Lone Wolf - Robert Muchamore Page 0,34

their target’s apartment.

It was half past ten when the target’s mother headed out, dressed in a bright yellow suit and a matching hat like she was going to church.

‘We’re in luck,’ Fay said. ‘Let’s roll.’

‘Is there a plan?’ Ning asked.

Fay threw over a scarf. ‘Tie this over your face and follow my lead.’

The two girls tied scarves over the bottom half of their faces as they mounted the apartments’ front steps. Fay pressed the doorbell and slid the Glock handgun out the back of her jeans.

They waited long enough for Ning to say, ‘Maybe he went out again.’

But after a full minute and a second press on the doorbell a blurred figure could be seen behind the frosted glass in the front door. The teenager opened up: fifteen years old, with scruffy Nike tracksuit bottoms and a muscular chest glazed with sweat.

His first reaction to the two masked girls was vague amusement. ‘Can I help you?’

Fay barged the door with her shoulder then stuck the gun right in the youth’s face.

‘Back up, hands high,’ Fay ordered.

The youth did as he was told, backing down a hallway decorated with peeling floral wallpaper.

‘Who else is in the house?’

‘Nobody.’

Fay looked at Ning. ‘Check it out.’

Ning wasn’t armed and didn’t relish the prospect of checking out all the rooms. She checked the kitchen and living-room first, before racing upstairs to do the bedrooms and bathroom. Meantime, Fay had the youth backing up the stairs to his room.

‘What’s your name?’ she barked.

‘Warren,’ the kid said.

Fay and Ning met up in Warren’s tiny bedroom.

‘Christ it stinks in here,’ Fay said, as she stepped over a floor mounded in tangled clothes and underwear.

Ning recognised the backpack Warren had gone out with the night before. She unzipped it and found about thirty plastic bags filled with cocaine.

‘How much do you sell these for?’ Ning asked. ‘Twenty?’

Warren nodded.

‘Sit on your bed, hands on head,’ Fay ordered.

Ning tipped the contents of the backpack out over the floor. ‘What’s gonna happen to you if we steal this?’

Warren kept a wary eye on Fay’s gun.

‘They’ll kick my ass and I’ll have to work to pay it back.’

Fay nodded. ‘And when word gets around that you got robbed by two girls?’

Warren just shook his head. ‘So you wanna take my stash, take it, bitches.’

‘Don’t call me a bitch,’ Fay said angrily, as she closed in on Warren with the gun. ‘Six hundred quid’s worth is chicken shit! We don’t want—’

Before Fay could finish, Warren lunged and grabbed the end of the gun. Fay stumbled forward as she tried to keep hold. Ning’s first reaction was to dive for cover in case a wild shot went off during the struggle, but once she was sure the gun wasn’t pointing her way she lunged for the bed and launched a flying kick at Warren’s head.

The powerful blow sent Warren into a daze and enabled Fay to stagger back with the gun. Ning made sure Warren got the message by punching him hard on the back, while Fay cracked the pistol across his brow with enough force to make a cut.

‘That’s what happens if you mess with us,’ Fay shouted, as Warren slumped sideways on the bed, making a low groan. ‘Now sit up straight before I pull you up by your hair.’

‘Hands on head,’ Ning added.

Warren coughed as he straightened up. Fay picked one of the little packets of cocaine off the carpet and flung it contemptuously at his midriff.

‘I don’t care about your chicken-feed six hundred-pound stash. I need information,’ Fay began. ‘If you’re dealing for Hagar’s crew, you must have a lot of info.’

‘I’m not a snitch,’ Warren said.

Fay laughed. ‘Imagine your mommy coming home from church and finding your brains splattered all over that lovely IKEA wardrobe. If you tell me what I need to know, that doesn’t have to happen. I won’t even steal your drugs.’

Warren looked down into his lap. ‘What is it you want to know?’

‘This whole thing with Hagar and Eli.’

‘What about it?’ Warren asked.

‘How did it start?’

‘I don’t know every detail,’ Warren said. ‘But there used to be an informal agreement. Eli would sell weed, Hagar dealt in coke and heroin. Then, six months back, Hagar started selling marijuana and Eli got pissed off and started up with cocaine.’

‘So is there a war?’ Fay asked.

‘Eli and Hagar hate one another’s guts. There’s been a few beatings-up and some scuffles over territory, but mostly they’ve been tiptoeing around each other.’

‘Evenly matched?’ Fay suggested.

Warren nodded. ‘There’s been untold rumours