by Paul Heron
‘They haven’t spotted us yet,’ Michael said, drumming his fingertips on the headrest of Ringo’s seat, as if trying to brainstorm an emergency plan. ‘Ringo, how fast is this car?’
Ringo grinned, looking at Michael in the rear-view mirror. ‘This baby can out run just about any SUV on the road.’
‘This is what we’ll do then...’ Michael said.
‘Look.’ Mohammad yelled, ‘there’s another one. They’re like ants, coming from everywhere.’
Michael scanned the road. He knew they looked suspicious, people were gawking through the SUV’s heavily tinted windows. Ringo’s car was certainly ostentatious enough to attract unwanted attention. People probably assumed there was a celebrity inside. He hoped that the Mancini agents, at least, wouldn’t notice them. Hopefully their attention was fully zoned in on the three outside the shop.
‘Ringo, put Sofia’s call through the car’s sound system,’ George ordered, ‘it’s about to get messy down there. We don’t need anymore unwanted attention, especially in such a high profile place.’
Just as Ringo began to connect Sofia's call through Bluetooth, Ahmad flung his door open and threw himself out of the car.
‘AHMAD!’ Mohammad screamed.
‘I’ve seen them before!’ he yelled. ‘They know where my parents are!’
‘Get back here,’ Michael shouted. ‘Nobody moves, stay in the car.’
Michael jumped out of the car and sprinted after Ahmad.
Ahmad was in a blind rage, not thinking straight. After fifteen yards, Michael rugby tackled him, dragging him to the ground, ripping the knees of his trousers in the process. He rolled over and tried to escape, but Michael pinned his shoulders down and used all of his seventy-eight kg physique to restrain him.
‘Do you want to get us caught?’ Michael hissed through gritted teeth.
An elderly lady walked over to them, leaning on her walking stick. She wore a T-shirt that read I LOVE London and reeked of cheap perfume. ‘Is he okay, sweety?’ she asked.
‘Yes, everything’s fine, thanks,’ Michael replied, smiling at the lady as if everything was normal, ‘just a panic attack. He’ll be okay.’
Ahmad’s breathing began to slow down. His complexion returned to it’s normal shade, leaving his face shining with sweat, as was Michael’s.
Michael looked up at the BMW which was just fifty yards away. He was grateful that the final sea of afternoon shoppers helped block them from view, and perhaps Sofia, Marcel, and Carolina were serving a purpose by keeping the agents attention away from what was going on behind them.
As he pulled Ahmad to his feet, Ahmad fought to keep from crying.
‘If Mancini Corporation has them, we’ll find them,’ Michael said. ‘Just don’t be crapping all over us.’ He looked around at all the pedestrians giving them strange looks, hopefully thinking it was just some silly stunt.
Back in the car, everyone was wondering what to do. It was such a tease; Sofia, Carolina, and Marcel were so close, and yet they couldn’t be reached. They were practically sitting ducks outside Topshop.
‘Michael, Ajit remembers putting a coded lock on L’amico’s software. It will take them a while to figure it out. He’s bought us some time,’ George said.
‘There’s hope,’ Michael said. But now he couldn’t care less about L’amico or Elisabetta’s book or any of it. All he wanted was to get the others back to safety. If they don’t make it, it will be all my fault. The text he sent his dad hung over him like a black cloud filled with guilt. The image of Ajit lying wounded flashed across his eyes.
‘The police are here to talk to Ajit, gotta go. Get yourselves out of there.’ George signed off.
‘Right,’ Michael said. ‘Sofia, Marcel, Carolina, this is what we’re going to do: as soon as we pull up outside the shop, the three of you just sprint. We need to surprise them, and right now they’re sitting idle. We need to think of all the possibilities. They’re watching you, but they could be watching us too, so we’ve got to act fast and get the hell out of here.’
‘What if we get caught?’ Mohammad's nerves came to the surface.
‘We’re all nervous. But we’re in this together,’ Michael said, continuing to scan the area. Secretly, he was terrified that he was leading them into something terrible. But what else was he going to do. He had no idea what he was doing.
