Free The Double Eagle by James Twining

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 midlife 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 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 a rumor about that Cassius is hard up, that he lost everything in some deal. So he won’t let it slide, won’t take no excuses. And if I can find you, then he certainly can. If we’re going to sort this, we’re going to have to do it together. I’m sorry, Tom, but this ain’t just my problem. It’s our problem.”

CHAPTER TWELVE
    FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY
20 July—10:05 A.M.
     
    A black Ford Explorer had picked Jennifer up from her apartment that morning and driven her to Reagan Washington National, where, in one of the side hangars, a tan Cessna Citation Ultra had been prepped and was waiting for her. Corbett clearly did not kid around when it came to getting things done.
    The jet had looked brand new and apart from the pilot and lone cabin attendant, she was the only passenger. Sinking back into the soft leather seats, she had stretched her legs right out into the narrow aisle, basking in the cabin lights. Twenty minutes later and the plane was arrowing through the clear Washington sky.
     
    Flying had always made her slightly nervous. Once, though she was too traumatized now to remember exactly when, a plane she was on had hit an air pocket and dropped almost five thousand feet. As if they’d hit a glass wall in the sky and slid down it. Takeoff and landing were the worst and she unconsciously alternated between gripping the armrests and bracing herself for possible impact against the seat in front of her, depending on what stage of the journey they were at.