A Line in the Sand (64 page)

e stun grenades and the gas grenades.

th

Three went easily with their

Armalite rifles held loosely. They didn't look at him, nor at

ers

Chalm

and his dogs. Geoff thought it was the moment that his relevance, and

x's and

Co

nton's, ended.

Fe

Their faces and hands were blacked up. Sprigs of

es. It was as if, he thought,

foliage were woven into their cloth

in

bitterness, the job was taken from boys and given to men. e looked H

426

liquely

ob

at Chalmers beside him and the very calm of his face abetted

the bitterness. Control had gone to the guns of the killing team.

ything he had done was set at nothing, snatched from him by the

Ever

men

th guns who went down into the marshland and the reed-beds.

wi

The

last

e had slipped from his sight.

on

s it, we're wasting our bloody time," he said savagely.

"That'

remained impassive, silent.

Chalmers

we were gone.

"Time

Time, if you know how to use one, for a bloody

bath."

Chalmers sat on the bench and his eyes searched the clear gold blue of

the skies over the marshes.

"Sending you was ridiculous, a humiliation for the Service. They ave been put in twenty-four hours ago. They're the

should h

professionals, they're the bloody killers. They'll find him." He stood up.

almers squinted at a point high above the reed-beds.

Ch

n't find him."

"They wo

His head never moved, his gaze never shifted.

me. On what is that stunning insight based?"

"Enlighten

find him because he isn't here." Chalmers spoke from

"They won't

the

of his mouth.

side

His head was stock still, and he peered into the

lightening sky.

"He isn't here?"

"Not here."

"Then, excuse me, please, tell me, what the fuck are we doing?"

"He saved the life of the bird, and I have time for that, and now he's

. I have respect for the beasts where I work, I have a duty

hurt ..

to

them when they're hurt. He fed the bird and treated the bird's

427

injury.

The bird

searching

is

for him and cannot find him. If the bird cannot

find him then he's not here."

Markham sagged back down on to the bench. He looked out over the

reed-banks and the water. The wind came into his face and his eyes smarted.

He peered into the clearing sky. Far below where he looked were the birds of the marsh and the Regiment's troopers. He searched for it but

g time before he saw the speck of dark against the blue.

it was a lon

He

held it, and perhaps it turned, and he lost it. It was very high, where the winds would be fierce. Chalmers's eyes were never off it.

ham blinked and his eyes watered as they strained, again,

Geoff Mark

to

he speck.

locate t

Beside him, Chalmers sat rock still and relaxed,

leaning back as if to be more comfortable. His dogs scrapped at his en Markham found the bird again, he could have yelled in

feet. Wh

triumph. He was trained in the analysis of covert computerized data, he was offered work at what they'd call the coalf ace of fiscal

interpretation, and he could have shouted in excitement because his wet, sore eyes identified a speck moving at a thousand feet up, about a

thousand yards away. He saw the bird, and it had moved, gone north, till searched. He could have hugged Chalmers because the

and it s

keenness of this stinking youth's eyesight had given him hope, at

last.

"I am sorry what I said was out of order. I apologize. Did you think of telling them, the military, that he wasn't here?"

"No."

He wanted only to be alone.

A woman police officer, a cheerful, pleasant girl with a blonde

pony-tail of hair and a crisp clean uniform, knelt awkwardly because of

her belt, which carried handcuffs, gas canisters and a stick, on the hall carpet to help Stephen with a colouring book and crayons.

To be alone and to think of her.

Blake, dressed but with his shoes kicked off, slept on the settee

428

in

the living room. While his eyes were closed and his breathing

ar,

regul

his hand rested on the butt of his gun in the holster of his chest his radio burping staccato messages from his jacket pocket.

harness,

mber her.

To reme

Davies, in shirtsleeves because he had two bars of the electric fire on, was at the familiar slot of the dining-room table with the

newspaper spread out, reading the market and the financial comment.

He

coordinated the radio link to the crisis centre and the locations

of

the mobile patrols.

And to mourn.

He was not allowed, by Davies, to go upstairs to their bedroom.

understand."

"Not protected there, Mr. Perry, I'm sure you

He was not allowed, by Paget, to go out through the kitchen door into his sunlit garden.

"Rather you didn't, Mr. Perry, wouldn't be sensible."

d him the space that he yearned for.

They denie

on the floor between the mattresses and behind the

Perry sat

sandbags.

ved.

Chalmers mo

It was a full half-hour since Geoff Markham had given up on the search peck. The sky was clearer, brightening blue with pale

for the s

cirrus

corrugated lines of cloud, and it hurt more to look for the bird.

He

was thinking of the future of his career, whether he would be

positioned back with Rainbow Gold, whether, he would be assigned to a

town where there were faculties of nuclear physics and

university

microbiology growing botulisms at which Iranian students were

enrolled,

new team working on illegal

or whether he would be dumped into the

429

immigration, or the old Irish unit or narcotics.." when Chalmers moved.

Chalmers was already twisted round, his eye-line no longer on the

skies

above the marsh. The Regiment men would be down in the reed-banks and

the water now, and there was nothing to show their presence.

Chalmers

stood, his back turned to them, and moved.

There was no discussion, no conversation, no explanation.

Chalmers whistled softly for the dogs to come to his heel, then

started

to track back up the path towards the village.

