the Savage Day - Simon Vaughn 02 (v5) by Jack Higgins

blow up every thing in sight and the worst of the lot were Frank Barry's Sons of Erin.
    He leaned over the rail and grinned down at her. 'In the flesh and twice as handsome. Good night to you, Norah Murphy.'
    Binnie made a sudden, convulsive movement and Barry said genially, 'I wouldn't, Binnie, me old love. Tim Pat here would cut you in half.'
    One of the two ratings who had already boarded relieved Binnie of his Browning.
    I leaned out of the window and said softly, 'Friends of yours, Binnie?'
    'Friends?' he said bitterly. 'Major, I wouldn't cut that bloody lot down if they were hanging.'

6
Bloody Passage
    The man with the Thompson gun, the one dressed as a Petty Officer whom Barry had called Tim Pat, came over the rail to confront us. On closer inspection he proved to have only one eye, but otherwise bore a distinct resemblance to the great Victor McLaglen in one of those roles where he looks ready to clear the bar of some waterfront saloon on his own at any moment.
    Barry dropped down beside him, a handsome, lean-faced man with one side of his mouth hooked into a slight, perpetual half smile as if permanently amused by the world and its inhabitants.
    'God save the good work, Norah.' He took off his cap and turned a cheek towards her. 'Have you got a kiss for me?'
    Binnie swung a punch at him which Barry blocked easily and Tim Pat got an arm about the boy's throat and squeezed.
    'I've told you before, Norah,' Barry said, shaking his head. 'You should never use a boy when a man's work is needed.'
    I think she could have killed him then. Certainly she looked capable of it, eyes hot in that pale face of hers, but always there was that iron control. God knows what was needed to break her, but I doubted whether Barry was capable.
    He shrugged, lit a cigarette, turning to me as he flicked the match over the rail. 'Now you, Major,' he said, 'look like a sensible man to me.'
    'And where exactly does that get us?'
    'To you telling me where you've got the stuff stowed away. We'll find it in the end, but I'd rather it was sooner than later and Tim Pat here's the terrible impatient one if he's kept waiting.'
    Which seemed more than likely from the look of him, so I volunteered the necessary information.
    'That's what I like about the English,' he said. 'You're always so bloody reasonable.' He nodded to Tim Pat. 'Put them in the aft cabin for the time being and let's get moving. I want that gear transferred and us out of it in fifteen minutes at the outside.'
    He snapped his fingers and another half a dozen men, all in British naval uniform, came over the rail, but by then Tim Pat was already herding us towards the companionway. He took us below, shoved us into the big aft cabin and locked us in.
    I stood at the door listening to the bustle in the saloon, then turned to face my companions. 'And who might this little lot be?'
    'The walking ape is Tim Pat Keogh,' Binnie said violently, 'and one of these days ...'
    'Cool it, Binnie,' Norah Murphy cut in on him sharply. 'That kind of talk isn't going to help one little bit.' She turned back to me. 'The boss man is Frank Barry. He was my uncle's right-hand man until six or seven months ago, then he decided to go his own way.'
    'What is he - a Provo?'
    She shook her head. 'No, he runs his own show. The Sons of Erin, they call themselves. I believe there was a revolutionary organization under that name in Fenian times.'
    'He seems to be remarkably well informed,' I said. 'What else do he and his men get up to besides this kind of thing?'
    'They'd shoot the Pope if they thought it was necessary,' Binnie said.
    I glanced at Norah Murphy in some surprise and she shrugged. 'And they're all good Catholic boys except for Barry himself. Remember the Stern gang in Palestine? Well, the Sons of Erin are exactly the same. They believe in the purity of violence if the cause is just.'
    'So anything goes? The bomb in the cafe? Women, kids, the lot?'
    'That's the general idea.'
    'Well, it's a point of