leapt forward and fired off two quick punches, a right to the stomach and a left to the side of Archie’s head. The first winded him, the second dropped him to the ground.
‘Are you wearing a wire? Is that it, you bastard? Have you cut a deal with Clarke to ship me in?’ Tom knelt over Archie and patted him down roughly, feeling around his chest and groin to see if he was concealing some sort of transmitter. He wasn’t.
‘Fuck you.’ Archie heaved Tom off him and rubbed the side of his face, coughing as the air seeped back into his lungs. ‘I’m no fucking grass.’ He hauled himself back to his feet and gave Tom an angry look, brushing his jacket down.
‘Yesterday Clarke shows up promising to put me away. Then after ten years of our avoiding each other, you break cover. What am I meant to think? That it’s all a coincidence?’
‘Clarke, that hairy-arsed wanker? Do me a favour. You think I’d risk you, risk me for him? You should know me better than that.’
‘Should I? The Archie I know doesn’t break the rules.’
‘Look – I followed you here from your gaff. I’m sorry. I should have warned you or something.’ Archie had his breath back now, but was still patting his cheekbone gingerly.
‘You know where I live?’
Tom shook his head in disbelief, his anger mounting at this latest revelation.
‘Yeah, well, after our last little conversation I got a bit worried, didn’t I? So I did a bit of homework. There aren’t that many Tom Kirks in London. Your place was the third I tried.’
‘Christ, you even know my name.’ Tom looked around him in concern and lowered his voice to an angry whisper.
‘I hate to tell you this, mate, but I’ve always known. Ever since the first job you pulled for me. You don’t like taking risks and neither do I. Till now, I’ve never had any reason to need it.’
‘Well you’re wasting your time because this isn’t going to change anything. I’ve told you, you’ll have to find someone else to do the job.’
Archie had an awkward look on his face.
‘It’s not that simple.’
‘Sure it is.’ Tom’s eyes narrowed. ‘I didn’t sign up for Cassius. That was your call. Now you deal with it.’
Archie flashed Tom a guilty look.
‘I didn’t sign up to Cassius either. He signed up to you.’
‘What?’ It was Tom’s turn to sound concerned.
‘I got the usual visit from one of his people.’ Archie stared down at the floor as he spoke. ‘Another bloody foreigner. Sometimes I think all the English people have left this country.’ He shook his head. ‘Anyway, he said you were the best, that only you would do for the job, usual spiel. I told him that there’d been a death in the family, that you’d gone abroad for a few months to sort everything out and to find someone else. But he said he’d wait. When you came back it all sort of fell into place.’
‘So you did know that Cassius was behind this job right from the start. You lied to me.’
‘So what?’ said Archie, suddenly defensive. ‘What did you expect me to do? Turn him down?’
‘After all the jobs we’ve done, all the years we’ve worked together, I’d expect you to tell me the truth.’
A mobile phone rang, an annoying, rambling tune that bounced jarringly down a high-pitched scale like a child sliding down stairs. Archie reached into his jacket’s left inside pocket, the lining flashing emerald as he pulled a phone out, checked the number that had flashed up on the screen and killed the call. He looked up.
‘And I’d expect you to follow through on your promises. You signed up to both jobs. You can’t just back out because you feel like it. What do you think this is? A bloody game? I’m trying to run a business here. A business that has made you a very rich man. I find the buyers, you do the jobs. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s worked for the last ten years. Did I deliberately not tell you that the job was for Cassius? Too fucking right I did. A buyer is a buyer. His money is as good as anyone else’s.’
‘It’s always the money with you, isn’t it?’ Tom retorted. ‘Except now you’ve realized that his money isn’t the same. It comes with conditions attached.’
They were both silent and Archie moved closer to Tom, his black brogues sinking into the grass’s soft pile.
‘What’s really going on, Felix? Let’s go for a pint and sort this out.’
‘Felix is gone now. Finished.’
‘It’s just another job. Pack it in after that if that’s what you want.’
‘How long have you been doing this now, Archie? Twenty, twenty-five years?’
Archie shrugged.
‘About that.’
‘You never wonder how you got to this point in your life?’ Tom spoke with a low, urgent voice. ‘About how a different decision here or action there could have totally changed things? Sometimes I think my life has been like a row of dominoes that I knocked over fifteen years ago. I can’t even remember how the first one got toppled and suddenly I’m here.’
Archie gave a short laugh.
‘A thief with a mid-life conscience? Pull the other one.’
A phone rang again, this time with a series of frantic beeps that grew louder and more frequent the longer the phone rang. Archie reached down into his other jacket pocket and drew out a second phone, a thick gold bracelet glinting momentarily as his sleeve rode up his arm. Again he checked the number. This time he answered it.
‘Hello … not right now, no … about five hundred … no … no deal, not unless he takes the lot. All right, cheers.’
Tom waited for him to return the phone to his pocket and look up before continuing.
‘You know what? I’m thirty-five years old and I’ve never spent more than four weeks in the same place since I was twenty.’
Archie snorted.
‘What, am I meant to feel sorry for you or something? That’s how they trained you. It’s part of what makes you so good. It’s part of the job.’
‘There’s more to life than this job, Archie.’
Archie’s eyes flashed with impatience.
‘Sorry mate, but I’m fresh out of tissues.’
‘All good things come to an end. Even this. Even us.’
Archie sighed.
‘I’m just not getting through to you, am I? Unless we deliver a week today, we’re both dead men. Period.’ Although his voice sounded casual, Archie’s eyes were burning brightly. ‘There’s
