underneath. In just a few seconds the magic trick was complete. Magnus Payne was gone; Kaspar stood in his place.
“The tattoos were rather painful and unpleasant,” Drevin commented. “But we had to create a terrorist leader people would remember. I’d say we succeeded, wouldn’t you?” Alex felt utterly defeated. He remembered now his first meeting with Payne on Flamingo Bay. The head of security had disguised his voice, of course. But even so, Alex had been sure he’d seen him somewhere before. And Payne had known immediately who he was. Both he and Paul had been in the buggy when Drevin introduced them, and Payne was supposed to be meeting them both for the first time. But he had known immediately which was which. Of course. He had recognized Alex.
“We’ll arrange the bodies on the beach after the launch,” Drevin said to Kaspar. “And we’ll add the boy and the woman then.” He put down his glass and stood up. “Goodbye, Alex. I enjoyed meeting you very much. I would have liked to get to know you better. But I’m afraid we’ve reached the end.” He tugged at his ring one last time as if there was something he had forgotten to say. The men who had pretended to be Force Three, and whose names Alex would never know, lay sprawled on the floor.
Kaspar stepped forward and grabbed hold of the chair. Alex was helpless as his chair was tilted backwards and he was dragged away.
WIND AND WATER
« ^ »
aspar drove Alex across the compound to a flat, rectangular building with barred windows and a door with steps leading down, just below the level of the ground. Alex could no longer think of the other man as Magnus Payne. Drevin’s head of security hadn’t bothered to replace his wig or mask, and even in the darkness the hideous map of the world still glowed livid on his skin. Alex wondered how much he had been paid to disfigure himself. Whatever the sum, it would probably cost him just as much one day to pay for the laser surgery to remove the tattoos.
Alex had been untied from the wooden chair but his hands were still bound. As they got out of the buggy, he tested the wire, attempting to find some slack. It seemed to him that, given time, he might be able to free himself. Not that it would do him much good. The building in front of him looked like a prison. And Kaspar knew what he was capable of. He wasn’t going to make any more mistakes.
They went down the steps into a large area filled with electronic equipment, computers and workstations.
A model of a space probe—gleaming steel with circuitry spilling everywhere—took up most of the room.
Alex noticed two sets of what looked like tracksuits hanging on a rail. They both had the Ark Angel logo stitched onto the sleeve. He supposed they must be the outfits worn by astronauts.
“This way,” Kaspar grunted. He gestured with his gun towards another flight of stairs leading down.
Alex obeyed and found himself in a wide corridor with two solid-looking cages on either side. As he stepped forward, he heard a screeching and jabbering from the first cage, and to his surprise an orang-utan bounded towards him, crashing its fists against the bars. Then he remembered. Drevin had said he was planning to send an ape into space—some sort of endurance experiment.
“Meet Arthur,” Kaspar said. There was an ugly smile on his face.
“Is he any relation?” Alex asked.
The remark earned him a sharp jab with the gun. But the pain was quickly forgotten. He had looked into the next cage and seen Tamara Knight, still very pale but alive. She smiled at Alex but said nothing while Kaspar opened the door of the cage opposite.
“In here,” he ordered.
Alex had no choice. He stepped inside and waited while Kaspar locked the door behind him. He looked around. The cage was about two metres square. The bars were solid steel. The lock was brand new. Alex had no gadgets on him and his hands were still tied. He was going nowhere.
Kaspar removed the key and slipped it into his pocket. “I’ll leave the three of you together.” He glanced at his watch. It was almost one o’clock in the morning. “You’ll hear the rocket launch,” he said. “And as soon as it’s gone, someone’ll come for you. They’ll take you to the beach and that’ll be the end.” The corner of West Africa twisted in a grimace of pure hatred.
Alex had seen it all before. The bigger the criminals, the more they resented being beaten by a teenager.
And Alex had beaten Kaspar twice. “I’m just sorry I won’t be the one holding the gun,” Kaspar went on.
“But I’ll be thinking of you. I hope it won’t be too quick.” He walked away. Alex heard his footsteps on the stairs. The main door opened and closed. Arthur the orang-utan stalked to the back of his cage and sat down.
“Charming guy,” Tamara muttered.
“Tamara, are you OK?” Alex had been worried about her, and he was relieved to see her now.
“I’ve been better,” she admitted. “Was that Magnus Payne just now?” Alex nodded.
“I thought I recognized his voice. What happened to his head?” Alex told her. He also told her about his meeting in the hangar and Drevin’s plan to destroy Washington.
Tamara was kneeling against the door of her cage, listening closely. When he finished talking she let out a deep sigh. It seemed to Alex that even more colour had drained from her face.
“We thought he was going to cut and run,” she said. “We thought he was finished. We never figured he was going to come up with something like this.”
“Can he really do it?” Alex asked.
Tamara thought for a moment, then nodded. “Maybe. I don’t know. He’d have to work everything out right down to the last second. The explosion. All the rest of it. But, yes… I’m afraid he probably can.”
“We have to contact Joe Byrne.”
“The guards took my radio transmitter. I imagine they’ll have taken your iPod too.”
“What about the phones?”
“There are radio phones on the island but Drevin will have disabled them, just in case. And ordinary mobiles are no good; you can’t get a signal. I don’t know, Alex. Either we’re going to have to stop him ourselves or one of us is going to have to go for help.”
