Rhinoceros

cautiously made his comment when they were walking back along the street.

'That was a huge tip.'

'So everyone is 'happy – and we do not get talked about. Now tomorrow you follow the blue Mercedes Tweed and his team will drive off from here in.' He gave them the registration number. 'While you were getting sozzled I have been touring the car parks of hotels in this place. They are staying at Hostrups Hotel.'

'We go there now,' said Barton, eager to make up for his mistake. 'We kill them while they sleep?'

Panko was grinning at the prospect. He already had taken out his knife.

'Put that toothpick away, idiot,' stormed Oskar. 'You come with me to the Tonderhus, go to bed. Get up early in the morning. I will drive you to the airfield. There you'll hide until I contact you by mobile phone to warn you they are leaving. You then follow them in your aircraft, however far they go. You keep in touch with me, using your mobile, tell me where they have gone to. Report to me constantly, then I can follow them in my car. We take the decision how to deal with them when they reach their destination. Don't fly too close to their car. Keep your distance. Use your binoculars, Panko. I have no more to say to you.'

'What time do we have breakfast?' Barton asked.

'At six a.m. If they don't serve it at that hour then you go hungry. Might help to keep your wits about you.'

As soon as Newman had departed with Mrs France, Paula tackled Tweed head on. Her way of speaking was emphatic.

'I don't understand what you think you're doing. You threw security and secrecy to the wind when you were talking to Mrs France. You gave her details of the whole conspiracy we have spent time, taken so many risks, to learn about. I think, if you don't mind my saying so, that you've made the one big mistake of your whole career.'

'Really, you think that?' Seated on a couch with a fresh cup of coffee in his hand, Tweed was amused. 'You do, of course,' he said casually, 'have a right to your own opinion.'

'You're not taking me seriously.' She stamped her foot. 'All our lives are at stake.'

'I would agree there.'

'Then why, in heaven's name, did you do it?' she demanded.

'Because at long last I have sorted out the negative destructive forces from the positive ones who are on our side, invisible though they may have been so far.'

'You have?'

She was taken aback. She sat down in a chair facing him, bewildered.

'I don't understand,' she said.

'You must have noticed the extraordinary change in Mrs France's personality. And in her appearance and manner. How would you describe it?'

'Well, when we saw her twice in Hamburg she was a nice but fuddled lady, almost like a flower-seller behind a market stall. I felt it difficult to believe she was chief accountant at Zurcher Kredit. Do you think I'm barmy?'

'No. Your impression of her then is not far off mine. But what about her now?'

'I was staggered. Hardly seemed like the same woman. She struck me as incredibly competent with an amazing range of talents. I can now see she'd be a top accountant. But she's also a flier and I think she does have an incredible grasp of the Internet. Her manner was so businesslike, so forceful. She even seemed slimmer in her flying kit.'

'So what are you worrying about?'

'The fact that you provided her with so much information, were so frank and open with her.'

'That was because I decided she was on the side of the positive forces. I'm not bad at deciding who is trustworthy. She is trustworthy. That was why I asked her about Danzer. What she said was further confirmation for me that she was telling the truth. That and other things.'

'Sorry I blew my top. I got it all wrong.'

'We all do at times,' Tweed told her. 'I know I do. But now we are in great danger. If I were in the enemy's shoes I'd make a supreme effort to get rid of us permanently, quickly.'

'Any particular reason for fearing that?'

'Yes.' Tweed finished his cup of coffee. 'The fact that they have Brig, Lord Barford on their side. I think he planned the attack on us off the autobahn. While it was going on I had the feeling a military mind was behind it. That encircling movement by five men aiming at taking us in the rear. They could have got us if Harry hadn't turned up with his Uzi at the last moment, seen what they were up to.'

'So you think we'll face another attack?'

'I'm certain of it. And it may be more difficult to defeat.'

Inselende was a large remote house located on the western coast of the island of Sylt. It had two sections with thatched roofs linked together by a circular section in the centre. In English the name meant 'island's end'. Surrounded by a moorland, it was close to where sandy cliffs dropped sheer into the North Sea – an ideal location for a top secret meeting.

It was well guarded. At strategic points FBI men with automatic weapons crouched out of sight in the heather. Uniformed troops patrolled the outside of the house and at the beginning of the only road leading to it roadblocks had been set up.

Further precautions had been taken. Although it would have taken climbers like flies to ascend the cliffs offshore, American patrol boats equipped with machine-guns cruised a short distance from the cliffs.

In addition, helicopter gunships with searchlights flew over the house and the surrounding areas. The beams of the searchlights swivelled constantly in search of any intruders. The President himself could have stayed there safely.

Inside Inselende a long meeting of the four participants -without aides – had just broken up for dinner. One man did not join them. Gavin Thunder had ushered Lord Barford into a small soundproofed room where they could consult on their own.

'I have very bad news,' Barford began. 'Despite all our efforts Tweed and his team are still on the loose.'

'I thought you'd planned to wipe them out,' snapped the disturbed Thunder. 'I know Tweed's reputation, his many successes in the past. He is the one man who could throw a very big spanner in our works.'

'I agree,' said Barford. 'I also know him well. We have to make a supreme effort to destroy him – before he destroys us. And time is short.'

'And I suppose you have no idea where he is,' Thunder commented sarcastically.

'He is at this moment in Tonder.'

'Where the hell is that?'

'Not so far from where we are sitting. On the mainland. A small town just across the border in Denmark.'

'Are you sure?' Thunder pressed. 'How do you know?'

'Because I am well organized. An hour or so ago I had a call from Barton. He informed me Tweed and his team are in Tonder. I even know the name of the hotel where they are spending the night. Hostrups Hotel.'

'Why was it Barton who phoned you and not Oskar?'

'Because Oskar likes to play it close to his chest, to take the credit. Mind you, I have no doubt Oskar has prepared a fresh attack.'

'I thought it was Oskar who planned the attack on the autobahn to Flensburg, which was a total fiasco.'

Barford thought it wiser not to reveal that he had drawn up the plan for that assault. Thunder was not a man who easily forgave mistakes.

'No, it was Delgado who planned the tactics. I met Delgado in Flensburg and he told me Tweed was in the city. Then he vanished with his whole team.'

'I don't like this.' Thunder had stood up to go to the drinks cabinet. He brought back two glasses of brandy, sat down again.

'I don't like it at all,' he rasped. 'Tweed flying all over North Germany. Appearing first in Hamburg, then in Flensburg and now just across the Danish border. He's up to something. The Americans do have the Secret Reserve here but they aren't really needed. We have more guards than we need.'

Barford took another gulp of his double brandy. He was worried. The Secret Reserve was a small group of