Adrian McKinty - The Dead Yard

Kit’s nose wrinkled up in a way that would have made the Ottoman eunuchs weep into their sherbet.

And because she looked so beautiful I had to insult her.

“That coat doesn’t really work on you, it’s trailing along the ground,” I said.

“That’s what I told her,” Jackie said.

“You two know nothing. It’s called a trail-duster frock coat.They’re, like, making this film next summer called The Matrix, Keanu is in it and that’s the whole look,” she said.

“Again with Keanu,” Jackie groaned.

I turned my attention to Sonia, who also looked radiant in a summer dress that shimmered brilliantly with the light behind her.

“It’s in the woods though, right?” I asked.

“It is in the woods, a very beautiful part of the state, I think you’re going to like it very much. We’ll have so much fun,”Sonia said happily.

Sonia, it seemed, was unaware of the “surprise” that was going to happen to us when we got up there. The mysterious plan B.

“Gerry said something about the fall colors.” “Oh, we’re far too early for that, but you never know. Anyway, since I’m the pathfinder I’d better go,” she said. She kissed Gerry and Kit, waved, and drove off in the Mercedes.

“She’s not going with the rest of us?” I asked Kit.

“Nah, she’s going first to get the cabin ready. I was supposed to go too, but there was no way,” she said.

“She’s totally incorrigible,” Jackie said. He considered me a mate now to whom he could lightheartedly bitch about his crazy girlfriend.

“Was it really bad last night, back at the flat?” I asked him.

“I do not even want to talk about it,” he said.

“What happened last night?” Kit asked. “Was it that woman you chased out of town?”

My mouth opened and closed. Chased out of town? Who had told her that bald-faced lie? And what other unpleasant episodes had they kept from her?

Hmmm. Exactly how sure were they of her and Sonia? And if her own father was ashamed to tell her about the horrors Touched had perpetrated, it might mean that she was pliable and not as committed as the three men. Good. I would choose to believe it that way. Maybe I could even like her without the guilty conscience.

Kit tapped her foot. She was waiting for an answer. I looked at Jackie but he wasn’t ready for an off-the-cuff remark and I wasn’t going to help him out.

“Nothing,” he said finally. “I had to clean up a big mess.”

Kit looked at him suspiciously and let the matter drop.

Jackie smiled at me and fidgeted with a gun in his pocket.A small-caliber revolver. So both he and Gerry were packing heat. But that was ok too, I wasn’t worried.

Having lowered his flags and put them away, Gerry walked over.

“Ok, lads and lasses, we better go. I told Touched I’d pick him up by six and the afternoon is wearing on.”

“Where is Touched?” I asked him.

“Oh, he went up to Portsmouth already, Kittery actually, Kittery, Maine,” Jackie said.

“We’re meeting him there?” I asked. “Yes, well, we are. We have a slightly tricky but ultimately rewarding task to accomplish. Important for you, Sean, in particular. I think this will be an opportunity for you to show Touched that paranoia is perhaps not the most agreeable of notions.”

Gerry locked the house and we piled into another big McCaghan Construction van. Jackie driving, Kit and Gerry squeezed into the other seats of the front cabin. Only a half-partition between them and me in the back. Gerry had locked me in, I’d noticed, but it didn’t faze me. If I wanted to escape I could easily cry for help any number of times in the slow drive through Newburyport before we got to the highway. True, Gerry could have shot me with his silenced 9mm, but it was moot, I wasn’t looking to escape, I was looking to bide my bloody time…

It was nearly dark when we arrived in Kittery-a small town just across the water from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

We drove into a landing place for boats and, sure enough, there was Touched, large as life, twice as nasty, looking sinister in leather jacket, boots, and a brown shirt.

“There he is,” Kit said happily.

Yeah, good old Uncle Touched.

He slammed the side of the van and, using his own key, opened it and got in the back next to me. He nodded a hello and I nodded back, but when he noticed Kit his good humor departed.

“Gerry, what the fuck is she doing here?” he asked.

Gerry looked shamefaced.

“I couldn’t keep her away,” he said.

“Jesus Christ, Gerry, I thought we discussed this,” Touched said. “She was supposed to go with Sonia and get the cabin ready.”

“We did discuss it-” Gerry began but Kit cut him off.

“First of all, Touched, it’s not ‘she,’ my name is Kit. And second of all, you are not the boss of me, and third of all, how come you’re bringing along Sean, who’s been with us for less than a week, and not me? How come? I’ll tell you how come. Because I’m a girl and you’re a fucking sexist pig,” Kit said loudly.

“Keep your voice down for one thing. And for two, just because you’re Gerry’s daughter doesn’t mean I can’t give you orders. I am the boss of you and you’ll do as you’re fucking told,” Touched said.

Kit stared at him, then at her da. Touched clenched his fist. Another time, another crowd and he would have belted her.But Kit slipped in one of her devastating apology/seductress smiles. Touched quivered, cracked, relented.

“Well, anyway, I guess now that you’re here,” he said, “I suppose I have no bloody choice.”

“No choice,” Kit said triumphantly.

Touched looked at Gerry. “Did you tell Kit and Sonia about Sean’s wee dose of house arrest?” he asked.

Gerry coughed. “Er, no, I’m afraid I did not have an occasion for that, we were all so busy and what with the packing and everything,” he said.

Touched sighed. “Kit, it’s like this, we had a bit of a close call yesterday and now Sean is under close watch. He knows it and he approves of it, so he doesn’t get access to firearms and you’re not to be alone with him. Understood?”

Kit looked at me strangely, a little intrigued by my new status, but she obediently nodded.

“Better brief them, Touched,” Gerry said.

Touched cleared his throat and grinned excitedly.

“Ok, folks. This is what we call a target of opportunity. I know what you’re thinking, we should lie low for a few weeks after all that’s happened in the last couple of days. But it’s exactly the opposite. We have to prove to the real Provos in Ireland that even in the face of a couple of setbacks, we can hit fast and hard and effectively,” Touched said, explaining nothing at all.

“Yeah, but what’s the mission?” Kit asked.

“The mission for you is to do nothing, Kit. I’m handling it.Me and Gerry will do all the work, the three of you do what we say and stay out of it. Me and Gerry are old hands, we know what we’re doing.”

Touched reached into his jacket and gave Kit and myself each an old Webley revolver.

“These are just for show, they’re not loaded. Gerry and me will do any shooting that’s necessary,” Touched said, but I checked the gun anyway in case there was one in the chamber.

“What about me? I can help. I got mine,” Jackie said.

“Jackie. Don’t you do a goddamn thing without my say-so.

Understood?” Touched said.

Jackie nodded.

“The mission, explain the mission,” Gerry said.

“Ok then. I’ve got a motorboat and we’re going to that yacht over there in the harbor with the two masts and the yellow paint. It’s called the Elizabeth Regina. We’re going to go on and get someone and get off it again. Simple as pie,”Touched said.