A Woman Involved (24 page)

‘Undoubtedly.’

He took a deep breath that quivered. He whispered:

‘Now listen. At Amsterdam airport you and I are likely to be going in separate cars to the airfield – to divide the forces of the enemy. But until we get into those cars you are not to go out of my sight. If you need to go to the toilet, do so before we get off this plane. And I’m coming with you to guard the door.’

She pressed her fingers to her eyes, and nodded.

‘Oh, God,’ she whispered. ‘They’re here …’

She could feel eyes on her back. She walked down the corridors of Schipol airport, Amsterdam. Morgan strode grimly behind her, carrying their handgrip. And with all his exhausted ferocity he hated the bastards, the goddam British and the Comrades, and oh God he would kill the next bastard who came near them. Kill first and ask questions afterwards. God he wanted this over, and please, please, please, God, Makepeace had everything organized in Zurich. They came out of the customs hall, and the first person he saw amongst the crowds was Makepeace, with a chauffeur’s cap on his triangular head.

He whispered to Anna: ‘
The prick’s still here! … 
’

Makepeace gave him a wink, and turned away, towards a newsagent’s shop. Morgan and Anna strode after him. Makepeace strolled into the shop, and picked up a book. Morgan walked up beside him. He snatched another book off the shelves. He glared at the book and whispered furiously: ‘
What the hell are you doing here? – you’re supposed to be in Zurich!
’

‘Spot of bother,‘ Makepeace whispered. ‘But everything’s okay now. Go to the Hertz car park at the end of this hall. Third car on the left from the door. Somebody will be covering your back. Anna comes with me.’

Morgan shoved the book back on the shelf, and turned away
angrily. He strode out of the shop. Down the hall towards the car-rental desks. Makepeace and Anna were heading in the opposite direction. There were two men following them. Morgan glanced over his shoulder, and he couldn’t believe it:
Danziger was following him.

Danziger gave him a wink.

Danziger? …  Oh, Christ, Makepeace! … 

Morgan strode down the hall with a face like thunder. To the side of the car-rental counters was a glass door. Beyond was a car park holding twenty-odd Hertz cars. Morgan strode out into the cold, for the third car. There was a man behind the wheel. He started the engine. Morgan flung open the back door and got in.

‘My name is Joop,’ the driver said. Danziger opened the other door and got in. Joop surged the car forward.

Morgan glared. ‘What the hell are you doing here, Dan?’

Danziger put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a pistol. He flipped it, then handed it to Morgan. ‘Standard Smith and Wesson. Loaded. And this.’ He handed him a shoulder holster.

‘How did you get in on this?’

Danziger smiled. He was a smallish man, with neatly groomed, thinning hair and grey eyes. ‘That’s not the welcome I expected, sir. I’m your bodyguard. Makepeace sent me an SOS in London this morning. He was having trouble getting manpower.’ He added: ‘And the brain power. So I dropped everything and came.’

Morgan sat back and seethed.
Oh goddam Makepeace … 
The car was swinging past the front of the terminal. There were cars parked against the kerb. A red Ford pulled out onto the road ahead of them. ‘That’s Makepeace,’ Danziger said.

‘How many people has he got with him?’ Morgan snapped.

‘Four. Spider, a Dutchman, a guy called Clark and a guy called Stillgoes.’

‘Spider’s dead in a Paris lavatory. The Comrades got him.’

Danziger raised his eyebrows.

‘Pity. He was a handy little soldier. So the Comrades are on the ball.’

Morgan looked through the rear window angrily. There were several cars behind them. ‘They were on the plane with us. And they’re doubtless behind us right now.’

‘Doubtless. And the Brits probably. I spotted a few likely-looking types. Anyway, we’ll soon know.’

Makepeace’s car was pulling up at traffic lights. Beyond, the road led out of the airport complex, onto the Amsterdam–Rotterdam highway. Morgan could not see Anna in the car. So she was crouched down. He looked back. There were a dozen cars behind. He said: ‘How many of your own people are involved in this?’

‘Only Clark and Stillgoes. Stillgoes was with Spider in the SAS. I brought him because he happens to know Zurich pretty well. Both good men, sir. Clark’s a Yank, used to be in the Green Berets.’ He added: ‘Spider was one of my boys.’

‘
Spider
was?’

‘Well, we’re all freelance, but I used him quite often. And I’ve done a few jobs with Clark. Last one was in Lebanon. A banker had been taken hostage by the Muslims, his family got us to spring him out.’ He added: ‘Done a few jobs with Makepeace too.’