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘IS EVERYONE READY?’ Michael asked.
‘I think so,’ Mohammad replied, his voice without it’s usual humour.
‘We’re good to go!’ Ringo said, gripping the wheel.
Ahmad just hummed in agreement.
Michael lowered the window to get a clearer view from behind the tints. A group of teen girls looked at him, giggling as they walked in the opposite direction. One of them had said something, but he didn’t hear. He could hear his pulse more than anything else. ‘The second this car moves, Sofia, you three run.’
‘Let’s get this done so we can get out of here!’ Mohammad began to fidget in his seat.
‘Go for it, Ringo!’ Michael shouted.
Ringo stomped on the accelerator. It roared like the four litre beast it was, sending them back into their seats. In a matter of seconds, they came to a skidding halt, right behind the BMW. Ringo had skill. He was skilful enough to judge the speed and distance of the skid to perfection.
Two men, wearing matching black suits, jumped out of the X6. They both realised who was in the Range Rover and stopped in their tracks. As if measuring up their options, they looked reluctant to create a public scene. Perhaps their operation was to be kept under wraps.
Michael felt a rush of adrenaline.
Sofia, Marcel, and Carolina sprinted from the shop. Everyone was overcome with excitement to see them jump into the back of the car.
‘GO, GO, GO!’ Mohammad yelled from the front passenger seat, bouncing up and down, suddenly full of excitement.
Just as Ringo put the car into reverse, the agents ran back to their car. But Ahmad jumped out of the car again, running towards them.
‘Where are my parents?’ he screamed, sounding like a man possessed. He grabbed one of them, dragging him back out of the BMW again, sending the agent's shirt buttons flying into the air. The man pulled a handgun from it’s holster under his jacket. Ahmad froze, raising his hands in the air.
‘We can’t fight against guns!’ Carolina shouted. ‘Or can we? What if we get shot, does it effect us like normal humans?’
‘I’m not willing to find out. But he’s not stupid enough to use it here, in front of people,’ Michael shouted, leaping from the car, followed by Marcel. The pressure was mounting.
Michael didn’t know who he wanted to kick first; the Mancini agents or Ahmad.
‘Stop right there!’ shouted an agent, walking around from the driver side of the X6. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at Marcel. ‘Stop! You’ve lost one friend today, let’s not make it any more. I will shoot you!’
Michael stopped, Marcel ignored him. ‘We’ve been dragged into this mess, we don’t even know what it’s all about,’ Michael pleaded. ‘Let us go, and we can arrange a place to meet and talk without creating a scene.’
‘You come with us, Michael, and we’ll let the rest go,’ shouted the agent that had Ahamd at gunpoint shouted. He had an accent. From a guess it would be central or southern American; Hamish’s description of “like Eduardo’s” was an accurate one.
Trying to analyse the situation, Michael spun around. Passers-by were beginning to form a circle. Some were running from the situation, while others were entertained, deciding to capture it. A group of six dog walkers arrived. They were with German Shepherds – big and friendly, but nasty if provoked.
‘Michael, there’s another car!’ Sofia shouted from the back seat of their vehicle. ‘We’ve got to go.’
Michael scanned the area, wishing for an answer to pop out at him. He simply wasn’t a military tactician. He was a young lad who'd been forced to grow up too
soon. But still a young lad. And yet here he was.
The police would be there soon. They needed to leave, but they couldn’t leave Ahmad and Marcel behind. Ahmad was apprehended. Marcel had a gun pointed at him. Michael’s head was spinning; he thought he was going to be sick. He looked up at the sky, wanting to vanish from it all. Then he looked at a cloud that was slowly floating past the sun.
‘It can’t be,’ he whispered, clearly stunned at what he was seeing. A man’s torso and head, with horns at the top of his head. Then the face of the figure slowly took shape. Cernunnos, the God of Animals and Nature.
‘Michael, we need to get out of here,’ Mohammad shouted just as a third car arrived, right beside Michael.
