nuclear devices?’
‘I’ve never even seen a tactical nuclear device. If I could examine one
or see a blue-print, well, yes, perhaps. Otherwise, no. I know I wouldn’t
feel a thing but I still don’t much fancy being vaporized.’
‘Well, we’ll have a look at them later on tonight. They’re somewhere on
the premises. We don’t even have to look. You heard what Agnelli said –
“I can show them to you now.” ‘
‘Won’t that make them suspicious?’ George said. ‘That we didn’t ask to
see them right away? They’ll be thinking we have been having a conference
and have dreamed up some devilish scheme.’
248
‘Let them think what they like and be as suspicious as they like. We’re
as saL- as men in a church. We, my friends, are indispensable.’ George
and Vasco looked at each other, then at van Effen, but said nothing.
‘We’re also not very bright. Joop, Joachim or some of their psychopathic
Red Army Faction pals stole those nuclear devices from the US NATO arms
dump near Metnitz on the night of February 3rd. Something else happened
on that same night.’
‘February 3rd,’ George said. ‘Of course. We really are not very bright.
That was the night the De Dooms ammunition dump was blown out of
existence. Samuelson’s explosive experts trying to replenish their
supplies. An enormous crater. No replenishments and, of course, no
experts. No wonder the FFF were so desperate for our supplies and
services. We’re probably the only people around who could set off a
squib. Lloyd’s of London would approve of this.’
Vasco said: A marvellous insurance policy, to be sure. But has the
thought occurred to you that Joop or one of his lunatic associates may
know how to trigger those nuclear devices?’
‘The thought has occurred,’ van Effen said. ‘So we’ll just have to attend
to the lunatics or the devices, won’t we? Or both. But before we start
attending to anything I suggest we go inside, have a wash and brush up,
find out how thoroughly they have examined our luggage, listen to the
next riveting communication from the Dutch or British governments or the
FFF, then join our genial hosts for dinner. One would imagine that a of
Samuelson’s resources could run to a cordon bleu chef.’
Romero Agnelli greeted them genially on their entrance and at once pressed
jonge jenevers on them. ‘You must be needing this after your long stay
outside. I mean, it’s pretty cold tonight.’
‘Not for us,’ van Effen said. ‘We’re fresh-air fanatics.’
11 thought that applied only to the English. Anyway, I trust you enjoyed
your stroll.’
‘If you call pacing up and down your verandah a stroll, then, yes, we
did.’ Van Effen knew that Agnelli was perfectly well aware that they had
not once left the verandah.
249
‘And, of course, the opportunity for a private conversation.’ Agnelli was
still smiling.
‘Well, yes. Pondering our probable future, about which we know precious
little. After all, you and your friends are hardly very communicative.
We don’t know what we’re here for, what services we are expected to
perform, where we’re going, even when we’re going.’
‘That last I can tell you – eight o’clock tomorrow morning. As for the
rest, well, you and I are great believers in the need-toknow principle.’
‘True, true. But there’s one thing that we do need to know -where do we
sleep tonight? On the floor?’
‘Dear me, no. Mind you, this is no Amstel but we do have accommodation
of sorts. Come, I’ll show you. I’ve already had your baggage brought up.’
He led the way up the curving staircase and along to a door at the end
of a passageway. The room beyond was of moderate size with three single
beds. Agnelli indicated a door at the far end of the room.
‘Bathroom. No marble bath, no gold taps, but serviceable enough.’ He
looked at his watch, ‘Dinner in twenty minutes.’ He left, still smiling.
Van Effen and George sat on their beds, engaged in desultory
conversation, while Vasco looked around. In this particular kind of
looking-around Vasco was a specialist, very meticulous, very thorough.
After a few minutes he said: ‘Clear. No bugs.’
George hoisted his medium-sized suitcase on to his knees. It was one of
those fancy cases with combination locks, four figures by each of the two
keyholes, eight in all. George peered at it closely.
‘Combinations as set?’ van Effen said.
