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CHAPTER 17 — THE LONG DRIVE BACK

U.C
last update Veröffentlichungsdatum: 09.09.2026 13:36:30

UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE

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EVELYN

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The rain had stopped by the time they left Margaret's cottage, but the sky still hung low and grey, heavy with the promise of another storm.

Luca drove in silence, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the gearstick. Evelyn sat beside him, her head turned toward the window, watching the bare trees and stone walls blur past. Margaret's words were still echoing in her skull, bouncing around like stones thrown into an empty room.

A syndicate. Very old.
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  • Until the Final Whistle   CHAPTER 40 — THE NAME IN HER HANDS

    UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE---EVELYN---We didn't leave the training ground right away.Luca guided me to the media room because it was the nearest door and it locked from the inside, and I sat down in the chair behind my own desk and stared at the piece of paper in my hands until the words started to swim.Victor Hale.I said it in my head a dozen times, trying to make it fit into the empty space where a face should have been. Nothing came. No image. No voice. No smell. Just a name, and the knowledge that it belonged to a man who was still walking around this city, still working for the same people who had spent the last month trying to destroy us."Say something," Luca said quietly from the doorway."I don't know what to say.""Then start with what you're feeling."I looked up at him. He was leaning against the frame with his arms crossed, but his shoulders were tight, and there was a carefulness in his expression that I hadn't seen since the earliest days after my return. He was wai

  • Until the Final Whistle   CHAPTER 39 — THE MEETING AT THE TRAINING GROUND

    UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE---EVELYN---We arrived at the training ground at ten minutes to three, and the place was almost empty.The news had done its work. The car park held only a handful of vehicles. The security guards at the gate looked tense and distracted, checking our IDs twice before letting us through. The press that had been camped outside for most of the morning had thinned to a small huddle of photographers at the far end of the access road, too far away to bother anyone inside.Luca parked in the corner of the car park, away from the cameras, and killed the engine. Neither of us moved for a moment. Through the windscreen I could see the pitch, green and empty under the grey sky, and beyond it the low brick building that housed the changing rooms and the media suite and everything else that had become part of my life over the last few weeks."Where does he want to meet you?" Luca asked."He just said the training ground.""That's not helpful.""I know."We got out of the

  • Until the Final Whistle   CHAPTER 38 — THE RETURN

    UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE---EVELYN---The story broke at six o'clock on Friday morning, and by seven the whole city knew.I was still in bed when my phone started buzzing on the nightstand, a low insistent hum that pulled me out of a dream I couldn't remember. Luca was already awake beside me, propped against the headboard with his own phone in his hand, and the expression on his face told me everything I needed to know before he said a single word."It's out," he said quietly. "Front page. Everywhere."I sat up and reached for my phone. The Telegraph. A photograph of Alistair Kane above the fold, silver-haired and silver-suited, his name in letters large enough to read from across the room. The headline was four words long and devastating. The Man Who Owns Football. Beneath it, the recording I had made two nights ago was quoted in full, along with Webb's evidence, the shell companies, the fixed fixtures, the journalist who had been dealt with. It was all there. Every piece we had sp

  • Until the Final Whistle   CHAPTER 37 — THE WALK OUT

    UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE---EVELYN---I didn't turn around.That was the only thought in my head as I stood there with my hand on the trolley and my heart slamming against my ribs. Don't turn around. Don't react. Don't give him the satisfaction.The room had gone completely silent. Eleven men watching me. One man smiling. The recording device inside my collar was still running, and every second I stayed in this room was a second of evidence, but it was also a second closer to being caught."Of course, sir," I said, keeping my voice low and flat the way a catering worker would speak to a man like Alistair Kane. "Is there anything else?""No," Kane said. "You may go."I pushed the trolley through the door and closed it behind me with a soft click, and the moment the latch caught I let out a breath I hadn't realised I had been holding. My legs felt weak. My hands were steady only because I refused to let them shake. The corridor stretched in front of me, dim and narrow, and somewhere be

  • Until the Final Whistle   CHAPTER 36 — INSIDE THE ROOM

    UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE---EVELYN---The van pulled up behind the private members' club at ten minutes to seven, and Sarah killed the engine without a word.We sat in the dark for a moment, listening to the city breathe around us. The club backed onto a narrow service lane lined with bins and delivery crates, and the only light came from a single bulb above the kitchen door. A small camera sat mounted in the corner, its red light blinking steadily."Camera loops start at seven," Sarah said quietly. "Webb's contact set it up. You have exactly forty minutes from the moment you step through that door before it resets and anyone watching the feed sees you on it.""I know.""Evelyn." Sarah turned in her seat, her face half in shadow. "If anything goes wrong in there, you walk out. No heroics. No trying to get one more photograph. You walk out and we find another way."I nodded. I didn't trust myself to speak.I pulled the cap lower over my forehead and got out of the van, and the cold ai

  • Until the Final Whistle   CHAPTER 35 — THE UNIFORM

    UNTIL THE FINAL WHISTLE---EVELYN---The week that followed was the longest of my life.Monday and Tuesday passed in a blur of preparation. Webb sent over the access codes and the delivery schedule. Sarah sourced a catering uniform from a supplier who asked no questions. Luca spent his evenings with me at the cottage, going over every detail of the plan until I could recite it in my sleep. The back entrance through the kitchen. The service corridor behind the bar. The meeting room on the second floor. The forty minute window between the delivery arrival and the scheduled collection.On Wednesday morning, the day before the operation, I went into the club as usual and tried to pretend I was normal.The training ground was quiet. The squad was in the middle of a light session ahead of Saturday's match, and the media team had the day to finalise the derby coverage. I sat at my desk in the media room and reviewed footage for three hours without really seeing any of it, my attention spli

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