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THE NEW IMPROVED NELSON had been safely delivered into his brother’s custody, leaving Marco feeling as if a great weight had been removed from his shoulders. ‘I couldn’t shake the feeling the hairy bastard was going to give me the slip,’ he confided to Jack, as they made their way across the road to Tino’s pizzeria.
‘If not for the fact we were basically holding Trotsky hostage, I think he might have been tempted to bolt. I doubt I would have been able to catch him. He may be a sissy, but there’s not a damn thing wrong with his physical fitness.’
‘Why don’t you head on home and get some shut-eye, bro,’ Jack grinned at him sympathetically. ‘It’s a big day tomorrow, and you need to be fighting fit.’
‘Good plan,’ Marco yawned. ‘Are you coming home?’
‘That’s a negative. Me and the K-Man have a mission to complete, which is why I need pizza to sustain me. It’s shaping up to be a long night.’
‘Copy that,’ Marco yawned again. ‘Sure you don’t need backup?’
‘Appreciate the offer, man, but we’ve got it covered.’
By now they had reached Tino’s place and Jack placed an order for two large pizzas in case the managing director was also in need of sustenance. He glanced at his watch. It was twenty-one hundred. If he did not haul ass pretty soon, Keith would grow agitated.
Tino was on a break, although his assistant, Carlotta, was beavering away behind the counter. Even though Jack knew she was the proud possessor of a full head of shiny black hair, the young woman had it pinned up under some sort of bob cap which forcibly reminded him of one of Dorothy’s costume dramas.
A boy of about ten wandered in and omitted to close the door properly behind him. As the shop was stifling hot from the ovens, Jack had no objection to the way the cool evening air provided some much-needed relief. He glanced at Carlotta, but as she seemed unaware of the open door he left it alone.
The kid asked for a tub of ice cream, and she left the counter and headed out the back to where Jack knew the freezer was situated. He was reminded of Dorothy’s fondness for Tino’s ice cream, and a smile quivered at the corner of his mouth. Then the kid took to his heels and bolted from the building without waiting for his order.
‘Full alert,’ Jack told Marco, who was lolling against the wall half asleep.
Marco came to attention and bounced on the balls of his feet in anticipation. ‘Back or front?’ he enquired tersely.
‘Front,’ from Jack. ‘Brace for impact.’
A motorbike slowed down on the way past Tino’s, and the pillion passenger hurled an object into the shop. As it flew through the air, Marco saw the item was constructed of hard white plastic and was about a foot in length. A flaming piece of string-like substance trailed from a small hole that had been bored into the PVC.
Jack caught the plastic missile with his left hand before it hit the ground, and immediately placed it on the counter top. As Marco watched with interest, he pulled his knife from its usual sheath and used it to sever the fuse of the pipe bomb.
‘Hand me one of those containers they use for the nibbles,’ he ordered, as he gently eased what remained of the fuse through the hole.
Marco obligingly leaped over the counter and stole one of the cardboard boxes from the stash. Then he jumped back again, not wanting to get busted by Carlotta. In the meantime, Jack slipped his knife into the glue that was sealing the end cap to the pipe, and eased the round piece of plastic off. He peered inside the container then carefully upended it and tipped the contents into the cardboard box. When the carton was full of black powder, Marco folded the butterfly lid over and did his best to seal the whole thing in.
‘It’s contained,’ Jack said. ‘I sure hope none of my former comrades in arms hears about this little stunt. That could easily have been a disaster.’
‘In all fairness, dude,’ Marco protested. ‘You were left with fuck-all choice in the matter. For crying out loud, what were you supposed to do? Post the pipe through the nearest letterbox and hope it didn’t go off before those fellas with their robotic arms arrived? This is a residential area.’
‘I guess not,’ Jack sighed. He tucked the now harmless piece of piping under his arm and picked up the cardboard box of gunpowder. ‘I guess I’ll leave this lot at Barns and head off to meet the K-Man,’ he sounded vexed. ‘Which of them was it?’
‘I think it was Jordan, that’s the middle son,’ Marco replied. ‘It must be a right bummer for the kid being the only brother left at home. He must be missing the baby rat big time.’
‘Shame we weren’t able to detain him,’ Jack still looked vexed.
‘If this is the way the week is shaping up, we’re bound to get another chance,’ Marco replied cheerily. ‘They’ll come after us with a firearm the next time. I doubt Boo knows what the kid is up to. He wants you alive, not splattered all over Tino’s walls. I totally understand why the chief is reluctant to give the order for Operation Ferret, but if something doesn’t change soon...’
Just then, Carlotta came rushing back looking flustered and shoving her phone into the pocket of her apron. She looked relieved to see no queue had formed in her absence, and appeared not to notice her ice cream customer had left. She apologised profusely for her lack of attention, explaining that her boyfriend was in one of his needy moods. Then she grabbed a couple of flat boxes and began to slide the pizzas into them using her extra-large shovel.
‘Let’s work on surviving until tomorrow morning,’ Jack muttered to his pal. ‘We’ll put our heads together at first light and see if we can come up with a plan. Assuming nothing changes between now and then.’
‘What could possibly change before morning?’ Marco enquired curiously.
‘Rosie Barnett,’ was the grizzled response. ‘A game changer if ever there was one.’
