Our man in Camelot

sadly. 'Because, you see, we're not quite caught yet. You are—the CIA is—but we can still survive by throwing you to the wolves. And the fact that we haven't done so yet is the greatest proof I can give you that blood is still thicker than water.' 'But—it wouldn't be true.'

'Truth is what we can prove—and in this case what we dare to try and prove. But as it is you don't even have to be proved guilty—you just have to be thought guilty, and that'll be enough.'

Shirley looked at Mosby. 'There has to be another way—there has to be a weakness in their operation.'

'There is,' said Frances Fitzgibbon. 'There's still one weakness left.'

'What is it?' said Shirley.

'Billy Bullitt.'

They stared at her.

'Why is he a weakness?' said Mosby.

'Because he can still change his mind. He can still withdraw the article—and everything they've done hinges on that. If he says 'publish' they've got everything. But if he says 'don't publish' they've got nothing.'

Shirley looked around her. 'Why, then you've got to make him change his mind.'

'Do you think we haven't tried?' said Roskill. 'Do you think we haven't begged him—just to hold off for a week? Sir Frederick practically went down on his knees. And all the old blighter said was he was Anthony Price - Our man in camelot

sorry to see that MI5 was working hand in glove with the CIA, against the national interest.'

'But it isn't against the national interest. Why—David said—'

'That's just David,' said Frances. 'Billy Bullitt says he understands if the Americans were thrown out of Britain things would be rough.'

'More than rough, by God!'

'And more than rough,' the little face lifted. 'But he says it could be the making of us, having to stand on our own feet. Even being forced to lead Western Europe, which he thinks we can. He says we've been alone before— and not just in 1940. He says we were alone long before that, when the Romans left us to the Anglo-Saxons in King Arthur's time. And then we damn nearly won—we would have won if we hadn't thrown away Badon Hill.'

Gildas.

And more than Gildas—Arthur himself. Both lined up in an obstinate old fighter's imagination against giving in to reason.

Bullitt would never believe them, no matter what evidence they brought him, because he didn't want to believe them.

It was a question of forcing his countrymen to regain their honour by standing alone, as they had once stood, in the hope that this time they wouldn't fail.

Not Gildas. Just Arthur.

Rex quondam rexque juturus—that wasn't a dream to Billy Bullitt, it was a promise.

'How is he a weakness, then?' Mosby couldn't keep the despair out of his voice. 'He'll never give in—

not even if we threatened to kill him if he didn't.'

'But the Russians can't be sure of that,' said Frances. 'They're reckoning on it, but they can't be sure.'

'Well, they'd be better off if he was dead, then,' said Mosby. 'That way, with how he's got it fixed, nothing could stop the story breaking—'fact, it's a wonder they haven't knocked him off already.'

'Perhaps they don't know he's given the story to the Press,' said Shirley.

'Oh, they know all right.' Audley shook his head as he spoke. 'Our information is that Fleet Street is already buzzing with the big scandal one of the Sundays has got itself. They even know it has something to do with archaeology.'

'How's that?'

'Because the word is that the fee is going to Rescue— ?20,000 the rumour is. Which with Fleet Street the way it is, is big money. So—big scandal… Oh, they know sure enough.'

'Does he realise he's in danger?'

Audley smiled grimly. 'Of course he does. He doesn't underrate the ability of the CIA to trace Major Davies back to him—I told you, he was just waiting for you to turn up on his doorstep. That's why he made his mini- statement to us: he wanted to get the record straight before it happened.'

'Before—' Mosby frowned, '—before what happened?'

'Before he gave you the opportunity to complete your wicked crime. Part of the deal he's made with the newspaper is that he gives them a filmed interview they can sell to television—a joint BBC-ITV offer, they have to make. They've filmed him in his library already and he's taping a commentary for the location shots at this very moment.'

'Location shots?'

'That's right. At 10.00 a.m. tomorrow morning Billy Bullitt will be striding up Liddington Hill in Anthony Price - Our man in camelot

Wiltshire—in his famous red shirt and combat hat—to tell the world where he thought King Arthur's greatest battle was fought, and why. And why he now knows he was wrong. And at 3.00 p.m.—