Too Slow to Die Read online

  Too Slow to Die

  Tony Jenkins

  Austin Macauley Publishers

  Too Slow to Die

  About The Author

  Dedication

  Copyright Information ©

  Acknowledgment

  Chapter 1Extradition

  Chapter 2Investigation

  Chapter 3Construction

  Chapter 4Competition

  Chapter 5Retribution

  Chapter 6Intrusion

  Chapter 7Consolidation

  Chapter 8Vengeance

  Chapter 9Assassination

  Chapter 10Sabotage

  Chapter 11Destruction

  Chapter 12Preparation

  Chapter 13Compromise

  Chapter 14Executions

  Chapter 15Intrusion

  Chapter 16Investigation

  Chapter 17Extinction

  Chapter 18Consummation

  Chapter 19Confrontation

  Chapter 20Attrition

  Chapter 21Confrontation

  Chapter 22Confirmation

  Chapter 23Transformation

  Chapter 24Revelation

  Chapter 25Payback

  Chapter 26Destination

  Chapter 27Confrontation

  Chapter 28Determination

  Chapter 29Exploration

  Chapter 30Delusion

  Chapter 31Treachery

  Chapter 32Revelation

  About The Author

  The author was born in South Wales and originally worked as a mining surveyor before joining the RAF to begin training as a navigator. After completing his service, he began working for an international company in sales and marketing and was appointed managing director of a subsidiary company. He decided to become self-employed as a management consultant and then retired to play tennis and write.

  Dedication

  To my wife, Margaret, who persuaded me to give up building walls and write novels instead. Her advice and help in proofreading were invaluable.

  Copyright Information ©

  Tony Jenkins (2020)

  The right of Tony Jenkins to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781528932349 (Paperback)

  ISBN 9781528932356 (Hardback)

  ISBN 9781528967013 (ePub e-book)

  www.austinmacauley.com

  First Published (2020)

  Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

  25 Canada Square

  Canary Wharf

  London

  E14 5LQ

  Acknowledgment

  The publishing team at Austin Macauley could not have been more helpful and their support made my work much easier.

  Chapter 1

  Extradition

  Commissar Dalca read the request from the Hungarians for the extradition of one of their subjects. Their man was named Renko Veres and he was accused of multiple murders, corruption and theft, and was believed to have fled to Romania. Dalca was wondering why the man would want to come to his country, until he read that Veres was a Tigani, or Roma. Dalca spent much of his time reading reports of crimes committed by these people and he knew that the man could well be hiding in any one of the hundreds of Tigani communities throughout his country. The Hungarians would have to provide him with information of the likely location, before he would consider allocating any of his limited resources to chasing after one of their renegades, even if he was a mass murderer.

  Five weeks after tossing the Hungarian request into his heavily loaded ‘pending’ file, he was surprised to receive another communication from the Hungarians. They now wanted to cancel their extradition request because they had learned from a reliable source that the man, Veres, had been crucified and killed. His body had then been burned at the village of Budestin in Călărași County. The small village was near the Transylvanian mountains with steep valleys and extensive forest areas. The roads leading to it were very poor and it was the last place he would have chosen to investigate a crime. Its only advantage was the variety of wild animals living in the surrounding forest, which would be a good source of food and appealed to his hunter’s instincts.

  Although pleased that he would not have to allocate men to find the fugitive, Dalca was furious that the Hungarians seemed to know far more about what was happening in his country than he did himself. Both countries had not long broken away from the communist yolk and were jealous of their newfound independence. He was not surprised that the Tigani had killed the man, but he was not going to let them get away with murdering a foreign national and he intended to teach them a lesson. He called in his assistant, Bojin, and ordered him to bring him details of Tigani men serving in their militia ranks. He hoped he would be able to find a suitable candidate to send to the northeast corner of the country to investigate whether the claim by the Hungarians was true. He knew that only another Tigani was likely to be accepted by the people at Budestin. If his man could gain their confidence, it should be possible for him to find evidence or witnesses to the crime.

  The man he chose for the investigation was named Gunari. He had served ten years in the militia and been born in the western area of the country and would not be known in Budestin. At his briefing, he was told that he should claim to have been discharged from the army for insubordination and that he was now trying to settle back in civilian life. Gunari was thirty years old, unmarried and was a tall man with curly black hair and deep-set brown eyes. He had been trained to obey all orders, but looked forward to working independently instead, and spending time amongst the carefree Tigani people he had grown up with. Although he had served and volunteered for special training in various sections of the militia and excelled at most, he was still a private. Recently, he had decided that his failure to gain promotion could only be because he had been born a Tigani.

