Dennis Wheatley - Mayhem in Greece

He grinned at her. 'Henry is still afraid that you are in secret communication with your husband; so he didn't want me to tell you. But I made no promise that I wouldn't. He thinks I'm right, and by this time he will be in communication with his Chief in Athens. He means to push him into having all the sites raided, and hopes to get the Congressional Medal for having spiked the great Communist plot.'

'What cheek!' Stephanie exclaimed indignantly. 'He hasn't discovered a thing. All the credit for this ought to go to you.'

Robbie shrugged. 'I don't give a damn who gets the credit. What matters is preventing the possibility of this part of the Med. being blown up, and the destruction of the U.S. subs.'

'Anyway, you are safe now. Once the sites have been raided and the plot uncovered, no one is going to hold it against you that you killed Cepicka while trying to prevent Greece being blown off the map. I think we ought to celebrate. Instead of lunching in this shoddy little place, let's go down to the Glass House.'

'1 told Henry I'd be lunching here, in case he wanted to get hold of me,' Robbie demurred. 'Still, he said that was unlikely, and I promised to look in at the Candia Palace about seven, to pick up any message he might have left during the afternoon. So let's leave it at that.'

At the Glass House a quarter of an hour later, they found that the chef had just had in some live crayfish; so they selected a fine hen and, while it was being boiled, they ordered the rest of their meal at a table at the far end of the restaurant. When the waiter had taken their order, Stephanie said: 'What shall we do about Vdclav?'

'You mean, what is the best way to secure him when you have brought him along to me?'

'No.' She shook her head. 'I wasn't thinking of that, I was wondering if you still wish me to meet him. After your wonderful hunch this morning, and now that Henry is acting on it, we could let sleeping dogs lie. You never have liked the idea of taking him to pieces. Now, apart from the fact that you hate him on account of what he did to me, there's no reason why you should.'

After a moment, Robbie replied thoughtfully: 'I think you're wrong there. I feel pretty certain my guess is the right one, but there's a chance that it might not be. There's a chance, too, that Henry's Chief may refuse to believe him and do nothing, anyhow for the present. Your getting Barak here will give us the opportunity of making certain, and I don't think we ought to throw it away.'

'Very well, then. His plane is due in at the airport at ten to five. That means that I should be able to deliver him over to your tender mercies at about half past. Unless, of course, he wants to register at an hotel first and drop his bag. In that case, it will be nearer six. But you'll be careful how you tackle him, won't you? Remember, it is you he is coming to get, and it's certain that he'll be carrying a gun.'

'You bet I'll be careful,' Robbie smiled. 'I should look pretty silly if this boomeranged on me.'

'You wouldn't have a chance to look anything,' Stephanie told him grimly. 'Once I've led him into the ambush there must be no mistakes. When we've finished lunch, we'll go over to your hideout and work everything out very carefully.'

About half-past-two, Stephanie drove the car back to its garage, while Robbie made his way to the half-ruined house among the rubble. Half an hour later, she joined him. Their problem was to think of a way by which Robbie could stun Barak, by hitting him over the head with a sandbag, before he realized that he had fallen into a trap and drew his gun. Their difficulty was that there was no place in the house in which Robbie could lie concealed and that, being empty, even taking a few steps on tiptoe from one room to another meant boards creaking so loudly that they would give away a stealthy approach.

After much discussion it was decided that Barak must be ambushed outside the house and, as this required darkness to prevent anyone seeing from a distance the assault on him, the following plan was adopted: Stephanie was to tell him that Robbie had gone over to Phaestos to see what he could find out about the site there, and he would not be back until eight o'clock. When he returned he would go straight to his hide-out for a meal, since he avoided as far as possible being seen in the town from fear of the police. She would take Barak to the hideout about half-past-seven, and he could lie in wait for Robbie there. That was the sort of set-up that Stephanie had suggested in her letter, and it would still be daylight when she brought Barak to the house; so there would be no reason for him to suspect

that she was leading him into a trap.

Actually, however, a little before the time that Barak was due to arrive at the house Robbie would conceal himself behind the low wall outside it. Having brought Barak there, Stephanie would leave him. The half hour would pass and twilight would be falling. Barak, believing Robbie's return to have been delayed by some unforeseen circumstance, would continue to wait for another hour, perhaps two, or it might even be three. But is was certain that by midnight, at the latest, he would become so weary of standing in the darkness that he would throw in his hand and decide to go to his hotel. As he passed along the low wall, Robbie would then rise up, slog him on the back of the head and drag him into the house. The plan might mean a long vigil for Robbie, but it reduced to a minimum the risk that he might be shot by Barak before he could overcome him.

At four o'clock, Stephanie left to collect the car and drive out to the airport. Robbie also went out and bought some stout cord with which to tie up Barak. On his return to the house, he tore an old shirt into strips, suitable for gagging his enemy, and put them in his pocket, then filled a sock about a third full of finely crumbled plaster. These preparations completed, he had a meal from one of the tins and some of the fruit Stephanie had brought for him and washed it down with half a bottle of the red wine.

By that time it was half-past-five. As there was just a chance that Barak, believing him to be absent at Phaestos, might demand to be driven straight to the hide-out so that he could reconnoitre it in daylight before returning later to lie in wait there, Robbie decided to play for safety and leave the house. Putting a slab of chocolate, some biscuits and a paper-back 'thriller' in his pockets, he went out and selected his hiding-place.

The wall ran from the side of the house down to the great barn that was used as a sawmill and faced on to the road along the sea front. From the road a track led up along the side of the barn to the beginning of the wall, and up to the end of that track Stephanie would bring Barak in the car; after that they would have to walk. The wall was broken and crumbling in places, so Robbie had no difficulty in finding a spot only about thirty feet from the house where he could force out a few bricks and so make himself a spy hole which would command the approach to the building. Having got over the wall he settled down with his back to it, on a pillow which he had brought out with him, then endeavoured to concentrate on his 'thriller'.

For a variety of reasons he found it far from easy to do so. He still disliked intensely the idea of tying up any man—even the husband who had been cruel to Stephanie and had attempted to murder her—and torturing him. The thought that Stephanie was again with her husband filled him with uneasiness. To carry out their plan, she would have to spend at least two and a half hours with him and, excellent actress though she was, should she make a slip during that long session in her husband's company, not only would their plan be brought to naught but she would then be in great danger. There was also the chance that the plan might somehow go wrong. Robbie could think of no reason why it should but, all the same, the thought that if it did he would probably pay for it with his life was distinctly unnerving.