Three men jumped out and grabbed Michael.
A piercing whistle rang through Michael’s ears. He looked over at the Range Rover. Mohammad waving his hands, signaling to the six German Shepherds, causing them to erupt in a fit of barks. They struggled with their handlers until they got loose, dashing for the agents who had Marcel and Ahmad.
Michael watched in amazement as Mohammad threw him the thumbs up, appearing proud of himself.
‘Tell those dogs to back off before my colleagues shoot them!’ Shouted a foreign man’s voice from behind Michael. He stood around six foot, five inches tall, towering over Michael’s six foot frame. He looked like a wrestler with hands as big as shovels.
All those smartphones recording his failure. Michael winced. He’d be the laughing stock of the internet in an hour. He cursed technology and his own incompetence. The three men dragged him towards their car, whilst Marcel and Ahmad managed to get free.
Marcel ran towards Michael.
For Michael, seeing the strange car door open caused panic to set in. Flipping into auto-pilot, he leaned back against the giant agent who was restraining him, using the man’s body as leverage, he kicked the other agent who was in front of him, once in the groin then in the head. He was too fast for them to react.
Michael continued to lean back against the giant. The agent tried to ram Michael face-first into the car, but Michael used the momentum to run up the car door and flipped himself over the agent, landing behind him, ramming the agent face first into the car, a complete reverse move to what the agent was going to do to him. As the agent turned, Michael jumped, spun in mid-air and swung his leg around three hundred and sixty degrees catching the agent's chin. When Michael landed on the ground, the agents were unconscious, Marcel was toying with the third as if it were a sparring session in the dojo. Michael stood there stunned as if he was also unconscious.
‘Oh my God!’ Mohammad shouted. ‘Do that again!’
Michael and Marcel sprinted to the car and threw themselves into the backseat behind Ahmad.
For a minute, they thought they were free, but the car was blocked in.
Ringo rammed into the X6. Pushing it to give him room to manoeuvre, but they were trapped, an experienced manoeuvre by the Mancini agents.
Then, from up above them, came the thumping sound of an automatic weapon.
People on the pavement ran in all directions; men, women, and children screaming.
Michael looked up through the sunroof of the car, expecting to see an army of people. They were all frozen with fright, breathing heavily, covering their ears with their eyes closed.
But the bullets from the gunfire demolished the three Mancini agents’ vehicles. Not one touched the Range Rover.
George patched through. ‘Get the hell out of there!’
Michael looked cautiously through the window. He had a newfound respect for the Sirani Foundation. Whoever was on the roof of that building was obviously there to help them. He didn’t know what the hell had just occurred. It was a flash. But he couldn’t wait to go on the internet later and watch himself beat the crap out of those agents. That was something Marcel would do. But still, he couldn’t wait.
They pushed their way through the car rubble and took off.
People on the streets had scattered from the scene, back into shops where they could get shelter.
Had they just caused an international incident? Would this be the first of many international incidents that would lead the world to wonder, what’s going on?
Michael was trembling from head to toe.
Some people who’d been filming the fight clapped for them and raised their arms high in the air; cheering and whistling as if at a championship boxing match, clearly entertained.
They all looked at each other, speechless.
Ringo hammered his SUV down Oxford Street in the direction they came. Michael turned and stared out through the rear-view window to ensure they weren’t being followed. The cops would be on the scene at any minute. He watched as the carnage got further and further away.
They went so fast that the trees, signs, and telephone poles all passed by in a blur. Nobody spoke, just the sound of the engine revs could be heard as he jumped through the gears, timing the traffic lights perfectly so they didn't come to a dead stop. The entire group was tired, stressed and unsure about what was coming next.
After the scene was no longer in view, they all went limp and breathed sighs of relief.
Sofia took a tissue out and wiped blood from Michael’s lip.
He could feel her breath on his face. It smelled minty fresh. But this wasn’t the time or place to relax. Ahmad had endangered all their lives.
‘Ahmad!’ Michael shouted, drying the beads of sweat from his forehead. ‘I know you want to find your family, but what you just did was dangerous and stupid. Not just for you, but for all of us. You’re a liability.’
