displayed.
Another block; the Packard slowed down at the intersecting street and then
started across. More shops, less trees, more dogs – these often walked by
maids. A group of teenagers were crowded around an Italian sportscar.
And then David saw the overcoat. It was just an overcoat at first; a light
grey overcoat in a doorway.
A grey overcoat. A recessed doorway.
The man was tall and thin. A tall, thin man in a light grey overcoat. In a
doorway!
My God! thought David. The man on Fifty-second Street!
The man was turned sideways, looking down into a dimly lit store window.
Spaulding could not see them but he could picture the dark, hollow eyes;
could hear the bastardized English out of somewhere in the Balkans; sense
the desperation in the man’s eyes:
There are to be no negotiations with Franz Altmfiller. . . . Heed the
lesson of Fairfax I
He had to get out of the Packard. Quickly!
He had to go back to Terraza Verde. Without Stoltz. He had to!
‘There’s a caf6 in the next block,’ said Spaulding, pointing to
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an orange canopy with lights underneath, stretching across the sidewalk.
‘Stop there. I’ll, call the embassy.’
‘You seem anxious, colonel. It can wait. I believe you.’
Spaulding turned to the German. ‘You want me to spell it out? O.K., I’ll do
that…. I don’t like you, Stoltz. And I don’t like Rhinemann; I don’t like
men who yell and bark orders and have me followed…. I’m buying from you,
but I don’t have to associate with you. I don’t have to have dinner or ride
in your automobile once our business for the day is over. Do I make myself
clear?’
6you’re clear. Though somewhat uncivilized. And ungrateful, if you don’t
mind my saying so. We saved your life earlier this evening.’
‘That’s your opinion. Not triine. Just let me off, I’ll telephone and come
out with your confirmation…. As you said, there’s no point in my lying.
You go on your way, I’ll grab a taxi.’
Stoltz instructed the driver to pull up at the orange canopy. ‘Do as you
please. And should your plans include Doctor Lyons, be advised we have men
stationed about the area. Their orders are harsh. Those designs will stay
where they are.’
‘I’m not paying for three-quarters of the merchandise regardless of what
there is back home. And I have no intention of walking into that phalanx of
robots.’
The Packard drew up to the canopy. Spaulding opened the door quickly,
slamming it angrily behind him. He walked swiftly into the lighted entrance
and asked for the telephone.
‘The ambassador has been trying to reach you for the past half-hour or so,’
said the night operator. ‘He says it’s urgent. I’m to give you a telephone
number.’ The operator drawled out the digits.
‘Thank you,’ David said. ‘Now connect me with Mr. Ballard in
Communications, please.’
‘O’Leary’s Saloon,’ came the uninterested voice of Bobby Ballard over the
wire.
‘You’re a funny man. I’ll laugh next Tuesday.’
‘The “switch” said it was you. You know Granville’s trying to find you.’
‘I heard. Where’s Jean?’
‘In her room; pining away just like you ordered.’
‘Did you get word from D.C.T
‘All wrapped. Came in a couple of hours ago; your codes are
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cleared, Row’sthe erector setT
‘The instructions – three-quarters of them – are in the box. But there are
too many playmates.’
‘Terraza VerdeT
‘Around there.’
‘Shall I send out a few FMF playground attendants?’
‘I think I’d feel better,’ said Spaulding. ‘Tell them to cruise. Nothing
else. I’ll spot them and yell if I need them.’
‘It’ll take a half-hour from the base.’
‘Thanks. No parades, please, Bobby.’
‘They’ll be so quiet no one’ll know but us Munchkins. Take care of
yourself.’
Spaulding held down the receiver with his finger, tempted to lift it,
insert another coin and call Granville…. There wasn’t time. He left the
booth and walked out the restaurant door to the Packard. Stoltz was at the
window; David saw that a trace of his previous nervousness had returned.
‘You’ve got your confirmation. Deliver the rest of the goods and enjoy your
money…. I don’t know where you come from, Stoltz, but I’ll find out and
have it bombed off the map. I’ll tell the Eighth Air Force to name the raid
after you.’