  Private Gunari was given a month’s pay in advance and told that any expenses he incurred during the operation would be refunded on his return to the barracks. It was also intimated that if he did a good job on his mission, it could lead to a promotion. To save time, he was driven to an isolated spot, roughly thirty miles from Budestin and told to make his way on foot for the remainder of the journey. By passing through other Tigani communities first, he would then be able to support his story about wandering north and arriving in Budestin on his travels.

  Gunari was told that at the end of a month, or sooner if he found the information required by the commissar, he should leave Budestin and make his way south to the nearby town of Bacău. From there he should telephone his base orderly room and transport would be sent to collect him. He would then make his report in person to Commissar Dalca. After spending the nights in two different villages on his journey north through Călărași County, it was the middle of the afternoon on the fourth day when he reached the Tigani settlement at Budestin. The village was near a large pine forest, which was usually a good source of food for the Tiganis. He could see wispy trails of grey smoke drifting slowly into the blue sky from the homes and cooking fires.

  After seeing a group of people gathered around a large central fire, he made his way towards them and saw the mix of expressions on the faces turned towards him. None of them showed any hostility as he approached, but he
knew they were suspicious of strangers. Once he had introduced himself, he could see their tension ease as they recognised from his dress and speech that he was one of them. A place was quickly made for him near the fire and he was offered food from the large cooking pot suspended over the flames and an old woman assured him that a bed would be found for him. As he was eating his food, a large man came and sat beside him, before telling him that he was named Tigo and he was the leader of the people at Budestin. Taller than Gunari and with long, black hair tied into ringlets and a spikey beard, he was broad shouldered and very sure of himself. As well as the long knife at his waist, he carried a new rifle, which he carefully placed on the ground beside him.

  Chapter 2

  Investigation

  Six weeks had passed since Private Gunari set off on his journey to Budestin and so far, he had made no contact with his superiors. Commissar Dalca and his assistant wondered whether Gunari had deserted, been harmed, or was being held captive by the locals. He would certainly not have disobeyed his orders to contact them from Bacău. Impatient and determined to get answers, Dalca ordered a twelve-man squad of armed soldiers to travel to Budestin and search for Gunari and any evidence that the man, Veres, had been crucified and killed. The soldier in charge was Sergeant Dinescu, a hardliner and long-service veteran. After taking a full day to make the drive north from their base outside Bucharest, the men arrived at Budestin as the early morning meal was being prepared by the women. The group around the cooking pots looked up in alarm as they watched armed soldiers approach and then surround them. They stopped their preparations and stared defiantly at the unwelcome visitors.

  The sergeant cradled his rifle across his chest and looking down at the seated women, asked who was their leader. After receiving no response from the sullen group, he repeated his question and eventually an elderly woman got slowly to her feet and stepped forward to stand before him. She held two hands, palm up in front of her chest and gave her answer to his question.

  “Our leader is Tigo, sir, but he has gone away.”

  “And when did this Tigo go away, old woman?”

  “Perhaps, five days, or even six days, sir.”

  As they were speaking, twelve-year-old Fonso climbed a nearby tree to get a better view of the big soldier standing close to his grandmother. He could tell from her voice that she was frightened of the man carrying the big gun.

  “Tell me, old woman, did this Tigo travel alone when he left, or did he go off with someone else, a stranger perhaps?”

  “I was asleep in my bed when he left, sir, and I cannot say.”

  Irritated by the old woman’s unhelpful answers, Dinescu moved closer and took hold of her arm. With his face near to hers, he spoke again.

  “We have a report from some Hungarian visitors to your village that you people murdered another Hungarian called Renko Veres. What do you know about that, old woman?”

  Wanting to protect his grandmother, Fonso placed a good-sized stone in his sling and took aim at the soldier. The stone flew past the sergeant’s head and struck a soldier behind him on the forehead, splitting the skin. The soldier raised his hand to the wound and feeling the sticky blood running down his face, he anticipated some sort of attack. Looking around the area, he saw movement in a tree at the forest edge and reacted instinctively. Raising his rifle, he fired into the centre of the shaking leaves. His gun was set on automatic fire and as the bullets tore through the branches, a shower of leaves and wood fragments exploded into the air and then the body of young Fonso tumbled down to the ground below. With a roar, the watching women and some old men suddenly turned on the soldiers. The startled young men were forced to defend themselves with their rifle butts as they were attacked with cooking pots, logs and knives. The fracas lasted only three minutes before the well-armed and trained soldiers succeeded in subduing their attackers.

