could not sit comfortably on their arses watching Dallas and pretending that they are not the sort of people who could ever do what I do. It's called hypocrisy, Doctor, but, being in the profession you're in, there's no need to tell you that, or are you going to pretend that all you nice, middle-class fellows really are interested in athlete's foot and lorry drivers' piles?'
'You need psychiatric help, Bryant. You're sick.'
'If we're going to start talking about psychiatry, Doctor, then you are really batting on my wicket.’
'Don't you care about anything, Bryant?'
'Winning, Doctor. I care about winning.'
'Just like Kell.'
'What do you mean?'
'Kell knew all along that you were trying to set him up. He's been planning to pay you back and I think I know how.'
'Goon.'
'He is going to hit the royal birthday party tomorrow.'
'I suppose he wrote and told you all this,' sneered Bryant.
Avedissian told him how he and Kathleen had come to be captured by Kell after attempting to free her brother.
'Her brother!' exclaimed Bryant. 'You're resurrecting her brother? Really, Doctor, this is too much. I appreciate how badly you would like to play the Lone Ranger and hunt me down but surely you don't expect me to believe all this twaddle?'
'It's true, I swear it. The O'Neills are here with me in London. I suggest we meet and…'
'Oh come on, this is Boy Scout stuff. If you will take my advice, Doctor, cash in your chips while you're ahead. Find a nice little job somewhere and try to make the best of things.'
'Until you find me?'
'I no longer have any interest in you, Doctor. You can't hurt me. Who would believe the ramblings of a struck-off doctor sliding towards alcoholism? You wouldn't even make an amusing pub bore with a story like yours.'
Avedissian controlled himself and said as evenly as he could, 'What I have told you is true! Kell is already here in England. If you won't work with me and the O'Neills and you won't call off the party, then at least tighten security. Put more men in the field!'
'Security is already tight, Doctor. There is no possibility of an attack succeeding. The entire estate will be cordoned off. You couldn't get a tank through even if you knew where the place was.'
Avedissian thought he saw how he could convince Bryant to take him seriously. He said, 'Kell already knows where the party is being held.'
Bryant fell silent for a moment before saying quietly, 'I'm all ears.'
'It's to be in Valham,' announced Avedissian.
'Never heard of it,’ said Bryant.
'Then nearby.'
‘There is no place called Valham, or whatever it was, within a fifty-mile radius of this estate,' said Bryant finally.
Avedissian was utterly deflated. It had to be the party Kell was interested in, or was he letting his own arrogance blind him? Could there be another target? 'I don't know for certain that it's the party Kell is going to hit,' he conceded. 'Only that it's something very big.'
‘Take my advice, Doctor,' said Bryant. 'Quit while you're ahead.' The phone went dead.
'He didn't believe you?' asked Sarah Milek, although she already knew the answer.
Avedissian shook his head. 'Arrogant fool,' he muttered. He turned to Sarah Milek and asked, 'What does Valham mean to you?'
'Nothing.'
'I don't want to know any secrets. Just tell me if it seems like a valid target for Kell to be interested in.'
'I wasn't lying,' said Sarah Milek. 'I genuinely have never heard of it. But we can look it up if you like.' She brought down a book of road maps from the bookshelf and looked up the index before flicking through the pages. ‘There,' she announced. 'It's a village in Norfolk.'
'Bryant said that it was nowhere near where the royal party is being held… Did he just say that to keep me away from there or was he telling the truth?'
Sarah Milek looked at him suspiciously.
'I am not trying to find out how to get at Bryant, I promise you,' said Avedissian.
'Bryant wasn't lying. The party is not even in the same county.'
Avedissian felt a sense of hopelessness and of time running out. He asked Sarah Milek for a phone number so that he could make contact if he came up with anything else.
'You can have mine,' she replied. 'I can't give you Bryant's.'
Avedissian looked at his watch and made a face. Too late,' he murmured.
'For what?'
‘To rent a car.'
Sarah Milek considered for a moment before holding out her hand and dropping her car keys into Avedissian's palm.
'But you…'
'I can get a taxi. Bring it back when you've finished.'
Avedissian was taken aback. He stood there with a puzzled expression on his face while Sarah Milek walked away. She turned and said, 'Call it conscience.'
Avedissian returned to the flat and told Kathleen and her brother of his failure to convince Bryant of an imminent IRA strike.
'At least you warned him,' said Kathleen. 'Surely he'll tighten security anyway?'
'Maybe,' whispered Avedissian, pacing up and down in frustration. 'It's just that I can't get it out of my mind that it's the royal birthday party that Kell's going to hit.'
'Royal birthday party?'
Avedissian told them about the Blue Peter party and how it seemed to fit in with what Kell had said.
'I agree,' said O'Neill.
The trouble is that the party is to be nowhere near Valham, not even in the same county.'
'We found out that Valham is a village in Norfolk,' said Kathleen.
'Me too. Anything else?'
Kathleen shook her head and said, 'No, it seems to be a small village, nothing else.'
'So why would Kell keep a map of a Norfolk village?'
Silence fell on the room.
‘Time is running out. I think we should go there,' said Avedissian. 'Sarah Milek loaned me her car.'
'It's better than just sitting around,' said O'Neill.
'And there's always the chance that we might see the reason for Kell's interest as soon as we get there,' added Kathleen.
'When do we leave?'
'First light,’ said Avedissian, looking out the window at the rain that had started to fall.
They set off from the flat at five-thirty. The rain of the previous evening had passed and it was a beautifully clear morning with the air so still that the sound of milk bottles being delivered seemed uncommonly loud. They headed north on the M1 and made good time, sitting in the outside lane for most of the way until they reached Cambridge, where they stopped to snatch a quick breakfast. They then veered north-west into Norfolk.
The roads narrowed with the passing of the miles and the hedgerows grew ever more anxious to encroach upon their right of way.
'Are you sure this is the right road?' asked Kathleen, as they were forced to slow to a crawl on what seemed like little more than a farm track.
'It's about a mile and a half along here,' said O'Neill, his finger tracing their route on Kell's map.
'If you say so,' said Kathleen, unconvinced.
