The widow's war

CHAPTER ONE
A Quiet Place in the Country
At precisely 5.57 p.m. by his grandfather s gold watch，
Dermot Ryan flicked the wall-switch that controlled the t
stat on his bath. It took just three minutes for the bath
He undressed at leisure， folding his clothes over the SI
couch， before the radio switched on with the time-sig
the Six o clock News.
He sank into the water and listened to the headlines.
thing called Devolution had caused a mild disturban
evoked a few clich& from a shadow minister: there w
trouble in Cyprus， the City， and an item about an isl
the Caribbean that had recently dispatched a huge arme
to Central Africa， and where there were reports of riots，
ing the arrival of several troop-ships carrying the bodies c
soldiers who had been fighting for the liberation of
Africa.
Ryan listened to this with some interest. Things had cl
since he had been stationed out there， in the Island s
Montecristo， as a double-agent in German uniform work
the British in World War II.
But Ryan was more concerned by a later item: a v
and， to Ryan s mind， ambiguous - reference to security m
round the Rushdale Experimental Research Centre near ~
This annoyed him because his own establishment relied
on seclusion: and he was acutely conscious that while
ments in biological warfare might be necessary to the n
good， he preferred them to be carried out more than
miles from his own parish.
Ryan listened through the financial report， heard tl~
weather was continuing dull and cold， then stirred his I
against the thermostat control below the automatic tap.
already read all he wanted from the telex in his stud
Index was down again over four points， but this hardly v
I
q，