Ian Rankin - Westwind

Sir Laurence took this outburst quite calmly — they all took it calmly. He cleared his throat. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘that much is true, Miss Watson. The PM is titular head of the Security Service. However, as for your other... thoughts, I’m afraid they are rather off-beam. I’ll admit, though, that we had been thinking along similar lines ourselves. We’ve had inklings, for example, that something is simmering, and that the chefs are the chiefs of staff of our own armed forces. That much is true. A coup seemed a feasible explanation. However, it was difficult to go to the PM with what were merely inklings—’

‘Especially now,’ interrupted Farquharson, his voice more reasonable than before, and obviously not wishing Strong to be allowed to tell too much of the story by himself. ‘What with NATO bickering, and this blasted pull-out and all. You see, the military bigwigs have been whingeing, and they’ve also been currying favour within Parliament, seeking out supporters, that sort of thing. In the current climate, the government wants to remain on friendly terms with the military, so anything we might say would in all likelihood be taken as paranoia or even jealousy. Though,’ he added as an afterthought, ‘both those notions are preposterous.’

Having had his say, he sat back and folded his arms. Sir Laurence continued. ‘What Blake is saying is that we couldn’t find many friendly ears to listen to us. Yet we knew something was going to happen.’

‘So,’ asked Hepton, ‘just what is happening?’ Jilly’s notion of a coup had crossed his mind too, but he had rejected it for something a little more frightening.

There was silence in the room as eyes sought out other eyes, looking for answers. Sir Laurence spoke first.

‘We aren’t sure. We planted agents in some of the more important military offices — new clerical help, that sort of thing. Risky, and so far we’ve been able to shed no new light.’

‘And meanwhile,’ interrupted Farquharson, ‘I’ve got agents abroad trying to find out what they can.’

‘Including Parfit,’ stated Hepton. Farquharson glowered at him.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘including Parfit. He’s one of our best men. I hope you’ll be able to meet him.’

‘What does that mean?’ asked Jilly, frowning incomprehension.

‘It means,’ said Farquharson, ‘that he’s on his way here. And bringing Major Dreyfuss with him. Things are getting too uncertain in the States, and we want the major out of there. Now, tell us about your meeting with Cameron Devereux...’

They left the embassy compound in a van that claimed to belong to DC Hygiene . Dreyfuss, dressed in overalls and uneasy in the passenger seat, asked Parfit — also in overalls and driving — what the company did.

‘They deliver roller towels for the toilets, that sort of thing. Gum?’

He noticed that Parfit was offering him a stick of chewing gum.

‘No thanks,’ he said.

‘Take one,’ Parfit ordered. ‘Delivery men around here all seem to chew gum.’

Dreyfuss took the stick, unwrapped it and folded it into his mouth. Parfit did the same, then popped the tube back into his overall pocket. He was checking in his wing mirrors. There was a car following them, but that was okay — it was from the embassy, and would stay with them for the next few miles until they could be sure no one else was on their tail. Until then, they were due to drive around — not too fast, not too slow, just driving — as though between destinations. When Parfit was satisfied, they would head out to the airport, where another car filled with his men would be waiting, watching to see that they made it to the terminal building without incident. He had arranged for two more men to be posted inside the terminal building itself, but after that, once they had headed into the departure lounge, they were on their own.

‘You seem to have plenty of men at your disposal,’ Dreyfuss had said when told the plan.

‘I’m using just about every member of staff the embassy has,’ Parfit had replied, smiling. ‘When Johnnie finds out, he’ll be livid. The embassy’s going to be deserted apart from himself and a few typists. I reckon our need might be greater than his.’

Dreyfuss tried not to think about it, but found himself thinking of nothing else. His mouth was dry, and the gum wasn’t helping. He wanted to return to Britain, of course he did. But somehow the more plans Parfit concocted to make sure they would do so safely, the more worried Dreyfuss became, for if these precautions were necessary, surely the danger must be necessarily as great? Yet Parfit carried no gun, no weapon of any kind. A weak man needs a weapon , he had once told Dreyfuss. In that case, Dreyfuss thought now, I must be weak as a deathbed grandmother. For the thought of a very large gun was all that seemed to soothe him just at the moment.

‘Relax,’ Parfit said; it sounded like another command. ‘We’re only delivery men, just driving around doing our job. We don’t need to look so tense or grip the seat like that.’

Dreyfuss looked down and saw that his hands were indeed clenching either side of his seat, the knuckles white. He loosened them and folded his arms instead.

‘You still look tense,’ Parfit said.

‘That’s because I am tense, for Christ’s sake. If I try to let my arms hang down, I just know I’ll end up waving them wildly and screaming to be let out of here.’

Parfit laughed. Dreyfuss wasn’t sure he had heard him laugh before, and found the sound strangely reassuring.

They drove in silence for a while, until they were crossing the Potomac River.

‘We may as well take a look at the Pentagon while we’re here,’ said Parfit. ‘After all, you did want to see a bit of the United States, didn’t you? It said so on your application form for the Argos mission.’

Dreyfuss turned to him. ‘You’re enjoying all this,’ he hissed.

‘I enjoy my work, yes,’ Parfit admitted. ‘Sometimes I do, anyway. Haven’t you ever been part of a team who had a rival team? At football, maybe, or cricket?’

‘I was never very interested in sports.’

‘Well,’ said Parfit, unperturbed, ‘try to imagine it. Here’s us, and we’re up against the military — people like Esterhazy.’

‘You seem to forget that I’m military,’ Dreyfuss said.

Parfit glanced towards him. ‘Well, try to set that aside for a moment. So it’s an us-and-them situation, and I want us to win the game.’

‘But it isn’t a game.’

‘Yet in many ways it is exactly that. And if you forget that it’s a game, you start playing the wrong way. So far, the opposition has been in a strong position, because we don’t know what they’re up to. But now they’ve started making mistakes — letting you live was only the first. People are getting suspicious, people like your friend Hepton. And to cover their mistakes, they — whoever they ultimately are — are starting to take bigger and bigger chances, which only force them further and further into the open. So yes, I am enjoying myself, because at last I think we’ve got a chance of beating them. What about you?’

‘I’m delirious,’ said Dreyfuss blandly, causing Parfit to laugh again, louder this time.

After another half-hour or so, Parfit decided that they should stop at a roadside café.

‘I thought we were supposed to keep driving?’ said Dreyfuss.