Both La.r.s.en and Scoffield carried automatics but seemed quite indifferent to being deprived of them: their attention was directed exclusively to the presence of Lord Worth"s daughters.
Marina smiled, albeit a trifle wanly. "We could have met under happier circ.u.mstances, Commander."
La.r.s.en nodded. "Your kidnapers. This can carry a death sentence." He looked at Campbell. "Why did you fly those criminals out here?"
"Because I get very cowardly when I have a pistol barrel stuck in the back of my neck all the way from takeoff to touchdown." Campbell spoke with a certain justifiable bitterness.
La.r.s.en looked at Melinda. "Have you been mistreated in any way?"
"No."
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"And they won"t be," Durand said. "Unless, of course, you refuse to do as we tell you."
"What does that mean?"
"You close down the Christmas tree." This meant closing off all the oil supplies from the ocean floor.
"I"ll be d.a.m.ned if I do." La.r.s.en"s dark piratical face was suffused with fury. Here, Durand realized, was a man who, even without arms, could be highly dangerous. He glanced briefly at Rindler, who struck La.r.s.en on the back of the neck with his machine pistol, a blow calculated to daze but not knock out. When La.r.s.en"s head had cleared he found that he had handcuffs and shackles around wrists and ankles. His attention then focused on a pair of gleaming stainless-steel medical cutters of the type favored by the surgical fraternity for snipping through ribs. The handles were in Durand"s firm grip: the unpleasant operating end was closed lightly round the little finger of Melinda"s right hand.
Durand said: "Lord Worth isn"t going to like you too much for this, La.r.s.en."
La.r.s.en, apparently, was of the same opinion. "All right, take those d.a.m.ned pliers away and get these bracelets off. I"ll close down your d.a.m.ned Christmas tree."
"And Fll come with you just to see that you really do turn it off. Not that I would recognize one if I saw it, but I do know that there are such things as flow gauges. Til be carrying a walkie- 183.
All stair JtflacLean talkie with me. Rindler here has another. FU keep in constant contact with him. If anything should happen to me-" Durand looked consideringly at the medical cutters, then handed them to Heffer, the fifth man in his team. He told Campbell to put his arms behind his seat back and handcuffed his wrists.
"Don"t miss much, do you?" La.r.s.en"s voice was sour.
"You know how it is. So many villains around these days. Come on."
The two men walked across the platform in the direction of the drilling rig. After only a few paces Durand stopped and looked around him admiringly.
"Well, well, now. Dual-purpose antiaircraft guns. Piles of depth charges. You"d almost think you"re prepared to withstand a siege. Dear me, dear me. Federal offense you know. Lord Worth, even with the millions he can pay for lawyers, can get at least ten years in the pen for this."
"What"re you talking about?"
"Hardly standard equipment aboard an oil rig. Ill bet it wasn"t here twenty-four hours ago. Fll bet it was inside the Mississippi naval a.r.s.enal that was broken into last night. The Government takes a dim view of people who steal military equipment. And, of course, you got to have specialists aboard who"re skilled at handling stuff like that, and that"s hardly part of the basic training of oil-rig crews. I wonder if those crews 184.
are also carrying special equipment-like, for instance, what was stolen from a Florida a.r.s.enal last night. I mean, two unrelated a.r.s.enal break-ins in the same night is too much coincidence. Twenty years in prison, with no chance of parole for you too, for aiding and abetting. And people call us criminals."
La.r.s.en had a few choice observations to make in return, none of which would have received the approval of even the most tolerant board of censors.
The Christmas tree was duly neutralized. The pressure gauges registered zero. Durand turned his attention to the Roomer, carrying out its short and wearisome patrol between the rig and the huge floating oil tank. "What"s our friend up to?"
"Even a landlubber like you ought to be able to guess. He"s patrolling the pipeline."
"What the h.e.l.l for? You could replace a cut line in a day. What would that get anybody? It"s crazy."
"You have to use crazy methods to deal with crazy people. From all accounts, Lord Worth"s enemies should be locked up for their own good. For everybody"s good."
"Worth"s band of cutthroats aboard this rig- who"s their leader?"
"Giuseppe Palermo.**
"That mobster! So the n.o.ble Lord, along with 185.
All stair MacLoan his grand larceny, is an a.s.sociate of convicted felons."
"You know him, then?"
"Yeah." Durand saw no point in elaborating upon the fact that he and Palermo had spent two prison terms together. "I want to talk to him."
