The first was to my left, facing the rear of the house.
Nothing.
I turned the handle and went in.
Nothing.
No one.
I moved down to the next door on the right, facing the front of the house.
I could hear snoring.
I carried on along the corridor and listened outside the next room. Nothing. And there was no noise from any of the other five.
I put the box-cutter back in my fleece, fished out the torch and twisted the lens.
At this point I'd normally have pressed my right thumb down on the weapon's safety catch, checking that it was off and ready to go, before entering the target room. Then I'd have pushed the mag in the pistol grip to make sure that it was engaged.
No need for any of that with this fucking thing. I just hoped my bluff was going to work.
I lifted the latch, and none too gently. Once you've decided you're going in, you might as well get it over with. I pushed the door a few inches, brought up the torch and used my body to open the door fully.
I moved immediately to the right, to avoid silhouetting my body in the doorway. The curtains were still open.
I closed the door most of the way with my shoulder, and the torch beam hit a pile of clothes draped over a wooden chair, then a watch and a glass of water on a bedside table. There was a body in the bed. It stirred, maybe as a reaction to the change in the air pressure as the door opened, or the fact that light was now shining in its face.
His head turned and his eyes opened wide. He wouldn't be able to see me, just the torchlight. I tilted it to make sure he caught sight of the pistol.
I moved quickly and knelt astride him, pinned him to the bed with the duvet taut across his chest.
I cut the light and dropped the torch onto the bed. I didn't want him to see my face yet. I wanted to keep him confused.
He started to react. 'What . . .? Who the . . .?'
He gave a grunt as I pressed the pistol against his clenched teeth. He tried to resist. I grabbed the back of his balding head with my left hand and forced the weapon down harder. Metal scraped against enamel until he eventually opened up.
I pushed the muzzle as far into his mouth as it would go.
37
He struggled for a while, not trying to escape, just trying to work out what the fuck was going on, and to breathe. He was flapping, and snorting like a horse. I moved with his chest as it arched up and down. Finally he lay still. No one will really fuck around once they realize they have a pistol in their mouth and it's not coming out.
I leant towards his left ear. His cheek smelled of coal tar soap. 'You have two choices. Die if you don't help me, live if you do. Nod if you understand.'
The pistol moved up and down.
It's always better to take your time at moments like this. If you've got somebody who's flapping and you say, 'OK, what's all this shit about Leptis?', he can't talk because he's got this weapon stuck in his mouth, so he gets all confused about what you expect of him. It's better to do it as a process of elimination. Then, once he got in the swing of things, I could grip him and get him spewing out everything he knew.
'If there's anyone else in the house, nod slowly.'
There was no movement of the pistol.
'Dogs?'
No movement.
'Anyone turning up before first light?'
No movement.
He gagged and his Adam's apple worked overtime. With his jaw wide open he'd lost his ability to swallow.
'It's Nick Stone. You remember.'
The pistol moved up and down, with purpose.
'That Libyan in Tripoli called you Leptis. Yes?'
He nodded.
'The only people who have that information are the Libyan, you and me, right?'
He nodded again.
'You put it in a report?'
His cheeks inflated and his lips bubbled. Saliva oozed from his mouth and down his chin. I could hear all the breathing and slurping, but there was just a touch too much hesitation. He was doing some serious thinking about what to say next.
'Don't second-guess. You don't know what I want to hear. Just tell the truth. If not, you're no good to me. Understand?'
The pistol moved up and down. I could feel his chest rising and falling more and more quickly; he was fighting for oxygen and there were too many obstructions.
He nodded.
Light sliced through the darkness outside. In the middle distance, towards the coast, two sets of headlamps moved along the road I'd parked beside.
'You still work for the Firm?'
Side to side.
Both vehicles had stopped about two hundred up the road, and both sets of lights cut.
'How many are coming?'
I pulled the weapon from his mouth and slammed it down on top of his head. Partly to control him, partly out of anger, I screamed with him.
'I wasn't the only fucker in that car
. . .'
I pulled out the Explorers, turned them on and slung them back round my neck. I jumped off him and grabbed one of his socks and shoved it into his mouth, pulling down on his jaw to force him to take it all. Noise comes from the throat and below, not the mouth; for an effective gag, you have to ram the obstruction down as far as it can go, so that when your prisoner tries to scream, the sound can't amplify in the mouth. I also wanted him to be more worried about choking than raising the alarm.
I tied his shirtsleeve as tightly as I could around his mouth and at the back of his neck so I could use it as a lead, but kept his nose uncovered because he had to be able to breathe. Moans and groans sounded from the back of his throat as I dragged him onto the floor. I kept my Timberland over the sleeve to keep him down as I checked the darkness outside with the binos.
Now they'd checked out the Merc, the two cars moved towards the fork in the road, lights off and slow. I lost them for a few seconds behind the farm buildings.
They split, one down each side of the triangle.
The driver of the one to the right stuck his head out of the window for a clearer view. His passenger had something with him that gave off a gentle glow. As they passed the house, I pulled Lynn from the bedroom and towards the stairs. I dropped the pistol and grabbed the torch. I wouldn't be able to bluff these guys. I twisted open the lens.
