Gavin Lyall - Midnight Plus One

I turned back to introduce Maganhard to the General -but it looked as if they'd met. Maganhard was glaring down at the long, shrivelled face with a look as friendly as a welding torch.

The General broke the ice: 'I suppose you're that damn fool Maganhard?'

'Don't mind the old-world courtesy,' I reassured Maganhard. 'He thinks the world's divided into two: himself, and the damn fools.'

Maganhard swung round on me. 'Why did you involvethis man?'

The General snorted. 'Don't like dealing with tradesmen, heh? I've done some good work for you in your short life. You and those damn fools Heiliger and Fiez. Don't you think I give value?'

'The information you supplied us with was valuable enough,' Maganhard snapped. 'Now I am wondering what value you will get from information about me.'

'You could always buy it for yourself,' the General suggested.

I said quietly: 'We did that deal already – remember, General?'

He swivelled his head slowly towards me. 'All right, Cane, I remember. Just thought it worth trying. The damn fool might have paid up. All damn fools, him and Max Heiliger and Fiez. Only sensible thought they had in their lives was that electronics was going to become big business after the war. Then they went off and started playing hole-in-the-corner with Liechtenstein registration and bearer shares and whatnot.'

He picked up one of the pink cards, held up his pince-nez, and started reading: 'Caspar AG. Formed 1950. Issued capital forty thousand Swiss francs.' He turned to look at Maganhard. 'Has to be above twenty-five thousand by law and if you go above fifty thousand you have to have a controller in. Wouldn't like that, would you? Always want to play secrets.' He looked back at the card. 'Controls thirteen companies in France, Germany, Austria…'

Maganhard was giving me the steely glare. 'Have you been talking about my business?'

The General said calmly: 'Most of that information is on file at the Public Registry in Liechtenstein. I know the rest because it's my business to know.'

Maganhard hadn't finished with me. 'Why did you gethim involved? Now he will spread the news of us all over Europe.'

'You mean there's somebody who doesn't know already?'

That stopped him.

The General chuckled. 'Young man's quite right, Maganhard. I couldn't make a wooden centime out of you that way. Well, perhaps there's other ways.' The pale, half-hooded eyes swung at me. T suppose you got him out of jail because the Sûretéhasn't asked for an arrest yet. What happens when they do ask for it?'

I shrugged. It was going to come, all right – just as soon as the real Griflet borrowed a few francs and got on the phone to France. Well, the first thing to happen would be that Inspector Lucan had a heart attack. But the second thing… I shrugged again.

'By then we'll be on our way.'

'You're joining the damn fools, Cane. How d'you plan to do it?'

'I think we'll classify that Secret, General.'

'Now I'm sure you're a damn fool. D'you think I could sell that? Nobody wants to know. They all know you're going to Liechtenstein – and that's enough.' He lifted a glass of flat champagne, tucked it under his moustache, gave a long loudslurp, and put it carefully down again. 'What d'you know about Liechtenstein, Cane? It's a small country. Frontier with Switzerland's only fifteen miles long. And d'you know what that frontier is? The Upper Rhine. And d'you know how many ways there are into Liechtenstein? Just six. Only six. Five bridges, and the south road through Maienfeld to Balzers. All they'll need is eighteen policemen to watch that lot. They won't waste hundreds of men trying to catch you before that. They'll wait for you there.'

There was a long silence.

Then Harvey was on his feet, looking at me curiously from under his pale eyebrows. With his coat off, the gun at his belt looked very obvious.

'I've never been to Liechtenstein,' he said slowly. 'Have you, Cane? Is he right?'

'I've been there,' I said. 'And he's right.'

He twisted his head at me in a little, quizzical look. 'You sound kind of calm about it. What had you figured to do about that frontier, anyway?'

I shrugged. 'If we hadn't stirred up any fuss, we'd have whistled across. Normally, those bridges aren't even watched.' No customs, no guards – nothing. For customs purposes, Liechtenstein's part of Switzerland, so they just don't bother with that frontier: the real one comes between Austria and Liechtenstein. And we couldn't cross that without first crossing into Austria. I couldn't see any point in doubling our problems.

Harvey said: 'So they can close the bridges. What about the south road? Can we get up close, then get off the road and walk across?'

At the southern end of Liechtenstein, Switzerland stretches across the river, so we could cross the river down there without meeting a frontier post. But then there was only the one road, heading north into Liechtenstein.

I shook my head. 'It's a fortified zone. The road's the only way through.'

Just there, the valley narrows down to about a mile wide, between sheer mountain walls. This is the St Luzisteig Pass, a natural defensive position against an invader driving south up the Rhine. Personally, I can't see why any invader would come up the river: all he'd capture in the end would be the ski resorts at St Moritz and Klosters, and I'd have thought the prices they charged there were defence enough.

But for all that, they've spent nearly two centuries fortifying the St Luzisteig, right up to the Liechtenstein frontier. Most of the old stonework is just grassy humps by now, but some time in the 'thirties they added what looks like a film set for the First World War. Trenches, pillboxes, dragons-teeth tank traps, gun and mortar pits. And barbed wire: hedges of great rusty barbed wire coils. The whole zone a mile wide and several hundred yards deep: a huge cork rammed tight into the bottleneck of the valley.

Harvey was still watching me, still with the curious look on his face. 'You know, Cane – this might have been something worth planning for.'

I nodded. 'I thought about that. The trouble was, I couldn't think of any plans.'

'Christ.' He looked down at his empty champagne glass. 'I could use a drink.' He looked up at Morgan. 'Have you got anything stronger?'

I said: 'Stick to champagne for the moment.'

He said: 'Youstill sound calm about it.'

'Of course. The General's got a plan. He's going to sell it to us.'

After a little while the General said: 'Have I, Cane?'

'Oh yes. You haven't made any money out of us yet, General. And it was you brought this problem up. Yes, you've got a plan.'

'Ah.' He gave a gentle sigh. 'Perhaps I have. But can you afford it, heh?'

I shrugged. 'That's up to Mr Maganhard. Still – he knows Liechtenstein. He knows the problems.'

I looked sideways at Maganhard. He was staring down at the General with a look that suggested he was prepared to bid about two pfennigs – and stick there.

I said quickly: 'I think we need this plan. But you can make most of the payment on results – it may not work, after all.'

He got the iron filings back into his voice and said: 'I agreed to pay you a certain amount to get me to Liechtenstein. Now-'

'And expenses,' I said.

'Yes. The expenses are more expensive than I had estimated,' he said thoughtfully. 'We have crashed one of my cars; my yacht is in custody in Brest, my luggage is somewhere in France, and now you want-'

'Sure,' I said soothingly. 'It's getting to be hardly worth your ten million quids'-worth of Caspar, isn't it? I'd just jack the whole thing in and catch a train down to Como for a few days' holiday.'

He gave me the steely stare. 'Do we need this plan? Have you no ideas of your own?'

I spread my hands. 'I've got a few. And we can try them if you say so. But they won't be as good as the General's.' I was just trying to keep down his price. I wanted his plan, all right.