Heavy Duty People: The Brethren MC Trilogy book 1 (38 page)
Read Heavy Duty People: The Brethren MC Trilogy book 1 Online
Authors: Iain Parke
I looked up in surprise and he was grinning from ear to ear as though this was the funniest joke in the world.
‘And second?’
‘Pack a teddy. A fucking big one, you know, like the ones they have at the funfair? Put it on expenses.’
We shook hands. And with that and a ‘see yah then’ he was up, gathering his guys behind him with a nod and off out of the café with a hundred pairs of eyes once again surreptitiously following him, before not quite swivelling back to me as people leant over the tables in whispered conversations.
I sat back and sipped my previously untouched coffee.
Gradually a few more lines from back in my O-level days came to me.
But Brutus says he was ambitious
And Brutus is an honourable man
.
Perhaps it was just as well that we’d dropped that line of discussion before we’d got too far into it I decided. I doubted that Wibble would find the reference flattering.
Should I take him up on his offer I wondered? Would it be safe? Meeting him here in public was one thing. Riding off with him and the whole crew God knows where was something else. Talk about exposed, I thought.
But then as he said, I was exposed anywhere really if they wanted me badly enough.
And after all, I thought, as I swirled my coffee around in its mug.
For Brutus is an honourable man
So are they all, all honourable men
–
Honourable, I remembered Mr Majewski saying, now that was a double edged word.
I sat for a while after I had finished. I don’t know why, other than that it seemed right to let them have a chance to ride off before I got up to go.
It was a while before anyone new came into the restaurant and sat down in one of the free booths either side of me.
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The trilogy concludes with Heavy Duty Trouble
.
[1]
Across all 1%er clubs there are distinct classes of association that can lead ultimately to full membership. Potential recruits go through a period of association with the club (usually known as being a ‘hang around’ or something similar) before, if they seem suitable, a member may put them forward for consideration. They will then go through a period of trial or apprenticeship which lasts for at least one and sometimes more years before their membership is voted on. The Legion used the description striker for guys at this stage (a term also used in Australia and some US clubs) as the equivalent of a Hells Angels’ ‘Prospect’, or a ‘Probationary Outlaw’. NB: All foonotes by Iain Parke.
[2]
The more correct term for what is usually referred to in the press as a ‘chapter’.
[3]
The
New Wave of British Heavy Metal typified by bands such as Iron Maiden which emerged after punk.
[4]
Biker slogan Born To Lose/Fuck The World (or occasionally, Fight To Win, depending on who’s talking).
[5]
Disparaging term for
Usual Jap Multi – a reference to the ubiquitous layout at the time of larger Japanese bikes of an in-line four cylinder mounted across the frame – on the grounds they were therefore all the same.
[6]
At 250cc, the liquid cooled two stroke Yamaha RD250LC was the fastest bike a learner could legally ride and in one jump took the speed at which you could ride, aged 17 on L plates, to over 100mph.
[7]
Adrian ‘Gyppo’ Leverton, born 26 November 1959, believed to have died of an overdose sometime during the night of Saturday 21 May 1994.
His body was found on
Tuesday 24 May 1994 by his girlfriend Sharon Wright at the flat they shared. The cause of death was a cocktail of alcohol, barbiturates and intravenously injected heroin although the pathologist noted that there was little evidence of any previous intravenous drug use.
An inquest was held and the coroner recorded an open verdict.
[8]
Peter ‘Tiny’ Gresham, born 10 November 1945, was found dead on Friday 21 July 1994. Like Adrian ‘Gyppo’ Leverton previously, the post mortem showed a significant quantity of barbiturates and alcohol, together with an intravenous injection of heroin but no evidence of prior use of intravenous drugs. However the post mortem also revealed significant levels of bruising and the coroner’s inquest recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. No one has ever been charged in connection with his death and officially the case remains open.
[9]
Cocaine is usually smuggled in compressed 1 kilogram wrapped blocks known as ‘bricks’. Henry Loaiza-Ceballos, alias El Alacran, ‘the Scorpion’ was a member of the notorious Colombian drugs dealing Cali cartel and allegedly the man in charge of most of their military operations. Bricks in wrappings stencilled with a scorpion logo would be assumed to have been sourced from his part of the cartel.
[10]
William ‘Billy Whizz’ White, born 8 June 1964, was killed instantaneously on Wednesday 17 August 1994 when a bomb made from military style explosives went off, where it had been attached under the floor of his car with magnets, while he was driving through open countryside. The bomb had been detonated by remote control, apparently using a mobile telephone.
No one has ever been charged in connection with his death and officially the case remains open.
[11]
Ken ‘Butcher’ Moore, born 2 April 1948, was found dead on Monday 29 August 1994 in the cold store of his butcher’s shop having been killed it’s believed on the Saturday evening. He had been handcuffed and been suspended by the cuffs from a meat hook in the ceiling. He had then been shot twice at point blank range with both barrels of a sawn off shotgun and police had to rely on fingerprints for identification. The gun was found at the scene although it had been wiped clean of fingerprints.
Again, no one has ever been charged in connection with his death and officially the case also remains open.
[12]
Disparaging nickname for The Brethren based on their black and red colours, from Minnie the Minx as opposed to Denis the Menace.
[13]
Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES) was invented by the American air force during the Vietnam war and is designed for dropping supplies from an aircraft when they either cannot land or the target area is too small for a normal parachute drop. A set of drogue parachutes are released which pull the load from the rear cargo hatch of the airplane and then help to break the load’s skid on impact. With the right specification pallets the technique can be used for quite large objects even up to small armoured fighting vehicles. There is a video clip on www.youtube.com of the Australian air force dropping a tank using this method.
[14]
The River Run at Laughlin Nevada is the largest bike rally in the Western USA. It’s held in April and attracts up to 100,000 bikers from across the country, mostly normal types, but as it’s such a public event the patch clubs always show up as well and ‘put on a show’, most notably the Hells Angels who dominate the US South West.
Having originated in
California, the Hells Angels have had a running feud with The Mongols since the late 70s after The Mongols adopted a ‘California’ bottom rocker without the Angel’s permission. Over the years this war had rumbled on in a low key way involving shootings, stabbings and car bombs. Tension had been growing again between the two in the late 90s as The Mongols membership in the South West grew much faster than that of the Hells Angels.
In 2002 both clubs were at the River Run when a group of Hells Angels from
San Francisco found themselves in the bar of the Harrah’s casino where a much larger group of Mongols had assembled. Hearing the news, members of other Angel charters rapidly gathered and rode to the casino where they entered, and although knowing they were still outnumbered, immediately launched an all out attack on the Mongols on the floor of the casino in full view of the security staff and surveillance equipment. One Mongol and three Hells Angels were killed in the ensuing fight.
Under the ferocity of the assa
ult some Mongols were seen to flee the scene or to take off their colours to escape detection. But despite the odds, and their own level of casualties, the Hells Angels remain proud to say that, as Martin had put it to me earlier in the same interview when we had been discussing it, ‘No Angel ran and no Angel hid their colours. Every Angel knew that in a fight to the death like that [with a rival gang], they could rely on each other totally, they would each die for each other.’
[15]
Martin’s somewhat ironic nickname for ‘The Prince’ which possibly rather justifies Bertrand Russell’s famous description of it as ‘a handbook for gangsters.’
From speaking to Sharon I understand that the version he read was the Penguin classics George Bull translation of 1961 which I have therefore consulted (together with a more recent translation by Tim Parks), although in practice Martin did not tend to quote it word for word but to paraphrase the bits that were of interest to him.