The hail lashed at my naked skin, searing against my bruised and broken body as I stumbled down the canal path. Blood tears and rain entwined like rivulets. I clenched the package in my hand tightly and pressed ahead. The wind picked up; another of times cruel comrades conspiring against me. My enemies converged this night. But I will not be stopped. I have come to far and given too much. The normally calm black waters beside me seemed to froth now in the power of the storm. The canal pulsed and throbbed like the veins of a heart about to rupture.

Finally my eyes straining ahead caught a glimpse of The Smiling Terrapin, still moored where I had left it only days ago, but what felt like a lifetime.

The cabin was always locked tight. New windows. Tighter security . All measures I had put in place when I took the boat over from my sister. But I had kept her gnomes, as crazy and quirky as they were they reminded me of her and warmed the bitter coldness of my grief. She would have laughed at my insecurities and my hypocrisy if she knew I had also kept a spare key under the smallest; A grumpy looking chap pushing a wheelbarrow. I always called him the barrow boy, though he had a fine beard of course.My secret little emergency chap that no one knew about. My saviour tonight.

Every strange noise in the wind made me start with fear. Where was he now? Behind or ahead? I knew his intent but not his plan and what little time I had bought my self seemed far too little against his cruel but brilliant abilities. Pain flooded by body with each step but my cracked and crooked feet plodding forward. My back hunched forward in determination now against the driving wind. I was so close.

As I approached closer to the boat my nerves stretched thin. I hovered at the edge looking for signs of anything suspicious but it was too dark, too difficult to tell. I slowly climbed aboard the dark bobbing mass. Then my stomach lurched. My strength began to falter. The cabin looked secure still but the deck and gnomes were missing. This was not horseplay or thievery. This was malicious intent. He knew. He must have been watching me for weeks. Months even.

I looked at the damp bundle in my hand. Now what I thought as I huddled beneath the semi sheltered parapet above the cabin door. Locked. Sealed by my own security. No point trying to break this glass or Jimmy a lock. I had never imagined thus bloodied broken and naked scenario. Where next? Another boat maybe? There were others not too far. Perhaps…

And then I heard footsteps calmly approaching. I looked around wildly for a weapon.

“Thank you, John.” A thin voice cut through the wind. Barely audible yet heart stoppingly clear. I could not see him still. I did not know what to do. I glanced at the dark water. Then the thundering crack of his pistol and I was thrown backwards moments and forever later the searing pain tore through my chest.

I saw his shape then approach from the dark. I gasped for breath. I knew then I had only one moment. As he climbed aboard I felt rather than saw the briefest detachment of his laser like focus. I lurched to my feet and threw myself over the side. Down into the deeper depths of the canal blackness.