  There were several bodies on the ground and amongst them were three of the soldiers. Although two were soon sitting up and nursing bruised heads, the third lay motionless, with the wooden handle of a cooking knife protruding from his chest. As a colleague used a field dressing to try to stem the blood flow, those soldiers who were still standing, kept their rifles trained on the now subdued and frightened Tigani. The sudden noise had roused the men from their beds and they began to gather alongside their women and shout abuse at the armed soldiers, who looked apprehensively towards their sergeant. As he took stock of the growing numbers, Dinescu could see that he and his men were now outnumbered by more than ten to one. He was also concerned about the injured soldier and knew that the man needed urgent hospital attention. Looking at the enraged faces surrounding them, he knew that he could not expect any cooperation from the villagers. Ordering his men to pick up their wounded colleague and walk slowly back to their truck, he kept his gun trained on the angry mob around them.

  There was a hospital at Bacău and his wounded soldier was given immediate attention, but after the three-hour-long drive over poor roads, the man had lost a great deal of blood and he died before the doctors could take him to the operating theatre. Dinescu telephoned his superiors with details of the attack on the soldiers and the absence of their fellow soldier, Gunari, at the village. The information was immediately forwarded to Commissar Dalca. Already hostile to the Tigani, the death of one of his soldiers and the attack on his men caused him to smash his fist on his desk in anger. After thinking again about the reported crucifixion, followed by the possible killing of his own man, Gunari, the commissar decided that those responsible must be punished and he ordered drastic action.

  A week later, a much larger detachment of soldiers surrounded the Tigani community in Budestin as dawn was breaking and quietly took up their positions. Men, women and children were suddenly roused from their sleep by armed soldiers smashing in their doors with rifle butts. They were then driven from their homes by belligerent soldiers, who wanted revenge for the earlier death of their colleague. The old woman who had previously spoken to Sergeant Dinescu on the previous visit, recognised him and came rushing at him with a long-bladed knife raised over her head to strike at him. Without hesitation, the sergeant raised his gun and shot her dead. He later discovered that she was the mother of the leader, Tigo, and guessed that she was probably responsible for stabbing to death one of his men on their last visit. Those who resisted, or tried to remove valuables from their homes were savagely beaten and driven away. The soldiers then set fire to the wooden houses and soon all that remained of the Tigani community in Budestin was a devastated area of black smoking ruins and charred belongings.

  The Romanian villagers who lived nearby watched as the soldiers systematically destroyed house after house and drove everyone who lived there into the surrounding forest, but refused to help their Tigani neighbours. They considered that the Tigani people had provoked the brutal reprisal by their hostile reaction to the government soldiers. Although a thorough search of all the houses had been carried out, the soldiers found no trace of their missing colleague, Gunari, or the mysterious leader of the Tigani community named Tigo.

  The Tigani village at Budestin no longer existed and when he received the report of the confrontation and clearance, Commissar Dalca considered that whatever had happened to the fugitive, Veres, and his own man, Gunari, the law had been upheld and there was nothing further to be done. After writing details of the two visits by the militia in his files, Dalca sent a brief report to the Hungarian authorities, assuring them that the people responsible for murdering their man, Veres, had been punished and the matter should now be considered closed. Unfortunately for him and for many others, both in Romania and Hungary, it was only just the beginning.

  Chapter 3

  Construction

  Two figures stood on the edge of a giant crater carved into the ground and looked down at the men and machines busily working below to tear bauxite ore from the earth. It was now six months since the Hun-Al mine had begun operating on family-owned ground, with Demeter Pusztai as the chief executive
and Jack Randil as a member of the board. The two men had become firm friends after surviving an attack at night by thugs near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This was followed by an attempt by two armed local Romas to kill Demeter, which had been foiled by Jack. The would-be assassins had dressed as policemen and intended to shoot Demeter at his isolated Pusztai mansion at Dunakeszi, some twenty kilometres north of Budapest in Hungary. Jack had anticipated the attack and from his sniper position on the first floor, had wounded both armed men, who were then handed over to the real local police.

  A giant bauxite mine in Australia was able to extract ore very efficiently, but it then had to be shipped thousands of miles to supply the European market. To meet local demand, a new opencast mine had been established three miles from the Pusztai house, where the ore was found in a two-metre thick seam. It was then carried in enormous lorries to the refinery on the shore of the Danube, which made use of water from the Danube and oil from Romania in the processing. It took two and a half tonnes of ore to make a tonne of alumina and two tonnes of alumina was needed to make one tonne of aluminium. Although demand for the ore was high as European industries expanded their operations after the fall of the Iron Curtain between the West and Russia, the two men knew that they must do everything possible to reduce their production costs.