Part 5 of the unknown man series
Battery For My Bones
A short story by Hayden Gribble
‘What the…what the bloody hell are you doing in here?’
Jill Adams starred in disbelief at the wounded stranger who lay bleeding on the floor of her shack. She had only entered the little wooden hut to begin a long overdue clear out of its contents and what better day, she thought, than a Sunday when the sun glistens through the blue sky. It was the kind of weather that was needed after her recent bereavement and it helped her muster the strength of will to finally dispose of the things her dearly departed had used for so many years. She had been plagued with a silly fear of rats since she was a little girl, betraying her usual stiff upper lip manner that she had adopted from her father when she was young. Jill had dreaded coming across them in the lonely hut and prepared to meet her fear head on. What she hadn’t prepared for, was a different sort of lodger all together.
The stranger could barely keep his eyes open. The spade, which he had clasped in his good arm, fell to the ground when his strength gave way. It clanged on the ground making Jill jump.
‘Please’, he gasped. ‘Help me’.
She surveyed his frame. There was a nasty gash in his left leg. His arm looked like it had been set upon by a big animal and his face was covered in sweat and crimson dots. Before Jill could reply the stranger had fainted. Her eyes wide with shock, she leant down and immediately went about making her wounded patient comfortable. Even if this man was a violent person, or a criminal, he was in one fit state to pose Jill any harm. Spotting a bag of compost, she dragged it across the floor and used it as a pillow for the stranger. Improvising, she then used the torn part of the man’s jacket sleeve as a bandage on his gashed leg. Then the dreaded part came. Taking a deep breath, she pulled back the tatters of cloth that had been the man’s jacket arm and gazed at the damaged arm. Jill recoiled, choking back the feeling of nausea that had suddenly overcome her. She gagged, but then pulled herself together and tightened the wound with the clothing and held it up in the air.
At this moment, the man stirred back into consciousness, possibly because the pain was so intense in this part of his body. With his good arm, he grabbed her and pulled her forward.
‘Don..don’t let them..find me’
She squealed, then as the man fell back into a deep sleep, she sighed deeply. Was he on the run, she thought? She couldn’t just leave him there, even if he was possibly dragging her into danger with him. No, he’d have to come back with him. Gathering her senses, and her strength, she decided to pull the man up by his least damaged side of his body. Good god he was heavy, she thought!
‘Look, if you want my help sonny you’ll have to be a bit more co-operative, come on, my landie is outside’.
With a struggle, Jill dragged the wounded party to her Land Rover, which was only a matter of feet away. Propping him up against the vehicle, she made sure the padlock was firmly in place on the shack door so it didn’t arouse suspicion. Luckily, no blood was spilt on the door, but she still wiped her smeared hands on her coat and went back to her patient, picking him up again. Looking about her, and buckling under the stranger’s weight, she couldn’t see anybody else in the field. All of a sudden, she heard distant cries from within the woods, about half a mile away. These must have been the people this person was hiding from. She redoubled her efforts, opened the back door to her vehicle and carefully slumped the stranger in the back. Tucking his legs in, she closed the metal door behind him and ran to the driver’s door. Diving in and now feeling the pressure of a possible encounter with the monsters that had done this to that poor man, she pleaded with the engine to start. It gave nothing. Old Land Rovers occasionally did this, yet when it finally coughed into life, the din could be heard for miles around. It was so loud, the unknown man stirred again in the back.
‘Drive!’ he curdled, just as the tyres screeched and the old vehicle sped down the dirt track and away from the shack.
The unknown man awoke from a feverish dream lying in a bed. He was startled by his surroundings. He lied in a single bed, in what looked like a bedroom in a cottage. The wooden beams were a dead giveaway to the rooms age, 17th century, he thought. The football paraphernalia that adorned the walls though meant that the room must belong to a youngster. Bolt upright, the unknown man finished surveying his location and looked at his injuries. His leg felt much better, whatever had caused the gash must have only caused a slight flesh wound. It was bound and the pain he had felt in the forest had melted into an ache. His ribs were sore, and when he inhaled sharply a pain shot through his chest. He fell back onto the soft, welcoming pillows. Wincing for a while, he regained his senses and dared to look at his arm. It was fixed in a crude sling that was tied behind his neck. With his healthy arm, he probed the contents of the sling. He hissed through his pain as his fingers felt the damaged tissue. He was interrupted by the bedroom door opening, which made him jump in his crumpled sheets.
‘Sorry to startle you’ said Jill, who was carrying a tray with her. ‘Here, I made you a drink in case you were awake this time. Your last one looks stone cold and barely touched. You must have been shattered with all those injuries’.
The unknown man watched her as she replenished the cup on the side mantle.
‘Thank you Miss err?’
‘MRS Adams’, she corrected him. ‘That’s okay; well I couldn’t just leave you there all beaten and bruised. I had wanted to call for an ambulance but in your feverish state you told me not to, oh careful with the tea the bed has just been changed. Sit up straight’.
The unknown man was in no mood to be bossed about but since this lady had taken him in and tended to his wounds he was just grateful to be safe.
‘Now your awake, can I ask you some questions?’
‘I thought you’d say that’
Jill found this retort a little rude.
‘Well what do you expect? I take a stranger in who I find trespassing in my shed who looks like he’s had a battering from Ali, tend to him, clothe him and let him stay in my house’.
‘Okay, I’m sorry, of course you can ask me’.
‘Thank you. Who are you and what were you doing in the woods?’
‘I was out walking in the fields when a stray pit bull attacked me. I tried to get away and I eventually did when I found your shack’.
‘Interesting’ she pondered, pulling his gun out of her jacket. ‘Then why did you have this on you then eh?’
‘Found it’, he replied.
‘And you say those injuries were given to you by a rabid dog? Sorry I don’t believe you. I’m a mother of two sons so don’t think that I can’t detect when a young man is lying to me’.
‘You’re a clever woman’ said the unknown man.
‘And you are in my house’ Jill said. ‘So whatever trouble you are in, don’t bring it to my door. I’m not well equipped to fight off an army of thugs’.
‘Look, I am incredibly grateful. I won’t give you any trouble and neither will anybody else’. He began to make an effort to get out of bed.
‘I can’t let you go in this state, and if you are refusing hospital treatment then I really don’t know what to do’.
‘I don’t want to be any trouble. I’m sure I will be able to make it back to my…car’.
The unknown man paused for a moment, remembering the state of his beloved Porsche and the Big Chief’s spies who had run him off the road and attacked him. And what of his superior? Had he been in on the act? He had lured him out here to the supposed safety of the countryside while the firm investigated the Big Chief’s empire, but it all could have been a trap, to get him away, to kill him and dispose of his being and let the kingpin take over his employers too. One thing was inevitable. The company was rife with bugs. His mind began to race through the evidence for and against his superior’s betrayal when Jill interrupted.
‘Your not from around here are you?’
‘Err no, I came out here for a short holiday, to get away from my busy life back in the city’
‘I see, do you have anywhere to stay?’
‘Not necessarily, my boss had planned for me to stay at a local pub, but I forget the name’
‘Well it can’t be The Crown, that place went ages ago. You see there’s no money out in the country anymore. That’s what Henry used t…I mean that’s what he says. No, your boss must have meant the Red Lion. But in your state it looks like you’ll just have to stay here for a while, stay where you are and I’ll just have to take you on face value’.
‘Your very kind, I’ll give you some money for your troubles’.
‘That’s alright, now what do I call you?’
The unknown man hesitated. Time to be creative.
‘Call me David’
‘Nice to meet you David. My name is Jill’ she smiled.
‘Do your children still live here? I can’t think they will be best pleased that a stranger is lying in one of their beds’
‘Oh no, they moved out years ago. One is an estate agent in Bournemouth. The other, my youngest whose room you are in is a Journalist. All of these old posters are from his favourite team, Tottenham Hotspur. Do you like football?
‘Yes, they are my team too, Haven’t been to the Lane for years now though’ The unknown man began to look back through rose tinted glasses at his days on the terraces, watching the lilywhites on that field of dreams’.
‘He and his father used to go when he was little’ Jill started taking the clothes off the radiator that was situated under the window.
‘Is your husband at home today?’
Jill turned her back to ‘David’ and looked longingly out of the window.
‘He is…away, farmer’s fair. Won’t be back for a couple of days. He wanted me to clear out the shed in his absence. Looks like I’ll have to do it another day now. Anyway you just lie there and get better, I’ll make you some food if you want, you must be starving, lying there for two days.’
‘Two days! Is that how long I have been out?’
Jill nodded. ‘I didn’t want to wake you; you were in a terrible state. I had wanted to get a doctor in to look at that dog bite but after cleaning it up I don’t think that it was so bad. A few stitches sufficed with the gash and your arm. It’s a good thing you happened to break in to the shed of a nurse!’
‘Yes, about time I had some luck’ said the unknown man. He put his cup of tea down and breathed deeply. His ribs had softened in the pain he was experiencing. He pondered on the events that had lead to his current situation. One man had driven off his superior while the other three left in the white van and attacked him. Was his superior kidnapped too? If that were the case, then the common enemy would have completed his jigsaw with the final piece. That, and his current fitness, was all he could think about. Then a question popped up in his head.
‘So your husbands been away for four days and left you to clear out an old shed?’
Jill sighed. ‘Yes…pity, you could have had somebody else to talk to besides a middle aged woman, you and him could have reminisced about football for hours on end’
The unknown man looked at her. She was a widow. Jill was obviously not over the recent death of her beloved husband and his appearance had interrupted her bereavement. He had interrupted her attempts to clear out his old shed and she still changes her son’s beds because it harks back to her old routine. Poor woman. She seemed nice and probably could do with some company for a while. He decided to rest there for a bit like she said, with all the information still configuring in his head, he could not be sure that the offer back to the pub would have been as much of a trap as the meeting at the recycling plant. He detested some part of his job. The ambiguity, the blood on his hands and the mystery of the night, which played out as a backdrop to his killer instincts. He could never trust anyone. That’s why he had never revealed his name to anybody in his business. It was one of the few precious things he had left and he didn’t want it spoiled by the bloodshed he is responsible for. If only Jill knew what he did for a living she would reach for the phone and dial 999 quicker than he could move.
‘So, what line of work are you in?’ Jill said.
‘Oh, it’s not that interesting really’.
‘Go on’
‘I’m an estate agent. I work for a private firm called Southgate’s and I’ve worked there for twelve years’.
‘So you didn’t go to university then?’ Jill enquired.
‘What makes you say that?
‘Well judging by your age, did you go straight from school?’
‘I’m not as young as I look’ the unknown man cracked a smile, the first he had mustered in a very long time. ‘But I’m flattered by the remark’
‘That’s alright’ Jill replied, playing with the pile of clothes she had taken off the radiator. ‘Anyway I’d best get on with this lot, let me know if there was anything you wanted’
‘Would it be okay if I could use your phone? I’d better let the office know what has happened’
‘Of course, hold on I’ll go and get it, just relax, you’ll be up on your feet in no time’ Jill smiled. And then left the room.
‘Your very kind’ the unknown man felt humbled, but knew that he had to speak to his superior. He decided to let him know he was alive, but not his location. Just in case he was part of the trap.
Jill returned with the phone, which she placed on the bedside table. She picked up the empty cup that the unknown man had finished with and replaced it with the phone. The unknown man smiled at Jill as she left the room and lifted the receiver up to his ear, dialing his firm’s number as his temporary landlady closed the bedroom door behind her. She paused outside, then decided no to listen in on the conversation. The unknown man heard her footsteps ebb away from the door and then began speaking.
‘It’s me…get him’ he whispered, his voice returning to it’s more serious tone, which had slipped when in the presence of Jill.
He waited patiently for half a minute and heard the mumble of his superior as he neared the other receiver.
‘What the hell happened to you?’ he barked.
‘I had a little trouble with the friends you brought along to our meeting’
‘They didn’t report back either, what on earth happened? I waited at the pub for three hours before we sent a search party out. After we found your car we thought you had been done for. By the way I don’t think it will pass it’s next MOT’ he joked.
‘NO sir’ the unknown man was in no mood for humour. ‘I was attacked. The three men in the white van. They are working for the Big Chief. This is important sir, there are bugs inside our system’.
‘Good lord’, replied his superior ‘We’d best get the pest control in, where are you now?’
‘I’m safe, I don’t know my location but they got to me. I’m a bit bruised but I should be okay in a few days’.
‘That is just the news I wanted to hear’ the old man’s voice twinkled with this turn of optimism. ‘Our men have been looking into the situation with the Big Chief. You were right. A member of Sir Michael Houghton’s staff is a spy in the employee of the Big Chief’.
‘Michelle! I knew it’ the unknown man’s memories rewound to his encounter with the femme fatale. It must be her. She knew too much at the time.
‘We’re tracking her as we speak. You just get better and report back here when you’re fully recovered. Don’t worry. We’re on the case. We don’t anticipate the pieces moving on the board to much until you’re return’ the old man’s authority shone through the receiver and the unknown man sat bolted upright as if he were right in front of him.
‘Do we have a name sir, is it definitely Michelle?’
‘We do. Black Diamond. I may not be her, but she is the only lead we have until then. We’ll start clearing the office out of bugs and hopefully by the time we see you next they will be gone and we’ll have some more information, remember, the name we have got is Black Diamond. A codename for sure. We have to accept all possibilities that this person could turn out to be Sir Michael himself so recharge yourself and get some rest, relax and get back here as soon as you can run without breaking into a sweat’
‘I will sir, a battery for my bones is what is needed, thank you, we’ll have our pub lunch some other day’
‘I’ll hold you to it, okay son, take it easy. Call us before you arrive’
The line went dead. The unknown man’s trust for his superior was regained within the short but direct phone call. The firm had actively gone on his information and a corner piece of the Big Chief’s puzzle had been found out. The Big Chief had made his first big mistake. He was still alive and they were edging closer to the big man himself. The unknown man slumped back into his sheets and thought quietly to himself. The game was back on.
