Colin Forbes - This United state

Looking back, she saw the boulder hit the highway behind them. Like its predecessor, it bounced, then tore across the other-lane and disappeared. The avalanche had now landed on their lane of the highway, quietened down suddenly, leaving the lane in the opposite direction comparatively clear.

'You'd better take over the bloody wheel,' Newman told Paula amiably.

'We must be getting close to Ronstadt,' Tweed's calm voice called out. 'The red light is very strong now…'

Bruce, the man with the scarred forehead, had levered down the second boulder and immediately snatched a pistol from his belt. He had heard Butler's three shots. He could see no sign of Brad, but he could see two men crouched in the snow on his side of the gulley. He raised the pistol, gripped it in both hands. There was another shot. Marler had had the cross-hairs of his Armalite aimed, had fired. A red disc appeared on his forehead in the middle of the scar. He stood quite still for a moment, his arms falling, letting go of the pistol, then he fell over backwards, staring sightlessly at the moonlit sky.

'Be careful,' Marler warned. 'There are two more of them somewhere.'

'I thought I saw movement in the forest. I'm going to fan out,' Nield replied in a whisper.

'Good idea.'

Marler began crawling along a dip in the ground towards where the gulley they had driven up ended. Nield moved in a different direction, crouching low and running in spurts from boulder to boulder. He'd noticed one of the tall trees had dropped some snow. Why this tree?

In a roundabout way he approached closer, went into the forest. The particular tree which had caught his attention had a thick trunk with small lower branches which provided a natural ladder for anyone who wanted to climb high. He found his own tree trunk, not too close, not too far away from the tree attracting his curiosity. He saw Marler beginning to get exposed in the open. Three huge clots of snow fell from the tall tree.

Now he was sure, and with Marler in the open he had to act at once. He studied the tree, took a grenade from his pocket, lobbed it about fifteen feet up through a gap in the snow-covered foliage. The grenade detonated, Nield thought he heard a muffled scream. Then the body fell, Dan catapulting from branch to branch until he hit the ground and lay still. His rifle came down a second later.

At almost the same moment Buster stood up from behind his large boulder, swivelling his weapon for a quick burst. Marler shot him twice. Buster sagged to the snow, on top of his gun.

'That's four of them,' Nield called out. 'I've found their car.'

'Lose it,' Marler ordered.

'Both of you get down into the gulley near our car, then.'

Nield had found the car easily. He had simply followed the twin tracks of wheel marks in the snow. Ronstadt's thugs had parked it out of sight behind a large copse of frosted shrubbery. Above it loomed a large tree.

Nield found a deep dip in the ground behind one of the boulders strewn everywhere. He stood in the dip, took out a grenade, lobbed it carefully so it would land under the car's petrol tank and dropped behind the boulder. He heard the grenade detonate.. Then there was a roar. The petrol tank had blown. A spectacular shaft of flames soared up. Snow on the tree melted instantly. He peered over the boulder. The black Audi was a total wreck, looked as though it had been through a car crusher. He walked down the gulley and Marler was behind the wheel of the white Audi with Butler in the back. Nield sat again in the front passenger seat and Marler revved up to take it to the top, turn it round and drive back down the gulley.

'Funny,' Butler said, 'we could all be dead by now.'

'Not really,' Marler replied, 'not when the Americans are such amateurs when it comes to tactics.'

'We're in danger of losing Marler, Newman warned, 'moving at this speed.'

'We'll have to risk that,' Tweed replied from the back of the car. 'The man we mustn't lose is Ronstadt. If the Americans are planning what I suspect they are, then they'll win. Britain will be plunged into turmoil – from which it may not recover.'

'There are four of us, eleven of them,' Newman persisted. 'The odds are lethal.'

'Keep going,' Tweed ordered. 'What I can't understand is that we've passed the Hollental. The base has to be somewhere else. Kurt Schwarz missed something. At least, I think he did.' He took out the little black notebook they had found behind the loose brick when Irina had been rescued in Basel. 'Paula, let me borrow your torch.'

'What's worrying you?' she asked.

'Kurt wrote down H011ental on one page, then that was followed by a blank page. I don't understand it.'

'The explanation could be very simple,' said Paula, handing him her torch. 'I've done it myself. Turned over two pages without realizing it, leaving one page blank.'

'I hope you're right. Let me check what's on the following page. I see. Just one word. Schluchsee. Sounds like a lake.'

'Give me back my torch. I want to check the map.'

She studied the map, looked quickly at the screen with the red light showing Ronstadt's convoy ahead of them. She watched the light for a few minutes. Then she spoke rapidly.

'We were moving south-east through the Hollental. Now we're heading east towards Titisee, which has a smaller lake and is a famous resort. But soon there's a big junction which turns us south-west and soon runs alongside Lake Titisee

'Which we don't want,' Tweed protested.

'If you'd just let me finish; Paula snapped. 'There is a Schluchsee, a much bigger lake, and it looks remote. After passing Lake Titisee we come to another junction on the way to Feldberg.'

'Highest point in the Black Forest,' said Tweed. 'About four thousand five hundred feet high. Sorry,' he concluded.

'I can do without any more interruptions until I've finished. At the junction we turn left and then we're heading due south-east – straight for Schluchsee.'

'If the blue light on Marler's screen which is us vanishes, he will never follow such a complicated route,' Newman objected.

'We'll have to take that risk,' Tweed repeated.

'I don't like it. I should slow down, give Marler time to catch up with us,' Newman insisted.

'I'm not going to keep giving the same order,' Tweed told him. 'Your job is to keep Ronstadt in sight. That's a direct order.'

'Might be a good idea if we all calmed down a bit,' Keith Kent suggested.

'You're right,' Tweed agreed. 'Tension will get us nowhere.'

'So,' said Paula, 'let's all relax – including you, Tweed.'

'We're losing Tweed,' said Marler, driving his Audi at speed. 'The blue light is fading. We'll just have to go faster.'

And end up going off the road,' Nield warned.

'I don't think so,' Marler drawled. 'I used to be a racing driver.'

'But this isn't Le Mans,' Nield remarked as Marler accelerated even more. 'Strange that we've left the Hollental behind. I thought that's where their base was. And you're not flying a plane, Marler.'

'And there could be ice under this snow,' called out Butler, which was the first time Nield could recall him ever showing nervousness.

'I'm not going to let Tweed down,' Marler informed them. 'Did you,' he began, changing the subject, 'notice that amazing complex of buildings in the Hollental – the Hofgut Sternen?'

'Wouldn't have minded stopping there for a bite to eat,' Butler remarked. 'Place was enormous and a blaze of lights.'

'I was surprised to see a number of parked cars,' Nield replied. 'And I caught sight of people eating in a pretty good-looking restaurant.'

'Germans,' Marler said, 'coming from not too far away. The cars had skis attached to their roofs. A few hoping to take advantage of the falls of snow.'

There was silence for a while. Marler refused to moderate his speed. To their left a dense forest of firs stretched endlessly up a slope. Still no other traffic on the road. Thank heavens for small mercies, Nield thought.