‘Yes,’ Morgan said tersely, ‘I know.’

‘Good man, too, Makepeace is. Handy with his karate. But he’s a bit short on the brain power, sir. And the contacts. You should have got me over to New York, sir. All the contacts in the world there. I could have sprung you out of the US and nobody would ever know you were in Europe. This,’ he waved a finger over his shoulder, ‘is a mess.’ The lights changed and the car surged forward. ‘But we’ll straighten it out, sir.’

Morgan sighed, deep and angry. But he had to admit that there was comfort in having Danziger on his side. Danziger was a crook and a killer but he knew his soldiering. Morgan held out a finger at him.

‘Danziger. You are not to kill anybody, except as an absolute last resort in defence of Mrs Hapsburg and myself. Do you understand that?’

Danziger smiled. ‘You and I got along okay in Special Boats, didn’t we, sir?’

‘You were a goddam troublemaker, Dan. That’s why you left. And I don’t like what you do for a living now.’

‘Right now I’m looking after you, sir. Don’t you like that?’

The car was speeding out of the airport complex. Then came the bridge over the six-lane Amsterdam-Rotterdam highway,
cars flashing by below. Ahead, Makepeace accelerated to sixty miles an hour and Joop did the same. There was a fork on the bridge, one leading to Rotterdam, the other to Amsterdam. Makepeace roared towards the centre of the fork, Joop screaming along behind him. Then Makepeace swerved to the right onto the cloverleaf heading down to Amsterdam, and Joop swung to the left. Morgan looked behind. He saw a car go roaring after Makepeace, and another car swerved to the left and followed Joop. Ahead was another cloverleaf. Joop went tearing into it, the car heeling over, tyres squealing. The car behind came tearing after them. Morgan rasped: ‘Blue Renault.’

Joop sent his car squealing down the cloverleaf, then they burst onto the highway to Rotterdam. The Renault came screaming down after them.

‘How many cars?’ Joop asked.

‘Only the Renault.’

‘Okay …’ Joop said. He put his foot flat.

The car went roaring down the six-laned highway. Fields were flashing by in the night. Half a mile ahead was another cloverleaf. Joop screamed towards it, then swung onto it with a squeal of tyres. The Renault swung off the highway, after them. Joop roared up the cloverleaf. It ended abruptly at a T-junction. The lights were red; traffic was going in both directions. Joop roared straight through the red light and swung right. A signboard said Amsteleven. The Renault came racing through the red lights too. It swung right, rocking, and came screaming after them.

Anna crouched on the floor of the car as it sped towards Amsterdam. Makepeace asked, ‘Still following us?’

Clark looked through the rear window. ‘Yeah – both the Datsun and the Ford.’

Makepeace put his foot flat. Looming up was a fork to the right. He raced towards it at eighty miles an hour, then swung into it. The car went heeling onto the road to Utrecht. Open fields flashed past in the headlights. Behind them, the other two cars came round the bend, one behind the other.

‘How far behind?’

‘Four hundred metres,’ Stillgoes said.

Ahead was a bridge over a canal. Makepeace roared over it. Into another curve. Ahead was a turnoff. He swung hard into it, tyres screaming. He straightened out and went roaring through the suburbs of Amsteleven.

Joop sent the car hurtling down the black country road, the Renault five hundred yards behind. ‘Okay,’ Joop said, ‘here we go.’

Ahead was a crossroads with tall hedges on all sides. In the road to the left, another car was parked. Joop slammed off his headlights, then swung right at the crossroads, then slammed on his brakes. The car screeched to a halt.

Danziger flung open his door and threw himself out, into the ditch. Morgan flung himself after him. Joop’s car roared away. Morgan lay flat, heart pounding. The Renault came round the bend. The headlights swept above them, then it accelerated away after Joop’s car.

‘
Come on!
’

They scrambled up out of the ditch. They ran flat out back to the crossroads. A man sat behind the wheel of the waiting car. Danziger and Morgan scrambled in. Before the door slammed the car roared away.

Makepeace looked in his rear mirror. The Datsun’s headlights came round the bend after him, then the Ford’s. Ahead was an intersection. He slammed on the brakes, then swung around the corner. Two hundred yards ahead was a parked car. He slammed on the brakes again, and deliberately put the car into a skid.