Monday 12 March 2012
Saturday 10 March 2012
Fate Deal
Here is part four of the unknown man series
Fate Deal
A short story by Hayden Gribble
The scrape of dry branches swished across the unknown man’s body as he hurtled through the wood. Sweat dripping down his face, and the sunshine piercing the trees above him, he could feel the hot stinging pain throb in his rib cage and the blood seep through the open wound in his left leg. He was limping, but even with an injury he was still fast enough to keep his hunters at bay. With a flashing glance he could make out the outlines of three bodies pursuing him, undeterred by the trouble the unknown man had caused them in the past hour and spurred on by the fight he had put up. It wasn’t the men who were the main problem he thought. He could get away from them. Oh sure, the injuries he had sustained were enough to stop any normal man, but the unknown man was not a normal person. He had taught himself to manipulate pain and turn it into a positive, something which he could block out and harness as a target to fix as soon as he was out of his predicament. The real problem for him was the dogs that they had released off their leashes that were gaining on him.
Over the sounds of his own breath becoming heavier he could hear the snarling jaws of the hounds drawing nearer. His own pace had dropped a little and the uneven ground in the wood made for even more agony on his wounded leg. The unknown man gritted his teeth as the concentration on harnessing his uncomfortable state began to slip under the stress of this new distraction. On he went, his sprint becoming a limp and the red-hot touch of pain drawing him ever nearer to a full stop. The woods were beginning to thin out as he dragged his battling body through the last few feet of trees. The barking was closer than it had been before and the unknown mans resilience had finally given away. After nearly two miles, the chase was over.
As he fell to the floor, crying out in agony, the unknown man resisted caressing his wounds. Doing that would only make the pain worse and force him to give in. Instead, he looked up, desperately looking for something that would help him out of his situation. His vision hazy, he scanned his surroundings yet never forgot the sound of the dogs that were approaching him. There was a little shack, which was about half a mile to his right and it was just hidden away from the clearing. Thank god, he thought. He knew that if he could just shoulder the agony for a little while longer he could reach it. But first, he had to deal with his latest friends.
He turned onto his back, facing the wolf-like dogs that were nearly on top of him. They were less than ten seconds away. He checked that he still had his gun in his tattered jacket pocket. Seven seconds. He snapped the gun back and saw that he only had one bullet remaining. Four seconds. He looked up. Two dogs, drooling and barking at their fallen meal. One might be enough, thought the unknown man. The canine duo sprang up through the air and descended on their bleeding prey.
BANG!
The first hound fell to the ground, yelping and stricken by the bullet, which had penetrated its body. The other pounced on the unknown man and sunk its slobbery teeth into his arm. Screaming in agony, the unknown man leapt to his feet and the dogs weight began to pull down on where it had bitten him. There it dangled, gnawing at his limb as he desperately tried to shake it off. Its teeth puncturing his skin and muscle, the hound snarled at its victim, starring into his tortured eyes. The agony was blinding him. Then, as if from nowhere, all of the strength left in his battered, bleeding body mustered the dog in the air and with a mighty swoop, the unknown man swatted the mutt through the air and into a nearby tree, knocking it unconscious. His teeth had ripped a mighty chunk out of his flesh and they drag as the hound vacated the limb. The unknown man staggered out into the clearing, holding his bleeding frame up as best as he could. He looked back, the dog he had shot was only wounded and still alive and the other lay prostate on the leaf strewn dirt.
Crimson droplets began to seep quicker out of his leg and arm but still, he carried on, pushing his tortured body ever closer to the shack. The men who were pursuing him had obviously stopped for breath; thinking that they’re dogs would have him. Stupid fools, thought the unknown man, although he knew they would catch up sooner or later. He’d have to rest and with no cars in sight in the rural location, the shack was the only option. He stumbled to the ground again just a few metres away from his destination. Forgoing the temptation to inspect his injuries, he crawled, with all the effort of a man up a cliff face to the little forgotten shack. A voice in his head questioned if the door was locked or not. He couldn’t shoot his way in with no more ammunition! Luckily, the lock on the latch was hanging off, so the unknown man was able, with all his strength, to haul his broken self into safety.
Shutting the door with his injury free right leg, he whimpered as he lay on the muddy floor. After closing his eyes and regaining his breath for a few moments, he glanced down at his arm. Removing the tatters of what had been the arm to his jacket he starred in horror at the bloody mess that his right arm was now in. He screamed at the sight, betraying his manly mannerisms. Regaining his senses, he then covered it up, stopping the flow of blood with what remained of his jacket. With his good arm, he pulled his left leg up and inspected the blood soaked material of his trouser. His ribs ached as he twisted his body but after the grizzly inspection, he came to the conclusion that the worst part of his injuries was the dog bite.
‘Bastards!’ he cursed loudly. ‘They will pay for this!’
Lying back, and allowing himself a few minutes of relaxation, the unknown man began to retrace the last couple of hours. How could he of let this happen? How on earth was he caught out so badly? He had been played for a fool for such a long time and the deal he had made with his superior back then was haunting him now. Closing his eyes and giving in to the bliss of unconsciousness, these events and the mystery of the Big Chief played out in his head and he remembered his fateful meeting just two hours ago…
The sky beamed down a beautiful blue on the unknown man as he sped his Porsche convertible along the country roads. The cool spring wind flowed through the car as it twisted it way through the rural landscape. Fields where the yellowish crops were budding in their soft beds enveloped the unknown man, who was unstirred by the natural beauty he was travelling through surrounded the little silver car. He was finally going to get the answers he had been looking for.
It had been the longest week of his life. After his humiliating meet with Michelle Alison Simmons, which had only bruised his ego and determination, the unknown man had been left embarrassed at the uncertainty of his part in the bigger picture. He knew in his head that his superior had assigned him to kill the Boss and wipe out the leaders of GEMINI in what he thought was a routine job. In his cold heart, he knew that there was a massive possibility that his superior was acting under the Big Chief, who apparently is the master of the puppets in this once noble, clean country.
The Big Chief stalked the unknown man’s thoughts throughout his every waking moment. He hated the scum that tore out the heart of the country he lived in and even in his dishonest line of work; he liked to think he made a contribution to the destruction of hard crime. Christ, maybe I should have become a policeman! He thought to himself. He smiled and shook his head. Of course not, he was far too honest for that job.
After another twenty minutes on the same road, the car turned to its right and the sight of the rendezvous spot came into the unknown man’s peripheral vision. ‘Jesus, he sure knows how to pick them!’ he muttered to himself, gazing through his reflective sunglasses onto the open gates, which led to a disused recycling plant. It looked like the owners had vacated not so long ago and the scene was a bleak one compared to what the unknown man had driven through. Still, his mind was on the meeting with his superior, and what he was going to say. He wasn’t going to hold back. Before he pulled up in the car park, he checked his insurance, a fully loaded handgun in the top of his jacket pocket. He didn’t want to use it, but if he had to, then he’d need it where it was easily obtainable.
He looked around the car park. A white van was parked adjacent to where he was and two sleek looking Mercedes were parked opposite. The car of crooks thought the unknown man as he left his vehicle and proceeded to the spot where the meeting was to take place. Behind the plant, next to the heaps of rubbish. Suspicious was not the word that was buzzing in his mind. Set-up was. Still, he had to be stout and pretend that he knew less than he did. His superior wasn’t going to get the better of him if he was under the control of the Big Chief.
The unknown man looked around him and took in the mounds of disregarded rubbish. He thought it odd that nobody was working on site. The sound of approaching feet marching towards him disrupted his thoughts. As he turned around, four men dressed in smart dinner jackets and trousers and an elderly man, with grey hair and a friendly face greeted him.
‘There you are’, said the old man, who out stretched a hand for the unknown man to shake. He examined it thoroughly and then shook it with a strong grip. He looked into the old mans hazel eyes. He was about sixty; well built yet not over weight and his face was deeply lined. The unknown man’s superior looked admiringly at his protégé.
‘How was the trip? He said, relinquishing their handshake.
‘Fine, nice to get out of the city once in a while’, replied the unknown man, who looked around him again ‘But you could of chosen a setting which was easier on the eye’.
‘Come now, we’re not in the property market now are we? Besides, it’s a Sunday, nobody works here today, it’s a good thing I’m not one for praying otherwise I’d have some explaining to do with the man upstairs for missing communion.’
The superior went for his pocket and produced a pack of cigarettes; he lit one before offering it to the unknown man, who declined with a shake of the head.
‘Right’ said the superior between puffs, ‘Now what is this about?’
‘Sir, since that job on the Boss in February I have made some enquiries into this so called Big Chief that everyone seems to be scared of’.
The Superior raised an eyebrow ‘Oh, have you now?’ His soft face-hardened a little, as if a sheet of metal had filmed over his features.
‘Yes Sir’, continued the unknown man. ‘At first I thought that the job on the Boss was just a routine one, something you wanted me to handle. The man was filth and we got him off the streets but then sometime after I found out about his involvement with GEMINI’.
‘Yes I know’ said the superior ‘Shame you didn’t take any prisoners son, we could have done with more information’.
This surprised the unknown man. Wasn’t his job to make sure that GEMINI ceased to be, whatever the cost?
‘Anyway, through one of GEMINI’s agents I met a girl called Michelle Simmons, she’s a personal assistant to Sir Michael Houghton and we all know who he is in charge of’.
‘The police, what’s that got to do with it?’
‘Sir, she led me to believe that the Big Chief doesn’t just control the city. He controls the whole country! He has got every dirty finger in every dirty pie and controls everything.’
‘And you listened to her?’
‘It was all beginning to add up. The criminal figureheads were going unpunished for years until they fell foul of the big man himself, when they were easily punished and eventually killed after they were made to suffer. But it isn’t just the criminals, sir can’t you see that we are all being used? We have been assassinating these gang lords and doing the Big Chief’s dirty work!’
‘Rubbish’ replied the Superior. ‘The reason that I told you to dispose of the Boss was because of the danger their alliance would have brought to the city. It is not our area to probe into other shenanigans. I assign you your work in accordance with the threat and not because we are controlled by a mightier power. Christ, I’ve been apart of this firm for forty years man and boy! Do you not think that I would have sensed something amiss, even back then, and stop it?’
The old man sighed and regained his composure. His young counterpart had to be reassured.
‘You are my best man. I can rely on you. That is why you carry out the jobs that must not be interfered with. Do you remember when you joined us?’
The unknown man was reminded of different days. Everything seemed to be brighter in his minds eye back then before the splash of blood and pain had closed his heart to everything that he had been hurt by.
‘You were so young, naïve too, but a talent none the less’, continued the old man. ‘I knew that given the right training and guidance you would become my most prized asset and maybe my most trusted employee. We made a deal which ultimately decided your destiny. It was a fate deal that has developed you into one of us. Something, which has set you above those who you kill, we changed you and for that, you became stronger, less vulnerable. Of course the sacrifices you made must not have been easy to get here, but nonetheless, you are the jewel in our crown’.
He looked at the unknown man, who felt as if someone had unlocked a door to the past. He remembered those he left behind, who he could not bare to see in danger. Then he remembered her and his cold heart sank.
‘You are my number one, so trust me when I say this. We are out in the open, alone. There is no higher power, no sugar daddy financing us. Our firm is exclusive and safe from the Big Chief and his web’.
‘You speak as though we aren’t looking for a fight with this person, what’s protecting us?’
‘Our history’, replied the unknown man’s superior. ‘If the Big Chief tries to take us down then we’ll take him down with us. Because we have got the best of the best and he knows that’.
‘And who is that?’ enquired the unknown man.
‘You’ smiled his superior. ‘Now, lets stop this suspicion and go grab some food. I know a lovely little cottage which has been converted into a pub and my appetite craves a roast dinner’, he put his hand on his protégé’s shoulder and lead him back towards the car park.
The unknown man had been suspicious of the four men who had observed they’re conversation back on the rubbish heap. He had noticed that while his superior was talking about the Big Chief, one of the men had twitched slightly. Maybe it was his suspicion but still, something was not right.
‘I must ask, what’s with all the extra protection?’ he asked.
‘Never mind’
‘Sir, has the Big Chief threatened you?’
‘No, not at all, to be honest they are not here for me’.
The unknown man gulped, ‘Oh?’
‘Well, you have taken apart the info structure of the Big Chief’s plans. I can’t have my best man wasted in a revenge attack now can I, no no, I was going to leave it for the car journey but I suppose I’d better tell you now. The Big Chief has ordered a bounty on your head. After your recent adventures it seems he wants you dead more than the rest of his enemies. We think it is because in the grander scheme of things, GEMINI’s deal with the Boss was part of a bigger picture, one we are still trying to piece together’.
‘I can understand the gesture but I do not need protection’.
‘Nonsense. It’s only a precautionary measure. Why do you think I had to get you out of the city and out here? The Big Chief won’t try to find you out here. The pub I am taking you too. After our meal I want you to stay there for a few days. Let us deal with what the Big Chief has got planned. Let the heat die down a bit’.
The unknown man resented this gesture. He didn’t like to be wrapped up in cotton wool. This didn’t feel like a welcome break to him. It felt like a punishment. Quietly, and out of the respect of his superior, he accepted it. Now it was time for the burning question.
‘So, do we know who the Big Chief is?
‘Unfortunately not. There have been many possibilities over the years but none have been exposed as the genuine article. Look, don’t worry. Leave everything up to us’.
One of the heavies approached the two men. ‘If you would like to step this way sir, we shall take you on ahead’, he looked at the unknown man. ‘Maybe you could follow us to the pub?’
‘Of course’, said the unknown man. ‘I’ll see you in a bit, how far away is this place?’
‘Not long, about ten minutes’, said the heavy. ‘We shall see you there’.
As the two agents shook hands and walked to they’re respective cars, deep down the unknown man was extremely cautious of his superior’s guards. He opened the driver’s door to his Porsche and looked in the wing mirror at the car that his boss was departing in. At the same time, three of the men approached the white van and clambered inside.
‘This isn’t right’, said the unknown man to himself.
