Samuel Edwards - Neptune

The others were silent for a time, and Adrienne ran a comb through her hair. ‘This is tricky,’ she murmured. ‘It reminds me of the Budapest caper.’

‘Exactly,’ Porter said. ‘Here’s how I see it. The information is probably accurate. I’ll be surprised if it isn’t.’

‘Meaning the Wing girl is selling out the KGB?’ Adrienne asked.

‘Possibly. Or the whole device could be a plant. The Russians deliberately sacrifice two or three agents, people who have lost their value and will be neatly out of the way at Stanley Prison in the Crown Colony. Meantime a more elaborate naval listening post has been set up, and is relatively safe. This possibility is based on the assumption that Nancy is actually still working for the Russians. We simply don’t know. Yet,’ The Deacon sat with primly folded hands. ‘The other possibility is that she’s working for someone else, which points the finger at China.’

‘I’m not sure I buy that,’ Blackman said. Te know how subtle Peking can be. It doesn’t make sense that they’d use someone who is half-Chinese, and very attractive. They’d do better to use an inconspicuous Occidental, preferably an American.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Adrienne said, and her calm was extraordinary. ‘There are certain built-in advantages to utilizing the Eurasian woman as an agent. She had already slept with Porter, so she had a connection with him. As an agent supposedly on the run from the Russians, she wouldn’t be suspected of having a Chinese connection. And an attractive woman is sometimes less obvious as an agent than someone who is easily lost in a crowd. It all depends on the point of view.’

‘The question,’ Blackman said, ‘is how to go on from here.’

Porter smiled. ‘I’ve settled it already. First, we wait for word from Davidson, and then I pay Nancy the twenty-five thousand. Financial solvency – more money than she’s ever had – may help make her careless.’

‘Your whole approach,’ Blackman said, ‘is predicated on the belief that she’s on somebody’s payroll, and is on the trail of Project Neptune.’

‘I’m convinced of it,’ Porter said. ‘My popularity is limited, except in very exclusive circles, and only my fans in Moscow or Peking would know I’m making my base on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Why did Nancy come to San Francisco instead of flying straight to Washington to propose her deal? Why did she make her pitch to me?’

‘Probably,’ Adrienne said, venom showing for the first time, ‘because you’re irresistible.’

Porter ignored the jab. ‘She’s working for people who either know or are guessing, and Moscow and Peking don’t have to guess all that hard. I’m sure you remember the Zagreb headache, Blackman. Simple deduction tells as much as a dozen expensive field agents. There’s nothing of interest within hundreds of miles of Port Angeles except the Richards shipyard. A bottom-drawer KGB man fell off a cliff. Andropov knows bloody well that something is happening in the neighbourhood. They know me, they know Adrienne and they damned well know we’re not given routine assignments. I can hear Andropov giving the orders. “Send someone who can get close to Porter and find out what he’s doing.” We’ve used the same technique hundreds of times, and it succeeds because even the best agents have egos.’

‘You may talk in your sleep like the rest of us,’ the Deacon said. ‘I ran into Nancy Wing in Singapore a couple of years ago, and she can overwhelm any man. Just remember you’re vulnerable, too.’

‘Not all that much,’ Porter said, and looked at Adrienne. ‘I have interests elsewhere that shield me.’

She realized this was the closest he could come to an apology, and her faint smile indicated an acceptance. He could sleep anywhere he found necessary in the line of duty, and she would try not to let it influence their relationship. ‘Where do we go from here?’

‘Your job,’ Porter said, ‘is hiring a clean crew and keeping the shipyard windows closed. Concentrate on that, and leave the rest to us. The Neptune will be launched in about a month, and will sail straight away across the Pacific without even making any sea trials. So the next few weeks will be critical.’

‘If the KGB or Peking are going to do anything,’ Blackman said, ‘they’ll have to do it in the coming month.’

‘One of them has already moved a pawn,’ Porter said. ‘Nancy Wing. Blackman, I want you to rent two houses on the Juan de Fuca coast, not too far apart, for a month’s occupancy. We’ll need one as a headquarters. The motel is a sieve, and the security is too lax at Richards’ house and the shipyard. I want a complete command post with full equipment and manpower.’

The Deacon chuckled. ‘Davidson will scream. He’ll claim you’re wrecking his budget.’

‘Project Neptune knows no budget limitations,’ Porter said.

‘What’s the purpose of the second house?’ Blackman wanted to know.

‘Nancy Wing and I are going to have a holiday in a love nest of our very own.’

His assistant was startled. ‘You’re really going to take her up to the Strait?’

‘If it’s the last thing I ever do,’ Porter said. ‘She’s the perfect decoy, so we can stop searching the haystack for invisible needles. Sooner or later her bosses will push her for information, or she’ll send off a report. Either way we’ll be ready with an intercept. Deacon, I want that house bugged, every last room of it. Also the car you people will get for me. The Director showed me a new gadget in Washington the other day, and I want one like it. Quickly. If it’s the only one, we’ll use his. A lovely, fourteen carat gold lady’s cigarette lighter, with an ultra-powerful transmitter built into it. I’m so fond of Nancy

I’m giving it to her as a gift, so we’ll need round-the-clock monitors who’ll hear everything she says within earshot of that transmitter. And Blackman, I’ll want surveillance teams who’ll keep her under close watch every time she sets foot outside the house. Regardless of whether I happen to be with her.’

‘She’s a smart bird,’ the Deacon said, ‘and she’s no novice. She’s bound to stumble on to some portions of that massive a surveillance.’

‘That will either inhibit her or make her reckless,’ Porter said ‘and either way we’ll benefit. With each day that passes we’re that much closer to sailing time. Okay, does anyone find holes in the plan?’

‘I can think of only one,’ Adrienne said. ‘You and I have been staying with Franklin and Marie Richards, ostensibly as a married couple. Now you’ll be showing up in the neighbourhood with a woman who – I gather – would call attention to herself during a hurricane. Does that blow our cover?’

‘To an extent,’ Porter said. ‘But we’ve had almost no social life at the Richards place, and if you continue to stay there we may get away with it. I hope Blackman will find me a house on the far side of the shipyard, so even fewer people will get wise. I’ll grant you we’re talcing a small risk, but I don’t see that it can be avoided. Nancy will lead us to her bosses only if I’m the bait.’

‘There’s another angle that bothers me,’ Blackman said. ‘If you’re going to remain in charge of Project Neptune security—

‘I am!’

‘—the whole team will have hell’s own time reporting to you with the Eurasian girl underfoot.’

‘I’ll find ways to get over to our headquarters two or three times a day. That’s why I want the two houses near each other,:

Also, I’ll have to give Nancy enough time alone to send and receive messages. She’s our only link with the people – identity unknown – who are breathing down our necks. Let’s organize, shall we?’