Samuel Edwards - Neptune

‘We’ll turn in this rented machine, I’ll pay my motel bill and we’ll go on together to the Richards house, where I’m sure the charming Marie and the hospitable Franklin will offer us a late supper.’ Blinking his lights again as a signal when they left the park, he picked up speed on the highway.

‘Are you always in this good a mood after an execution?’ Adrienne asked.

‘Hardly ever. But I’ve seldom been this fortunate. I haven’t forgotten that in the eyes of Mrs Richards’ household staff – if not of the Almighty – you and I are man and wife. And fair play, as I had cause to observe a short time ago, is a trait that can’t be taught.’

The women went off to bed, and Porter stayed behind for a word with Franklin Richards. ‘Never mind the details,’ he said, ‘but the KGB is on to something. We don’t know for certain whether they’ve figured out your connection, or have learned the purpose of the

Neptune.

So we’re battening down the hatches.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Adrienne and I have called in some of the Corporation’s most experienced field people. Kaspar will be a front man, but we’ve taken charge of security on every level.’

Richards bristled. ‘I would have appreciated advance notice so I could go through the motions of approving what’s done at my yard.’

‘We didn’t see it that way. I’ve been in Washington since I’ve last seen you, and the Director l,ias given me supervision of all security. I’ve also been given carte blanche to handle matters as I see fit, so it will be my neck if anything goes wrong.’

‘Am I permitted to know the arrangements you’re making?’ There was a hint of sarcasm in the wealthy entrepreneur’s tone.

Porter shrugged. ‘I don’t agree with some members of the Corporation, who believe in secrecy for its own sake. But the waters are a bit choppy, and for your own protection it won’t pay to be too curious.’

‘If I were squeamish I’d have no empire.’

‘Suppose I tell you that one man has died within the past couple of hours, and I suspect that’s only the beginning,’ Porter said with a sigh. ‘I don’t tell you how to mine coal, or build real estate centres, or slap supertankers together. Let me run my business in my own way. With all due respect, Mr Richards, you may think you’re tough, but the stakes in this caper are higher than any that even you have ever known. No holds are barred, and there are no rules.’

‘As a matter of principle,’ Richards said, ‘I’ve never trusted anyone.’

‘I’m not asking you to trust me. Just don’t try to interfere. Your security operation is efficient according to the standards of industry, but your people are over their heads. That’s why we’ve moved in.’ He refrained from adding that agents had been assigned to maintain round the clock watch on both Richards and his wife to prevent their kidnapping or murder. The task would be simplified if the headstrong billionaire was kept in the dark.

‘You give me no choice,’ Richards said.

‘Right, sir,’ Porter said, and smiled. ‘Your job is hauling up that submarine and turning it over to Government experts. Mine is making it possible for you to do it. Which reminds me, I’d like to go to San Diego tomorrow to see your football field float.’

The industrialist brightened. ‘Good. I’ll fly you down myself. How many will be in your party?’

‘You and I will be all we’ll need,’ Porter said. ‘The float, even more than the Neptune, is the key to your success or failure, so I want to see for myself what I’m protecting. I work on the theory that what Adrienne and the others don’t know, they can’t be forced to describe if they fall into hostile hands.’

They finished their drinks, and Richards looked at him with reluctant admiration. ‘What happens if you fall into trouble and they pump you for information?’

Porter’s smile was bleak. ‘They’ve tried,’ he said, and walked with his host to the second floor landing, where they parted.

The door of the suite was unlocked, and Adrienne stood on the balcony, sipping a drink and staring out towards the sea, which was shrouded in fog. She was wearing a thin negligee with a low-cut neckline, and Porter saw she was shivering.

‘Either you enjoy looking at scenery you can’t see,’ he said, ‘or you’re trying hard to catch pneumonia.’

She came into the bedroom, closing the balcony doors behind her and lighting a cigarette. ‘I was waiting for you,’ she said, ‘and I made the mistake – fatal in our profession – of wondering about the value of human life.’

Her hair was tousled, her eye make-up looked smudged, and Porter wondered if she had been weeping. Perhaps the execution had upset her more than he had realized.

She seemed to read his mind, and laughed. ‘What happened tonight doesn’t bother me. I was thinking about you. And me. Mostly about myself,’

‘What about us?’

‘I feel like talking. Okay?’

‘Sure.’ He lighted a cigarette and handed it to her.

Adrienne looked at him. ‘You want to know something? You aren’t as tough as you like to pretend, even to yourself. When your guard is down you’re not only a gentleman, but your consideration is genuine.’

Porter felt uncomfortable. ‘If you want to analyse me, I prefer to dispense with talk.’

‘Sorry. I really want to talk about myself. I’m not quite sure why you’re elected, but tonight’s caper got to me, and you happen to be around. Also, if you don’t mind my saying it, you’re one of the few people who’ll know what I mean.’

He mixed her a drink, saying nothing because an interruption might jar her mood.

‘When I was first hired by the Corporation I was given a job in the statistical study section of the Berlin office. Desk job. I had stars in my eyes, and I loved it. Then I fell in love, I don’t suppose you ever knew Charlie Cooper?’

‘He disappeared in East Germany, as I remember.’

‘You have a good memory, Porter. I was with him. When we went to East Berlin for a day’s outing I didn’t know Charlie was a field agent. Or that he was intending to pick up some documents, using our outing as a cover. Well, the KGB caught him red-handed.’ Her hands covered her face.

‘Skip it, why don’t you?’ Porter asked.

Adrienne forced her hands to her sides, ‘I’ve never talked about it, and I’d rather bring it into the open. First they tortured him to death in front of me. The man I planned to marry. Then it was my turn, and – my God! – did they let me have it. With a gang rape as a warm up. They worked on me for a month, believing nobody could be that innocent. The only reason they finally turned me loose, I think, is because they decided I wasn’t worth killing.’ She paused and sipped her drink.

He was stirred by the pain in her eyes.

‘Well, I wasn’t the kid-out-of-college any more. I applied for agent training. That was a good many years ago, and since that time I’ve personally accounted for five of the KGB goons with whom I became so well acquainted in that East Berlin prison.’

‘You’ll lose your mind if you make a personal vendetta out of this business,’ Porter said.

She nodded. ‘So I learned, and gave it up. To become the complete professional. You know what that means.’

He shrugged.

‘A robot. Who kills on command, lies and deceives when the right buttons are pushed.’

He hauled himself to his feet and prepared a drink for himself,

‘It doesn’t work out that way. I feel so absurd, getting strung up because of that punk tonight.’

‘Forget him.’

‘He means nothing,’ Adrienne said. ‘I’m whirling because of you.’ She handed him her glass.