‘Well, now, Alessandro, that wasn’t very clever, was it? If you want to hide a thing you do it inconspicuously: a padlock is conspicuous. The key.’
Alessandro spat on the deck and remained silent.
‘Spitting.’ Petersen shook his head. ‘Unpleasant, for second-rate villains. Alex.’
‘Search him?’
‘Don’t bother. Your knife.’
Alex’s knife, as one would have expected of Alex, was razor sharp. It sliced through the tough canvas of the rucksack as if through paper. Petersen peered at the contents.
‘Yes, indeed, twinges of conscience.’ He extracted a very small butane burner and an equally small kettle. The kettle had no top- the spout had a screwed top. Petersen shook the kettle: the glugging of water inside was unmistakable. Petersen turned to Carlos.
‘Doesn’t say much for the hospitality of the Colombo, does it, when a man has to bring along his own equipment for making tea or coffee or whatever.’
Carlos looked slightly puzzled. ‘Any passenger aboard this ship can have as much tea or coffee or any other drink that he wants.’ Then his face cleared. ‘For shore use, of course.’
‘Of course.’ Petersen tipped the remainder of the contents of the rucksack on to another cot, rummaged briefly around, then straightened. ‘Although, mind you, it’s difficult to see how we can make any of those refreshing beverages without any tea or coffee to make them. I’ve found out all I want to know even although I knew in advance anyway.’ He turned his attention to the fourth rucksack.
Carlos said: ‘If you’ve already found out what you want to know why keep on?’
‘Natural curiosity together with the fact that Alessandro, I’m afraid, is not a very trustworthy man. Who knows, this bag might contain a nest of vipers.’
There were no vipers but there were two more gas-grenades and a Walther with a screwed-on silencer.
‘And a stealthy killer to boot,’ Petersen said. ‘I’ve always wanted one of those.’ He put it in his pocket and opened up the last rucksack: this yielded only a small metal case about half the size of a shoe-box. Petersen turned to the nearest of his prisoners who happened to be Franco.
‘You know what’s inside this?’
Franco didn’t say whether he did not not.
Petersen sighed, placed the muzzle of his Luger against Franco’s knee-cap and said: ‘Captain Tremino, if I pull the trigger, will he walk again?’
‘Good God!’ Carlos was used to war but not this kind of war. ‘He might. He’ll be a cripple for life.’.’
Petersen took two steps back. Franco looked at Alessandro but Alessandro wasn’t looking at him. Franco looked at Petersen and the levelled Luger.
Franco said: ‘I know.’
‘Open it.’
Franco released two brass clips and swung back the lid. There was no explosion, no release of gas.
Carlos said: ‘Why didn’t you open it?’
‘Because the world is full of untrustworthy people. Lots of these boxes of tricks around. If an unauthorized opener doesn’t know where a secret switch or button is he’s going to inhale a very nasty gas. Most of the latest safes incorporate some such device.’ He took the box from Franco. The interior was shaped and lined with velvet and contained glass ampoules, two round boxes and two small hypodermic syringes. Petersen took out one of the round boxes and shook it: it rattled. Petersen handed the box to Carlos.
‘Should interest a medical man. At a guess, a variety of liquids and tablets to render the victim temporarily or permanently unconscious, by which I mean dead. Seven ampoules, you observe. One green, three blue, three pink. At a guess, the green is scopolamine, an aid to flagging memories. As for the difference in colour in the other six ampoules, there can be only one reason. Three are lethal, three non-lethal. Wouldn’t you agree, Captain?’
‘It’s possible.’ It was Carlos’ night for being unhappy and Petersen was no longer as surprised by his unhappiness as he had been earlier, nor at the obvious apprehension in which he held Alessandro. ‘There’s no means of telling one from the other, of course.’
‘I wouldn’t bet on that,’ Petersen said. He turned round as George came through the doorway. ‘All is well?’
‘A little trouble with the young lady,’ George said. ‘She put up a surprisingly spirited resistance to the confiscation of her radio.’
‘Nothing surprising about that. Fortunately, you’re bigger than she is.’
‘I’m hardly proud of that. The radios are in the captain’s cabin.’ George looked around the cabin which looked as if a small tornado had lately passed by. ‘Untidy lot, aren’t they?’
