Алистер Маклин - Seawitch

As the prisoners and guards disembarked from the helicopter Durand said: ‘Accommodation?’

‘Plenty. There are spare rooms in the Oriental quarters. There’s Lord Worth’s private suite.’

‘Lock-ups?’

‘What do you mean? This isn’t a prison.’

‘Store-rooms? Ones that can be locked from the outside.’

‘Yes.’

Durand looked at Larsen consideringly. ‘You’re being extremely co-operative, Larsen. Your reputation says otherwise.’

‘Two minutes’ walk around and you could confirm all I’m saying for yourself.’

‘You’d like to kill me, wouldn’t you, Larsen?’

‘When the time is ripe, yes. But it’s not yet.’

‘Even so.’ Durand produced a pistol. ‘Stay about ten feet away. You might be tempted to attack me and tell our men that you’ll tear me limb from limb unless they release the girls. A tempting thought, no?’

Larsen looked at him yearningly and said nothing.

The girls, the pilot and their four escorts arrived. Durand said: ‘Well, now, we must find some suitable overnight accommodation for you.’ He led the way to the first of several store-houses and opened the door to reveal a room packed roof-high with tinned foods. He bundled Campbell inside, locked the door and pocketed the key. The next store-house contained coils of rope, a powerful smell of crude oil and an active, scuttling population of those indestructible creatures, cockroaches. Durand said to the two girls: ‘Inside.’

The girls took one shuddering look then turned away. Marina said: ‘We will not go inside that disgusting place.’

Kowenski said in a gently-chiding voice which accorded ill with the Colt he held in his hand: ‘Don’t you know what this is?’ Rindler had a similar weapon trained on Melinda.

Both girls glanced briefly at each other and then, in what was obviously a prepared and rehearsed movement, walked towards the men with the guns, seized the barrels with their right hands and hooked their right thumbs behind the trigger forefingers, pulling the guns hard against themselves.

Marina said: ‘I can squeeze my thumb far faster than you can jerk that gun away. Want to try?’

‘Jesus Christ!’ Durand was badly shaken. He had run up against most situations in his life, but this one lay far beyond his most remote conception. ‘You trying to commit suicide?’

Melinda said: ‘Precisely.’ Her eyes never left Rindler’s. ‘You’re lower than those horrible cockroaches in there. You are vermin who are trying to destroy our father. With us dead you won’t have a singe card left to pay.’

‘You’re crazy! Simple pain crazy!’

‘That’s as may be,’ Marina said. ‘But for crazy people our logic is pretty good. With nothing to shackle his hands you can imagine how our father will react – especially as he will believe, as everybody will believe, that you murdered us. He won’t have recourse to the law, of course – you simply have no idea what power a few billion dollars can bring to bear. He’ll destroy you and a your criminal associates to the last man.’ She looked at Kowenski with contempt. ‘Why don’t you press the trigger? No? Then drop your gun.’ Kowenski dropped his gun and Rindler did the same.

Melinda said: ‘My sister and I are taking a walk. We will return when you have quarters prepared fitting for Lord Worth’s daughters.’

Durand’s face had definitely lost colour and his voice was hoarse and not quite steady as he tried to regain a measure of authority. ‘Have your walk if you must. Heffer, go with them. Any trouble, shoot them in the legs.’

Marina stooped, picked up Kowenski’s Colt, walked up to Heffer and rammed the muzzle into his left eye. Heffer howled in agony. Marina said: ‘Fair deals. You shoot me through the leg – now, I mean – and I’ll blow your brains out.’

‘God’s sake!’ Durand’s voice was almost imploring. He was just one step removed from wringing his hands. ‘Somebody’s got to go with you. If you’re out there on your own and in no danger, Palermo’s men will cut us to pieces.’

‘What a perfectly splendid idea.’ Marina withdrew the pistol from an already bruising eye, and looked in distaste at Heffer, a rodent-faced creature of indeterminate age and nationality. ‘We see your point. But this – this animal is not to approach within ten yards of us at any time. That is understood?’

‘Yes, yes, of course.’ If they asked him for the moon Durand would have levitated himself and got it for them. Having overwhelmingly displayed what it was to have sixteen generations of Highland aristocratic ancestry, the two girls walked away towards one of the triangular perimeters. It was fully twenty yards before they both began, at the same instant, to tremble violently. Once started, they could not control the trembling and they prayed that the following Heffer could not notice it.

Marina whispered shakily: ‘Would you do that again?’

‘Never, never, never. I’d rather die.’

‘I think we came pretty close to it. Do you think that Michael and John would be shaking like us after an experience like that?’

‘No. If there’s any truth in half the hints Daddy lets drop, they’d already be planning what to do next. And Durand and his obnoxious friends wouldn’t be shaking either. Dead men don’t shake very much.’

Marina’s trembling turned into a genuine shiver. ‘I only wish to God they were here right now.’

They stopped ten feet short of the platform perimeter. Neither girl had a head for heights. They turned and looked north-eastwards as the distant and muted roar of an aero-engine came to their ears.

Durand and Larsen heard it at the same time. They could see nothing because dusk had already fallen, but neither man had any doubts as to the identity of the approaching helicopter and its occupants. With some satisfaction Durand said: ‘Company. This has to be Lord Worth. Where will they land?’

‘The south-east helipad.’

Durand glanced across the platform to where the two girls were standing with Heffer, gun carried loosely in his right hand, less than the regulation ten yards away. Satisfied, Durand picked up his machine-pistol and said: ‘Let’s go and welcome his lordship aboard. Aaron, come with us.’

Larsen said: ‘You’d better hope that Lord Worth proves a bit more tractable than his daughters.’

‘What do you mean?’

Larsen smiled in sardonic satisfaction. ‘You really did catch a couple of tigresses by their tails, didn’t you?’

Durand scowled and walked away, followed by Larsen and Aaron, the latter armed similarly to Durand. They reached the south-east helipad just as the Worth Hudson helicopter touched down. Lord Worth himself was the first out. He stood at the foot of the steps and stared in disbelief at the armed men. He said to Larsen: ‘What in God’s name goes on here?’

Durand said: ‘Welcome aboard the Seawitch , Lord Worth. You may regard me as your host and yourself as a guest – an honoured guest, of course. There has been a slight change of ownership.’

‘I’m afraid that this man here – his name is Durand and one must assume that he is one of Cronkite’s lieutenants–’

‘Cronkite!’ Durand was jarred. ‘What do you know about Cronkite?’

‘I can hardly congratulate him on his choice of lieutenants.’ When Lord Worth poured on his icy contempt he used a king-sized can. ‘Do you think we are such fools as not to know who your paymaster is? Not that Mr Cronkite has long to live. Nor you, either, for that matter.’ Durand stirred uneasily; Lord Worth sounded far too much like his daughters for his peace of mind. Lord Worth directed his attention to Larsen. ‘One assumes that this ruffian arrived with accomplices. How many?’