Denison said, And what will you be doing while were wandering all over the Arctic?
Carey grinned. Young Ian and I will nip into Svetogorsk to dig up the loot while, hopefully, all eyes are on you. He turned to Mrs Hansen. Youre very quiet.
She shrugged. Whats there to say?
Youll be bodyguarding this lot from the inside. I had hoped youd have but one person to worry about but, as you see, there are now three. Can you manage?
If theyll do as theyre told.
Theyd better, said Carey. Ill give you something a bit bigger than the popgun you so incautiously let Denison see. He looked about. Can anyone else here shoot?
Im not bad with a shotgun, said Harding.
I doubt if a shotgun in a Nature Preserve would be appreciated, said Carey ironically. But at least youll know one end of a gun from the other. Ill let you have a pistol. What about you, Giles?
Denison shrugged. I suppose I can pull the trigger and make the thing go bang.
That might be all thats needed. Carey looked at Lyn, appeared to be about to say something, and changed his mind.
Are you expecting shooting? asked Harding. He looked worried.
Let me put it this way, said Carey. I dont know if therell be shooting or not, but if there is, I hope youll be on the receiving end and not me, because thats the object of this bloody exercise. He put the map back into his briefcase. Thats all. Early start tomorrow. George, Id like a word with you before you go.
The group at the table broke up. Denison went across to Lyn. Harding told me about your father. Im sorry.
No need, she said. I ought to feel sorry, too, but I cant. She looked up at him. Carey said you are a stranger, but its my father who was the stranger. I hadnt seen him for two years and when I thought Id found him again, and he was different and nicer, I hadnt found him at all. So then I lost him again and it made no difference, after all. Dont you see what I mean?
Denison followed this incoherent speech, and said, I think so. He took her by the shoulders. I dont think you should come on this jaunt, Lyn.
Her chin came up. Im coming.
He sighed. I hope you know what youve got yourself into.
Carey filled his pipe. What do you think, George?
The girls a bit of a handful.
Yes. Look after them as best you can.
McCready leaned forward. Its you Im worried about. Ive been thinking about Meyrick. If the people who snatched him were the Russkies, and if he talked, youre in dead trouble. Youre likely to find a reception committee awaiting you in Svetogorsk.
Carey nodded. Its a calculated risk. There were no signs of physical coercion on Meyricks body burn marks or anything like that and I doubt if hed talk voluntarily. I dont think they had time to make him talk; they were too busy smuggling him around the Baltic. In any case, we dont know who snatched him.
He struck a match. Its my back Im worried about right now. I had a talk to Lyng last night on the Embassy scrambler. I told him that Thornton was nosing about. He said hed do something about it.
What?
Carey shrugged. They dont use guns in Whitehall but I believe they have weapons that are equally effective. Its no concern of yours, George; you wont have to worry about the Whitehall War until you get up to my level.
Im not so worried about Whitehall as I am about Svetogorsk, said McCready. I think it ought to be swapped around. Armstrong can go north and Ill come with you acioss the border.
He doesnt have the experience for what might happen up there. Hes yet to be blooded, but hell be all right with an old dog like me.
Hed be all right with me, said McCready. He and I could cross the border and you could go north.
Sorry, said Carey regretfully. But Im pushing sixty and I dont have the puff for that wilderness lark. And I dont have the reflexes for the fast action you might get. The plan stands, George. His voice took on a meditative note. This is likely to be my last field operation. Id like it to be a good one.
Twenty-Three
The car slowed as it came to the corner. Harding, who was driving, said, This might be the turn-off. Check it on the map, will you?
Denison, in the back of the car, lifted the map from his knee. Thats it; weve just passed Kaamanen. The Kevo Camp is eighty kilometres up this side road and theres damn-all else. He checked his watch. We ought to arrive before eleven.
Harding turned on to the side road and the car lurched and bumped. After a few minutes he said, Make that midnight. Were not going to move fast on this road.
Diana laughed. The Finns are the only people who could coin a word like kelirikko. Its a word Humpty-Dumpty would be proud of.
Harding notched down a gear. What does it mean?
It means, the bad state of the roads after the spring thaw.
Much in little, said Harding. Theres one thing Im glad of.
Whats that?
This midnight sun. Id hate to drive along here in the dark.
Denison glanced at Lyn who sat by his side. She was apparently asleep. It had been two days of hard driving, very tiring, and he was looking forward to his bed. He wound the window down to clear the dust from the outside surface, then looked at the countryside covered with scrub birch. Something suddenly caught him in the pit of the stomach. What the hell am I doing here? Hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Finnish wilderness? It seemed preposterously improbable.
