Birth of a Spy by Duncan Swindells

Author:Duncan Swindells [Swindells, Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781794246430
Published: 2019-02-01T22:00:00+00:00

6

God he was anxious. He thought he’d feel a little apprehensive today and that that would be quite natural, but he hadn’t expected to feel anything like this. Chris Wilson was a bag of nerves. He hadn’t slept all night, tossing and turning until his wife had pleaded with him to go and sleep in the other room. The lack of a good night’s rest was nothing new, two kids had seen to that. The last time either he or Trish had had a proper night’s sleep was when her parents had come up to London for the weekend so they could spend a night away in a hotel in Brighton. Now Ben and Sophie were fussing around him as he tried to make breakfast.

‘Daddy, are you really going to be on the tele?’

Christ, that had never even crossed his mind.

‘I don’t know poppet. Will you be good for mummy while you wait for me?’ But Sophie’s attention had already moved on to something new.

He doled out a serving of porridge and cut up a banana to go on top, then a spoonful of honey. Trish was in their tiny South London galley kitchen shooing the kids away.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Sick.’

Before they’d decided to have a family Chris had had a taste for the high life. He’d get on a plane at the drop of a hat and whisk Trish off for long, romantic weekends. They ate out more often than they cooked and Chris had a garage full of golf clubs, fishing rods and expensive road bikes. But since the children he’d had to look for simpler pursuits, a hobby which didn’t require a great deal of equipment or preparation and preferably one he could do in his lunch break at work. Running had been Trish’s idea, insisting the fresh air and exercise would do him and his waistline good. He didn’t have the natural physique for it, but the exertion fired him up and so now he couldn’t imagine a day going by when he didn’t get out for at least half an hour.

Today though was a little different, today was Chris Wilson’s first competitive event and whilst it was only a fun run he was already starting to buckle under the burden of expectation.

✽✽✽

‘Black and two, just how you like it,’ Michael Healy said passing the insulated cup through the open window, ‘They’re fresh out of croissants.’

‘Already?’ Bennett shot Healy a look.

‘Already.’

‘Fuckin’ ‘ell, Mike. One thing.’

He let it go, again.

‘Got you a Danish instead.’

A small peace offering never went amiss, especially as Healy had a feeling that he and Bennett were going to be spending a lot of time together today. The assignment they’d pulled had developed quite a reputation through the service, viewed by the career minded and energetic as a punishment and by the older, slower operatives as a chance to catch up on some much needed rest. The most excitement it had ever produced had been the previous week when Bennett and Healy had unexpectedly been told to take the day off.

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