It was only with reluctance that they called in Angel.

Pat had known him for about seven years, ever since the broke, down on his luck, ex-Rugby player had been hired as a door-man for a gay disco. Angel was a gentle man, completely lacking in any prejudice, who over the years had built on that first experience to provide security, help and comfort, for all of the minorities needing protection in society.

Everything about Angel was large. Huge almost! As he entered the flat he literally filled the door and almost had to duck to avoid hitting his head on the lintel. No-one would have dared to ask him his weight, but he must have been well over twenty stone.

'Well, to start with, you'll have to do something about this door!' Angel was examining the hinges and the locks. 'If I ran at this, I would go straight through it. Would you like a demo?'

'No! Thanks!' He held up a feeble hand to Angel's great bulk. 'Can you get someone to fix the door?'

'Yes! It's not bad, but it'll need strengthening, if it's going to stop bullets.' He examined the door again. 'Fix it though and I think with the layout of these flats, you'd keep most people out long enough for the Police to get here.'

'You mentioned bullets! Is it that serious?'

'Look you two! Don't be naive.' They had now moved to the living-room and Angel had placed a huge arm around each of them. 'The guy who's paying for all this comes from Vegas. The deal is about billions of dollars. I know, they'll have guns. They always do!'

***

For the next hour or so, the three of them discussed their movements, the flat, its security, the computers and what they had done to protect them.

Angel had come to two main conclusions.

The basic security of the block of flats, designed as it was to a very high standard, with twenty-four hour porterage, video cameras and entry phones, and save for a frontal assault by a team of gunmen, would be very much sufficient. Angel doubted that anybody would get to the door of the flat unseen.

He now believed that the most likely method of entry would be to approach one or both of them in the street and force them to bring the intruders up to the flat.

'Well! We don't go out much anyway!' Pat was adamant he didn't want anything to do with guns. 'So we won't go out anymore!' He thought for a few moments. 'Shall we tell Wendy not to come? We don't want her to get hurt!'

'No! Tell her not to come!' Angel was now looking out of the window of the flat. He pointed across the high level podium towards the Underground Station at Barbican. 'Am I right to think, that when you go for your daily exercise, you walk over the top? And I can see you all the way?'

'Yes!' Pat pointed out the gym.

'So! You'll go out and return each day at the same times. Say leave about eleven and return an hour later!' The others showed a mixture of fear and disbelief at what they were being asked to do.

***

Angel spotted the two followers on Tuesday and again the next day, when he arranged for the tables to be turned. As they left the Barbican, they were followed to a local hotel, where with the usual greasing of palms, names, nationalities and addresses, and room numbers were obtained. Later that afternoon their rooms were thoroughly and professionally, but very unobtrusively searched.

'We've only discovered a pair of complete amateurs!' Angel had already read out all of the details the search had obtained. 'I think, that they're a couple of programmers from Hungary, who I suspect are probably only part of Russ' team.'

'Only part?' Pat question showed concern.

'I suspect that there'll be some professional heavies somewhere! This job is too important for your mate, Russ!'

'I thought that they had a gun.' The programmer was trying to logically downgrade the threat. 'Doesn't that mean they're working alone.'

'Could be! But we must be careful!' Angel thought it throught. 'I know that they've been very careless and they've now lost all of their ammunition!' Angel tossed the bullets to the others as souvenirs. 'We've also searched the car, in which they drove across from Europe and that's totally clean.'

'Won't they notice the loss and the search?'

'What if they do?' Angel spread his hands in a dismissive gesture. 'The gun was stored in a drawer and they'll probably think the maid or someone took it. But, they'll still think they can threaten you and I doubt they'll know where to get any more! Hopefully, they'll have been panicked and will be as jumpy as hell! It'll make them want to strike tomorrow and get on out of it! But only if they're working alone.'

'What are we going to do then?' Pat asked the question for both of them.

'We have two choices! We go to the Police.' He waited for any reaction. 'Or we do it ourselves. For me, I like the latter, as that way, we can get the evidence you need. The Police do have these high moral standards!'

***

So it was a very apprehensive pair, who descended the lift and slowly walked the five hundred metres or so, to the gym. The walk was without incident, but once safely inside, a call from a mobile phone to Angel, assured them that they had been watched. Angel was also sure that they were alone and he was now prepared to admit that the two Hungarians could be working by themselves.

Within seconds of leaving the gym and starting to walk across the almost deserted podium, they had become aware of two darkish men in their mid-twenties following them. Both were reasonably well-dressed in trainers and casual clothes, one sporting a pair of glasses, but neither was more than about five foot nine or of a strong, thickset build. They certainly didn't look like a pair of East European hoods and Angel appeared to be correct about their amateur status. So much so, that Pat almost felt confident enough to take them on.

Just before they entered the block, they stopped and turned to look over the edge of the podium at the streets, people and gardens below. They talked inconsequentially and observed that their followers were now doing very much the same. Their ineptitude was betrayed, by the fact that they obviously had not seen the giant Angel, who was casually standing several metres behind them, apparently talking nineteen to the dozen about stocks, shares and futures into a mobile phone.

They made their move as expected at the door, producing the gun and pushing it under Pat's nose. But almost at the same time the weapon disappeared! From nowhere a giant and silent hand enveloped it, twisted and with no small tearing of flesh and breaking of bones, removed it from its owners hand. Meanwhile a size fourteen boot found the tender spot between the other attacker's legs and he collapsed to the floor.

***

To say the two Hungarians were unhappy would be an understatement. They were now cuffed with a couple of electrical cable straps, with their hands bandaged as necessary and were sitting very frightened and apprehensively on the sofa. They had not said much, but the general feeling was that they understood English and their current predicament extremely well.

It was Angel who spoke. 'Which one of you goes in the river first? Or shall we match your left hand to your right?' He held up his enormous hand. 'All I need to do is shake hands!' He grinned.

'Look!' The one with the glasses had broken the silence. His English was good, but with an appropriate accent. 'We were not going to hurt anybody. We just wanted all the source code.'

'You're rather naive, aren't you!' Angel was continuing, using a voice that was all quiet threat. 'We have three choices; the river, the law and probably five years in jail, or perhaps we could be persuaded to let you go.' They seemed to brighten up at the last suggestion. 'You don't want to lose freedom or face, do you?'

The two Hungarians nodded.

'So I think we'll let you go!' Angel smiled at them. 'And we're going to give you a present of our hard disc back-up tapes.'

'Thank you!' They seemed astonished at Angel's offer.

'Oh! I forgot! One of you, it doesn't matter which one, is going to be my guest here in London for a week or so, until we receive a complete back-up of your computers in Budapest.' He paused while they took in the implications. 'Oh! And we want it after you have loaded the tapes from here, so that all of those nice, friendly viruses, we've given you, are well and truly, alive and kicking hard! And we will check that on the tapes before we end the hospitality!'

Copyright 1999 by Ewart Higgins