Hard Knocks

Venko’s head, he would kill Heidi. He was probably right.” Gilby glanced at me. “But good God, woman, it was a ludicrous idea. Venko’s organisation across Eastern Europe makes the Mafia look like the Women’s Institute.”

“My mother’s in the Women’s Institute,” I said dryly. “They’re a pretty tough bunch.”

I was rewarded by another near-miss of a smile. “I didn’t know they had a SWAT team.”

“You be amazed,” I said, “what she can do with knitting needles.”

The smile broke out fully. He paused for a moment, then shook his head. “What the hell are you really doing here, Charlie?” he asked, and there was no anger, just a kind of tired amusement.

I hesitated for a moment, drained the last of the brandy, made my decision.

“I came,” I said bluntly, “to find out if you’d murdered Kirk Salter.”

That shook him. He sat up straight, the fatigue momentarily dropping away. “Good God,” he murmured. “We knew there was something about you.” His eyes slid away unfocused into thought, then flicked back to my face, turning shrewd. “And if I had?”

I shrugged and found that shrugging hurt, too. “Find some evidence and take it home,” I said. “I’m not here on a vengeance kick. Hell, I didn’t even like the bloke.”

“So why did you come?”

“I made a promise,” I said, thinking of Sean. And because the Major seemed to be waiting for more than that, I added, a little reluctantly, “Kirk saved my life once.”

“I see,” Gilby said. I noticed his eyes had shifted to my throat, where the scar lay hidden under a high-neck sweatshirt.

Sean had once made the mistaken assumption that the injury dated from the same time as Kirk’s opportune intervention. I hadn’t corrected him, either. Maybe it was just easier that way.

“So,” I said carefully, “are you going to tell me what happened to him?”

There was silence while the Major rose, walked over to the drinks cabinet and refilled his brandy glass. He turned and waved the decanter at me, but I shook my head. There was only so much of that stuff I could take and still hang on to the lining of my oesophagus.

When he was seated again he said, “I’d been following the kidnappings since they started, so when Heidi was snatched I already had a pretty good idea that Gregor Venko was the man behind the operation. I also knew that Heidi’s chances of survival were very poor.” He allowed his distaste to show through. “The man’s a monster.”

I watched him sample his drink. He saw me watching and set the glass aside, as though he’d had enough already. “Anyway, I had Dieter going ballistic for me to do something, so I pulled in a few favours with contacts in the security services. Getting anywhere near Venko himself was going to be impossible without months of preparation, but I did manage to find out the location of his son, Ivan.”

He scanned me for any sign that I considered the targeting of Gregor’s only child made him a monster, too. I kept my face neutral.

“Taking him seemed the logical thing to do at the time.” He gave a wry smile. “Perhaps if I’d had the chance to think things through more I would have hesitated, but I didn’t. We had less than a week to put a team together. Salter was here when Dieter arrived, overheard enough to know what was going on and volunteered immediately.”

There was a hint of something close to admiration in the Major’s voice as he reached for his drink again. “I was glad to have him,” he muttered fiercely. “Damned good soldier.”

“So what happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Gilby admitted. “We had a plan of attack. Not a foolproof one, by any means, but a good plan nonetheless. Somewhere along the line somebody blew it. We were compromised. It was a miracle we made it out with so few casualties and still managed to achieve our objective.”

“And Kirk was one of those casualties?”

The Major lifted his head and looked straight through me, his eyes blank to everything but the recall. “He was last man out,” he agreed. “Told us he’d cover our withdrawal, but the field of fire they put down was incredible. They were using machine pistols and just emptying magazine after magazine at us. Made the Gulf look like a picnic.” He shook his head, grim-faced at the memory. “We got him into the truck, did everything we could, but our medic was injured too. Salter didn’t make it.”

Our medic? Ah, so that was the problem with O’Neill.

“So you dumped Kirk’s body in the forest,” I said. I didn’t think I had any feelings about that, one way or the other. I was mildly surprised therefore, to hear the contempt in my voice. “Nice way to treat a damned good soldier.”

Gilby ducked his head in acknowledgement of the jibe, but he didn’t flinch. “I agree,” he said. “Officially, we couldn’t explain to the authorities what we’d been up to, so we left him. It was a tactical decision, but not an easy one, I can assure you. Making choices like that is one of the burdens of command.” It should have sounded pompous, but somehow it didn’t.

I sat in silence for a while. So there it was. The gospel of Kirk’s death, according to Gilby. If I believed him then my work here was done. And if I had any sense I would report back to Sean and get the hell out of there before the shooting started.

I didn’t even have to explain my departure to the other students. They’d all heard Todd telling me I was finished. They were all fully expecting me just to pack up and leave . . .

But then there was just the small matter of my promise to Gregor Venko. A promise bound by blood, in all its forms.

“Who were the men in the Peugeot?” I said suddenly. “The ones who ambushed us in the forest. Were they Venko’s men?”

“Father, or son?”

“Either,” I returned, just as succinctly, “or both.”

“Son. His bodyguards, I believe. I rather think Venko sent them to try and intimidate or force us to give him back without having to use him to trade for Heidi. It’s only after their attempts failed that he’s come prepared to make a deal. It would explain why we haven’t come under significant fire until now.”

I remembered again Blakemore’s words to the Peugeot driver. “Try this shit again and next time we send you the kid’s ears.” It all made such perfect sense now. How would they have talked that one away to a man like Gregor Venko?

“And now Gregor’s decided to handle things personally,” I murmured.

Gilby inclined his head. “As you’ve seen.”

“So, if that’s the case,” I said slowly, “who was behind Blakemore’s death?”

“That was an accident,” Gilby said quickly. Much too quickly.

I met the Major’s gaze level, held it there. He had the grace to break away first. “You looked at the scene as much as I did – probably more. The fact he was hit before he went over isn’t in doubt,” I said. And because the need to know was deep and biting, I added with an edge dipped in acid, “And now you’ve lost another man. Your forces are being depleted, Major, at a faster rate than you can sustain.”

The hit was a direct one, but the response wasn’t quite what I expected. “Oh, Mr Rebanks isn’t lost,” he said tightly, a flush forming along his pale cheekbones. “Although in my opinion he more than deserves to be dead.” Shock kept me silent, and my silence pulled more out of the Major than questions would have done.

“Dealing weapons from my school,” Gilby gritted out with quiet vehemence, more to himself than to me. “Dealing them to the very men who would use them against us!” He sucked in a breath, fought for control. After a few moments his colour began to subside, calming as his temper ebbed.

Rebanks was still alive. Thank God for that!

“Oh yes,” he went on bitterly, “he deserves to be dead.” He looked up sharply then and I can’t have hidden the emotions that were rioting through my mind.

Astonishment and disbelief came and went across the Major’s own features. “Good God,” he said softly. “It was you.” As he said it another realisation came riding in on the back of the first. “You thought you’d killed him,” he said and I saw him take another mental step back.

“Yes,” I said. There wasn’t much else I could say. I could only hope to distract him. “What’s happened to Rebanks?”

Gilby gave a grunt. “This place was built to house an extensive wine cellar,” he said, briefly showing his