‘As set. But not untouched. Very tiny scratches. This case is brand new,
never been used before. Normally, I wouldn’t be seen dead with this
junior-executive status symbol but Annelise gave it to me for my birthday
and it would have been more than my life’s w6rth to have left home
without it. It’s been opened and closed and in very short order, too. I
don’t know of a safe-breaker in the Netherlands who could have done this.
250
Anyone who knows his job can open a conventional safe – 2 pair of good ears
or a ductor’s stethoscope can hear the tumblers click. No tumblers in this
type of lock.’
Van Effen said: ‘I’ll bet O’Brien could open the vaults of the
Amsterdam-Rotterdam bank with a bent hairpin.’
‘I wouldn’t doubt it.’ George adjusted the combination figures and opened
the case. ‘A very neat character. Everything exactly where it was except of
course where it’s naturally settled in the process of being carried.’
‘Yours, Vasco?’
Vasco unlocked his case. ‘Untouched. Spare Smith & Wesson magazines still
there.’
‘Naturally.’ Van Effen opened his own case – it hadn’t even been locked –
lifted out a rather battered toilet bag
., and took from it a burgundy-coloured aerosol
can with a chrome top. The side of the can bore
the legend: Yves Saint Laurent – Pour Homme –
Mousse ~ Raser. The aerosol, in fact, contained
no shaving foam.
‘Well,’ George said, ‘nobody’s been touching or sniffing the contents of
that lot.’
‘Obviously.’ Van Effen replaced the aerosol. ‘If they had they’d still be
here. Horizontal on the carpet. I doubt if they even opened my toiiet bag.
If there was anything worth finding, they must have reckoned, it would have
been in George’s thief-proof case.’ He took a small tablet of soap from his
toilet bag and handed it to Vasco. ‘You know what to do with this.’
‘Hygiene is all.’ Vasco went into the bathroom while van Effen and George
crossed to the window opposite the beds and opened it. As far as they could
judge in the darkness they were about fifteen feet above the cobbled
courtyard below, a courtyard shrouded in ahmost total darkness.
‘Very satisfactory, George, don’t you think?’
‘Very. Only snag is that you’ll have to make a pretty long detour to keep
in the darkness in order to reach the back of the barn. And have you
thought of anti-personnel land-mines -you know, the nasty kind that jump
three feet in the air before exploding?’
‘George, this place is run and staffed entirely by local villa-
251
gers. If, say, a laundry-maid was just kind of accidentally blown in half
-‘
‘True. Point taken. But if you were to run into a patrolling member of
the FIFF -‘
‘Anybody out on patrol on a night like this has to be a head case. Gale,
driving rain, bitter cold, thunder and lightning due any time
‘But _’
‘I’m not going to run into anyone. Someone might run into me. Velvet
gloves. Vasco’s taking his time, isn’t he?’ They moved to the bathroom
door, tried to open it and found it locked. Van Effen rattled the door
handle.
‘Put out your light,’ Vasco said. They did as he asked. Vasco opened the
door of the bathroom which was in total darkness. ‘Sorry about that,
gentlemen, but I didn’t want the watcher in the shadows to know that he
was beincy watched by another watcher in the shadows. Not, mind you, that
our fellowwatcher is very much in the shadows.’
The bathroom window was, in fact, directly opposite the door in the loft
of the barn that held the army truck on the ground floor. The man
standing in the doorway was making no great effort to conceal his
presence and the courtyard light projecting from the mill verandah was
quite strong.
‘Doesn’t seem to me to be guarding against anything very much,’ van Effen
said. ‘Unenthusiastic. Don’t blame him. Must seem like a pretty useless
exercise on a night like this.’
‘And a pretty freezing exercise, too,’ George said.
‘He generates his own heat,’ Vasco said. ‘Wait.’
They didn’t have to wait long. After less than two minutes the guard
reached behind him, lifted a bottle, to his lips and took what appeared
to be a very considerable swig from it.
‘No mineral water, that’s for sure,’ van Effen said. ‘Let’s get inside.’
They closed the bathroom door behind them and switched on the bedroom
light. Vasco handed van Effen a small metallic object sheathed in