He walked with his head craning upwards, as if the sight of the bird, the speck, was too precious to be lost, and Markham was left to trail behind.

The path brought them back to the village between the hall and the pub.

Chalmers strode surely, briskly, never looked down to see where his feet trod, and puddles splashed on to his trouser-legs.

uttled past them, and a van with a builder's ladder lashed

Cars sc

to

the roof, but that was the only motion of life in the village. It was

a bright, sunny morning with cheerful light and a bracing wind, but no

one walked and took pleasure in it. He thought the fear and the shame around, in the houses, the road and on the lanes as if a

were all

plague had come and the inevitability of disaster was upon them.

pping, knuckle and glass, and a protest shout, startled

A fierce ra

him.

He saw a woman at a window, her face contorted in fury. The woman pointed at her cut front lawn. One of the dogs had crapped on it, the

second lifted a stumpy rear leg against the Venus statue that was

a

bird-bath. Chalmers didn't call off his dogs, didn't look at her

or

seem to hear her, just walked on and all the time he studied the skies.

430

Markham stared pointedly at the far side of the road.

They went by the house on the green, the sun making silver patterns on

the new wire of the screen.

Chalmers never glanced at the house, as if it held no interest for him.

They went through the village.

A few times, Markham looked for the bird and could not find it. He thought of it, high in the upper winds, soaring and circling and

searching, and he thought of the power of the bird's eyesight and

he

thought of the man, Vahid Hossein, in pain and in hiding. Andy

Chalmers had talked of respect and of duty to a beast that was hurt.

He

didn't think they would understand at Thames House, and it was pretty damned hard for him to comprehend why respect was due to a wounded killer and what duty was owed him. Chalmers walked remorselessly

through the village, and out of it.

Beyond the village was a river-mouth, then more wave-whipped beaches; at their furthest point were the distant bright colours of a holiday community nestling in the sunlight.

A path ran alongside the river on top of an old flood-defence wall.

In

the fields between the village and the path, cattle grazed on grassy islands among the pools of the winter floods. Chalmers was ahead

of

him, high above the river and the fields, and all the time he gazed upwards.

Hungry, thirsty, the foul taste in his mouth, his shoes sodden, his feet cold, his back stiff, Geoff Markham followed blindly, thinking of

food, coffee, a shower, dry socks, a clean shirt and dry shoes, and

...

he careered into Chalmers's back, jolted against it. Chalmers

didn't

seem to notice him.

e fields, going away from the village,

Beyond th

and the banks of the river and the raised pathway, was Northmarsh.

The

sunlight gently rippled the water.

431

The sun caught the flight of the bird, now lower in the sky, but still above the swaying old reed-heads of the Northmarsh.

high

The bird had come down from the upper winds and now it quartered over rshlands.

the ma

It was as he had seen it over the Southmarsh. The

bird searched.

Chalmers walked to where the path cut back towards the village then ped over a fence of sagging, rusted wire and settled himself down

step

grass beside the water and the

on the small space of rabbit-chewed

ed-beds. His dogs began to fight over a length of rotten wood.

re

There

ace, quiet and serenity, until Markham heard the bird's call.

was pe

nt help? Do you want the guns here?"

"Do you wa

"No."

watched the bird search, and listened for its shrill, insistent

He

call.

"Man'?

It's Joel, I'm doing night duty. Sorry to disturb you yeah,

I

know what the time is... Duane's been on. He's very perky. They

have

the jerk winged and holed up. Duane says it's close to over. I need y-so for getting the wheels moving y'know, camera,

your sa

microphones,

lights, action. I guarantee you that the mullahs are about to have a

very bad day. They are going to squirm like never before. Duane

says

it won't fit the Brit picture, going public -Duane says to go quiet risoner or a corpse, then hit the mullahs, and hard.

till there's a p

?.

Can I start to move the wheels, Man'

That's all I need, thanks. Oh, the jerk got the target's wife last y're so fucking incompetent it's not true but the game's

night the

still

running..."

sausages for Stephen?

How many

How many for the nanny policewoman?

Did

his eggs turned over? Should Blake be woken? Rankin

Davies like

had

432

found one of Meryl's aprons and wore it tied to his lower stomach

so

that his waist holster cleared it.

And Perry hadn't been asked how many sausages he wanted, nor about the

raid on the refrigerator. There would be a plate for him in the

kitchen with sausages, bacon and eggs, whether he wanted it or not.

He

wasn't consulted because he was only the bloody principal. He felt a

sickness in his stomach. He ached for Meryl. Paget came past him, carrying two loaded plates, heading for the dining room, the french windows and the outside hut, where the new team were on duty.

He had to be with her and alone, to kneel and cry for her

forgiveness.

The policewoman shepherded Stephen into the kitchen. Davies

followed

with his newspaper, and Blake in his stockinged feet.

He was an afterthought. The life of the house went on, they were

all

sitting at his kitchen table.

Paget called out, "And you, Mr. Perry got to keep body and soul together."

They did it for Stephen, forced their cheer down his throat.

to the toilet start without me."

"Just going

dow in the lavatory had an anti-thief lock, and the key was

The win

in

l wall cupboard.

the smal

He bolted the door behind him. They were

s

hi

only friends and the mark of their regard for him was that they tried to clear the mind of her boy from what he had seen, heard, the night before. They tried hard, had to, because what he had seen would have been so hideous, brain-scarring. He heard the banter and the

laughter