Rhinoceros (57 page)

'Now you can damned well buy me an other.'
'Keep your voice down,' Oskar said calmly. 'You have been drinking in here instead of getting some sleep so you
are fresh for tomorrow. It would be so easy to replace
you. If they ever found it} your body would be floating in the sea.'

Barton was afraid of very little. But as Oskar stared at him with his bulging eyes his face lost colour.

'We haven't been here long . . .' he began.

'You should never have touched alcohol. You will both now come back with me to the hotel and go to bed. I have
some instructions to give you while we walk back.'

He looked up as a waitress appeared and began to wipe
up the spilt beer. Oskar's whole personality changed as he looked at her with a smile and gave her a Danish
banknote.

She stared at it in disbelief, looked at Oskar.

'That is too much for the beer,' she said.

'No, it is not. It includes your tip.'

'That is so generous. I do thank you.'

He had continued gazing at her and she gave him a
great big smile. Quite a lot of women liked Oskar. Barton
cautiously made his comment when they were walking back along the street.

'That was a huge tip.'

'So everyone is "happy - and we do not get talked about.
Now tomorrow you follow the blue Mercedes Tweed and
his team will drive off from here in.' He gave them the
registration number. 'While you were getting sozzled I
have been touring the car parks of hotels in this place.
They are staying at Hostrups Hotel.'

'We go there now,' said Barton, eager to make up for his
mistake. 'We kill them while they sleep?'

Panko was grinning at the prospect. He already had
taken out his knife.

'Put that toothpick away, idiot,' stormed Oskar. 'You come with me to the Tonderhus, go to bed. Get up early
in the morning. I will drive you to the airfield. There you'll
hide until I contact you by mobile phone to warn you they
are leaving. You then follow them in your aircraft, however
far they go. You keep in touch with me, using your mobile,
tell me where they have gone to. Report to me constantly,
then I can follow them in my car. We take the decision
how to deal with them when they reach their destination.
Don't fly too close to their car. Keep your distance. Use
your binoculars, Panko. I have no more to say to you.'

'What time do we have breakfast?' Barton asked.

'At six a.m. If they don't serve it at that hour then you go hungry. Might help to keep your wits about you.'

As soon as Newman had departed with Mrs France,
Paula tackled Tweed head on. Her way of speaking was
emphatic.

'I don't understand what you think you're doing. You
threw security and secrecy to the wind when you were talking to Mrs France. You gave her details of the whole conspiracy we have spent time, taken so many risks, to
learn about. I think, if you don't mind my saying so,
that you've made the one big mistake of your whole
career.'

'Really, you think that?' Seated on a couch with a fresh
cup of coffee in his hand, Tweed was amused. 'You do,
of course,' he said casually, 'have a right to your own
opinion.'

'You're not taking me seriously.' She stamped her foot.
'All our lives are at stake.'

'I would agree there.'

'Then why, in heaven's name, did you do it?' she
demanded.

'Because at long last I have sorted out the negative
destructive forces from the positive ones who are on our side, invisible though they may have been so far.'

'You have?'

She was taken aback. She sat down in a chair facing him,
bewildered.

'I don't understand,' she said.

'You must have noticed the extraordinary change in Mrs
France's personality. And in her appearance and manner. How would you describe it?'

'Well, when we saw her twice in Hamburg she was a
nice but fuddled lady, almost like a flower-seller behind
a market stall. I felt it difficult to believe she was chief
accountant at Zurcher Kredit. Do you think I'm barmy?'

'No. Your impression of her then is not far off mine.
But what about her now?'

'I was staggered. Hardly seemed like the same woman.
She struck me as incredibly competent with an amazing
range of talents. I can now see she'd be a top account
ant. But she's also a flier and I think she does have
an incredible grasp of the Internet. Her manner was so
businesslike, so forceful. She even seemed slimmer in her flying kit.'

'So what are you worrying about?'

'The fact that you provided her with so much infor
mation, were so frank and open with her.'

'That was because I decided she was on the side of
the positive forces. I'm not bad at deciding
who is trust
worthy. She is trustworthy. That was why I asked her
about Danzer. What she said was further confirmation
for me that she was telling the truth. That and other
things.'

'Sorry I blew my top. I got it all wrong.'

'We all do at times,' Tweed told her. 'I know I do. But
now we are in great danger. If I were in the enemy's shoes
I'd make a supreme effort to get rid of us permanently,
quickly.'

