Rhinoceros

CHAPTER 38

They were driving along country lanes with Newman behind the wheel. Behind him Tweed was checking the map, navigating. Paula would have given anything for a shower. Her body was bathed all over in perspiration. She looked back at Lisa, smiled and worked her fingers over her damp hand.

'Me too,' said Lisa. 'But one day we're bound to reach civilization.'

'Let it be today…'

Before they had left the quarry Tweed and Marler had checked all the bodies. It had proved to be a formality. They'd had no alternative but to leave them where they lay. Ahead of them Harry was riding his motorcycle, hardly in sight. When they had parked the Mercedes under the cliff Harry had hidden his machine behind the car. , 'Next stop, Travemiinde,' Tweed remarked. 'I'll guide you, Bob, so we bypass Lubeck.'

'And then we have to sit by the river at the cafe described by Mrs France – with large glasses of water,' said Lisa.

'Will it be Mrs France who comes to meet us?' asked Marler.

'No,' Tweed replied. 'She said Rondel would be here…'

They had been travelling some distance, had crossed over the autobahn beyond Bad Bramstedt, were again in lonely countryside, when Tweed suggested to Newman that he pull off the road onto the grass verge.

'I need to stretch my legs,' he explained.' 'Care to join me for a walk, Paula?'

'I'd love to. I'm going to get cramp if I sit still much longer. ..'

Newman parked the car and everyone got out, stretched, walked back and forth near the car – except for Tweed and Paula. She suspected he wanted to get her on her own because he had something he wanted to talk about. They had just started out when Harry came hurtling back on his machine. He pulled up.

'We're just going for a walk,' Tweed explained.

'You'll be OK the way you're going. I've covered miles and there's nothing. Hardly any traffic, either. Now I'm off to check no one's creeping up on us behind the car…'

'In this mysterious business,' Tweed began, 'no one is what they seem to be.'

'Most encouraging. Who do you think set those murderous thugs on us? Oskar Vernon?' Harry asked.

'Could be. More likely it emanated from Gavin Thunder – he immerses himself in detail. And I wonder if Danzer is still hiding out in that windmill near Sylt?'

'Why would he do that?' Paula interjected. 'Who might not be what they seem to be?'

'Mrs Gina France. I can't get it out of my head that I've seen her somewhere before,' Tweed mused.

'You did when she arrived at the Four Seasons. You'd seen her when we were leaving Rondel's mansion. She came out and gave me those beautiful hydrangeas,' Paula recalled.

'No. Before that. Earlier. I just can't place it.'

'Well, she did look different at the mansion. Plumper and muddle-headed. But that could have been the clothes she was wearing. That floral dress. The silly glasses she had on her nose, that floppy hat. She was transformed when she came to the hotel, even her personality. Clad in a flying suit and helmet, wearing huge glasses, her crisp way of speaking.'

'Weird,' said Tweed.

'But she explained,' Paula reminded him. 'She doesn't like Rondel – so she creates the impression of a disorganized mess when he's about. Doubt if he often visits the bank in Hamburg. I bet when she goes there she's in her career mode, as they say today. Stupid expression. Comes from America. Now, satisfied?'

'No. I have seen her before those two occasions you mentioned. The devil of it is I can't pinpoint where,' Tweed went on.

'I wonder where Oskar is at this moment? "Waiting for us with a reception committee in Travemunde? And that light aircraft has come back. It's over there.'

'No reason to suppose it's the same one.'

'Yes, there is. It has a blue insignia on its tail. So did the light aircraft I saw flying when we were first approaching Tender to spend the night there. It's sticking to us like glue. I suppose it couldn't have Barton and Panko on board,' Paula wondered.

'Rather unlikely. They're probably back in Tonder. If you remember, after the firefight in the maize field off the autobahn Harry spotted Barton and Panko climbing aboard the Land Rover Delgado escaped in. We know Delgado was in Flensburg – Lisa had that terrible ordeal with him. And where Delgado was I'm sure Barton and Panko were too. Not flying in some aircraft following us.'

Paula stopped, stood still, stamped her foot on the road. She was blazing.

'Every damned theory I come up with you shoot down.' She slapped his arm. 'What the hell's wrong with you?'

'I'm sorry, but I did have a shock when you shinned up the slope out of our cave. You seemed to be gone for ages. And I heard a grenade explode. What happened up there?' Tweed asked.

'You don't want to know.'

'Yes, I do want to know,' he said quietly. 'So please do tell me.'

'It was a bit grim.' She paused. She could still see in her mind's eye the giant aiming his gun at her, the gun with a muzzle like the mouth of a cannon. So she told him everything. He stood still with her, listening, pursing his lips as he visualized the ordeal she had experienced. At the end of her description she broke, her body trembling, and tears appeared in her eyes. She threw her arms round him, hugged him. He hugged her back, stroked her hair. She was talking into his shoulder.

I'm so sorry I blew my top. You're carrying most of the burden. I know you feel so responsible for us all. This whole thing is such a hellish ordeal for you I don't know how you bear it.'

He produced a handkerchief, lifted her chin, dabbed her eyes as he spoke gently.

'What you are experiencing is a reaction to the terrible business at the quarry. I'm getting a reaction too, but I mustn't show it to the others. They depend on me to sustain their morale.'

He was dabbing her face dry where tears had run down it and reached her chin. She stood quite still, her eyes on his, but the trembling had stopped. As he handed her the handkerchief to complete the job she leaned forward, gave him a kiss on his cheek, then backed away.

