Shield maidens.
If you know what you’re doing in your chosen profession, it usually comes down to a matter of preparation, which is informed by your years of experience. He laid out the secondary armaments he might need, even the unlikely ones like a halberd, in a neat row behind him where he stood on the bridge. … Continue reading
Friends and Anger – 15
Manno was driving her to what he called a place of safety. It’d only be for a few days and it was with a man called Ari whom he told her he totally trusted and she could too. He took a right turn off the main road up a smaller street, then a right again, … Continue reading
Friends and Anger – 14
He hit the door of his apartment so hard with his shoulder, it swung through 180 degrees nearly instantly, smashed against the interior wall, and on the rebound started back to close itself, but he was in the room. In combat situations, the adrenaline amped up his senses and the world went into slow motion … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 13.
Hello, it’s me. It’d been nearly fifteen years since Ari had heard that voice, but he’d know it anywhere – it was the little Russian. Ari had run a boxing gym in east London for years before he met the little Russian. It was the only sort of location he could afford when he’d started … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 12.
That single strand of hair wasn’t there. The last week of his life had been the happiest since he was a child. That constant wariness and minute attention to the detail of his surroundings that had kept him alive for over two decades had been relaxed. He’d cancelled every item of business and they spent … Continue reading
Just make the delivery and get out of there.
The sergeant had spent two days in barracks waiting for the urn with the ashes of the cremated body in it to arrive. It wasn’t his regiment’s home base, so there wasn’t a face he knew in it. The package arrived and he rang the parent’s home to arrange a time he could make the … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 10.
I was born in the Ukraine and in the part of it you call the Crimea. On a farm. It was and still is a relatively poor country. Mainly agriculture and forestry. There are plains that run on for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres and forests which are so vast, that if you entered them … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 9.
She slept longer than usual but finally emerged from the bedroom to help him prepare their evening meal. He was grilling lamb chops and the smell was delicious. She peeled the potatoes and put them in a saucepan of water to cook. At the same time she fetched out some sweet garden peas from the … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 6
She remained in a coma for weeks but because she was stable, was moved out of intensive care into a private room he’d arranged for her. He put his life on hold and visited every day for hours and would alternatively read aloud to her the books he knew she loved, played her favourite music … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 5.
Manannon picked him up off the floor by his hair and the other hand pinching his Adam’s apple to cut off any screeches for help. He rapidly dragged shithead into the sitting room and pulled him up and onto the sofa. Manannon stood over him. Shithead started to say something, so Manannon told him to … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 4
Good reconnaissance is essential, but what must never happen is the opposition realising it’s occurring. If they detect it, they start tooling up. Forewarned is forearmed. They armour up and are en guard for the assault. They buy the personal security and your odds of getting at them go immediately astronomical. There’s a thing you … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 3.
He’d been reading a very old book in its original and ancient language while listening to a favourite Ella Fitzgerald album on vinyl in the background. He can’t stand CDs because they always chop off the high and low-end frequency notes to cram it onto the CD. They think nobody will notice, but he does. … Continue reading
Friends and Anger 2
He disentangled himself from her sprawling embrace and got out of bed. He hadn’t really slept in the night, just cat napped. It is an aspect of his protective personality when it comes to her. Switched into overwatch mode. You don’t sleep, you don’t take advantage of a woman you’ve a regard for who’s in … Continue reading
Friends and anger 1.
Bang, bang, bang on your front door. There’s a certain recognition in the cadence it’s done. Too quick and five seconds later you have cops all over you looking for some results from the probable cause warrant they’ve wangled out of some sympathetic judge. This one is different, it’s more knock, knock, knock. A quiet … Continue reading
Blood brothers.
He’d messed up and knew it too. Nearly walked them into a minefield, but still had enough smarts to duck like fuck when the debollocker blasted smartly out of the ground to explode at a yard height. It took some meat off him. That was okay. He knows the way these things work out. He’s … Continue reading
Vide Cor Meum.
KD loves RM. She’s written that on her cloth pencil case as a schoolgirl, but carefully hidden away amongst the incredibly detailed forest of enigmatic doodles that covered it entirely. At school, she’d watch him quietly from a few desks back as the teacher droned on about something or other and she’d find and touch unerringly with her fingertips those secret … Continue reading
Your brothers will come after them and make it right.
You’d done the biblically stupid thing of going in for an operator who’d put himself in the danger zone. No way you’d ever do that stoopid thing but you did it anywhy. You got him out but now you’re in a situation yourself. He got away and you’re the one who got nabbed. A hard row to … Continue reading
All wars come to an end.
He sat outside on the front porch of the shack and listened to the hum of the summer evening as he rocked gently back and forth in the chair and smoked his pipe. The evening warmth felt good on his stiff ligaments and fragile bones. He’d occasionally pause to take a sip of grain alcohol from a … Continue reading
The repair man.
He repaired people. He used a little bit of human insight but mostly patience and kindness. He was good at it, so all the bad cases nobody wanted to touch or didn’t quite know how to handle, were referred to him in the end and he patched them up. Mostly, he got the ugly sex … Continue reading
Old friends and a questioned end.
He knew he’d screwed up and should by all rights be dead now but he’d been saved by some sort of miracle he couldn’t understand and it spooked him. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he got about a nagging suspicion that he simply couldn’t shake; there was something about some aspects of … Continue reading
Pointman's 
My belated condolences. I always enjoyed reading his posts and will miss his insight and wide ranging views. May hew…