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pulling down a hundred thousand a year by now. A lot of his mates were. Instead, he’d signed up for the army. They had been recruiting hard around the universities in the past few years. The days of the tough, brave squaddie were over, the Rupert signing him up had argued. There was so much kit to operate these days, the army needed men with a first-class technical education. Jed enjoyed the work, no question about that. Like all soldiers, he got a kick from testing himself against the most extreme conditions imaginable. You climbed a wall of fear every day. There was nothing to beat the feeling as you made it to the other side.
    Still, when he saw a flat like this, he wondered. The pay was crap, and the risks terrible. He knew why he’d really joined the army. It was just that he didn’t like to admit it to himself.
    ‘You’ve already got a drink, I see,’ said Laura, stepping out of the kitchen. ‘The food will be ready in five minutes.’
    Jed was surprised by how good she looked. It was a different Laura from the one he’d met at the offices of the Firm. Her blonde hair had been let down, and curled around the delicately sculpted features of her skin. A dusting of make-up had freshened up her face, and her lips were glossed until they shone. When she’d called toask him over to dinner, he’d guessed it was some kind of come-on, but he couldn’t be certain.
Now I’m pretty sure
.
    ‘What have you been doing with yourself ?’ she asked, pouring herself a glass of the Australian white and raising it to her lips.
    Jed laughed. ‘A squaddie with a few days’ leave in the big city,’ he said. ‘What do we usually do with ourselves?’
    Laura smiled. ‘Get rat-arsed, and go on the pull.’
    ‘Well, I tried to persuade a couple of the lads we should take in a poetry reading, then catch a string quartet at the Wigmore Hall. But I got outvoted. So, yeah, we got tanked up, and went looking for slappers instead.’
    Jed grinned, but actually it wasn’t quite true. After the meeting at the Firm, he’d been told to stay in London for a few days in case they needed to speak to him again. He was allocated a room at the Chelsea barracks, but there was nothing for him to do, so he’d filled up the day watching reruns of the football on Sky, and trying to get hold of Sarah. She wasn’t answering her mobile, and there was no reply from the flat either. Last time they’d met, she’d insisted they were on one of their breaks, but she did that all the time, and he’d learnt not to take much notice. Now she’d vanished from the face of the earth, the way she did sometimes. A girlfriend was around to take your calls, when you had some unexpected time off. Was that too much for a guy to ask for, he’d asked himself bitterly as he ate some miserable mess grub and watched Andy Gray on Sky Sportsoverhype yet another match between two teams who weren’t going to win anything in a million years.
    ‘I’m sure the slappers couldn’t believe their luck when you boys came in,’ said Laura. ‘You’re in better shape than most of the brickies and insurance salesmen they usually get off with.’
    Jed smiled, following Laura into the kitchen as she took the pasta out of the pan, mixed in the seafood sauce, and tossed the dressing on to the salad. It was an age since he’d had a woman cook for him: Sarah wasn’t much of a hand in the kitchen, and although there had been other girlfriends during the many breaks in their relationship, none of them had known any more about cooking than he did. Maybe I don’t attract that kind of girl, he thought. The homemakers see me, and they run a mile. And, frankly, I’m not sure I blame them.
    Laura was wearing a crisp white blouse, through which he could clearly see the outline of a black bra that held her small yet rounded breasts in place. Her tan leather skirt revealed a pair of legs that were perfectly toned, and the smell of the food mixed with her musty perfume to create a scent