The Beggar and The Ghost : A breathtaking slick high concept thriller. by Vincent Holland-Keen

Author:Vincent Holland-Keen [Holland-Keen, Vincent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SpellBound Books
Published: 2023-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Hero. Not a word ever used to describe Daniel Littlewood.

Syracuse Echo Race on the other hand, was lauded as such from all quarters. Traumatised spectators sang his praises to police officers. Overworked paramedics spoke of the lives saved by his acute medical interventions. Even the polo ponies, on return to their horseboxes, seemed convinced his pockets held the best sugar cubes.

It was ridiculous. A fantasy beyond the bounds of believability. But that was fine. Daniel was happy to roll with it. He couldn’t remember the last time someone congratulated him on a job well done. On those few occasions Daniel knew he’d done a job well, he had to go round pointing it out to everyone - ‘look, I did this, and it was fucking great, see?’ They didn’t see. They didn’t care. They thought he was a fucking prick on a ego-trip.

Not today.

Today they offered him adulation and in return he smiled modestly and said: “I’m sure if you’d played too much sport as a kid and happened to attend a crash course in emergency medicine once upon a time, you would have done the same thing.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that!” replied Mrs Mellon.

A dozen survivors of la invasión de sombreros (Mrs Mellon thought the drones’ many propellers looked like hats for some reason) had convened at the restaurant Elena of the Buenos Aires Four Seasons. The day’s excitement was then relived repeatedly, with our dear friend Mr Race the star of the show.

Halfway through the main course Daniel realised his top billing was false advertising.

Mrs Melon was in the midst of regaling the table. “I know, Santi, I know, I was thanking the stars I wasn’t trapped under there when it all started collapsing, but then of course because I wasn’t trapped under there, it meant I was out in the open when that horrible thing burst back out! And I know that makes it sound like the time my nephew Ronald came out as gay and denounced us all as bigots for pointing out that men would surely find him just as repulsive as women,” she paused to accommodate laughter, more raucous from those who presumably knew Ronald, “but no, no, it wasn’t the same at all. Ronald only came at me with one little boning knife, which was oddly appropriate, and not six deadly, whirring blades. I’m sure they would have sent me up to St Peter as a nutritious Antonia Vivian Mellon smoothie if it hadn’t been for the heroic Mr Race here. Did you see what he did? Remarkable! Amazing! He not only saved my life, he also saved me from watching my whole life flash before my eyes. I only made it to my thirty-eighth birthday before the danger passed, which was quite enough autobiography for one day, thank you very much.”

“I had that too.” This from a Mexican businessman everyone around the table called ‘Chango’. “But my life has not been nearly so remarkable as yours, Antonia. I got quite bored halfway through.

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