Samuel Edwards - Neptune

‘If you don’t mind,’ Adrienne said, ‘I’ll make my own check, too.’

‘You don’t want to borrow them openly,’ Porter told the Captain. ‘The concentration of that many first-rate salvage people in the Neptune would hint that the ship intends to go out on a special mission. I suggest you bring them in singly, as close to sailing time as you can. They’ll be travelling here by commercial airlines and staying at hotels, so they should be provided with false identities, and as an extra precaution they should use their assumed names until they’re well out to sea.’

‘I’ll attend to it,’ Adrienne said, showing a reluctant admiration for his thoroughness.

‘Where do you intend to recruit your sailing crew, Captain?’

‘I’ve had orders to go through the usual merchant marine hiring halls,’ Humphries said. ‘I’ve been told that to do it in any other way would arouse suspicions. The Corporation and the FBI will provide me with lists of merchant marine officers and men who have security clearance, so I’ll take all of them from that group.’

‘I’ll sit in on your hiring sessions with you,’ Adrienne said, ‘You can introduce me as an assistant personnel director of Richards Shipping. That way I can keep the whole procedure under close watch.’

‘You people sure don’t take any risks,’ the Captain said.

Porter smiled.

‘Are you expecting problems?’

‘If we look hard enough ahead of time,’ Porter said, ‘we usually avoid them. This mission is the biggest intelligence enterprise ever attempted, anywhere, so we’re not only closing doors, we’re plugging keyholes,’

They rejoined Marie and Richards for liqueurs and coffee, and the conversation again became general. Porter discovered that his host shared his enthusiasm for fishing, so they discussed trout lures for a time.

‘Are you sailing with us on the Neptune ?’ Richards asked.

Porter shrugged. ‘That depends on more factors than I’m capable of analysing at present.’

‘If you come, we can try our hand at deep-sea fishing from the float. It will be a long voyage across the Pacific.’

It was too much for Porter to hope that he would have nothing better to do than fish.

When Captain Humphries departed Frank and Marie went to bed, so good manners forced Porter and Adrienne to retire, too. He changed into pyjamas and a robe in the little dressing-room, and when he returned to the bedchamber she was attired in a nightgown and semi-transparent robe that made her urgently desirable.

The circumstances permitted only one approach. ‘Will you go to bed with me?’

‘No,’ she said.

Her refusal, combined with her proximity, made him want her all the more. ‘I could play rough.’

‘I have a karate black belt,’ Adrienne said. ‘What’s your rating?’

‘The same,’ he said and smiled. ‘Pointless to wear ourselves out in violent physical exercise that leads nowhere.’

‘All this nonsense because Brian Davidson wants us to put up a front for Mrs Richards’ servants!’ She sighed and sat on one of the twin beds. ‘If you were a gentleman you’d sleep in the dressing-room.’

‘I’m not. Besides, the little chaise in there is too short for me.’ He removed his robe and climbed into the other bed. ‘It might be big enough for you.’

‘No, thanks. I’ve slept in so many strange places that I prefer a real bed whenever I have the chance to use one.’ Adrienne snapped off the lights. ‘Good night.’

‘Good night,’ Porter said, and tried to put her out of his mind, but it was difficult when he knew he could touch her if he extended an arm. She wasn’t the coy type, so he doubted that she was playing hard to get, and her appearance, her sophistication and her status as a Corporation senior agent told him she had been around.

He wanted her, and not merely because the chance of a mutual assignment had thrown them together. Not that he had anything against taking advantage of an opportunity.

But he sensed that something more than sex for its own sake might be involved. Her appearance spoke for itself, but she had a maturity of intellect and personality that he liked. As an intelligence operative of long standing she had a realistic approach to life that coincided with his own. In brief, she appealed to him.

If the day ever came when he left the Corporation, Adrienne was the kind of woman with whom he’d enjoy sharing his life. A woman who could add two and two, and come up with the same answer every time. A woman who understood what he had become because she had been through the mill, too.

Not that he knew her well enough to think of her in connection with a long-range future that might be non-existent. But he realized she was beginning to represent something of a symbol to him.

He had been certain she had been drawn to him, too, and his private radar was seldom mistaken. Perhaps she was more complicated than he thought. On the other hand, he wasn’t infallible. Maybe, just this once, he had misread the signs.

So he could only conclude that he didn’t appeal to her, which was difficult to accept, particularly as he wasn’t averse to combining pleasure with business. Certainly no one who knew him would believe they had slept apart, but he was reluctant to create a scene under Franklin Richards’ roof. Their paths would cross again in the weeks ahead.

Once Porter recognized Adrienne’s unavailability he had no difficulty in falling asleep. His years in the field had taught him to empty his mind when he could, to rest whenever possible, and he slept soundly until a bright sun streaming through the blinds awakened him.

Adrienne was still asleep in the other bed, but he resisted the temptation to join her and take her by surprise. When he bedded her she would be wide awake – and willing.

He shaved, but a glance at his watch told him it would be another three-quarters of an hour before coffee would be sent to the room, so he wandered out on to a balcony adjoining the bedroom to smoke. The sun sparkled in a clear sky, and the tourists’ camping ground was partly visible through the fir trees on the horn-shaped peninsula. The air was pine-scented and fresh, and as Porter inhaled deeply he told himself this was his favourite part of America. If he survived long enough to retire and decided to settle in the States, this was vsjhere he wanted to live.

Adrienne, still clad in nightgown and negligee, joined him on the balcony. ‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘A day like this always makes me hate our kind of work.’

‘Don’t waste your guts hating it. You’ll need all your energy for this assignment.’ By gazing off at the peninsula instead of looking at her he was less conscious of her undress. ‘I don’t care in the least for our situation. Thousands of people here have been working on the Neptune , the Lord knows how many others in San Diego have been making the float and the other special equipment, and the sailing crew will be recruited from the merchant marine. Only a miracle will prevent information leaks, in spite of all the precautions that have been taken.’

‘I’m sure you’re right,’ she said, ‘but I find it hard to concentrate when all I want to do is spend the day sailing.’

‘There are only certain kinds of physical exertion I enjoy,’ he said, and catching a glimpse of motion on the peninsula, it occurred to him that people had been spending the night there. Still not looking at Adrienne, he offered to roll her a cigarette.

‘Save them for Marie,’ she said, and lighted one of her own. ‘What do you think of her?’

‘She reeks of charm. Tremendous sex appeal. A great hostess. She puts up a flirty front, but she’s more intelligent than she appears.’