Tamsin Beech Ch. 03: Scunthorpe

Tamsin laughed, "Not as much as he pissed them off."

Cooper frowned, feeling as if he was missing something, "Would ya moind me askin' how exactly?"

"Why don't you ask McTavish?" Leonid suggested.

"Why the fuck for?"

Tamsin began pouring steaming broth into battered tin mugs, "Because our friend McTavish owes Leonid his life for what he did, that's why."

"Nichego mira za zlymi!" Leonid muttered, gratefully accepting his share of the food from her, "spasibo ... I suppose I'll have to tell him now."

Cooper blew on his own broth to cool it before taking a sip, making himself comfortable.

Leonid began, "It was over seven years ago. Just before I met your illustrious leader here."

Tamsin grinned.

"The middle of winter. It was one of the harshest winters that year since Thanatos turned the sky to night. I was stationed in Berwick Upon Tweed, my team providing security while the town was made defensible again ... under an evil ublyudok called Colonel Dikaya ..."

. . .

"Major Denisovich."

Leonid Denisovich snapped to attention, his breath pluming in the sub zero air as he waited for his commanding officer to speak. Behind him the River Tweed flowed sluggishly out into the North Sea. Several hardy Canada Geese bobbing on the current, tempting any Coalition soldier with a steady aim and an empty belly.

Colonel Dikaya signed off the requisition form he'd been reading and handed it to a subordinate to action. He was a tall, gaunt faced man who was never seen without his medal ribbons, proud of his achievements. Or what others had achieved for him, "Major, we have a problem. As you know when General Volk attacked this town, he employed Reekie mercenaries. What we call the Golubyye dʹyavoly?"

"Yes sir, the blue devils."

Dikaya nodded, leaning on the stone parapet of the old bridge to peer across at the walled town. The fine drizzle beaded on his immaculately pressed uniform as he continued, "We thought we'd moved them all back to their own enclave in Edinburgh. But for some reason a small group of around twenty or thirty individuals have escaped our attention and been living right under our noses on the edge of the town here."

"That's inconceivable sir. My men searched every single ..."

Dikaya interrupted him, "Apparently not here to the south of the river. I want something done. A few good men should be enough."

Leonid shifted his weight, suddenly impatient to get started. He knew what was coming, "You want me to move them on sir?"

Dikaya turned, and fixed him with cold grey eyes, "No Major. I want you to exterminate them. These Golubyye dʹyavoly are subhuman vermin. Take a squad of your Spetznaz and wipe them out. I'll tag along to see how it's done."

An unexpected complication. Now his four man squad would have to babysit the Colonel as well, "Yes sir Colonel Dikaya."

. . .

Half an hour later, Leonid, his squad and Colonel Dikaya strode along Spittal promenade to the south of the river, towards the old printing works where the Reekies had been spotted, living undetected for over three years.

"Have they actually attacked anyone sir?" Leonid asked. Dikaya fiddled with the straps on his body armour as he walked, obviously not used to carrying the extra weight in a combat situation. Leonid's squad preferred to go without, valuing speed and maneuverability over protection.

"Not yet ... as far as we know. But it's only a matter of time."

Dikaya drew his Grach handgun eagerly, as they neared the decrepit building where the Reekies had been seen. Leonid's men carried a mixture of AK12s and the older AK47s, each fitted with a laser sight.

"This should be easy," Leonid hunkered down behind a burnt out Transit van to give out orders, "Yuri, Alexei ... you two go in the rear with thunderflashes. When the shooting starts we'll come in the front. Vasily, stay outside - hidden, to pick off any runners. Watch for friendly fire. Oh ... and Colonel?"

"Yes Major?"

"Can I suggest you stay behind us? The Reekies will be armed with homemade weapons - axes, clubs and so on. Primitive but still exceedingly dangerous. Ambush is their favourite tactic. Give us time to clear each room before following us in."

Dikaya looked for a moment as if he was about to argue, then slowly nodded his agreement.

"Good. Let's go."

Yuri and Alexei clambered stealthily through the gutted semi detached house next to the printing works, quickly disappearing from sight into the wilderness of its back garden. The others scanned the target building from cover, searching for lookouts.

BANG - BANG!

"That's the signal," Leonid called, "MOVE!"

TAKATAKATAK!

Small arms fire sounded from within the building as another of Leonid's Spetznaz squad smashed the front door in with one blow from a sledgehammer. Leonid shoved past.

