'We never found out. Well I didn't. As he was always close to Michael Donnellan, I suspect he bankrolled him. They both vanished. And it seems as if they have been waiting ever since.'
        Wait, as we all did, Eamon thinks. All the slow delicate moves away from the armed struggle to the political battlefield that in time led to the Good Friday Agreement, the cessation of violence, the ceasefire, the slow dawn of a sort of peace. To his surprise Davin had gone along with the peace process, had been instrumental in keeping the hotheads in line. Or so Eamon heard. If An Fear Mór says it's all right, that's good enough for me. An Fear Mór, the big man, Davin's nickname in the Movement, bestowed partly due to his bulk, mainly for his power, his charisma with the volunteers, perhaps too for his shadowy persona, unknown to the public, rarely photographed, never seen in public. But undeniably, the strong man of the Movement, who if he chose to do so could stop the political process when he wanted.
        Now he has had time to digest the briefing, it makes sense to Eamon. Like so many of Davin's schemes do. Griffin, O'Neill, above all Donnellan, the man once tipped to take over from Davin. And if Eamon has doubts about what he has told him, it is that Davin still sees Michael Donnellan as a threat to his position. It is not as crazy as it seems, Eamon thinks. He knows how insecure he felt on the Army Council: the politics, the shifting alliances. Davin, for all his years as a member and Chief of Staff, is as wary of a fall as anybody else is. Eamon remembers how the closeness between Ignatius Davin and Michael Donnellan disintegrated into warfare as Davin became convinced that Donnellan was a British informer. Eamon has his doubts about it, he wonders if it is true. He knows how Iggy Davin sets his mind on something and once he has, he is difficult to shift. He also knows Michael Donnellan from his time in London and during the reconnaissance trips to the UK. He never had any suspicion about him, but then that would be part of Donnellan's skill at concealment. And he has never worked out how Hugh got away.
        'If they aren't stopped,' he says to Mary, 'I can see the damage that will come. If Donnellan is pulling the strings, with O'Neill and Griffin doing the legwork, they are a threat.'
        'What does he want you to do?'
        'Help stop them. If they aren't stopped, they have the means to destabilise the Good Friday Agreement. They will bring it all down in order to continue sniping away at the Brits for years to come in the hope they will eventually get tired and withdraw. We know that is pointless now. We can't win by force. The Brits can't defeat us either. So if we believe we can succeed by the ballot box, we can't allow anything to stop it.'
        Mary speeds up her walk. 'I know.'
        Eamon, who is out of breath, struggles to keep pace with her, and takes that as her assent.

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