He Who Dares: Book Three (18 page)

“Busy place,” Mike commented.

“Yeah. Not hard if you serve good beer and good food at a reasonable price. Not like some other pubs around here.” Jenks answered. “Let's get up to the bar and have a little fun.” Jenks pulled his cap down to hide his face. It took a little doing as the patrons didn’t want to give up their places at the bar itself, but as always, Jenks had his way of getting what he wanted. Two loud-mouthed, oddly-dressed young men with long, multi-colored hair were taking up more than their fair share of the available space and taking delight in swearing every other word just to piss off the other customers. Both started to protest as Jenks pushed his way between them.

“Hey you, bugger! We were here first.” At that moment, they both looked up and saw Mike standing behind Jenks.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, boys, worry about him.” Mike smiled slightly.

“Him?” They both looked at Jenks. A moment later, they were both on their tiptoes, as Jenks stuck a pair of knives in their crotches.

“Unless you both want to start singing soprano, I strongly suggest you take your business elsewhere.”

“Told you,” Mike shrugged. It didn’t take long for the two young men to see the wisdom of the suggestion and depart for friendlier climes.

“Jenks, my old son. You do have such a way with words.”

“Gift of the gab, you might say, Skipper.”

“Yes, the sharp end of a couple of stilettos has a way of getting the um… dare I say, point across.” He laughed.

“Two pints of Watney Red Barrel, please,” Jenks ordered as the barmaid came over. “Oh, sorry, Skipper, did you want something else, like a Bass beer or something?”

“No, I’ll go with your choice of Red Barrel” Their drinks arrived, and Mike paid by swiping his credit stick across the order/payment pad. It wasn’t long before Taffy arrived and began helping out behind the long, ‘L’-shaped bar.

“I see Taffy looks as happy as ever.” Mike commented.

“Yeah, he looks a bit down in the mouth, don’t he? Maybe we should cheer him up a bit.”

“Right.” Mike started banging his empty beer mug on the counter.
“Chatta, do froma da chep!”
He yelled in Voss.” Hearing Jenks chuckle. Being the closest, Taffy came over quickly and snatched the glass out of Mike’s hand. Being a Marine, he still had the language chip in his head with a lot of alien languages, Voss was one of them.

“Don’t you go banging on my bar like that!” He growled.

“Boy, not very polite in here. Maybe we should find another, more hospitable place to drink.” Jenks just couldn’t change his voice enough to fool Taffy.

“Jenks! You miserable deserter!” Taffy yelled gripping Jenks outstretched arm, wrist to wrist. “God, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”

“Look what I found wandering about outside.” He pointed over his shoulder with a thumb. That was when Taffy looked up and saw Mike’s smiling face. For a moment he froze, as if he didn’t believe it.

“Good God, man, you’re still alive.” For a moment, Taffy’s eye glittered, as if he was about to cry.” Get yourself down to the end of the bar and I’ll let you in. Whatever it was, Taffy brushed it away, but Mike understood.

Being Welsh, his emotions were a lot closer to the surface than others, not that he’d ever admit to what he was feeling. Between the three of them, they’d done a lot of bleeding on Borland, and a few other places. To Taffy, they were family, and a lot closer than any brother could ever be. Taffy opened the flap and let them in, immediately turning the job of running the bar over to one of the barmaids, before taking them up to the third floor and the living area.

“Nice of you to come back and see me, little man.”

“Had to, I needed to check on the till.”

“Yes, Jenks was saying the he needed to check on you, seeing as how you loved drinking all the beer, pocketing the money, and sleeping with his wife.”

“Did he now? Well, that serves him right for running off in the middle of the night without so much as a by your leave.”

“I did leave you a message.” Jenks answered defensively.

“Yes. That you were going down to Devonport to do a little business, not join the ruddy Navy for Christ sake.”

“Blame him, it was his fault.” Jenks snorted, pointing a thumb at Mike.

“How do you figure that? Sergeant Grayson here wouldn’t have signed you on again in the Marines…” He stopped, seeing Jenks shake his head. “What?” Taffy asked as he led them into a sitting room and motioned towards the easy chairs.

“’Cuz he’s not Sergeant Grayson no more.”

“Not… Oh, he got promoted?” Taffy asked suspiciously, seeing the broad grin on Jenks’ face.

“You could say that. He’s now Captain… Well, Leftenant Gray of His Majesty’s Royal Navy, and now captain of the H.M.S
Nemesis
.” Jenks chuckled, seeing the look on Taffy’s face.

“Let me get us a drink and you can tell me all about it. This sounds like a story I’d like to hear. Captain, huh? Well, that’s a turn up for the books.”

It took the rest of the evening for Jenks to tell the tale, and a goodly number of beers. Of course, Jenks made the telling of the story a lot more interesting than it really was, yet oddly, he didn’t elaborate on the last part of their adventure.

“Wait, I saw that on the telly… it was you two that shot up the mag-lift and stopped the car crashing into the power station?” He sat there, his eyes flicking back and forth between them. “See what I mean? The moment I let you out of my sight you go and get into trouble again.” He sighed. “There’s nothing else for it, Sarge… Captain, if you are taking this horrible little twit with you when you go back to your ship, I’m going as well.”

“What! No, wait. I was going to discharge him here…” Mike almost choked on a swallow of beer.

“Like bloody hell you are!”

“Jenks…”

“Don’t you go giving me that load of malarkey. I just got you all sorted out and acting like a real captain, dressed proper like and all that, and now you want to go and dump me! No, sir, I’m not having that.”

