Devlin was conscious of a great sadness, forgot for the moment everything else except that, for years, he had liked this man more than most.
‘That’s life,’ he said. ‘Always some bugger telling you what to do.’
‘Living our lives for us, you mean?’ Cussane said. ‘Schoolteachers, the police, union leaders, politicians, parents?’
‘Even priests,’ Devlin said gently.
‘Yes, I think I see now what the anarchists mean when they say “Shoot an authority figure today”.’ The evening paper was on a chair with a headline referring to the Pope’s visit to England. Cussane picked it up. ‘The Pope, for instance.’
Devlin said, ‘A bad joke, that.’
‘But why should I be joking?’ Cussane asked him. ‘You know what my brief was all those years ago, Liam? You know what Maslovsky told me my task was? To create chaos, disorder, fear and uncertainty in the West. I’ve helped keep the Irish conflict going, by hitting counter-productive targets, causing great harm on occasion to both Catholic and Protestant causes; IRA, UVF, I’ve pulled everyone in. But here.’ He held up the newspaper with the photo of Pope John Paul on the front page. ‘How about this for the most counter-productive target of all time? Would they like that in Moscow?’ He nodded to Tanya. ‘You must know Maslovsky well enough by now. Would it please him, do you think?’
‘You’re mad,’ she whispered.
‘Perhaps.’ He tossed a length of cord across to her. Tie his wrists behind his back. No tricks, Liam.’
He stood well back, covering them with the Stechkin. There was little for Devlin to do except submit. The girl tied
his hands awkwardly. Cussane pushed him down on his face beside the fire.
‘Lie down beside him,’ he told Tanya.
He pulled her arms behind her and tied her hands securely, then her ankles. Then he checked Devlin’s wrists and tied his ankles also.
‘So, you’re not going to kill us?’ Devlin said.
‘Why should I?’
Cussane stood up, walked across the room, and with one swift jerk, pulled the telephone wire out of the wall.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Canterbury,’ Cussane said. ‘Eventually, that is.’
‘Canterbury?’
‘That’s where the Pope will be on Saturday. They’ll all be there. The cardinals, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Prince Charles. I know these things, Liam. I run the press office at the Secretariat, remember.’
‘All right, let’s be sensible,’ Devlin said. ‘You’ll never get near him. The last thing the Brits want is the Pope dead on their hands. They’ll have security at Canterbury that would make even the Kremlin sit up and take notice.’
‘A real challenge,’ Cussane said calmly.
‘For God’s sake, Harry, shoot the Pope. To what end?’
‘Why not?’ Cussane shrugged. ‘Because he’s there. Because I’ve nowhere else to go. If I’ve got to die, I might as well go down doing something spectacular.’ He smiled down. ‘And you can always try and stop me, Liam, you and McGuiness and Ferguson and his people in London. Even the KGB would move heaven and earth to stop me if they could. It would certainly leave them with a lot of explaining to do.’
Devlin exploded. ‘Is that all it is to you, Harry? A game?’
‘The only one in town,’ Cussane said. ‘For years, I’ve been manipulated by other people. A regular puppet on a string. This time, I’m in charge. It should be an interesting change.’
He moved away and Devlin heard the French window open and close. There was silence. Tanya said, ‘He’s gone.’
Devlin nodded and struggled into a sitting position. He forced his wrists against the cord, but was wasting his time and knew it.
Tanya said, ‘Liam, do you think he means it? About the Pope?’
‘Yes,”‘ Devlin said grimly. ‘I believe he does.’
Once at his cottage, Cussane worked quickly and methodically. From a small safe hidden behind books in his study he took his Irish passport in his usual identity. There were also two British ones in different names. In one he was still a priest, in another a journalist. There was also two thousand pounds in notes of varying sizes, English not Irish.
He got a canvas holdall from his wardrobe of a type favoured by army officers and opened it. There was a board panel in the bottom which he pressed open. Inside he placed most of the money, the false passports, a Walther PPK with a Carswell silencer and several additional clips of ammunition, a block of plastic explosive, and two timing pencils. As an afterthought, he got a couple of Army field dressing packs from the bathroom cupboard and some morphine ampoules and put them in also. Like the soldier he thought himself tobe, he had to be ready for anything. He replaced the panel, rolled up one of his black cassocks and placed it in the bottom of the bag. A couple of shirts and what he thought of as civilian ties, socks, toilet articles. His prayer book went in as a reflex habit as did the other things. The Host in the silver pyx, the holy oils. As a priest it had been second nature to travel with them for years now.