team.
`I may need you to fly your men urgently to somewhere in Europe.'
`North or south?' the officer had queried. 'It makes a difference.'
`Definitely northern Europe. I may phone you from quite a distance to give you the objective. I'll use the code-word Hurricane.'
`I favour transporting my men by a fleet of choppers,' the officer had suggested.
`So do I. It may be a small airfield where you land. And it could be vital to be equipped with powerful limpet mines. To sink ships.'
`No problem there.'
`I'll be in touch, Conway…'
Tweed doubted whether that was his real name. When he called Noble the Commander of Naval Intelligence insisted on dashing over to see him – as opposed to talking even on a scrambler phone.
When the ruddy-faced Noble arrived he seemed very cheerful. He accepted coffee from Monica and then began talking at top speed.
`I speeded up the operation to bring back the consignment from Liege. We flew there last night. Benoit was very co-operative, had the airport closed down by the time we arrived. Plus unmarked cars to transport us to Delvaux's plant. Delvaux was there himself. Looked strained, but he's got all his marbles.'
`You can't mean you've brought everything back here already?' Tweed asked, not bothering to conceal his surprise.
`It's all at the Admiralty Research Establishment now. Has been for many hours. That Stealth light aircraft we dismantled is amazing. We assembled it – worked all night non-stop – and none of our most advanced radar could detect it. But Delvaux's device does – from the first reports our boffins phoned me just before I came over here.'
`How long before you're sure?' Tweed asked anxiously. `Time may not be on our side.'
`A matter of hours. That light aircraft Delvaux had constructed actually flies. A pilot is taking it up – then we'll be certain. And we brought back fifty of Delvaux's unique radar systems. I'll stick my neck out – I think you've brought us the answer to Stealth ships. Between you and me, we've been worried sick about the prospect that a hostile power might build them.'
`Could you tell me whether you have a naval vessel operating in the North Sea? Specifically, within reach of the coasts of Germany and Denmark?'
`Strictly between us – but I owe you a lot – the missile- armed frigate Minotaur is cruising in that area. Will be for some time. Why?'
`If,' Tweed emphasized, 'you find Delvaux's device is fool-proof, could you fly one out to the Minotaur?'
`Very quickly in an emergency. The Minotaur's captain is a young chap, Tug Wilson. Hates the nickname Tug, but he's resigned to it now. He's one of the old school. His motto? 'If necessary, ram the bastards.'' He turned to Monica. 'I hope you'll excuse my language.'
`I've heard worse round here,' she assured him.
`So could I contact this Tug Wilson by getting in touch with you by phone?' Tweed enquired.
`Easily. And I'm sleeping aboard while this action is on.' Tweed realized that by 'aboard' he was referring to sleeping on a camp bed in his Admiralty office. 'You are taking all this very seriously,' Noble observed as he stood up. 'Is this an emergency? If I can tell my people it is, then I'm going to get full co-operation from the Admiral which would put everyone on their toes.'
`I don't want to be melodramatic, but it could involve the survival of the West,' Tweed said slowly. 'And if I call you from abroad I'll use the codeword Hurricane so you're sure it's me speaking.'
`Hurricane,' Noble repeated as he prepared to leave. 'It sounds as though you're expecting one. We'll expect one, too. I think I'll contact Tug Wilson as soon as I get back. Good hunting…'
After he had gone Tweed had asked Monica to arrange for a meal of sandwiches to be brought in. He was eating the last one when he began pacing round his office.
`What do you think about what Cardon told us about the mysterious Dr Wand?' Monica asked.
Tweed didn't reply for a while. He was playing back in his mind what Cardon had told them.
`I stress these are only rumours,' Cardon had begun, tut they come from three very different contacts – and all three said the same thing. Wand is thought to be General Chang, a top member of the Chinese High Command. He appeared out of nowhere in Hong Kong after spending months in the United States. There he is believed to have been treated by an American plastic surgeon – who died in a car accident soon afterwards. He established his trading company… seemed to have unlimited funds. His company prospered in two years, then he expressed an interest in the world-wide refugee problem. So, he came to Europe and organized his Trust for aiding refugees-'
`Just a moment,' Tweed had interrupted. 'Any idea where these huge funds came from?'
`Let me tell it in sequence. He cultivated men of influence in all the key European countries – men also concerned with the refugee problem. He's on dining-out terms with several EC Commissioners – they like his lavish hospitality. Most of them think he was born in Hong Kong – a Chinese mother and an English father. When I said he was suspected of being General Chang I referred to underground contacts. None of the taipans he mixed with in Hong Kong have even heard the rumour…'
Cardon had stopped speaking to swallow a whole tumbler of water. Tweed watched him carefully, seeing signs that he was running out of steam.
`Now we come to the money,' Cardon had continued. `Which is why I spent three days in Chengmai in North Thailand, close to the so-called Golden Triangle – the great centre for illegal drug distribution on a colossal scale.' He had paused to make his next point.
`The Chinese Government is controlling the vast drug industry spreading havoc in the West…'
`But they shoot drug traffickers inside China,' Monica had objected.
`Of course they do,' Cardon had told her. 'They don't want their own people weakened by the scourge. Just the West. It is a classic case of the Chinese liking for the double-edged sword – they sell the drugs to the West via second parties. The drugs break down the moral and physical fibre of the West – and provide Beijing with vast sums of hard currency. So, without knowing it, drug users over here, in Europe, and the States, are financing Operation Long Reach, and ultimately their own destruction…'
Later Tweed had put to him the question which was intriguing him.
`Philip, how on earth did you get out of Lop Nor alive?'
`Oh, it was quite easy. I'd realized by then I was wearing the uniform of a high-ranking Security Service officer. I went back to the airfield, found another of their old crates was just leaving for Chungking. The steward made one of the passengers get out of his seat and crouch down in the aisle at the rear. Didn't ask him – he just did it. It was almost night when we landed at Chungking. I beat a hasty from the airport, walked out into the countryside, took off the uniform and burnt it. Which left me in my original rags. I then smuggled myself aboard a hovercraft going down the Yangtze River as a crewman-'
`Hovercraft!' Monica had interjected. 'You're joking.'
`No, I'm not. A bit of a rocky ride but the engines were almost silent. Make a dangerous war vessel. I got off at Hankow and took the long train ride to Canton. From there it's no distance at all to slip across the frontier into Hong Kong. A piece of cake…'
At that point Cardon had closed his eyes and fallen fast asleep until Butler had escorted him to his car.
Tweed answered the question Monica had asked earlier, pacing back to his desk and sitting in his chair.
`I think Cardon could be right about Dr Wand. During the brief moment when I saw Wand clearly by the flare of Bob's lighter it struck me there was something Oriental about his features. I suspect I wouldn't have noticed it in broad daylight.'
`What I couldn't get over was the way Philip kept saying it was easy, a piece of cake, phrases like that.'
`I don't think for a moment it was easy. That is just Philip's throwaway confidence. And remember, the British have been good in the past at disguising themselves as another race, infiltrating all sorts of dangerous places. Lawrence of Arabia – passing himself off as an Arab. In India, during the Raj, a clever soldier would dress himself up as a native and move around in hostile territory on the north-west frontier to spy on some rebellious khan. Cardon belongs to that age.'
`What did Philip mean when he said the great anchorage at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam has been closed to all
