Peter O'Donnell - Cobra Trap

She gazed at him with large, longing eyes. "I'm sorry, Willie, but I am trying to achieve the Golden Plateau of Serenity, and I know how one thing leads to another because of my glands."

He patted her shoulder reassuringly. "Sure, Lucy, that's okay. Thanks for 'elping out, you've been great."

He had started to move away when she said, "Willie, aren't you and Modesty…? I mean, well, you know. You and Modesty?"

He shook his head with mock solemnity. "Definitely not."

"But… I mean, why not, if you don't mind my asking? It seems frightfully strange."

"Not to us, Lucy. It's just not on the cards."

"Oh." She was still baffled. After a moment she said, "Well, goodnight Willie. It was all jolly exciting, and I do understand about Official Secrets and all that. I'll keep absolutely mum, honestly."

"Good girl."

He had only gone half a dozen steps when she came hurrying after him, beaming happily. "Oh gosh, I really am a bit slow sometimes, aren't I? Do come in and have a bit of breakfast with me, Willie. It's quite all right."

It was during the interval at Covent Garden two days later that Willie said, "I was a bit slow myself, Princess, and I didn't catch on till we were up in Lucy's flat. Then I realised that because of you and me, she reckoned I must be gay."

Modesty choked slightly on the glass of wine she held. "You? Oh, Willie, she didn't."

"Straight up, Princess." He gazed into space with a reminiscent smile and sighed happily. "Lucy's glands didn't 'alf get a lovely surprise."

Professor Stephen Collier ran a hand through his greying hair and mentally cursed himself for doing so since he was trying to appear unworried. "Ease up, you stupid bastard," he told himself, surreptitiously relaxing taut muscles.

Collier was sitting in the office provided for him in Government House, in the Central American Republic of Montelero. His Canadian wife, Dinah, blind since childhood, sat with him on the settee, holding his hand. She was listening partly to the distant sound of artillery fire, which at the moment she alone could hear, and partly to Willie Garvin speaking on the phone.

It was twentyodd years since she had first heard that gravelly voice speaking to her out of the darkness. That was on a day in the Pearl Islands, when he had saved her from abduction and destroyed the two men who had murdered her sister in cold blood. She had heard that voice with huge affection on many occasions since, and was thankful to be hearing it now, especially as he was speaking to Modesty Blaise.

"It should be all right, Princess," Willie was saying, "but I'll keep this short because we could get cut off any minute. I'm with Steve and Dinah now. These rebels call themselves the Montelero Cobras and they're about ten miles from the capital, maybe less. The government's pulling out, using a three-carriage train and heading for the Panama border. Because of the work Steve's been doing for 'em these last few months we've got places on the train. If all goes well we'll be at the border sometime early tomorrow."

He paused, then spoke again. "Yes, the government lot reckon they'll be allowed in, but could you get through to Sagasta and tell 'im we're with the party? He'll see that we three don't 'ave any trouble at the border."

He listened, then smiled, looking at Dinah. "Of course I'll take good care of 'er. Look, she's worried about the children because she knows they'll be worrying, so could you get a message to Dan at the medical college? Steve says you've got the number. And tell Dan to call Sue, okay?"

After several seconds: "Sure. Leave it to Weng, and we'll reckon to see you-" He jerked the phone away from his ear, wincing at a blast of static, then listened warily again before dropping the instrument back on its cradle. "The line's down," he said. "Weng will organise letting Dan and Sue know, and Modesty's on 'er way."

Collier sat up straight. "On her way where?"

Dinah sighed. "Here, dumdum," she said, patting the hand she held. "You know what she's like."

"I do indeed," Collier agreed, "but my normally computerlike speed of thought ran into the buffers at the idea that she could be on her way here when she was speaking on the phone in Benildon."

Willie said, "John Dall's staying at the cottage with 'er for a few days, and he'll 'ave a private jet at Heathrow. I reckon it'll be airborne for Panama in a few hours."

"Billionaires have their uses," Collier said, "and John is my favourite of that ilk. What will she or they do when they get to Panama? I mean, apart from enlisting a little help from that admirable police chief." He remembered Sagasta well, for it was in Panama long years ago that Collier had first met Dinah, at a time when she was under threat from a criminal group of chilling power. Modesty had put Dinah in Collier's care while she and Willie, with Captain Sagasta's help, had fought a savage and bloody battle against the Gabriel group.

Willie said, "Sagasta's not a policeman now, he's Minister of Defence, so he'll be watching the situation 'ere with a very beady eye, and that could be useful."

Dinah said, "You mean if anything goes wrong, and this train with us on it doesn't get to the border." It was a statement rather than a question.

"That's right, love." Willie knew her quality too well to indulge in empty words of reassurance.

Dinah stood up and moved to stand close to him, feeling for his hand. "What did Modesty sound like?" she asked.

Willie exhaled a long breath, thinking. "On top of the world," he said at last. "Sort of… eager. I don't know why."

"Eager?" said Collier, frowning. "Oh, nonsense. You're going senile, Willie. She always acts like a motherhen to Dinah, and she must undoubtedly be frantic with worry about my safety, as any woman would be, so how can she sound on top of the world when we're surrounded by hordes of triggerhappy cobras?"

"There aren't hordes and we're not surrounded," said Dinah. "This is a picnic compared to that bloodandguts Mayan affair in Guatemala—"

"I know, I know," Collier broke in hastily. "Let us not dwell on our past involvements with the Blaise/Garvin axis, it's bad for my bladder."

Dinah turned sightless eyes to Willie and pressed his hand. "At least we've been spared any information about the effect on his sphincter this time."

"I'm saving that for on the train," said her husband grimly.

John Dall leaned back on the chesterfield, watching Modesty Blaise. They were in the livingroom of her cottage in Wiltshire and she was speaking on the phone, a largescale map spread on the table in front of her. Weng, her houseboy, had sent the mapsection through by fax from her penthouse in London, where many unusual items were stored.

Ten minutes earlier Dall had been on the phone himself, giving instructions to his PA. In four hours the private jet would be ready to leave Heathrow having taken on board a parcel of equipment that Weng would deliver to the airport in good time. In three hours a helicopter would land by the cottage to take Dall and Modesty to Heathrow.

It was only a short time ago that Dall had arrived, expecting to spend ten days with the woman he had loved for more than twenty years, and now he was trying not to feel frustrated. He was glad to find that at least he felt no resentment. Her friends the Colliers were in possible danger, so she would go to them, just as she would have gone to Dall in similar circumstances.

At this moment she was talking to Miguel Sagasta in Panama, a finger on the map as she spoke and listened.

"But won't Montelero object to your sending two reconnaissance aircraft over their territory? Ah… you have a point, Miguel. Do you know why their government is getting out by train rather than by air? I see. Would it be possible to monitor the train without compromising your own interests? Well, never mind, it was just a thought. What was that? Oh, thank you, I'm truly grateful, Miguel. Yes, we should be arriving about 09.00 hours your time. Hope to see you then."