The Tightrope Men - Desmond Bagley 47 стр.


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Lyn ran over to where Denison lay and bent over his face. She turned her head. Youve hurt him, damn you!

Careys voice was mild. He tried to kill me.

McCready said, You mean the safety catch wasnt on. Then how...

Carey bounced the pistol in his hand. Kidder went shopping for this locally, he said. On the principle of patronize your local gunsmith, I suppose. Its a Husqvarna, Model 40 Swedish army issue. A nice gun with but one fault theres about a sixteenth of an inch play in the barrel. If the barrel is forced back, the trigger wont pull. He pressed the muzzle with the palm of his left hand and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. See!

I wouldnt want to stake my life on it, said McCready fervently. Apart from that will it shoot normally?

Carey cocked an eye at him. I suppose Kidder has friends outside. Lets invite them in. He looked about. I never did like that style of vase, anyway. He raised the gun and aimed it at a vase at the other end of the room, a companion to the one Denison had broken over Kidders head. He fired and the vase exploded into pieces.

Carey held the gun by his side. That ought to bring them.

They waited quietly in an odd tableau. Lyn was too busy trying to revive Denison to pay much attention to what was happening. She had started at the shot and then resolutely ignored Carey. Kidder lay unconscious. The bandages around his lower jaw had come adrift revealing what seemed to be bloody pockmarks from the birdshot he had received in the marsh of Sompio. Carey and McCready stood in the middle of the room, silent and attentive.

The drawn curtain in front of the french window billowed as though blown by a sudden breeze. A womans voice said, Drop the gun, Mr Carey.

Carey laid down the pistol on the table and stepped aside from it. The curtains parted and Mrs Kidder stepped into the room. She was still the same mousy, insignificant little woman but what was shockingly incongruous was the pistol she held in her hand. There were two large men behind her.

What happened? Her voice was different; it was uncharacteristically incisive.

Carey gestured towards Denison. Our friend butted in unexpectedly. He crowned your husband if thats what he is.

Mrs Kidder lowered the gun and muttered over her shoulder. One of the men crossed the room and bent over Kidder. And the papers? she asked.

On top of the safe, said Carey. No problems.

No? she asked. What about the girl? The gun came up and pointed at Lyns back.

I said it and meant it, said Carey in a hard voice. No problems.

She shrugged. Youre carrying the can.

The other man crossed to the safe and began shovelling papers into a canvas bag. Carey glanced at McCready and then his eyes slid away to Kidder who was just coming round. He muttered something, not loudly but loud enough for Carey to hear.

He was speaking in Russian.

The mumbling stopped suddenly as the man who was bending over Kidder picked him up. He carried him to the french window and, although Carey could not see properly, he had the strong impression that a big hand was clamped over Kidders mouth.

The man at the safe finished filling the bag and went back to the window. Mrs Kidder said, If this is what we want youll get your money as arranged.

Dont make any mistake about that, said Carey. Im saving up for my old age.

She looked at him contemptuously and stepped back through the window without answering, and the man with the canvas bag followed her. Carey waited in silence for a moment and then walked over and closed the window and shot the bolts. He came back into the middle of the room and began to fill his pipe.

You know that Kidder tried to con me into believing he was with the CIA. I always thought that American accent of his was too good to be true. It was idiomatic, all right, but he used too much idiom no American speaks with a constant stream of American clichés. He struck a match. It seems the Russians were with us, after all.

Sometimes you get a bit too sneaky for me, said McCready.

And me, said Lyn. Giles was right youre a thoroughgoing bastard.

Carey puffed his pipe into life. George: our friend, Giles, has had a rough day. Lets put him to bed.

Forty

Denison walked across St Jamess Park enjoying the bland, late October sunshine. He crossed the road at the Guards Memorial and strolled across Horse Guards Parade and through the Palace arch into Whitehall itself, neatly avoiding a guardsman who clinked a sabre at him. At this time of the year the tourists were thin on the ground and there was not much of a crowd.

He crossed Whitehall and went into the big stone building opposite, wondering for the thousandth time who it was wanted to see him. It could only have to do with what had happened in Scandinavia. He gave his name to the porter and stroked his beard while the porter consulted the appointment book. Not a bad growth in the time, he thought somewhat vaingloriously.

