O
nly the name had changed from Lod to Ben-Gurion â otherwise the Arrivals Hall was as Peter remembered it. One of the few airports on the globe which has sufficient luggage trolleys, so that the passengers do not have to fight for possession.
In the Arrivals Hall there was a young Israeli driver with the name:
printed in white chalk on a schoolboy's black slate.
The driver wore a navy-blue cap with a black patent-leather peak. It was his only item of uniform, otherwise he was dressed in sandals and a white cotton shirt. His English had the usual strong American turn to it, and his attitude was casual and friendly â he might be driving the limousine today, but tomorrow he could be at the controls of a Centurion tank, and he was as good a man as his passenger any day.
âShalom, Shalom,' he greeted Peter. âIs that all your luggage?'
âYes.'
â
Beserder
. Let's go.' He did not offer to push Peter's trolley, but chatted amicably as he led him out to the limousine.
It was a stretched-out 240 D Mercedes Benz â almost brand new, lovingly polished â but somebody had painted a pair of squinting eyes on each side of the chrome three-pointed star on the boot of the vehicle.
They had hardly pulled out through the airport gates when one of the characteristic aromas of Israel filled the cab of the Mercedes â the smell of orange blossom from the citrus orchards that lined each side of the road.
For some reason the smell made Peter feel uneasy, a sensation of having missed something, of having neglected some vital aspect. He tried to think it all out again, from
the beginning, but the driver kept up a running commentary as they pulled up the new double highway, over the hills through the pine forests towards Jerusalem, and the voice distracted him.
Peter wished he had kept the list that he had drawn up in the hotel room at Orly instead of destroying it. He tried to reconstruct it in his mind.
There were a dozen items on the plus side. The third was:
Magda told me about Cactus Flower. Would she have done so if she was Caliph?
And then directly opposite, in the âminus' column:
If Magda is Caliph, then âCactus Flower' does not exist. It was an invention for some undisclosed reason.
This was the item that pricked him like a burr in a woollen sock. He kept coming back to it; there was a link missing from the logic of it and he tried to tease it loose. It was there just below the surface of his mind, and he knew instinctively that if he missed it the consequences would be dire.
The driver kept chatting, turning to glance back at him every few minutes with a cheerful demand for recognition.
âThat's right, isn't it?'
Peter grunted. The man was irritating him â the missing item was there, just beginning to surface. He could see the shape of it. Why had the smell of orange blossom worried him? The smell of flowers? Cactus flower? There was something there, something missing from the list.
If Magda is not Caliph thenâWas that it? He was not certain. ââ Will that be all right, then?' The driver was insisting again.
âI'm sorry â what was that?'
âI said, I had to drop a parcel off at my mother-in-law,' the driver explained again. âIt's from my wife.'
âCan't you do that on your way back?'
âI'm not going back tonightâ' The driver grinned
winningly over his shoulder. ââ My mother-in-law lives right on our way. It won't take five minutes. I promised my wife I'd get it to her mother today.'
âOh, very well then,' Peter snapped. There was something about the man he did not like, and he had lost track of the item that had been worrying him.
He felt as though he was in a chess game with a vastly superior opponent, and he had overlooked a castle on an open file, or a knight in a position to fork simultaneous check on his king and queen.
âWe turn off here,' the driver explained, and swung off into a section of new apartment blocks, all of them built of the custard-yellow Jerusalem stone, row upon row of them, Israel's desperate attempt to house its new citizens. At this time of evening the streets were deserted, as families gathered for the evening meal.
The driver jinked through the maze of identical-seeming streets with garrulous confidence and then braked and parked in front of one of the square, boxlike, yellow buildings.
âTwo minutes,' he promised, and jumped out of the Mercedes, scampered around to the rear and opened the boot. There was a scratching sound, a small bump and then the lid of the boot slammed and the driver came back into Peter's line of vision â carrying a brown paper parcel.
