'Protect the Lady'

Chapter 1

Seventeen Special Forces soldiers who were leaving the Army after they returned from overseas services with their contracts ending, left the Randwick Barracks in a bus for the Sydney Central Railway Station.

A few of them would continue to the Sydney International Airport to take internal flights to various parts of Australia.

Sergeant Archie Hughes (33) boarded a flight to Melbourne and then went by bus to the east coast fishing village where he'd been born and raised.

His father now worked ashore now as operations manager for the company where he'd skippered several of its fishing boats for his first 35 years with the company.

Archie's brother and two sisters now lived in several locations on the east coast, two were married with children and one unmarried sister was serving a long jail sentence after being convicted for the second time on charges of drug-running.

Archie knew it was hopeless returning to his home village to re-establish himself but he figured it was less hopeless than immediately setting up anywhere else where he wouldn't know anyone. He believed he needed six months to settle from military life to the usually more placid life of civilians. And he'd use that time to attempt to map out his future.

Arriving home to an excited welcome, Archie was appalled at the physical deterioration of his parents. They had, of course, aged during his long absence but both had hit the bottle and it showed. They were much thinner, red-eyed and moved stiffly as if excessive liquor was attacking their joints.

It was not a pretty sight and no love appeared to exist between parents and son.

Archie moved out next day and took a room at a boarding house near the fish market.

He knew which pub to go to late that afternoon and had a great time, with half of the people who came and went during the 3½ hours he was there knowing him or claiming to know him well and he received offers of jobs, two on fishing boats and one in a fish processing plant.

No offer appeal to him.

As he was leaving, a dark-haired 40-something woman who looked almost due to shave her face said, "Hi Archie, you might not remember me. Beth Mitchell."

"Yes, I do, your older brother Ross was my football coach and I used to have the occasional meal at your family home."

"Sit and I'll buy you a drink."

"Nah, I've had enough of this hovel, Beth. Come and I'll buy you a steak for dinner."

"Okay."

She said her husband had 'shot through' (abandoned her)/

"What about your kids?"

"The youngest, a girl, left home to work in Melbourne four months ago and my two boys work on farms. I don't know where my husband is these days."

Beth still worked as a school-teacher and Archie knew she's be more interesting to talk to than many other villagers.

At the café, he answered her questions about military life as best he could, because many of their engagements remained confidential. He then asked her about his parents.

"Sadly, your father came ashore and hit the booze harder than ever before, your mother took the easy way out and drank with him and his buddies and wives. It's an endemic ending for many aging couples wedded to the fishing industry."

"Yeah it's sad. Half the time my folk didn't make sense to me with their ramblings.

"Yes, sad is the word. What for you now, Archie?"

"In the Army before I transferred to Special Forces, I studies for and got my Bachelor of Computer Science which could be useful to exploit, but I'm thinking perhaps something in the security business could be more active and therefore more appealing. The trouble is I have no contacts to approach. Go in cold and the answer you can expect is 'Sorry sir, we have nothing at the moment'.

"Would you like me to call my brother Ross in the morning. He'll remember you because you were a star. He's now one of the shift operations managers for a multi-branch security firm in Sydney.

"Yeah, that would be great," said the good-looking and broad- shouldered curly blond with an ugly shrapnel scar on his neck under his left ear.

Beth didn't take any pressure to accept when he invited her to stay the night in his room. The sex was great for both of them. It reminded Archie that fishing village women tended to be keen to have sex whenever it was on offer.

Beth called her brother from the café where she and Archie were having breakfast before she went off to her school. Ross' response was positive and he asked to speak to Archie.

"Yes mate, I can get you into our organisation somewhere, immediately if you wish. After one month, if you have been found not up to scratch, you would be let go, but that is not likely to apply to you. We've experienced great results from ex-military personal over the years.

"I'll come up tomorrow Ross, I need to see my parents again."

"Great, give me your phone number and I'll send you details where we should meet. You may stay with Pattie and me and our daughter for a few nights till your find your own place to bunker down."

"Ah, you married Pattie Brooks."

"Yeah, I concluded she had the best tits around."

