He swung the wheel and increased power.
CHAPTER THREE
THE GLASGOW EXPRESS WASN’T PARTICULARLY busy. Keogh sat opposite Kfithleen at a corner table.
Ryan took the one opposite. Almost immediately he opened his briefcase and took out a file. He started to work his way through it, reading glasses perch, ed on the end of his nose.
The girl took the copy of The Midnight Court from her carrying bag and an Irish dictionary, which she put on one side. A strange one, Keogh thought, a strange one, indeed. He sat there gazing out of the window, wondering what she would say, what her reaction would be if she knew he was everything she hated–a Roman Catholic and an IRA enforcer. God, but the fat would be in the fire the day that got out.
About an hour out of London an attendant appeared pushing a trolley with tea, coffee, sandwiches, and newspapers. Ryan stopped working and took a coffee. The girl asked for tea and so did Keogh. He also bought the Times and the Daily Mail and spent the next hour catching up on the news.
There wasn’t much on the Irish situation. A bomb
in Derry had taken out six shops in one street–a tit-for-tat killing of two Catholics on the Falls Road in retaliation for the shooting of a Protestant in the Shankill. An Army Air Corps helicopter flying in to the command post at Crossmaglen had come under machine gun fire as well. Just another day, they’d say in Ulster.
And then, halfway through the Times, he came to
an article entitled “How long, oh Lord, how long?” It was written by a retired Member of Parliament, once a Minister at tile Northern Ireland Office, who not unreasonably felt that sixteen years of bloody war in Ireland was enough. His preferred solution was an independent Ulster as a member of the British Commonwealth.
Incredible how naive on the subject even politicians could be.
Keogh closed the paper, lit a cigarette, and sat back, watching the girl. To his amusement, he saw that she frequently consulted the dictionary. She glanced up and saw him smile.
She frowned. “What’s so funny?”
“Not much. You just seem to be having some difficulty with that.” · “It’s not easy. I only started learning three months
ago. There’s a phrase here thafs danmed difficult to work out.”
Keogh, a fluent Irish speaker, could have helped, ‘but to disclose the fact would have been a serious error. People who spoke Irish were Catholics and Nationalists, it was as simple as that.
Ryan had finished the file, put it back in his briefcase, and leaned back in the corner, closing his eyes.
“He seems tired,” Keogh observed.
“He does too much, almost burns himself out.
He’s a believer, you see. Our cause is everything to him. Meat and drink.” “You too, I think.” “You have to have something to believe in in this life.” “In your.case, the death of your family gave you that.’?” “The murder of my family, Martin, the murder.” There was no answer to thal, could never be. Her face was white and intense, eyes filled with rage.
Keogh said, “Peace, girl dear, peace. Go on, read your book,” and he picked up the Daily Mail and started on that.
ANOTHER HALF HOUR AND THE ATTENDANT turned. They had more tea and ham sandwiches. Ryan was still asleep.
“We’ll leave him be,” the girl said.
They ate in companionable silence. When they were finished, Keogh lit another cigarette. “Sixteen, Kate, and the whole of life ahead of you. And what would you like to do with it if peace ever comes to Ireland?” “Oh, I know that well enough. I always wanted to
be a nurse, ever since my time in the hospital after the bomb, I was at the Royal Victoria for three months. The nurses were great.” “Nursing, is it? Well, for that you need to pass your exams and you not even at seho01.” She laughed that distinctive harsh laugh of hers.
“You couldn’t be more wrong, mister. M8st people do their ordinary level exams at sixteen. I did mine at fourteen. Most people do the advanced levels at eighteen. I did mine four months ago in English Literature, French, and Spanish. I have a thing for languages, you see.” There was a kind of bravado in her voice. “I’m qualified to go to University if i,m so minded and I’m only sixteen.” “And are you?” ‘ She shrugged. “I’ve more important things to do.