Desmond Bagley - Windfall

Stafford flipped through them. 'These will do for now.' He sat on the edge of the crumbling concrete foundation and began to lay them out. 'As he did so he said, 'Has anything happened I ought to know about, Chip?'

'Not much, except that someone was inquiring about Gunnarsson at the New Stanley. He wasn't there, of course; he was already in the hotel here.'

'Who was being inquisitive?'

'We don't know yet. It's being followed up.'

Stafford had got the photographs spread out. 'Right. These are pictures taken of Ol Njorowa during an overflight in Alan's balloon this morning. Anyone got any comments?'

He drew back to let the others inspect them. They crowded around except for the elderly Kenyan who had seated himself on a nearby rock and was placidly smoking a pipe. There was silence for a while then Hardin said, 'Yeah; this tower here. What is it?'

'That's the water tower,' said Hunt. 'The water is pumped up there and then distributed by gravity.'

Curtis coughed. 'Perhaps I could point out to the Colonel that the water tower is in the wrong place.'

'Why, Sergeant?'

'The natural place to build a water tower would be on the highest point of land.' Curtis pointed at another photograph. 'Which would be about there.'

Hunt looked at Stafford curiously. 'Are you a colonel, too?'

'I'm trying to retire but Sergeant Curtis won't let me,' said Stafford dryly. 'All right, a water tower in the wrong place.'

Hardin picked up the photograph. 'It's close to the perimeter fence where it angles. I'd say it's an observation tower. From the top you could cover a hell of a lot of that fence. Good place to put a couple of TV cameras.'

Chip said, 'What about at night? Is the fence illuminated?'

'No; I checked,' said Stafford.

'Could be infra-red,' said Nair. 'You couldn't see that.'

'No infra-red. You're behind the times, Nair. If there is TV coverage of the fence they'd probably use photo-multipliers – the things they use as night sights in the army. Even on a moonless, cloudy night you get a pretty good picture.'

'Are you serious about this?' demanded Hunt.

'Very.' Stafford waved his hands over the photographs. 'Anything else?'

'Yeah,' said Hardin. 'But it doesn't show in these pictures.' He turned to Hunt. 'You said a leopard was getting over the fence and that's why there was an armed guard. Right?'

Hunt nodded. 'Brice had a patrol out. He reckoned the leopard was getting over by climbing a tree which was too near the fence.'

'Yeah, that's what you said.' Hardin jerked his head at Curtis. 'Tell him, Sergeant.'

'Acting on instructions of the Colonel I did a tour of the perimeter from the outside. The vegetation has been cut back on the outside of the fence to a distance of at least thirty feet. There is no tree near the fence. I found evidence of weed killer; there was an empty paper sack. I didn't remove it but I made a note of what it was.' He took a piece of paper and gave it to Stafford.

'Pretty powerful stuff,' said Hardin, looking over Stafford's shoulder. 'It's the defoliant we used in Vietnam, and it's now illegal for commercial use. It looks as though someone wants a clear view along the fence.'

'How long is the fence?' asked Stafford.

'About six and a half miles, sir,' said Curtis.

'A ten foot chain-link fence six and a half miles long,' commented Stafford. 'That's pretty much security overkill for an innocent agricultural college short of funds, wouldn't you say, Alan?'

'I hadn't really thought of it in that light,' said Hunt. 'It was already there when I came to Ol Njorowa." He shook his head. 'And I hadn't noticed the cleared strip on the outside.'

Chip picked up a photograph. 'This interests me.'

'It interests me, too," said Stafford. 'In fact, it's the key to the whole bloody situation. What about it, Alan?'

Hunt took the photograph. 'Oh, that's the animal movement laboratory. I don't know much about it. I've never been inside.'

'Tell Chip about the pretty wildebeest," said Stafford ironically.

Hunt retailed all he knew about the work done there on patterns of animal migration. He shrugged. 'I don't know much more; it's not my field. In any case it's not really a part of the College.; we just give them house room.'

'I've been all over Ol Njorowa,' said Stafford. 'I've been given the grand tour; I've been everywhere except inside that so-called laboratory. Alan has been at Ol Njorowa for two years and he hasn't been inside.'

'Well, it's not used all the year round,' said Hunt. 'And the wildebeest migration doesn't begin for another six weeks.'

Judy said, 'We don't see much of those people, anyway. They're not good mixers.'

'So Alan remarked before.' Stafford looked at the sky and said dreamily, 'Up there, a little over 22,000 miles high, is an American satellite for extended weather research, a laudable project and no doubt quite genuine. But it contains equip ment used by these people at Ol Njorowa. It occurred to me that a signal sent from that dish antenna to the satellite could be relayed and picked up in, say, Pretoria which is about 25 degrees south. Or possibly somewhere in the Northern Transvaal such as Messina or Louis Trichardt which are about 22 to 23 degrees south.' He smiled. 'I've been looking at maps.'

Hunt said, 'This is all sheer supposition. You talk of TV cameras on the water tower, but you don't know they're there. And all this waffle about signalling to Pretoria is just sheer guff in my opinion. If this is what you've brought me to hear you're wasting my time.'

'Alan,' said Stafford gently. 'Does a respectable establishment bug the guest bedrooms?'

'You're sure of that?' said Chip sharply.

'Dead sure. Microphone and radio transmitter disguised as a picture of an elephant.' He described what he had found.

Chip blew out his cheeks in a sigh of relief. 'Thank God!" he said. 'It's the first firm evidence we've had.'

'That's what I thought,' said Stafford. He recounted the events of the day in detail, then said, 'I manoeuvred Gunnarsson into a private conversation in the bedroom because I was pretty sure that Brice would be listening. All the time I talked to Gunnarsson I was really addressing Brice.' He grinned. 'I needled Gunnarsson into saying that he's going to stick around to investigate Ol Njorowa because he thinks it's a phoney set-up.'

'He always was a sharp operator,' said Hardin soberly. 'I'll give him that. He doesn't have cotton wadding between his ears.'

'Yes, but Brice will have heard him saying it.' Stafford laughed. 'It will be interesting to see what happens now.'

Hunt looked at his sister. 'What do you think?'

'Until Max told about the picture in his room I wasn't convinced,' she said. 'But he's really getting to me now.'

'Have you seen the TV camera in the entrance hall of the Admin Block?' asked Stafford helpfully.

Hunt looked startled. 'No, I haven't.'

'That's not surprising; it's hard to spot unless you know what you're looking for. As you face the counter it's behind and to your left in the top corner. Now, don't go staring at it, for God's sake! Just do an unobtrusive check.'

Hunt shook his head in bewilderment. 'You know, last year Brice showed me a couple of papers in a journal about the work done by the animal migration lab. From what I could see it was really good stuff.'

'No doubt it was. The best cover is always genuine.' Stafford turned to Chip. 'When I was talking to Gunnarsson I indicated I was leaving Kenya and going back to London. Brice might believe it or he might not. Can you do anything to support that story?'

Chip thought about it. 'We don't know yet how big an organization Brice has built up, or how far we've been penetrated. I'll have someone book air tickets in the names of you and Curtis. Let me have your passport numbers, and the records will show that you left tomorrow morning. In the meantime you'll have to go to ground.'