The road south was full. Military trucks went north nose to tail, and ambulances came south with their lights on. At every junction soldiers in hi-vis waved civilians off and the emergency vehicles through. At Dunleer a woman with a child on her hip stood on the verge by a checkpoint, pointing south, while a soldier shook his head.
Finn sat beside James in the back of the truck and watched an ambulance go past the other way with its lights going.
He took his phone out. It was still open on the message from that morning, the one about Eamon. It had a reference number and a time, and the name of the undertaker in Cork.
He looked at it for a second, then locked the screen and put it in his pocket.
James did not ask.
---
They saw the smoke before they saw the town.
