Page 1 (2/2)
“I’d still rather have my job than hers,” said E it up in the wardrobe before disappearing into the bathroom
Harry read the card froe Emma had already decided to put the vase in her office when they got back to Bristol, and to fill it with lilies every MondayHarry smiled And why not?
When Emma came out of the bathroom, Harry took her place and closed the door behind hiown and cli a few pages of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, by a new author Harry had recoht by the side of her bed and said, “Good night, darling,” even though she knew Harry couldn’t hear her
By the time Harry came out of the bathroom, she was sound asleep He tucked her in as if she were a child, kissed her on the forehead, and whispered, “Good night, entle purr He would never have drea that she snored
He lay awake, so proud of her The launch of the new liner couldn’t have gone better He turned on his side, assuh his eyes were leaden and he felt exhausted, he couldn’t get to sleep Soht
Another man, now safely back in cabin class, was also wide awake Although it was three in theto sleep He was just about to go to work
Always the same anxieties whenever you have to wait Had you left any clues that would lead straight to you? Had you made any mistakes that would cause the operation to end in failure and stock back home? He wouldn’t relax until he was on a lifeboat and, better still, on another ship heading toward another port
Five minutes and fourteen seconds …
He knew his compatriots, soldiers in the same cause, would be just as nervous as he was
The waiting was always the worst part, out of your control, no longer anything you could do
Four minutes and eleven seconds …
Worse than a football match when you’re one–nil up but you know the other side are stronger and well capable of scoring in injury time He recalled his area cooes off, be sure you’re a the first on deck, and the first in the lifeboats, because by this tie of thirty-five with an Irish accent, so keep your mouths shut, boys
Three minutes and forty seconds … thirty-nine …
He stared at the cabin door and iined the worst that could possibly happen The boo off, the door would burst open, and a dozen police thugs, possiblyin every direction, not caring how many times they hit hi of the engine as the Buckinghae across the Atlantic on its way to New York A city it would never reach
Two minutes and thirty-four seconds … thirty-three …
He began to iine what it would be like once he was back on the Falls Road Young lads in short trousers would look up in awe as he passed them on the street, their only arew up The hero who had blown up the Buckingham only a feeeks after it had been named by the Queen Mother No mention of innocent lives lost; there are no innocent lives when you believe in a cause In fact, he’d never ers in the cabins on the upper decks He would read all about them in tomorrow’s papers, and if he’d done his job properly there would be no mention of his name
One minute and twenty-two seconds … twenty-one …
What could possibly go wrong now? Would the device, constructed in an upstairs bedroom on