Peter O'Donnell - Cobra Trap

Willie opened the door quietly and went out, moving along the passage to where a broad staircase led down to the ground floor. There he found a place in the shadows from which he could watch the empty entrance hall below and the two interior doors leading off the hall. Lovely job, that Hallenberg character, he told his second favourite female admiringly. Great fun. I don't know 'ow you come up with these ideas. You had to woo Lady Luck to win her favours, not whinge.

A hundred feet above the roof Lucy peered down in surprise. A scooter was chugging briskly up the track towards the house, an unmistakable figure in the saddle. She lifted her radio and said, "Excuse me, but there's a policeman coming towards the house on a motorscooter thing. I think he must have seen my balloon."

On the road through the woods Fraser said to the radio man, "Bloody hell! How did he get there? I thought your men had the road sealed off."

The radio man said, "They have, or he'd have come through here."

The jeep driver said, "There's a bridleway that cuts off the loop in the road. Maybe—"

Tarrant broke in sharply. "Never mind how. Tell the girl we have to get her away from the roof and we're letting the cable out."

The driver turned and hit the winch brake release. The cable raced out and they all heard Lucy's cry of protest over the radio. "I say! Steady!"

Fraser snarled, "Gently, you prick!" He snatched the radio as the driver eased on the brake. "Lucy? Lucy, are you all right?"

Tarrant unclenched his fists as her voice came through. "Well, golly, only just! I mean, there was a frightful lurch and I'm miles away from the roof now, well, not really miles away, but out over the sea actually, and I think the cable's got caught round something on the roof. Whatever's happening?"

Fraser said, "Sorry, but we had to get you away in a hurry, Lucy. Just stand by while we sort things out. If you're well away from the roof now you're quite safe." He released the switch and said grimly to Tarrant, "Or let's hope so. What now? That copper's going to blow the operation any minute and we can't give a warning. Willie's only got a matchbox transmitter for calling us. Oneway communication. Do we tell the weapons team to move in now?"

Tarrant shook his head. He had already calculated the pros and cons. "No. They don't appear to have found Hallenberg yet. That's the vital thing. They'll signal when he's safe in their hands."

"They can't get him out by the roof now."

"And we can't solve their problems for them," Tarrant said sourly. "She taught me that a long time ago. They don't expect a free ride. " He turned and walked away.

In the common room at Poldeacon Mountjoy had been playing chess with Simon Bird when the light began flashing in the alarm panel on the wall and a buzzer sounded. Mountjoy picked up the house phone at his elbow. "Yes?" A pause. "I see. Nothing else showing on the screen? Very well." He put down the phone. "A uniformed policeman is about to arrive. He's alone."

Bird stood up and reached under his jacket to feel the butt of the gun he loved so dearly. Mountjoy said, "I'm sure that won't be needed. We'll stay in character, Simon."

Two minutes later Bird opened the front door. Mountjoy smiled benevolently at the police sergeant who had rung the bell at the outer gate. "Oh, good evening to you, officer. Can we be of help?"

The sergeant was a wellbuilt man with a brisk manner. "Evening, sir. I was passing along the valley road and I saw this thing over your house. A balloon, sir." He waited, and when the two vicars stared at him blankly he added, "I mean a big balloon, with a basket."

Mountjoy blinked, then smiled in sudden comprehension. "Ah, the balloon. Yes, of course. I thought the local weather station would have informed you about it."

On the landing above, every word came clearly to Willie Garvin. He moved silently back as the policeman said, "I don't think we've had anything from them, sir."

"Really? Well, perhaps they didn't think it necessary. The experiment will only be lasting a few hours, I understand." A kindly smile. "But thank you for taking the trouble to call, sergeant."

In the room above, Hallenberg was pouring coffee for himself and saying, "Your argument has a false premise, young woman-" when the door opened and Willie said quietly, "We're blown. They're on to Lucy so the roof's no good. We've got a couple of minutes, with luck."

Modesty's hands shot across the small table to grip the collar of Hallenberg's jacket, wrists crossed, fists turning inwards to force knuckles into the jugulars. She stood as he half rose, his eyes bulging with shock and fear. One hand tugged feebly at her wrist, the other groped on the table, found a knife and raised it to strike. Willie took it from him a second before his body went limp.

"I must 'ave a chat with 'im sometime about opposing violence with violence, Princess."

"You're welcome," she said bleakly, and lowered Hallenberg to lie across the table. From her haversack she took a slim box containing a hypodermic and barbiturate ampoules. "Call in Tarrant's posse, Willie. We've got a busy ten minutes ahead, and the more distraction the better."

Willie took from his shirt pocket a piece of thick plastic. From one corner he drew out a short aerial, then spoke with the plastic close to his lips. "Bobeep calling. Move in now." He repeated the words three times, put the miniature transmitter away and grimaced. "Bobeep," he muttered in disgust.

In the hall Mountjoy pressed the remote control button to close the big gates after the departing policeman. Two other men in clerical wear had now joined Bird. Mountjoy said, "You and I will start from the roof, Simon." He looked at one of the other men. "Alert the rest of our flock, Roger. Check Hallenberg's room first and leave a man with him if he's still there. If not, we search the house." He looked at the second man. "Patrol the courtyard, Terry. If we have visitors on the premises they can't be in the courtyard yet or they would have made contact with the policeman, so they're in the house. Kill anyone who tries to get out."

A minute later Mountjoy and Bird stepped on to the roof, Bird with a gun in his hand. The balloon cable was easy to see, glinting in the moonlight. It extended from the front of the house in one direction and towards the sea in the other, trapped under a heavy bracket that had once supported an aerial on the roof. Mountjoy pointed seaward, where the cable rose gradually for two or three hundred feet to a huge black balloon hanging above the sea.

Bird took up a stance with feet astride, both hands on the gun, taking careful aim, but Mountjoy laid a restraining hand on his arm. "No, Simon. Much more urgent to deal with any visitors who may have landed."

In the room where Hallenberg had been held, two of Mountjoy's vicars gazed at an overturned chair and the coffeepot spilled across the table. A minute later, on the floor above, they met Mountjoy and Bird returning from the roof. One of the men said, "They've got him. They've taken Hallenberg. Looks like he made trouble. There's been a rumpus and we found one of his shoes in the passage." The man's voice was strained, and there was the dawning of fear in his eyes.

Mountjoy said without emphasis, "If you start running scared, Roger, I'll kill you. They haven't got him out yet, so let's find them, and fast. They probably have backup standing by, but once they're down the long chute with Hallenberg, and our guns, we can be singing hymns when the backup arrives."

On the last word there came a small sound of impact followed instantly by the rattle of leadshot falling to the floor. Roger's head jerked forward with the impact and he sagged to his knees before toppling sideways, unconscious.