*

He didn’t kick the shite out him, I says to her, what happened was he accidentally kicked Barney in the head while he was flailing about trying to escape. Whatever, Kathy says, what he told me was that he split that cunt’s head wide open. That’s exactly what he says and, I mean, already that wasn’t like him. I split that fucking cunt’s head wide open, he says to me. I’m not going to argue the point, I says to her. It was a lucky kick, but whatever. So he kicks the shite out your friend, she says, and then he calls Special Branch and asks for an appointment with his alter ego. He says that he is ready.

*

The story that he told me was this: how he gets a number and is told to phone it at a certain time and to use a certain phrase. A certain phrase that he says he cannot reveal to me under pain of death.

Don’t tell me, I says to him: Flame on!

It’s not fucking funny, he says to me, and he fixes me with this stare, this fucking stare where his head doesn’t move at all. That’s another thing that happened to him when he came back. When he spoke to you he never moved his head. I know that sounds unremarkable but try it yourself. You can move your eyes or whatever but try speaking to someone without ever moving your head. It’s fucking disconcerting, I’m telling you. And at first you don’t even realise what it is about it until you figure it out. They don’t move their heads when they talk to you. You realise that and you get the creeps. That’s a Special Branch technique. I’m giving nothing away here but watch out for it. The non-head-moving. Strategic non-head-moving. It’s a giveaway. A giveaway that they’ve had training. So as he calls this number and he utters this phrase. This phrase that he says has the power to unlock the future, is what he utters.

There’s no one on the end of the line. When he phoned this number someone picked up the phone without speaking. He’s in deep here. He utters the phrase. The person on the other end of the phone doesn’t respond. You can hear a transistor radio in the background. It’s playing music. What music? I says to Kathy. How do I know what music? she says. What the fuck does it matter what music? It might have been important, I says to her. But carry on.