The Eagle Has Flown

by Jack Higgins

  'So that's it,' I said.

  He nodded. 'We saved Hitler's life. Did we do right?' He shrugged. 'It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I can imagine why they put a hundred-year hold on that file.'

  He opened the door again and looked out. I said, 'What happened afterwards? To you and Steiner and Asa Vaughan? I know you were a professor at some American college in the years after the war, but what happened in between?'

  'Ah Jesus, son, and haven't I talked enough? I've given you enough for another book. The rest will have to wait until next time. You should be getting back to your hotel. I'll go a step of the way with you.'

  'Is that safe?'

  'Well, you're clean enough if we meet an Army patrol and who's going to worry about a poor old priest like me?'

  He wore a hat and a raincoat over his cassock and sheltered us with his umbrella as we walked through the mean streets, passing here and there the devastation of a bombing.

  'Would you look at this place?' he demanded. 'Rat's alley where the dead men left their bones.'

  'Why do you keep on?' I asked him. 'The bombings, the killings?'

  'When it started, back in August sixty-nine, it seemed like a good idea. Orange mobs trying to burn Catholics out, the B Special police giving them a hand.'

  'And now?'

  'To be honest with you, son, I'm getting tired and I never did like soft target hits, the indiscriminate bomb that kills passers-by, women, children. That farmhouse above Killala Bay. My old aunt Eileen left it to me, and there's a job waiting as Professor of English at Trinity College in Dublin whenever I want.' He stopped on the corner and sniffed the smoky air. 'Time to get the hell out of this and let those who want it to get on with it.'

  'You mean you've finally got tired of the game playing you instead of you playing the game?'

  He nodded. 'That's what Steiner always says.'

  'Interesting,' I commented. 'You said: Steiner says.'

  He smiled. 'Is that a fact?' The rain increased suddenly. We were on the corner of the Falls Road. In the distance was a foot patrol of the Parachute Regiment and a Saracen armoured car. 'I think I'll leave you here, son.'

  'A wise decision.' I took his hand.

  'You can look me up in Killala any time.' He turned away and paused. 'One thing.'

  'What's that?' I asked.

  'The Cohen girl, the hit-and-run accident. You were right. Convenient for someone, that. I'd watch my back if I were you.'

  I lit a cigarette in cupped hands and watched him go, the cassock-like skirts around his ankles, the umbrella against the rain. I glanced down the Falls Road. The patrol was nearer now but when I turned to take a last look at Liam Devlin, he'd gone, disappeared into the shadows as if he had never been.