Алистер Маклин - Seawitch

Mitchell said: ‘Packing will take minutes. I feel it would be much more polite if we were to wait here until you’re ready.’

Lord Worth glared at him. ‘You think I’d head for a telephone the moment your backs are turned?’

Mitchell smiled. ‘Isn’t it odd that the same thought should occur to the three of us at the same instant?’

Commander Larsen and Scoffield observed the approach of the Worth Hudson helicopter with surprise but without undue concern. Lord Worth customarily gave advance warning of his arrival but could occasionally be forgetful on his point. In any event it was his helicopter, and this should be about his expected time of arrival. They sauntered across the platform and arrived at the north-east helipad just as the helicopter touched down.

Surprisingly, no one emerged immediately from the machine. Larsen and Scoffield looked at each other in some perplexity, a perplexity that was considerably deepened when the disembarkation door slid back and Durand appeared in the doorway with a machine-pistol cradled in his hands. Just behind him stood a similarly equipped henchman. From their shadowed position it was impossible for them to be observed by any of the rig duty crew.

Durand said: ‘Larsen and Scoffield? If you are carrying weapons please don’t be so foolish as to try to use them.’ The boarding steps swung down. ‘Come and join us.’

The two men had no option. Once aboard, without taking his eyes off them, Durand said: ‘Kowenski, Rindler – see if they are armed.’

Both Larsen 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 circumstances, Commander.’

Larsen nodded. ‘Your kidnappers. This can carry a death sentence.’ He looked at Campbell. ‘Why did you fly those criminals out here?’

‘Because I come over all cowardly when I have a pistol barrel screwed into the back of my neck all the way from take-off to touchdown.’ Campbell spoke with a certain justifiable bitterness.

Larsen looked at Melinda. ‘Have you been maltreated in any fashion?’

‘No.’

‘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 damned if I do.’ Larsen’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 Larsen on the back of the neck with the butt of his machine-pistol, a shrewdly calculated blow designed to daze but not knock out. When Larsen’s head had cleared he found that he had bracelets around both wrists and ankles. His attention then focused on a pair of gleaming stainless steel medical cutters of the type much favoured 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, Larsen.’

Larsen, apparently, was of the same opinion. ‘Take those damned pliers away and my bracelets off. I’ll close down your damned Christmas tree.’

‘And I’ll come with you just to see that you really do turn off this Christmas tree. Not that I would recognize one of those things if I saw it, but I do know that there are such things as flow gauges. I shall carry a walkie-talkie with me. Aaron here has another. I shall 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?’ Larsen’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 anti-aircraft guns. Piles of depth-charges. One would almost think that you were prepared to withstand a siege. Dear me, dear me. Federal offence, you know. Lord Worth, even with the millions he can pay for lawyers, can’t fail to spend at least ten years in penitentiary for this.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Hardly standard equipment aboard an oil rig. I’ll wager it wasn’t here twenty-four hours ago. I’ll wager it was inside the Mississippi naval armoury that was broken into last night. The Government takes a very dim view of people who steal its military equipment. And, of course, you must have specialists aboard who are skilled in handling such equipment, and that’s hardly part of the basic training of oil rig crews. I wonder if those crews are also carrying special equipment – such, for instance, as was stolen from a Florida armoury last night. I mean, two unrelated armoury break-ins in the same night is just too much of a coincidence. Twenty years in prison with no possibility of remission for you too, as the person chiefly responsible for aiding and abetting. And people call us criminals!’

Larsen 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 Roamer , carrying out its short and wearisome patrol between the rig and the huge floating oil tank. ‘What’s our friend up to?’

‘Even a land-lubber like you should be able to guess. He’s patrolling the pipe-line.’

‘What on earth for? You could replace a cut line in a day. What would that achieve? 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 cut-throats aboard this rig? Who’s their leader?’

‘Giuseppe Palermo.’

‘That mobster! So the noble lord, apart from indulging in grand larceny, is a known associate of criminals and convicted felons.’

‘You know him, then?’

‘Yes.’ 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. You’re Lord Worth’s men, so we know that no harm will come to them from you. We’re bringing them towards the living quarters here but they will not mingle with you – we don’t want you to take our aces away from us. You will remain inside your quarters. If you don’t you’re likely to hear quite a lot of screaming and see bits and pieces of fingers or ears being 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 a 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 them off. Whether he would have enough fuel for the return fight would be a problem for him, even 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.