"Come and look at this," Tweed called out. "But when you reach the end look at the wall."
"All"s clear," Nield reported. "No one else in the house."
"Oh, my G.o.d..." gasped Kent. "What is it?"
He had overlooked Tweed"s advice. Now he was staring at what had seeped out of the last machine onto the floor.
"Don"t ask," Tweed snapped. "I told you not to look. Instead, come and look at this."
Kent came round the corner, bent down. He extracted a stack of the banknotes, took off the elastic band. His expression was grim.
"More forgeries. I don"t need to use my eyegla.s.s. They are very good, but once you know what to look for you can see at once they"re fakes."
"So once the knowledge spread like wildfire every bank teller, every shopkeeper, every shopper in Britain would know they were holding useless money?"
"That"s how it would work," Kent agreed. "Then panic."
Picking up the knife Tweed had used, he ripped open another bale. This one was brimful of stacks of fivers. He opened a stack, glanced quickly at several banknotes, shook his head.
"Again, at first glance they"re the real thing, but they"re not."
Kent ripped open several more bales. He found stacks of ten-pound notes, fifty-pound notes. Tweed then led him up the steps into the garage. He pointed at one of the trucks.
"How much of the faked currency do you reckon that could contain?"
"Millions and millions," Kent replied. "It"s a big truck. It would contain enough - if distributed - to start a run on the pound."
"Worse than I thought. Much worse. One loaded truck got away."
They returned to the machine room as Marler appeared, lugging a very heavy holdall. He dumped it on the floor, well clear of the spreading reddish pool. He glanced round the huge bas.e.m.e.nt.
"I imagine you"d like me to lose this lot?"
"Yes. And the whole house. Can it be done?"
"Without difficulty. I"ve got thermite bombs which will turn the place into an inferno. Plus high explosive - just to make a professional job of it. If you"ve finished here, I suggest you leave me to it. Everyone returns to the Audis, then drive down to the end of the gulley. I"d appreciate it if you"d wait for me to arrive."
"How does it work?"
"With this." Marler took a small black object smaller than a matchbox from his pocket. It had a shallow depression on one side.
"I press that," he explained, "and the world blows up. It works rather like the gizmo you press when you drive home, pause at the end of your drive, press your gizmo. Hey Presto! The garage door lifts automatically. Based on a radio signal with a code. Same thing here. I"ve laced the rooms in the house with thermite and high-explosive bombs. All have a signal receiver. The whole shooting match goes up when I press this gizmo "
"Put it away in your pocket," Kent suggested. "We don"t want an accident."
"Then clear off now and leave me to it," Marler repeated.
With their two Audis parked beyond the bottom of the gulley, they waited. They had a clear view of the strange house perched on its bluff. Also they were close to the road running alongside the lake. They seemed to wait for ever but, by Tweed"s watch, it was only five minutes later when they heard two dull explosions.
"It"s started," said Paula. "Oh, Lord, where"s Marler?" "Hasn"t started yet," Tweed a.s.sured her. "And here comes Marler like a rocket."
When he reached the two cars Marler was out of breath. He stood still for a moment. Then he took the small black object he had shown them from his pocket. He looked at Tweed.
"Ready for the fireworks?"
"We are."
Marler pressed the device. They all stared fixedly at the weird house. They had left all the lights on. Paula could make out the broken windows. There was a simultaneous roar blasting out across the forest - accompanied by a searing sheet of fire. At first flames shot out of the windows, then the house began to come apart. The garage elevated. A truck rocketed into the air, on fire. It shot forward in an arc, descended into the lake. Flames fizzled, the truck sank. Within seconds there was an even more deafening roar. The house came apart. The front section elevated, was lifted bodily forward like the removal of a stage facade. It fell forward, dived off the bluff, landed in the lake. For a moment it floated, burning, a bizarre sight. Then it sank below the surface with a sinister sizzle. It created a small tidal wave which rushed forward, hit a long beach, sent up high a cloud of spray which settled.
"Those are banknotes," shouted Paula.
