Chapter 24 Target Practice
Martin looked at his watch again. An hour and ten minutes to go before the raid. ‘That can’t be right,’ and sure enough the watch wasn’t working, it had stopped. ‘That’s funny! standard issue has failed.’ murmured Martin to himself. ‘One of my lines of defence has gone wrong.’
Suddenly the door of his room was flung open and Chan stood there with a smile on his face.
‘Look what we have found, someone to keep you company for your last mission, Martin Church MI5!’
Two of Chan’s gang dragged a body of a man wrapped in a blanket.
‘I was thinking of killing him myself, but I thought, No! Better to do it this way and not sully my hands, after all you’ll be ever so slightly wounded and you’ll have the blood of an innocent man on your hands.’
Chan and his gang left the room and Martin rushed towards the blanket and it revealed a very dazed Roland James.
‘Where am I?’ Roland said, sitting up. Holding his head in his hands didn’t help as the room swam round in circles. Martin helped Roland to his feet and he gently walked him to the settee. Martin busied himself and made coffee and gave Roland two tablets.
‘Cyanide!’ said Roland.
No! Some tablets for your headache.’
‘How on earth did you get caught by Chan?’
‘Easy.’ said Roland. I had just driven like a maniac to get out of the clutches of Luigi Stefan’s men with Charlie and his mum in the back seat when the car ran out of petrol. They got out and ran off. I got the bonnet up to look at the engine and was clobbered from behind.’
‘Pity you ran out of petrol round here.’
‘Oh, I don’t think it was by chance, it was engineered to do so.’
‘How can that happen?’
‘Search me,’ said Roland.
Roland drank down his coffee and swallowed the two tablets. He went out like a light, he wouldn’t be waking up for ten hours, so Chan would not be able to take Roland out on the raid.
Chan rushed into the room and looked at Roland’s still body. Martin could hear him swearing, but didn’t know what it was he was saying, as it was in Chinese.
‘It is a pity you didn’t take some pills yourself!’ said Chan. Chan beckoned two of his biggest gorillas and Martin was frog-marched downwards. They went down this long corridor down some concrete steps and approached a door made of steel. It took some while to unlock. Eventually it was opened into a long room and when the lights were turned on, Martin could see that it was a shooting gallery. Chan got his two men to escort Martin down to the end of the room in front of a large target. He was spread eagled, his arms outstretched and his legs apart slightly. They tied him into place. The men stood aside and Martin could hear Chan loading his gun.
He shouted down to Martin, ‘I practice shooting every night.’ His voice echoed three times. The first shot was very wide of the target. ‘Got to get my bearings.’ said Chan. Second shot was nearer, the third shot entered Martin’s right arm. The next bullet hit between his right arm and the right side of his body. Chan asked his men to move Martin out of the way and Chan hit the bull twice, just about where Martin’s heart would have been.
Martin slumped down on the concrete floor, blood pouring out his arm. The men picked him up and he winced with pain and Chan saw that the bullet had entered the arm. Chan was annoyed with himself, he was sure he aimed to just graze the arm. Unbeknown to Chan – Martin had flexed his arm upwards to receive the bullet full on. ‘We have three-quarters of an hour before the raid, make sure he is fit to stand.’
Chan was heard to say ‘Damn!’ which echoed around the gallery. There was a wry smile on Martin’s lips as he was half dragged, half dazed. He passed out as they got to the top of the concrete steps. A man came and attended to his wound and he was bandaged up. Martin managed to swallow the other two tablets he had in his pocket. The man gave Martin a cup of coffee and Martin fell forward spilling the coffee everywhere. His last thought was – ‘I won’t be going anywhere tonight.’ He went to sleep.
The man picked up the telephone and a few moments later Chan walked into the room.
‘What do you mean, he’s gone to sleep!’
‘He just keeled over, as I gave him the coffee!’
‘Did you put something in it?’
‘No!’ said the man, nothing.’
‘Search his pockets?’ said Chan.
The man found two lots of tablets, a strip of cyanide tablets, four tablets missing and a full strip of knock out tablets.
‘Oh bloody hell!’ said Chan. Smell their mouths.
‘I can’t be sure said the man, but they smell like…?’
‘You don’t have to tell me like almonds.’ ‘Yes!’ said the man, like almonds.
‘Leave them!’ said Chan. ‘We’ll sort them out in the morning, we’ve got a raid to go on.’
Chapter 25 The Raid
‘Want another almond to suck Roland?’ said Martin whispering and only just remembering in time that this room was bugged for sound. ‘No thanks!’ Roland yawned.
