Free The Tower by Michael Duffy

edge of his own box for a moment and see what was happening in one of the others. There was no reason for Wu to have known anything, of course, except that money was involved.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I know it’s a disaster. Bazzi had me completely duped.’
    With Wu, you needed to admit your mistakes up front. It seemed to relax him. Once you did that, he could even be quite pleasant, in his own twisted way.
    Wu said, ‘I seem to recall you recommended him for the job.’
    Randall nodded. ‘He worked for the company that did our security before, seemed to know what was going on. Tryon handled him the wrong way.’ He could feel the sweat running down his sides now, and wondered how long it would be before Henry could smell it. He said, ‘I’m a fool.’
    He’d never said that to another man before, and the words sounded strange. But with Henry, you did what you had to do.
    Wu thought about this, looking out to the bay.
    Then he said, ‘I believe you.’
    For a moment Randall wondered if Henry was trying to be funny. But Henry didn’t do humour very often. He pointed at the closed door and said, ‘That guy in there?’, regretting it the moment the words were out. But he couldn’t help it.
    Wu looked around vaguely, smiled at Randall. ‘He’s not here for you. Don’t worry, Sean.’
    Wu put a hand on his arm and he tried not to flinch. Why me? he felt like saying, Why would you have thought I meant that? He shook his head to try to clear it. This was weird stuff, but lively too.
    â€˜Are you going to sack me?’ he said.
    Shit, he shouldn’t have asked.
    As if he hadn’t heard him, Wu said, ‘It’s a rogue element.’
    The way he spoke the words, Randall could tell the phrase had been used by his police contact. Wu rubbed the back of his hand across his jaw. ‘In the circumstances, maybe not so bad. Those two idiots have distracted attention from the illegals.’
    Randall blinked, realising the idiots were the two police, the victim and the hero. At least, the newspapers seemed to think Nicholas Troy was a hero.
    â€˜So that’s good?’
    â€˜It could be worse.’
    Randall felt a bit better. There’d been a pain in his stomach since he woke up this morning, but it was going away now.
    He said, ‘What do we know about the illegal workers?’
    â€˜You tell me,’ Wu said, looking at him closely.
    â€˜Nothing.’
    â€˜There it is.’
    Not giving him all that much.
    â€˜Okay.’
    â€˜It’s not okay,’ Wu said. ‘We need to know what’s going on with the police.’ He stared at Randall. ‘You make some friends. This man McIver, if he wakes up, send him a bottle of something expensive.’
    â€˜Right.’
    â€˜You need a contact in the investigation. In my experience, policemen can be lonely men.’
    That wasn’t Randall’s experience, but he nodded politely. ‘They’re looking for friends?’
    Wu smiled. He liked it when Randall picked up things quickly.
    â€˜Tell me if you need some money,’ he said, and pointed at the bandage around Randall’s head as though seeing it for the first time. ‘You okay?’
    It was over, Randall knew. Everything was all right again.
    â€˜More coffee would be good.’
    â€˜Let me see the bandage. Oh, poor Sean.’
    Usually Wu was a prick, but occasionally he’d act as though Randall was the son he’d never had. It was strange, because Wu had two sons up the hill in his house. And Randall surely had a father, a builder and alcoholic back in Dungarvan. The last thing he wanted was to be adopted by Henry Wu. The man was stimulating and he was necessary, but Randall had always grasped the necessity of keeping a distance from him.
    Wu gave him the coffee, which was lukewarm, and said, ‘Have you got the new film?’
    Randall reached into the