I spent the day trailing up and down the High Street, tapping. It was cold and blustery, but dry. I kept thinking about Ginger, wondering what he was doing with his mates in Holborn, and why he hadn’t wanted me along. Maybe he’s a dealer, I thought. Smack and crack. Ecstasy. Or maybe he’s got this rich bird – an heiress or something – and they’re shacked up right now in her luxury penthouse pad, tearing up lobsters and swilling champagne. I wasn’t seriously worried. Not then. He’d gone off before and come back, but I’d be glad when this day was over just the same.

There’s a clock outside the station. I looked at it every time I passed. At five thirty I stopped walking up and down. Some of the shops were just closing so I sat down in a doorway from which I could watch the station. I’d no idea what time he’d return, of course – it might be hours yet – but my feet were killing me and I had to sit somewhere. I could see the clock, so I kept an eye on that, too. I’d never known time pass so slowly.

At some point I fell asleep, and I must’ve slept a long time, because when the cold woke me it was after eleven and the station had closed. I’d no way of knowing whether Ginger had returned or not. I looked in all the usual kips and he wasn’t in any of them. I couldn’t face the night alone so I went to Captain Hook and surrendered every penny I had for a place on a boat, but this time there was no sweet dream.

Daily Routine Orders 11

Laughing Boy One. That was the code name of the exercise. It was meticulously planned and beautifully executed, and now it’s time for de-briefing. In a well-regulated army, every operation is followed by a thorough de-briefing. A sort of inquest, if you’ll pardon the grisly joke. So.

First, my intelligence work. The success of a given operation always depends on sound intelligence, and mine was a model of soundness. By golly it was. What I did was, I learned their names. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Elementary, but in fact it was absolutely crucial. I couldn’t possibly have done what I did without it.