Operation Sabre Read online

  Paul, Rachel and Sharav looked at him open mouthed as he told them the story. When he finished, Sharav burst out laughing again, ‘dey had to leg it, Ha Ha Ha Ha.’

  Rachel said, ‘Fascinating Conor, but do you think we could get out of here?’

  ‘Ah no problem. Just one more ting.’ Conor was bursting to tell them another fact. ‘During de Easter Rising dey had a ceasefire, so de park rangers could feed de ducks! Good old Irish, know how to look after der ducks.’

  ‘Der ducks!’ giggled Sharav. ‘Der ducks! To be sure…. how’s the craic…… Janey Mac. She’s got a face on her like a plate of mortal sins!’ Sharav fell forward and was rolling around on the gravel.

  Conor laughed, ‘Right let’s go. We are going out de north gate and off to de safe house in Pearse Square. It’s about a 25-minute walk.’

  8

  Jacks

  As they exited St Stephen’s Green they turned right. Soon they were walking up Kildare Street and were surrounded by a mix of modern and historic buildings. Conor pointed out the National Museum of Ireland telling them some of the history of the building, which Paul promptly forgot. Rachel looked interested though and asked some polite questions.

  As they were walking up the street, Conor pointed out Leinster House. It was an impressive house with four huge columns and 32 windows. Conor said, ‘So dat is Leinster House. It was originally called Kildare House after de Earl of Kildare, who had it built….’ Paul didn’t hear the rest of the three-minute history lesson.

  ‘Fascinating isn’t it!’ Said Conor enthusiastically.

  ‘Wow,’ said Paul unconvincingly.

  Rachel shot Paul a look and her eyes widened, as if to say, ‘stay interested!’

  ‘Anyway, we might need to go to dat gaff tomorrow,’ said Conor. ‘I need to introduce you to someone.’

  Paul looked confused but didn’t pursue it any further.

  By this point Sharav was beginning to come around. He shook his head and looked at his surroundings. ‘Where are we?’

  Paul smiled and said, ‘Welcome back Sharav. We are in Dublin and you, my friend, have been as high as a kite for over an hour.’

  Rachel cut in, ‘Sharav remember that coke on the plane?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Well you drank it, didn’t you?’

  ‘You know I can’t resist coke.’

  ‘Well it turns out that you were drugged. Luckily neither Paul nor I took a drink, so we were able to get you out of the plane.’

  Things started to become clear to Sharav, ‘You mean we jumped out the plane?’

  ‘Yep,’ smiled Paul. ‘With a parachute…. and you nearly died! It was stressful. I tried to save your life. But in the end, it was Conor here who turned up to save the day. Late, mind you!’

  Sharav looked at Conor and said, ‘Eh thanks, so you are the agent we were told about?’

  ‘Dat’s right, good to meet ya. Welcome to Dublin. I’ve just been telling your friends about de fascinating history of dese buildings. Actually, I have something else to say…’

  Paul interrupted. ‘Thanks very much Conor but maybe later. I am desperate for a pee’.

  ‘Ah yeah. You need to go to de jacks for a slash? Sure, dat’s fine.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ replied Paul. ‘Just a toilet will be fine.’

  Conor laughed, ‘Ah sorry. De jacks. Dat’s what I mean. Jacks is a word we use for toilet over here. And if you want a good old-fashioned toilet, I have just de place for you. It’s at the end of dis street.’

  They all walked to the end of Kildare Street and then turned right onto Leinster Street. There were some high railings that led onto a park. Conor told them that it was College Park and that it backed onto Trinity College. He pointed out a gap in the railings just across the road, Der’s an underground toilet just over der.’

  Sharav said, ‘yeah I could do with…,’ but then he stopped when he saw where Conor was pointing. ‘Actually, it’s fine. I’ll hold on.’

  ‘We’ll wait here,’ said Conor.

