To Kill a Grey Man by D C Stansfield

together and we
will disband and you will then pay us in full.   Is that clear?”
    “Clear,” said Keith.  

 
    Martin handed him a phone.   “You
will only contact us by text using this phone.   I expect the money in the bank tomorrow and an address for our base by
the day after with the plans for the hit.   You will not contact me again until you are ready to give the go
ahead.   Any screw up your end will see
you dead.   Okay?”
    “Okay,” said Keith.

 
    They both rose and shook hands.   Keith nodded to the two guards behind him, who nodded back.   He then walked swiftly back through the hotel
to the Mercedes.   As he sat down, he could
feel the sweat on his back sticking to the leather seats.

 
    After Keith Poole had left, Big Rob who had been sitting behind
Keith listening   in ,
started to laugh.   “Fuck me, Martin.   You just raped that wanker .   For that kind of money we could have invaded
Angola!”
    “I know,” said Martin dropping the Rupert accent and now talking in
his native London cockney.   “That’s what
worries me.   Who pays that kind of money
for one man.   We are going to have to be
very careful here boys, very careful.   This whole thing stinks.   One
thing for sure, I am not going to go in all guns blazing to a place I have
never seen or checked over no matter how much of a surveillance expert this
mark is.   Now, let’s get packed.   We have some travelling to do.”
    .    .    .    .    .    .

 
    Five days later John Sea gave Sir Thomas a call.   “Everything is in place,” he said.   “We are just waiting for the go from you.”
    “Okay,” said Sir Thomas.   “Stand
by.”

 
    On that same day, The Grey Man was struggling with another migraine.   He had only recently started to get them but they
were debilitating.   He was taking pain
killers like they were sweets and still the pain would not go away.   He called up Collins and then patched in
Surge on the conference call.
    “Are you still under observation?” he asked.   They both confirmed that they were.  
    “Well, we have a problem then.   They have now sent someone to check on me.   Yesterday an army Land Rover went by with two
soldiers in it.   My auto surveillance
camera picked up the number plate and ran it through the system.   It was army surplus, no longer in service and
been sold to the public.   Over the next
few hours it circled my place stopping at various places where I assume, a long
range camera was being used.”

 
    “In conclusion, it looks like we are in trouble.   I cannot find anything inside The Firm
that says this is official so we have an enemy or enemies staking us.   I assume Mr Sea is
the culprit with Sir Thomas backing him up.   Give me two more days to see if I can get the exact reasons for all this
work and then I will send in The Firm to sort this matter out.   Is that okay with you two?”
    “Yes, no problem,” said Surge and Collins.
    “In the meantime,” said The Grey Man.   “Let’s assume we are operational and protect ourselves
at all times.”   With that the phone went
dead.

 
    Chapter 13
    D- Day

 
    The next morning The Grey Man woke from a fitful sleep to total
darkness.   He reached for the light
switch and clicked it on.   Nothing
happened.   A cold sweat swept over him.   In a paniche
realized he was completely and utterly blind.   This was his worse fear, his room 101 torture.   Of all things, for him to go blind took away
all his skills, everything he had built up over his life.   He reached for the phone and had to orient
himself with the outside buttons to know which way up it was.   “How do you phone a number,” he thought, “When you have a smooth, touch keyboard?”

 
    Slowly he started to control himself.   He still had his mind, his greatest tool.   He worked out the buttons for volume on the right, the main menu button was in the middle.   He pushed it.   He reasoned the icons