friend-2

Every modern convenience provided for the owner's delight by the shareholders".

The slim form of his wife, standing on the front stairs of the house, jerked him back to the real world. The car crunched to a stop on the gravel and he was in her arms within seconds. "God! I thought you were a downer that time" she whispered.

Scornfully he replied "it would have to be a right dumb Brief not to drive a bus through that ripe collection of old trash that they put up as evidence.

She just pressed closer "You were worried". "O.K." he replied, "maybe it was a warning not to take them too much for granted".

"Where's the kids?" he asked, missing the usual trebling of the noise levels whenever the twins were within screeching range.

"I've been sitting at attention for the past eleven days looking like Little Lord Whatsisname and I think I've seized up. If I had been prowling up and down, the Judge would have gone spare and the jury might not have understood this is shrapnel from a Viet-Cong land-mine. You know that I had to be still, and this is the punishment I have to take. Its' a right bastard but it was a long time ago so let's forget about my leg and concentrate on yours".

So saying, he pulled a not too surprised wife down on the couch beside him and proceeded to demonstrate that he was indeed home again. Little did he know that a chance decision, made seven thousand miles away and fifteen years before, was soon to bring tragedy to his life in the same casual way that he planned a robbery, turn him into a dedicated manhunter and alter the course of Western politics forever.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

LONDON

"I could get used to this, Charlie", drowsed a sleepy Joanne, as they ambled up the steps from the dock, leaving the big motor cruiser tucked up for the night.

"How d'you mean Jo? The life on the river, or the life we are leading right now?"

"You know what I mean, Charles Trench, I mean this", swinging her arms wide at the sky, "knowing that I don't have to worry about who is going to knock on my door, or what you are planning for next week, or having one of your more dubious friends dropping on for a chinwag".

Trench examined his wife's face by the light from the windows, leaning forward to gaze into her eyes, "would it mean that much if I finished up in the business?"