The Corporal's Wife (2013)

The Corporal's Wife (2013) by Gerald Seymour Page A

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Authors: Gerald Seymour
Tags: Espionage/Thriller
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out.’
    He sucked in his breath, then sighed. ‘I’m letting you go, Zach.’
    ‘ Sorry, what? ’
    ‘You heard – it was clear enough. The job at the school, the Education Committee’s cancelled it. The surgery up in Spa Lane’s on hold for a year. I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for work, spinning this one out for another couple of months. I’m sorry.’
    ‘But I’m your son .’ He hadn’t anticipated this.
    ‘Didn’t expect you to make it easy – and your mother said you wouldn’t. Pete and Danny are going too. The rest of the guys I’ll keep as long as I can. Everyone who’s staying has kids, a mortgage, and doing what they do is all they know. I owe it them.’
    ‘What about me?’
    A finger was jabbed at his chest. ‘It’s time you looked after yourself. It’s been too long since you made your own decisions. You always used to. You insisted on going to London on that course – wouldn’t change tack and do something useful. And it was your decision to cop out in the middle of exams so the money went down the drain. Bored with the course, I think you told your mother. I sorted you out, put you on the payroll. Couldn’t have it said that my son was work-shy. No one in our family ever has been. What else did you decide? Looking to take over from me and run the business better than I can? Don’t think so. Going to be one of the boys? No. Sorry, Zach, but last night clinched it, Shane’s session in the pub. You decided it didn’t matter to you. They’re my people and they matter to me, so I’ll move mountains to find other work for Pete and Danny. That’s how it is. What I’m saying, Zach, is that you should get yourself something that stretches you.’
    Neither his mother, his father, nor his sister had ever talked straight to him before. There had never been an inquest around the breakfast table. If they had felt his decision to quit his course was rubbish, they had never said so. Now he realised that a dam of pent-up feelings had been breached. For years they had skirted round the subject of his future, where he was going.
    ‘Yes, Dad.’
    ‘You’ll get a month’s wages and you’ll finish on Friday. The men I’m keeping need the money and know nothing except the building trade. You’re better than that. Go for something that tests you.’
    ‘Thanks for telling it like it is, Dad.’
    They hugged, and he fancied his father’s eye might have been damp – for the first time: he was a hard old beggar.
    Zach remembered a day when he hadn’t crossed the road. It was a winter evening, dark, on a north London street, and a man had been walking along the pavement when some kids had come out of an alley. He’d had on a suit and an overcoat, and was carrying a briefcase. The kids had hit him hard and fast, kneed his groin, then run off with the briefcase after a snatch search for a wallet. The man had struggled to his feet and stumbled away. It had happened two years ago. Zach had gone on twenty paces, then told himself he must play the Samaritan, but the victim was gone and the street was empty. Too late. Zach hadn’t been to a police station and made a statement, had let it lie. He was ashamed, and the chance to redeem himself had never arisen. He held close to his father.
    ‘Another thing – you’ll never attract a decent woman, like your mother, if you don’t find something worthwhile. For God’s sake, you’re better than this.’

Chapter 4
    The smoke seeped from Mehrak’s lips and nostrils.
    ‘The enrichment plant at Qom, when were you last there?’
    ‘Two months ago.’
    The room was fogged. Condensation ran in streams down the windows. Did the brigadier have responsibility at that location? He did not: he was there to advise. Had they gone inside? They had entered the underground facility. Deep underground? They had not entered the enrichment area. He could see, from the smoke hovering over the table that PK’s eyes were watering, He kept rubbing them,

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