“Well, I guess that settles that, all three of us are going. Be like old times again.”

“Oh, you haven’t heard the most confusing part yet, Taffy, my old son.” Jenks chuckled. Taffy raised an eyebrow in question.

“Go on.” He said at length.

“It turns out that his name isn’t Gray at all,” Jenks broke down laughing.

“Jenks… it’s not pertinent to…” Jenks waved him to silence.

“It turns out that his real name is Tregallion, and his great grandfather owns the whole damn star systems of Avalon.”

“Shut the front door! No way!”

“Way, and if that’s not confusing enough, he’s also Captain Bear of the good ship
Hemlock
.” Jenks couldn’t help himself and broke down laughing at the expression on Taffy’s face.

“So much for the rank of captain.” Mike grouched. “Thankfully the rest of my crew isn’t so disrespectful.” It took another hour, and several more pints of beer before Taffy got it all sorted out.

“Taff, I’m sorry, but at the moment I don’t have any way of signing you on. Naval regulations and all.”

“Stone a crow, Skipper, don’t you get it?”

“What?”

“Too right, you can’t sign him on to the
Nemesis
, but you can sign him on to the
Hemlock
.” Sometimes, Mike realized, he wasn’t the smartest man in the room. As Captain Bear of the mercenary ship
Hemlock
, he could sign on anyone he wanted.

“Jenks, my old son. I think you are right, but why anyone in their right mind would want to sign on is beyond me.” He looked at Taffy. “You know we are going to war, don’t you, Taff?”

“So? What else is new?” Mike shook his head. “You know you’re both crazy, don’t you?” They looked at him and nodded. They chatted on about nothing in particular until Taffy started softly singing. For a moment, Mike didn’t recognize the song, as Taffy was singing in Welsh. As always, he got sentimental when he’d had a few drinks.

Holl amrantau'r sêr ddywedant

Ar hyd y nos

"Dyma'r ffordd i fro gogoniant,"

Ar hyd y nos.

“English! You bloody Welsh twit, English!” Jenks reached over and kicked Taffy in the shin.

“OUCH! Alright, you bloody barbarian.” He started again.

All the stars' twinkles say

All through the night

"This is the way to the realm of glory,"

All through the night.

Darkness is another light

That exposes true beauty

The Heavenly family in peace

All through the night.

O, how cheerful smiles the star,

All through the night

To light its earthly sister

All through the night.

Old age is night when affliction comes

But to beautify man in his late days

We'll put our weak light together

All through the night.

Deep the silence 'round us spreading

all through the night.

Dark the path that we are treading

all through the night.

Still the coming day discerning

by the hope within us burning.

To the dawn our footsteps turning

all through the night.

Star of faith the dark adorning

all through the night.

Leads us fearless t'wards the morning

all through the night.

Though our hearts be wrapt in sorrow,

from the hope of dawn we borrow

promise of a glad tomorrow

all through the night.

Ev'ry star in heaven is singing

All through the night,

Hear the glorious music ringing

All through the night.

Songs of sweet ethereal lightness

Wrought in realms of peace and whiteness;

See, the dark gives way to brightness

All through the night.

Look, my love, the stars are smiling

All through the night.

Lighting, soothing and beguiling

Earth's sombre plight:

So, when age brings grief and sorrow,

From each other we can borrow

Faith in our sublime tomorrow,

All through the night.

Even Mike got a little misty eyed, hearing the words. They somehow seemed right for that moment and what he was about to do. After that, Mike knew it was time to go to bed before Taffy broke into another song, which he was liable to do at any moment. There were sufficient spare bedrooms for him and Jenks to have their own rooms so they didn’t have to listen to each other snore the remainder of the night. Mike slept well despite his preoccupation about seeing Anne, but after a good breakfast, he felt restless wanting to do something, anything to pass the time until the weekend. Jenks suggested a walk, Taffy was off arranging with a friend of his to take over the running of the Crown and Anchor while he and Jenks were away. He was also off to see a solicitor about what to do on the off chance neither of them came back.

“I’ve been to London a couple of times, but have yet to see anything of it.” Mike mused, feeling restless.

“Then you’ve come to the right place, my old son. Let's go for a walkabout as the Australians like to say, and I’ll show you the sights.

As a precaution, Mike put the hood up so the rain/sun screen hid his identity from the CCTV cameras. They took off at a steady pace toward the old city of London, cutting back and forth through narrow side streets to avoid the pedestrian traffic thronging the sidewalks of a normal busy London day. Jenks chatted on about one thing or another acting as a tour guide pointing out this or that bit of history. They turned down one narrow street, oddly free of pedestrian traffic, Mike seeing the name
Rupert Street
in passing. That was the moment the stars aligned and the lady of fortune turned her wheel. Half way down the street a door opened and the last man Mike expected to meet stepped out. Kevin Baker stopped for a moment and looked around, looking directly at him. For a moment, Mike forgot about the rain/sun shield and thought he’d been recognized.

“Shit!” Mike yelled as he exploded across the pavement and clipped Kevin Baker across the chin, knocking him to the ground.

CHAPTER FIVE:

Prime Minister Claude Buntard shook his head in disbelief. “What do you mean you had to let them go!” he spluttered, “good god man, we can’t have any old Tom, Dick, or Richard shooting up the countryside just because they feel like it.” By virtue of his rank as City of London Police Commissioner Gordon Parker had the misfortune of having to report to the Prime Minister in person something he couldn’t for once delegate.