Crime Thriller
A Viaduct Violation
My life was heading for derailment
Barry is abducted over a top-secret new gadget. He is certain to die, but is all as it seems? Read on to find out!
Viaduct Violation
I have always been a silent passenger in my life. Many times, I exerted my will and yet my life continued on the same tracks to an aimless destination. Prisoner inside a private cabin on a speeding train, my life was heading for derailment.
All I’d done was enter my boss’s office to deliver some mail. Somebody grabbed me, I felt a prick at my neck and darkness descended like a cold heavy blanket. Now, awake I could hear the rhythmic thudding of the train’s wheels passing over the tracks. I was facing the flowery cushioned backrest of a banquette bench they dumped me on. My hands and legs were duct taped and my situation was growing worse by the moment.
“Drucker, we’ll have to kill him now, you realize,” said a tense voice close at hand.
“We can’t do anything until Tamron hands over the device,” said another.
“But he has to die, or he’ll — ”
“Shut yer face, Bryant. Tamron won’t let his son die. He’ll give us what we need and then we’re gonna chuck him off the viaduct, anyway.”
Bryant chuckled, “Yeah, nobody will find his carcass in the valley.”
The thought of being thrown off a moving rain caused sweat to bead on my forehead. Tamron was my boss, he was not my father though. In my current situation that information was useless, I was a dead man either way.
“Exactly, clean and decisive.” Something hit the floor and the man swore, “I’m gonna find some tea and cake,” he said.
“Bring me back a scone or something, will you?” Bryant asked.
“I’ll consider it. Watch him and don’t kill him prematurely got it?” the cabin door slid open and shut.
The arm beneath me was going numb. I rolled to relieve it and fell to the floor. “Ugh, that … hurt!” I mumbled.
Hands seized my shoulders and hauled me to my feet, “Get back on the bench and don’t try anything, got that!”
“You abducted the wrong — Argh!” a fist slammed into my jaw, and darkness threatened to consume me as I slumped back onto the banquette.
“Shut up! Your rich pig of a dad made a mistake stealing from us. Now, we’re taking payment by killing you.”
“I haven’t a clue … what you’re talking … about,” I wheezed through the blood pooling in my mouth from a split gum that burned like fire. Now I could see Bryant was a surly, thickset, ginger man with a very punchable face.
“Your father stole our boss’s electromagnetic pyramid. As a new unlimited battery cell, it’s worth billions and he paid only one-tenth of the value — he’ll…”
The door slid open and closed again.
“He’s awake,” Bryant said.
“Good, Tamron wants to see Yamato before he returns the device,” said Drucker, a muscular bald man. He put two mugs of tea on the table, with a scone on a plate with butter and jam. Arms free, he made a phone call and held the phone toward me. “Say hello to, Daddy.”
I saw the wealthy Japanese man who paid my wages on screen, his face went from worried to relieved in a heartbeat, “Sorry, Mr Tamron. I don’t know where your son is.”
“Barry-san, why are you with them?” he replied.
“Apparently, these goons don’t know a Japanese man when they see one.” I rubbed my jaw. “I’m dead no matter what. Find you son and — ”
Drucker cut off the call, “Shit! How the hell did we grab the wrong guy, you idiot!”
“You pulled the bag over his head before I saw his face, that’s why?” Bryant hurled a cushion across the cabin breaking a reading light in the process.
“Don’t pissing blame me! You had the job of ID-ing… ”
“Boys,” I rubbed my throbbing head. “Can we get to killing me already?”
“Why’re you in a hurry to die, huh?” Drucker asked sitting on a chair and leaning over the back to look across the table between us.”
I sighed, “I saw your ugly mugs. You’re going to kill me. So, do me a favor and get it done.”
Bryant looked almost empathetic toward me, “Don’t you want to get back to your family, at all?”
“Nah,” I gazed out the window, enjoying the rolling Scottish crags beneath leaden skies. “On Monday I will become a homeless nobody waiting to die on the streets of Edinburgh.”
“Bloody hell, so Tamron is a stingy bastard with the wages an’ all then?” Druker queried.
“Not really, just the useless government has doubled my cost of living. My wages don’t cover the rent now, let alone food. So, I chose to eat and got my eviction notice a couple of months ago. The bailiffs will arrive Monday morning.” I tried to shake the daze from my head and smiled, “So, when do I get off for my drop into the valley?”
The two men looked at each other, “Sorry, mate. That’s a tough go at life.” Bryant said looking genuinely disturbed by my tale.
“Ha!” Drucker grinned as he checked his watch, “I never killed someone who wanted to die. This’ll be interesting.”
