greater.'
With his head bowed, Carboni sat very still in his chair as if a heavy blow had struck him. 'What has been done this morning to prevent an escape… '
'Nothing has been done.' A snarl from Vellosi's mouth, and above it the cauterized cheeks, the whitened skin at the temples.
'Nothing has been done because until we sat together there was no dialogue on this issue. I have no army, I have no authority over the polizia and the carabinieri. I do not have the numbers to stifle an escape. I have given you the Nappisti, and you have given me a location, and now we can begin.'
Carboni spoke sadly, unwilling to stamp on the energy of his superior. 'They have five hours' start on us, and they were close to the autostrada and at night the road is free.' His head shook as he multiplied kilometres and minutes in his mind. 'They could travel hundreds of kilometres in a fast car. The whole of the Mezzo Giorno is open to t h e m… ' He tailed away, awed by the hopelessness of what he said.
'Bluster the local carabinieri, the polizia, breathe some fire under their backsides. Get back to your office now and hunt the facts.' Shouting now, consumed by his mission, Vellosi banged on his desk to emphasize each point.
'It is outside my jurisdiction… '
'What do you want? A rule book and Harrison dead in a ditch at five minutes past nine tomorrow? Get yourself on to the fifth floor at the Questura. All the computers, all the Honeywell machines there, get them moving, let them earn their keep.'
Resistance failing, Carboni subsided. 'May I make a telephone call, Dottore?'
'Make it and be on your way. You're not the only one to be busy this morning. The Minister will be here in forty minutes…'
Carboni was on his feet, galvanized into activity. With quick, sweaty fingers he flicked in his diary of telephone numbers for that of Michael Charlesworth of the British Embassy.
The early sun was denied entry to the reception lounge of the Villa Wolkonsky by the drawn drapes. The more fancied of the room's collection of rare porcelain had been put away the night before because there had been a small reception and the Ambassador's wife was ever wary of light fingers among her guests. There remained enough to satisfy the curiosity of Charlesworth and Carpenter as they stood close to each other in the gloom. They had come unannounced to the Ambassador's residence, spurred by Giuseppe Carboni's call to Charlesworth sketching the night's developments. The diplomat had collected Carpenter from his hotel. A servant in a white coat, not hiding his disapproval of the hour, had admitted them. If we broadcast we're on our way, Charlesworth had said in the car, then the barricades go up, he'll stall till office hours.
The irritation of the Ambassador was undisguised as he entered the room. A puckered forehead and a jutting chin sand wiched the hawk eyes of annoyance. He wore his familiar dark striped trousers, but no jacket to drape over the braces that held them firm. His collar was unfastened. The opening was abrupt.
'Good morning, Charlesworth. I understand from the message sent upstairs that you wished to see me on a matter of direct and pressing importance. Let's not waste each other's time.'
In the face of this salvo Charlesworth did not falter. 'I've brought with me Archie Carpenter. He's the Security Officer of International Chemical Holdings in London… '
His Excellency's eyes glinted, a bare greeting. .. I have just been telephoned by Dottore Carboni of the Questura. There have been disturbing and unpleasant developments in the Harrison c a s e… '
Carpenter said quietly, 'We judged that you should know of these – whatever the inconvenience of the hour.'
The Ambassador threw him a glance, then turned back to Charlesworth. 'Let's have it, then.'
'The police have always believed Harrison was kidnapped by a criminal organization. During the night it seems this organization was relieved of Harrison, who is now in the hands of the Nuclei Armati Proletaria.'
'What do you mean – 'relieved'?'
'It seems that the NAP have forcibly taken Harrison from his original kidnappers,' said Charlesworth with patience.
'The police are offering this as a theory? We are to believe this ?'
Spoken with the killer chop of sarcasm.
'Yes, sir,' Carpenter again interjected, 'we believe it because there are three men on their backs in the morgue to convince us.
Two have died of gunshot wounds, the third of a dented skull.'
The Ambassador retreated, coughed, wiped his head with a handkerchief and waved his visitors to chairs. 'What's the motive?' he said simply.
Charlesworth took his cue. 'The NAP demand that by nine tomorrow morning, Central European Time, the Italian government shall release the captured terrorist Franca T a n t a r d i n i… '
The Ambassador, sitting far to the front of the intricately carved chair, reeled forward. 'Oh my God… Go on, Charlesworth. Don't spare the rod.'
'… the Italian government shall release Franca Tantardini or Geoffrey Harrison will be killed. In a few minutes the Minister of the Interior will get his first briefing. I imagine that within twenty you will be called to the Viminale.'
Rock still, his head in his tired, aged hands, the Ambassador contemplated. Neither Charlesworth nor Carpenter interrupted.
The buck had been passed. For a full minute the silence bur-geoned, causing Charlesworth to feel for the straightness of his tie knot, Carpenter to look at his unpolished shoes and the lace that was loose.
The Ambassador shook himself as if to dislodge the burden.
' It is a decision for the Italian government to make. Any interference, any pressure on our part, would be quite unwarranted.
Indeed, any suggestion of action would be quite uncalled for.'
'So you wash your hands of Harrison?' Carpenter was flushed as he spoke, temper surging.
' I don't think that's what the Ambassador m e a n t… ' Charlesworth cut in unhappily.
'Thank you, Charlesworth, but I can justify my own statements,' the Ambassador said. 'We don't wash our hands of the fate of Mr Harrison, as you put it, Mr Carpenter. We face the reality of local conditions.'
'When this was a criminal matter, when there was only money at issue, then we were prepared to deal..
'Your company was prepared to negotiate, Mr Carpenter. The British Foreign Office remained uninvolved.'
'What's so bloody different between a couple of million dollars and freedom for one woman?' Thanks to all that bloody brandy that Charlesworth had plied him with, he couldn't marshal his sentences, couldn't hit at the smug little sober bastard opposite him. The frustration welled in his mind.
'Don't shout at me, Mr Carpenter.' The Ambassador was cold, aloof on his pedestal. 'The situation is indeed different. Before, as you rightly say, only money was involved. Now we add principle, and with that the sovereign dignity of the Republic of Italy. It is inconceivable that the government here can bow to so crude a threat and release a public enemy of the stature of the Tantardini woman. It is equally inconceivable that the government of Great Britain should urge such a course.'
' I say again, you wash your hands of Geoffrey Harrison. You're prepared to see him sacrificed for the 'dignity of Italy', whatever bloody nonsense that is… ' Carpenter looked across to Charles worth for an ally, but he had been anticipated and the gaze was averted.
'Well, thank you, gentlemen, thank you for your time. I'm sorry you were disturbed, that the day started badly, and early.'
Carpenter stood up, a little pencil of froth at the sides of his mouth. 'You're putting our man down the bloody bog, and you're pulling the bloody chain on him, and I think it's bloody marvellous.'
There was a passionless mask across the Ambassador's features and he stayed far back in his chair. 'We merely face reality, Mr Carpenter, and reality will dictate that if the losers in this matter are to be either Geoffrey Harrison or the Republic of Italy, then it will be Harrison who loses. If that is the conclusion, then the life of one man is of lesser importance than the lasting damage to the social and political fabric of a great and democratic country. That is how I see it, Mr Carpenter.'
