You Are Dead

88

Saturday 20 December

‘You’ve never told us — what exactly was your agenda in going to see the shrink in London, Dr Harrison Hunter?’ Marcus sneered.

‘Was it your ego again, running rampant?’ Felix quizzed. ‘Or was it because, as we’ve always known, you are just plain raving mad?’

‘Come on, guys, give me some credit!’

‘We’re all ears!’ Marcus said. ‘Yes? Talk us through the credit?’

‘It was to try to take the heat off us.’

‘There was no heat on us,’ Felix said. ‘Now there’s a fucking picture out there of you.’

‘It doesn’t look that much like me.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Marcus said, sourly. ‘We all recognized you without much trouble.’

‘That’s because you know me.’

‘If I didn’t know better,’ Marcus said, ‘I would say you had some kind of a death wish. That you’re bored. You think it’s time for game over. You’re having one final tilt at Mr Plod. Am I right? You’ve decided it’s time to abandon us. Easy for you to exit. But what about us?’

‘Give me one reason why I should give a toss about you?’

‘Because we’re your life, all you have. Your wife walked out on you. Your children have gone with her. You’re just one of life’s losers, like you always were.’

‘Tch, tch. You never read Sun Tzu’s Art Of War, did you? You know something he said that might give you some insight into why I went to see Dr Jacob Van Dam? Stand by the river bank for long enough, and you’ll see the bodies of all your enemies float by.’

‘Just what the hell’s that meant to mean?’ Marcus demanded.

‘Oh, you’ll find out soon enough. Really quite soon.’

‘The suspense is killing me,’ Felix said, then broke into giggles. ‘I’m so waiting for that day!’

‘You don’t get it, do you?’

‘What’s to not get? We’ve been floating down your river for decades. We’ve all grown to like it. We even like you!’

‘Yep, well, don’t like me too much. Because there’s another quote I’m favouring at the moment.’

‘And that is?’

‘Life’s a bitch, and then you die.’