'I will not tolerate this at my table! You will behave as a German
woman should or-' At that moment Pieter Smuts marched into the dining
room with Jiirgen Luhr on his heels. 'Aircraft approaching the house,
sir,' he announced. 'fwo blips, so far. They're at the edge of the
Kruger Park now.'
'What type of aircraft, Pieter?'
Smuts smiled coldly. 'No radio contact, no IFF, but from their speed I
would guess helicopters.'
Horn sighed deeply. '@ the bunkers manned?'
'Yes, sir.' Smuts's face was taut. 'Everyone's in place.'
'And Lord Granville?'
The Afrikaner shook his head. 'I'm not sure where he is.'
While the men spoke, Ilse slid her right arm off of the table, taking
her silver dinner fork and salad fork with it.
'Take Frau Apfel to her room,' said Horn. 'Then get to the tower.
I'll be in my study.'
'But, sir, with Granville loose-' Horn silenced the Afrikaner by ringing
a hand bell that summoned Linah. 'To the tower, Pieter,' he commanded.
'I am in no danger.'
'Bring the girl,' Smuts told Luhr, and hurried out.
'Frau Apfel?' Luhr motioned for Ilse to stand. He forced himself to
smile. As soon as Linah had wheeled Horn Out Of the dining room,
however, he snatched Ilse up by the arm and dragged her into the hall.
'Lock her in!' Smuts called from up the corridor. 'Then meet me at the
reception hall elevator!'
When Ilse and Luhr reached the bedroom door, she reached into her pocket
and closed her hand around one of the forks. She thought of driving it
into Luhr's neck, but she did not. Better to let Stern make a move if
he thought the time was right.
Stern didn't get the chance. Luhr turned the knob quickly and kicked
open the door, knocking, the Israeli backward onto the floor.
He laughed, then shoved Ilse inside and jerked the door shut.
Ilse pulled the silver forks from her pocket and tossed them to Stern.
'Get us out of here!' she snapped. 'Now!'
When the elevator door opened in the domed observatory tower, Jiirgen
Luhr stepped into a room unlike any he had ever seen. He had once been
admitted to the control tower of Frankfurt International Airport, but
even that see primitive compared to this futuristic command post.
Computer screens, satellite receivers, amplifiers, massive banks of
switches, closed-circuit television monitors, and countless other pieces
of high-tech equipment hung from the ceiling and rose from the carpeted
floor. An eerie green glow bathed the circular room, silhouetting three
men dressed in khaki who ceaselessly monitored the various surveillance
consoles.
One man made way for Smuts, who took a seat before a phosphorescent
radar screen.
'Who is in the helicopters?' Luhr asked.
Smuts smiled thinly. 'I'm not sure, but you can bet they're friends of
Lord Granville, our pet English nobleman.
You see those switches there? The red ones?'
'Here?' asked Luhr, reaching.
'Don't touch them! Christ! Look at the markings. North, East, South,
West. When I call a direction, pull the first switch for that heading.
When I call it again, pull the second. Got it?'
Luhr nodded. 'What do they do?'
'You'll find out soon enough.'
Taking a last look at the radar screen, Smuts moved to the center of the
room, ascended a short ladder, 'and climbed into the strangest
contraption Luhr had ever seen. A monstrosity of steel tubing, pedals,
gears, and hydraulic lines, it looked like something stripped from the
belly of a World War Two vintage bomber. Protruding from this strange
machine were six long narrow metal tubes joined at the center and
extending to within an inch of the dome's wall. Suddenly, Luhr realized
what he was looking at: a Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon. He had seen them
many times in Germany, jutting from the stubby snouts of American A-IO
tank-killing warplanes.
'Hit the blue switch,' Smuts ordered.
Luhr obeyed, and watched in wonder as a narrow oblong section of the
domed ceiling receded into a hidden slot in the wall. Smuts touched a
button; the barrels of the Vulcan gun moved forward through the opening
like the barrel of a telescope. Now the gun could be traversed on a
vertical axis.
'Hit the next switch down.' Luhr gasped as the middle four feet of the
circular wall sank into the floor with . a deep hum. Through the
bulletresistant polycarbonate glass that now served as the wall, Luhr
could see a 360-degree panorama of the grounds surrounding Horn House.
The sky was heav and nearly black with impending rain. Four hundred
meters to the north, Horn's Leadet and helicopter sat like toys in the
fast-fading light.
'Next,' said Smuts.
Luhr hit the final blue switch, immersing the room in near-total
darkness. Only the luminous green radar screens competed with the gray
light outside the turret. Smuts pulled down a leather harness and
buckled it across his chest. Then he grasped two elongated tubes and
positioned them directly over his eyes. Luhr realized they were laser
targeting goggles.
'Sit down and strap yourself in,' Smuts ordered.
'Why?ll Scowling, Smuts jabbed a foot pedal. Instantly the turret began
to rotate, throwing Luhr to the floor.
'Don't ever question my orders, Lieutenant.'
Luhr scrambled to his feet and buckled himself into the chair. On the
radar screen to his left, two tiny blips crossed the line indicating the
western edge of the Kruger National Park, then turned southwest toward
an H marked on the screen in grease pencil.
'Fifteen kilometers and closing,' announced a khaki-clad technician.
'Approach speed 110 knots.'
Luhr watched the fuzzy green specks pass slightly to the north of the H,
then veer left and bore straight in. 'Who are they?' he asked, unable
to suppress his apprehension.