They laughed and said goodbye and the call was terminated.

"Thanks Beth, I owe you."

"Well let's have a memorable night in bed. I have school in the morning and on the way will drop you off to catch the bus, with changes, to Melbourne and then to the airport.

Next morning, Beth dropped him off and they hugged and kissed. She looked slightly weepy-eyed and said in a thick tone, "Having your company and your gentleness with focus has been great, it really has."

As he waved her off, Archie wondered what was eating her. Loneliness or something much worse.

He took a flight as a 12-hour journey from Melbourne to Sydney by train and wasn't for him.

He wandered around Central Sydney, getting to know it a little better and met Ross at the arranged pick-up point just after 5.00 for a couple of beers and catchup before driving to Ross' home.

For an older guy, Ross was in good shape, better than his wife Pattie who had a limp and had run to fa.t but she remembered him well and the three of them had a good chin wag over beers, waiting for their daughter to arrive for late dinner.

Glenys was plain and the mousy hair didn't help but she was charming and energized as one would expect from a 27-year-old.

After dinner she invited Archie out for a drink but he declined.

"Go with her mate," Ross urged. "This is your last day of freedom. You'll have plenty of opportunity to talk to me."

"Yes go," Pattie said. "Glenys is a bit lonely because her boyfriend is advancing his training for a commercial flying licence and is up in Queensland at a flying school."

"Okay, I'm in the minority, attempting to be polite to my hosts. Thanks Glenys, I'd love to accept your invitation."

"He's a lovely guy," her mother said. "Keep your hands off him, if you can."

"Dad, my car is low on petrol, may we take your work Ute?"

"Yeah and don't worry about being home at a reasonable hour. Archie will only be engaged in briefings tomorrow after he signs on."

As they drove off, Archie said, "God, I was embarrassed when your mother told me to keep your hands off me with your father hearing that."

"Oh, as an adult family we tend to talk as it is. She was actually saying it's okay with her if you have sex with me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I brought along condoms just in case."

Archie curbed his excitement as he had already thought Glenys had a powerful body.

"Now I'm really embarrassed."

They laughed and shortly after that stopped at a bar.

They arrived back home very relaxed at the reasonable time of 10.30.

Although the house was in darkness, Glenys turned the living room lights on and said to Archie to relax while she checked-in with her parents who probably would still be awake.

He heard Glenys say in a soft voice, "He's gorgeous mum, and wouldn't talk about the glory stuff he was involved in when in the Middle East, but he talked at length about how they coped with the boredom during what he called the long intervals between incidents. He wouldn't elaborate on what he meant by incidents expect to say that was their term for military engagements, full on or covert, that in most instances were brief."

Archie could only hear what Pattie was saying but Glenys said, "No mum, we didn't. In fact, we haven't touched but I'll move in on him for some snogging now. Dad, he appears super keen about fishing. Can I take him out in the launch all day Saturday? Yes, I'll have him back in time for mum to feed us and you to take him to early evening footie (Rugby League).

On the slow drive in heavy traffic to the security branch where Ross worked as office manager/operations manager, Ross asked casually, "How did you and Glenys get along last night."

"Of fine, she's a lovely girl, err young woman."

"I mean, did you hit on her or she hit on you? It would be okay with Pattie and me as she'd become a bit frustrated as it's nearing a month since Johnny has been back to her. He lives with us, you know."

"No, I didn't know that."

"Um, a little bit of kissing occurred on the sofa."

"Well I'd like to suggest that she takes you out fishing on Saturday on our 22-foot launch."

"That would be great."

"Yeah, it could be a combo, with you catching fish and also getting lucky."

"You won't mind?"

"No, you have our unstated approval."

"Wow, thanks Ross for this super hospitality."

"Yeah, well you coming to me looking for a job, and being hot out of the Special Forces is unbelievable good timing for the company as we have special protective contract to be activated in two weeks' time. More will be explained after you are assessed after 10 days by me and two of my seniors. So, expect to be treated with a little touch of royalty."

"Wow, have I landed on my feet?"

"Yeah, it would be fair thinking that. Your prospects certainly appear that way. You made my life as a coach all those years ago a little easier than expected by rising to become a rugby league star. This is my opportunity to return the favour."

