Алистер Маклин - Red Alert

‘I can only advise you,’ Philpott said, looking around slowly at the faces in front of him. ‘The final decision rests with you. And as the Prime Minister has said, we don’t have much time. It’s imperative that you reach your decision as soon as possible.’

‘What choice do we have?’ the British Prime Minister said. ‘It’s not as if we’re dealing with a hijacked aeroplane or a kidnapped businessman. We’re dealing with a lethal virus which could potentially kill millions. A virus without an antidote. If it were just our lives at risk, I’d certainly say we should stand firm against the demands. But it’s not. Much as it goes against everything I believe in, I say we pay the ransom.’

‘One hundred million pounds in the hands of terrorists,’ the Austrian Chancellor said, breaking the sudden silence. ‘They will be able to buy enough arms to carry out horrendous attacks across Europe. It will snowball into a bloody conflict, you mark my words.’

‘Do you think I want to contribute to their coffers?’ The British Prime Minister’s eyes were blazing. ‘None of you has campaigned more vociferously than I have to unite our countries in the fight against terrorism. It sticks in my throat to have to pay one penny to these murderers, but I don’t see that we have any choice.’

‘You misunderstand me, Prime Minister,’ the Austrian Chancellor said defensively. ‘I was not criticizing you, it was merely an observation. In fact, I wholeheartedly agree with what you say.’

‘A hundred million is a small price to pay for the safety of our people,’ the Swedish Prime Minister added. ‘We will pay our share of the ransom.’

‘The French Government, too, will pay its share of the ransom,’ the aide announced on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Philpott raised his hands as the noise intensified around him.

‘It’s no use everyone talking at the same time. There’s an easy way to settle this. Is there any government who will not pay its share of the ransom?’

There was silence.

‘I’ll pass your decision on to Calvieri. Naturally we’ll do everything in our power to find the vial before the deadline but I have to admit our chances of doing so will be remote, to say the least. The search will have to be undertaken in complete secrecy if we’re not to alert Calvieri and provoke a catastrophe. It’s the only way we can prevent the press from getting hold of the story.’

‘We understand that,’ the Swiss President said, speaking for the first time. ‘The money will be ready for the five o’clock deadline.’

Philpott nodded.

‘Naturally I’ll keep you all up to date on any developments that may arise during the day. But as I said, I don’t hold out much hope of finding the vial before five o’clock.’

‘We know you and your team will do your best,’ the British Prime Minister said.

‘I only hope that will be enough,’ Philpott replied.

Whitlock had arrived at the Offenbach Centre while the meeting was in progress and was poring over one of the plans with Graham when Philpott returned to the office. Philpott lit his pipe and recounted briefly what had happened at the meeting.

‘At least they’ve agreed to pay the ransom,’ Kolchinsky said.

‘As a last resort,’ Philpott replied. ‘We’re going to have to pull out all the stops to find the vial before five o’clock. If the ransom is paid it’ll not only be a psychological victory for world terrorism, it’ll also leave us with a lot of egg on our faces. It’ll be the perfect ammunition for those politicians who’d like nothing better than to see UNACO disbanded. I can just imagine what they’ll say. We worked with Calvieri from the start. A known terrorist. We even helped him smuggle the vial into the building.’

‘We had no way of knowing he was the mastermind behind the whole thing,’ Graham said angrily.

‘We know that, but you can be sure our opponents will use it against us. We have to find the vial if we’re to save face.’ Philpott stabbed the stem of his pipe at the blueprint on the desk. ‘Have you compiled the list yet?’

Kolchinsky handed a sheet of foolscap paper to Philpott.

‘We’re going to have to draft in more personnel, Malcolm. There are over fifty possible hiding places on that list. We’d never be able to cover them all thoroughly by five o’clock.’

‘I had the same thought on the way back from the meeting,’ Philpott said. ‘I don’t think I realized just how big the building was until then. It means more people are going to know about the vial. That’s something I was hoping to avoid. But it can’t be helped. Five extra men, maximum. The search has to be undertaken in secrecy.’

‘I’ve got four men on standby at the airport,’ Paluzzi announced. ‘I had them flown in this morning in case we needed them. They’ve been on the case since Monday so there will be no need to waste time briefing them.’

‘Get them over here as quickly as possible,’ Philpott told him. ‘There’s no time to lose.’

Paluzzi disappeared into the outer office to use the telephone.

‘Michael came up with something while we were going through the plans. What if Calvieri gave the vial to a woman? We don’t have Sabrina to check the women’s cloakrooms.’

‘Good point.’ Philpott looked at Kuhlmann. ‘We’ll need your best policewoman. I’ll brief her personally.’

‘I’ll get on to it right away,’ Kuhlmann said, and left the room.

Philpott read through the list.

‘You’re going to need some kind of cover to make it easy for you to move about the building without drawing unnecessary attention to yourselves.’

‘I’ve already seen to that,’ Kolchinsky replied. ‘Vlok’s bringing up half a dozen maintenance overalls for us to use.’

Paluzzi returned.

‘The men should be here in about fifteen minutes. One of my deputies, Captain Molinetti, has taken a team of men to Milan to search Calvieri’s apartment. He’ll only call if they come up with something important. I’ve told him to ask for you.’

‘I look forward to hearing from him,’ Philpott replied, then reached for the receiver to call Calvieri.

Calvieri replaced the handset and gave Ubrino a thumbs-up sign. Ubrino punched the air in delight and grinned at Sabrina, his animosity towards her forgotten in his moment of triumph.

‘You haven’t won yet,’ Sabrina snapped, glaring at Ubrino. ‘Five o’clock’s still a long way off.’

‘It will be for us, stuck in here,’ Calvieri said, then sat down opposite Sabrina. The transmitter was still clenched tightly in his left hand. ‘I don’t think your colleagues would agree with you, though. They have six hours left to find the vial. So much ground to cover and so little time in which to do it. And to make matters worse, they have to conduct the search in complete secrecy. It wouldn’t do to alert the media, would it? So many problems to overcome. And even then they still won’t find it. All that time and effort wasted.’

‘Don’t count on it,’ she retorted, eyeing him coldly.

‘I don’t underestimate any of you, believe me. That would be suicidal. I don’t expect them to sit around idly waiting for the deadline. Of course they’re going to try to find the vial. But I bargained on that when I was planning the operation. That’s why I’ve had it hidden where they’ll never find it.’

‘Where?’

Calvieri smiled faintly and put his finger to his lips. ‘There’s a saying in Latin. Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur .’

‘The man is wise who talks little,’ she translated.

‘In other words, know when to hold your tongue.’

‘You should have borne that in mind yesterday.’

‘I don’t follow you,’ Calvieri said with a frown.