The Savage Day - Jack Higgins [45]
'What about your father's side of things?'
'Ah, now there you have me,' he said. 'He was an actor whose looks outstripped his talent by half a mile, and in their turn were only surpassed by his capacity for strong liquor, which actually allowed him to survive to the ripe old age of forty.'
'Was he a Catholic?'
'Believe it or not, Vaughan, but I'm not the first Protestant to want a united Ireland.' He held a candle up to an oil painting that was almost life-size. 'There's another. Wolfe Tone. He started it all. And that's my favourite relative beside him. Francis the Fourth. By the time he was twenty-three he'd killed three men in duels and had it off with every presentable female in the county. Had to flee to America.'
The resemblance to Barry himself was quite remarkable. 'What happened to him?'
'Killed at a place called Shiloh, during the American Civil War.'
'On which side?'
'What do you think? Grey brought out the colour of his eyes, that's what he said in a letter home to his mother. I've read it.'
We had turned and were making a slow promenade back towards the entrance hall. I said, 'When I look at all this, you don't make sense.'
'Why exactly?'
'Your present activities.'
'I like a fight.' He shrugged. 'Korea wasn't all that bad if it hadn't been for the bloody cold. And life gets so damn boring, don't you think?'
'Some people might think that was a pretty poor excuse.'
'My reasons don't matter, Vaughan, it's what I'm doing for the Cause that counts.'
We had reached the hall and he put the candelabrum down on the table and took out the handcuffs. I held out my wrists.
He said, 'Thirty years ago, if I'd been doing exactly what I'm doing today for the resistance in France or Norway I'd have been looked upon as a gallant hero. Strange how perspective changes with the point of view.'
'Not mine,' I said.
He looked at me closely, 'And what do you believe in, Vaughan?'
'Nothing. I can't afford to.'
'A man after my own heart.' He turned to Dooley and jerked his thumb downwards. 'Take him back to the others for now.'
He picked up the candelabrum and went upstairs. I stood watching him for a moment, then Dooley put the muzzle of the Sterling in my back and prodded me towards the door.
When I was returned to the cell, Binnie was fast asleep on the cot, his head to one side, mouth slightly open. When the door closed, he stirred slightly, but did not waken. The Brigadier put a finger to his lips, moved to check that the boy was genuinely asleep, then crossed to the table and we both sat down.
'A pretty kettle of fish,' he said. 'What's been happening to you?'
I told him and in detail, for in some way almost everything Barry had said to me seemed important, if only because of the way in which it threw some light on the man himself.
When I'd finished, the Brigadier nodded. 'It makes sense that he would ask you to go to Oban. After all, you're on call to the highest bidder as far as he knows and you couldn't very well go running to the police.'
'He said he'll be seeing me later, presumably to discuss the deal further. What do I say?'
'You accept, of course, all along the line.'
'And what about you?'
'God knows. What do you think he'd do if you told GHQ where I was and they sent the Royal Marine Commandos to get me out.'
'He'd use you as a hostage. Try to bargain.'
'And if that failed, and it would fail because the moment the government gives in to that kind of blackmail it's finished, what would he do then?'
'Put a bullet through your head.'
'Exactly.'
The bolts rattled again, the door was flung open with a crash that brought Binnie up off the cot to his feet. He stood there,