‘I helped a little.’ Petersen took the box from Carlos and handed it to George. ‘What do you make of that?’
It is difficult to conceive of a beaming, plump and cherubic face changing in an instant to one of graven stone but that was what happened to George’s.
‘Those are death capsules.’
‘I know.’
‘Alessandro’s?’
‘Yes.’
George looked at Alessandro for some seconds, nodded, and turned back to Petersen. ‘I think perhaps we should have a talk with our friend.’
‘You’re making a mistake.’ Carlos’ voice was not quite as steady as it could have been. I’m a doctor. You don’t know human nature. Alessandro will never talk.’
George faced him. His expression hadn’t changed and Carlos visibly recoiled.
‘Be quiet, little man. Five minutes alone with me, ten at the most, and any man in the world will talk. Alessandro is a five minute man.’
‘It may come to that,’ Petersen said. ‘It probably will. But first things first. Apart from the capsules, we picked up one or two other interesting objects. This silenced gun, for instance.’ He showed George the Walther. ‘Two gas-grenades and a spirit burner and kettle and about two hundred rounds of ammunition. What do you think the kettle was for?’
‘One thing only. He was going to gas us, steal some real or imagined document, steam open the envelope- odd, that he should be convinced that there was an envelope around -study the contents, reseal the envelope, return it to our cabin, gas us again, wait a few seconds, replace the envelope, remove the gas-canister and leave. When we woke up in the morning we almost certainly wouldn’t be aware that anything had happened.’
‘That’s the only way it could have happened or was intended to happen. There are three questions. Why was Alessandro so interested in us? What were his future plans? And who sent him?’
‘We’ll find all that out easily enough,’ George said.
‘Of course we will.’
‘Not aboard this ship,’ Carlos said.
George studied him with mild interest. ‘Why not?’
‘There will be no torture aboard any vessel I command.’ The words sounded more resolute than the tone of the voice.
‘Carlos,’ Petersen said. ‘Don’t make things any more difficult for yourself – or us – than you can help. Nothing easier than to lock you up with this bunch of villains: you’re not the only person who can find his way to Ploce. We don’t want to nor do we intend to. We realize you find yourself in an invidious situation through no fault of your own. No torture. We promise.’
‘You’ve just said you’ll find out.’
‘Psychology.’
‘Drugs?’ Carlos was immediately suspicious. ‘Injections?’
‘Neither. Subject closed. I had another question but the answer is obvious – why did Alessandro choose to surround himself with such a bunch of incompetents? Camouflage. A dangerous man might well be tempted to surround himself with other dangerous men. Alessandro’s too smart.’ Petersen looked around. ‘No heavy metal objects and only a cat could get out of that port-hole. Carlos, would you have one of your men bring us a sledge-hammer or as near to it as you have aboard.’
The suspicion returned. ‘What do you want a sledgehammer for?’
‘To beat out Alessandro’s brains,’ George said patiently. ‘Before we start asking questions.’
‘To close this door from the outside,’ Petersen said. ‘The clips, you understand.’
‘Ah!’ Carlos stepped into the passage-way, gave an order and returned. ‘I’ll go and have a look at the fallen hero. Not much I can do for him, I’m afraid.
‘A favour, Carlos. When we leave, may we go up to your cabin or whatever you call the place we met you first?’
‘Certainly. May one ask why?’
‘If you’d been standing frozen in that damned passage-way for an hour and a half you’d understand why.’
‘Of course. Restoratives. Help yourselves, gentlemen. I’ll step by and let you know how Cola is.’ He paused then added drily: ‘That should give you plenty of time to prepare your intensive interrogation of me.’
He left almost immediately to be replaced by Pietro, bearing a small sledge-hammer. They closed the door and secured one of the eight water-tight clips. One was enough. George struck it with one blow of the hammer. That, too, was enough – not even a gorilla could now have opened that clip from the inside. They left the sledge-hammer in the passage-way and went directly to the engine-room, which was unmanned, as they had known it would be: all controls were operated from the wheelhouse. It took them less than a minute to find what they were looking for. They made a brief excursion to the upper deck then repaired to Carlos’ cabin.