Today’s discomfort was, momentarily, such that Charlie paused to flex his bunched-up toes to ease the cramp. He hadn’t expected it all to be as abrupt as this, as bad as this. But why not? Always before, when the shit’s-about-to-hit-the-fan pain had come like this, it had been in an operational situation and what he was about to face was going to be far more traumatic than anything he’d ever confronted in the field.

He was going to be dumped from the service – from which he’d briefly dumped himself when he’d run with the CIA’s half million and regretted every single waking and sleeping moment until they’d caught him, a regret quite separate from the scourging, always-present agony of losing Edith in the vengeance pursuit – and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

Although there couldn’t be the slightest doubt about the forthcoming confrontation, a lot of Charlie’s uncertainty came from his not having been able to prepare himself. Charlie had never liked going into anything totally cold. Without any conceit – because the last thing from which Charlie Muffin suffered was conceit – he knew he was a cerebral Fred Astaire when it came to responding on his feet to unexpected situations, even though he couldn’t physically match that mental agility. Despite which he’d always tried to get as much advantage as he could, in advance. Maybe he should have gone first to see the relocations officer. Charlie had spent his life talking people into admissions and revelations they’d sworn on oath never to disclose. So extracting from a form-filling, form-regimented government bureaucrat every last little detail of what they intended doing to him would have been a walk in the park, unfitting though the analogy was for someone with Charlie’s feet. The belated awareness of an overlooked opportunity further disturbed Charlie. It had been a bad mistake not to have done it and he’d lived this long relatively unscathed by not making mistakes and most certainly not bad ones, as this was. Another indication, to add to the foot pangs, of how disorientated he’d been by the single line command from on high.