Martin had put his bag of sweets under him when he collapsed on the settee. It was a good wheeze and he had used it several times in the past.
‘For heaven’s sake don’t move. Chan’s office is opposite this room. I’m surprised he fell for such a stupid trick,’ Roland whispered back.
‘Well! Yes, it is usually the simplest trick that works, I think it’s because it is so audacious.
Martin looked across at the room opposite and it appeared to be vacant of all persons. It was the appointed hour for the raid to commence.
There were noises from the door of their room and Martin was aware that the door had been locked. He got up from the settee and moved towards the door and listened. A chair was being scraped across the floor and he could just about hear two voices speaking.
‘Well!’ said, Martin. ‘Looks like my trick never worked this time, Chan’s placed two guards outside the door, that means he knows we have just taken the knock out tablets and yet they haven’t worked at all, I feel wide awake.’
No answer came from Roland, just a long drawn out snore.
Martin rushed to where Roland lay grabbed hold of Roland and stood him up and tried to get him to wake up by shaking him and slapped his face twice. The response was another snore. Martin let go of him and he slumped half on the settee and half off and Roland rolled onto the floor and his head hit the floor with a dull thud. Martin apologized for letting him go as a moan came from the lips of Roland. Martin crouched down to see if he was alright and Roland lashed out through a haze. Martin managed to avoid the flying fist and leaned back and sat on his bottom. Roland sat up ‘What sa matter? I feel as if I’ve been hit by a sledge hammer and I’m so tired.’
Martin got up from the floor and was rubbing his backside. ‘You went to sleep, I tried to wake you and slapped your face a couple of times. I don’t understand, these tablets are supposed to knock you out for twelve hours or more, I’ve taken two and they haven’t worked with me either.’
‘I don’t suppose there is anything to drink?’ said, Roland. ‘I have the most disgusting taste in my mouth!’ ‘No! Nothing here.’
‘Shouldn’t we try to get out of this room?’ Said, Roland.
‘I’ve tried the windows, they’ve stuck fast.’
Roland said ‘Perhaps if we search the room we can find something that we can use to un-stick the windows.’
‘I doubt it as I have noticed that they’ve been screwed down, unless you have a screw driver. A screw driver….’ Martin’s voice trailed off. ‘I wonder!’
Martin searched through his pockets and found his nail cutters.
‘What do you hope to do with those?’
‘Get us out of trouble.’
‘By cutting your nails?’
‘No! Just watch, this is no ordinary nail cutter.’
Martin unhooked something and started to screw part of the nail file to another piece and all of a sudden, it became a screwdriver of sorts.
‘How did you do that?’
‘It’s standard issue. We all get a bit of kit and it’s all innocent to look at. They took my watch which had a rotary blade, a built in laser and a two way radio.’
‘You’re kidding!’
‘No!’
Martin started to unscrew the buried top of the screw holding down the window. He stopped and turned to Roland and said, ‘In the bathroom there’s a trapdoor in the ceiling, you look thin enough to get up there and bring down the fan unit I dismantled earlier, we might find something on it to use to escape. Try not to make too much noise, don’t want them outside to know we are awake.’
Roland took his shoes off and disappeared into the bathroom. Unfortunately Roland hadn’t seen the door jamb ledge and heaved himself up the hard way and something fell from his pocket and hit the side of the bath. There was a clanging noise. ‘Shit!’ Roland was heard to say as he went through the gap and along the metal tubing to the end of the tunnel where the fan unit was strewn over the area. Roland realized he couldn’t turn round and had to crawl backwards and it was difficult to keep quiet when holding an awkward shaped piece of equipment at the same time. He stopped and placed the wiring in his mouth and although the fan unit was very heavy he was able to move backwards a lot quicker without making any noise. A visit to the dentist would be necessary, if he survived the ordeal that he and Martin found themselves in.
Roland found the door ledge on the way down and was able to balance himself and place the trapdoor back in the slot. His teeth gave way and the fan unit fell towards the stone flooring. He watched in horror – it seemed to be moving in slow motion and as it neared the floor. Martin caught the unit before it could do any damage or more importantly make a noise that would be heard by those outside on guard.
Roland asked if he had managed to unscrew the screw?
‘Yes, but there are three screws, I’ve done one and a half, but it is very hard to do, perhaps you could have a go, give my wrist a rest.’