She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the binoculars she had focused on the house before Marler arrived. Above the crumbling side and rear walls of the house was a snowstorm. In her lenses she could see she was right. They were banknotes. Then a sheet of flame soared up, consumed the snowstorm. A strange large object was carried forward by the shockwave. She caught it in her binoculars. It was a huge section of a printing machine with a slab of concrete attached to its base. It dropped into the lake with a tremendous splash, sank instantly without trace. The flames, which had become an inferno had reached the nearest trees, setting them on fire.
"The forest is burning," cried out Paula..
"Won"t get far - not when they"re saturated with snow," Tweed remarked.
Slowly the wall of flames became less ferocious, suddenly no more than a series of flickers. They could see now that the house had vanished, reduced to a pile of ashes. The crackle of the flames had been loud as the wood burned but now there was a deathly silence. It was as though the Psycho Psycho-like house had never existed.
"We"ll get moving," Tweed decided. "Back to Freiburg."
41.
The black Audi was driven at speed through Hollental. Ronstadt was behind the wheel with Chuck Venacki by his side. In the back Madison sat with Kolkowski. No one had spoken since their wild departure from the base at Schluchsee. They had sensed that their driver was in a very bad mood.
"We"ll put those guys under ground for good later," Ronstadt said suddenly. "The main thing is one truckload is on the way. Should just meet the deadline. That will mess up the British currency real good. There"s millions aboard it."
"Where are we goin" to now?" Madison called out.
"Listen, fellers. Moonhead wants to know where we"s goin" now. Maybe I"ll tell "im. Moonhead, we"re on our way back to Freiburg. When we gets there you three guys have dinner. I"ll book my room again."
"We"re stayin" there for the night?" Madison enquired.
"Sure. That"s why I just booked one room. Friggin" idiot. I need the room so I can contact Charlie. For that I needs privacy. I likes to let Charlie know where we are in the game."
"Say, where is this Charlie?" Madison went on. "Washington? No. I got it. Charlie"s in the London Emba.s.sy."
"You keep on with that guessin" game and I"ll put a bullet in your head."
Ronstadt stared at Madison in his rear-view mirror. He gave him a look of pure venom, then increased speed. When they arrived at the Colombi everything went according to plan. Ronstadt collared the receptionist while his three men marched into the dining room. They were halfway through their meal before Ronstadt joined them. Madison noticed Ronstadt was ashen-faced.
"Charlie give you a hard time?" he enquired.
"All of you finish your food quick as you can. We have to get on the road again fast. You can fill your bellies at the Pet.i.te France in Strasbourg."
"Pet.i.te France?" Madison queried. "Is that a hotel?"
"No, Moonhead, it"s a district of Strasbourg. We"ll stay at the Hotel Regent. Now, shut your mouth - or I"ll shut it for you."
Ronstadt"s impatience to get going was so obviously mounting that they all stopped eating. Before getting up Ronstadt piled meat between two pieces of bread, making himself a sandwich which he wrapped in a napkin.
"I"ve got to go to the men"s room," said Venacki.
"Hurry it up. Car"s waiting outside."
The two white Audis raced through Hollental at a speed Paula was hardly able to believe. She kept glancing at the speedometer. Tweed was driving the first Audi. He had insisted on taking over when they left Schluchsee. He had pointed out that Newman must rest his damaged ankle.
Paula had used ointment on the ankle, then wrapped it in a bandage before they started out. Tweed enquired how bad it was.
"Not too bad," Paula told him. "With the ointment I"ve used the swelling will have gone away in three or four hours - maybe less. But he can"t drive yet. I could."
"I"ll drive," Tweed said firmly. "I have the stamina."
He now had Paula beside him with Newman and Kent in the back. Behind them Marler drove his Audi, again with Nield next to him and Butler in the back. He"d almost had trouble keeping up with Tweed.
"We"re really moving," Paula ventured as they were pa.s.sing through Hollental.
"Don"t worry," Tweed a.s.sured her. "That snowplough we saw has cleared this lane of snow. I"m anxious to get to Freiburg, back to the Colombi as soon as possible. There may be a message for me."
"Who from?"
"Monica, of course."
"I suppose we botched it back at Schluchsee," Paula mused. "We let one truck get away."