  Paul crossed the road. He looked at his watch. It was 9 pm. He approached the entrance and saw that the walls leading down to the toilet were covered with white and blue tiles. As he was walking slowly down the steps the smell of urine was overpowering. There was some rubbish on the bottom step and the light leading into the main area was flickering on and off. As he descended the stairs, Paul had second thoughts, but he was so desperate that he kept going. It was a large space with about 10 urinals on the far wall and three cubicles nearest him. The light went off for two seconds and then came on again. Paul ran for a cubicle and quickly locked the door behind him. He started humming to himself to calm the fear. Then he heard a noise. He stopped breathing and listened. Nothing. He flushed the toilet and turned to open the door. As he opened the door, he was relieved to see that there was no-one else there. The light went out again. Paul froze, waiting for the light to come on. Time stood still. The bulb flickered on briefly and Paul let out a shout. There in front of him was a mountain of a man who was as wide as he was tall. Maybe it was just his imagination. The light came on again, this time for longer. No, this was real. There in front of Paul with a sickening smile on his face, was a man with a large shaved head, black stubble, and dark eyes that were close together. Paul backed away into the toilet. The man grabbed Paul by the scruff and dragged him out into the open area. He flung him across the floor like a doll. Paul skidded on his back and hit his head off the far wall. He pushed back with his legs trying to move away from the man who was striding towards him. Paul was lifted up into the air with such ease that he knew he was in real trouble. Then he remembered his watch. He didn’t have time to say anything before he was flung across the room again. He managed to put his hands in front of his head to reduce the impact against the tiled wall. He put his hand to his chest gasping for air.

  ‘Hugo…’ Paul managed to get out.

  ‘Yes Paul? You seem a little out of breath. Heart is racing too.’

  ‘I need…’ Paul looked up to see the man towering over him, ‘…help.’ As quick as he could, he turned the watch face so that Hugo could see the man.

  ‘Paul, I see you are in great danger. Please wait. Help is on the way’.

  The other three were having a pleasant conversation outside. They were laughing as Rachel explained to Sharav how funny he had found Conor’s Irish accent. Conor’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it. ‘Code red. Paul in serious danger’. Before Rachel and Sharav had a chance to ask what was wrong, they saw Conor sprint across the road towards the underground toilet. A car screeched to a halt as Conor leapt over the bonnet.

  9

  The Fight

  Meanwhile the man had Paul by the scruff again and lifted him up to his eye level. ‘Are you Paul Fox?’ he grunted.

  Paul breathed heavily and then said, ‘Yeah and who are you?’

  ‘You’re coming with me. We need to organise a little family reunion.’

  Just then Conor appeared and looked at them both. ‘Howaya lads. Looks like you’re having some fun.’

  Paul landed in a heap on the floor. He crawled towards the urinals and wiped blood from his forehead. The man turned to Conor and looked him up and down. Paul didn’t fancy Conor’s chances against this huge gorilla of a man.

  ‘Not your party. Leave now and you won’t get hurt,’ said the man.

  ‘Eh can’t do that. Sorry.’

  The man pulled a knife from his belt, smiled and walked towards Conor slowly.

  ‘Ah sure there is no need for dat.’ said Conor. ‘Paul you okay? Dis might be a good opportunity for you to get your first lesson in self-defence. I’ll talk you through it.’

  Rachel and Sharav appeared on the bottom step and Conor looked at them. ‘Okay, you two stay where you are. Everything’s going to be fine. First tings first. He’s got a knife which isn’t great, so we have to disarm him. Number of options here. I’ll go for de slap.’

  Conor quickly slapped the back of the man’s
hand with an upwards motion and the knife flew across the room, rattling against the far wall.

  The man looked confused and then angry.

  Conor continued. ‘Best to keep it simple, you see if you hit de knuckles hard enough, the assailant will release de knife. So, let’s say I kick him with me left leg.’ Conor aimed a kick at his ribs and the man grabbed hold of his leg. ‘And if he catches it, like so, den I can spin around and hit him with de heel of me right foot.’ Conor leapt into the air, spun around and landed a kick to the man’s head. The man fell to the floor slightly dazed and they both stood up again.

  ‘So,’ said Conor. ‘When ya feel ready Paul, please stand up and start edging your way around to de exit. We’ll be finished here shortly. Normally I try to keep these interactions short, but I’ll show yous a couple of more tings.’

  Conor ran at the man with his head down and was promptly grabbed in a head lock. Conor pushed him with his shoulders, grabbed the man’s huge legs and lifted them upwards. This sent him crashing onto his back.

