‘Suits me fine. That barn wasn’t built yesterday and old floor-boards in old lofts tend to creak. With ram like this drumming on the roof he won’t be able to hear a thing. Besides, judging from George’s general description, the sentry is probably half deaf anyway.’ He strapped on his Smith and Wesson, shrugged into his jacket and put the aerosol can in one pocket and the hooded torch in the other.
‘Velvet gloves,’ George said.
Vasco said: ‘What’s that?’
‘Silenced pistol and a knockout gas canister. That’s what he calls velvet gloves.’
Van Effen dug into an inside pocket, brought out a small leather wallet, unzipped it, took out the metallic contents, examined them, then returned them to the wallet and pocket.
‘Skeleton keys and picklocks,’George said approvingly. ‘No self-respecting detective should be without them.’
Vasco said: ‘What happens if you don’t come back, sir?’ ‘I shall be back. It’s five past ten now. I should be back by ten-thirty. If I’m not back by eleven go downstairs. Say nothing. No doom laden speeches, no warnings that their end is nigh. Kill Samuelson. Cripple the Agnelli brothers and Daniken, and, if Riordan is there, him also. Remove all weapons of course and one of you keep an eye on them and make sure that nobody tries to stagger out of the room and summon help while the other gets the girls. As your guns are silenced, there should be no interruptions. Then get the hell out of it. If anyone gets in your way, you know what to do.’
‘I see.’ Vasco looked and sounded more than slightly shocked. ‘And how do we get the hell out of it?’
Van Effen touched the pocket where he had replaced his wallet of skeleton keys and picklocks. ‘What do you think those are for?’ ‘Ah. The army truck.’
‘Indeed. As soon as you get under way, call up the army or the cops. Give them the approximate location of this place — we know it’s somewhere between Leerdam and Gorinchen — and leave the rest to them.’ Vasco said: ‘They might try to escape by helicopter.’ ‘You have the alternative of shooting Daniken in both shoulders or taking him with you. I’m virtually certain that none of this will happen. I don’t want it to happen and that’s not primarily because by the time it happens I’ll probably be dead. It would be a confession of failure and I don’t like being associated with failure. It would be a most unsatisfactory conclusion: in fact, it would be no conclusion at all. Samuelson has another headquarters and, as we have agreed, other associates: O’Brien has almost certainly departed this evening to associate with those other associates. Even although I doubt it, some of those associates may — I repeat may — be in a position to carry out his plans to a successful conclusion.’ He opened the window. ‘Back at ten-thirty.’ He slid down the two knotted sheets and vanished into the shadows.
George and Vasco went into the darkened bathroom. Vasco said: ‘He is a cold-blooded bastard, isn’t he?’
George said: ‘Um.’
‘But he’s a killer. “
‘I know he has killed and would do so again. But he’s very selective, is our Peter. Nobody who has ever departed this world and at his hands has ever been mourned by society.’
Four minutes later Vasco caught George by the arm. ‘See?’ They saw. The sentry had just taken a long swig from his bottle, laid it on the floor beside him, clasped his hands over his rug and appeared to relapse into some kind of yoga-like contemplation. The shadow that had loomed behind him resolved itself into the unmistakable form of van Effen, whose right hand curved round and held the aerosol can an inch or two from the.sentry’s face for a period of not more than two seconds. He then pocketed the aerosol, hooked his hands under the man’s knees and eased him forward several inches to ensure that he wouldn’t topple sideways from his armchair, picked up a bottle from the floor, poured some of the contents over the sentry’s face, emptied the remainder of the contents over the front of his clothes, wrapped the fingers of the unconscious man’s right hand round the bottle, thrust hand and bottle partly under the rug, tightened the rug to ensure that hand and bottle would remain where they were then vanished into the gloom.
‘Well, now,’ Vasco said, ‘there’s one character who isn’t going to report himself for dereliction of duty because of dropping off into a drunken slumber.’
‘Our Peter doesn’t do things by halves. Let’s see now. A two-second burst. He should come to in about half an hour. Peter explained those things to me once.’
‘Won’t he know he has been drugged?’
‘That’s the beauty of it! Leaves no trace. That apart, what would you think if you woke up with your clothes reeking of schnapps or whatever and your hand clasped round an empty bottle?’
The stairs, broad and very creaking and just behind where the sentry slept, led directly to the floor of the barn, now converted into a temporary garage. Torch in hand, van Effen descended quickly, loosed the bolts on the retaining half of the entrance door and turned his attention to the army truck. The exterior was as it had been except that the number plates had been changed. He then wriggled under the truck, scraped clear an area on the underside of the chassis just forward of the rear axle and attached to it the magnetic clamp of the metallic device which Vasco had removed from the bar of soap. Thirty seconds later he was in the driver’s seat and through to the Marnixstraat. ‘Put me through to Colonel de Graaf, please.’
‘Who is speaking?’
‘Never mind who’s speaking. The Colonel.’
‘He’s at home.’
‘He is not. He’s there. Ten seconds or you’re an ex-policeman tomorrow.’ In just ten seconds the Colonel was on the phone. ‘You were a bit harsh on that poor lad.’ His voice held a complaining note. ‘He’s either a fool, an incompetent or was improperly instructed. He was told to keep open an anonymous line.’ Van Effen spoke in Polish, which the Colonel understood as well as he did. Dutch police changed their wavelengths at infrequent intervals and had done so again only that day. As in every major city in the world, villains occasionally picked up police wavelengths. But the probabilities against a villain who understood Polish picking up a changed wavelength were astronomical. ‘Please switch on your recorder. I don’t know how much time I have and I don’t want to repeat myself.’
‘Proceed.’
‘I shall spell names backwards. We are south of — this is a name — Utrecht — and between — two other names — Leerdam and Gorinchen. You have that?’
‘I have that.’
‘Do not attempt to locate and do not attempt to attack. “The Principals are elsewhere”’ — it was an outright lie but the Colonel was not to know that — ‘and it would achieve only the deaths of five people who don’t deserve to die. You know the people I mean?’
‘I know.’
‘We have here the army truck. You know which one. It has changed the identification plates. I will give you the new numbers. Backwards. ‘van Effen did so. ‘It will be carrying the nuclear devices you know about.’ ‘What!’
‘I have attached a magnetic transmitter bug to this vehicle. Have an unmarked police car in the vicinity as from, say, 7 a.m. It is to track this truck at a safe distance. This police car will also be in radio contact with two or three Army Commando trucks lying to the west. I am becoming increasingly convinced that this truck will be heading towards the Scheldt area. There will be three people in that truck, all dressed in Dutch army uniforms, including a bogus lieutenant-colonel called Ylvisaker, who may even call himself by that name. I want that truck seized along with its occupants and the seizure to be kept in complete secrecy. If you release that news then the responsibility for the flooding of the country will lie in your hands.’
De Graaf’s voice took on an even more complaining note. ‘You don’t have to threaten me, my boy.’
‘I apologize. I am under intense pressure and have to make my points in as impressive a way as I can — One other thing. Have TV and radio announce — or just say, if you like — that they are to be of good heart and that you are closing in on the Rotterdam and Scheldt areas. The reason to be given is that you want every citizen thereabouts to be on continuous alert and report anything abnormal to the police. This is purely psychological and I don’t believe our friends are very good at psychology. But please, please, apart from taking this truck in complete secrecy, no other attempts at interference.’
‘Understood. I have someone with me who would like a word with you and who speaks Polish even better than you and I do.’
‘Spell his name backwards.’