He glanced back in his wing mirror just in time to witness his superior enter his car and drive off past him, prompting the unknown man to start the Porsche up and proceed out of the gates after them.
The white van started up and followed suit. The men in the car grinned with glee. They had him.
After five minutes the windy roads died down into straight narrow lanes. The unknown man, who was doing forty in his convertible, heard the roar of a diesel engine behind him. It was the white van. He watched as they gained speed on his rather impressive motor. His eyes diverted back to the road in front of him when he felt a hard thump from behind. The car jolted and he turned his head. The van was trying to ram him. He shouted at the driver and sped his car up again, now only a few feet from the rear of his superiors car. The Porsche jolted again, this time the shatter of glass on his taillight followed the thud. He knew it. Spies. A couple more thuds later and the Porsche was in danger of colliding with the Mercedes in front. Had his superior noticed what was going on? Apparently not. The unknown man wrestled with his steering wheel to regain some control. The narrow roads and constricting space was causing him all sorts of problems. He had to lure the spies away from his boss. After several more shunts from the white van, the Porsche swung off the straight road and into another windy lane. The white van, ignoring the superior’s Mercedes, gave chase and accelerated hard to catch the sports car.
As the unknown man sped down the country back roads he hoped that there were no other cars on the road. Casualties were the last thing he wanted, apart from those who were chasing him. Spies working for the Big Chief himself, he thought. This wasn’t the first time that people had wanted him dead, but he was going to make sure that it was the last.
As the clash of metal on metal grinded through the countryside, inside the white van, the heavies had they’re prey just where they wanted him. They had waited for a long time to dispose of the unknown man, months of working inside the firm, watching his every move from within the system. The moles had infiltrated the so-called impregnable palace, the last company that wasn’t under their master’s control. It had taken them years to get there, but now the firm would be at they’re mercy. Now they were so close to overcoming the final hurdle.
The white van continued to crash it’s way along the narrow road and into the now battered sports car. As the unknown man continued to wrestle with his vehicle he just survived a passing car, which honked in anger at the warring motors. As the roads became windier still, one final clunk from the white van proved fatal to the Porsche. In a blur of silver, the convertible took off, the control relinquished and the unknown man braced himself for impact. The next few seconds were painful and went by faster than the speed of light. The white van decreased speed to watch the Porsche flip into a trench at the side of the road and bed itself upside down on a field.
Driving by the crash sight, they pulled up in a lay-by ten metres further ahead. Two of the men got out of the vehicle, while the other was more preoccupied by something in the back behind the grating between the boot and the cockpit. The heavies smiled sinisterly as their eyes gazed at the carnage in front of them. The crippled Porsche was smoking, broken beyond repair. What of the man inside?
The unknown man lay dazed on the earth, his seatbelt broken in the impact. His body obscured by the overturned car, he assessed his injuries. His ribs ached, possibly broken from impact with the steering wheel as the car flipped. What hurt more was a gash in his left leg, the cause too hard to tell in the darkness. Although uncomfortable, the unknown man was lucky to have survived with the injuries he had obtained. Now came the hard bit. He could hear the sound of footsteps approaching his destroyed car. Time to play dead
The heavies readied they’re guns and then they pulled they’re prisoner out of the wreck by his jacket. The victim was unconscious, but he was still alive. Time to finish him off once and for all. As the men cocked they’re guns, they leveled them at his head.
‘Take this you son of a bit..’
The heavy didn’t finish his statement, and found he falling back onto the ground. With a precision swing of his good leg, the unknown man had connected with the goon’s torso and knocked the wind out of his sails. With his eyes now open, he kicked the gun out of the other man’s hand before he had a chance to fire. Leaping to his feet, and then shrieking at the pain in his chest, the unknown man grabbed the second man and forced his head down onto the under carriage of his car wreck. The heavy screamed in pain and fell to the floor, blood beginning to pour from his nose. The first heavy had leapt to his feet and shot at the unknown man, who felt the bullet whistle past his arm and into the Porsche. He withdrew his own gun and fired. Missed. His eyes were blurry from the shock of the crash and it became even worse when the first heavy threw him into the twisted metal. One blow to the face and then another to his ribcage made the unknown man’s body flood with the hot gush of pain. He recoiled but using the car to steady himself he swung at his enemy and caught him a glancing blow on the jaw. As the heavy fell to the floor, the unknown man went to pick his gun up and finish them off. However, since the spies were also working for the same firm they had been issued with the same gun and he had picked up one of the heavies firearms. Not knowing this he readied to fire on his main tormentor, the first heavy who had been at the wheel of the white van. But before he did the second thug, bellowing instructions to the van, interrupted him.
‘Get the dogs!’
Face flushing to white, the unknown man’s pupils dilated. Even with a fully loaded gun, he did not know how many dogs there were. All of a sudden his predicament grew instantly more challenging. He looked at the two men on the floor, slowly regaining they’re strength. He looked on at the white van, which a third man had jumped out of, who was opening the doors at the rear to the sound of panting and snarling. He had to run for it. It was his only chance. Testing his bad leg, he stuttered into a limp and gradually paced into a fast sprint towards woodland deep in the field. The two stricken heavies were by now back on they’re feet and joined by their colleague and the two hounds, straining at their leashes to strip flesh set off after him. Whatever happened next, they couldn’t fail. Otherwise, they’re lives wouldn’t be worth living. The wounded party recommenced they’re hunt as up ahead, he unknown man, concentrating on not surrendering to the pain of his injuries entered the wood.
And now here he was, not long after, lying semi conscious on the floor of a shack. A once powerful, almost indestructible mysterious entity, bleeding and broken on the muddy floor. Eyes closed, the replaying of his recent memories ceased when he was disturbed by the sound of somebody trying to get into the shack. Had they found him already? If they had, this was truly the end. He was in no shape to continue the battle. He hated to admit it to himself but this looked like the end. Still mentally shaken by his ordeal, the unknown man gazed up at the shadowed figure through the small glass window in the door. Now almost too weak to move, he reached for a nearby spade and in a futile attempt to raise it above his head groaned in agony. At that moment, the figure, as the sunlight irradiated around their silhouette, forced the stiff door open and gazed down on the bloody stranger on the floor.
Fate Deal
A short story by Hayden Gribble
The scrape of dry branches swished across the unknown man’s body as he hurtled through the wood. Sweat dripping down his face, and the sunshine piercing the trees above him, he could feel the hot stinging pain throb in his rib cage and the blood seep through the open wound in his left leg. He was limping, but even with an injury he was still fast enough to keep his hunters at bay. With a flashing glance he could make out the outlines of three bodies pursuing him, undeterred by the trouble the unknown man had caused them in the past hour and spurred on by the fight he had put up. It wasn’t the men who were the main problem he thought. He could get away from them. Oh sure, the injuries he had sustained were enough to stop any normal man, but the unknown man was not a normal person. He had taught himself to manipulate pain and turn it into a positive, something which he could block out and harness as a target to fix as soon as he was out of his predicament. The real problem for him was the dogs that they had released off their leashes that were gaining on him.
Over the sounds of his own breath becoming heavier he could hear the snarling jaws of the hounds drawing nearer. His own pace had dropped a little and the uneven ground in the wood made for even more agony on his wounded leg. The unknown man gritted his teeth as the concentration on harnessing his uncomfortable state began to slip under the stress of this new distraction. On he went, his sprint becoming a limp and the red-hot touch of pain drawing him ever nearer to a full stop. The woods were beginning to thin out as he dragged his battling body through the last few feet of trees. The barking was closer than it had been before and the unknown mans resilience had finally given away. After nearly two miles, the chase was over.
As he fell to the floor, crying out in agony, the unknown man resisted caressing his wounds. Doing that would only make the pain worse and force him to give in. Instead, he looked up, desperately looking for something that would help him out of his situation. His vision hazy, he scanned his surroundings yet never forgot the sound of the dogs that were approaching him. There was a little shack, which was about half a mile to his right and it was just hidden away from the clearing. Thank god, he thought. He knew that if he could just shoulder the agony for a little while longer he could reach it. But first, he had to deal with his latest friends.
He turned onto his back, facing the wolf-like dogs that were nearly on top of him. They were less than ten seconds away. He checked that he still had his gun in his tattered jacket pocket. Seven seconds. He snapped the gun back and saw that he only had one bullet remaining. Four seconds. He looked up. Two dogs, drooling and barking at their fallen meal. One might be enough, thought the unknown man. The canine duo sprang up through the air and descended on their bleeding prey.
BANG!
The first hound fell to the ground, yelping and stricken by the bullet, which had penetrated its body. The other pounced on the unknown man and sunk its slobbery teeth into his arm. Screaming in agony, the unknown man leapt to his feet and the dogs weight began to pull down on where it had bitten him. There it dangled, gnawing at his limb as he desperately tried to shake it off. Its teeth puncturing his skin and muscle, the hound snarled at its victim, starring into his tortured eyes. The agony was blinding him. Then, as if from nowhere, all of the strength left in his battered, bleeding body mustered the dog in the air and with a mighty swoop, the unknown man swatted the mutt through the air and into a nearby tree, knocking it unconscious. His teeth had ripped a mighty chunk out of his flesh and they drag as the hound vacated the limb. The unknown man staggered out into the clearing, holding his bleeding frame up as best as he could. He looked back, the dog he had shot was only wounded and still alive and the other lay prostate on the leaf strewn dirt.
Crimson droplets began to seep quicker out of his leg and arm but still, he carried on, pushing his tortured body ever closer to the shack. The men who were pursuing him had obviously stopped for breath; thinking that they’re dogs would have him. Stupid fools, thought the unknown man, although he knew they would catch up sooner or later. He’d have to rest and with no cars in sight in the rural location, the shack was the only option. He stumbled to the ground again just a few metres away from his destination. Forgoing the temptation to inspect his injuries, he crawled, with all the effort of a man up a cliff face to the little forgotten shack. A voice in his head questioned if the door was locked or not. He couldn’t shoot his way in with no more ammunition! Luckily, the lock on the latch was hanging off, so the unknown man was able, with all his strength, to haul his broken self into safety.
Shutting the door with his injury free right leg, he whimpered as he lay on the muddy floor. After closing his eyes and regaining his breath for a few moments, he glanced down at his arm. Removing the tatters of what had been the arm to his jacket he starred in horror at the bloody mess that his right arm was now in. He screamed at the sight, betraying his manly mannerisms. Regaining his senses, he then covered it up, stopping the flow of blood with what remained of his jacket. With his good arm, he pulled his left leg up and inspected the blood soaked material of his trouser. His ribs ached as he twisted his body but after the grizzly inspection, he came to the conclusion that the worst part of his injuries was the dog bite.
‘Bastards!’ he cursed loudly. ‘They will pay for this!’
Lying back, and allowing himself a few minutes of relaxation, the unknown man began to retrace the last couple of hours. How could he of let this happen? How on earth was he caught out so badly? He had been played for a fool for such a long time and the deal he had made with his superior back then was haunting him now. Closing his eyes and giving in to the bliss of unconsciousness, these events and the mystery of the Big Chief played out in his head and he remembered his fateful meeting just two hours ago…
The sky beamed down a beautiful blue on the unknown man as he sped his Porsche convertible along the country roads. The cool spring wind flowed through the car as it twisted it way through the rural landscape. Fields where the yellowish crops were budding in their soft beds enveloped the unknown man, who was unstirred by the natural beauty he was travelling through surrounded the little silver car. He was finally going to get the answers he had been looking for.
It had been the longest week of his life. After his humiliating meet with Michelle Alison Simmons, which had only bruised his ego and determination, the unknown man had been left embarrassed at the uncertainty of his part in the bigger picture. He knew in his head that his superior had assigned him to kill the Boss and wipe out the leaders of GEMINI in what he thought was a routine job. In his cold heart, he knew that there was a massive possibility that his superior was acting under the Big Chief, who apparently is the master of the puppets in this once noble, clean country.
The Big Chief stalked the unknown man’s thoughts throughout his every waking moment. He hated the scum that tore out the heart of the country he lived in and even in his dishonest line of work; he liked to think he made a contribution to the destruction of hard crime. Christ, maybe I should have become a policeman! He thought to himself. He smiled and shook his head. Of course not, he was far too honest for that job.
After another twenty minutes on the same road, the car turned to its right and the sight of the rendezvous spot came into the unknown man’s peripheral vision. ‘Jesus, he sure knows how to pick them!’ he muttered to himself, gazing through his reflective sunglasses onto the open gates, which led to a disused recycling plant. It looked like the owners had vacated not so long ago and the scene was a bleak one compared to what the unknown man had driven through. Still, his mind was on the meeting with his superior, and what he was going to say. He wasn’t going to hold back. Before he pulled up in the car park, he checked his insurance, a fully loaded handgun in the top of his jacket pocket. He didn’t want to use it, but if he had to, then he’d need it where it was easily obtainable.
He looked around the car park. A white van was parked adjacent to where he was and two sleek looking Mercedes were parked opposite. The car of crooks thought the unknown man as he left his vehicle and proceeded to the spot where the meeting was to take place. Behind the plant, next to the heaps of rubbish. Suspicious was not the word that was buzzing in his mind. Set-up was. Still, he had to be stout and pretend that he knew less than he did. His superior wasn’t going to get the better of him if he was under the control of the Big Chief.
The unknown man looked around him and took in the mounds of disregarded rubbish. He thought it odd that nobody was working on site. The sound of approaching feet marching towards him disrupted his thoughts. As he turned around, four men dressed in smart dinner jackets and trousers and an elderly man, with grey hair and a friendly face greeted him.
‘There you are’, said the old man, who out stretched a hand for the unknown man to shake. He examined it thoroughly and then shook it with a strong grip. He looked into the old mans hazel eyes. He was about sixty; well built yet not over weight and his face was deeply lined. The unknown man’s superior looked admiringly at his protégé.
‘How was the trip? He said, relinquishing their handshake.
