Chapter 4

A few days after the events recounted in the last chapter, Amanda was with Deirdre in the poky little changing room, waiting for her bout to be called. Amanda, these days, was increasingly preoccupied with her forthcoming marriage and all the problems that would have to be overcome in manufacturing an identity for a man who had materialised out of nowhere. She had been reading Freddy Forsyth's "Day of the Jackal" and had seen how comparatively easy it was to manufacture an identity. But that was just the birth certificate - what about the National Insurance number and a hundred and one other bits of paperwork?

What she desperately needed was some appropriately shady contact to perform all the necessary work. As she looked again around the dingy little room and considered the dubious antecedents of the people responsible for running this female fight racket, she began to have an idea!

The manager came into the changing room to say that Deirdre should be ready in five minutes and Amanda came back into the real world and went to assist her. Her hand brushed against Deirdre's forehead and she immediately realised that the girl had a very high temperature.

"Deirdre! You're really feverish. Why the Hell didn't you say? How long had this been coming on?"

Deirdre said that she had been fine earlier on, but must have eaten something that was in some way unsuitable. This had happened before, she said. It must have been the fruit salad she had eaten just before coming here.

"Must have had mango in it, Amanda. Always does this to me. I should know by this time. God, but such a fool!"

It was obvious that she was totally unfit to fight this day and Amanda turned to the manager apologetically. She hoped he would take the disappointment philosophically!

"Sorry! We'll have to scratch this appearance. She should be fine next week. I mean, look at the poor girl, she's white as a sheet and looks as if she could throw up at any minute!"

To say that the manager was annoyed would be a fairly irresponsible understatement. Amanda had never seen such fury written so plainly on the face of another! Deirdre had long been a favourite of the patrons. At first it had been a sadistic relish at the regularity with which she was turned by a succession of experienced opponents from a strong and lovely Amazon in to a bleeding and pulverised wreck, but lately it was because of the way she had fought her way back with great courage to be one of the more successful of the regular girls, triumphing impressively over her last five adversaries. The patrons would not be happy people and they were a hard hearted lot!

He looked at Amanda. It was obvious that the brain behind those hard pig-like little eyes was in overdrive! She knew with a churning in her stomach, exactly what he was about to say! She also knew exactly what her answer would be!

"She's been a different woman since you took over her training. You can take her place just for today! You'd be at a bit of a weight disadvantage, but nothing disastrous. Don't tell me you aren't as good as Deirdre - a whole lot better, in fact. Get changed!" And as an afterthought he added, "Please, darling - we'd be really grateful and it'd be well worth your while. I'd pay you well!"

Amanda howled with laughter. As if she couldn't afford to buy out this guy and his crummy outfit a hundred times over and still have the same number of zeros in her bank balance! Then she had a thought.

"I don't need the money, thanks all the same. But I might ask you for some discreet favours at a future date. You may very well have the sort of contacts I might need to do a good turn to a friend." She drew him aside and whispered a few words into his ear. The man nodded.