They had left Helsinki very early the previous morning and headed north out of the heavily populated southern coastal rim. Then they had left the rich farmlands very quickly and entered a region of forests and lakes, of towering pine and spruce, of white-trunked, green-leaved birch and the ever-present blue waters.
They took it in turns driving in two-hour shifts and made good time, sleeping that night in Oulu. After Oulu the land changed. There were fewer lakes and the trees were not as tall. A birch that in the south towered a hundred feet now had hardly the strength to grow to twenty, and the lakes gave way to marshes. As they passed through Ivalo, where there was the northernmost airstrip, they encountered their first Lapps, garish in red and blue, but there were really very few people of any kind in this country. Denison, under the prodding of Carey, had done his homework on Finland and he knew that in this most remote area of the country, Inari Commune, there were fewer than 8,000 people in a province the size of Yorkshire.
And there would be fewer still around Kevo.
Diana stretched, and said, Stop at the top of the next rise, Doctor; Ill spell you.
Im all right, said Harding.
Stop anyway.
He drove up the hill and was about to pull up when Diana said, Just a few yards more over the crest. Harding obligingly let the car roll and then braked to a halt. Thats fine, she said, taking binoculars from a case. I wont be a minute.
Denison watched her leave the car and then opened his own door. He followed her back along the road and then into a growth of stunted birches. When he caught up with her she was looking back the way they had come through the glasses. Anything in sight?
No, she said curtly.
Youve done this every hour, he said. And youve still seen nothing. Nobodys following us.
They might be ahead, she said without taking the glasses from her eyes.
How would anyone know where we were going?
There are ways and means. She lowered the glasses and looked at him. You dont know much about this business.
No, I dont, Denison said reflectively. Whats a nice girl like you doing in it? Youre American, arent you?
She slung the binocular strap over her shoulder. Canadian. And its just a job.
Just a civil servant, he said ironically. Like any nine-to-five typist in Whitehall. He remembered the occupation given in Meyricks passport. Or like Dr Meyrick.
She faced him. Lets get one thing straight. From now on you do not refer to Meyrick in the third person not even in private. She tapped him on the chest with her forefinger. You are Harry Meyrick.
Youve made your point, teacher.
I hope so. She looked around. This seems a quiet spot. How long is it since youve seen anyone?
He frowned. About an hour. Why?
I want to find out how much you lot know about guns. Target practice time. As they went back to the car, she said, Go easy on Lyn Meyrick. Shes a very confused girl.
He frowned. About an hour. Why?
I want to find out how much you lot know about guns. Target practice time. As they went back to the car, she said, Go easy on Lyn Meyrick. Shes a very confused girl.
I know, said Denison. She has every reason to be confused.
Diana looked at him sideways. Yes, she agreed. You could call it confusion of a sort. Its not easy to fall in love with a man who looks like the father you hate, but shes managed it.
Denison stopped dead. Dont be idiotic.
Me! She laughed. You do a bit of thinking and then figure whos the idiot around here.
Harding pulled the car off the road and into the trees. Diana loaded a pistol from a packet of cartridges and set an empty beer can on a fallen tree trunk. All right; lets see who can do this. Almost casually she lifted her arm and fired. The beer can jumped and spun away.
They took it in turns to fire three shots each. Denison missed every time, Harding hit the can once and Lyn, much to her own surprise, hit it twice. Diana said to Denison caustically, You were right; you can make the gun go bang.
To Lyn she said, Not bad but what would you be like shooting at a man instead of a beer can?
I... I dont know, said Lyn nervously.
What about you, Doctor?
Harding hefted the gun in his hand. If I was being shot at I think Id shoot back.
I suppose thats as much as I could expect, said Diana resignedly. Lets go back to the car.
She gave them each a pistol and watched them load. Dont forget to put on the safety catch. More important, dont forget to release it when you shoot. Youll put those in your bedrolls now. When we move off on foot tomorrow youll need a more accessible place for them. Lets go.
Twenty-Four
Carey lit his pipe and said, Slow down.
Armstrong eased his foot on the accelerator and hastily wound down his side window. He wished Carey would not smoke at all in the car or, at least, change his brand of horse manure.
See that tower over there? asked Carey. To the right.
Armstrong looked past him. A water tower? he hazarded.
Carey grunted in amusement. A Russian observation tower. Thats Mother Russia.
Were that close to the frontier! It cant be more than a kilometre away.