‘Fine, nice to get out of the city once in a while’, replied the unknown man, who looked around him again ‘But you could of chosen a setting which was easier on the eye’.
‘Come now, we’re not in the property market now are we? Besides, it’s a Sunday, nobody works here today, it’s a good thing I’m not one for praying otherwise I’d have some explaining to do with the man upstairs for missing communion.’
The superior went for his pocket and produced a pack of cigarettes; he lit one before offering it to the unknown man, who declined with a shake of the head.
‘Right’ said the superior between puffs, ‘Now what is this about?’
‘Sir, since that job on the Boss in February I have made some enquiries into this so called Big Chief that everyone seems to be scared of’.
The Superior raised an eyebrow ‘Oh, have you now?’ His soft face-hardened a little, as if a sheet of metal had filmed over his features.
‘Yes Sir’, continued the unknown man. ‘At first I thought that the job on the Boss was just a routine one, something you wanted me to handle. The man was filth and we got him off the streets but then sometime after I found out about his involvement with GEMINI’.
‘Yes I know’ said the superior ‘Shame you didn’t take any prisoners son, we could have done with more information’.
This surprised the unknown man. Wasn’t his job to make sure that GEMINI ceased to be, whatever the cost?
‘Anyway, through one of GEMINI’s agents I met a girl called Michelle Simmons, she’s a personal assistant to Sir Michael Houghton and we all know who he is in charge of’.
‘The police, what’s that got to do with it?’
‘Sir, she led me to believe that the Big Chief doesn’t just control the city. He controls the whole country! He has got every dirty finger in every dirty pie and controls everything.’
‘And you listened to her?’
‘It was all beginning to add up. The criminal figureheads were going unpunished for years until they fell foul of the big man himself, when they were easily punished and eventually killed after they were made to suffer. But it isn’t just the criminals, sir can’t you see that we are all being used? We have been assassinating these gang lords and doing the Big Chief’s dirty work!’
‘Rubbish’ replied the Superior. ‘The reason that I told you to dispose of the Boss was because of the danger their alliance would have brought to the city. It is not our area to probe into other shenanigans. I assign you your work in accordance with the threat and not because we are controlled by a mightier power. Christ, I’ve been apart of this firm for forty years man and boy! Do you not think that I would have sensed something amiss, even back then, and stop it?’
The old man sighed and regained his composure. His young counterpart had to be reassured.
‘You are my best man. I can rely on you. That is why you carry out the jobs that must not be interfered with. Do you remember when you joined us?’
The unknown man was reminded of different days. Everything seemed to be brighter in his minds eye back then before the splash of blood and pain had closed his heart to everything that he had been hurt by.
‘You were so young, naïve too, but a talent none the less’, continued the old man. ‘I knew that given the right training and guidance you would become my most prized asset and maybe my most trusted employee. We made a deal which ultimately decided your destiny. It was a fate deal that has developed you into one of us. Something, which has set you above those who you kill, we changed you and for that, you became stronger, less vulnerable. Of course the sacrifices you made must not have been easy to get here, but nonetheless, you are the jewel in our crown’.
He looked at the unknown man, who felt as if someone had unlocked a door to the past. He remembered those he left behind, who he could not bare to see in danger. Then he remembered her and his cold heart sank.
‘You are my number one, so trust me when I say this. We are out in the open, alone. There is no higher power, no sugar daddy financing us. Our firm is exclusive and safe from the Big Chief and his web’.
‘You speak as though we aren’t looking for a fight with this person, what’s protecting us?’
‘Our history’, replied the unknown man’s superior. ‘If the Big Chief tries to take us down then we’ll take him down with us. Because we have got the best of the best and he knows that’.
‘And who is that?’ enquired the unknown man.
‘You’ smiled his superior. ‘Now, lets stop this suspicion and go grab some food. I know a lovely little cottage which has been converted into a pub and my appetite craves a roast dinner’, he put his hand on his protégé’s shoulder and lead him back towards the car park.
The unknown man had been suspicious of the four men who had observed they’re conversation back on the rubbish heap. He had noticed that while his superior was talking about the Big Chief, one of the men had twitched slightly. Maybe it was his suspicion but still, something was not right.
‘I must ask, what’s with all the extra protection?’ he asked.
‘Never mind’
‘Sir, has the Big Chief threatened you?’
‘No, not at all, to be honest they are not here for me’.
The unknown man gulped, ‘Oh?’
‘Well, you have taken apart the info structure of the Big Chief’s plans. I can’t have my best man wasted in a revenge attack now can I, no no, I was going to leave it for the car journey but I suppose I’d better tell you now. The Big Chief has ordered a bounty on your head. After your recent adventures it seems he wants you dead more than the rest of his enemies. We think it is because in the grander scheme of things, GEMINI’s deal with the Boss was part of a bigger picture, one we are still trying to piece together’.
‘I can understand the gesture but I do not need protection’.
‘Nonsense. It’s only a precautionary measure. Why do you think I had to get you out of the city and out here? The Big Chief won’t try to find you out here. The pub I am taking you too. After our meal I want you to stay there for a few days. Let us deal with what the Big Chief has got planned. Let the heat die down a bit’.
The unknown man resented this gesture. He didn’t like to be wrapped up in cotton wool. This didn’t feel like a welcome break to him. It felt like a punishment. Quietly, and out of the respect of his superior, he accepted it. Now it was time for the burning question.
‘So, do we know who the Big Chief is?
‘Unfortunately not. There have been many possibilities over the years but none have been exposed as the genuine article. Look, don’t worry. Leave everything up to us’.
One of the heavies approached the two men. ‘If you would like to step this way sir, we shall take you on ahead’, he looked at the unknown man. ‘Maybe you could follow us to the pub?’
‘Of course’, said the unknown man. ‘I’ll see you in a bit, how far away is this place?’
‘Not long, about ten minutes’, said the heavy. ‘We shall see you there’.
As the two agents shook hands and walked to they’re respective cars, deep down the unknown man was extremely cautious of his superior’s guards. He opened the driver’s door to his Porsche and looked in the wing mirror at the car that his boss was departing in. At the same time, three of the men approached the white van and clambered inside.
‘This isn’t right’, said the unknown man to himself.
He glanced back in his wing mirror just in time to witness his superior enter his car and drive off past him, prompting the unknown man to start the Porsche up and proceed out of the gates after them.
The white van started up and followed suit. The men in the car grinned with glee. They had him.
After five minutes the windy roads died down into straight narrow lanes. The unknown man, who was doing forty in his convertible, heard the roar of a diesel engine behind him. It was the white van. He watched as they gained speed on his rather impressive motor. His eyes diverted back to the road in front of him when he felt a hard thump from behind. The car jolted and he turned his head. The van was trying to ram him. He shouted at the driver and sped his car up again, now only a few feet from the rear of his superiors car. The Porsche jolted again, this time the shatter of glass on his taillight followed the thud. He knew it. Spies. A couple more thuds later and the Porsche was in danger of colliding with the Mercedes in front. Had his superior noticed what was going on? Apparently not. The unknown man wrestled with his steering wheel to regain some control. The narrow roads and constricting space was causing him all sorts of problems. He had to lure the spies away from his boss. After several more shunts from the white van, the Porsche swung off the straight road and into another windy lane. The white van, ignoring the superior’s Mercedes, gave chase and accelerated hard to catch the sports car.
As the unknown man sped down the country back roads he hoped that there were no other cars on the road. Casualties were the last thing he wanted, apart from those who were chasing him. Spies working for the Big Chief himself, he thought. This wasn’t the first time that people had wanted him dead, but he was going to make sure that it was the last.
As the clash of metal on metal grinded through the countryside, inside the white van, the heavies had they’re prey just where they wanted him. They had waited for a long time to dispose of the unknown man, months of working inside the firm, watching his every move from within the system. The moles had infiltrated the so-called impregnable palace, the last company that wasn’t under their master’s control. It had taken them years to get there, but now the firm would be at they’re mercy. Now they were so close to overcoming the final hurdle.
The white van continued to crash it’s way along the narrow road and into the now battered sports car. As the unknown man continued to wrestle with his vehicle he just survived a passing car, which honked in anger at the warring motors. As the roads became windier still, one final clunk from the white van proved fatal to the Porsche. In a blur of silver, the convertible took off, the control relinquished and the unknown man braced himself for impact. The next few seconds were painful and went by faster than the speed of light. The white van decreased speed to watch the Porsche flip into a trench at the side of the road and bed itself upside down on a field.
Driving by the crash sight, they pulled up in a lay-by ten metres further ahead. Two of the men got out of the vehicle, while the other was more preoccupied by something in the back behind the grating between the boot and the cockpit. The heavies smiled sinisterly as their eyes gazed at the carnage in front of them. The crippled Porsche was smoking, broken beyond repair. What of the man inside?
The unknown man lay dazed on the earth, his seatbelt broken in the impact. His body obscured by the overturned car, he assessed his injuries. His ribs ached, possibly broken from impact with the steering wheel as the car flipped. What hurt more was a gash in his left leg, the cause too hard to tell in the darkness. Although uncomfortable, the unknown man was lucky to have survived with the injuries he had obtained. Now came the hard bit. He could hear the sound of footsteps approaching his destroyed car. Time to play dead
The heavies readied they’re guns and then they pulled they’re prisoner out of the wreck by his jacket. The victim was unconscious, but he was still alive. Time to finish him off once and for all. As the men cocked they’re guns, they leveled them at his head.
‘Take this you son of a bit..’
The heavy didn’t finish his statement, and found he falling back onto the ground. With a precision swing of his good leg, the unknown man had connected with the goon’s torso and knocked the wind out of his sails. With his eyes now open, he kicked the gun out of the other man’s hand before he had a chance to fire. Leaping to his feet, and then shrieking at the pain in his chest, the unknown man grabbed the second man and forced his head down onto the under carriage of his car wreck. The heavy screamed in pain and fell to the floor, blood beginning to pour from his nose. The first heavy had leapt to his feet and shot at the unknown man, who felt the bullet whistle past his arm and into the Porsche. He withdrew his own gun and fired. Missed. His eyes were blurry from the shock of the crash and it became even worse when the first heavy threw him into the twisted metal. One blow to the face and then another to his ribcage made the unknown man’s body flood with the hot gush of pain. He recoiled but using the car to steady himself he swung at his enemy and caught him a glancing blow on the jaw. As the heavy fell to the floor, the unknown man went to pick his gun up and finish them off. However, since the spies were also working for the same firm they had been issued with the same gun and he had picked up one of the heavies firearms. Not knowing this he readied to fire on his main tormentor, the first heavy who had been at the wheel of the white van. But before he did the second thug, bellowing instructions to the van, interrupted him.
‘Get the dogs!’
Face flushing to white, the unknown man’s pupils dilated. Even with a fully loaded gun, he did not know how many dogs there were. All of a sudden his predicament grew instantly more challenging. He looked at the two men on the floor, slowly regaining they’re strength. He looked on at the white van, which a third man had jumped out of, who was opening the doors at the rear to the sound of panting and snarling. He had to run for it. It was his only chance. Testing his bad leg, he stuttered into a limp and gradually paced into a fast sprint towards woodland deep in the field. The two stricken heavies were by now back on they’re feet and joined by their colleague and the two hounds, straining at their leashes to strip flesh set off after him. Whatever happened next, they couldn’t fail. Otherwise, they’re lives wouldn’t be worth living. The wounded party recommenced they’re hunt as up ahead, he unknown man, concentrating on not surrendering to the pain of his injuries entered the wood.
And now here he was, not long after, lying semi conscious on the floor of a shack. A once powerful, almost indestructible mysterious entity, bleeding and broken on the muddy floor. Eyes closed, the replaying of his recent memories ceased when he was disturbed by the sound of somebody trying to get into the shack. Had they found him already? If they had, this was truly the end. He was in no shape to continue the battle. He hated to admit it to himself but this looked like the end. Still mentally shaken by his ordeal, the unknown man gazed up at the shadowed figure through the small glass window in the door. Now almost too weak to move, he reached for a nearby spade and in a futile attempt to raise it above his head groaned in agony. At that moment, the figure, as the sunlight irradiated around their silhouette, forced the stiff door open and gazed down on the bloody stranger on the floor.
Monday 20 February 2012
Dancing With The Devil
Here is the third part in MY 'Unknown Man' series. Enjoy!
Dancing With The Devil
A short story by Hayden Gribble
9.15pm
Café Montague
Michelle Alison Simmons was waiting patiently for her partner to arrive. It wasn’t like Toby to be late. She hadn’t heard from him all day and this had her worried. Of course, being a guy he was probably just doing it for effect, trying to scare her a little and for her to reveal how much she cared for his well being when he did show up. Cheek, thought Michelle, she had played the game too long to be taken for an innocent fool like that. Her fringe of raven black hair bobbed in front of her forehead as her head collapsed into her cupped hands. She had been waiting for her man to return to her with information regarding the situation with Harry Seymour and his crumbling empire.
He had told her about the deal that had fallen through with his father, the Boss and that he and his business partner were meeting with the young man to sort the mess out once and for all. When she spoke to the man from GEMINI on the phone, and when he used the words ‘sort it out’ that could only mean one thing. Death. But for whom? Was he intentionally late or had something very bad happened during that meeting. On a business side of things it would be detrimental to the plans of the Big Chief if GEMINI had been wiped out, but not fatal. On a personal side, it could mean the end of blossoming relationship.
The girl looked at her watch again. 9.17. She sighed hard and looked around her at the other customers in the flash restaurant. Couples, wining and dining, some on dates, young and innocent with not so innocent designs for how the night might end. Then there were the older and wiser husband and wife pairings with their eyes full of hurt and deceit. How Michelle pitied them. Who’d want to end up like that?
‘I take it that this seat isn’t taken?’
Michelle jumped at the surprise guest at her table. She looked up at the figure that now stood in front of her, his hands clasped to the chair. The man was well built, in his early thirties and was dressed in a dark shirt and trousers, blending in to the night from which he had come. Michelle’s eyes met with his. Hers, dark green and soft, his, cold and puppy dog blue. His face was lined from years of tense exertions and it told her that this was a man that was not to be trusted.