“I’ll be sure to shake your hand before I go,” I quipped.
“Well, only a couple minutes left now.” He moved toward me with a small flick knife.
My breath caught in my throat as he reached toward my chest … then sawed through my duct tape bindings.
“Relax, can’t have people see you all taped up now, can we?”
“You’re a smart man, Drucker.“ I put my legs on the banquette to help him cut me free.
“Yeah, and you’re a dead one,” he replied with a heart like a glacier. Still, he cut my leg bindings, “Let’s move.”
He shoved me toward the door so hard, I stumbled and banged my head on the wall. “Great now, I’ll have a headache in the afterlife,” I mumbled.
Drucker chuckled, “Bryant lead us to the back of the train. I’ll cover his arse in case he changes his mind.”
“Righto,” Bryant stepped into the corridor.
I followed right behind him, again captivated by the stunning brown heathery hills, dotted with evergreens and gorse thickets. This was a great place to become a ghost. I noticed wisps of smoke; this was a steam train.
“Not a word to anyone, or they’ll die too!” Drucker poked my back with the knife to press home his words.
“Fine, no need to shank me,” I raised my hands for a second as we headed along the carriage. “I’m going to throw myself off the train remember.”
“Shut up, idiot!” Bryant hissed as he drew open the sliding door to the rear carriage. This one was an old post office carriage left on the train for posterity.
As I entered I knew where I was. Fortune favored us as the carriage was devoid of life.
“Keep moving,” Drucker ordered.
I stepped between the shelving for the post sacks and smiled at the antique suitcases stowed there like parcels. Those were the good old days. “How decent of you to turn me into a murder mystery character.”
“What you babbling on about?” Bryant asked reaching the rearmost door of the train.
That,” I pointed out of the window toward the front of the train, “, Is the Glenfinnan Viaduct — so this train is the Jacobite — admittedly it’s a little Hogwarts over the Orient Express, but all this does have an Agatha Christie feel doesn’t it?”
“Shut up,” Drucker replied.
“Smart arse,” Bryant added as he caused a burst of cold sooty air to fill the carriage. It left us all choking for a moment.
“Out you go.” Drucker pointed with his knife.
“Tally-ho.” Resigned to my fate, I stepped out onto the narrow platform above the rear coupler. My eyes burned with the smoke billowing above the train.
“Want me to leave a note for your bailiff?” Drucker yelled over the wind as he joined me.
The scrubby hillside pocked with trees steepened around the train as we swept into the valley and gained the viaduct. The ground dropped beneath us as we rose thirty meters above Loch Sheil.
“Yeah, tell him, I’ll see him in hell!” I yelled as I leaned over the side to stare my fate in the eyes. Somehow a steep drop yawning at me failed to raise my fears.
Drucker laughed.
I flexed my muscles and twisted off the railing with all my power as I unleashed a balled fist. His nose broke beneath my knuckles as he snapped backwards with a look of shock on his face.
With a grin, I shook his hand as the look turned to fear and he fell from the train. He bounced once upon the track before plunging off the viaduct. His screams were masked by the roar of the train.
“You — bloody — killed him!” Bryant mumbled.
“Observant, bugger,” I said leaning against the door to massage my smarting knuckles.
Bryant’s face reddened to a color close to his hair. “I’m going to murder you now!” he yelled.
I yawned, “Really, we have to do this? I mean we can both walk off this train and never see each — ”
“Shut up!” Bryant lunged at me.
I jinked beneath his arms and introduced him to the door frame.
The glass cracked as he staggered back into the carriage and tried to kick me.
I grabbed his leg and forced him to hop outside. “I gave you an opportunity.”
“No! Please don’t — ” his words were cut off as I tipped him off the train. He tumbled onto the track and fell still. He wasn’t dead but if I saw him again, I’d probably have to change that.
With a calming breath, I shut the door and returned to the carriage. Inside I set about buttering Bryant’s scone. There was just time to savor the fruity confection before I put in a call.
“This is Tamron,” answered the Japanese man who paid my wages.
“It’s Barry, boss.”
“What of the abductors?” he asked.
“One found the viaduct a bridge too far. The other will hopefully make better choices going forward.”
“Very good, Barry-san. I will see you soon,” Tamron rang off.
I reclined on the banquette to wait for the train to reach its destination. I was never an assistant in Tamron’s office. A bodyguard will do whatever’s necessary to get the job done though. If only dealing with bailiffs was so easy.
I wasn’t going to enjoy Monday morning.
The End
Thank you for reading, this story was first published in my menagerie on the 07/08/2023
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