"I understand."
"No, you don't, but that's neither here nor there. Care to give it a go?"
Shaw was torn momentarily by indecision. His reflexes had faded, his strength was half what it once had been. He could not read without glasses. He could still bring down a grouse at fifty yards with a shotgun, but he had not fired a pistol in twenty years. Shaw did not dodge the fact that he was an aging man.
"My farm . . . ?"
"Run by a professor of agronomy in your absence." Simms smiled. "You'll find us more liberal with our purse strings than during your day. I might add that the eighty acres you've been dickering for that border your farm will be purchased in your name, courtesy of the service, when you finish the assignment."
Times had changed, but the section's efficiency, had not. Shaw was never aware he was under surveillance. He was indeed getting old. "You make it extremely difficult to say no, Brigadier."
"Then say yes."
The old line "In for a penny, in for a pound" ran through Shaw's mind. Then he shrugged and spoke with the old selfassurance. "I'll give it a try."
Simms rapped the desk with his fist. "Jolly good." He pulled open a drawer and threw an envelope in front of Shaw. "Your airline tickets, traveler's checks and hotel reservations. You'll go under your new identity, of course. Is your passport in order?"
"Yes," replied Shaw. "It will take me a fortnight to clean up my affairs."
Simms waved a hand airily. "Your plane leaves in two days. Everything will be taken care of. Good hunting."
Shaw's face tensed. "You were pretty damned sure of me."
Simms' lips spread into a toothy smile. "I was betting on an old warhorse who yearns for one more battle."
It was Shaw's turn to smile. He wasn't going to exit looking insipid.
"Then why the clandestine crap?"
Simms stiffened. His face took on a cornered look. He said nothing.
"The masquerade," snapped Shaw. "This building hasn't been used for years. We could have just as easily met on a park bench."
"It was that obvious?" Simms said in a quiet voice.
"You might as well have posted a sign."
Simms shrugged. "Perhaps I went to extremes, but the Americans have an uncanny way of knowing what goes on in British intelligence circles. Besides, it was necessary to see if you still possessed your powers of perception."
"A test."
"Call it what you will." Simms rose to his feet and walked around the desk. He offered his hand to Shaw.
"I am sincerely sorry to have mucked up your schedule. I do not relish depending on someone who is out of his prime, but I am a blind man in a fog and you are my only hope to guide me out."
Ten minutes later, Brigadier Simms and his secretary stood side by side in the lift as it rattled down to the lobby. She was adjusting a rain cap on her head while Simms seemed deep in thought. "He was a strange one," she said.
Sims looked up. "I'm sorry."
"Mr. Shaw. He moves like a cat. Gave me a fright the way he sneaked up behind me when I was expecting him to step out of the lift."
"He came up the stairs?"
"From the ninth floor," she said. "I could tell from the pause in the indicator."
"I rather hoped he'd do that," said Simms. "Makes it comforting to know he hasn't lost his devious touch."
"He seemed a friendly old fellow."
Simms smiled. "That friendly old fellow has killed over twenty men."
"Would have fooled me."
"He'll need to fool a lot of people," Simms muttered. The lift door clanked open. "He has no idea of the massive stakes riding on his shoulders. It may well be we have thrown the poor bastard to the sharks."
An officer in a Royal Navy uniform stepped forward as Brian Shaw cleared airport customs. "Mr.
Shaw?"
"Yes, I'm Shaw."
"Lieutenant Burton-Angus, British embassy. Sorry about not seeing you through customs; I was held up in traffic. Welcome to Washington."
As they shook hands, Shaw cast a disapproving eye at the uniform. "A bit open, aren't we?"
"Not at all." Burton-Angus smiled. "If I suddenly showed up at the airport in mufti, someone might think I was playing cloak and dagger. Better to appear routine."
"Which way to the luggage claim?"
"Not necessary. Actually, I'm afraid your stay in the capital city has been cut rather short."