'Thank you,' she said in a normal voice. 'Thank you for being so understanding.'

At that moment Tweed's mobile began buzzing nonstop. He pulled a face, took it out of his pocket.

'Hello, who is this?'

'Monica. Thank heavens I've at long last got through to you. I've been trying for ages. I have important news.

I've been decoding messages sent over the Internet. They come from Seattle on the Pacific coast. Someone called Ponytail. I gather all the forces spread across the West, which are going to wreck everything, are in place. I don't know where. The important thing is they're expecting more coded messages telling them the exact local times to erupt. It's within the next two days at the latest. The new riots will be frightful. You have to stop Ponytail sending more messages.'

'How do you know he's in Seattle?'

'He slipped up once. He signs off a coded order "Pony-tail". But in one message he was probably tired. He signed off "Seattle" instead.'

'You seem to have become an expert.'

'I just keep plugging away, surfing the net. I'm getting the hang of how he uses it. Someone else has taken over the phone so I can spend all my time on it. Howard is giving me all his support, running the place well during your absence.'

Howard was the SIS Director.

'When did you last eat?'

'Who needs to eat?'

'You do…'

Then the connection broke down. He put his mobile away and repeated what Monica had said to Paula. She now had complete control of herself.

'We can't do anything about Seattle, can we?'

'Not a thing. What we can do is to reach Travemunde as fast as we can. Let's get back to the car.'

Paula began to run. Tweed caught her up, gripped her by her arm.

'No running. Not in this heat. In case you haven't noticed it's getting hotter. We walk back. Don't say anything about Monica's news in the car.'

'You're right.'

At Inselende, on the island of Sylt, a fresh meeting of the four powerful men was taking place in a soundproof room. Thunder was chairing this meeting and his voice was fresh and dominant.

'I've been in touch with Seattle. Gentlemen, we're close to the climax of all our planning and endeavours.' He rather liked the way he had phrased that. 'I've been in touch with Seattle, as I've just said. Twelve hours from now the coded messages giving the times – local, of course – will be dispatched…'

'It was going to be later,' the Deputy Chancellor objected. 'We all need time to get home before the world goes up in flames.'

'Not quite correct,' Thunder said with a conciliatory smile. 'We need to be on our way home when everything blows up – that way it will give time for panic to take hold in the populations. But, more important, time for our respective governments to panic, to be desperate for strong leadership. Our leadership.'

'Makes sense,' the American Secretary of State agreed.

'So when do we leave this prison?' demanded the French Prime Minister.

'Within hours we fly from here in the helicopter to Hamburg. We are then on the spot to fly in our executive jets back to our home capitals when the moment is ripe.'

'You seem to have worked out this timetable rather well,' conceded the Deputy Chancellor. 'From Hamburg I can be back in Berlin in no time.'

'But not too early,' Thunder insisted. 'No one can predict how quickly the populations will become demoralized. And on that depends the cracking of the nerve of our governments.'

'It all depends on Seattle,' the American pointed out. 'So are you sure the vital messages will be sent out on time?'

'Seattle is secure,' Thunder said firmly. 'That is why I have refused to disclose the location of the building from where the messages will be dispatched. Now, if there are no more questions I suggest we adjourn to the living room and drink to success.'

He stood up as soon as he had said this. The last thing he wanted was any more discussion.

From the light aircraft Barton had suddenly seen the blue Merc driving steadily much further along the same road he had last seen it on. He had earlier kept his distance and hadn't seen it enter the quarry or the two jeeps which had arrived soon afterwards.

'There it is,' he burst out. 'Where the hell has it been?'

'We have it. Great,' replied Panko. 'Where it go now?'

'He's bypassing Lubeck.' Barton studied the map he had purchased in Flensburg. 'He's heading for Travemunde. Only place the road he's on leads to now.'

Barton pondered whether to call Thunder. He had given up Oskar as unobtainable. He decided he would call the Minister.

Thunder was relaxing in his suite. He was recovering from the arguing, coaxing, wearing down tactics he'd had to employ at the long meeting to bring the others round to his way of thinking. His mobile started buzzing. He swore, picked it up.

'Yes?'

'Barton here, sir. We are still in the air, tailing the Merc. Tweed is inside…'

'You are!'

Thunder was taken aback. He had enquired several times whether Miller's convoy had returned, which it should have done hours ago. He had been disturbed when told it had not been seen. Now Barton was telling him Tweed was still on the move. The news disturbed him greatly. They were so close to victory. Was there any chance of Tweed upsetting everything?

'Where is his car now?' Thunder barked.

'Bypassing Lubeck. He can only be heading for Travemunde.'

Lubeck? Travemunde? Thunder was appalled. It was amazing for Tweed to have travelled so far. Obviously heading for Travemunde for a reason. His voice was tense as he gave the order.

'You must eliminate Tweed and his team in Travemunde. You understand? Wipe them off the face of the earth.'

'Understood. But we have a problem. There is no airfield at Travemunde. I've checked on the map. We have to land at Lubeck and he'll be ahead of us…'

'Use your brain,' Thunder shouted. 'Contact the Lubeck control tower – you have to, anyway, before you can land. Tell them to have a car waiting for you. A VIP is aboard. Do it now\ And keep in touch with me…'

He switched off, flung the mobile to the other end of the couch he was seated on. He emptied his glass of brandy, poured another large tot. Should he tell the others? No, he decided. They got upset so easily. He took another drink. He had a premonition. Something was going to upset the whole apple cart. Something called Tweed.