Lord Altamount was dictating.
The voice that had once been ringing and dominant was now reduced to a gentleness that had still an unexpected special appeal. It seemed to come gently out of the shadows of the past, but to be emotionally moving in a way that a more dominant tone would not have been.
James Kleek was taking down the words as they came, pausing every now and then when a moment of hesitation came, allowing for it and waiting gently himself.
'Idealism,' said Lord Altamount, 'can arise and indeed usually does so when moved by a natural antagonism to injustice. That is a natural revulsion from crass materialism. The natural idealism of youth is fed more and more by a desire to destroy those two phases of modern life, injustice and crass materialism. That desire to destroy what is evil, sometimes leads to a love of destruction for its own sake. It can lead to a pleasure in violence and in the infliction of pain. All this can be fostered and strengthened from outside by those who are gifted by a natural power of leadership. This original idealism arises in a non-adult stage. It should and could lead on to a desire for a new world. It should lead also towards a love of all human beings of goodwill towards them. But those who have once learned to love violence for its own sake will never become adults. They will be fixed in their own retarded development and will so remain for their lifetime.'
The buzzer went. Lord Altamount gestured and James Kleek lifted it up and listened.
'Mr Robinson is here.'
'Ah yes. Bring him in. We can go on with this later.'
James Kleek rose, laying aside his notebook.
Mr Robinson came in. James Kleek set a chair for him, one sufficiently widely proportioned to receive his form without discomfort. Mr Robinson smiled his thanks and arranged himself by Lord Altamount's side.
'Well,' said Lord Altamount. 'Got anything new for us? Diagrams? Circles? Bubbles?'
He seemed faintly amused.
'Not exactly,' said Mr Robinson imperturbably, 'it's more like plotting the course of a river –'
'River?' said Lord Altamount. 'What sort of a river?'
'A river of money,' said Mr Robinson, in the slightly apologetic voice he was wont to use when referring to his speciality. 'It's really just like a river, money is — coming from somewhere and definitely going to somewhere. Really very interesting — that is, if you are interested in these things — It tells its own story, you see –'
James Kleek looked as though he didn't see, but Altamount said, 'I understand. Go on.'
'It's flowing from Scandinavia — from Bavaria — from the USA — from South-east Asia — fed by lesser tributaries on the way –'
'And going — where?'
'Mainly to South America — meeting the demands of the now securely established Headquarters of Militant Youth –'
'And representing four of the five intertwined Circles you showed us — Armaments, Drugs, Scientific and Chemical Warfare Missiles as well as Finance?'
'Yes — we think we know now fairly accurately who controls these various groups –'
'What about Circle J — Juanita?' asked James Kleek.
'As yet we cannot be sure.'
'James has certain ideas as to that,' said Lord Altamount. 'I hope he may be wrong — yes, I hope so. The initial J is interesting. What does it stand for — Justice? Judgment?'
'A dedicated killer,' said James Kleek. 'The female of the species is more deadly than the male.'
'There are historical precedents,' admitted Altamount. 'Jael setting butter in a lordly dish before Sisera — and afterwards driving the nail through his head. Judith executing Holofernes, and applauded for it by her countrymen. Yes, you may have something there.'
'So you think you know who Juanita is, do you?' said Mr Robinson. 'That's interesting.'
'Well, perhaps I'm wrong, sir, but there have been things that made me think –'
'Yes,' said Mr Robinson, 'We have all had to think, haven't we? Better say who you think it is, James.'
'The Countess Renata Zerkowski.'
'What makes you pitch upon her?'
'The places she's been, the people she's been in contact with. There's been too much coincidence about the way she has been turning up in different places, and all that. She's been in Bavaria . She's been visiting Big Charlotte there. What's more, she took Stafford Nye with her. I think that's significant –'
'You think they're in this together?' asked Altamount.
'I wouldn't like to say that. I don't know enough about him, but…' he paused.
'Yes,' said Lord Altamount, 'there have been doubts about him. He was suspected from the beginning.'
'By Henry Horsham?'
'Henry Horsham for one, perhaps. Colonel Pikeaway isn't sure, I imagine. He's been under observation. Probably knows it, too. He's not a fool.'
'Another of them,' said James Kleek savagely. 'Extraordinary, how we can breed them, how we trust them, tell 'em our secrets, let them know what we're doing, go on saying: 'If there's one person I'm absolutely sure of, it's — oh, Mclean, or Burgess, or any of the lot.' And now — Stafford Nye.'
'Stafford Nye, indoctrinated by Renata alias Juanita,' said Mr Robinson.
'There was that curious business at Frankfurt airport,' said Kleek, 'and there was the visit to Cahrlotte. Stafford Nye, I gather, has since been in South America with her. As for she herself — do we know where she is now?'
'I daresay Mr Robinson does,' said Lord Altamount. 'Do you, Mr Robinson?'
'She's in the United States . I've heard that after staying with friends in Washington or near it, she was in Chicago , then in California and that she went from Austin to visit a top-flight scientist. That's the last I've heard.'
'What's she doing there?'
'One would presume,' said Mr Robinson in his calm voice, 'that she is trying to obtain information.'
'What information?'
Mr Robinson sighed. 'That is what one wishes one knew. One presumes that it is the same information that we are anxious to obtain, and that she is doing it on our behalf. But one never knows — it may be for th other side.'
He turned to look at Lord Altamount.
'Tonight, I understand, you are travelling to Scotland . Is that right?'
'Quite right.'
'I don't think he ought to, sir,' said James Kleek. He turned an anxious face to his employer. 'You've not been so well lately, sir. It'll be a very tiring journey whichever way you go. Air or train. Can't you leave it to Munro and Horsham?'
'At my age it's a waste of time to take care,' said Lord Altamount. 'If I can be useful I would like to die in harness, as the saying goes.'
He smiled at Mr Robinson.
'You'd better come with us, Robinson.'
Chapter 23
JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND
The Squadron Leader wondered a little what it was all about. He was accustomed to being left only partly in the picture. That was Security's doing, he supposed. Taking no chances. He'd done this sort of thing before more than once. Flying a plane of people out to an unlikely spot, with unlikely passengers, being careful to ask no questions except such as were of an entirely factual nature. He knew some of his passengers on this flight but not all of them. Lord Altamount he recognized. An ill man, a very sick man, he thought, a man who, he judged, kept himself alive by sheer willpower. The keen hawk-faced man with him was his special guard dog, presumably. Seeing
