BlindFire (8 page)

  "Ok. I take it you see the N
ews
on TV
.... He was a long distance truck driver from
Cork
."

  "How  come  I  wasn't  asked  to  identify  him
Sir
,  aft
er  all  I  was  the  one he
shot."

  "Normally  we  would  but on  this  occasion  he  had  a  water  tight alibi."  He  leaned  back  against  the  window  ledge  and  looked  at  his watch.

  "And what
was that then?"  Danny demanded
.

  "According  to  the  Italian  police  who  arrested  him  for  fighting he  w
as  in a Rome gaol when the  incident
occurred. The  men  we’re after  are  as  close  to  professional  terrorists  as  you can  get."  He  stopped  himself,  there  was  no  requirement  for  a  long speech  and  b
esides it wouldn't  make Stone
  feel  any  better.

  "And what about my Daughter
,
any news on her yet?"

  "I promise you I won’t stop until she’s home...!
we will find her."

  "In other words, no news."
Danny snapped. “This man has got a vendetta against me for something I did more than ten years ago. He’s taken my daughter...! I know it.”

  "
I saw your son this morning,
he was asking for you."

 
Danny braced
up. “You’ve seen him? He’s alright?”

  “I’ve  been  to  see  him  ev
eryday  since  it  happened  Staff Sergeant  Stone...! And yes he’s fine but he keeps asking for his dad. 
I’ll take you to see him today.” Said the Major. It wasn’t
so much an invitation as
an order.

   “You  do  of  course  realise  that  the  Terrorists  will  be  well  away  by  now.”  Exclaimed  the  Colonel  as  if  he  was  some  sort  of  authority  on  the  subject.

   "So what now?" 
Danny asked
.  The realisation of what was coming was slowly but surely dawning.

  "So."  Replied the Major.  "The  operation
  to  capture  the  killers has been
  scaled  down  in  Europe  and  handed  over  to  Northern  Ireland authorities."

  "
W
hat?" 
Danny hissed
.  "You've  given  up  already  and those 
evil 
bastards  have  got  off  scott  free  again."

  "
Not at all Staff Sergeant..!" The C.O  was stunned, Non
commissioned Officers  didn't  normally  behave  in  this  way,   especially  in  his  office.

  The  Major  raised  his  own  voice  over  that  of  the  C.O.  "Intelligence reports suggest...."

  "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted."

"Excuse  me  Colonel,  but  I   don't   have  much  time  let  me  finish and  then  you  can  lecture  him  all  day, if  indeed  you  feel  it  necessary."

  "As you wish Major."  Retorted the Colonel as he glared out of the window scowling.

  "Intelligence  reports  suggest  that  there  is  no  more
terrorist  activity in  Europe
because you were the intended target.  Had you ever heard of Jack Mckay?”

  Danny thought for a few seconds. “No, he told me his name but I didn’t recognise him or his name.”

  Major Rothschild turned away from the window and opened the file he had been holding. “Ten years ago you shot and killed two terrorists in
Northern Ireland
..! Is that right!”

  Danny nodded glumly; it wasn’t an incident he liked to be reminded about.

  “… One of those terrorists you killed was a woman called Mary O’Connor. Couldn’t have been very pleasant experience finding that you’d shot a female?”

  “She was wearing a balaclava sir..! But I’d have slotted her even if she wasn’t..!”

  “Well it turns out that Ms O’Connor had recently been married.”

“To Mckay..! I can’t believe he sought me out after all this time? Why has he waited? Why now?”

  “Oh our Jack’s been a very busy boy! He had a long spell in Gaol and now he’s back doing what he likes to do best.”

  “Oh my god he took my Sahra didn’t he, he took my daughter!”

  Major Rothschild shrugged. “We can’t rule anything out.” He didn’t see any sense in mentioning that Mckay was a suspected serial killer.

  Danny glanced at the CO and then back at the Major. There was something they weren’t telling him and something else had been puzzling him for a while. “How the hell did he know where I lived? What I looked like..? He knew my car!”

  “Believe me
Staff
Sergeant that’s a line of enquiry that I’ve been looking into!”

  “You’ve got a leak..? Haven’t you?”

  “Oh some good news before you leave!” Said the
Col
on
el. “We’ve had your son moved to the Paracelsus clinic in
Osnabruck
.”

  “Thankyou Sir!” He said and meant it.

***

The Major arranged to pick Danny up later in the
afternoon
and  the  drive  to
the 
Paracelsus  Klinik
  took  no  more  than  five  minutes..

  As  he  walked  in  through  the  sliding  doors  he  became  scared. How could he tell
his son
about his sister? How  hundreds  of  soldiers  and  locals  had  been  out  night  and  day  searching  for  her, how  the  canals  had  been  dredged  and  how  policemen  carried  pieces  of  the  clothes  she  had  been  wearing  the  day  before, to  remind  their  dogs  of  her  scent. How  could  he  tell  his  little  boy  why  his  sister  had  vanished  off  the  face  of  the  earth.

  So   many   thoughts   passed   through   his   confused   head   as   he sat   and stared
at the injured form of his sleeping son
.
All
those  different 
what
  ifs  and  whys  but  his  heart  sank  everytime  he thought  of  his  Claudia  or  the  kids  or  the  times  they  had  spent  together.  The  holidays  in  Corfu,  days  at  the  zoo  and  their  beaming
faces  at  Christmas  as  they tore
open their  presents.

