Алистер Маклин - Red Alert

‘Their sympathies lie with whoever’s paying them, Miss Carver. And they don’t come cheap. They can afford to name their price. They’re probably the best freelance team in the Mediterranean.’

‘It’s pretty ironic, isn’t it?’ Sabrina said thoughtfully. ‘Karos financed his own death.’

‘It certainly looks that way,’ Paluzzi replied.

‘What about their present whereabouts?’ Kolchinsky asked.

‘Unknown. They’re nomadic. They do have a summer villa at Frezene, a beach resort about twelve miles from here, but neither of them has been seen there in the last year. Naturally I’ll have it staked out but I don’t see us coming up with anything. We’re dealing with professionals.’

‘What about the helicopter?’ Kolchinsky asked. ‘That could be a clue in itself. A white Gazelle with mounted 30 mm cannons. You don’t see them every day.’

‘I’ve already got a team working on that but I doubt we’ll come up with anything there either. They could have hidden it anywhere.’

‘It’s hardly the easiest of things to conceal,’ Kolchinsky said.

‘I agree, but where do we start looking? Italy? Greece? Corfu? Sardinia? Sicily? The list’s endless and we don’t have the time.’

‘Unless, of course, we manage to recover the vial tonight,’ Kolchinsky said optimistically.

‘Don’t hold your breath,’ Paluzzi replied. ‘This operation’s been planned down to the last detail. You can be sure that Ubrino won’t venture out into the open unless he knows it’s safe.’

‘You think it’s a trap?’ Kolchinsky asked.

‘I didn’t initially when Karos told us about the meeting. He would have been with us and it would have been too dangerous to hit Mike and me without endangering his own life. It was only after his death that another possibility came to mind. What if the trap had been set for him? He knows too much, so Ubrino might have planned to draw him out into the open and have him killed. Except, when we linked him to the missing vial the plan was brought forward, to silence him before he could tell us anything.’

‘But Tommaso Francia was too late to silence him before you and Mike got to Corfu so he tried to kill all three of you?’ Kolchinsky concluded.

Paluzzi shook his head. ‘I don’t go along with that. He could have killed us when we were in the pool. We were sitting ducks. It was obvious he was only after Karos.’

‘It’s like what happened in Venice,’ Sabrina said to Kolchinsky. ‘It’s as if they wanted us to escape.’

‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ Kolchinsky muttered, then stubbed out his cigarette and got to his feet.

‘It’s seven o’clock. I want to see Michael before we go to Sant’Ivo.’

‘I’ll get these dossiers on Boudien and the Francia brothers translated into English for you.’

‘I can do that,’ Sabrina said, scowling at Kolchinsky. ‘It’s not as if I’ll have much else to do in my room, is it?’

Kolchinsky took the two folders from Paluzzi and handed them to Sabrina.

Paluzzi gave her a sympathetic smile, then phoned Marco to say that he and Kolchinsky were on their way to Sant’Ivo, and that Marco was to go home and get some sleep. He replaced the receiver and got to his feet.

‘Are you armed?’ he asked Kolchinsky.

Kolchinsky shook his head.

‘Take my Beretta,’ Sabrina said. She unholstered it from the back of her jeans and offered it to Kolchinsky.

‘You hold on to that, Miss Carver. I’ll draw a handgun from the armoury for Mr. Kolchinsky.’

She reholstered the Beretta.

‘Can we drop the Miss Carver bit? You make me feel like an old spinster. It’s Sabrina.’

‘And I’m Sergei,’ Kolchinsky added.

Paluzzi smiled. ‘What type of gun do you use, Sergei?’

‘Tokarev TT-33, but I can make do with whatever you’ve got.’

‘I can get you a Tokarev, no problem,’ Paluzzi assured him, and immediately called the armoury to arrange for one to be sent to the office. ‘It’ll be up in a minute,’ he said, coming round from behind the desk.

Marco appeared in the doorway. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you to Sant’Ivo, sir?’

‘No. Now go and get some rest. I’ll call you if I need you, you can be sure of that.’

‘Can you let me out?’ Sabrina asked Marco. ‘I’d better get back to the hotel and see what Calvieri’s come up with while I’ve been here.’

‘And don’t forget to tell the switchboard to put any calls from C.W. through to you until I get back,’ Kolchinsky reminded her.

‘I won’t,’ she replied, following Marco out of the room.

Paluzzi signed for the Tokarev pistol when it was brought to the office, then they left the building and drove to the San Giovanni Hospital on the Via dell’Amba Aradam opposite San Giovanni in Laterano, the basilica which is the cathedral of Rome. In the hospital foyer Paluzzi approached the reception desk to ask for directions to Graham’s private ward. It was on the third floor overlooking the Villa Celimontana, a park bordering the Colosseum.

Kolchinsky knocked and entered.

Graham was sitting up against the headboard, a pillow cushioning his back. He immediately folded the copy of the International Daily News he had been reading and tossed it on to the chair beside the bed. The discoloured bruise on the left-hand side of his face was partially hidden by the thick dressing protecting the stitches close to his eye.

‘How are you feeling, Michael?’ Kolchinsky asked, brushing the newspaper from the chair as he sat down, his eyes fixed on Graham’s face.

‘I’m fine, honestly,’ Graham replied, pushing back the sheets. He was dressed in his jeans and the clean white T-shirt Paluzzi had got from the hotel for him. ‘I’m ready. I’ve just got to put on my shoes.’

‘Ready for what?’ Kolchinsky asked sharply.

‘Didn’t Fabio tell you about Sant’Ivo?’

‘Of course he told me,’ Kolchinsky retorted. ‘You’re not going, if that’s what you think. You’re staying right where you are, at least until tomorrow morning.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me, Sergei!’ Graham snapped angrily.

Kolchinsky sighed deeply.

‘Why must you always fight authority? The doctors wouldn’t have asked you to stay here overnight unless they thought it was necessary. Strange as it may seem, Michael, they do know what’s best for you under the circumstances.’

‘Oh yeah? That’s exactly what those psychiatrists said after Carrie and Mikey were kidnapped. We know what’s best for you, Mr. Graham. Like hell they did. They didn’t know a damn thing. To them I was just another numbered dossier that was opened when they got to work in the morning and closed again when they went home at night. They didn’t have to live with the guilt twenty-four hours a day. I did. They didn’t understand what I was going through. They just thought they did. If they could have produced a psychiatrist who had lost his family under similar circumstances to mine then I’d have been quite prepared to listen to him because he would have known what I was going through. It’s exactly the same here. Let them produce a doctor who’s had a similar injury to mine and I’ll listen to him. Dammit, Sergei, who the hell do they think they are, saying they know what’s best for me? It’s my body. It’s my mind. And I know I’m okay.’

Kolchinsky rubbed his face wearily. ‘Then discharge yourself. But that doesn’t mean you’re coming with us. Go back to the hotel. Sabrina’s there.’

‘Wonderful,’ Graham muttered. ‘She’ll be mothering me the moment I walk through the door.’

‘It’s her way of showing that she cares about you,’ Kolchinsky said, pushing the chair back angrily and getting to his feet. ‘We’ll see you back at the hotel.’