Deadlock

31

The Alouette flew in brilliant sunshine on a south-easterly course bound for Luxembourg City. Tweed sat with Newman, a map spread across their laps, while Benoit chatted with Butler in front. Butler stared down through the window at the corrugated landscape of wooded ravines and ridges which were the Ardennes.

'According to your markings on that map we're flying in the wrong direction,' Newman observed.

'So it would seem,' Tweed agreed.

The unfolded map of Western Europe carried route markings in felt-tip ink, markings which ended in bold arrows pointing north, always north.

One route began at Marseilles and proceeded north direct to Paris. From where Klein had hired the explosives expert, Chabot – and where Chabot's girl friend, Cecile Lament, the bar girl, had been dragged from the sea with her throat cut.

A second route started at Geneva, went on to Basle, continued to Dinant and up the Meuse to Namur. Tweed had added a dotted line from Namur, following a circuitous route to Antwerp. Newman pointed to this.

'What does that suggest?'

'It looks like Antwerp. You want facts? Lara Seagrave ended her photographic expeditions in Antwerp – before returning to Brussels – only a short train ride from the port. I am also convinced that missing barge is carrying the timers to the target. Follow the Meuse, see how you can branch off it north of Liege along the Albert Canal – direct to where? Antwerp.'

'So why are we flying south – away from the possible target area?'

'Because of that brochure I found in Marline's cottage. It was folded to the Cargolux page – as I showed you. There is a huge fortune in gold bullion being held at the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt – only a short flight from Findel.'

'Findel?'

'The airport we are heading for- only six kilometres from Luxembourg City. And the word Rio was written on that brochure. Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil. A country with no extradition treaty. I asked Lasalle before he left to return to Paris to check with Interpol on Brazil. A long shot.'

'What was? Stop being so cryptic.'

'I remembered the infamous Ronald Biggs, the Great Train Robbery villain. We couldn't extradite him even with the most solid evidence. Why? Because he had made a Brazilian girl pregnant. Interpol will try to check whether a man with a German-sounding name – Klein, whatever -has fathered a child by a Brazilian mother. Then, whatever crime he commits he will be safe.'

'And you think he'll try and fly to Rio from Findel?'

'I think he might fly the gold bullion obtained by a terrible terror threat to Brazil via Findel.'

'As you said, a long shot.'

'The one thing that keeps nagging at me is the explosives. I simply can't see that they were transported by barge. Far too big a consignment, far too dangerous.'

'And every time you mention them,' Newman commented, 'I feel I know something I haven't told you and can't recall. Why is Harry Butler coming with us?'

'To watch the Banque Sambre in Luxembourg City. You give him a description of Peter Brand when we reach Findel, he hires a car and drives to take up watch on Brand's bank in the Avenue de la Liberte.'

Lara Seagrave was becoming bored by the luxury of the Mayfair Hotel in Brussels. She had explored the shops, visited the famous Grand'Place where medieval buildings of different periods walled each side of the square. She'd also noticed a uniformed policeman leaning out of a window and had located to police headquarters.

She sat in front of the dressing-table mirror, brushing her long hair. She picked up the envelope which had been waiting when she arrived. The outside simply carried her typed name. On a blank sheet of paper inside was typed a message.

It won't be long now. Have patience. No long absences from the Mayfair. K.

Klein had foreseen there was a limit to the time she could be kept dangling – that she would grow restless. Hence the letter.

Lara was thinking about something else. She was not convinced by Klein's apparent rejection of Antwerp The fact he had given her no fresh port to explore she felt was highly significant. Giving her appearance a final check, she left the hotel.