REVELATION: Book One of THE RECARN CHRONICLES (19 page)

“Oi! I said, what are you up to?”

Maurice mouthed at the man to go away. The man pulled on the
door handle and the back door of the car swung open. Maurice was
mortified. He thought that he’d locked the door. Obviously he
hadn’t. The man reached inside and grabbed Maurice.

“What are you doing with that mask on? This looks very dodgy
this does.”

Maurice tried to push the man out of the car, but the man was
surprisingly quick and grabbed the mask.

“Let’s see who you are then, mate!”

Maurice felt secure in the knowledge that the mask would stay
glued to his head but was shocked when the man pinched the back of
the mask between his finger and thumb and the mask fell away from
Maurice’s head, landing on the floor of the car. He lashed out,
fist clenched and caught the man squarely on the chin. The man
staggered back and collapsed onto the ground in a crumpled heap,
just as the brothers and Wolzenik, who was carrying the baby, came
out of the front door of the house. They looked silently at the
unconscious man laying by the car. Roberto broke the
silence.

“You’re a bloody walking disaster aren’t you Maurice? No mask
too. Let’s hope he didn’t get a good look at your face.”

“I’m think he probably did. He looked me right in the eye so I
punched him.”

“Well, we’ll have to get this dealt with later. Our priority
is to get this baby and Wolzenik to that plane, pronto.”

Tony opened the tailgate of the car, and tossed two large bags
into the boot area.

“Maurice, get in the back here – we have to make room for our
friend here and the baby.”

“In the boot?”

“Yes, in the boot. Even with the bags there’s plenty of room
for you. You’re not suggesting we should put the baby in the boot,
are you?”

“No, of course not.”

Maurice clambered into the boot of the vehicle and Tony
slammed the tailgate shut.

Then the four men got into the SUV, Wolzenik in the middle of
the back seat, with the new-born baby on his lap.

Maurice was less than impressed. He was sure that there was
plenty of room for him in the back seat.

“Right, brace yourselves.”

Tony threw the car into gear and sped off down the road as if
he were being pursued by a dozen police cars.

The man that Maurice had punched, stood up and brushed the
dirt off his trousers.

“That baby’s probably got a stronger punch than that
accountant,” he thought to himself.

He went over to the front door of Wolzenik’s house, turned a
key in the lock and went inside. He walked into the living room,
sat down on the sofa, and pulled a mobile phone out of his trouser
pocket. He dialled a number and waited for the call to be answered.
The ringing tone was replaced by an enquiring voice

“Done?”

“Done.”

The man took the battery out of the phone, stood up, and
stomped his foot down hard onto it, breaking it into four irregular
pieces. He opened the back door of the house and lobbed the pieces
into the stream that ran behind the house.

Roberto took the battery out of his mobile phone, opened the
car window and skilfully threw it into the path of the SUV. Tony,
equally expertly guided the front nearside wheel of the speeding
car over the phone, crushing it beyond recognition, before
continuing the short journey to Bournemouth airport.

“
Maurice? Maurice! Wake
up!”

Maurice slowly opened his eyes to see Roberto leaning over
him.

“What’s up? What time is it?”

“It’s seven o’clock. We have to go downstairs. There’s someone
here to see you.”

“Who?”

“Nobody you know… but it’s important so get a move on. I’ll
tell him you’ll be down in five minutes.”

“Tell who?”

“You’ll find out.”

Four and a half minutes later Maurice entered the front room
and saw the three brothers with a stranger. The stranger walked
forward and offered his hand.

“Mr. Boone? Pleased to meet you. My name is Takahiro Nakata
and I’m a senior aide to the Businessman. Please take a seat, Mr.
Boone.”

Maurice sat down on the sofa and looked up at the
visitor.

“Mr. Boone. It has come to our attention that your identity
was compromised last night. Is this correct?”

Maurice turned red and felt like a naughty schoolboy about to
be scolded by the headmaster.

“Yes. I guess so. I mean I know so. This guy came over from
across the street and started asking questions.”

“Questions?”

“Yes. Questions.”

“And then?”

“And then he opened the car door and tried to pull me out of
the car.”

“Wasn’t the door locked?”

“I thought it was, but obviously it wasn’t”

“So what happened when he tried to pull you out of the
car?”

“He tried to take my ski-mask off.”

“And he succeeded?”

“Yes. I don’t know how, but he managed to take it off. It was
supposed to stay on and protect my identity. But it
didn’t.”

“I see. And then what happened?”

“Then I punched him and he fell out of the car onto the
driveway of the house, unconscious.”

“I see. And did you dispose of the man or leave him
there?”

“We left him there. Roberto said we didn’t have time to do
anything else.”

“So… we can assume that he saw you and will report that fact
back to his overlords.”

“I suppose so.”

“Well, Mr. Boone. This faux pas of yours will have
repercussions.”

This was what Maurice was worried about. He had a history of
cocking things up. He wondered what punishment was in store for
him, bracing himself for the worst.

“Mr. Boone. The team will be going on another important
mission tonight, and you will accompany them.

Maurice thought he was hearing things. Hadn’t they noticed
that his participation in previous missions had been an unmitigated
disaster?

“But you can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious Mr. Boone. I wish I could leave you
behind, I truly do, but your inclusion is mandatory. Your identity
and relationship to the resistance movement will have been noted by
The Order. The fact that you’re supposed to be dead will be of
additional interest to them. They will use your family as a
bargaining tool in the hope that you’ll defect to them or at least
tell them what you know about our operations. Admittedly you have
been deliberately kept on the peripheral but this won’t stop them
from getting any information they can from you. And they can be
very persuasive. To avoid that possibility, we’ll be extracting
your wife and daughters so they have no bargaining collateral. You
leave in fifteen minutes.”