He grinned at Peter, with the ridiculous cap pushed onto the back of his head, mouthed another assurance through the closed window: âTwo minutesâ' and went into the main door of the apartment.
Peter hoped he might be longer. The silence was precious. He closed his eyes, and concentrated.
If Magda is not Caliph then â thenâThere was the ticking sound of the engine cooling, or was it the dashboard dock? Peter thrust the sound to the back of his mind.
â then â then Cactus Flower exists. Yes, that was it!
Cactus Flower exists, and if he exists he is close enough to Caliph to know of Sir Steven Stride's threat to expose himâ
Peter sat upright, rigid in his seat. He had believed that Steven Stride would be perfectly safe â until after the meeting with Caliph. That was the terrible mistake.
â Cactus Flower must stop Steven Stride reaching Caliph! Yes, of course. Christ, how had he not seen it before. Cactus Flower was Mossad, and Peter was sitting in a street of Jerusalem â Mossad's front yard â dressed as Steven Stride.
Christ! He felt the certainty of mortal danger Cactus Flower probably made the arrangements himself. If Magda Altmann is not Caliph, then I am walking right into Cactus Flower's sucker punch!
The damned clock kept ticking, a sound as nerve-racking as a leaky faucet.
I am in Cactus Flower's city â in Cactus Flower's limoâ
The ticking. Oh God! It was not coming from the dashboard Peter turned his head. It was coming from behind
him
; from the boot which the driver had opened and in which he had moved something. Something that was now ticking away quietly.
Peter wrenched the door handle and hit the door with his shoulder, instinctively grabbing the Hermes case with his other hand.
They would have stripped out the metal partition between the boot and the back seat to allow the blast to cut through. There was probably only the leather upholstery between him and whatever was ticking. That was why he had heard it so clearly.
Time seemed to have slowed, so he was free to think it out as the seconds dropped as lingeringly as spilled honey.
Infernal machine, he thought. Why that ridiculously nineteenth-century term should occur to him now, he could
not guess, a relic from the childhood days when he read
Boy's Own Paper,
perhaps.
He was out of the Mercedes now, almost losing his balance as his feet hit the unsurfaced and broken sidewalk.
It is probably plastic explosive with a clockwork timer on the detonator, he thought, as he started to run. What delay would they use? Thirty seconds? No, the driver had to get well away. He had said two minutes, said it twice â
The thoughts raced through his mind, but his legs seemed to be shackled, dragging against an enormous weight. Like trying to run waist deep in the sucking surf of a sandy beach.
â It will be two minutes, and he has been gone that longâ
Ten paces ahead of him there was a low wall that had been built as a flower box around the apartment block. It was knee high, a double brick wall with the cavity filled with dry yellow earth and precariously sustaining the life of a few wizened oleander bushes.
Peter dived head first over the wall, breaking his fall with shoulder and forearm, and rolling back hard under the protection of the low wall.
Above his head were the large windows of the ground-floor apartments. Lying on his side, peering up at them, Peter saw the reflection of the parked Mercedes as though in a mirror.
He covered his ears with the palms of both hands. The Mercedes was only fifty feet away. He watched it in the glass, his body braced, his mouth wide open to absorb blast shock in his sinuses.
The Mercedes erupted. It seemed to open quite sedately, like one of those time-elapse movies of a rose blooming. The shining metal spread and distorted like grotesque black petals, and bright white flame shot through it â that was all Peter saw, for the row of apartment windows disappeared, blown away in a million glittering shards by the blast wave, leaving the windows gaping like the toothless mouths of old
decrepit men, and at the same moment the blast smashed into Peter.
Even though it was muted by the thick wall of the flower box, it crushed him, seemed to drive in his ribs, and the air whooshed from his lungs. The fearsome din of the explosion clamoured in his head, filling his skull with little bright chips of rainbow light.
He thought he must have lost consciousness for a moment, then there was the patter of falling debris raining down around him and something struck him a painful blow in the small of his back. It spurred him.
