One of Us by Iain Rowan Read Free Book Online

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    “How do I smell?”
    I tried not to choke from the tear gas assault of aftershave.
    “Knockout.”
    He winked again, and was gone.
    The next morning I left in plenty of time, and walked to the address on the note, Asif’s book of maps in my hand. The air had turned colder and bit at my nose and ears, and the pavements were slippery with wet leaves. The place called itself a hotel, but it was cheap, and no tourists or visitors would ever stay there. It was down a side street of other hotels that were not, and bed-sits where the population changed every month.
    In the entrance hall a hatchway opened on to a small room, where a crumpled man sat reading a newspaper. The room smelt of cigarette ash and the dusty heat from the three glowing bars of a portable electric fire. The man hardly looked at me.
    “Room 14.”
    I walked down the hallway, saw a peeling sign that pointed through a doorway and said, “rooms 11-19”. I went through the doorway, and up a flight of stairs. The door to room 14 was not locked. I walked in, and Corgan was there, looking into a big mirror that hung crooked over the boarded up fireplace. The mirror was cracked in one corner.
    “Morning,” he said. “So you’ve come to collect.” It was not a question.
    I stood in the room and waited until he had finished looking at his own reflection, playing whatever game he was playing. He stared at me in the mirror. I looked back at him.
    “Right,” he said in the end, and he turned and reached his hand into his jacket pocket. “Your papers. This is the real thing, you know, not some tarted-up photocopy with scribbles on it like Danny knocks out from some of his other contacts.”
    “Thank you,” I said.
    “Do you know how you get the real thing, Anna?”
    “No,” I said. I did not want to have a conversation with him, did not want to listen to his voice, but he had my future and I did not.
    “You buy people. Very expensive business, buying people. Costs a lot of money. Wouldn’t do it for just anyone.”
    “Yes,” I said. “Thank you.”
    “You ever been bought, Anna?”
    “No.”
    He smiled, but not at me, and then he placed a letter on the table in the middle of the room as if he were performing a card trick.
    “There you go,” he said again. “Official. Leave to remain for a period of a further six months. In their computers and everything. In return for the good work you did for us with Kav. And as payment in advance for the good work that you will do for us over what we’ll call a probationary period. Pass that, then we’ll talk about something permanent.”
    “No,” I said. “No. We had a deal. I did what you wanted, I fixed the man up, the deal was I get my documents, nothing about doing other work, nothing, just the deal, proper papers, a passport, National Insurance, not some piece of paper that runs out in less than a year.”
    “And who said you’d get that?”
    “Daniel, he told me. He said do this one thing, and you get your papers, that’s all. No more. No ‘deal’.”
    “Oh, Danny did, did he?” Corgan smiled at me, and I felt very scared. “You’re a doctor, Anna. Or as good as. Imagine this. You’re working in a hospital. You’re a consultant, top of the tree, you know: bow tie, play golf, flash car, the works. Now imagine you bump into someone in overalls, pushing a trolley around the corridors, maybe a little bit backward, a little slow. Well that’s Daniel. You wouldn’t let him do a heart bypass for you. I don’t let him make deals for me.”
    I reached out to take the paper from the table. Corgan slid forward and his big hand came down on mine. It was very warm, and it made my hand feel very small, like a delicate bird. He did not press down hard, but I could feel his strength.
    “Here’s how it is. We give you this. And no running to Danny to ask for something else. He’s been told. You get nothing from him. You do what you like, but you stay in this city. If we need you, we call