bedroom. They had enjoyed a good dinner and Paula had joined him for a final chat.
'You still think we're chasing phantoms and ghosties?' asked Paula.
'I've moved into a neutral zone, but there are connections which keep bugging me.'
'Such as?'
'Four men now with their throats cut ear to ear. Dikoyan, the Armenian who crashed the explosives truck into Turkey. Then two members of the UTS dragged out of the Rhine. Same method. Including dumping them in water. The fourth, Gaston Blanc – who made timers and control boxes…'
'You don't know he'd made them. He might have just been going to start making them.'
True. But why was he murdered before he'd done the job?'
'That's the lot?' Paula asked.
'The explosive technique used on the bank vaults. I saw your expression when Romer used the word implosion. Took you back to Blakeney, didn't it?'
'Yes. It's a long way, though, from Basle to Blakeney. And I wonder how Bob Newman is getting on?'
'We'll hear when he's good and ready. One question bothers me more than any other. I feel it could be the key to the entire conspiracy – if there is one.'
'What's that?'
'We may know more after Bellenger has examined those pieces of debris in the executive case Romer gave me…' 'You can be the most annoying man. What was the question?'
'How the gold bullion was smuggled out of Basle – and what was its ultimate destination?'
Waiting for Paula, who was collecting the air tickets for the return to Heathrow, Tweed sat staring out of the window at the sheen-surfaced Rhine, watching the occasional barge glide past. She returned when he was dialling the number of the Zurcher Kredit Bank, calling Romer.
'Colonel, Tweed here. One more question I'd like the answer to. You seem au fait with all the action the police took the night of the robbery. I presume they set up road-blocks?'
'The moment they were alerted. The gang cut out the alarm system – but missed one box. Of course it had to be the defective one – reacted half an hour after it activated. It was tested by experts and did the same thing. Went off a half-hour after activation.'
'And the road-blocks?'
'Set up immediately. They reckoned they missed the large truck later found abandoned at the airport – with traces of gold on the floor. That's why they were so sure the Fokker Friendship plane took out the bullion.'
'What I want to know is how far out they set up their road-blocks?'
'Oh, on the outskirts of the city, of course. Ten to fifteen kilometres from this bank, I gather…'
'No road-blocks were set up closer in, then? Near the centre of the city?'
'No. It seemed pointless. A Sunday night, the streets deserted, a half-hour start.'
Thank you.'
Tweed put down the receiver and explained the conversation to Paula as she handed him his ticket. Paula listened, then frowned.
'I don't get the significance of your question.' 'It's odd,' Tweed responded dreamily. 'I find myself thinking like a detective again. All the old training, the experience comes back. A weird feeling.. .'
'You didn't answer my question,' Paula pointed out. 'I don't believe I did. But I'm like a man wandering through a fog – seeing silhouettes I can't identify yet.' 'And you can be the most maddening man to work for.' 'Monica would agree with that. Next stop, London.. .'
19
It was eleven o'clock at night when Klein came back to La Montagne. In the kitchen Hipper stared at him in surprise. He hadn't expected Klein to return for days. But it was typical of Klein: you never knew when he was going to turn up without warning.
'How is it going?' Klein asked Chabot.
The Frenchman took the watchmaker's glass out of his eye and gazed back. Spread across the table was a whole mass of the precision pieces of metal Gaston Blanc had patiently manufactured in his workshop.
'Ten of the devices are ready,' he said.
'You are working faster than I expected. Fifty more and you are finished.'
'I'm familiar with the mechanism now. So I work much more quickly. The whole lot? Three days from now.'
'I am packing them in the special case,' Hipper interjected. 'I pack them as he completes a set of five…'
'And all of them tested – like the first one?' Klein demanded.
In the fluorescent light his lean face seemed whiter than ever. More like a mask than the face of a human being. He loomed over the table as Hipper replied.
'Oh, yes. We test them five at a time. Well after dark -and the locals know I wander about on my own, so there is no risk. They don't like me, which helps.'
'I have a question.' Chabot lit a Gauloise. 'I have been thinking
…'
'A dangerous habit,' Klein suggested in his cold voice.
'I have a question,' Chabot repeated, 'and I want an answer before I assemble one more device. I calculate that with this number of timers – and the five control boxes -there must be enormous explosive power involved. Don't forget, I'm an expert. What exactly is the job? And how many other men are involved? I'm working in the dark no longer.'
Klein studied the Frenchman, who kept staring straight back at him, showing not a hint of fear. A very hard case, Klein was thinking. Well, that's what we'll need. Someone not nervous of spilling a lot of blood. He'll have to be told something. He made one last attempt to stall Chabot.
'We are working on the cell principle. Only three men know each other. I insist on the tightest security. The success of an operation of this magnitude depends on it.'
'What operation,' Chabot persisted.
'Thirty people in the team altogether,' Klein replied. 'We have them in place now. All except two. I am hiring these two key personnel as soon as I leave here.'
'What operation?' Chabot asked again.
'We are going to hold up the gateway to Europe. We are going to threaten to close down a whole continent…' His voice was rising in pitch, he punctuated his statements with a curious chopping movement of his right hand as he went on. 'We are going to give a demonstration of the terrible explosive power at our command. There will be casualties to show we are not bluffing. We shall demand -receive – an enormous sum of money. That gigantic fortune is already available – although those who hold it have no idea what it is really for. Now! No more talk. Get on with your job. I shall collect the timers in three days. Someone will be waiting to move them to the target. Wiedersehen! '
Klein gestured to Hipper to join him, left the room. Chabot paused in his work for a few minutes. As he'd spoken the eyes of Klein had bulged hypnotically, had seemed to change colour. It must have been the fluo-rescents Chabot decided.
He was shaken by the vehemence of Klein's outburst, by the details of his plan. Then he shrugged. For two hundred thousand francs he should worry about the spilling of some blood. But of one thing Chabot was sure. Afterwards all hell would break loose in Europe. What a good job he had decided to leave France forever once he had his hands on the big money – to emigrate to Quebec. They'd never find him there.
'All the Luxembourg scuba divers you recruited are hidden away in Holland,' Klein told Hipper in answer to his question. 'We must have hired every thug in your tiny country.'
'Holland?' Hipper queried. 'The target is there?'
'You know better than to ask questions like that. Holland is a good staging post.'
'Ten foreigners are a lot to hide. Won't they be noticed?'
'We have taken over a camping site. They are housed in campers. Only the two who speak Dutch leave the