‘But-’
‘But nothing. We’ll talk later with George and see what he thinks. If it were up to me, though!’ Michael punched his own hand, glaring at Ahmad.
‘I’m sorry.’ Ahmad broke down again, clearly a man dealing with the torment of losing his family. He was clearly suffering, but all the same, Michael was torn. He wanted to rip him limb from limb.
‘Just forget it,’ Sofia said. ‘We all made it out without getting caught.’
Great, he nearly got us all killed, and now I have to sit here like his therapist and dry his tears? Michael looked at him in disgust.
‘I couldn’t stop myself.’
Ringo pulled over on the side of the road.
‘What are you doing?’ Marcel asked, caressing his knuckles. ‘We gotta keep going.’
‘I’m changing the registration plates so they can’t tail us.’
‘Nice,’ Marcel shouted. ‘Man, what an adrenaline rush. And now changing the registration plates? That’s total secret agent stuff!’
‘We need to keep out of the way for a while,’ Sofia said. ‘I don’t think it’s safe for any of us in public now.’
Nobody responded. What Sofia said was true. They all knew it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
THE VEHICLE ROARED along the A5 towards the M1 Bedfordshire.
In an attempt to break the silence in the car, Carolina asked about Ajit.
‘He’s safe. George is with him at the hospital,’ Mohammad said.
Michael, however, was more concerned with them actually making it back in order to see Ajit and George. He was certain that Ringo’s car was being hunted.
Ringo turned on the radio, immediately getting the news. The main story of the hour, of course, was about them. The journalist said that minister David Williams was attacked in the office of the Minister of Defence. The journalist went on to say how the three culprits tried to kill the minister and are wanted for attempted murder. According to the journalist, the three were looking for the Minister of Defence Matt Cole.
‘You’re assassins now?’ Mohammad said, looking at the three. ‘This is awesome.’ He spoke sarcastically.
‘Shut up, Moahmmad.’ Carolina yelled. ‘This is serious. How the hell are we to fight against the people who are running the world?’
The car fell silent.
The journalist continued to say that the carnage o
n Oxford Street, and the events at Westminster were related. The authorities were now looking for Ringo’s car, and for the six of them. They had CCTV footage of everyone’s face and were probably broadcasting them on television. With what happened to the world leaders at the United Nations meeting, there were suspicions this attempted attack in London was linked to the events in Vienna. Something was going on in the political world. People were starting to grow curious.
Michael looked at his watch; another hour of travelling in daylight. It would be a nail biting sixty minutes, give or take, until they had some aid by the darkness.
‘We’ve got a job on our hands,’ Sofia said, rubbing her temple as if to soothe a headache.
‘We’ll figure it out when we get back to Little Camberly. But one thing’s for sure: we're now targets of the state,’ Marcel said. ‘Not only the state, but if they try and pin the UN poisonings on us, too, we’ll have an even bigger problem.’
Everyone in the car was exhausted, both emotionally and physically. They were all drifting off when the sound of a phone ringing shocked them back into full alertness. It was George. Ringo connected the call through the car’s sound system.
‘I’m happy you’re all together again. Lets try and keep it that way.’ George said. ‘Just to let you all know, Ajit’s been released from the hospital. The medics found a strange substance in his blood stream. We all know what that is. We’re at the gallery now, he’s keen to get back to work. You’ll be safe here for a little while, but not for long. It won’t be long until they come back for all of you. The Mancini Corporation couldn’t possibly be happier; you’re all officially wanted by the authorities. This will make it much easier for them. They don’t have to convince the authorities that they’re the good guys. Out there, it looks like we’re the bad guys. So, all of you be extra careful. If we’re caught, we’re finished before this really gets started. The authorities must not get their hands on you.’
‘Thanks for being the bearer of bad news,’ Mohammad said.
‘As long as you all remain together, you’ll be fine.’ George paused as if waiting for an enthusiastic response. But none came. ‘We’ll figure it out.’