David Peace - GB84

Monday 2 — Sunday 8 April 1984

The committee breaks up. The Jew comes out of Downing Street. Neil Fontaine opens the back door of the Mercedes for him. The Jew gets in. He picks up the car phone.

Neil Fontaine drives across the Thames. The Jew is still on the phone –

‘Play it long and cool, then pay them off. No common cause. No second front.’

The Jew is talking trains. The Central Electricity Generating Board. Deals –

Deals, deals, deals —

Deals and secrets –

Secrets, secrets, secrets —

Secrets and deals.

Neil Fontaine spots the man sitting on a bench up ahead. The man is wearing a blue belted raincoat. He is reading the Financial Times.

Neil Fontaine pulls up in the shadows of Battersea Power Station. He leaves the Jew sat in the back of the car. He walks towards the bench. The man looks up from his newspaper –

Neil Fontaine remembers his lines. He asks, ‘What kind of dog have you lost?’

The man remembers his. He replies in a foreign accent, ‘A Yorkshire terrier.’

Neil Fontaine nods. The man stands up. They walk in silence over to the car.

Neil Fontaine opens the back door of the Mercedes. The man gets in.

The Jew moves over. The Jew says, ‘Join us.’

Neil Fontaine drives back across the Thames. The Jew practises a little Polish. The man in the back whispers in English. The Jew closes the partition with his driver –

Neil Fontaine switches on the radio. He can hear every word.

*

The Mechanic goes to work. He opens the garage up. Puts the radio on. Gets changed. The Mechanic drinks a cup of coffee. He works on the Allegro. Finishes it. Calls the owner. The Mechanic has another cup of coffee. He works on the Capri. Gearbox. MOT next week. The Mechanic doesn’t have the part. He goes home. Lets the dogs out. Puts a can of soup on. The Mechanic makes a sandwich. He eats lunch. Watches The One o’Clock News. Reads the paper. The Mechanic washes up. He goes into Wetherby for the part. Back at the garage for half-two. Finishes the Capri. The Mechanic starts on the Lancia. He stops at half-six. Gets changed. Locks the garage up. TheMechanic goes home —

It is a war of nerves.

Jen is asleep. The dogs in the garden. The Mechanic goes into the lounge. He puts a record on low. Sade again. The Mechanic pours a brandy. He sits on the sofa in the dark. The curtains open. Just the lights on the stereo. The Mechanic watches them rise and fall through the brandy in the glass. He has gottengrand in the bank.Thishouse paid off. Thegarage ticking over —

The Mechanic thinks about things. Thinks about the things he has done —

The supermarkets. The post offices. The Mechanic opens his eyes. He looks up —

‘Penny for your thoughts,’ says Jen —

She is stood in the doorway in one of his T-shirts. She is beautiful.

‘They’re not worth it,’ the Mechanic tells her –

It is a war of nerves and there will be casualties.

The Jew is beaming. He says, ‘You know, Neil, I practically wrote that speech for her.’

Neil Fontaine keeps his eyes on the A616.

The Jew is repeating himself. He says, ‘I believe the police are upholding the law; they are not upholding the government.’

The Mercedes comes to a roadblock outside Creswell. Neil Fontaine pulls over. He winds down the driver’s window –

‘Good morning, sir,’ says the young policeman. He is not local. He is nervous. ‘I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you the nature of your business in Creswell today.’

‘Don’t be afraid,’ says Neil Fontaine. ‘The man in the back is Mr Stephen Sweet. Mr Sweet is here to meet the Assistant Chief Constable.’

‘Sorry to have inconvenienced you, sir,’ says the policeman.

‘Don’t be sorry, either,’ says Neil Fontaine. ‘You’re just following orders, son.’

Neil Fontaine winds up the window. Neil Fontaine drives into the village –

What’s left of the village –

There are over sixty Transits parked along the main street. Police everywhere. Their dogs barking and snarling at the Mercedes. No civilians on the streets –

Just debris. Rubble. Glass under the tyres of the car –

The village camouflaged in smoke.

Neil Fontaine parks beside a white saloon car outside the church hall. He gets out of the Mercedes. He walks through the police into the hall –

The hand-drawn posters for jumble sales and keep fit, judo and the Boy Scouts.

Another policeman a long way from home stops Neil Fontaine at the door.

Neil Fontaine says, ‘I have an appointment with the Assistant Chief Constable.’

‘Neil!’ shouts the Assistant Chief Constable across the hall. ‘Neil Fontaine!’

John Waterhouse, Assistant Chief Constable of North Derbyshire, greets Neil. The two men shake hands among the folding chairs.

John Waterhouse says, ‘I didn’t realize you were working for these people now.’

Neil Fontaine shrugs. He says, ‘Just short term.’

John Waterhouse says, ‘Could be long term, the way things are going.’

‘Let’s just hope it’s not permanent,’ smiles Neil Fontaine.

John Waterhouse nods. He says, ‘So where is your man? This Stephen Sweet.’

Neil Fontaine points at the door. He says, ‘He’s in his car.’

‘What on earth is he doing sat out there? Bring him in, for heaven’s sake, man,’ laughs John Waterhouse. ‘Don’t leave him out there like a lemon.’

‘Mr Sweet wishes to talk with you in his car,’ says Neil Fontaine.

‘What?’ says John Waterhouse. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Neil.’

Neil Fontaine smiles at the Assistant Chief Constable. He gestures at the doors. Neil Fontaine says, ‘Mr Sweet insists.’

John Waterhouse, Assistant Chief Constable of North Derbyshire, rolls his eyes. He follows Neil Fontaine outside. Neil Fontaine opens the back door of the Mercedes –

The Jew says, ‘Assistant Chief Constable, do join us.’

John Waterhouse gets into the back of the car.

Neil Fontaine closes the door. He sits in the front. He switches on the radio:

‘— must tell you, she is very, very, very disappointed in you,’ the Jew is saying. ‘The Prime Minister wishes — insists even — insists there be no repetition of such scenes. No repetition whatsoever. And she has asked me to make that very plain to you.’

‘I’m afraid the situation on the ground —’

‘The situation on the ground is completely unacceptable,’ interrupts the Jew –

The Jew leans forward. He taps on the partition. Neil Fontaine lowers the radio –

‘Drive slowly through the village to the pit, if you would please, Neil.’

‘Certainly, sir‚’ says Neil Fontaine. He starts the car. He turns the radio back up:

‘Just look at the place,’ the Jew is saying. ‘Windows smashed, cars wrecked, homes daubed in paint, telephone poles brought down, barricades erected, fires started —’

‘Mr Sweet, there were one thousand pickets and —’

‘Please, we know very well how many bloody pickets there were,’ says the Jew. ‘We also know how many arrests there were. Or were not.’

‘I can assure you —’

‘Mr Waterhouse, nineteen arrests and the cancellation of the night-shift fail to assure either the Prime Minister or myself of anything. There were sixty arrests in Babbington last night and not a fraction of the damage I see here.’

John Waterhouse takes off his cap. He runs his hand through his hair.

The Jew puts his arm round the Assistant Chief Constable. The Jew tells him, ‘Never again must this happen, John.’