'This owner,' Morrison went on, 'was an absentee landlord, but only during the past couple of years. Before that he was on the New York stock exchange and an investment counsellor on Wall Street. He wasn't too successful. Not really a financial man at all, though he liked money. More like a bull in a china shop. Too extroverted.
'The landlord's most recent absence was caused by the fact that he had become busy elsewhere. He was busy in Athabasca, at an inconvenient distance from Wall Street. He was, in fact, working for Sanmobil. He was busy being Sanmobil's operations manager,'
'Don't move. Keep quite still.' Carmody leaned over Reynolds' shoulder and relieved him of a silenced automatic which he had begun to slide out of a shoulder holster. 'You could cause yourself an injury. What's a law- abiding citizen like you doing carrying a gun?'
Gasps of surprise broke out all around the room. Almost everybody stood up to get a better view. Reynolds' face, normally so rubicund, had gone gray, making an unpleasant clash with his corn-colored hair. He sat as if paralyzed while Carmody slipped manacles on him.
'This is in no way a trial,' Brady announced. 'So I do not propose to question him. Nor will I adumbrate the factors that made him turn the way he did ? save to say that his main grievance appears to have been that he had been passed over for promotion. He found his way ahead blocked. He conceived the idea that outsiders were always brought into the firm to occupy senior positions. You may think his reaction a little excessive.'
Brady stopped. He had, at this point, intended to have a dig at Black, by mentioning the oil companies' practice of installing accountants in senior management positions. As things had turned out, however, he decided against it, and merely asked Black to sum up.
This Black did, in a surprisingly warm and human manner. Again he praised Brady Enterprises effusively, and he ended by reassuring everyone present that the campaign of terror and destruction was over. The meeting was closed. Police officers escorted Reynolds, Blake, Bronowski and Houston away to the cells, and everyone else began to disperse.
Brady, feeling unwontedly nervous, sidled up to Black.
'My apologies,' he muttered. 'Must offer you my sincere apologies. My associates were infernally rude to you that time… no cause for it.'
'My dear fellow ? not at all,' said Black magnanimously. 'I daresay it was my fault anyway. I hardly realized what deep trouble we were in. I thought your investigations were superfluous. Now I know different.'
'I'd like to apologize, too,' muttered Dermott, stiff with embarrassment. 'Trouble was ? if I may say so ? you seemed so unco-operative.'
'It was the cost that frightened me. Don't forget, I'm an accountant by training.' To the amazement of the Brady team, Black actually laughed. They laughed too, from sheer release of tension ? and the next second, Black caught them neatly on the rebound.
'Well now, Mr. Brady,' he said briskly, 'as to the question of your fee…'
'Oh… now!' Brady spluttered, caught right off-balance. 'I assumed all along I would negotiate that with your London office.'
'No need, I'm glad to say.' Black was all breezy sunshine. 'London has empowered me to deal directly with you. Our chairman felt that despite your close friendship, or perhaps because of it ? I should settle this.'
'That's… well… NO! I mean, I… I never discuss fees myself.' Brady sounded lame, and knew it. But he pulled himself together fast, 'I have to consult my accountant, even if you don't.'
'Forty love, and Black to serve,' muttered Dermott as they moved away. He was about to go for his coat when, down one side of the room, he spotted Corinne Delorme still sitting on a bench, as if in a trance. He went along to her.
'Come on, honey,' he said gently. 'Time to go.'
'I just can't believe it,' she said. 'It's not possible.'
'Well ? it happened. Are you upset?'
'Not really ? no. I didn't care that much about him. It's just that I kind of got used to believing what he said.'
'I know, one does. But you saw how devious he was. Anyone who had himself kidnapped to add verisimilitude to the proceedings ? anyone who does that is hardly straight forward.'
'I guess that's right. All those murders, too. Oh God, it's awful.'
'It was awful. But it's over. Coming?'
'I suppose so.' She stood up, and Dermott helped her into her coat.
'You and I were the two luckiest people in the whole damn business,' he said. 'We both ought to be dead. Without you I would be.'
Suddenly her blank eyes lit up and she smiled.
Dermott smiled back. 'What are you going to do now you've got no boss to work for?'
'I don't know. Find another job, I suppose.'
'Not many good jobs in Fort McMurray. Why not come south and work for me?'
'For you?' Her eyes widened. 'I haven't thought of that.'
'Think of it now. Shall we go?'
'Okay.'
'I'd offer you my arm, if it wasn't still so damned sore.'
'And I might even take it.' She looked upward and snuggled close against him as they went out through the door.
The sight seemed to occasion the most immense merriment in Brady and his one remaining associate. They both rolled in their seats like clowns, giving vent to noisy explosions.
'Stay me with flagons, Donald,' cried Brady, as he recovered. 'I am seriously in need of liquids. I was beginning to think we had a romance on our hands.'
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A quarter of a century ago an unknown writer was catapulted to instant fame with the publication of his novel, H.M.S. Ulysses. Since then Alistair MacLean has ruled international best-seller lists as the master of daredevil adventure and suspense. His unbroken string of successful novels ? from The Guns of Navarone and Ice Station Zebra to Where Eagles Dare and Golden Gate ? have thrilled millions of readers and moviegoers.
