Solo - Jack Higgins [40]
'I'm totally indifferent.' Mikali kissed her on the neck. 'Nothing matters on a day like this. Spring in Cambridge and you have to work.'
'For the rest of the week, then I'm due a vacation.'
'I don't know, Katherine. This work you do. Violence, killing, terrorism. That's a hell of a field for a woman. No - let me amend that. A hell of a field for anyone.'
'Oh, come on,' she said. 'What about your time in the Legion in Algeria? I've read those magazine articles. I mean, what scene were you playing then?'
He shrugged. 'I was just a kid. I joined up on impulse. It was an emotional thing. But you - you really seek them out. Someone told me last night that you're working on this German girl, the one with the Baader-Meinhof connections. I didn't know she was over here.'
'Yes, she's at Tangmere. It's a special institution not far from here. Government sponsored.'
'Oh, I see. You're handling her case officially?'
She hesitated. 'Yes, that's the only way I could get in to see her, but I hope I've won her trust as well.'
'Didn't she hide this guy the newspapers call the Cretan in her room at Frankfurt the night he shot that East German Minister?'
'That's right.'
'I was there myself,' he said. 'Giving a concert in the university.' They stood up and started to walk. 'I don't understand. Surely the police could have got some sort of description of him out of her. Enough to trace him. I've always understood the Germans were pretty thorough that way.'
'He wore a balaclava helmet. You know the kind of thing? Holes for the eyes, nose and mouth. She couldn't describe him, even if she wanted to.'
'What do you mean?'
Katherine Riley smiled. 'Apparently, he filled in the time making love to her.'
'Wearing the balaclava? Say, that's heavy stuff.'
'I wouldn't know. I haven't tried it.'
Later, in a punt on the river, he said, 'Katherine, I have a villa in Hydra. Do you know where that is?'
'Yes.'
'The house itself is way down the coast. You can only reach it by boat or over the mountains on foot or on a mule. Actually, there is a telephone line all the way across the mountains. In fact, if you ever get lost, look for the telephone poles and follow them.'
'Lost?'
'You said you were due a vacation this weekend. It occurred to me that you might like to come to Hydra. I've got three weeks going spare, then I'm due in Vienna. Would you consider it?'
'I already have.'
Later, on the telephone to Deville, he said. 'I've established contact as you suggested and I can assure you that there's no problem as concerns the little German package. None at all.'
'Good, so that's taken care of. What do you do now?'
'I'm leaving for Hydra for three weeks on Saturday. I'm taking Dr Riley with me.'
Deville for once was astonished. 'Good heavens, why, John?'
'Because I want to,' Mikali answered and replaced the receiver.
6
Katherine Riley was having lunch in her study at the desk by the window, salad sandwiches, cold milk and the over-written thesis of one of her weaker students.
There was a knock at the door and Morgan entered. He wore a dark polo-neck sweater and grey jacket in Donegal tweed. The only thing military about him was the trenchcoat which hung loosely from his shoulders.
'Yes?' she said, although she knew already who this must be.
'Morgan,' he said. 'Asa Morgan. I believe Chief Superintendent Baker of Special Branch has been in touch with you.'
She sat there, looking up at him, a sandwich in one hand, a pen in the other. 'Colonel Morgan, isn't it? Asa Morgan? Parachute Regiment?'
'You say that as if it has some importance.'
'I read that pamphlet you wrote for the Ministry of Defence after Korea. It does happen to be my field.'
'Something in common.'
'Oh, no,' she said. 'Not as far as I'm concerned. That little unpleasantness you got yourself into in Cyprus during the EOKA struggle. I looked you up, Colonel. At the time, the newspapers suggested you'd have fitted into the SS rather well.'
'The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize,' Morgan told her. 'Lenin said that. Back in nineteen twenty-one,