  ‘That was called de double leg take down. Effective don’t you tink? It’s getting late and I can see you are all hungry, so let’s finish. Couple of options here, I could try de 540 tornado kick, which is impressive but not something you’ll be able to do right away. So instead I tink I’ll try the wall jump.’ The man was shaking his head as he got up. His face was bright red and he let out an almighty roar.

  ‘You are going to pay!’ he shouted as he ran towards Conor. With the grace and power of a gymnast, Conor ran towards the far wall, jumped and pushed himself off the top a urinal and bounced off the side wall before doing a 360 spinning kick catching the man hard on the head and knocking him out cold. Conor landed. ‘Ta Da!’ he smiled, giving a small bow.

  Sharav and Rachel found themselves clapping. ‘Just like the movies’ said Sharav in wonder.

  ‘Let’s get some food,’ said Conor, helping Paul towards the stairs. Rachel took hold of Paul’s other arm and pushed some of his hair out of the way to look at his head wound. She dabbed it with a tissue and told Paul to press firmly in order to stem the blood. As they came out into the open, they saw the familiar golden arches and headed towards them.

  Once they had eaten something, Sharav turned to Conor and said, ‘Listen Conor, you seem a nice person and everything. Please can you explain a few things to us. So, we signed up to this a few days ago. We are supposed to be on our way to headquarters in London and already we’ve been abducted, nearly died falling out of an aeroplane and Paul here almost had his face smashed in by that gorilla man. I’m kinda thinking we have made a terrible mistake. Plus, we are in Dublin and not London! Help us out here.’

  ‘Ah sure you’re grand’ said Conor. ‘I don’t actually know dat much. I got a call a couple of hours ago to do a heli jump and wasn’t told all de details. All I know is that you tree were on your way to London and needed some help because some eejits kidnapped you all. It’s been good craic so far, hasn’t it?’

  ‘No,’ said Rachel. ‘It hasn’t. Who do you work for?’

  ‘Ah well, yeah, you see de British and de Irish have a collaboration agreement between der different spy agencies. We share intelligence and help each other out. I’m 21 and for six years I’ve been working for G2, which is basically the Irish Intelligence Agency.’

  ‘You seem very laid back about all this,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Well I’m getting used to it all. I’ve seen quite a lot of stuff ya know. And I suppose the secret to staying relaxed is regular Hail Marys and me Mammy’s cooking. I don’t actually live wit her anymore. I share a flat with a few pals, but I go home for grub as often as possible’.

  Paul started getting flashbacks of the attack in the underground toilet and looked straight at Conor. ‘That man knew my name!’

  ‘Did he?’ said Conor.

  ‘Yea he said, “Are you Paul Fox?” He said something about a family reunion. How can a random bloke in Dublin know who I am?’

  ‘Hmmm,’ Conor rubbed his chin. ‘He wasn’t a random bloke. I’ve seen his kind before. My guess is dat he was hired to abduct you.’

  Paul thought back to the message in the £2 coin, ‘There are dangerous people who will try to stop you at all costs.’ The reality of that message was starting to sink in.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Conor. ‘I have to get you to de safe house and den to London. Maybe you’ll find out more when you get der?’

  ‘Suppose,’ said Paul, who was still feeling overwhelmed. Rachel put her hand on his back and gave him a pat, ‘Let’s just wait and see what they say at headquarters.’

  Ten minutes later the group arrived at Pearse Square. It was a well-kept square with gardens in the centre, the length of a football pitch. Conor smiled and told them that it was a Georgian garden square which dated back to 1893. They climbed a number of steps up to the door of 46 Pearse Square Gardens. It was a brown-brick, terraced house with ivy climbing up the walls on either side of a red door. Conor opened the door and stood to the side, ‘Welcome to de safe house,’ he grinned, and the three adventurers trudged in.

  10

  Leinster House

  Paul woke up and lay still for a minute trying to remember where he was and how he got there. He squinted towards the window as the sunlight streamed into the room through the pale pink curtains. Then he remembered where he was. The safe house. His second thought was for his Dad. ‘We’ve got to get to London,’ he said quietly. He glanced at his watch, 11am.