‘Not at all’, she replied.
The unknown man then dragged the chair back, its hind legs screeching on the floor. He then sat on the chair dragging it forward, the screeching made Michelle wince. She half expected this mystery man to drag the chair elsewhere but he sat directly in front of her. He had maintained eye contact during his maneuver and sat starring at the girl in front of him.
She’s not as young as she looks, thought the unknown man. She must have been in her late twenties. She looked innocent enough but there was something under her skin that made the unknown man think that she had seen too much for her age.
‘Well, you certainly know how to make an entrance’, said Michelle. ‘Do you normally approach girls who sit by themselves in cafes?’
‘I try not to make a habit of it’, replied the man. He had barely blinked since he joined Michelle at her table for two.
‘Well, as you can see’, she continued, ‘someone has beaten you to the post, looks like you’ll have to find another lonely lady somewhere else’.
The unknown man put his hand in his left pocket of his trouser and took out a wallet. He opened it and placed in on the table, facing his companion. The drivers’ license showed through the clear plastic on the outside of the wallet, showing a picture of a handsome African face and the name Toby Smith. Michelle’s eyes grew hard; she gulped and looked into her companion’s eyes.
‘Something tells me he won’t be coming’, said the man, who held back a smirk.
‘How did he die?’ asked Michelle as she chewed on her cheek nervously.
‘Uncomfortably, funny really, I thought something like that would have made the papers by now. “Gang lord found dead” I’m surprised that you didn’t know, than again, maybe they couldn’t identify the body with no identification on his person’.
Michelle felt sick. The appetite she was building up throughout the day was now all but vanquished. She was sharing a table with the man who had killed her counterpart. The chance to build on that relationship had all but gone now too.
‘What are you doing here?’ The colour had washed from Michelle’s already pale features and she could barely bring herself to look at the murderer in front of her.
‘The same reason as you’, replied the unknown man. ‘I have been following the activities of all the crime syndicates in this country for the last two years. Along the way I have come across some of the very scum of this world and found myself here, the epicentre of the sewage that flows through the veins of our nation. As my research has continued, I have found out that all of the gangs, drug lords, pimps, fat cats and club owners are all run by the same person, I want some information and I want it now’.
Of course, it was all becoming clear to Michelle now. This was the man. The man without an identity. The man who had tailored his whole being to become ruthless, cold hearted and manic. He was the assassin she had been told to avoid.
‘Who is the Big Chief?’
Michelle chuckled, at first softly, then loud enough for the few neighbouring tables to hear. The unknown man knew what she was up to. She was making as much noise to draw the attention to them and alert people in the café of his presence. He looked around intently.
Michelle’s violent laughs turned into a sharp exhale. ‘For someone who has committed so much time to your obsession it must hurt that you still don’t have a clue’.
The unknown man was shocked. This girl had gone from feeling moved about her companion’s death to just as cold and hard as he was. Who was she?
‘You shoes are awfully small from where I’m sitting, you shouldn’t try playing with the big boys darling, and you might get burnt’.
Despite his threat, the unknown man did not see any weakness in her eyes.
‘Why were you meeting with GEMINI?’
‘Okay, since your homework isn’t up to scratch but you have shown your working out I’ll help you with the answers’, she relented. Anyway, what she was about to say wouldn’t damage her plans.
‘GEMINI are a corporation run by two brothers. The man who you killed and another. The star sign bonds them is obviously Gemini. One black, one white. One detached, one hard working. Together they began running a business of debt collectors in this city around thirty years ago’.
She paused taking a sip from her untouched red wine.
‘Around the same time, a man by the name of Neville Seymour, who ran a factory on Brambly Road, also began to collect money off those who were far more deserving than him. He also ran a club called Inferno, where after one in the morning after the public had gone home, it would turn into a brothel for his paying clients. Slowly he built an empire and got a big head in the process, making his workers and punters call him the Boss. The GEMINI twins noticed that he was beginning to step on their turf. A quarter of a century of blackmail and murder began, with far too many people getting caught in the crossfire’.
‘So, why did they decide to broker a deal? If there was no love lost between them then why were they trying to make a deal to unite?’ The man probed the girls face. She wasn’t telling any lies.
‘There was one encounter, about ten years ago, when both companies met for a battle in a warehouse. They were posing as football hooligans, so when the police found the mess that had been made it just looked like two firms had got over excited and done each other in. For GEMINI though, it was a disaster. Both of the firm’s leaders were killed. The Boss had taken the upper hand, but he was unaware that they had sons who were able to step into their Dad’s boots’.
She took another swig of her wine and licked her thick luscious lips before she started again. The waiter approached the table with two menus, but the unknown man waved him away like a wasp hovering over a picnic hamper.
‘The sons swore revenge on the Boss and spent half a decade ruining him. First they took away his factory, the backbone to his empire. The sons placed moles inside the company then the next thing, money was going missing. Within a matter of months, Inferno was closed due to a drugs bust, which led to the prostitution ring being found out which put the Boss in prison for a year. When he came out, he found out that his men had had their heads turned by GEMINI and his money was all but gone’.
‘So, he started to gamble to get his wealth back’, interrupted the unknown man.
Michelle nodded ‘As you probably know gambling wasn’t his strong point, breaking arms and people was.’
The unknown man agreed. ‘He played poker like it was a game of snap. No technique and not a clue’.
‘He was so far in debt that he started doing favours for those who he once owned’; Michelle was surprised at how little the man across the table from her knew. Surely he already knew what she was telling him?
‘The final insult was to sell his soul to GEMINI in exchange for their help on a big bank job’, she continued.
‘He also wanted to leave his son, Harry with a leg to stand on, although I’ve heard that his lifestyle was also a huge drain on his Dad’s finances’.
‘You’ve missed something out’, the unknown man pointed in the direction of the strong female. ‘He was scared of something, or someone. He wasn’t doing the job so that he could rebuild his empire, he was doing it so he had enough to start a new life somewhere else, what link does he have to the Big Chief?’
Michelle searched for an answer. ‘Maybe he owed them money?’
‘No, he had worked for the Big Chief in the past. I heard that he was somebody who did the dirty work for the big chief occasionally. I heard that he was a snitch too’.
‘Possibly, it was probably safer to obey the Big Chief to start with, only as time went on he became more tangled in the web and couldn’t get out’.
‘Joining GEMINI was degrading enough, being exposed as a grass, that’s worse than death’. Michelle then eyed her dark stranger up and began her assault.
‘Now its your turn’, she whispered. ‘I know who you are; you don’t scare me with all of this ambiguity and mystery. It was you who killed the Boss and now you have destroyed GEMINI too, was it worth it?’
‘Well, it led me to you’, the unknown man smiled. ‘What’s you link with GEMINI?
‘I was dating Toby until his accident’ she sighed.
‘Don’t take me for a fool. You know far too much to be just a trophy girlfriend. Your Michelle Alison Simmons, personal assistant to a politician called Sir Michael Houghton who is Chief Liaison with the Metropolitan Police, You are far more than just a girl with big tits and your up to your neck in it’.
‘You’ve noticed…maybe I shouldn’t have helped you with your homework’, retorted Michelle. ‘Have you been looking over other pupil’s shoulders?’
The unknown man was loosing his patience fast. ‘I know that your boss is up to his neck in this, one of the corrupt pigs whose benefiting from all of this mess. What is his connection to the Big Chief? No cheap shots and don’t flutter your eyelashes at me Hun, I’m immune’.
Michelle smiled and lent in towards the unknown man ‘Well, regardless to whether you are immune or not, you can’t touch me. Don’t think that blackmail will get you your answers. Sir Michael knows nothing of my part in all of this and it would be unwise to suggest it’. The unknown man’s blood began to boil. He wasn’t going to be made to keep silent over this.
‘I still don’t think you know what kind of danger you have got your pretty little head into’. He leaned forward too, hoping that she would retreat back. She didn’t.
‘Oh no, I don’t think you know what you are getting yourself into’, he was now so close to her that he could smell her last cigarette on her breath.
‘Besides, we wouldn’t want YOU to get hurt now would we?’
The unknown man could feel the rage beginning to flow through his being.
This web was becoming more and more tangled. If this lady had been one of the goons he had been hunting down she would now be dead. He had a gun in his jacket pocket and the thirst to use it was rising.
‘I’m giving you your last warning’, the unknown mans eyes were now filling with anger. Michelle knew that if she didn’t get out soon, he could do it. Her safety wasn’t completely guaranteed. After all, he had wiped out two pawns in the Big Chief’s chess set. He was cheating in this game, making illegal moves and now she knew what he looked like, the Big Chief could have him hunted down and wiped out. Nobody had crossed the Big Man yet so why should some cheap upstart want to do it now?
‘Either you tell me who the Big Chief is or I end your existence’. The unknown man glared at Michelle. Another drop of blood on his hands to wipe the city clean, he thought.
‘Okay, check’, Michelle was still untried by the threats of the killer opposite her.
‘The Big Chief has been at the top of the tree for decades. He controls everything, just like you said. But you do not understand just how deeply rooted he is in the make up of this city. The Big Chief is the ruler of every single living soul. His empire controls the Government, the hospitals, the churches, the bankers, the liars, the cheaters and every innocent person who lives here. Nobody is safe once the Big Chief is crossed. That’s why your friend the Boss was living in fear. He had unfinished business with the Big Man and his punishment was death’.
A nasty thought occurred to the unknown man. Was that the reason why he had been sent to kill that vile little man? He knew there was something up when was handed the assignment. Why kill him and not question him. Damn! He’d been played for a fool.
Michelle saw his highly-strung machismo ebb away. She’d hit a nerve. The light had been turned on in his head.
‘Don’t you see? You have been working for him all this time! He knows who you are and now we know your motives we can deal with you in the matter with which you have grown accustomed’.
The unknown man was suddenly beginning to feel very small. He knew he couldn’t trust anyone, but his superior? Surely not. Maybe he had been allowed to get rid of GEMINI and the Boss as a way to highlight his own existence. If it was true, then they have been watching him for months and they knew his every move. He had to get out of here but his body was stiff, stunned by the revelation.
‘I think we’re done here’, said Michelle as she knocked back the last couple of swigs of her wine. She gathered her things, leaving a ten-pound note resting on her place mat to pay for her drink. As she went to get up she looked at her companion. His mind was lost in a sea of thought. The plan had worked.
‘Don’t follow me, I really don’t recommend it’, whispered Michelle into his ear as she walked the few metres to the door which enveloped onto the dark street of the city.
The unknown man shook his thoughts from his head and turned around to see the girl leaving the café. He sprung out of his seat and went to pursue her through the night. As he walked through the sporadic crowd of people he kept her in his eye line, walking at a pace just a couple of metres away. All the while his head was swimming with the thoughts of doubt that this strong girl had put in his head. Had she been lying? Surely the Big Chief didn’t know who he was? If he did then there was only one person he could be. This was serious. The unknown man’s life, indeed the mystery he had sworn to keep surrounding himself, was in danger. First though he had to stop Michelle.
As she walked down the street, Michelle knew that she was being followed. She laughed to herself. Bless him; he just doesn’t know when to give up. She slowed her pace down, allowing her pursuer to catch up with her. There was one surprise that she had left up her sleeve. To her right, there was an alley that she could lure him down.
The unknown man gained a few feet on his prey. He noticed her wheel down an alleyway. Typical. She must have a gang of goons down there just ready to pounce on him. He tensed his body and prepared himself for a fistfight. He had just entered the alley when…
WHACK!
Pain shot across the back of his head. The unknown man fell to the floor, his eyesight blurring at the same time as a cracking headache began to blanket his judgment. Fighting the comfort of unconsciousness, he staggered to try and regain his balance, only to be met by another crack on his cranium. This time it was a foot, which forced itself into his face. He could feel the pain burn his nose maybe, he thought, it was broken. As blood began to seep from a fresh wound in his forehead and his body fell heavily to the floor, he could just make out the figure of a woman in front of him, then he fell face down in the muddy alley, unable to stay conscious.
Michelle breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Told you’, she quipped as she put the knuckle-duster back in her handbag, allowing herself to smile smugly at the fact that she had just beaten up one of the most dangerous men in the city. The Big Chief would be proud. Those self defense classes he made her attend had come in very handy. She left the unknown man in the alley, walking towards a car that was conveniently parked about ten yards down the road. Inside there were two people. A driver and a passenger. She opted for the back seat and got in, the features of her accomplices obscured by the blacked out windows. No words were exchanged as she clambered into the car and the vehicle started up and drove off into the night.
A few hours later, the unknown man awoke with a searing headache and a bump on the back and front of his head. The wound that was just above his left eye had solidified and gingerly he picked himself up of the dirty alley. He caressed the bump on the back of his head as his eyesight returned to sharp focus. The girl? It couldn’t have been? If it was, he thought to himself, he couldn’t tell his superior about this. The embarrassment would be excruciating. His superior! Suddenly he remembered what Michelle had told him. He needed to get to a phone and quick. After tonight, nothing and nobody could be trusted. He had to know, he had to make sure. Had he been dancing with the devil all this time? The unknown man straightened himself up and lurched out of the alley onto the street. This, had gone far enough.
Dancing With The Devil
A short story by Hayden Gribble
9.15pm
Café Montague
Michelle Alison Simmons was waiting patiently for her partner to arrive. It wasn’t like Toby to be late. She hadn’t heard from him all day and this had her worried. Of course, being a guy he was probably just doing it for effect, trying to scare her a little and for her to reveal how much she cared for his well being when he did show up. Cheek, thought Michelle, she had played the game too long to be taken for an innocent fool like that. Her fringe of raven black hair bobbed in front of her forehead as her head collapsed into her cupped hands. She had been waiting for her man to return to her with information regarding the situation with Harry Seymour and his crumbling empire.
