The Key to Rebecca - Ken Follett [128]
He found him exactly where he had left him. The bonds were still tight and the gag still in place. Vandam looked at Kernel with wide, staring eyes.
Kemel said: “My God, they got you, too!”
He bent down, removed the gag, and began to untie Vandam. “The sergeant contacted me,” he explained. “I came down here looking for you, and the next thing I knew, I woke up bound and gagged with a headache. That was hours ago. I just got free.”
Vandam said nothing.
Kernel threw the rope aside. Vandam stood up stiffly. Kernel said: “How do you feel?”
“I’m all right.”
“Let’s board the houseboat and see what we can find,” Kemel said. He turned around.
As soon as Kernel turned his back, Vandam stepped forward and hit him as hard as he possibly could with an edge-of-the-hand blow to the back of the neck. It might have killed Kemel, but Vandam did not care. Vandam had been bound and gagged, and he had been unable to see the towpath; but he had been able to hear: “I’m Kernel. You must be Wolff.” That was how he knew that Kemel had betrayed him. Kemel had not thought of that possibility, obviously. Since overhearing those words, Vandam had been seething, and all his pent-up anger had gone into the blow.
Kemel lay on the ground, stunned. Vandam rolled him over, searched him and found the gun. He used the rope that had bound his own hands to tie Kernel’s hands behind his back. Then he slapped Kemel’s face until he came around.
“Get up,” Vandam said.
Kernel looked blank, then fear came into his eyes. “What are you doing?”
Vandam kicked him. “Kicking you,” he said. “Get up.”
Kemel struggled to his feet.
“Turn around.”
Kernel turned around. Vandam took hold of Kemel’s collar with his left hand, keeping the gun in his right.
“Move.”
They walked to the houseboat. Vandam pushed Kernel ahead, up the gangplank and across the deck.
“Open the hatch.”
Kernel put the toe of his shoe into the handle of the hatch and lifted it open.
“Go down.”
Awkwardly, with his hands tied, Kemel descended the ladder. Vandam bent down to look inside. There was nobody there. He went quickly down the ladder. Pushing Kemel to one side, he pulled back the curtain, covering the space behind with the gun.
He saw Sonja in bed, sleeping.
“Get in there,” he told Kemel.
Kemel went through and stood beside the head of the bed.
“Wake her.”
Kemel touched Sonja with his foot. She turned over, rolling away from him, without opening her eyes. Vandam realized vaguely that she was naked. He reached over and tweaked her nose. She opened her eyes and sat up immediately, looking cross. She recognized Kemel, then she saw Vandam with the gun.
She said: “What’s going on?”
Then she and Vandam said simultaneously: “Where’s Wolff?”
Vandam was quite sure she was not dissembling. It was clear now that Kemel had warned Wolff, and Wolff had fled without waking Sonja. Presumably he had taken Elene with him—although Vandam could not imagine why.
Vandam put the gun to Sonja’s chest, just below her left breast. He spoke to Kernel. “I’m going to ask you a question. If you give the wrong answer, she dies. Understand?”
Kemel nodded tensely.
Vandam said: “Did Wolff send a radio message at midnight last night?”
“No!” Sonja screamed. “No, he didn‘t, he didn’t!”
“What did happen here?” Vandam asked, dreading the answer.
“We went to bed.”
“Who did?”
“Wolff, Elene and me.”
“Together?”
“Yes.”
So that was it. And Vandam had thought she was safe, because there was another woman around! That explained Wolff’s continuing interest in Elene: they had wanted her for their threesome. Vandam was sick with disgust, not because of what they had done, but because he had caused Elene to be forced to be part of it.
He put the thought out of his mind. Was Sonja telling the truth—had Wolff failed to radio Rommel last night? Vandam could not think of a way to check. He could only hope it was true.
“Get dressed,” he told Sonja.
She got off the bed and