Shaw got the picture. "When does my plane leave and where am I going?"
"You depart for Los Angeles in forty minutes. Here is your ticket and boarding pass."
"Shall we discuss it?"
"Of course." Burton-Angus took Shaw by the arm. "I suggest we talk while mingling with the crowd.
Makes it difficult for an eavesdropper, human or electronic."
Shaw nodded in understanding. "Been in the service long?"
"General Simms recruited me six years ago." Burton-Angus steered him to the book section of a gift shop. "You know of my involvement with your job."
"I read the report. You're the chap who discovered the first clue to the treaty from the Senate historian."
"Jack Murphy." Burton-Angus nodded.
"Were you able to get any more information out of him?" Shaw asked.
"General Simms thought it best not to press him. I told Murphy London had no record of the treaty."
"He bought it?"
"He had no reason not to."
"So we write Murphy off and begin somewhere else," said Shaw.
"The reason you're going to Los Angeles," Burton-Angus told him. "Murphy became aware of the treaty when a naval officer, a woman, made an inquiry. He found an old photograph and made her a copy. One of our people burglarized his office and scanned the file on research requests. The only female naval officer whose name appeared was a Lieutenant Commander Heidi Milligan."
"Any chance of reaching her?"
"Commander Milligan is communications officer on board an amphibious landing transport vessel bound for the Indian Ocean. It sailed from San Diego two hours ago."
Shaw stopped. "With Milligan out of reach, where does that leave us?"
"Fortunately, her ship, the U.S. S. Arvada, is under orders to lay over in Los Angeles harbor for three days. Something to do with modifications to the automated steering system."
They walked on. Shaw looked at the lieutenant with a growing respect. "You're very well informed."
"Part of the job." Burton-Angus shrugged modestly. "The Americans have few secrets from the British."
"That's a comforting thought."
Burton-Angus flushed slightly. "We better move along to the concourse. Your plane departs at gate twenty-two."
"Since there's been a change of plan," said Shaw, "I'd be interested in learning my new instructions."
"I thought it obvious," Burton-Angus replied. "You have approximately seventy-two hours to find out what Commander Milligan knows."
"I'll need help."
"After you've settled into your hotel, you'll be contacted by a Mr. Graham Humberly, a rather well-heeled Rolls-Royce dealer. He'll arrange for you to meet Commander Milligan."
"He'll arrange for me to meet Commander Milligan," Shaw repeated, his tone sarcastic.
"Why, yes," said Burton-Angus, momentarily taken back by Shaw's evident skepticism. "Humberly is a former British subject. The man cultivates an enormous channel of important contacts, particularly in the U.S. Navy."
"And he and I are going to march up the gangplank of an American naval vessel, waving the Union Jack and whistling "Brittania rules the waves," and demand to interrogate a ship's officer."
"If anybody can do it, Humberly can," Burton-Angus said resolutely.
Shaw drew deeply on his cigarette and stared at the lieutenant.
"Why me?" he asked stonily.
"The way I understand it, Mr. Shaw, you were once the most able operative in the service. You know your way around Americans. Also, Humberly is planning on introducing you as a British bu
sinessman, an old friend from his Royal Navy days who also achieved fleet rank. Naturally, you're the right age."
"Sounds logical."
"General Simms is not expecting miracles. But we've got to go through the motions. The best we can hope from Milligan is that she proves to be a stepping-stone."
"One more time," Shaw said. "Why me?"
Burton-Angus stopped and looked up at the televised departure schedules. "Your plane is on time. Here are your tickets. Don't worry about the luggage. It's been taken care of."
"I assumed as much."
"Well I guess what it came down to was your past record of ah . . . shall we say, successful dealings with members of the opposite sex. General Simms thought it an asset. Of course, the fact that Commander Milligan recently had an intimate affair with an admiral twice her age rolled the dice in your favor."
Shaw gave him a withering stare. "Just goes to show what you've got to look forward to someday, laddy."
