backing him up, and a driver to get them in close and out quickly. For though they might expect the target to be on his guard after the Old General’s death, they would not—
But then, equally, what did Michael Kelly expect? Or ... if Audley had warned him of KGB practices . . . why was he practising for a dummy1
single intruder? Why—unless Audley was right, and he already knew that it would be just that—just Aloysius Kelly—
“Captain?”
Benedikt blinked quickly, aware too late that he had been staring the poor girl out of countenance. “Forgive me, Fraulein! I was thinking . . . you are being very careful. And that is good: you are right to be very careful.” He smiled.
“Yes.” She did not find his smile reassuring, but she bore up bravely. “David said not to relax for a moment. And not to trust anyone we don’t know.”
“Including me?” Mother would not approve of her—of what she was doing. But Papa’s attitude would be more relaxed.
“Oh no! David said . . .” She trailed off. “Is what we are doing so very wrong, Captain Schneider?”
“Wrong?” He played for time.
“We’re not going to kill anyone. If we can help it.”
“You were going to kill someone—at first—weren’t you?” He watched her. “Or Mr Kelly was, anyway.”
She bit her lip. “Yes. That would have been wrong—David made us see that. But . . . these people . . . who do things like this—
killing Grandfather . . .”
“It was Mr Kelly they were after, though—yes?”
“That makes it worse. Killing Grandfather—or it might have been anyone passing by—just as though he didn’t matter one way or the other ... as though he was
“Them?” The phenomenon of the worm turning—and turning into a cobra as it turned—was an old and interesting one. But he had no time for it today. “And who is ‘them’, Fraulein?”
“Whoever comes. It doesn’t matter.”
“But only Mr Kelly knows. Because only Mr Kelly can summon them. Does that not worry you?”
“Why should it worry us?”
“For two reasons, Fraulein. Do you not want to know why they want him dead? Suppose Mr Kelly is a
Her chin came up. “Michael served with Grandfather. If he was good enough for Grandfather, he’s good enough for us.” She looked at him proudly. “You never met Grandfather, so you can’t understand. But that’s the way it is.”
Amazing! But also wonderful in its ancient meaning: full of wonder
—the faith out of which great good and great evil came, according to its inspiration, from Jesus Christ to Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler.
“So—”
“Michael would have died for Grandfather.” She cut him off. “You should have seen him after . . . after the bomb. He could never have pretended that—the way he was . . . And he could have run away afterwards. But he didn’t, Captain Schneider.”
“No. He didn’t.” She was beautiful, thought Benedikt.
dummy1
“And he may still die for him, Captain Schneider. Because he’s the target here—no one else is in danger.”
He nodded. “Yes. But he is also an old soldier. So are you sure he will not prefer to kill for your Grandfather still?”
She smiled suddenly. “Because he has Grandfather’s old gun?
Captain ... he doesn’t know it, but that gun has no firing pin. It wouldn’t hurt a baby.” The smile became almost tender. “We know Michael. . . That was the only part of him we didn’t trust—
that’s why I gave him the gun, you see. Just in case.”
God in heaven! thought Benedikt. And that was a complication if things went wrong, too.
“But don’t you dare tell him that, though,” she admonished him.
“The moment he sends off for them, to let them know he’s here, we shalln’t let him out of our sight for a moment—David’s got it all worked out—that was why David was so angry when he went out to see you last night.... But. . . you go and talk to him—ask him about Grandfather ... I must go and see about supper —”
The rooms passed him by, dreamlike . . . Gunner Kelly—
At the foot of the spiral staircase in the West Tower he met Blackie Nabb coming down, with a bearded young man at his back.
