he would try to outwit them, given half a chance. At the moment he was in a state of deep shock; pale-faced, he couldn't keep his eyes off his wife who was sitting down, hands clasped in her lap.
^ 'What do you want?' Mrs Swan asked quietly. She had, Winter realised, recovered her self-possession. Even quicker than her husband, she had asked the key question. What do you want?
^ 'Your husband's job for a week.' To create a calmer atmosphere Winter himself sat down in one of the Scandinavian-style chairs as Goussin came in from the rear of the house. 'All clear at the back? Good. Now, Swan, you mean nothing to us dead or alive -and heroes make widows in this awful world we live in. I want you to phone Captain Mackay at the Westward Hotel in Anchorage. Tell him you're sick – that you've caught a bad dose of flu. Tell him you have found a replacement wireless operator from the Marconi pool who is on holiday in Palmer. He's visiting his sister who is married to an American. Kinnaird is the replacement's name – he's taking your place on the next trip the ^ Challenger ^ makes to San Francisco.'
^ 'What happens to us?' Swan asked. He was still pale but his voice was steady.
^ 'You'll be kept in a place about fifty miles from here under guard for a week. By that time the ^ Challenger ^ will have reached San Francisco. Then you will be freed.'
^ 'Yes, he will,' Winter interrupted sharply. 'Within sixty minutes he'll be leaving the Westward to go back to his ship. When he hears you're sick he'll be appalled – when you tell him you've found a replacement he'll be relieved, more than ready to accept Kinnaird on your say-so. Do you want me to repeat what you have to say to him?'
^ 'No,' Swan looked anxious and uncertain. 'What happens if I.. .' He glanced at his wife and stopped. He looked at LeCat who was standing behind his wife's chair. He had been going to say what happens if I refuse, then he decided he didn't want his wife to hear the answer.
^ 'Charlie…' Julie leaned forward, her clasped hands bloodless with tension. 'Do as he says.' She looked at Winter. 'The man behind me won't be staying with us, will he?'
^ 'No,' said Winter, his face expressionless. 'I do have some feelings…'
^ 'Go over by the window,' Winter told LeCat. He pointed his pistol at Swan while he spoke to Julie. 'Tell him, Mrs Swan, not to try and warn Mackay about what is happening – for the sake of everyone…'
^ 'You're sick,' Winter repeated, 'so you'll want to get off the phone. You've got to convince Mackay in as few words as possible that Kinnaird is all right, that you've known him in the past, that he'll find his papers in order – because he will…'
^ This man is a good wireless op.?' Swan asked unhappily. 'A ship's survival can depend on the wireless operator…'
^ 'He's absolutely competent and he did once work for the Marconi pool. Mackay will be in a spot,' Winter repeated. 'He sails at midnight and he'll be ready to be convinced.' Part of the problem, Winter had realised beforehand, would be to convince Swan that he could get away with the deception. He repeated his earlier warning. 'In case you've thought of some clever little phrasing to help Mackay catch on, remember we'll have both yourself and your wife for one week after you make that call.'
^ 'What ships has this Kinnaird been on? He's bound to ask me that…'
^ 'Ellesmere-Luckman Line,' Winter said promptly. 'He spent three years on the tanker ^ Maltese Cross, ^ two years aboard the ^ White Cross ^ before that. That was a few years ago but make it sound recent. They're on the Persian Gulf to West Coast run.'
^ 'I know.' Swan stared directly at Winter. 'What is Kinnaird going to do?'
^ 'A reasonable question,' Winter replied. 'We have to get a man into the States, a man already known to the American police. The safest way is to put him on a ship as a crewman and let him walk off at the other end. Kinnaird is not his real name, of course…'
^ 'Get on with it!' Winter checked his watch. 'Dial the Westward now. And make it work – for Julie's sake.'
^ It was less than five minutes since they had entered the house when Swan made the phone call: enough time for Winter to persuade Swan, not enough time for Swan to think too much. Winter wanted the call made while the wireless operator was still in a state of shock.
