Brute Force

125

I leant down and gave her a couple of slaps to bring her round. 'Come on!' I wanted her to be fully aware.

I felt in her jeans pocket for the knife or whatever it was she'd been going to unscrew the TPU lid with.

I found a stubby flat-head screwdriver.

'Come on, wake up.'

She was sort of there. I sat on the bunk with her at my feet.

Next door, the engines idled. I was getting warm again. My ears and hands stung as they came back to life.

I stared down at her. Her mass of hair glistened with blood and was matted against her head.

I didn't blame her for being pissed off with me. If I'd been close to my dad I'd have felt the same. And I understood, too, why she'd want to know the traitor who gave up the ship to the British in the first place. I didn't even have a problem with the car device, now that I knew that it was just a ploy. In fact, I admired her for not giving up. I'd admired her dad for the same reason. They might have been the enemy, but they were solid.

The only reason I was still sitting here and she was on the floor was that she'd brought the other four into it, and they had nothing to do with the world that she and I moved in. They were real people, and none of them would be safe unless I put an end to this.

She'd also killed Lynn. He died doing his job, even though it wasn't his job any more. He was one of the old school. We needed more like him. I would make a point of contacting his kids and telling them what had happened. They needed to know how the man they despised had met his end.