them into the fresh pool of bright adventure. “George and his gang… the ‘Big Boys’ from the other worlds… never realised this would happen, they had no idea about some of the evil things that happen on a daily basis down here on our little planet. Their dealings with Red have made them look at us in greater detail. A lot of what they have observed has made them realise they can do some good, a lot of good!” His blue eyes shone with excitement. “They’ve realised that with some slight manipulation, as George called it, they can greatly affect our progression as a race.” He leant back and scratched his neck, before having a quick sip of his drink.
Ken blinked and said, “I thought George said it was forbidden for them to interfere, he was all righteous about it when he told us that, wasn’t he?” Why the sudden change, Ken didn’t get it.
Mike replied: “Yeah, you’re right, but they have come to the conclusion that a lot of what happens to us as a species is dictated by the actions of the few. With a bit of tweaking here and there, then certain people will be able to reach their full potential.” He paused, “Oh, and I don’t mean just the big fish either, no… there a plenty of little people, who given the chance will become very important in their own right. Did you know there are over two thousand extremely important people world-wide – people, who for some reason or another, have been prevented from reaching their future-changing potential in life?” He looked at both of his friends in turn, and they saw the intensity within him.
Ken reached across, picked up a log and placed it onto the pile of dying embers in the grate. “Stick a couple on will you, Kenny?” Charlie asked from the behind his bar.