Floodgate

"Apart from yourselves? The three of us, Mr Riordan whom you haven"t met but have read about, Joop, and Joachim. Why?"

""Please. My turn for questions. You travel in the mini-bus?" "Well, no. We"d hoped there would be plenty of room in the truck., No, indeed, van Effen thought. They wanted to keep the closest possible eye on the three of them and the precious contents of the truck. "How many cars?"

"Cars?"Agnelli looked faintly surprised. "No cars. Why?" "Why?" Van Effen looked at the ceiling, then at George, then back at Agnelli. "Why? Tell me, Mr Agnelli, have you ever transported stolen Government property before?"

"This will be a new experience for me."

"I want two cars. One to follow the truck at two or three hundred metres, the other to follow the first car at a similar distance." "Ah! Well, now, I appreciate this. You do not wish to be followed." "I have a rooted objection to being followed. One chance in a million. We do not take that chance."

"Good, good. Joop and Joachim. I"ll phone now."

"Last question. We forgot to discuss this. Do we return to the city tonight?"

"No."

"You should have told us. We do require a tooth-brush or two. However, we guessed right and packed some gear. Three minutes in the lobby."

Back in his room van Effen said: "George, I"ve said it before and say it again. Your career has been a wasted one, ruined and misplaced. That was splendid, quite splendid."

George made a mock-modest gesture of depreciation. "It was nothing." "How to establish a moral ascendancy in one easy lesson. They"re going to go out of their way not to step on our toes. And did you gather the impression, George, that they need us more than we need them. Or, at least, that they think so?"

"Yes. Intriguing."

"Very. Second, they know that they"re not going to be followed. It was our suggestion, so that makes us trustworthy?"

"Anyone can see that. It will also, we trust, make them relax their vigilance."

"We trust. Third, a n thanks to you, it is certain that Agnelli has no idea whatsoever who I am. Agnelli is sadly in need of a course of instruction from you. He"s a poor dissembler and over-reacts too easily. it is not possible, that, knowing who I was, he could have sat at the same table without giving himself away. Lastly, it seems fairly certain that we"ll be safe until or unless they find out who we are or until we are no longer of any use to them - when they have achieved whatever it is they want to achieve, that is. But I think the latter unlikely. I could understand them wanting to dispose of us if we were to betray their ident.i.ty but their ident.i.ty is already well known - the names of those in Dessens" house last night will probably be in every major newspaper in Europe this morning. Or by nightfall. And the TV and radio. I asked Mr Wieringa to make specially sure about that. And didn"t you love all this talk about limiting themselves solely to pure psychology and being interested only in cash returns? You believed him, of course?"

"You can"t always trust a man like Mr Agnelli."

Agnelli, O"Brien and Daniken were waiting in the lounge when the two men descended. Van Effen said: "Fixed?"

"Yes. But one thing we overlooked - or I overlooked. I said I"d call them back. I didn"t know whether to ask them to come here or not." "We"ll let them, know when we move out in the truck." "Why not call them from here?"

Van Effen, looked at him as if in faint surprise. "Do you ever make two consecutive calls from the same phone?"

"Do I -" Agnelli shook his head. "And to think that I thought I was the most suspicious, most security-conscious person around. Do we move now?" "The heating in Dutch army trucks is rather sub-standard. I suggest a schnapps. We have time?"

"We have. Very well. Until the Lieutenant comes, I a.s.sume." "He doesn"t join us. We join him. That"s why I suggested a schnapps. Takes him a little time."

"I see. Rather, I don"t. He"s not going to join

"He"s leaving by the fire escape. The Lieutenant has a penchant for unorthodox exits. Also, he"s bashful about calling attention to himself."

"Unorthodox. Bashful. I understand now." Standing by what appeared to be a freshly painted army truck in an otherwise empty, brightly lit small garage, Agnelli surveyed the rather impressive figure of Vasco who was now attired in what was obviously a brand new Dutch army captain"s uniform. "Yes, I understand. The desk staff in the Trianon would have found the change rather intriguing. But I thought - um - the lieutenant was a lieutenant?"

