Wamphyri! Brian Lumley

‘I not know. .

‘To give you time to clear our route into Romania. You know, visas, etcetera? With a bit of luck we’ll be finished there in just a day or two.’

Krakovitch slowly nodded. ‘Maybe — but positive guarantee, no dirty work. He is KGB — you say — but if true, then he’s Russian too. And I am Russian. If he vanish . .

Quint shook his head, grasped the other’s thin elbow. ‘They both vanish!’ he said. ‘But only for a few days. Then we’ll be out of here and getting on with the job.’

Again Krakovitch gave his slow nod. ‘Maybe — if it can be arranged safely.’

Kyle and Gulharov returned. Kyle was careful. ‘That was somebody called Brown,’ he said. ‘He’s been watching us, apparently.’ He looked at Krakovitch. ‘He says your KGB tail has traced us and is on his way here. By the way, this KGB fellow is well known — his name is Theo Dolgikh.’

Krakovitch shook his head, shrugged, looked mystified. ‘I never heard of him.’

‘Did you get Brown’s number?’ Quint was eager. ‘I mean can we contact him again?’

Kyle raised his eyebrows. ‘Actually, yes,’ he nodded. He said that if things were getting sticky, he might be able to help. Why do you ask?’

Quint grinned tightly, said to Krakovitch, ‘Comrade, it might be a good idea if you were to listen carefully. Since you’re a little concerned about this, you can start working on an alibi. For from this point forward you’re hand in hand with the enemy. Your only consolation is that you’ll be working against a greater enemy.’ The grin left his face, and deadly serious he said, ‘OK, here’s what I suggest. .

On Saturday morning at 8.30 Kyle phoned Krakovitch at his and Gulharov’s hotel. The latter answered the call, grunted, fetched Krakovitch who came grumbling to the phone. He was just out of bed, could Kyle call later? While this brief show was going on, downstairs in the Genovese’s lobby, Quint was talking to Brown. At 9.15 Kyle phoned Krakovitch again and arranged a second meeting: they would meet outside Frankie’s Franchise in an hour’s time and go on from there.

There was nothing new in this arrangement; it was part of the plan worked out the night before: Kyle suspected that the phone in his room was now bugged and he simply wanted to give Theo Dolgikh plenty of advance notice. If Kyle’s phone wasn’t bugged, then Krakovitch’s surely was, which could only work out the same. Anyway, the psychic sixth senses of both Kyle and Quint were playing up a little, which told them that something was brewing.

Sure enough, when they left the Geriovese just before 10.00 A.M. and headed for the docks, they had a tail.

Dolgikh was keeping well back, but it could only be him. Kyle and Quint had to admire his tenacity, for despite his rough night he was still very much the master-spy; now his attire was that of the shipyard worker, dark-blue coveralls and a heavy bag of tools, and the blue-black stubble of twenty-four hours’ growth on his round, intense face.

‘He must have a hell of a wardrobe, this lad,’ said Kyle as he and Quint approached the narrow, still slumbering streets of Genoa’s dockland. ‘I’d hate to have to carry his luggage!’

Quint shook his head. ‘No,’ he answered, ‘I shouldn’t think so. They’ll probably have a safe house here and there’s bound to be one of their ships in the harbour. Whichever, when he requires a change of clothing, they’ll be the ones who’ll fix it for him.’

Kyle squinted at him out of the corner of his eye. ‘You know,’ he said. ‘I’m sure you’d have been better off in M15. You have a bent for it.’

‘It might make an interesting hobby.’ Quint grinned. ‘Mundane spying, that is — but I’m happy where I am. The real talent’s with INTESP. Now if our man Dolgikh were an esper, then we could be in real trouble.’

Kyle gave his companion a sharp glance, then relaxed. ‘But he isn’t or we’d have spotted him without Brown’s assistance. No, he’s simply one of their surveillance types, and pretty good at his job. I’ve been thinking of him as something big, but this is probably the biggest assignment he’s ever had.’

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