Chapter 7

This got another burst of applause, and then the class was over for me. I exited the classroom for Phemie to formally end it, and headed to the staff-room for a cup of tea or something. The staff knew I was around and why, so I was welcomed as a fellow teacher. The Deputy Rector came in, and on meeting me, told me Phemie said I had been very successful at teaching my subject. He asked, “Have you ever thought of changing to the teaching profession, Alec? Euphemia Reynolds has nothing but praise for your efforts in her class.”

“Thank you, sir, but my teaching covers many subjects at once, not just history but language (explaining Latin words), Geography and geology (where and how the military decides the best place to anticipate a battle), mathematics – everything from missile trajectories to supplying the troops with adequate ammunition, food and water; and so on. I would wander off my official subject all too easily.” I laughed at my vision, and he smiled appreciatively.

“If only the rest of us could cover so many topics, Alec, but your point is made. Phemie seems to be quite taken with you, by the way.” I nodded, prepared for this question. “Yes, sir, I had noticed. It might come to something later, but it is early days. We each have our careers to think about.”

“Ah, yes, careers. You don’t appear to have mentioned your military rank.” “Quite so, sir. An officer is all I will admit to, in civilian circles.”

“Very circumspect. Any special reason for this?” he enquired further. I frowned as I replied, “Yes. Enough said.”

His eyebrows lifted as he commented, “I suppose it is time for the old joke: If I tell you, I’d have to kill you!” “In general, you are on the right track, sir. Only the army pay corps are aware of all my details, so I can get my pay!” He laughed at this retort, and moved off to get his coffee.

I joined Phemie for lunch in the school cafeteria, and we chatted about school matters over our adequate meal, which she paid for with her credit card as she got a large staff discount on the posted prices. Afterwards, she asked me what I wanted to do this afternoon: go home for a rest or something else?

“If I can have access to your school gymnasium, Phemie, I would like to do some exercises for a while, to see how much progress I have been making with my physical recovery.”

“Let me check with the admin office staff; they should know.” With that, she got up and walked across to another table where a couple of ladies were seated, having a coffee after their meal. She spoke to them for a minute or so, then ambled back to me, provocatively swaying her hips a little as she saw me watching her.

“If you wait for an hour after lunchtime, there is a half hour with the place empty between classes. You can use that time. They will inform the P.E. teacher that you will be there.”

When I got there, I borrowed a pair of rubber-soled footwear covers to protect the flooring, and thanked the P.E guy for allowing me in. Once inside, I made good use of the time. I did some back stretches using the wall bars, and used the gym’s weights to check out my muscle action all over. I was pleasantly surprised at how improved I now was, so I did a few laps jogging round the gym to see if running was a problem at all. It wasn’t. I could now start working on my retribution plans, so I sat down on the floor in the middle of the gym and phoned Smith.

Amazingly, I got through to him, and said my code phrase, “Ah, Mr Smith; and now for something completely different!” “Ah, yes. You. Looking for news?”

“Indeed so; ready and willing.”

“We took your scenario and did our own fact-checking using phone records and a few other resources that you do not have access to, Mr Jones. That work revealed a more complicated situation. It appears that your enemy is not a lone player. He is part of a network of miscreants, a syndicate, profiting in a number of ways. Removing him would not drastically affect the network’s operation, so I have decided to take over that matter and deal with it in my own way; you know how I like to solve problems: with flair.”

I was feeling frustrated at his peremptory takeover of my retribution, but his revelations made sense to me. “What do you envisage, Mr Smith?”

“Already partly implemented, my boy. Instead of a direct assault on the enemy, I determined on a flank attack. We amassed our facts as if it was an anonymous intelligence report, bullet points and so on. and I had it delivered to a TV crime investigation team with a covering note that all the information was accurate, but needed their expertise to investigate farther and pull it together as a file that the police could use with confidence and at the same time provide the basis for a TV report. I indicated that the report originated from a whistle-blower who was now dead but who had left his information in safe hands to pass on if he was taken out. When the whole matter comes to light, your part in it will be revealed as the deceased whistle-blower leaving an incriminating pile of data to kick-start the TV investigation.

That will confirm that you were killed, and so no longer exist in the criminals’ mindset. You will be free to move around more readily and be able to perform some tasks for me. I will tell your official superiors that you have been head-hunted and are temporarily working for me, so you will be officially be transferred to an unnamed numerical unit and so no useful information exists about you in official records.”

“You have it all worked out, it appears, sir. No retribution by me?”

“You have it through my staff’s actions, Jones, although you personally managed to avoid actual death. That is what I like with my operatives: ability to improvise and execute a plan without direction from above. As I recall, that is one of the tenets of the S.A.S?”

“I agree, sir. What do you want me to do for now?”

“You can continue to get back to full fitness, and pursue your lady friend with more enthusiasm. Her colleagues have noticed a marked improvement in her demeanour lately and have put it down to romance. Your involvement with her will no doubt be a benefit to you as well; you have to forget your ex-wife. By the way, so far she has been acting sensibly towards your sons despite being frustrated in her social ambitions, and I organised a little nudge from other people implying that she could make things easy for herself by passing the buck, so to speak; thus she might become amenable to handing responsibility over to you, assuming you have a new partner willing to accept them as her own. You think that might be possible?”

I admitted, “The way things are going between us, becoming a mother to my young sons might suit her, as she fancies becoming mother to another child of her own.”

“Oh. Congratulations if that comes about. If you would appreciate a more robust new identity, I could arrange for enough documentation to appear in support. The procedures for hiding court witnesses could be easily adapted to your identity question, I thought.”

