It normally took between five to eight seconds before the subject lost consciousness. This guy’s system had been running on bad fuel for so long that his bloodstream was already starved of oxygen, and he held out for much less time. Ben kept the stranglehold clamped down tight until he felt him go limp.
The bus rumbled on up the street.
Nick was staring.
Ben checked the big guy’s hoodie pockets. He found nearly fifty pounds in rumpled and grimy notes, along with a small bottle of ecstasy pills and a paper bag containing some dried-out magic mushrooms. ‘That’s your lesson for the day,’ he said to the unconscious hulk as he counted the money and shoved all the stuff in his own jacket pocket. ‘Cost of doing business with the wrong people.’
‘What did you do to him?’ Nick gasped.
‘He’s just grabbing forty winks,’ Ben said. They were approaching another stop, crowded with people waiting to board. ‘Smells in here. I vote we change buses.’
Chapter 6
‘I can’t believe what you just did,’ Nick said for at least the dozenth time as they hopped on another bus going the same way. ‘Oh, my God!’ He was as high and starry-eyed as a young boy after his first ever pint of beer. ‘I mean, how did you do that?’
‘It’s just a simple gimmick. A granny could do it. I’ll show you sometime.’
‘It’s incredible.’
‘It’s nothing.’
This time they took a seat downstairs, in the back. Not a knife-wielding mugger in sight. ‘What did you call them?’ Ben asked.
‘Crusties. Didn’t used to be a problem, but now there seem to be more of them all the time. When they’re not selling dope or drinking in the streets, they’re intimidating people for cash.’
‘Well, there’s one who might think twice next time,’ Ben said.
‘I’ll bet. I suppose you’ve done a public service.’
‘He said he knew you. What’s that about?’
Nick paused a second before replying. ‘I’ve given him money now and then.’
‘Voluntarily? Or on demand?’
‘They can be pretty forceful. It’s hard to refuse. I’m not like you, Ben.’
‘It doesn’t take much just to say no. Extortion and bullying don’t deserve a reward.’
‘Giving in is just exacerbating the situation, I know. But I suppose part of me feels sorry for them.’
‘You’d be feeling sorrier all sliced and diced with a knife hanging out of your guts,’ Ben said.
Nick couldn’t argue with that. ‘What are you doing to do with the, erm, items you took from him?’
‘You want them?’
‘I don’t think so. Not my style.’
‘I’ll dump them in the first toilet I pass. Except the money. I’ll find a better use for that.’
‘Spoils of war?’
‘I wouldn’t call it that.’
Nick sat smiling and shaking his head in amazement for a few moments. Then he said, ‘Actually, I don’t know why I’m surprised by what you did back there. I shouldn’t be at all. Considering.’
Ben looked at him. ‘Considering what?’
‘I don’t just mean, you know, the wild things you got up to when you were a student. It seems you had a pretty amazing military career. Which would suggest to me that that idiot back there got off pretty damn lucky.’
‘And how would you know that?’
Nick shrugged. ‘Well, I have a confession to make. I looked you up.’
‘You did?’
‘A few months ago. Now that we have all this wonderful technology at our disposal, I was getting all mid-life-crisis-ish one evening and googled the names of a few of our old friends. I was horrified to learn of the deaths of Simeon and Michaela. I was doing a concert tour in Japan when they had their car accident, and I’d no idea. Came as a complete shock. I still can’t get over it.’ Nick shook his head mournfully. ‘That makes you and me the last of the old gang, doesn’t it?’
Ben said nothing. For two reasons. First, because he knew full well that the fatal crash had been no accident: he’d been there and witnessed it. And gone on to avenge the lives of his dead friends. Second, because of the private history that existed between him, Simeon and Michaela. Things that Nick didn’t know, some of which not even Ben himself had known for many years, and which would remain a secret forever. Ben stayed silent, waited for Nick to go on.
‘Anyway, there aren’t a lot of Benedict Hopes in the world. I found your business website, with your photo on it, which was how I knew it was you. I forget the name of it now. Le something.’
Ben had never liked his picture being on the website. Jeff’s idea. ‘Le Val,’ he said.
‘That’s it. Your bio doesn’t offer a great deal of information. Which I presume is intentional, because you can’t reveal much about your history. But I can guess.’
‘Can you?’
Nick shrugged. ‘Tactical training centre. What is that?’
‘What it sounds like,’ Ben said. ‘We train people.’
‘People? Anyone? People like me?’
‘I don’t think it would be your thing, Nick. Military and specialised police units, mainly. Some private outfits, too.’
‘What a strange world you live in. I had no idea such things existed.’
‘It’s just a job,’ Ben said.
‘Sounds like a little more than that.’
‘Keeps me out of trouble,’ Ben lied. More truthfully he added, ‘It’s been going a few years now. We might be expanding before long. Maybe southern France, or maybe further afield in Europe. Don’t know yet.’
‘I don’t suppose there’s much call for that kind of thing in Britain.’
‘Too many legal restrictions,’ Ben said. ‘Unless you’re the Ministry of Defence. That lot can do whatever the hell they please.’
Nick pursed his lips and nodded. ‘What did you do before that? It seemed from your bio as though there was a few years’ gap after you quit the army.’
‘Oh, this and that,’ Ben said.
‘So secretive?’
Ben shrugged. More than ever, he wished he wasn’t so easy to look up online. Damn that Jeff Dekker.
‘Let me guess,’ Nick said, smiling. ‘You were a professional assassin. Taking out corrupt dictators, or polishing off enemies for the mob.’
‘You’ve been watching too many movies.’
‘A secret agent, then.’
‘I helped people,’ Ben said, just to steer the conversation away. The bus was rumbling slowly northwards through Oxford. He was thinking about flouting the regulations and lighting up a Gauloise.
Nick raised his eyebrows. ‘Helped people?’
Ben shrugged again. Why couldn’t they just have discussed the weather, like everyone else? He said, ‘Sometimes people need help.’
‘The kind of help that they can’t otherwise get?’
‘That kind of thing,’ Ben said.
Nick was a shrewd guy, and he was looking at him with thoughtful eyes. Ben decided to say no more about himself. ‘So who’s coming to lunch?’ he asked.
‘Just a few pals. Music people, mostly. They’re an all right bunch. You’ll like them. One of them is my old professor, Adrian Graves, whom I haven’t seen for — crumbs, must be a couple of years. Where does the time go?’
Ben was wondering the same thing, as well as when he’d last heard anyone say ‘crumbs’.