^ Swan handled the call to Mackay well. He even talked through his nose to fake an impression of flu. The call lasted less than three minutes. Swan put the phone down and turned to Winter. 'He swallowed it – hook, line and sinker…'
^ 'Excuse me…' Winter carried the phone across the room to a sideboard, stood with his back to Swan and dialled a number. 'Forrest here. Make the call. Now!' He broke the connection, dialled a fresh number. Again the phone at the other end was answered immediately. 'Forrest here. Get moving – it's all right…'
^ ^ gren would then wait for five minutes before he put in a call to Captain Mackay at the Westward. The second call had been to Kinnaird, already outside Anchorage and well on his way to Nikisiki. Winter put down the phone and saw that Swan was standing up with LeCat close to him, his pistol aimed at the wireless operator's heart. The Frenchman was showing sense: with the gun aimed at her husband there was no need to watch Julie Swan.
^ 'Leave my wife here,' Swan pleaded with Winter. 'She won't say anything to anyone – not if I come with you…'
^ 'Not possible.' Winter shook his head. 'It would be too much of a strain on her – wondering what was happening to you.'
^ 'I'd sooner go with him.' Julie Swan was standing up now, a plucky woman Winter had come to admire during the short time he had been with her. 'Can I get a few things – for my face and…'
^ 'You'll never meet him,' Winter observed. 'Go with her and check what she takes – no nail files. Take Swan with you, too.' He waited until he was alone with Pierre Goussin, who had remained silent at the back of the room. He didn't like either Goussin or Bazin, the two men who would stay with the Swans, but both had lived in Quebec after the Algerian debacle and had the advantage of speaking good English. He stared at the Frenchman, a grim- looking man of the same age as LeCat. 'Let me remind you, with LeCat you will take them to the barn in Swan's Rambler outside…'
^ 'You're going to hear it again. You use the Rambler – it would look funny if it was found here by some nosey neighbour when Swan is supposed to have driven back to the airport. One week from today you leave them locked up inside the barn. You fly to Canada and phone the police here telling them where to find the Swans. If anything happens to them I'll come and find you myself…'
^ 'What could happen to them…' Goussin couldn't hold Winter's gaze and the Englishman was troubled by a flicker of doubt, then LeCat returned with the Swans and Winter was distracted by the next thing to do.
^ 'One more phone call,' he told Julie Swan, 'and this time you make it. You're in a rush – Charlie has just told you Mackay has softened on his rule that no women must travel aboard his ship. So you're travelling aboard the ^ Challenger ^ on her next trip to San Francisco. That will explain your absence from the house. I'm referring to your neighbours, the Thompsons…'
^ 'So now you're phoning to say you won't be able to make it.' Winter looked at LeCat. 'Take Swan out to the car – we'll be with you.' He waited until they had gone. 'Mrs Swan,' he said quietly, 'you just have to get this right – for your husband's sake.'
^ He watched her dialling the number with a steady finger. She had nerve, this American girl. Why was it that so often women grasped a spine-chilling situation faster than men, realised that the only way to survive was to cooperate?
^ Julie Swan handled the call perfectly; she even managed to get a hint of excitement into her voice as she talked about the prospect of her trip aboard the tanker with her husband. So far as Winter could see, Mrs Thompson suspected nothing. 'That was fine,' he assured her as she put down the phone. 'If you carry on like that everything will be all right.'
^ 'Will it?' She looked at him over her shoulder as she put on her heavy coat. 'You're British, aren't you? Or shouldn't I ask?'
^ 'You shouldn't ask.' He took her by the shoulders as she prepared to leave and saw her mouth tighten. 'It's going to be all right – just so long as your husband does nothing stupid. Another guard will arrive later today and replace the man you dislike. But remember, the men who stay with you will be armed.'
^ 'My husband thinks too much of me to do anything stupid as you put it,' she snapped. Her voice wavered. 'It's no good – I'm scared…'
