Rhinoceros (69 page)

'I'm all at sea, don't know what's happening.'

'Then I'll bring you ashore,' said Tweed. 'When we
first met her at the mansion outside Hamburg she had
disguised herself with clothes much too large for her, a
huge straw hat under which she hid her glorious red hair. When she came to see us in my room at Tender
she used a different disguise. I'm sure her flaming red
mane was rolled up, tied back behind her head, hid
den under a black wig. She wore glasses suitable for a
headmistress. She had tinted contact lenses to change
the colour of her eyes. Maybe she's had acting experi
ence.'

'I have,' Lisa said quietly, 'at a drama school when I
was living in London. Milo suggested the idea. I always
pack flying kit in my case, hoping an opportunity to fly
will crop up. When I left your room, Newman went back
to his and I slipped in to mine, changed my clothes. How
did you spot me, Tweed?'

'Your body language,' he said.

'Lisa,' said Milo, 'is my daughter. For years I was so busy building up the Zurcher Kredit I never thought of marriage. Then I met a brilliant German woman whose
mind - as well as appearance - entranced me. We married
quickly. Helga was born first, her intellect very limited.

439
Lisa who came later is also the result of that marriage. My
wife died suddenly a number of years ago.'

'Milo,' Lisa said quietly, 'thought I could assess you bet
ter if you did not know who I really was. Few people do.'

'When do you propose to operate your system?' Tweed asked after glancing at his watch.

'I understand from messages from Seattle we have
decoded we have two or three days.'

'Then I have grim news for you. The latest messages one
of my staff in London decoded warned that the timing for
chaos was imminent. Two or three days? We may have
only two or three
hours
left.'

Milo jumped up, startled, his expression full of anxiety.
He suggested that they hurry back to his study.

'You know there is a meeting on Sylt taking place?' Milo
asked as they walked rapidly back.

'I do know all about that. Thunder and three other
powerful men.'

'I have made arrangements about Sylt.'

'What arrangements?' Tweed asked.

'We can discuss those later. Those four villains.'

'Didn't you know there is a fifth man, as yet unidenti
fied?'

As they continued hurrying along the path back to the
castle, Tweed explained tersely the scene he had witnessed
while hiding inside the windmill.

'So there is definitely a fifth man,' he concluded.

'Oh, my God!' Milo clapped a hand to his forehead.
'Then we are all in great danger.'

CHAPTER 42

They went back into the castle along the corridor and
Milo, who had been hurrying, slowed down. He had a
large body with small feet and now he walked in his normal
manner, padding forward with slow deliberate steps. He
reminded Paula of a tiger stalking its prey. Something different about his mood too. She began to feel tense and
wondered why.

'That's the laboratory where the scientists work,' he
said.

She looked through the windows. Inside the large room
were a number of men in white coats. On metal-topped tables were various pieces of advanced equipment she didn't recognize.

'Don't forget to press the red button,' Milo warned
as they passed the steel door, 'unless it's an emergency. Then the girls need to get away from their screens damn quick.'

Behind their host Tweed looked at his watch. He was
hoping Milo would operate his extraordinary system soon.
They were running out of time. They entered the oblong
study and a
babble of voices greeted them. Rondel was per
forming as usual, making Paula laugh as he walked placing
one foot in front of the other without losing his balance.

'We have things to discuss,' Milo said in a grim voice.

'All joy ceases from now on, ladies and gentlemen,'
Rondel called out. 'Serious business is afoot. . .'

'Please keep quiet, Blondel,' Milo said severely. 'This is
no laughing matter.'

'Everyone stand to attention,' Rondel called out.

Milo ignored him, sat behind his desk which was fairly
close to the vast picture window at the other end of the study. Paula noticed Milo's desk was piled high with a
muddle of books. She froze. Milo had put a cigar in
his mouth and picked up a silver-plated automatic. Milo
swivelled his eyes, sensing she was watching him.

'No call for alarm, my dear.'

He aimed the automatic at the far wall. He pressed the trigger. A small flame spurted up from the top of
the muzzle. He moved it round the tip of his cigar,
began puffing it. He dropped the 'automatic' back into
the muddle of books, looked at her.

'It is just a lighter. My late wife had it designed for me
in London. It is one of my most precious possessions.'

'It's so original,' Paula said.

'And this is so original,' Rondel burst out, as though
he wished to hold the stage. He was pointing at the huge picture window comprising the end wall. 'You thought it
was ordinary glass?'

