Jarvis took up the suggestion and slammed the bathroom door before throwing himself down on the floor to join the others. There was silence.
'Maybe they decided not to do it?' said Kathleen as the seconds ticked by.
Avedissian was busily trying to stem the flow of blood from the child's neck at floor level. Kathleen was still holding on to him, murmuring reassurance despite the fact that the child was unconscious.
'I don't think this thing is going to blow,' said Jarvis as the seconds became minutes. 'I'm going to take a look.'
'Be careful!' urged Kathleen.
'We can't just leave it there,' said Jarvis by way of explanation.
'How is he?' asked Kathleen, turning her attention back to the boy.
'All right at the moment,' replied Avedissian. The blood loss wasn't too bad but he may go into shock.'
Jarvis returned from the bathroom holding something in his hand. He tossed it a few inches into the air and caught it again. 'It's a button,' he said quietly. 'It's a silver button. Nothing more.' He sank down into a chair as his legs threatened to become too weak to support him.
Avedissian finished dressing the wound in the boy's neck as best he could then noticed that his own hands were shaking. He got up unsteadily and went to the bathroom to lean over the sink. His stomach turned over but he could not vomit. Instead his breathing became spasmodic and irregular as he re-lived the past thirty minutes. Kathleen came in and touched him gently on the shoulder. 'It's all over,' she murmured. 'You did the right thing.'
Jarvis opened the bottle of whiskey that Reagan had used to effect entry to the room and poured out three large measures. Avedissian gulped his own down and took comfort from the fire in his throat. 'Did you know?' he croaked accusingly at Jarvis.
'Know what?' asked Jarvis.
‘That the child was not who Bryant said he was?'
'What?' exclaimed Jarvis with genuine surprise. 'What the hell do you mean?'
Avedissian looked at the boy and said, 'This boy is no royal child, he's a deaf mute.'
Jarvis and Kathleen stared wide-eyed at Avedissian. 'I don't understand,’ said Kathleen. 'Of course he's the royal child. He's just lost his voice through shock. That's what the kidnapper said.'
Jarvis nodded his agreement. 'Take a look,’ he said. 'See for yourself.'
'I've never met the boy or his family,’ said Avedissian. 'Have you?'
'No,’ admitted Jarvis. 'But I've seen photographs, TV reports, newsreels.'
'It's not enough,’ said Avedissian. 'Many young children look the same when you know them superficially. You have to know them personally before particular characteristics become memorable. I'm a paediatrician, I know children. I know how they behave and I am telling you that this child has not suffered a temporary loss of speech. He has all the signs of being a deaf mute.'
'Are you saying that the kidnappers switched the child?' asked Kathleen.
Avedissian shook his head slowly and said, There are no kidnappers. There never were. It was a con. Bryant set it up.'
'But why?'
Twenty-five million dollars?' suggested Avedissian.
'And the IRA?'
'Judging by what we heard, they must have known all along that it was a con. They played along for the money too. You must be able to do a lot of damage when you're given twenty-five million at the one time.’
'Especially if your name is Kell,’ said Kathleen bitterly.
'So we are the only clowns in the circus,' said Jarvis.
'And him,’ said Avedissian, looking at the child whom Kathleen was cuddling and keeping warm. 'Just look what the bastards have done to him.'
'Well, neither of them got the money in the end,’ said Jarvis looking down at Roker's body.’ They killed him too soon.'
'What are we going to do?' asked Kathleen. 'We four seem to be the expendable ones in this game.'
'We'll have to get out of here!' said Jarvis. 'NORAID are going to start wondering why Roker, Shelby and the boy haven't turned up at the airport. In fact they're probably on their way here right now and, remember, they don't know that the boy was a trick! They don't know that it was the IRA who killed their men! They're going to think that the kidnappers tried some sort of double-cross and start hunting for them and the boy!'
'Maybe we should leave him,’ said Kathleen quietly. 'He might be properly taken care of.'
'He might not be,’ said Avedissian bitterly. 'It won't take long for them to discover that he's not who he's supposed to be and then what? How do they explain that away? Or maybe they don't. Maybe they just 'rid' themselves of the problem.'
'What do you suggest?' asked Jarvis.
'We take him with us. We take him home and start finding out where the hell he came from in the first place.'
'How?'
'By asking Bryant,’ said Avedissian through his teeth.
NINE
Jarvis searched Shelby’s body and removed his gun. He gave it to Avedissian saying, 'You'd better have this.' He then pulled the corpse away from the door and looked around until he had found the room key. 'We'll lock it behind us,’ he said. That should give us a little extra time before someone finds this mess.' He looked distastefully at the needle protruding from under Roker's fingernail then said, 'Let's go.'
'The hotel has a side-entrance,’ said Jarvis as they hurried along the corridor. 'It'll be safer. Use the stairs,’ he added as Avedissian stopped at the elevators.
Avedissian, carrying the boy, who was still unconscious, followed Jarvis through the swing-doors leading to the fire-escape stairs while Kathleen held them open for him. They met no one on the way down and Jarvis put away the gun he had been holding ready in his hand.
The side-entrance to the hotel was used solely as a goods entrance so there was no call for decor or furnishings in the passages leading to it. Open pipe work crowded the ceiling and plain, white-washed walls lined their route. The hum of ventilation machinery was loud in their ears but seemed to do little to dispel the smell of food from the oppressively warm air. The clangs of kitchen utensils and the sound of voices were somewhere near but no one crossed their path.
As they came to the unimposing little side-door they paused to catch their breath. Kathleen pulled the blanket back from the boy's face and looked at him. 'Poor little mite,’ she said. 'How could they do it?'
The question had been rhetorical but it triggered off an idea in Avedissian's head. He suddenly bundled the boy into Kathleen's arms and said, 'I've got to go back! I won't be long.' He was gone before either Kathleen or Jarvis had had a chance to protest.
Avedissian climbed the stairs two at a time and was breathing hard by the time he reached Jarvis's floor and started running along the corridor. He tried the room door and found it locked; Jarvis still had the key. He drew back to the opposite side of the corridor and took a run at the door, crashing into it with his left shoulder. There was a splintering sound but the lock still held. It took two more attempts before the door flew back on its hinges and crashed open against the wall.
Avedissian could hear doors opening as people came out to investigate the commotion but there was no time to concern himself with that. He was only going to be a few seconds. He collected what he had come for and ran back along the corridor, brushing clumsily past a fat lady in dressing-gown and curlers who snorted her disapproval.
'What on earth did you go back for?' asked Kathleen when Avedissian re-appeared.
'The boy's future,' gasped Avedissian, still out of breath. 'Let's get out of here. I created a bit of a stir up there.'
