frozen within time

London, Febuary 2008

The man in the grey trench coat was suprised to see someone else come to the graveyard. as the priest muttered something in Latin, anxious to be off to his lunch on this cold winters day, there was a crunch of frosted grass and another man arrived, wearing dark glasses and an unreadable expression. The only other mourner was a woman who had been dick tanners cleaner in the last few weeks of his life. she gathered her blue nylon coat around her, shivered, and then stepped forward to throw a handful of dirt into the coffin before smiling at the priest and walking away.

Sad, the man who had once been so popular should have onky a cleaner, a resentful old work colleague, and someone else from the government attended his funeral. Because the newcomer certainly was government, no question.

Now he walked across, nodded respectfully to the priest who was making a shifty exit. 'For a moment back there ,' He said, 'I thought I might have got extremely lucky.'

He held out his hand. 'Daniel chambers.'

'Ernest greenvile,' said the man in the grey trench coat, and shook the proffered hand. 'I supposed you were hoping I might be Eric Wilkinson.'

Chambers laughed. He looked slightly embarrassed.
'We have no reason to think the old boys even alive. But at least we know he wasn't a traitor. Tanner did that much for his old friend. cold comfort though----telling us fifty odd years after the event.'

'It would be nice to let the winkinson family know that, wouldn't it?' Said chambers, taking off his spectacles and regarding greenvile closely.

'Yes,' He agreed 'but I don't think either of us are going to do that just yet, are we? Just in case . . . .'

' in case they're hiding the return if the old genius scientist?'

'Or his son or daughter?'

Greenvile sighed. 'Lets just stop playing games, shall we? None of us has a clue. He could be dead or alive, in Russia or in Peru for all we know. and his children too. We'll probably never know. I suppose you've a sleeper in place in akhill, even so.'

Chambers smiled. He stooped down and threw the dirt on the coffin.
'Treacherous old goat,' He said. 'Doesnt really deserve to rest in piece. Wilkinson could have taken this country into an astonishing future. but I suppose if he had done anything for the Soviets we would have seen evidence of it now. He probably refused and paid with his life.'

'Like I said,' greenvile threw his own handful of dirt and they both turned away from the grave and began to walk 'We'll probably never know.'