He dragged himself to his feet, struggling to refill his empty lungs. He knew he had to get away before the security forces arrived, or he could expect intensive interrogation which would certainly disclose the fact that he was not Sir Steven.
He started to run. The street was still deserted, although he could hear the beginning of the uproar which must follow. The cries of anguish and of fear.
He reached the corner and stopped running. He walked quickly to the next alley behind an apartment block. There were no street lights and he paused in the shadows. By now a dozen figures shouting questions and conjecture were hurrying towards the smoke and dust of the explosion.
Peter recovered his breath and dusted down his blazer and slacks, waiting until the confusion and shouting were at their peak. Then he walked quietly away.
On the main road he joined a short queue at the bus stop. The bus dropped him off in the Jaffa Road.
He found a café opposite the bus stop and went through into the men's room. He was unmarked, but pale and strained; his hands still shook from the shock of the blast as he combed his hair.
He went back into the café, found a corner seat and ordered falafel and pitta bread with coffee.
He sat there for half an hour, considering his next move.
If Magda Altmann is not Caliphâhe repeated the conundrum which he had solved just in time to save his life.
Magda Altmann is not Caliph! He knew it then with utter certainty. Cactus Flower had tried to stop Sir Steven Stride reaching Caliph with his denunciation. Therefore Magda had told him the truth. His relief flooded his body with a great warm glow â and his first instinct was to telephone her at the Mossad number she had given him. Then he saw the danger. Cactus Flower was Mossad. He dared not go near her â not yet.
What must he do then? And he knew the answer without having to search for it. He must do what he had come to do. He must find Caliph, and the only fragile thread he had to follow was the trail that Caliph had laid for him.
He left the café and found a taxi at the rank on the corner.
âKing David Hotel,' Peter said, and sank back in the seat.
At least I know the danger of Cactus Flower now, he thought grimly. I won't walk into the next one blind.
P
eter took one glance around the room that had been reserved for him. It was in the back of the hotel and across the road the tall bell tower of the Y.M.C.A. made a fine stance from which a sniper could command the two windows.
âI ordered a suite,' Peter snapped at the reception clerk who had led him up.
âI'm sorry, Sir Steven.' The man was immediately flustered. âThere must have been a mistake.'
Another glance around the room and Peter had noted half a dozen sites at which Cactus Flower might have laid another explosive charge to back up the one that had failed in the back of the Mercedes. He would prefer to spend a
night in a pit full of cobras rather than accept the quarters that Cactus Flower had prepared for him.
Peter stepped back into the passage and fixed the clerk with his most imperious gaze. The man scampered and returned within five minutes â looking mightily relieved.
âWe have one of our best suites for you.'
Number 122 commanded a magnificent view across the valley to the Jaffa Gate in the wall of the Old City, and in the centre of this vista towered the Church of the Last Supper.
The gardens of the hôtel were lush with lawns and tall graceful palms, children shrieked gleefully around the swimming pool while a cool light breeze broke the heat.
The suite abutted onto the long open terrace, and the moment he was alone, Peter lowered the heavy roller shutters across the terrace door. Cactus Flower could too easily send a man in that way. Then Peter stepped out onto the private balcony.
On the tall stone battlements of the French Consulate adjoining the gardens they were lowering the Tricolour against the flaming backdrop of the sunset. Peter watched it for a moment â then concentrated again on the security of the suite.
There was possible access from the room next door, an easy step across from window to balcony. Peter hesitated â then decided to leave the balcony unshuttered. He could not bring himself to accept the claustrophobic effect of a completely shuttered room.
Instead he drew the curtains and ordered a large whisky and soda from room service. He needed it. It had been a long hard day.
Then he stripped off tie and shirt, wig and moustache and washed away some of the tensions. He was towelling himself when there was a tap on the door.
âDamned quick service,' he muttered, and clapped the wig on his head and stepped into the lounge, just as a key
rattled in the lock and the door swung open. Peter lifted the towel and pretended to be still drying his face to cover the lack of moustache on his lip.
