Cell

15

The Venezia express emerged from under the giant canopy of Centrale into blazing sunlight. Looking out of the window, Paula saw they were passing a zone of high-rise apartment blocks. Washing strung on lines fluttered on the balconies in a mild breeze. The usual boring exit from a national capital.

'I'm glad to get out of Milan,' she said to Beaurain, who sat beside her. 'It's all enormous stone blocks hemming in the streets – like a vast prison.'

'There are better areas. The gallerias as they call them. Full of very expensive shops and expensive ladies parading through them. We missed that area. Well, at least the train is picking up speed.'

'It goes all the way through to Venice?'

'All the way.'

Their first-class coach was almost empty and soon they were racing through beautiful countryside. Cultivated fields, flat as a billiard table, stretched away forever. Already green shoots were projecting above the water-filled fields. Paula pressed her face to the window, watching women with bare legs tending the crop.

'Rice fields,' Beaurain told her. 'Those women really do work. But we're in the Po Valley, the bread basket – and wine basket – of Italy. The water conies from the river Po.'

A big male passenger in a business suit walked in as the train swung round a bend. He lost his balance, crouched down, bumped into Beaurain as he stood up. He lifted his dark wide-brimmed hat.

'Most apologies. So sorry.'

He walked on, gripping the tops of seats, then sat down several rows ahead of them. Beaurain glanced over the side of his seat. He nudged Paula, cleared his throat, his index finger on his lips when she looked at him. He cleared his throat again.

'We'll get off at Brescia,' he said.

She frowned, wondering what was going on, but kept quiet. He reached down to the side of his seat, got hold of something and jerked it loose, putting it into his pocket. Then he left his seat, strolled slowly up the aisle, stopped by the side of the seated passenger with the wide-brimmed hat. As the express thundered round another bend he seemed to lose his balance. His elbow hammered a hard blow into the jaw of the seated passenger. Such a hard blow the man drooped forward, unconscious.

He strolled back to Paula and sat down beside her. She gazed at him.

'What do you think you're doing?'

He took something from his pocket. When he opened the palm of his hand she saw a small round black device. The top was silver. She shook her head, baffled.

'When he lurched into me and crouched,' Beaurain explained, 'he attached this to the side of my seat. Listening device, with a magnetic base to hold it to the side of my seat. I noticed he had a concealed – almost – wire disappearing into his ear.'

'We can't get away from them,' she commented nervously.

'But now he thinks we're getting off at Brescia. He'll recover long before we get there. When we're coming into Brescia we'll get up, carry our bags, and wait in the exit space. He'll come and join us.'

'What do we do then?'

'It's what I'll do,' Beaurain said with a grim smile.

She looked out of the window. A misty glow was rising from the fields, creating a beautiful luminous glow of rainbow colours. She had never seen anything so hypnotic. This was the real Italy, a place she resolved to visit one day. It settled her nerves as she went on gazing. She would remember this luminous glow all her life.

The man Beaurain had hit with his elbow eventually recovered. Paula thought it significant that when he sat up straight he never once looked back.

As they approached Brescia the view from her window changed. In the distance hills were looming up above the mist. When Beaurain nudged her she picked up her case, followed him to the exit compartment. As they stood close to the automatic doors, which were closed, Wide Brimmed Hat appeared. She caught a glimpse of the right side of his jaw. It was swollen. He had taken a brutal punch. The train slowed, slid into the station, stopped. The doors opened. Steep steps led down to the platform.

Beaurain smiled, waved a hand, gesturing for Wide Brim to go first. The Italian waved his own hand, encouraging them to leave first. Still smiling, Beaurain repeated the same gesture. Wide Brim again waved his hand. Paula thought it was almost comic, then she noticed the useless wire disappearing into the Italian's right ear. Someone on the platform blew a whistle. The doors were about to close. Beaurain put a hand behind the Italian's back, pushed him forward. He tried to get his feet on the steps, failed, fell forward and sprawled on to the platform, face down. The doors closed, the express began moving.

'That can't have done him much good,' Paula remarked as they returned to their seats.

'I wasn't too concerned with his health.'

'You went to the toilet quite some time ago. To get rid of that listening device?'

'Smart lady. Yes. I lifted the lid, placed the device on the seat, crushed it with my foot, shoved the bits into the bowl and flushed the toilet. There will be someone else aboard. No matter.'

An attendant appeared, pushing a trolley. Paula chose a large ham roll, a cardboard cup of coffee. She munched it quickly. Beaurain stared at her.

'Hungry again? After all that polenta?'

'Got to keep up my strength. I don't think Verona will be very peaceful.'

'I'm sure it won't be…'

She looked out of the window. The hills seemed higher, closer. Soon they would be mountains. Beaurain leaned across her, pointed.

'They're much too far away for you to see them, but beyond those hills are the Dolomites. I have skied on them. I read in the paper, after leaving our hotel, that there is heavy snow. It will be cold in Verona.'

The express slowed, stopped suddenly in the middle of nowhere. Time passed. They were still not moving. Beaurain glanced at his watch, tut-tutted. Paula suddenly felt sleepy. She closed her eyes and fell asleep. She was woken when the express started moving again. Outside the sunlight was fading.

'Sorry,' she said, 'I had a short nap.'

'You have had a long nap. A whole hour. That means it will be dark when we arrive in Verona. We shall have to be very careful.'

'We'll be late for meeting Petacci in the amphitheatre?'

'No. But I wanted to check out the place in daylight. It can't be helped.'

'But it will be more dangerous.' She prodded him. 'I'm a big girl now. Won't it?'

'Yes, it will be much more dangerous.'