Fire Force(25)

Archie was slapping one of the girls on the bottom and punching the air as Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ blasted out of the speaker system.

Steve looked around for Sam. But there was no sign of her. And although he tried to fight it, he couldn’t help feeling deflated.

‘Where’s Chris?’ asked Ian. ‘I thought you’d gone to get him.’

Steve shook his head. ‘He’s shacked up with a local girl, and had a kid.’

‘Jesus!’ shouted Ian, struggling to make himself heard above the racket of the music. ‘I’ll be getting hitched to Ian Paisley’s daughter at this rate.’

‘We told him we couldn’t take him,’ said Steve. ‘This is no job for a man with a new baby.’

‘We could have used his expertise,’ said Ian.

‘We’ll be fine.’

Archie was handing out more drinks, and organising a couple of the girls into a wet T-shirt competition. They were out on the terrace next to the pool. Maksim had grabbed a hose and was spraying water over a pair of the girls, their bodies glistening in the soft moonlight. Steve couldn’t be certain, but he suspected Archie had paid them to be there tonight. There was no other plausible explanation for how Melanie, the girl hanging onto Ian’s arm, and cheering Maksie on as he sprayed more water across her friend Lana, would choose to hang out with a bloke as ugly as the Irishman.

I’ve nothing against the guys enjoying themselves, Steve decided. They’ve a tough mission ahead. Probably the toughest they’ve ever been on.

But Archie seemed to be softening them up: it was as if he was trying too hard to get them on his side. We’re mercenaries, Steve reminded himself. We fight for money. You don’t have to lay on some local slappers to get us onto the battlefield.

‘This reminds me of my mum’s club,’ said Nick, taking the hose from Maksie and spraying down the brunette. Her T-shirt was clinging to her breasts and her wet hair was swaying in time to the music.

‘Club?’ said Ollie, standing next to him. ‘What club?’

But Nick had clammed up again.

Ian and Steve were now standing right next to him.

‘Come on - what club?’ Steve wanted to know.

‘Nothing,’ snapped Nick.

‘There’s only one type of club that looks anything like this,’ said Ian.

‘Leave it,’ growled Nick.

‘A lapdancing club,’ Ian went on cruelly.

Steve laughed. ‘You’re kidding us, right?’

Nick went bright red.

‘Wow - a lapdancer,’ said Ollie, grinning. ‘I thought you said she worked in B&Q.’

‘Yeah, well, if your mum was a lapdancer, I don’t suppose you’d be bragging about it either,’ said Nick, a drunken anger evident in his tone of voice. ‘She works at the Sensations Club in Cardiff. How else is she supposed to make ends meet? That’s why I wanted to take a PMC job in the first place, to make enough money to get my mum out of the club.’

‘Christ, I hope she’s better-looking than you are,’ said Steve.

Ollie was still chuckling. ‘Isn’t she a bit old?’

‘She’s only thirty-two.’

Ian was looking straight at Ollie, then back at Nick. ‘Thirty-two? How’s that possible? I thought you were twenty, Nick. She couldn’t have had a kid when she was twelve, could she? I mean, even in Swansea that’s a bit young.’

‘She was fourteen,’ Nick mumbled.

‘So let me see - that makes you eighteen,’ said Ian. ‘Not twenty after all.’

‘Jesus,’ said Ollie. ‘If I known how old you were, I’d never have agreed to take you to Afghanistan.’

‘Well, I’m bloody eighteen now, aren’t I?’

‘Old enough to get into your mum’s club,’ said Ollie.

‘I’ll organise your stag night there, mate,’ said Steve. ‘We can have a right good piss-up and get Nick’s mum to lay on a few dances for us.’ He looked at the boy. ‘What did you say it was called again?’

‘Fucking leave it,’ the young man snapped, walking away.

‘Sensations, Cardiff,’ said Ollie, laughing. ‘I want the VIP table.’

Nick had already drifted away, and was dancing with one of the girls. Steve stood by himself, watching the fun, but not in the mood to take any part in it.

‘I can get some extra girls in if you want,’ said Archie, standing next to him.

‘That’s OK. I think I’ll get an early night,’ Steve told him.

‘You don’t like to party?’

Steve looked at Archie sharply. ‘Not all of these guys will necessarily make it back from this job alive,’ he said. ‘For me, that takes the edge off the celebrations.’