"Old habits die hard. You don"t change a man"s name just because he changes his suit. Promoted last month. Services to Queen and country." "Services to - ah, I see." Agnelli, it was clear, didn"t see at all. "And what"s this bright orange dagger flash on the radiator?" " "Manoeuvres. Do not approach." "

"You don"t miss much and that"s a fact," Agnelli said. "May I look inside?"

"Naturally. I wouldn"t like you to think that you"d bought a pig in a poke."

"This, Mr Danilov, is the most unlikely looking pig in a poke that I"ve ever seen." Agnelli had inspected the neatly stacked and, in the case of the missiles and launchers, highly gleaming contents of the truck and was now actually rubbing his hands together. "Magnificent, quite magnificent. By heavens, Mr Danilov, when George here is given a shopping list I must say that he delivers. I wouldn"t have believed it." George made a dismissive gesture. "A little a.s.sistance from the Lieutenant here. Next time, something a little room difficult. "Splendid, splendid." Agnelli looked towards the front of the truck and at the heavily side-curtained bench seat behind the front seats. "That, too? I see, Mr Danilov, that you share my pa.s.sion for privacy."

"Not I. Senior Dutch army officers on manoeuvres."

"No matter. Mr Riordan, I am sure, will be delighted. When you meet him you will understand why. He is. a man of a rather striking appearance and rather difficult to conceal, which is a pity, as he does like his privacy." Agnelli was silent for a moment, then cleared his throat and said: "In view of all this and the very, very stringent security precautions you have taken, Mr Danilov, I do feel a bit - in fact, very - diffident about asking - but, well, do you mind if Mr O"Brien here carried out a closer inspection"

Van Effen smiled. "I"ve often wondered what Mr O"Brien"s function might be. But this? Well, I"m slightly puzzled. If Mr O"Brien knows more about explosives and arms than we three do, then he must be Europe"s leading expert and our services would seem to be superfluous." "Explosives, Mr Danilov?" O"Brien was an easy smiler and had a pleasant light baritone voice, a natural for the rendering of "When Irish eyes". "Explosives terrify me. I"m an electronics man.

"Mr O"Brien is being modest," Agnelli said. "He"s an electronics expert and one of the very best in the business. Security. Alarms. Installation -or deactivating."

"Ah. Burglar alarms. Photo-electric rays, pressure pads, things like that. Always wanted to meet one of those. It"ll be a pleasure to watch one at work. Little enough scope, I would have thought, for an electronics man around an army truck. Wait a minute." Van Effen paused briefly then smiled. "By all means go ahead, Mr O"Brien. I"ll take long odds against you finding one, though."

"Finding what, Mr Danilov?"

"One of those d.i.n.ky little location transmitters."

Agnelli and O"Brien exchanged glances. Agnelli said: "d.i.n.ky little - I mean, how on earth -"

"Because I removed one this morning. Rather, the Lieutenant did it for me."

Agnelli, as van Effen had said, would never stand in line for an Oscar. He was perplexed, apprehensive and suspicious, all at the same time. "But why should one - I mean, how did you suspect-" "Don"t distress yourself. "van Effen smiled. "Perfectly simple explanation. You see-"

"But this is an army truck!"

"Precisely. Far from uncommon on Army trucks. Use them on their silly war games, especially at night, when there"s no lights permitted and strict radio silence. Only way they can locate each other. The Lieutenant knew where they were usually concealed and found and detached this one." Vasco opened a map compartment by the driver"s seat, removed a tiny metallic object, and handed it to van Effen, who pa.s.sed it over to O"Brien. "That"s it, all right," O"Brien said. He looked doubtfully at Agnelli. "In that case, Romero -"

"No, no," van Effen said. "Go ahead and search. Be happier if you do. d.a.m.n truck could be littered with them, for all I know. Speaking personally, I wouldn"t know where to start looking."

Agnelli, trying with his usual lack of success to conceal his relief, nodded to O"Brien. Van Effen and George left the truck and wandered idly around, talking in a desultory fashion. Agnelli, they could see, was displaying a keen interest in O"Brien at work, but none in them. In a far corner van Effen said: "Must be an interesting profession being a professional dismantler of alarm systems."