He had told her about the deal that had fallen through with his father, the Boss and that he and his business partner were meeting with the young man to sort the mess out once and for all. When she spoke to the man from GEMINI on the phone, and when he used the words ‘sort it out’ that could only mean one thing. Death. But for whom? Was he intentionally late or had something very bad happened during that meeting. On a business side of things it would be detrimental to the plans of the Big Chief if GEMINI had been wiped out, but not fatal. On a personal side, it could mean the end of blossoming relationship.
The girl looked at her watch again. 9.17. She sighed hard and looked around her at the other customers in the flash restaurant. Couples, wining and dining, some on dates, young and innocent with not so innocent designs for how the night might end. Then there were the older and wiser husband and wife pairings with their eyes full of hurt and deceit. How Michelle pitied them. Who’d want to end up like that?
‘I take it that this seat isn’t taken?’
Michelle jumped at the surprise guest at her table. She looked up at the figure that now stood in front of her, his hands clasped to the chair. The man was well built, in his early thirties and was dressed in a dark shirt and trousers, blending in to the night from which he had come. Michelle’s eyes met with his. Hers, dark green and soft, his, cold and puppy dog blue. His face was lined from years of tense exertions and it told her that this was a man that was not to be trusted.
‘Not at all’, she replied.
The unknown man then dragged the chair back, its hind legs screeching on the floor. He then sat on the chair dragging it forward, the screeching made Michelle wince. She half expected this mystery man to drag the chair elsewhere but he sat directly in front of her. He had maintained eye contact during his maneuver and sat starring at the girl in front of him.
She’s not as young as she looks, thought the unknown man. She must have been in her late twenties. She looked innocent enough but there was something under her skin that made the unknown man think that she had seen too much for her age.
‘Well, you certainly know how to make an entrance’, said Michelle. ‘Do you normally approach girls who sit by themselves in cafes?’
‘I try not to make a habit of it’, replied the man. He had barely blinked since he joined Michelle at her table for two.
‘Well, as you can see’, she continued, ‘someone has beaten you to the post, looks like you’ll have to find another lonely lady somewhere else’.
The unknown man put his hand in his left pocket of his trouser and took out a wallet. He opened it and placed in on the table, facing his companion. The drivers’ license showed through the clear plastic on the outside of the wallet, showing a picture of a handsome African face and the name Toby Smith. Michelle’s eyes grew hard; she gulped and looked into her companion’s eyes.
‘Something tells me he won’t be coming’, said the man, who held back a smirk.
‘How did he die?’ asked Michelle as she chewed on her cheek nervously.
‘Uncomfortably, funny really, I thought something like that would have made the papers by now. “Gang lord found dead” I’m surprised that you didn’t know, than again, maybe they couldn’t identify the body with no identification on his person’.
Michelle felt sick. The appetite she was building up throughout the day was now all but vanquished. She was sharing a table with the man who had killed her counterpart. The chance to build on that relationship had all but gone now too.
‘What are you doing here?’ The colour had washed from Michelle’s already pale features and she could barely bring herself to look at the murderer in front of her.
‘The same reason as you’, replied the unknown man. ‘I have been following the activities of all the crime syndicates in this country for the last two years. Along the way I have come across some of the very scum of this world and found myself here, the epicentre of the sewage that flows through the veins of our nation. As my research has continued, I have found out that all of the gangs, drug lords, pimps, fat cats and club owners are all run by the same person, I want some information and I want it now’.
Of course, it was all becoming clear to Michelle now. This was the man. The man without an identity. The man who had tailored his whole being to become ruthless, cold hearted and manic. He was the assassin she had been told to avoid.
‘Who is the Big Chief?’
Michelle chuckled, at first softly, then loud enough for the few neighbouring tables to hear. The unknown man knew what she was up to. She was making as much noise to draw the attention to them and alert people in the café of his presence. He looked around intently.
Michelle’s violent laughs turned into a sharp exhale. ‘For someone who has committed so much time to your obsession it must hurt that you still don’t have a clue’.
The unknown man was shocked. This girl had gone from feeling moved about her companion’s death to just as cold and hard as he was. Who was she?
‘You shoes are awfully small from where I’m sitting, you shouldn’t try playing with the big boys darling, and you might get burnt’.
Despite his threat, the unknown man did not see any weakness in her eyes.
‘Why were you meeting with GEMINI?’
‘Okay, since your homework isn’t up to scratch but you have shown your working out I’ll help you with the answers’, she relented. Anyway, what she was about to say wouldn’t damage her plans.
‘GEMINI are a corporation run by two brothers. The man who you killed and another. The star sign bonds them is obviously Gemini. One black, one white. One detached, one hard working. Together they began running a business of debt collectors in this city around thirty years ago’.
She paused taking a sip from her untouched red wine.
‘Around the same time, a man by the name of Neville Seymour, who ran a factory on Brambly Road, also began to collect money off those who were far more deserving than him. He also ran a club called Inferno, where after one in the morning after the public had gone home, it would turn into a brothel for his paying clients. Slowly he built an empire and got a big head in the process, making his workers and punters call him the Boss. The GEMINI twins noticed that he was beginning to step on their turf. A quarter of a century of blackmail and murder began, with far too many people getting caught in the crossfire’.
‘So, why did they decide to broker a deal? If there was no love lost between them then why were they trying to make a deal to unite?’ The man probed the girls face. She wasn’t telling any lies.
‘There was one encounter, about ten years ago, when both companies met for a battle in a warehouse. They were posing as football hooligans, so when the police found the mess that had been made it just looked like two firms had got over excited and done each other in. For GEMINI though, it was a disaster. Both of the firm’s leaders were killed. The Boss had taken the upper hand, but he was unaware that they had sons who were able to step into their Dad’s boots’.
She took another swig of her wine and licked her thick luscious lips before she started again. The waiter approached the table with two menus, but the unknown man waved him away like a wasp hovering over a picnic hamper.
‘The sons swore revenge on the Boss and spent half a decade ruining him. First they took away his factory, the backbone to his empire. The sons placed moles inside the company then the next thing, money was going missing. Within a matter of months, Inferno was closed due to a drugs bust, which led to the prostitution ring being found out which put the Boss in prison for a year. When he came out, he found out that his men had had their heads turned by GEMINI and his money was all but gone’.
‘So, he started to gamble to get his wealth back’, interrupted the unknown man.
Michelle nodded ‘As you probably know gambling wasn’t his strong point, breaking arms and people was.’
The unknown man agreed. ‘He played poker like it was a game of snap. No technique and not a clue’.
‘He was so far in debt that he started doing favours for those who he once owned’; Michelle was surprised at how little the man across the table from her knew. Surely he already knew what she was telling him?
‘The final insult was to sell his soul to GEMINI in exchange for their help on a big bank job’, she continued.
‘He also wanted to leave his son, Harry with a leg to stand on, although I’ve heard that his lifestyle was also a huge drain on his Dad’s finances’.
‘You’ve missed something out’, the unknown man pointed in the direction of the strong female. ‘He was scared of something, or someone. He wasn’t doing the job so that he could rebuild his empire, he was doing it so he had enough to start a new life somewhere else, what link does he have to the Big Chief?’
Michelle searched for an answer. ‘Maybe he owed them money?’
‘No, he had worked for the Big Chief in the past. I heard that he was somebody who did the dirty work for the big chief occasionally. I heard that he was a snitch too’.
‘Possibly, it was probably safer to obey the Big Chief to start with, only as time went on he became more tangled in the web and couldn’t get out’.
‘Joining GEMINI was degrading enough, being exposed as a grass, that’s worse than death’. Michelle then eyed her dark stranger up and began her assault.
‘Now its your turn’, she whispered. ‘I know who you are; you don’t scare me with all of this ambiguity and mystery. It was you who killed the Boss and now you have destroyed GEMINI too, was it worth it?’
‘Well, it led me to you’, the unknown man smiled. ‘What’s you link with GEMINI?
‘I was dating Toby until his accident’ she sighed.
‘Don’t take me for a fool. You know far too much to be just a trophy girlfriend. Your Michelle Alison Simmons, personal assistant to a politician called Sir Michael Houghton who is Chief Liaison with the Metropolitan Police, You are far more than just a girl with big tits and your up to your neck in it’.
‘You’ve noticed…maybe I shouldn’t have helped you with your homework’, retorted Michelle. ‘Have you been looking over other pupil’s shoulders?’
The unknown man was loosing his patience fast. ‘I know that your boss is up to his neck in this, one of the corrupt pigs whose benefiting from all of this mess. What is his connection to the Big Chief? No cheap shots and don’t flutter your eyelashes at me Hun, I’m immune’.
Michelle smiled and lent in towards the unknown man ‘Well, regardless to whether you are immune or not, you can’t touch me. Don’t think that blackmail will get you your answers. Sir Michael knows nothing of my part in all of this and it would be unwise to suggest it’. The unknown man’s blood began to boil. He wasn’t going to be made to keep silent over this.
‘I still don’t think you know what kind of danger you have got your pretty little head into’. He leaned forward too, hoping that she would retreat back. She didn’t.
‘Oh no, I don’t think you know what you are getting yourself into’, he was now so close to her that he could smell her last cigarette on her breath.
‘Besides, we wouldn’t want YOU to get hurt now would we?’
The unknown man could feel the rage beginning to flow through his being.
This web was becoming more and more tangled. If this lady had been one of the goons he had been hunting down she would now be dead. He had a gun in his jacket pocket and the thirst to use it was rising.
‘I’m giving you your last warning’, the unknown mans eyes were now filling with anger. Michelle knew that if she didn’t get out soon, he could do it. Her safety wasn’t completely guaranteed. After all, he had wiped out two pawns in the Big Chief’s chess set. He was cheating in this game, making illegal moves and now she knew what he looked like, the Big Chief could have him hunted down and wiped out. Nobody had crossed the Big Man yet so why should some cheap upstart want to do it now?
‘Either you tell me who the Big Chief is or I end your existence’. The unknown man glared at Michelle. Another drop of blood on his hands to wipe the city clean, he thought.
‘Okay, check’, Michelle was still untried by the threats of the killer opposite her.
‘The Big Chief has been at the top of the tree for decades. He controls everything, just like you said. But you do not understand just how deeply rooted he is in the make up of this city. The Big Chief is the ruler of every single living soul. His empire controls the Government, the hospitals, the churches, the bankers, the liars, the cheaters and every innocent person who lives here. Nobody is safe once the Big Chief is crossed. That’s why your friend the Boss was living in fear. He had unfinished business with the Big Man and his punishment was death’.
A nasty thought occurred to the unknown man. Was that the reason why he had been sent to kill that vile little man? He knew there was something up when was handed the assignment. Why kill him and not question him. Damn! He’d been played for a fool.
Michelle saw his highly-strung machismo ebb away. She’d hit a nerve. The light had been turned on in his head.
‘Don’t you see? You have been working for him all this time! He knows who you are and now we know your motives we can deal with you in the matter with which you have grown accustomed’.
The unknown man was suddenly beginning to feel very small. He knew he couldn’t trust anyone, but his superior? Surely not. Maybe he had been allowed to get rid of GEMINI and the Boss as a way to highlight his own existence. If it was true, then they have been watching him for months and they knew his every move. He had to get out of here but his body was stiff, stunned by the revelation.
‘I think we’re done here’, said Michelle as she knocked back the last couple of swigs of her wine. She gathered her things, leaving a ten-pound note resting on her place mat to pay for her drink. As she went to get up she looked at her companion. His mind was lost in a sea of thought. The plan had worked.
‘Don’t follow me, I really don’t recommend it’, whispered Michelle into his ear as she walked the few metres to the door which enveloped onto the dark street of the city.
The unknown man shook his thoughts from his head and turned around to see the girl leaving the café. He sprung out of his seat and went to pursue her through the night. As he walked through the sporadic crowd of people he kept her in his eye line, walking at a pace just a couple of metres away. All the while his head was swimming with the thoughts of doubt that this strong girl had put in his head. Had she been lying? Surely the Big Chief didn’t know who he was? If he did then there was only one person he could be. This was serious. The unknown man’s life, indeed the mystery he had sworn to keep surrounding himself, was in danger. First though he had to stop Michelle.
As she walked down the street, Michelle knew that she was being followed. She laughed to herself. Bless him; he just doesn’t know when to give up. She slowed her pace down, allowing her pursuer to catch up with her. There was one surprise that she had left up her sleeve. To her right, there was an alley that she could lure him down.
The unknown man gained a few feet on his prey. He noticed her wheel down an alleyway. Typical. She must have a gang of goons down there just ready to pounce on him. He tensed his body and prepared himself for a fistfight. He had just entered the alley when…
WHACK!
Pain shot across the back of his head. The unknown man fell to the floor, his eyesight blurring at the same time as a cracking headache began to blanket his judgment. Fighting the comfort of unconsciousness, he staggered to try and regain his balance, only to be met by another crack on his cranium. This time it was a foot, which forced itself into his face. He could feel the pain burn his nose maybe, he thought, it was broken. As blood began to seep from a fresh wound in his forehead and his body fell heavily to the floor, he could just make out the figure of a woman in front of him, then he fell face down in the muddy alley, unable to stay conscious.
Michelle breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Told you’, she quipped as she put the knuckle-duster back in her handbag, allowing herself to smile smugly at the fact that she had just beaten up one of the most dangerous men in the city. The Big Chief would be proud. Those self defense classes he made her attend had come in very handy. She left the unknown man in the alley, walking towards a car that was conveniently parked about ten yards down the road. Inside there were two people. A driver and a passenger. She opted for the back seat and got in, the features of her accomplices obscured by the blacked out windows. No words were exchanged as she clambered into the car and the vehicle started up and drove off into the night.
A few hours later, the unknown man awoke with a searing headache and a bump on the back and front of his head. The wound that was just above his left eye had solidified and gingerly he picked himself up of the dirty alley. He caressed the bump on the back of his head as his eyesight returned to sharp focus. The girl? It couldn’t have been? If it was, he thought to himself, he couldn’t tell his superior about this. The embarrassment would be excruciating. His superior! Suddenly he remembered what Michelle had told him. He needed to get to a phone and quick. After tonight, nothing and nobody could be trusted. He had to know, he had to make sure. Had he been dancing with the devil all this time? The unknown man straightened himself up and lurched out of the alley onto the street. This, had gone far enough.
