The Becket Approval by Falconer Duncan (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

‘How do they know?’ Peters interrupted. ‘Someone must’ve said something.’

‘Good detective work,’ Gunnymede replied.

‘Bollocks,’ Boris said.

‘Does it really matter?’ Gunnymede argued.

‘They got any names?’ Charlie asked.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘So no one knows it’s anything to do with us, except you,’ Charlie said.

‘I believe so.’

There was a long silence as they considered the implications.

‘I’ll do ’im in if no one else wants to,’ Boris said.

‘Shut up,’ Jack said scornfully to Boris, treating him like a fool. More important things were on his mind. ‘I’m not so concerned about the past as I am the future.’

‘Why should we worry?’ Charlie asked. ‘Okay, so they’ve figured out it’s soldiers doing the hits. That’s not such a genius conclusion to be fair, is it? I would’ve expected someone to figure that out by now.’

‘He’s right,’ one of the others said. ‘Knowing it’s soldiers doesn’t point the finger at anyone specific.’

‘There’s hundreds of possible suspects,’ Charlie said. ‘Thousands.’

‘Why do you trust ’im?’ Boris asked Jack. ‘He’s a thief.’

‘So are you,’ Jack said.

‘I didn’t take twenty kilos of heroin.’

‘Because you’re not smart enough to,’ Gunnymede said.

Boris moved to lunge at Gunnymede but Charlie and another stopped him.

‘Easy, Boris,’ Charlie said.

‘Shut it. Everyone,’ Jack snarled. ‘Let’s calm this down. Maybe we should thank him for coming to us. He could’ve said nothing.’

‘I did what I came here to do. You do what you want with it,’ Gunnymede said before walking out of the room. Jack followed.

As Gunnymede reached for the front door, Jack put his hand on it. ‘Thanks, Devon. I appreciate it.’

Gunnymede took a moment to look at Jack, into his eyes. ‘There is something else ... Milo Krilov.’

The name had an immediate impact on Jack.

‘You knew about him before he kidnapped Megan.’

Jack looked immediately guilty.

‘Why were you doing a recce on him?’

‘He killed two SBS lads in their mini-sub in a Swedish Fjord ten years ago. There was no threat to him on the task. It was cold blooded murder. We wanted revenge.’

Gunnymede understood. ‘He suspected you were targeting him so he punished Megan as a warning to you.’

Jack hated to hear it from Gunnymede. ‘I know ... How do you know all this?’

‘I met Krilov last night.’

‘What? You talked to him?’

‘It wasn’t exactly a social.’

Jack was racked by his own guilt. ‘I wake up every day knowing what he did to Megan was my fault. That’s when I can get to sleep ... I didn’t know he saw me. I did the recce. Got what I wanted. Then a week later, he took Megan.’

‘Megan is dead because you chose to play judge and jury. You don’t deserve to sleep.’

‘I won’t apologise for what we do.’

Gunnymede opened the door and paused as something occurred to him. ‘How’d you know Krilov was in the UK?’

Jack was deep inside himself.

‘Jack?’

Jack shook his head, refusing to say.

‘You don’t run the Becket Approval, do you?’

Jack didn’t answer.

‘Who’s above you?’

Jack looked him in the eyes. ‘You’ll find out one day. I’m sure of it.’

Jack walked away down the corridor.

Gunnymede could only wonder what the man meant as he left the house and headed back towards his bike. He didn’t see three men climb from a parked van further down the street. Only when they were closing in did he notice them and that one was carrying an iron bar by his side. Gunnymede kept on walking as his mind flipped to crisis mode.

He arrived at his bike. A car door slammed behind him and he looked over his shoulder to see two more men walking towards him. Jesus! Five. This was a serious situation.

Gunnymede stepped between his bike and a car, onto the road, crossing to the other side. The men followed, stepping between vehicles in a pincer movement to keep Gunnymede contained. As Gunnymede reached the opposite pavement he grabbed a bottle from a bin.

The group of three formed a single file to pass between the tightly parked vehicles. The other two were still crossing the road. Gunnymede went for the three, launching the bottle at the leading thug hitting his hands which he’d brought up to protect his face causing him to drop his iron bar. As the others backed out to take another route, Gunnymede carried on forward, grabbed the iron bar and slammed it into the side of the thug’s head. The man went down and Gunnymede hurried to intercept another.

The next thug to step between cars was wielding a hand axe which he raised to engage. Gunnymede ran at him and jabbed the bar as if it was a sword, catching the thug in the mouth, breaking several teeth. The thug behind drew a pistol and as he reached out to shoot, having to lean around his colleague, Gunnymede managed to knock the barrel with the bar as the gun fired. The bullet missed Gunnymede’s head by inches, ricocheting off a wall and smashing through the window of a house. The thug lost grip of the gun when it fired and it fell between the cars. The situation was getting even more desperate. Gunnymede dropped the bar and went for the gun but before he could reach it he was grabbed by one of the men, brutally thrown back to the ground and punched and kicked repeatedly. Gunnymede swung his feet and fists wildly but others joined in, their combined boots and fists raining down. A machete was raised. Gunnymede saw it in time to move his head to one side as the blade struck the pavement. A thug held Gunnymede’s head steady while the machete was raised for another blow. As it came down towards the centre of Gunnymede’s skull the man was grabbed from behind, his head yanked back by his hair with