“My wife and daughters? But they think I’m dead.”

“Then they’ll have a pleasant surprise then, won’t they?
Goodbye.”

Takahiro Nakata turned on his heels and went back to his
car,

“Am I really going to see Karen and the girls?” asked
Maurice.

Tony spoke up.

“Only if you get a move on. That fifteen minutes is about
twelve minutes now. We’ll be taking two cars.”

“Two cars? I thought we only had one.”

“Well, now we have two.”

An hour later the two SUVs pulled up outside Maurice’s old
house.

“Let’s hope your missus hasn’t changed the locks,” said
Roberto. Maurice placed the palm of his hand upon a glass control
panel and the imprint that it left when he removed his hand glowed
green.

“So far, so good,” Maurice mumbled to himself as the door
clicked open.

The brothers entered the house and Maurice followed them. He
felt very nervous about this; he didn’t want to give his wife a
heart attack. Did women have heart attacks? Maurice really didn’t
know, but he didn’t want to take the risk and so he hung back
whilst the brothers went into the living room. Karen was watching
TV and was shocked to see three strangers standing before her. She
grabbed the closest weapon to hand – a cushion. She had no idea
what she was going to do with the cushion, but felt very slightly
more comfortable having something in her hands with which to defend
herself, however useless it was for the task. In the shadows,
Maurice wondered what the hell she expected to achieve with the
cushion; at least the table lamp would have had some weight behind
it.

“Mrs. Boone? My name is Roberto and these are my brothers Tony
and Miguel.”

“Who are you? Some kind of Spanish Mafia? How do you know my
name?”

“We’re not here to hurt you Mrs. Boone. But we do need you to
come with us.”

“Are you the police?”

“No we’re not the police.”

“Then get out of here, this minute. My husband has only popped
out to buy some milk, and he’ll be back any minute. If he finds you
here I hate to think what he’ll do to you. He’s a black belt at
karate.”

Roberto had to bite his lip to prevent himself from laughing
out loud.

“No he’s not Mrs. Boone. He couldn’t even punch his way out of
a paper bag.”

Maurice felt a little hurt by this last remark. Hadn’t he
knocked that man unconscious with one punch, in New
Milton?

“He’ll still be back soon. And then there’ll be
trouble.”

“You have to come with us, Karen. Your life is in danger. And
Caitlin’s and Michelle’s.”

“How do you know my daughters’ names? And why am I in danger?
Am I in danger from you?”

“No, we only want to protect you.”

Maurice felt that it was time to intervene. Karen clearly had
no intention of going anywhere with the brothers; not willingly,
anyway. He knew that it would be a shock for, as far as Karen knew,
he had been dead for several months and she had probably got used
to the idea that she was now a widow. Now she was about to meet her
husband again; a living, breathing husband who had never died. He
wasn’t sure how she’d react but it had to be done. Each minute that
passed was another minute during which she and the children were at
risk. He stepped forward out of the shadows.

“Karen, you really should come with us.”

His wife stood still, dumbstruck. Maurice
continued.

“Yes Karen. It really is me. It’s Maurice. I’m not a ghost and
I’m certainly not dead.”

Karen found her voice.

“Maurice? Is it really you?”

”Yes darling. It’s really me.”

Tears started to stream down Karen’s face and she walked
towards him, arms open wide. Maurice opened his arms to embrace
her, to hold her, to feel her touch. But the touch that he felt was
not an affectionate, loving touch – it was a slap around the
face.

“How could you, you bastard! I’ve been mourning you for the
last few months, trying to get my life back on track, trying to
adjust to life without you, missing you every day, loving you every
day. And you don’t even have the decency to be dead. And what about
the kids? Did you think about them when you were off gallivanting
with your new friends?”

“I’m sorry Karen, but I couldn’t let Caitlin die. I had to do
something to get the money to pay for her surgery. But things went
wrong and I accidentally killed someone. I was scared. Not just for
me, but for you and the girls too. I had to keep any trouble away
from my family.”

“Well that didn’t work out too well, did it? My house is full
of strangers who want to take me and my daughters – our daughters –
away from here to god knows where.”

“It’s for your own safety.”

‘So everybody keeps bloody saying. Who are these people
then?”

”They’re from One Life.”

“The terrorist group?”

“No. The resistance movement. And so am I. I’m with the
resistance now.”

Karen gave a sarcastic grin.

“Sorry Maurice, but you have to admit the idea of you being
part of the resistance is a bit far-fetched. You were – are – a
great husband, but you’re a lover, not a fighter.”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you in the car. But we really
need to get going. Can we fetch the girls?”

“They’re at school. We can pick them up on the way. Can I
pack?”

Roberto cut in.

“We can give you five minutes. That’s all. Just the
essentials. We have all the everyday things you may need. And what
we don’t have, we can get hold of.”

“Come on Maurice. You can help me.”

Maurice and Karen went upstairs to their bedroom. Karen closed
the door behind them and launched herself at her husband. Maurice
braced himself for another slap but instead Karen threw her arms
around him, wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him
passionately. Maurice had missed the warmth of her body, the warm,
moist sensation of being kissed by those beautiful succulent lips.
He was also glad for the months of working out as he was now able
to support her weight with no problem. Karen’s lips broke
free.