The talk was brief and one-sided. Durand said: "We"ve got Lord Worth"s daughters prisoner. We"re going to bring them toward the living quarters here, but we don"t want you taking our two aces away from us. You"ll stay inside in your quarters. If you don"t you"re gonna hear a lot of screaming and see pieces of fingers or ears dropped through your windows. I hope you believe me."
Palermo believed him. Palermo had a reputation for ruthlessness that matched Durand"s, but it couldn"t begin to match Durand"s unholy joy in sadism. Durand was perfectly capable of not only doing what he threatened but of deriving immense satisfaction in so doing.
Palermo returned to his Oriental quarters. Durand called up Rindler on the walkie-talkie and told them all to come across, including Campbell, the pilot. Campbell was tough and resourceful and it was just possible that, by standing up, he could slip his manacled arms over the back of his seat, step through them and take off. Whether he would have enough fuel for the return flight would be a problem for him, even 180.
though he would almost certainly head not for Florida but for the nearest spot on the mainland, which would be due south of New Orleans.
As the prisoners and guards disembarked from the helicopter Durand said: "Accommodations?"
"Plenty. There are spare rooms in the oriental quarters. There"s Lord Worth"s private suite."
"Lockups?"
"What do you mean? This isn"t a prison."
"Storerooms? Ones that can be locked from the outside?"
"Yes."
Durand looked at La.r.s.en consideringly. "You"re being very co-operative, La.r.s.en. Your reputation says otherwise."
"Two minutes" walk around and you could confirm all I"m saying for yourself."
"You"d like to kill me, wouldn"t you, La.r.s.en?"
"When the time is ripe, yes. But it"s not yet ripe."
"Even so." Durand produced a pistol. "Stay about ten feet away. You might be tempted to grab me and try to make the men let the girls go. A tempting thought, no?"
La.r.s.en looked at him yearningly and said nothing.
The girls, the pilots and their four escorts arrived. Durand said: "Well, now, we gotta find some suitable overnight accommodation for you." He led the way to the first of several storehouses and opened the door to reveal a room packed 187.
Altstair MacLean roof-high with canned goods. He shoved Campbell inside, locked the door and pocketed the key. The next storehouse contained coils of rope, a powerful smell of crude oil and an active, scuttling population of those indestructible creatures, c.o.c.kroaches. Durand said to the two girls: "Inside."
The girls took one shuddering look, then turned away. Marina said: "We will not go inside that disgusting place."
Kowenski said in a gently chiding voice which accorded ill with the Colt he held in his hand: "Do you know what this is?" Rindler had a similar weapon trained on Melinda.
Both girls glanced briefly at each other and then, in what was obviously a prepared and rehea.r.s.ed movement, walked toward the men with the guns, seized the barrels with their right hands and hooked their right thumbs behind their trigger forefingers, pulling the guns hard against themselves.
"Jesus Christ!" Durand was badly shaken; he had run up against many situations in his life, but this one lay far beyond his most remote conception. "You trying to commit suicide?**
Melinda said: "Precisely." Her eyes never left Rindler"s. "You"re lower than those horrible c.o.c.kroaches in there. You are vermin who are trying to destroy our father. With us dead, you won"t have a single card left to play.**
"You"re crazy! Simple plain crazy!**
188.
"Maybe," Marina said. "But for crazy people our logic is pretty good. With nothing to tie his hands you can imagine how our father will react--especially since he and everyone else will believe that you murdered us. He won"t have to go to the law, of course-you simply have no idea what power a few billion dollars can bring to bear. He"ll destroy you and all your people to the last man." She looked at Kowenski with contempt. "Why don"t you press the trigger? No? Then let go your gun." Kowenski released his gun and Rindler did the same, and the girls dropped them to the deck.
Melinda said: "My sister and I are taking a walk. We will return when you have quarters prepared fitting for Lord Worth"s daughters."
Durand"s face had definitely lost color and his voice was hoa.r.s.e and not quite steady as he tried to regain a measure of authority. "So take your walk. Heffer, go with them. Any trouble, shoot them in the legs."
Marina stooped, picked up Kowenski"s Colt, walked up to Heffer and rammed the muzzle into his left eye. Heffer recoiled, ho wring in agony. Marina said: "Fair deal. You shoot me through the leg-now, I mean-and Til blow your brains out."
"G.o.d"s sake!" Durand"s voice was almost imploring. He was one step removed from wringing his hands. "Somebody"s got to go with you. If 18ft Alfstair MacLean I you"re out there on your own and in no danger, Palermo"s men will cut us to pieces."
"What a perfectly splendid idea." Marina lowered the pistol and looked in distaste at Heffer, a rodent-faced creature of indeterminate age and nationality. "We see your point. But this-this animal is not to approach within ten yards of us at any time. That is understood?"
