The Last Coil - Special Branch - The Irish Files, #10

Commander O'Donnell attends a quiet funeral for the the girl he loved: Saoirse. No IRA paramilitary salute for her burial – in their eyes she was a traitor to the cause. By the graveside he wonders who pulled the trigger, Toombs would never do the dirty work as an IRS commander – so who did, cowedly and from behind shoot her in the back of the neck? So, many questions, so few answers, but that is going to change. Toombs now in Killarney prison is waiting transfer to a closed Belfast Court where he will be tried incognito. Often these trails are hidden from the public, especially where undercover officers are giving evidence. Toombs file was thick – four years of pursuance and failure to finally having him incarcerated. Toombs sits in a solitary cell but quietly smiles to himself knowing he will never face trial. IRA gunmen free Toombs in a bloody shoot-out in a Dublin Street. O'Connell once again has to be Paddy Coil and enter the thick of the race too find his quarry. One of the IRA men survives the shoot out and is in the local police cell. Two men posing as detectives enter the station and arrange to interview him – shots are fired and the IRA man is dead, The two bogus detectives are killed in a hail of bullets leaving the station. Amongst the dead IRA men's belongings is a single train ticket and key to a station locker. O'Donnell collects the contents of the locker, a gun, money and a ticket – now as Paddy Coil he boards the train to an unknown rendezvous with danger. In the final showdown shots are exchanged with Toombs, but both run out of ammunition and must face each other head on in an explosive violent fight leaving Toombs dead and Commander O'Connell severely injured. Waking up in hospital he sees his boss, Control, smiling down at him. "Good news Commander – you are to receive an OBE – but you can never tell anyone."