‘Ah!’ There was some disappointment in the other’s tone. ‘Well, that’s the way it goes. Thanks for
calling, sir. So you’re definitely cancelling, right?’
‘Yes.’ Roberts jiggled the phone a bit. ‘I’m afraid I have to . . . Damn bad line, this! Anyway, something’s come up, and —,
‘Well, don’t worry about it, Mr Bodescu,’ the travel agent cut him off. ‘It happens all the time. And anyway, I haven’t yet found the time to make any real inquiries. So no harm done. But do let me know if you change your mind again, won’t you?’
‘Oh, indeed! I will, I will. Most helpful of you. Sorry to have been such a nuisance.’
‘Not at all, sir. Bye now.’
‘Er, goodbye!’ Roberts put the phone down.
Darcy Clarke, who had been party to this exchange, said, ‘Sheer genius! Well done, Chief!’
Roberts looked up but didn’t smile. ‘Romania!’ he repeated, ominously. ‘Things are hotting up, Darcy. I’ll be glad when Kyle gets his call through. He’s two hours overdue.’
At that very moment the phone rang again.
Clarke inclined his head knowingly. ‘Now that’s what I call a talent. If it doesn’t happen — make it!’
Roberts pictured Romania in his mind’s eye — his own interpretation, for he’d never been there — then superimposed an image of Alec Kyle over a rugged Romanian countryside. He closed his eyes and Kyle’s picture came up in photographic — no, live — detail.
‘Roberts here.’
‘Guy?’ Kyle’s voice came back, crisp with static. ‘Listen, I intended to route this through London, John Grieve, but I couldn’t get him.’ Roberts knew what he meant: obviously he would have liked the call to be one hundred per cent secure.
‘I can’t help you there,’ he answered. ‘There’s no one that special around right now. Are there problems, then?’
‘Shouldn’t think so.’ In the eye of Roberts’s mind, Kyle was frowning. ‘We lacked a bit of privacy in Genoa, but that cleared up. As for why I’m late: it’s like contacting Mars getting through from here! Talk about antiquated systems. If I didn’t have local help. . . anyway, have you got anything for me?’
‘Can we talk straight?’
‘We’ll have to.’
Roberts quickly brought him up to date, finishing with Bodescu’s thwarted trip to Romania. In his mind’s eye he saw, as well as physically hearing, Kyle’s gasp of horror. Then the head of INTESP got hold of his emotions; even if Bodescu’s plans to come over here hadn’t been foiled, still it would have been too late for him.
‘By the time we’ve finished over here,’ he grimly told Roberts, ‘there’ll be nothing left for him anyway. And by the time you’ve finished over there . . . he won’t be able to go anywhere.’ Then he told Roberts in detail exactly what he wanted done. It took him a good fifteen minutes to make sure he covered everything.
‘When?’ Roberts asked him when he was finished.
Kyle was cautious. ‘Are you part of the surveillance team? I mean, do you physically go out to the house and watch him?’
‘No. I co-ordinate. I’m always here at the HO. But I do want to be in on the kill.’
‘Very well, I’ll tell you when it’s to be,’ said Kyle. ‘But you’re not to pass it on to the others! Not until as close as possible to zero hour itself. I don’t want Bodescu picking it out of someone’s mind.’
‘That makes sense. Wait — ‘ Roberts sent Clarke into the next room, out of earshot. ‘OK, when?’
‘Tomorrow — in daylight. Let’s settle for 5.00 P.M. your time. By then we’ll have done our bit, just an hour or so earlier. There are certain obvious reasons why daylight will be best, and on your side of the job one not so obvious reason. When Harkley goes up, it’ll make a big blaze. You’ll need to make sure local fire services don’t get there too soon and put it out. If it was at night, the flames would be visible for miles. Anyway, that’s for you to work on. But the last thing you want is outside interference, OK?’
‘Got it,’ said Roberts.