"Nothing personal." Burton-Angus smiled wanly. "You say you've been in the service six years?"
"And four months, to be more precise."
"Did they teach you how to detect a surveillance blind?"
Burton-Angus' eyes narrowed questioningly. "The class was mandatory. Why do you ask?"
"Because you flunked," Shaw said. He let it sink in a moment and then tilted his head to the left. "The man with the metal attachd case, staring innocently at his watch. He's been glued to us since we left the customs exit. Also, the stewardess in the Pan American uniform about twenty feet behind. Her airline is on another concourse. She's his backup. They'll have a third eye lurking ahead of us. I haven't fixed him yet."
Burton-Angus visibly paled. "Not possible," he muttered. "They can't be on to us."
Shaw turned and showed his ticket and passed it to the girl at the boarding entrance. Then he refaced the lieutenant.
"It would seem," he said in his best sardonic voice, "that the British have few secrets from the Americans."
He left Burton-Angus standing there looking like a drowning man.
Shaw sat back in his seat, relaxed, and felt in the mood for champagne. The stewardess brought him two small bottles with plastic glasses. The labels said California. He would have preferred a Tattinger, brut reserve vintage. California bubbly and plastic glasses, he mused. Would the Americans ever become civilized?
After he had polished off one bottle, he took stock. The CIA had put the finger on him the instant he boarded the plane in England, just as he knew General Simms knew they would.
Shaw was worried not at all. He operated better when things were out in the open. Skulking around alleys like an unperson was never to his liking. He felt exhilarated to be doing what he had once done so well. His senses had not left him-a shade slower perhaps, but still sharp enough. He Was playing his kind of game and he reveled in it.
The dingy gas station stood on a corner in the industrial outskirts of Ottawa. Erected soon after the Second World War, it was a square steel structure with one island containing three gas pumps that were scarred from years of hard use and badly in need of new paint. Inside the office, cans of oil and mummified flies littered dusty shelves while the windows, streaked with grime, displayed faded signs advertising some long forgotten tire sale.
Henri Villon turned his Mercedes-Benz sedan in over the driveway and stopped at the pumps. An attendant in grease stained coveralls stepped out from under a car on the lube rack and approached, wiping his hands on a rag. "What'll it be?" he asked with a bored expression.
"Fill it, please," answered Villon.
The attendant eyed an elderly man and woman sitting on a nearby bus bench, and then spoke in a tone they could not fail to overhear. "Five gallons is the government limit, you know, the oil shortage being what it is."
Villon nodded silently and the attendant pumped the gas. When he finished he went around to the front of the car and pointed. Villon pulled the release lever and the attendant raised the hood.
"You better take a look at your fan belt. She looks pretty worn."
Villon got out of the car and leaned on the fender opposite the attendant. He said in an undertone, "Do you have any idea of the unholy mess your bungling has caused?"
Foss Gly stared back across the engine. "What's done is done. The weather closed in at the last minute and the first missile lost the target. It's that simple."
"It's not that simple!" Villon snapped back. "Nearly fifty people killed for nothing. If the air safety inspectors discover the true cause of the crash, Parliament will be in an uproar demanding investigations into every organization, including the Boy Scouts. The news media will cry for blood after they learn twenty of their top political journalists were murdered. And the worst of it is, the Free Quebec Society will be suspected by all."
"No one will trace the blame to the FQS." Gly's voice was cold and final.
"Damn!" Villon struck the fender with his fist. "If only Sarveux had died. The government would be in confusion and we could have made our move on Quebec."
"Your buddies in the Kremlin would have loved that."
"I won't be able to count on their support if we have another setback of this magnitude."
Gly extended a hand toward the engine as though he was working on it. "Why get cozy with the reds?
Once they get their hooks in you, they never let loose."
"Not that it concerns you, but a government along Communist lines is Quebec's only hope of standing alone."
