For the Good of the State by Anthony Price

Author:Anthony Price [Price, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Espionage
Publisher: Grafton
Published: 2013-01-21T05:00:00+00:00

7

AUDLEY BLEW his nose noisily, and with evident self-pity, and surveyed the elderly Ford Cortina with distaste, and muttered again under his breath.

Out of the corner of his eye Tom observed the garage man bestow the crisp new bank notes into a back pocket, and the garage man caught his glance and nodded ingratiatingly. ‘She’s a good runner—you can take my word for that, sir,’ he added quickly, in support of his nod. ‘An’ I’ll put your car under cover.‘

‘If you’d just get in the car, David.’ Tom moved into the pause before Audley could explode into disbelief. ‘Then we can talk.’

Audley opened his mouth, but another sneeze caught him before he could pronounce on the garage man’s word; and, before he could recover, Tom had ducked round to the other side of the Cortina and was into the driver’s seat; and, with commendable prudence, the garage man followed him as far as possible, bending down and tapping on the window, leaving Audley isolated.

Tom wound down the window.

‘I know she don’t look much—’ The man massaged his pocket, as though he couldn’t believe his luck ‘—but that engine there … that’s sweet as a bell! You just start ’er up, an‘ listen to ’er.‘

There was 95,000 on the clock, and the state of the bodywork suggested that this was the second time round. But Audley had surrendered to the inevitable and was climbing in on the other side, so he turned the ignition key quickly.

The engine roared—and roared louder as he revved it to drown out what Audley was now saying.

‘What did I tell you?’ The garage man’s reaction was a masterly overlay of gratified confidence above relieved surprise. ‘That’s a good engine, that is—sweet as a bell … An’ two new tyres on the back … You just want to watch the hand-brake—best to put ‘er in gear when you leave ’er on a hill … I still got a bit of work to do on that—like I told you, didn’t I?‘

‘Yes—thank you.’ It wasn’t stopping, it was getting away that mattered now, and the road was open and the way was clear. ‘I’ll be off then.’ He engaged the gear and released the defective hand-brake to suit his words. ‘Goodbye—goodbye—’

‘Goodbye, sir—’ The Cortina’s movement sloughed off its proud owner, but not quite ‘—don’t forget what I told you about the hand-brake—the hand-brake, sir—’

They were moving. And there was a surge of 2-litre power under his foot now, and a clear road ahead and behind, for the time being.

Audley muttered again. And then sneezed again, and blew his nose again, to demonstrate that his cold was much worse this morning, as well as his temper.

Tom put his foot down, listening to the sound of the engine above the other assorted rattles from all sorts of places around him, inside and outside and underneath ‘the good runner’.

‘If there’s one thing I hate—’ Audley managed to speak at last, and with cold concentration ‘—or two things … or maybe even three things—’ A paroxysm of sneezes engulfed all the things he hated.

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