Exocet

3

The scene in the ballroom at the Argentine Embassy was splendid, crystal chandeliers taking light to every comer, reflected again in the mirrored walls. Beautiful women, exquisitely gowned; handsome men in dress uniforms; an occasional church dignitary in scarlet and purple. It was all rather archaic, as if the mirrors were reflecting a dim memory of long ago, the dancers turning endlessly to faint music.

The trio playing on a raised dais in one corner were good and the music was exactly the kind Raul Montera liked. All the old favourites: Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin. And yet he was bored. He excused himself from the small group around the Ambassador, took a glass of Perrier water from the tray carried by a passing waiter and went and leaned negligently against a pillar, smoking a cigarette.

His face was pale, the eyes a vivid blue, constantly in motion in spite of his apparent calmness. The elegant dress uniform fitted him to perfection, the medals making a brave show on his left breast. There was an energy to him, an eager restlessness, that seemed to say he found such affairs trivial and longed for something more active.

The Majordomo's voice rose above the hubbub. 'Mademoiselle Gabrielle Legrand.' Montera glanced up casually and saw her standing in the entrance, reflected in the gilt mirror in front of him.

It was as if the breath went out of him for a moment. He stood there, transfixed, then turned slowly to look at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.

Her hair, no longer banded and gathered up as it had been that morning at Ferguson's office, was one of her most astonishing features: very blonde and cut in the French style known as La Coupe Sauvage. It was long enough to hang between the shoulder blades, yet apparently short at the front, layered and feathered at the sides, framing a face of considerable beauty.

The eyes were the most vivid green, the high cheekbones gave her a Scandinavian look and the mouth was wide and beautifully formed. She was wearing an evening dress by Yves St Laurant in silver thread and tambour beading, the uneven hemline well above the knee, for the mini had returned to fashion that season. She balanced on silver high-heeled shoes, carrying herself with a touch of arrogance that seemed to say Take me or leave me, I couldn't care less.

Raul Montera had never seen a woman who looked more capable of taking on the whole world if needs be. She, in her tum, had seen him, and conscious of a strange, irrational excitement, turned away as if looking for someone.

She was immediately accosted by a young Argentinian army captain who was obviously the worse for drink. Montera gave him enough time to make a thorough nuisance of himself, then moved through the crowd to her side.

'Ah, there you are, cherie,' he said in excellent French. 'I've been looking everywhere for you.'

Her reflexes were excellent. She turned smoothly, reached up and kissed him on the cheek. 'I was beginning to wonder if I'd got the wrong night.'

'At your orders, my colonel.' The captain retired in confusion. Montera looked at Gabrielle wryly and they both burst into laughter.

He took her hands and held them lighdy. 'You get a lot of that, I suppose?'

'Since I was about fourteen.'

There was a shadow in the green eyes. He said, 'Which has not improved your opinion of my sex, I think?'

'If you mean, do I like men, no, not very much.' She smiled. 'In the generality, that is.'

He examined her hands. 'Ah, good.'

'What is?' She was puzzled.

'No wedding ring.'

He drew himself up and clicked his heels together. 'Colonel Raul Carlos Montera, very much at your orders and I would consider it a privilege and a joy to secure not only this dance, but every other one available this evening.'

He took her hand and drew her on to the floor, as the trio started to play in slow foxtrot tempo Our Love is Here to Stay.

'How remarkably appropriate,' he said and drew her to him.

And to that, there could be no answer. They danced well together, his arm holding her lightly around the waist.

She touched the scar on his cheek. 'How did you get that?'

'Cannon shell splinter,' he said. 'Aerial combat.'

She played her part well. 'But when? Argentina hasn't been to war in my lifetime.'

'Another man's war,' he said. 'A thousand years ago. Too long a story.'

She touched the scar again gently and he groaned and said in Spanish to himself, 'I've heard of love at first sight but this is ridiculous.'

'Why?' she replied calmly in the same language. 'Isn't it what the poets have been assuring us for centuries now is the only kind worth having?'

'Spanish as well?' he demanded. 'Is there no end to this woman's marvels?'

'Also English,' she said. 'And German. My Russian isn't fluent, though. Only passable.'

'Amazing.'

'You mean, for a beautiful blonde with a good body?'

He noted the bitterness in her voice and moved back to look into her face. There was genuine tenderness in his own and a kind of authority.

'If I have hurt you, forgive me. It was not intended. I will learn, though, to mend my manners. You must give me time.'

And there was that breathlessness in her again as the music stopped and he drew her off the floor. 'Champagne?' he said. 'Being French I would presume it to be your drink.'

'But of course.'

He snapped his fingers to a waiter, took a glass from the proffered tray and handed it to her. 'Dom Perignon — only the best. We're trying to make friends and influence people tonight.'

'I should imagine you'd need to,' she said.

He frowned. 'I don't understand?'

'Oh, there was an item on the television news earlier this evening. Questions in the British Parliament about the Falklands. Apparently your navy is about to go on manoeuvres in the area.'

'Not the Falklands,' he said. 'To us, the Malvinas.' He shrugged. 'An old quarrel, but not worth arguing about. The politicians have it in hand. In my opinion, the British will do a deal with us one of these days. Probably in the not too distant future.'

She let it go, slipped a hand in his arm, and they crossed to an open French window and moved out. On the way, he picked another glass of champagne off a passing tray for her.

'Don't you drink?' she asked.

'Not a great deal and certainly not champagne. It creates havoc with me. I'm getting old, you see.'

'Nonsense.'

'Forty-five. And you?'

'Twenty-seven.'

'Dear God, that I should be so young again.'

'Age,' she said, 'is a state of mind. Herman Hesse said somewhere that, in reality, youth and age exist only among ordinary people. All more talented and exceptional people are sometimes young and sometimes old, just as they are sometimes happy and sometimes sad.'