Tuesday 25 October 2011
Graveyard Smash - My Guide To Halloween Entertainment
It’s that time of the year again which gives us the excuse to turn up on the doorsteps of our neighbours houses covered in blood and force them to give us all the sweets in their possession, then egg them if all they gave you was twiglet with suspect hairs on it. If you do this kind of thing all year round then you would have a criminal record the length of the Magna Carta but on the night of October 31st it gives us the chance to dress up like a mass murderer or a ghostly ghoul and dig out the scary films to chill our friends and loved ones to the bone.
Now me, I love Halloween. It comes at a perfect time of the year. The nights have drawn in, Guy Fawlkes and fireworks are only six days away and with it being All Hallow’s Eve, the perfect opportunity to dress up, give people a fright and get covered in pumpkin juice while making Jack O’Lanterns. In previous years I have visited supposedly terrifying sights, such as haunted woods or graveyards with friends and genuinely got chills. I do suppose that the goose bumps and jitters only came on because I have ventured into such locations on the night when ghosts come alive, and also because of the amount of horror films that I have seen which have burrowed into my subconscious like an alien into a mans face and I remember certain scenes which were memorable for their frights.
My passion for horror films originates from my love of Sci-Fi since I was a boy. Yet it was truly sparked by studying horror films in Year 10 media studies classes. At the age of 14 the class I was in were asked to watch films such as A Nightmare In Elm Street and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Rosemary’s Baby and analyze them after. While a majority of the class was watching through the cracks in between their fingers, my best friend and I loved it. The thrill of what we were watching led to sleepovers and movie marathons, most often that not the marathons were horror films. It even led to us discovering the brilliant The League of Gentleman, which is the perfect marriage of horror and comedy so it was ideal for our slightly warped pubescent minds.
Now I genuinely don’t find horror films scary. Oh sure, anything can make us jump, yet that is a natural reaction to something that has surprised us and it is a technique which is used over and over again in the horror genre. Anyone can be disgusted by an obscene amount of blood and guts flying everywhere yet the true triumphant moments in horror are those that we don’t see. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho we never see the knife pierce Janet Leigh’s skin. We never see Edward Woodward’s horrible death in The Wicker Man, yet the screams we hear are blood curdling. It is the psychological elements of horror films that are the most frightening, not all out gore fests like the Saw films.
Even the shocking scene in Reservoir Dogs when Mr. Blonde cuts off the bound Cops ear is a parody of the horror genre. As he jumps on his victims lap, the camera looks away like the audience does and we do not see the action. It lingers more than a man sawing his foot off since we did not actually see it, and our imaginations can create images far more terrifying than what is put on celluloid. Having said that the films, which deal with possession and everyday scenarios becoming polluted by terrible people or things, are the most terrifying. Seeing London deserted in 28 Days Later was very unsettling because none of us have ever seen it so dead. Those that are filmed like documentaries, such as video nasty Cannibal Holocaust are deeply horrific since the cinematography has been deliberately manipulated to make us think that what we are seeing is authentic.
A child being possessed by the devil deeply disturbing and one of the reasons why The Exorcist is so good because it plays with a sickening idea. Suburban settings and the everyday are far more terrifying. Having said that rather more fantastical movies, such as Night Of The Living Dead and The Thing work because they are set in modern day settings, well, modern for when they were made. The idea of zombies coming to life or a space creature from another world mutating the bodies of arctic scientists might not seem so far fetched because there is an element of familiarity in what we recognise as being apart of our 'normal' world so we are frightened by what we see.
Even films that are not really defined as horror, like Alien and Jaws have many moments that make us drop our popcorn. The claustrophobic setting and keeping the full reveal of the alien hidden in the shadows, makes for far more of a white-knuckle ride. The scene when the alien is ‘born’ out of John Hurt’s chest (look at the shock on his co-stars faces, they were not told what was about to happen so that their reactions were more genuine) although parodied mercilessly since, plays upon everyman’s fear of child birth, in almost the same way that the transformation scene in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs plays upon every woman’s fear of ageing. After the release of Jaws many a child refused to go in the sea, even their baths, just incase a hungry Great White Shark gobbled them up. These films make us face our insecurities and the result is fear.
Of course, you can’t write an article on horror without mentioning the classics. Nosferatu, the 1922 silent film that was the first cinematic take on the Dracula tale, is so eerie because of the age of the film itself. The scene when the shadow of the evil demon climbs up the stairs is the greatest moment of the Silent era and is the stuff of nightmares.
Bram Stoker’s widow nearly had the film destroyed when it infringed on copyright, so the film only exists in negatives and this makes it look even more frightening since it is so jarring. What came next were Dracula and Frankenstein, which made stars out of Bele Lugosi (who was buried in full costume and make-up as Dracula, the only time in cinematic history that an actor has requested to be buried in the guise of a part he once played) and Boris Karloff and created the most iconic of movie monsters. Without these three gems there would have been no British Hammer Horror films or any of what I just mentioned.
So, you haven’t got anything to do on October 31st? Take a look at what I recommend.
My Guide To All Things Scary
My Top Ten Horror Films For Halloween
The Omen
The Exorcist
The Evil Dead
The Wicker Man
Halloween
The Thing (1982)
Alien
Hellraiser
The Ring (Original Japanese Version)
Nosferatu
Scary Clips To Look Up On Youtube
Judderman Commercial
Nosferatu Stair climbing scene
Mary Poppins scary movie trailer
Other Media I recommend for Halloween
Batman; Arkham Asylum
My top spot for the vivid illustration and the terrifying realization of The Joker. Also, watch out for the horrifying sub plot of what caused the madness of Dr Arkham.
Mary Shelley – Frankenstein
The book that started the horror genre and even with the best efforts of the iconic Boris Karloff movie it is still more frightening in its original print form. If you can bypass the overuse of the word ‘melancholy’ then you’ll be shivering in your sleep.
German ‘Silent Night’ Commercial
Darth Vader skipping in the forest? Freddie Krueger trimming hedgerows and Hannibal Lector preparing a Sunday Roast? This genius German advert for satellite television is as funny as it is chilling. Taking a popular Christmas carol and putting it to the imagery of well known scary characters doing everyday chores makes it more sinister.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76j6NfFsPaQ
Doctor Who
It is hard to pick just one episode from a near 50-year-old programme but it has sent generations of kids to shudder from behind the sofa, it even invented that cliché. Daleks, Gas Mask Zombies, the Flesh, Weeping Angels. Take your pick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tR0ok-BCKU
Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Hush
We have all had a nightmare when we cannot escape our predicament and even screaming is paralyzed by our fear. So when this notorious episode of Buffy was made, when people in Sunnydale have their voices stolen by a group of terrifying ghouls names the Gentlemen who cut our their hearts, we could all identify with that sense of no control and isolation. So scary, the uncut version was shown at midnight when first shown in the UK.
Orson Welles Reads The War of the Worlds
This is the audio take on the HG Wells classic, which on its transmission was so convincing; some members of the American audience fled their homes. It led to Welles himself having to apologize for what is, a breathtaking well acted and incredibly thought out adaptation of one of the best novels ever written.
Whistle and I Will Come To You
This 1968 BBC mini series about a man who finds a whistle in an East Anglian cemetery and when he blows it he is haunted in terribly sinister an affective ways. One of the only programmes or films that had left me feel chilled to the bone.
Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
The scariest thing about Orwell’s vision of the future is that the world in which he predicted has come true. CCTV? Big Brother? Technological repression. If you have read the novel, seen the film or TV adaptation then you know what I am talking about.
Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy
Without a doubt the most unsettling music video ever made. Children running around a rundown council estate all with the same sinister face, a gruesome looking man being born within himself then screaming in the face of an elderly woman. A suitable image for a song which hounds like it was forged in the depths of hell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Az_7U0-cK0
Lonely Water – Public Information Film – 1973
This dark advert of children getting themselves into dangerous situations whilst being stalked by the figure of death is unsettling. Donald Pleasance’s narration is haunting and the echoing whispered outro of “I’ll be BACK BACK BACK” last long after the advert is over. For anyone who saw it as a child in the seventies it is still memorable even to this day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZWD2sDRESk
Michael Jackson – Thriller Video- 1983
Inspired by An American Werewolf In London, this mini movie was so popular it had the power to make people stop dancing in clubs and watch it. It scared the willies out of me as a kid and the make up and sight of a dozen zombies dancing in perfect timing is impressive and scary. One of the greatest music videos ever it is a shame Jackson’s transformation became almost a metaphor for what lay ahead for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG6oy46qKE4
So there you have it. If you are staying in on Monday night why not take a dive into the bloody waters and divulge into one of these. Remember this though – Don’t have nightmares…
Sunday 9 October 2011
Shaken Not Stirred
Of all of the long running film series out there this one has to be one of the best of all time. James Bond, whose License To Kill has been valid for nearly fifty years, has been played by six actors (in the official canon at least) starred in 22 films and counting and is one of the biggest fictional characters in the world. As he reaches his golden anniversary, I have decided to do a list of my favourite Bond films so far and have rated them by film and also the song written for the title sequence, which go together like a vodka and martini. Well I am a bloke after all, and as everybody knows we love a good list. Leave me a comment if you disagree or to do your own list.
1. Live and Let Die (1973)
Roger Moore’s first outing as 007 is his best and in my opinion still the greatest Bond film in the series. Moor excels as the smart and cool agent in a story which sees him travel to New York and investigate the murders of his fellow British agents and take on a Harlem drug lord named Mr Big. Moore’s Bond faces a struggle against gangsters and voodoo magic, not to mention fending off a snake with a homemade flamethrower. Along the way he becomes involved with Jane Seymour’s sexy mystic virgin Solitaire, who soon loses her powers after Bond has ruthlessly de-flowered her (you don’t know whether to hit him or shake his hand in some parts of this film).
Although there are some rather negative racial overtones, since the film was made during the blaxploitation era of cinema, it still stands as one of the series stronger contributions and is packed full of memorable moments, such as using alligators to cross the lake and the boat chase stunt. Also Paul McCartney and Wings wrote one the most iconic Bond songs of all. It was so good even Guns ‘N’ Roses copied it.
Film - *****
Theme Tune - *****
2. Goldfinger (1964)
Everything about this film screams iconic. It includes the super famous Aston Martin DB5 for the very first time and spawned an incredibly successful die cast toy which every man must have had as a child. It stars Honor Blackman as the equally memorable Pussy Galore (a name which has been lampooned ever since in spy spoofs) and one of the best super villains ever. Sean Connery’s third outing is a masterpiece in how an action film can grab you. Superb stunts, sex appeal, quotable dialogue and villains like Oddjob, whose hat can cut through marble, who are still imitated almost half a century after it was first made.
The theme tune sung by Shirley Bassey also oozes class, and rightly deserves the award for best 007 song. Goldfinger is the perfect example of when cast, crew and everybody else involved really put there all in and produce a masterpiece that still captivates audiences to this day.
Film - *****
Theme Tune - *****
3. Casino Royale (2006)
After the disaster that was Die Another Day, it was clear that 007 was running out of legs. So what do you do with an ailing product? Reboot it of course! By taking Bond back to before he obtained his 00 status it meant delving into the layers of the character underneath the tuxedo and discovering a more vulnerable Bond. Daniel Craig really excels in his first adventure, where he is thrown into a game of cards and betrayal, which ultimately maketh the man. The gadgets are also stripped back, although the stunts remain very impressive and the story is also a very solid one, based on the original Ian Fleming novel written so many years earlier.
However, Chris Cornell’s contribution to the soundtrack is not the strongest. It tries to hard to say ‘ look at me, I’m load and can put a hard rock sound in a Bond film’. When you try too hard it really shows and it’s probably my least favourites of the theme tunes these films have had to offer.
Film - *****
Theme Tune - **
4. On Her Majesties Secret Service (1969)
Maybe a bit of a surprise this one, possibly for many fans disliking George Lazemby’s only appearance as Bond, but they overlook just how strong the story is and that it is pivotal to the evolution of the character and a turning point in the series. In short, this is the one where Bond falls in love. Diana Rigg is gorgeous as the ill-fated wife to be Tracy Di Vicenzo and Telly Savalas makes his only appearance as Ernst Stravro Blofeld in the series.
It is also the first film in the series that really acknowledges that it is part of a continuing story, which does lead questions as to whether the Lazemby Bond is the same as Sean Connery (the egg timer in the title sequence) and sees Bond taking on SPECTRE in the Swiss alps, a fitting setting for some brilliant action scenes. Then there is the heartbreaking last scene, which gives us the first glimpse into Bond’s rather lonely life.
On the soundtrack side John Barry’s score is fantastic and gets the blood pumping. On the sweeter side, We Have All The Time In The World is one of the best songs ever written, and the terrible irony that the title and lyrics are in parallel with music legend Louis Armstrong’s health at the time. He died not too long after recording it and serves as a fitting tribute to one of music’s all time best.
5. The Living Daylights (1987)
It is a big shame that Timothy Dalton’s turn as 007 was only limited to two films. His first remains his best, set at the time when the Soviet Union was falling and the Cold War was coming to an end. Nonetheless, this entry into the series deals with a KGB agent defecting and then becoming kidnapped, leading Bond across, Morocco and the Middle East.
Dalton’s imaging of 007 is darker and more flawed than the more comedic and debonair Roger Moore, an approach that has also worked for Daniel Craig so far. However there is still time for funny moments such as escaping the Russian authorities by riding down a snowy hill in a Cello case.
For the second film running a pop band was chosen to write the theme tune. Norwegian band A-Ha does a great job with The Living Daylights, proving to be both catchy and credible.
