The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle


The Nautilus had taken us as far as it could up the Clyde and dropped us off, then we were picked up by a dark windowed black Land Rover and taken to Parkhead where we got out and stood looking across the car park with the slow moving almost zombie-like figures of Celtic fans keeping watch over their own dark tower. I’d never felt fear like it, we were entering the heart of darkness which although it was a favourite haunt of mine, I’d never walked in with Richard Gough and Jorg Albertz before.
‘You’re lunatics,’ I’d whimpered when I heard what they planned to do and Gough just replied, ‘Who’s going to mess with us?’
Fair enough then.

The Celtic fans stepped aside unquestioningly as we strode towards the entrance, they formed a corridor of smelly green and grey hooped football shirts and only seemed to come to life once we’d passed them so that in front of us was easy passage yet behind a rabble of sudden hard men who knew that their immediate danger had passed. They hurled all sorts of foul and bigoted threats at us while a couple of policemen stood and let them – they were probably looking at Gough and Albertz and wondering how they could stitch them up for being dirty Orange bastards.

We reached the main door and a fat security guard blocked our way, for a few seconds at least before realising who he faced and disappearing into a cupboard. Albertz sniffed, ‘Unmistakeable. I can smell sulphur, we’re not far now – he’s here.’
He meant of course Neil Lennon whose head had been tacked onto a Frankenstein’s monster of a body after a training ground accident and to make sure it survived the process, John Reid had the demons Wormwood and Screwtape add their own demon blood. Albertz had reported earlier that it was his opinion that the demon blood was taking over and that Lennon posed a clear and present danger not only to himself but to others around him and since Rangers were playing Celtic on Saturday it was the duty of he and Gough to kidnap Lennnon and exorcise him. First though we had to get into Parkhead, past the slow zombies, past security, past Lawwell’s Stasi and grab a man who would have demonic strength and powers. It wouldn’t be that difficult said Richard Gough, ‘After all, who’s going to mess with us?’