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were heading for anyway before you blew it.”
    Raucous didn’t answer.  He knew that was what most thought of him.  He reached with both hands and took the gun and key.  He stood pushing the gun into the back of his jeans.
    “Take one of the twins for security,” Turk said.
    “Which one?”
    Turk shrugged.
    “Either or, I don’t care.  I can’t tell them apart for shit.”

CHAPTER TEN
    She tried sneaking up on him, but he turned just as she reached out to touch his shoulder.  Jim was standing outside the tobacconists and he was pulling on a filterless.
    Jan knew h would be waiting.  He had shown too much to Ben.  Jean knew the old man couldn’t walk away.
    “I saw you in the reflection,” Jim said. “Pub?”
    Jean shook her head.
    “I don’t go in there with those loons.  Have you seen the place?  Full of dead-eyed morons.”
    “Suggestions?”  Jim asked as he exhaled smoke.
    Jean hated smokers.
    “I usually jog right now, but looking at your state I’d say if you accepted you’d be offering yourself to suicide.”
    “Probably still take you,” Jim said.
    Jean looked him up and down.
    “Not too many can in your shape.”
    “You carry a gun?”
    “Never needed one.”
    Jim’s eyes moved from Jean’s face to the road.  He didn’t swivel his head, his eyes tracked past her into the traffic.  Jean looked around and saw a white Transit van.  It wasn’t flying a union jack on its wing-mirror, but the big guy driving sure looked like he had a house draped in one.  He gave them both an emotionless stare as he cruised past at twenty miles per hour. 
    “You may now,” Jim said.
    “Fat men in vans don’t scare me.  Or are you planning on shooting me?”
    “Do you still draw like Audie Murphy?”
    Jean stared.  It was him, and he knew.  Audie Murphy.  His films hadn’t been shown in years.
    “And drink my milk,” Jean said.
    “You always liked Audie Murphy.”
    “A real genuine all-American hero.  What’s not to like?”
    “Shit actor.”
    “The worst.”
    Jim’s eyes looked to the traffic again.  Jean watched the same white van pass in the opposite direction.  It looked like the true-Brit van-driving handyman had picked up a wall-street broker from a car-crash.  The high-class suit gave them the same dead stare with added smug smile through swollen lips and bruised face.
    “Do they know you, or can you pick a fight with anyone from safety of the pavement?”  Jean asked.
    Jim turned slowly, stared into Jean’s eyes
    “You not recognize one of them?”  He asked.
    “Not the people I hang with.  I’m more your solitary type.  If I had to make a list of what annoys me most, sitting right there at number one would be people.  What about you?”
    “Betrayal.”
    Jean nodded approval.
    “Good choice, but that’s essentially people too.  So what have you got to say?  You were all enigmatic yesterday.  Is someone coming to find me, or do I have to make it back to a tree before being seen in this hide-and-seek mystical claptrap?”
    Jim looked at the white van
    “Looks like we’ve already been found,” Jim said.  “A day early, but you never can plan.”
    The white van pulled up to the curb.  The doors opened and the two men stepped down with ease and walked around to stand facing Jim.
    Jim nodded a hello to them both.  They returned the greeting. 
    “Wow, who would have thought we would have bumped into you today, Jim,” Timothy said.
    Timothy reached out quickly and grabbed Jim’s collar.  Jim swung a right uppercut into Timothy’s ribs and connected clean.  Timothy released his grip and staggered back against the side of the van.  A hollow ring sounded from the thin panels.
    Timothy stepped forward and caught his breath.  Raucous held up a hand to stop him.
    “You could have blocked that for me,” Timothy said.
    “Yeah, probably, but I don’t actually like you all that much.”
    Jean threw a straight right at Raucous, aiming to clip his