He skidded sideways, tyres screeching, to a halt, blocking the road. ‘
Out!
’

They flung open the doors. The Datsun came screaming around the corner. Anna ran flat out for the car parked down the road, Clark and Stillgoes beside her, Makepeace behind them, his gun out. The Datsun’s driver saw the car blocking the road. He stood on the brakes, and swung the wheel. His car went screeching wildly. It hit Makepeace’s car. There was a crash of metal and flying glass. Then the Ford came tearing around the corner, on two wheels. There was a mad scream of tyres, and another crash of metal and flying glass. Makepeace
flung himself into the waiting car. The others were already in it. It roared away down the dark road.

Morgan’s new driver was called Hans. He drove fast down the country roads, turning left and right. Morgan suddenly realized that they seemed to be heading towards the lights of Amsterdam, not away from them. ‘
Hey – where’re we going?
’

‘To the Yab Yum,’ Hans said.

‘Best whore-house in town,’ Danziger said.

Morgan was amazed. ‘What the hell we going into Amsterdam for? – we’re supposed to be going to an airfield!’

‘Don’t ask me, man,’ Hans said, – just do as I’m told.’

‘I told you, sir,’ Danziger said solemnly, ‘that you should have got me to organize this job for you.’

‘But Christ – we’re driving back towards trouble! We’ve shaken them off now, why aren’t we going to this airfield?’

‘Makepeace had problems organizing things at short notice.’

‘
Oh Jesus Christ!
’

Danziger murmured: ‘You get what you pay for.’

‘
Shut up Danziger!
’

Morgan hunched back furiously in his seat.

Hans turned the car onto a major road. ‘
Slower!
’ Morgan rasped – ‘we don’t want the cops chasing us as well!’

Apartments, a canal, a bridge, a major highway flashed past. Hans accelerated hard, then swung the car into a sharp U-turn.

‘Was that legal? For God’s sake, we don’t want cops!’

Hans sped down the street.
Slower,
Morgan prayed. He closed his eyes. He felt the car turn left, then left again. He slumped, trying to hang on to his nerves. They seemed to drive for an eternity, turning left and right. Then Hans said: ‘Now, just do as I say.’

He suddenly braked to a halt. ‘Now get out normally.’

Morgan opened the door. They were in a dark street, with scattered lamplight. In front of them was a building, painted black. A car’s headlights appeared at the top of the road and drove towards them. ‘Oh Jesus …’

‘Walk normally.’

They walked to a red door in the black wall. Hans inserted a key and pushed it open. Morgan entered.

Into a luxurious anteroom of red carpet and subdued lighting
and Regency furniture and the tinkle of music, and the smell of women. A mature blonde in high heels and a diaphanous black pyjama suit was coming towards them. ‘This way.’

They followed her. Morgan could see her naked buttocks through the diaphanous material. He looked over his shoulder. Hans waved and called, ‘I work here …’ The blonde led him hurriedly past a bar with several girls in it.

‘Where’re Makepeace and Anna?’

She said over her shoulder: ‘I don’t know anything except I’ve got to get you out the back.’

There was a door at the end of the corridor. She slammed open locks.

‘
Hurry.
If anybody has followed you here, they will not yet be at the back yard. That is our customers’ car park. There is a brown Volkswagen, with driver.’

Morgan hurried out into the dark car park, followed by Danziger. He saw the Volkswagen. A girl sat behind the wheel. He flung open the rear door and scrambled in. Danziger got in beside him. ‘
Go
.’

The car turned left. Then turned right. ‘Is this your car?’ Morgan asked.

‘No, it is rented,’ the girl said.

‘Where are we going?’

‘To Yab Yum.’

‘I thought that
was
Yab Yum!’

‘No. That was Johan Bik’s. Yab Yum’s the opposition.’

Oh, Makepeace … 

The car was driving alongside the Keizersgracht canal now. ‘Anybody following us?’

Morgan looked through the rear window. ‘No.’

The girl brought the car to a stop alongside a houseboat. ‘Here!’ she commanded. She pointed at a speedboat tied up to the houseboat. ‘Get into that.’

A car’s headlights appeared at the end of Keizersgracht.

Morgan jumped onto the houseboat. The speedboat’s engine started. Morgan ducked across the houseboat, as the car came driving fast alongside the canal. He scrambled into the speedboat, Danziger after him.

The boat surged away. Its nose came up and water began curling from her bows.

The car roared alongside the canal road, after them.