A half naked blue figure rushed at him from the gloom wielding a vicious looking machete.

BLAM!

The Reekie flew backwards with a 9mm round in his head. Leonid spun around to see Dikaya clutching his Grach in a two handed grip, "Colonel, please! For your own safety, stay back."

That moment's distraction was all the Reekies needed. Dikaya ducked quickly into a side room as at least half a dozen 'Golubyye dʹyavoly' charged down the wide staircase in front of them.

TAKATAKATAK!

Leonid's second in command died instantly as a thrown axe clove his forehead in two. He desperately strafed the seething mass of blue painted cannibals with his AK12 but for each one killed another quickly took its place.

Where were Yuri and Alexei? Surely they should've found their way through to the front of the building by now? It wasn't that big a place. Unless ...

Leonid realised that after their initial assault he hadn't heard a single other gunshot from elsewhere in the print works. Apart from Vasily outside, it was just himself and the Colonel left.

TAKATAKATAK!

With one final burst in the direction of the stairs, Leonid launched himself through the doorway Dikaya had taken, and stopped dead ...

"Give me your Kalashnikov Major. It'll make this so much quicker," Colonel Dikaya stood, handgun raised, in the centre of a wide room. At the end of which a group of around a dozen Reekies huddled together on filthy blankets, the bare concrete floor around them littered with rubbish and old bones. Despite the wild, matted hair and mysterious blue markings covering their scrawny bodies, it was clear that these were all either women or children.

"But ..."

Dikaya held out a hand expectantly, "Give me your weapon Major. That's an order."

Leonid became aware of movement behind him. A single Reekie pushed slowly through the splintered door and waited, possibly the only survivor of the slaughter. Though in the chaos Leonid had lost track. Were any of these females his mate? Or his children? One false move and Dikaya might wipe them all out in seconds. His entire family.

He hadn't even considered that Reekies might be intelligent enough to harbour emotions like love and paternal instinct. On their own territory they were nothing more than savage killing machines, bloodthirsty cannibals. But either way, murdering unarmed women and children in cold blood wasn't what he'd signed up for.

"Your weapon Major ... or consider yourself charged with disobeying a direct order."

Leonid lowered his AK, "No ... sir."

Dikaya clenched his jaw and swung his gun arm around to face Leonid, "How dare you disobey ..."

TAKATAKATAK!

Leonid's own arm was a blur as his tightly grouped shots all hit Colonel Dikaya in the neck just an inch above his body armour. He was dead before his body thudded to the ground. Conscious of the Reekie still behind him, Leonid turned.

The tartan clad creature stared at him unmoving for long seconds, then solemnly down at Dikaya's corpse. Finally he did something quite extraordinary. He let his weapon - a blood stained butcher's cleaver, fall clattering to the floor ... and bowed slightly.

A surrender? An acknowledgment of superiority?

"MAJOR! GET DOWN!" Vasily shouted urgently from the corridor.

Instinctively, Leonid shoved the unarmed Reekie to one side and emptied the rest of his AK12's magazine through the doorway.

TAKATAKATAK!

Vasily the sniper was lifted off his feet and thrown against the opposite wall. With no encumbering body armour for protection he hadn't stood a chance.

"Der'mo," Leonid muttered as he mechanically slapped a fresh magazine into his weapon, "what ... have I done?"

The Reekie climbed to his feet and grunted something at the others. They immediately began gathering their meagre belongings so Leonid guessed they were being ordered to flee.

"Thank ... you," said the Reekie, the words sounding gutteral and strained as if the tongue that spoke them had almost forgotten language.

In a single moment of madness his military career with the Coalition was over. Once it was discovered what he'd done here the regional commandant General Volk would have him hunted down. Despised by the locals and a fugitive from his countrymen, he was now more of an outcast than any of the Reekies had ever been.

As the Reekies filed anxiously past him towards the front door, the single male briefly touched Leonid's sleeve with a clawed hand, "McTavish ... owe you."

. . .

"Shit. That's a helluva fuckin' story an' no mistake," Cooper exclaimed.

Leonid gazed into the dying flames of their modest campfire, "Not all the Coalition are monsters. Many of them are just following orders because they're too scared to do otherwise. I made a snap decision ..."

"An' you've been regretting it ever since?" Cooper suggested.

Leonid shook his head, "I regret ... nothing."

COMING SOON ... CHAPTER FOUR: BIRMINGHAM