He’s on the edge of panic. Robert said sympathetically, “Too bad. Those photographs would have been very helpful.” He said nothing about the list of passengers. If Mothershed lied about the photographs, he would lie about the list. Robert glanced around. The photographs and the list had to be hidden here somewhere. They shouldn’t be difficult to find. The flat consisted of the small living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and what looked like a door to a utility closet. There was no way he could force the man to hand over the material. He had no real authority. But he wanted those photographs and the list of witnesses before the SIS came and took them away. He needed that list for himself.
“Yes,” Mothershed sighed. “Those pictures would have been worth a fortune.”
“Tell me about the spaceship,” Robert said.
Mothershed gave an involuntary shudder. The eerie scene was fixed in his mind forever. “I’ll never forget it,” he said. “The ship seemed to … to pulsate, like it was alive. There was something evil about it. And then there were these two dead aliens inside.”
“Can you tell me anything about the passengers on the bus?”
Sure I can, Mothershed gloated to himself. I have all their names and addresses. “No, I’m afraid I can’t.” Mothershed went on, talking to conceal his nervousness. “The reason I can’t help you about the passengers is that I wasn’t on that bus. They were all strangers.”
“I see. Well, thank you for your cooperation, Mr Mothershed. I appreciate it. Sorry about your pictures.”
“So am I,” Mothershed said. He watched the door close behind the stranger and thought, happily, I’ve done it! I’ve outsmarted the sonsofbitches.
Outside in the hall, Robert was examining the lock on the door. A Chubb. And an old model. It would take him seconds to open it. He would start surveillance in the middle of the night and wait for the photographer to leave the flat in the morning. Once I have the list of passengers in my possession, the rest of the assignment will be simple.
Robert checked into a small hotel near Mothershed’s flat, and telephoned General Hilliard.
“I have the name of the English witness, General.”
“Just a moment. All right. Go ahead, Commander.”
“Leslie Mothershed. He lives in Whitechapel. 213A Grove Road.”
“Excellent. I’ll arrange for the British authorities to speak to him.”
Robert did not mention the passenger list or the photographs.
Those were his aces in the hole.
Reggie’s Fish and Chip Shop was located in a little cul de sac off the Brompton Road. It was a small establishment with a clientele made up mainly of clerks and secretaries who worked in the neighbourhood. Its walls were covered with football posters and the parts that were exposed had not seen fresh paint since the Suez conflict.
The phone behind the counter rang twice before it was answered by a large man dressed in a greasy wool sweater. The man looked like a typical East Ender except for a gold-rimmed monocle fixed tightly in his left eye. The reason for the monocle was apparent to anyone who looked closely at the man – his other eye was made of glass and of a colour blue that was generally seen on travel posters.
“Reggie here.”
“This is the Bishop.”
“Yes, sir,” said Reggie, his voice dropping to a whisper.
“Our client’s name is Mothershed. Christian tag Leslie. Resides at 213A Grove Road, E3. We need this order filled quickly. Understood?”
“Consider it done, sir.”
Leslie Mothershed was lost in a golden daydream. He was being interviewed by the world press. They were asking him about the huge castle he had just bought in Scotland, his chateau in the South of France, his enormous yacht. “And is it true that the Queen has invited you to become the official Royal photographer?” “Yes. I said I would let her know. And now, ladies and gentlemen, if you will all excuse me, I’m late for my show at the BBC …”
His reverie was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. He looked at his watch. Eleven o’clock. Has that man returned? He walked over to the door and cautiously opened it. In the doorway stood a man shorter than Mothershed (that was the first thing he noticed about him) with thick glasses and a thin, sallow face.
“Excuse me,” the man said diffidently. “I apologize for disturbing you at this hour. I live just down the block. The sign outside says you’re a photographer.”
“So?”
“Do you do passport photos?”
Leslie Mothershed do passport photos? The man who was about to own the world? That would be like asking Michelangelo to paint the bathroom.
“No,” he said, rudely. He started to close the door.
“I really hate to bother you, but I’m in a terrible jam. My plane leaves for Tokyo at eight o’clock in the morning and a little while ago when I took out my passport, I saw that somehow my photograph had been torn loose. It’s missing. I’ve looked everywhere. They won’t let me on the plane without a passport photo.” The little man was near tears.
“I’m sorry,” Mothershed said. “I can’t help you.”
“I’d be willing to pay you a hundred pounds.”
A hundred pounds? To a man with a castle and a chateau and a yacht? It was an insult.
The pathetic little man was going on. “I could go even higher. Two hundred or three hundred. You see, I really must be on that plane or I’ll lose my job.”
Three hundred pounds to take a passport picture? Forgetting the developing, it would take about ten seconds. Mothershed began to calculate. That came to eighteen hundred pounds a minute. Eighteen hundred pounds a minute was one hundred and eight thousand pounds an hour. If he worked an eight-hour day, that would be eight hundred and sixty-four thousand pounds a day. In one week that would come to …
“Will you do it?”
Mothershed’s ego jockeyed with his greed, and greed won out. I can use a bit of pocket money.
“Come in,” Mothershed said. “Stand against that wall.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate this.”
Mothershed wished he had a Polaroid camera. That would have made it so simple. He picked up his Vivitar and said, “Hold still.”
Ten seconds later it was done.
“It will take a while to develop it,” Mothershed said. “If you come back in …”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll wait.”
“Suit yourself.”
Mothershed took the camera into the darkroom, put it into the black bag, turned out the overhead light, switched on the red light and removed the film. He would do this in a hurry. Passport pictures always looked terrible, anyway.
