| Chapter Fourteen - An Unexpected Greeting |
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I climbed the stairs bristling with new hope and excitement at Freds
agreement to join our little venture but was quickly deflated by the
fact Will was not in the bar waiting for my arrival. I shrugged and
decided to work on the assumption that he had already retired to bed.
Fred soon arrived from the basement and spent a little time explaining
who I was to Annie, his wife. After the exclamations of how much I had
apparently grown, the three of us spent the rest of the evening in Fred
and Annies private dining room. As we sat eating, drinking and catching
up, my mind was cast back to the days when my father must have sat in
this self same place. Our little celebration continued until the small
hours when I wearily went to my bed.
I awoke the next morning and breakfasted in the bustle of Annies kitchen, when I was approached by a young errand boy wearing a railway badge. I couldn't supress a smile as he asked for me by a pseudonym I had used whilst in the army under the tutelage of my fomer companion Old Tom. As the boy walked from the room I unwrapped the brown paper parcel and was shocked to find my original Nex Eversor Handgun in a black leather holster along with a note written in Tom's cramped copperplate handwriting. "Thought you might have use for this on your adventures, hope you like the holster I appropriated for you. Good luck and god speed my boy. Tom" Sitting back, I was delighted to find that Tom had included the reusable magazines I had created for the device. Then, after spending awhile going over its mechanisims and making sure that no damage had been done to the piece, I strapped it to my hip ready for whenever I might need it. It was mid-day before I sat in a comfy armchair in the bar of the inn, reading a book which Fred had loaned me, which detailed the trading customs of some foreign countries. It was a fascintating read and though it was indeed research for the forthcoming mission, I could not help but enjoy some of the more intriguing traditions. The clock by the bar struck half past two. It had been far too long since I had last seen Will and therefore I decided a brief walk along to our craft was in order, to search for any sign of him which would alleviate some of my nervous energy. Perhaps it could also shed some light upon where he had gone. Exiting the inn I walked along the main street. Even at this time of day the thoroughfares of this little town were quiet, and so it was not too hard for me to become aware of a person following me. I used every trick I knew to try and see who it could be but these proved fruitless. I must have been considering the problem far too hard for my army training alerted me too late to the fact I had walked into a wide square with no cover; there was a moment of silence where I cursed my temporary lapse of judgement before the first shot rang out. I dived into an alleyway and swore as my knee connected heavily with a loose cobble. Running was out of the question - that much I could tell as I felt pain spread through the joint. I pulled my Nex Eversor Pistol from its holster and extended its optical sighting apparatus. I checked the winder on the magazine and then finally flicked its fire selector to the single high accuracy firing setting. I was also painfully aware that this would be my first field test of the gun's capabilities. I looked into the square partly with my own eyes and partly making use of a reflection from a window in a derelict shop. There had to be a way of finding the unseen gunman. Geometric calculations flashed through my head and I guessed a rough location. Crawling to the walls end I poked the scope around the corner and scanned the top row of windows of a building, there was no sign of anyone. My breath caught in my throat as I felt that familiar feeling of impending death that I had felt in many a cold night in the ranks. Then finally my luck seemed to catch and hold like a falling climbers last grasp for a handhold and I saw the gunman almost totally concealed by a half closed sash window. I could not get a clear line at first to any target, I wiped my brow and looked again into the shadows beyond the window, where I spotted his shoulder held too high and exposed to my searching telescopic sight. I took a half breath, relaxed and fired. The shot's report cracked like a whip around the confined square and I was rewarded with a spray of blood and a half muffled cry of pain. Seizing my chance I flicked the fire selector to the full expeditious clockwork firing setting. I made myself ready before taking my chance and began to move as fast as I could through the shadows at the side of the square. Stepping into the open, I raised my mechanized pistol and fired, noting with grim satisfaction how rapidly it spat bullet after bullet at the concealed enemy. As the magazine ended I ducked into a nearby alley and made my escape in the direction of the inn. |
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