âCome in,' he gruffed through the towel, and then froze in the doorway, and a vice seemed to close around his heart and restrict his breathing.
She wore a man's open-neck shirt, with patch pockets on the breasts, and khaki combat breeches hugged her narrow hips. The long legs were thrust into soft-soled canvas boots. Yet she carried herself with the same unforced chic as if she had been dressed in the height of Parisian fashion
âSir Steven.' She closed the door swiftly behind her, and Peter saw her palm the slim metal pick with which she had turned the lock. âI'm Magda Altmann, we have met before I have come to warn you that you are in very grave danger.'
The abundant short curls formed a dark halo around her head, and her eyes were huge and green with concern.
âYou must immediately leave this country. I have my private executive jet aircraft at an airfield near hereâ'
Peter lowered the towel enough to allow himself to speak.
âWhy are you telling me this?' he interrupted her brusquely. âAnd why should I believe you?'
He saw the quick roses of anger bloom in her cheeks.
âYou are dabbling in things you do not understand.'
âWhy should you want to warn me?' Peter insisted.
âBecauseâ' she hesitated and then went on sharply, ââ because you are Peter Stride's brother. For that reason and no other I would not want you killed.'
Peter tossed the towel back into the bathroom and with the same movement pulled off the wig and dropped it onto the chair beside him.
âPeter!' Astonishment riveted her and she stared at him, the colour that anger had painted in her cheeks fled and her eyes turned a deep luminous green. He had forgotten once again how beautiful she was.
âWell, don't just stand there,' he said, and she ran to him on those long, graceful legs and flung her arms around his neck.
They strained together silently, neither of them found words necessary for many minutes. Then she broke away.
âPeter, darling â I cannot stay long. I took a terrible chance coming here at all. They are watching the hotel and the girls on the switchboard are Mossad. That is why I could not telephoneâ'
âTell me everything you can,' he ordered.
âAll right, but hold me,
chéri.
I do not wish to waste a minute of this little time we have together.'
She hid in the bathroom when the waiter brought the whisky, then joined Peter on the couch.
âCactus Flower reported to control that Steven had requested a meeting with Caliph, and that he intended to denounce him. That was all I knew until yesterday â but I could build on that. First of all I was amazed that Steven was the subject of the first Cactus Flower report and not you, Peterâ' She caressed the smooth hard brown muscle of his chest as she spoke. ââ It had never occured to me, even when we discussed the fact that the report mentioned no Christian name.'
âIt didn't occur to me either, not until I'd already left Les Neuf Poissons.'
âThen, of course, I guessed that you had taxed Steven with it, and told him the source of your information. It would have been a crazy thing to do â not your usual style, at all. But I thought that being your brotherâ' She trailed off.
âThat is exactly what I didâ'
âPeter, we could still talk if we were on the bed,' she murmured. âI have been without you for so long.'
Her bare skin felt like hot satin, and they lay entwined with the hard smooth plain of her belly pressed to his. Her mouth was against his ear.
ââ Steven's request for a meeting went directly to Caliph through a channel other than Cactus Flower. He had no chance to head it offâ'
âWho is Cactus Flower, have you found that out?'
âNo.' She shook her head. âI still do not know.' And she raked her long fingernails lightly down across his belly.
âIf you do that â I cannot think clearly,' he protested.
âI am sorry.' She brought her hand up to his cheek. âAnyway, Caliph instructed Cactus Flower to arrange the meeting with Steven. I did not know what arrangements were being made â until I saw Sir Steven's name on the immigration lists this evening. I was not particularly looking for his name, but as soon as I saw it I guessed what was happening. I guessed that Cactus Flower had enticed him here to make his interception easier. It took me three hours to find where Sir Steven would be staying.'
They were both silent now, and she lowered her face and pressed it into the soft of his neck, sighing with happiness.
âOh God, Peter. How I missed you.'
âListen, my darling. You must tell me everything else you have.' Peter lifted her chin tenderly so he could see her face and her eyes came back into focus.
