He smiled at her. ‘And how did you get to be so wise?’ he asked.
‘By watching Blue Peter,’ she said with a straight face.
He grinned and pulled her towards him. ‘There’s things you do for me that I’ve never seen on Blue Peter.’
‘Now that’s what I mean,’ she said, pushing her hand between them. ‘Do you know that three erections a day can help keep you healthy?’
‘I didn’t know that.’
‘Life is full of wonderful coincidences.’
* * *
As the weeks stretched into months, and there was still no news of international action against the nuclear weapons facility in the Caspian, Colhoun’s curiosity finally got the better of him. As it happened the timing of his call to the Foreign Office was near perfect. Martin Clarke told him that the diplomatic offensive had finally been adjudged a failure, and that he should watch the news for the next few nights.
Three days later the fifth item on the BBC’s Nine o’clock News concerned a massive explosion in the Caspian Sea. This had apparently been triggered by a gas leak, but low standards of maintenance on the old Soviet rigs were cited as a contributory factor.
Colhoun wondered whether it had been the Israelis or the Russians who had done the honours.
A week after that Annie Martin received a solicitor’s letter in the post. After so long a silence she had half suspected he was dead, but seeing it confirmed in black and white was still something of a shock, as was the news that he had left her over twenty thousand pounds.
That part made her cry. Not for the money and not for his death, but with sadness for a life that had never known love.
She walked across to her living-room and stared up the sunlit street, remembering the night he had almost killed one of her customers.
He had sometimes been good to her, she thought, but there was no way that he had been a good man. Maybe he had never been given the chance to be one. Or maybe that was something people had to seize for themselves.
She was damned if she knew.
OTHER AVAILABLE TITLES IN THIS SERIES
MARINE A SBS: Terrorism on the North Sea
MARINE B SBS: The Aegean Campaign
MARINE C SBS: The Florida Run
MARINE D SBS: Windswept
MARINE E SBS: The Hong Kong Gambit
MARINE F SBS: Royal Target
MARINE G SBS: China Seas
MARINE H SAS: The Burma Offensive
MARINE J SBS: The East African Mission
MARINE K SBS: Gold Rush
MARINE L SBS: Raiders From The Sea
TITLES IN SERIES FROM 22 BOOKS
SOLDIER A SAS: Behind Iraqi Lines
SOLDIER B SAS: Heroes of the South Atlantic
SOLDIER C SAS: Secret War in Arabia
SOLDIER D SAS: The Colombian Cocaine War
SOLDIER E SAS: Sniper Fire in Belfast
SOLDIER F SAS: Guerrillas in the Jungle
SOLDIER G SAS: The Desert Raiders
SOLDIER H SAS: The Headhunters of Borneo
SOLDIER I SAS: Eighteen Years in the Elite Force
SOLDIER J SAS: Counter-insurgency in Aden
SOLDIER K SAS: Mission to Argentina
SOLDIER L SAS: The Embassy Siege
SOLDIER M SAS: Invisible Enemy in Kazakhstan
SOLDIER N SAS: The Gambian Bluff
SOLDIER O SAS: The Bosnian Inferno
SOLDIER P SAS: Night Fighters in France
SOLDIER Q SAS: Kidnap the Emperor!
SOLDIER R SAS: Death on Gibraltar
SOLDIER S SAS: The Samarkand Hijack
SOLDIER T SAS: War on the Streets
SOLDIER U SAS: Bandit Country
SOLDIER W SAS: Guatemala – Journey into Evil
SOLDIER X SAS: Operation Takeaway
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 1: Valin’s Raiders
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 2: The Korean Contract
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 3: The Vatican Assignment
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 4: Operation Nicaragua
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 5: Action in the Arctic
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 6: The Khmer Hit
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 7: Blue on Blue
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 8: Target the Death-dealer
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 9: The Berlin Alternative
MERCENARY 10: The Blue-eyed Boy
MERCENARY 11: Oliver’s Army
MERCENARY 12: The Corsican Crisis
MARINE A SBS: Terrorism on the North Sea
MARINE B SBS: The Aegean Campaign
MARINE C SBS: The Florida Run
MARINE D SBS: Windswept
MARINE E SBS: The Hong Kong Gambit
MARINE F SBS: Royal Target
MARINE G SBS: China Seas
MARINE H SBS: The Burma Offensive
MARINE I SBS: Escape from Azerbaijan
WINGS 1: Typhoon Strike
WINGS 2: The MiG Lover
WINGS 3: The Invisible Warrior
WINGS 4: Ferret Flight
This electronic edition published in 2016 by Osprey Publishing Ltd
First published in Great Britain in 1996 by 22 Books, Invicta House, Sir Thomas Longley Road, Rochester, Kent
© 2015 Osprey Publishing Ltd
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ISBN: 1-898125-83-X
PDF ebook ISBN: 978-1-4728-1667-2
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4728-1668-9
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