Nightingale scoffed, “If you listened to this pommy prick, I’d kick ya over a cliff. Leave it ta me. Big Dog to the rescue. Again, for fuck’s sake.”
Nick watched as Nightingale stood and stretched. “What are you gonna do?”
“What Big Dog does best: engage in shenanigans, malarkey and all round fuckery…the only thing I’m good for,” he replied. If Nick didn’t know any better, he would’ve sworn Nightingale was burdened by that reply. Nightingale walked towards the passenger door and halted. “Oi…if this fly boy cunt out here proves worth somethin’ and offs me. That favour…”
“Yeah?”
“When you find your missus. Hug her. Tell her you love her. And give that kid of yours a kiss when it’s born.”
“What?”
“Some of us never get the chance. You ain’t the only one that tried to cross countries to get to what you loved. No matter how hard you try to get there...it just ain’t enough sometimes.”
Nick didn’t get the chance to ask more before a howling wind rushed through the plane as the door opened. Nightingale’s hair and coat whipped back and forth as he gazed down at the fighter jet. The distance between the two had to be about twenty feet but Nightingale simply stepped out and plummeted straight down.
*
Lee hit the cockpit with a thud and while holding onto the support frame of the cracked plexiglass, he knocked on it. “G’day, arsehole!” he called delightedly. “Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour?”
The pilot shifted gears and turned the plane over, so it was inverted. Lee hung on with one hand and with the other punched a hole through the glass and straight in the pilot’s throat, bathing his hand in blood. He used the same hand to right the plane with the throttle stick. “Fuckin’ atheists, I tell ya. No respect.”
He tore off the ruined glass and unhooked the dead pilot from his harness and headphones, pulling him free and dropping him down the side. “God save the queen, cunt. Cheerio.”
Lee sat in the pilot’s chair and put the headphones on. “Oi Fido! You read me!? Get a load of this mate!” Lee leant out the side and gave Nick a thumbs up.
“Do you know how to fly it?”
“Fuck no! This is a helluva lot different than what I flew in the army. But I didn’t know how to make a chick cum the first time I had a root. Still made her froth at the mouth like an epileptic washing machine. Not bad for a boy of eleven. Almost a year for every inch, poor bitch. Anyhow. Can’t be that hard. Let’s do this shit.”
Lee pressed the throttle and the craft’s guns exploded to life for a few seconds until they were silenced.
“Do you have to play with it?”
“Sound like me mother…start ya bastard!”
Lee pressed down on the throttle and the plane lurched up, soaring high before finally levelling out. “For Christ’s sake, c’mon!”
“You ok?”
“Relax, Fido. I got it. I got it. We are just goin’ straight...right?”
*
“Sir, we lost contact…”
“What?” Tynan asked, looking across at the screen. “Both of them are still heading in though?”
“Yes.”
Tynan crossed his arms. “Keep watching them. Let me know if either deviates even one metre. And where is that jeep to the munitions bunker?”
“Coming up on it now, sir.”
*
Alicia moved to a crouched position as she heard the jeep approach. She knew Tynan would want to know why a meaningless ammunitions hold would be attacked. The jeep slowed to a stop, just outside the front entrance, below where she was positioned. Three men got out with weapons ready. Alicia slowly rose, rifle at the ready. Within four seconds she had pierced the skull of the closest man to her. Before he fell, Alicia had dropped down as the other two opened fire on where she was. In moments, Alistair had finished a second one from the other side of the building. The last one fired in both directions, back and forth. Both Alistair and Alicia kept lowered. But this, Alicia too had anticipated. The third didn’t know a tenth-generation wolf crept up behind him. But Alicia knew, and by the sounds of his screams, Talia had found her target.
Alicia and Alistair descended a small spiral staircase to the ground and commandeered the jeep to haul the weapons and several barrels of crude oil they had procured.
“That was easy,” Talia said.
“One thinks a little too easy,” Alistair replied.
“We have a method for transporting the guns and a way into the grounds. Three men. Three of us.”
“Ugh…they smell,” Talia said, stripping naked and holding up a pair of pants with a scowl. Alicia gave a small shake of the head as Alistair turned away from Talia, making a big deal of getting dressed with his back to her. Talia wrapped her hair under the cap and tucked it in. She rubbed some mud on her fingers and smeared it across her cheeks.
“You will still stand out,” Alistair said.
“And that means?”
“You still don’t look like a man.”
“That a compliment?” Talia asked with raised eyebrows.
“She’ll do from far away,” Alicia said, saving Alistair from answering. “The guards patrol the towers not the grounds.”
“We just need to get inside,” Talia continued.
“She’ll be in the north tower,” Alistair said. “It’s the highest point in his compound and the most easily guarded. The key is to remain undetected.”
“Jeez, you don’t say?” Talia said, climbing in the back.
“I just mean, as the most recognisable face among us, I think Alicia should stay close to the car.”
“I’m not going in,” Alicia replied. “It’s almost seven. Once you have her and the baby you’ll need someone on the outside to provide
