The '44 Vintage

'It's the whole point.' Audley pounded his fist into his open palm.

'As soon as the major told us we were going south of the river—and with what little he told us about what we were doing—I knew exactly the sort of place we were heading for. Not the place itself, but the sort of place.'

'I don't get you,' said Winston.

'Because it was in the unoccupied zone—in Vichy France, not in the German territory,' said Audley.

'But—hell, Lieutenant, the krauts are everywhere.'

' But they weren't in 1940.'

'In 1940?' Boucard sat up straight. 'What has 1940 to do with all this?'

'Everything, sir.' Audley's voice had the same mixture of arrogance and eagerness that Butler remembered from his collision with Colonel Clinton back in the barn: this was exactly what his own CO

had meant by 'having too many brains for his own good' and not the wit to hide them.

'Look, sir—maman'—only the eagerness to prove how clever he was made the subaltern's arrogance endurable—'there's a story to this. I can't tell it all to you, but I can tell some of it.'

'You were always very kind, David,' said Madeleine. 'So do tell us.' Butler did a double-take on her, suddenly aware that the future Mrs. Butler had sharp claws.

'Eh?' Audley looked at the girl vaguely, and Butler decided to be grateful that he had no problem of childhood sweethearts to overcome; that push into the river Cher all those years ago had been deliberate, not accidental.

'Madeleine!' Madame said sharply. 'Go on, David.'

'Yes . . .' Audley grimaced at Madeleine. 'Yes—well, in 1940 we took something out of Paris—'

'We?' interrupted Madame.

Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage

'The British, maman. When everything was cracking up, we got this thing out—'

'This thing?'

'I don't know what it was—honestly. But it was very valuable—and we got it out in an ambulance. ... It was something worth stealing, it has to be—otherwise the major wouldn't'—Audley spread his hands—

'honestly, I don't know, maman. But it was British, and it was valuable—'

'You've been told it was British, and it was valuable—?'

'Hush!' snapped Boucard. 'Let the boy tell his story, au nom de Dieu!'

Audley gave Boucard a grateful glance. 'They got this far, somewhere. And then the ambulance broke down —'

'Ran out of gas,' murmured Winston.

'Maybe. But this far, anyway. And they hid it in a chateau somewhere.'

'In the country of chateaux?' said Boucard incredulously. 'David— in all France—here of all places . . .

Chambord and Chenonceaux, Blois and Amboise—Villandry and Azay—Usse and Loches . . . there are fifty chateaux within a morning's drive of here where I could hide anything you wish. Big chateaux and little chateaux— Cinq-Mars-la-Pile, perhaps. Or Montpoueon, down in the wash-house by the stream there. You have to be joking, my dear boy.'

'No, sir.'

'No? Well, if you are not joking then what are you saying?'

Audley leaned forward. 'Sir—I'm saying—if you hid something in— say Montpoucon ... or Varenne, in 1940 . . . could you get it out again in 1941—or '42, or '43? With half a dozen good men on a dark night?

Could you get it out? Christ! Of course you could! But what I'm looking for, don't you see, is a chateau you couldn't get it out of—until now.'

He looked around the table. 'All along—ever since the major ditched us—half of me has been telling me that we didn't stand a chance of getting him unless we could either catch up with him or at least pick up his trail. But the other half of me kept telling me that we didn't need to do either of those things, not if we could get to where he was going ahead of him.

'But then the first half of me reminded me that we didn't damn well know where he was going.

Price, Anthony - [David Audley 08] - The '44 Vintage

'But the second half wouldn't take that for an answer—'

The American tapped the table. 'But you don't know—you said so yourself, Lieutenant.'

'I don't know the name, Sergeant. But I know the—the specification. A chateau south of the Loire—

available in 1940—'

The light dawned on Butler. 'Occupied by the Germans, sir. The major said so when we were in the jeep together.'

'Exactly. That's the whole point—occupied by the Germans, although it was in the Vichy zone of unoccupied France. Or if it wasn't occupied by the Germans straight off it must have still been closed up tight as the Bank of England by 1941, otherwise we could have lifted the stuff out of there before now.

But occupied by the Germans now, anyway—'