Fifteen minutes later, as Mothershed was timing the film in the developer tanks, he began to smell smoke. He paused. Was it his imagination? No. The smell was getting stronger. He turned to open the door. It seemed to be stuck. Mothershed pushed against it. It held fast.
“Hello,” he called out. “What’s happening out there?”
There was no response.
“Hello?” He pressed his shoulder against the door, but there seemed to be something heavy on the other side of it, keeping it closed. “Mister?”
There was no answer. The only sound he could hear was a loud crackling noise. The smell of smoke was becoming overpowering. The flat was on fire. That was probably why the man had left. He must have gone to get help. Leslie Mothershed slammed his shoulder against the door, but it would not budge. “Help!” he screamed. “Get me out of here!”
Smoke was starting to pour under the door, and Mothershed could feel the heat of the flames beginning to lick at it. It was getting difficult to breathe. He was starting to choke. He tore at his collar, gasping for air. His lungs were burning. He was beginning to lose consciousness. He sank down on his knees. “Oh, God, please don’t let me die now. Not now that I’m going to be rich and famous …”
“Reggie here.”
“Was the order filled?”
“Yes, sir. A bit overcooked but delivered on time.”
“Excellent.”
When Robert arrived at Grove Road at two o’clock in the morning, to begin his surveillance, he was confronted with an enormous traffic jam. The street was filled with official vehicles, a fire engine, ambulances and three police cars. Robert pushed his way through the crowd of bystanders and hurried over to the centre of activity. The whole building had been engulfed by the fire. From the outside he could see that the first-floor flat occupied by the photographer had been completely gutted.
“How did it happen?” Robert asked a fireman.
“We don’t know yet. Stand back, please.”
“My cousin lives in that flat. Is he all right?”
“I’m afraid not.” His tone became sympathetic. “They’re just taking him out of the building now.”
Robert watched as two ambulance attendants pushed a stretcher carrying a body into the ambulance.
“I was staying with him,” Robert said. “All my clothes are in there. I’d like to go in and …”
The fireman shook his head. “It wouldn’t do you any good, sir. There’s nothing left of the flat but ashes.”
Nothing left but ashes. Including the photographs and the precious list of passengers with their names and addresses.
So much for fucking serendipity, Robert thought bitterly.
In Washington, Dustin Thornton was having lunch with his father-in-law, in Willard Stone’s offices, in his lavish private dining room. Dustin Thornton was nervous. He was always nervous in the presence of his powerful father-in-law.
Willard Stone was in a good mood. “I had dinner with the President last evening. He told me that he’s very pleased with your work, Dustin.”
“I’m very gratified.”
“You’re doing a fine job. You’re helping to protect us against the hordes.”
“The hordes?”
“Those who would try to bring this great country to its knees. But it is not just the enemy outside the walls we have to beware of. It is those who pretend to be serving our country, who fail to do their duty. Those who do not carry out their orders.”
“The mavericks.”
“That’s right, Dustin. The mavericks. They must be punished. If …”
A man walked into the room. “Excuse me, Mr Stone. The gentlemen have arrived. They’re waiting for you.”
“Yes.” Stone turned to his son-in-law. “Finish your lunch, Dustin. I have something important to take care of. One day, I may be able to tell you about it.”
The streets of Zurich were filled with weird-looking creatures with odd shapes, misshapen giants with large, grotesque bodies and tiny eyes, with skin the colour of boiled fish. They were meat eaters, and she hated the fetid smells they exuded from their bodies. Some of the females wore animal skins, the remains of the creatures they had murdered. She was still stunned by the terrible accident that had taken away the life essence of her companions.
She had been on earth for four cycles of what these beings called luna, and she had not eaten in all that time. She was faint from thirst. The only water she had been able to drink was the fresh rain water in the farmer’s trough, and it had not rained since the night she arrived. The other water on earth was undrinkable. She had gone into an alien feeding place, but she had been unable to stand the stench. She had tried to eat their raw vegetables and fruit, but they were tasteless, not like the succulent food at home.
She was called the Graceful One, and she was tall and stately and beautiful, with luminous green eyes. She had adopted the appearance of an Earthling after she left the site of the crash, and she walked through the crowds unnoticed.
She was seated at a table in a hard, uncomfortable chair that had been built for the human body, and she read the minds of the creatures around her.
Two of the beings were seated at a table near her. One was speaking aloud. “It’s the chance of a lifetime, Franz! For fifty thousand francs you can get in at the start. You’ve got fifty thousand francs, haven’t you?” She read the loud thoughts in his head. Come on, you swine. I need the commission.
“Sure, but I don’t know …” I’ll have to borrow it from my wife.
“Have I ever given you bad investment advice?” Make up your mind.
“It’s a lot of money.” She’ll never give it to me.
“What about the potential? There’s a chance to make millions.” Say yes.
“All right. I’m in.” Maybe I can sell some of her jewellery.
I have him! “You’ll never regret it, Franz.” He can always take a tax loss.
The Graceful One had no idea what the conversation meant.
At the far end of the restaurant, a man and woman were seated at a table. They were talking in low voices. She stretched her mind to hear them.
“Jesus Christ!” the man said. “How the hell could you get pregnant?” You stupid bitch!
“How do you think I got pregnant?” Your cock did it!
Pregnant was how these beings gestated, procreating clumsily with their genitals, like their animals in the fields.
“What are you going to do about it, Tina?” You’ve got to get an abortion.
“What do you expect me to do? You said you were going to tell your wife about me.” You lying bastard.
“Look, honey, I am, but this is a bad time.” I was crazy to ever get involved with you.