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“IT WAS GOOD OF YOU to fly back at such short notice, colonel,” said Sir Alan Redmayne, as if he’d had any choice

The SAS coraham in New York A car had whisked hiht back to London Another car and driver aiting for him at the bottom of the aircraft steps at Heathrow

“The cabinet secretary thought you would want to see thisoff for Whitehall

IN YOUR HEART YOU KNEW HE’D LOSE was the headline in the Telegraph The colonel turned the pages slowly, but there was no ham, or any article filed under the name of Derek Hart, because if there had been, despite Lyndon Johnson’s landslide election victory over Barry Goldwater, it would surely have led the front page

The Buckinghalowing report fro the pleasures of crossing the Atlantic on the latest luxury liner The Daily Mail had pictures of their twelve lucky readers posing in front of the Statue of Liberty Another twelve free tickets offered for some future date ensured that there was no reference to any inconvenience caused by the Home Fleet

One hour later, having had no change of clothes or a chance to shave, Colonel Scott-Hopkins was sitting opposite the cabinet secretary in his office at No10 Downing Street

The colonel began with a detailed debrief before answering Sir Alan’s questions

“Well, at least so a leather attaché case froence of your SAS colleagues, we located an IRA warehouse in Battersea We also recovered over twenty-three thousand pounds in cash from the boot of the taxi that took Martinez to Heathrow I suspect that Kevin ‘four fingers’ Rafferty will soon be known as ‘three fingers’ if he can’t explain to his area commander what happened to the money”

“And Martinez? Where is he now?”

“Our a his usual haunts I don’t think we’ll be seeing hiain”

“And Doherty and his compatriots?”

“On their way back to Northern Ireland, not on a luxury liner this time, but on a Royal Navy ship Once they dock in Belfast, they’ll be transported straight to the nearest prison”

“On what charge?”

“That hasn’t been decided yet,” said Sir Alan