'Such wisdom,' he said. 'Where does it all come from?'

'I went to the Sorbonne and then Oxford,' she said. 'A women's college, St Hugh's. Not a man in sight and thank God for it. Now I'm a journalist. Freelance. Magazine work mainly.'

Behind them the trio started to play A Foggy Day in London Town. 'I was a stranger in your city.' He started to sing the intro softly in English.

'Oh, no,' she said. 'Paris is my city, but Fred Astaire had it right in the movie when he sang that song. Everyone should walk along the Thames Embankment at least once, preferably after midnight.'

He smiled slowly and held her hands. 'An excellent idea. But first, we eat. You look like a girl with an appetite. A little more champagne and then, who knows?'

It was raining hard and fog crouched at the end of the streets. The trenchcoat he had found for her was soaked, as was the scarf she had bound around her hair. Montera was still in uniform, his magnificence anonymous under a heavy officer's greatcoat. He wore a peaked cap.

They had walked for several miles in the pouring rain followed by his official car, patient chauffeur at the wheel. She wore a pair of flat shoes he had borrowed for her from one of the maids at the Embassy.

Birdcage Walk, the Palace, St James's Park. Montera had never enjoyed himself so much in the company of another human being.

'Sure you haven't had enough?' he asked, as they moved down towards Westminster Bridge.

'Not yet. I promised you something special, remember?'

'Ah, I was forgetting.'

They came to the bridge and she turned on to the Embankment. 'Well, this is it. The most romantic place in town. In that old movie, Fred Astaire would have held my arm and sung to me as we strolled with the car following us, crawling along the kerb.'

'Ah, but the traffic situation has changed since that, as you can see,' he told her. 'Too many cars parked at the kerb already.'

Above them, Big Ben chimed the first stroke of midnight. 'The witching hour,' she said. 'Have you enjoyed your guided tour?'

He lit a cigarette and leaned on the parapet. 'Oh, yes, I like London. A wonderful town.'

'But the English not so much?'

It was there again, that extraordinary perception. He shrugged. 'They're all right. I trained with the RAF at Cranwell and they were good — the best. The trouble is that to them we're all dagos, we South Americans, so if the dago is a good flyer, it's because they've done a good job on him.'

'That's shit,' she said, coldly angry. 'They don't owe you a thing. You're a great pilot. The best.'

'Am I?' he said curiously. 'And how would you know that?'

The rain increased into a solid drenching downpour and he turned and whistled to the car. 'I'd better get you home.'

'Yes,' she said. 'It would seem appropriate,' and she took his hand and they ran together towards the car.

The Pissaro on the wall of the sitting room of the flat in Kensington Palace Gardems was beautiful. Montera, standing before it, a brandy in his hand, examined it closely.

Gabrielle came out of the bedroom, brushing her hair. She wore an old bathrobe, a man's obviously, several sizes too big for her.

Montera said, 'Do my eyes deceive me or is the Pissaro an original?'

'My father, I'm afraid, is disgustingly wealthy,' she said. 'Electronics, armaments, things like that. His headquarters are in Marseilles and he tends to indulge me.'

He took in the robe and said gravely. 'It was too much to expect that a girl like you could have reached the ripe old age of twenty-seven without complication. You are married, I think? I was wrong.'

'Divorced,' she said.

'Ah, I see.'

'And you?'

'My wife died four years ago. Leukaemia. I was always rather difficult to please so my mother arranged things. She's like that. She was the daughter of a family friend.'

'A suitable match for a Montera?'

'Exactly. I have a ten-year-old daughter named Linda who lives contentedly with her grandmother. I am not a good father. Too impatient.'

'I can't believe that.'

And then he was close and she was in his arms and his lips brushed her face. 'I love you. Don't ask me how, but it's true. I've never known anyone like you.'

He kissed her and for a moment she responded; then she pushed him away and there was something strangely like fear in her eyes.

'Please, Raul, no. Not now.'

He took her hands gently and nodded. 'Of course. I understand. I do, believe me. May I call you in the morning?'

'Yes, please do.'

He released her, picked up his greatcoat, went to the door and opened it. He turned and smiled, an inimitable, wry smile of such charm that she ran across the room and put her hands on his shoulders.

'You're so damned nice to me. I'm not used to that. Not from men. Give me time.'

'All you need.' He smiled again. 'You made me feel so gentle. I amazed myself.'

The door closed softly behind him, she leaned against it, filled with a delight that she had never known in her life before.

Outside, Montera got into the back of the Embassy car, the driver drove away. A moment later Tony Villiers stepped out of a nearby doorway. He lit a cigarette and watched the cargo, then turned to look up at the windows of the flat. As he did so, the lights were turned out. He stood there for a moment longer, then walked away.

Brigadier Charles Ferguson was sitting in bed, propped against pillows, working his way through a mass of papers, when the red phone rang, the line that connected him directly with his office at the Directorate-General of the Security Service in the large, anonymous white and red brick building in the West End of London not far from the Hilton Hotel.

'Ferguson here.'

Harry Fox said, 'Coded message from the CIA in Washington, sir. They seem to think that the Argentinians will hit the Falklands within the next few days.'

'Do they indeed? What does the Foreign Office have to say?'

'They think it's a load of cobblers, sir.'

'They would, wouldn't they? Any word from Gabrielle?'

'Not yet.'

'An interesting point, Harry. Raul Montera is one of the few pilots in the Argentine Air Force with genuine combat experience. If they were going to start anything, you'd think they'd recall him.'

'Even cleverer to leave him in London, sir.'

'That's true. Anyway, I'll see you in the morning. If we haven't heard from Gabrielle by noon I'll phone her.'

He put down the receiver, picked up a file and went back to work.