"Oh, come off it," Newman called out. "Ronstadt started out with twelve men when he left Basel. Now he"s down to four, including himself."
"And," Tweed pointed out, "we have destroyed a fortune in forged banknotes, plus the machines for producing more, plus the base. When we reach the Colombi I"ll try again to reach Roy Buchanan to deal with that single truck."
"You tried earlier a way back," Paula reminded him. "You made no contact."
"I think the Feldberg was in the way."
"Why Buchanan when Otto Kuhlmann would do everything he can to help?"
"Because I think Otto would find himself in an impossible position politically. I"m convinced that truck is on its way to one of the American airbases in Germany. I think they have a transport plane lined up to take the truck aboard, then fly it to one of their bases in East Anglia. There should just be time for Roy to stop the truck - providing we keep moving. I have a feeling we"re now desperately short of time."
"Incidentally," Newman said, "those two small explosions we heard before the house went into the sky were Marler throwing a grenade under each of the two remaining black Audis. He aimed them under the petrol tanks. Told me while we were watching the fireworks."
"We"ll get a meal at the Colombi," Tweed announced. "An army marches on its stomach, as Napoleon once said."
"Then what do we do?" Paula asked.
"No idea. That"s why I hope there"ll be a message at the Colombi."
When the two cars were parked outside the hotel Tweed succeeded in contacting Buchanan on Beck"s mobile. He explained the problem tersely. Buchanan listened without saying a word until Tweed finished: "I do think, Roy, it"s important to locate that truck."
"Tweed, it"s not important, it"s absolutely vital. If the forged money is as good as you say it is we must do everything we can to stop it getting into circulation."
"I just hope you have time."
"I have. By chance I"m in Norwich. I"m going to use all the power I"ve been given to ring every possible American airbase. You said you thought it might well come aboard a C47 transport. That needs a long runway, which cuts down the number of airbases I have to think of. I"m getting on it now."
Tweed and Newman, with Paula, were the first to enter the lobby. The receptionist leaned over the counter.
"Mr Newman, I have a message for you. In case you came back."
Newman looked surprised. He took the sealed envelope. Tweed was about to head for the dining room when the receptionist called out again.
"I also have a message for you, sir."
Tweed took the sealed envelope, put it in his pocket. Then he questioned the receptionist, phrasing his words carefully.
"A close friend of mine might still be in the hotel. A Sharon Mandeville. You probably saw us together in the lounge."
"Yes, sir, I did. Ms Mandeville checked out a good few hours ago. She drove off with her secretary, Ms Denise Chatel."
"Did she leave a forwarding address?"
"No, sir, I"m afraid she didn"t. We"ve had a bit of activity this evening - and now you turn up."
"Mind if I ask who else has been here? It couldn"t be my old friend, Jake Ronstadt?"
"I"m only here temporarily, sir." The receptionist lowered his voice. "Yes, Mr Ronstadt was here with three other men. They had dinner and then left."
"Thank you. So I"ve missed him. Can"t be helped..."
They left their coats, followed Tweed and Paula into the dining room. There were only two couples having dinner. Waiters made up a large table and they settled down to study the menu. When they had ordered, Tweed took out the envelope, opened it. The wording, like his name on the front of the envelope, was in ill-formed block letters.
REGENT HOTEL, PEt.i.tE FRANCE, STRASBOURG.
Newman had at the same time opened his envelope. He frowned as he reading the wording, written with a pen in a strange script.
Hotel Regent, Pet.i.te France, Strasbourg.
"What on earth can this mean?" he asked, handing the letter to Tweed. "And I most certainly don"t recognize the handwriting."
"I"d say you weren"t meant to," Tweed commented after scrutinizing the communication. "It"s educated, but awkward handwriting. My guess is it was written quickly by a right-handed man - using his left hand. Now look at my message."
"This is incredible," Newman exclaimed. "What does it mean?"
"The version you"re looking at was probably written by a less-educated man. Also, notice the different way the hotels are named. I"ve stayed there. I know in France it"s called Hotel Regent. Which again suggests a well-educated person."