Wild Fiction

Annual coupon: 6.5%
Issued: 15 July 1997
Matures 15 July 2007
The right hand side of the bond had a perforated strip of ten coupons that could be detached. Each coupon had the value £65,000, a serial number, and a date printed on it.
The author looked at the papers below the top bond. With the exception of the serial numbers, they were identical. He counted thirty in total. ‘Thirty million pounds,’ he whispered to himself. His hands had not stopped shaking since he had opened the box. He took a step back and wiped the perspiration from his brow with the back of his hand. Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to relax his arms and body. The shaking ceased and he returned the bonds in the manila envelope and slid them into his briefcase. He put the lid back on the box and pressed it closed with a click.
The shaking returned to his hands once he was sitting in the car with the briefcase on his lap. His eyes flittered to the face of each person that walked past. He took several deep breaths again. When the shaking stopped, he stowed the briefcase under the passenger seat.
He reversed the car out of the angular parking. As he swung the steering wheel, he caught sight of a white van in the rear-view mirror. Something did not feel right. He turned his head and looked at the doubled-parked van. The two men sitting in it stared straight back at him. They matched the description the fictionals had given him of the men who had shot up the yacht on the island.
He twisted back and thrust the gear stick forward, slipping the clutch and accelerating as he did so. The back wheels spun leaving a small cloud of rubber smoke hanging behind the car. He glanced in the rear view mirror and saw them pull out behind him. He sped towards Marble Arch and Park Lane swapping lanes whenever the heavy London traffic would allow. They followed his pattern and closed in on him. In Park Lane he managed to pull away but at Hyde Park Corner the traffic bunched up again and he could see them getting closer. The driver of the van was intimidating other motorists with his erratic swerving from lane to lane and soon the van appeared directly behind the Jaguar.