'Yes, I did,'

'Milo had it made in the Czech Republic to his own
specification. It's quite thin glass but very strong. If I threw
a paperweight through it all you would see would be the exact hole, the shape of the paperweight. So repairing it
would be simple — using the same type of glass.'

'I thought it had great clarity.'

'We have serious matters to discuss immediately,' inter
jected Milo. 'Tweed has told me the final messages
informing the bandits when to wreck major cities will
be sent out within hours.'

'Really?'

There was a sceptical note in the way Rondel spoke.

'You don't believe it, then?' Milo suggested.

'I do believe you have shown him the system you
designed inside the chimney. The
diabolical
system.'

'Diabolical?' Tweed enquired.

Everyone, including Tweed, was now seated on the
banquette that ran under the wall at the far end of the
room, the wall opposite the special window. They had been
ushered to the banquette by Rondel when they re-entered
the study. In front of the banquette was a long table. On it were Meissen gold-rimmed plates with gold knives,
forks and spoons. Each plate contained mouth-watering
food. There were various glasses, buckets of ice with
bottles of champagne, bottles of chilled white wine, wicker baskets with bottles of red wine resting at an angle, carafes of water.

'Diabolical,' Rondel repeated. 'He probably told you it
was a system designed to destroy the Internet. He didn't, I am sure, tell you it is something different. Milo thinks
the world has become a rotten place. The system inside the
locked room is equipped with long-distance missiles. One
is aimed at London, another at Paris, another at Berlin,
and a fourth is aimed at Amsterdam. Each missile contains
a huge quantity of poison gas.'

Paula stared at the place next to her which was unoccu
pied. Obviously meant for Harry Butler. She felt chilled by
what Rondel had told them. She looked at Milo. He was
sitting hunched behind his desk, his large body very still, his eyes gazing straight ahead at the blank wall opposite
him. Oh, my God, she thought. We've got it all wrong.

CHAPTER 43

Outside the study in the open air Harry stood leaning
against the end wall. Beyond it was the special window, which he was not able to see. Below a rail which he rested his hands on the mountain wall fell sheer to the Baltic far
below. At his feet was the hold-all containing the Uzi.

Harry had been bored by the conversation. He preferred action, or words concerned with what they would do next. He could hear nothing from inside the soundproofed study
and was glad of it.

Harry had never suffered from even a hint of vertigo. So
he looked down the precipitous drop frequently, watching
the thin white line of surf breaking gently at the base of the
cliff. A faint breeze had blown up. He thought the vertical drop was impressive.

Earlier he had worried when he saw the quay they had
berthed at was empty. The steamer had gone. Later he
saw at the far end of the castle Tweed and Paula emerging
along the footpath with their host and Lisa.

He had seen both Tweed and Paula in turn glance down
at the empty quay and then continue to walk away. As
Tweed must have seen the empty quay and appeared to
be enjoying himself, Harry stopped worrying. There must
be some other quay on the north side he couldn't see, some
other ship to take them home.

The sun was still very hot and he soaked it up. At times
his eyes closed and he was almost asleep, standing up.

Milo took another puff at his cigar. He was still gazing
at the far wall. He tipped ash into a crystal ashtray, took
another puff. The silence inside the room was dread
ful. It was as though no one dared to be the next to
speak.

Paula glanced at Tweed. He sat very still, his eyes half closed. In her agitation she wanted to nudge him, to make
him pay more attention, to speak, to say something,
anything. She looked at Milo. He also sat very still except
for the movement of one hand to tap ash from his cigar. How could they have made the fatal mistake of trusting
this weird man? She remembered seeing Oskar on the
Traverminde shore, how he had given a small wave which had seemed so final. Goodbye, for ever. Oskar had known
the truth.

She switched her gaze to Rondel. He stood with his
arms folded. His tall trim figure, his handsome face, were
silhouetted against the huge picture window. Why didn't
he
say something?

Then she had another frightening thought. The key Milo
had given to Tweed. A duplicate? It was a fake key that
would never open that ghastly door. Milo was intelligent, highly intelligent, and wily. He had lulled any suspicions
Tweed might have harboured.

It all added up as her thoughts raced through her mind.
A rotten world that had to be destroyed. That had been
the gist of what Milo had said to Tweed's face. Alone
on this grim rock, Milo had brooded on the state of the
world, had decided it no longer deserved to exist. Yes, it all made sense.