'Any particular reason for fearing that?'

'Yes.' Tweed finished his cup of coffee. 'The fact that
they have Brig, Lord Barford on their side. I think he planned the attack on us off the autobahn. While it was
going on I had the feeling a military mind was behind it.
That encircling movement by five men aiming at taking
us in the rear. They could have got us if Harry hadn't
turned up with his Uzi at the last moment, seen what they
were up to.'

'So you think we'll face another attack?'

'I'm certain of it. And it may be more difficult to
defeat.'

Inselende
was a large remote house located on the western
coast of the island of Sylt. It had two sections with thatched
roofs linked together by a circular section in the centre. In
English the name meant 'island's end'. Surrounded by a
moorland, it was close to where sandy cliffs dropped sheer
into the North Sea - an ideal location for a top secret
meeting.

It was well guarded. At strategic points FBI men with
automatic weapons crouched out of sight in the heather. Uniformed troops patrolled the outside of the house and
at the beginning of the only road leading to it roadblocks
had been set up.

Further precautions had been taken. Although it would
have taken climbers like flies to ascend the cliffs off
shore, American patrol boats equipped with machine-guns
cruised a short distance from the cliffs.

In addition, helicopter gunships with searchlights flew
over the house and the surrounding areas. The beams
of the searchlights swivelled constantly in search of any
intruders. The President himself could have stayed there
safely.

Inside
Inselende
a long meeting of the four participants -
without aides - had just broken up for dinner. One man did
not join them. Gavin Thunder had ushered Lord Barford
into a small soundproofed room where they could consult
on their own.

'I have very bad news,' Barford began. 'Despite all our
efforts Tweed and his team are still on the loose.'

'I thought you'd planned to wipe them out,' snapped
the disturbed Thunder. 'I know Tweed's reputation, his
many successes in the past. He is the one man who could
throw a very big spanner in our works.'

'I agree,' said Barford. 'I also know him well. We have to
make a supreme effort to destroy him - before he destroys
us. And time is short.'

'And I suppose you have no idea where he is,' Thunder
commented sarcastically.

'He is at this moment in Tonder.'

'Where the hell is that?'

'Not so far from where we are sitting. On the mainland.
A small town just across the border in
Denmark.'

'Are you sure?' Thunder pressed. 'How do you know?'

'Because I am well organized. An hour or so ago I had
a call from Barton. He informed me Tweed and his team
are in Tonder. I even know the name of the hotel where
they are spending the night. Hostrups Hotel.'

'Why was it Barton who phoned you and not Oskar?'

'Because Oskar likes to play it close to his chest, to take
the credit. Mind you, I have no doubt Oskar has prepared a fresh attack.'

'I thought it was Oskar who planned the attack on the autobahn to Flensburg, which was a total fiasco.'

Barford thought it wiser not to reveal that he had drawn
up the plan for that assault. Thunder was not a man who
easily forgave mistakes.

'No, it was Delgado who planned the tactics. I met Delgado in Flensburg and he told me Tweed was in the city. Then he vanished with his whole team.'

'I don't like this.' Thunder had stood up to go to the
drinks cabinet. He brought back two glasses of brandy, sat down again.

'I don't like it at all,' he rasped. 'Tweed flying all over
North Germany. Appearing first in Hamburg, then in
Flensburg and now just across the Danish border. He's up
to something. The Americans do have the Secret Reserve
here but they aren't really needed. We have more guards
than we need.'

Barford took another gulp of his double brandy. He was worried. The Secret Reserve was a small group of highly
trained men nominally attached to the Secret Service
which guarded the President. But they had a lot of inde
pendence. He'd heard they were used to liquidate awkward
men — or women - whose activities were inconvenient
to the US government. He'd even heard they had been
responsible for a fatal 'accident' which had ended in the
death of a Senator. And they would not be under his
control.

'A bit drastic,' he suggested. 'I've heard about the methods they use. They don't even waste time getting
rid of the bodies.'

'I have decided.' Thunder stood up again after draining
his glass. 'I'll have a quiet word with the Secretary of State.
I'm sure he'll agree to loan them to us.'

'If you're sure this is a good idea.'

'Damnit!' Thunder smashed his glass on the table.
'Tweed has to be eliminated. The Secret Reserve - seven of them - will do the job. They are utterly ruthless. They can travel in jeeps from the motor pool on the mainland.
Tweed will be no match for men like that.'