Chapter 2

The VIP and his daughter had listed to the security group's executive director and Ross describe how ex-military man Archie Hughes would be their security guard 24 hours a day in the 28 days they'd be in Australia.

John W Coffer grunted, that could be taken as approval, while the daughter stared at Archie, remaining tight-lipped.

Suddenly, without warning, she lunged at Archie, aiming a full-on Karate chop at the side of his neck.

Moving almost in a blur, Archie fended off the chop with his forearm, kicked her legs out from under her and sped her fall on to the carpet with a push to the small of the back. He bent and pulled one of her arms up and planted his boot to rest on her buttocks.

"You swine," she gasped as he pulled her to her feet as she struggled to get her breath back.

Her remained silent.

"You're maniacal."

Archie noticed the two security chiefs still had horrified looks on their faces but her father smiled thinly.

"You're fired," she screamed.

Archie said laconically, "You have a foul temper, Sharon."

She was still panting when her father tapped her on the shoulder with his walking stick and murmured, "He stays. We specified someone good at martial arts and is he good or what?"

"He hurt me dad."

"In that case, keep your hands to yourself and grow up. You are almost thirty."

"You told them my age," she yelled.

Archie said evenly. "I already knew it. You left school aged sixteen after your father's brutal gang assault when he was in prison for having his employees blow up and sink a rival business leader's motor yacht. That boat expensively damaged your father's 73-foot sailboat he'd inherited from his late father and which was moored away from the boating channel in a wide river estuary."

She scoffed and said that everyone is capable of reading newspapers and Internet news.

"You prefer sunbathing topless, your late Australian mother's middle name she hated was Iris, you were born in Western Australia were your American father John W Coffer had mining interests and you were tentatively named Abigail. He was in Indonesia at the time and demanded that your mother get a name change to Sharon that they had earlier agreed to call the baby if it were a female. In April last year you had an unsightly growth removed from..."

"Stop," yelled Sharon. "This is not common knowledge. You have no right to possess that information."

John W said, "Where was I born, son? If you know that you know everything you need to know about us."

"You were born in the Homer, a memorable small town at the end of a peninsula on Kachemak Bay, Alaska, where your mother once worked long before her marriage. Late in her pregnancy she returned there to hide from her abusive husband."

Aghast, Sharon squeaked, "Dad, you never told me granddad was abusive and your birth certificate states you were born in San Francisco."

John W said, "I was told when in my twenties that my certified birth details were posted to the authority in San Francisco for registration."

"How on earth could that be accepted?"

"I have no idea; perhaps official recorders were not always so astute in those days. I would have been laying bawling in a cot at the time. You must know enough about us to write a book, Archie."

"Now the truth about this contract," the client said seriously.

"A shady business rival with a grudge against me for seeking revenge for sinking his new pride and joy, the motor yacht that he scraped along the side of my revered vessel, causing considerable damage. He as skipper of the motor yacht was found to be almost paralytically drunk in charge of that vessel at the time of the collusion.

"I later extracted revenge by sinking his boat. I served time in prison for my so-called 'unacceptably severe reprisal'. Further, whilst I was in prison, that illegal arms dealer had me severely assault which left me which permanent injuries to my right leg and hip."

"Recently, I found that he'd read in a business journal of the success of one of my business enterprises in buying expensive cars written off by insurers after horrendous accidents and my company had them expertly restored and auctioned off as significant profit.

He insanely decided to have me eliminated. Contracts killers apparently have been hired to eliminate Sharon and me."

Archie asked, "Why has he included Sharon?"

"She unwittingly humiliated his son at a ball in front of his friends when he attempted to cut in on her partner during a dance and Sharon knocked him out cold."

"Christ."

"Yes, my daughter is no pussy."

Archie said, "Then presumably you two are here on the far less density populated Australia to draw out the assassins for me to disarm and have arrested, or to kill them?"

"Yes, Archie, and the finality of eliminating assassins is the only certain way of dealing with them. You are a clear thinker. My informers believe there will be no more than three assassins and when they have us under observation, my business rival Silas Lander wants to be summons to observe the killings."

