the door. I'll take the other side.' He turned to Martin and the pilot. 'You two, get the hell out of here, and do what you have to.' He paused, then a strange look came into his eyes: a look with fear, hope and determination all mixed in.
The, I have an appointment with my daughter – and with one or two people who are going to wish they had never met her.'
98
They heard the Vauxhall Senator's tyres sizzle on the rough tarmac road, and saw the beam of its headlights swing round as it slowed to a halt, facing diagonally into the hangar. Arrow was almost caught in the sweep of the light as it lanced into the big shed through the gap in the doors. Just in time he jumped back into his corner hiding-place.
They heard a car door open. Then a voice, familiar to Skinner, said, 'Thank you, Dave, this is for you.'
The sound of the gunshot followed less than a second later, then sudden, reflex female reactions. Two women screaming. Skinner thought. Ingo could not have warned Ariel about his plans for Dave.
He tensed himself in the dark, and flicked off the safety-catch of the Browning. He was ready for instant action, but not for what came next.
'All right. Pops. You and your boys better come out now.
Don't want pretty daughter to get hurt.' Ingo called directly into the hangar.
For once in his life. Skinner was taken completely by surprise.
'Come on. Bob,' Ingo called again. 'If you're in there, you step out within three seconds. If you're not there, well, I don't need her any more, so I just shoot her now. Just like poor Dave. I didn't tell him it was only a little plane. Come on out now. Your last chance.'
'OK,' Skinner roared from the shadows of the hangar. He left his place of concealment, the Browning still in his hand, but pointing to the ground, and stepped through the opening, out into the halogen light, out to face the kidnappers and his daughter.
Both the front and back offside doors of the Senator were wide open. Ingo stood beside the car, pressing Alex tight against him.
His left hand held one end of a thick leather belt which was looped, through its buckle, around her neck. His right hand Pressed a pistol to her temple.
Cold hard rage swept over Skinner like an Arctic wave. Hi right fist tightened on the gun. He wanted very badly to kill t'' man now, and knew that there was nothing left in him, no 1 shred of restraint to stay his hand. He looked Ingo dead in the e: with such fearsome anger that for a second it penetrated the oti man's coolness and made him flinch, even with his gun held cl to Alex's head.
'You will let my daughter go now,' said Skinner in a holli voice, 'and then I will deal with you.'
But Ingo held on to his nerve, and Skinner saw that Alex's n had not exaggerated the menace of the man.
'No, no, Bob. Let her go now? You must think I am crazy. Now you – you look a little nuts. If you are still trying to trick me, it will be bad for Alex.' He pushed the muzzle of his gun harder against the girl's temple. 'Now where are the rest? Tell them to show themselves.'
Skinner opened his mouth to call out, but then heard a movement behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Adam Arrow step into the light.? 'That's good. But where's the other one?'? 'Who?'; 'This Martin, the one that Alex told me all about. You wouldn't leave your right-hand man out of something like this.'
'Where do you think he is? I sent him off in the chopper to call up the heavy squad.'
Ingo laughed. 'Then he'll be too late. We're fuelled up and ready to go, and no one will ever track me in this thing. I can go too low, too slow for the radar. It will just think I'm a fat bird.
So, come on, let's get on with it. Your guns on the ground, please.'
Ingo glanced towards Arrow as he threw his pistol on the ground – and in that instant Skinner snapped his Browning up to a firing position, left hand on right wrist. It was pointed directly between the man's eyes. As he held his aim. Skinner felt an icy coolness sweep over him, felt the presence of the other man, the man in the closet, as Sarah had described him.
'No, son,' he said calmly and steadily. 'You don't understand.
It ends here. You just said you weren't crazy. So work this out. I know for certain that if you take Alex away from here, you'll kill her just like you killed the girl in the farmhouse, and your driver there. So I will not let you take her away. If she is to die, she will die with me, her father, beside her. But if you do kill her, even if you harm just a single hair on her head, then I will shoot you at that very moment. Believe me, that is my solemn promise. If you're not crazy, you don't want to die. So let her go. Now!' The last word was as soft as a whisper, but it carried the force of a shout.
Death stood surely before him, and yet Ingo Svart laughed in its face. And in that second Skinner looked at his daughter, and saw only her concern for him, not fear for herself.
'Pops,' she mouthed silently.
'No, poor old Bob,' said Ingo, 'it is you who don't understand your situation. Time for our last surprise, I think.' He called over his shoulder. 'Ariel!'
The near-side passenger door of the Senator opened, and a woman stepped out slowly. But it was not Ariel – not yet.
It was Sarah.
She looked helplessly at Bob, then shook her head.
And then another woman stepped out. Julia. But not Julia – Ariel.
The doe-eyes which Skinner had come to know so well were now hard as flints as they stared across at him. Her smile, previously warm and wide, was cold, tight and controlled. She held a gun to Sarah's side, and stood pressed close to her.
'So now, I think, you will take your pistol off my brother, and we will see if we can reach some agreement.' Her voice was as dark as her eyes.
Her accent seemed to have changed too. It was clipped, more European in origin. Her hair, usually flowing, was pulled back into a long heavy pony-tail. She was dressed functionally in jeans and a white short-sleeved top, far removed from either the flowery or the formal styles of the Julia Shahor that he had thought he knew.
'So how did you…?' he began. But he could guess.
'Don't blame Andy, Bob. He told me nothing we didn't know already – until he picked me up tonight. I was just about to leave his place to meet up with Ingemar when he called to tell me of your excellent idea that Sarah and I should look after each other. Then he said that he had to go catch a helicopter. Not a plane, a helicopter. That's when I knew for sure that you hadn't bought our escape story, and that you wouldn't just set an ambush at the airport but would try to trace us to wherever we were heading. We expected you'd probably find some way to track us in the end. I know you're a very dangerous man, especially where your beloved Alex is concerned. So when Andy said that, I decided we had to take Sarah too, just to make sure.'
A self-satisfied smile crept across her face. 'Did our little surprise give you a scare last night? Sorry about that. but you have really annoyed us. We have been planning this operation for two years. We committed finally when I was offered the Film Festival contract. Imagine, to be running an operation, and to be in on the police security briefings. We planned every detail, down to the last little item, even to 'Auntie' staying with me, to give me an excuse to get away from Filmhouse at odd hour?.'
She's enjoying this. thought Skinner. Keep her talking, boy. Wait for the moment, then take it. By God, you take it. The thought sent a thrill of anticipation running through him.;?
Ariel went on. 'We ran this type of operation once before inp South Africa. It worked so well there, we really didn't think we'dj need a back-up plan this time. But when we did, Alex working in the same show as Ingo was such a gift, and my getting involved with Andy was the icing on the cake. The break-in thing at my house was clever, wasn't it. Poor Ray staged that one for me, and Andy was hooked. That's Andy's one weakness, you know. He's vulnerable to love. Such a pity, because he turned out to be my one weakness too.'
For a moment Ariel paused, her boasting turned to wistfulness.