Film - ****
Theme Tune _ ****
6. From Russia With Love (1963)
The second Bond film in the series is widely considered a fans favourite and it also is a direct follow on from Dr. No. Bond is sent to Istanbul after being told that an ex agent who has been wanted by M16 for years is willing to defect, yet only to him. Also SPECTRE are plotting to steal a decoder from the Soviets and its leader Number 1 (the first appearance of Blofeld) is also looking to exact revenge on Bond following the death of Dr. No.
The film itself is a brilliant example of early 60s filmmaking and with a strong plot and memorable moments of action it fully deserves its place in my top ten. The title song as sung by Matt Munro gives him the honour of being the first musician to sing in the titles of the series.
Film - ****
Theme Tune - ***
7. Goldeneye (1995)
After a six-year hiatus it was Pierce Brosnan’s turn to put on the gun holster in this his only entry on my list. Goldeneye is the first post Cold War Bond film and it deals with the fallout of Bond’s ex-friend and 00 agent Alec Trevelyan betraying his friend and stopping him and Russian allies from using a satellite weapon called Goldeneye on London and causing global financial meltdown. Along the way he encounters Xenia Onatopp, who can crush men in her thighs and the only survivor from Goldeneye’s attack on a bunker in Severnaya.
The film is a welcome addition to the series and to my mind is Brosnan’s finest performance as Bond, not as flawed a Dalton but with a sprinkle of Roger Moore wit and Connery’s hardman act thrown in. The story itself is not as strong as some of the entries which had dealt with the Cold War before but it does bring an end to this chapter of the Iron Curtain in the series and shows that the series was moving forward.
The song is a classy return to a more classic Bond sounding piece and Bono and The Edge captured the essence of what makes a good Bond track. Sung by Tina Turner, Goldeneye is bombastic and brings with it a hint of mid-90’s cool and slickness.
Film - ****
Theme Tune - ***
8. You Only Live Twice (1967)
Austin Powers? Spy Hard? None of these spoof would have been made if it wasn't for Sean Connery's fifth film as 007. The massive sets in a hollowed out volcano and the look of Donald PLeasance's portyral of Blofeld is quintissential with the series. Bond fakes his murder in Hong Kong so that he has more freedom to operate when investigating a stolen American spacecraft which the United States believe was taken by the Soviets.
The film is a bank holiday favourite in England and that is where my memories of watching it with my Grandparents as a child come into play. It is perhaps one of the more action orientated addition to the series but then again it is perhaps Connery's most fanatical.
Nancy Sinatra's theme tune is equally as memorable, even though it has been said that she struggled to record it. The final piece is as edited as the film itself and splised together from multiple takes. Still it deserves its place in this list.
Film - ****
Theme Tune - ***
9. Thunderball (1965)
Yet another Connery segment, proving that it is the old Bonds that are the best, and Thunderball had an awful lot to do to continue the success that was laid down by its predecessor Goldginger. Bond is given the assigment of find two NATO bombs that have been stolen by SPECTRE who this time are holding the world to ransom over £100 million in diamonds in return for bot blowing up Miami.
The gadget supplied by Q in this film are wholesomely impressive, and the Aston Martin DB5 makes its second appearance. There is also the famous pre titles sequence with the jet pack and the final scenes underwater are incredibly well shot. The film was later remade as Never Say Never Again, but lets not go into that.
Tom Jones's belting performance in the theme song is once again very typical with what has in the later day been considered as stereotypical with the genre. It was parodied by Weird Al Yankovic for the Leslie Nielsen spoof Spy Hard, as was the use of aquatic imagery in the titles sequence.
Film - ***
Theme Tune - ***
10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Even though it is mostly considered to be Roger Moore's best film it only just makes my top ten, narrowly beating Timothy Dalton's License To Kill to the post. Moore's third outing as Bond deals with a premise not too dissimilar to that of You Only Live Twice, only this time it is both British ans Soviet submarines which are gonig missing. The trail leads Bond to Egypt and his first encuonter with the steel teethed Jaws, who would go down as one of the most popular villians in the series history.
However, the signs that Bond was about to get a bit too silly and far out were evident here, the submarine car for example would be one small step towards the next picture, Moonraker which for my money is one of the worst 007 movies ever made. The underwater city, Atlantis, owned by comic book baddie Karl Stromberg is also a turn down the wrong road for me. No wonder the tone was darkened For Your Eyes Only which saw a more welcome return of a serious 007.
The pre titles sequence is however one of the more exhilirating and the title song, Nobody Does It Better is I think one of the best sung by Carly Simon. It is one of the less hurried of the songs used in Bond films and for it, the love song sails along to titles and stays in your head long after the film is over. About 30 years later in fact.
Film - ***
Theme Tune - ****
So there you have it, my top ten. Whats yours?
Saturday 8 October 2011
TV Nasty?
Every so often a programme comes along that becomes so notorious for is content that thousands of viewers feel compelled to complain and the story becomes front-page news. This programme is not one of those, but in this PC world it is hard to imagine it being made today. It’s contains strong gratuitous violence, murders and an ever-climbing death count every episode and it is set against the background of intergalactic terrorism. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Now before I go any further, yes I know it was a children’s programme and yes it has lived in the shadow of the hugely popular Thunderbirds but then again, Captain Scarlet has been hugely successful over the past 40 years and is my favourite of the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series of the 1960s and 1970s. When I was 5 I had every episode on video, the costume and the action figures so that I could act out my favourite episodes. This normally meant acting out a fight between two characters and throwing one out of my bedroom window to his death, or a car crash with the SPV and a Batmobile.
For those of you who have never seen this series, I’ll give you the story. In 2068 a Martian exploration vehicle for the World Security organization Spectrum discovers an alien city on the surface of Mars. Captain Black, who is in charge of the operation, misunderstands the situation when the peaceful and invisible Mysterons try to take a closer look of the men from Earth, opens fire on the city, destroying it completely. However, it turns out that the Mysterons have discovered the secret of reversing matter and the city rebuilds to the amazement of the men from Spectrum. From here on in they declare a war of nerves on the Earth and set about by killing Captain Black and turning him into their agent.
In the very same episode Captain Scarlet and Captain Brown, on their way to protect the World President whose life is being threatened by the Mysterons, die in an horrific car accident and are resurrected by their new masters. Captain Brown attempts to kill the President when it is revealed that he is a suicide bomber and Captain Scarlet is also killed by his friend Captain Blue and falls 800 feet from the Car-Vu, which is where the climactic battle is played out. Scarlet survives, and is no longer under the control of the Mysterons making him Spectrum’s prize asset in the war. This also means that he can be killed off every week and brought back fine and dandy in the next installment.
Now what I have just described to you is just the opening half hour of this colourful series. We have had suicide bombings, mass destruction and cold-blooded murder. If puppets didn’t act it out how would Captain Scarlet ever have been made? Considering just how the press went mad when Jerry Springer the Musical was transmitted and the fall out from the brilliant Brass Eye Pedophile Special, which lampooned the media’s own reaction to such controversial topics, it interests me how a children’s show which includes death and violence so often was never complained about.
Even though you clearly see these violent moments they are very graphic and did scare me a little when I was a child. In one scene Captain Black murdered a car mechanic by crushing him in the car that he was working on. Strong stuff! Fast-forward thirty years and when the BBC spy series Spooks first aired it had something very shocking in just its first episode. The character who was being billed as the female lead is tortured by terrorists in the now infamous scene in question. As her counterpart is beaten for information on the floor of a kitchen, her hand is forced into the bubbling deep fat frier by one of the madmen. Horrible I know, especially when you see her scarred arm pulled out of the fat.
Yet there was worse to come. What happens next truly shocked and sickened the viewing audience. Her head is forced into the frier, and although you don’t see her head go in, your brain fills in the gaps with something so terrifying and disturbing that it creates pictures that haunt you long after the show ends. She is eventually murdered after getting shot in the head after this, all watched by her fellow spy. One for therapy methinks! It was a publicity stunt of course and one which worked, the shows viewing figures shot up and it got people talking about it.
However, even a programme like Captain Scarlet hasn’t escaped some form of a media backlash, even if it is a surprising one. In 1993, when millions of new young fans such as myself saw the programme for the first time, a tabloid newspaper claimed that the show was racist and sexist. One of the points was that the Captain who was evil was called Black and the Colonel who was good was White!
Clearly the reporter hadn’t noticed that when it was made in 1967, it was one of the first shows to have females in a position equal to their male counterparts. The Angels, a group of female fighter pilots protect Spectrum’s headquarters Cloudbase and carry out as many dangerous missions and the Spectrum Captains. Also, the main communications officer Lieutenant Green was of ethnic origin, so Gerry Anderson should be commended not condemned for such a flawed accusation.
The other time was down to very bad timing. The show was about to enjoy another successful repeat run on BBC2 in Autumn 2001 when the events of September 11th resulted in two episodes being banned from transmission. The episodes in question were based around a hijacked passenger jet and a nuclear bomb that had been hidden in London. Despite this, Gerry Anderson remade the series as a CGI reboot, which was considerably toned down in content and in my opinion suffered as a consequence.
I missed the explosions and impressive stunts, which were accomplished by the same team that went on to supervise the stunts and special effects on films in the James Bond series. Were the incidents in real world events responsible for Anderson’s vision of the show changing? If so, it does prove the point that the incarnation of Captain Scarlet that was first transmitted in 1967 would not have been aired in this day and age. Which is a pity, because I still think that for all its gritty realism and over the top set pieces it is still something that brings back happy memories of my childhood, and something I would love to watch someday with my kids like my Dad did with me.
Spectrum Is Green!
Now before I go any further, yes I know it was a children’s programme and yes it has lived in the shadow of the hugely popular Thunderbirds but then again, Captain Scarlet has been hugely successful over the past 40 years and is my favourite of the Gerry Anderson Supermarionation series of the 1960s and 1970s. When I was 5 I had every episode on video, the costume and the action figures so that I could act out my favourite episodes. This normally meant acting out a fight between two characters and throwing one out of my bedroom window to his death, or a car crash with the SPV and a Batmobile.
For those of you who have never seen this series, I’ll give you the story. In 2068 a Martian exploration vehicle for the World Security organization Spectrum discovers an alien city on the surface of Mars. Captain Black, who is in charge of the operation, misunderstands the situation when the peaceful and invisible Mysterons try to take a closer look of the men from Earth, opens fire on the city, destroying it completely. However, it turns out that the Mysterons have discovered the secret of reversing matter and the city rebuilds to the amazement of the men from Spectrum. From here on in they declare a war of nerves on the Earth and set about by killing Captain Black and turning him into their agent.
In the very same episode Captain Scarlet and Captain Brown, on their way to protect the World President whose life is being threatened by the Mysterons, die in an horrific car accident and are resurrected by their new masters. Captain Brown attempts to kill the President when it is revealed that he is a suicide bomber and Captain Scarlet is also killed by his friend Captain Blue and falls 800 feet from the Car-Vu, which is where the climactic battle is played out. Scarlet survives, and is no longer under the control of the Mysterons making him Spectrum’s prize asset in the war. This also means that he can be killed off every week and brought back fine and dandy in the next installment.
Now what I have just described to you is just the opening half hour of this colourful series. We have had suicide bombings, mass destruction and cold-blooded murder. If puppets didn’t act it out how would Captain Scarlet ever have been made? Considering just how the press went mad when Jerry Springer the Musical was transmitted and the fall out from the brilliant Brass Eye Pedophile Special, which lampooned the media’s own reaction to such controversial topics, it interests me how a children’s show which includes death and violence so often was never complained about.
Even though you clearly see these violent moments they are very graphic and did scare me a little when I was a child. In one scene Captain Black murdered a car mechanic by crushing him in the car that he was working on. Strong stuff! Fast-forward thirty years and when the BBC spy series Spooks first aired it had something very shocking in just its first episode. The character who was being billed as the female lead is tortured by terrorists in the now infamous scene in question. As her counterpart is beaten for information on the floor of a kitchen, her hand is forced into the bubbling deep fat frier by one of the madmen. Horrible I know, especially when you see her scarred arm pulled out of the fat.
Yet there was worse to come. What happens next truly shocked and sickened the viewing audience. Her head is forced into the frier, and although you don’t see her head go in, your brain fills in the gaps with something so terrifying and disturbing that it creates pictures that haunt you long after the show ends. She is eventually murdered after getting shot in the head after this, all watched by her fellow spy. One for therapy methinks! It was a publicity stunt of course and one which worked, the shows viewing figures shot up and it got people talking about it.
However, even a programme like Captain Scarlet hasn’t escaped some form of a media backlash, even if it is a surprising one. In 1993, when millions of new young fans such as myself saw the programme for the first time, a tabloid newspaper claimed that the show was racist and sexist. One of the points was that the Captain who was evil was called Black and the Colonel who was good was White!
Clearly the reporter hadn’t noticed that when it was made in 1967, it was one of the first shows to have females in a position equal to their male counterparts. The Angels, a group of female fighter pilots protect Spectrum’s headquarters Cloudbase and carry out as many dangerous missions and the Spectrum Captains. Also, the main communications officer Lieutenant Green was of ethnic origin, so Gerry Anderson should be commended not condemned for such a flawed accusation.
The other time was down to very bad timing. The show was about to enjoy another successful repeat run on BBC2 in Autumn 2001 when the events of September 11th resulted in two episodes being banned from transmission. The episodes in question were based around a hijacked passenger jet and a nuclear bomb that had been hidden in London. Despite this, Gerry Anderson remade the series as a CGI reboot, which was considerably toned down in content and in my opinion suffered as a consequence.
I missed the explosions and impressive stunts, which were accomplished by the same team that went on to supervise the stunts and special effects on films in the James Bond series. Were the incidents in real world events responsible for Anderson’s vision of the show changing? If so, it does prove the point that the incarnation of Captain Scarlet that was first transmitted in 1967 would not have been aired in this day and age. Which is a pity, because I still think that for all its gritty realism and over the top set pieces it is still something that brings back happy memories of my childhood, and something I would love to watch someday with my kids like my Dad did with me.
Spectrum Is Green!
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