To Kill a Grey Man (14 page)

He then shut down the link to The Firm and skimmed through various
banks and credit card companies to get information on all three men.
 
After this he hacked into the central
National Health Service databanks and found out only one of the men was still
working, albeit part time.
 
He wrote down
his details.

“Right,” said The Grey Man.
 
“Time to sleep.”

“Do you want help upstairs?” asked Jonathan kindly.

“No thank you.
 
I will sleep
here.
 
I have memorized most of the
furniture today and I know how to get to the downstairs toilet.
 
I do not want to be falling down the stairs
at night.”

“Okay.”

“Bear with me.
 
I am not used
to any help and hate to be touched.
 
I
have survived a lifetime on my own.
 
Your
father and Surge know this and respect it.
 
This blindness is just another obstacle to overcome and I will.
 
Do you know why we had sandwiches tonight for
dinner?”

“No,” said Jonathan.

“Because anything hot on a plate I would have had to be fed and your
father knew I would have hated that.
 
With
sandwiches I can work out where the plate is and eat like everyone else.
 
It shows the kind of man your father is and
the thought he puts into everything.”

“In the future I will learn how to eat hot food without being able
to see it, as I will learn how to navigate stairs and dress and undress myself
and all the hundreds of other things blind people do.
 
I just need a little time.”

“Thank you for explaining,” said Jonathan.

“You are a fine boy.
 
I know
how proud your father is of you.
 
Now let’s
get some sleep and continue the good fight in the morning.”

Jonathan walked through the dark house and upstairs into his bedroom.
 
Today had been the most frightening, exciting
day of his life.
 
He wondered what
tomorrow would bring.

Chapter 19

A Visit to the Doctors

The next day was glorious.
 
The
sun bounced off the sea and streamed through the windows.
 
Even though the air was still a little cold, it
buoyed up everyone’s spirits.

Surge made a light breakfast of tea, coffee, toast and cereal and
then Collins got on the phone.

“Hello,” said a cultured voice.
 
“Dr
Alding
here.”

“I am Falstaff,” said Collins, giving the code word.

“Oh, I am afraid I do not work with any Falstaff’s anymore,” said
Dr 
Alding
.
 
“I am retired.”

“I know,” said Collins.
 
“But
we need you and this would be extremely lucrative.
 
All I am after is a consultation.”

“Okay,” said Dr
Alding
.
 
“I am working tomorrow at a small private hospital
just outside Basingstoke.
 
Can you be
there at 10.00 am?”

“Sure,” said Collins.
 
“I hope
I do not have to tell you to keep this highly confidential?”

“Of course,” said Dr
Alding
.
 
“Not even my secretary will know.
 
Be there exactly at 10.00 am and walk
straight in.
 
I will be waiting for you
and by the way I would prefer cash.”

“Of course,” said Collins and took the address from Dr
Alding
.
 
“See you there.”

“Right,” said Collins once he had put down the phone.
 
“We got it.
 
Jonathan you are to drive and stay with the car.
 
I will go in with The Grey Man.
 
Surge you need to secure the perimeter and
run interference.”

 
“No problem,” said Surge.
 
“I would be delighted.”

Surge turned to Jonathan, “There could be some rough stuff tomorrow
and I may need your help.
 
Get your
sports stuff on and meet me in the garage in ten minutes.”
 
Jonathan ran upstairs.

“What do you have planned?” said Collins.

“Not a lot,” said Surge.
 
“Just a few tricks that might keep him awake and alert.
 
I don’t want him involved but if he is this
may just keep him alive.”

“Fine,” said Collins smiling to soften his words.
 
“Just don’t break him before tomorrow.”

Surge reversed the Range Rover out of the garage onto the drive,
angling it so the number plate could not be seen from over the wall.
 
The garage was a large rectangle around
twelve feet high and very deep.
 
It had
more than enough room for his needs.

Jonathan came through the inner door dressed in his new shorts and
trainers.
 
Surge started by putting them
both through a set up of warm-up exercises to stretch and condition the muscles.
 
Once they were warm, he turned to Jonathan
and said, “Now hit me.”

Jonathan had seen what Surge could do.
 
He was a martial arts specialist and reasoned
that he knew what he was doing, so he attacked, throwing a right then a left
punch which Surge blocked easily without moving his feet.
 
Jonathan attacked again.
 
Same result.
 
Now he was getting frustrated.
 
He
was a strong, tall boy and even though he had never had a fight, he thought he
could handle himself.
 
To be treated so
casually was an insult, so he attacked again, this time faster and more
viciously.

“Good,” said Surge, now finally having to move his feet a little as
well as his arms.
 
“Keep going.”

Jonathan pounded in, throwing everything he had until after just a
few minutes he was exhausted.
 
His face
was red and his chest heaving, not one punch had got through, not even close.
 
Surge had hardly moved and was standing there
completely composed.

“This is what would happen to you if you ever try to attack someone without
any idea of what you are doing,” said Surge.
 
“Let’s examine what happened. You put no thought whatsoever into your attack.
 
All you wanted to do was punch me in the face
and even though I repeatedly stopped you, you did not have the sense to vary
your punches or attack anywhere else.
 
Your
head came down, your adrenalin went up and you kept pounding away.
 
In the real world you would have lasted less
than ten seconds.”

“You have a good mind.
 
You
must engage if you get into a combat situation.
 
So let’s start from the beginning and go through
the basics.
 
The main lesson to learn is
to use your major areas of strength against your opponent’s weakest, so your
bone against their nerves, your major muscles against their minor muscles and
joints.
 
Got it?”
 
Jonathan nodded.

