Deadlock

19

It was eleven o'clock at night when Klein came back to La Montagne. In the kitchen Hipper stared at him in surprise. He hadn't expected Klein to return for days. But it was typical of Klein: you never knew when he was going to turn up without warning.

'How is it going?' Klein asked Chabot.

The Frenchman took the watchmaker's glass out of his eye and gazed back. Spread across the table was a whole mass of the precision pieces of metal Gaston Blanc had patiently manufactured in his workshop.

'Ten of the devices are ready,' he said.

'You are working faster than I expected. Fifty more and you are finished.'

'I'm familiar with the mechanism now. So I work much more quickly. The whole lot? Three days from now.'

'I am packing them in the special case,' Hipper interjected. 'I pack them as he completes a set of five…'

'And all of them tested – like the first one?' Klein demanded.

In the fluorescent light his lean face seemed whiter than ever. More like a mask than the face of a human being. He loomed over the table as Hipper replied.

'Oh, yes. We test them five at a time. Well after dark -and the locals know I wander about on my own, so there is no risk. They don't like me, which helps.'

'I have a question.' Chabot lit a Gauloise. 'I have been thinking

…'

'A dangerous habit,' Klein suggested in his cold voice.

'I have a question,' Chabot repeated, 'and I want an answer before I assemble one more device. I calculate that with this number of timers – and the five control boxes -there must be enormous explosive power involved. Don't forget, I'm an expert. What exactly is the job? And how many other men are involved? I'm working in the dark no longer.'

Klein studied the Frenchman, who kept staring straight back at him, showing not a hint of fear. A very hard case, Klein was thinking. Well, that's what we'll need. Someone not nervous of spilling a lot of blood. He'll have to be told something. He made one last attempt to stall Chabot.

'We are working on the cell principle. Only three men know each other. I insist on the tightest security. The success of an operation of this magnitude depends on it.'

'What operation,' Chabot persisted.

'Thirty people in the team altogether,' Klein replied. 'We have them in place now. All except two. I am hiring these two key personnel as soon as I leave here.'

'What operation?' Chabot asked again.

'We are going to hold up the gateway to Europe. We are going to threaten to close down a whole continent…' His voice was rising in pitch, he punctuated his statements with a curious chopping movement of his right hand as he went on. 'We are going to give a demonstration of the terrible explosive power at our command. There will be casualties to show we are not bluffing. We shall demand -receive – an enormous sum of money. That gigantic fortune is already available – although those who hold it have no idea what it is really for. Now! No more talk. Get on with your job. I shall collect the timers in three days. Someone will be waiting to move them to the target. Wiedersehen! '

Klein gestured to Hipper to join him, left the room. Chabot paused in his work for a few minutes. As he'd spoken the eyes of Klein had bulged hypnotically, had seemed to change colour. It must have been the fluo-rescents Chabot decided.

He was shaken by the vehemence of Klein's outburst, by the details of his plan. Then he shrugged. For two hundred thousand francs he should worry about the spilling of some blood. But of one thing Chabot was sure. Afterwards all hell would break loose in Europe. What a good job he had decided to leave France forever once he had his hands on the big money – to emigrate to Quebec. They'd never find him there.

'All the Luxembourg scuba divers you recruited are hidden away in Holland,' Klein told Hipper in answer to his question. 'We must have hired every thug in your tiny country.'

'Holland?' Hipper queried. 'The target is there?'

'You know better than to ask questions like that. Holland is a good staging post.'

'Ten foreigners are a lot to hide. Won't they be noticed?'

'We have taken over a camping site. They are housed in campers. Only the two who speak Dutch leave the site to fetch in supplies. It is foolproof.'

Klein omitted to mention the number hidden away on the site was larger than ten. He sensed the little man was becoming nervous, keyed up. It was a problem he had foreseen. He had to keep them all occupied until the moment for the great assault came.

'What about Chabot?' he added. 'When I spoke to you on the phone, warning you about the delivery of the timers, you did say he was restless. I don't like that.'

'He is absorbed in his work at the moment. As long as he takes his midnight walk along the gorge where the railway once ran he is manageable. How much longer do we have before the operation is mounted?'

'As long as it takes.'