House of War

So instead he shot each of them through the foot, in such quick succession that the muted coughs of the silenced 9mm in his hand sounded like one ragged, elongated report. The big guy on his left got it in the left foot, and the one on his right got it in the right foot, the copper-jacketed bullets punching straight through the shiny leather of their shoes, and straight through the flesh and muscle inside. Before pulling the trigger Ben had already decided that the floorboards were likely thick enough to stop the bullets, to prevent anyone downstairs from getting hurt. Health and safety were important considerations at such times.

The two big guys simultaneously dropped their guns and collapsed like sacks of washing, howling in pain as they clutched their perforated feet. Before they’d even hit the floor, Ben had the Glock pointed towards the short guy’s face.

Ben said, ‘Do yourself a favour, little man.’

The sabre remained suspended in the air for a few instants, during which the psychopathic dwarf looked as though he was seriously considering taking another swing. Ben lowered his aim to point the pistol at his groin. His finger tightened on the trigger. He said, ‘Really?’

The little boss man relented, lowered the sabre and let it drop with a clatter to the floor, though the snarl of ferocious hatred never left his face. He spat.

Ben said, ‘What’s your name?’

‘Paulo Fraticelli,’ the little guy growled.

‘Never heard of you.’

Fraticelli’s eyes gleamed. ‘You will. Make no mistake about that.’

Ben shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. You’re in the wrong job, Paulo. Go back to picking pockets or smuggling cigarettes, or whatever pissy little racket you came from. Messing with my friends is bad for your health.’

‘You’re a fucking dead man walking.’

‘At least I can walk,’ Ben said, pointing at Fraticelli’s associates on the floor. The little guy glanced down at them too. Only for a second, but a second was long enough a distraction. Ben stepped towards him and kicked him savagely in the balls, plenty hard enough to squash them flat. Fraticelli let out a screech and doubled over forwards, with perfect timing for Ben’s knee to ram him brutally in the face and knock him out cold. He hit the floor with much less of a crash than his henchmen.

The muscleman still wasn’t moving. Ben didn’t think he was dead, but he was certainly losing a lot of blood from the gaping slash in his shoulder. Before long it was going to start dripping through the ceiling of the apartment below. Meanwhile his two colleagues with the perforated feet were making an awful lot of noise. Ben said, ‘Enough of the racket, guys. People live here.’ He stepped over to one of them and kicked him in the head, and the noise level in the room dropped by half. Then he stepped over to the other. Same job. The apartment was suddenly much quieter.

‘Peace at last,’ Ben said. He stuck the silenced Glock through his belt next to the other. Thierry and Pierrot were boggling at him from their chairs. He went over to them and pulled off their gags, Thierry first, then his friend.

‘Hello, Thierry. I have a message from Abby.’

‘Who the hell are you?’ Pierrot gasped. He was about the same age as Thierry, with receding greasy hair, close-set eyes and a weaselly way about him. To Ben’s eye the guy had the look of a small-time drug dealer. He would happily have left Pierrot for Fraticelli’s boys, under different circumstances.

Thierry shook his head in amazement. ‘I can’t believe it’s you, man,’ he said in the whispery voice. ‘Christ, you haven’t aged a day.’

‘Wish I could say the same about you, Thierry. You look like shit.’ Which was harsh, but true. Time had not been too kind to the forger since Ben had last seen him. He looked weary and worn down and gaunt, and the bush of hair had mostly disappeared.

‘Abby sent you?’ Thierry asked ruefully.

Ben picked up Fraticelli’s sabre and ran his thumb lightly along the edge of the blade. It was razor-sharp. He moved around behind Thierry’s chair and started cutting him free. ‘She says she’s going to burn all the junk you left at her place. She also seemed to think you might have got into a little trouble. Wonder how she got that idea.’

‘We’re in a shitload more of it now. I was handling things just fine before you turned up.’

Gratitude was a wonderful thing. Ben said, ‘Oh, I could see that.’ The rope holding Thierry’s wrists fell loose. He slashed his ankles free and then started working on Pierrot.

Thierry stood up stiffly and rubbed his wrists, frowning anxiously at the unconscious bodies on the floor. ‘I’m serious. We’re totally fucked, man. Do you know who you just worked over? These guys are Unione Corse. Fraticelli’s a made guy. Now there’ll be a thousand of the bastards looking for us. And you, too.’

Unione Corse was the Corsican mafia. The kind of guys who’ll break your arms and fuck your knees up with hammers. And then some. Abby had no idea of the kind of nasty characters her boyfriend had been borrowing money from. This bunch had moved on from breaking arms and legs well before they got into their teens.

‘Then maybe it’s time to get out of town,’ Ben said. ‘Your buddy here as well. But first, there’s something I need you to do for me.’

Thierry brightened a little. ‘You mean, like, a job?’

‘You look as though you could do with one.’

‘It’s been a while. Work’s kind of thin on the ground lately.’

‘Are you up for it?’

‘You bet. Just like old times, huh?’

Ben said, ‘Then let’s talk. But not here.’ He finished freeing Pierrot and told him, ‘Pack your stuff. One small suitcase. Leave the rest.’

‘This is my place,’ Pierrot whined.

‘Not any more, it isn’t. When your downstairs neighbours see the blood coming through the ceiling and call the cops, it’s going to get a little crowded around here. You can’t come back any time soon. So hurry it up.’

Pierrot didn’t look too thrilled about abandoning his rathole apartment, but Thierry was looking more pleased by the second. ‘Oh, Ben?’

‘Yes?’

‘Thanks for, uh, you know, saving us.’

‘I needed the exercise. Now let’s go.’

The fat guard outside in the corridor was showing signs of recovery, so Ben knocked him out properly and dragged his corpulent bulk inside the apartment by the ankles. Then they pulled the door shut against the shattered frame and hurried downstairs, out of the building, past the Corsican boys’ Audi and up the street to where the Alpina was parked. Ben tossed Pierrot’s case in the boot, and they took off.

Thirty minutes later they were back at the safehouse. Pierrot was still sulking and hadn’t spoken another word. Ben ignored him, brewed up more coffee, then sat Thierry down at the table in the living room and told him what he needed.

‘Whose is it?’ Thierry asked, frowning at Romy’s phone.

‘You don’t need to know,’ Ben said. ‘You just need to unlock that video file. Think you can do that for me?’

Thierry spent a few moments fiddling with the phone, deep in concentration. ‘Yeah, I reckon I can.’

‘How long?’

‘Twenty minutes, give or take.’

‘You’re still my guy,’ Ben said.

Thierry Chevrolet might have seen better times and lost his sparkle, but the kinds of skills he possessed didn’t fade with age. Ben left him alone to work, and went over to smoke at the window while Thierry hunched over the smartphone at the table. Pierrot was still lurking, silent and morose, in the background. Ben would gladly have sent him out on some errand just to get rid of him, if he could have trusted the idiot wouldn’t return with half the Corsica mafia on his heels.

Eighteen minutes and three more cups of coffee later, Thierry leaned back in his chair, looked over at Ben with a sly grin and whispered, ‘We’re in.’

Chapter 14 (#ulink_bc64bb57-f934-51cb-8316-1e721f85a844)

‘Don’t get too excited, chief,’ Thierry said as Ben went over to see. ‘It isn’t exactly what you’d call cinema quality.’

Pierrot was suddenly all interested. ‘What is it? Porno?’