âDid you know that there was to be an assassination attempt on Steven!'
âNo â but it was the logical step for Mossad to protect Cactus Flower.'
âWhat else?'
âNothing.'
âYou don't know if actual arrangements have been made for a meeting between Caliph and Steven?'
âNo, I don't know,' she admitted.
âYou still have no indication at all of Caliph's identity?'
âNo, none at all.'
They were silent again, but now she propped herself on one elbow and watched his face as he spoke.
âCactus Flower would have to make the arrangements for the meeting as Caliph instructed. He would not be able to take the chance of faking it â not with Caliph.'
Magda nodded in silent agreement.
âTherefore we have to believe that at this moment Caliph is close, very close.'
âYes.' She nodded again, but reluctantly.
âThat means that I have to go on impersonating Steven.'
âPeter, no. They will kill you.'
âThey have already triedâ' Peter told her grimly, and quietly outlined the destruction of the Mercedes. She touched the bruise in the small of his back where he had been struck by flying debris from the explosion.
âThey won't let you get close to Caliph.'
âThey may have no choice,' Peter told her. âCaliph is so concerned for his own safety â he is going to insist on the meeting.'
âThey will try and kill you again,' she implored him.
âPerhaps, but I'm betting the meeting with Caliph is arranged to take place very soon. They won't have much opportunity to set up another elaborate trap like the Mercedes, and I'll be expecting it â I've got to go ahead with it, Magda.'
âOh, Peterâ' But he touched her lips, silencing the protest, and he was thinking aloud again.
âLet's suppose Mossad knew that I was not Steven Stride, that my real purpose was not to denounce Cactus Flower? What difference would that make to the thinking at Mossad?'
She considered that. âI'm not certain.'
âIf they knew it was Peter Stride impersonating Steven Stride,' he insisted, âwould that make them curious enough to let the meeting go ahead?'
âPeter, are you suggesting I turn in a report to my control at Mossad â ?'
âWould you do that?'
âSweet merciful God,' she whispered. âI could be signing your death warrant, Peter my darling.'
ââ or you could be saving my life.'
âI don't know.' She sat up erect in the bed and ran the fingers of both hands through the short dark curls, the lamplight glowed on her skin with a pale, smooth opalescence and the small fine breasts changed shape as she moved her arms. âOh, Peter, I don't know.'
âIt could be our only chance to ever get close to Caliph,' he insisted, and the lovely face was racked with indecision.
âCaliph believes I have killed you, he believes that I have transmitted a warning to him through my brother. He will have his guard as low as ever it will be. We will never have a chance again like this.'
âI am so afraid for you, Peter. I am so afraid for myself without youâ' She did not finish it, but pulled up her long naked legs and hugged her knees to her breasts. It was a defensive foetal position.
âWill you do it?' he asked gently.
âYou want me to tell my control your real identity, to tell him that I believe your real purpose is not to denounce Cactus Flower â but some other unknownâ'
That is right.'
She turned her head and looked at him.
âI will do it in exchange for your promise,' she decided.
âWhat is that?'
âIf I judge from my control at Mossad that you are still in danger, and that they still intend intercepting you before you reach Caliph â then I want your promise that you will abandon the attempt. That you will immediately go to where the Lear is waiting and that you will allow Pierre to fly you out of here to a safe place.'
âYou will be honest with me?' he asked. âYou will judge Mossad's reaction fairly â and even if there is a half-decent
chance of me reaching Caliph you will allow me to take that chance?'
She nodded, but he went on grimly, making certain of it.
âSwear it to me!'
âI would not try to prevent you â just as long as there is a chance of success.'
âSwear it to me, Magda.'
âOn my love for you, I swear it,' she said quietly, and he relaxed slightly.
âAnd I in turn swear to you that if there is no chance of meeting Caliph â I will leave on the Lear.'
She turned against his chest, wrapping both her arms around his neck.
âMake love to me, Peter. Now! Quickly! I have to have that at least.'