Chapter 1 - The Woman
“There she is Captain!” said Colgate who was sat opposite his Captain at a small table at the end of the room. Colgate and his Captain were both drinking a glass of the local spirit which has an odd orange colour to it This made it look like they were adults at a child’s birthday party. The person they were both interested in had just entered the room. A few of the other occupants had turned to look in her direction as she walked through the door. The person at whom the attention was being directed was unaware of their popularity and moved slowly towards the bar. There she tried to gain the attention of the barman with a wave of her leather-gloved hand. The hand was in keeping with the rest of her outfit. This was of a similar material to the glove and hugged her voluptuous figure like a long-lost friend. A friend who had recently heard of their friend’s death but had in fact been misinformed and had subsequently found them in a bar after several hours of drinking and mourning their death.
“Do you believe what they say about her Captain?” whispered Colgate to the one ear that his Captain still had intact. The other ear had been removed by an enemy, years earlier. This gave the Captain a rather lopsided look and made it difficult for him to find glasses that stayed on.
“I do Colgate, as do a few others in here I believe.” the Captain replied under his breath not to alert anyone in the vicinity to their intent. The Captain and Colgate’s fellow crew members Diego and Miles had been left outside the bar so as not to raise suspicions of a large group entering the bar. They were there as backup if any trouble started.
“They say it’s in her blood.” continued Colgate in his Captain’s good ear.
“Yes, she has a long history of being close to the source of the affliction and the likely hood she had absorbed some of it.” replied the Captain.
Colgate rose to his feet and walked slowly to the door past the woman at the bar. She had got the attention of the barman and was ordering a drink. The drink order involved a long list of instructions the barman had to follow. Colgate stepped through the door and looked around for a couple of seconds until he saw the two crewmen stood on the other side of the street. They were engaged in a conversation and smoking. The smoke curled from the end of the cigarettes they held in their hands. A sharp whistle alerted them to Colgate’s presence and they immediately turned to look at him. Colgate motioned to the men to be alert to anything that happens in the next few minutes and be ready to come to his and his Captains aid if necessary. This took longer than Colgate anticipated and when he returned to be bar things had moved on.
The Captain was no longer sat at the table where he had left him. He was now at the bar only a matter of feet away from the woman in leather. She was chatting to the barman about the drink that he had prepared for her. She still seemed totally unaware of all the attention she was generating in the room. This may have been a lack of conscious awareness of her surroundings. It could also have been a ploy to appear unaware when in fact she was fully conscious of every eye upon her perfectly formed leather clad curves. The Captain was pretty sure which it was and was extremely cautious not to bring attention to himself. He also tried to appear uninterested in the woman, unlike most of the rest of the bar’s occupants.
As the Captain sat down at the bar, he noticed a sudden movement in the corner of his eye. At the same time, he heard the scraping of chairs from around one of the tables on the far side of the room. He could sense a small group of men get up from their chairs. Were they leaving the bar or heading in his and the woman’s direction? Difficult to tell without making it known you were watching them. Luckily at that point Colgate returned and walked past the group making sure he got a good look at them. As he went past the group Colgate made sure he sized them up. He then joined his Captain at the bar along with the woman of interest. The woman continued to give the impression of being completely oblivious to her surroundings.
The altercation in the bar only lasted a few minutes. The men from the table rushed towards the bar and tried to grab the woman. This was swiftly followed by a second group of men at another table in the room. They ran to the aid of the woman. It was not clear whether this second group was a friend or another foe of the woman. The second group of me set about the first group with a vigour that was both frantic and precise at the same time. Each one of the first group were disabled and pinned to the ground before they knew what had happened. In the ensuing melee the Captain had moved towards the woman. When he was close enough, he reached out to the woman. The action was over in a split second. The woman was oblivious to the Captain having been distracted by the fight going on around her. So distracted was the woman she did not even realise what the Captain had doing until later that day when she removed her leather gloves.
