The Killer II (2 page)

2

Earlier in England

In the few short months since his release from the H-Blocks Christmas had come and gone unnoticed and he entered a new year with a new life and new masters.
His intense hatred of the British, borne of four years’ belief that they had killed his Mam, dissipated once he learned the truth and his anger was now directed towards the real culprits, his previous comrades in the I.R.A.
Yet the change of sides wasn’t an easy thing.
Revenge for his Ma had been the driving force, the reason he had joined the
Provos
in the first place, but he had developed a genuine sympathy with ‘the cause’ and the betrayal of that did not sit well with him.
The Brits pushed him for intelligence and he provided it, but only in part.
‘I was just an enforcer,’ he told them truthfully.
‘I didn’t get into the politics of it all.
There’s a lot of stuff I just don’t know.’

He wasn’t going to give them anything that could hurt his old mates, such as Thomas Malone.
What had that guy ever done?
Fought against the Brits?
Jesus, it was a war, that’s what he was supposed to do.
He supported the cause, he hated the Brits and he had every right to as far as Liam could see.

Then there was Willy in
Crossmaglen
.
Sure, he was a boss and he knew Turner and Co. would have loved to hear more about him, but he pleaded ignorance.
‘I’ve met him,’ he acknowledged, guessing that they might know that anyway, ‘but I can’t tell you much.
He’s high up in the political wing.
He doesn’t have anything to do with the action as far as I know.’
And that was a blatant lie, but no way was he going to give up the man who had got him out of Ireland to safety when one of his sniper kills had gone a little too well.

Such vagueness might have been challenged if that had been all he’d given them, but there were other questions on which he was much more forthcoming.
‘Committees,’ they insisted.
‘We’re pretty clear on how they’re structured, but we need to know the main players?’

‘I can help you there.’

‘I wish you would, dear boy,’ said Turner pressing the question, his voice soft in stark contrast to the officious and more bombastic tones of the other two suits present.

‘There are several, but the Committee Belfast is an important one.
Four members,’ he offered, keeping his voice as level as he could.
He saw the pity in Turner’s eyes at that point, for it was he who had first revealed that this was the group responsible for the kill order for his Mam.
‘I thought you’d already know who they are.
Surely Jonny told you.’
His voice broke a little as he spoke of the man who had butchered her
before running to the Brits and turning informant.

‘Jonny told us all he could,’ Turner assured him.
‘He said his orders came to him via an intermediary and that he never met the top men.
Considering the pressure he was under, I doubt very much that he lied.’

Liam had a feeling he was right.
Jonny had just been a foot soldier carrying out orders.
He had been one himself, but that fucking stupid tag he’d earned, ‘Butcher of Belfast’, had opened a lot of doors for him.
Mostly he wished they’d stayed closed because, in all honesty, he’d rather not know half the people he’d met.
‘Sean Hogan and Martin
McMurphy
are a couple of ‘
em
.
Seen
McMurphy
once at a rally.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen Hogan.
I know Larry – Mad Dog – O’Brien, though, and I never liked him.
Not right in the head,’ he hissed as he gave name to the man he thought most likely to be the instigator of his Mam’s death.
He was an evil bastard but, to be fair, there were others who matched him.
‘Peter Moore,’ he continued.
‘He’d kill his own mother if he thought it would further the cause.’
And that had been the end of that conversation.

***

As Liam reclined in the comfortable Concorde seat a wry smile crossed his lips as he remembered his ‘de-brief’ and how his control had broken when speaking of Peter Moore.
Mothers and death were a serious
trigger point and Turner, who had witnessed Liam’s temper at close quarters, had done the only thing he could do.
He went to make tea.

Liam thought of his initial meeting and hatred of Turner, but recently he had to admit he was actually beginning to like the man.
He seemed to be a decent, honest and genuine sort who, despite his
awfully English
public school accent, delivered everything he promised.
Liam had learned that if Turner said something it was right, it was detailed and it was accurate - the man appeared to be infallible.
He was also persuasive.

***

Within days of the prison break Turner informed him that his first job would be in America and that the target was one Ryan McKee of NORAID.
Later a second name was added, James Malcolm Brennan, known to all as Jimmy Mal.
Liam knew of the organisation but was confused.
‘They’re not R.A. boys though.’

‘The R.A.?’ questioned Turner.
‘I assume
you are referring to the Provisional I.R.A. old chap.
Anyhow, no
,
they are not Irish
.
As a matter of fact they are both
citizens of the United States.’

‘
Mr.
Turner, I agreed to work with you to eliminate the
Provos
, the people who murdered me Mammy.
Not some poor sods
over in America,’ he snapped.

‘Liam my boy,’ sighed Turner as he sat gently shaking his head, ‘these two poor sods, as you call them, are high up in a large organisation.
Their sole purpose is to raise finance for the
Provisionals
.
They send money, weapons and explosives dire
ctly to the Provisional I.R.A.’

‘Maybe they do, but they
didn’t kill me Ma - did they?’