Stoltz seemed relieved at David’s surliness – as David thought he might be.
‘The man from Lisbon is complicated. I suppose that’s proper for a
complicated assignment…. We’ll call you by noon.’ Stoltz turned to the
driver. ‘Los, abfahren, machen Sie schnefil’
The green Packard roared off down the street. Spaulding waited under the
canopy to see if it made any turns; should it do so, he would return to the
cafe and wait.
It did not; it maintained a straight course. David watched until the
taillights were infinitesimal red dots. Then he turned and walked as fast
as he could without calling attention to himself toward Terraza Verde.
He reached the short block in which he’d seen the man in the light grey
overcoat and stopped. His concerns made him want to rush on; his instincts
forced him to wait, to look, to move cautiously.
The man was not on the block now; he was nowhere to be seen. David reversed
his direction and walked to the end of the sidewalk. He turned left and
raced down the street to the next comer, turning left again, now slowing
down, walking casually.
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He wished to God he knew the area better, knew the buildings behind Lyons’s
white stucco house. Others did; others were positioned in dark recesses he
knew nothing about.
Rhinemann’s guards. The man in the light grey overcoat; how many more were
with him?
He approached the intersection of Terraza Verde and crossed the road
diagonally, away from the white stucco house. He stayed out of the spill of
the lamps as best he could and continued down the pavement to the street
behind the row of houses on Terraza Verde. It was, of course, a block lined
with other houses; quaint, picturesque, quiet. Spaulding looked up at the
vertical sign: Terraza Amarilla.
San Telmo fed upon itself.
He remained at the far end of the corner under a sculptured tree and looked
toward the section of the adjacent street where he judged the rear of
Lyons’s house to be. He could barely make out the sloping tiled roof, but
enough to pinpoint the building behind it – about 150 yards away.
He also saw Rhinemann’s automobile, one of those he’d spotted during the
long, security-conscious drive from the Can Rosada. It was parked opposite
a light-bricked Italian townhouse with large gates on both sides. David
assumed those gates opened to stone paths leading to a wall or a fence
separating Lyons’s back terrace from the rear entrance of the townhouse. It
had to be something like that; Rhinemann’s guards were posted so that
anyone emerging from those gates was equally in their sightlines.
And then Spaulding remembered the crackling static of the radios from the
hallway and the kitchen and the incessant repetition of the German numbers.
Those who carried the radios had weapons. He reached beneath his jacket to
his holster and took out the Beretta. He knew the clip was filled; he
unlatched the safety, shoved the weapon into his belt and started across
the street toward the automobile.
Before he reached the opposite comer, he heard a car drive up behind him.
He had no time to run, no moment to make a decision -good or bad. His hand
went to his belt; he tried to assume a posture of indifference.
He heard the voice and was stunned.
‘Get in, you goddamned foolP
Leslie Hawkwood was behind the wheel of a small Renault
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coupe. She had reached over and unlatched the door. David caught it, his
attention split between his shock and his concern that Rhinemann’s guard –
or guards – a hundred yards away might hear the noise. There were fewer than
a dozen pedestrians within the two-block area. Rhinemann’s men had to have
been alerted.
He jumped into the Renault and with his left hand he grabbed Leslie’s right
leg above the knee, his grip a restraining vise, pressing on the nerve
lines. He spoke softly but with unmistakable intensity.
‘You back this car up as quietly as you can, and turn left down that
street.’
‘Let go I Let. .
‘Do as I say or I’ll break your kneecap off!’
The Renault was short; there was no need to use the reverse gear. Leslie
spun the wheel and the car veered into a sharp turn.
‘Slowlyl’ commanded Spaulding, his eyes on Rhinemann’s car. He could see a
head turn – two heads. And then they were out of sight.
David took his hand off the girl’s leg; she pulled it up and doubled her
shoulders down in agony. Spaulding grabbed the wheel and forced the gears