ISBN-13: 9781536885644 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 382 str.
The arrest in 1994 brought an abrupt end to a way of life Ed had learned to embrace. He had applied himself completely to the profession, into which circumstance had pushed him. A new character has evolved, with different faces, for different occasions. He had become a member of an international community of criminals. The bail and travel restrictions put an end to the businesses overseas. Customs had got it wrong this time. There were things going on, but they had missed them. They tried constructing something out of nothing, the defendants must have done something. The evidence wouldn't fit, they stretched it one way then the next. It was all in vain, the prosecution case collapsed miserably in 1996. Unable to travel; with no source of income, Ed joins a friends contracting business. It's honest, regular business. He puts his capital in to bridge the funding gap between salaries and the firm getting paid. Ed applies himself to developing the business with the same enthusiasm he'd given to all he'd done before. He finds himself in opportunistic situations and chooses to keep it all honest. Then the firm gets stuffed, like so many of the countries small contractors. It's nothing new, the Official Receiver can't, or won't help. The lawyers and the suits take the boys for everything. Ed's dream, of owning his own home, is again taken from him. They did a fair job and only asked fair pay in return. But nobody cared. Ed saw an opportunity to get out level, he takes it. He gets an opportunity to fill the hole properly, he seizes it. He calls the old gang, he calls Bernie. The two hatch a plan, it is a million-pound robbery, from a Swiss Bank. The Bank gives Ed the keys, he has to take the prize. He's been pushed back into that place again, to take what he can, when he can. Ed brought food to the table. Bernie returns the gesture. Bernie is an old blagger and can't help himself. He's been looking through the window for too long. It's not the Bank of America, but it'll do. Ed flies out to Spain, Puerto Banus He has a look at the bit of work. He has learnt a bit about commercial buildings, in the four years with Lofty. Bernie brings together the team, an old safe breaker of notoriety, and a colleague from the big score in seventy-six. The gang operate out of a town house, above Puerto Banus and make their preparations. The gang go in and get the prize, along with a bit more than they bargained for. The King of Saudi Arabia is in town; the port is busting at the seams. It looks like they've pulled it off, they head for the hills. Unfortunately, a few weeks later they lose a body. The robbery was in the press, then it wasn't. Nobody knows what's going on. Ed leaves the Rock Hotel in the middle of the night. He's back in Sierra Leone again it feels, but this time the girls are on the run, and there are a lot more guns. The international criminals he's meeting are now the enemy. Everything starts to turn upside down and nobody is who they appear to be.