Roland started on the half out screw, while Martin looked at the fan unit and was contemplating sending another morse code message, although there was no confirmation of anyone having received his earlier message. Nobody came to his rescue.
Roland shouted ‘Eureka!’ as the second screw came out and he started on the third one. Roland ducked quickly as someone came into the room opposite. He made a wild dash on his knees back to the settee and Martin dropped the fan unit and slumped back. Roland just managed to get back to the settee to assume his position in time and hoping that the man had not spotted the screw half way out. The other man came into the room and beckoned the man by the window to come as he was wanted on the telephone. Although Roland and Martin couldn’t hear a word that was spoken, it was the other man’s action of holding his fist near his ear that signified a phone call. Roland watched with slit eyes the actions of the men. He sensed that urgency of getting free was the order of the day and could only give a wild guess that the phone call would be from Chan who would be giving instructions to the guards outside to do something nasty, as they knew that Martin and Roland were only asleep and not dead as first predicted by Chan. Chan was probably making plans for them to be dead, and as known in the past, Chan did not like being made a fool.
Roland went back to the screw and with fevered effort made short work of it and out it popped. He lifted the window and it went up with ease. They both looked out of the window to find that they were on the second floor. Whether to climb down between the two buildings or clamber across to Chan’s office was a decision they had to make quickly.
Chapter 26 Martin Has An Idea
Roland said, ‘I don’t think this is going to work, what with the two men outside. Somehow or other we have to get them separated or do something drastic before they do something to us, like killing us and I don’t want to be dead.’
‘Likewise.’ Martin said. ‘I do have an idea, how we might avoid being dead.’
‘Might!’
‘Yes! Well nothing is ever certain in this day and age, but human nature being what it is – I think it might work.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Just kneel on the window sill with your hands stretched out onto the window ledge of Chan’s office and stay there, as if you were climbing out.’
‘What!’
‘Trust me, I’m a secret agent!’
Roland knelt on the ledge and stretched his hands across the empty space and purchased a hold on the opposite ledge. There seemed to be an upward draught between the two parts of the building and the concrete below looked menacing and although Roland was a fairly fit man, especially being perched on a flag pole for nearly six hours a few days ago, but stretching across like this made him feel more vulnerable and he was using muscles that he had not used before and would have to launch himself backwards to a safer position should he be attacked from either end.
Martin made lots of noises, thumping this and that with the fan unit. It had been useless as a fan or a morse code sender, perhaps it would be of use knocking someone out.
‘What’s going on in there?’
‘I need someone to look at my friend, his breath is very shallow, I think he could be dying.’
‘So!’
‘You surely don’t want him to expire here?’
‘Why not?’
Martin whispered, ‘God, this is hard work, don’t tell me I’ve got an exception to the rule.’
Martin decided that the best thing was to say nothing, it might make them curious or they might go to Chan’s office and see what is happening, so Martin pulled Roland back from his crouching position and closed the window as two men rushed into Chan’s office. One of the men picked up the telephone, dialed and spoke, turning his back on Martin and Roland.
‘Have you got any more ideas?’
‘Yes!’
Martin went over and wedged a chair under the door knob and strode across to the window and opened it. The two men rushed out of the office. Martin remembered the long walk he had to get to this room and although the two men were running, it would be some time before they reached the room.
‘Should one of them be waiting outside Chan’s office I think we’ll climb down to the next level, we might find an open window.’ Roland nodded and started to climb. There were so many out pipes that it was easy to climb down. He missed his footing as his right shoe slid along a bendy pipe and Martin caught his wrist stopping him from falling. Roland got to the fourth floor and smashed a small pane in a window and managed to get his hand round to a handle of the window and had to place his shoulder against it, as it was difficult to open. Martin shortly followed.
It was dark and it smelt damp and it was still Chan’s building,
A light went on in the passageway before them. There was no door to the room and a shaft of light shone very brightly through the doorway.
Martin whispered ‘Surely those men couldn’t have got down to this level already?’
‘I don’t know, don’t ask me!’
It wasn’t as it happened, it was Chan and his merry men coming back after their raid on Stefan’s warehouse. They looked bedraggled and worse for wear. Obviously it hadn’t gone to plan. Some had wounds and they were visible. Chan would be in a foul mood and soon his scream would be heard by his neighbours when he found out that his prized captives had escaped and he would be two more men short that evening when failure was not a word he was used to and sure enough two shots were heard. They heard Chan’s orders. ‘Take them to one of Stefan’s warehouses and dump them in their waste disposal bins. Bugger them! Bugger the lot of them!’