The front door was the best option, then out into the open and use the outbuildings for cover. Then over fields to wherever, now the car was compromised.
It didn't matter where I was heading for now; the only thing that did was getting out of the shit and keeping Lynn with me. I hadn't found anything out yet.
I dragged him down the stairs. Blood glistened on his head and face. He stumbled as he tried to grab the shirt to ease the pressure on his mouth at the same time as following the torch beam.
We reached level ground.
I focused the light on the front door and pushed him against the wall, kicking him down onto the carpet to control him as I took the box-cutter out of my fleece, turned the torch off and released the Yale.
No time to be tactical. I wanted to be outside, in the dark and in cover.
I wrenched him off the floor and dragged him diagonally across the wet grass.
38
My Timberlands hit the hard standing and we got in amongst the growing sheds. My plan was simply to head for the gates and then out into the open to make them think I was going back to the Merc. They didn't have night-viewing aids, or they would have used them.
Lynn tripped and sprawled along the concrete. I turned and yanked the shirt, giving him a taste of Timberland toecap for good measure. The fucker was stalling.
At that moment, a body crashed into me from behind with the force of a moving car, tearing Lynn from my grip. I spun, landing on my back.
I tried to turn to face whoever had banged into me but the body was already on top of me, crushing the air from my lungs. I arched my back, kicking, bucking, struggling to get my hands up to his mouth, but he was ahead of me. Hands the size of shovels gripped my arms and then moved down until he had me in a bear hug.
The top of his head pushed hard against my chin. I twisted like a mad man. Sixteen, seventeen stone of him pressed down on me, keeping my arms against my sides.
I tried to kick and buck out of position, then to head butt him. He did exactly the same, growling at me through clenched teeth. He let go of my arms and decided to throttle me instead. Massive fingers closed around my throat and his saliva sprayed my face as he strained to push my Adam's apple out through the back of my neck. My head felt like it was going to explode.
I managed to grab a handful of hair at the back of his head and jabbed the box-cutter repeatedly into his face.
He screamed.
I slashed and slashed. Three, four, five times. Blood dribbled onto my face and then spurted. I must have hit the artery.
The boy jerked around. His blood poured into my mouth. I could taste the iron and feel the warmth. I kept jabbing, waiting for him to let go.
He finally screamed like a pig and his hands flew to his ravaged face. I pushed him off and rolled away, looking around wildly for Lynn. He was on the ground too and there was another body on top of him, raining punches.
I stabbed the box-cutter into the leather-jacketed back but couldn't go deep enough so I ran it into the back of his head and down into his neck. He shouted with pain but managed to roll away and jump to his feet. I lashed out again and felt his stubble against my hand as I tore the blade across his cheek.
Taking the pain, he drove his shoulder into my ribcage and the back of my head slammed against the breezeblocks of the growing shed.
Stars exploded behind my eyes. The box-cutter fell from my hand and I followed it onto the ground and he came down on top of me. Blood from his face splashed onto mine.
I knew I had to keep on twisting. I kept my arms above my head. I tried to kick, buck, head butt, anything to get out of the move. He knew exactly what he was doing. Like a skilled wrestler, his body moulded onto mine. The stubble on his cheek ground against mine. His breath stank of tobacco and greasy food.
His hands shot up and clutched at my throat. His saliva sprayed my face as he rammed his thumbs into my Adam's apple. He was on a mission to crush the life out of me.
I struggled to get my hands around his throat too, but he just tensed his neck muscles and breathed between his teeth.
My head swelled to bursting point.
I was going to black out.
He had me, elbows out wide as he tightened his grip. I couldn't move my arms. I writhed and kicked and flailed and knew it wasn't working. There was nothing else I could do.
I felt him suddenly go rigid. He moaned and his head jerked back. Air gushed out of him like a punctured balloon and I rolled clear.
The shaft of the garden fork that was sticking out of his back thudded against the concrete as he fell. He thrashed about on the ground like a game fish under a harpoon.
Lynn stood above us, ripping the shirt from his mouth, gagging for air. I could see his silhouette against the lights that now shone from the house. I could hear shouting and it definitely wasn't English.
I staggered to my feet and grabbed him. I dragged him by his pyjamas out onto the road and into the field. I pushed him down onto the frost-hardened mud, maintaining my grip on him as I fought to fill my lungs with oxygen.
My Adam's apple felt like it was still in a vice.
'Nick—'
'Shut the fuck up – not now!'
We needed transport, and theirs was the nearest.
More shouts came from the house. Screams of anguish filled the air from the growing sheds.
'Come on, keep up.'
I powered up the binos and moved towards the road at the base of the triangle. Their cars had approached from either side of the house. They were probably parked up behind it.
We moved as fast as we could over the frozen mud. Lynn was finding it hard in his bare feet. I had to keep pulling him forward, then stopping to scan through the binos for the shape of a car on the road or beyond the trees and bushes that lined the fields.
We were about twenty from the base of the triangle. The house was immediately to my right. Still no sign of a vehicle.
A figure appeared from the rear of the house. Lights sprang on a few seconds later, reversed a short way along the base road, swung back up the drive, then turned back towards us.
'Keep the fuck down!'
I had another squint through the binos. Two guys were carrying the body and a third was helping the other casualty to the road.