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bar with the patrons two deep in some places. ‘Mal’ or ‘Majors’, call him Mal, got served with two drinks and took them across to a table near the middle of the room where another man and a woman were sitting. He wasn’t wearing his sunglasses tonight and his hair looked a few shades lighter than in the photo, but the reptilian eyes were unmistakable.
    The woman at Mal’s table was about his age, midthirties. She was getting fat and trying to hide the fact in clothes too young for her. She didn’t worry me; I thought I could handle her.
    The man was another story. He kept his eye on Mal as he delivered the drinks, and he didn’t seem too interested in his. The arms draped back over his chair would have been too well-developed to hold comfortably close to his torso.
    I used the bar toilet and came back to Erica’s chair, which she’d turned slightly away from Mal’s field of vision.
    ‘No drink?’ she said.
    ‘No. We’ve got a problem.’
    ‘No problem. That’s him. We just bowl up and lay it on him.’
    ‘We don’t. Did you notice the guy with him?’
    She shook her head.
    ‘Not a trained observer, see. He’s what we’ve learned from the television to call a minder.’
    ‘Are you scared of him?’
    ‘I don’t know enough about him to know whether to be scared. He’s big enough for the work, and he looks like he wouldn’t trip over the furniture when he moved. But that’s not the real worry. If Mal’s got a minder, it means he expects trouble. He doesn’t know we’re onto him so the trouble must be coming from another direction. Chances are that trouble for him means trouble for us. Logic?’
    ‘Bugger logic!’
    She jumped up, skipped around me and headed towards the threesome’s table. I was so surprised that I stood still for a few seconds and wasted more time opening my mouth to yell at her. I didn’t yell, but by the time I got moving she had woven through the drinkers and had fronted up to Mal.
    Mal shook his head and Erica said something loud and uncomplimentary. Mal pushed his chair back, the woman moved her body closer to him and the other guy got smoothly to his feet. He was well over a foot taller than Erica, but she stood her ground. I could feel the adrenalin starting to flow as I pushed towards the table. The minder had his hand on Erica’s upper arm in an ungentlemanly grip. I came up on the side and chopped at his big biceps to break the grip. He let go and half-turned, and I swung him further off-balance by pulling on his forearm. He stumbled, and I hacked his right foot out from under him so that he fell down hard and awkwardly into his chair. He looked up, and for the first time I saw that he was very young, not much over twenty. He jumped up and threw apunch, but he wasn’t set and I blocked it pretty easily.
    ‘Real rough on women are you, son?’
    Mal yelped: ‘Fix him, Geoff.’ Geoff tried his best, but I didn’t let him get set. I gave him a short hard punch well below the belt and rasped my shoe heel down his shin bone. With the wind knocked out and a shin giving hell, most people have the good sense to sit down.
    Erica flashed a smile at a man who showed some interest in joining in the action. She shook her head at him and pulled a chair up close to Mal. I leaned down hard on Geoff’s shoulder and whispered in his ear.
    ‘Don’t worry, son. I’m not part of his big problem and I won’t hurt him. I just want a little talk.’
    He wriggled, and I put my foot down hard on his left suede shoe. Mal’s face was white and I was sure I could hear his knees knocking under the table. He was looking at me with fascination and I saw that the butt of the gun under my shoulder was just visible where my jacket was open. Geoff saw it too. I closed the jacket and smiled at him.
    ‘Just stay where you are and no-one gets hurt. You might learn something.’ He nodded and I took my foot away.
    Erica had pulled her chair up so close that she was almost sitting in Mal’s