Rhinoceros

CHAPTER 19

The three of them had just returned to. the hotel., were heading for the elevators, when a tall distinguished-looking man appeared. Bernard, the Brigadier, still clad in his dinner jacket. He came up to Tweed.

'Just the chap I want to talk to. Meet you in the lounge. What's your tipple?'

'Thank you, but not tonight. I have phone calls to make. I could spare a few minutes tomorrow evening. Early, though.'

'It will have to wait, then.' He was not best pleased. 'The lounge tomorrow. 1800 hours. Right.'

'He didn't like that,' Paula remarked as the elevator ascended.

'He's a Brigadier. Used to people jumping to it when he gives an order…"

Newman said goodnight while Tweed and Paula walked towards their rooms. Tweed paused outside his door, looked along the corridor, which was empty.

'I'm worried about you. That bullet came within a dozen feet of you. I know I won't sleep tonight. Mind's whirling. Would you feel more at ease if you used my bedroom? I'll be in the living area. Can always sleep on the couch if I do feel I'm dozing off, which is unlikely.'

'I would feel safer,' Paula admitted. I'll fetch my things from my room…'

She returned quickly with her night attire and cosmetics case in a hold-all. Looking at the couch she frowned.

'Not sure this is a good idea. You'd never sleep on that couch. Think I'll go back.'

'Take over my bedroom area, pull the curtains. Sleep well.'

He sat down at his desk, took out the papers Kefler had given him, studied them. He soon realized it was hopeless – he was no accountant. And he suspected it would need a first-class one to sort out the tangle. Picking up the phone, he called Keith Kent. He knew he worked through the night.

'Tweed here, Keith. Speaking from Hamburg, Four Seasons Hotel.' He gave Kent his suite number. 'I have some very complex financial papers given to me by your German friend – and I want them analysed. It concerns the company which you mentioned in our conversation in London. No chance, I suppose, of your coming over here?'

'Hang on…'

Tweed straightened up the papers, put them back inside the envelope, then Kent was back on the line.

'I'm catching an earliest possible flight tomorrow. Should reach you by lunchtime. Say noon or soon after.'

'I'm very grateful. I'll book you a room here.'

'See you. Very soon…'

Tweed sat facing a wall, recalling all the events that had occurred from the beginning. Less than half an hour later Paula appeared, wearing a belted dressing gown over her nightdress and slippers, sat in a chair by the side of the desk.

'Can't sleep. Or am I interfering with your thoughts?'

Someone tapped on the door. Paula reacted swiftly. Standing up, she vanished into the sleeping area. Before she went she whispered, 'Don't want to give anyone the wrong idea. You know how people are.. .'

As Tweed approached the door, his right hand slipped into his pocket, gripped the Walther automatic. Before using his left hand to remove the chain and unlock the door quietly, he stood by the wall on the opening side, grasped the handle, flung open the door. Mark Wendover stood outside, holding a large manila envelope.

'Come in, Mark.'

'I knocked on your door earlier but you were out,' explained Mark as Tweed re-locked the door.

'I was out. What can I do for you?'

'I thought you should have this urgently.' Mark handed him the envelope. 'It's the blue leather-bound book I took from the lock-box at the Zurcher Kredit.'

'Thank you. That was very good of you.'

Tweed placed the envelope on the desk. Then he turned round and faced Mark.

'Are you sure no one saw you enter or leave the bank?'

'Yes. The street was deserted on both occasions. I was very careful. They have an advanced alarm system but we have the best in the world in the States. I neutralized every one.'

'What about video cameras?'

'I took in with me several children's water pistols. But instead of water they were filled with a certain substance I squirted at each camera. It blots out the lens completely.'

'What about guards?'

'Three of them.' Mark grinned. 'I passed the control room. They were sitting watching a boxing match on TV. Hadn't even noticed their screens had gone blank.'

'You sound confident,' Tweed said sceptically.

'Not confident. Cautious. Friggin' cautious all the time I was inside.'

'Sounds as though you're safe. Better get to bed now…'

Paula reappeared after Mark had left, sat in the same chair. She stared at the Walther Tweed had put on the desk when Mark had gone.

'You're not taking any chances, are you?'

'This is possibly the most dangerous assignment we've ever undertaken. Now, a brief recap. It started in Alfriston when we investigated the murder of Jeremy Mordaunt…'

'You've missed something. Before that we had dinner with Lord Barford – and he's turned up in this hotel. And that was when Lisa Trent first appeared on the scene.'

'You're right. I got that out of sequence. And Lisa also is staying in this hotel. Going on to Alfriston, Bogle tried to say it was suicide – an idea put into his head by Gavin Thunder. Sergeant Pole tells us about the Invisible Man

– Rondel. We visit Eagle's Nest, Rondel's weird house, see a communications mast raised above the chimney. We return to Park Crescent…'

'After a bullet has been fired through the windscreen, aimed at you.'

'True. Mark Wendover arrives, goes off, does his own thing.'

'Just as he's done at the Zurcher Rredit here.'

'Let me go on. I see Gavin Thunder, who accepted Mordaunt was murdered. Albeit reluctantly. Lisa's sister, Helga, is shot dead. Target was probably Lisa herself…'

'And you still don't trust her.'

'Really?' Tweed looked surprised. 'I thought you didn't.'

'I'd forgotten about Helga.'

'Doesn't prove anything…'

'She gave us the list of targets the rioters would hit -and she was right,' Paula reminded him.

'Might have been another confidence-building exercise

– so she could infiltrate the SIS. Our opponent – whoever it is – has audacity. Now we come to the guts. Newman hears rumours of a highly secret meeting to take place somewhere in the Bahamas…'

'Which now looks more like the island of Sylt, according to Kuhlmann,' Paula interjected.

'I think,' Tweed said decisively, 'three factors are keys to what is going on. One, the huge amount of money which is disappearing from the Zurcher Kredit. Keith did say billions of marks. Two, this absolutely top secret meeting of very powerful men somewhere in the world. Three, who is running this show? Finally, I'm still convinced two tremendous forces are arrayed against each other. Trouble is, I don't know who belongs to which one. But I'm sure one is good and the other is evil.'

Paula put a hand to her mouth, suppressing a yawn. Tweed, who had taken his doodle pad from a drawer, noticed it, of course.

'I really think you ought to get to bed, leave me to it. I think you could sleep now.'

'I think I could.' She stood up. 'They are all mysterious characters. Gavin Thunder, Lisa, Rondel, Lord Barford. I even wonder about Mark Wendover sometimes.'

'Get to bed.'

'And,' she persisted, 'really it all started with the murder of Jason Schulz in Washington – to say nothing about the murder of Louis Lospin in Paris.'

'Do go to bed.'

She flip-flopped in her slippers towards the sleeping area, then turned round.

'And don't forget the Internet glitch that scared the wits out of Monica when the screen went crazy. And the phones went dead at the same time.'

'What do you mean?' He grunted. 'Monica was phoning all the world to see if the same thing happened.'

'That was later. She told me that when she picked up the phone after the glitch stopped it was dead for at least two minutes. I thought the Internet worked off the phone lines. We've talked about this before.'

'If you say so,' he mumbled.

'And I keep thinking of that man in the elevator here who went up again when he saw us. I was closer to him. His eyes behind those gold-rimmed glasses. He radiated energy, will-power, personality.'

'For the last time, go to bed. What I want is to locate and meet Rhinoceros.'