Ken Follett - Code to Zero (2000)

He learned a few intimate secrets along the way. Elspeth coloured her hair, used sleeping pills that were prescribed by a doctor, and suffered from constipation. Luke used a dandruff shampoo and subscribed to Playboy magazine.

There was a small pile of mail on a table in the hall - put there by the maid, presumably. Anthony shuffled the letters, but there was nothing of interest: a flyer from a supermarket, Newsweek, a postcard from Ron and Monica in Hawaii, envelopes with the cellophane address window that indicated a business letter.

The search had been fruitless. He still did not know what Luke might have up his sleeve.

He went into the living room. He chose a position from which he could see through the Venetian blinds to the front yard, and also through the open door into the hallway. He sat down on the pink vinyl couch.

He took out his gun, checked that it was fully loaded, and fitted the silencer.

He tried to reassure himself by imagining the scene ahead. He would see Luke arrive, probably in a taxicab from the airport. He would watch him walk into the front yard, take out his key, and open his own front door. Luke would step into the hall, close the door, then head for the kitchen. As he passed the living room, he would glance through the open doorway and see Anthony on the couch. He would stop, raise his eyebrows in surprise, and open his mouth to speak. In his mind would be some phrase such as: 'Anthony? What the hell-?' But he would never say the words. His eyes would drop to the gun held perfectly level in Anthony's lap, and he would know his fate a split second before it happened.

Then Anthony would shoot him dead.

.

3 P. M.

A system of compressed-air nozzles, mounted in the tail of the instrument compartment, will control the tilt of the nose section when in space.

Billie was lost She had known it for half an hour. Leaving the airport in a rented Ford a few minutes before one o'clock, she had driven into the centre of Huntsville, then taken Highway 59 toward Chattanooga. She had wondered why the components testing laboratory should be an hour away from the base, and imagined it might be for safety reasons: perhaps there was a danger that components would explode under testing. But she had not thought very hard about it Her directions were to take a country road to the right exactly thirty-five miles from Huntsville. She had zeroed her trip meter on Main Street but when the revolving figures reached 55 she could not see a right turn. Feeling only mildly anxious, she went on and took the next road on the right, a couple of miles farther.

The directions, which had seemed so precise as she wrote them down, never quite corresponded with the roads on which she found herself, and her anxiety grew, but she carried on, making the likeliest interpretation. Obviously, she thought, the man she had spoken to had not been as reliable as he had sounded. She wished she had been able to speak to Luke personally.

The landscape gradually became wilder, the farmhouses ramshackle, the roads potholed and the fences broken-down. The disparity between what she expected and the landmarks she saw around her grew until she threw up her hands in despair and admitted to herself that she could be anywhere. She was furious with herself and with the fool who had given her directions.

She turned around and tried to find her way back, but soon she was on unfamiliar roads again. She began to wonder if she were going around in a huge circle. She stopped beside a field where a Negro in dungarees and a straw hat was turning the hard earth with a walking plough. She stopped her car and spoke to him. 'I'm looking for the components testing lab of Redstone Arsenal,' she said.

He looked surprised. 'The army base? That's all the way back to Huntsville and across to the other side of town.'.

'But they have some kind of facility out this way.'

'Not that! ever see.' , This was hopeless. She would have to call the lab and ask for fresh directions. 'Can I use your phone?'

'Ain't got no phone.'

She was about to ask him where the nearest pay phone was when she saw a look of fear in his eyes. She realized that she was putting him in a situation that made him anxious: alone in a field with a white woman who was not making sense. She quickly thanked him and drove away.

After a couple of miles, she came upon a dilapidated feed store with a payphone outside. She pulled over. She still had Luke's message with the phone number. She put a dime in the slot and dialed.

The phone was answered immediately. A young man's voice said: 'Hello?'

'May I speak to Dr Claude Lucas?' she said.

You got the wrong number, honey.'

Can't I do anything right? she thought desperately. 'Isn't this Huntsville JE 6-4231?'

There was a pause. Yep, that's what it says on the dial.'

She double-checked the number on the message. She had not made a mistake.. 'I was trying to call the components testing lab.'

'Well, you reached a payphone in Huntsville airport.'

'A payphone?'

Yes, maam.'

Billie began to realize she had been hoodwinked.

The voice at the other end of the line went on: 'I'm about to call my Mom and tell her to come get me, and when I pick up the phone I hear you asking for some guy named Claude.' -

'Shit!' Billie said. She slammed the phone down, furious with herself for being so gullible.

Luke had not been taken off his plane in, Norfolk and put on an army flight, she realized, and he was not at the components testing lab, wherever that was. That whole story was a lie designed to get her out of the way - and it had succeeded. She looked at her watch. Luke must have landed by now. Anthony had been waiting for him - and she might as well have been in Washington, for all the use she had been.

With despair in her heart, she wondered if Luke were still alive.

If he was, maybe she could still warn him. It was too late to leave a message at the airport, but there must be someone she could call. She racked her brains. Luke had a secretary at the base, she remembered; a name like a flower...

Marigold.

She called Redstone Arsenal and asked to speak to Dr Lucas's secretary. A woman with, a slow Alabama voice came on the line. 'Computation Laboratory, how may I help you?'

'Is that Marigold?'

Yes.'

I'm Dr Josephson, a friend of Dr Lucas.'

'Yes.' She sounded suspicious.

Billie wanted this woman to trust her. 'We've spoken before, I think. My first name is Billie.'

'Oh, sure, I remember. How are you?'

'Worried. I need to get a message to Luke urgently. Is he with you?'

'No, maam. He went to his house.'

'What's he doing there?'

'Looking for a file folder.'

'A file?' Billie saw the significance of that immediately. 'A file he left here on Monday, maybe?'

'I don't know nothing about that,' said Marigold.

Of course, Luke had told Marigold to keep his Monday visit secret. But none of that was important now. 'If you see Luke, or if he calls you, would you please give him a message from me?'

'Of course.'

'Tell him Anthony is in town.'

'That's all?'

'He'll understand. Marigold ... I hesitate to say this, in case you think I'm some kind of nut, but I guess I should. I believe-Luke is in danger.'

'From this Anthony?'

'Yes. Do you believe me?'

'Stranger things have happened. Is this all tied up with him losing his memory?'

Yes. If you get that message to him, it could save his life. I mean it'

'I'll do what I can, Doctor.'

'Thank you.' Billie hung up.

Was there anyone else Luke .might talk to? She thought of Elspeth.

She called the operator and asked for Cape Canaveral.

.

3.45 P. M.

After discarding the burnt-out first stage, the missile will coast through a vacuum trajectory while the spatial-attitude-control system aligns it so that it is exactly horizontal with respect to the Earth's surface.