towards them. The front half of the jeep slammed into the wall with tremendous impact. It stopped with the bonnet and the front seats buried deep inside the wall. Sand cascaded down on it. The motionless vehicle looked as though it had been sandblasted.
They were all staring at the phenomenon when Miller reached the summit. He was holding his automatic rifle ready for firing. From his dominant position he could look down and see all his enemies. He saw Tweed, decided to make him his first target. Kill the leader and the rest lose their nerve. He took careful aim.
Only Marler was not completely distracted by the weird end of the jeep. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted movement at the summit. A giant of a man with white hair, his rifle aimed across the other side of the quarry. He raised his Armalite, had the giant's chest in his cross-hairs, pressed the trigger. The bullet hit Miller in the chest. His flak jacket took the shock, largely absorbed it. The impact made Miller stagger, really bruised his ribs. He still gripped his rifle. The blow would have made most men fall down. He took two paces forward to the edge of the quarry, aimed again at Tweed.
Marler blinked.
Flak jacket, he said to himself.
He raised the Armalite slightly. In the cross-hairs he saw the giant's face. He squeezed the trigger. The bullet crushed the lower half of the face, blew it away. Miller fell forward over the edge, dropped head first a hundred feet. His body thudded on the quarry floor, lay still.
Harry was still alert. Moke was still firing through the entrance from the field opposite. Harry laid down a hail of fire on the road, then swiftly raised it a fraction. Moke saw what was coming, jumped up to run, took a volley of bullets, dropped. Suddenly there was total silence. Unlike the others, Harry had counted casualties. Five men had come to kill them. Two had been obliterated in the jeep, now half buried inside the cliff. Marler had shot the giant who had appeared on the summit. Harry himself had shot the man in the field who had fired non-stop through the entrance. That made four. Where was the fifth man?
While Miller had rushed up his slope to the summit after his failed attempt to kill Paula, Alan had been making his way up the far side more cautiously. There were rocks and some stones scattered in the grass. Alan wasn't sure of the precise position of the machine-gunner, so had been careful so far.
Harry was still very alert. In the heavy silence he heard the rattle of a stone falling behind him. Holding his Uzi at the ready, he stood up, facing the other way. Alan was yards away from him, standing up to get a better view, his rifle pointed at the figure which had suddenly risen up. Harry gave him a short burst. Alan, already dead, toppled over backwards, rolled down the slope to the bottom, lay motionless.
Paula's head and shoulders appeared over the rim of the quarry. She called down and her words echoed all round the amphitheatre.
'Hello, all of you. Is it safe to come down?' she enquired cheerfully.
Tweed felt relief surge through his whole body.
CHAPTER 38
They were driving along country lanes with Newman behind the wheel. Behind him Tweed was checking the map, navigating. Paula would have given anything for a shower. Her body was bathed all over in perspiration. She looked back at Lisa, smiled and worked her fingers over her damp hand.
'Me too,' said Lisa. 'But one day we're bound to reach civilization.'
'Let it be today…'
Before they had left the quarry Tweed and Marler had checked all the bodies. It had proved to be a formality. They'd had no alternative but to leave them where they lay. Ahead of them Harry was riding his motorcycle, hardly in sight. When they had parked the Mercedes under the cliff Harry had hidden his machine behind the car. , 'Next stop, Travemiinde,' Tweed remarked. 'I'll guide you, Bob, so we bypass Lubeck.'
'And then we have to sit by the river at the cafe described by Mrs France – with large glasses of water,' said Lisa.
'Will it be Mrs France who comes to meet us?' asked Marler.
'No,' Tweed replied. 'She said Rondel would be here…'
They had been travelling some distance, had crossed over the autobahn beyond Bad Bramstedt, were again in lonely countryside, when Tweed suggested to Newman that he pull off the road onto the grass verge.
'I need to stretch my legs,' he explained.' 'Care to join me for a walk, Paula?'
'I'd love to. I'm going to get cramp if I sit still much longer. ..'
Newman parked the car and everyone got out, stretched, walked back and forth near the car – except for Tweed and Paula. She suspected he wanted to get her on her own because he had something he wanted to talk about. They had just started out when Harry came hurtling back on his machine. He pulled up.
'We're just going for a walk,' Tweed explained.
'You'll be OK the way you're going. I've covered miles and there's nothing. Hardly any traffic, either. Now I'm off to check no one's creeping up on us behind the car…'
'In this mysterious business,' Tweed began, 'no one is what they seem to be.'
'Most encouraging. Who do you think set those murderous thugs on us? Oskar Vernon?' Harry asked.
'Could be. More likely it emanated from Gavin Thunder – he immerses himself in detail. And I wonder if Danzer is still hiding out in that windmill near Sylt?'
'Why would he do that?' Paula interjected. 'Who might not be what they seem to be?'
'Mrs Gina France. I can't get it out of my head that I've seen her somewhere before,' Tweed mused.
'You did when she arrived at the Four Seasons. You'd seen her when we were leaving Rondel's mansion. She came out and gave me those beautiful hydrangeas,' Paula recalled.
'No. Before that. Earlier. I just can't place it.'
'Well, she did look different at the mansion. Plumper and muddle-headed. But that could have been the clothes she was wearing. That floral dress. The silly glasses she had on her nose, that floppy hat. She was transformed when she came to the hotel, even her personality. Clad in a flying suit and helmet, wearing huge glasses, her crisp way of speaking.'
'Weird,' said Tweed.
'But she explained,' Paula reminded him. 'She doesn't like Rondel – so she creates the impression of a disorganized mess when he's about. Doubt if he often visits the bank in Hamburg. I bet when she goes there she's in her career mode, as they say today. Stupid expression. Comes from America. Now, satisfied?'
'No. I have seen her before those two occasions you mentioned. The devil of it is I can't pinpoint where,' Tweed went on.
'I wonder where Oskar is at this moment? 'Waiting for us with a reception committee in Travemunde? And that light aircraft has come back. It's over there.'
'No reason to suppose it's the same one.'
'Yes, there is. It has a blue insignia on its tail. So did the light aircraft I saw flying when we were first approaching Tender to spend the night there. It's sticking to us like glue. I suppose it couldn't have Barton and Panko on board,' Paula wondered.
'Rather unlikely. They're probably back in Tonder. If you remember, after the firefight in the maize field off the autobahn Harry spotted Barton and Panko climbing aboard the Land Rover Delgado escaped in. We know Delgado was in Flensburg – Lisa had that terrible ordeal with him. And where Delgado was I'm sure Barton and Panko were too. Not flying in some aircraft following us.'
Paula stopped, stood still, stamped her foot on the road. She was blazing.
'Every damned theory I come up with you shoot down.' She slapped his arm. 'What the hell's wrong with you?'
'I'm sorry, but I did have a shock when you shinned up the slope out of our cave. You seemed to be gone for ages. And I heard a grenade explode. What happened up there?' Tweed asked.
'You don't want to know.'
'Yes, I do want to know,' he said quietly. 'So please do tell me.'
'It was a bit grim.' She paused. She could still see in her mind's eye the giant aiming his gun at her, the gun
