Jack Higgins - Eye of the Storm

It was getting colder again and he shivered as he turned the corner into the Quai de Montebello and hurried along to the apartment block. He owned it all, as it happened, which gave him the apartment on the corner of the first floor, the most favoured location. Scaffolding ran up the corner of the building to the fourth floor where some sort of building work was taking place.

As he was about to go up the steps to the ornate entrance, a voice called, ‘Martin?’

He glanced up and saw Anne-Marie Audin leaning over the balustrade of the terrace. ‘Where in the hell did you spring from?’ he asked in astonishment.

‘Cuba. I just got in.’

He went up the stairs two at a time and she had the door open as he got there. He lifted her up in his arms in an enormous hug and carried her back into the hall. ‘How marvellous to see you. Why Cuba?’

She kissed him and helped him off with the trenchcoat. ‘Oh, I had a rather juicy assignment for Time magazine. Come in the kitchen. I’ll make your tea.’

A standing joke for years, the tea. Surprising in an American, but he couldn’t stand coffee. He lit a cigarette and sat at the table and watched her move around the kitchen, her short hair as dark as his own, this supremely elegant woman who was the same age as himself and looked twelve years younger.

‘You look marvellous,’ he told her as she brought the tea. He sampled it and nodded in approval. ‘That’s grand. Just the way you learned to make it back in South Armagh in nineteen seventy-one with me and Liam Devlin showing you the hard way how the IRA worked.’

‘How is the old rogue?’

‘Still living in Kilrea outside Dublin. Gives the odd lecture at Trinity College. Claims to be seventy, but that’s a wicked lie.’

‘He’ll never grow old, that one.’

‘Yes, you really do look marvellous,’ Brosnan said. ‘Why didn’t we get married?’

It was a ritual question he had asked for years, a joke now. There was a time when they had been lovers, but for some years now, just friends. Not that it was by any means the usual relationship. He would have died for her, almost had in a Viet Nam swamp the first time they had met.

‘Now that we’ve got that over, tell me about the new book,’ she said.

‘A philosophy of terrorism,’ he told her. ‘Very boring. Not many people will buy a copy.’

‘A pity,’ she said, ‘coming from such an expert in the field.’

‘Doesn’t really matter,’ he said. ‘Knowing the reasons still won’t make people act any differently.’

‘Cynic. Come on, let’s have a real drink.’ She opened the fridge and took out a bottle of Krug.

‘Non-vintage?’

‘What else?’

They went into the magnificent long drawing room. There was an ornate gold mirror over the marble fireplace, plants everywhere, a grand piano, comfortable, untidy sofas and a great many books. She had left the French windows to the balcony standing ajar. Brosnan went to close them as she opened the Krug at the sideboard and got two glasses. At the same moment, the bell sounded outside.

When Brosnan opened the door he found Max Hernu and Jules Savary standing there, the Jobert brothers behind them.

‘Professor Brosnan?’ Hernu said. ‘I am Colonel Max Hernu.’

‘I know very well who you are,’ Brosnan said. ‘Action Service, isn’t it? What’s all this? My wicked past catching up with me?’

‘Not quite, but we do need your assistance. This is Inspector Savary and these two are Gaston and Pierre Jobert.’

‘You’d better come in then,’ Brosnan said, interested in spite of himself.

The Jobert brothers stayed in the hall, on Hernu’s orders when he and Savary followed Brosnan into the drawing room. Anne-Marie turned, frowning slightly and Brosnan made the introductions.

‘A great pleasure.’ Hernu kissed her hand. ‘I’m a long-time admirer.’

‘Martin?’ She looked worried now. ‘You’re not getting involved in anything?’

‘Of course not,’ he assured her. ‘Now what can I do for you, Colonel?’

‘A matter of national security, Professor. I hesitate to mention the fact, but Mademoiselle Audin is a photojournalist of some distinction.’

She smiled. ‘Total discretion, you have my word, Colonel.’

‘We’re here because Brigadier Charles Ferguson in London suggested it.’

‘That old Devil? And why should he suggest you see me?’

‘Because you are an expert in matters relating to the IRA, Professor. Let me explain.’

Which he did, covering the whole affair as rapidly as possible. ‘You see, Professor,’ he said as he concluded, ‘the Jobert brothers have combed our IRA picture books without finding him and Ferguson has had no success with the brief description we were able to give.’

‘You’ve got a real problem.’

‘My friend, this man is not just anybody. He must be special to attempt such a thing, but we know nothing more than that we think he’s Irish and he speaks fluent French.’

‘So what do you want me to do?’

‘Speak to the Joberts.’

Brosnan glanced at Anne-Marie, then shrugged. ‘All right, wheel them in.’

He sat on the edge of the table drinking champagne while they stood before him, awkward in such circumstances. ‘How old is he?’

‘Difficult, monsieur,’ Pierre said. ‘He changes from one minute to the next. It’s like he’s more than one person. I’d say late thirties.’

‘And description?’

‘Small with fair hair.’

‘He looks like nothing,’ Gaston put in. ‘We thought he was a no-no and then he half-killed some big ape in our café one night.’

‘All right. He’s small, fair-haired, late thirties and he can handle himself. What makes you think he’s Irish?’

‘When he was assembling the Kalashnikov he made a crack about seeing one take out a Land Rover full of English paratroopers.’

‘Is that all?’

Pierre frowned. Brosnan took the bottle of Krug from the bucket and Gaston said, ‘No, there’s something else. He’s always whistling a funny sort of tune. A bit eerie. I managed to follow it on my accordion. He said it was Irish.’

Brosnan’s face had gone quite still. He stood there, holding the bottle in one hand, a glass in the other.

‘And he likes that stuff, monsieur,’ Pierre said.

‘Champagne?’ Brosnan asked.

‘Well, yes, any champagne is better than nothing, but Krug is his favourite.’

‘Like this, non-vintage?’

‘Yes, monsieur. He told us he preferred the grape mix,’ Pierre said.

‘The bastard always did.’

Anne-Marie put a hand on Brosnan’s arm. ‘You know him, Martin?’

‘Almost certainly. Could you pick that tune out on the piano?’ he asked Gaston.

‘I’ll try, monsieur.’

He lifted the lid, tried the keyboard gently, then played the beginning of the tune with one finger.

‘That’s enough.’ Brosnan turned to Hernu and Savary. ‘An old Irish folk song, “The Lark in the Clear Air”, and you’ve got trouble, gentlemen, because the man you’re looking for is Sean Dillon.’

‘Dillon?’ Hernu said. ‘Of course. The man of a thousand faces someone once called him.’

‘A slight exaggeration,’ Brosnan said, ‘but it will do.’

They sent the Jobert brothers home and Brosnan and Anne-Marie sat on a sofa opposite Hernu and Savary. The inspector made notes as the American talked.

‘His mother died in childbirth. I think that was nineteen fifty-two. His father was an electrician. Went to work in London so Dillon went to school there. He had an incredible talent for acting, a genius really. He can change before your eyes, hunch his shoulders, put on fifteen years. It’s astonishing.’

‘So you knew him well?’ Hernu asked.