"Yes, yes, of course." If they asked him for the moon, Durand would have somehow levitated himself and got it for them. Having overwhelmingly displayed what it was to have seventeen generations of highland aristocratic ancestry behind them, the two girls walked away toward one of the triangular perimeters. It was fully twenty yards before they both began, at the same instant, to tremble violently. Once started, they could not control the trembling and they prayed that the following Heffer could not notice it.
Marina-whispered shakily: "Would you do that again?"
"Never, never, never. Fd die."
"I think we came pretty close to it. Do you think that Michael and John would be shaking like us after an experience like that?"
"No. If there"s any truth in what Daddy hints, they"d already be planning what to do next. And Durand and his obnoxious friends wouldn"t be shaking either. Dead men don"t shake very much."
Marina"s trembling turned into a genuine 19O.
shiver. "I only wish to G.o.d they were here right now."
They stopped ten feet short of the platform perimeter. Neither girl had a head for heights. They turned and looked northeastward as the distant and muted roar of an aircraft engine came to their ears.
Durand and La.r.s.en heard it at the same time. They could see nothing because dusk had already fallen, but neither man had any doubt as to the ident.i.ty of the approaching helicopter and its occupants. With some satisfaction Durand said: "Company. This has to be Lord Worth. Where will they land?"
"The southeast helipad."
Durand glanced across the platform to where the two girls were standing with Heffer, gun carried loosely in his right hand, less than the regulation ten yards away. Satisfied, Durand picked up his machine pistol and said: "Let"s go and welcome his lordship aboard. Aaron, come with us."
La.r.s.en said: "You"d better hope Lord Worth proves more tractable than his daughters."
"What do you mean?"
La.r.s.en smiled in sardonic satisfaction. "You caught a couple of tigresses by the tails, didn"t you?"
Durand scowled and walked away, followed by La.r.s.en and Aaron, the latter armed similarly to Durand. They reached the southeast helipad isi just as the North Hudson helicopter touched down. Lord Worth himself was the first out. He stood at the foot of the steps and stared in disbelief at the armed men. He said to La.r.s.en: "What in G.o.d"s name goes on here?"
Durand said: "Welcome aboard the Seawitch, Lord Worth. You can regard me as your host and yourself as a guest-an honored guest, of course. There has been a slight change of ownership."
Tm afraid that this man here-his name is Durand and I a.s.sume that he is one of Cronkite"s lieutenants-"
"Cronkite!" Durand was jarred. "What do you know about Cronkite?"
"I can hardly congratulate him on his choice of lieutenants." When Lord Worth poured on his icy contempt he used a king-sized trowel. "Do you think we are such fools as not to know who your employer is? Not that Cronkite has long to live. Nor you, either, for that matter." Durand stirred uneasily-Lord Worth sounded far too much like his daughters for his peace of mind. Lord Worth directed his attention to La.r.s.en. "One a.s.sumes that this ruffian arrived with accomplices. How many?"
"Four."
"Four! But with Palermo and his men you have over twenty! How is it possible-"
Durand was back on balance. When he spoke 192.
it was with a slight, if logical, smugness. "We have something that La.r.s.en hasn"t. We have your daughters."
What was apparently pure shock rendered Lord Worth temporarily speechless; then in a hoa.r.s.e voice he said: "Great G.o.d almighty! My daughters!" Lord Worth could have had his Oscar just for the asking. "You-you are the kidnaper?"
"Fortunes of war, sir." It said much for Lord Worth"s aristocratic magnetism that even the most villainous eventually addressed him in respectful tones. "Now, if we could see the rest of the pa.s.sengers."
Mitch.e.l.l and Roomer descended. In tan alpaca suits and horn-rimmed gla.s.ses they were innocu-ousness personified. Lord Worth said: "Mitch.e.l.l and Roomer. Scientists-geologists and seismologists." He turned to Mitch.e.l.l and Roomer and said dully: "They"re holding my daughters captive aboard the Seawitch."
"Good G.o.d!" Mitch.e.l.l was properly shocked. "But surely this is the last place-"
"Of course. The unexpected, keeping a couple of steps ahead of the opposition. What"d you come here for?"
"To find new sources of oil. We have a perfectly equipped laboratory here-"
"You could have saved your time. Can we search your bag and your friend"s?"
193.
"Have I any choice?"
"No."
"Go ahead."
"Aaron."
Aaron carried out a quick examination of Mitch.e.l.l"s bag. "Clothes. Some scientific books and scientific instruments. Is all."