in physical terms and the thought of yet another night of travelling on the run had brought her spirits to a low ebb. She had her arm round Harry but her head rested against the window and she gazed idly out at the night as they headed for the far edge of town.
Avedissian slowed as they came to a crossroads, and she idly took in the name of the bar on the corner, 'The Nitelite'. There was a man coming out of it. He was wearing a raincoat and looked, at once, strangely incongruous yet familiar. How ridiculous, she thought and then, as the man looked directly back at her, she screamed.
Avedissian was startled out of his wits and temporarily lost control of the wheel. 'What is it?' he demanded as he corrected the car.
'Innes!.. It's Innes!' said Kathleen, verging on hysteria.
'Where? What are you talking about?'
'Coming out of the bar! It was him! I saw him!'
Avedissian found Kathleen's fear infectious. 'Did he see you?' he snapped.
'He looked right at me!' replied Kathleen.
Avedissian put his foot down and turned the headlights to full beam. 'Of all the rotten luck,' he muttered, swinging the wheel over to the right to recover a rear wheel drift. The road was narrow and winding and the car was wide and softly sprung. On corners it behaved like a three-legged cow in a sand pit. He cursed again as its rear end slid away from him and Kathleen and the boy were flung across the car once more. 'Can you see anything behind us?' he gasped.
Kathleen had to strain to turn her head, for the effort involved in just combating the erratic motion of the car and holding on to Harry had used up what little energy she had. The fact that she was desperately afraid had done nothing to help matters and now she felt exhausted and distinctly woozy. She looked out of the back window at the blackness. 'No, nothing,’ she said. But, as she said it, she caught a momentary glimpse of a headlight beam somewhere behind them. She corrected herself and Avedissian pushed himself and the car even closer to their limit.
A wall loomed up at them out of the night and Avedissian hit the brakes and flung the wheel over in a last- ditch attempt to negotiate the bend. The front of the car refused to hold the line and they slid over the road and into the stonework. The impact crushed the near-side wing and deformed the wheel arch so that it was touching the tyre as he tried to drive on. A strong smell of burning rubber filled the car and Avedissian took his foot off the pedal. There was a bang as the tyre burst and the wheel started to run on its rim.
At the very last moment, as he was preparing to stop, he saw a farm track leading off to the left and swung the car off on to it. He limped up the track with all the lights off. The track terminated after thirty metres or so, outside a large barn. There seemed to be no other building near it. They were sitting in silence when they heard Innes's car roar past on the road.
'What do we do now?' asked Kathleen in a voice that suggested that she was barely in control of herself.
'Let's have a look at this place,’ replied Avedissian. He still had the gun he had taken from Reagan so that put him on equal terms with Innes if it came down to that. It was Kathleen and the boy who were the problem. If he could find somewhere for them to be safe, he would take his chances with the Tally Man.
There were two giant doors at the front of the barn and a smaller one at the side. Avedissian tried the small one and found it unlocked. He looked inside but could not see anything in the dark. 'Come inside,’ he said to Kathleen. He closed the door behind them and felt on the wall for a light switch. The barn turned out to be a garage for heavy farm machinery. Two combine harvesters sat side by side like sleeping giants.
Take Harry and get up into the cab of this one!' said Avedissian. He helped Kathleen mount the ladder and then pushed Harry up after her. 'Now keep well down!' he said. 'Whatever happens, keep down!' He returned to the small door and locked it from the inside. To get in, Innes would have to use the main doors, and that was exactly what he wanted. He memorised the position of the other harvester and then switched out the light to make his way to it in the blackness. He spoke to Kathleen as he felt his way up the ladder to the cab, trying to reassure her that things were going to be all right, but he got the feeling that he was fighting a losing battle. Kathleen sounded ill. She couldn't take much more.
Avedissian held the gun in readiness as he sat in the cab. When Innes opened the big doors in front of the harvesters he would be ready for him. He would be able to get a clear shot at him when he came through.
High above them the moon came out from behind some clouds. A pale shaft of moonlight came through a skylight on the barn roof and lit up the inside of the cabs with an eerie light. Avedissian looked at the instruments and pushed the gear-stick forward to give his knees more room.
'Are you all right?' he asked Kathleen.
'We're all right,’ replied Kathleen but she sounded on the verge of exhaustion.
‘Is Harry a problem?'
'We're holding each other,’ said Kathleen.
'Hold on tight.'
Avedissian ran the palm of his hand over the large starter button that protruded from the panel in front of him. It was pleasingly round and smooth to the touch, then, somewhere in the distance, he could hear the sound of a car. He checked the gun again and said to Kathleen, 'It won't be long. Remember, keep down.'
Avedissian heard the car slow and knew that Innes had found the turn-off. He heard the car reverse a little and then heard the sound of its wheels on the gravel. The Tally Man had arrived.
'I think I'm going to faint…' said Kathleen weakly in the darkness.
'You mustn't!' hissed Avedissian. 'For God's sake, hold on!'
Avedissian heard Innes try the side door. It rattled loudly. Then he heard the sound of the main doors being unbarred and his pulse rate rose. One of the huge doors swung open and Avedissian watched its edge like a hawk. His eyes were accustomed to the darkness and it was lighter outside. The moment Innes emerged from the shelter of the door he would fire and keep firing.
Innes had pinned the door fully open against the outside wall. Avedissian kept his gun trained on the corner of the entrance that he must come round. He was concentrating so hard that he had all but stopped breathing when, to his left, he heard the sound of a sigh and then a thud and knew that Kathleen had passed out.
Innes had heard the sound too. His voice broke the silence. 'Let's stop playing games,’ he said in a gentle but menacing Irish brogue. 'Just give me the tapes and we can all be on our way.'
It was a bargain that Avedissian would have been glad to make, even if the tapes had not been as useless as they now were, but one did not make bargains with people like Innes and live. He remained silent, still holding the gun trained on the edge of the doorway.
Suddenly he became aware of another noise to his left and, for a moment, he hoped it might be Kathleen coming round. But then, to his horror, he realised that it was Harry trying to climb down from the cab! Unable to hear or speak and left all alone with the unconscious Kathleen in the darkness the boy had been terrified and had left the cab to find someone.
Instinctively and uselessly, Avedissian shouted out a warning. A moment later he heard Harry lose his grip on the ladder and tumble to the ground and then had to watch in absolute agony as the child crawled away from the harvester towards the front door… and Innes. Innes grabbed him as he rounded the corner and it was all over. Avedissian put his hand to his head in anguish.
'I take it you would like the brat back alive?' asked Innes's voice from outside.
'Yes,’ said Avedissian.
‘Throw out the gun.’
Avedissian threw down the gun from the cab and Innes appeared, holding the child in front of his body. He switched on the barn lights and motioned with the gun in his hand that Avedissian should stand up. He then circled round cautiously to the other harvester and saw that Kathleen was slumped unconscious in the cab before returning his complete attention to Avedissian.
Avedissian could see the fear in Harry's eyes as he struggled in Innes's grasp but to no avail. ‘The tapes!' said Innes.
'If I give you the tapes, will you let us go?'
'Just give me the tapes,’ said Innes as if he were growing bored with the whole thing.
At that moment, Harry sank his teeth into Innes's hand. Innes cried out in pain and, raising the gun above his head, he brought it crashing down on the boy's skull with all the force he could muster.