“So punching someone in the jaw using your bone against their bone
rarely works,” continued Surge.
 
“Now punching them in the throat or groin, much more effective.
 
Got it?”

“Yes,” said Jonathan just beginning to recover.

“Now,” said Surge.
 
“Let’s
discuss where to hit.
 
Stand up.”

Surge squatted down on his haunches and grabbed Jonathan’s foot.

“The feet hold some of the most delicate bones in the body.
 
If you stamp down with your heel on another person’s
foot with shoes on you will almost certainly break a bone, normally this one
and this one,” said Surge pointing at different parts of the foot.
 
“Destabilizing your
opponent.”

He then grabbed Jonathan’s ankle.
 
“A kick here or here will crack the joint and is really painful.”

Pointing at Jonathan’s shin he said, “This is designed to protect
the muscles in the calf.
 
Always
 
attack them from behind where it is soft.”
 
He squeezed Jonathan’s calf muscle causing him
to jump from the pain.
 
“Above the shin
and before the knee cap is a soft spot, a void.
 
You can attack it in a number of ways which will drop a man.
 
The knee cap, when the leg is straight, takes
approximately sixteen pounds of pressure to shatter.
 
It can be dislocated by hitting it here and
here.”

Surge went on for the next twenty minutes pointing out the main
attack points in the body from destroying the spleen, stopping the heart, through
to disrupting the blood flow by attacking the lymphatic glands.

“So is this why they call you The Surgeon, because you know so much
about the body and how it works?” said Jonathan, mesmerized.

“No.
 
It’s because everytime I
hit someone I cut them!”

They sparred through the rest of the morning.
 
Jonathan attacking some of the lethal areas
that Surge had pointed out and Surge defending.
 
For anyone less skilled than Surge it would have been highly dangerous
but not once did Jonathan land a telling blow or even look like he would, but his
repertoire of moves improved as did his accuracy and speed.

After lunch Surge showed Jonathan a series of moves or ‘tricks’ as
he called them.
 
“Look,” he said.
 
“Most men are right handed.
 
If they have had no training they will try to
hit you in the face with that right hand as you did with me this morning.
 
I am going to try to do that to you.
 
I want you to block my right arm.
 
Step in close so I cannot swing my left and
use the same elbow of the blocking arm in a tight circle to hit me on the side
of the face.
 
They faced off.
 
Surge threw a lazy right and Jonathan blocked
then stepped in swinging his elbow, stopping just before Surge’s cheek.

“Good,” said Surge.
 
“Now faster.
 
Now again.”

For the next hour then went over and over this move until Jonathan
stopped thinking and just reacted.
 
At
that point Surge stepped back, bowed formally and then he took Jonathan through
a different trick.

By 7.00 pm that evening when Collins called them in for dinner, Jonathan
was worn out.
 
He ate in silence and went
to bed, dropping instantly into a deep sleep.

“How did he do?” asked Collins.

“Not bad,” said Surge.
 
“He is
fast and strong but a gentle boy.
 
Let’s
hope all this does not come to anything.”

The next morning they loaded up the Range Rover and set off for
Basingstoke along the M27 and up the M3 turning off onto a duel carriageway
that led to the town centre.
 
Basingstoke
is renowned for its roundabouts and after three in quick
succession,
Jonathan pulled off on a slip road and drove down a small country lane towards
Old Basing.
 
He then turned right up a
single road and stopped.

Surge and Collins jumped out and dropped the tailgate.
 
They lifted the floor and by the side of the
spare wheel there was a hidden catch.
 
Collins
slipped it sideways and a long section of the floor slid to the right.
 
Inside was a long, slim leather bag.
 
Collins lifted it out and opened the flap.
 
Inside were sets of license plates with
numbers that had been copied from genuine Range Rovers based in other parts of
the UK.
 
Surge took the front one and Collins
the rear.
 
The number plates had strong,
thin magnets attached and it only took seconds to swap them with the ones on
their vehicle.
 
Once done, Surge took off,
running into the trees, circling the building.
 
Collins gave him five minutes and then told Jonathan to drive on.
 
The small hospital had only one single lane
road in and out and it opened into a large car park.
 
The building was two stories high, smart and
new with a neatly cut lawn out front.
 
Collins
jumped out and walked into reception where he picked a wheelchair from a line
of them stacked by the reception.
 
He
wheeled it back and carefully helped The Grey Man get in.
 
Both men wore caps which they pulled down to cover
their faces a little.
 
Then they waited.

Surge had run all round the building and was now out front.
 
He took an already tied bandage from his
pocket and pulled it over his head.
 
It
covered one eye and disguised his features.
 
He walked into reception then turned right to
enter the toilets.
 
From there he phoned
Collins.

“There are two of them,” he said.
 
“One in a grey c class Mercedes parked across from the front door and one
sitting in the waiting room, a small ratty looking man you cannot miss.
 
They haven’t seen me yet.”

“Okay,” said Collins and started forward with The Grey Man.
 
Jonathan sat rigid at the wheel.
 
He knew to stay alert at his post no matter
what happened.
 
He was their only getaway.

Surge slipped into the waiting room directly behind the watcher who
was pretending to read a newspaper.
 
Surge
could see his ear piece and microphone obviously connected to the man in the
car.

Collins and The Grey Man came through the double doors and kept
walking straight.
 
The watcher
immediately noticed the two ageing men, one obviously with eyesight problems
and he whispered into the mike, “Got them.”

Surge lent forward and hit the man hard just behind the ear, a short
punch where his fist moved no more than two inches.
 
The man slumped forward and Surge called out for
a nurse.
 
“Can you help this man,
Nurse?
 
I think he has fainted,” he said.