Short Story: The Veteran
This short story has been entered in theSprout Short Story Competition.
He looked over his shoulder around the café, narrow eyed, scaling every inch of the place for a sign of anything suspicious. He couldn’t be sure what he was looking for but something inside him could tell he would know what it was if he saw it.
Amongst the movement of waitresses with trays, and people laughing and chattering over their BLT sandwiches and cups of extra slim non caffeine latte, he found it hard to concentrate and make sure he wasn’t leaving any stone unturned without arousing suspicion himself. He didn’t breathe a word. He was blank as far as conversation went - even if it were in his own head. Eyes screwed in concentration so hard that he could sense the sweat dripping off his brows in anticipation even before it came.
This was the location, the information had to be spot on. He had checked it back to front to make sure they weren’t being played. There was no noise in his earpiece, discreetly plugged into him, attached to a thin almost invisible wire running under his shirt to the radio clipped on his belt. He guessed the others were screening every inch for any signs of the subject, too careful to talk and lose focus.
He looked away for a minute at the menu, taking a casual sip of his coffee. With a hand over his left ear where he was plugged, he spoke without moving his lips as much as possible.
“How’s your position Gary? See anything?”
“No. Not yet. You sure your guy didn’t f*** with us on this one? Cuz we’ve been here a good couple hours staring at these nancies and blue ties.”
“Yes I’m positive. I got it checked inside out before acting on the information.”
“I know that but it’s nearly dark now and we’ve seen at least three to four sets of people come and go. You’ve been sat there rock solid for as long. Don’t you think it looks dodgy?”
“Excess baggage Gary. Can’t impress everyone. Plus we’re not here to nab any of the café staff so I don’t care what they think. I’ve bought at least half a dozen coffees since I’ve been here so I don’t see why they’d be complaining.”
“Fair enough. Just don’t be surprised when chief complains about wasting your time on loose leads and all that…”
“Gary shut it”, he broke abruptly, “I think I see something. 12 o’clock yours, laptop in hand entering through the door now. Do you see him?”
“Yes. Black overcoat, navy green hat, thick stubble, glasses. Black leather gloves, holding a laptop case.”
“That’s him. He fits the description for now. We’ll have to see what he’s up to. Keep a watch on the exit for me, alert the unit. Standby in case he tries to run.”
“It’s hard to keep watch with the light disappearing Jame. It’d be better if I come out and join the rest of the unit across the café.”
“Do it then”, Jame whispered, “Over and out.”
By now, the man he was looking at had sauntered across the room to the table in the far corner and was looking through the menu card. A waitress attended to him and as if he had decided before entering, he asked her for a herbal tea even before she reached the table. He seemed to be in a hurry to get his laptop open and begin whatever he had in mind.
Without taking his eye off the subject, Jame whispered into his collar, “Gary come in. It looks like he’s using the café’s WiFi connection. I wanna hear what he’s doing, get it looked now.”
“Yes we’re already on it. Gavin is hacking into the café’s network and breaking through his laptop firewall as we speak. He says the guy has every file sharing option turned off to avoid easy detection, even the ones you can’t generally find on the internet options.”
“Hurry up! He looks like he’s almost done”, Jame whispered agitatedly. He hadn’t broken his gaze from the man, and his sense of emergency proved justified a second later as the subject closed his laptop, walked over to the counter to collect his herbal tea and began leaving the premises.
“Gary we’re losing him. I need the green light right now else he’s gone and we don’t get s***!”
“Hang on a second, we’re there…we’re nearly there…come on, come on…got it! Payment made via online banking to the destination we were told, he’s our guy.”
Without thinking, Jame got up and sprinted to the door, which by now his subject had walked out through and started walking in the direction of the rush hour office crowd. It was too packed to set off an alarm so Jame walked steadily after the man, sure to keep off a considerable distance.
“Gary we need to be clear of the people. Is anyone covering me behind? I repeat we can’t do anything with the s*** load of people here. B****** chose his time to perfection.”
“Trevor’s behind you Jame. He’s got his gun in his coat pocket, ready to fire in worst case scenario.”
“You what - the new guy’s covering me while the fat f***s are sat around a mini screen and a bunch of dials!” Jame spat angrily, “No offence kid.” he added, still keeping his voice down while walking as fast he could to keep up with the subject.
“Sir none taken. I’m right behind you. Everyone else is in the car and they can track us so if needed, we have vehicle back-up.”
“Okay listen to me kid. This guy’s chosen this time of day to keep us off as much as possible. The scores of office clowns walking towards us for the train station - we don’t want to make a public scene here. I’m gonna follow him wherever he’s going. Black overcoat makes a perfect camouflage in the weather - everyone’s wearing the same f***in' thing. Just…” BANG!
“F***’s sake!”
Jame had spun around amidst the sudden cries from the crowd, looking towards where the shot sounded to see Trevor lying on the ground flat on his back. Smoke dancing out of a large hole in his coat pocket, from the accidental shot he had let off as he slipped over some ice. Checking in a split second to see if anyone was hurt, Jame spun back towards his subject now running away without looking, clearly alerted from the shot.
There was no time to spit out in disgust his hate for baby face police academy intakes into the heart of police intelligence, or curse Gary for sending a near rookie to cover his back to pursue a guy they’d hunted for over a year. He raced through the crowds, trying to keep him in sight as he pushed his way past scared pedestrians, still confused and trying to figure out what the noise was. The excessive smoking had left his lung capacity to a bare minimum, making the chase a huge ask for Jame in the cold weather. But the frustrations of the past year fuelled him to carry on beyond the limits of his body.
The subject sped around a corner and disappeared into a lane, too fast for Jame to catch a glimpse of which way he was going as he ran the end of the street and turned another corner. He did his best to keep up and felt as though he was catching up to his man. Despite the stars he was clearly seeing in his eyes now, he forced himself to keep focus. He had turned the radio off already to avoid any jabber from his colleagues. He knew Trevor was unhurt and alive - at least for now until he dealt with him and gave him a taste of real cop life; something police academy wouldn’t have taught.
The end of the second turn was a dead end with a huge wall on the end of it. He was in no state to climb the wall and look across on the other side. The under-construction buildings didn’t make it any easier for him as his subject could now be hiding anywhere or more possibly jumped over the premises on the other end and disappeared on any one of the parallel streets. He couldn’t wheel out his gun any more nowadays and fire a few warning shots to scare him into surrendering. The olden days really were a lot easier as far as handling scumbags were concerned. A couple of trigger-pulls wouldn’t have stood a chance of getting him into any trouble back then. Now he has to justify even a slap across the face of a fugitive.
Somehow, he got the feeling the guy was still close by. Out of his reach for now but still very very close. He could sense him along with the frustration of not being able to do more than pant in agony, cursing another slipped chance. Standing there facing the wall, Jame contemplated the missed opportunity with the bitterest look on his face. Lighting up the perhaps hundredth cigarette of the day, he twirled with the smoke in his mouth before exhaling - looking for every inch of moral support he got out of nicotine.
“You’ve got away again mate. I was closer this time though, very very close. If the idiot hadn’t slipped, you didn’t have a clue I was behind you. You can hide now, probably behind the wall, or mixed in with the crowd on the other side of the street. But I’ve been doing this too long. We’ve caught worse than you, and we’ve had it harder than you. It’s nearly time. Trust me - we’re everywhere.”
