She grabbed a napkin and began dabbing at the cloth as she babbled on.
`I'm so dreadfully sorry. Red wine is the worst…'
`It's all right,' Tweed said standing up, 'but I'd better go to my room and change.' He looked at Newman. 'If you could handle paying all our bills? Good. And we do have loads of time…'
Newman called for the bill as Paula stood up. She felt a little woozy. Too much champagne after a long day. `I'll go up and pack my sponge bag,' she told him. She walked out of the Grill Room into the lobby.
PART THREE
41
Paula paused at the hotel exit. Something seemed to be going on outside. A uniformed doorman she hadn't seen before came up to her, all excited.
`They are making a film outside, using the hotel as a background. I don't know who the star is.'
I might as well get a breath of fresh air, clear my head, Paula thought. She vaguely noticed the doorman's uniform didn't fit him too well. She walked down the steps carefully and the doorman ran ahead of her to open the doors.
`Does this often happen?' she asked.
`First time I have ever known it to happen. It will be good publicity for the Four Seasons.'
The night air was cold, welcome and refreshing. Raising a hand, she shielded her eyes from the glare of the arc lights. Several white vans were parked alongside the kerb. Each carried the legend
INTER-VISION TV UND RADIO GMBH.
Two cameras on tripods were aimed at a point at the edge of the parkland opposite. A couple, a man and woman, were embracing each other. Paula counted about a dozen men in white coats and wearing white gloves. A man she presumed was the director carried a bullhorn.
A generator thumped away on a pavement near the open doors of one of the vans. Beyond the open doors of the nearest van she could see a small amount of equipment and another stockily built man in the shadows inside who also wore a white coat.
She wandered a few feet along the pavement to get a closer view. The activity was frenetic. Was it really necessary or did TV crews think that was the way they were supposed to act? She paused by the open doors of the nearest van.
The next moment she felt two pairs of hands grasp her, lifting her off her feet and propelling her inside the van. She opened her mouth to scream her head off. A hand clamped over her mouth. She bit the fingers almost to the bone. A snarling voice yelled 'Bitch!' and she was hurled towards the shadowy figure deep inside. She broke the momentum by forcing herself sideways, crashing into the wall of the vehicle. The glare of an arc-light was projected into the interior.
`This is crazy! Bastards!' she shouted.
One of the two assailants who had grabbed her from behind came at her, hands clawed to grasp her throat. She whipped out the canister of hair spray from her shoulder bag, aimed it at his eyes, pressed the button as she half- shut her own eyes. Her attacker squealed, clapped both hands hard over his eyes. She moved closer, kneed him between the legs. He squealed again, bent over double, his hands still covering his eyes. Pressing her back against the side of the van, she kicked his head, and he staggered back against the opposite side of the van.
The second assailant reached her. Too close to use the spray again. She dug her fingers deep into his greasy hair, took a firm grip, pulled him towards her. As she'd expected, he tried to jerk his head away. She suddenly pushed with all her strength, still holding on, driving him across the van. She heard his skull crack against the van's wall. Dazed, his legs sagged, he slumped to the floor.
Glancing towards her escape route, the open doors at the rear, she was astonished to see a camera apparently recording the scene while the arc-light continued to glare into the interior. Then she slipped on a spool of film tape and tumbled on top of both her attackers.
She made herself jump to her feet. That was when Starmberg came up behind her, pressed a soft pad over her nose and mouth. She smelt the deadly aroma of ether and rammed her clenched fist behind her, aiming for the kidneys. She heard an agonized grunt, the world blurred, and she sank into a pit of endless depth and darkness.
Colonel Winterton and his wife, Edith, an elderly couple, had emerged from the Four Seasons, muffled against the cold. They watched the violent struggle inside the van. The white-coated man holding a bullhorn walked up to them. He noted their very English style of dress and smiled.
`It's the opening scene of our new thriller. You have to grab the audience from the word go.'
`It's cold, John,' his wife, Edith, snapped. 'And we will be late for drinks with the Reuters.'
`Of course, my dear…'
The man with the bullhorn watched them walk away, turned round, and slammed the doors shut on the van. He ran to the driver and called out in German.
`Your cargo is aboard. Get this bloody van moving.'
The vehicle moved off. Within five minutes his team had packed all their kit inside the other vans, which promptly drove off. Peace and quiet returned to the Neuer Jungfernstieg outside the Four Seasons.
`Where on earth can Paula be?' Tweed looked at Newman and checked his watch. 'We shall soon be cutting it a bit fine.'
`She's the most prompt woman I've ever met,' said Cardon.
The man Paula called 'the Squirrel' had brought his bag to Tweed's room after receiving a brief phone call to his own room from Tweed. Up to that moment he had kept away from the others as though they were strangers.
`I'm going to go along and knock on her door,' Newman said impatiently. 'As far as I'm concerned, we've probably missed the flight already.'
`Cool it,' Cardon advised and grinned.
Almost as soon as he had finished speaking the phone rang. Tweed snatched up the receiver. His tone was normal as he asked who it was. A woman's muffled voice answered.
`This is Paula. It's a pretty lousy connection. I hope you can hear me?'
`Yes, I can. What's happened?'
`I saw someone leaving the hotel. No names over the phone. A taxi was cruising past so I flagged it down and followed a car. I expect to be back at the Four Seasons… Can you hear me? This really is a lousy connection. Don't worry. Back soon…'
The line went dead. Tweed stood rather still. Then he told the others the gist of the brief conversation. Newman reacted first.
`Are you sure it was Paula?'
`No, I'm not.'
`Has she ever done this before?' Cardon asked. `Dashed off on her own without telling you? And what was she wearing?'
`She has a lot of initiative,' Tweed said slowly. 'To answer your first question, occasionally she has – when she saw something and would have lost it if she'd waited to consult me. You know from your own experience I give my people a lot of loose rein. Why the question about how she was clad?'
`She was wearing her blue suit when I last saw her,' Newman intervened.
`I asked,' Cardon went on, 'because it's a very chilly night. But if she grabbed a taxi the weather wouldn't have bothered her.'
`One thing's for sure,' Newman decided. 'I'm cancelling our flight reservations right now.'