  Leaning  in  he  tenderly  brushed  a  lock  of  blond  hair  from  the  boys  tiny  face
and gently kissed his forehead
. His  finger  paused  at  the  bruise  over  his  eye, the  finger  began  to  tremble  as  a  well  of  emotion  erupted  from  his  stomach.

  “Daddy. “ Pleaded a tiny vo
ice. “Don’t cry.” Tommy
raised his hand to his father’s wet cheek.

  “Oh Tom.” Danny
wiped his eyes and tried to focus on his son.

  “Daddy, it hurts.”

  “I know..... But you have to be brave.”

  “Where’s
Mummy...... I want to see Mummy! When is she coming back from heaven?
”

  Tears welled up in Danny’s
eyes once more. “I’m sorry Son
, you can’t. You  see, she’s  gone  to  sleep  for  a  very  long  time .....”

  Tommy
turned his head away. “Like the Hamster?”

  His father
  faltered  for  a  second  as  he  struggled  to  remember  the  pet  Hamster  which  had  passed  away  a f
ew  months  earlier. “Yes Son
  just  like  the  Hamster, except  Mummy  dreams  about  you  all  the  time.”

  “Has she gone to baby
Jesus
?”

  Danny
nodded. “She’s in a beautiful place now.”

  Tears  rolled  down Tom’s
  cheeks  which  had  become  red  and  flushed. “Can we go and see her now?”

  “No son, we can’t.”

  “Daddy the bad man was here last night...!” Tom whispered. “Sometimes he hides behind the curtains.”

  Danny turned to Major Rothschild and frowned.

  “He has nightmares every night.” The Major said and smiled at the boy. “I’ve asked them to leave a light on for him..! And the nurses check up on him regularly throughout the night.”

***

“Danny..! What the hell are you doing?”

  He turned to face his friend as he continued to lift the Rucksack on to his back. “I’ve got to do this..! Don’t try to stop me.”

  Harry stepped into the room and closed the door so that his wife couldn’t hear the conversation. “And what exactly is it that you’ve got to do?”

  “That psycho has got my daughter and god only knows what he’s doing to her!”

  Harry shook his head and frowned. “But you don’t even know where to start looking.”

  “I think I might!” Danny said. “From what Rothschild’s been saying I reckon he’s gone back to
Northern Ireland
.”

  “For gods sake Danny..!
Northern Ireland
? You go there and start asking question and you’ll wind up in a ditch with an hole in the back of your head.”

  “I know what you think but I can’t sit around here anymore.” Danny said and took a step toward the door. “You gonna get out of my way?”

  Harry held his ground and then stubbornly moved. “What about your son? What about Tommy? He’s due out of hospital tomorrow.”

  “I want...! I want you to tell him that I’ve gone to get his sister.” He said and held out his hand for Harry to shake. “… And I want you and Clair to look after him until I come back.”

  Harry tentatively took Danny’s hand and nodded. “OK I won’t try to stop you but I want you to wait until tomorrow. I want Tommy settled in here before you go anywhere!”

***

   It  had  been  raining  for  days  and  today  was  no  different.  The windows had been battered without rest.  It was impossible to see through them as the train thundered south to
Duisburg
. Danny
was tired, he only noticed now as he sat with the side of his head up against the cool glass watching the damp greenery fly past at an hundred miles an hour.

  
Over the past days he had come to realise that soldiering was all he knew and that maybe his whole life had been for this one purpose. Sahra had to be found and Hopefully he would find Mckay along the way and kill him or what remained of his family would never be safe again..

Leaving  Tommy
  behind  with  Har
ry  and  Clair  had  been hard
on  everyone, especially  Tommy
. He’d
toughened up since the
funeral of his Mother
and even started to play once again how he
used to. But  every  now  and  then  he  would  ask  about  his  sister. A sister who was missing without trace. Perhaps she was dead, laying in a ditch some
where. But if there was one chance she was alive then only one man knew, and his name was Jack
Mckay.

  His ticket had been stamped at
least four times by now and Danny
was sick of seeing the inspector.

  "Fahrkarten bitte."   Boomed the voice yet again.

  "
Oh for Gods sake." Whispered Danny
and produced the now crumbled piece of paper.

  "Change
at
Duisburg
." 
Said the man in German then disappeared.

  "Hello." A
stranger
s
aid
.
"
Are the
se seats free?"

  "Yes of course.” Danny offered. “
I’ll just move my bags."

  She was tall and slim with wavy black hair and an olive complexion. Danny guessed maybe east
Mediterranean
or even Middle Eastern, it was hard to tell but whatever she was quite stunning.

  Once  they  had  both  sat down again and
she had taken her coat off  Danny
  asked  her  how  she  had  known  he  was  English.

  "I can tell by the way you’re dressed
t
rainers, jeans and a T-shirt in winter.  You must be a British soldier.

  "Almost right, actually
I’m in the Airforce."  He lied.

  "Oh, so
are
you
a pilot then?
"

  Danny laughed. "No
." The last thing he wanted was an in-depth conversation into aerodynamics, especi
ally as he knew nothing about the subject
.

  "So." She mused. "You’re in the Airforce but you don’t fly?"

  He yawned and closed his eyes. Perhaps if he went to sleep she
might
sto
p asking questions. "Ground crew..!
"