‘Not personally, no, they didn’t.
However, without the support of this organisation the P.I.R.A. would have a difficult, if not impossible, time functioning.
They would have no weapons and they would have no money to buy their arms.
The fact is they may simply cease to exist.
Do you understand that my boy?’

Liam frowned a little as he considered this. ‘So, what you’re saying is - What exactly are you saying?
Are you telling me that without these people sending stuff over to Ireland me Ma would still be alive?
Is that right?’

‘
There is no certainty that your mother would still be alive at all Liam.
I am saying that if, and I do wish to clarify this,
if
they didn’t finance the P.I.R.A. it is quite possible that she would be alive.
My rationale being that without weapons and finance there would have been no
one in a position to kill her.’

‘So, your thinking is, by stopping the flow of money, you’ll stop the
Provos
in their tracks.
Is that it
Mr.
Turner?
And, following
your logic, if they had been stopped before, Ma might never have gotten killed eh?’

‘Succinctly put, Liam old bean.
Succinctly put.’
The bemused look on Liam’s face had prompted him to clarify.
‘I mean, yes Liam.
Yes, t
hat is correct,’ he confirmed.

‘I know what succinctly means,’ Liam assured him, ‘but this isn’t the first time I’ve had this conversation.’

‘No?’

‘Oh no.
Another man once used exactly the same argument to persuade me that without the British government there would have been no U.V.F. to order the
Shankill
Butchers to kill me Ma.’

‘Oh goodness.
Oh dear me.
I am so terribly sorry Liam.’

‘Goodness has nothing to do with any of this,
Mr.
Turner.’

‘No, no, you’re right of course, but oh, dear boy, to think someone on the other side could use that line to brainwash you.’

‘Who’s brainwashing who exactly?’ Liam snapped back at him.
‘Who’s right and who’s wrong?
I’m fucked if I know anymore.
Look, all that matters to me is that I get the people who killed Ma.
If you say they are financed from America, then I believe you.
Actually it makes a lot of sense.
I’m just saying that it goes both ways.
Even if the Brits weren’t responsible for Ma, they’ve been responsible for many other deaths.
Collins was
fuckin
’ right about that.’

‘Collins?’

The fact that Turner hadn’t picked him up on the profanity he disliked so intensely suddenly gave Liam a sinking feeling and he asked cautiously, ‘Aye, you know of him?’

‘I did.’

And that was all he needed to say.
In that instant Liam knew that yet another person he had liked and admired was gone.
He may be on the other side now, but that man had trained him and treated him like a son.
Shite, where would it all end?

***

The pilot’s voice broke into his thoughts and Liam felt the aircraft begin its descent.
He quickly dragged his mind back to the present and the task in hand.
He was still concerned at the lack of detailed intelligence for the mission.
Turner and his cronies seemed to know everything about him and they were really clued up on the rest of the Irish, but they were less certain on the folks across the Atlantic.
They knew who they were and what they did, but where they would be when they were doing what they did wasn’t so clear.
Apparently that was why he was so important to them, because he would be accepted in all the right places.
He had the right accent and he was on the right side.
In fact he’d never been so ‘right’ in all his life and that’s what scared him the most.

‘I’m not fucking James Bond,’ he’d yelled at Turner, which, of course, had brought down the wrath of the language police.
He
really was making an effort to curb his swearing, but sometimes he couldn’t help it.
Surely the British Secret Service had plenty of experienced operatives who could supply decent information.
He was just a novice.
‘Can’t you simply ask the Americans?’ he’d suggested.
‘After all, they live there.
Or am I just being stupid?’

As he tightened his seat belt he remembered how Turner’s answer to that had surprised him.
‘No, you are not being stupid Liam, you are only being naïve.’

‘Naïve?
Why
d’you
say that?’

‘Simply put Liam old boy, there is absolutely no one we can trust in the U.S. government to supply us with any information.
Well, secure information that is.
One only has to look at the treatment America gives to known P.I.R.A. terrorists.
It is nothing short of despicable.
They welcome them at their borders with open arms instead of shipping them directly back to us for process and sentence.’

‘The Brits don't trust their own allies?
Are you serious
Mr.
Turner?’

‘I am very serious indeed Liam.’

‘But there must be someone over there you could trust.
Has to be.’

‘Not a one old boy.
We were hopeful last year.
The Justice Department actually made NORAID admit a connection with the P.I.R.A., but it looks like it’s all going to end in compromise and that nothing will really change.
In fact there are those in higher power who actually view the United States
as both an unfriendly and enemy country.
Some have even gone so far as to call it a rogue state.’

‘Jesus, America an enemy.
That’s a new one!’ Liam had exclaimed.

‘They have been openly supporting terrorist organisations, including the P.I.R.A., for years with arms, training and finance.
It’s no secret.
And, as far as we are concerned, they will continue to do so.
No stopping them you see old bean.
Well, nothing the British government could do anyhow.
To them the P.I.R.A. are freedom fighters, and who’s to say they’re wrong?
I have a certain sympathy with the Irish position myself, you know, though I guess that might surprise you.’