  Paul looked at his surroundings. Half of the laminate floor was covered in cardboard and the walls had wood panelling up to chest height. The upper section was covered in ageing giraffe patterned wallpaper that made him shiver. He stood up and immediately felt lightheaded as he limped towards the window.

  Paul pulled back the translucent curtain and looked out onto Pearse Square. The gardens looked beautiful in the morning light. Paul saw a couple of people walking towards the central area of the gardens. A large light green statue rose up from the central flower bed. Paul looked more closely at the figures walking in the garden and realised that it was Conor and Sharav. They appeared to be engrossed in deep conversation. Sharav’s shoulders were raised and his walk was stilted. Conor wasn’t walking with his relaxed swagger. ‘That’s odd,’ thought Paul.

  Paul got dressed and, with a rumble of his stomach, walked through to the kitchen. The smell of damp filled his nostrils as he walked across the orange tiled floor. He looked through all the cupboards and found a few tea bags. He put the kettle on.

  ‘Morning Paul,’ said Rachel, as she came in through the kitchen door carrying two bags. ‘I’ve got some breakfast. Hungry?’ Rachel had always been a morning person.

  ‘Hi. Yes please, I’m starving.’

  Rachel was followed by Sharav and then Conor.

  ‘Morning,’ they said in unison.

  ‘How are we this morning?’ asked Conor, looking at Paul.

  ‘Yeah good thanks. I slept for ages. Must have been knackered.’

  ‘Good, glad you slept well.’

  ‘You go out for a walk?’ asked Paul.

  ‘Yeah, Sharav and me went out to explore de square. The sun is gorgeous dis morning. Lovely.’

  ‘Right,’ said Paul, looking at Sharav who seemed distracted.

  Sharav and Rachel prepared a breakfast of cornflakes, warm, buttered toast and cups of tea. After which, Rachel threw a bag of marshmallows into the middle of the table. ‘Conor told me to spend as much as I wanted,’ she smiled.

  Conor explained the plan for the day. ‘Right so, I’m hoping today will be a little bit more relaxed dan yesterday. I want you to meet my boss, Mary O’Connell. She’s at Leinster house. Do you remember it from yesterday?’ Everyone nodded. ‘Well we’ll go der today and chat with me boss about how to get you to London. Sound like a plan?’

  ‘Sounds good,’ said Sharav. ‘I love old buildings.’

  ‘Yeah, It’s beautiful in der. The economy might be on its knees, but Leinster House remin
ds us of better days. Okay let’s get packed up and we’ll head over der now.’

  Thirty minutes later the group were walking down Kildare Street. Rachel, Sharav and Paul had really warmed to Conor in the short time that they’d known him. Conor proudly pointed out that this was Ireland’s most prestigious street and boasted some extraordinary buildings that were steeped in Irish history. They finally turned towards Leinster House. The largest Georgian mansion in Dublin stood proud in the winter sunlight.

  ‘It looks like a palace in the daylight,’ gasped Rachel.

  ‘Yeah, I love dis place,’ smiled Conor. ‘I don’t get to come to dis gaff very much, so we are lucky that de boss is here today. Security isn’t as tight today cause the Parliament isn’t sitting.’

  As they walked through the huge wooden door of Leinster House they were surrounded by warm light. They spent time studying the intricate archways on either side of the hall. They all stood in the large, square hall and looked up to take in the beautiful Waterford crystal chandelier and breath-taking ceiling which appeared to have been painted in pure gold.

  ‘Look over here,’ said Conor as he proudly showed them the proclamation of Ireland’s independence and the various portraits of Irish leaders including Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins.

  They were led down a number of grand corridors, floored in plush blue carpet. Sharav was at the back of the line and was so impressed by the bounce of the carpet that he started doing a funny trampoline walk. They finally came to a room with a plaque outside saying, ‘Ceremonial Garden Room’. Conor knocked on the door and they heard a simple, ‘Come’ from the other side. They entered a bright room with deep blue and yellow walls. Photos of past visitors to Leinster House adorned the walls, including three American Presidents which Sharav noticed straight away: JFK, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. A woman approached them with an easy, relaxed manner. Mary O’Connell stood tall, her long white hair was tied back and she looked at them with insight and intelligence through her piercing blue eyes.