The Hostage

‘Not confirmed but it’s a good possible.’

‘And weapons?’

‘Unconfirmed,’ he said. Stratton chose not to tell her about the bio. It was still need to know and she didn’t need to. Hank was enough for her to do her job, for the time being at least. If the situation changed she was cleared to hear all the facts, but it was not necessary at the moment.

‘Ed, Spinks and Bob are on target. One of our assault teams is in a holding area close to the boat. It’s the usual sit, wait and watch sketch.’

She nodded. The routine was certainly a familiar one. They drove along a road that wound through the town and led to the quay. Stratton slowed a little as masts came into view in the distance. He noticed two police cars parked in a side street. A glance the other side of the road and he saw another. Aggy was staring ahead and didn’t notice.

‘See the fishing boats on the left?’ he asked her.

‘Yes.’

‘They’re left of the target. Ed’s on one of those. We’ll turn right on to the quay and do a pass. The building to the right, at the end, is what we’re calling the corn exchange. M squadron are in the back.’

They approached the quay and the road turned right on to it. There was only one ship alongside.

‘That it?’ she asked.

‘The Alpha Star.’

They drove at normal speed along the quay, passing the boat on their left. Aggy took a quick look, taking in as much information as she could in a few seconds, enough to see there was no sign of life on deck. Until she caught a glimpse of movement on the bridge.

‘Spinks is in the water the other side. Bob’s on the roof of the exchange,’ he said as they left the boat behind them and headed along the quay.

‘Is the green light up to the ground commander or the gods on high?’ she asked.

‘The gods are calling this one. There are complications.’ She glanced at him. That meant there was more to it but she wasn’t in the loop. That was unusual. It was obviously big. ‘What’s my job?’

‘For the moment, hang tight with me. If anyone goes foxtrot from the boat you’ll take ’em. We’ve got an armed police airlock in place.’

Stratton reached the end of the quay where he and Stewart had stood earlier. He turned the corner, parked out of sight from the boat and killed the engine. The sun had already dropped beyond the horizon and lights were coming on in the surrounding houses.

Pedestrian traffic was light but constant; the main shopping area of Lynn was nearby and the northern end of the quay was a convenient place to park.

This was all too familiar for them both, parked up in a car, waiting for something to happen, a wait that might last hours. There was almost a skill involved in killing time like that, for hours on end, without looking unnatural. It was obviously much easier for a man and a woman together to remain unnoticed as opposed to two men, if they played the role comfortably, that is. Although a man and woman sitting in the front of a car staring ahead and not talking or touching looked just as conspicuous.

Stratton placed his arm over the back of Aggy’s seat and leaned closer to her. She leaned a little towards him, his chin close to the side of her face. She could hear his breath and feel his strength, and was reminded of the last - and only other - time they were this close together. How could she ever forget it?

They were in a car they had backed up a farm track just off a main road that led into Cookstown, Country Tyrone. They were there for most of the night, until three a.m., while a team changed the batteries to a bug the det had placed in a house a couple of years previously. All that time the bug had yielded little information, and now that it was dying, the occupants, who had originally suspected a device of some kind, had seemingly forgotten about their fears and were starting to become chatty. Aggy was the driver on that occasion. If they got wind from the operatives inside the house that something suspicious was happening outside she was to head into the town and drop off her warrior.

Up until that night she had not thought about him in any kind of amorous way. Indeed, she had found him attractive but he was one of those super soldiers, highly professional and leagues above her mere status of undercover operative - and a green one at that. And besides, everything about him said ‘loner’. But that night something happened to drastically change her feelings towards him, or waken them.

A car had driven slowly past their front along the road from the town and Stratton put his head close to hers and nuzzled his face into her neck, playing the game. She watched the car slowly head on up the road; but as it moved out of her vision, she was suddenly aware of Stratton in a way and with a sensitivity she had never experienced before with anyone. She inhaled his smell, felt his cheek against her ear, his hair against her face. Something was happening to her. Without warning, she quivered and drew in a slight, sharp breath.

She remained frozen, refusing to respond further, but her body was screaming out for him to touch her more. Her wish was immediately granted, as if he’d heard, and he moved his other arm around her to hold the side of her face. She was aware he was looking behind her neck, out of the window, monitoring the vehicle’s progress, but still she felt small in his powerful arms, protected. She did not know how long they stayed like that; it might have been minutes or barely seconds. Then the car turned around in the road, its headlights flashing across their front, and headed back towards them. Stratton took Aggy’s face gently with his hand, pulled it towards his, their noses touched and he put his lips against hers. The car slowly passed. They held the kiss, their mouths opening, their tongues finding each other’s. It was only when the car’s lights were almost out of sight and he gently pulled his lips from hers to check it had driven off did she realise her eyes were closed and she’d been holding the side of his face.

‘That might’ve been a pass,’ he said, meaning they had possibly just been checked out by the enemy. They stayed close for a while longer, Stratton looking for the car, and Aggy looking at Stratton. She wanted the car to come back.

She would never forget that moment he kissed her, certain she had felt him quiver as she did. He had been tender and gentle in a way it was hard to believe Stratton capable of. The way he slowly parted his lips from hers at the end of the kiss was as if he too wanted the moment to continue. But when they returned to the detachment in the early hours, before the sun had yet risen, it was as if nothing had happened. He went into the ops room to write his report without even saying goodnight.

For the rest of his time at the det he hardly spoke to her other than when work required it. Her only hint that there was something between them was the times she sensed him watching her, from the other side of the room, and their eyes locked as she looked up. The day he left she was on the ground on an op. She didn’t know he was leaving. It was all quite sudden, to do with the run over the border when he rescued Spinks. The det was an empty place from that day on in many ways; gone was that special added attraction at meals, briefings and piss-ups, because he would no longer be there.

She had thought she had moved on from there, but now she was close beside him again and could smell him and feel his strength around her, all her feelings came flooding back.

Aggy would have been surprised if she knew how often Stratton thought of that night outside Cookstown. Had it not been for the kiss she might have remained just another pretty girl to him, one who perhaps had something alluring about her, but never finding out just what it was. The kiss was like nothing he had felt before.At least he had never thought about one so much after. He put it down to the moment. ‘Love’ in action was like a holiday affair; more shouldn’t be squeezed out of it than it had to offer. But either he had not squeezed enough or it was more than just a moment brought about by unusual circumstances.

But the unexpected arousal was all the more reason for Stratton to walk away. His position within the world of special operations was complicated enough without bringing a love affair into it. In a trade that required heartlessness it was unwise to cultivate emotions. Stratton had worked hard at suffocating his feelings since those early days, his childhood, cherishing what little love he received, always wanting more. He’d had none passing through adolescence to manhood and had turned his apparent reclusiveness to his advantage, weaning himself off the need for affection. Perhaps one day in the future, if he survived this ridiculous occupation, he hoped to find love, if he was able to recognise it by then. But not now.

Now, almost a year after that night outside Cookstown, close to her again, the temptation to kiss Aggy was strong. But he sensed something was different about her now. He didn’t know what, but she had changed in some way. For instance, he didn’t remember her wearing perfume before.