The porter looked up. Yes, Mr Denison; Room 541. Ill get someone to take you up. Just sign this form, if you please, sir.

Denison scribbled his signature and followed an acned youth along dusty corridors, into an ancient lift, and along more corridors. This is it, said the youth, and opened a door. Mr Denison.

Denison walked in and the door closed behind him. He looked at the desk but there was no one behind it and then he turned as he saw a movement by the window. I saw you crossing Whitehall, said Carey. I only recognized you by your movements. God, how youve changed.

Denison stood immobile. Is it you Ive come to see?

No, said Carey. Im just here to do the preparatory bit. Dont just stand there. Come in and sit down. Thats a comfortable chair.

Denison walked forward and sat in the leather club chair. Carey leaned against the desk. I hope your stay in hospital wasnt too uncomfortable.

No, said Denison shortly. It had been damned uncomfortable but he was not going to give Carey even that much.

I know, said Carey. You were annoyed and worried. Even more worried than annoyed. Youre worried because Im still with my department; you would like to lay a complaint, but you dont know who to complain to. You are frightened that the Official Secrets Act might get in the way and that youll find yourself in trouble. At the same time you dont want me to get away with it whatever it is you think Im getting away with. He took out his pipe. My guess is that you and Lyn Meyrick have been doing a lot of serious talking during the last fortnight. Am I correct?

Carey could be a frightening man. It was as though he had been reading Denisons mind. We have been thinking something like that, he said unwillingly.

Quite understandable. Our problem is to stop you talking. Of course, if you did talk we could crucify you, but by then it would be too late. In some other countries it would be simple wed make sure that you never talked again, to anyone, at any time, about anything but we dont do things that way here. He frowned. At least, not if I can help it. So we have to convince you that talking would be wrong. Thats why Sir William Lyng is coming here to convince you of that.

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Even Denison had heard of Lyng; he was somebody in the Department of Defence. Hell have his work cut out.

Carey grinned and glanced at his watch. Hes a bit late so youd better read this. Its secret, but not all that much. It represents a line of thought thats in the air these days. He took a folder from the desk and tossed it into Denisons lap. Ill be back in a few minutes.

He left the office and Denison opened the folder. As he read a baffled look came over his face, and the more he read the more bewildered he became. He came to the end of the few pages in the folder and then started to read from the beginning again. It had begun to make a weird kind of sense.

Carey came back half an hour later; with him was a short, dapper man, almost birdlike in the quickness and precision of his movements. Giles Denison Sir William Lyng.

Denison got up as Lyng advanced. They shook hands and Lyng said chirpily, So youre Denison. We have a lot to thank you for, Mr Denison. Please sit down. He went behind the desk and cocked his head at Carey. Has he...?

Yes, hes read his homework, said Carey.

Lyng sat down. Well, what do you think of what youve just read?

I dont really know, said Denison, shaking his head.

Lyng looked at the ceiling. Well, what would you call it?

An essay on naval strategy, I suppose.

Lyng smiled. Not an essay. Its an appreciation of naval strategy from quite a high level in the Department of Defence. It deals with naval policy should the Warsaw Pact and NATO come into conflict in a conventional war. What struck you about it? What was the main problem outlined?

How to tell the difference between one kind of submarine and other. How to differentiate between them so that you can sink one and not the other. The subs youd want to sink would be those that attack shipping and other submarines.

Lyngs voice was sharp. Assuming this country is at war with Russia, what conceivable reason can there be for not wanting to sink certain of their submarines?

Denison lifted the folder. According to this we wouldnt want to sink their missile-carrying submarines the Russian equivalent of the Polaris.

Why not? snapped Lyng.

Because if we sink too many of them while fighting a conventional war the Russians might find themselves losing their atomic edge. If that happened they might feel tempted to escalate into atomic warfare before they lost it all.

Lyng looked pleased and glanced at Carey. Hes learned the lesson well.

I told you hes a bright boy, said Carey.

Denison stirred in the chair. He did not like being discussed as though he were absent.

Lyng said, A pretty problem, isnt it? If we dont sink their conventional submarines we stand a chance of losing the conventional war. If we sink too many of their missile-carriers the war might escalate to atomic catastrophe. How do you distinguish one submarine from another in the middle of a battle? He snapped his fingers. Not our problem thats for the scientists and the technologists but do you accept the validity of the argument?

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