Adam Hall - Quiller Solitaire

There were only two rings, and I liked that.

'Wer spricht, bitte?'

' Solitaire .'

' Blackjack .'

'Executive,' I said. 'I need a car. What have you got?'

'I've got an Audi GT, couple of Mercs. You need something fast?'

'No.' By fast he meant a Lamborghini. 'Black, low profile.'

'Need a phone?'

'Yes.'

'You'd better take the Audi, then.'

'All right.' I had one of the maps on the bed, and the wallet I'd taken from the man in the Cafe Brahms. 'Make it 04:00 today, at the T-section of Einstein-ufer and Abbe-strasse, by the canal. Can you do that?'

'Oh yes.'

'I'll be in a taxi. Have you seen me before?'

'No, sir.'

'One glove on, one off.'

'Got it. But why don't I bring the car to you, if -'

'Because I don't want you to.' He wasn't too seasoned, and it worried me. If I'd wanted him to bring the car here I would have asked him, and he should have known that. 'What's the number of the Audi?' He gave it to me and I said, 'You can take over the taxi, all right? Now listen, who's your senior man?'

'Kleiber.'

'Is he there?'

'I'll get him. I just meant – you know – that if you wanted the car there, I would have -'

'I appreciate it.'

Sat on the bed while I waited. It was going to be good to get some sleep: I'd only had three hours in the last forty. After that I'd need food, find an all-night hamburger stand. There might be-

'Kleiber.'

I switched to German. 'You know the city?'

'I was born here.'

'There's a man named Willi Hartman. Here's his address.'

'Got that.'

'There'll be some surveillance on the building, possibly more than one man. Hartman will phone your number at 10:00 today. I want you to take care of the surveillance while Hartman goes into his apartment and fetches some things. Tell him he's got thirty minutes. How many people can you use for this?'

'Six, seven.'

'It shouldn't take more than three. When Hartman leaves the building I want him tracked, to make sure he gets absolutely clear. I also want to know where he goes and what he does: put him under surveillance for the next twenty-four hours. I've guaranteed him total protection, so make sure no one slips up.'

'I understand.'

Her scent was on me, Helen's; I kept catching a hint of it when I moved. 'I want you to keep a complete record of anyone he meets – get their names. Watch especially for a woman named Inge, described as very attractive.'

'I understand.'

'Report to the DIF if you feel it's important. I'm taking the Audi and you know the phone number. As soon as I know which room the DIF will be in at the Hotel Steglitz I'll call you. He should arrive in Berlin early this morning. Questions?'

'You want me to report to you too?'

'No. Only the DIF.' He'd screen information for me; that was what he was for; I didn't want to use the phone in the Audi more than I had to: there could be some tricky driving to do. 'Anything else?'

'Nothing.'

'Use discreet force if you have to, but I don't want any drama.'

'I understand.'

It was 12:32 by the TV clock when I rang off, and while I got ready for bed I went over the whole set-up and couldn't find anything else that needed doing, but it was a little while before I could sleep. The Stingray thing was on my mind, even though it was someone else's mission and nothing to do with me, but then it's like that: no man is an island, so forth, and when the bell tolls for some poor bastard out there with his karma running hot it tolls for all of us. Other thoughts drifted into my head, some things she'd said, Helen, because her scent was still on my coat, things she'd said in the taxi, Those girls, in the club… do you think they were attractive? Touch anorexic, I think I'd said. And Matthews, at the board for Solitaire , it'd been two or three seconds before he'd switched the tape on, was he always going to be slow?

Do you think I'm attractive? I suppose that's the very last thing a woman should ask a man, isn't it… As a matter of fact, I used to be anorexic, once, like those girls in the club, but I got over it.

That man Home, and the thing about bringing the car here… if the shadow executive makes a precise rendezvous ten kilometres away it surely means he does not want to be met at his hotel… I'd better report it to the DIF, because I wanted totally seasoned people in the field for this one, there were lives in hazard, too many lives…

'I expect you think I'm just fishing for compliments, but then I am, I suppose… it's this awful self-image I'm saddled with… it's why I let George do the things he did with me…

How's Stingray?

Not all that good… He shut down on us…

For whom the bell… the bell tolling as the dark came down and her scent followed me through the delta waves.

04:00 and the streets still wet, with fog drifting from the canal and the diesel knocking as the taxi pulled up and I gave the driver twice the fare and told him to wait.

Home met me on foot – at least he knew that much – and took me round the corner into Abbe-strasse and gave me the keys.

'Recent service, fall tank, phone's already switched on, is that all right?'

'Tyres?

'Forty all round.' He was a short man in a duffle coat and a woollen hat, his breath clouding on the air. 'Normal's thirty-five, I thought you'd like -'

'Yes. Spare keys?'

We'd had a case where the shadow had been tracked back to his car and it was locked and he'd lost the keys and had to smash the window to get in and it had taken him too long and they'd found him reaching inside to unlock the door and taken every vertebra out of his spine with a 9 mm Uzi carbine and it went straight into the book at Norfolk: The importance of providing spare keys.

'They're under the front bumper, nearside.'

I shouldn't have had to ask: he should have told me right away.

'How long have you been working in the field?'

He almost flinched. 'Two days, sir.'

'When did you graduate?'

'Three days ago.'

Oh Jesus , those bloody people were out of their minds.

'Then you're doing well,' I told him, and got into the Audi and started up and took it as far as the next T-section and turned away from the canal and doubled back and found a bit of wasteground with a few cars and a rubbish dump on it and pulled in between a van and a broken-down pickup truck with a smashed window and the front bumper hanging off. The house was five or six hundred yards distant, the house where Sorgenicht lived: that was the name on the papers in the wallet I'd taken from him, August Sorgenicht.

I'd swung wide at the T-section to let the headlights play across the entrance and pick up the number. The house was at the end of a row, and I could sight it from here between the buildings at the end of the short deserted street. At this angle I could see two of its walls, five of its windows. The windows were dark.

The inside of the Audi smelled of stale smoke and I ran the driving-window down and pulled out the ashtray and emptied it. The air was cold and very still. Traffic was moving on the far side of the canal but the wall deadened its sound: for the next three hours I'd be able to hear things clearly in the environment.

I picked up the phone and got the Signals board in London direct and gave Matthews my exact.position and asked him to inform Kleiber, chief of support here in Berlin. 'I'll be in the car for the next few hours,' I told him, 'and this is the number.' I waited until he'd repeated it. This would have been going through my director in the field if I'd had one, and we were wasting a lot of time. 'Give my number to the DIF as soon as you can. Where is he now?'

I heard the pitch of his voice alter a fraction as he raised his head to look up at the board. 'He landed at Werneuchen Airforce Base at 03:51 local time and left there in a military helicopter at 03:59, so he'll still be airborne. His ETA Berlin is 04:07, a minute from now.'