Dominic Conlon - Silent Warpath

He was made to stand with his legs apart and arms stretched wide while he was searched by an expert. His watch, mobile, belt, wallet and pocket contents and rucksack were taken from him. He was pushed roughly into a chair. Someone grabbed his arms and tied them to the sides and his ankles were tied to the legs.

DD’s heartbeat started to trip hammer. He wasn’t panicking just yet but he guessed what was coming. He remembered the sick feeling he had had during training when he was the centre of a mock interrogation. Though he knew it wasn’t for real then, he still couldn’t stop the sweating and the fear.

The bag was removed from his head. He blinked in the harsh light from two bare bulbs hanging from the rafters of the barn. There were two men in the room. One sat opposite behind a metal desk and another stood a few feet away facing him. There were puddles of water on the bare stone floor.

The man behind the desk cleared his throat. He was not wearing a balaclava and DD feared the worst. If he could see his face he could identify him later. DD knew that he couldn’t be allowed to leave the building alive. Now was the time he reminded himself, to follow the lessons he had been taught. Nothing else but his own wit and cunning could possibly get him out of this predicament. A grim thought flashed through his head that he had already broken one of the first rules he had ever been taught — always tell the executive before going anywhere. He deserved his fate he thought grimly.

‘Your name?’ the man behind the desk enquired. He had a sharp hooked nose and deep powerful voice. He could be middle-European, or even Eastern.

DD’s throat was dry and his mouth felt like the Gobi desert. ‘I’m Daniel Davies. People call me DD. Look, I don’t know what I’m doing here. You’ve got the wrong guy…’ DD babbled on until he was stopped by the man behind the desk.

‘Just answer the question I ask. I don’t need anything more than that. If you do that you will not be harmed. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, yes’ responded the frightened DD. ‘But I shouldn’t be here. If its money you want…’

DD felt something like a sledgehammer strike him in the stomach. He shut up straight away. The man who delivered the blow stood back and DD was mildly surprised to see he carried nothing in his hand. If he can do that to me just with his fist what would he be like with a baseball bat, thought DD. Then the pain kicked in and he doubled over, retching. When he had finished the man behind the desk began again as if nothing had happened.

‘Tell me what you were doing on the street.’

DD thought furiously. It would be obvious to them what he was doing since they had his rucksack and all his Wi-Fi detection hardware. During training DD was taught that it was OK to let the opposition know what they knew already. The trick was to find a story that would provide them with the facts yet hide the true purpose of his reconnaissance.

‘Snooping on Wi-Fi networks.’ DD decided to follow the man’s advice and to only answer the question he was asked.

The man appeared to accept this answer. ‘Why were you doing that?’

‘Because it’s what I do. I’m a bit of a computer hacker. I do this stuff all the time — it’s a hobby.’ DD lurched back with the force of the blow.

It looked like they weren’t going to accept his story.

Sean checked his mobile — it was Lomax. ‘Yep’.

‘DD has been taken outside the offices of Advanced Marine Agency in Newport. I’ve got him in sight now and I’m following the van they used. Two men lifted him straight off the street.’

‘Where are you headed?’ asked Sean.

‘West on 195.’

‘Did he have his mobile with him?’ Sean enquired.

‘Don’t know, the silly bastard wasn’t answering. But I know what you’re thinking. As soon as I stop I’ll do a check through GPRS.’ Each of their mobiles had additional circuitry which transmitted its location once a special encrypted request was sent to it.

‘How come he was on the street — what was he doing, shopping?’ asked Sean.

‘It looked like he was carrying an MP3 player and listening to music, but I think he was checking out AMA’s Wi-Fi network.’

‘Hmm.’ Sean didn’t know quite what to say. ‘Do you know anything about the company?’

‘Only what the kid told me. London traced some of Langham’s contacts to AMA. Then DD just took off from the safe house and drove to their offices.’

‘Well look after the kid — we can’t afford to lose him’ said Sean.

‘Just wait until I catch up with the bugger. If there’s anything left of him, I’ll bloody well finish him off’ said Lomax crossly.

Sean grinned. ‘You’ll have to catch him first.’

Lomax took out a large scale map of the area and unfolded it on the passenger seat. He keyed a pin number into his mobile and navigated the tracking menu, selecting the locate option. Keying in DD’s mobile number, he waited while his mobile sent a request to DD’s phone for a location report. Even if DD’s phone was switched off the set was designed to respond to this request. Three minutes later Lomax’s phone vibrated with the arrival of a text. There were no words or explanation, just two strings of eight digits representing the grid reference location of DD’s phone. Lomax peered over his map and worked out the exact spot. It was in the middle of the Vineyard Sound showing DD’s phone was on the Ferry.

The crossing was uneventful and on the other side Lomax went through the location routine again to get another fix. Thirty minutes later he made another location fix and noted that the phone had stopped moving.

Lomax drove half a mile beyond the coordinates and stopped the car. According to his calculations the building where DD was being held was an abandoned farmhouse. There were no other buildings nearby except some outhouses.

He made his way carefully on foot towards the nearest outbuilding and looked around slowly. Squatting on his haunches he listened intently. There could be no doubt where DD was — the unmistakable sound of yelling emanated from an outhouse to his right. Lomax had heard those sounds many times before as some poor human soul was being tortured for information, or sometimes just for sadistic pleasure. Carefully picking his way around the back of the building he looked for a window or another entrance.

He found a sash window which had some remaining chips of paint sticking to the rotten wood. Cautiously he tried to lift it up but it was obvious that it had not been opened for many years.

Lomax removed a penknife and ran the sharp blade around the sill and sides of the window. He tried moving it again but it refused to budge. He put his shoulder behind the effort and heaved one more time. The sill came unstuck and lifted slightly and the sound of yelling became suddenly louder. Lomax put both hands underneath and quietly forced the window upwards until there was enough space for him to slip through. That was one good aspect of the screams, thought Lomax. At least it masked the sound of his entry.

He found himself in a dark corner of a barn. A wooden lattice was still in place indicating that this had been a stable at one time. As he listened the shrieking stopped, replaced by the sounds of sobbing. Lomax stood back in the dark shadows and squinted through a gap in the wooden lattice.

There were three people in the room including the seated figure of DD. The light from the bare bulbs made the blood appear garish and Lomax noted how DD’s head had slumped forward onto his bloodied chest.

Lomax removed his gun and found a silencer in his pocket. Carefully he screwed it into place.