A day in the hills.
Chapter Two.
The following day Cowley was still in an unusually good mood and now seemed anxious to sweep Bodie along with it too having disappointed him earlier when he refused to open the large wooden box of Kelmer rifles. Bodie had hoped to have had the chance to see or even handle one while in the confines of the Army barracks but the box was securely fastened and Cowley wanted it to stay like that until we were safely home. However, he needn't have worried. Bodie appeared to be enjoying this excursion as much as his boss and, I in turn, gained a lot of pleasure from seeing them both so at ease.
"So Bodie," Cowley said as I turned the van out of a country lane into an even narrower one. "What do you know about Wales?"
"Well Sir, it's full of daffodils." Bodie pointed gleefully out of the window at the first few bright blooms of Spring in the hedges. "And sheep, rugby players and coal miners."
His stereotypical answer didn't come as any surprise to our boss. "Aye, but you've forgotten one very important thing."
"The beautiful women? Well to be honest Sir, I haven't seen any yet and you can't count those that were in the pub last night. More like men they were, built like….."
"No Bodie. I was refering to the fact that they, like me, are Celts. A pure race."
"And I'm not?"
"No Bodie," Cowley replied looking relieved. "You are most definetly not."
I'm not sure if Bodie was hurt or puzzled but I didn't have time to reflect on it for once again we came across a small flock of sheep meandering down the lane. Whilst I didn't think for one second that both Bodie and Cowley were any less vigilant than me I found myself somewhat out of my comfort zone when working out in the countryside and unfamiliar country at that. It seemed to heighten my awareness and though we appeared to be in the middle of nowhere and had not seen another living soul for quite some time I took nothing for granted. The cargo we were carrying was worth millions. However, the beauty of the rugged landscape was not lost on my artistic eye.
The van moved through the animals slowly and we headed down the hillside and onto bleak open moorland speckled with more sheep. The morning had sparkled with a thick early March frost that had now given way to weak hazy sunshine. We hadn't set out until just after mid- day to pick up the consignment and now the approaching evening began to bring back the cold.
"Wow! Look! A human!" Bodie laughed at the sight of a tractor ahead of us as we left the moor and dropped down into a high hedged lane again with a farmhouse on the hillside in the distance. He was not quite so amused when we caught up with it and laboured behind it at walking speed.
"Patience, Bodie," Cowley advised calmy. "We are in their enviroment now."
I suddenly felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and Cowley beside me sensed me stiffen noticeably.
"Everything alright, Doyle?"
"I don't know, Sir. Something doesn't feel right, I don't like this."
Bodie was instantly alert. My "feelings" have nearly always been proved right in the past and he glanced in the side mirror just as we both saw a car coming up behind us flashing its lights. Instinctively he drew his weapon in readiness and, as he did so, the tractor stopped and its driver got down and swung round to face us with a gun in his hand.
"Get down!" I yelled and slewed the van through an open gateway on our left as a bullet shattered the windscreen. A door of the car behind was flung open and its occupant spilled out to open fire. Bodie batted away huge pieces of glass as I drove across the field endeavouring to keep the floundering van moving over the rough field sloped upwards and the van soon began to feel the strain. Bodie, hanging out of the side window let off a round of shots taking out one man immediately. The van ground to a halt just as Bodie's next shot caught the other man.
"There may be more of them! Head upwards!" I yelled and we all tumbled out of the van. Bodie and I, quickly retrieved the rifles and, carrying the heavy wooden box between us, lumbered ungainly up the steep hillside. Cowley behind us seemed to labour and occasionally stopped. I twisted round to look at him.
"Alright, Sir?"
"Get on!" he threw out a hand to urge us on and after several minutes we veered off to rest against the field wall, breathing hard.
"Leg playing you up, Sir?" Bodie enquired eventually when Cowley caught up with us and sat down heavily beside me. He appeared in pain and loosened his tie.
"I think it might be a bit more serious than that I'm afraid, Bodie."
We both stared at him and in the growing darkness he pulled open his coat to reveal an obvious dark stain spreading across his shirt.
"How the hell…." Bodie began.
"The first shot…through the windscreen. I was….slow to react."
"Why didn't you say something?" I asked as he allowed me to open his shirt and it was evident the bullet had lodged itself in the middle of his chest.
"Like what?" he said stoically.
I pulled his coat back around him and turned to meet Bodie's equally concerned gaze.
"From the road I saw a house over the top of this hill." I told him. "You stay here with Cowley. I'll see if I can get help."
It had begun to rain and I pulled my jacket collar up around my neck and moved away from the pair. When I rounded the top of the hill I could just make out the house in the distance but there were no lights on and when I finally reached it it was clear the house had been long since abandoned. Half the windows were either broken or missing and there wasn't much left of the roof. From my vantage point I could just make out a light which must have been several miles away.
As the reality of our situation dawned on me I made my way back down the hillside slipping repeatedly on the wet grass. Were it not for finding the wall again and following it downwards I'd have become disorientated. There was now no natural light left and not even a sign of a street lamp anywhere.
"Well?" enquired Bodie hopefully as I threw myself down beside him.
"No good. It's abandoned, falling to bits but at least it's shelter. We need to get Cowley out of the cold and wet."
"I'm still here, you know!" Cowley snarled. "And it's Mr. Cowley to you!"
Bodie's eyes glinted in the dim light as we exchanged glances. "What about the Kelmers?" he asked me as we helped our boss to his feet.
"We'll come…."I began.
"Leave them! They're not…..important." Cowley snapped.
"Not important? I thought….."
"I said leave them!" Cowley began to sag in our arms as he bawled at us.
"Well that's not going to happen. I haven't got them this far just for anyone to find."
"If you are to disobey me Doyle, then consider yourself fired."
"Well thank you, Sir. That's the best bit of news I've had all day." I muttered angrily at the man.
It seemed to take ages to get Cowley to the house and he slowed with each step. Dispite the pain he was in though he didn't show it and we pushed through the rotten wooden door of the building and settled him on the cold concrete floor. He shivered, breathing hard as we tried to make him as comfortable as possible.
"Bet you wish you'd worn your thermals now, don't you, Sir?" Bodie attempted to lighten the mood though it failed to mask his worry at this sudden turn of events. Cowley didn't respond, only dropping his head onto his chest against the pain.
"He needs a hospital." Bodie stated the obvious once we were clear of the house and heading cautiously down the field well aware that the two gunmen may not have been alone.
"Yeah, I know." I whispered in agreement, as equally worried about our boss. "After we've got the rifles I'll go down the lane. It must lead to somewhere or, hopefully, a phone box."
Following the line of the stone wall we eventually came across the wooden box and, with the cold driving rain in our faces, we picked it up and began the slog back up to the house. Pausing to catch our breath Bodie then led the way with the handle of the box in his hands behind him and his head down. I could barely make him out even though he was just feet from me. I don't think I've ever experienced darkness like it, it was like walking with my eyes shut.
Suddenly there was the clank of what sounded like an iron chain and Bodie let out a sharp cry. I felt his end of the box drop to the ground with a thud as the dark shape of my partner disappeared.
"Bodie?"
There was a deafening silence, punctuated only by the odd bleat from distant sheep and the hammering of my own wildly beating heart.
"Bodie?"