'Do you think he's one of the kidnappers?' asked Avedissian.
Jarvis shook his head and said, 'No, or they would have done something by now. They're both waiting for something or someone. He's either NORAID or another IRA man.'
A roar from the crowd greeted the first home run of the game and Innes was momentarily lost from view as people leapt to their feet to applaud. As they settled Avedissian leaned towards Jarvis and whispered, 'Innes is not looking at the game!'
'What do you mean?'
'He's watching the crowd on the other side of the stadium.'
Jarvis looked at Innes and traced his line of sight. He could now see what Avedissian meant. Innes was looking at a section of the crowd on a lower tier. Jarvis raised his own glasses and tried to emulate the angle of Innes's binoculars. He found the empty seats. 'They are waiting for someone to arrive on the other side,’ he said to Avedissian. Take a look at row 'L'.'
Avedissian looked, then passed on the binoculars to Kathleen.
Jarvis asked Kathleen to look at the crowd in the area of the empty seats to see if there were any faces there that she recognised. She looked but saw no one familiar.
'Keep looking!' said Jarvis, sounding anxious.
'Do you think they might try a snatch if the kidnappers bring in the boy?' asked Avedissian.
'It's possible,' replied Jarvis. 'It depends on how far in advance Innes was told where the boy would be and whether he or his NORAID cronies have had time to set up something across there.'
'You said the kidnappers were clever,' said Avedissian.
'That's what puzzles me,' replied Jarvis. 'This would be a silly mistake.'
‘There's someone coming into the empty seats,' said Kathleen. She handed back the glasses to Jarvis.
Jarvis saw the figure of a man wearing a dark blue lumber-jacket and a baseball cap edge his way along the row and sit down. He was alone. 'I don't understand it,' said Jarvis, checking anxiously on Innes and finding that he was still looking across to the same place. There's no sign of the boy.'
Avedissian took a look at the man in the lumber-jacket. He had taken a packet of peanuts from his pocket and appeared to be watching the game intently. Avedissian looked at the man's cap then looked again for it did not carry the logo of either of the teams that were playing. It had a plain blue shield on it with the cipher, F-B9. The cap!' he whispered urgently to Jarvis. 'Look at his cap!'
Jarvis looked and understood immediately. He swung the glasses round to find section 'F' in the stadium and homed in on seat B9. There, sitting beside a woman wearing dark glasses, was a little boy. He was wrapped up warmly and seemed to be very tired. In his lapel he wore a small enamel badge with a Union Jack on it.
'Jesus wept,' muttered Jarvis. He passed the glasses along the line.
Avedissian heard Kathleen draw in her breath sharply. 'What's the matter?' he asked anxiously.
There's a man looking at us!' she replied.
Jarvis looked and saw what had alarmed Kathleen. A man wearing a black overcoat and sitting three rows behind the woman and the boy appeared to be looking directly back at him through field glasses. His first impulse was to tear his own glasses away from his eyes but then he realised that the man was not looking at him at all. He was watching Innes. He was looking to see if Innes had noticed the seat code on the baseball cap… and he had not.
'We've got time!' Jarvis whispered urgently to Avedissian.
'What do you mean?'
They will have to keep the boy there until Innes tumbles to the code on the hat. Maybe we can get to him before that happens!'
'Snatch him back ourselves, you mean?' said Avedissian, filled with apprehension.
'Only if we get a real chance,’ replied Jarvis. 'We can't take any risks with the boy's safety. But we can get round there and take a look at the situation.'
Avedissian agreed.
'For God's sake, be careful!' urged Kathleen.
'We'll leave our seats one at a time,’ whispered Jarvis. 'Make as if you are going out for a beer. We don't want to alarm our friends across the way.'
Avedissian waited until Jarvis had been gone for a few moments before getting to his feet casually and starting to edge his way along the row. As he got to the end of the row he looked back at Kathleen and smiled. 'Be careful,’ she mouthed.
Avedissian found Jarvis waiting for him in the gallery behind the tier. Together they ran along it as far as they could before stopping when they came to a blank wall. There was a stairway beside it. They took the steps two at a time and descended to the tier below to look for the way ahead but there did not seem to be any. This section of the stadium appeared to be completely isolated from the next at all levels by a concrete partition.
'There's a door!' said Avedissian, pointing to a blue door set in the wall near the back edge of the gallery. They ran over to it but only to find that it was locked. Jarvis cursed and a voice behind them asked, 'What are you looking for, buddy?'
They turned to find a security man standing there.
'We've just seen an old army buddy of ours. We're trying to get to him,’ replied Jarvis with what Avedissian thought was admirable presence of mind. What was more, Jarvis had said it in a convincing American accent. Avedissian thought he understood why Jarvis had been chosen for the job.
'You'll have to go down and round the outside,’ said the guard. 'Just explain to the guy on the gate and he'll let you through if you show him your tickets.'
'Oh come on, man, that'll take forever,’ pleaded Jarvis.
The guard hesitated and rubbed his chin while Jarvis smiled disarmingly at him and then gave in. He unhooked a bunch of keys from his belt and found the one for the blue door. 'Don't you ever say I did this,’ he called after them as they passed through to the next section.
Jarvis ran up to the edge of the gallery and put the glasses to his eyes. Avedissian followed. Both men were breathing heavily. 'Are they still there?' asked Avedissian anxiously.
There was a pause then Jarvis replied. 'Still there. We can do it!'
They continued their run along the second gallery, swerving to avoid a fat woman coming towards them with a glass of beer in either hand and carrying several packets of popcorn between her teeth. She turned to protest but could say nothing for fear of losing the bags.
They made good progress, albeit in slalom style, as they weaved in and out to avoid cross traffic moving to and from the toilets and food stands. There had been no barrier between the last two sections; Jarvis prayed that there would be none between them and the final one where the boy was. His heart sank as he saw the concrete divide loom up.
'There must be a door in this one too,’ reasoned Avedissian. 'You check one level up. I'll go one down.’ He raced down the stairs to find another unbroken wall and cursed his luck before 'turning on his heel to climb back up again. He reached the level where Jarvis was and saw that Jarvis had found a door. He was trying to budge it with his shoulder.
Avedissian could see that Jarvis was attracting some attention so he hung back. He saw Jarvis put his foot to the lock in exasperation then someone said loudly, This guy's got a problem.' Jarvis threw himself against the door again but only succeeded in drawing a bigger audience. 'Somebody should call a cop,’ suggested a fat man.
The mention of police made Jarvis abandon his attack on the door and run back to the gallery where he found Avedissian. 'No luck,’ he said as they raced back down the stairs.
'I saw,’ replied Avedissian. 'We'll have to go round the outside after all.'
'There's no time,’ insisted Jarvis. 'There has to be another way.' He hurried to the back wall of the stadium and looked over. There, two metres below, projecting from the outside wall, he saw a concrete ledge. It was narrow but it was a possibility. He said so to Avedissian.
Avedissian looked over and felt unwell. At this level they were still thirty metres above the ground. One slip and they would be dead. 'I don't know…'
'We can do it!' said Jarvis, deciding the issue by getting on top of the wall and lowering himself out on to the ledge. With a quick look behind him to ensure that no one was watching from the stairs, Avedissian followed.
Both men stood on the ledge, their bodies spread-eagled against the smooth face of the stadium wall. 'All
