Алистер Маклин - Floodgate

Annemarie said to Julie: ‘If I were to say to him that he is as Machiavellian as he is big-headed, do you think he would fire me? Or just try to reduce me to tears?’

Van Effen sipped his jenever. ‘Fortunately, I am above such things. And you must never confuse Machiavellianism with diplomacy, big-headedness with intelligence.’

‘You’re right, Annemarie. I’m sorry I said “sorry”.’ Julie looked at van Effen with something less than affection. ‘And what are you going to do now?’

‘Just sit. Waiting.’

‘Waiting for what?’

‘The phone. The Colonel.’

‘The Colonel!’ Julie said. ‘After what you said to him?’

‘After what he said to me, you mean.’

‘You’re going to have a very long wait.’ Annemarie spoke with conviction.

‘My dear children – or should I say babes in the wood – you sadly underestimate the Colonel. He is infinitely shrewder than either of you. He knows very well indeed what the score is. He’s taking some time to make this call because he’s figuring out a way to beat a strategic retreat without loss of dignity, peace with honour, if you will. Now there, if you like, does go a man with a Machiavellian cast of mind – after forty years battling with the underworld one does develop a certain cast of mind. I told the Colonel that he had left me with no place to go. De Graaf, being de Graaf, realized at once what I meant – that he had no place to go.’

Julie said: ‘Seeing you’re so clever, would you mind –’

‘There’s no need to be unpleasant. Look at me. I am treating you with unfailing courtesy – or should I say chivalry –’

‘I suppose. What’s the Colonel going to say?’

‘That’s on consideration – or on re-consideration – well, he’s going to give me carte blanche. The 8 p.m. assignation is on.’

‘It would be nice to see you wrong for once,’ Julie said. ‘No, I didn’t really mean that. I only hope you are wrong.’

For a time no one spoke. The girls kept looking at the telephone on the coffee table by van Effen’s side. Van Effen wasn’t looking at anything in particular. The phone rang.

Van Effen picked it up. ‘Ah! Yes…I accept that. Maybe I did step out of line. But I was provoked.’ He winced and held the telephone some distance away from his ear. ‘Yes, sir, you were provoked too…Yes, I thoroughly agree. A very wise decision, if I may say so…Of course, you will be kept in the picture, sir…No, they don’t trust me…Yes, sir, here. Goodbye.’

He hung up and looked at Julie. ‘Why aren’t you in the kitchen, my girl? Distinctly smell burning. I was asked for lunch –’

‘Oh, do be quiet. What did he say?’

‘Carte blanche. 8 p.m.’

Julie looked at him, her face still, for what seemed a long time but could only have been a few seconds, then turned and went to the kitchen. Annemarie made a couple of steps towards him, stopped and said: ‘Peter.’

‘Don’t say it. I’ve already got out of one difficult situation. Don’t you and Julie put me in an impossible one.’

‘We won’t. I promise. You know that we can’t help what we feel and you can’t blame us for that. But you could blame us if we did start talking about it, so we won’t. That’s sure.’ She smiled. ‘Now, isn’t that considerate.’

‘Very. Do you know, Annemarie, I do believe I’m beginning to like you.’

‘Like me?’ She gave him a quizzical look. ‘So you didn’t even like me when you kissed me this morning? Absentmindedness, I suppose. Or do you just go around kissing policewomen as a matter of routine? Something to do with their morale, no doubt.’

‘You’re the first.’

‘And, no doubt, the last. We all make mistakes, whatever I mean by that cryptic remark. Who doesn’t trust you?’

‘Who doesn’t – what?’

‘Something you said to the Colonel.’

‘Ah. My criminal associates. We parted at the Hunter’s Horn professing mutual trust and faith. Didn’t stop them from staking a man out at the Trianon. An irritation. No problem.’

‘And after lunch?’

‘Stay here a bit. The Colonel is going to call me. That will be after we hear what, if anything, the FFF have been up to at two o’clock. The Colonel is convinced that they will not blow up the Hagestein. Frogmen have found no traces of any underwater charges in position.’

Van Effen called his office and asked for the desk sergeant. ‘The men on Fred Klassen and Alfred van Rees. They called in at noon?’ He listened briefly. ‘So van Rees has lost our man. Chance or on purpose, it doesn’t matter. I assume you have the licence number. All officers on patrol. Not to approach. Just locate. Note this number and call me here.’

Lunch was an excellent but hardly festive meal. Julie and Annemarie were determinedly overbright and over-cheerful and the harsh edges of strain occasionally showed through: if van Effen noticed anything amiss he made no comment: her brother, Julie knew, rarely missed anything.

They had coffee in the living-room. Shortly after two o’clock a young motorcycle policeman came to collect the Hunter’s Horn tape.

Julie said: ‘I hear that you are awaiting a call from the Colonel. After that?’

‘Your bed, my dear, if I may. I don’t know when I can expect to sleep tonight or even if I will sleep so I think an hour or two might be of some value. That hour or two, of course, would be helped along by the brandy you have – unaccountably – so far failed to offer me.’

The Colonel’s call came when van Effen was halfway through his brandy. It was a brief call and one-sided. Van Effen said ‘yes’ several times, ‘I see’ a couple of times, then told the Colonel goodbye and hung up.

‘The FFF blew up the North Holland dyke at exactly 2 p.m. Extensive flooding, but shallow and no lives lost. Not according to first reports. The Hagestein weir was not touched. As the Colonel says, he expected this. The frogmen had located no charges and he is convinced that the FFF were unable either to approach the weir or conceal charges. He’s further convinced that their blasting techniques are primitive and limited only to simple operations like blowing up dykes and canal banks.’

‘But you’re not convinced of this, are you?’ Julie said.

‘I’m neither convinced nor unconvinced. I know no more about it than you do. Maybe the Colonel finds it preferable, more comforting to think along those lines: maybe the FFF want the Colonel – us, the country – to think along those lines. They have all the hallmarks of being a devious and highly organized bunch. That impression, too, may be deceptive. Are they a simple-minded group trying to make us think they are devious or a devious-minded group trying to make us think they are simple? Figure it out for yourselves. I can’t. I’m going to rest lightly. Turn on the radio, would you? The FFF have, it seems, got into the habit of making a public announcement after what they no doubt regard as being one of their master strokes. Don’t bother to wake me to convey their next dire threat. In fact, don’t bother me for anything.’

He had barely dropped off when Julie came in and shook him awake. He opened his eyes and, as was his custom, was almost instantly awake. He said: ‘This is the way you don’t disturb me? The heavens have fallen in?’

‘I’m sorry. A letter came for you.’

‘A letter? An exhausted man is torn from his slumbers –’

‘It came by special delivery,’ she said patiently. ‘It has Urgent stamped all over it.’

‘Let me see.’ He took the envelope from her, glanced briefly at the address and postmark, opened the envelope, half extracted the contents, pushed it back inside again and slid the envelope under the pillow. ‘And I’m disturbed by this. One of my fellow officers trying to be witty. Next time, be sure the heavens have fallen in.’