The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2452 by Angharad Copyright© 2014 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

Taking up a vantage point on the veranda of my bedroom, I waited for darkness to fall. Looking to the orchard, there were no signs of anything moving bigger than a hedgehog. Had Cortez managed to neutralise the two commandos? It was possible but unlikely. Where were the police? They’d disappeared in a very short time and were they dead or captured? I could be pretty well on my own, so every arrow would have to count. These weren’t blunt target arrows, they had a short point in very hard steel designed to punch through bullet proof vests or flak jackets without a metal plate in them. They were the equivalent of armour piercing. If they hit you, it would be a deep wound which is obviously potentially lethal. That could mean legal consequences; but to be prosecuted, one has to be alive.

I surveyed the grounds of the house and nothing was moving, not even a mouse. Looking again I saw a cat strolling across the drive only for it to suddenly dart away as if something spooked it. There it was, a figure dressed in black moving in the shadows towards the house. Watching with one hand on the image intensifier and the other on my bow, pre loaded with an arrow, I followed the figure as it moved closer to me. With a pistol in its hand it was unlikely to be a soldier. From fifty feet I was just about to loose an arrow towards the target when the stalker was suddenly yanked almost silently into a doorway, the muffled sound of a blow and the body was gently dumped on the ground. It seemed like the hired help were earning their money.

I hid in my view point again and continued my survey. Nothing seemed to happen for ten or twenty minutes then my attention was taken by someone hissing to attract attention. It wasn’t mine, I was sure of that, so again I watched in the greeny eyepiece of the image intensifier as someone crept along by the garage and unseen by them someone waited in ambush. A few more yards and a bag was thrown over his head and he was taken down but not before he’d discharged a round from his pistol.

This must have been some sort of pre arranged signal because the next moment there were four of five men running up the drive with lights on their foreheads or hats, making them easy targets. Three or four seconds after they started their charge they all went sprawling as an unseen trip wire was pulled and they all fell over it. The two defenders fell upon them in an instant and they were clubbed or kicked into submission but not before someone had shouted, “Run, it’s a trap.”

I heard footsteps heading away from the house, and I abseiled down to the ground and ran to cut them off. I saw two men running about twenty feet ahead of me, their head lights making it easy to see. I’d had to toss the bow over my shoulder as I dropped to the ground, but I loaded it as I ran, not directly behind my prey but slightly parallel. I stopped and with shaking arms loosed an arrow. It missed by inches. “What was that?” asked one attacker.

“One of these,” I hissed as I shot another this time taking him in the shoulder, did he yell as he went down. His companion, turned and fired randomly towards me so I had to duck to keep safe. I bobbed up with another arrow in my bow but he was twenty yards further away and I began my pursuit again.

This time I had to follow the same route as he did. I dropped my pace to a walk, trying to see signs in the grass where he’d walked but I couldn’t. He’d moved into trees and obviously switched off his light. My image intensifier began to do funny things as the battery ran down and finally died. Great, just what I needed. My own fault, I should have checked it earlier.

I knew the woods fairly well but in the darkness they seemed different. It wasn’t totally dark, the countryside isn’t usually but our eyes aren’t best designed for nocturnal activity unless it’s between clean bedsheets with an attractive partner. Keeping my eyes closed for a few seconds enabled me to see enough to be able to continue my pursuit without walking into a tree. The problem was now I wasn’t sure which way he’d gone. There is a bit of a ditch with a stream in it but given the lack of rainfall recently, it would have been very low if bigger than a film of water at the bottom of the ditch.

Creeping along the path trying to hear anything which might betray my prey, I walked slowly and quietly, my bow ready to shoot another arrow at a moment’s notice. I moved carefully around an oak tree, and without any notice, the bow was knocked from my hands as a large hand gripped me round the neck and a gun was pushed against the underside of my jaw. “Lady Cameron, how nice of you to call, it’s saved me the bother of a visit to kill you and by the time they find your body, I’ll be on a plane. Don’t struggle, I don’t want your blood on my clothes, they cost too much.” He rammed the gun barrel into my throat making me cough and my eyes watered.

“On your knees bitch,” he spat and forced me down. With the gun in my face I couldn’t even try to grab his goolies. It really did look as if my luck had finally run out. “Open your mouth, this will be your final blow job, suck on the gun.” As he pushed it towards my mouth I grabbed at his hands and threw myself away from the gun.

There was a flash as the gun went off and he screamed in pain. “You fucking bitch, I’m gonna kill you. Where are you?”

I rolled against a log and lay dead still he fired once or twice but the shots were nowhere near me. I could see the arrow from my bow lying inches from me. Slowly and gently I reached out and felt my fingers round its shaft. Quietly, I pulled it towards me. Cortez was still ranting at me, so I assumed he’d been hurt when his gun went off in our struggle. I raised myself up slowly and as quietly as I could, he was blundering back towards me, swearing as he came.

My plan was simple, as he came close to strike him in the neck with the arrow and attempt to knock the gun from his hands before he shot me. He came within inches and I raised my hand to strike then I saw it. A red line of light ending in a dot on his forehead. I threw myself away as a single, muffled shot rang out but I still felt fluid of some sort spray on to me. A moment later he fell to his knees then slumped on his face.

“Stay still,” hissed a voice. Then a hand roughly grabbed me and a light flashed in my face. Pick up your bow and fuck off home—now.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“Go.”

I didn’t stop to argue, I legged it as quickly as I could stumbling over tree roots until I got to the garden and made my way towards the house.