The Hound and the Scorpion

Later that night, Hassan’s band of terrorists snuck into the room of Sunil, having scaled the walls and then onto the balcony. Since the whole city was practically asleep, this was a relatively easy task to do. Sunil was a heavy sleeper, currently in a deep sleep so Hassan opened the wardrobe for one of his kinsmen to place a device inside it. He set a timer and it started to beep. Hassan whispered to him.

“Do you think this will work, Abdul?”

“It should…hopefully it will only blow-up Sunil…”

“Let’s go, once Sunil is gone, we leave as soon as possible. Kill any witnesses to our attack so that the word doesn’t spread.”

The men nodded. As silently as they entered, the terrorists left the room, taking positions in the hotel’s pitch-black corridors in case any staff came their way. By pure chance, a waiter arrived but before he could scream, the young man was grabbed by the Afghans and quickly strangled before he could raise the alarm.

Meanwhile, in the O’Laoghaire’s room, Ian woke up, unable to sleep because of the beeping noise. Out of curiosity, Ian pressed his ear against the wall. Retreating from the wall, he tiptoed over to his parent’s bed.

“Mam?? Dad?? There’s a beeping noise that can be heard from the other room…is that normal?”

As he scrambled from under the bedsheets, Padraig first felt bewildered but then a jolt of fear went up his spine and shocked him awake. He didn’t hesitate.

“Ian, get away from the wall!!”

Ian, baffled but scared, ran towards his father.

“But what’s going on, Dad?”

“It could be a bomb, get down…”

The beeping intensified. Padraig grabbed Ian, trying to shield the boy with his own body. As he knelt down, an immense noise filled the room as the wall suddenly burst open. Roisín and Fergyll were jolted fully awake while Padraig continued to cling onto Ian as they were both knocked to the floor by the shockwave of the blast. Rubble and ash spilled over them. Padraig closed his eyes shut, but Ian didn’t close them in time and so the ash covered his eyes. Roisín rushed over and picked up a now sobbing Fergyll, desperately trying to comfort the little boy, holding his head against her chest.

Outside, panicked Parisians could see the explosion, followed by the flames and then the sparks coming out from the battered room. Already, gendarmes rushed to the scene, trying to form a perimeter as one of them called the fire brigade. As the scenario developed, a troop of heavily armed men from the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention group) arrived via helicopter. They also had boots on the ground who were arriving on the scene via a convoy of armoured vans. Their sirens wailed as they and the fire engines sped through the streets.

Back in their room, Padraig gasped, dazed from the shock of the explosion while his body was patterned with ash. Through the remains of the wall, he could see a dazed and battered Sunil slowly emerging from his bed. But then he became aware of Ian crying out in in a panic-stricken voice.

“Dad? What’s going on? Where are you?”

“Hey, Ian, I’ve got you, just look at me, alright?”

Ian tried to open his eyes but when he did, all he could see was darkness. This only made him more afraid as he rubbed his eyes, he could feel the ash coming out but he could still barely see anything. Out of fear, pain and anguish, Ian began to scream.

“I can’t see!! I can’t see!!! Oh help, Daddy, Mammy, help! I can’t see!”

Padraig kept his hand on Ian’s shoulder to guide him back to Roisín. Seeing her eldest son in this state, she was clearly struggling to stay calm.

“Ian, can you hear me?”

Ian stumbled towards the sound of his mother’s voice.

“Ian, please honey, just follow my voice, that’s it, good boy…”

Roisín wrapped her arms around Ian in an attempt to comfort him. Fergyll was whimpering with fear.

“Mam, is this normal?”

“No, it wasn’t, this certainly wasn’t planned…stay with me, boys.”

While all of this was happening, Padraig could hear shouting in the room beside him. Given the fact that the language was Pashto, Padraig could figure out that the attackers were Afghans. He then heard Sunil’s voice pleading desperately.

“No, no! Don’t shoot! I don’t understand what you are saying! Please, I’m just an academic…”

Padraig stumbled across the room but he was paralyzed with fear as he peered at the dramatic spectacle which had developed in the other room. He was too afraid to speak for fear that he might draw attention to himself as he saw Sunil being cornered by a shadowy figure. Sunil’s pleas fell on deaf ears as the man blasted him with a machine gun to ensure that he was dead. Padraig ducked back out of shock and guilt as he heard the machine gun’s death rattle.

Looking at the dead Sunil sprawled on the bed, Hassan did not get the satisfaction that he thought he’d get. He only hoped that his father would be finally impressed with him, that he’d live up to his deceased older brother. Turning to leave, he noticed Padraig watching him in the corner. He did not want to leave a witness to his act, so he brandished his knife, advancing towards Padraig, who slowly retreated. Like lightening, Hassan darted towards him, chanting in Arabic.

“God is good!!”

He lunged at Padraig and shoved him to the ground. At first, Padraig was frightened, wishing that this was a nightmare which he could wake up from. But he knew this was real so the primal instinct to survive kicked in, fuelled by his experience from fighting gangs on the streets of Dublin. As a result, he fought back, wrestling with Hassan, even managing to trade a few punches with him. He wrestled the knife out of Hassan’s hand. Reflexively, Padraig slashed at Hassan’s throat, killing him. As the Afghan ceased to struggle, Padraig summoned his strength to heave him off his body, thus allowing him to stand up.

Padraig didn’t have time to think, question or regret what he had just done. His survival instinct was in full swing. Immediately he turned back to a panicked Roisín, who huddled in a corner, clinging onto her boys.

“Roisín, don’t just wait there! Get the boys out of here!”

Roisín scrambled up, then her eyes widened.

“Padraig? Padraig, behind you!!”

Padraig spun around to see another man coming up through the hole in the wall. This man raised his pistol. Before Padraig could even move, the pistol was fired and Padraig suddenly felt a thump in his shoulder, followed by an immense pain as he stumbled backwards on to the bed.

Pushing himself upright, Padraig was panting as the terrorist came towards him. He made the sign of the cross and muttered under his breath.

“Oh Christ…”

Unlike Hassan, this man had his face fully covered. Desperate, Padraig retreated back, trying to shield his family from any attack. Just as the man pointed his pistol at him again, a spotlight illuminated the room and a helicopter could be heard outside.  Before the terrorist could pull the trigger, the sound of a rifle could be heard thundering outside. Bullets sliced through the man, causing his bloodied corpse to collapse on front of the O’Laoghaires.

Looking outside, the terrorists panicked as firing at them from the helicopter outside were snipers of the GIGN. These pale, smartly uniformed men seemed as cold as the Grim Reaper as they started to pick off the terrorists, one by one. As they saw spotlights illuminate the corridors and heard both the barking of dogs and the shouting of orders in French, the terrorists realized that they were now the prey, not the predators. Yet they decided to put up a fight, for they wanted to go to paradise, not a French prison. Because of that, they ignored the orders of the heavily armoured Frenchmen to stand down and instead returned fire. Within seconds, the terrorists were wiped out. Only one was left alive so that the French could drag him off for interrogation.

Padraig was starting to get dizzy. As an armoured gendarme burst through the door, Padraig felt as if his vision was blurred. He felt as if he was going to fall over as he became aware of Roisín calling to him.

“Padraig? Padraig? Please, are you alright?”

“Eh…Roisín, I’ve just been shot…”

Padraig began to lose consciousness. He heard Ian ask plaintively.

“Mam, what’s going on?”

Then everything went black for Padraig.