Jack Higgins: Solo

Solo was first published in the UK by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1980 and later by Pan Books in 1981. This amazing novel has been out of print for some years, and in 2009, it seemed to the author and his publishers that it was a pity to leave such a good story languishing on his shelves. So we are delighted to be able to bring back Solo for the pleasure of the vast majority of us who never had a chance to read the earlier editions.

For my daughter

Ruth Patterson,

Who thinks it’s about time.

Epigraph

Revenge is a kind of wild justice.

Francis Bacon

Cover

Title Page

Publisher’s Note

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue

The Cretan turned in through the gate in the high,…

1

Some forty sea miles south from Athens and less than…

2

The British Secret Intelligence Service, known more correctly as DI5,…

3

But in Belfast that day, extraordinary things had been happening…

4

By evening Morgan had reached Leeds. He left the city…

5

Baker stood in front of the fire, warming himself as…

6

Katherine Riley was having lunch in her study at the…

7

The Europa Hotel in Belfast stands in Great Victoria Street,…

8

Harvey Jago inspected himself carefully in the bathroom mirror. In…

9

Not that any of it mattered for at the very…

10

It was raining heavily in the first grey light of…

11

At Heathrow, it was just three-thirty as Katherine Riley hurried…

12

For most of his seventy-two years George Ghika had been…

13

Morgan was tramping over the mountain on his way home…

14

It was almost six o’clock when Kim answered the ring…

15

In the Green Room behind the stage at the Albert…

16

Harry Baker was talking to a uniformed inspector in the…

About the Author

Other Books by Jack Higgins

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Cretan turned in through the gate in the high, brick wall surrounding the house near Regent’s Park, stepped into the shrubbery, merging with the shadows. He glanced at the luminous dial of his watch. Ten minutes to seven, which meant he had a little time in hand.

He was wearing a dark anorak from one pocket of which he produced a Mauser with a bulbous silencer on the end of the barrel. He checked the action and slipped it back into his pocket.

The house was imposing enough, which was only to be expected for it was owned by Maxwell Jacob Cohen – Max Cohen to his friends. Amongst other things, chairman of the largest clothing manufacturers in the world, one of the most influential Jews in British society. A man loved and respected by everyone who knew him.

Unfortunately, he was also an ardent Zionist, a considerable disadvantage in the eyes of certain people. Not that it bothered the Cretan. Politics were a nonsense. Games for children. He never queried the target, only the details and in this case he’d checked them thoroughly. There was Cohen, his wife and the maid – no one else. The rest of the servants lived out.

He took a black balaclava helmet from his pocket, which he pulled over his head, leaving only his eyes, nose and mouth exposed, then he pulled up the hood of the anorak, stepped out of the shrubbery and moved towards the house.

Maria, the Cohens’ Spanish maid, was in the living-room when the doorbell rang. When she opened it, she received the shock of her life. The phantom before her held a pistol in his right hand. When the lips moved in the obscene slash in the woollen helmet, he spoke somewhat hoarsely in English with a heavy foreign accent.

‘Take me to Mr Cohen.’ Maria opened her mouth to protest. The pistol was extended menacingly as the Cretan stepped inside and closed the door behind him. ‘Quickly now, if you want to live.’

The girl turned to go up the stairs and the Cretan followed. As they moved along the landing, the bedroom door opened and Mrs Cohen appeared. She had lived with the fear of this kind of thing for some years now, saw Maria, the hooded man, the gun, and in a reflex action, jumped back instantly into the bedroom. She slammed and locked the door then ran to the telephone and dialled nine-nine-nine.

The Cretan pushed Maria on. The maid stumbled, losing a shoe, then paused at the door of her master’s study. She hesitated, then knocked.

Max Cohen answered with some surprise, for it was a strict house rule that he must never be disturbed in his study before eight in the evening. He was aware of Maria standing there, one shoe off, terror on her face and then she was pulled to one side and the Cretan appeared, the silenced gun in his hand. It coughed once.

Max Cohen had been a boxer in his youth and for a moment, it was like being back in the ring. A good solid punch in the face that knocked him clean off his feet. And then he was on his back in the study.

His lips tried to form the words of that most common of Hebrew prayers recited by any Jew, the last prayer he utters in death. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. But the words refused to come and the light was fading very fast now and then there was only darkness.

As the Cretan ran out of the front door the first police car to answer the call turned in at the end of the street and he could hear others approaching fast. He darted across the garden into the shadows and clambered over a wall into another garden. Finally he opened a gate to let himself out into a narrow lane a few moments later. He pulled down his hood, removed the balaclava helmet and hurried away.

Already, his description, obtained from the maid by the crew of the first police car on the scene, was being transmitted over the radio. Not that it mattered. A couple of hundred yards and he would be lost in the greenness of Regent’s Park. Straight across to the underground station on the other side, change at Oxford Circus.

He started to cross the road, there was a squeal of brakes. A voice called, ‘Hey, you!’

It was a police car, one quick glance told him that, and then he dodged into the nearest side street and started to run. His luck, as always, was good for as he ran along the line of parked cars, he saw a man up ahead getting into one. The door slammed, the engine started.

The Cretan wrenched the door open, dragged the driver out head first and jumped behind the wheel. He gunned the motor, swinging the wheel, crumpling the nearside wing on the car parked in front, and drove away quickly as the police car roared up the street after him.

He cut across Vale Road into Paddington. He didn’t have long if he was to lose them, he knew that, because in seconds every police car in that part of London would be converging on the area, sealing it up tight.

There was a road works sign, an arrow pointing to the right which didn’t give him much choice. A one-way street between warehouses, narrow and dark, leading down to Paddington Goods Station.

The police car was close now – too close. He increased speed and saw that he was entering a long narrow tunnel under the railway line, then he noticed a figure up ahead.

It was a girl on a bicycle. A young girl, in a brown duffel coat, a striped scarf around her neck. He was conscious of her white frightened face as she glanced over her shoulder. The machine wobbled.

He swung the wheel, scraping the nearside wing against the tunnel wall so that sparks flew. It was no good. There just wasn’t the room. There was a dull thud, no more than that and then she bounced to one side off the bonnet of the car.