KATHLEEN WAS SAYING, ‘DAZANE, THAT NEW heart pill you’re on. You have to be careful to stick to the right dosage.” “Sure and I know that. One, three time a day.” “I checked with Doctor Sieed. If you took three at the same time it would actually promote an angina attack.” “And that would be curtains?”
“Let’s say. you wouldn’t feel too good for a while.” At that moment Marco Sollazo appeared before them, elegant in his dark suit and long Armani raincoat.
“Good morning, Mr. Ryan.” He smiled at Kathleen.
“Miss Ryan.” Ryan went very still. “You’ve got the wrong names, mister, you must have made a mistake.” “I don’t think so.” Kathleen said, “Leave off, Uncle Michael.” She looked at $ollazo grimly. “What’s it about?” :’To start with, 1 know all about you. Michael and Kathleen Ryan, still wanted in Ulster for a number of terrorist activities on behalf of the Loyalist cause.
I su.ppose the British could apply, for your extradition if they knew where you were, Miss Ryan.” “Damnyou,” she said. “What is it you want?” “The gold bullion that went down ten years ago on the Irish Rose of.f the coast of County Down, and please don’t say you don’t know what I’m talking about.'” They both sat there staring at him. ‘Finally Ryan said, “You seem to know a great deal.” “I know everything.” “Right, then,” Ryan told him. “Then you must know that the Irish Rose sank in the darkness with a bad sea running. We were off course, I don’t know where it went down.” “Yes, you do. You had a gadget called a Master Navigator in your pocket, a sort of mini computer that
perfectly calculated your course and position.”
Ryan, for once, looked amazed. “But how could you know such a thing? Only myself knew that and Kathleen when I told her.”
“Someone was standing behind a tree listening when you told her. A man you knew as Martin Keogh.”
It was Kathleen who spoke now, her face solemn.
“You speak as if he was someone else?”
“Oh, he was. Mr Ryan, did you ever meet the IRA
Chief of Staff at that time, Jack Barry?”
“Not face-to-face.”
“He knew your original plan had been turned down by your Army Council, heard a whisper that you intended to go ahead privately, so he ordered his best mah to infiltrate you.”
Kathleen’s face was very pale. “Who was he?”
“A man called Sean Dillon. You’ve heard of him?”
“Oh, yes.” Ryan nodded/”A legend. The man of a thousand faces they used to say. He was once an actor. Foiled the Army, the RUC for a year.” He shook his head. “Never got lifted once. So he was Martin.”
“The bastard,” Kathleen said.
“He could have killed you On the road that morn–ing and taken the Master Navigatt)r. Barry was annoyed with him for not doing so. He told Barry he liked you.” He smiled at the girl. “And you.:’
“Fuck him.” There were hot tears in her eyes. “I hope he rots in hell.”
“Actually he’s working for a highly secret branch of British Intelligence these days.”
“God save us.” Ryan laughed out loud. “And wouldn’t that be the Martin we knew and loved.” “I KNOW WHO YOU ARE NOW,” RYAN SAID.
“You’re the Mafia.attorney who looks after paolo
Salamone. You work for the Russo Family.”
“Does that matter? Look, to business. I know
everything right down to the fact that you, Miss
Ryan, are in possession of false Irish passports in the
names of Daniel and Nancy Forbes. I know that you’re a nurse at Green Rapids General Hospital.”
“You know a lot, mister, but where is this leading?”
“To me arranging the escape of your uncle from the hospital when he goes for his heart scan on Tuesday morning.”
There was a total silence and a kind of awe on Ryan’s face. “Dear Ood, and you actually mean it.” “Certainly.”
“Just a minute,” Kathleen put in and her face was hard. “What would he have to do in exchange for that?”
“Disclose the position of the Irish Rose,” Sollazo said calmly. “We’ve done a deal with Jack Barry. I saw him the other day in Dublin. He’s no longer Chief of Staff, but he’s willing to co-operate on behalf of his movement. A preliminary survey to locate the ship first, then my organization will.lay on some suitable salvage operation as a front.” x98 “You’re working with the fucking IRA?” Kath!een said.