"The gruesome bastard."

"Yes, and now you can understand what we are up against. If you pull out now, Sharon and I could be exposed to greater risk through the delay in us finding a replacement for you."

"I'll be going nowhere, John W. I've been waiting for a challenge since leaving the Army and here it is. With luck the assassin or assassins won't be aiming to include me in any shooting or bombing."

"Bombing," Sharon whispered.

"Could be, Sharon. Or they could go upmarket and employ such things as an armed drone attack or even using an armoured vehicle mounted with a flame-thrower."

"Omigod."

"Yeah, so keep your eyes open and in particular keep watch for any casual tiny observation drone or for that matter, just a small aircraft acting suspiciously. Our best defence, at least in daylight, will be to be camping or travelling in the wide-open spaces so we can hopefully see any danger coming at us."

Sharon choked that they would be virtually defenceless then.

"Not so, I've spent the best part of $300,000 of your father's money on preparing, with most of that going on a special all-terrain vehicle and our armoury includes a ground-to-air basic rocket launcher."

John W said, looking impressed, "Stolen from the Army, eh?"

"No, it's all above board. My contract states, any hired Army surplus equipment entrusted in me and due for destruction to avoid it getting into the wrong hands, must be returned to the Army at source."

John W said, "But how could you do such a deal; you are no longer in the Army?"

"Ah, it took some hard talking to accomplish and it helped that I possess a distinguished service record and I remain attached in Army Reserve with the lowly rank of lieutenant."

"I think your rank should be general," John W muttered.

Sharon practically spat, "And I think you are a twister and manipulator."

Archie ignored those comments.

The Coffers were then briefed about their high profile tour plans and advised that John W's PR had already distributed press releases that in fear of their safety from unknown persons, John W and his daughter Sharon Coffer had gone overseas and were about to begin a month-long wilderness tour up the east coast and into remote northern Australia.

"That should make us an obvious target, Archie said in satisfaction."

Father and daughter eyed one another apprehensively.

* * *

Next morning, Archie arrived at the hotel at 6.30 to collect the Coffers and found Sharon talking to someone through the open rear doors of an ambulance. She looked distraught.

"Hi, a problem?" he asked.

"Yes, it's dad. His blood pressure is up and his heart-rate is wildly erratic. "I've been told it may be up to three weeks before he could be fit enough to travel. The medic told me it's probably just a need to get his medication stabilized with perhaps changes being made. He will undergo tests. He wants to speak to you."

Archie stood beside Sharon and John W croaked, "Sorry to have fucked up things. Sharon will now be out there as the sole target."

"And perhaps me," Archie laughed.

An ambulance nurse came up to Archie holding a job s clipboard and said, "This will just not do. John W is not a name."

"Well it is in this case ma'am, well sort of. It's his preferred form of address. Look, just add after John W in brackets Mr John Walter Coffer."

"Well, I don't know."

"Please, just do it. I'll be contact his personal security service here in Sydney urgently and arrange to have him accommodated in secure facilities."

"Thanks Archie," said John W. "Your mission remains unchanged: protect the lady and remove the threat."

"Understood sir, relax and enjoy your hospital vacation."

As the ambulance departed, Archie held Sharon in a loose hug until she stopped shaking.

"Thanks, and from now on keep your hands off me."

"Well, until you indicate that ban has been lifted."

"Ex-soldier, you'll be waiting in vain."

She looked around and said in disbelief, "You came by taxi, where is our hugely expensive personal ex-Army carrier."

"Hop into the cab babe and we'll commence the next stage of our journey."

"Don't call me babe," she hissed.

"Okay, babe."

She closed he eyes as she sat in the cab and groaned.

Archie called ahead and when they arrived at a secure compound, a vehicle was waiting for them just inside the gates but the driver didn't open the gates until the taxi driver had been paid his fare and departed.

"ID please Mr Hughes."

Archie pulled out the medallion attached to his neck chain. The driver read it and asked for the password.

"Frogs A-jumping."

"Omigod, straight from Boy's Own comics post-World War 2," Sharon sighed.