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the Chief said, and his voice was little more than a whisper.
    Christ ... McAnally saw the cold smile on the Chief's mouth. A little joke between
    the two of them, not shared by the three men behind the Chief. Bitter, pinched
    faces, hard, killing faces ... Christ.
    `Perhaps the plan wasn't explained that well, Gingy.'
    `Perhaps it wasn't,' McAnally said bleakly.
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    **`Missus ... Missus ...' The Chief's voice bellowed in the room, and
    his face never turned away from McAnally. `Tea for five would be nice.' There was
    a muffled reply. Ì'll leave the tray at the door.' The Chief lit a cigarette, and belched with the first drag.
    `You're going to do it, Gingy, because I'm going to ask you to do it.' `Why me?
    'Gingy, there was a time when we had ten R.P.Gs up here, five in Belfast. When
    you went for your rest two years ago there were three R.P.Gs here. Now we have
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    one. One for Belfast, Derry and South Armagh. You know how many projectiles
    we have now? Right now I've got one projectile in Belfast. I've got Chief of Staff
    and Army Council breathing on me. If I don't use it, then I'll be ordered to ship it out, send it where it can be used. It's not like your day any more, the R.P.G. isn't for police wagons and Brit pigs, the R.P.G.'s too precious for that. Are you listening to me, Gingy?
    'I'm listening.'
    `My plan, the plan you said was a bad plan, is to use the R.P.G. so's the bang's heard across the Six Counties, and across the Twenty‐six Counties, and right across the bloody waters to the States. My plan says that the biggest bang comes
    in the Crumlin Road tomorrow morning. My plan says that you, Gingy, you make
    that bang.'
    McAnally saw the bright diamonds of the Chief's eyes under the shadow of his cap. He saw the spittle at the sides of the mouth that was close to his.
    `Why me?
    'That's what you said when the boys came to see you. You said, why did it have to
    be you, why couldn't it be some other bugger, that's what you said. I tell you. You
    were the firer on the R.P.G. You were the Belfast R.P.G. team. You had four shots
    of practice across the border in Donegal before you took the army Pig, before you took the police landrover. You had the training, and you delivered. Bloody good you were, Gingy. Two firings, two hits.
    `There were four on your team that had the training. Now I've got one warhead,
    one firing chance, and no chance of training a team like you had. My last two got
    lifted, you were told that ... What happened to the four on your team, Gingy, the
    team you had when you quit? Tell me what happened to them?'
    McAnally said, `Shay got himself shot, peelers had him. Chicko's in
    the Kesh on a tenner. Gerry blew his face off, mixing ...' Ànd you were the fourth, Gingy, and you were the best.' Ì quit,' McAnally said.
    Ànd you changed your mind,' the Chief grinned. There was a light knock at the
    door.
    `Thank you, Missus.' •
    One of the men who stood behind the Chief opened the door and
    lifted in the tray and kicked the door shut behind him. He set the tray on the table, and began to pour. The baby was shouting happily in the hallway.
    The Chief took from his jacket a folded Ordnance Survey map of Greater Belfast,
    spread it out on the floor and knelt beside it.
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    `Come on down, Gingy, inch to 300 yards. When I've talked you through it, tell me then if it's still a crazy plan.'
    McAnally sank down on his haunches. The Soya smell was foul. He swallowed hard.
    `You're the only one who can do it for me, Gingy. That's why it's you.'
    The Chief slapped his fist across McAnally's shoulders and one of the others put a
    mug of tea in his hand.

    `Come.'
    The Intelligence Officer was sitting in his usual posture, chair tilted on the back
    two legs, shoes on his desk. He nearly always managed to spend his day in shoes,
    as if it were a perk of the job along with staying in his office with the gas stove on while the likes of Ferris were out tramping the streets of West Belfast.