knots. Maybe you should consider that.”
“I have,” Dillon told him.
“There’s no way you can control that current by swimming. It’s too strong. But if you’re hanging on the stern as I approach and I drop you at just the right moment, you could have a chance.”
“Fine,” Dillon said. “It’ll do me.”
“Crazy.” Salter shook his head. “Crazy.”
· Dillon grinned, found a packet of cigarettes, and went out on deck, standing under the canopy and looked at the rain. Salter joined him.
“I love this old river..” He leaned against the bulkhead.
“I was a river rat when I was a kid. My old man did a runner and my mum did bits of cleaning to keep body and s0l together. Anything I could nick I did, fags, booze, anything.”
“And progressed from there.”
“I;ve never done drugs, never done women, that’s filth as far as I’m concerned. Mind you, I’ve always been a hard bastard. I’ve kill6d in my time, but only
some sod who was out to kill me.” “I see.” “And you?”
“Oh, I’ve been at war with the world for more than twenty years.”
“With that accent, does that mean what I think it does?”
Dillon said, “Not any longer, Harry, I do work for a rather shadowy branch of the Security Services.
Let’s leave it at that.”
“All fight, my old son.” Salter grinned. “But with what you’ve got ahead of you, you’re going to need food in your belly. We’ll all go up to Wapping High Street. Best fish-and-chips shop in London, there.” Just BEFORE THREE THE RIVER QUEEN PASSED under Westminster Bridge and turned, fighting the surging tide. The deck lights were out, only a subdued light in the wheelhouse. Dillon’s gear was laid out in the stem and Salter stood there with him.
‘I’m going to take over from Billy at the wheel.
When he comes down here he’ll have a two-way radio.
You hang off at the stem. You’ll be okay as far as the propellers go. With the design of this boat
they’re well undemeat!’
“Then what?”
“At what I consider the right moment I’ll call Billy on the radio, and when he gives you the shout, you go. If I get it right, the current should bang you against the Terrace. If I don’t, God help you.”
“Thanks, Harry.” Dillon grinned. “You’re a hell of a fella.”
· “Get stuffed, you bloody lunatic,” Salter told him and walked away.
Dillon turned to Hall and Baxter, who stood waiting.
“All right, lads, let’s get this lot on.” TEN MINUTES LATER, lqE HUNG ON A LINE bP, FROM the stem rail, his two equipment bags trailing from his belt, aware of Billy leaning over the rail above him. They were in the shadows, the water very turbulent, and. Dillon was conscious of the fierceness of the current. And then Billy called down to him and he let go the line.
HE WENT DOWN FIVE OR SIX FEET AND THE force of the current was incredible, like a great hand seizing him in a relentless grip. He was thrown to the surface, was aware of the River Queen disappearing into the dark, of the lights of the Victorian lamps on · the terrace, and then he went under again. A moment later he banged against the stonework of the Terrace, surfaced, and cannoned into the scaffolding that dropped O-o-wn into the water at the division of the Lords and Commons.
He hung there for a long moment and then unbuckled his inflatable and air tank and let the current take them. He did the same with his fins and mask, paused, then started to climb. He went over the parapet, trailing his two equipment bags, and crouched in the shadows.
A door opened further along the Terrace and a security guard appeared. He walked forward, stood at the parapet, and lit a cigarette, the smoke pungent on the damp air. Dillon waited for five agonizing minutes until finally the man tossed the stub of his cigarette into the river, turned, and went back inside. Dillon unfastened the lines of his equipment bags, then unzipped his diving suit and stood there naked except for swimming trunks. He dropped the diving suit into the river, then picked up the equipment bags and went to the side of the Terrace Bar where there were storerooms. He opened the small equipment bag, took out the Halogen lamp, and opened the purse containing the picldocks. He switched on the lamp and went to work. It took him less than five minutes and the door opened.