"Very. Useful, too. If you want to get at the private art collection of some billionaire or other. Or into a secret army base. Or bank vaults." "It"s also useful if you want to blow up a d.y.k.e or a ca.n.a.l bank?" "No."

"I didn"t think so either."

Although it was only just after i p.m. when they left the garage it could well have been night-time for the amount of light left in the sky. And although it seemed impossible that the amount of rain could have increased, it undoubtedly had: the truck was equipped with two-spec"d wipers but might almost as well have been equipped with none at all. And the wind blew even more strongly from the north. Apart from the occasional triple tram the streets were deserted. One might almost have thought that the efforts and intention of the FFF were wasted: Holland, it appeared, was about to drown under the weight of its own rainfall.

Agnelli had made his phone call from the garage. Shortly after leaving it, at a word from Agnelli, Vasco, who was driving, pulled up outside an undistinguished cafe off the Utrechtsestraat. Two cars were parked there, both small, both Renaults. Agnelli got out and spoke hurriedly to the invisible drivers of the cars: he had need to hurry, he had no umbrella and his gabardine raincoat offered no protection at all to the pitiless rain. "Joachim and Joop," he said on his return. "They are following us to a restaurant just this side of Amstelveen. Even the FFF must eat." Agnelli was probably back to his smiling again but it was impossible to say. The inside of the truck was almost totally dark.

"If they can follow us," van Effen said. "In this weather, I can see that my precautions were superfluous. I thought we were to meet your brother and Mr Riordan. I must say I shall be most interested to meet your Mr Riordan. If the newspaper accounts are anything to go by, he must be a most extraordinary character. "He ignored George"s heavy nudge in the ribs. "He"s all that. They"ve elected to remain in the cats - I don"t suppose they fancied getting wet. We"ll meet up in De Groene Lanteerne."

Riordan was indeed an extraordinary character. For some extraordinary reason - known only to himself - he had elected to dress himself in a sweeping, neck-b.u.t.toned, black-and-white shepherd"s tartan cloak with matching deerstalker, of the type much favoured by Highland lairds and Sherlock Holmes. As the cloak ended six inches above his knees and hence made him took even more incongruously tall and skeletal than ever, he couldn"t possibly have been trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He had greeted everyone civilly enough - when he wasn"t declaiming against the IRA he was, it seemed. a normally grave and courteous man - raised his eyes at the sight of Vasco"s uniform, ready accepted its explanation and thereafter remained silent, not from any wish to disa.s.sociate himself from those at the table but because he was carrying a large, very intricate and expensive-looking radio and had a pair of earphones clamped to his head. He was listening, Agnelli explained, to weather forecasts and Dutch and international news broadcasts. Agnelli didn"t have to explain why.

Lunch over, Riordan elected to continue the journey in the truck, earphones still in place. He ensconced himself In the right-hand corner of the rear bench seat and seemed to approve of the heavy side curtain which he pushed as far forward as possible. Vasco drove south during the dark afternoon making the best speed possible which, because of the near zero visibility, was no speed at all. Van Effen was particularly impressed by the careful)y polite attention Vasco paid to Agnelli"s would-be meticulous instruction as how to drive through Utrecht. As Vasco had beer born, bred, lived all his life and been a police driver in Utrecht, it said much for Vasco"s heroic patience that he three times followed directions that he must have known to be wrong. About mid-afternoon, Riordan unhooked his earphones. "Progress, gentlemen, progress. The Dutch Foreign Minister and Defence Minister - that"s that excellent Mr Wieringa of theirs - arrived in London this afternoon and are meeting with their counterparts. A communique is expected. It shows that we are being taken seriously." Van Effen said: "After those scare headlines, those banner headlines in the papers today, and all the emergency news flashes on TV and radio, did you seriously expect not to be taken seriously?"

"No. But gratifying, none the less, gratifying." Riordan re-affixed his earphones and leaned back into his corner. The expression on his face was an odd mixture of the expectant and the beatific. A man with a mission, Riordan wasn"t going to miss out on anything.