She shook her head which by now had dropped down again and said in a hoarse whisper,

“Please just go, just leave me, I am not worth it! They will kill you if they know you are alive.”

“Are you talking about the guy watching you from inside the restaurant?”

I queried cheekily but she gave a start then went as white as a sheet as she whispered,

“Now they will kill me too!”

Changing my voice from the soft one I had been using I allowed it to get cold and steely and said,

“You still carry the CZ75 with the silencer? Pass it here”

She turned her head slightly to look at me then without a word opened her handbag which was on her lap and slowly passed me the unclipped

silencer and then the CZ75 9mm Parabellum pistol which the silencer fitted. I put them in my laptop bag and looking her in the eyes I gently

ordered,

“Do not leave until he moves, then quickly go to that outdoor clothing store over there,”

nodding towards a store just up the one alley, with a slight inclination of my head,

“and buy me an extra large blue shirt and a bright camping jacket then go to those public ablutions over there,”

again flicking my head down towards the one quay on the docks,

“and wait for me there, understood? Do not leave me!”

She simply nodded and I squeezed her hand and then, as I stood up, slowly and in a very measured tone said,

“We have been in worse situations than this!”

With that I slung my computer bag over my shoulder and walked off into the restaurant and loudly asked for the restrooms then walked off to

where the waitress had pointed. Upon entering through the doorway into the rest room I turned my head slightly and watched as Pauline's tail

stood up, put some cash on the table and turned to follow me. I immediately went to the first toilet cubicle and shutting the door from the

outside then quickly moved into the second cubicle closing but not latching the door behind me, drew the CZ75 pistol, clipped the silencer onto it

and jumped up onto the toilet seat so that if anyone looked under the almost closed door my feet would not be visible, then waited.

I heard a slight noise and waited as the man moved quietly into the rest room then stopped just outside the first cubicle. I heard a metallic

scratching noise and guessed that he was also screwing a silencer onto his side arm. He could have been looking down under the doors, or just

listening for any sounds so I just waited patiently up on the toilet seat while he completed screwing the silencer on, then there was the rustling of

fabric as he moved again. As the second cubicle door slowly started opening I quietly stepped down off the seat and moved behind the steadily

swinging door. Next minute an arm holding a silenced pistol moved into sight and just as the door bumped against me, as it had no room to open

further, I rammed it hard with my shoulder while stretching out a hand to grip the wrist of the pistol bearing arm.

I heard the breath being knocked out of the man’s chest as the door hit him and slammed him against the cubicle wall. Jerking the outstretched

arm which my hand now gripped, I pulled him into the cubicle and spun him around. He fell back onto the toilet seat and tried to free his arm

and bring his silenced pistol to bear on me so I hit him in the throat with the butt of Pauline's pistol which was held in my free hand and then

quickly stuck it into my belt and using both my hands bent his arm upwards until his own pistol was jammed up against his chest with the barrel

pointing upwards. Next minute his pistol went off with a popping noise and the bullet entered under his jaw angling slightly backwards and exited

out the rear of his head.

As his body slumped down I dropped his hand which held the pistol, stepped out of the cubicle, putting Pauline's pistol back into my computer

bag as I did so then locked the cubicle door from the outside, using a small coin, before leaving the restrooms. Walking back through the

restaurant I was nervous and watched everyone as they moved about but no one had heard the plop made by the silenced pistol or took an

y notice of me. I walked purposefully out of the restaurant and off to the public ablutions where I had told Pauline to meet me.