Colin Forbes - Precipice

'I came to you last.' Newman explained, 'to give you a bit more sleep.'

She looked round the room. Butler and Nield, fully dressed, sat in armchairs. Marler had adopted his usual stance, standing against a wall, smoking a king-size.

'Haven't seen you in ages,' she said, looking at Marler.

'I've been sleeping the sleep of the just.'

'Tell me how to do it sometime.' She sat down. 'Where is Philip?'

'I woke him first.' Newman told her. 'He's gone to pay a quick visit to the Marchats. He has to ask them something important which occurred to me.'

'I'll go with him.' she said, jumping up.

'Sit down!' Newman ordered. 'He left a while ago. He'll be back soon.'

'I don't like it.' she told Newman abruptly. 'He could lead The Motorman to them.'

'You have that little faith in Philip?' Newman asked ironically.

'Sorry, I'm only half-awake. I'll be compos mentis in a minute.' She saw his expression. 'All right, fire away. I'll take in whatever it is you've replanned.'

Newman explained the technique of the new plan. Paula listened carefully. When he had finished she asked her question.

'What's this new weapon?'

'Harry.' Newman said, turning to Butler, 'show Paula the weapon Tweed has brought us.'

'Tweed is here?' Paula almost yelled, then lowered her voice. 'Well, where is he, Bob?'

'Waiting at the airfield. Then he's there to take any calls that come in from Beck.'

'I'd like to see this weapon which sounds so important to the new plan. I agree your plan is brilliant.'

'Not my plan.' Newman informed her. 'Tweed thought up the whole thing while flying here in the jet. Harry, show her.'

Butler went behind a couch, picked up something, emerged with a rocket launcher, hand-held, pressed into his shoulder. Paula gazed at the large muzzle Harry was aiming at her point-blank. She thought it looked like a miniature cannon.

'Don't worry.' Harry called out to her, 'it isn't loaded.'

'Thank heavens for small mercies.' she said and smiled.

'And this is what it's loaded with, what it fires a fair distance.'

He dived behind the couch, laid the launcher on the floor, came up holding a sinister-looking shell.

'Makes quite a bang.' Harry went on. 'Newman will be the one who uses it. The rest of us are protection. Tweed brought spare shells.'

'One should do the trick.' Newman said. If it doesn't we're all in trouble.'

'I think it will work.' Paula said, ever the optimist.

There was a rapping tattoo on the door. Newman unlocked it, peered out, let in Philip, who took off his fur-lined coat as he entered. The room was now very warm.

'It's still not snowing.' he reported. 'It's cold enough to freeze the whatnots off a brass monkey but the moon casts a good light.'

'How did you get on?' Newman demanded anxiously.

'Because they recognized my voice they were going to let me in but I told them to keep the chain on the door. They were both still up, fully dressed. I suppose what Paula and I told them gave them a lot to talk about.'

'Get to the point,' Newman snapped.

'It's OK. Anton told me there are no villagers left on the Kellerhorn. A few years back there was a landslide and even the old villagers ran for it and never went back. The youngsters have gone looking for the bright lights, as Anton explained.'

'I don't quite get it.' Paula said.

'Bob was worried,' Philip explained. 'Worried that if there were still occupied villages on the mountain there could be casualties. Innocent Swiss.'

Newman decided: 'I'll explain the new plan to Philip. Lucky we got that jeep.'

'Where on earth did you get a jeep from at this hour?' enquired Paula.

'Butler and Nield – much earlier – leaned against the bell of the garage which supplied the two four-wheel-drives. The owner lives over the shop,' Newman told her. 'He wasn't pleased, I gather – until Nield showed him a fistful of Swiss banknotes. Then he could have bought the shop's whole stock. That gives us three vehicles. One is really a spare – in case a vehicle is put out of action.'

'I'm not going back to bed,' Paula decided, 'now I'm up and dressed I'm staying that way. I'd get very little extra sleep before dawn – if any.' She took off her coat.

'I'll stay up with you,' volunteered Philip, 'after Bob has finished with me. We've still got food and I can go down and persuade the night clerk to make coffee – by showing him my Walther, if necessary.'

'You are joking,' said Paula. 'Of course you are.'

'I'm staying up, too,' said Marler. 'Anyone fancy a game of poker? Provided we play for big money…'

A five-minute assault. Paula found the words echoing in her mind as the convoy moved off at dawn. Again a heavy mist had descended over Sion as had been the case when Philip and Paula had first arrived in the town. Its clamminess cloyed at their faces, it deadened all sound. They seemed to move out of a ghost town.

Philip and Paula, in a four-wheel-drive, led the way at the beginning. Newman had agreed it was sensible since they knew the route. Behind them followed Butler and Meld, each clad in black leather and helmets and riding a Fireblade. They would move to the head of the convoy when the beginning of the road up the mountain was reached.

'We need a distraction if they see us coming.' Newman had decided. 'If we're spotted too early the sight of what will appear to be a couple of Leather Bombers will confuse the opposition.'

Behind the motorcycles Newman drove the jeep with the rocket launcher and spare shells beside him. He had chosen the jeep because it would be easy to leap out of.

Bringing up the rear Marler sat alone in the second four-wheel-drive. Like Philip, Butler, and Nield he carried a canvas satchel with a shoulder-strap. They drove with their headlights dimmed and met no other traffic and not a single soul on the streets.

With Philip behind the wheel, they soon left Sion behind and paused as the beginning of the mountain road came into view. Butler and Nield rode into the vanguard and Newman followed behind them.

'There would be a mist,' Philip commented.

'Just what we need to cover our departure.' Paula assured him.

'You're not driving.' he reminded her.

'I'll take over the wheel anytime.' she retorted.

'I'll hang in here for awhile.'

They emerged suddenly above the white layer of heavy mist and Paula was surprised how high they had climbed already. Above them was an azure sky, cloud-free. She looked back and thought the huge rock near the Marchats' house, appearing to float, was like a Japanese painting.

'We're making good progress.' Philip said as he swung round yet another hideous bend. 'And the snow is hard so we can move faster.'

'Newman is going like the wind. The trouble is he has Butler and Nield ahead of him. Put those two on motorcycles and they jolly near break the sound barrier.'

She was surprised, had a funny feeling, when unexpectedly they passed the rock alcove where they had fought off a three-man ambush. Don't think about it, she told herself. Concentrate on what lies ahead.

Behind them, Marler was whistling a tune to himself. He had waited at the bottom while Newman took the lead in his jeep, with only the motorcycles ahead. He was impressed with the way Newman was negotiating the bends, bearing in mind that he hadn't had the experience he had built up driving to the villa the day before.

Butler and Nield, finding the surface hard, were storming up the mountain with Newman not far in their wake. They had to hit the ground station before the guards woke up. They were banking on the sheer mountain wall muffling the sound of their headlong approach.

'Boy.' Philip exclaimed, 'are they moving!'

'So are we.' responded Paula.

She had stopped gazing down into the abyss. She wanted her nerve steady as a rock – steady as the rock wall they were skimming past – when the inevitable battle began. She took out her Browning, checked the action.