Still Standing - Matt Standing Series 03 (2023) by Leather Stephen

Author:Leather, Stephen [Leather, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Standing and Green arrived back at the Best Friends Resort just before midnight. The girls were still drinking at the Rasta View and had shared another three joints between them. They had offered the joints to Standing and Green but they had declined. Drug use was grounds for instant dismissal from the Special Air Service, with no exceptions and no appeals. Military compulsory drug testing teams visited the SAS barracks at Stirling Lines an average of twice a year. It was rare for anyone to test positive for cocaine, heroin, cannabis, methamphetamines or steroids, but if they did they were returned to their unit and likely to be thrown out of the Army. Standing’s drug of choice had always been alcohol, and even that was usually in moderation. He figured that nothing would ever equal the adrenaline rush that came with being in combat, so why bother trying to recreate it?

Daeng was sitting at the desk when they walked into the shack and he smiled and nodded. Electric lights had been switched on to illuminate the walkways and they cast long shadows as the two men walked towards their cabins. ‘So what’s the plan tomorrow?’ asked Green.

‘Let’s go to the Rasta View at eleven. We can eat there and hang out all day. We should take the binoculars and the bird book.’

‘We’re going to pretend to be bird-watchers?’

‘We can just say we found the book and were curious. We’ll be out of the way up on the mezzanine.’

Green nodded and headed towards his cabin. Standing watched him go inside and then walked along to his room. He let himself in and switched on the light. He wasn’t tired so he lay on the bed, plugged his phone into its charger and logged onto Netflix.

He drifted off to sleep while he was watching a lacklustre comedy but was woken when his phone vibrated. He took it out and saw that he had a message. His phone didn’t recognise the number but it was clear from the message – CALL THIS NUMBER ON WHATSAPP – that it was from Shepherd.

He left his cabin and hurried over to Green’s. He knocked on the door and Green opened it with the chain on. He nodded when he saw it was Standing, took the chain off and opened the door. ‘Spider wants a chat,’ said Standing.

‘Cool,’ said Green. The bottle of Johnnie Walker was on his bedside table, along with a half-filled glass. The box containing Pete’s ashes was on the dressing table, next to the bottle of vodka. Standing could see that Green had continued drinking in his room, but was far from drunk.

‘You want a dram?’ asked Green.

‘Yeah, go for it,’ said Standing.

Green grinned. He picked up a fresh glass and poured in a large measure of whisky. Standing took it, toasted the box of ashes and drank.

‘What does Spider want?’

‘It’ll be about Sammy Lee. He wants us to call him on WhatsApp, probably because WhatsApp is encrypted.’ He added the burner phone number to his contacts list.

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