Meltdown by Andy McNab Page A

bar, closely
followed by his younger brother. Teddy was
moving slowly and awkwardly – he was obviously
still in a lot of discomfort and wore sunglasses to
hide the embarrassment of his black eyes.
    Phil sat back in his chair and watched him find a
space at a padded, high-backed banquette on the far
side of the room while Will went to the bar and
ordered drinks. He returned to his brother with
what Phil reckoned were two glasses of Coke, but
before either of them could take a drink, another
young guy with a shock of flaming red hair came
hurrying into the bar. He didn't look happy.
    He spotted the twins, went straight over to their
table and sat down. He was too far away for Phil to
hear exactly what was being said, but it was quite
clear that something was wrong. The twins listened
as the guy talked animatedly, occasionally glancing
at each other and frowning.
    Phil pulled his mobile from the inside pocket
of his jacket and pressed the speed dial: the angry
red-haired guy was a total newcomer on the scene;
this could be an interesting development.
    Fergus answered the call immediately. 'What
you got?'

19
    Storm and Danny were laughing as they hurried
towards the club, avoiding the puddles and
pretending to dodge the raindrops like a couple
of kids.
    As they neared the long queue, Danny realized
that he hadn't really laughed for months. He
thought of Elena, and for a moment he felt guilty, as
if he shouldn't be here enjoying himself. But he
shook the thought away. He was on a job; it was
OK. Elena would have told him that.
    Instead of joining the back of the queue, Storm
made her way up towards the door, grabbing
Danny's hand and dragging him with her.
    'But don't we have to—?'
    'No, Danny, we don't.'
    Two black-suited, burly bouncers stood in the
doorway. They smiled at Storm, gave Danny a
quick, appraising once-over and moved aside so
that they could pass straight through. As they
headed into the club, Danny spotted Lee, just two
back in the queue. He didn't know if Lee had seen
him, but even if he had, there would have been no
eye-to-eye.
    As soon as they stepped into the darkened
reception area, staff came hurrying up, as though
visiting royalty had arrived. Someone took Storm's
coat and the manager came out to welcome her
like a long-lost sister, kissing her on both cheeks
and telling her how wonderful it was to see her
again.
    There was no question of them paying to get in.
They were led into the club itself and then told to
have a wonderful evening – there was plenty of
room in the VIP area.
    The pounding, thudding music was so loud that
Danny had to shout to be heard. 'What was all that
about?'
    'What?' shouted Storm.
    Danny pointed back to the entrance. 'The special
treatment! We didn't even pay!'
    Storm laughed. 'The twins use this club. They
never pay, and neither do their special friends.'
    Danny shook his head and smiled as he looked
around the club. It was just before midnight and the
place seemed packed to capacity. It was a long time
since he'd ventured into a club of any description,
and on those very few occasions they'd been the
downmarket sort of place where no one questioned
your age.
    This one was different; it was definitely the
cool place to be. The dance floor was a seething
mass of dazzling white teeth and white shirts, as
dancers gyrated, sometimes under multicoloured
lights, sometimes under black light – UV light
that couldn't be seen but turned anything white
brilliantly luminous.
    Danny had made an effort to look the part after
Storm told him that the dress code at the club was
'smart casual', meaning no jeans. Danny was almost
always in jeans and T-shirt or sweatshirt and
trainers, and he didn't exactly have an extensive
wardrobe.
    But during the build-up in Hereford he'd been
ordered to go and buy a few more items of clothing
– his instructors had told him that jeans and sweatshirt
wouldn't always be what was required. So
he'd gone to the Next store in Hereford and bought
a couple of