'Destroy them.'
'Just like that?'
'Yes — and with the aid of this chart which clearly shows the course planned for Kometa during the four hours of darkness when the actual conference takes place.' Cottel was now alongside the Belgian, studying the chart. Beaurain's index finger traced the course of a dotted line drawn on the chart.
*
They met Harry Fondberg at a pre-arranged rendezvous on the outskirts of Trelleborg. Beaurain was behind the wheel of the Mercedes when he picked up the Sapo chief at a bend in the country road. Fondberg's vehicle was nowhere to be seen and the only other occupant of the car was Louise who sat by herself in the rear. Fondberg settled into the front passenger seat alongside Beaurain, and the Mercedes moved off, heading away from Trelleborg.
'East German MfS — state security men — have been coming in on the ferry from Sassnitz both yesterday and today,' the Swede told Beaurain. It has almost assumed the proportions of an invasion. A handful linger in the town, trying to look like tourists, which is laughable.'
'Why?' asked Louise.
'You know what the weather is like. This marvellous heatwave during the day and it's still warm at ten o'clock at night. These cretins from Sassnitz are all walking around in short leather jackets and trilby hats! My men tell me they have to be careful not to burst out laughing when they see them. But the majority have gone out by power-boat to Kometa, presumably — to act as security.'
'Under the command of Gunther Baum,' Beaurain informed him.
'That homicidal maniac? What does it all mean? He's not MfS.'
'Intriguing, isn't it? I think Hugo has waved his wand again. And you did a marvelous promotion job on the 'double murder' yesterday night out at the old iron mine of Skottvangs Gruva. Hugo will be bound to be just that little over-confident now he thinks Ed and I are dead.'
'Just so long as the media never learn the truth,' Fondberg said gloomily. 'They'd crucify me. If you're going to launch an all-out assault on Kometa from Firestorm tonight and officially I've never even heard of either vessel why is it so important you appear to be dead? To make Hugo less cautious I can see that, but…'
To throw him right off-balance when I eventually come face to face with him,' Beaurain said grimly. 'And that might well not be tonight. I have a funny idea. Hugo could be holding a party and not attending it himself although he's supposed to be the host,'
'No, I don't see,' Fondberg said. 'I don't see at all. And you might like to know that at this moment I'm in Gothenburg and have witnesses to prove it,'
On the June evening of Beaurain's final attack on the Stockholm Syndicate sunset was at precisely 20.50 hours. Over the Baltic darkness fell, concealing the presence of the 2,500-ton motor ship Firestorm. Against all international regulations Captain 'Bucky' Buckminster, the ship's captain, was showing no navigation lights. If any vessel approached him on a collision course the radar screens would warn him in good time. Beaurain was going over the details of the assault plan for the last time in the main cabin.
'I trust that everyone fully understands the complex nature of the deception operation we shall be practising?'
Twenty gunners clad in underwater gear, oxygen cylinders on their backs and an assortment of arms and explosives in their possession, stared back at Beaurain and said nothing. Beaurain sensed the usual tension which was inevitable before a major operation.
'I can now tell you we have an ally on board Kometa.' Beaurain turned to the outline drawings showing the composition of the various decks of the Soviet hydrofoil. 'It is thanks to this ally that we have this diagram which should make all the difference to the success of our attack.'
'Don't we help the poor bugger?' muttered Albert rebelliously. 'If he's left aboard he'll…'
'I was just coming to that.' Beaurain placed his wooden pointer on a particular cabin. That is where you will find him waiting, sitting in front of his apparatus. He is a Pole; he is the sonar controller; his name is Peter Sobieski; he speaks English and the password he will repeat to you to ensure identification is Waterloo, Waterloo.'
'Pretty bloody appropriate,' Albert commented, 'considering we're trying to wipe out the whole lousy outfit with one blow.'
'Then don't forget that Wellington said afterwards it was a pretty damn close run thing — and I come from Belgium. Now, any questions?'
'Sobieski's sonar is the one thing which could give us away,' Palme observed. 'He will see us coming.'
'So aren't you pleased we have an ally who will be the only person checking the sonar screens. Next question.'
It was important to defuse the tension as much as possible — and yet not let any feeling of complacency or over-confidence arise. A difficult combination. Beaurain tackled the over-confidence problem now.
'But even though we have Sobieski watching those screens don't forget the opposition is — what would you call it, Henderson?'
'Formidable!' Jock Henderson stood up quickly on cue, swung round and addressed the assembled men. 'Sobieski reckons the conference will be guarded by thirty heavily-armed state security types from a special unit in East Germany. For some reason not one of them speaks a word of English.'
'That,' Beaurain interjected, 'I suspect is so they don't overhear or understand a word said at the conference which obviously will be conducted in English. Leo Gehn, the boss of I.T.E.' for example, has no other language than American.'
'I had the funny idea,' interjected Ed Cottel who was sitting next to Louise at the back, 'that both languages were the same.'
'We all dwell under our illusions,' chirped the irrepressible Albert.
There was a burst of over-loud laughter. At least, Beaurain reflected, that had eased the atmosphere a bit. He nodded to Henderson to continue.
'These MfS people have been well-trained, may have been warned to expect an intrusion, and Sobieski — again has warned they are armed with percussion grenades for dropping over the side.'
There was a general groan, which was only half-facetious, and Beaurain decided any complacency was rapidly disappearing. In the front row Palme shrugged his shoulders without making a sound. He was one of the most formidable fighters in the room.
'They are also armed with automatic weapons,' Henderson went on. 'We expect them to be patrolling the decks — and yet the object of the exercise is to seize control of the vessel without any undue noise until the last possible moment.'
'Knives in the dark and this,' Albert said laconically. He held up his hand, the edge stiff and hardened ready for a lethal chop.
'On the plus side,' Henderson told them briskly, 'we have the complex and confusing deception operation worked out by Jules Beaurain. With a bit of luck the man controlling Kometa 's de fences won't know what the hell is going on until it's too late.'
A crew member slipped into the room, made his way to Beaurain and handed him a message. Beaurain looked at it, handed it to Henderson, who glanced at the few words and stood up again.
'Gentlemen! Kometa has started to move on her prescribed easterly course. Our own plan now starts to move — phase by phase as arranged.'
Chapter Twenty-One
'Put Regula over the side,'
This had been Beaurain's first order and was the opening phase. The large launch, flying the Danish flag, had been lowered into the sea and released. Her engines — far more powerful than anyone would expect inside such a vessel — started up and she disappeared into the distance, heading after Kometa at a speed and on a course which would soon bring her up on the port side of the Soviet hydrofoil. And it was no coincidence that
