General Carter said: ‘Gobbledegook. What are those terms supposed to mean?’
Hagenbach said: ‘I am not sure if I should tell you. That does not refer to you personally, General. Senior officers, cabinet ministers and, of course, senior police officers, are entitled to be privy to such information. But there are – ah – civilians present.’
O’Hare said mildly: ‘Doctors don’t talk. What’s more, they don’t leak secret information to the press either.’
Hagenbach favoured him with a very old-fashioned look then said to April: ‘And you, Miss Wednesday?’
She said: ‘I’d talk my head off if you as much as showed me a pair of thumb-screws. You wouldn’t have to put them on, showing would be quite enough. Otherwise, no.’
Hagenbach said to Hendrix: ‘How’s Branson with thumb-screws and young ladies?’
‘No way. Master criminal though he is he has a remarkable reputation for gallantry towards women. He has never carried out a robbery where a woman might be involved, far less hurt.’
‘But Mr Revson told me–’
‘I rather fancy,’ Hagenbach said, ‘that Revson wanted you to act scared. So he threw a scare into you.’
April Wednesday was indignant: ‘Has he no scruples?’
‘In private life, a model of integrity. On business – well, if he has scruples he has so far hidden the fact very well. As to those objects he asked for, the aerosol contains exactly the same knockout nerve gas that Branson used with such effect on the bridge. No permanent damage whatsoever – the presence of Miss Wednesday testifies to that. The pens – they look like ordinary felt pens – fire tiny tipped needles that also knock out people.’
Admiral Newson said: ‘Why two colours?’
‘The red knocks you out a bit more permanently’
‘One assumes that “a bit more permanently” means permanently?’
‘Could happen. The air pistol – well, it has the advantage of almost complete silence.’
‘And the CAP bit?’
Hagenbach’s hesitation betrayed a degree of reluctance.
‘It means the bullets are tipped.’
‘Tipped with what?’
Hagenbach’s reluctance turned into something close to embarrassment.
‘Cyanide.’
After a brief and understandable silence Richards said heavily: ‘This Revson of yours. Is he a direct descendant of Attila the Hun?’
‘He is an extremely effective operative, sir.’
‘Loaded down with a lethal armoury like that, I don’t for a moment doubt it. He has killed?’
‘So have thousands of police officers.’
‘And what’s his score to date?’
‘I really couldn’t say, sir. In his reports, Revson lists only the essentials.’
‘Only the essentials.’ Richards’s echo had a hollow ring to it. He shook his head and said no more.
‘If you will excuse me for a moment.’ Hagenbach wrote quickly on a notepad, opened the door and handed the note to a man outside. ‘Have those items here within the hour.’ He returned and picked up the transcript again.
‘To continue. “In what little time I’ve had I’ve tried to make an assessment of Branson’s character. In original concept, planning, organization and execution, the man is quite brilliant. He would have made an excellent general, for his appreciation of both strategy and tactics is masterly. But nobody can be that good. He has his failings, which I hope can be used to bring him down. He has a divine belief in his own infallibility. This belief carries with it the seeds of his own destruction. No one is infallible. Second, he is possessed of a colossal vanity. He could just as easily have held those TV interviews – I’ve only seen one of Branson’s love affairs with the public but there are bound to be more – at, say, the south tower – but, no, he had to have it smack in the middle, surrounded by his own private press corps. In his place I would have had the whole press corps off the bridge in five minutes. It seems it just has not occurred to him that the ranks of the press corps may have been infiltrated. Third, he should have searched the doctor and Miss Wednesday and then the ambulance, if necessary throwing every single item of medical equipment into the Golden Gate, before allowing it to leave the bridge: in other words, he is not security-conscious enough.
‘ “How to deal with them? I have no idea yet. I would like some guidance. I have suggestions but I don’t think any of them is practical.
‘ “No one can cope with seventeen heavily armed men. But of those seventeen only two matter. Some of the other fifteen are bright but only Branson and Van Effen are natural killers. Those two I could kill.” ’
‘Kill!’ April Wednesday’s shocked green eyes stared out of her pale face. ‘The man’s a monster.’
Hagenbach was dry. ‘At least, he’s a realistic monster.’ He read on. ‘ “It’s feasible, but unwise. The others would then almost certainly overreact and I wouldn’t care to be responsible for the health of the President and his friends. This is a second last resort.
‘ “Would it be possible to have a submarine standing by under the bridge during the hours of darkness, with only the top of the conning tower showing? I could certainly pass messages and pick up anything I wanted that way. What else, I don’t know. I can’t for instance, visualize the President descending two hundred feet of rope ladder. He’d fall off after ten feet.
‘ “When Branson’s men are fixing the charges would it be possible to send a two-thousand-volt jolt through the cables? I know this would electrify the entire bridge but those standing on the roadway or inside the coaches should be safe enough.” ’
Richards said: ‘Why two thousand volts?’
Hagenbach sounded almost apologetic. ‘Electric chair voltage.’
‘I owe an apology to the shade of Attila.’
‘Yes. “One drawback to this is that someone, say the President, might be leaning his elbows on the side of the bridge or sitting on a crash barrier. That would mean a new Presidential election. I need expert advice. Or could we aim a laser beam at the charges when in position? The beam would certainly cut through the canvas. If the charge were to fall on to the bridge it would certainly detonate on impact but as most of the explosive force would be dissipated in thin air, damage to the roadway would not be severe. It is sure that it wouldn’t bring the bridge down. Trouble is, the laser beam might detonate the charge instead. Please advise.
‘ “Under suitable cover would it be possible to introduce men into the tower? Natural fog would be fine. Phoney oil fire depending on the direction of the wind? I don’t know. But the thing is to get men to the top, return the lift and then cut off the power to the elevators. Any person who gets to the top after five hundred odd feet of ladders isn’t going to be in much shape to do anything.
‘ “Is it possible to introduce some form of knockout drugs in the food? Something that would lay them out for half an hour, maybe an hour and not too fast-acting? If anyone were to keel over with the first bite you can imagine Branson’s reaction. The individual food trays would have to be marked so that seventeen of them would go to the seventeen for whom they were intended.” ’
Hagenbach looked at O’Hare. ‘There are such drugs?’
‘I’m sure of it. The concoction of Mickey Finns is not my speciality, but Dr Isaacs – he’s the chief of the Drugs and Narcotics Section – knows as much about those brews as anyone in the country. Catherine de Medici could never have coped with him.’
‘That’s useful.’ Hagenbach returned his attention to the final brief section of the transcript.
‘ “Please let me have your suggestions. All I myself can really do at the moment is to try to deactivate the radio trigger that sets off the charges without leaving any signs that it has been tampered with. That in itself should be simple. It’s getting at the damned thing that’s difficult. It has, of course, to be in one of the helicopters and those are bathed in light both night and day and are heavily guarded. I’ll try.” That’s all.’
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