‘That principle’s going to get us killed, Miles,’ Roper said.

O’Grady held his jacket open, exposing a shoulder-holster and the grip of his Taurus. ‘Not if we pop that bastard McCracken first.’

Roper shook his head again. ‘You call that straining the grey matter? For fuck’s sake, put the damn thing away. I mean for good. You never even carried when you were in the job. I doubt you’ve fired more than two or three shots in your entire life, let alone fired them into other people.’

‘So what do you want to do, Jon?’ O’Grady scowled. ‘Surrender? After all that work, after finally getting ourselves an income stream that knows no limits? You want to give it all away to a bunch of scumbag gangsters?’

‘It’s not all of it,’ Stone chipped in.

‘It’s too much,’ O’Grady snapped back. ‘And shut up, Bern. You’re here as muscle, not to give fucking opinions.’

‘You said we can’t move locations,’ Roper said. ‘Why not?’

‘For Christ’s sake. We’ve got half a dozen gigs in motion right here, right now. Including Dean Chesham. He’s going to pay us royally for years to come, and likely won’t even notice the loss.’

‘Can’t we manage that from the other end of the country?’

‘The Crew are not stupid. We’d have to cut all ties, we’d have to go abroad.’

‘That’s not a bad shout,’ Stone said, no doubt thinking about the island paradise he’d always envisaged himself retiring to.

‘Damn it!’ O’Grady said heatedly. ‘I’m not just cutting and running. And you two shouldn’t want to either.’

‘It’s about how much you want to live,’ Roper said.

‘And will your life after this really be living?’ O’Grady’s voice became sneery. ‘Remind me what they kicked you out for, Jon? Wasn’t it something inconsequential? Something that wouldn’t matter to anyone outside the job? Oh yeah, I remember … downloading child pornography from a site you were supposed to be monitoring. I mean, you’ll be top of everyone’s list for a job after we pack this racket in, won’t you!’

He lurched around to face Stone. ‘And how about you, Bernie? Battered any suspects recently? Kicked anyone in the nads so hard you’ve induced a hernia? On no … that doesn’t happen any more, does it? Well, not so often … not as often as it used to when you were in uniform, eh?’ O’Grady snorted. ‘You’re another one who’ll easily secure a nice new career, aren’t you?’ He pushed his chair back. ‘Don’t you two cretins get it? Unless we’re prepared to emigrate, which wouldn’t be easy given our track records, we have no choice but to stand up to these animals.’