“Interesting suggestion. I would be happy with that plan. We should keep the first name as Alec, as my lady friend knows me only by that name.”

“Not a problem. Keep in touch while we await the TV people to do their stuff. They are good at trapping criminals into confessing on camera!”

I did a few more exercises before leaving the gym and thanking the P.E. teacher for the use of his facilities. He remarked, “I looked in for a few minutes as you started, and I was impressed by what I saw. You clearly are experienced at getting fit. Phemie spoke of her soldier assistant, so that must be you. Right?”

“Right, but I think I am done with her class’s enthusiasm for soldiering, so this one shot of your gym is all I need. Thanks again.”

“Pity. You and she seemed to hit it off, from what I hear.”

“That doesn’t have to stop when I am no longer visiting the academy, you know,” I confessed. “I quite fancy her, I have found. We may get a lot closer in future.”

There we are; rumour central given its starting point. Without me saying anything to Phemie, the school staff rumour machine will have us planning marriage within days. That will shock her it if it gets to her ears!

Leaving the P.E. teacher with this snippet to work from, I left the school to catch a bus back to near where Phemie stayed. It was great to travel by bus and be treated as simply another passenger making his way home. No-one spoke to me apart from the driver when I paid my fare, and even there it was a perfunctory greeting between driver and passenger. He probably could not tell anything about me from our encounter, which is what I prefer; the anonymous passenger on his anonymous errand to an anonymous site. I didn’t even bother to wear a hat to hide my face, as most men did not wear hats and so a hatted man becomes more noticeable, not less so.

I had only a short walk from the bus stop to Phemie’s flat, and as it was mid-afternoon the street was practically deserted. Thus I was put off by being accosted by two guys about nineteen or twenty. I automatically switched to defensive mode.

“Hey, got a light, man?” said one, aggressively, supported by his pal. “No, sorry. I don’t smoke,” I replied mildly. Apparently this was a wrong way to speak to them, as the aggression was wound up.

“Then can you give us some cash to get some smokes?” said the other, to back him up. “Smoking is a bad habit that you should give up, so no, no cash handouts,” I informed them genially. I wanted to give them every chance to go away. No luck, for one pulled a folding knife out of a pocket.

“Then we’ll just have to take it, then.” “Sorry, but you have approached the wrong man, lads. I don’t do ju-jitsu, but I can still be dangerous.” “With your bare hands?” the guy scoffed.

I swung my head from side to side, as if thinking, but it was one of the distracting moves that make the attacker misjudge his plan of attack.

I grimaced, “I take your point, but I don’t just use my bare hands. I use every part of my body. My instructors were quite specific about taking down aggressors swiftly and effectively.”

Now I had given them every warning, and it was up to them to be sensible or stupid. They chose stupid. Without another word, the one with the knife swung at me with his weapon, while the other concentrated on slipping a knuckleduster on his fingers to add his own bit of mayhem.

The lunge at me was well notified by his body language, so I slid to one side and let the knife pass me before grabbing his arm and pulling him closer, making the knife unusable beyond my body. I used my other arm to thrust a fist into his abdomen, causing a whoosh of air from his lungs. As he gasped to get his breath, I moved my grip to his wrist and pulled his hand down to meet my knee coming up. The impact caused his hand to release the knife, which clattered to the pavement below.

This had happened so quickly that his accomplice had hardly moved, being distracted by the actions of me and his friend. That gave me the opportunity to move closer and sweep the hand with its brass weapon to one side while I quickly kneed him in the groin; a move he had not expected as both men were thinking only of their own provocations. A knee to the balls incapacitates a man almost immediately and allows you to concentrate on other targets.

That first guy had finally caught his breath a little and was reaching down for the knife; a bad decision, for my knee coming up as his chin followed his arm down effectively applied an uppercut, and his jaw accepted the impact as a massive hit. He collapsed.

The one with the damage to his testes was doubled up in pain but was conscious, so I spoke to him. “I hope you take my point, gentlemen. Your victim made you the victims. Try not to repeat your error, and you may survive.”

With that, I started to walk off, continuing on my way, but then I returned to pick up the knife and offer it to them. “You should take this with you, gentlemen. No need to leave it lying where a sharp blade might harm someone.”

I resumed my departure, but I deliberately walked past Phemie’s abode so as not to establish a marker for them. I walked to the corner and turned off down the next street. Getting to the next corner, I turned again, and repeated my progress so that I was back at a corner where I could observe my would-be assailants from behind.

By now, they were just about back to walking condition, and stumbled off to wherever they wanted to go to recover their wind. I noted them crossing the street and going down a side lane, so I knew roughly where they were headed.

Once they were out of sight for a couple of minutes, I resumed my walk to Phemie’s block of flats and stepped into the vestibule. This made a perfect vantage point for checking whether my attackers were trying to follow me, but the street was empty again. I went upstairs to the next landing that had a window facing out, and did another scan of the street. It remained empty, apart from a lady with a pushchair, and she was not accosted as she proceeded up the street, so I was satisfied the lads had left. With that, I took myself to Phemie’s flat and let myself in after using the security keypad by the door, thus disabling the burglar alarm system. Feeling thirsty, I made myself a coffee before thinking of a shower after my exertions on the street. A shower is great for helping you to relax afterwards, but I do like the caffeine rush you get with tea or coffee. Alcohol is a rare tipple for me, as I treat it as a dangerous drug: useful in small amounts, dangerous in excess.