Gly shrugged indifferently and continued to pretend to work on the engine. "What do you want from me?"
Villon considered. "No percentage in panic. I think it best if you and your team of specialists, as you call them, continue your cover employment as usual. None of you are French, so it's doubtful you'll come under suspicion."
"I can't see the percentages in waiting around to get caught."
"You forget that since I am minister of internal affairs, all security matters pass through my office. Any leads pointing to you will be quietly lost in bureaucratic red tape."
"I'd still feel safer if we left the country."
"You underestimate events, Mr. Gly. My government is cracking at the seams. The provinces are snapping at one another's throats. The only question is, When will Canada shatter? I know it's coming, Charles Sarveux knows it, and so do those English stiff-necks who out speech each other in that old stone relic by the Thames River. Soon, very soon, Canada, as the world knows her, will be no more.
Believe me, you will be lost in the chaos."
"Lost and out of a job."
"A temporary situation," said Villon, his tone heavy with cynicism. "As long as there are governments, financial corporations and wealthy individuals who can afford your special bag of dirty tricks, Mr. Gly, your kind will never be forced to sell vacuum cleaners for a living."
Gly gave an indolent twist to his head and changed the subject "How can I get in touch with you in case of a problem?"
Villon moved around the front of the car and clutched Gly's upper arm in an iron grip. "Two things you must remember. First, there will be no more problems. And second, under no circumstances are you to attempt contact with me. I cannot run the slightest risk of being tied to the FQS."
Gly's eyes closed for a brief instant of surprise and pain. He sucked in a breath and flexed the bicep as Villon increased the pressure. The two men stood there, neither giving an inch. Then, very slowly, a taut grin of satisfaction began to stretch Gly's lips and he glared into Villon's eyes.
Villon released his grasp and smiled grimly. "My compliments. Your strength and dimensions very nearly match mine."
Gly fought back an urge to massage the stabbing pain in his arm. "Lifting weights is as good a way as any to kill time between assignments."
"One can almost detect a faint resemblance between our facial features," said Villon, climbing behind the wheel of the Mercedes. "Except for your repulsive nose, we might be taken for brothers."
"Stick it in your
ear, Villon!" The belligerence in Gly's voice was unmistakable. He glanced at the old couple still perched on the bench waiting for a bus, and then at the meter on the gas pump. "That'll be eighteen sixty."
"Charge it!" Villon snarled, and drove off.
Villon buttered a slice of breakfast toast and read the caption on page two of his morning newspaper.
NO LEADS IN TERRORIST ATTACK ON PRIME MINISTER'S PLANE
Foss Gly had covered his tracks well. Villon kept his hand on the investigation, and he knew that with each passing day the scent grew colder. He subtly used the influence of his office to play down any connection between the assassins and the FQS unless definite proof was found. So far things were working smoothly.
His satisfaction faded to a chill as Villon thought of Gly. The man was nothing but a savage mercenary whose god was a fat price. There was no telling how a mad dog like Gly might run if he wasn't held on a tight leash.
Villon's wife came to the doorway of the breakfast room. She was a pretty woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes. "There's a phone call for you in the study," she said.
He entered the study, closed the door and picked up the phone. "This is Villon."
"Superintendent McComb, Sir," in a voice as deep as a coal pit. "I hope I'm not interrupting your breakfast."
"Not at all," Villon lied. "You're the officer in charge of. Mounted Police records?"
"Yes, Sir," McComb replied. "The file you requested on Max Roubaix is on the desk in front of me.
Shall I make a copy and send it to your office?"
"Not necessary," said Villon. "Please give me the basics over the phone."
"It's a bit bulky," McComb hedged.
"A five-minute capsule will do." Villon smiled to himself. He could almost imagine McComb's state of mind. No doubt a family man who was irritated as hell at having to leave a warm bed and a warm wife and a Sunday sleepin to dig through old dusty records to Satisfy the whim of a cabinet minister.